121–130 of 370 posts
I gave it away to someone who needed it more and upgraded to an 8a. My mission with this phone is to use it for 10 years.
Hi, (soon to be ex) Pixel 4a user here. Regardless of why this update has happened, the way Google have went about this update is sketchy at best, and deceitful at worst. To be plain: this phone has been EOL for 1½ years now. This update has appeared out of the blue and specifically decimates the battery + charging capabilities. My most charitable view is that Google have found a major fault with the Pixel 4a battery…
I am still on a 4a. I really hate how in subsequent generations, they faithfully cloned Apple's design decisions of removing ports and making the device gigantic. "For customers who are dissatisfied with iphones, Our product is a slightly different iphone-like device." I mean come on now, what the hell... About twice a decade google makes a good phone and the others are just iphone knockoffs
Now the Android UI is sparse and wobbly, Androids lost call recording, sideloading is limited, and they raised their prices to cost as much as iPhones.
Meanwhile, iPhones got call recording, they opened up NFC (a bit) and they support CalDAV and CardDAV and SMB natively in its built-in apps. The "control center" on iOS is customizable, to the point they do what Android's quick tiles did before 2020 or so.
It's very frustrating-- I wish they still made Androids like they used to :(
Hi, (soon to be ex) Pixel 4a user here. Regardless of why this update has happened, the way Google have went about this update is sketchy at best, and deceitful at worst. To be plain: this phone has been EOL for 1½ years now. This update has appeared out of the blue and specifically decimates the battery + charging capabilities. My most charitable view is that Google have found a major fault with the Pixel 4a battery…
Unless your Pixel 4a is from Verizon (locked), keep it. Unlock the bootloader, then install LineageOS, MindTheGapps, and Magisk. Once you have Magisk stabilized, install the Advanced Charging Controller, and configure it to halt charging at 80%. That should solve your problems, and turn the updates back on. I don't think there is a way to make Google Pay work in this configuration, which is a drawback. I can put all…
I'm not who you replied to but can you please do? I've been wanting to make a LineageOS device for a while but was being cheap (and it wasn't high enough priority). But maybe now there will be a lot of cheap Pixel 4a on eBay in the near future and I'll go for it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The software industry has known how to do this for a very long time, but some companies refuse to do it. You maintain a "sustaining" branch just for security and other legitimately urgent fixes, and a main branch for everything else. Users are nudged more strongly to apply the sustaining fixes and the main update branch should be optional. We have immensely powerful version control and branching at developers' dispos…
But it isn't this simple, because you wouldn't need a single "maintaining" branch. You would need one for each feature release that the user may stop at. So if you release the feature branch every 3 months after a few years you will have a dozen maintaining branches to backport fixes to, and in which to carefully test that the fix actually works. The problem is linearly worse if you release the feature branch more of…
This has been solved by LTS releases for some time. You have a newest release branch that gets feature updates immediately and an LTS branch which has a full release e.g. once every two or three years, at which point it catches up on features to the then-current newest release branch. The newest release branch doesn't have long-term support and you're expected to take the latest feature update, the LTS branch gets only security updates, the user can choose between the two or three LTS releases currently in the support window or the newest release branch.
Hi, (soon to be ex) Pixel 4a user here. Regardless of why this update has happened, the way Google have went about this update is sketchy at best, and deceitful at worst. To be plain: this phone has been EOL for 1½ years now. This update has appeared out of the blue and specifically decimates the battery + charging capabilities. My most charitable view is that Google have found a major fault with the Pixel 4a battery…
The article got it wrong - even before the update has been published, Google already sent e-mail to registered users with a note that the upcoming update may reduce battery life and offered either battery replacement or money: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861 But the results people post are way beyond anyone expected.
I'm trying to figure out what the actual latest update is doing regarding the battery. I found an update to the kernel binary but it doesn't seem the source has been updated. Can I submit a GPL request to Google to get the kernel source? https://github.com/bmaupin/pixel4a-battery-research
If you own a device, you're entitled to a copy of all GPL software that came with it, including some build tools. However, if the diminished battery performance comes from some kind of firmware update for an embedded microcontroller, you're probably out of luck there, unless that controller also runs GPL software. It's possible the changes you're looking for are already listed on one of these repos: https://android.g…
But apparently sunfish-kernel only contains binaries.
Given there's an update to Image.lz4, that seems there's an update to the kernel. I also compared the binary to the previous version and found some new strings possibly related to battery charging profile.
Next I checked out the source using Google's documentation but the latest commit is here: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+/refs/heads/and...
But maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.
Anyone else have this problem? Is it well known?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes the form factor better than others in the series? I'm curious since I've only owned a Pixel 3a and a Pixel 6a
No current phone from any manufacturer that's reasonably desirable is as small as the 4a, and few of any size have a headphone jack.
I have never had any battery issues. Now Google wants to effectively brick my beloved phone? And giving me $50 for the trouble. What. The. F. is going on.
I've requested the $50, shall be paid out within 18 days they say.
So sad. I really like (soon liked, probably) my 4a.