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Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

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Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#211
post #6

Since this is Google making the SoC, surely we have Linux drivers within a month for it? Already upstreamed? Some register documentation? I didn't check, but I suppose the answer is "no". Can't keep pointing at Qualcomm anymore, I guess.

That's not how open source works in SoC design. In fact it doesn't work at all an here's why: Google hasn't made the SoC and doesn't own the IP, it most likely bought a bunch of IP blocks from established vendors like Cadence, Synopys, Samsung, etc and fused them together to create a SoC. All those IPs come with their own license terms and NDAs that limit what you can do with it. You can use it in your final product…

I haven't see this as a problem, but I am working for a consumer network equipment semiconductor company. I haven't worked with graphics drivers which could be different. Normally we get the driver code from Cadence and Synopsys under a permissive license, it can be integrated in what ever you want. The documentation and especially the RTL is under strict NDA.

This driver code is often very self contained and does not use many or any Linux frameworks, it should be easy to integrate it into any operating system in any way. Normally you have to rewrite the driver code you get from Cadence and Synopsys to get it integrated in upstream Linux, because it does not meet the upstream Linux guidelines. This is a general problem with the out of tree drivers you get from the semiconductor industry.

There are also big players in the semiconductor industry which demand that every code inside the Linux kernel they ship has to be under GPL for legal compliance.

There is also not a single bad guy in the semiconductor industry which prevents upstream Linux support. Every player could do it, Google probably got most of the drivers in source for their Pixel phones and could have upstreamed them, but most of them probably need a rewrite. They could have offered Qualcomm some money to port support for the SoC used in a Pixel phone to a more recent major kernel version, I am pretty sure Qualcomm would have done it for the right amount of money.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#212
post #128

Hot take: I haven't seen a compelling new phone feature from any manufacturer in as long as I can remember. I spend 99% of my tapping time sending texts, using a browser and taking pictures with the rear camera. Same as I did on my Droid X which was my first smart phone circa 2011.

The camera quality of phones has increased significantly in the past several years. This is due both to hardware and the algorithms that can really do wonders in terms of focus and lighting.

OLED screens and high refresh rate are a treat for the eyes, especially if scrolling through text for an hour or more per day.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#213
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Not true, I see at least 2 [0] [1] 2. Even if it was true, welcome to not being included for once in your entire life. Now maybe you can start to begin to understand what others have experienced basically every day of their life. [0] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/s6bCli03aqnY_KvZoPaTgiFqCj... [1] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Zq1FVWVv9GOCRJ3oHJg0PHzWgE...

Your examples are hilarious and you can imagine how I missed those. Pretend all the photos were reversed, and those were the only two people of color on the whole page. Google would be (rightfully) chastised.

[deleted]

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably brushed them off because a malicious/accidental hash collision would lead to a human reviewing them and then not going to law enforcement.

Or they will, depending on reviewer, photo clarity, current political climate, potentially location and so on. You have no say in this process, nor anybody else on this forum, or elsewhere. Its not the law enforcement that's the main issue, but various greedy 3-letter agencies who are already well known to have ambition to have profile on every person in this world (not unlike Facebook but for different purposes). Th…

My understandimg was that the reviewer gets an extremely compressed version of the image, not full resolution, likely due to privacy concerns due to the potentially large rate of false positives.

I don't trust them not to jump to conclusions with a 256x256 (the exact quoted resolution escapes me at the moment) image at their disposal.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#215
post #8
post #6

Since this is Google making the SoC, surely we have Linux drivers within a month for it? Already upstreamed? Some register documentation? I didn't check, but I suppose the answer is "no". Can't keep pointing at Qualcomm anymore, I guess.

Why would they release driver for hardware not available to the public?

Intel does this all the time, but they want normal Ubuntu, RedHat and so on to support their hardware when their hardware gets into the market. With these phones the hardware and the software is shipped together in a bundle, it is a different thing.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#216

Switched to iPhone last year and can't believe how bad iOS is generally. Feels years behind. Missing Android!

That's how Android felt for me. Too many knobs, and a lack of good apps. I'll take Apple's integration over what amounts to nothing any day of the week.

What are these good apps? I'd like to check some out.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#217

I think normally I'd look for the Pixel or the iPhone but my next purchase will be supporting FairPhone. When I think about how powerful I need my phone to be I don't need the best. I want something I can fix and update myself; something that's supported for more than a couple of years; something that is a little "better" for the planet. Does anybody use all of the new power of these incredible devices?

> Does anybody use all of the new power of these incredible devices? No, people do the same things with every new generation of smartphones. Call, text, scroll social media, take photos, or make Google searches. That kind of stuff. None of those activities require powerful hardware, so I will never understand why some smartphones need processors more powerful than the damn PC I'm typing this on. It's equally stupid in my opinion that the software we use to accomplish those activities is constantly becoming more and more bloated and have ever increasing hardware requirements to run smoothly! At the end of the day many common mobile apps do the same damn thing they did 7 years ago, but good luck running some of them on hardware that old (assuming you can even find a phone that has a new enough OS).

Anyway, I'd love to support Fairphone as well, but I'm upset that they removed the headphone jack in order to sell their new wireless earbuds. For a company that's supposedly all about sustainability, repair-ability, etc. that's a pretty stupid move. Removing a basic feature in order to sell another product is the opposite of sustainable. It's greedy, and I thought Fairphone was against that.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#220
post #203
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use a third-party ROM such as the excellent GrapheneOS, in practice you get fully featured updates for really really long. With that said, open source ROMs don't take advantage of some features such as the Tensor SoC, and therefore the camera stops performing so good.

GrapheneOS is pretty clear about not supporting devices longer than the OEM. From their FAQ: Why are older devices no longer supported? GrapheneOS aims to provide reasonably private and secure devices. It cannot do that once device support code like firmware, kernel and vendor code is no longer actively maintained. Even if the community was prepared to take over maintenance of the open source code and to replace the…

There was extended support planned for Pixel 2, which was dropped recently from mainline, but it has not happened yet.

One can always switch to a different ROM I guess.

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