Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or ability to paste into an empty text box.
1) Press-and-hold on the empty text box, 2) a context menu appears, 3) tap Paste. Voila.
Doesn't always work. :(
Android P
231–240 of 316 posts
Re: Android P
#232About 18 months ago I bought a Samsung S6 off of ebay new in a box for $250. Was actually my first "real" smart phone. I've liked it quite a bit but was disappointed at them taking 8+ months to bring android updates. I was thinking I might get Oreo this August or so. But then I just learned that they've (Sumsung) discontinued all S6 support. So now I guess I'm screwed. I really liked the samsung health app and the bu…
Keep it as is? I have a Samsung tablet from a few years back that got a single major OS update and has run smoothly and perfectly as the day I got it. My iPhone got a huge number updates over it's lifespan but it also got steadily slower and less reliable after each one. There is nothing in Oreo or even P that's really worth it.
Except for kernel updates.
Re: Android P
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you give an example of this behavior, I'm having trouble understanding how to classify this. Thanks.
Simple common example: I frequently share content to my spouse. One day, I share content to my parent. Next day, the order of users in the sharebox has changed, so my parent is in the spot my spouse used to be, so my muscle memory sends my parent a message meant for my spouse.
Plus, this gets a lot worse when that sharing to your parent was a mistake. Now you've got the 'wrong' order of elements in the UI, and every further mis-tap just reinforces the wrongness.
Re: Android P
#234Am I the only one who doesn't want a phone that arbitrarily changes behavior in opaque and uncontrollable ways? Machine learning is fine for hard tasks like voice recognition, but it really shouldn't be used for things that would otherwise be a few checkboxes. I know the trend nowadays is to assume that users are irredeemably stupid, but this? Seriously? You can keep this update. I don't want it.
I think Google's goal here is to make your phone a personal assistant, similar to a human personal assistant. And humans arbitrarily change their behaviour in opaque and uncontrollable ways. Hopefully your phone won't change it's behaviour because it had a rough night last night, but it looks like it's going to take a guess at what you want, and learn if it gets it wrong. If you don't want this, maybe you'll get the…
Android is focusing more and more on this mode of operation, with Google essentially taking over your life. (Even if you think I’m expressing it too strongly, you can’t deny that Google and the likes are deliberately encroaching on personal life more and more.)
With most phones, it gets harder and harder to turn these features off. The Google app, for example, typically can’t be disabled, and to get as close as possible to that you’ll need to install a different launcher, which preference may not even persist across reboots; and even if you succeed, it may have latched onto things like long press on the home button. And good luck on pulling all of Google’s tentacles out of everything.
Community builds of Android are not in the slightest bit user-friendly (e.g. hard to install, and probably don’t get you access to the Play Store where all the apps are). Unless you’re technically very competent, they’re basically not a feasible option.
This is why I’m sad at the failure of Firefox OS and a few other similar efforts—even Windows Phone, for all that Microsoft is heading the same general direction.
Re: Android P
#235Am I the only one who doesn't want a phone that arbitrarily changes behavior in opaque and uncontrollable ways? Machine learning is fine for hard tasks like voice recognition, but it really shouldn't be used for things that would otherwise be a few checkboxes. I know the trend nowadays is to assume that users are irredeemably stupid, but this? Seriously? You can keep this update. I don't want it.
The problem is: Your phone will not get security updates if you don't accept the latest Android release. So your choice, really, is to either accept the update or get a phone running a different OS.
Android phones don’t tend to get security updates anyway.
Re: Android P
#236Very nice. I am especially excited about these features: > App Timer lets you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you’re close to your limit and then gray out the icon to remind you of your goal. > Wind Down will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want. I a…
help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want On one side I think this is great, on the other side: I'm not sure what to think of needing to be reminded when to go to sleep. It seems kind of wrong if one needs to be actively reminded of something as simple and straightforward as that.
It really depends on your lifestyle.
I think i have a very healty sleep system where i basicially follow no rules. I sleep when I really get tired and wake/stay up when i want.
My last sleep cycle was 11 1/2 hours, because a day before i only got like 90minutes (thats not common for me, but happens - usually i sleep more like 6 hours).
That only works if you dont have a fixed day time job.
Especially when i have appointments i sometimes really need to plan ahead and go to bed earlier so a reminder works.
Re: Android P
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you give an example of this behavior, I'm having trouble understanding how to classify this. Thanks.
Simple common example: I frequently share content to my spouse. One day, I share content to my parent. Next day, the order of users in the sharebox has changed, so my parent is in the spot my spouse used to be, so my muscle memory sends my parent a message meant for my spouse.
Does that actually happen though? That seems to be a bad algorithm if the one exception becomes the norm after reinforcing the correct action many times.
I use Siri's suggested apps all the time (pulling down spotlight search and they show up there.) Those are based on time/weekdate/location/usage data and are pretty accurate for me.
Re: Android P
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope some of these things make it into iOS at some point too! Especially the greyscale stuff sounds great
Apple is known to shamelessly copy features that work and are consumer friendly- I have no doubt that they'll be keeping a close eye on how consumers respond to these updates.
In this case, though, these seem to be, well, heavily inspired by iOS's Bed Time, Night Shift, and DND features. Mostly showed up in iOS9/10 a couple of years ago. The shameless copying goes both ways ;)
Re: Android P
#239Very nice. I am especially excited about these features: > App Timer lets you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you’re close to your limit and then gray out the icon to remind you of your goal. > Wind Down will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want. I a…
help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want On one side I think this is great, on the other side: I'm not sure what to think of needing to be reminded when to go to sleep. It seems kind of wrong if one needs to be actively reminded of something as simple and straightforward as that.
It's not so much to help you remember. We all know that if I wake up at 7 and I function best on 8 hours of sleep, that I have to be asleep by 11.
But if I'm so engaged as to lose track of time, or simply undisciplined (just one more dose of political outrage/cute animal picture/epic fail schadenfreude on reddit!), the app closing down will help a lot.
Re: Android P
#240I'm tired of the throw away culture of Android device manufacturers. With the exception of Google Pixel and the Samsung top models, where you get up to 3 Years (security) updates, you can throw your Android device away after 2 years, sometimes only after a year. The hardware is usually still fine after this time, but you won't get no more updates and will have an insecure device.