41–50 of 109 posts
I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.
From the Verge article it seems the CPU in SoC would be some licensed spec based on Exynos, so I am guessing we aren't going to see CPU performance close to A series processors, but it does seem like a promising start. Google has an incentive to go all in on CPU design as that helps their data centers and GCP both, so we might see significant gains over time. I had to buy a new phone and I am really happy that Pixel…
> Google has an incentive to go all in on CPU design as that helps their data centers and GCP both, so we might see significant gains over time. It seems that CPU design for phones and for data centres are quite different problems, or do you see them as facets of the same problem?
At least that's what Apple seems to have done between M1 and A series processors.
Unrelated to this article specifically, but the biggest thing I'm looking forward to with the Pixel 6 is the improved updates timeline, as Google has said they will provide updates for at least 5 years, which puts them more in-line with Apple. Previous Pixels worked great but then inexplicably lost OS updates after only a few years.
First they have the Nexus 7, Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and then ... Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, ... oh wait they aren't versions, they are number of inches ... -____- and most people in this world don't even think in inches -_____-
And then they have Google Hangouts, Google Hangouts Meet, google Meet, Google Chat, Google Hangouts Dialer, Google Duo, Google Uno, uh ....
And then now TensorFlow and then Tensor ... is that like TensorFlow without the flow?
I read the entire blog post and I don't understand the fanfare, it's a custom SoC, presumably to rival Apple's M1. I don't see anything innovative about this, besides heralding "begun, the neural net wars have". What is the benefit of having all of the ML bits on device? Can models leverage them post training?
I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Previous Pixels worked great but then inexplicably lost OS updates after only a few years. AFAIK it's not inexplicabile, it's just Quallcomm stopping driver support for newer Android versions a few short years down the road, since they're in the business of selling as many chips as possible and can't monetize the users keeping their phone longer like Apple and Google can with their software and services.
Qualcomm will only ever ship one kernel version for a given SoC and never try to upstream support. Google uses LTS Linux kernels for Android, and once upstream stops supporting a version, the phone usually stops getting support shortly after.
As phones they couldn't be more different. The Fold3 aims to completely change the way we experience phones, while compromising on standard phones essentials (camera).
On the other hand, the Pixel6pro looks to be a final evolution of the classical smartphone, maximizing for battery, camera, software-smoothness and hitting all the essentials correctly.
I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.
What's the useful advantage to a flush back? I don't really see any. As long as I can hold the phone, and it can lie on a table or stand without wobbling, it seems to do what it needs to.
It's not like you're stacking phones on top of each other the way you do books or magazines. (And heck if you work in repair or provisioning and actually do stack phones, it's easy enough to turn every other one 180°.)
Also I don't know where you're getting "fraction of a millimeter" from. Camera bumps are significantly more than a whole millimeter. And their function is depth, not volume -- you can't redistribute it across the whole case or anything. You'd have to make the entire phone thicker, and then heavier as well if you're putting anything into the new extra space.
I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.
The sharp edge looks like it will catch on a pocket. The Nexus 6 also had a flawed camera bump, causing the phone to spin freely on flat surfaces.
From the Verge article it seems the CPU in SoC would be some licensed spec based on Exynos, so I am guessing we aren't going to see CPU performance close to A series processors, but it does seem like a promising start. Google has an incentive to go all in on CPU design as that helps their data centers and GCP both, so we might see significant gains over time. I had to buy a new phone and I am really happy that Pixel…
> Google has an incentive to go all in on CPU design as that helps their data centers and GCP both, so we might see significant gains over time. It seems that CPU design for phones and for data centres are quite different problems, or do you see them as facets of the same problem?
(Disc: I work for Google, but not in Cloud nor Pixel)