Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Pixel 9 Pro

store.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

721–730 of 1001 posts

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#721

Post by MBCook »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #521
deergomoo wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You were only supposed to get 1 year (?) of service. But they extended that by a year. I suspect they wanted to gauge what the usage (and therefore cost to them) would be like before making any promises. I would not be surprised if satellite messaging ends up costing after the first year, but that satellite SOS remains free forever. After all, who wants the reputation hit when someone ends up dying in the wildernes…

They can charge you after you get rescued. Or does that come out as a negligible amount?

They could.

But “iPhone saves man’s life after he fell down a mountain” sounds a whole lot better than “worlds richest company charges man who nearly died $25 to save his life”.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#722

Post by miriam_catira »

paxys wrote: post #449
taeric wrote: post #183

I'm kind of sad that the world seems to have given up on the smaller phones. The marketing of the masculine hand holding the larger phone is amusing to me, and I can understand wanting to have a larger screen. I do not like the amount of space these things take in my pocket, though.

From what I have seen women tend to prefer the larger phone sizes more than men, because they keep it in their handbags and use it two-handed.

Sure, for some women, but let's not generalize. Personally, I hate carrying a purse, and the new phones don't even fit in the pocket inside my purse. Plus, I miss being able to reach the entire screen with one thumb, with the phone held in one hand. I do admit to typing two-handed, sometimes, but damn I wish I didn't NEED to! I can barely reach the left side of the screen reliably, much less the top left corner. :(

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#723

Post by dagmx »

summerlight wrote: post #484

I'm surprised that no media outlet is seriously talking about its on-device inference capability, which is the biggest next thing for LLM. Apple did a better job on its PR here, but they didn't also get all the attention that it deserves. On-device inference improves not just its latency, this also removes a huge chunk of LLM's economical constraints from software companies. The biggest advantage of software is its m…

If you watch Google’s keynote, the majority of LLM inference they showed happens on their cloud. (Also called private cloud to borrow apples term)

They actively call out only a few areas that run locally.

Almost all their summary features are in the cloud for example. Unlike Apple, they haven’t figured out API to let apps vend data to their AI system.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#724

Post by roughly »

cdrini wrote: post #473
jocaal wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That phone isn't a squircle, it is a rounded square. Those rounded edges seem to be inspired by google material design. Also phones have converged to the metal band, glass back before the iphone did it. Mobile phones are a mature technology and their designs have converged to the designs people are buying.

I really wonder if consumers have any influence on phone designs. People generally buy phones for completely different reasons, the design just has to be "not bad" which generally means just take whatevers available that meets your actual criteria (OS, camera quality, etc). After all you'll probably have to slap a case on it anyways.

I very much miss the halcyon days of the feature phone - Nokia got _weird_ with it for a bit:

https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2...

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#725

Post by mensetmanusman »

com2kid wrote: post #580
echelon wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish we had more than two phone giants. This is aggravating. Unfortunately due to their market dominance and muddling of (hardware, OS, software distribution, and platform ecosystem), it's almost impossible to disentangle. It'd be amazing if the DOJ made these companies only offer one slice of those four things. There would be so much competition and a wild variety of new things being tried.

> Unfortunately due to their market dominance and muddling of (hardware, OS, software distribution, and platform ecosystem), it's almost impossible to disentangle. I think it is more complicated, and nuanced, than this. I have a theory that the world can only support a maximum of 2 consumer computing platforms at a time, due to the cost of writing and porting software. Therefore causing a natural tendency towards eit…

If AGI ever becomes a thing and you can simply spend electricity to write the new operating system, that would be pretty insane, and it seems like it would disrupt duopoly.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#726

Post by standardUser »

Auracle wrote: post #557
mihaic wrote: post #543

I abhor all these phones with a glass back, that look great in the store and then everyone puts an ugly back cover on. I'm still rocking a Pixel 5, which is actually my second Pixel 5. I really like using it without a case. It's light, small, can handle a fall without the back shattering, and I like the matte finish. All I want is a version with more modern specs, but every manufacturer keeps optimizing for the adver…

You don't need to put a case on phones. I've had an iPhone 11 since it came out, with no case, and quite a few drops onto hard floors. It's still fine. Obviously there's some luck involved but the only time I put a case on a (in that case, Samsung) phone it shattered the first time I dropped it. So, I figured I might as well go without again. I've yet to have an iPhone break from a fall, only from leaning up against…

I can't remember the last time I held a phone without a case and didn't think "wow, I am going to drop this NOW". You'd think a $1000 camera would have, oh I don't know, some grips? A lanyard hook? Instead it's just shiny smooth nonsense all around.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#727

Post by standardUser »

leokennis wrote: post #584
Auracle wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to put a case on phones. I've had an iPhone 11 since it came out, with no case, and quite a few drops onto hard floors. It's still fine. Obviously there's some luck involved but the only time I put a case on a (in that case, Samsung) phone it shattered the first time I dropped it. So, I figured I might as well go without again. I've yet to have an iPhone break from a fall, only from leaning up against…

You’re right that a case does little against big drops - with or without case, either you’re lucky and the phone survives or it doesn’t. Cases prevent scratches but, meh, I wouldn’t mind a few scratches on the back of my phone. However the main attraction of a case to me is: grip. My iPhone 15 Pro Max feels more slippery than a bar of soap. Unless I exert a lot of force, it just slips out of my hand while using it.

I've used minimalist cases for my the last 3 or 4 phones, dropped them all plenty of times, and never suffered more than a minor scratch on the screen. I assume phones are just much tougher than 10 years ago, but the case isn't hurting the cause and I'm too scared not to use one.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#729

Post by jayd16 »

kccqzy wrote: post #688
015a wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its super frustrating how the entire industry follows Apple; incapable of original thought. The Pixel 8 had somewhat rounded edges, which is fantastic for a comfortable grip. Apple killed rounded corners and converted to the squared-off design with the iPhone 12; and everyone has followed suit since. Galaxy phones used to have curved edge displays; now they're squared off, because Apple. Samsung's watches are general…

Their original idea is the folding phone.

Apple will drop a folding phone one day and then we'll all be talking about how Android copied it.

The front of the phones are all screen and the back looks nothing like an iPhone but somehow people think they copied Apple. Go figure.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#730

Post by MBCook »

settsu wrote: post #510
MBCook wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBF that’s what Apple did, basically. It wasn’t in the initial release. Needed a software update 2 months later or so. You were only supposed to get 1 year (?) of service. But they extended that by a year. Because of that everyone with a qualifying phone is still in the “free” stage so we still don’t know what it will cost. Or when that will start. If ever. I’ve never used it but I like that my iPhone has it. I would…

When you're in SOS mode, you can use the satellite connection to manually update your location—separate of the emergency response service—so anyone who you've chosen to share that with can see it, as well as in Find My. I'm often out of cell service in the mountains and will usually push the location once I'm in the general area I plan to be for a while.

Oh that’s right. That’s the other thing you can do. I’d forgotten that.

Thanks.

While I never needed the satellite SOS it’s fun that there is a demo in settings that shows you how to find the satellite and everything just as if you used the feature for real.

Post reply on HN