Based on recent releases, I think there is a good chance I’ll go Pixel for my next phone, whenever that is - probably at least a year away.
The OnePlus 7 Pro has been great, and remains great, but their new model pricing is getting too rich for my tastes, and the Pixel 5 seems like a better mid tier than the OnePlus Nord.
So, my Pixel 5 arrived. I figured there wasn’t much point waiting for a sale given the time limit on the free Bose headphones, which I can sell for more than the likely discount. I’m giving the native launcher a try, as I always do for a little while, and it does seem to be a bit more useful than before. Resizable widgets, finally! But I can’t find any way to filter the app drawer. That would be OK if it had Nova Launcher’s ability to swipe the dock to get more apps, but it doesn’t as far as I can tell. So, is there any way to quickly get to 15 or so favourite apps?
Edit: To be explicit, without just plastering my homescreen with them. I need that space for widgets! I suppose I could put a single-icon folder on the homescreen, but it feels so wasteful and ugly.
I have two folders in my dock, works well enough.
Yeah, I have two folders in mine as well. One for all my messaging apps, and one for my browsers.
Ah, you can put folders in the dock then. For some reason when I tried to do it straight from the app drawer it didn’t cooperate.
What’s the buzz on the Pixel 4a these days? I love my 3aXL so I hope the newer one is just as good. Plus…
I love the cheap Fi situation that gets my wife and I service for like $45/mo or whatever it works out to. Can’t imagine the 4A is like worse than my P3, which is a fantastic phone.
Enidigm
2820
So my toe dipping into the Android pool lasted about less than two weeks. By the end of week 1.5 my Pixel 4a screen was flashing / failing to the point of making it nonfunctional. Although probably a coincidence, after connecting it to the bluetooth of my Toyota Tacoma, the bluetooth module in the Tacoma failed and i’ve lost bluetooth in the truck.
I liked the podcasting app, but tbh it didn’t really feel that different from the giant app quilt style of an iPhone. Also typing on it for me was basically impossible. I guess muscle memory is a thing - while more enjoyable to use as a phone, logging into my company’s covid tracker ever day was something like a 10 minute ordeal with that tiny keyboard.
So i guess i’m going back to Apple land. I don’t really care about my phone at all, so i just want something that works, and i guess that means the old grey mule. I tried customizing the Pixel for a bit, then remembered, “hey, i’m an adult, and i don’t care” and realized that the customizability of Android isn’t something i value.
You know you can change the keyboard, right? Not to mention the podcasting app. Doesn’t address the screen issue, of course, which would be intolerable.
Enidigm
2822
I tried changing the keyboard but it didn’t really help. I type pretty fast so if the keyboard feels off for me it really feels off. Im sure i’m just more used to the Apple keyboard, autocorrect annoyances and all.
What podcast app were you using on Android? Sorry if it’s obvious. I would use Pocket Casts. It’s good on iOS, too, and your data is portable.
Is Pocket Casts good again? They used to be brilliant, but they had a big update a couple of years ago that made me uninstall it, except for the old version that’s still on my OnePlus One.
Edit: Just downloaded it. They have improved the layout a lot in the intervening year(s). They still haven’t added back the option to keep either 1, 3 or 5 episodes though. Still it’s good to see these podcasts are still going. Like On the Media. They don’t play that on my local NPR station anymore, I’d kind of forgotten about them, but they’re still doing new episodes. Nice.
I would say no, because they haven’t walked back the controversial UI changes. They’ve cleaned up the little problems from that switch, though. It’s still better than the default podcast apps. And it doesn’t have much competition in cross-platform.
I’m not sure what the shortcomings you see in the Pocket Casts UI - it seems pretty standard for a podcast app. What makes it a must have for me is cross platform progress syncing.
Had a pretty bad scare on my Pixel 3 yesterday.
So normally I’m very careful when my son plays with his magnetic building blocks. All those triangles, squares and pentagons have magnets and clip on each other and we make some cool structures that he suggests. Yesterday I was just lying on the couch with my phone in my hand while he played with something from the toybox, and he suddenly approached me with the bag of magnetic toys. D’oh! Get my phone away, quickly. I put it on the counter before it got too much exposure, I thought. And played with him for a bit.
But then I went to get my phone, and it was doing RANDOM ASS SHIT, like acting as if I was longpressing the power button, constantly bringing up the camera, and other stuff. I rebooted it, and it went into a continuous boot loop. At this point, I just thought, look, whatever the hell the magnets fucked up, hopefully that will go away, and i put the phone into the onion container where my son couldn’t reach it, and went to play with him.
About an hour later I checked on it, and it had stopped boot-looping, and everything was fine from then on. Phew.
Seriously, magnets will fuck up your phone, even from a distance. Be very careful.
My Pixel 2 has started randomly deciding it does not want to connect with the car’s BT. When I reboot the phone, it syncs up fine. Nothing I can do on the car end will fix it. It recognizes the device, says its paired, but it cannot retain a connection for phone use. I hope the phone is not starting to get squirrely, because there are no Android phones right now that float my boat, and I definitely do not need the expense.
I have been using this thing for about a year:
I recommend it.
Not really. Just that there’s no need to put EVERY app on the screen since there is a separate app list if you swipe from the side.
I got a preview email for Google’s Black Friday sale. They’ll have Pixel 5 for $50 off. So $650 on Nov 22.
Pffffft. I guess they must be selling well without a sale and don’t need to discount this year.
