3614

I hear you. Hopefully installing a custom ROM (free of MIUI and its associated bloatware) has mostly alleviated that particular risk. Now I just need to worry about Google and the developers of any apps I have installed… :)

3615

I’m not too concerned with personal style but I have a hard time wearing over the ear headphone in public. Maybe on a long plane flight but not on a walk around the neighborhood.

3616

I am still pissed about the de-featurification of phones, and will continue to be so. I recently replaced a s10e with a Zenfone 8 as the best available option.

For those of you in the US, the Xperia series are the best high end phones that continue to have microsd and headphone jacks- but you’ll pay for it. (they aren’t certified in Aus).

For a great set of cheap wired earbuds, the Jbl endurance run are fantastic.

For a great set of cheap true wireless earbuds, the Creative Outlier Air V3 are very good, but not perfect. My main complaint is that their touch surface is active all the time rather than only when in ear. The ANC and Ambient modes are fairly ordinary, but the mic call quality is great. Also the case is massive, not very pocketable. But they sound great, have excellent battery life and range, and feel comfortable. And I paid about $US45 for them.

3617

iirc, the Endurance are wireless. The Quantum are wired, however; I own a pair of these and they’re solid, with handy inline controls (and a mic)

3618

Nope! Though they do also make a wireless version.

3619

Interesting! Thanks for that.

3620

Well i bit the bullet and updatedy Pixel 4a to 12. It’s different I guess but passable. I think I would have been perfectly happy staying on 11 as long as I could have gotten security updates and no update nagging. But something I’ve noticed is that my always on lock screen is not working anymore. I’m pretty sure the 4a has an OLED screen and I used to have the clock and my notifications on, but no longer. Now it’s just a black screen. That’s a bit annoying. I also used to have a custom text that gave a number to contact if the phone was found. That option is still available in the settings but it doesn’t show up on the screen. What’s the point of leaving that in the settings then?

3621

Something else that i just noticed is that I can’t seem to swipe up to unlock (or at least wake up) the phone. I have to actually hit the power button.

3622

GF upgraded her OnePlus 9 Pro to 12 the other day and hates it. Lots of weird little changes to fonts and behaviors and UI. Clock widget is all fucked up and the replacements are worse. Can’t have app labels on in the drawer but off on the homescreen like before. Can’t force some apps to open links in Chrome instead of an internal webview instance. Something about her camera that I didn’t understand clearly.

3623

Apart from the complaints I had about 12 upthread on my Pixel 4a, I’ve since run into issues where outgoing calls immediately fail 100% of the time, but subsequent attempts work (but take 10 seconds to dial out). Oh and my fingerprint sensor doesn’t work anymore. At all. The OS doesn’t even recognize that I have a fingerprint sensor on the phone, so the settings are no longer even displayed.

I don’t know if I want to attempt a factory reset (again), send it in for repairs (again), or just go get a Moto G and acknowledge that I spent $350 on a backup alarm clock.

edit - Oh cool, after some testing I figured out I actually can’t receive incoming calls at all, and probably haven’t been able to for weeks.

3624

So I’ve found out that my custom text is still there on the lock screen. Perhaps I didn’t notice it before. Something else I’ve found is that I can’t long press the power button to bring up Google Pay. Bleh.

3625

My app switcher button has started to stop working somewhat randomly, that’s a good time.

This after my microphone was dead for a month, only to start working once I filed a support case 🤔

3626

I decided to just get rid of my 4a and buy a Moto G100. I liked my last Moto G so hopefully this one will work just as well.

3627

You’ve probably done this already but did you try running in safe mode?
Stock Android will be tested pretty thoroughly so these types of issues will be rare. Any/all problems I’ve had with core Android features have been due to a third party installed app. Running in safe mode disables them all. Then it’s a hunt to find the true culprit ;)

3628

I did indeed try safe mode yesterday and it didn’t solve any of the issues.

3629

So i can confirm that no amount of lifting or tapping of my phone will wake it when the screen is off (which I don’t think it should be off). I’ve tried turning off and on the lift and tap options in the display settings but that doesn’t seem to help

3630

That’s weird. I have a 4a, too, and tapping the screen wakes it right up.

3631

Well I’ve gone ahead and done a factory reset and no change. If I leave my phone it wil switch to the regular always on display lock screen for about 10 seconds and then switch off and no amount of tapping will wake it up again. What a pain in the butt!

3632

So @AK_Icebear any thoughts on the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra after a few months? I seem to have had the same thoughts / expectations that you did and came up with the same conclusion that this watch ticks most of the boxes I want.

I just got it today and am busy going through the settings now. My biggest hope is to discover some way of managing the watch from my PC, but it seems to only want to really talk to my phone…

Any tips?

Reckon I’ll need a new strap, as the existing one is a bit short.

3633

I’m a big fan, including of the strap - which I find more comfortable and less (zero) skin irritating than some others I tried. Besides the points below, it meets or exceeds all of my expectations.

Two issues and workarounds:

  • I’m not a fan of the built-in fitness and health apps by Mobvoi.
    – Solution: I use a Google Fit instead, there are many other options.
  • My original use case, tracking runs and listening to music with BT headphones via the watch with my phone at home, is a bit wonky. The issue is the watch always tries to switch to shared GPS via a Bluetooth connected phone. If it can’t find one, because I left it at home deliberately, it will search for a long time over and over again, failing to use the built-in GPS. This was extremely frustrating the first week or two.
    – Solution: there is a WearOS app called Wear GPS Fix that you start first, it forces the OS to use built in GPS, then start your run (or other tracking). Hopefully this is fixed with the big WearOS update this year, but for now this app helps.