Android Thread

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

8 hours ago, crash_davis said:

updates now are for the devs and for security.  with that said, i haven't notice a difference between the last 3 updates.  i've basically kept the same nova launcher homescreens since 2012ish.  i don't download stupid apps from the play store.  i don't surf pron from my phone.  i don't think i'm getting any phonaids any time soon.  updates are meh for me.  more often than not, they fuck up the phone.  or they apple the shit and purposely slow down your phone.  fuck updates.

Yeah, the one thing that bugs me about this latest one is "recent apps."  I used to be able to make that a "list" of app headers instead of a bunch of screenshots to swipe between and out of.

Also the messages app has no options as to appearance.  Annoying, but not a big enough deal to download something else.  I tend to use default apps unless they badly lack functionality that I use.  Some of that I guess is learned from having 8-16GB internal storage.

Like you, I use Nova and have for years, so updates tend to be mostly invisible. 

Funny, I got the update notification and actually had to look up that "pie" was v9.  I momentarily allowed myself a bit of excitement and then thought back to this thread. Haha.

Edited March 31, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

Also I have had bxaction to turn my bixby button into a flashlight switch.  Pie has rendered it nonfunctional.  I have fiddled with bxactions, turned it on and off etc.  Is there something I am forgetting or should be doing to make it operable?  There hasn't been an update yet.

 

EDIT:  it was giving me "press and hold Bixby Button to set up Bixby," which I most certainly didn't want to do.  But when I did it, it didn't start Bixby, it turned on the flashlight.

For future reference.

Edited April 1, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[Parliament 14,618]

Your post intrigues me, as I had no idea there was EVER an option to do that.

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

5 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Your post intrigues me, as I had no idea there was EVER an option to do that.

I have never used bixby, or really google assistant except as a novelty.  From jump, I used bxactions to map the bixby button to flashlight.  You can map it to other stuff too, like google assistant.  Give it a go.

[crash_davis 23,470]

pixel camera has been the best smart phone camera for about 3 years.  it was mostly all post image processing.

huawei...hold my beer.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18290215/huawei-p30-pro-camera-night-low-light-mode-photos

the low light pics from the P30 pro are full of fucking wizardry.  also with the zoom.  they just set the bar for apple, google, and samsung to chase.  this represents a new dynamic for chinese oems.  they were always the ones copying.  with this, they, huawei anyway, have become the leader.  it'll be funny now that everyone else be copying them, what their attitude will be.

re the whole spying shit.  i worked in telecom.  i already have a good idea of what our gubment and telecoms know about us.  what do i care that another jackhole in china knows the same shit.  spying assholes are spying assholes, so what's one more.  in these cases, there's not much you can do about it.

look at this fucking wizardry.

 

pics.

[immamac 44,418]

16 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Also I have had bxaction to turn my bixby button into a flashlight switch.  Pie has rendered it nonfunctional.  I have fiddled with bxactions, turned it on and off etc.  Is there something I am forgetting or should be doing to make it operable?  There hasn't been an update yet.

 

EDIT:  it was giving me "press and hold Bixby Button to set up Bixby," which I most certainly didn't want to do.  But when I did it, it didn't start Bixby, it turned on the flashlight.

For future reference.

uninstall bxactions and just use it natively from the bixby settings now.

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

9 minutes ago, immamac said:

uninstall bxactions and just use it natively from the bixby settings now.

I have never even set up Bixby in 18? months of use.  What hell would I be unleashing if I did so?

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

3 hours ago, crash_davis said:

pixel camera has been the best smart phone camera for about 3 years.  it was mostly all post image processing.

huawei...hold my beer.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18290215/huawei-p30-pro-camera-night-low-light-mode-photos

the low light pics from the P30 pro are full of fucking wizardry.  also with the zoom.  they just set the bar for apple, google, and samsung to chase.  this represents a new dynamic for chinese oems.  they were always the ones copying.  with this, they, huawei anyway, have become the leader.  it'll be funny now that everyone else be copying them, what their attitude will be.

re the whole spying shit.  i worked in telecom.  i already have a good idea of what our gubment and telecoms know about us.  what do i care that another jackhole in china knows the same shit.  spying assholes are spying assholes, so what's one more.  in these cases, there's not much you can do about it.

look at this fucking wizardry.

 

pics.

I guess the issue with Huawei is not spying on your or me, Google already does a dandy job of that.  It's that Huawei equipment has provided a backdoor for Chinese corporate and industrial espionage as well as espionage espionage.

[immamac 44,418]

nothing, I didn't set it up either, just got past the splash page to turn the button settings on.

[ztejas 44,282]

5 hours ago, crash_davis said:

pixel camera has been the best smart phone camera for about 3 years.  it was mostly all post image processing.

huawei...hold my beer.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18290215/huawei-p30-pro-camera-night-low-light-mode-photos

the low light pics from the P30 pro are full of fucking wizardry.  also with the zoom.  they just set the bar for apple, google, and samsung to chase.  this represents a new dynamic for chinese oems.  they were always the ones copying.  with this, they, huawei anyway, have become the leader.  it'll be funny now that everyone else be copying them, what their attitude will be.

re the whole spying shit.  i worked in telecom.  i already have a good idea of what our gubment and telecoms know about us.  what do i care that another jackhole in china knows the same shit.  spying assholes are spying assholes, so what's one more.  in these cases, there's not much you can do about it.

look at this fucking wizardry.

 

pics.

I would own a Huawei if it wasn't a pain in the ass to use with Verizon (if it's even possible to use with Verizon at all).

[crash_davis 23,470]

48 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I would own a Huawei if it wasn't a pain in the ass to use with Verizon (if it's even possible to use with Verizon at all).

Not possible.  This is one of the reasons I left VZ.  Their CDMA based network is pretty specific to VZ and not supported by most of the world.  AT&T and Tmobile have GSM based bands which are supported by most of the international OEMs.

[elfenix 34,776]

 

8 hours ago, crash_davis said:

pixel camera has been the best smart phone camera for about 3 years.  it was mostly all post image processing.

huawei...hold my beer.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18290215/huawei-p30-pro-camera-night-low-light-mode-photos

the low light pics from the P30 pro are full of fucking wizardry.  also with the zoom.  they just set the bar for apple, google, and samsung to chase.  this represents a new dynamic for chinese oems.  they were always the ones copying.  with this, they, huawei anyway, have become the leader.  it'll be funny now that everyone else be copying them, what their attitude will be.

i was wondering when folded optics would be employed in phones.  it allows the use of longer lenses without protruding from the body.  nikon used to make a punch of compacts that used folded optics, and i think olympus may still use them for the tough series.  for nikon, it made for much slimmer form factors with no lens protrusion. for olympus it allows better waterproofing (since there's no moving lens parts sticking out of the body).  (as a pedantic point, it's not actually zoom, it's a different camera with a different lens that is fixed at a narrower field of view - the only moving lens element is the focus group and it may very well be they move the sensor via piezoelectrics rather than lens elements)

 

i wonder how it's doing the night stuff.  certainly there's a lot of resizing going on (the 'main' camera is 40 mp but produces 10 mp images.  with a standard bayer sensor that's 2 green sensors, one red, and one blue.  they're not demosaicing (at least, not as much as a 40 mp image using a 40 mp sensor), so that increases sharpness while pixel peeping.  probably increases it slightly at the image level as well.  but the night thing is interesting.  i'm guessing it's using a 2 range sensor that switches from day mode to dark mode.  say, native sensitivity near the ISO 100 level, and night sensitivity near the ISO 3200 or 6400 level.  i'd also like to see those images compared against a pentax K1 as a reference. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by elfenix

[midtown 3,357]

After a few weeks with the One Plus 6 I will say that I wish I had gone with a Pixel 3.  Although the phone has a lot of features and is super fast and charges super fast the oxygen software doesn't play nice with everything.  eg Google messages is always asking me to download MMS.  What a pain.  So I had to go to textra which means no desktop texting.   Little things like that

[rage-a-holic 4,744]

2 hours ago, midtown said:

After a few weeks with the One Plus 6 I will say that I wish I had gone with a Pixel 3.  Although the phone has a lot of features and is super fast and charges super fast the oxygen software doesn't play nice with everything.  eg Google messages is always asking me to download MMS.  What a pain.  So I had to go to textra which means no desktop texting.   Little things like that

Fuck, that blows. The One Plus was on my list for a possible next purchase, but I gotta have desktop messaging.

[Viper 12,221]

well you could always try Google Allo...oh wait. Or Inbox...darn.

 

um, does Mighty Text or pushbullet still work?

[midtown 3,357]

12 minutes ago, rage-a-holic said:

but I gotta have desktop messaging.

I had to go back to the mightytext + textra combo. I also find a few apps really drag with this OS.   

Edited April 2, 2019 by midtown

[Machinator 32,103]

1 hour ago, Viper said:

well you could always try Google Allo...oh wait. Or Inbox...darn.

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-product-shutdowns-are-damaging-its-brand/

Can't trust Google for anything.

[Sam Lin 3,606]

On 4/1/2019 at 10:06 PM, crash_davis said:

pixel camera has been the best smart phone camera for about 3 years.  it was mostly all post image processing.

huawei...hold my beer.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18290215/huawei-p30-pro-camera-night-low-light-mode-photos

the low light pics from the P30 pro are full of fucking wizardry.  also with the zoom.  they just set the bar for apple, google, and samsung to chase. 

Actually, Huawei took the title with the P20 Pro over a year ago and never looked back: https://www.dxomark.com/huawei-p20-pro-camera-review-innovative-technologies-outstanding-results/

DXOmark 109 just got matched by the S10+ this year. Pixel 2 was 98, Pixel 3 101. Not close. Top 3 scores are now Huawei:  https://www.dxomark.com/category/smartphone-reviews/

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

Of course the question is, from whom did they steal it?

[crash_davis 23,470]

huawei and china in general will soon kick everyone's ass.  they are hungry and authoritarian.  they have a gigantic workforce where you if you don't deliver, they'll easily hire someone else.  huawei and many chinese companies have a motto: 996.  9AM to 9PM, 6 days a week.  the school kids pretty much have to go to saturday school to keep up with their peers.

their new camera tech, especially for low light is their own development.  larger pixels and RYYB sensors.  extra yellow sensor because yellow picks up both red and blue light.  everyone will copy this innovation.  like i said earlier, it will interesting to see their reaction when others start copying them.  will be a new dynamic for chinese companies.

[elfenix 34,776]

the P30's (main camera) sensor is a stop bigger (1/1.7 vs 1/2.55 typically).  to see what that does, go read the panasonic LX-3 review on dpreview from 11 years ago.

larger pixels is bullshit, because total sensor area is what matters for image level noise.  hell, the individual pixels on this thing are tiny (40 million of them even on a bigger sensor means they're smaller than the pixels on a, say, 16 mp camera from a typical size sensor).

Edited April 4, 2019 by elfenix

[midtown 3,357]

Im fed up with my one plus 6 and will either shove it in a drawer in case my XL craps out, try to sell it or give it to my 12 yr old.     The Oxygen overlay simply doesn't work flawlessly with either the apps I like to use or project fi.  Not sure which but Id rather just have pure android.  

[Okie State 3,889]

Damn, that didn't take long. My Pixel 2 still works great on Fi. Just get one of those.

[elfenix 34,776]

is there any way to change the order that notifications show up in the drawer?  like a priorities setting? i want to put At Bat at the top above dating app crap, twitch crap, instagram crap, etc.  i don't want to kill the notifications of those things, just push them all below At Bat, instead of At Bat being below them all

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

On 4/5/2019 at 5:40 PM, midtown said:

Im fed up with my one plus 6 and will either shove it in a drawer in case my XL craps out, try to sell it or give it to my 12 yr old.     The Oxygen overlay simply doesn't work flawlessly with either the apps I like to use or project fi.  Not sure which but Id rather just have pure android.  

Tried just Nova Launcher?  It makes overlays mostly disappear.

[midtown 3,357]

It's the only launcher I've used on Android.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6000 using Tapatalk

[Knoxtnhorn 6,312]

I don't get into all the fancy, tech stuff y'all do, so this question may seem stupid.

What happened to my calendar?  Once I installed the latest update, the "month" page on my calendar is basically blank.  It's in calendar format, but there are no dates/numbers.  Just different colored lines which denote things I have on my schedule.  I've gone through the settings up and down and can't find a way to just have a normal calendar view.

[Modessit 5,667]

I don't get into all the fancy, tech stuff y'all do, so this question may seem stupid.
What happened to my calendar?  Once I installed the latest update, the "month" page on my calendar is basically blank.  It's in calendar format, but there are no dates/numbers.  Just different colored lines which denote things I have on my schedule.  I've gone through the settings up and down and can't find a way to just have a normal calendar view.

Show me what you're talking about. This is my stock calendar view:

[52-80 19,377]

19 minutes ago, Modessit said:

Show me what you're talking about. This is my stock calendar view:

do you have a job?

[Knoxtnhorn 6,312]

2 hours ago, Modessit said:

Show me what you're talking about. This is my stock calendar view:

It looks almost exactly like that but without any numbers.  And the events are color-coded, flat lines w/o info.

[Modessit 5,667]

do you have a job?

Yep, but I don't need my phone calendar to know when to go and what to do.

[Modessit 5,667]

It looks almost exactly like that but without any numbers.  And the events are color-coded, flat lines w/o info.

Not seeing a screenshot.

 

[TwiceHorn 32,106]

I would guess that you should go to "app info" and delete cache.  Do not delete data unless your calendar entries are stored in google calendar or the like.

[Knoxtnhorn 6,312]

Got it gentlemen.  It had something to do with the theme.  I changed the theme and Presto!  Thanks for looking into this for me.

[midtown 3,357]

Updated.  I rooted my OnePlus 6.  I flash Havoc ROM and added GApps.   With the native messages, dialer, calendar and photos gone I'm having no conflicts and everything is running smooth. 

[Lobwedgephil 1,146]

So the Galaxy Fold has been in reviewers hands for a couple of days now, and many of them are already broken. Not a good look, but will be cool in a few years when it is ready. 

 

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/17/18411510/samsung-galaxy-fold-broken-screen-debris-dust-hinge-flexible-bulge

[rage-a-holic 4,744]

FYI, Pixel 3's are half price today for Google Fi. Just have to sign up for at least one month ($20).

[Catpfish 618]

Pretend I'm really dumb.  I'm currently on ATT.  If I buy the Pixel 3XL and activate it on Google Fi for a month, I can still put it on ATT at the same time and then cancel Google Fi after a month correct?

[The University 853]

possibly but unless you're tied down by a contract, why would you waste all that $$ on att? i've been on fi since 2015 and can't imagine going back to att. my monthly bill is ridiculously cheap (~$45) compared to when i was on att (~$90).

[Lobwedgephil 1,146]

27 minutes ago, Catpfish said:

Pretend I'm really dumb.  I'm currently on ATT.  If I buy the Pixel 3XL and activate it on Google Fi for a month, I can still put it on ATT at the same time and then cancel Google Fi after a month correct?

Yes, but I believe the 50% off deal was one day only. 

[Catpfish 618]

2 minutes ago, Lobwedgephil said:

Yes, but I believe the 50% off deal was one day only. 

Yeah, I missed the time stamp on rage's post. 

 

[crash_davis 23,470]

p30 pro zoom.  got damned impressive for a cell phone camera.

 

 

[Parliament 14,618]

Figured this is a good place to ask.

I wanna replace the screen on my Galaxy S5, and use it as a backup phone. (If I break my main phone, I want a back waiting to swap the sim card into.)

I see a huge disparity in prices out there, and assume many of them are junk.

Ie, recommend me a replacement screen for a Galaxy S5.

Tia

[Lobwedgephil 1,146]

Go here. 

 

https://www.ubreakifix.com

 

 

[crash_davis 23,470]

$199 for ubreakfix.  dayum. for that price, you can buy a better phone than an S5.  swappa.com is your friend.

 

or if you are mechanically inclined, you can buy a replacement screen and replace it yourself.  the lcd replacements go for $25-30 on ebay.  i've replaced s3, s4, lg g2, lg g3, apple iphone 4, 5, 6 screens.  easy to do, just go slow and watch youtube videos.  helps to have the right tools.

or buy a replacement phone from swappa which i've bought many from.

Edited April 25, 2019 by crash_davis

[Vic Mackey 48,023]

Figured this is a good place to ask.

I wanna replace the screen on my Galaxy S5, and use it as a backup phone. (If I break my main phone, I want a back waiting to swap the sim card into.)

I see a huge disparity in prices out there, and assume many of them are junk.

Ie, recommend me a replacement screen for a Galaxy S5.

Tia

I had the screen on my Note 2 replaced for about $50. Worked great and like new. All those cell phone repair shops around town can do it no problem in under an hour.

The official Samsung repair center wanted to charge me $200.

[Parliament 14,618]

$199 for ubreakfix.  dayum. for that price, you can buy a better phone than an S5.  swappa.com is your friend.
 
or if you are mechanically inclined, you can buy a replacement screen and replace it yourself.  the lcd replacements go for $25-30 on ebay.  i've replaced s3, s4, lg g2, lg g3, apple iphone 4, 5, 6 screens.  easy to do, just go slow and watch youtube videos.  helps to have the right tools.
or buy a replacement phone from swappa which i've bought many from.

I wanna do it myself. What sellers do you recommend? Looks like there might be some garbage out there.

[crash_davis 23,470]

9 hours ago, Parliament said:

13 hours ago, crash_davis said:

$199 for ubreakfix.  dayum. for that price, you can buy a better phone than an S5.  swappa.com is your friend.
 
or if you are mechanically inclined, you can buy a replacement screen and replace it yourself.  the lcd replacements go for $25-30 on ebay.  i've replaced s3, s4, lg g2, lg g3, apple iphone 4, 5, 6 screens.  easy to do, just go slow and watch youtube videos.  helps to have the right tools.
or buy a replacement phone from swappa which i've bought many from.

I wanna do it myself. What sellers do you recommend? Looks like there might be some garbage out there.

something to consider.  the s5 has an AMOLED screen. OLED screens are usually more expensive, usually 2 or 3 times more expensive than LCD screens.  most of the $25 ebay screens say LCD.  the more expensive $75-90 screens say AMOLED.

what's the difference?  OLED screens are more efficient in that they do not power black pixels.  LCD screens power all pixels regardless of color.  also, OLED screens have that exaggerated color pop that you are used to with samsung screens.

what does having an LCD screen mean?  i have never seen an LCD screen on a samsung phone so i wouldn't know.  i would think that the colors are more natural and do not pop like the oled.  battery life difference may be nominal.  i don't know if you'll notice a difference or since it's a secondary phone, that you'll care.  i've had lg g2 and g3 phones which were LCD screens.  i do see a difference in color between LCD and OLED.  it didn't bother me.  takes about 10 seconds to get used to the screen.

as to which one to buy.  no idea.  i would trust the OLED screens since only samsung and LG can manufacture OLED.  i would think the quality would be great from any buyer.

LCD is the wild west.  any place in china can manufacture LCD screens.  most are decent, some are crap.  i've replaced 8 or 9 iphone screens which are all LCD.  only can remember one bad screen where the colors were totally off and one where the digitizer had a dead spot.  both were returned with no problem.  it's just the hassle.

[crash_davis 23,470]

i would not buy the OLED screen for the S5.  it's not worth it.  for that price, i would pay a few bucks more and buy a newer version phone on swappa.  the lg g6 is not much more than the price of an OLED screen and is WAY better than the S5.  hell the galaxy S6 is almost the same price of the OLED, s7 is a few bucks more.

[rage-a-holic 4,744]

Any recs for a good cheap replacement phone? I'm helping out a kid in Cozumel who has a Moto Z Force with a massively cracked screen and a battery that lasts about 30 minutes. He is also tech retarded so there's no chance of him attempting to replace the screen/battery on his own.