Androids, Everybody needs good Androids - The Bear and Badger

AJ

I don't hate on any phone platform, they're all a bit shit in their own way.

cockbeard

When working for google we were using ChromeBoxes, whilst far from ideal (GoogleSheets and Forms aren't really powerful enough) it was pretty good. It did get me kinda excited about the concept of working via a phone in the manner that you are now. I had one of these years ago, and it was fun, but ultimately just a gimmick. I'm sure they could've improved this loads by now

Glad you've finally got it squared away Gav, hoping for a review in a couple of weeks

isanbard

You had a Nintendo NX years ago?? !! But wha?? How is this possible? I don't believe it..

cockbeard

Call me Matthew

GurtTractor

What's the best 'swipe' typing app thingy then? And the best music player?

GurtTractor

Oh wow, Foobar2000 is on Android now.

cockbeard

I'm using Swype and it's fine, won't say more than fine, seems it was a lot more accurate six or seven years ago, but far better than the standard Sony swipe keyboard. As for music I run withGoogle Music as it's clearly the best service going, upload my own music and have it available anywhere, for podcasts I'm using Doggcatcher, but I'm losing my patience a little bit, just seems a little disjointed at times plus recently it intermittently pauses for 3-5 seconds during playback

afgavinstan

XZ first impressions are that it is a very very good phone if you like your sonys. Screen has somehow gotten better and brighter compared to my Z3, front facing camera is a belter, love the fingerprint sensor, and all-round it's just very good.

Still got some stuff to back up and transfer over this evening before I can really dive into it but, so far so great.

AJ

I find the stock Android keyboard to be really good. Particularly like how it has a small mode for today's stupidly big phones.

Facewon

SwiftKey for lyfe. Can't speak on it as a specific swype keyboard, but it's top tier on all other fronts. I'll second google play music, but it depends if you mean sub service or just a music player for your own dls.

Facewon

Facewon wrote:

SwiftKey for lyfe. Can't speak on it as a specific swype keyboard, but it's top tier on all other fronts. I'll second google play music, but it depends if you mean sub service or just a music player for your own dls.

I guess other ticks for google play music are a. YouTube red (no ads, download vids, etc) and b. If you share with some folks it's cheap.

GurtTractor

Thanks, trying out Swiftkey atm, seems alright. Yeah I just need something to play FLACs/MP3s off my SD card, I'm not at all interested in streaming services other than Mixcloud or Soundcloud. Foobar seems pretty good thus far, I thought you couldn't back to the currently playing screen from the menus at first, but you just have to swipe the edge of the screen. It has a black skin too which is lovely.

Facewon

swiftkey is all about the prediction. Let it access everything, fb, email etc.

Facewon

I haven't had to manually type my address except when we've moved, for about 5 years. likewise my email addresses.

AJ

Facewon wrote:

Facewon wrote:

SwiftKey for lyfe. Can't speak on it as a specific swype keyboard, but it's top tier on all other fronts. I'll second google play music, but it depends if you mean sub service or just a music player for your own dls.

I guess other ticks for google play music are a. YouTube red (no ads, download vids, etc) and b. If you share with some folks it's cheap.

Wait, I can turn off the ads on YouTube because I've got a Play Music sub? How do I do that?

cockbeard

Not all ads, they may have tweaked it a little bit with YouTubeRed as opposed to YouTube MusicKey

If the clip is designated as music and the uploader has turned off ads (which most of the major studios VEVO and all that have) then you won't see ads, however if the uploader hasn't agreed to turn off ads for subscribers then they will still be present. If you are signed in on the same account as has a Play sub then it works automatically

AJ

Thanks. So it's basically useless. Oh, well, I'm sure I'll find a way to get ads blocked on my telly eventually.

cockbeard

Not that useless, if you're listening to music, then it does block a lot of adverts. Even a lot of my stuff that isn't big studios they still run without adverts a lot of the time. But yeah if you aren't seeing the benefits already then you won't see any more

at least I don't think so, but YouTubeRed is new and I don't know the business rules around that, I would doubt it would be very different though

AJ

I'm not a big muso so it's pretty rare there's something I want to listen to that I have to use YouTube for. Which is good since the sound quality's abysmal.

Thinking about it, even the rarer stuff tends to be on SoundCloud anyway, which renders YouTube practically irrelevant for music.

hunk

http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2016/10/25/xiaomis-edgeless-mi-mix-is-possibly-the-best-looking-smartphone-of-2016/

Those sammy edge screens are so 2015.
Bezelless is the new hi end trend....

cockbeard

That's enough to move me away from Sony, despite it being far too big, that is pretty damn sexy

AJ

Pretty cool, but still nothing to make me leave the Nexus 5. At this rate, I'm going to have to buy up all the remaining stock to make sure I've got a phone I like for the next decade.

AJ

Also, edge-to-edge screens strike me as utterly unusable with one hand.

isanbard

I had enough trouble with my moto getting false inputs off the edge of the screen let alone one like that. If you're watching media or much anything else then you are always at risk of skipping it forward or backward just by holding the sodding thing.
There is a functional reason you have some kind of bezel..

cockbeard

But purdy

edit: You're right though, that is bloody annoying, should be a setting in media players to ignore input 12mm from screen edge or similar

AJ

The problem's not just on media players, though.

It's also a problem caused by the overly large screens. Steve Jobs was completely right when he said the original iPhone was the right size and any bigger doesn't work.

GooberTheHat

My nexus 9 has gone into a boot loop. The internet says something about recovery mode and side loading. Anyone able and kind enough to give me a step by step guide to what I need to do, and also point me in the direction of reputable sources for whatever files I need?

cockbeard

Turn it off all the way, pull the battery or whatever then I think it's normally power, volume+ and home keys, hold them down until it boots into a screen that looks a bit dos like

There will be option to reset the phone from there, try that first, the menus are navigated like a BIOS screen on the PC, volume rocker for up and down another key to select

If you still get stuck in a boot loop after exhausting those options then I'd go to xda developers nexus 9 forum and look for rom flashing

cockbeard

This link looks pretty good for getting back to stock, if oyu do need to fully reinstall the OS

http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-9/general/guide-nexus-9-to-stock-guide-unbrick-t2975668

GooberTheHat

Cheers. Is it possible to pull any files I have on it via usb prior to a reset?

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