• Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    212·
    2 days ago

    Honestly Google Drive works great as free storage (Though for large storage there’s no guarantee they won’t accidentally delete it, it’s happened before).

    And Google Suite is good enough if you can’t be bothered to get Microsoft Office. Though they’re forcing AI into it and have some weird quirks like being unable to copypaste external text with rightclick.

  • Beaver @lemmy.caEnglish
    71·
    2 days ago

    Don’t forget the investment into Israel despite the protests of the workers

  • Redex@lemmy.world
    533·
    2 days ago

    I mean, a lot of the points are valid, but the Pixel phones are pretty great, Android is pretty great and getting better, and the Chromebook gamble is playing a really long term game where they could end up uprooting Microsoft if they play their cards right. From my understanding, US kids now on average know Chromebook OS better than Windows by far, and will probably prefer to continue using it if they could. If Google makes the OS more viable for professional use and flexible and play their cards right, they’d have a really good chance at uppending Microsoft’s dominance, especially since Microsoft is seemingly trying to shoot itself in the foot with Windows.

  • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
    1737·
    3 days ago

    Hate it like you want, but the effing pixels are still the best phones. Not by os, not by spec, but simply by being the most open android of them all. The easiest to de-google. Sounds stupid, but is not.

    I hate google with all my heart (since they dropped their slogan “don’t be evil” and went… Well… Evil). But i will buy their fucking phones until a viable alternative comes along.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.world
      18·
      2 days ago

      It’s a real shame that OnePlus just became an Oppo rebranding, because the OP1 was a phenomenal phone, and up until OP6 they were both cheap and had a relatively clean Android install. To date, features like gestures are still better than what you get on the Pixel, and most of their stuff is less invasive than Google’s.

      The Android market nowadays, especially for high end, is “which manufacturer is the least shit”, and that’s a real shame.

      • 0ops@lemm.ee
        2·
        2 days ago

        My 7t was the best phone I ever had when it was on Oxygen OS 10, but every upgrade was a downgrade. Features were dropped, ui got uglier, bloat was added. I have an 8t now, but I won’t be getting another OnePlus. Really sad

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
        2·
        2 days ago

        Totally. First thing i check is “can i debloat and root this piece of shit which is technically awesome but ruined software-side”. Which i most likely can’t as the hurdles became more and more annoying each year up to the point where i gave up and went google.

        If they’d do the same with PCs, noone would buy that shit. Unless it’s a crapple…

      • papertowels@lemmy.one
        2·
        2 days ago

        I desperately want fair phone (and it’s parts) to be sold in my country. 8-10 years of android support for a self repairable phone? Yes please.

        • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
          2·
          2 days ago

          Those looked nice, yes… But hard to get here and technically not that interesting to me, last time i checked. But we need more alternatives than just fairphone.

          I hate the smartphone-market and what samsung and crapple made out of it.

    • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
      46·
      3 days ago

      100%. I just bought a Pixel 8 so I could install Graphene OS. It was so damn easy too. I was amazed. This phone is great minus the lack of headphone jack and SD card slot.

        • Chef_Boyardee@lemm.ee
          6·
          3 days ago

          Been using their phones since the Nexus 6. That thing was huge.

          And I’m the one guy that uses Google Fi. My bill was $38 last month.

            • Saurok@lemm.ee
              3·
              1 day ago

              Genuinely curious, what service are you comparing this to that makes it sound quite expensive? Asking for my wallet

              • randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
                1·
                5 hours ago

                A very basic phone plan from one of the top three ISPs where I live (Taiwan). Comes with 3 GB of data a month. (I’m on Wi-Fi most of the time.) Costs ~$6.1 a month. No 5G connection, only 4G. ~22 cents per minute of calling time.

          • AbsentBird@lemm.eeEnglish
            4·
            3 days ago

            And I’m the one guy that uses Google Fi. My bill was $38 last month.

            There are dozens of us, baker’s dozens.

          • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
            1·
            2 days ago

            I’ve been on Fi for years, I think basically since the first year they started ProjectFi. So much cheaper than my old Verizon or sprint accounts…

      • EnderMB@lemmy.world
        21·
        2 days ago

        Oh man, the lack of a headphone jack is still a killer for me. It’s one of the reasons why I stayed on OnePlus 6 for so long, and to be blunt, I don’t see the Pixel 8 as a huge jump outside of power and bullshit like AI photos. My kingdom for a high-end phone with a headphone jack and stock-ish Android!

    • Dettweiler@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 days ago

      The call screener is a godsend and it’s the absolute most used feature I rely on. Many evenings I wake up for work and see that my phone stopped 5-10 spam calls that would have ruined my sleep.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
        1·
        1 day ago

        Hehe, i have an awesome solution for that. I simply block everyone except wifey and friends. The rest of the world doesn’t need to reach me. I call back when i want to, or simply don’t 😁

        Just because i CAN be reached mobile doesn’t mean i have to. Wasn’t before Smartphones and won’t be with…

        But yes, the call-screening is cool. If you disregard privacy and the percentage of non tech-savy people who are totally overwhelmed by that.

  • jh29a@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    201·
    2 days ago

    They are the IMO most supported Single-Sign-On provider. I think Facebook, which I don’t even have, was mostly for games, and then apple also isn’t an option, and that’s just it besides using firefox’ built in password manager for another email/password combination. What’s your opinion on log in providers?

  • tacosplease@lemmy.world
    211·
    2 days ago

    The UI for GMail is awful. Can’t even follow conversations on my phone app. Just put that shit in order like Outlook does. Fuck.

  • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    2 days ago

    Chromebooks are insanely locked down at schools. I got one on eBay for $40, installed linux, and now it can play Minecraft Java at 60 fps so that’s something.

    • skybox@lemm.eeEnglish
      101·
      2 days ago

      I really don’t get the Chromebook complaint. It just needs to browse the internet, and a Chromebook is damn solid at that at a super reasonable price and are rugged as hell. Yeah I wish schools didn’t hook into the g suite but like what, you want em on a windows machine to do the same things as on chrome os?

      • EvolvedTurtle@lemmy.world
        8·
        2 days ago

        My chromebook was so bloated with the schools proctoring software that it lagged on a Google doc

        Which is like half of the things purpose

        • skybox@lemm.eeEnglish
          6·
          2 days ago

          Okay yeah that’s very true the proctoring systems suck entire ass.

        • tehmics@lemmy.world
          41·
          2 days ago

          Liked. They make it worse every day, there’s just not a viable alternative. Without revanced and 5 different plugins on the browser, I’d have stopped using it already

    • flubba86@lemmy.world
      48·
      2 days ago

      But they didn’t invent that. They bought YouTube after it was already popular. The only thing they’ve done to the platform is put in more ads.

      • corbin@infosec.pub
        24·
        2 days ago

        YouTube launched in 2005 and was bought by Google in 2006. It has been a Google service for 95% of its existence. I’m pretty sure Google did other stuff in that 18 years than “put in more ads.”

    • Farid@startrek.website
      376·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, Nexus phones were great, but Pixel phones are also good. And Android is definitely not “getting worse”.

      Agree with the rest though.

      • candyman337@sh.itjust.works
        235·
        3 days ago

        Android is getting weird. It’s not bad but some UI choices just don’t make sense. They’re making everything super large, and required so many swipes and clicks for certain settings. They’ve lost the plot a bit. Also, having used both iOS and Android, iOS gestures are leaps and bounds ahead of Android. Genuinely, it’s no contest.

        All this being said I prefer Android, I just wish they put more thought about ease of use and feature refinement rather than changing for changes sake. Like we are JUST NOW getting an update to the gesture controls. They’ve been basically unchanged since Android 11/12 they have had ample time to refine them a bit.

        • Daxtron2@startrek.website
          12·
          3 days ago

          I hate the super large quick access buttons. Like why would I want to only have 4 accessible with one touch when I’m used to 8+

        • wols@lemm.ee
          4·
          3 days ago

          Could you elaborate on the gestures part?
          I remember the opposite, having hated navigating my iPhone for work. I specifically remember swipe to go back not working reliably at all (many apps seemed to just ignore it, others I think configured other actions on that gesture - WTF), so I got into the habit of using that stupid little hard to reach, hard to hit, tiny back arrow that at least worked consistently when you managed to hit it.
          I’ve been enjoying Android navigation gestures pretty much ever since I found out they existed.

          It might have been a user issue in my case with iOS since I didn’t use it as much, and therefore maybe was simply using it wrong/was unaware of better ways. But I don’t see anything wrong/missing with gestures on Android.

          • candyman337@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            2 days ago

            So apple has slowly added some of these swipe features and a lot of iPhone users were basically trained how to use them over time.

            I’d honestly say swipe is a bit of a misnomer for them, it’s more like eases. There’s a specific way you to swipe for different things, it’s nuanced. When I switched to iPhone for a year, I had to ask my gf a few questions to get the hang of it, but once you do it’s super intuitive. On almost every app a swipe from the left is back and a swipe from the right is forward. And there was a different in finger action for a back swipe and a side menu. Once you get the hang of it it genuinely feels like second nature, I almost never missed my android buttons. When I switched back I tried androids swipe features and was immediately disappointed. Android’s backswipe is really oversensitive, meaning that it’s way too easy to swipe back when I’m not trying to. Also they’re multitasking up swipe is less sensitive meaning it’s harder to get to multitasking than on iphone. And of course the final nail in the coffin there is no forward swipe from the right, a swipe from the right is also just back on Android which was a real mind fuck. Currently I just use the Android old buttons, or I use the Android gestures where you have a home and back button and then you swipe for multitasking stuff. I can say that the multitasking swipe stuff seems to be better than the last time I tried it.

            I would say the biggest difference is when you swipe on the iPhone it’s like turning a page, a smoothe slide. Where as android it’s just a flick. So when I accidentally swipe the screen, I’m going back on Android, but on iPhone I have to definitely be doing an intentional slide, and for me that slide was just short enough to not be annoying.

            • wols@lemm.ee
              1·
              2 days ago

              Thanks for responding, that makes a lot of sense.
              I think generally what one gets used to has a big impact on preferences.

              I’ll say, an easily accessible, reliable gesture for side menu sounds nice. It feels like this was either abandoned on Android or left up to developers who mostly abandoned it. I remember struggling to get the side menu to trigger instead of back navigation and it not working near reliably enough. So I’ve been trained to always use the hamburger buttons that, ironically, are hard to reach in the top left corner in most apps. To be fair, I feel like I hardly use one menu interaction for every 100 back actions, so the latter being ergonomic is a lot more important to me.
              On that point, swipe from left to go back seems quite annoying. I go back all the time, and having to move my thumb across the entire screen is a pain. I almost never need to go forward, so having that be the more accessible gesture seems weird. I’ll concede that having a gesture for it at all is useful and Android should add the option.

              I never felt like the swipe to go back is too sensitive, and if you accidentally trigger it, you can simply move your finger back towards the edge before letting go to cancel the action. You can also configure the sensitivity in the settings. The feedback that you’re about to trigger the action is probably not as obvious as on iOS though, and likely less elegant.

              I think both Android and iOS would do well to let users customize these interactions more to their own needs.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            2 days ago

            As a mobile developer, tiny unhittable buttons drive me batshit. I used to get handed app design documents all the time that had these little buttons, along with image files for these buttons that were just large enough (width and height) for them. I would always do a trivial amount of extra work to make the actual tappable regions larger than the images to improve their usability, but when I mentioned this to the designers they would go apeshit and demand that I restore the original tiny tappable regions, usually with the bullshit rationale of that being what end-users expected and they didn’t want to verify that what I’d done to my best judgement was OK. Management would go along with the designers, on the grounds that enlarging the tappable regions required more time and effort - even though I’d already done it and undoing it would require even more time and effort.

            It eventually occurred to me to just do it without telling anyone and I had no further problems.

            A fun little fact about iOS: the operating system includes a private method (which is something developers supposedly can’t use without getting their app rejected) named _warpPoint. This hack was put in when they started supporting landscape, because the top toolbar and its tiny buttons became even tinier and virtually unusable in that mode. _warpPoint intercepts touches near the toolbar and changes the coordinates to the middle of the nearest button - basically doing the same thing I was doing by enlarging the tappable regions, just doing it at the global level. The irony is that they still don’t really work very well, despite the very existence of this method proving that Apple knows it’s a general problem.

        • Dasnap@lemmy.world
          3·
          3 days ago

          I like Samsung’s flavor with OneUI as it’s kept a lot of the condensed layout and it has good one-handed support. I’ve created a lot of custom shortcuts that just use swipes from the side of the screen.

          • candyman337@sh.itjust.works
            6·
            3 days ago

            I’ve decided that I’ll never get a phone with a boot loader than you can’t unlock as long as I can help it, so Samsung is out for me

    • frunch@lemmy.world
      5·
      2 days ago

      They lost me right there, lol

      Tbf a lot of Google is shite but i will never deny the pixel

    • Chev@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 days ago

      Same here. Have had Nokia and Iphones before and have my Pixel 3a right now for about 4 years and still happy with it.

    • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
      172·
      3 days ago

      my 6a has been nothing but shit. You cant charge it and run the GPS at the same time or it overheats. Thats just one of the many issues ive had with it.

      • papertowels@lemmy.one
        1·
        2 days ago

        I have the same problem, but only when I run the GPS under sunlight in a car. I wonder if other phones have the same problem under those conditions? Can anyone else chip in?

        • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 day ago

          Oh holy shit. I’ve done that a few times. Completely using GPS by audio and without thinking I put the phone down in the Sun. I’ve never done it more than 10 or 15 minutes before I remembered and every time it would be so fucking hot. Even with the screen off and everything which really should have helped keep it cool you know?

          The big problem here I was an instacart driver at the time so I had all these fucking weird things I had to do with my phone to make sure it didn’t explode while I was trying to keep it charged so I could work all day.

          • papertowels@lemmy.one
            1·
            1 day ago

            Yeah, the only thing I’ve had help is if I got an ac vent mount for the phone and had the ac going - if you get a small enough mount the cold air hits the phone and keeps it cool. But phone under the sun is BRUTAL.

            • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
              1·
              1 day ago

              I had a very recessed holder place that was pretty much always in the shadow no matter what direction I was facing I just got used to doing everything audio and tucking it down in there. It was really annoying because I honestly liked having the thing in my field of view to follow the GPS that way so the stupid voice didn’t keep talking over my goddamn music.

              IT TOOK MY MUSIC FROM ME MAN

      • ditty@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        My friends 6a and his wife’s both have a display issue where the screen just randomly turns green. Restarting fixes it, but what the hell!

        • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
          7·
          3 days ago

          Sometimes even when I’m just browsing lemmy it decides the screen needs to be dimmed for the next 20 minutes because im just being so very strenuous on it by looking at memes.

    • cybermass@lemmy.ca
      91·
      3 days ago

      I enjoyed my pixel up until the day they put a backup button on photos that would pop up right when I’m swiping. So I had to go through my Google backup and delete/disable it (which can only be done from the computer) just so that I could use my Gmail again.

      Now I’m considering switching manufacturers on my next upgrade.

    • kspatlas@lemm.ee
      2·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, I’m on a non pixel phone right now and I want to get back to pixel they’re great

    • GBU_28@lemm.eeEnglish
      51·
      3 days ago

      Pixel 5, refusing to die.

      I just cleaned out all storage and man it’s still zippy

      • RBWells@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 days ago

        Pixel 5 is my new phone, lol. I had the original Pixel, now the 5. One of my kids used the original one for a few months after I upgraded too.

        I do miss headphone jack :(

        • GBU_28@lemm.eeEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          I missed it for a while, then got some shokz open run.

          They are so easy I forget I’m wearing them, and they cover the music needs from my phone. For better audio, I go to other things.

    • Irelephant@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 days ago

      This is going to be unpopular, but even the default google firmware is nice, it’s clean and bloat free. Obviously people should flash a custom ROM to do google.

    • WillFord27@lemmy.world
      21·
      3 days ago

      I got a Pixel 6 last year after owning a Samsung Galaxy 7 for 6 years. I have a notes page with 49 complaints.

    • Ptsf@lemmy.world
      54·
      3 days ago

      The newer ones are nice, but as an owner of the first 4 because I need unbloated OSes, they were a complete joke in hardware support and failures. Can’t count the number of times I’ve lost data to my pixel 1 randomly resetting, had bluetooth issues with 1-4, and had a smattering of other nonsense issues with everything up to the 6. Eventually I gave up and hopped over to iOS.

      • psud@aussie.zone
        32·
        3 days ago

        My pixel 1 was and is fine. Pixel 3 was an excellent phone. The only bad phone I recall from Google was the Nexus 5x which was made by LG

        • Ptsf@lemmy.world
          43·
          3 days ago

          Glad you had a decent experience. That was not the case for me and many documented others. The bluetooth issues are particularly well known and plagued the whole series from 1-4, if you didn’t use Bluetooth much it probably didn’t phase you but holy shit it sucked. As far as nexsus devices go they were a crapshoot. My nexus 6p crashed week 3 and bricked into a boot loop. Google replaced it only for the replacement to do the same damn thing a month later. They had massive QC issues which meant you either got a fine phone or a shit one and a lot of people fell towards the latter.

          • psud@aussie.zone
            12·
            3 days ago

            Perhaps it’s that I am not an early adopter. I wait until I have good reason to update. It sucks that they make their customers unwitting beta testers, but they seem to have stuff sorted after the phone has been on the market for several months

            • Ptsf@lemmy.world
              22·
              3 days ago

              Not sure what made you assume I was an early adopter. Generally, after the pixel 1, I waited until the first few months passed just to get the discount they always had. You seem to make a ton of assumptions to pave way for some fine cognitive dissonance as they never “sorted out the stuff” in those phone models and if you bothered to research it instead of using your own experience as a defacto account I think you’d see that.

    • Roopappy@lemmy.mlEnglish
      613·
      3 days ago

      Disagree. I owned flagship Androids from the G1 until last fall.

      Android is a privacy nightmare, and serves no technical advantage over an iPhone. So I got an iPhone. It’s 100% as adequate of a black rectangle that runs apps as any Pixel.

  • Zloubida@lemmy.world
    1701·
    3 days ago

    I hate Google and try not use it anymore but there’s still one thing I can’t do without : Google Maps.

      • leekleak@lemmy.world
        89·
        3 days ago

        Organic Maps are great, however if you’re looking for shops and restaurants (or rather their reviews) Google Maps are second to none.

        • thedarkfly@feddit.nl
          17·
          3 days ago

          OSM can technically replace Gmaps for shops and restaurants if enough people were using and updating it.

          However, Gmaps in unbeatable for public transportation :( no alternative at all

          • Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world
            4·
            3 days ago

            In Europe you can usually download an app for the public transit in that specific country/city. However, Google Maps is the only one that will show you how to get to a specific address (not just the train/bus station).

          • leekleak@lemmy.world
            3·
            3 days ago

            Oh, I’m well aware of that, but there are so few cities that have been mapped to the degree to compete with gmaps, that I doubt we ever will reach that level.

            Also reviews. I’m not sure if there even is a way to fix that without creating a separate program with a separate ecosystem in the process…

            • yynt@lemmy.ml
              6·
              3 days ago

              Unfortunately the reviews at GMaps are becoming less and less reliable though, as many businesses begin to have bad reviews removed through lawyers.

              I’ve had it happen to a couple of mine, where Google forwarded the request of a law firm to prove I had actually been at a restaurant more than 5 years ago (where I reviewed it with 3*).

              Even if you can prove it, most people won’t and in that case the restaurant went from 3.8 stars to 4.6, which is a shame really. It confirms a hunch that just as with Amazon the reviews get a lot less reliable.

            • thedarkfly@feddit.nl
              2·
              3 days ago

              Ooh, nice. Thanks for making me discover it! I would have liked a FOSS alternative, but this is pretty good.

              Edit: argh, it’s nice for local urban commute, but it doesn’t work outside or between big cities :(

            • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
              5·
              3 days ago

              It’s like the map from an angle without a specific destination. Helpful for showing the surrounding map area.

              If you’ve driven a car with a built in map display, it’s basically that but for your phone.

      • scrooge@infosec.pubEnglish
        17·
        3 days ago

        I can never stick with those alternatives, the traffic conditions feature is simply too good to miss

        • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
          3·
          3 days ago

          I find Waze quite good for traffic conditions. The only thing it always tries to steer me wrong with is that there’s 2 main routes home from work, around the North East of the city, and on the bypass around the West/South of the city. It always wants to take me on the bypass as when I’m at the exit for the other route, traffic is way lighter. However by the time I’m halfway home on the bypass traffic has brought itself to an essential standstill. And there’s no real ways cutting across the city that avoids the high traffic section of the bypass that doesn’t take longer than sitting in traffic. Also…the NE route is at most 15mins longer due to speed limits, but it’s 20ish km shorter.

      • fossphi@lemm.eeEnglish
        12·
        3 days ago

        OSM is great in some places. But outside of the more techy areas, it’s a barren land. I something do my part with streetcomplete, but anyway, it’s not there yet (in most places)

        • stinerman [Ohio]@midwest.socialEnglish
          5·
          3 days ago

          Yeah I contribute to OSM but apps like OsmAnd are a far cry in features from Google Maps. The paths are very much not optimized. If I tell it to go back to my hometown it takes me about 15 minutes out of the way. And I can’t tell it to go to a certain house because the houses aren’t mapped yet.

          Should I help map them? Yes. But for your average user that’s not going to work.

          • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
            4·
            3 days ago

            OsmAnd blows google maps out of the water in terms of features, but google does better with less. It’s easier to use and it has everyone contributing to traffic analysis without them even realizing.

      • acetanilide@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        I tried it but in my area it doesn’t have a lot of places on it. Especially the satellite view being so old it’s hard for me to figure out how to contribute

      • yum@lemmy.eco.br
        5·
        3 days ago

        I have tried using it for a while but a few updates ago the search functionality was kinda messed up (and still is) so I had to switch back to gmaps :(

    • marine_mustang@sh.itjust.works
      211·
      3 days ago

      Like everything else, advertising pressure has ruined it. You can still search, but just zoom in and look over an area to see what is there? So many businesses missing, because they don’t pay Google to advertise. Apple Maps shows them all, because they don’t make money from advertising.

      Open Street Maps are ok, but my area has a lot of businesses missing. If you know the address you need to go to, then it’s great for routing.

      My personal hobby horse with Google killing things is Reader.

      • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        52·
        3 days ago

        I feel dumb using Google Maps and seeing all the ads. Should’ve known from day one that was the game plan.

        Pray Apple keeps their hardware sales up.