Google fixes bug that stopped some Pixel phones from making 911 calls Google has fixed a bug that blocked some people from getting through to 911 when they dialed for help on Pixel smartphones. The problem was confirmed by the web giant last month after a woman described in a viral post on Reddit how the glitch prevented her from reaching emergency services when she thought her grandma was …
I think the test is actually `if number in {999, 911, 112, etc}`. In other words, if a Brit goes to Europe and dials 999, they will still get connected to emergency services. (And visa versa). This strikes me as a VERY GOOD THING; people dialling emergency services are extremely likely to be panicing.
I know in the USA dialing 112 (the GSM standard emergency number) doesn't necessarily connect to 911 - the 911 service is locally operated so everything varies.
Dialing 911 works in most european countries because the phone system routes it to the emergency services as a safety feature for US visitors
her Pixel 3 phone didn’t ring when she dialed 911 and waited a few minutes before resorting to a landline phone
I know stress/panic can cause people to behave a bit oddly, but I would have hoped that if I was in that situation then I'd go straight for the landline rather than thinking "I'll give it a few minutes"
My once beloved Pixel has become a frustrating battery-operated piece of garbage since the Android 12 update. There are bugs lurking on every screen and menu.
It's no surprise to me that they haven't yet fixed this failure to dial 911 their latest flagship model.
I feel your pain as I upgraded my Pixel recently.
Some of the new gestures in the Android 12 took a lot of getting used to, and are so far removed from corresponding functionality in other versions of Android. Most frustratingly I have a Samsung tablet with an older version of Android (and no sign of any updates from Samsung) - as my muscle memory adapts to Android 12 I keep finding myself repeatedly swiping left on the tablet and wondering why nothing happens...then remembering that I should just press the 'back' button
And see what's still working. End of an era :-(
Those Titans, not the Pocket Titans, anyone using them with Verizon in the US? I know the camera will be crap, compared to my Pixel 3a XL, but to have that keyboard, and the shortcuts, and all that good tactile typing again...
if I get a text with a link in it (normally for me these are scams)
Ah yes. My particular bugbears at the moment are
“AT&T Free Message: thanks for paying your December bill, click here for your free gift hfbrhr.trbi/qwigrh”
“FRED your free $9341.27 cash is waiting, click here…”
Both oh so convincing and tempting. Of course it makes perfect sense that AT&T would use a scummy URL that looks like a drunken monkey pounded on a Dvorak keyboard. And of course I will take up an offer of unsolicited cash addressed to someone else, with an equally reputable and not scummy at all URL.
I've been getting the "you need to pay for your package delivery" ones recently. I'm self isolating the only deliveries I'm taking at the moment are food. Therefore telling me I have to pay extra to receive my groceries smacks of a scam. Especially as these SMS have a habit of arriving after my food has arrived.
Never had one myself, but I've got a few friends who said they were basically the best phones ever.
However, I think Blackberry, in England at least, was finished off by the 2011 riots. IIRC, a lot of the groups rioting used BBM to co-ordinate their actions, and a lot of Blackberry users were put off of using something the rioters would have used. This may also have put a lot of enterprise users off. If you are managing communications for a multi million pound corporation, you might not like being linked with riots.
Also, I think the fact that they could do all sorts of other stuff on Android and iOS (such as play games etc) helped the non-rioting users off the platform.
The kinds of people who would start riots were likely put off by the apparent ease with which the Police got access to the logs of BBM.
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