Hands off our phones, says Google: Radar-gesture-sensing Pixel 4 just $999 with a 3-year lifespan – great value! At a press event in New York City on Tuesday, Google announced its Pixel 4 phone, revised Pixel Bud earphones, its Pixelbook Go laptop, a revision and rebranding of its Wi-Fi mesh router as a Nest product, and a tweaked Nest Mini smart speaker. There were also some words to the effect that its Stadia game streaming service …
Support sounds good and it probably has a global radio, but storage and ports is the modern bare minimum. I have a 400GB microSD card and a headphone jack. Leaving those behind would make me feel like I have an ordinary flip-phone not a premium pocket-sized computer and movie viewer.
Well, I agree about the microSD, but the headphone jack functionality is actually in the USB-C spec (if you connect appropriate control lines in appropriate ways, three of the data lines become audio while simultaneously supporting charging). I do appreciate the irritation over changes, but to be honest the 3.5mm headphone socket is pretty enormous for what it does and by the time you've sealed it against water, etc it's a huge proportion of the available volume. I'd have loved an audio port like the Apple magnetic thing, but all in all the Type-C approach isn't bad.
Isn't that a lot shorter than even that paragon of planned obsolescence, Apple?
And for $999? They really are trying to compete with El Fruity aren't they...
As for the apps.
The recorder app.... Saves sending all the audio the device hears to google for transcription. Instead it does it on the phone and then uploads it to the Chocolate Factory. At least Google can now say that it is not listening to users Audio...
I was looking at a new car. The one that I really liked ran Android (not used Android Auto) as its main OS. I wonder how much spying Google will do with that application of their spyware? It was for that reason that I decided not to buy the car (or at least put a deposit down on it).
If seems the google is in a race with facebook to integrate themselves totally into people's lives. Once we become dependent upon them, it is game over for our privacy.
1984 was fiction but is being used as a blueprint for the future by these companies.
That 3 years is also really long by Nest standards. Or Google Nest at Home, or whatever they're now calling it... Didn't they kill one of the products that was less than 18 months old after they took the company over? And you notice that there's a lifetime on the phones and Chromebook, but none on those.
About the "google is in a race with facebook" - Google is winning by multiple lengths and is great at not making too much fuss about it as well. Look at it this way: it¨s very feasible to block Facebook completely at your firewall and it will get very little data about you (it still will courtesy of people around you, but very little of it actually). If you do the same with Google, two thirds of websites you visit from your well guarded Linux desktop computer will look hideously and the other third will get out of order completely. And that is just the web, you can't effectively avoid all the androids out there. Facebook is not winning.
Interesting review in the Grauniad today of the OnePlus 7T - £549, and a noticeably higher spec, but you can't just wave at it. Runs Oxygen OS 10, so not sure how long that will be updated for, but hopefully can upgrade to later versions, so more than 3 year life.
But even so - £500+, £1000+ for a frikkin' phone??? Remember when you paid £20/month for your mobile connection and they threw in a free new phone every 2 years?
Sounds like the sub-ether radio in Hitchiker's Guide, where you had to sit infuriatingly slowly not to change channels: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1329
A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.
Zaphod waved a hand and the channel switched again
Google isn't giving privacy the finger: When the Soli chip is active, according to Ellis, the sensor's data is processed on-device and isn't saved or shared with other Google services.
Are Google really being generous here? At radar frequencies it's not like it's going to be reading your fingerprints! Or is the range sufficient to map the room you're in? Combine that with GPS data and Google Maps goes to a whole new level!
I'm struggling to work out who pays 629ukp for a laptop that's scuppered from the start. Are the prices on these things gradually creeping upwards?
I've never seen something so unappealing. People criticise Apple, but at least my six-year old Macbook Air is still eminently usable and getting OS updates.
I agree with you on this but that will take 6-12 months so then you have a £1000 phone with a 18 -24 month supported lifespan.
To be honest this is what drove me into the hands of Apple. We change one of our phones every 2 years for the iphone current gen -1 model and keep each phone for 4 years. It still bloody expensive but it means we are always on supported models and have a fairly glitch free life. I ditched android after the wnd 'flagship' handset in a row stopped receiving updates within 2 years of purchase. I had toyed with a non standard ROM but many apps wouldn't run. I tried a windows phone which was supported and did run apps until the providers ceased them and then gave in and went Apple.
Looks like I'm 2 or 3 years behind you. Loved Windows phone. Now on my 2nd Android - released 2 years ago, bought 1 year ago. No security updates for ages.
I have a Nokia Lumia 520 in my draw. Everyone so often I charge it up and see how well it's working. I've had to switch to IMAP for email (so no calendar) and Geocaching no longer works. Apart from that, it's still superior to Android in every way. So quick and the live tiles work so well.
Ah well, Apple beckons.
Still have Nokia 640XL, occasionally use it for reading news and YouTube. It was a good operating system. Have been using Android since the demise of Windows Phone. Pixel 4 is too expensive, from past experience quality of the hardware is not going to be as good as Apple . My original Pixel (late 2016)had to be replaced after 3 months ownership. The Pixel still works and is on Android 10 but battery is now bad particularly as it is 2750 mAh to start with. I have got several different Android phones, from my experience Sony , Xiaomi and Samsung are good with updates. LG is terrible. Although I don't like Apple for its policies I guess if I am buying a new phone now I would buy IPhone because in the long run it is more economical ( up to at least 5 years updates and much better second hand value when you sell it ) especially as now I think the camera of the iphone 11 is at least as good as the Pixel and it is only slightly more expensive than the Pixel. Google please listen to your customers, price is too high and battery of the smaller Pixel 4 is too small.
Will the rear camera on the Pixel 4 suffer from a total failure well within its expected lifetime, like that suffered by thousands of existing Pixel devices?
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/3317373?hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.GoogleCamera&hl=en_IE&showAllReviews=true
I've just read through this thread, and there's not a single positive post (out of about 40 so far). Isn't it interesting how corporate image can change? I almost feel like defending Google now, though I'm not going to as even I'm not that contrary.
Contrast this to the gurgles of delight on here when they released their next Nexus device - that were generally reliable, reasonably supported and really well priced. Of course they were also made by competent manufacturers, whereas I'm still not convinced that Google have got this whole consumer electronics thing nailed yet. Their service and support is still pisspoor and from what I've read their quality control isn't great - though that could just be that I'm hearing all the complaints and yet because their stuff is so expensive don't come across it in real life to get a good opinion.
I wonder if they've got a reputation management bot out there, that's looking at this stuff and reporting to management? Or if they've just stopped caring?
I thought that Facebook were going to be good for Google, as they're so awful, with so few redeeming features, that they make Google look better in comparison. But these are 2005 Microsoft levels of negativity. And MS have spent an awful lot of time and effort to only partially improve opinions of them.
I think you'll find that in our post-truth world we line up to spill bile on stuff.
TBH Google used the Nexus phones to trail Android's features while manufacturers were churning out crippled customised versions. They haven't needed to do this for a few years now with Samsung particularly, but others as well, producing top of the range devices, so the Pixels are pitched at a different crowd, which the price should make clear, which is, I assume Google Fanbois and Fangrrls. But, basically, it allows Google to test on-device AI.
Has Google learned nothing from Apple? If you want to break into a market, you need a product that will blow the competition away.
Compare the state of smartphones when the iPhone came out, or the state of tablets when the iPad came out. Apple offered something the competition didn't have — functionality, style and tight integration with other Apple products (for those who swang that way).
Android did well because it offered a competitive OS on smartphones with a significantly lower price.
what does this smartphone offer that really sets it apart from $1000 iPhones and Android phones? The Google name? Motion detection?
I also found this paragraph amusing.
The line about the reporter commenting on the upcoming concert by the band Disaster Area in 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' came to mind:
And in this particular instance, Google isn't giving privacy the finger: When the Soli chip is active, according to Ellis, the sensor's data is processed on-device and isn't saved or shared with other Google services, lied the goon from Google.
I've been suggesting that the Next Big Thing in tech needs to be features that will be of use to an ageing population that might start having problems with fiddly displays and hint-the-button on a 6" screen.
Is this is ?
Time will tell, but if you are an investor, this is where you need to be looking at.
This, and longer battery life. The more we rely on our mobile tech, the longer it has to run between charges.
Hardly groundbreaking. The in-built accelerometers have enabled motion detection for years. Doesn't need a special radar chip to do that.
Smells of needing to reinvent obscure use-cases to help justify the radar chip.
"And in this particular instance, Google isn't giving privacy the finger: When the Soli chip is active, according to Ellis, the sensor's data is processed on-device and isn't saved or shared with other Google services."
And we aaaaaaaaaall believe that.
I mean, probably the on-device processing is true, because otherwise you'd gesture, stare at a spinny thingie for some tens of seconds, and then get a reaction.
But I'm not buying that the data isn't saved or shared with Google.
Actually, I'm not buying the whole phone. Just to be on the safe side.
Exactly. In a few days/weeks/months time after release, we will all learn that the device was "accidentally" storing all radar data and phoning home back to google daily.
"Oops, this was a development/testing feature we didn't mean to activate in consumer products".
It will, of course, be in plain-text. Not that it's necessarily harmful to users (what does the radar data tell anyone?), but it can't be accidentally collected data if it's not in plain text.
Go tell that to greta von whatshername whos currently berating us for being shallow mindless throwaway consumers... ohh shiney
PS I'm out of contract in 4 weeks and need either
1. a new expensive shiney while old shiney goes to landfill
2. a new sim because the old shiney still fucking works!
Jeez give the damn things a decent lifespan will ya google.... blow the R&D cash on longer lasting batteries with lower power consumption , not a new radar sensor that can tell TPTB exactly where you are in the room when they come for you...
Icon... for wasting the planet
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