Android

Daily Superthread (Jan 23 2023) - Your daily thread for questions, device recommendations and general discussions!

2023-01-23T12:00:11+00:00

Note 1. Check MoronicMondayAndroid, which serves as a repository for our retired weekly threads. Just pick any thread and Ctrl-F your way to wisdom!

Note 2. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

Please post your questions here. Feel free to use this thread for general questions/discussion as well.

The /r/Android wiki now has a list of recommended phones and covers most areas, the links have been added below. Any suggestions or changes are welcome. Please contact us if you would like to help maintain this section.

Entry level (most affordable devices costing under $250 (US) / $325 (Canada) / €200 (Europe) / ₹12,500 (India)

Midrange section, covering the $250-500 (US) / $300-700 (Canada) / €200-500 (Europe) / ₹12,500-30,000 segment

Flagship section for phones costing over $500 (US) / $700 (Canada) / €500(Europe)/ ₹30,000 (India)

submitted by /u/curated_android
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[Hardware mod] The Pixel 5a's battery fits in the Pixel 4a 5G, including the BMS (after modification)

2023-01-23T09:13:35+00:00

submitted by /u/RGBchocolate
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Flashback: the Snapdragon 625 efficiently conquered the mid-field in 2016

2023-01-22T21:34:34+00:00

submitted by /u/drbluetongue
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Fitbit Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications appearing on Pixel Watch

2023-01-22T15:01:21+00:00

submitted by /u/MHcharLEE
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Indian startups rejoice as Android ruling against Google upheld

2023-01-22T09:33:54+00:00

submitted by /u/NXGZ
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OnePlus 11 - Unboxing and First Impressions

2023-01-22T21:59:02+00:00

submitted by /u/iceleel
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Exclusive: This is what the Moto G23 Looks Like

2023-01-22T14:58:29+00:00

submitted by /u/MHcharLEE
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Samsung Galaxy A14 5G Teardown Disassembly (Samsung's first smartphone to have battery pull taps)

2023-01-21T20:22:59+00:00

submitted by /u/ashar_02
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Sunday Rant/Rage (Jan 22 2023) - Your weekly complaint thread!

2023-01-22T12:00:11+00:00

Note 1. Check MoronicMondayAndroid, which serves as a repository for our retired weekly threads. Just pick any thread and Ctrl-F your way to wisdom!

Note 2. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

This weekly Sunday thread is for you to let off some steam and speak out about whatever complaint you might have about:

Your device.
Your carrier.
Your device's manufacturer.
An app
Any other company

Rules

1) Please do not target any individuals or try to name/shame any individual. If you hate Google/Samsung/HTC etc. for one thing that is fine, but do not be rude to an individual app developer.

2) If you have a suggestion to solve another user's issue, please leave a comment but be sure it's constructive! We do not want any flame-wars.

3) Be respectful of other's opinions. Even if you feel that somebody is "wrong" you don't have to go out of your way to prove them wrong. Disagree politely, and move on.

submitted by /u/curated_android
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Tweak New Twitter - Chromium (e.g. Android Kiwi Browser) to remove For you tab and add other Twitter customizations to any Chromium browser

2023-01-21T15:47:05+00:00

submitted by /u/RGBchocolate
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Mobile World Congress 2023 is around one month away and there’s going to be a few new products to experience! One of them will be #OnePlusConceptTwo 👀 Stay tuned! - Max Jambor

2023-01-21T20:13:57+00:00

submitted by /u/FragmentedChicken
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Saturday APPreciation thread (Jan 21 2023) - Your weekly app recommendation/request thread!

2023-01-21T12:15:07+00:00

Note 1. Check out our apps wiki for previous threads and apps curated by the reddit Android community!

Download the official /r/Android App Store based on our wiki!

Note 2. Check r/MoronicMondayAndroid, which serves as a repository for our retired weekly threads. Just pick any thread and Ctrl-F your way to wisdom!

Note 3. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

This weekly Saturday thread is for: * App promotion, * App praise/sharing

Rules:

1) If you are a developer, you may promote your own app ONLY under the bolded, distinguished moderator comment. Users: if you think someone is trying to bypass this rule by promoting their app in the general thread, click the report button so we can take a look!

submitted by /u/curated_android
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Have we reached the limit of hardware? Why can't smartphone cameras still achieve that 3D camera look?

2023-01-23T01:36:36+00:00

I was playing around with my RX100 on the weekend, for those that don't know, it's a camera with a 1" sensor released in 2012. And I came to a realization. It clipped light, was blurry at lot and overall was nowhere near as easy to use as my Pixel 4a, but it managed to do something Pixel 4a cannot. And that is to make images look like they came out of a dedicated camera. Every photo, even blurry ones, came out with that "look". Images look 3D. It is an effect effect that smartphones cannot seem to be able to create. I think it is due to the lens.

Here are some examples:

Dashboard - The light is clipped. Colour accuracy can be argued. The image itself is not super sharp in the center, it has shake in it. But, there is nice blur behind and nice blur in front, creating depth and focus.

My little buddy - 3D effect. Blur is bit weird on top of his head, don't know what happened there, but otherwise nice image.

The other little buddy - This picture is in focus and sharp. And it has a very nice 3D effect.

Smartphones generally destroy dedicated cameras in imaging when used by average users. Even DSLRs. Take Google Pixel. It is the ultimate imaging tool. When you absolutely, positively need to capture the surroundings with the maximum accuracy and capture as much as possible, you need a Pixel. It's not always pleasant and nice looking (I've mentioned before, bright shadows, grain, noise, haze), but you will get maximum information in the image. There is more chance that you will get a usable unprepared (no tripod, no setup) shot on your smartphone than on your full-frame DSLR because all the intelligence smartphone cameras have. But they cannot achieve that camera look. Hence, it's an imaging tool to me and not a photography tool, a camera, if you get what I mean. It cannot achieve the 3D camera look.

Software is close to perfect with pretty much every trick in the book thrown in.

I thought 1" sensors would make that difference but they seem to have made little to no difference (look at MKBHD's comparison, IMX363 won that. Xiaomi 12S Ultra lost, a lot!). I can't imagine they'll be getting any bigger.

And lenses that are included with them seem to be awful. And that is probably my main point of discussion here. What happened to the lenses of smartphones? RX100's blur is pleasant, it's got smooth roll off whereas on smartphones it has actually regressed. It's unpleasant and adds ghosting.

Here are some examples:

Pixel 4a, check the text on the edges. It looks awful! In comparison Lumia 950's lens is much better.

Pixel 4a Skechers. The text looks like it's evaporating. Nokia 808 on the other hand looks fine.

Medjool dates. Lots of ghosting on the of the writing in the back. Lumia 950, blur, but no ghosting.

Finally, document, that's on Pixel 4a, check the top of it, and the bottom of it. There is ghosting on it. It makes taking pictures of documents almost useless. 950 on the other hand captures it fine. Top and bottom are sharp.

I thought this may have been just Pixel 4a. But then I went and checked and it seems pretty much all of the modern smartphones have this issue. Here's Pixel 7 from GSMArena. There is so much ghosting around the perimeter. Lumia 950. Xiaomi 12S Ultra. Older phones like LG G4, Moto G4 do not have ghosting like this at all. It started at around the time OG Pixel came out. Even Nexus 5X does not have this. Is it because of bigger sensors? Does your phone have this issue?

Have we reached that point where we have we squeezed out what we could out of smartphone cameras in terms of hardware?

submitted by /u/DiplomatikEmunetey
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Global smartphone market shrinks 17% in Q4, to end 2022 with under 1.2 billion shipments

2023-01-20T16:55:32+00:00

submitted by /u/FragmentedChicken
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Android update policy by manufacturer for their flagships

2023-01-20T21:35:32+00:00

Rank	Manufacturer	OS Updates	Security Updates
1	Samsung	4 years	5 years
1	OnePlus	4 years	5 years
1	Oppo	4 years	5 years
2	Google	3 years	5 years
3	Xiaomi	3 years	4 years
4	Motorola	3 years	4 years
4	Realme	3 years	4 years
5	Vivo	3 years	3 years
5	Nokia	3 years	3 years
6	Sony	2 years	3 years
7	Honor	2 years	2 years
7	Asus	2 years	2 years
7	TCL	2 years	2 years
8	ZTE	1 year	1 year

This table was made with the info I was able to find in press releases and official websites between 2022/2023.

Please correct me if you find any mistakes! Edits: already corrected some information based on the comments. I will also try to add another column with info about the frequency of security updates.

submitted by /u/TwistedGlasses
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Smart Lock is being rebranded to "Extend Unlock", while the Pixel Watch will get an enhanced "Watch Unlock" feature

2023-01-20T19:46:33+00:00

You're probably familiar with "Smart Lock", a feature that keeps your phone unlocked while it's connected to a "trusted device" like your smartwatch via Bluetooth. The problem with "Smart Lock" is that it's really not smart or secure — just because your phone is connected to your watch via Bluetooth doesn't mean your watch is actively on your person or even within a couple of feet.

As such, Google appears to be rebranding "Smart Lock" to "Extend Unlock", as I recently discovered in version 23.02 of the Google Play Services app (see the strings below). This new naming makes sense as the feature merely keeps your phone unlocked when it's already unlocked. It doesn't actually unlock your phone when it's locked.

<string name="extend_unlock_removal_failure_dialog_message">Something went wrong. Try again.</string> <string name="extend_unlock_removal_failure_dialog_title">"Can't remove watch from Extend Unlock"</string> <string name="extend_unlock_removal_prompt_dialog_message">"You'll be able to unlock this phone with %1$s. Your watch will no longer keep this phone unlocked with Extend Unlock (previously Smart Lock). You can add your watch back to Extend Unlock at any time in Settings."</string>

In comparison, the new "Watch Unlock" feature being developed for the Pixel Watch will actually unlock your device. I've been tracking this feature for a while now, and it seems to use a new API in Android 13 called Active Unlock. The way this works is that there are new "active unlock triggers" such as WAKE, UNLOCK_INTENT, BIOMETRIC_FAIL, and ASSISTANT. For the BIOMETRIC_FAIL active unlock trigger, for example, Watch Unlock will trigger AFTER your phone fails to recognize your face/fingerprint. Your phone will be unlocked automatically if your watch is unlocked and nearby/on your wrist (within ~1m based on Bluetooth RSSI values).

The text of the "Watch Unlock" setup page also suggests that the ASSISTANT and UNLOCK_INTENT triggers might be used to let you perform certain voice commands and open certain notifications that otherwise would've required you to unlock your phone:

Use your watch to securely unlock your phone after you wake it. This can be helpful to access notifications and your digital assistant, or when your face or fingerprint isn't recognized.

Google appeared to show off Watch Unlock at its CES 2023 booth and confirmed to Android Police that the feature indeed requires you to be wearing your watch in order for it to function. No release date has been given yet, but it's something we could see dropping in the near future. Watch Unlock is a part of the Google Play Services app and since it uses the Active Unlock API as I mentioned before, it will require Android 13+ to function.

Coincidentally, Android is adding a framework API for measuring the distance between devices using Bluetooth RSSI. This is obviously not a super precise way to do distance measurements, but it should be good enough for something like this "Watch Unlock" feature. Now, due to the way the Bluetooth Mainline module works in Android 13 (it's a non-updatable Mainline module and thus requires an OTA update to update) and the fact that there's an API freeze, it's possible "Watch Unlock" may not be using this exact API (it may use some internal Play Services API) or if it is, that the feature won't be available for Pixels until a later release. We'll have to wait to find out.

submitted by /u/MishaalRahman
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Towards a reproducible F-Droid

2023-01-20T20:06:30+00:00

submitted by /u/devolute
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Home Assistant coming for your car!

2023-01-20T22:17:15+00:00

submitted by /u/MishaalRahman
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⌚️ Leak: Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 - one of the first watches to ship with Snapdragon W5(+) and Wear OS 3 - Kuba Wojciechowski⚡

2023-01-20T23:24:11+00:00

submitted by /u/FragmentedChicken
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Samsung Wallet Will Be Available in 8 New Markets

2023-01-20T18:35:07+00:00

submitted by /u/FragmentedChicken
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Samsung Galaxy S22 series added to the iFixit Samsung Self Repair program (US only)

2023-01-20T18:31:51+00:00

submitted by /u/FragmentedChicken
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Twitter’s new developer terms ban third-party clients | Engadget

2023-01-19T22:16:02+00:00

submitted by /u/kbDL-
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Born out of the imagination: Find out #PHANTOMFOLDABLECONCEPT Vision V and unroll your wide-open possibilities. - tecnomobile

2023-01-22T02:18:20+00:00

submitted by /u/FragmentedChicken
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I had a soft spot for the old CyanogenMod 9 wallpapers, so I decided to upscale them!

2023-01-20T07:57:54+00:00

submitted by /u/Negative-Nidorina-42
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Android 13 is running on 5.2% of all devices five months after launch

2023-01-19T10:33:14+00:00

submitted by /u/howling92
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Daily Superthread (Jan 20 2023) - Your daily thread for questions, device recommendations and general discussions!

2023-01-20T12:00:11+00:00

Note 1. Check MoronicMondayAndroid, which serves as a repository for our retired weekly threads. Just pick any thread and Ctrl-F your way to wisdom!

Note 2. Join our IRC and Telegram chat-rooms! Please see our wiki for instructions.

Please post your questions here. Feel free to use this thread for general questions/discussion as well.

Entry level (most affordable devices costing under $250 (US) / $325 (Canada) / €200 (Europe) / ₹12,500 (India)

Midrange section, covering the $250-500 (US) / $300-700 (Canada) / €200-500 (Europe) / ₹12,500-30,000 segment

Flagship section for phones costing over $500 (US) / $700 (Canada) / €500(Europe)/ ₹30,000 (India)

submitted by /u/curated_android
[link] [comments]