All About Android 600, Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
Jason Howell (00:00:00):
Coming up next on All About Android, it's me, Jason, Howell Ron Richards and Florence Ion. And we've got Flo's Pixel 7 Review, that's the seven. And the seven 7 Pro, I mean I have the 7 pro here, but I've only had it for like a few hours so I couldn't give it a review, but Flo does. Lucky for You Flo. Also reviews the Pixel Watch so you get a full review about this. You know, me too, I've got it, but haven't had it long enough to give a review. Thankfully we have flo for that. Also, Motorola is rollable device. It's prototype the razor edge and whether you really need it, the Passkey support that's coming to Chrome Signal is losing SMS support. Pixel 7 Tips by JR Raphael of Android intelligence, your feedback and a whole lot more. Doesn't it sound like it? Coming up next on All About Android
(00:00:58):
This is All About Android episode 600. Recorded Tuesday, October 18th, 2022, Garden of Pixels. This episode of All About Android is brought to you by Policy Genius by making it easy to compare your options from top companies. Policy Genius can help you find the financial safety net your loved ones deserve. Head to policygenius.com/aaa to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. And by SecureWorks, are you ready for inevitable cyber threats? Secureworks detects evolving adversaries and defends against them with a combination of security, analytics and threat intelligence directly from their counter threat unit. Visit secureworks.com/twit to get a free trial of Taegis extended detection and response, also referenced as XDR. Hello, welcome to All About Android your weekly Sourceful latest news, hardware and apps for the Android Faithful. That's you and me, Jason Howell.
Ron Richards (00:02:01):
And I am Ron Richards.
Florence Ion (00:02:03):
And I'm Florence Ion. And I am faithful. I am gospel.
Jason Howell (00:02:08):
Are you're, are you though Flo? Because I know you've been hanging around with the Apple kids as well as the Pixel kids and I just gotta know where, where are your loyalties? Where do they lie? Mm
Florence Ion (00:02:20):
Mm Yeah, I gotta tell you, with this pixel, it's, it's swaying me. It's swaying me.
Jason Howell (00:02:27):
Oh, okay. So
Ron Richards (00:02:28):
Much to talk about. I dunno, that doesn't sound good.
Jason Howell (00:02:31):
I know it really doesn't. I was like, wait a minute. Swaying you from to war or, I don't even know. Hang
Ron Richards (00:02:36):
On. I was all excited to be glad that you were back, Jason, cuz the last two weeks have you've been missed and of course Flo for covering Flo Flo. We've been dying to get the, the eyewitness experience to the Pixel event. So we've been waiting with bated breath to hear what you think. So I just wanted to be positive and just hug my two favorite Jason and Flos as we get to do the show together this week. So yeah. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:03:00):
Jason, good to be back. Good to have you back Flo. And especially on this episode, I will say for you know, every, every week of the year, like they're all different. They all carry different, different types of weight as far as Android news is concerned. Somehow I ended up out the two possibly most important, at least to the pixel lineup and, and to Google's hardware efforts, the two most important weeks, the announcement and then the follow up. Kinda like preview week preview slash review week. So I feel really behind when it comes to the hardware. So <laugh>, so I'm looking for to this to kinda catch up. And
Ron Richards (00:03:36):
Then one, one, you know, the first time in 11 years, I think, I think you're, It's okay. You're batting average is pretty good, Jason. So thank you. Alright, so, so Flo before we get into the actual hardware and stuff, what, what was the event like? What was it like to be there?
Florence Ion (00:03:52):
Well, I'm gonna try and focus on you guys because my child is yelling in the background. Oh. I just wanna bring it up in case the microphone happens to pick it up. Well, I will tell you, I had no screaming children while I was dealing with all this pixel stuff because I was in New York. That's, and I was fully entrenched with it. I was, I I feel like I went to Pixel Bootcamp. Hmm. So, Wow. All all I know is this Pixel now this, this is all I've been thinking about for the last three weeks. And I'm ready to just get it all off my chest because I, I, I bought the part that I wanted from this pixel release and now I'm ready to move on to the next thing.
Jason Howell (00:04:36):
You gotta move on to the next thing. I mean, this is just, yeah, this is the time of year where so much is happening in the, in the world of hardware, not just Android hardware, but smartphone hardware. I mean, they're all cramming in their release. Apple held like a second impromptu event today, you know, one week or a couple of weeks later. I mean, it's just, it's every single week it feels like there's some big major hardware announcements. So I I hear you. I hear you completely. Yeah, let's, let's help you get their Flo, let's help you move on from the Pixel, which doesn't give me much hope for your review if you really wanna move on for the pixel, but that's okay. It's time to jump in. I know it says news. I don't care what bumper you play, just play a bumper.
Florence Ion (00:05:20):
<Laugh>
Jason Howell (00:05:20):
Doesn't, doesn't matter to me what bumper you got. All right. That's the one that's the winner. Flo's Hardware Shack. Oh you, oh, <laugh>.
Florence Ion (00:05:33):
All right. Had to move around a little bit over here. Goodness gracious. Well, what should we start with? What should we start with? Should we should start with the phones?
Jason Howell (00:05:42):
Yeah, let's do the phone. Do you've got both of them? Do you have both of them?
Florence Ion (00:05:47):
Oh, I have three of them right now. Two that are Googles and one that is mine. Guess which one I bought?
Jason Howell (00:05:55):
The smaller, You bought the seven, not the seven Pro. Yes, yes. Oh, okay. Did you read my twitter? No, no. I probably, spoiler <laugh>, that was the total guess, but I mean, I probably would've gone with the seven and not the seven Pro if it didn't have like the camera sub, which is the same thing that kept me from going with the six versus the Six Pro last year is having that extra camera. So
Florence Ion (00:06:18):
Yeah, so I gotta tell you like the macro capabilities, the telephoto lens that they added onto the Pixel 7 Pro is fantastic. It is clear when you zoom in, but even with like the super res zoom, which is this new feature that they software helped feature that they introduced to the seven and the seven Pro on the seven pro, the super res zoom actually engages the high optical zoom. So the telephoto that you have, I could just show you the telephoto. It is built in right here. And this, this module is the telephoto right here. And then this over here is the regular camera system. The primary camera system that you would also see in the seven, let me it by seven. This is the seven, this is the back. This is how is I tell the difference between them. So I was gonna get my phone, but then my mechanic calls <laugh> while we're doing the middle of this show.
(00:07:17):
There's a lot going on today folks. I yeah, I didn't feel the need to buy the pro this time around and spend the extra $300. You do get the bump up to 12 gigs of Ram and then you get a bigger 5,000 milli amp battery. And I'm actually still running through the battery test on these phones because Google says you get 24 hours with them and I manage 22 hours with the iPhone. But the problem is that I've been doing all this testing, I haven't had time to like leave the phones to do the tests that they need to do. So that's kind of like the last thing I need to do this week to get a real assessment. But so far, so far things are pretty good on the battery end.
Jason Howell (00:07:59):
So, So in general, is it seeming like like is it pretty standard that companies overin inflate their battery performance? Like if they're saying it's 24 and then you get 22, is that is that the process that you're using or is that them not being honest <laugh>? You know what I mean?
Florence Ion (00:08:18):
It's, it's the process that I'm using. I actually, I hope I'm remembering the iPhone one, right? It could have been not 22. Regardless it was as long, almost as long as Apple promised and it was really impressive. But okay, I'm talking about just like internal gizmodo benchmark numbers that I've done and we just kind of do this to get a lay of the land of how things sort of perform relative to each other. Not so much. But at the same time, like one plus phones for instance have had, you know, we last this long or Xiaomi phones and I found that's like not, you know, not the case because of whatever reason. So a lot of factors play into that mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but that's also why I bought the 7 because I didn't wanna deal with like 120 hertz display. I didn't need that slightly bigger size and I didn't need the telephoto.
Jason Howell (00:09:16):
Okay.
Florence Ion (00:09:17):
So it was perfectly fine. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:09:18):
See I feel like the telephoto as far as like a camera feature for me is like indispensable. I use it all the time and I, and I'm, I realize when I don't have it, when I go to on a camera to zoom in on something and then I look at it later and it's got all those crunchy digital artifacts cuz it was not an optical telephoto. So that just gets me every time that's like in, in my mind of like features that a company can include in their premium to entice you to get the premium instead. Like, it's super effective for me. But I mean obviously everybody has different things they're looking for,
Florence Ion (00:09:52):
But Yeah, but also that's a really good point because when I was writing my review I was thinking like, okay, I, I used to go to concerts more often, like pre pandemic, but now I'm a parent and I'm at this stage of parenting where it's like not as often so I can go without a macro. Like I can go without getting up close because the pictures that I'm taking right now at this point of my life is mostly so I don't forget things. <Laugh>, you know, I look back on my life, you know, it, it's not, I'm not as like, and the other stuff that I use the camera for, like I do make TikToks. The Pixel 7 is perfect for that. It's, you know, you don't really need a high super high resolution lens. People do it with like the iPhone SE and, and cheaper phones. So it, it's just good enough and I'm still gonna get all these great photos of Mona. But the other thing is that I have the privilege of being able to borrow this phone from Google. So I didn't wanna spend the extra $300 just for that capability. It, that's just a lot of money. It's a lot of extra money.
Jason Howell (00:11:04):
That's kinda the perfect, that's the perfect litmus test, right? For reviews. Yeah. Is that, I mean, and the reality is a lot of us get review hardware from Google or whatever company, right? Like it's just the way the industry works this time around. I didn't get review hardware from Google. And so, but I also didn't spend my own money on this phone, Right? It came out of, of, of the TWI credit card. Right. It's kind of part of the business expense. So I guess at the end of the day, if you are a tech reviewer and you actually do, you know, are in a position where you need to buy your phone, what is that phone that says a lot that you, that you would save the $300 go for the seven and that is absolutely perfect
Ron Richards (00:11:45):
For you. What's really, what's really funny about that Jason, is cause I was thinking about it earlier today cuz I also have not gotten a review unit <laugh> and, and I'm still still knocking on wood holding on hope because I do need to, you know, cuz I do wanna move on from my pixel six. I don't know if I've talked about on this, we've talked about in the show how I've, you know, cracked the glass in the back but also the camera's bus, one of the camera lenses are busted. Remember I can only, I can only take pictures in telephoto and, and that's how, what is the 0.7 lens, the wide angle lens? That must be good. I think that's
Jason Howell (00:12:14):
The wide angle.
Ron Richards (00:12:14):
Yeah. So and so actually Flo, I was at a concert a week or two ago and I couldn't zoom because it pops outta focus physically when I tried to use the Zoom lens. And so I'm like, crap, I actually, I, so I'm like, I do need a new phone. And I was actually thinking, I'm like, oh well I went with the Pixel six last time. Maybe I'll go with the seven pro this time around. Like just to mix things up and to get the better camera and all stuff like that. But Flo you're swaying me and making me think I can still stick with, stick with the seven and save the money if I do have to purchase it myself.
Florence Ion (00:12:42):
Yeah, I mean Ron, we're in the same situation, right? You wanna have like the best camera on you for the kids because
Ron Richards (00:12:47):
Yep, exactly. Because
Florence Ion (00:12:49):
You just look at their pictures every single night before going to bed. Yep. How much they've grown <laugh>. It's true. And yeah, and I was living with the one plus nine as sort of this like self experiment that I put myself through to live with, with this like kind of lower, lower tier device, let's just say it that way from another brand to see how that would age. And it didn't age very well. The camera just wasn't cutting it for me in these last couple of months to the point that I was just carrying whatever review phone I had on me that was better so that I could take pictures of Mona that I didn't hate <laugh>. I was like, you know what, the Pixel 7 is perfect for that. That's, and that's why people are pick picking the Pixel six a like the A series because you're still getting the AI capabilities of that camera. So yeah. I feel like that's a good time for us to segue though to talking about the night site
Jason Howell (00:13:49):
A little bit. Yeah, sure. Talk about it. I, you know, like, like I said, I literally got mine today. I have not had the chance to like, do anything with it other than set it up and log into my apps and everything like that. So I haven't even taken a picture on it yet. So I'm, and I'm super curious to hear about Night Site. Yeah. Tell us about it.
Florence Ion (00:14:08):
I mean, it's still the same great night site. I just wanna say that the Pixel 7 still takes the best night photos of any phone that I've tested this year, so. Mm,
Jason Howell (00:14:19):
Well that's, that's solid.
Florence Ion (00:14:20):
There you have it. <Laugh>.
Jason Howell (00:14:22):
Okay, well there we go. Sounds easy. <Laugh>.
Florence Ion (00:14:25):
That's it.
Jason Howell (00:14:26):
Okay. Up on the screen. Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:14:29):
Yeah. I had a perfectly timed, I had per, it was perfect timing for this pixel review because I got to test it in both New York City and San Francisco <laugh>. So, cause I went to the opera in New York City, so I got to like do my little night ro around the Lincoln Center and over there and just kind of like use the camera and I, I was taking all these wonderful photos of the city at night. And then I came home and I got to romp around North Beach and I was taking these gorgeous photos of North Beach in the fog and just like catching the way the light sort of bounces off the fog. And I was really, I'm just still so impressed that the Pixel does this because that's the kind of stuff that you, that's what you post to social media. You're just like, mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, look at me. I went for a ramp, I had childcare.
Jason Howell (00:15:16):
Look <laugh>, it's not my living room again and again and
Florence Ion (00:15:22):
Again. Yes, exactly. And a massive toys. Yeah. So again, this is like the best Android phone. This is one of the best Android phones that you can buy. But here's where it kind of like becomes a caveat for me, which is, have you guys noticed that there's a lot of very Pixel specific features
Jason Howell (00:15:39):
Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>
Florence Ion (00:15:41):
Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.
Jason Howell (00:15:41):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's, that's been increasing,
Ron Richards (00:15:44):
That's the premise kinda
Jason Howell (00:15:45):
Seems like, right? Yeah, that's exactly Google adds value. Why, why is that curious to you?
Florence Ion (00:15:51):
Because I don't know if you guys saw the the article that our Technica Ron Amodio had summarized of, there was a report that came out in the information today about how Google is really focusing its efforts on hardware Yeah. And, and tweaking the assistant so that it's working the best on its hardware. And it just really aligns with what we've been seeing with the Pixel. Because when I initially went to go look at the Pixel, I actually went down to Redwood City before I went to New York City. And I got to chat with Google and sort of like a, you know, one-on-one meeting when I was looking at the hardware and I noticed a lot of the features that they were walking me through were, this is coming to the Pixel only, this is Pixel 7 first coming to other pixels later. And so I'm like, hmm. In my mind I'm thinking, what about Samsung devices? What about OnePlus devices? You know, what about all these other manufacturers that are still using Android? And it, it seems like Google is building its own Garden of Pixels.
Jason Howell (00:17:04):
Oh, of pixels.
Ron Richards (00:17:06):
Ooh, I like that There a lot. There's an episode title. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:17:09):
Kidding. Somebody write that down.
Ron Richards (00:17:11):
So Flo, did you just come with that on the spot or did you come with that previously? And are you, did you prepare, like is that a prepared bit or?
Florence Ion (00:17:19):
I've been thinking about it and then I may have written it today in my Pixel watch review.
Ron Richards (00:17:25):
<Laugh>. All right, I'm deleting it from our episode title.
Florence Ion (00:17:27):
I came up. No, no, no, no, no. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't say garden pixels.
Ron Richards (00:17:33):
I just,
Jason Howell (00:17:34):
Okay, we just wanna be clear here. Do we have do we have
Ron Richards (00:17:38):
The scoop on the garden of pixels
Jason Howell (00:17:40):
Unlock on the garden of pixels?
Ron Richards (00:17:41):
Is this an exclusive Flo? Can we have that as an exclusive
Florence Ion (00:17:44):
<Laugh>? We can have it as an exclusive. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:17:47):
So I will, So I will admit Flo yes, the report of which you spoke was to be the first story of the next after, after the break, but we're gonna just talk about
Florence Ion (00:17:57):
It now. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. I totally looked at the doc and everything and then I just ended up
Jason Howell (00:18:02):
Brushing our cadence's. Don't worry about it. Cuz it totally fits in here. Yeah, and I, I guess I'm kind of curious about this too because Google, as you were saying, kind of moving a little bit further away from this idea that like, oh, you know, we're not, we're not competing really with you know, the partners that use Android. They, we aren't here to make their their life's difficult with our hardware efforts. We're just doing something else. And I think for a while they've been kind of, it's been possible for them to hide behind the fact that pixel numbers are, have just been pretty low compared to a lot of other manufacturers. Cough, cough, Samsung especially. But now this report is really saying like, actually Google is getting a little more serious about doubling down and maybe worrying a little less about the impact that what they do with their hardware division has on their competitors.
(00:18:55):
And like you said, keeping some of these features for the, you know, their own devices and I don't know, making it a little less cozy for everyone out else. But there was another thing that that report said that I thought was really interesting, and I know you probably have an opinion on this Flo cuz you have been a fan of, or at least you've talked a lot about Android Auto. The report shared that Google is considering moving staff away from Android Automotive because they see, you know they see that it's making kind of a small impact on their bottom line. They make around $1 billion annually, which doesn't sound like you know nothing. But I'm curious what something like that would mean for the future of Android in the car. And I know that's off topic from the phone, but what do you think about that? That just smacks of me, smacks of Google doing what they often do, which is they take a good thing and they for some reason talk themselves out of it. What do you think?
Florence Ion (00:19:58):
That is a really hard one because part of the reason that I didn't have the new Android auto experience on the phone is because I didn't have a pixel or I didn't have a, a device that was updated with the latest situation. Cuz it works on the Samsung devices as well. And so that was like,
Jason Howell (00:20:19):
That was the one plus devices
Florence Ion (00:20:21):
Or Yeah, just didn't work on the one plus nine for whatever reason. And I, I like looked, I looked in the forums and this is like a common issue with one plus devices. It's just that something with the os it doesn't vibe with what used to be called assistant driving mode and now is called Google Maps driving mode. Yeah. So it's been, I I don't think it's going cra away.
Jason Howell (00:20:41):
I I mean it's been cratered from my understanding is most of those other FE functions that Android Auto had aside from, you know, music controls and maps are kind of gone now. It's kinda like, oh yeah, well whatever <laugh>
Florence Ion (00:20:54):
Well I mean there is still like an interface that you can access in driving mode and that's what I'm gonna be using. That was also part of the reason I was like, I need to get a pixel because I need to get a navigation back in my car. <Laugh>.
Jason Howell (00:21:05):
Yeah.
Ron Richards (00:21:06):
Oh yeah. It's like, oh yeah, that that hot button topic by the way. Yeah. We, we were channeling you Flo last week when was complaining about the the changes to driving mode. So yeah.
Florence Ion (00:21:16):
Yeah. So, but I don't think it's gonna go away because Apple has car play. Apple's gonna be doing their car stuff. I think they're just gonna scale back on coming up with this Android automotive, like this embedded system that would be like Android. But I don't think like the car mode is gonna go away because that would
Jason Howell (00:21:37):
Kill me. Hope not. I mean that would be,
Florence Ion (00:21:40):
I mean that to be severe.
Jason Howell (00:21:41):
But, but that's the thing. Like I hear that and I go, Yeah, there's no way they would do that. But I'm kind of at this point to where like, anything's possible, like even, even the impossible seems possible at this point. It's like I, I have my, my amount of my faith bucket is below half at this point.
Florence Ion (00:22:00):
I mean, Stadia did get tanked, which is when the Stadia thing happened. I kind of was like I had a discussion with myself and with myself and I was just thinking all selves, you know, selves, this is why people complain that Google kills too many things. And I finally started to get why you all complain. It took me like 10 years, but I'm, I'm now understand it a little more. <Laugh>.
Jason Howell (00:22:23):
Yeah, Google Graveyard gets yet another. Okay, well let's take a break because you do have the Pixel watch as well. I happen to be wearing it, but I only set it up an hour ago, so I'm not gonna offer any opinion other than my, my snap judgements, let's put it that way.
Ron Richards (00:22:40):
I, I am looking forward to hearing what Flo things are cuz I did pull the trigger and purchase it during the, the the broadcast during the presentation. And so I really looking forward to Flo telling me that I, I didn't get too impulsive and, and
Jason Howell (00:22:54):
He
Ron Richards (00:22:54):
Just should held off. So I'm really looking forward to hearing Flo's, positive review of the Pixel Watch to tell me that it was everything that I hope it's gonna be. So but so we'll get to that pixel review next. But first wanna thank our first sponsor of the evening because this episode of All About Android is brought to you by Policy Genius and we all hope we never need life insurance dear Lord. But mortgage, payments, childcare and other expenses don't disappear after you're gone. Life insurance through your workplace may not offer enough protection for your family's needs and it won't follow you if you leave your job life insurance. Typically it's more expensive as we age. So now's the time to buy. Policy Genius will give you a smarter way to find and buy the right coverage for you and your family.
(00:23:35):
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Jason Howell (00:25:08):
The second half, the second chapter,
Speaker 4 (00:25:10):
The hardware.
Jason Howell (00:25:16):
All right, so what's on your wrist? What's going on here?
Florence Ion (00:25:22):
Well if you look at it from this side, it's a pixel watch with a nice little what is this? Lemon cello? I keep calling it lemon cello. Lemon,
Ron Richards (00:25:31):
Lemon bra
Jason Howell (00:25:32):
<Laugh>
Florence Ion (00:25:33):
<Laugh>. And if you look at it from this side, then you'll see the stock. Whoa gray band.
Jason Howell (00:25:41):
See I like the multicolor thing. I think that's, I think that looks good.
Florence Ion (00:25:45):
And then, I don't know if you can see this, but I, let's see, turn on. Let's do this. I got a Paw Choco watch face that I made. Ah, there we go. You can kind of
Jason Howell (00:25:57):
See it can sort of see that. Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:25:59):
Yes.
Jason Howell (00:26:01):
So I only, just as I said, I unboxed this an hour and a half ago maybe. And so all I was able to do was kind of get it, you know, past the the intro set up thing. And I think the two things that struck me are a, it's, this thing is really like thin. Like, I gotta say that the profile on this is really flat.
Ron Richards (00:26:23):
That's good to hear.
Jason Howell (00:26:24):
Yeah, I mean, I feel that way. I don't know how anybody else, but it is also kind of small. Like the watch watch face is a little small for my liking. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. But the rounded glass scares me <laugh>. Why? It just looks so exposed. Like, I mean, there is, you see no protection whatsoever on that sucker is
Florence Ion (00:26:42):
All glass. Did you see what happened to the verges reviewing it? No. What happened? It cracked.
Ron Richards (00:26:49):
Oh really? Oh,
Florence Ion (00:26:50):
Yeah. Yeah. How? Yeah. I Victoria's song did the review and I believe she wrote about it in there about like what happened. But yeah, they cracked it and they had to get a new unit <laugh>, so. Oh boy. Yeah, the durability factor is not so high on the Pixel watch. Okay, so let's talk about it. The best thing about the Pixel Watch is how it looks. Yeah, it's, I am still writing my review, so all I did last week is I wrote like a little, you know, like a little post about my initial thoughts. And then I kind of spent the weekend getting to know it because I have been really overwhelmed by the Fitbit of it all. I haven't used Fitbit in five years and the last time I used it, I wasn't even using it very seriously and I didn't start seriously tracking my walks, my workouts and things of the sort until I got my Galaxy Active Watch in 2019.
(00:27:50):
And that is on the Samsung health ecosystem. So the idea of changing ecosystems really put me off to the point that I was kind of putting off reviewing this watch because I didn't wanna interrupt my routine. So that's fair enough. One thing to think about if you're not already in the Fitbit family, that's something to think about. Also, what's really weird is that you have access to the Fitbit. So use the Fitbit app and the Wear Os app on your smartphone to sync with the watch. But the Fitbit app sees the Pixel Watch as a Fitbit Smart Watch, and then offers for you to install apps from the Fitbit app store.
Ron Richards (00:28:32):
Ooh, <laugh>. So that's confusing. What, So here's a question. Here's a question for you. Do I have to use the Fitbit app at all?
Florence Ion (00:28:41):
Yes,
Ron Richards (00:28:42):
You do.
Florence Ion (00:28:44):
You do. You have to use the Fitbit app if you want to get all the tracking. Google Fit is actually not on the Pixel watch. <Laugh> what another shout I'm gonna give the sh the Verge another shout out for writing about that too. They also wrote about that they said that the Pixel Pixel watch doesn't have Google fit, so Yeah.
Ron Richards (00:29:09):
Wow. And so as someone who's invested in Google Fit all these years, I'm feeling like a moron. So like, are we, are we gonna see the end of Google Fit soon? You think
Florence Ion (00:29:17):
That's a good actually, I'm sorry I take that back. It's missing from the Fossil Watch, not the Pixel Watch. I do apologize to everybody. I did not mean to mess us up. I did read a lot of headlines though the last couple days, so you can imagine why I made that mistake and I apologize. But I, I also, I haven't set up Google Fit on the Pixel Watch cuz I, I didn't need to, It kind of just like start, it started me down the Fitbit track. So it very much is suggesting that you use Fitbit as the sole like fitness ecosystem here.
Jason Howell (00:29:51):
But yeah, I mean it's part of the whole setup process, right? It, it pops up the app and says here's where you can download it, what you want to one click download the Fitbit app. Yeah,
Florence Ion (00:29:59):
Correct.
Jason Howell (00:30:00):
So I have it running. Yeah. But,
Florence Ion (00:30:03):
But remember that there's a new Health Connect API that Google added and that's supposed to help the different fitness apps talk to each other a little more easily and sort of share data. And what I noticed, and I kind of liked this one of the downsides of my testing like these different ecosystems is that not everything is sinking everywhere, but I noticed that as long as my Samsung results are sinking to Google Fit, that Google Fit will sync it to Fitbit as long as long as you have the Health Connect set up.
Jason Howell (00:30:41):
Okay.
Florence Ion (00:30:42):
Does that make sense what I
Jason Howell (00:30:43):
Said <laugh>? I mean Yeah, that makes sense. Sort of
Florence Ion (00:30:48):
<Laugh>. So I'm just saying I've like been testing Fitbit by not even wearing the Pixel watch. Like I can wear my Galaxy Watch floor out. Cuz that's, that's actually still my smart watch. So it's all, it's confusing and I, that's kind of why I'm dragging my feet a little bit on the reviews because I'll me too. It's all this like ecosystem stuff that I'm just like, this is really confusing and I don't like that I have had to change my routine. But otherwise the watch is like, really the hardware is wonderful. It's, it's beautiful. Maybe not the most durable. So something to think about. The Crown is just as fluid and as smooth as the one on the Apple Watch series eight, which I've also been testing out the last couple of weeks. The, like the touch mechanism and just interacting with it, it's all like a solidly great piece of hardware, but it is also missing some sensors that the Galaxy Watch five and the Apple Watch series eight currently have. And the most important one right now is the body temperature sensor. So,
Jason Howell (00:31:49):
And so what can you or can you, what can you do with the body temperature sensor that you cannot do with the Pixel watch as a result?
Florence Ion (00:31:59):
Well, so right now the body temperature sensor is dormant in the Galaxy Watch five. But on the Apple watch it kind of helps you with with fertility tracking. So to kind of like,
Ron Richards (00:32:11):
Oh, thank God I, that's what I've been looking for. That's like the one foot,
Florence Ion (00:32:14):
Sorry,
Jason Howell (00:32:15):
I mean <laugh>,
Florence Ion (00:32:16):
I mean not all it's, you know, fertility is a, is is just a body, it's a function with a body that some people need to track <laugh> and and, but I also imagine that that would really help people who are, you know, tracking maybe covid symptoms or things of the sort mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And the other thing to note by the way, is the e is it the blood oxygen monitor? The blood, the s p o two monitor, <laugh>, that's how I'm looking at it in my head, is currently dormant as well on the Pixel watch. So you can't use it currently. So it's all just, if you wanna do period tracking, you can do that with Fitbit manually. But it's, the other thing about Fitbit that I really don't like is there's a really, he heavy emphasis on weight and tracking weight. And I just don't like that. Like I don't care. I, I just wanna track my sleep and my steps. Like I I'm not doing this
Jason Howell (00:33:18):
Require you to do that.
Ron Richards (00:33:21):
I mean, yeah, I mean, like I use Google Fit to track my miles run and to, and to track my weight. Like I straight up, like I have no qu that qualms against, I'm not using it aggressively, but I do use it to, you know, I have a Bluetooth scale that I step on it, it automatically sinks and writes it that way I can see the fluctuations and like, I've identified patterns when like when I'm at home and drinking loss of water and I'm, I'm keeping weight off versus when I travel and eat like crap and then I gain like, you know, little things like that. But it's, but you know, I, I think everyone has, and meanwhile I'm not tracking my fertility. Everybody has <laugh>, you know, the, the, the different areas of health tracking that they wanna provide, that they want to keep track of.
(00:34:01):
So like I understand why they offer it and that's why I was asking if you need to use the Fitbit thing, because I'm not really that in, I don't care about my sleep tracking, I don't care about my heart rate, I don't care about any of that sort of stuff. I, you know, I, I mainly wanna use it to track my running and my distance and like that sort of stuff. You know, and so like, I don't want to go super hardcore into it. I just want something that does it without that does it passively so I don't need to worry about it. So,
Florence Ion (00:34:27):
So well the good news is that you can remove the weight goal on here. But the weird news is that it says I have 95 pounds to lose.
Ron Richards (00:34:37):
Oh, well that's just wrong
Florence Ion (00:34:40):
<Laugh>,
Jason Howell (00:34:41):
Right? That you
Ron Richards (00:34:42):
Just ignore that. Just
Florence Ion (00:34:43):
Ignore that. No, it's literally, it's literally wrong. Like there is no possible way that I could lose that and be a human being. It would just be a limb.
Jason Howell (00:34:52):
It is absolutely wrong. I wonder how it's coming up with that. Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:34:55):
Yeah. It's, it's really strange where it's getting some of the things. So as you can see, I'm having, me and Fitbit aren't vibing. We're not vibing and that's what's actually making me, making it really hard for me to like this watch also the proprietary classing mechanism. Big bummer. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, if you're like me and you buy a bunch of cheap stuff off Amazon,
Jason Howell (00:35:13):
<Laugh> <laugh> absolutely anything proprietary. Yeah. Like how long have we had watch, you know very like commonly used, accepted why they were, you know, why they accepted Watch Strap. Yeah. Interchangeable watch straps. Yeah. I mean I just feel like that's <laugh> at this point. If you're, if you're doing a watch and you're not doing that, you better have a really good reason why you don't do that. Yeah. And Apple
Florence Ion (00:35:37):
Does it because first
Jason Howell (00:35:38):
Watch
Florence Ion (00:35:39):
It Apple, it will still work for Apple to do something proprietary and look at them now there's a huge accessory market just for the Apple Watch, which
Jason Howell (00:35:46):
I've, And so does Google want that? Is that what Google's going for here? Like, Oh, maybe we can have that's what i's
Florence Ion (00:35:51):
That's what I'm thinking about. But you know what, if it's not something that's widely adopted, like All Express is not gonna print it out.
Jason Howell (00:35:58):
Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:35:59):
It's just, it's just not. So I'm not gonna be able to find anything like cheap and fun. Like oh, like my current watch right now. Look at this, look at this fun like band that I got for it. See it's all like clear. That's cool. And see-through and you like push the watch inside and
Ron Richards (00:36:15):
That's neat. Yeah, that's, Well but, but we're just getting start. We're just getting started though. I mean, I think that the, the, the connector system for the band seems pretty, I dunno, innovative, but just, but cool. Like, is that, is it fun to cha like you, you put two colors on your bands, that's a start, right?
Florence Ion (00:36:30):
Yeah. It's easier. On the nails, I will say that than like pinching the teeny tiny little screws. Yeah. but it, there's a learning curve. You kind of have to like, it's a little weird cause you have to slide it over the button as you're pushing it.
Jason Howell (00:36:44):
Oh yeah. I mean that's like, I have, I've done zero research on how to switch the band out and it took me half a second to figure out that little Yeah, I, I mean you can't,
Florence Ion (00:36:53):
It's the same as the Apple watch.
Jason Howell (00:36:54):
It's just a little button here. Yeah. You tap in. It's almost like a button that you're pressing to control something on the phone. But it happens to me the switch that lets the
Ron Richards (00:37:03):
Make
Jason Howell (00:37:03):
Come out. That's crazy.
Ron Richards (00:37:05):
So Flo, let me ask you this. I have not had a Android based wearable since the G watch,
Jason Howell (00:37:15):
A watch
Ron Richards (00:37:16):
The watch, the LG watch mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. So I've decided to return to wearables now with Wear Os and stuff like that. Did I make the right, I mean you, I'll decide ultimately, but do you think I made the right call? Like is this, is this a good entry point with the first gen pixel to pair with my pixel phone? Like will I have a pleasant experience you think?
Florence Ion (00:37:33):
Yes. Yes. Good. great. Knowing what I know about you as well, I don't think that you would particularly like the how the Samsung experience really requires you to like steer Samsung. And so, like for instance, I don't have home controls on my Samsung watch like you do on the Pixel because Samsung wants me to install smart things and wants me to set up big speed for routines and I don't wanna use those things. And I don't have, you know, my primary phone isn't a Samsung phone, so Right. And yet I, I also have like this annoying backup situation where I have to make sure that the watch is backed up through the Samsung wear app in addition to the Google my Google account. And so it's like there's positives and negatives, but I think for what, for what you want to do, Ron? I think you made the right choice. Just Okay. Maybe think about getting like a, a bumper shell or something
Ron Richards (00:38:29):
<Laugh>. Well you know how I
Jason Howell (00:38:31):
Feel about that. What would a bumper look like on this watch <laugh>
Ron Richards (00:38:33):
It look like, it would look like swatch. Remember the Swatch guards? Yeah. Do you remember? Am am I dating myself? I love
Florence Ion (00:38:38):
The
Jason Howell (00:38:39):
<Laugh> dude. Those are the be the most amazing things about the That's right.
Ron Richards (00:38:43):
Those are pretty cool, right? Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:38:45):
Yeah. That's true. That's true. That's pretty pretty low effort too to, to get one of those I'm sure. Yeah. Honestly, like I you know, like I said, have said a few times, I have not played around with this really at all yet cuz I just got it. But I would have to say that Ron, like knowing how much you love the pixel lineup, I don't, I don't know how the Pixel watch isn't the wearable for you, you know what I mean? Cuz it, it's kind of created with Google's dna. Yep. So there's probably a lot of overlap there. If, if if you person watching or listening love the pixel lineup of phones you're pro as far as wearables are concerned, I don't know why you'd go with any other, other, other wearable unless you have a very specific reason for that.
Ron Richards (00:39:27):
And, and that's what I thought during the presentation. I'm watching this and I'm like, wow. Like I already was considering, like even before the announcement, I was like looking at the fossils and stuff like that. I was like, Oh, maybe I get another watch. I haven't had a watch in a while. And then watching that presentation I was like, Oh yeah, cool. Count me in like this. Like, it was, it totally wowed me and I bought it during the, during the presentation,
Jason Howell (00:39:47):
So. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So Flo, when is your when do you expect your review to hit Giz Moda?
Florence Ion (00:39:53):
This week. This week. I'm currently working on it right now. It, it just, Hmm. It's been hard to test the fitness stuff.
Jason Howell (00:40:02):
<Laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. Well it doesn't sound like Google has made it easy to, you know, to really, Well
Florence Ion (00:40:08):
It's also me, like I'm not, I'm not a super kind of gal, you know, I'm not like checking an app to tell me if I need a rest day <laugh>. Cause I'll just take it. Yeah. If I wanna rest day, I'll just take it. I don't care,
Jason Howell (00:40:22):
So. Right, right. Yeah. Can I just say one other thing related to something we were talking about earlier about kind of tracking period and stuff like that? Yeah. I am of the opinion that smart watches today need to consider that to be table stakes. I think that needs to be hands down, 100% required on smart watches the way other random things are and have been table stakes for tracking fitness and whatever. Because, well, just for the sheer fact that half of this world is women and they deserve to have something that is a part of their lives, you know, all the time. They deserve to have the ability to do that right outta the box. So that's me on my soapbox. Correct. When a, when a smart watch now comes out and doesn't do that, I think they're totally doing it wrong.
Florence Ion (00:41:08):
I agree. I just wanna say not all women have periods. Just one thing, just wanting to mention so it's not just a woman's health thing, it's a, it's a human health thing. But I also wanna say that part of my frustration with the current crop of watches, both from Apple and the Android world, is that they're all very much made for, and I understand why, because the idea is to sell these units to people who like wanna track things and who people, people who are gonna spend money and join the ecosystem. But I would love a watch that just like tells me my general wellbeing, <laugh>, how am I doing? Am I okay? Should I go to the doctor? Maybe like, has my blood pressure been low lately? All things that I think they are working on behind the scenes, but it's hard like not to feel left out of the marketing of, of these wearables. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Jason Howell (00:42:05):
Yeah. I wonder like what, what is the line that they're allowed or they feel, they don't feel like if they cross this line, then they enter into total liability territory when it comes to we think you're not okay, we think you need to see a doctor. I'm sure there are, there are regulations that, that also are at play there as well. What Google can or can't do when it comes to, you know, their, the devices that you're wearing giving you guidance in that regard. But yeah, I think at the end of the day that's kind of like, yeah, it needs to get there.
Florence Ion (00:42:35):
I was just gonna say, if Apple can do it and then figure out a way to like encrypt that data so you can take it, you know, so it
Jason Howell (00:42:42):
Yeah,
Florence Ion (00:42:42):
Right. Complies with HIPAA regulations or whatever mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, that's what sells devices at the end of the day.
Jason Howell (00:42:49):
Yeah. So Cool. Well, everybody check out Flos. Upcoming review of the Pixel watch. All you gotta do is check out Gizmoto. Of course. That's where she's writing all her fancy stuff. Yeah, check
Florence Ion (00:43:03):
It out. I'm going to the Discord right now to see what you all were writing while I was <laugh>.
Jason Howell (00:43:09):
You go to the disc, the show people are writing while Ron talks about this other hardware news
Ron Richards (00:43:16):
<Laugh>. Right on. So we, we talked about it last week with the Slidable display. We've seen hints and bits of rollable and things like that emerging into the world to add to the foldables we got an update recently now from Motorola who's touting a rollable prototype prototype design of their own. They showed it off at Lenovo Tech world and like, here's where it really get you ready to get your mind blown. Okay. You ready for this? Yeah. Motorola's prototype is a five inch phone that extends to 6.5 inches.
Jason Howell (00:43:51):
Whoa. I
Ron Richards (00:43:52):
Mean, whoa. Think about that, right? It basically becomes taller. So unrolled, it's, it's about the size of an iPhone 13 mini but rolled. It's the size of an iPhone 14 Pro Max. So,
Jason Howell (00:44:06):
Wow. Okay.
Ron Richards (00:44:07):
When you think that, like, listen, my phone is all right, but guess what? It can get taller by an inch and a half. There you go. There's gotta, but all joking aside, it's promise. So, you know, you press a button and it extends and it rolls out. And it just shows the promise of this rollable technology and like, really what I wanna see is, Yeah, there you go. If you're watching the video, you can see the demo of it as it as it, it just becomes taller. It grows a little and the icons go up with it and everything. But for me, like I, I'm excited to see this, you know, not so much in the phone paradigm to make a small phone become bigger, but have a phone become a tablet and roll out to become a tablet. That's what gets me excited about this potential technology. But this is just a pro, just a concept for now, just a prototype. It's not actually in market yet, but rollable are coming, let me tell you. So get on board or get outta the way.
Jason Howell (00:45:00):
So maybe, maybe this is the foldable for people who consider themselves small, small phone people, although we don't know how thick it is, but you know what, you know what I mean? Like, it starts off in that small form factor that, that, you know, people who really do pine after the smaller smartphones that we hardly ever see anymore. Like maybe that smaller version becomes closer to that and then you get the best of both worlds because Yeah, you got your smaller, it's got a
Speaker 5 (00:45:27):
Weird little thing. Like you
Jason Howell (00:45:28):
See you've got
Speaker 5 (00:45:30):
Extending like over the back of the, over the top of the phone to where they're holding it.
Jason Howell (00:45:36):
Yeah. It's
Speaker 5 (00:45:37):
Like some weird like
Jason Howell (00:45:40):
Thing,
Speaker 5 (00:45:40):
It's just gonna snap off or something.
Jason Howell (00:45:42):
The extension point is up there. Yeah. Yeah. Where it kind of rolls, rolls over, it's still display down the bottom is kind of rounded on the bottom, I imagine. Yeah. So when it rolls out, you know, it's not creased or anything. Yeah. These things are interesting, the, the rollable facet of, of this technology. When we start to actually see these in in a couple of years, I don't know actually know how long it's gonna be, but I guarantee you're gonna see this at some point. Obviously they're working hard for it. I think it's neat. I think it, it takes care of, potentially it takes care of the crease issue. Yeah, I don't know. I
Florence Ion (00:46:17):
Like it. You know what's funny, I actually, I actually miss the crease when I go to the Pixel 7 because I'm still using the Z fold for Yeah. And I I
Jason Howell (00:46:28):
Miss the crease. What, what does the crease give you? What, what do you missing it from? It.
Florence Ion (00:46:32):
I, it's just, it's like a thing. It's like you have a, it's like when you have a mold that you just kind of like touch and you know that there's a mold,
Ron Richards (00:46:39):
You know what I mean? <Laugh>,
Florence Ion (00:46:40):
It's like you, you have this part on your body and you're just kinda like, Oh yeah, I have this on my body. And
Jason Howell (00:46:45):
<Laugh>, it's like an imperfection. It's a, it's the imperfection of the phone that it's charact, it's
Florence Ion (00:46:50):
Part of the experience. It's it's
Jason Howell (00:46:52):
Experience. Well then maybe someone needs to create an app that overlays over the top of all your other apps and creates an artificial indentation in the middle. There we go. For people like you, for the five people like you that are missing the fold the crease when moving to a normal phone, <laugh>. And then finally, Razor launched a handheld device, a handheld portable gaming device running Android. It's called the Razor Edge. And what it is, it's a 6.8 inch tablet, as you can see in this is this a CNET article? No, sorry. It's the Verge article 6.8 inch tablet and it's got 144 hertz display. It's removable from the controller. The controller might look familiar to you because the controller itself is a razor khi. But this is a, this is a new version of it. The Khi V2 Pro.
(00:47:47):
It actually has haptics, it has a, Yes, of course, a 3.5 millimeter jack for headphones. But like all of these other Android portables handheld devices that we're seeing this is really kind of focused on cloud gaming. So it's got X cloud Xbox Cloud gaming support supports, got Invidia GForce now support and yeah, 3 99 99. So $400 for the wifi only version. They are working on a 5G ready version of this that's gonna launch a Verizon sometime next year. But the wifi only version launches next January. So, you know, you got the little tablet that sits in there. You can pop the tablet out if you want. I'm assuming you could set the tablet, you know, up kind of like a Nintendo Switch where you can have the controllers.
Florence Ion (00:48:35):
No guys, No, no, just go buy the controller for 60, 70 bucks. <Laugh>. And I put it on your phone. You, you do not need to buy this.
Jason Howell (00:48:44):
I, you know, I kind of thought the same thing when I saw this. I was like, well, why if, if it's just a khi and, you know, and it's just a, a removable, essentially a phone or a tablet, whatever you want to call it. Like what's, what's the difference? What, why, why $400
Florence Ion (00:49:00):
For this? This is just a way for Verizon to sell something and for Razor to do a little marketing effort. This is really what it feels like.
Ron Richards (00:49:10):
And to go after people who
Florence Ion (00:49:11):
Don't, I've been doing this who
Ron Richards (00:49:13):
Yeah. And to go after, I mean, this sounds worse than it is, but to go after people who don't know better or enough, you know, like, who are just like, Oh, that seems, that seems like a good
Florence Ion (00:49:22):
Deal. This for my kid, Yo. Oh, you'll let me add it on for $10 to my to my bill every month. I can just add my kid and get 'em a little tablet. Oh, that's great. I'll do it.
Jason Howell (00:49:34):
Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, we just popped your balloon razor's edge. Sorry about that. We just took a razor to your balloons.
Florence Ion (00:49:42):
I'm sorry. But the No,
Jason Howell (00:49:44):
I thought the same thing. I was like, $400 seems like a lot for something like this. I had a razor keys she a couple of years ago that my phone fit into and I feel like it, it was basically mostly this. I mean, I, I don't know, I guess still
Florence Ion (00:49:55):
Use the V
Jason Howell (00:49:56):
One a little different,
Florence Ion (00:49:57):
But I still use the V one razor kiy. I freaking love it. I use it for emulation. I was trying to use it for stadia.
Jason Howell (00:50:05):
Mm. Yeah. We know how that turned out. Yeah. Notably missing from this cloud gaming Android handheld is of course, Stadia rest in peace. Mm-Hmm.
Florence Ion (00:50:13):
<Affirmative>. But you can play everything else.
Jason Howell (00:50:15):
<Laugh>. Yeah. But everything else w wa wa Wawa. All right, let's take a break. There we go. Thank you. Let's take a break and when we come back we're gonna be we got some app stories, including one that I just added last minute, cuz I realized you wrote it Flo. And so Cause you crazy. Jason, you crazy. Just crazy like that. Anything, It's just like anything could happen. Yeah, that's right. That's, that's what happened back. But first this episode of the sponsor of this episode is SecureWorks. Secureworks is a leader in cyber security building solutions for security experts by security experts. So SecureWorks offers superior threat detection and rapid incidents response all while making sure that customers are never locked into a single vendor. And you know, it's October, Right now it's cybersecurity awareness month. That means now is the time to raise awareness about digital security and empower everyone to protect their data from cyber crime.
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Ron Richards (00:54:28):
Wow. Wow. The trance music is just continuing here, isn't it? It's fantastic. So yeah. So Google Play Services, beta users with Chrome Canary can begin to test out PAs key support. And if you know what any of those words mean, you're one of the Android faithful Pasky is what Pasky is actually what Apple, Google, and Microsoft all would like to replace passwords with. You enter a single passcode or fingerprint to unlock device access to save credentials, and they become securely backed up sync to Google Password Manager. And now available users can create those pass keys on an Android device and devs can build passkey support. What do you guys think? I've heard, I've heard a lot of rumblings about past key being the future of identity management, password management. Do you think it's the real deal or,
Jason Howell (00:55:15):
I don't know if it's the real deal, but I'm open to trying <laugh> <laugh>. I, you know what I mean? Like, I'm kind of sick of passwords. And if the, and too, if this is, if this is an effort that all of the majors are gonna get on board with and support the way it probably needs to be supported in order for it to actually work and actually be a less brutal way of managing our own security on an individual level on our devices, then I'm all for trying. And it, and it really does look like that that momentum is there. You know, I'm, I would imagine Steve Gibson and other security, you know, professionals may have different things to say about its, you know, kind of security implications, whether it's better or worse than what we have right now. But I'm open to trying it. Sure. Why not?
Florence Ion (00:56:00):
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I will just default to using it anyway, because I already use Google for all my password management, which I have been scolded about. But quite frankly, folks, it's the easiest thing I've been able to do. And I, I would rather just have it be easy on me at this point.
Jason Howell (00:56:17):
I mean, is it wor is using Google's password manager worse than using a last pass or a
Florence Ion (00:56:23):
I don't, I mean, I have to put a Chrome passphrase to register any device that I connect to my account. I have two factor on my account. I started using the Google Authorization app for more things, so I don't know.
Jason Howell (00:56:40):
So Google's encrypting this data. It's not like, it's not encrypted in the cloud and in transit, so, Right. Yeah. So I don't know, you know, again, my, my security knowledge might, might be failing me as far as like why one would be better than the other. I still use Last Pass. That's kind of the primary one that I use. And it has that kind of, that that main password for the account, and then all the other passwords are hidden in it. So when I think of Passkey, even though it's not the same thing, it kind of reminds me of that. And if that's the case, then it really doesn't sound any more complicated than what I'm doing already. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So why the heck not?
Florence Ion (00:57:14):
Right. Exactly. Why the heck
Ron Richards (00:57:16):
Not? And Lord knows, the more the the more password requirements on sites not only become ridiculous, uppercase, lowercase number special character. Yeah. Don't use the same six passwords you've used. Like all the stuff like that, the more complicated it becomes to manage passwords, even with Last Pass. And I find myself using Last Pass and doing the random, you know, gimme 12 characters random kind of thing. But like, God forbid 'em in a situation where I can't get into Last Pass, then I'm screwed. Right. And so if there's a more frictionless way to manage identity management access, and if Pasky is the way to do it, I'm on on board. So, so
Jason Howell (00:57:49):
Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. All right. Flo. Here's, here's, here's where we we just kinda went with it. We, we scrambled and we threw your link in there cuz I saw it and I was like, Oh, I bet Flo can talk about this. Cuz she wrote about it today. Did Congrats on your front page. Tech meme placement.
Ron Richards (00:58:08):
Bravo.
Florence Ion (00:58:09):
I actually wrote about it yesterday.
Jason Howell (00:58:12):
<Laugh>. Oh, see, But we're just all slow. We're slow to the jump here.
Florence Ion (00:58:16):
Well, no, it's, today is when the news officially released and it is good news. I see. It's Gotcha. Yes, it's very good news for Chrome, Chrome users on Android tablets and not just Android tablets, but Android foldables as well, of which I now include myself in that in that team of Android users who use Foldables and it's very nice. And, and these, these features are nice too. They are, they're generally just like some interface improvements. So there's a new visual tab grid that's coming to Chrome for Android tablets. And this is kind of gonna work like how the tab groups work now, which is that you can kind of like have a top down look at all the different tabs that are open. It'll give you like a little thumbnail so you can see the website instead of having to squint and read.
(00:59:06):
I'm even doing it now on my Windows desktop, but just squint to read whatever the URL is at the top. Sometimes it's much harder to do on a smaller tablet or even smartphone screen. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Let's see the other, a couple new bits include a side by side interface. So this is a little different than like a split screen mode. What this does is this lets you open to tab side by side within the Chrome app. So this just makes it a little easier. Like let's say you're copying and pasting from one side to another. I am looking forward to this because sometimes I publish material podcast using a mobile device and going to the multitasking menu on Android and trying to do that is a lesson in patience
Jason Howell (00:59:50):
<Laugh>. Yeah. It's one of those. Yes. I, I do that sometimes with my tasks with twit, you know, namely like mm-hmm. <Affirmative> if I'm checking ads on one side and reading what the ads were on the other side and then I have to go into Slack and say, you know, where, where in the ad, you know, did I, did I mess up? Or whatever. And yeah. So it's nice to know that we can do the, these kind of multitasking things on our mobile devices, but rarely is it like, as as easy or as enjoyable as it is just on a desktop. And I think we're moving closer and closer to that with updates like this. So That's good.
Florence Ion (01:00:25):
Yeah, a new gesture so that you can swipe to the left and it'll let you go through the different tabs so that you don't have to individually tap on them to bring one to the front. There's also a feature called Tab Groups. And Tab Groups is actually available right now on the desktop Chrome. So it's just coming to Chrome on Android. Chrome on Android. Four tablets Chrome for an for tablets on Android, <laugh>
Jason Howell (01:00:54):
<Laugh> Chrome for Android on Android.
Florence Ion (01:00:56):
You know what? You all know what I'm saying? I
Jason Howell (01:00:58):
Know what you mean. I know what you
Florence Ion (01:00:59):
Mean. Yeah. so I'm looking forward to, to this, I'm looking forward to see how it works with the opening and closing mechanism on the Samsung Galaxy Z fold for, because apparently this has been tweaked to work with that. But what I thought was really interesting about this news is that I actually didn't get a chance to put the blog post in there, but Google did have a blog post for this and they mentioned that all these features are also coming to the Pixel tablet. Mm-Hmm. So just more breadcrumbs for us on the Pixel tablet and you know, Google throwing in all these like little look at these new bits you'll be able to do with the Pixel tablet when it's available next year. Don't forget, we're still making this tablet.
Jason Howell (01:01:40):
Google loves to use in a head. It's their, it's their strategy that I think is working to a certain degree. They, they keep, to a certain degree to think are about six Yeah. To six to eight months out. They're teasing, you know, at least they feel like they have more control over the news cycle that way. <Laugh>.
Florence Ion (01:01:57):
Yeah. It's just, it's hard to see this after the iPad Pro News that came out earlier today, <laugh> and yeah, a reminder of like why people choose the Apple ecosystem for that kind of thing and like what Google's gonna have to compete with. And while this is great news for Foldables, I just don't know. I'm just that an that Pixel tablet.
Ron Richards (01:02:23):
Pixel tablet. I'm excited about the Pixel tablet though. But here's the thing is that like, you gotta start somewhere, right? Like it can't be like, I get like, like App Apple and the iPad and all that sort of stuff has had, you know, this fair share of the market share and all this sort of stuff in terms of the establishment. But like, you know, a Bravo to Google for like getting some control over the news cycle and the rumor cycle and the leaks and things like that. But like, if they're gonna make the tablet thing work, it's gotta start somewhere. So we have to, we Flo, we have to support it.
Jason Howell (01:02:52):
I we have to support it. <Laugh>, we must support it.
Ron Richards (01:02:57):
<Laugh> just saying,
Florence Ion (01:02:59):
I'm only doing this because I am a friend and I, and I'm just, I don't wanna leave you alone on this journey.
Ron Richards (01:03:08):
<Laugh>, I appreciate that.
Jason Howell (01:03:10):
Ouch. But, so it does not sound like you are a very optimistic Flo. I'm curious, I'm curious, but we have heard note, I mean this is totally off, off topic of, of apps, but we have heard that there's a possibility that there's gonna be the doc, the docking tablet and then there would also be more of like a pro ish upgraded pixel tablet. So hold out hope that, you know, they kind of have both.
Florence Ion (01:03:35):
We shall see,
Jason Howell (01:03:37):
We shall see,
Ron Richards (01:03:38):
We
Jason Howell (01:03:38):
Shall, Ain't that the truth? <Laugh> <laugh> real quick. Wanna talk about something that Ron, actually, I don't even think you can really talk about this much because it has to do with Marvel new Marvel card game actually if you liked Hearthstone. Do you say Hearth or Hearth? Hearth.
Ron Richards (01:03:55):
I say Hearth. Hearth, I say Hearth, Hearth, Hearth, Hearth, Hearth.
Jason Howell (01:04:01):
I don't know what it is. But anyways, if you like that game that you're probably gonna like this game, I actually played it around played it earlier today and, and really enjoyed it. For, for like a card dealing game. It like got me like my, my heart rate kind of racing. It was like, oh, which, which way am I gonna go? So what is it? It's a, it's a card game by some of the developers who actually created Hearth, Hearthstone, whatever you wanna call it. Each player creates a deck of 12 cards with heroes, villains or, so they have their deck filled with these cards. They can play them at different locations. There's like three different locations and you're trying to kinda score the most points in each different location. If you are able to get two out of the three, then you win the round and you kind of move on and, you know, of course it's a card trading game, or not trading game, but a card game.
(01:04:52):
So you end up getting upgrades and different cards have different different powers and capabilities and everything. And there's a kind of a, a bluffing system more or less as far as how the gameplay is handled. So you can kind of raise the stakes. That part kind of feels a little bit like, I dunno, it's kinda like poker sitting at the table and you want the other person, the other player to, to feel like, you know, you're doing something when you're doing something completely different. So anyways, it's called Marvel Snap and yeah, you should check it out. I played it. I actually enjoyed it a lot.
Ron Richards (01:05:26):
Yeah, it just came out. It just came out today. So launch today and, and what's neat here, you see, and I, you know, yes, I work for Marvel by day and I actually worked on some of the stuff with this, but it's neat that not only like is all the card mechanics there and all the, the stuff from the people made Hearthstone, but like they're using a lot of like artwork from the comics and from other parts of it. There's like eight bit versions of the characters and like pixel art versions and specific other artists and stuff in there. So it's really, really cool. Yeah, I don't know. You guys check it out. That's fun. We've all been playing it at work for a few a few months now in the beta, but it's glad to see it finally come out
Jason Howell (01:06:01):
So nice. And was I actually playing against a live player? Like when I got through all of the Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought, but I couldn't tell if it was just really clever at how it <laugh>. How
Ron Richards (01:06:12):
It nestled the Yeah know, I believe so Lisa. Yeah,
Jason Howell (01:06:15):
Appreciate. I think I was, yeah, Yeah, you go through the kind of the onboarding rounds and everything and then suddenly you're put into a real round and things kind of slowed down a little bit cuz I was playing with somebody else who was actually kind of thinking about what they wanted to do. I ended up winning the round by the way, so Oh, nice. Say I'm a, I'm a professional at this point,
Ron Richards (01:06:33):
<Laugh>,
Jason Howell (01:06:33):
So it was called Marvel Snap. Everybody should check it out. That's coming from me see. So, All right. And it finally Flo saw, saw a lot of people talking about this. I don't really know how, how big of a deal it is. I'm curious to know what you think about it.
Florence Ion (01:06:49):
I I do think this is a big deal, but I haven't had time to like fully dive in. I just know that Signal announced this week that it's going to phase out SMS and MMS for mitz Android app. And so what this means is if you were using Signal to actually be the router for your MMS and SMS correspondence to your carrier that's not gonna work anymore. And the reason is because they're saying that in order to improve security and privacy, they're gonna have to get rid of this functionality. SMS support was there previously due to the Apps Foundation. It used to be called the App Text Secure before it was the app we know now is Signal. And it's also worth mentioning that the intermingling of encrypted and non-encrypted communication, it could be pretty risky. And for an app like Signal that's really trying to market itself as like, this is the secure thing, this is the thing we want people to use, like, you know, on the political front lines you can't have any sort of backdoor to that because then that would hurt your marketing.
(01:08:02):
This SMS support is going to be leaving in the next couple of months, so you have some time to export and find a new app. But but it is, it, it's bums some people out. I I've seen complaints on Twitter and elsewhere about it.
Jason Howell (01:08:16):
Cousin Johns in is in the IRC saying, I don't like this from Signal. Do they just not want to implement rcs? Yes, good question. <Laugh> probably, probably part of
Florence Ion (01:08:26):
That. That's probably why
Jason Howell (01:08:28):
Is rcs hard to implement? Like harder than I'm, Well, I guess it's, I yeah, don't
Florence Ion (01:08:35):
Probably is probably harder than, I just think it's a different, I dunno, I mean it's a different infrastructure in some cases and you know, if they wanna continue being like the Privacy minded app, they have to keep it encrypted. And I don't know if rcs, I know it's supposed to be somewhat encrypted, but
Jason Howell (01:08:57):
Yeah, it had, it had kind of started as, as unencrypted and then there was the news quite a while ago that there that it would be encrypted, but it's still kind of confusing. It's kinda like the way it started. It's, I I still am second guessing it. I mean, I think, I think from the perspective of Signal wanting to be a, you know, perceived as a ultra secure app for communications from that end, I think it kind of makes sense, right? Like SMS is not secure as far as that's concerned. And if you're a user and you're using an app for security and it's also intermixed with, you know, communication that that is over here encrypted, but it is not over here. Like I could imagine that at a certain point it's easy to kind of not know. I guess it's, I guess the responsibility, the app to make it obvious that the communication you're sending at that moment is protected or encrypted or whatever. But this is also a feature that from my understanding, doesn't exist on, on the iPhone, on the iOS version. This is really specific to Android. So maybe that's a part of it too. You know, maybe they're streamlining and kind of bringing their products up to a common language.
Florence Ion (01:10:08):
Yeah. JJ in the chat reminds us that rcs actually touches Google servers. Remember that's how we got it rolled out a lot more quickly to get the carriers and everybody else on board. So that might also be another reason why Signals. Yeah, just kind of noting out of that because Google is not exactly the known entity of privacy, especially in the European Union. <Laugh>.
Jason Howell (01:10:34):
Yeah, very true. Very, very true. That's a great point. Also, jj good to see you. It's been a while. All right. Rob, you've got the honors. Yeah,
Ron Richards (01:10:45):
So we always love to check in with our friend JR Jr. Rael with some great tips. And this week tis to season jr's got some Pixel 7 tips that maybe Flo, you could learn something. So let's see what jr's got.
JR Raphael (01:10:57):
Hey, hope everyone's enjoying the post pixel launch Hayes. What a crazy couple weeks, hasn't it? Well, I'm among the lucky few who have had my hands on both the new Pixel phones and the new Pixel watch for a little while now. I know, I know, hate me as you will, but today I wanted to pass along a couple cool tricks I found while using the Pixel 7 s camera over these past several days. And these are the obvious headline making features you've been hearing about seeing in all of Google's marketing materials and all that stuff. They're just neat little touches, little things that are super easy to overlook, but really, really handy to have once you find them. All right, so first on older pixel phones, everything up through the Pixel four A, you could quickly zoom into any shot on the regular camera mode by double tapping your finger on the viewfinder.
(01:11:43):
Remember that. Then for some reason, I don't know why Google took that capability away. And on more recent phones all the way up the Pixel six, the camera wouldn't do anything at all when you double tapped outside of making you look like a little bit of a dufus anyway, so check this out on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, the double tap is back. You can once again double tap anywhere on the viewfinder to zoom in to the two X level and then double tap again to zoom back out. And that's in addition to being able to slide your finger along that Zoom level bar right beneath the viewfinder for even more intricate control. Now here's the really interesting part. The Pixel 7 didn't just get that double tap to Zoom shortcut back. It also got an option to let you control that gesture and change exactly what it does.
(01:12:28):
So open up the Pixel 7 or seven pros camera again and head into the settings, which another little shortcut bonus here by the way, you can actually do that by swiping down anywhere on the View Finder area to open that quick settings panel. And then from there you can tap the more settings button that comes up. That part will work on any pixel phone by the way. Now see the line that says gestures? Tap that, then tap the newly added double tap action option that's inside of it. And hey, how about that? Snuck into the mix. There's a nice new way to have your double tap action zoom switch between your rear and front camera or do absolutely nothing if you'd rather totally up to you. So there you have it. A couple cool little tricks to keep in mind when you're using the excellent camera on that new Pixel 7 phone of yours of a couple more Pixel 7 specific camera tricks to share with you next week.
(01:13:17):
So stay tuned for that. And in the meantime, if you've got a pixel, any old pixel, you gotta come check out my free Pixel Academy e-course. It's a seven day email adventure that'll teach you all sorts of little known time savers or your phone starting with two lessons about these very sorts of hidden camera and image related tricks, In fact, completely awesome, completely free. Just head over to android intel.net/twit and look for the Pixel Academy button at the bottom of the screen to get started. That site again is android intel.net/twi. I'll see you there and I'll see you right back here next week.
Ron Richards (01:13:50):
Thank you JR. And look at Flo Flo. Did you learn something?
Florence Ion (01:13:56):
Yeah, I did. I did. Now I did know, I did know about that double tap, but I didn't realize that I could go change it, which is good because Snapchat almost trick me today so that I would set it as the default for that shortcut.
Jason Howell (01:14:12):
Ooh, wait a minute. Oh, so that's possible too.
Florence Ion (01:14:16):
I don't know. It said something when I, when I logged in, it was like, would you like to change this to a Snapchat default? And I was
Jason Howell (01:14:22):
Like, No. Oh, wait a minute. That reminds me of it was with the six and the six or the Six Pro where that you could as sign the tap on the back to be the Snap camera. Oh
Florence Ion (01:14:32):
Yeah, that's right,
Jason Howell (01:14:33):
That's right. I remember that. Yeah. I wonder if that's kind of the same thing going on there. Cool. I can't wait to kind of dig in and, and give that camera a whirl. There's always a fantastic camera on those pixels devices. Cool, thank you JR for sending in those tips and we'll look forward to some expanded expanded camera tips next week. All right, we've got your feedback coming up in a second. AAA twit TV 3, 4, 7 show aa if you wanna leave us a voicemail. We got this email from Jeremy who says, Why do companies think they need to reinvent the wheel? Watch bands and cases have done what they're supposed to do for a very long time, and for those that like to swap bands, quick release pins are wonderful for that. And I have the second to Shaka in the Barton Watch Band recommendation.
(01:15:27):
I have many bands from them as well as the Apple Watch lug adapters. If I was gonna order a Pixel watch, which I'm not, I wouldn't even consider it until after Barton released adapters for it. Keep up the great show. Thanks for writing in Jeremy. Yeah, I I wasn't on the show last week, so I did, I'm actually not familiar with the Barton Watch Band, but, but I will share in the kind of immediate reaction that I had to the Pixel Watch, knowing that they had, and we kind of already talked about it earlier, but knowing that they had a non standard watch band system, I was like, really? You, you, you gotta go there. Why, why is that necessary? But but I don't know. I mean, maybe it's good enough. Like, like I think you, you actually kind of brought up a really good point Flo, which is that Apple was able to do this and they've got a very successful and thriving band ecosystem. So, you know, maybe we get there with a Pixel watch. I, I, I don't know. I'm not, I I guess I, Jason
Ron Richards (01:16:31):
You just went on, just went on a, you just went on an emotional journey that we all just watched. And I dunno, <laugh>, I know, I'm just letting you,
Jason Howell (01:16:39):
I I think I just, I think I'm just realizing like I don't have a whole lot of faith in Google doing what Apple did as far as the bands are concerned.
Ron Richards (01:16:47):
That's, I I I just, I'm stopping at you don't have a lot of faith in Google in regards to what Apple did, period. Like that. I feel like you're, you're we coming off of the tablet criticism just a little while ago, like, I feel like Jason
Jason Howell (01:16:58):
Be critical. Is this what happens when I take a couple of weeks off the show? I like have a, something happens to my, my Google.
Ron Richards (01:17:04):
It's, it's that headset that's getting to you. I think so, Yeah.
Jason Howell (01:17:07):
Yeah,
Ron Richards (01:17:08):
That's squishy. All
Florence Ion (01:17:09):
The HyperX
Ron Richards (01:17:10):
<Laugh>. Yeah, that's exactly what it's our next email is from one of the Android faithful John who writes in and says on last week's show, episode 599, you featured an email from Muggins asking if you knew of a step tracker that integrates with Google Fit. The answer was no. And you suggested him to just buy a cheap Fitbit device. Although you can't export data from Fitbit to Google Fit directly back in the old arena days, you featured an app called Fit to Fit, which allows you to ex allows you to export that data. I haven't used it in a couple years since I ultimately just gave up on Google Fit and stuck with Fitbit. But from memory, the app ran in the background and kept your steps and workouts sync between Fitbit and Google Fit. So if mugs dearly wants to stay in the Google Fit ecosystem, he should buy a cheap Fitbit, install the Fitbit software plus fit to fit, and then just ignore the Fitbit software and see his stats in Google. Fit, fit, Fit, fit. There you go, mugs, Hope you're listening to John's advice. Check out Fit to Fit and the go and the Google Play Store. See if that app still does what you need it to do. So
Jason Howell (01:18:12):
Fit to fit Wow.
Ron Richards (01:18:14):
Fit to fit. Before we go on to the next, to the last email, and I feel it's, it's important to note this, this is the 600th episode.
Jason Howell (01:18:23):
Oh my gosh.
Florence Ion (01:18:24):
It is.
Ron Richards (01:18:25):
And I just, cuz John said in last week's episode, episode 5 99, and I looked at, and there it is. If you're video watchers in the lower thirds, this episode 600, we completely proceeded to ignore that fact at the top of the show that here we are with a milestone of the 600th episode. <Laugh>, I would like to say, I was gonna
Jason Howell (01:18:43):
Include it in the news, but you cut it out. So what could I do? Oh, Burke was gonna, was gonna write us on that path. Well, so a little behind the scenes changed how we start the show. Yes. when we do this live. And it used to be that we had things like that, you know, that we would record, you know things that would mention that earlier, but we don't do that anymore. And so yeah, it's totally cha i, this one little change has totally impacted certain things behind the scenes.
Ron Richards (01:19:15):
So I feel like we, we, we should have celebrated 600 earlier in the episode, but, so there you go. If you listen all the way through the episode to the feedback, now you find us realize that this is a 600 episode and I'm so glad that Flo and Jason are back for it. That, that we're all together for 600. And here's the 600 more
Jason Howell (01:19:34):
<Laugh>. Ron loves his nice round numbers when it comes to the show.
Ron Richards (01:19:37):
I do love the milestone episodes. I love the milestone episodes. I feel like we blew this one. We should have done more, but it's been a crazy time. It's right. Maybe we'll celebrate six 10. So
Jason Howell (01:19:45):
<Laugh>. Yeah. Or 707 hundreds a big deal.
Florence Ion (01:19:48):
Or six? Six, six.
Jason Howell (01:19:50):
Oh, well yeah, that'll be an interesting, a little more than a year. <Laugh>. <laugh>. All right. Flo, you have the honors.
Florence Ion (01:20:00):
Oh, I have the honors. I love that I get this honor and I really, really appreciated Burke. Get ready, Get ready because I'm about to read the email of the week. That's right. All right, so this week's email comes in from Daniel and Daniel, I believe your last name is pronounced Chaps, Daniel Chaps. And or this is a good email. Sh Oh Jesus
Jason Howell (01:20:30):
<Laugh>. I mean it might not, I'm just saying, I'm just saying or that I don't know. But <laugh>,
Florence Ion (01:20:39):
I, the entire state of California is rolling its eyes at me right now. You call yourself a Californian. I am so sorry, Daniel for Turing your last name. It's not Josh. It is very clear that I've had a long day.
Jason Howell (01:20:52):
I'm just saying it could be either I'm not saying it is or it isn't. Okay. Stop, stop talking to me. Stop listening to me because I've got these headphones on and they're clearly squishing my brain and I'm messing up this show. So continue. Continue.
Florence Ion (01:21:05):
All right, here we go. On this episode 600 Daniel writes my question for the crew who seem to always hold full feature smart watches higher in regard over fitness watches. What smart watch features do you need that a fitness watch doesn't offer? The sense two has tap to pay notifications, message readin response, and soon Google Maps. What more would you use a watch for on a day to day? The reason I ask is anytime I see someone with a smart watch, they have their smartphone with them. So it's not like they are going about their day relying solely on the watch. So with that small edge case aside, what is your real needs from a smart watch? What functions do you need it to do that you can't do on a phone that is always with you or near you that you would definitely use day to day?
(01:21:48):
Secondary question, why can't they just make a smart watch last as long as a Fitbit? What makes Apple wear iOS and Google Android wear os so much more power hungry than Fitbit os Daniel last name that I will not butcher <laugh>. And you'll see, Okay. Yes. So let's, let's answer this backwards. First the secondary question, which is why can't they make a smart watch last as long as a Fitbit? And that is screen size and processor. The processor, excuse me, that the Apple and Android wear watches use are, they're teeny tiny little smartphone processors that were cut teeny timely to put into this teeny tiny little watch face situation. And this is supposed to power up the entire like app based os and Fit Fit just doesn't require that. I mean, it has a chip in it as well, but it just doesn't require the operating system that it runs is just not as intensive as what's happening with where Os and Watch os.
(01:22:58):
Just trying to remember the name of Apples Second. The second question is, what Smart Watch features do you need that a fitness watch doesn't offer? I would like Ron and Jason to answer this as well, but first I would like to say that for me it's, I I do use a lot of apps on Smart Watch and Google Maps is definitely one of those things. But it's more just the, the interface. Like the ability to kind of tap around and go to an app store and download something that I need. Although where os I'm finding is kind of lacking in, in that lately. What about you Jason and Ron?
Jason Howell (01:23:39):
Hard, hard for me. I'll just go first. Hard for me to answer because I'm kind of at a point to where I don't know that I'm really relying or or on a smart watch in any way, shape or form. I'm curious to see if that changes with the Pixel Watch, but man, at this point I keep getting the watches and I keep like wearing them for a while and then not really. So apparently there's something that's like what smart watches are aren't enough, like aren't filling a need that I have. So it's really hard for me to answer this cause I'm kind of like, well I don't know which feature needs to be there versus the other. I'm more curious to know like from people who rely on smart watches, you know, where does that Venn diagram overlap of people who were fitness watch wearers, people who rely on smart, smart watch smart watches and like what, Yeah, what is that thing?
(01:24:34):
Like I almost feel like this is a really great question to open up to people who watch and listen to send us feedback. Cuz I don't feel like I'm the right person to answer this because my use case is so, is so narrow and so thin these days when it comes to wearables. But Ron, you're now buying a watch after having not had one for a long time. Is there something that you're looking for that, that you can't find in a fitness wearable cause? Cause I think the point is valid. Like they're very similar. So what is the difference?
Ron Richards (01:25:01):
I, I would like to be able to take pictures on my phone with my watch. Hmm. That I can now do on the Pixel. Cuz they, that was one of the things in the demo. Is that No, I'm joking, but, but no, but you can do that but no, but it <laugh> but yeah, I haven't sorry that fell flat. I haven't, you know, like, because I haven't had a watch in so long, I don't even know what is there for me, For me the biggest attraction is you know, especially going for the LTE model and given, you know how I'm, you know, I go running and, and run outside and like putting the bulky, you know, Pixel six and if I got a seven Pro or six pro in my pocket and running is always like, it's a lot to, if you put in your pants pocket, the phone is got a lot of weight in a pair of running shorts. And the idea of just going out with just a watch and being able to listen to a podcast, listen to music, get still, get text messages, still get phone calls and be able to do all that stuff while I'm away from my phone is very enticing. But that's all core functionality to what the watch can do. So I don't even know what's there for me. But right now it's, it's mainly, you know, for outdoor fitness running, leave the phone at home mm-hmm. <Affirmative> So,
Jason Howell (01:26:11):
And fitness watches don't have the leave the phone at home thing I guess because they're just,
Ron Richards (01:26:17):
Well they do, I mean, Fit Fitness watches, you just leave the phone at home. Right. Do they still work without the phone? Oh,
Jason Howell (01:26:23):
Well, yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah. Right. But on fitness watches you can load music onto some of them, right? Yes. Like the fitness watches. I would hope so, yes.
Ron Richards (01:26:32):
Yeah,
Jason Howell (01:26:33):
You can do that. That
Florence Ion (01:26:35):
I guess the other big thing that is like you can actually get emergency service help on a watch mm-hmm. <Affirmative> that you could not get on a fitness watch.
Ron Richards (01:26:47):
Right.
Florence Ion (01:26:49):
So that
Jason Howell (01:26:51):
Additional
Ron Richards (01:26:51):
Connective services. Right,
Florence Ion (01:26:54):
Okay. Yeah, exactly. Like that's why I have an LTE Galaxy watch for because I wanted emergency services on me all the time because I constantly live in fear apparently. So that's why I pay $5 a month for it. But but I find it to be worth it, so. Okay.
Jason Howell (01:27:11):
That's a good answer. Yeah,
Florence Ion (01:27:13):
That's
Jason Howell (01:27:13):
A good answer. Yeah. Although my, my follow up question to that would be why can't that, what prevents that from being a feature in a fitness watch? You know what I mean?
Florence Ion (01:27:22):
Sell, sell, cellular connected
Jason Howell (01:27:24):
And there are no fitness watches that have the cellular connectivity. I mean, well, I mean maybe there are, I don't know, I guess that's a, a question that I don't know the answer to, but I guess with a cellular modem inside of a fitness watch, then the battery becomes a lot less performant.
Florence Ion (01:27:40):
Correct? Yeah. Yep. Then it's not really a fitness watch. Part of it's a smart watch. Yeah. Right.
Jason Howell (01:27:46):
Yeah, it is. It is an interesting question. That's why I put why I included it here because I think those, those lines are, are drawn. Yes. But it's still very murky to understand why one versus the other. And especially as we get into this, this realm of, of smart watches, having all of the fitness capabilities, you know, whether you sit on one side or the other side of the fence, you really have to ask yourself why that versus this, why this versus that? And I know I'm not the right person to answer that cuz I'm still trying to figure out how I fit a wearable into my life on a regular basis. It's been hard for me to pick up that habit ever since Covid, cuz I didn't wear Yeah. A wearable for so long. <Laugh> now I'm like I don't need that, you know, <laugh>
Ron Richards (01:28:31):
Yeah, I mean the idea of leaving the house and like, I'm hoping that this motivates me to leave the house a little more often to like be able to get messages or stay connected and that sort of thing. But we'll, we'll see. I'll, I'll report back, I'll be honest too, in terms of what the use case is, so
Jason Howell (01:28:45):
Yeah.
Florence Ion (01:28:46):
Cool. Yeah, I would love to hear like Ron's assessment especially cuz I know, I know Ron, you wanna like track your runs and stuff. Daniel, I hope we answered your questions. I do. You know, I, I do think that was a very, very thought-provoking question and it actually got me thinking like, why am I using this $300 smart watch
Ron Richards (01:29:08):
<Laugh>
Jason Howell (01:29:09):
<Laugh>. This
Florence Ion (01:29:09):
Is, this is, yeah. So there we go. That's, that's why Daniel, you were email of the week. Thank you.
Jason Howell (01:29:18):
There we go. Daniel C congratulations. And we have reached the end of this episode of All About Android and what a pixely episode it was as we looked through the Garden of Pixels and planted many seeds for the future year to come on All About Android Flo. Thank you for the title. Thank you for being on tonight. Tell people what you're working on and what you want 'em to know.
Florence Ion (01:29:44):
Well, I am working over at Gizmoto and if you wanna see what I'm working on, you can go to Flo wrights.tech. That is my vanity URL that takes you straight to my byline over@gizmoto.com. And if you wanna hear me in your ears every week I do a podcast with Andy, not co on the relay fm, no work called Material where we talk all about Google and we talk about pixels and everything else. So definitely go check that out.
Jason Howell (01:30:10):
Do it.
Florence Ion (01:30:11):
Thanks Burke. <Laugh>
Jason Howell (01:30:13):
Burke, Burke Approves is Modo Search for Flo. All right, thank you Flo. And then Ron, what about you?
Ron Richards (01:30:21):
Yeah, you can go over and follow me on Twitter and Instagram at rono and go check out score it in the Google Play Store. Download that and keep track of your pinball scores. Play pinball, have fun with friends playing pinball. Yeah, check it all out, Score it dot I owe And that's about it. And I'm just so glad to be here for 600 episodes. Jason, what a ride.
Jason Howell (01:30:40):
What a ride. Indeed. 600 of anything that's on. We should,
Florence Ion (01:30:43):
We should be proud. We should be proud. Remember that the, the only other podcast with this many episodes are, you know try guys. <Laugh>, what happened to them?
Ron Richards (01:30:55):
I mean, I will say I'm, I'm very fortunate because my, the podcast that I came up with, I amboy check it over@ifamboy.com, they're still going strong at episode 800 and they just celebrate 850. And I think I left around 600 or so when I five years ago. Wow. But but yeah, just like immensely like the the Two Ride or Die podcast I chose for my life are just have been lasted more than a decade each
Jason Howell (01:31:19):
And got lasting power.
Ron Richards (01:31:21):
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So you know how to
Jason Howell (01:31:23):
Pick 'em.
Ron Richards (01:31:24):
We, we've done good Jason, we've done good for, we've done good. We've done good. Steven Burke, we've done good. But even more so Anthony and Victor keeping us going, so we appreciate it. So
Jason Howell (01:31:35):
<Laugh>, Yes, thank you Anthony. Thank you, Victor. Although Victor's not doing the behind the scenes stuff this week, Anthony is so thank you Anthony for editing this week. Thank you Burke for pushing buttons and thinking about mentioning episode 600 in the news bumper. That didn't happen. Thank you for that. Yeah. And that was probably wasn't
Ron Richards (01:31:53):
Gonna know. So
Jason Howell (01:31:54):
Sorry. Oh, okay. Well, you know, I forgive you. I couldn't, you know, we didn't go there, there sometimes the show goes in crazy places and you followed along expertly. So thank you for doing what you do. Thank you to JR for his awesome tips. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and Intelligence. Go check him out there. You can find me on Twitter at Jason Howell. I'm doing Tech News Weekly solo this Thursday, so Mike is gonna be out. So I am pounding the pavement, searching for interviews, valuable interviews for Tech News Weekly on Thursday, so you can expect a few more interviews than our normal episode. When I do that, don't forget, Club Twit has become really important to us because apparently, you know, with the, with the economy the way things are, apparently subs, subscriber, or sorry ads are, I don't know, they're just a little bit more challenging in this environment.
(01:32:46):
And so Club Twit is kind of our way around that. So if you haven't checked it out, you really should twit.tv/clubtwit. It's an ad-free subscription tier. You get all of our shows with no ads, you also get exclusive content TWI plus podcast feed with tons of extra content included. And a member's only Discord $7 per month where you can pay for a full year. That's $84 for the entire year. They also have corporate memberships if you want that. We actually just signed up corporate membership and so that's a nice when that happens as well. But yeah, think about it. It's a good way to support everything that we do here at twit. That is it for this week. We do the show every Tuesday evening, so expected to publish late in the evening, early in the morning the following day. Depending on the time zone that you live in. You can subscribe by going to twit.tv/a aa and really, that's all you need to know. Thank you so much for watching and listening. We'll see you next week on episode seven. No, sorry, 600. I almost got whoa, way ahead of myself. 601, 700 one's coming a couple of years, so check back then too. But we'll see you next week everybody.
Ant Pruitt (01:33:58):
Hey, what's going on everybody? I am Ant Pruitt and I am the host of Hands On Photography here on twit tv. I know you got yourself a fancy smartphone, you got yourself a fancy camera, but your pictures are still lacking. Can't quite figure out what the heck shutter speed means. Watch my show. I got you covered. Wanna know more about just the I ISO and Exposure Triangle in general. Yeah, I got you covered. Or if you got all of that down, you want to get into lighting, you know, making things look better by changing the lights around you. I got you covered on that too. So check us out each and every Thursday here in the network. Go to twit.tv/hop and subscribe today.
