All About Android Episode 555 Transcript
Please be mindful this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to 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, my co-host Ron Richards and my other co-host Florence ion. That's right. She returns tonight. We talk all about Android, 12 L beta one more details around Android. Twelve's go edition. It's not quite out yet, but we've got a lot of information there. APO teased it's first foldable, which looks actually pretty interesting. Apple now has an Android app, but for air tag tracking, don't get excited. 9 1 1 calls. Apparently didn't work for a red. Someone who had the Microsoft teams app installed on their device. Something you definitely don't want to miss plus your email and a whole lot more next on all about right
(00:00:44):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is TWiT.
Jason Howell (00:00:51):
This episode of All About Android is brought to you by BetterHelp. Online therapy, join over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health. As a listener, you'll get 10% off your first month by visiting better help.com/android. And by audible, audible is the leading provider of spoken word entertainment. And right now, for a limited time, save 60% on your first three months of audible. That's only 5 95 a month. Give yourself the gift of listening for more. Go to audible.Comallaboutandroid or text All About Android to 500, 500. Hello and welcome to all about Android. This is episode 5, 5 5, 555. Isn't that nice? It's got a nice ring to it. Recorded on Tuesday, December 14th, 2021. Your weekly source on the latest news, hardware, and apps for the Android faithful. I'm Jason Howell.
Ron Richards (00:01:45):
And I'm Ron Richards
Florence Ion (00:01:47):
And I'm back baby!
Ron Richards (00:01:51):
There she is. Wow.
Florence Ion (00:01:55):
Hi.
Jason Howell (00:01:56):
<Laugh> Hi Flo. It's good to have you.
Ron Richards (00:01:59):
We're very excited that Florence has been released and able to come back on the show. So it's good.
Florence Ion (00:02:05):
I mean, it was, unfortunately I did absolutely no healing on my healing journey, but I did pick up a lot of crystals on the way. So I have a lot of pretty crystals now.
Jason Howell (00:02:14):
Oh well that's good. I mean that's yeah. That's progress of, of some time
Florence Ion (00:02:19):
Side of it. Yeah. Crystal kind.
Jason Howell (00:02:21):
You you've been busy.
Florence Ion (00:02:22):
I got some false you along the way.
Jason Howell (00:02:25):
Oh really? That's that's nothing new. We, we, it's not, you collect phones for a living now?
Ron Richards (00:02:30):
It's not the journey. It's the phones you collect along the way.
Jason Howell (00:02:34):
<Laugh> yeah, exactly. If only that wasn't too long for a title, we'd have our title this early on.
Ron Richards (00:02:39):
So Flo. Let me ask you everyone who comes on the show we ask, what, what phone do you use? What's your day driver? So what phone are you using these days, Flo?
Florence Ion (00:02:48):
<Laugh> I'm actually not using the Pixel6 Pro
Jason Howell (00:02:52):
Yeah. You, you were going off on that. Know what
Florence Ion (00:02:55):
Nine, wait, wait, did you
Jason Howell (00:02:57):
Just throw that on
Ron Richards (00:02:58):
The floor? She did.ALike she like violently
Jason Howell (00:03:01):
Threw it. Yeah. Yeah. She stomped on it with her bike.
Florence Ion (00:03:04):
It has a case on it and little, little Pocco on the back for my San Rio fans. So don't worry.
Jason Howell (00:03:09):
You care enough to put a little Pocco San Rio thing in not to sit there on the back, but not enough to use it. How else
Florence Ion (00:03:16):
Am I gonna hold this ginormous phone?
Jason Howell (00:03:19):
Yeah. It's I mean, it's, it's a phone. It's not that big. Is it? <Laugh>
Florence Ion (00:03:25):
It's, it's pretty big. I will say it's big enough that when I was in Tahoe last week, I put it into my jacket, like my cold weather jacket and yes, I do have one and I actually couldn't bend <laugh> because the jacket is so low on me cuz like women's jackets sometimes they'll go down to your knees. And so when I would try and like bend at my hip, the phone would kind of like get stuck in there and I'd have to like adjust the pocket. <Laugh>
Jason Howell (00:03:54):
It's a feature very specific. Yes. I know. I, I think I know exactly what you mean though. But this is interest. I, I think this is, this is appropriate to talk about because I feel like in our WhatsApp you had some choice words to say for the pixel six, if you could summarize quickly, why are you sticking with the one plus nine and not going full time on that pixel six?
Florence Ion (00:04:16):
I don't remember exactly what I said. I'm not gonna go through the logs,
Jason Howell (00:04:20):
But no, you don't need to reiterate. Well, I,
Ron Richards (00:04:22):
I triggered you. I triggered you. Can I, can I, can I, can I prompt you again with what triggered you flow? Yes. Yes. So I'm on the pixel six and I actually had my first foray out of my zip code since I've gotten it. I had to go into New York city for work last Friday and got on the train at seven 20 in the morning and stayed at, went out, went to, went to dinner after work got home like 11 or whatever. I was in the office and at like one 30, I looked down on my phone and guess what my battery was at. I left the house at 7:00 AM. It was one 30 in the afternoon. Guess what?
Florence Ion (00:05:02):
My battery level was 15%,
Ron Richards (00:05:02):
30%, 41%, 40, 41%. Now at home 41, when I'm connected to wifi, I can go like literally today is a great example. My battery right now is at 67% and it's eight 30 at night. I got up at 5 45 this morning and unplugged it. Okay. So, so what's the difference. I was on wifi at home. I'm in New York city on 5g. It's a real problem. Battery battery maintenance is a real problem. And I told, told Jason, I told you in flow about that. And then flow went off on the pixel six, like went off like, like expletives. It was, it was pretty bad. Well,
Florence Ion (00:05:40):
It's just because I look, I I, I go on Reddit a lot. I go on forums a lot. I've seen a lot of people complain about this phone, whether it doesn't arrive on time, whether there's some bug I think there was just a delayed software update that just got pushed that people were like, finally I got this software update. And so it's like, yeah, the Verizon,
Ron Richards (00:06:03):
I would would say though, I will say though, that, that you're, you're kind of, self-selecting an honor audience by hanging out on Reddit.
Jason Howell (00:06:10):
Well, that's there there's something to be said for that people who have something to complain about that go to Reddit.
Florence Ion (00:06:15):
I have not stopped. I have not stopped researching Colts. There's a lot of stuff going on right now in some of the Fundy communities I'm on the Fundy snark, sub Reddits. And like when it comes to snaring on terrible people, Reddit is great for that. Sure. So I just wanna put that out there anyways, anyway, you know, but it is a good kind of like you can at least start to kind of see what the Android community is talking about and yeah. And I'm also constantly getting served these stories in my own Google feed. Just about how the pixel six has let people down. I would say the pixel six pro is more, what I read about the one plus nine on the other hand, the only problems I've actually had with it had to do with Verizon's 5g rollout, which is still dubious, but the phone, well, I don't wanna get too into it, but I'm a little scared. I'm a little scared for its future. I'll just, I'll just say that.
Jason Howell (00:07:13):
For the 6's future?
Florence Ion (00:07:14):
Excuse me for the OnePlus 9's future.
Jason Howell (00:07:17):
Oh, for the One Plus 9.
Ron Richards (00:07:17):
Oh really wow.
Jason Howell (00:07:18):
And does that have to do with the, because of colors to oxygen or color OS? Yeah. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> yeah. Yeah. I'm hearing you a lot about that too.
Florence Ion (00:07:26):
So I'm a little scared about this landscape right now. I'm feeling really uneasy and we're going, you know, we're in the holiday shopping season, I'm actually shopping for a phone from my mom right now. Which is like the worst time, because CES is tomorrow. And like
Jason Howell (00:07:43):
Yeah, basically <laugh>
Florence Ion (00:07:44):
And then after that it's like Samsung and everybody else announces me, but yeah, regardless, I'm having a hard time, just like, like I know what's great and what works, but do I really wanna subject somebody to that? I dunno.
Jason Howell (00:07:59):
You know, I think, I think what it illustrates or what it points out is that there is no perfect phone. There is no phone that, that you can 100% you know, refer to or recommend to everyone. And it's gonna work for everyone in all of their use cases. Like what, what came to mind when you were talking was the grass is always greener, but then I realized it's not that it's that the grass is never green. <Laugh> it's like, no, no matter what, what phone you get? It's so easy to find the flaws, you know, always and be like, oh, well now I ran into the thing that makes me not like it. And yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, maybe that's, maybe that's just being jaded or whatever, but at this point, like I, a part of me is just kind of accepted that every phone's gonna have flaws. And aside from those flaws, like, like my experience with the pixel six pro has not been negative at all. I've actually really enjoyed it. And I'm, I'm not running easy issues that a lot of people are writing about. That's me though. Right. That's my, and also
Ron Richards (00:08:54):
Note that the, that the battery issue that I ran into seems to be a pixel six issue and not a six pro, because there's something about, there's something about the way the pixel six manages the 5g modem differently or what, for whatever reason than the, the six pro. And actually, so at a sync in the chat room said, said, suggested exactly what I'm gonna to next time I go out, which is I'm gonna turn off 5g in the settings and see, and
Jason Howell (00:09:18):
Just keep it on LTE and see how the battery performance is. But you know, I just don't have, unlimit like, I'm, I'm trapped in this room most of the time. So but at some point we'll figure that out, but yeah, it's but it was, it was, it was eyeopening. It was, it was like, cuz I'd we talked about it when we did a review was after the first couple of weeks, it was like, everyone's like, yeah, pixel six is great, except for battery life on 5g is a little rough or whatever. Yeah. Fingerprint sensor and the display. Yeah.
Ron Richards (00:09:43):
Yeah. The fingerprint sensor display. I'm fine with actually, but I did see that the, the latest update, the latest update that they're rolling out is addressing battery optimization and the fingerprint sensor. And so I haven't gotten the update yet, so we'll see what it's like. I don't know who knows, but all, all, all this is background to the fact that it's so great to have flow back on the show this week. Especially for such a milestone episode. Like we guys, we only get to do episode 5, 5, 5 once. Okay. So that's right. We gotta make sure it's good.
Jason Howell (00:10:12):
So yeah. And you know what fan David Merado knew this and when David went to the grocery store, snapped a picture in dedication to our episode, 555. Nice. This can of 5 55 tomato sauce, this tomato sauce, right. It's it's kind of cut off a little bit, but I think it's tomato sauce. Add anchovies, sorry. In tomato sauce. So, so basically explain the fish. So
Ron Richards (00:10:38):
Let's be clear that this is a can that no one is buying. I, I, David, I would've liked to have seen the copyright date on that, cuz it looks like it could be 1972, but who's buying sardines. Listen, it's export quality. It's not a, it's none. This,
Jason Howell (00:10:55):
In that case, someone is getting some nostalgic feedback from it. That's why it's export
Ron Richards (00:11:01):
Quality. Why would you promote it being export quality versus
Jason Howell (00:11:06):
<Laugh> <laugh> because it's in a can and it can travel long distances it. I have no idea. I love it. I have no idea. Love it, five you for sending that in and, and thank you for having the awareness while you were at the grocery store, that 5 55 was this week's episode of all, about Android. You must have been like listening at the moment last week where we said episode 5 54 and you were like, wait a minute. This is just perfect timing. So Bravo, Bravo. All right. We've done a lot of setup. We've got a lot of news to talk about. So let's in Burke. I hope you're ready for that for pressing that button thing, cuz it's time for the news. <Laugh> Florence is back. That's all I'm saying. Florence is back. Whoop woo temporarily,
Ron Richards (00:11:53):
Listen flow. I know it's been a few weeks last months since you've been on the show, but that's the best news bumper be's done since you
Jason Howell (00:11:59):
Since you so. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Yeah. It's been a rough go. It's been a rough go. It's true. Be's learning lessons the hard way. <Laugh> as we all do it's this is just how it goes. Android 12 L beta one is out. I do not have it on my phone. I'm sorry. I did not do my homework, but the folks at nine to five Google did so we could talk about what they thought of it. Here are just a few of the features that you can look forward to and don't get your hopes up. It's not a whole lot of stuff that's gonna, you know, blow your socks off or anything. There's gonna be a wallpaper, at least they're working on a wallpaper quick sit, switch capability. So this would be like you're on the home screen and you do that long press to pull up the menus to jump to wallpaper selection.
Jason Howell (00:12:47):
And you get that, but you also get like this small little carousel of like instant wallpaper options to switch to. So, okay. If you like changing a wallpaper really fast, that's a good feature for you I suppose. Split screen turning into app pairs, which app pairs is nothing new. We've seen this on, you know, especially on like foldable devices, which is largely what Android 12 L is all about. Kind of improving the feature set for larger screen devices. Foldables so app pairs, you could, you know, you could pair up two apps and say, these are two apps that I like running at the same time. I always want my, my YouTube app running. And one part of the screen and my discord, you know, running in the other. So you could, you could pair them up. Apparently some hap feedback changes some popup UI elements.
Jason Howell (00:13:38):
So when you're using the OS right now, often things like actually one good example of this is the internet controls interface, right? When you go to quick settings and you hit internet controls, it pulls up the, the like internet controls panel, but down close to the bottom and this would center it above, which when you're talking about larger screen devices, you know, instead of like waiting it one way or the other, it kind of puts it in the center, making it, I suppose, easier easier to reach or I don't know that that's just one of the features. We'll see how useful that is. I suppose Google cast volume level, we talked a couple weeks ago about how cast the, the volume rocker on the phone is no longer changing the volume of what you're casting to like a TV, which is kind of lame.
Jason Howell (00:14:28):
This doesn't address that specifically. But what this does is this would include the cast volume in the volume control panel, which actually makes a lot of sense, right? When you open up that volume controls panel, it would have all the different things you control volume with and now including cast volume level. And then finally, and there's other things, but I left them out, but finally 95 Google did an APK insight tear down. And they spotted hints that show that Android 12 L is gonna bring face unlocked to the pixel six pro, which was a feature that we expected to see at launch. And actually we had some leaks pointing to it, but obviously at launch, we did not have that for whatever reason. And now with Android of L eventually, not yet, but eventually it's likely that the pixel six pro at least will get face recognition or, or face unlock. So super exciting times for Android. What do you think? <Laugh>
Ron Richards (00:15:25):
<Laugh> wow. It's so yeah, flow brought the snark outta Jason. Wow. Who,
Florence Ion (00:15:33):
You know what I'm I know,
Jason Howell (00:15:33):
Are you excited? I feel kinda like, okay. Well, I mean, but I'm not surprised it's it's like a point release, but what do you think, Flo? How
Florence Ion (00:15:41):
Am I supposed to really understand this release? If it's not on a foldable? That's what I'm yeah. Good
Jason Howell (00:15:49):
Questioning. Good question. Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:15:51):
I was like thinking in my head, like, what should I do? Should I put this? Okay. It's not available for the pixel six pro, which is the biggest pixel that I have right now. So what do I do? Do I wait until it comes to the Samsung Z flip? Do I,
Jason Howell (00:16:08):
There is how do tablet that it works on? I can't remember which tablet works on. It's the
Florence Ion (00:16:13):
Lenovo P 11 pro
Jason Howell (00:16:15):
I think. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, I think you're right. Which, by the way,
Florence Ion (00:16:21):
If you don't extreme sleeper hit
Jason Howell (00:16:24):
P 12 pro,
Florence Ion (00:16:25):
So you were sorry, the P 12 pro P 12 pro absolutely. A sleeper hit of a flagship tablet. I am surprised at, I mean good for Lenovo, but Hmm. They,
Ron Richards (00:16:36):
They really focused on the tablets. They really did this year, so yeah.
Jason Howell (00:16:41):
Good for good for them. I think you can on your pixel device, I think you can set your God, what's the word for it? You can set your pixel density on your pixel device smaller that that's
Ron Richards (00:16:55):
Sees. That's an AOR. If there ever was you could set your pixel density on your pixel and you set it to six device,
Jason Howell (00:17:03):
You set it to
Ron Richards (00:17:04):
Six,
Jason Howell (00:17:09):
It's an option. I think I saw someone, you know, actually I think nine to five, Google developed that to yeah, there you go. You'd find that in developer options. Exactly. So, so it's possible to test it, but like, are you gonna live with that? Yeah, I don't know. And, and how useful is it gonna be on a phone versus like a actual foldable, Google? We just need your, your pixel foldable to come out.
Ron Richards (00:17:29):
I want the pixel foldable. I I'm, I I'm, I need the pixel foldable. I need to see what, how Google would define a quality foldable device. And I refuse to accept that it's not happening. You refuse?
Jason Howell (00:17:42):
Yep. Well, you're gonna have to wait.
Ron Richards (00:17:45):
Going back to these, I mean, if
Florence Ion (00:17:48):
I was gonna say if the so-called rumored pixel watch is back again, like the rumors are back from the dead, then surely that flipping pixel phone is coming.
Ron Richards (00:18:00):
Flo, what did you think of the renders of the rumored pixel watch?
Florence Ion (00:18:04):
They were fine <laugh> they were fine.
Ron Richards (00:18:09):
They were sleek a little more. They were very round, very smooth. I thought they were, I don't know. Whenever I look at a new funnel, whenever I look at a new wearable, I always think of you and what, you know, the, the, the female wrist wearability,
Florence Ion (00:18:21):
Right? Yep. I mean, I still got my, I wear this every single day, which by the way, I was not wearing a watch every single day working from home. I'm move a lot more, by the way than I thought I did, which oh, okay.
Jason Howell (00:18:33):
You might as well get credit for it. Wear that. Watch and get credit for it.
Florence Ion (00:18:37):
Oh, and the best thing about this is Samsung finally will honor, like your vacuuming you're chasing after the kid, you're making the bed, like all of these things will honor it as like, Hey you're
Jason Howell (00:18:49):
Should tell us what as they
Florence Ion (00:18:51):
Should. Yeah. I am working. What, what are you wearing? This labor honey, emotional and physical
Jason Howell (00:18:57):
<Laugh> yeah. What, what is the watch? Can you remind us what the watch is?
Florence Ion (00:19:00):
It's the galaxy watch for?
Jason Howell (00:19:02):
It is the watch for, okay. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> yeah, I was, I was wearing mine constantly, and then I fell off the, the watch for wagon. I just, I just, they, that wearable, you grow a beard for me. It's yeah. You know, I can only wear one thing. I can only wear one thing at a time and right now I'm wearing it on my face, so I can't wear it on my wrist.
Florence Ion (00:19:20):
<Laugh> yeah. <Laugh>
Ron Richards (00:19:21):
Exactly. I, before we move on, I wanna go back to the, to the first note in the Android, 12 Al beta one, which is the wallpaper quick switch capability. Yeah. How much resources is Google putting into wallpapers? Like, it just seems like an inordinate amount of, of
Florence Ion (00:19:38):
Resources. It's all about the aesthetics.
Ron Richards (00:19:40):
Yeah. I just, I find it fascinating.
Jason Howell (00:19:43):
Oh, that's yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. Flo it's it's about aesthetic aesthetics and that's, that's obviously something that they've valued pretty heavily for. So yeah. Could they put that effort into something else that's more useful or, you know, gonna make people like, like from a usability standpoint, fixing a problem or whatever. I, I suppose they could, but yeah. Hmm. Question. Mm-hmm <affirmative> Uhhuh <affirmative> well flow. You, you get to introduce the next one, especially because you wrote it for Gizmoto.
Florence Ion (00:20:17):
I did. I, I, I still have a job. I know you were all wondering where I was. Right. I, I did work <laugh> while it was on my spiritual journey. You know, still gotta pay the bills. But while I was working, I wrote about, so today actually we found out that Android go is getting some Android, 12 ish features, I should say, so Android 12, go edition. It's not quite live yet from my understanding is that Google's going to publish it or rather roll it out. Once it gets some new Android go phones in 2022. But it did give us a little tease of what's coming. So we know that Android go requires an Android phone. That's running two gigs or less at minimum. And so this is perfect for low end ultra budget phones out there from like Nokia and real me. And some of those Android 12 features include the pixels where I should say Android twelve's onscreen translation feature from the recent app screen, which quite a boon for these phones that are honestly the most global, I would say of like, you know, any Android phone. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:21:29):
Yeah. I think that's a
Florence Ion (00:21:29):
Fair. So you want translation on there? Mm-Hmm <affirmative> it's also getting the privacy dashboard, which Google's like really pushing through, like, here's your at a glance. Look at everything that Android is access to. You can go here into the settings and grab it. And along with the privacy dashboard, you also get the privacy indicator symbols. So when you're using the camera app, it'll pop up in the right hand corner and go, Hey, Hey, you're using the camera app. And the same is for the microphone. Another really now this, I think might be, you guys might have to correct me here. I feel like this might be exclusive to Android 12 go edition, but the approximate location permission <affirmative> I actually thought that this was quite, this is, mm. I wanna say genius. But what I really mean to say is, I think it's a good security measure actually, for some folks, which is like, you can still get the weather, but, you know, Google maps is not gonna put your approximate location on there and that's just to kind of aid in privacy, but also yeah. Yeah. But also to kind of dial down, I think the performance of all the, all the, what word am, I think I'm saying chips bands in my head apps, all the antennas they're being used. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:22:46):
So I'm, I'm looking at it right now and I'm sorry, I don't have my overhead camera fired up. What am I doing? But there is a toggle on Android 12 on my sixth pro that has used precise locations. So I think this is the feature, right. That when that's on it's precise, when it's off it's approximate, so
Florence Ion (00:23:03):
Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. Okay. That's like a,
Jason Howell (00:23:06):
That's like a half, it's a great feature full that's, like a half empty half full kind of approach in terms of wording mm-hmm <affirmative> <laugh>
Florence Ion (00:23:13):
Exactly. Oh, absolutely. The Android go, Andrew 12 go edition. I have to remember to say the whole, the whole thing also gonna get the splash greens API, which is supposedly going to help increase the animations and just like the overall smoothness of Android go by about 30%, according to Google. So sizable It's 10% over what they did in Android. Go 11, Android 11 go edition. So improving little by little. Yeah. And the exclusive optimizations actually is the automatic hibernation mode for apps. So a little bit like the permissions thing that we have in Android 12 right now, but this also kind of cuts down apps so that it's not using up battery life and CPU in the background. And guess profiles, because if you got a really cheap phone, you're probably passing it down from one kid to another in the family.
Jason Howell (00:24:11):
It could be, yeah, absolutely nice. Gonna
Florence Ion (00:24:14):
Get those guest profiles.
Jason Howell (00:24:16):
I haven't had a whole lot of experience running a device that has like that minimal amount of me memory and Android, you know, Android go running on. I'm trying to think if we ever got a device in the studio when we were in the studio to show that off and to get like a firsthand perspective, like how, how responsive is this, but I love that they're doing it because I mean, it's, it's incredibly important. Like you said, I mean, worldwide, there are so many of these lower SPECT devices, because there are many any markets around the world that like, that's, that's just the, that's the amount you know, of money that that someone can afford to spend on a smartphone. And they're, they're lucky to be able to get a smartphone at that price. And, you know, so having a version of the OS that really that is able to operate on those that like felt heart hardware is really important. So I'm happy Google, does it,
Florence Ion (00:25:10):
Have you seen, by the way, some of the specifications of these like Motorola phones, they're not bad, they're not bad. You're definitely Android go is more of a deal than it was. I think when it initially launched and it's because all the chip advancements and the software optimizations, they figured out how to like bring more performance to a very low end spec set, which I think benefits everybody at the end cuz it makes it really easy to give access.
Jason Howell (00:25:42):
Yeah. Yeah. So the Moto Eeries I think is what you're mm-hmm <affirmative>, that's what I'm, that's
Florence Ion (00:25:47):
What I find have have 6,000 million out phone with like a high resolution screen.
Jason Howell (00:25:54):
Yeah, yeah. And like, yeah, totally. And two gigs Ram of course mm-hmm <affirmative> right. That's
Florence Ion (00:26:00):
What that's, what's required, which it's the minimum for go, so yeah.
Jason Howell (00:26:03):
Yeah. Interesting. Good. Well then I'm, I'm, I'm happy that this exists. Yeah. That's good news. And so this, this officially rolls out. It's not rolling out yet, right? This is all set up and I think it rolls out somehow. That's my understanding.
Florence Ion (00:26:17):
I didn't have time to follow up with Google on that, but my understanding is this will roll out when the new phones get announced in 2022. So cool day now.
Jason Howell (00:26:26):
Sweet. All right. And our last, we got a
Ron Richards (00:26:30):
Follow up. Yeah. Our last story is a bit of a follow up flow. I dunno if you, if you followed this story, but last week we talked about the story of a couple cases. Was it last week, Jason? I think it was, yeah, it was just last week. Yep. Couple cases of, of people sending in their phones as RMAs as defects to get, you know, kind of supporter replacements. So then having their social media accounts get hacked and other disturbing kind of things happen to them related to that phone being sent into Google and you know, personal data leaking out and, and that sort of thing. Google announced that after that it was investigating and finally Google reported that the breaches weren't the result of their own employees. No details. Yeah, exactly. No details as to where the breaches took place though. I have to assume it's somewhere between the people who own the phones and Google though, somewhere in that's in that chain of events, the phone got into someone else's hands and they did it. Google will begin to share more info on how to lock down devices before sending them in for an RMA, which to be honest, it's 20, 21. I'm shocked that this hasn't happened already. Yeah,
Jason Howell (00:27:37):
Me too. Me too.
Ron Richards (00:27:38):
Yeah. And this includes methods of lockdown on devices that cannot factory reset. So, so, you know, I'm, I honestly, like, I cannot believe that it took this long for this sort of thing to happen. But you know, at least Google's somewhat not taking responsibility, but owning the problem and providing more more kind of you know, kind of solutions for people to safely send their phones in. But when we read this, my thought immediately was that this is not the person at Google. It's the kid at the mailboxes, et cetera, that got the box or it's, you know, somewhere along the chain where like, did the phone even get to Google, right. Like someone else got their hands on it and did this with it. So yeah, yeah,
Jason Howell (00:28:22):
Yeah. That's, that's interesting how many hands are actually placed on, you know, a device like this when it's, when it'ss going through the RMA process and if, if this is happening before it hits Google, then yeah. I guess it has to happen in transit. Someone has to know like a bad address. Yeah. Why would someone, yeah, I guess I have questions. Would, would someone do it?
Ron Richards (00:28:45):
I have no idea why someone would do it. Like what, what, like, other than
Jason Howell (00:28:48):
An RMA device, like
Ron Richards (00:28:51):
ING.
Jason Howell (00:28:52):
Yeah. But I mean, if it's broken and they're smart enough, you know, then they obviously know how to get into it. Even when it's broken, you know, as, as evidence by the fact that data did leak accounts were compromised. So yeah. Interesting though. Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:29:07):
Can I make a confession? Oh,
Ron Richards (00:29:09):
Oh yes. Did this, did this happen to you flow or no? You, you stole the phone. That's what it was. You
Jason Howell (00:29:15):
Intercepted the phone flow, intercepted the phone.
Florence Ion (00:29:19):
No, no. I mean, okay. All right. I've had, I've had stuff stolen from me, like in the midst of transit. So I can maybe imagine how this happened. No, but I, so I sent my Dell back in. I'm not gonna go into the whole story. And I did not, oh God, I can't believe you. I'm saying this publicly. I did not factory reset it.
Jason Howell (00:29:40):
Oh, wow. Ouch. I just, yeah. Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:29:43):
You gotta do that. And it, it says on there, it says delete it. And I was like, and so what'd you, do's kinda like, eh, it's fine. Yeah. And the thing is you have to write your password down for the technician. <Laugh> oh
Jason Howell (00:30:00):
Know, Jesus aboard really aboard.
Florence Ion (00:30:02):
I know I did this. I, and it was, it was all because I was because I sent the laptop right. As we were leaving for Tahoe. So I was just like, ah, whatever, let's get outta here. And that. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:30:14):
Yeah. Can't say I haven't been been there. So did you end up getting it back or what did you, what did you not
Florence Ion (00:30:20):
Doing? Not, yeah. We're, we're fighting right now. We're fighting. Yeah. We're gonna have to spend a little more money to fix something. The technician broke. Oh, geez. I wanna talk about it right now. <Laugh> okay.
Jason Howell (00:30:33):
It's me. Right. We'll let you off the hook this time, but yeah, I'm
Florence Ion (00:30:38):
Curious. I just wanted to, I just wanted to say that look, I just recently did at this with like a laptop so I can understand why yeah. How it happens. The RMA device that you're not expecting to turn on. You're like, whatever, just send it in. I don't even think, I don't even think I erased my Marilyn Monroe haunted pixel three before I sent it in. But you mean Maryland, although no Monroe, remember it was right in front of her house in Palm Springs died. Yes. Now
Jason Howell (00:31:09):
Remember, <laugh>
Florence Ion (00:31:11):
That awful, man. Anyway, <laugh>,
Jason Howell (00:31:15):
<Laugh> delete
Florence Ion (00:31:16):
Your stuff. That's the
Jason Howell (00:31:17):
Moral, the story. Yeah. Delete that is the moral the story. Be sure. Delete your stuff and yeah. Make sure you, you know, and if you can make sure you delete it securely, which good news, if you're, if you're setting up a smartphone, you know, to, to give it to someone or to sell it or whatever, get rid of it, say, you know, send it back or whatever chances are, but you should check in your settings. You'll find that your phone is encrypted. So when you do a factory set, it's gonna be good to go. So you know, keep that in mind. If, if anyone was actually able to recover anything, it would be the encrypted data. So they aren't gonna be able to do much with it. So anyways, random factoid let's take a break. Thanks sponsor. And then we will get back in and talk about some hardware news that we have in store for.
Jason Howell (00:32:03):
But first this episode of all about Android is brought to you by better help online therapy, and you can actually check 'em out better help.com/android. I did. And it's pretty awesome. The best way to think about therapy is, you know, I mean often the best way to think about things is through a bunch of analogies. We get our cars tuned up, you know, and we're doing that because we wanna prevent bigger issues down the road. Quite literally, we get annual checkups. We go to the gym, you know, all to kind of take care of our physical wellness, our physical health prevent injury, prevent disease. We do our chores around the home regularly. Well, some of us do because we don't wanna live with a giant mess of a house and, you know, mice and roaches and all that kind of stuff going to therapy is like all these it's routine maintenance, right?
Jason Howell (00:32:53):
It's for you for your mental and emotional wellness and wellbeing. And do that. You're gonna hopefully prevent bigger issues from happening down the road. Well, therapy doesn't mean that something's wrong with you, right? It means that you're actually investing in yourself to keep your mind healthy. That's really what you're doing. You're you are making an investment in yourself and that's what better help is all about it? Isn't just like any online therapy it's customized for you by offering, you know, things like video, phone, live chat sessions with your therapist. So you don't even have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to, if you want to, that's, that's great. They offer that it's all integrated into the system works really well. But if you wanted to just be by the phone or, you know, you want to chat with your therapist, that's fine too.
Jason Howell (00:33:45):
It's much more affordable than in person therapy. You can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours. It did not take me very long when I signed up for better help. And you know, kind of did the questionnaire. It was a very thorough direct questionnaire as far as why I'm there, what I'm looking for, who I'm looking for who, you know, do I have any preferences, all this kind of stuff. I mean, I heard from a therapist in less than like six hours. I was, I was matched with someone I heard back from them and we were rolling. So really cool stuff. Why invest in everything else and not invest in your mind and your body, you know, just your wellbeing. Well, this podcast is sponsored by better help and all about Android listeners get 10% off their first month@betterhelp.com slash Android. And I'll spell it out for you. That's B E T T E R H E L P. Better help.com/android. We thank better help for their support of all about Android. All right. Cue the hardware bumper because it's time for the hardware bumper
Florence Ion (00:35:01):
Motorola phone. And this time there's a new chip inside a new, what flavor is the chip? What flavors?
Jason Howell (00:35:10):
The chip? The apple dried, apple pistachio, pistachio
Florence Ion (00:35:15):
Dried apple chip. Snapd dragon eight gen one.
Jason Howell (00:35:19):
Oh, that kind of chip. Okay. All right. It's like a
Florence Ion (00:35:21):
C vinegar. All right, I'll take it. I'll take it spicy. We tried here folks. Moto edge X 30, which sounds it's like hardcore as its name suggests. Yeah. now this has got a similar design as Motorola's recent motor G series, but instead there are premium specifications packed inside. So we have a 6.7 inch full HD plus Ole display with a 144 Hertz refresh rate. Holy cow, by the that's a
Jason Howell (00:35:53):
Lot. Yeah, that is that's a lot. We've seen that a little bit too. Laptop
Florence Ion (00:35:57):
Caliber. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:36:00):
Budget. I don't know. I don't know that I've seen that with my, with my two eyes on a smartphone yet. I I've heard, you know, that it's, that it's coming to some smartphones, but I haven't actually seen that with my two eyes yet, but I wonder like, you know, again, here we are. Am I gonna notice the difference between 120 Hertz and 140 before hurts it? Not actually sure that I would, but hold
Florence Ion (00:36:19):
On. Before we get to the rest of these specs, do you think that we're gonna have the same situations that we had with TVs when they started to up the refresh rate? Remember, you'd be like, oh man. People act like didn't move weird.
Jason Howell (00:36:33):
My, my phone looks like a soap opera. It's gonna start looking like the Hobbitt movie. Yeah. Right. This phone looks too real. Like the, these icons look too real, too real. Yeah. I, I don't know. It
Florence Ion (00:36:46):
Is material you <laugh>.
Jason Howell (00:36:48):
Yes. So <laugh>
Florence Ion (00:36:52):
So that display actually has an in display 60 megapixel selfie camera on the premium version of the phone, which we'll see how that performs. Motorola, not exactly known for its photography brows. Just gonna put that out there. Sorry to be negative. Also eight or 12 gigs of Ram, which is really nice. 128 or 256 gigs of storage. Triple camera ran the back, which is kind of standard for everybody these days standard. Yeah. Yeah. It's releasing first in China for 500 to $550. U S D that's converted over from Chinese one and that's not bad. <Laugh> that's not a bad price at all. Aren't too shabby. More regions are expected in the coming weeks, so,
Jason Howell (00:37:46):
Hmm, man. I remember, I remember when Motorola phones were the bees knees, when when a new Motorola device announcement came and it was like, all right, stop the presses. This is, this is big. Be it the motor OG for the, for that range or, you know, the Moto X and you know, all their, their premium back in the back in their heyday, man. Now I, I feel like Moto is just, I don't know it's is changed. Man's changed. I mean, this, this looks, this looks nice, but God, maybe, maybe it's just that we've seen, we've already seen so much with smartphones. It's hard to get really excited about specs anymore. You know?
Florence Ion (00:38:23):
So I have a theory. I have a theory. Yeah. You know, you say Motorola has changed. Let's not forget that Lenovo took over yeah. A while back. True.
Jason Howell (00:38:34):
Good thing to point out
Florence Ion (00:38:36):
And something like a high refresh rate, a bunch of Ram. This just sounds very like, I wanna say, I, I don't wanna say game, but I'm gonna say it. I'm gonna say gamery, I'm gonna say it's, it's a
Ron Richards (00:38:51):
Demographic. I say it. It's not a bad word demographic. Yeah.
Florence Ion (00:38:55):
It's a classification of a customer.
Jason Howell (00:38:58):
I think that a hun, when you're pushing 144 Hertz, a refresh rate, like that is a spec that I, I would argue maybe I'm wrong, but I would argue only really matters to someone like, like a gamer that actually is trained to, to see an under orand why, that, that makes a difference in something versus like 90 Hertz or 60 Hertz. Like it actually does make a difference when you're gaming. I don't know if it makes a huge difference when you're mobile gaming versus like seeing it on a really big screen, you know, there's probably a little bit of a difference there, but yeah, I would agree. That's that's a spec that really seems geared for someone who's gaming to me,
Florence Ion (00:39:38):
I think 550 bucks. Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:39:41):
Not too shabby. Yeah. I mean, and who knows what that's gonna be priced at? If it's released in the us, it's probably gonna be more than that, but I don't think you're looking, this is like a thousand dollars phone, you know, this is still gonna be an affordable device, but
Florence Ion (00:39:53):
Yeah. You know, also in, we didn't even talk about the chip, but yeah. I mean, I guess this is good news for Callcom in China.
Jason Howell (00:40:05):
Yeah. Are you excited about the, the new snap dragon eight gen one chip?
Florence Ion (00:40:10):
I am. What I am enjoying right now is being a fly on the wall to all these C as being like, we can do better than apple. That's what I'm enjoying right now. <Laugh>,
Ron Richards (00:40:21):
It's fun. It is a fun adventure to watch everybody kind of go on though, right? I mean,
Jason Howell (00:40:26):
Yeah, yeah,
Florence Ion (00:40:27):
Yeah. It's like, we will do better. We will be better,
Ron Richards (00:40:31):
Especially. And, and what, what I also think is funny is that especially people who are established in space, like snap, dragon, who's been doing this for a long time. Right. Versus apple and Google who are just kind of on the scene. Right. So mm-hmm, <affirmative>, I mean, competition is a good thing, but like, if I were Snapdragon, you've got years of, you know, experience legacy. Right. Yeah. Right. And they, yeah. I don't know. I just think they shouldn't sell themselves too short. I,
Florence Ion (00:40:58):
Yeah. And just stop using buzzwords and put pedal to the metal.
Ron Richards (00:41:02):
Yeah. There she wrote it. It, it writes itself.
Jason Howell (00:41:06):
I know, right? Yeah. You're, you're coming up with titles left right. And center <laugh>
Ron Richards (00:41:14):
All right. Well, moving on. So our good friends over at oppo haven't released a foldable device yet, but it did post late last week and a blog post about its first foldable. The find N it is just a weird name. I mean, maybe it's, it's lost in translation, but oppo said it intended to launch the device tomorrow and which is December 15th. Here's the, today, the December 14th. So tomorrow the 15th. And they included a shot, although it seems like they, I mean, like you launched the device when you talk about it, like, why talk about it before you launch it? But anyway so the blog post included a shot of the device from the side folded up and a short promo video that shows off the device. It said it to produce six prototypes since 2018, which doesn't seem like a lot in three years, I'd be like, you know, nearly four years you can do more than six prototypes.
Ron Richards (00:42:09):
And they say, and this, if this is true and we'll have to find out and they actually officially launch it, they figured out how to prevent the crease in the middle. Cuz Lord knows if anybody can figure that out as APO. And they also wanted to make the folded design look more like a normal smartphone and not a narrow front screen, like the Z fold and E leaks actually leaked the promo images of the, of the device as well. Which, you know, if a leaks is leaking it that it's, it's, you know, it's real. I love that TA tagline from the oppo video, from novelty to necessity, which I gotta give them credit. If you're gonna try to sell a foldable at this point, you know, that's a pretty clever tagline from novelty to necessity. Like it went from being this, you know, kind of, we, your thing, that's a novelty to actually something that you need. You know, there's a, there's a lot to like about this from oppo. I'm curious to see what it'll be tomorrow though. What do, what do we think of this? Do you think Kapos entry and foldables gonna be the game changer with its lack of crease?
Jason Howell (00:43:10):
I mean, I, you know, I'm, I'm maybe less excited or less interested, let's say the lack of crease. And I'm more interested in the fact that it actually really does seem to look like a real phone when it's folded up and you know, which sounds silly, cuz like why, why haven't the other, you know, full like the Z fold and Z fold three, they they've made changes to where that front display looks more like a smartphone, but when you use it, I mean it's super narrow. Everything looks a little bit smaller on this device, at least according to the leaked press images. And then also the promo video that front face looks like it's, you know, side to side edge to edge glass or at least close to it. So, you know, you aren't making sacrifices there. So I think, I think that's good. I think I, I mean that inevitability as far as the Z default is concerned, but oppo is just getting there first and apparently by the way, speaking of Samsung, the, the display is Samsung displayed based on a report from a Korean outlet via elect. Of course it is. Yes. Interesting. Of course it is. Who else is
Florence Ion (00:44:13):
Selling these components? Samsung is selling them and that's the endgame here.
Jason Howell (00:44:20):
Hmm. Yeah. Yep, yep. Good job oppo. We'll we'll probably find out more. Well, we'll definitely find out more tomorrow and didn't we, we had a story last week. I believe that also hinges on some announcements that are coming tomorrow. Who was it? Was it, it was TCL, the Folden slides TCL. Yep. The fold slides, the slides, the Folden slide, it unfolds. And then it slides also very
Ron Richards (00:44:46):
Slowly like the fold slides slowly. That's what should be
Jason Howell (00:44:50):
Called. Yeah. So yes, it slow fold. So anyways, we'll have some more interesting stuff coming out of that announcement tomorrow for sure. And then to follow up LA last week we had an emailer who asked about the TCL Google TVs compared to the TCL Roku TV, Roku. I dunno why I accented Ooh, Roku, <laugh> Roku, Roku. And wanted to know like, is there any reason why I shouldn't buy the Google TV version? And we were like, no, you, you get the Google TV version, right? Like all the, all the same hardware and everything like that. Plus the Google TV interface, like why wouldn't you do it? And then this news happened, I think like a day later, who knows if it was because of the show? I like to think sometimes that it is TCL pulled its Google TV sets from best buy best buy.
Jason Howell (00:45:42):
By the way is the only place from my understanding where you can buy the, the Google TV sets that TCL makes pulled those sets from best buy else because of some performance issues. They're going to apparently at some point roll out a software update that will address these things nine to five Google editors noted in their coverage on this that, you know, some of them have the Google TV versions of these TCL displays and they say, yes, performance has been really sluggish. There were issues with the remote. I don't know what those issues were though. And those complaints, mirrored customer complaints that you can find in other places, you know, on best buy and in Reddit and everything like that. So apparently there are serious enough performance issues with these TCL, Google TVs that they're pulling 'em shelves. So whoever it was that we spoke with last week, I can look up the name to be sure it's I've got it right here. It is Jared. Maybe hold, you know, holding pattern. Yep. I'm not saying that the TCL TV is, is a bad option is just right now, you're not gonna be able to get it and you might not want it if the performance is that bad, but it sounds like they're looking into it and they're gonna address it. So that's promising
Ron Richards (00:47:01):
Yeah.
Jason Howell (00:47:02):
Hopeful. It happens. Yeah, it happens.
Ron Richards (00:47:06):
All right. So let's take a break and thanks our next sponsor of this episode. This episode of all about Android is brought you by a good for friends at audible. And listen, this holiday season will certainly be more special than last. I know what it already is. It's gonna just get, be even more special. And it's finally time to gather together and exchange thoughtful gifts with the people you care about in the midst of all the holiday excitement, think about giving yourself the gift of an audible membership now is the absolute best time to do it with a special offer of 60% off your first three months. And with audible, you can listen to more of whatever you're into because audible has it all. An unbeatable selection of audio books, tons of binge worthy podcasts than exclusive originals, all available to download or stream.
Ron Richards (00:47:50):
So here's what you get as an audible member. You can choose one title a month, like the latest, best seller or hottest new release and it's yours to keep forever. But here's the best part. You also get full access to audible streaming library, the plus catalog. You can discover your next podcast, obsession, check that audio book off your bucket list or get lost in a world of original content from celebrity creators, bestselling authors and leaving experts, the kind of stuff you can't hear anywhere else stream all you want as much as you want and to use your audible membership, you need to download the audible app. The audible app is free and can be installed on all smartphones and tablets. And let me tell you, once you install that audible, you will literally never uninstall it because you won't be sorry. I love audible.
Ron Richards (00:48:36):
I've been using it for years. It's the go-to spot. And honestly, you know, when there's a new release that I've been waiting for four months, like termination shock the latest work from Neil Stevenson, one of my favorite author you got jump all over it. Of course, they've got an audio version and you can dive in and get lost into this dystopian near future climate change about 25% of the way through it. And I just love Neil Stevenson, all's writing. And of course it's on audible. It just came out a couple weeks ago and you do not want sit love it, love it, love it. And thank you audible for getting it up on there because no matter where you're going or what you're doing this holiday season, you're always having just the right thing to listen to at your fingertips. It's perfect for commuting at the gym long road trips, or just cozying up by a fire. So right now, for a limited time, save 60% on your first three months of audible. That's only 5 95 a month. Give yourself the gift of listening for more go to audible.com/all about Android or text all about Android to 500 dash 500. That's a U D I B L e.com/all about Android or text all about Android to 500, 500. And thanks audible for B. Awesome. And keep it as entertained. Audio style,
Jason Howell (00:49:55):
Audio style. Thank you, audible. You are awesome. And have been for so many years. Yeah, I love it. All right. Speaking of awesome apps, it's time for some app news, some good, some bad. I'm not sure this
Ron Richards (00:50:09):
First one is awesome.
Jason Howell (00:50:10):
Yeah. That's why you got this first one, Ron. Yeah.
Ron Richards (00:50:17):
I was like, look, I was like, oh, grown. So it's always a, it's always a moment in time when apple releases an app on Android this time it's tracker detect for air tags get excited. So for those who don't own iPhones or iPads to ID, air tags that they discover out in the world also other trackers compatible with apples find my network. And apple did mention, and I feel like we talked about this. They did mention that they were working on this app for Android back in June as they rolled out their, you know, air tag tracking system and realized, wait a minute, in order for this to work, we really gotta work with every device out there. So maybe we should do an Android version. I I, whatever. I have no interest in downloading this. So
Jason Howell (00:51:03):
You don't wanna be part of the tracking community for air tags.
Ron Richards (00:51:07):
No, thank you. I'll pass
Jason Howell (00:51:09):
<Laugh>. I am curious to know like how, how successful I know that there's like actually Steve Gibson talked today about how air tags are being used in some like not so good ways of for tracking.
Florence Ion (00:51:24):
Oh yeah. Air tags. Tiktok is really scary. <Laugh> I, no, I know it's it sounds hilarious, but it's actually not because, so the problem with TikTok is that you'll go down the algorithm and be like, wow, this is hilarious. This is funny. This is great. It totally gets what I want. And then all of a sudden it'll hit you with something really dark. No, it'll just like go to something really dark. Oh. And you're like, oh my God, no. And this, this is everybody's experience with TikTok after you've been on it for a while. And I started to get the stalker talk. So wow. Women who are being stalked. Yeah. It's terrible. But the air tags always tagged in these particular videos and it's just women talking about how really scary people like will put this in their car or just something ridiculous like that. And so I, I don't know what Steve talked about the other day, but I know that it's been in the conversation about how, at least now like Android users could help
Jason Howell (00:52:35):
Just, you know? Yeah. Well, what Steve talked about has to do with thieves using air tags to track and steal cars from so, so like a thieve might be out, I took it dark according to this story, listen. Ooh, what's that?
Florence Ion (00:52:55):
I, I took it a little dark, but you know, that's
Jason Howell (00:52:58):
Well, no, but I, in
Florence Ion (00:52:59):
My side of the internet,
Jason Howell (00:53:00):
<Laugh> I think ultimately like, obviously there's a lot of, there's a lot of benefit that can come from something like a Bluetooth tag or a, a, you know, an air tag or whatever. There's also are a lot of ways that it can be used for really bad things. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> <laugh> so, and I dunno, I like, I, I have no real interest in having these, I lost my wallet a couple weeks ago and for a, and <laugh>, you know, I guess at the time I was like, I wish I had a tracker on it, but mm-hmm, <affirmative>, you know, ultimately by the way, totally unrelated to anything. A week later I decided, all right, I haven't found my wallet. I probably lost it for good. I called all my cards, canceled them, got new ones, went to the DMV, ordered a new driver's license. And of course the next morning my wife found the wallet. So that's just how it goes. <Laugh> irony. That's just how it goes. But anyways, if I'd had a tracker in that thing, then I would've found my wallet, you know, in my car, in the random, weird little place that it fell into. But outside of that one example, I really have had no real interest in, in having a tracker. I, they also just, I mean, they're small, but they're not so small that they aren't bulky to some degree. I feel
Florence Ion (00:54:11):
I have a Samsung tag around here. I still haven't set it up. And part of it is because I just haven't read left the house much. Yeah. So I don't really know what to put it on.
Jason Howell (00:54:22):
<Laugh> well, maybe you have nothing that you need to put it
Florence Ion (00:54:26):
On. That's my, my child has her own GPS tracker. So wait
Jason Howell (00:54:30):
<Laugh> is she wearing a smart watch?
Florence Ion (00:54:34):
No. No. There are kids though that wear, like, you can buy through Verizon or your carrier, like a smart watch, you know, she has the little geo bit still that she just like pins on, you know, just goes on her back and oh,
Jason Howell (00:54:47):
Okay. You know
Florence Ion (00:54:48):
It's yeah. It's great. It uses 5g, LTE and works almost globally. Is
Jason Howell (00:54:56):
That through Verizon?
Florence Ion (00:54:58):
No, it's independent. Although they just got bought by, they, they got bought by life 360, I think. And I'm actually looking into that. Cause I heard,
Jason Howell (00:55:06):
Yeah, you gotta look into that. I've been reading
Florence Ion (00:55:08):
Some stuff about life 360 and I was just like, okay. But I don't wanna say anything. Look, look into it. And I don't wanna, I don't wanna put something out there. That's untruthful, cuz that would not be journalistic of me, but you know, it's something I'm looking into.
Jason Howell (00:55:22):
Yeah. Just know for anyone life 360 is probably an app you want to look into and maybe not do a whole lot of business with they were yeah, just yeah, just praying
Florence Ion (00:55:32):
Nobody's some data selling or sharing information about where my daughter.
Jason Howell (00:55:37):
Yeah, yeah. No good. No good look into it. Definitely look into it. Reddit keeps coming up on this show. Reddit user posted late last month about their pixel three running Android 11 failed to dial 9 1 1. It was an emergency situation. Apparently this the Red's grandmother had what the red suspected was a stroke used the, the, the pixel three to, to place a nine one one call the call from my understanding rang once and then it got stuck. The device was then, and this is a quote, unable to do anything other than click through apps with an emergency phone call running in the background. So no one ended up picking up. I, it makes it sound like maybe it was, it was not possible to like hang up or, or anything. Luckily they had a access to a landline, so they were able to call there ultimately and and get the emergency taken care of.
Jason Howell (00:56:36):
But this Redditor posted it to the Google pixel subreddit. Apparently. Now this post is most upvoted of all times. So it's getting a lot of uptake. The issue was reproducible by the user. So they were able to show like, Hey, this is just a one off thing that happened. It, it happened. It's happened again and again, Google investigated the issue. It turns out that the user had a Microsoft teams installed. That's why this is in the app section, but, and it's not just the fact that the app that Microsoft teams was was installed on the device. The user was not logged in. And that sounds like, you know, a stupid reason for a nine one one call to not go through. But that apparently led to, and this is another quote, an unintended between the Microsoft teams app and the underlying Android operating system. That's according to Google Google recommends Android 10 and up users who happen to have teams installed.
Jason Howell (00:57:36):
Be sure that you're logged in if not uninstall and reinstall the app, apparently that addresses the problem in the interim. A friend of the show, Michelle Ramon did some really great investigative work on how exactly this happened and I'm not gonna lie. It flies over my head cuz you know, Michelle he's, he's just incredibly wicked smart. And so he broke it down and he, you know, he was able to illustrate exactly what the interactions were. But has something to do with apps that manage phone calls and teams, you know, does this through Skype. There are plenty of other apps that do this and those apps having too many phone account instances in the code and how that interacts with an Android bug on Google side. So it's kind of a perfect storm situation. The unfortunate thing is it's a perfect storm of situation that could have very dire consequences, literally preventing an emergency call from going through to get, you know, potentially to get help, to save someone's life. So so yeah, something to know about Google is Ron Amadio had tweeted out that Google's unlikely to patch this until next month's update, which seems like a, a distance away when you're talking about something that's potentially serious. And I would imagine the GSMA would not be okay with that. But definitely something to keep in mind. That's, that's scary that that would be scary if you had to rely on your phone to call nine one one and it just did not work.
Ron Richards (00:59:03):
I gotta tell you this, the, the underlying story here is that Microsoft teams continues to be one of the most horrible pieces of software in the world.
Jason Howell (00:59:14):
Wow.
Ron Richards (00:59:15):
Like, I mean, per
Jason Howell (00:59:16):
Personal experience, like in, in worked
Ron Richards (00:59:19):
With it because no, because I avoid it like the plague. But but yeah, no, it is just, I, I just, I, I cannot, I, you know, I give a lot of credit to Microsoft in recent years for kind of, you know kind of maturing in its old age and, you know, Ella's leadership has, has I think been positive and we've seen Microsoft do cool things running Android, you know, and, and, and developing stuff. And, you know, I, Microsoft you know, to a certain degree has become somewhat, you know, like they're so ubiquitous in terms of with like word and Excel and PowerPoint and those applications that make up their office suite. And they're so, you know, ingrained in schools and businesses and things like that, the office 365 platform and all this stuff like that. And it's fine, you know, like anybody who's tried to use word online versus Google docs, you know, you know, you know, if, you know, you know, right. <Laugh> but like, but the thing is, at least it's usable and, and they're making improvements and making it better and all this sort of stuff. But at the end of the day, teams, for some reason is just like like a miserable exp. And so like when I, when I heard about this, I'm like, of course, of course, of course teams is at the heart of this. Right? Like this is it's amazing. So whatever, I just I'm, I'm, I'm just not surprised. I do not
Jason Howell (01:00:34):
Like to yeah. Drop em, dropping bombs on Microsoft. Scooter racks does point out in the chat room that Microsoft has patched it. They released and teams app to fix the bug according to scooter X. And that's great. I think though, what this points out is there is an underlying issue that Google needs to address as well. And so that's, you know, that's something that Google's gonna have to do on their end. So, you know, cuz I imagine this isn't, this isn't an issue that would only be related to teams app. Potentially another app could also have this, this this issue if the perfect storm lines up there too. So hopefully it won't and Ooh, who are we hearing? The CA oh, do you hear,
Florence Ion (01:01:16):
Do you hear Mona? Yeah. Somebody. Oh,
Ron Richards (01:01:18):
Is that
Jason Howell (01:01:21):
Mona?
Florence Ion (01:01:21):
No, it's fine. It's really loud now. She's really loud. And she has an attitude. So
Jason Howell (01:01:26):
<Laugh> kids, kids do that, that, that happens then, then it doesn't change for a very long time. Let's just say <laugh>
Florence Ion (01:01:35):
Can I add to this discussion? I know we're kinda railing on Microsoft teams, which I never use. But I want to share <affirmative> that Andy and NACO who I do material podcasts with on the relay FM network. He and I have been using Google duo on the web to record the pod every week recently. Oh really?
Jason Howell (01:01:56):
Yes. Because, and you're hap happy with it.
Florence Ion (01:01:59):
Our respective powers keep going out, power keeps going out from, you know, cuz infrastructure, America, et cetera, whether life whatnot. Yeah. And Google duo doesn't require as much. I don't know. It's just a little more low maintenance or what have you. And so it's been working quite nice. I didn't even know you could do it in the browser. <Laugh> it's like something I learned.
Jason Howell (01:02:23):
Yeah. That's great. <Laugh> I haven't really, I haven't used duo in the browser. I, I guess I wasn't too familiar with, with that
Florence Ion (01:02:29):
Either it's duo.google.com.
Jason Howell (01:02:31):
That makes too much sense. <Laugh> they should really change that and make it really difficult to get to. Well, that's cool. That's a, that's a good recommendation. I don't
Florence Ion (01:02:40):
Know how like malleable it is for like a, a TWI situation, but I will say it's kind
Jason Howell (01:02:48):
Of nice that's well for you guys. Yeah. Love it. Good stuff flow. You have the last one. I've
Florence Ion (01:02:56):
Got the last one last but not least. And this is very interesting news. We don't really know what is happening with this Android on windows saga, cuz that really is what it is at this point. But we do know that all of this, I don't wanna call it infighting, but all of this scuffling is at least getting us more opportunities to have Android on windows. So Google actually built a native app for windows that will allow Google play games to run directly in the operating system. So we're not talking about the built-in windows 11 situation that we have going on with. I think it's called the Intel bridge. We're not talking about BlueStacks technology, which is an app that I still use. So I can access a couple of Android app apps on my PC. We're talking about this is from Google's camp and what they're gonna do is they're gonna allow you and me with our Android games to play on the PC and then go to our Android phones and continue there. So kind of cool in theory this is also gonna work theoretically with the Chromebook, which I'm sure is like what is what they're going for here gonna be released sometime next year? I wouldn't be surprised. I'm just gonna put this out there. Let's manifest it to come around, Google I 2022
Jason Howell (01:04:13):
Let's and let and let's make make COVID gone entirely and, and Google iOS in person by
Florence Ion (01:04:19):
Then too. Yeah. And so my daughter, absolutely. I would appreciate that. Microsoft now again, we know they've been trying a lot to do this whole Android apps thing. They were doing it through the Amazon app store though. So right. Any anybody that brings the play store to windows? I'm I, I appreciate it. I appreciate the effort.
Jason Howell (01:04:43):
<Laugh> thank you. Yeah. And Google's, Google's making this you know, to, to be their own kind of native approach that they're gonna fill in a lot of the gaps that you don't get from the Amazon solution, cuz it's a much more limited pool of, of apps and games. So yeah. Wild well about it now suddenly it's like, it's like a race it's like, who's gonna, who's gonna bring Android to, to windows first.
Florence Ion (01:05:05):
Microsoft didn't have it at launch for windows 11. So somebody else has gotta fill in that void. It's like an
Jason Howell (01:05:11):
Arm's race. Totally. An arms race, an arms race for nerds. Wait a minute. This doesn't happen. Let's all do it. <Laugh> this Ana scene. It's the GD arms race.
Ron Richards (01:05:22):
There it is. It's a
Jason Howell (01:05:23):
GD arms race. <Laugh> All right. Well we have a whole lot of your email coming up next.
Speaker 4 (01:05:33):
Thanks for listening to TWI podcast. Do you want to read HR tech savvy audience with customized host red ads that stand out as an ad supported network? We are always looking for new partners, get an authentic introduction of your products and services to our qualified audience. Our ads are original specialized and all twit shows include video, which means we can show off products, websites, and customized videos visit twi.tv/advertise and launch your campaign today. That's twi.tv/advertise
Jason Howell (01:06:07):
AAA twi.tv 3, 4 7 show AA. Those are the points of contact. If you wanna get in touch with us and share your thoughts, Ron, you have the first
Ron Richards (01:06:16):
One I do. So our first email comes from Trevor waters who writes in, says after hearing the news that the official phone version of, of AA Android auto was Android auto, right? For a moment, I was like all about Android. What <laugh> flow for video viewers or showing her thoughts? I know this is a, this is a trigger. This is a trigger warning, her flow. But anyway, so after hearing the news that the official phone version of Android auto was going away, I decided to look for an app that was being actively maintained. I ended up finding auto Zen, which has an interface similar to Android auto version two, even though I usually drive a vehicle with built in Android auto, I ended up using auto Zen as well due to various glitches. I've experienced with my vehicles built version of Android auto.
Ron Richards (01:07:00):
It works really well and has received numerous updates. And now features since it was released. The one downside to the app is that has a $4 yearly subscription to unlock all the features except turn by turn directions, which cost $8 a year. You can also pay $17 a year for lifetime access to all features. The developer chose these prices due to their ongoing cost of integr Mapbox into the app. Even though I don't like paying a subscription for an app, this is one of the few apps where I feel like this is a worthwhile expense. It also incentivizes the developer to keep improving and updating their apps. They can justify dedicating time to it due to the continuous revenue stream. Hopefully this will be useful to people that have been affected by the removal of the phone base, Android auto. And thank you Trevor. There's a lot to unpack here and I know you wrote in about E Android auto, but I wanna back up to something that you said that's quote unquote, even though I don't like paying a subscription for a app and, and where you then go on to extol the virtues of actually paying developers for the apps that they, they, they do.
Ron Richards (01:07:59):
So you can, so they can update and maintain and continue the app that you are enjoying using for what you want to be. Nothing. especially considering a $4 yearly subscription, it's probably less than what you pay at Starbucks or whatever, or wherever you go. And $17 for lifetime access is like, don't go to the movies once, right? Like <laugh> just, I just we've said it for years. You gotta pay your devs. You gotta pay your devs. I, I, I, I'm happy to pay that lifetime subscription for an app if I'm getting used out of it. And I actually like it and enjoy it. So I just needed to get that off my chest. But said Android auto. I know this has been a heartbreaking topic for a lot of people. Flow included flow. Have you checked out auto Zen?
Florence Ion (01:08:45):
No, but now I'm going to, can I tell you though, and I'm writing about this for Gizmoto so it's coming soon, my full thoughts, but I ended up getting a Spotify car thing.
Jason Howell (01:08:56):
Oh yeah. What do you think of that? Oh, wow. <Laugh> what <laugh> oh, there we go. There we go. I can't give away
Florence Ion (01:09:02):
All the content yet and I'm still kind of working it out, but
Jason Howell (01:09:06):
So far I haven't heard good things. I'll just say that
Florence Ion (01:09:10):
So far, it's not filling the void because yeah. This Android auto changeover has been severely devastating for me. And like, I'm not, I'm hoping to have my car for maybe another, like two years at this point. So let's try and make it easy for me to listen to music please. And yeah, look at a map. <Laugh> like, that's what I
Jason Howell (01:09:33):
Need. Yeah. I mean, this app actually really good. And you know what Ron, I think I, I read the, the tone of Trevor's email, I think differently than yours. I think what I read is because, because I think a lot of people feel like they're being subscription to death, right? Like his subscriptions everywhere. Yeah. And I think when I read this, I, I read like, you know, know, I normally don't like subscriptions, but this thing's really well designed. He does have to pay for, for everything behind. I'm happy to do it here. That, that was kind of my interpretation of this particular email, but which, which I would agree with, I wouldn't pay subscriptions for every app either. Like I, I would be very picky and choosy about which, which, well, I think
Ron Richards (01:10:12):
You, and I think you should be. And I think you can be, but when you, when you come, but when you, when you lay down on a specific thing, like, I don't like paying a subscription for an app, you know? Yeah. You know, then, then you're really limiting unless you're buying. Unless like, and, and I'm sorry. And I'm SU and try, right. I didn't mean to come down too hard on you, you know, I'm assuming you're not paying for an app. Like if you're not like you, like, if autos end cost $8 flat and there was no subscription, would you pay the $8 to use it or not like that? You know, that, that, that's another question that there, but Jason, I feel like we've been having this conversation since push bullet came out all those years ago. I remember a push bullet. We're like, oh my God, push, bullet's amazing. And do all this sort of stuff. It's like, oh, they're charging a subscription, forget this. And it's like, I don't know. Maybe I'm a little sensitive because I'm you know, a co-owner of a company.
Jason Howell (01:10:54):
Yeah, yeah. You've got a horse in this.
Ron Richards (01:10:56):
Yeah. That has a subscription. You know, that, that is software as a service. And I I'll be honest with you. He, you know, even Trevor sites in, in the email that, you know, that, that the developer justified it due to the cost of Mapbox, that's, that's a hundred percent true. It is not cheap. It is not easy or cheap to make an app that actually has function and uses third party libraries like Mapbox or Mapbox or Google Google's, whole suite and all this sort of stuff. I could show you our monthly cost of operating score it. And, and with the score it app you know, we're, we, we've got all of Google location services in there. There's all this, the, all this kind of overhead Heroku, all these other certain century, all these other monitoring services and things like that cost us money, you know? And, and you got like this, like I took business 1 0 1 in college, and that was, that was all I took, but I still took business 1 0 1, you gotta, you gotta spend money to make money, but you gotta, you a charge to make money too. Right. So, yeah, it's just, it's just
Jason Howell (01:11:56):
Tricky. It's just tricky. There's gotta be value. Yeah. Yeah. People have, you have to display that there's value there. And then people who would, would use your product have to recognize that value. And the, the truth is over time, we've been conditioned to in many ways expect free. That's. That's why we've, you know, for long on this long time on this show, you know, support your devs. We try and reiterate that point because it kind of is undoing the nega the negative kind of habits that we've created over the years by emphasizing, ah, that's free. And you know, and now we're kind of on the other side of that realizing it's never really, truly free. Like there you do pay a cost and are you okay with the cost that you pay with your data sharing or your attention and your time and watching a pointless, stupid, you know, ads or whatever, that's why you pay.
Jason Howell (01:12:46):
And, and you also pay to support the infrastructure. And some of these apps really do have an infrastructure infrastructure that can't be supported in 100% by the developer or supported 100%, you know, IM perpetuity for year after year after, year on an app that you paid $3 for five years ago. Like that's just not business sense tells you that's not, you know, gonna support it long term. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, thank you for writing in Trevor and thank you sharing this, this app. It actually looks really great for people who are looking for an Android auto alternative looks like a good solution, definitely worth checking out. And I, I don't think that that's you know, the, the cost of this, even for the lifetime access, if you're gonna pay $4 yearly or, you know, another $8 for, for turn by turn directions, the, the lifetime access is $3 more than that.
Jason Howell (01:13:38):
And you don't ever have to think about, you know, the, the restrictions again, so not bad. Mike wrote in to say, I recently upgraded to a pixel six. I've been very happy with it. This is my first phone with 5g, and I've discovered that my 5g signal inside my place of deployment is terrible. If I stay on 5g at work, I'm lucky if I can get the Google webpage to load, but my connection over LTE is good enough that I can listen to Spotify and even watch a YouTube video at four 80 P without buffering. So far, I've been unable to find a way to automate a switch between my 5g and LTE connections. I would love to find some way to automate my phone, shutting off my 5g connection and switching over to LTE when I get to work and then having my connection switch back over to 5g.
Jason Howell (01:14:24):
When I leave work, it's not that big of a pain that I can't do it myself, but it would be very handy if my phone could just make the switch for me, I do not want to root my phone. So I know that makes this trickier, but do you know of a way that I can make this automation work? And I think immediately my mind jumps to Tasker, this seems like a, a, a solution purpose built, you know made like Tasker was made for things like this. And I did some searching. I did didn't find a specific a specific tutorial that shows you how to set up a Tasker profile that would do this with 5g. But I did notice that there are, those do exist for switching between 3g and 4g. So maybe you could repurpose that. It makes sense to me that you should be able to do this with 4g and 5g setting, you know, a redor actually suggested setting up a location context for your office. So when you're within that location context, it switches to 4g when you're outside of that location, it switches back to 5g. So that's, that's an idea, but I have a hard time thinking that if you looked into this, you didn't consider Tasker. So maybe Tasker doesn't do this, but seems like the right app for that Tasker usually does these things really well. Yeah.
Florence Ion (01:15:37):
Oh man. This 5g roll out so messy.
Jason Howell (01:15:41):
Yeah. Well, yeah. And, and that's worth, that's worth mentioning as well. 5G, just inherently as a as a signal has a harder time coming into buildings. It's just, it's kind one of the downsides of certain types, certain flavors of 5g. So what you're experiencing you're alone is
Florence Ion (01:15:59):
Five G's biggest enemy
Jason Howell (01:16:01):
<Laugh> oh, yeah, yeah. And it becomes, and what's, what's frustrating. Stucco. I dunno. A lot. What's frustrating is I I have definitely noticed that when my phone is on 5g, like it says 5g. And so I expect, okay, well, things are gonna be as good as LTE, if not better. And then things just get stalled and stuck. And it's like, I see 5g there and I've got bars. Why is it stuck? Why is nothing happening right now? <Affirmative> and that's frustrating. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> I feel you paying Mike. Hopefully that's helpful. That's what we got there. Okay. And flow. You have the honor.
Florence Ion (01:16:46):
So this is a great actually, excuse me. I do have the honor, I have the honor of do we episode five 50 fives email of the week. Here we go. Now regarding Matt's issue with birthday reminders and Google assistant for episode 5 54, this isn't a fix, but an alternate solution that might help Matt, as well as Jason, Ron, and other Facebook adverse folks out there. I used the app called birthdays. It's spell B I R D a Y S. By the way, you can manly add birthdays to the app or import them from your contact list. The app will remind you on people's birthdays. And this is my favorite feature. There's an option for an additional reminder. One day, two days, three days, one week or two weeks before, if you need a reminder to buy or mail a gift or card for someone happy holidays to everyone, Brian and gloomy and chili Pittsburgh, Brian, you are after my own heart. Let me tell you, 2021 is the year that I forgot a lot of birthdays.
Jason Howell (01:17:57):
<Laugh> any particular reason? Just, just busy.
Florence Ion (01:18:02):
Well, I, I became a parent. My mind is usually the thinking about her and I went back to work and my brain is just so filled with things that I need to track and need to do and need to learn. And some days I don't even know what, what the actual date is, cuz I just, I just know it's Wednesday and that's all that matters. And so I'll forget a person's birthday. And then I feel like a complete garbage person at the end. I used to so good about this. I used to be very good about getting a card in the mail or getting a, a text with a really great animated graphic. And this 2021 is just, I could use this app is what I'm saying. So thank you, Brian. <Laugh> thank you, Brian, for writing and about bur days
Jason Howell (01:18:47):
Bur dayss. I also like the name bur days. Bur dayss when's your, that's your name with your bird? Cause that's
Florence Ion (01:18:54):
The way you say it as a kitty, as a kitty, as a kid
Jason Howell (01:18:57):
Kid, as a kid. Anyway, <laugh> it's Bob Burdi.
Florence Ion (01:19:01):
Yeah. Thank you, Brian. This week you may be chilly and gloomy Pittsburgh, but you are also the now of the week. I hope that could warm
Jason Howell (01:19:15):
Right on. That was our app email block this, this week,
Florence Ion (01:19:21):
I was gonna say that felt like the app arena from, but from the listeners.
Jason Howell (01:19:26):
Yeah, totally fill in the void of the app arena that we absolutely do not do anymore. I'm sorry to say I don't miss it one bit, but I'm happy that you guys are sending it to that for, I miss it a little bit. I miss
Florence Ion (01:19:39):
It a little bit. Think about it today. Like a little bit. I miss
Jason Howell (01:19:43):
It. I, I just, I don't miss the scramble. I don't miss the, I don't have an app. I better come up with an app to recommend, you know, it's some, sometimes it happened organically and other times it, it felt like I just had to find something and I didn't like that feeling any who I feel you, we have reached the end of this episode of all about Android and flow. It's been awesome having you back. Yeah. So good to see you on my screen. Maybe someday. We'll see you in person again too.
Florence Ion (01:20:13):
I'm happy to be back. I know we we'll talk about next year's schedule in a future episode, but I will be here for the rest of the year <laugh> so right next week as well, hosting into the new year.
Jason Howell (01:20:32):
What so, so we mentioned earlier that you've been really busy podcasting and one of your podcasts, I mean is near and dear to my heart, but a it's awesome. And B it has a name of a podcast that I used to do called GATS. Talk about it. That's
Florence Ion (01:20:48):
That's what I was wondering
Jason Howell (01:20:50):
That, to be honest with you, I was like, can they do that? Is that
Florence Ion (01:20:52):
Okay? Yeah, it was so well it's okay. Just so everybody knows it's been cleared my own parties involved. Okay. which is great because so gadgets was an organic name. It actually preceded it preceded me. So I feel really, I feel really honored that they sort of passed down the Paton to me and were like, Hey, let's roll with it. Let's go do this. So I am hosting the gadgets podcast with my, with my editor, Caitlyn McGary. She is my co-host, but she also makes sure at the words you read online sound good and make sense. So
Jason Howell (01:21:33):
She doesn't friend of the show, Caitlyn mcg episode 4 45. She was on also episode 3 86.
Florence Ion (01:21:40):
I was actually, yeah, I was thinking about that today. I was like, how, which episodes was Caitlin on, but yes. So Caitlyn and I do the show every week. It's a three act show. We keep it under an hour. We try really hard to keep it under 50 minutes. We have a fun segment at the end. So usually we'll have like new segments. Sometimes we'll have an interview or we'll bring like one of our coworkers on cuz there's so many wonderful reporters at Gizmoto that do all this. Wonderful. I mean, we've done, we've talked about climate, we've talked about meta. We've talked about Jack Dorsey. We just, and gadgets as well. We also do a little bit of that and we fan girl, which that's that's my favorite part is the last part of podcast where we just, yeah. I'm gonna give you a little teaser is that this week we're gonna be talking about Keana Reeves, so not bad everyone. I know everyone's crush. <Laugh> so I had to like, actually everyone's it's true. He's literally everyone's crush and how could you go wrong? But anyway, if you're interested in checking out the podcast, we actually have a we're available on every everywhere you get your podcast, Spotify, apple, for some of you. But if you use pocket casts because you're an Android user, you can actually do our very special vanity URL, which is PCA dot slash gadgets.
Jason Howell (01:23:10):
There you go. I see it right now. Open in pocket, cast a button right there. You could also jump out to RSS and iTunes. Yeah,
Florence Ion (01:23:18):
That's right. That's right, right on. So we're gonna keep that going. And we hope, we hope you guys are interested and like what you hear and yes, Jason and I had a total moment when I realized that the podcast I was, I was like, whoa, effectively helping start was named after a podcast that Jason actually produced for for years for years and who is now a former and PR Molly wood. Yep. That's right. No longer mm-hmm <affirmative> at marketplace
Jason Howell (01:23:52):
That's that's right. That's I mean, gadgets holds a very special place in my heart. That's probably one of, one of the best, one of my most favorite shows that I've, that I've ever been involved with that was just so much fun. So podcasts named GATS are always good. So that's the rule they're, they're always amazing. So you're a good company.
Florence Ion (01:24:13):
<Laugh> and you know, the other thing to know about GATS is that it's, it's one of the few tech podcasts that passes the Beck Bede's tests. So there you go. You know, it's
Ron Richards (01:24:25):
Congratulations. Not many people are applying the be they test the podcast. Not, not enough people are doing that, in fact, so
Florence Ion (01:24:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I tried to say we were the only ones, but then when I fact checked that I was like, Hmm, we're not the only ones talking about we're all the only women talking about text. So that wouldn't be true, but right. We are one of the few
Jason Howell (01:24:44):
<Laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Love it. And true to the end of the show. So it's great. <Laugh> right on. Well flow, congratulations on that. And it's really great having you back. This has been a lot of fun.
Florence Ion (01:24:56):
Thank you. It feels, it feels like I never left actually. So
Jason Howell (01:25:01):
<Laugh> there you go. I would agree, Ron, what you got.
Ron Richards (01:25:05):
All right. Well, yeah. So you as always follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Ron XO I don't often talk about what I do during the day, but I'm excited cuz actually today was the convergence of two things in my day job, as well as stuff we talk about here first up those of you on T-Mobile we know that we, we talk a lot about T-Mobile two, we talked about in the past T-Mobile Tuesdays, that great app they have, where basically they give you hers for being a T-Mobile customer. A lot of you, I mean, I'm on T-Mobile Android is huge on T-Mobile today. I invite you to open up the T-Mobile Tuesdays app in Burke. I shared a screenshot of it so people can take a look at it. But starting today running for the next week via the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, you can get a free one month of Marvel unlimited the Marvel comics, digital comics app other one on that one other one, the first one.
Ron Richards (01:25:54):
Thanks Burke. There we go. There you go. So yeah, so our video viewers can see there's this is a screenshot from the T-Mobile Tuesdays app. And yeah, you got free one month of Marvel unlimited check it out, read some digital comics check out the new version of Marvel limited that we worked very hard on for it to pop up on Android. But then the second thing without Burke messing it up was we covered the Spiderman home red carpet on YouTube. You go to youtube.com/marvel to check it out. But I worked with the fine folks at YouTube and Google and they promoted it on Google TV. Nice. So what we're looking at for our video viewers is a screenshot of a screen grab from Google TV, promoting the Spider-Man red carpet that I helped produce. But I also, I, that graphic you're looking at, I actually, you know, art directed, you know, I, I like, you know, approved and sent to Google and now it was a real thing. It was on my TV. It was cool. That's good. Yeah. So I, I get to do some cool stuff every now and then, so yeah, so good time. So if you have Google TV, check that out and you can watch all the fun up from the red carpet in Hollywood as the new Spiderman movie comes out. So,
Jason Howell (01:27:07):
Hey, Ron's got sway with Google TV. That's what I learned. <Affirmative> yeah. <Laugh>
Ron Richards (01:27:13):
It was, it was more, it was more luck than anything I just happened to. I was talking to my YouTube rep and happened to mention it. They're like, oh, well we, we didn't have to promote that. I'm like, oh, it's something you'll do. I was like, so yeah, we got it.
Florence Ion (01:27:24):
Heck yeah. That's good to know. Actually they should do more of that. I, they need to use that carousel a little more often than they have. So agreed. Yeah.
Jason Howell (01:27:34):
Spiderman's a kind of a big deal just saying yeah,
Florence Ion (01:27:36):
People are doing this movie is gonna be a big deal. Yes. I'm I'm excited to see what the outcome of this movie is.
Jason Howell (01:27:44):
<Affirmative> yeah, right on. Thank you, Ron. And congrats on that. That's awesome. Love it.
Ron Richards (01:27:51):
My pleasure. Thank you. Thanks Burke.
Jason Howell (01:27:54):
Thank you, Burke. That's right. Thank you Burke. For everything you do. Thank you, Victor, for everything you do behind the scenes, without either of them, we would not have a show to present to you. That's cuz they make it happen on the technical level, especially. So thank you for, for that. You can find me on Twitter at Jason Howell of course doing the show tech news weekly with Micah Sergeant actually this Thursday. I, so I talked earlier about the 9 1 1 Android story earlier we have Michelle Ramon booked an interview on tech news weekly this Thursday. So that's twi.tv/t w to talk about that story, cuz his medium post just went into so much detail was like, all right. The best way to Des describe this is to get the man on the show and just have him to have him tell the story and set the scene.
Jason Howell (01:28:41):
So I'm really looking forward to that twi.tv/t and you don't forget, we have club TWI. If you are someone who likes your content without ads. Well, Hey, you're luck. This is an ad free subscription tier twi.tv/club TWI. You get all of our shows without ads. You get an exclusive TWI plus podcast feed, tons of extra content going in there, not and not just pre and post show content, you know amp Pruitt who is managing community manager of club TWI is doing all sorts of special interviews and stuff. It's really cool stuff. What he's got going on. So you wanna check that out. And then you also, as a member, get access to, to the discord which is just a ton of fun, seven bucks a month, twi.tv/club TWI. That is it for this week's episode of all, about Android. You can always find this show at twi.tv/aa. We publish the show every Tuesday evening. So subscribe to the podcast, you'll find the details there. And then the episode will just appear like magic for you. That's what podcast RSS is all about. That's it for this week. We'll see you next time on all about Android. Bye everybody.
Speaker 5 (01:29:54):
Hey, you don't have to wait till the weekend to get the tech news. You need join Jason Howell and myself, Mikah Sargent for Tech News Weekly where we talk to and about the people making and breaking the tech news.
