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I'm... not sure that I would take a random person* in a T-Mobile store at their word when they claimed that they were "actually working in the hardware division at Google."

I recognize that I should've been more clear but the person who pulled me aside was a random customer waiting in line who pulled me aside when I told the T-Mobile guy that I was planning on getting a Pixel, which they didn't have in stock. I did ask a fair number of questions about what it was that he did to determine that it wasn't someone older who was just messing with me. Granted, this was some number of months ago, but if I recall correctly he was trying to figure out why people wanted Pixels because on his team, people would use iPhones because their family members used iPhones, or because it was easier from an enterprise security standpoint with BYOD. I'm not sure if I remember specifics beyond that.

It's kind of a post-hoc realization that I should've used his admission to me as a reason to second guess a purchase on a device which I've come to discover: has a stock messenger application that fails to sync message receipt times, that gets very hot to the touch, drops cell phone tower connections until rebooted. And, as the article we're replying to points out, had a lock screen bypass bug that wasn't fixed for months.

In the story above he says he wants to buy a pixel to the salesperson, but it is someone else that says they work at Google.

Thanks, I've updated "salesperson" to "person."

So basically, even sketchier.

No, I'm quite more likely to believe that a customer at T-Mobile is a googler than to believe that the salesman is.

Especially if this is a store in mountain view!

Did this self-reported hardware engineer from Google tell you WHY his colleagues don't use a Pixel?

You could have just as likely been listening to hot air from a random individual. Perhaps an Apple store employee with an axe to grind.

I'm not the OP but I know a couple of Google SRE's and an Android Auto HCI person and they use iPhones...

Sigh, like Microsoft UI designers using MacBooks. How does someone in charge not demand that the developers dogfood the product?

Because then you get headlines like Meta got recently, where developers are being forced to use Horizons(sic?).

TBC I also agree that you should dogfood things you build, especially in the cruisy world of software development where if you really hate what you work on you can just go somewhere else. It is a bad look in the media though

Or maybe T-Mobile gave higher commission for apple sales that month.

The main reason for this is just fucking iMessage.

It's not even just that iMessage segregates non-iPhone messages by color. It screws up video and group texts.

I don't get the iMessage hate.

Just use another app if you want. They already provide compatibility with SMS. What more do you want?

Out of curiosity, why have you been regretting it? I've been using Pixels for quite a while now and generally been quite happy.

Not OP, but for me, the biggest annoyance with Pixel 6 compared to older devices was the fingerprint reader under the screen - so uncomfortable to use, and so much less precise than dedicated readers on the back like they had before (or on power button, like some other phones do).

A general frustration with the entire Pixel line is the lack of video output options. It's basically Chromecast or GTFO - no Miracast, no USB-C video. It's kind of sad when an Android phone has worse compatibility with generic hardware than iPad! And the most annoying part is that Google deliberately removed all these at some point in the past.

There are plenty of reasons that people how to spell it over the years, but none are actual red flags.

For example, I think people give Google grief over making it difficult to unlock the bootloader, but the same can be said of every other vendor.

In my experience, using the Pixel is good enough that I don't miss my Nokia 6.1 running LineageOS too much.

>For example, I think people give Google grief over making it difficult to unlock the bootloader, but the same can be said of every other vendor.

It's not so much that as it is buying an unlocked Pixel and RMA'ing it when hardware problems happen only to receive a locked phone in return. This is the sort of thing that makes people angry.

The fact they’ve had multiple critical bugs relating to emergency calls over the years is a pretty big red flag to me.

What don't you like about the Pixels? I just switched to an iPhone this year and really regret it (the UX is horrible) and miss my Pixel.

I've also struggled to install GrapheneOS and Calyx on my iPhone Pro Max. /s

(I actually do have both and definitely prefer the Pixel -- especially the cameras on the Pixel are amazing in low light, but it's a bit annoying how the official Gcam app seems to expect that Google photos is installed.)

How funny is it that the best way to de-Google is to buy a Google device, and that Apple is incredibly prescriptive about knowing exactly who you are, connecting to wifi, and getting your purchasing on file before you can even get through the initial setup on an iPhone.

The one thing I like about iPhone over Android is that the animations are a bit nicer and more polished, and the stock color scheme is pretty bright (but awful at night), and everything else about Android seems to be better.

Modern carriers are migrating to VoLTE, and LineageOS is unable to implement this outside of a few devices, meaning that many phones have been dropped from the latest release.

As [w]cdma is shut down in preference for 5g and LTE, Pixels (model 3 and above) will be more desirable for users who wish to run Android without Google on modern cellular networks.

I am one such user.

Supposedly, two different implementations of VoLTE exist in AOSP, neither of wich are used outside Pixels (if I understood previous discussions correctly).

I have a Pixel 6 because I bought it through Verizon when they offered a 5/month rebate for 36 months = 180 dollars off. This was at the beginning of this year so before the Pixel 7 released. I assume they offerred the rebate because they had a whole lot in stock that nobody bought, but everyone in my family got a Pixel because of it.

In met a guy once that pulled my aside once and told me he was an alien.

Your perception is that the probability of seeing someone that works at Google in the United States is as low as seeing an extraterrestrial capable of speaking English? What justification do you have for believing that I would be incapable of asking questions that would be able to tell the difference between an actual engineer at Google, and a random person pulling my leg? Google employs more than a hundred thousand people in North America alone. Some people that are now employed there were in my graduating class! Do you have some reason to call me an idiot?

Mr. Edman. I have no doubts about your experience. I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings.

What was the pragmatic purpose of saying "A person pulled me aside and told me he was an alien" if not to cast doubt on me talking to a Google employee? You didn't hurt my feelings but you were clearly trying to express doubt that I talked to a person that worked at Google. Where does that doubt come from?

Mr Edmam

I have received and read your response regarding my apology to you. I'm concerned that I may have upset you more than I realised.

My grandfather once told me not to take in too seriously random strangers comments. I try to live by that advice, wether it's comments from internet strangers, or, for that matter, customers at the phone shop.

This is of course not an advice from me to you. But I thought I'd share it with you in case you might find it useful too.

DBNR,

R. Root

roll to disbelieve. i think someone was pulling your leg

especially the bit with samsung devices, i've had the misfortune of setting up a samsung phone for a family member and the amount of crap on those is just unbelievable

Could it have been a sales technique? Perhaps to sell you an iPhone. Perhaps the iPhones they were trying to sell have a higher commission and margin than the Android phones.