122 karma · joined June 28, 2012
I know this is supported in this google dual-port PD charger: https://store.google.com/gb/product/usb_c_dual_port_charger
There is an explanation on how the power budget is split in this post: https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/8jmUYtJxAwX
Presumably other multi-port chargers also do similair things
Notification categories is not exclusive to google apps, of course (OS level feature as long as your app targets Oreo), but their apps tend to give you very good control over what it shows you.
So, I'd disagree strongly that this is a google "strategy". It's more a problem that their apps tend to have a lot of features crammed in.
Of course, I don't know how this works on iOS (I'd be surprised if it's not in the settings somewhere? It's in their interest that you don't disable all app notifications)
(Not letting google off the hook here. What they're doing isn't great and they should do better. Just saying your statement isn't entirely correct)
In fact, I quite often start music playing on the laptop (chrome/Google Play Music) and then power up my bluetooth headset -- it initially uses eSCO when it routes the audio over (mono) and then switches to A2DP a few seconds later
Maybe the issue is something to do with the SW (chrome/firefox?) you use for GVoice? Or maybe there are some edge cases that I'm not triggering (in particular, a USB headset is effectively a new soundcard and not just an audio sink; I can completely believe windows is flaky with them especially with third party drivers)
Google is mostly going in the opposite direction and allowing you to uninstall any apps you don't use [1] -- admittedly, the Youtube app is not one of them on my 6P. But, I can disable it so it's not visible in the app drawer. In fact I can disable all the google apps and have always been able to do so (the only exceptions are non-Google, "system" apps).
Doesn't help if you buy a Samsung phone though....
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=nexus+uninstall+google+apps
I threw it together (over a few hours) simply because I like watching stuff on youtube at 1.5x speed and the android app does not allow you to do it (whereas if you use VLC to play the downloaded video, you can increaseplayback speed)
It's also available on the play store [2] with youtube downloads disabled by default
[1] https://github.com/zeronickname/VideoDownloader
[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.me.gman.get...
Note that one of the recent updates [4] introduces ads for the free version. But not if you buy any of the pro features. Seems a fair trade, plus it's open source (which makes me slightly happier about routing all network traffic through it)
[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.faircode.ne... [2] https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/releases [3] https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/master/ADBLOCKING.md [4] https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/releases/tag/2.45
If you want it as a default, add it to your browser as a search engine plugin: http://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=google+ve...
Or: Search tools → All results → Verbatim
Perhaps you have a different issue? Maybe a hardware failure? Windows 10 should not be BSODing for a graphics driver failure
Make sure your headset and device (phone?) both support HFP1.6 or above (which supports wideband speech/HD voice) which makes the sound quality semi-decent
I'm not sure this is actually true (unless you're talking about bugs with individual manufacturers implementation on Android?). Both iOS and Android support SSP with OOB key exchange via NFC.
There are lots of products that have been available that use this for pairing/connecting, eg: https://www.bose.com/en_us/support/article/pairing-a-device-...
While it's true that audio quality over HFP is a lot worse than A2DP, note that A2DP is designed for cases where latency is not an issue, you want stereo audio, and there is no microphone audio to carry the other way. (i.e., designed to listen to music)
If you want low latency mono-audio to the headset + microphone audio back to the host, there is no choice except to use HFP.
Note that if your headset (and your host device) supports HFP1.6, then it should support wideband speech/HD voice and the difference should not be so drastic.
Well, to be fair, you can disable notifications from apps since android 4.0 (which is a long time back)
And Android 6.0 and up should automatically disable background running apps (https://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-sta...) unless there is a good reason for them to be running
But apps can still work around these restrictions (even on iOS; for eg the facebook app was caught "accidentally" playing silent audio.) Even if that was truly a bug, the point remains that it's better to use the website unless you want something specific (offline access, push notifications, etc...)
>As soon as headphones are digital, manufacturers can start locking down headphones.
The article is unclear, but the USB3.1 spec does specifically support analog audio over USB-C explicitly for compatibility with 3.5mm audio headsets. So if Motorola don't support this mode then you may have a point. But right now it's unclear exactly what this phone supports
> they'll put a 2.5mm jack on the phone, or cut the 3.5mm jack in half
If I need a passive adapter for my existing headsets, I'd rather get a USB-C port which supports analog audio. Atleast then my adapters would be standardized.
In that case, the article is wrong because the USB 3.1 spec already supports analog audio via the Audio Adapter Accessory Mode. Whether this phone supports this mode is unclear, but it's part of the existing spec explicitly to allow passive USB-C to 3.5mm adapters
Official spec: http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/
page 166 of the USB-C spec: http://www.those.ch/designtechnik/wp-content/uploads/2014/08...
You can boot from USB and give it a whirl. There are some closed source bits missing, so I'm unsure if, for eg, netflix, will work. But it'll give you a feel for the OS
Just install Messenger (supports Android 4.1+): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
It's actually much nicer than hangouts for SMS and has features hangouts doesn't support (search, group messaging) and is updated regularly by Google (with no tie-in to G+ or Play Services) so it's not like it's an abandoned app.
>I'm currently using the AOSP Launcher3, and it doesn't even properly align icons in a grid, because it's missing the autoscaling of Google Now Launcher.
Get a different launcher? For eg, Nova Launcher (paid, but does not have any dependancy on Play Services) is basically Launcher3 (in terms of looks/functionality) with a ton of extra features.
Is your complaint that Google is letting AOSP apps languish? In which case I'd agree, but it's not like you're short on alternatives (and as time goes on Google seem to be opening more parts of Android to be replaced by third party apps -- in fact, the main components left are just the settings app and the notifications menu that you're stuck with whatever comes with your phone. Everything else is replacable by the end user)
Google's "Messenger" client does not use G+
You can also use Google's Hangout client purely for SMS (you can sign out of hangouts)
If you don't like any of them, there are hundreds in the play store that have no G+ requirement, and any of them can be set as the default.
As for first class VoIP; again, I have no idea what you mean. Android has a full SIP stack that's built in.
I can heartily recommend the Cosmonaughts exhibition if you're at all interested in the birth of the Space Age. It's open till the 12th of March: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/...
It gives you time (not distance) between places, and it includes trains as well as buses. But perhaps you could use their API to tweak the results: https://github.com/mysociety/mapumental-scripts
Failing that, maybe try the NPTDR dataset: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/nptdr (again, times, not distances)
Your original comment seemed to indicate it's was Google's privacy policies you were protecting yourself against. And Google supplies the OS -- most of which is open source.
Comparing the open-ness of the SW, both of them are equally open or closed. The Sailfish UI is closed source (but you get something close using Mer) -- As for android, just GApps is closed (which, I would argue, is better than the Sailfish situation)
So, if you are motivated to not use android due to paranoia; my recommendation is to run a AOSP build with F-Droid as an app store. There are many reasons to use a Jolla phone. Privacy alone is not a reason to switch ecosystems (as I said earlier: there are other, more compelling reasons).
And of course, you need the black tape covering your camera on both the Android and the Jolla (which was your original statement I disagreed with :)
I genuinely don't get this.
You don't trust the OS not to spy on you, so you covered the camera? Fine. But if you don't trust the OS, how do you stop it from, say, uploading everything you type to Google? OK, perhaps you have a highly restrictive firewall, or only use it offline (reading ebooks?)
But in that case, what's the point of the black tape over the camera? It now has no way of contacting the mothership; all you've done is restrict your ability to take pictures.
Surely the better idea would be to compile an AOSP build for the N7 (or maybe just get CyanogenMod if you're less paranoid?) and you basically have a tablet which you completely control without buying a Jolla (with an equivalent app ecosystem and less bugs)?
Note that there are definitely reasons to get a Jolla phone; for example the fact that AOSP on the N7 is unsupported by google -- just saying I don't fully understand the tape on the camera when you don't trust the OS.
(maybe it was just a figure of speech; in which case, ignore me -- it didn't come across that way in your comment)
Not quite true. The BBBlack can also power itself from the mini-usb port (and mine is currently powered up in exactly this way, off a normal usb phone charger I had lying bout)
(I assume it stands for "No Country Recognition" but I'm unsure of that). Visit it once and I believe it stores a permanent cookie on your computer telling google not to re-direct you to a country specific site.
Been using it for about 10yrs now as it annoys me when I get re-directed when accessing sites over a vpn.
You mean like: http://www.google.com/settings/ads/
That's all the information the advertising network (Doubliclick) has on you (atleast, based on the cookie on your current machine). A more permanent opt-out: http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin
If you use other google products (GMail, Youtube etc), they let you individually delete your accounts. Or you can go here and wipe all your data: https://www.google.com/settings/datatools
Not that I'm a google apologist, but it sure helps if you do a cursory search (or click on the "Privacy" link on the homepage) before complaining about something they already give you.
I installed YoutubeCenter[2] and disabled DASH from the options and it seems to work well every since.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_ove...
I have a Kindle and this is patently not true. I have multiple DRM-free .mobi "books" that I have sideloaded. You don't even need a cable; just add the book as an attachment and email it direct to your kindle (username@free.kindle.com) and it gets synced over WiFi.
Well, our country didn't exist pre-1947, but we're arguing semantics now. Still, it's kindof bonkers to define the border of a fairly young "nation" over a period of 3000years. If you do that, then you need to consider the Mughal campaigns in Central Asia as they attacked Samarkhamd (Persia) as well as Kandahar (also persian held at the time). Or do you not consider them Indian?
OK then, consider that the Chola empire conquered sections of South East Asia. But perhaps you dismiss these conquests as exaggerations? (note that there is overwhelming evidence that atleast ports were raided even if there was no lasting presence -- it's still an "attack")
But if we are going to be pedantic, even post-Independence India declared war on Portugal and is considered the aggressor state when it "invaded" Goa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Goa