3 ms·

Wow that's a big list of surprisingly useful features being ripped out. I'd already noticed my new phone (pixel 8, I fucking hate it) had trouble setting a sim

by eterm 3y ago

Wow that's a big list of surprisingly useful features being ripped out. I'd already noticed my new phone (pixel 8, I fucking hate it) had trouble setting a simple timer with a voice command ( last time I tried it gave me a shitty youtube video result of a 10 minute timer!?!), but this list of removed features goes further, removing other basic functionality from voice assistance. If all a voice assistant can do is google my "command" and read me the results, that's a terrible experience. The whole selling point (to me) is the ability to do something magic with what I'm asking.

singularity2001 3y ago
Google has to cater to its reputation of biggest destructor of products
Bartkusa 3y ago
> Managing a stopwatch on Smart Displays and Speakers. You can still set timers and alarms. How much does this cost to maintain? A stopwatch? They’re axing a STOPWATCH?! This is embarrassing.
- JoshTriplett 3y ago
  Taking a guess, based on experiences with using Google Assistant extensively: What do you do if you have statistics saying that, say, a feature is used by a small fraction of users, and 40% of the activations of the feature were in fact not what the user wants, and instead were misunderstandings of requests for something else? Ambiguity is a massive problem.
  - ketralnis 3y ago
    Be better and misunderstand less often?
    - JoshTriplett 3y ago
      Human syntax sometimes has inherent ambiguities.
      - ketralnis 3y ago
        And yet humans figure it out sometimes
      - oxygen_crisis 3y ago
        So ask for clarification. State your interpretation and give an opportunity for the speaker to confirm or clarify. This isn't some new intractible issue, this has always been a fundamental aspect of communication in a natural language.
      - Zuiii 3y ago
        require more specific instructions to access less popular feature? I will never understand companies breaking their own products.
romanows 3y ago
What do you hate about the Pixel 8? I have one and find it pretty good, although I'm a very casual mobile phone user (USA-based, on Google Fi). I like that it's at least slightly smaller than the Pixel 7.
- eterm 3y ago
  It's hard to describe what exactly I don't like. Initially I thought it was just a muscle memory thing but I've had it long enough now that I've got used to the different UI for everyday things and try to use it's shortcuts on my old phone. But overall I don't like it. I don't like how it handles notifications, it seems to hide most of them, and the ones it does show it doesn't show in a useful way compared to my old phone. What exactly is different I can't say, but it's weird. It also handles permissions differently. Some apps when I disable certain permissons get stuck in a permission loop because they can't cope with the idea of only having a particular permission denied. I never had this problem with my old phone despite it also having granular permissions. Seems to be related to a change in how notification permissions are handled exactly. I don't like how I can't quickly change the ringer volume. It used to be a separate slider when I hit the volume on my old phone. Changing now is a gamble and finding how to get it to vibrate mode seems beyond me. 1Password used to allow biometric unlock on my old phone. I can't get that to work on my new phone so have to type the master password (extremely long password) on a mobile device, which makes it useless to me. I'm not going to type my master password on a phone keypad in public, that's asking for it to leak. The fingerprint sensor is okay, but I preferred the below-screen sensor on my old phone. It's fiddly to get back to the home screen. On my old phone if I scanned my thumbprint it would go back to home. On the pixel it's a finicky swipe-up-from-the-bottom thing which sometimes goes home and sometimes goes to an app-switcher. Setting up the phone required giving google rather more permissions than I was comfortable with, but denying them locked out key features of the phone so I felt forced to accept. The pixel 8 is also slightly smaller than my old phone, though of course I knew that when I bought it. I didn't realise how much 0.1inches was going to feel like a major loss. I didn't want to go over-sized with the pixel 8 pro though. Overall a downgrade and really horrible experience compared to my old phone, which I only replaced because it was so old and stopped getting regular updates. It was a Huawei P20 pro and in terms of general use still feels just as fast as it did when it was new. The only feature I like that the pixel 8 has which my old phone doesn't is the wireless charging. That's a game changer when it comes to preventing wires wearing out.
Kon-Peki 3y ago
> last time I tried it gave me a shitty youtube video result of a 10 minute timer!?! A YouTube video has the chance to earn them advertising revenue. A 10-minute timer does not. However, they are clearly missing an opportunity: "Your 10-minute timer, sponsored by Burger King, has finished. Would you like to order a Whopper to be delivered by Uber Eats?"

by eterm 3y ago

singularity2001 3y ago

Google has to cater to its reputation of biggest destructor of products

Bartkusa 3y ago

> Managing a stopwatch on Smart Displays and Speakers. You can still set timers and alarms. How much does this cost to maintain? A stopwatch? They’re axing a STOPWATCH?! This is embarrassing.

JoshTriplett 3y ago
Taking a guess, based on experiences with using Google Assistant extensively: What do you do if you have statistics saying that, say, a feature is used by a small fraction of users, and 40% of the activations of the feature were in fact not what the user wants, and instead were misunderstandings of requests for something else? Ambiguity is a massive problem.
- ketralnis 3y ago
  Be better and misunderstand less often?
  - JoshTriplett 3y ago
    Human syntax sometimes has inherent ambiguities.
    - ketralnis 3y ago
      And yet humans figure it out sometimes
    - oxygen_crisis 3y ago
      So ask for clarification. State your interpretation and give an opportunity for the speaker to confirm or clarify. This isn't some new intractible issue, this has always been a fundamental aspect of communication in a natural language.
    - Zuiii 3y ago
      require more specific instructions to access less popular feature? I will never understand companies breaking their own products.

romanows 3y ago

What do you hate about the Pixel 8? I have one and find it pretty good, although I'm a very casual mobile phone user (USA-based, on Google Fi). I like that it's at least slightly smaller than the Pixel 7.

eterm 3y ago
It's hard to describe what exactly I don't like. Initially I thought it was just a muscle memory thing but I've had it long enough now that I've got used to the different UI for everyday things and try to use it's shortcuts on my old phone. But overall I don't like it. I don't like how it handles notifications, it seems to hide most of them, and the ones it does show it doesn't show in a useful way compared to my old phone. What exactly is different I can't say, but it's weird. It also handles permissions differently. Some apps when I disable certain permissons get stuck in a permission loop because they can't cope with the idea of only having a particular permission denied. I never had this problem with my old phone despite it also having granular permissions. Seems to be related to a change in how notification permissions are handled exactly. I don't like how I can't quickly change the ringer volume. It used to be a separate slider when I hit the volume on my old phone. Changing now is a gamble and finding how to get it to vibrate mode seems beyond me. 1Password used to allow biometric unlock on my old phone. I can't get that to work on my new phone so have to type the master password (extremely long password) on a mobile device, which makes it useless to me. I'm not going to type my master password on a phone keypad in public, that's asking for it to leak. The fingerprint sensor is okay, but I preferred the below-screen sensor on my old phone. It's fiddly to get back to the home screen. On my old phone if I scanned my thumbprint it would go back to home. On the pixel it's a finicky swipe-up-from-the-bottom thing which sometimes goes home and sometimes goes to an app-switcher. Setting up the phone required giving google rather more permissions than I was comfortable with, but denying them locked out key features of the phone so I felt forced to accept. The pixel 8 is also slightly smaller than my old phone, though of course I knew that when I bought it. I didn't realise how much 0.1inches was going to feel like a major loss. I didn't want to go over-sized with the pixel 8 pro though. Overall a downgrade and really horrible experience compared to my old phone, which I only replaced because it was so old and stopped getting regular updates. It was a Huawei P20 pro and in terms of general use still feels just as fast as it did when it was new. The only feature I like that the pixel 8 has which my old phone doesn't is the wireless charging. That's a game changer when it comes to preventing wires wearing out.

Kon-Peki 3y ago

> last time I tried it gave me a shitty youtube video result of a 10 minute timer!?! A YouTube video has the chance to earn them advertising revenue. A 10-minute timer does not. However, they are clearly missing an opportunity: "Your 10-minute timer, sponsored by Burger King, has finished. Would you like to order a Whopper to be delivered by Uber Eats?"