Android
iPhone Xs vs OnePlus 6 Fast Charging
OnePlus phones are known for having best-in-class fast charing, and now that I have one of these guys, I had a few questions:
1. How fast is Dash Charge?
2. How much faster is it than charing on the newest iPhones?
Despite the Android community’s love of open standards, the OnePlus line
Android
A Terrible Misuse of Space
I want to take a few minutes and rant just a bit on the status bar on Android. Now since I know a lot of people will be reading this from iOS, here’s what my status bar looked like earlier today.
On the left we have the time and a couple notification icons for
Android
The Broken Promise of Android Treble
Google surprised everyone when they announced the Android Pie (then just Android P) beta would be on more than just Google’s own phones this year. The full list was:
* Sony Xperia XZ2
* Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
* Nokia 7 Plus
* Oppo R15 Pro
* Vivo X21
* OnePlus 6
* Essential PH‑1
Not a bad list! I
Android
Android Pie Review: All the Little Things
This was originally going to be a longer review with more than 2 short parts, but as I looked at what else had changed in Pie compared to Oreo, I found myself at a loss for how much could be said about each change. There’s a fair number of things happening behind the scenes,
Android
Android Pie Review: Gesture-Based Navigation
Android has never been my favorite operating system, as evidenced by my numerous Android reviews, but I always hold out hope that “this is the year” they win me over. I’ll begin this piece by saying that Google has indeed not won me over in 2018 either. Android Pie is a fine update to
Android
Let the Android Update Timer Begin!
Every year it's the same story:
1. Google announces new Android version in the summer and says "this time it's different" in terms of software updates.
2. Google launches the new version of Android in the summer/fall for Pixel devices.
3. All other phone makers take 6 to
Android
Designing for the Notch on Notch-less Phones
The Android P developer preview is here, and as any good tech blogger with a Google phone would, I installed it on my Pixel 2. One of the notable features of Android P is native support for the new “notched” world we live in. In the post iPhone X world, manufacturers have a green light
Android
Why Can’t a Flagship Phone that Costs Over $700 Stay Fast?
When a great, fast phone starts to lose its zip after a few months:
Roughly three months into using my [########] it became unbearably slow and only a factory reset would fix it. Curiously (not really), I had the exact same issue three months into my [########] use. The second time around my [########] has lasted longer before
Android
The Sad State of Autofill Services on Android
We all thought the world of Android would be a better place with an official autofill API. We assumed it would take something that had been hacked together for years on Android and mostly nailed on iOS, and make it great. All the power of an operating system with fewer walls and the security of
Android
A Few Months Later: Benchmarking the iPhone 8 Plus and Pixel 2
There has been a lot of talk recently about smartphone performance lately, and whether or not one company is slowing down their phones. For my part, I happen to have an iPhone 8 Plus and Google Pixel 2 in front of me, both of which have been heavily used and each of which I benchmarked
Android
Nextbit is Shutting Down Their Smart Storage Service March 1, 2018
I got this email from Nextbit just a few minutes ago:
Hi Rebels,
We would like to sincerely thank all of you for using Smart Storage. The Smart Storage service will, however, be ending on March 1st, 2018.
Well crap. This doesn’t hurt me at all since I never really went all in on
Android
Essentially a Disaster
Andrew Martonik has some choice words for the Essential Phone over at Android Central:
Aside from the hardware, every other aspect of my Essential Phone experience has been about frustration. Mostly, it boils down to horrendous software stability and performance. Despite dozens of updates and the anecdotes you may have seen that indicate performance issues
Android
Google is Killing Project Tango
From 9to5Google:
Begining March 1st of 2018, Tango will no longer be supported, with the company pointing developers to embrace its latest AR initiative instead.
This makes sense as ARCore, Google’s new augmented reality platform for Android is almost as good as Tango in many ways and works on hardware you actually want to
Android
Android Oreo Review: Conclusion
This is the 8th and final part of a multipart series on Android Oreo. The subsequent parts in this series will be posted daily to BirchTree, so subscribe via RSS, Twitter, or Apple News.
* Part 1: Introduction
* Part 2: All the Little Things
* Part 3: Google’s Assistant and Other Apps
* Part 4: Third Party
Android
AR Stickers Come to the Pixel 2
The Pixel's AR Stickers are the most fun you can have with a camera | Android Central:
AR Stickers aren't a separate camera app on your Pixel. Instead, it lives right inside the Google Camera app. You access it just like you would Portrait Mode, by tapping the Menu button on the
Android
Android Oreo Review: Notifications
This is part 7 of a multipart series on Android Oreo. The subsequent parts in this series will be posted daily to BirchTree, so subscribe via RSS, Twitter, or Apple News.
* Part 1: Introduction
* Part 2: All the Little Things
* Part 3: Google’s Assistant and Other Apps
* Part 4: Third Party Software
* Part 5:
Android
Android Oreo Review: Using AirPods with Android
This is part 6 of a multipart series on Android Oreo. The subsequent parts in this series will be posted daily to BirchTree, so subscribe via RSS, Twitter, or Apple News.
* Part 1: Introduction
* Part 2: All the Little Things
* Part 3: Google’s Assistant and Other Apps
* Part 4: Third Party Software
* Part 5: