 Well, hello and welcome to another edition of Android faithful your weekly source for news hardware apps generative AI LLMs all everything under the Sun in the world of Android. I am Ron Richards and with me as always I'm Jason Hal and when to it now Michelle Raman Hey gang. We're back It's been a busy week It's been a super busy a roller coaster of a week exhausted. It's only Tuesday This is the first kind of busy weeks Android faithful number 31 our 31st episode Big Milestone It we a month worth of shows Everyone likes the number that you can't that is non-divisible by any other number It's prime prime time But yeah, but before we get into the news and all the exciting stuff because we have a packed pack show tonight for you with a ton of news ton of stuff going on some fun hardware stuff I've got on on hand here the one plus 12 and one plus 12 are we're take a look at those I have not opened the boxes yet. So we're gonna do that live together together the box But but real quickly just want to add to the gate want to remind everybody and thank you for supporting us over at patreon.com Slash Android faithful That's where if you like the show if you like what you're hearing you feel like what you're seeing if you like any of the Anything we do that's where you can go to show your support And folks who sign up get access to our exclusive discord you get access to an ad-free Audio feed of the podcast no ads at all the way that everybody likes it And if you sign up At one of the higher tiers you actually get a t-shirt with our logo on which is pretty cool So thank you everybody and later in the show We're gonna thank some patrons specifically as well as share a news article that you that the patrons picked for us to talk About so very excited for that. All right So with that should we get into the news? We just get right to is there any other any other business to speak of before we Start no business. It's just party. No party. Okay, it's just party today All right. Well, I'll tell you what because there ain't no party like a Gemini party. That's for sure We or or a farewell party for Bard Or duet or or what it's seeming like farewell assistant Which seems the way that it's going there it is there's taps Although they haven't right they haven't officially called it for assistant yet. Haven't they haven't said assistant is dead Right. We need like a taps remix like an EDM remix of taps Yeah There we go Well, so In between shows of course Google doesn't do it when when when we could talk about it on the day of Tuesday But after last week's show Google rolled out Gemini the new app for Android was released along with news that Gemini ultra 1.0 was out for everyone to try And let me tell you From the moment they released the Gemini app It's it has truly been a roller coaster As we discovered what this met The app replaces the default assistant operation once installed. That's very important to note Assistant was left intact for non smartphones though The new Google app beta has a string that says Gemini mobile app is working on expanding availability to make it accessible on your headphones Which is interesting and you can you know, we can guarantee that it's come in other places To eventually for me the biggest thing the biggest roller coaster I had with it was that I immediately installed the Gemini app and then I looked up my phone and I had two Gemini icons because they changed the assistant icon to the Gemini icon and changed the word to Gemini and It was just very very confusing and then what we also found out was when you Invoked the wake word when he said okay G It pulls up Gemini not assistant Which then had me panic that none of my home automation stuff would work and I immediately uninsulted the Gemini app So that was my roller coaster. That was my journey That's what every dev wants to hear on there That's kind of like the worst case scenario It was so confusing and it just and and the thing also was that when they rolled us out last week It rolled out in the United States, but not internationally and that didn't happen until early until yesterday Right where it's available more regions like I don't know about you Did you get was this rollout as smooth as it could have been what do you guys think? No, so one thing I was kind of curious about is why did Google announce this on Thursday only to like Have it may be made available in bunch of other countries and regions on Monday Like it's now available in a lot more areas than it was on Thursday when they first announced it And my initial thought was maybe they're announcing it on Thursday because they want to do a big splash a huge Media campaign around the Super Bowl right that would make sense But yeah, I mean I didn't watch the Super Bowl But I asked like people like was there a Gemini ad and apparently there wasn't so I feel like that was a big Misopportunity right there. It's very perplexing. This is very perplexing the whole thing is perplexing When Jason did you install the Gemini app? I've been calling it Gemini everybody just seen a Gemini app You just like a different Ron Although I think my husband did and then he complained that assistant doesn't work anymore And I but assistant didn't work before well So a couple of things in in in its defense and Michelle and I talked about this during the week was that This my lack of ignorance did not go further and go surf is deep to realize that Stuff my stuff in Google Assistant and the Google home setup would still work under Gemini like if I told if they said okay G and Gemini came out and said, you know turn on the lights whatever that still works But there was a list of stuff that doesn't work and I don't have it handy. I should find it Or Michelle you may have it, but Yeah things like Adding stuff adding reminders. That's like adding events to calendars Those are the two of the biggest ones like Google said they're working on those But there's other stuff that aren't available For me personally like the only thing I really cared about was home control and that's there Yeah, other than that like I didn't really use I don't really like set alarms on my phone I use I have a Google home smart speaker smart display that I use for setting alarms and things like that and all the other stuff I don't really use like routines on my phone So yeah, so so I just found I just found the list here So when you have jet this is Gordon to Android police and I'm Jason I'll give you this this link if you want to show it up on the screen for our Video viewers or not, but um, there it is. It's in our chat So when you have Gemini turned on so media service providers Podcasts news and radio stations and third-party music providers aren't currently supported in Gemini Routines so starting routine in Gemini isn't supported So shortcuts to start a routine and routines attached to alarms and clock no longer work You can still start a routine with Google assistant on home devices Like if you have like a Gula home nest hub or whatever like I have reminders Like Michelle you mentioned reminders don't exist in Gemini and interpreter mode If you use interpreter mode that doesn't exist in Gemini, but it does exist in assistant. So So it's not feature It's not feature. There's no feature parody on Gemini and assistant like Gemini isn't truly an assistant replacement in my mind and Also, the the rollout just see like Explain what's happening like when you when you've installed the Assistant on so many people's phones and so many the operating system Gemini will replace assistant like like I Just feels if they couldn't migrate they could have they could have migrated us a little was a little smoother here And there's rollout and let's go to market plan It's not like assistant was this fly-by-night, you know random thing that Google, you know It was was playing around with and then decided to pivot away from it's been a very Pivotal and major part of Google's strategy for the last handful of years when it comes to mobile So I would I would absolutely agree at the same time like I installed the app and I was trying You know sometimes with these AI services I'm like I like you Ron like like you were saying like what the heck do I use it for what do I search for sometimes? I have to like really kind of you know kind of coax myself into figuring out a good a good test or good reason to use it But I have a a trip coming up next week. I'm going to Park City with the family We're going snowboarding skiing and stuff for through the entire week and I thought oh wait a minute Jim and I taps into my Gmail a taps into my Google Docs a taps into all these different things What would it give me if I just asked it? I said What did I say find the email that lists? That lists my Park City trip details for next week and said I found several emails about your Park City trip next week February 18th through 24th. Here are some of the details and then it gives the address of where we're staying It gives the check-in time to check out time gives the You know there are six adults and six children in your group And then it said the cost of the house is this and has already been split amongst the four families The Howells have owed this much the you know and then it goes through everybody and these are all from disparate places like some of This is from a doc that I was like keeping to kind of catalog some information some of this is from email So it's really so I thought that was a pretty and and actually it also came back with a wi-fi network for the airbnb that we're staying Now I mean it's a little random, but it's still kind of neat What that sounds like jason is that sounds like all the questions I asked my wife that I don't get the answers to Wait, how much was the thing again? Yeah So there we go. So and I is your new spouse. Yeah I think part of the reason part of the like the importance of this launch is that This is the highest profile like the most accessible way to access a chat part Yeah compared to chat gpt Co-pilot etc like microsoft is trying really hard to put co-pilot in front of you like on The search bar and windows that barely anyone uses the widgets interface that barely anyone uses on windows and like on Microsoft edge, you know, like they're pushing it really hard, but here google is putting it in place of Google assistant on android phones and it's accessible from a long press of the power button from a swipe up on your gesture bar from all the previous ways you could use assistant on your android phone and By integrating it with the default assistant You can even say hey g to invoke it like it's so much more convenient to talk to and use Gemini than it is other large language models on android and most people are using their devices like they're not going to Open ai dot whatever the website is for chat gpt to talk to it like And most people aren't using bing. So they're not using chat gpt through bing either, right? So like this is this gives google. I think like a huge leg up in terms of getting their product in front of the average Agreed but but but again, I go back to that you've trained those users for years on assistant And then you in one in one hands wiped it away and like did they like is the wake word? Hey g mi does that work? No, no the wake word hasn't changed that it would be it would be impossible for them to change Just like overnight they'd have to work with manufacturers Right train it on the hot word and like that would require that would be really complicated for them to do Yeah, huge endeavor But I just real quickly and then we'll move on The the quick mention about the the note about it Being made accessible to headphones makes it very very interesting where then it's like It's in your ear basically and you can talk to it and get answers back And that's the thing that that's what the some of the speculation is around the headphone aspect of it But then a late edition right before the show actually friend of the show Mr. Burke Who I believe is watching live in the chat because he's fantastic He shared with me this a little bit of tidbit news that came up via the verge was that so for example chat gpt Your chat log with chat gpt when you're doing it. They keep that for 30 days Gemini keeps it up for three years so You know it says you know conversations that have been reviewed or annotated by human reviewers and related data etc Are not deleted when you delete your apps activity because they're kept separately and not connected to your google account Instead they're retained for up to three years So all you're talking to gemini is going into a google storage system outside of your personal stuff for up to three years And I gotta imagine that has to do with Training the module and the learning module and all that sort of stuff that that's part of the larger Thing of it, but like that's you know three years is bananas. So I guess that's the price we're paying for the extra years of updates on our pixel phones The same thing is a mess y'all I don't think I've ever worked on a team on a product where it rolls out like this where you're replacing something wholesale and Like I mean most users are not us like are not faithful. They're just regular People that don't pay attention to all this And then you change something on them most of the time when you're a software Like a software producing company They're blowback from this But I can't help but feel because google and because it's google and they can do Whatever they want and they'll probably not get too much of it. I mean The long the kind of the long game of ai and lm decide You're still going to try to make this work even if it's nasty I mean the the fact that they were like we promised to fix all the parity And the thing is just really quickly is not something that generally happens a lot in software development I mean it does at bad companies. So this is kind of astonishing to me But again, it's google they have this like privilege of like scope and Demographics. Yeah, it's real weird. I'm just cringing over here. But I mean shoot. I'm gonna end up using it I mean, I was just I was just critical I was critical of their go-to-market strategy But I will defend them in this moment is that it does require you to download the app and say yes I want it so fair zoomable It's not as if like they did an auto app update to assistant and change it to gemini And put you know, it's not like it's not like you too put their songs on iPods, right? Yeah, you know, so at least there's there's some Self-user voluntary thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's just usually like with most with most of the rest of us A first impression is really important when they should google and then you get multiple first impressions I will say the one thing I would like from gemini Um is the fact that I don't know about you guys, but how many google accounts do you have? Oh too many, right? Oh, yeah, so many so like jason your example of of go into my email My google one account that gemini is that I have gemini linked to is not the my primary email account so like I would love to tell google that hey this cluster of accounts are all me And put them into my my llm and give me results of all that, you know That would be something that would be Convenient for me Otherwise I got to do the account switcher and make sure i'm in this account to ask gemini to go look for an email That would be cool. Yeah, it would be really cool. Yeah, hopefully hey i'm rooting for him. I'm rooting for him Yeah, I just want to say real quick. Um correction because cousin of jott Put into the twitch chat that the google docs integration was actually coming soon I think you're actually right on that So it's probably my misunderstanding of those results because I thought that it was going gmail and docs and that that information Was only in docs, but apparently it's in gmail too So i'm guessing those results all came from from gmail But definitely from multiple emails not a single email. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, so thank you for the correction All right. Well, so this is the gemini. We're in the age of gemini So this is this is this is this is a uh This is a moment in time that we got to mark What was that? What was thursday's date february 8th february 9th february 8th 2024 was the a new age of the google chapter So seven years from now google will destroy gemini and make room for whatever the next thing is So, um Right on maybe sooner Actually, who are we kidding sooner? All right, but to move from one roller coaster to another michelle. Uh, what's what roller coaster are you about to get on? Uh, so android 15 like I said last week Um is coming soon very very soon. In fact, it could be this week According to a finding from nine to five google. Sorry, uh, jason. I'm shuffling it around just because it just flows better so According to a comment left by a googler on the android open source project android 15 Could be landing as soon as this thursday Which is in line with the release dates that they've been following for the previous um android developer previews So that means android 15 developer preview one On thursday and then developer preview two developer preview three maybe and then the betas In uh google i o and beyond so this developer preview We don't know exactly what google will be announcing and releasing as part of it But we do know it's going to be intended only for developers So manually installation will be supported only you won't be able to sign up for beta program and then have it rolled out to your device and likely It'll only be available for pixel devices. Um, if you're using a non pixel android device You'll have to wait for the beta program to be uh getting access to it And if you're wondering what new features and apis and whatever other changes that'll be available in android 15 There's a whole bunch that i've already talked about on previous shows and And there are some more that i talked about. Um In the week since the last show that i'm going to be talking about now For example, when i was digging through the latest android 14 qpr beta And i know that's going to sound confusing like hey, why are they talking about why are there android 15 features in the android 14 beta program that's because of the way that google is developing android 14 qpr program and the android 15 um released simultaneously So like there's like a mix and match Uh between what features will appear in one branch and what features will appear in another branch and actually those are all merged It's a bit complicated But basically i am assuming and very likely am correct that these features that i found will be Intended to launch in android 15 and the first one is a new easy preset mode that should make your phone much simpler in terms of readability and navigation and it's very likely this is intended for Um helping your grandma or anyone who has visual impairments use their phone much easier because like right now android has a ton of options and features and settings like all loader around But most people just need like a couple of home screen icons They need really big text. They need bold text They need um very prominent icons and it looks like this new easy preset mode We'll just flip all those settings on and make it much easier for someone who's just not as technically savvy as those of you listening to this podcast might be And uh many oems like samsung xiaomi etc. They have their own similar feature like this But this looks like it's going to be google's native version of this feature That'll be integrated with the pixel launcher and it'll be coming to pixel phones But i'm assuming like other oems that don't have a feature like this already could be building on top of it another feature that could be coming in android 15 or maybe a one of the quarterly platform releases Of android 14 that i just talked about is a feature for the pixel fold that will allow you to continue apps Once you close the device by folding it. So right now you have a pixel fold um when you're watching a full screen video or in a full screen game if you fold the device um Most apps won't transition from the inner screen to the outer screen But with this new setting that google is working on there will be a option in the settings page That will allow you to enable a swipe up to continue Feature so that when you have an app open on the inner screen Then you close and fold your device you can swipe up on the lock screen To continue using it on the cover screen and those of you who have tried the one plus open Maybe familiar with a similar setting that's available on that device and it looks like google is basically borrowing or Implementing that feature into their version of android for the pixel fold The next one that i discovered is a feature that's Very likely intended to be pixel exclusive. It's a adaptive touch mode and this setting seems to Allow you to automatically adjust the touch sensitivity based on the environment or activities or the Whether or not a screen protector is enabled and it's not exactly clear It's not defined in the code what environment or activities refers to but it could be things like rain So if you have ever tried to use your phone when it's wet, you know that the touch density is really wonky you like Basically, you can't use it at all and it looks like this adaptive touch mode might Detect those kind of conditions like when it's wet or when it was screen protector on and then automatically adjust the touch sensitivity so that you can actually use your phone And then the next one is a revamped chat bubbles experience that's intended for large screen devices like the pixel tablet So this bubbles feature was introduced into android with android 11 And there are a couple apps that use it like the google messages app telegram And i think signal also uses it and this feature this experience has not really looked that great on tablets because A lot of times these bubbles are hanging to the left or the right edge But if you use a wide tablet, it's kind of hard to reach your thumb on the left or right edge Wherever the bubble might be instead this new bubble bar experience would be pinned to the bottom right Um screen side of the screen where the task bar is and then you can swipe up to open the bubble bar And then switch between active bubbles that are available, you know for whatever app you're using right now as I mentioned like not every messaging app supports this but if you do use Chat apps that support the bubbles api This will be a welcome experience and update to the experience on in android 15 most likely four tablets Before we move on just real quick show of hands who activates bubbles and who doesn't activates bubbles On purpose now wait, hold on on purpose or not Okay, uh, I suppose on purpose. Yeah, who who who makes sure that the bubbles are on I make sure the bubbles are off same. Yeah That's that's that might be a generational thing because michelle looks like you're probably liar I don't I only use it for like High priority contacts in certain chats like chat like people that I want to reply to immediately Here's a question michelle are any of the three of us a high priority chat Oh I'll say that discord the none of the apps that I that I talked to y'all in support bubbles. So that's my cop out answer There we go I The last feature Is something that is technically already rolling out in the android 14 qpr betas and it's this new Uh feature that seems to protect you from phishing attempts within apps and I believe the name of it is If you open your phone on the android 14 qpr beta and you go into the security settings You might notice this new scanning for deceptive apps settings page And it looks like this settings page or this feature will detect when um, I guess suspicious looking apps try to Show a pop-up asking for your username and password and it's not exactly Clear what google is going to be doing with this feature and how it detects Whether or not an app is suspiciously asking for a username and password and how it differentiates between that from a legitimate app But this settings page Suggests that you know google is trying to add and Built in anti phishing protection feature into android 15 Hopefully they share more detail soon once the developer preview is up But uh this feature if you have the qpr beta already installed on your device can be found under settings all right that was that was the That was like the five posts that I made last week about qpr and android 15 related stuff And I have even more that I want to do before thursday that I didn't get a chance to do so stay tuned for those All right, and we can discuss those next week as we go into it But it looks like android 15 is imminent. Isn't it? Yeah feels like it. It's in the air. Yeah smell that Well, hey, it is it wait a minute though Huh, wait, when is it coming Michelle? Is it coming this week? It's coming thursday thursday the 15 yet again. Yep android 15 on the 15th Oh, what a coincidence Is some is some is someone at google being clever or is that just is that just happenstance? So we'll see a little this little of that maybe Oh, we're gonna release it on tuesday. Let's just hold it two days and do it on the 15 Those people that do those android shows. They'll love that They're gonna run with that one My word All right, all righty. Well, so, uh, it's been a while since we've heard from the beeper drama Mellow drama telenovela uh, telenovela. Yeah. Yeah, when is it? Do you have any have you heard anything on the latest there? Yeah, there's there's something interesting happens. So I um, so recently there was the state of the net conference which is basically a kind of lecture conference series hosted by a nonprofit that's basically for Uh, the public and for policymakers to kind of talk about, you know, things related to decentralized global internet communications commerce and democracy And one of the um, federal communications commission, uh, the FCC that there's five commissioners one of those commissioners been in car recently so spoke at this conference And mr. Carr basically said that the FCC should look into whether the Shutdown of beeper mini by apple complies with one of the FCC's rules and this rule is called part 14 And it has a lot to do with accommodating users with disabilities It actually comes from this like landmark, uh disability law called the cvaa the communications and video accessibility act And I mean car goes kind of into depth about it Basically, it's kind of tapping into that same like case that we keep hearing about and I've heard about over the winter Of keeping or getting these kind of large companies You know accountable for any competitive practices And car comes at it from a very, you know, slightly different take, um And kind of tries to use some of like the FCC's, you know current rules in the books as, you know, uh, Kind of uh justification for it And so this law that he talks about actually States in it that quote covered provider provider shall not install network features functions or capabilities That impede accessibility or usability and so mr. Carr really talked about the accessibility and usability Kind of aspects of us and stating kind of the inciting basically things like To a tiny extent, you know, whether the blue and green is accessible or not, but really the idea that because You know apple degrades the experience or, you know, degrades certain things like, you know photo and video and and certain parts of the communication experience Between ios and android users He wanted to just basically have the FCC look into whether this kind of runs the file of these rules And there's a lot. I mean, I didn't actually go ahead and read rule 14 of the sec of the sec like in detail But it was really interesting because the the He specifically said that he wanted to, you know Have the FCC uphold these rules in the effort to encourage accessibility and usability and basically just relate apples business practices to these things and and like he kind of gave us like, um A little bit of a caveat that, you know, a lot of these rules with the fc Kind of came about like back in, you know, back when I like ISPs were like the big baddies and kind of talking about white services But, you know, he's kind of trying to like Basically encourage the FCC to kind of look forward and to look into these rules and look into apples behaviors in the context of this Which I thought was really interesting mostly because I had a usability like I mean, I I I really can't argue with most people um Myself about, you know, yeah, apple has the right to do whatever they want with their own services, sure Um, but actually it's kind of funny because as I was reading this article I had my very first like, uh For the first time ever had an iphone user send me a video And so I know this is old hat. I know taran. This is super old hat. I can't believe it's 2024 and this hasn't happened to you yet Yeah, yeah, like I It hasn't had me it happened to me the other day I was taking a lagerie class which is like to put it bluntly lagerie on steroids and my Instructor took a video for me because it was like really awesome and she sent it to me and it was the most potato video I've ever seen in my life. I was like all being on instagram me excited to show it And it was like really jarring to me. It's like, oh, I mean like I think from a philosophical standpoint I've really been angry for people but this is the first time I've been angry for myself And so I do think that there is something to be said here about accessibility and usability and the FCC In in in the speech was all about, you know interconnectedness and compatibility and so I just think it's a very interesting take on how you could maybe Hold apple to some account for this behavior Going at it from this tack. I mean, this is just one commissioner at the FCC suggesting it But yeah, brought the beeper thing back up and he's trying to like also kind of spread it You kind of like also anticipate like what's going to go with ai and ar and vr And basically just saying hey like more or less like our rules have been about isps, but these days The things and the entities that threaten, you know competitive, you know a good robust competition in the market aren't isps anymore It's he said on the edge and I can only imagine he's talking about kind of edge cases that they didn't expect like, you know, apple So anyway Someone else invoking the name of beeper mini and I personally think that kind of very interesting perspective And so we'll just see if this comes to anything It might come to nothing, but hey, it's beeper. We can talk about beeper mini again for just a second and think about You know, I don't know Um, but yeah, it was really funny potato videos. I don't know how you've dealt with this for years ron. It was awful I don't know how you haven't received any of these videos up until now that blows me away All of my friends and family are like Engineers or their parents that have asked us to buy them phones. So everybody's been android I mean, that's fascinating It's 24 that that this just happened the first time because I mean it's to the point now where I see a video come through on messages and I just know i'm know i'm not going to be able to To view it because of this reason um Or someone with an iphone sends you something that like you want to keep forever Or you would normally want to add to your photo roll or your video I wouldn't even you wouldn't even do it with that because I say I say I say send send me via I tell people send me stuff via facebook messenger that I know i'm on facebook I'm like at least some sort of data base, which is a good which is a good segue to actually One thing that we're talking about a whatsapp, which is um, we're going to jump This was originally going to be in the app section, but we figure let's talk about it now So whatsapp is changing To come in line with the eu's digital markets act, which we've heard so much about right we've discussed and all that sort of Stuff and basically it has to do with the interop interop interop Oh wow, I can't say it tonight interoperability with other messaging apps right and how whatsapp interacts with other messaging app This is exactly what we're talking about. Yeah meta wants to enable third party chat apps to chat with what what's app users So basically imagine sending a whatsapp user message via google messages or iMessage right, which honestly is how everything should work Yeah But the question is how do you do this while maintaining any integrity of security and privacy of the conversations And it's important to note that whatsapp uses a signal protocol So other messaging platforms would have to use that to encrypt their messages Like the concept and it's great to hear that whatsapp wants to do this like whatsapp wants to be interoperable But the the questions that this is all going to bring up are just our You know, there's so many, you know about how they connect and how they maintain that encryption it's we've unfortunately We we're dealing with the tech debt and a very big, you know shoelace knot of trying to untangle the past 20 years of messaging And I don't see it becoming clean Anytime soon and probably everybody believing that their system is the right system You know their approach is the right approach and that there needs to be any sort of Give it's not going to be for me But maybe at some point it will have to be you know, but yeah, I don't know And I will say that basically all my iphone friends know to use whatsapp with me. So I don't know there you go I actually saw that like whatsapp is actually gaining popularity in the u.s And that's that's definitely a good sign If you like interoperable messengers that are decent and that might be why that might be the real reason Why apple is adding rcs support to the apple messages app because they're afraid of whatsapp Yeah, instead of because they're certainly not being forced to do it anymore They're not afraid of the u at so much so to speak Quick note in the live chat here in the live stream cousin of jaw says between this and threads integrating of mastodon and the fediverse Meta has been quietly and suspiciously doing the right thing Which is true. Meta. Meta's making a lot of good choices these days. I feel like they're a little bit of a sleeping giant, so We will see A giant nonetheless But hey, um gotta do the right thing every now again to the scales back in the balance sometime. I guess maybe I like right things I like right things too I like doing right things and you know what you all have been doing the right thing for us And we appreciate it patreon.com slash android faithful. Yes, we say it a lot during our show But the reason that we do is because we appreciate you because you support us directly and you enable us to do this show and because you do this We give you the ability to Tell us what stories you want to hear sometimes so our patron Pick news story pick of the week. We had this for a vote for our patrons and It was between three different stories at the bottom with 21 of the votes was one plus saying the one plus 12 r Has slower storage than was originally advertised people were like, I don't care about that And then at 28% it was samsung's fix for the galaxy s 24's dole display is a new slider People sort of cared about that but the one that people really cared about Has to do with none other than youtube music. I did not think this would win by the way Yeah, it's kind of okay okay basically the cast sheet In youtube music is getting an overhaul so You know the changes I wouldn't say the changes are like major major, but if you look close enough, you'll see like Um, and the in here on the nine to five article there They're comparing it against the ios implementation On the left for video viewers in the middle is the way it is now And if you've casted from something like at youtube music to another device It's like this over You know this overlay this squared box that appears in the center with all of your destinations looks old Yeah, yeah exactly remember isn't it interesting with design how at one point it feels fresh and new and like oh my goodness They're so with the times and then yeah over time it starts to look dull and that's kind of what's happening here You know on the new version they're rounding the edges tightening up the list a little bit giving you a suggested pool before showing some of the other destinations um with the kind of the the Overlay that allows you to change the volume of wherever you happen to be casting it to I mean on the old one you actually got a little bit more context, right? You got the album cover Got a little play control on the new one You just get a little slider. That's it But you know, but you don't need that though like like the old one gave you more stuff But it was redundant because yeah because that's exactly what was behind the modal Right like from a ui perspective. So like all you really need you need this to be functional Let me know where this is playing. I think this is this is a I mean this is a welcome change and you know And it's a little more the maturity as they of the youtube music app as they they bring it up to where it should be To be what they want it to be, you know, yeah, so yeah So little design changes that you'll see if you're still using youtube music, which I um Not really Anyways, maybe you are patreon patrons of the show because I'm using it every day by the way I it's my it's my music app of choice and I okay couple years late. You know, are you happy? No, where's that right? No, I hate it. No The the I think there's a direct correlation between the my decline of enjoyment and involvement in music with the direction These apps have taken All this I definitely yeah, I mean it just it's it's it's thinks it's it's I do it because I have to The majority of time I've been there for my kids. So it's just it's not yeah Yeah, it's changed things for sure. So they all of your recommendations and and uh, yeah recommendations aren't even yours But even then I feel like google play music and it's really funny because I've been going through My basement I've been cleaning out my basement and like going through old boxes of stuff because I've still got Boxes that I moved to san francisco that I never opened from New York that that I moved back to New York that I never opened And so I'm finding phone. I've got one day we should do we'll do something But I've got a stack of phones like this high And I'm plugging them in And seeing like what year they're from and what was on them and like I I did I plugged one in that had google play music And I got all excited because somehow google play music Recommended new music to me better And more effectively than youtube music does youtube youtube music can't seem to figure out the genres I like and therefore filter out the stuff. I don't like when I was recommending new music it is like like um youtube music for new music recommendations is like walking into the supermarket and there's just like everything at you at once Where what I want is you know, I like these genres. You know, I like these bands Don't show me these bands that either you know, I don't like right like I don't understand how hard that can be so Yeah, and it's google right because you expect if anything this is google's jam is that kind of connection of data I mean I use title now just because Title and supporting artists and stuff, but I expect them to be not as good at recommendations And they're like pretty met and they they're not very good at like expanding out Like they basically recommend me the same damn two dozen songs given like the same starting point It's just whatever but it's like I would expect at least if anything youtube music if they can't get the ui Right could at least get that functionality, which is what google should be good at Good that's disappointing. So I'm just gonna see over your title Well, indeed. Well, thank you patrons for your votes patreon.com slash android faithful and especially Call out a few a few patrons out there robert f frimering from alaska luke fletcher from australia and jennifer hamill From tennessee, then it's just three of the many many folks Who support us on patreon at patreon.com slash android faithful. Thank you We literally could not do this without you At all literally thank you so much. Um, all right. So now Let's go over to hardware town where I've got two very red bricks of cardboard that I uh, I recently received Containing the one plus 12 and the one plus 12 are or as jason has effectively started referring to it the one plus 12er The 12er the reviews Or the the the unboxing coming up next Yes, and so, uh, what we'll do with this unboxing here. Where do you want to go first? Do you want to go 12 or 12 r? What do we want to see first everybody? Um, oh boy, do we go premium or do we go step down first and then work up to the premium? I want to note here that I don't know what color these are. I have not looked at any of the any any of the back of this Ron rondo's boxes are red. The boxes are red, but I don't know in the phones inside. I don't know what colors they are So, um, all right. Well, it looks like the first first person chat said the 12 r So let me start with the 12 r Which by the way important to note that the 12 r is now on sale today. In fact, if you're curious about it Um, it's you know, it's it's 4.99 usd. You can get it amazon get it at best buy Um, it goes on sale today So if you're looking at by getting the 12 r now's the day you want to jump on it You get on the one plus website as well too powered by trinity engine. Yeah, interesting Why am I only now seeing trinity engine? What the heck does that? powered by trinity engine They've been talking about it since like the oxygen os 14 update announcement, but uh, ask for your question What the heck is it? That's a whole different base entirely because it's still not There's a lot of jargon marketing jargon involved there All right, but tldr. It's something that makes your phone feel fast Okay, hey, we like that. That's pretty good. Yeah, so all right. So the one plus 12 r We're gonna start with that comes in a very nice red box with the for our audio listeners with the big 12 r on the front Opening the box here and we see the first thing you see is one plus a slogan never settle as that's in the little Packet here which contains I think a cable and the manuals and stuff. Yeah, no just the manuals the welcome Little all the print stuff that you never look at the fun stuff You never look at because what you want to look at is underneath it you want to look at the phone itself so i'm gonna pop the phone out here And uh take it out of its little paper protective sleeve Oh, so you are a slider not a peeler. Oh, yes So it looks like I got the color Iron gray for the 12 r here it is With a wonderful hassleblad camera Camera back in I will say It feels nice. Yeah, it doesn't you you would think the 12 r being a 499 and more in the mid-range You know like when the when the pixel a line first came out and felt plasticky felt a little cheaper This does not feel scrimped in the build quality whatsoever No, the texture even looks great on camera. You can kind of tell that's not plasticky just looking at it. No, it's not at all It's it's nice. It's just nice. I think you can hear me scratching it, but it's nice. Um Nice nice feel for the body And yeah, it looks pretty good. I have I literally this is the first time I've opened it So I haven't powered it up yet but i'm gonna Power it up and i'll put it through its paces Alongside its sister or brother the 12 which I'll now unbox here I don't know what color I got here same box red box with 12 the only difference is the lack of the r Opening it up you get instead of a red never settle you get a black never settle Little little documentation kit And then let's We see the phone there. This is one plus we're gonna take it out here. We're gonna slide it out jason. I'm a slider Yeah, not a peeler sometimes peeling it's fun. There we go. And there it is I got the black. I got the what what do they call it? They call it um silky black silky black Silky black and I got to say holding the 12 next to the 12 r They don't Feel different. Yeah, like 12 r feels a little lighter Right, it just feels a little lighter because it's you know, it's it's a little smaller It's got a little you know, but like They You know, they feel pretty good. So nice. What about the texture on the back of the the R versus the The non-er honestly, they feel the same. Are they about the same the texture feels the same the phone The phone feel on these does feel the same What is the one plus call it? Uh subtle metal grains. Yes. Yeah It does it does feel like it's got you know, like you you've got some Uh friction or like some texture like it does it's not too slippery. Remember jason when we went through the The slippery age of phones. Oh, yeah sliding all over the place. Yeah Um But I will say like not only were they slippery. They were also rounded all over so Like there was no holding on to those bad. Oh, yeah sliding right off the carpet tables and junk But but I will say I like the camera bump the hassleblad the big circle on the back because again It it gives it when you put the phone down it lets it's you know, it avoids the sliding all over Well, it does but it's also off Center and that's what really bugs me and actually so I have been Spending a lot of time with your Open with the one plus open for the last couple of weeks. I got it from you when I was in la And that's one of the things I really appreciate about it. Like there is no Doubt that this is and the same on those phones, you know, the the camera bump is Gigantic, right? Like they're not trying to hide it. It's it's huge It protrudes like it's a huge deal, but when it's centered at least I don't get that annoyance of it being on a table and wobbling like I don't know There's just a part of me that really bugs me when when the phone's just like Even when it's standing still like I've set it there and I walk away and I look over and it's like kind of Teetering because it's off axis and stuff. I don't know that that just kind of bugs teeter totter kind of mode Yeah, I will note the 12 r camera unit doesn't have the h the hassleblad h for it so it's a little you know a little bit lesser of a Camera set up. Yeah Color enhancements of the The camera the camera unit itself the circle itself is a bit smaller Um, just looking at it from a physical standpoint, but um But yeah, so got the 12 got the 12 r gonna put them through the paces I'll talk about them a little more later in the show, but one plus also sent the wireless charger Which I was raving about when I saw and as Michelle pointed out is just the old wireless charger But still I'll take it so because I don't currently have a wireless charger So does he have a fan inside of it? I was glad to pick that up. Uh, it does have a fan There is a fan. I mean, it's doing 50 watt wireless charging. You definitely need a fan You need a fan needs to circulate some air for sure. We will play with that. So, uh, yeah So one plus 12 r is on sale now. You can go pick it up if you're looking for a good mid-range I'm seeing I mean like this is my review. This is just my first look at it Because clearly you just watched me open the boxes here live on the show, but um I I'm hearing good things about the the 12 r and that it is it is like really For a mid-range potential flagship killer. It it it might be the real thing. Um, Michelle I see you Ron There's there's one thing I wanted to ask you to test out. So apparently One feature they're advertising on the one plus 12 is called quote aqua touch and it's basically It's basically one plus's version of that adaptive touch feature that google seems to be working on for their pixel phones It like lets you use the one plus 12 while it's wet Which is a problem as I mentioned with a lot of other phones. So I'm curious if you ever get a chance If you're ever using your phone out when it's raining I do see what the touch sensitivity is like and see if it's actually better on the one plus 12 than your other devices I literally ran into that today, michelle because I was that I was that shoveling snow And there was a couple times where you know, there was snow There were like snow was drop it was melting So it was dropping from the power lines above and stuff like that and I'd get a big doll up on my phone And then like it would go wonky. So um, I will I will definitely check that out and report back to you When I do the full review on the phone. So um So one plus 12 are one plus 12 Excited to get some hands on time with them Um, and yeah one plus I'm I'm I'm rooting for one plus these days. I will admit I'm a I'm a one plus I'm one plus assence as I've been saying I think they're doing great stuff Um, it's really exciting to be talking about them not as a punch line The way we used to years ago So, uh, I think they're they're they're they're pushing the envelope. So it's pretty cool unsettled de-settled. Yes Very cool. Are you implying they ever settled? Isn't their tagline never settled that joke has been made on this show. So I'm just a little bit of a settled period There for a while. It was a settled period. Yeah settling Yeah, they settled into a device that didn't have their their signature alert switcher, you know, they caught back there They unsettled again. Yes. So one plus one plus 12 one plus 12 are review to come So I will say uh, saturday was lunar new year. So all the red boxes are very auspicious or um, I took my kids to a Lunar new year program at the library where they got to do like all these arts and crafts with dragons And since then my son's just been saying dragon of the year It's it's the dragon of the year and it's a me and my wife are going. Ray, you're the dragon of the year Excellent Excellent, excellent. Very cool. All right. What else we got in hardware? What's going on? What's breaking? What's breaking the breaking is uh, hopefully not google's next foldable phone because you know foldables tend to be Significantly more fragile than regular slap phones um but we have a peek at what could be the pixel fold 2 because um last week I got a tip from a source an anonymous source about um a Device a photo they happened to get of the upcoming pixel fold 2 What they say is the pixel fold 2 and I found the source to be quite credible And I we talked about some of the rumors last week in terms of the processor and the ram and the storage But this week, um, I got more hands-on like information about the device including as I mentioned a photo of the actual prototype So what you're seeing on screen if you're watching the video is a photo of the alleged pixel fold 2 And based on what I know and it looks like google might be making significant design changes Um with respect to the first generation So the first generation was one of the widest foldable phones you could get when you unfolded it It was basically a tablet in landscape mode and a lot of apps reacted accordingly Like you had apps like gmail default to its tablet layout google play store tablet layout every single google app and every other android app that had a tablet layout would user tablet layout but um That pixel fold was quite unique in that regard because most other android phone foldables when you unfold it They open up into a portrait landscape layout because they're um They were taller than they were wider So a lot of apps were default to their phone layout and they would only show their tablet layout when you actually flipped it over So this form factor is found on like the one plus open or the galaxy z fold 5 Um and while I don't know the exact aspect ratio of the pixel fold 2 just looking at the photo that I was sent Comparing it to the first generation pixel fold and what I was told by my source It looks like the form factor is similar or closer to the one plus open than the Previous generation pixel fold. So it's a lot more square. It's not like a perfect square You can tell if you're looking at the photo, but it's closer to a square than the Rectangle that was the pixel fold one and that has come interesting implications in terms of like ask the app compatibility aspect Maybe they're doing this because a lot of apps just weren't optimized yet for landscape mode and tablet Devices so they're like basically google is throwing in the towel saying, you know, we can't force developers to Get with the times and support our devices and landscape and tablet mode, right? So While we're waiting on more apps to be, you know Compatible and natively supported with this aspect ratio The compromise is to have the default portrait layout so that your apps look and behave as you might expect on a regular slab phone And then maybe in a future generation we might return to that really wide aspect ratio Or this could be incorrect because this photo that I was sent and the details that I were sent were of a device That's in the engineering validation test stage of the production process and there's still a couple of steps left. There's still the dvt the pvt device validation test and the product validation test and then mass production But generally like once you're in this stage like the overall design is kind of finalized There might be a couple of things that might be changing, but I don't think This design will significantly change in terms of like the overall aspect ratio from where we are now from where it'll launch and As for when it'll launch Based on the rumor that I heard last week in terms of the device upgrading to the tensor g4 instead of the tensor g3 It sounds like we might get a later launch this year instead of google io We might get a announcement in fall alongside the pixel 9 series just based on the fact that you know the tensor g9 Sorry the tensor g4 that is getting You know that hasn't been announced yet and would likely be saved for an announcement in the fall one thing i'm noticing when I look at this and because I have the pixel or sorry the The one plus open I doubt you can see it on the screen Is that with the pixel fold They were squared off the display was squared off and you know all the design elements were really squared And actually what you're seeing in the the leak that you've got a hold of is it's very similar to the rear design of the One plus open as far as that kind of like rounding with the with the barrier that that uh that goes between like I'm looking at I'm side by side and I'm like wow that is really similar They're yeah, you notice the The corners are really rounded and I do like that aspect because I think when I was using the one plus open I didn't really like how sharp the corners were they're not anywhere near as sharp as the s24 ultra that I'm currently using Right, but they are sharper than what it looks like on the pixel fold 2 And also the other thing that the elephant in the room that I didn't mention is the redesigned camera bar On the back of the pixel fold 2 it doesn't look like any of the other current pixels like it's not the giant edge-to-edge visor that all the other pixels since the pixel 6 of ad it's this squared off camera module in the Uh top left corner and a lot of people are saying this is the iPhoneification of the pixel lineup And I don't know if I quite agree like maybe I don't know why they might be ditching that camera bar design it could be because Because they're making this device a bit Narrower they just don't have enough room to have that camera bar Go edge-to-edge and fill it with all the camera sensors they want So as you can see there's like there's if you're looking in the video feed This camera island has two rows of camera sensors two pills, right? And uh, if you were to lay them side by side, I just I doesn't look like there's enough space Yeah, there's not enough length right right not enough length on the back They are with or whatever it is. You can't go horizontally one line because it's not wide enough. Yeah, yeah, right I don't like the stacked look of the pills. I'm sorry It it looks like like they were on the same line And then you shortened the margin and instead of them like shrinking they just went oh, I'll just put it down there You know what I mean like it's awkward to me, but it's a little awkward to me Yeah, you're not gonna be fair. This is a blurry photo of a pre-production unit. Yeah I am hesitant to judge it right based on this. Oh, I'll judge it and hopefully Hopefully they're judging it too and they go. Yeah, I don't like that either But we'll see but but so many times these things happen this early in the stage and then we get it in hand We're like, well actually it looks good. So yeah, you can't really judge at this stage But I'm gonna miss having a tablet when I open the phone I mean if I'm just gonna have a portrait to square phone. I'm just gonna back to samsung y'all. That's that's just it Yeah, but I don't know but I don't know I found the I mean the the Jason open up the one the the one plus open like Like when it's open when it's it feels it's a tablet like it it's turn around jason turn So you can like when it's open on the to the full display like like it gives me like when I played with it I preferred it over the pixel fold because what I got in height I didn't was worth more to me than what I lost and with Yeah, I mean, I I agree, but then I'm just gonna go I mean, I I think well when I say z fold I would do that or one plus But I I liked having an actual full width Like tablet in my hand. That's kind of like what was you need to me to go back to pixel? Yeah I I would yeah, I mean I I get it like I totally get it, but I don't know I I like variety in my foldable choices Yeah, the advantage of the pixel fold super wide aspect ratio Is that it actually makes side-by-side multitasking significantly better like It's it was hard to do on the z fold 5 just because it's so narrow And I tried it on the one plus open It is more doable on the one plus open than on the z fold 5 But I'd imagine just because of how wide the pixel fold is it's the best experience If you if you're having one app on the left side one app on the right side Yeah, the yeah, I agreed 100% So Yeah, I mean, but I get it like the one with the one plus open just had so much Just like almost universal praise. It doesn't I mean it makes sense for them to kind of move to what people like Yep Yep. Well, what about nothing nothing's over there like you're never talking about me Um, that's that's what carl pay was saying. That's because they had nothing to talk about until now Nothing to talk about They've been real quiet after ever since their messaging for a right when they tried to solve Oh What what an unfortunate moment I forgot the name of nothing chat nothing chat powered by sunbird sunbird. That's what it was, right? We're all just pretending that didn't happen They're pretty much didn't happen if they'd have stuck that if they've been able to stuck stick the landing That would have been a big deal So it was obviously it was a gamble, but oh that's a hard one anyways Nothing is hoping to erase your memory of any of that stuff With a new phone coming march 5th called the nothing phone 2a that actually there's going to be an event on march 5th 6 30 a.m. Eastern 3 30 a.m. Pacific which is even too early for me. So I'm not going to be watching but I'll watch afterwards They're doing it as a part of a developer program program similar to what they did here in the us with the nothing phone 1 We don't really know anything specific about it yet. No specs. No picks. No pricing Carl pay and this like promo interview that they set up Um, it does call out details on the device Sort of he infers that the nothing phone 2 The the you know the actual nothing phone 2 is for those who want a premium experience and that there are others who have different needs. So, you know that Tells you this is going to be Somehow different and then the 2a tells you tells me anyways That's probably going to be a step down in some way shape or form Um, not that it's bad, but you know like all the phones seem to have this in their catalog now so And then you can kind of see in this in this thumbnail They had some kind of scribbles on on a page at one point in the video and it kind of shows A little bit of the sketches of the 2a. It shows a centered camera layout And then a redesigned kind of glyph pattern on the back which actually Confirms that a leak that was saying there would be no glyph was a nothing burger Yeah, oh, yeah, I did it. Um speaking of the glyph Nothing has announced its glyph developer kit. So any developers who want to Develop for the the glyph lighting systems on the phone 1 and the phone 2 can There's a github page with info examples tips for the setup all that kind of stuff That sketch looks like a kind of very rudimentary drawing of a human digestive system. It does. Yeah Don't want to see where that comes out of the The nothing phone 2 there we go Is it a nothing burger will it be a nothing burger? I don't know. Well remains to be seen. We'll see how march 5th, but I'm interested Yeah, I'm always curious what they're doing I'm always I'm always curious what they're doing and whenever they open up a dev program Like like inviting people to develop against what they're doing Like that's both like It's a little thirsty because it's like hey, we want you to do to do stuff But it's also but like it's welcoming and it's opening and if I was a developer I'd be into it, you know, so Yeah, I mean, yeah, well as a developer I I suppose well, I guess I'm asking When primarily you and you michelle probably know about this too as a developer you're probably your alert system is Is open to opportunities like this, right? How do you make a decision? To go this is an opportunity that's worth my time versus not right because it'll give you if you do And it ends up popping and you're one of the first people that can be a real big opportunity and I don't know I think that this is but There's just not enough Nothing phones out there to justify for any developer team. I gotta imagine I can't speak for anyone else, but I imagine that's going to be the case And they'll do this or like Are like independent developers and enthusiasts, right? Yeah, I would say an enthusiast for me I I don't think I don't ever see this flying at any company that I work with where It's a numbers game. Yeah Uh, and and you just want to write especially for something like the glyph where it is so hyper specific to just as handful of devices Like it's interesting and I think it would be fun to do proofs of concepts that might inspire other people but Yeah But you know godspeed to ever does want to do it. I do think it's like there's a lot of opportunity there But it's it's a hard cell. It's it's a it's a it's a uh, what's it's the Whatever it's the snake eating its own tail, right? Like like it's not Unless people adopt it or like start adopting the phone and it's like we talk about tablets unless there's enough of a movement In a direction it doesn't make the it doesn't make the return on investment. You know, like michelle said, you know valuable Um, definitely not in the u.s. Like, you know, I think nothing has is is A very very big hill to climb in the u.s. You know, I don't know what the adoption has been in europe But it seems like they've been mainly focused on europe and more and even then in the style Side of things which is even a smaller niche of a niche Um, so oh curious see what comes out of it though. We'll see Yeah, I mean if it was like an open some kind of like open spack open sdk where you could conceivably apply You know the time and effort to another phone Sure, but that doesn't That doesn't also that that doesn't seem like the nothing style like they they thrive on the uniqueness and their particular flavor of mobile so Yep, yeah Indeed not to not to be not to be like, you know Debbie Downer's All right, well pick us back up then with Xiaomi Well, how about how about a watch how about to go with your mid-range? Nothing phone a mid-range Xiaomi watch So it's this is not actually officially announced by Xiaomi yet But people have been noticing that a Xiaomi watch 2 now. This is in contrast to the Xiaomi watch 2 pro Uh, so anyway, this Xiaomi watch 2 has been popping up on retail sites in europe. Um so Yeah, it's kind of not sure how that happens retail sites, but no official word from Xiaomi But it is going to be a more affordable version of the Xiaomi watch 2 in fact a very Similar basically other than a few things so the the Xiaomi watch 2 pro versus the Xiaomi watch 2 as Detailed on these like a little premature retail site listings are very similar um The Xiaomi 2 watch is looking to be priced between 100 199 euro And 219 euro and that is in contrast to the pro which is like between 270 330 euro And they're very very similar the design is about the same The only thing is that of course being a more, you know, kind of mid-rangey watch model There are going to be some compromises to be made And the biggest of those is going to be the fact that while the Xiaomi watch 2 had a rotating bezel The Xiaomi watch sorry the Xiaomi watch 2 pro had a rotating bezel The Xiaomi watch 2 does not and it will be made of aluminum versus stainless steel But I mean other than that it's basically the Xiaomi watch 2 watch 2 pro same specs Same size and display water resistance even the same processor. They're both Allegedly, I guess on the side of the watch 2 But supposedly using snapdragon w5 plus gen 1 Same sensors and I mean and if we go by everything else The Xiaomi watch 2 pro was running where 3 point where i was 3.5 so I probably could a decent guess that It's probably gonna be all the the the mid-range version will also be running the Wear OS 3.5. Um, so yeah, like if you are in the mood for a Xiaomi watch But want to get one just a little bit Uh, a little bit a more affordable range of price. Uh, keep an eye out for the Xiaomi watch 2, which Maybe Xiaomi will actually officially talk about at some point, uh, other than like letting it kind of just You know slide under the radar You can still go to this listing at, uh, keskin's kilo in, uh Finland I think and buy it. Yeah, not available. You can't actually buy. Yeah, it's listed Oh, can't actually well, I can't actually read it. So I don't know if I can actually buy it Here I'll do google translate. There we go. Um, room Oh temporarily out, okay At least it says that I can read that Okay, well, um, but yeah, very attractive. Um, and about let me see with the method that at least 100 and At least at least 70 you're cheaper than the watch 2 pro Okay, so there you go. Um, keep an eye out. It's got to be there It's like a listing and for it is information about it already. Just need jami to acknowledge it And then we can move forward and then to stock it And and and to stock it so you can actually buy that that is important Fair enough All right, that was hardware now. We've got apps. We did have two app stories, but we already told you about We jumped a gun on one. Yeah That's okay. It got in there. It was just a little bit earlier. It totally fitted the story We were talking about earlier, so that makes sense But what else do we have? Apparently I am on the uh, things getting minor redesigns Beat because not only did youtube music get that design Change but google maps is getting some redesigns some redesigned elements and I don't know. I mean, they're not insignificant. They're just not major but you know, again It I think what it comes down to is kind of like a rounding of the edges Um, also kind of revealing a little bit more This is this is kind of like the current layout that we're seeing on the video view When you're looking at kind of your directions view Or sorry your search results view The map gets covered Entirely by your results things are A little bit crazy Lockier and everything the redesign kind of rounds things out the the search bar itself isn't You know taking up the whole third of the screen now It's like a little pill search bar overlaid. So you actually see the map behind it same with your results Um, same with the kind of like the cards view down here if you're actually looking at a map and that's just one aspect. There's also Your actual directions are getting a little bit of a change along the same lines, right instead of being kind of like this overall You know taking over the entire A screen with information, which actually makes it feel incredibly dense with information Sometimes gives your eyes, you know a challenge as far as like what to actually look at Now they're starting to kind of Let a little bit of that map creep through Um in different ways and you know, I do think that that actually helps your eye to know Kind of what are the places that I should be looking at? Um, what is the information that I need right now and it just kind of cleans up the view This is the modern design aesthetic and three years from now. We'll look at this and go. Oh my god Right now it's new and fresh It just keeps tinkering and I'm glad that they're fixing it because it's been driving me crazy lately about like the number of things Yeah, the number of things that just want to um, you know, like I just want to know where I'm getting and then all of a sudden Like stuff is covering like you said like the search results is covering the map and especially when you're driving It's such a it's such a functional need so I'm glad that they are are addressing that so yeah Well, that's not all wrong. No, it's not because also in maps You will get this Tiny little collar That's cool. I like that Make it bigger for goodness sakes. Well, no because if it's too big it's covering results, right? I guess but I got to see it in context on the phone I got to see it in conduct to see if it's bigger enough, but I I like that that's not it's subtle I like it now cast so very subtle Yeah, um, but yeah, you get your temperature of the I'm assuming of the area that you're looking at And then the um the aqi the air quality index Of that area as well. So that's kind of an overlay That's the world we live in now. It does feel a little too small I mean if it was a graphic if it was like the layer graphic Been fine, but it's but there's actual information in there And I think from an accessibility standpoint like don't go a bit smaller than you know These other buttons that have wording on it like that's tiny the 228 qi but I get it. They don't want to cover up the map So there you go. Is there anything else? I think that's about it. Oh, this is just like you know You get expanded information if you tap it. So you actually get the weather in the areas Everybody loves weather It makes sense wet weather and maps the two evergreen things that we always love I bet if we threw this end as a patreon pick it would have won. It would have won. Yeah, totally We probably didn't too easy you want to get easy on people Everybody wanted their youtube music news I know Um, well jason while you were going over the maps We did have a little not it's not breaking news, but we had a late addition into the maps there That michelle is going to tell us about quickly though. So um Yeah, so if you use any application that invokes the android system photo picker that was introduced first in android 13 And then back ported to android 11 and later um You can finally select photos or videos that were stored online on your google photos account So previously any apps that use the photo picker like for example the new gemini for android app Like if you open gemini for android and you select the camera icon and they tried to import a photo That uses the android photo picker before today You could only select photos and videos that are stored locally on your android device But starting with the rollout of the february 2024 google system update And available on android 12 and later The photo picker is getting cloud media provider integration starting with the google photos app. So um Apps that integrate this api that allows them to be set as a cloud media provider Can be shown in the photo picker so that you can select them In whatever apps are invoking the photo picker whether or not that be like google keep the messages app google chat and any other app that uses it Previously you know like it was very limited like if you only if you stored Your memes your camera rolls everything was stored locally you could select it through the photo picker But if you had anything else that was available only through Online cloud media storage like google photos you couldn't select that but for now finally you can And this is an open api So other third party apps like one drive for example could integrate with the android photo picker Although google is kind of using an Allowless system. So like you can't just be any developer and have your app be integrated with this photo picker You have to actually work with an oem and have the oem nominate your app um, I don't I guess the reason they're doing it is because for security so that you don't have like um, you know like Random images being inserted into the photo picker. I'm not exactly entirely sure why they're limiting in such a way, but that's the way it is right now And if you're using google photo at least this will begin rolling out soon Cool. How are you feeling about this win because I know photo pickers are near and dear to your heart Yeah, they are um, it's a it's a step in the right direction So that is a thing is that wire where so the big thing with photo picker is that sorry I was way away from my mic The big thing about photo picker is that it is a more secure way for you to share photos with an app Without having to give them full permission to all of your photos on your device And so that is a that is a thing and and one of the kind of big reasons to To that probably was um, just Not a good reason switched to is that it didn't support cloud and now it does it Looking at the post what does Make me feel a little bit like oh, I wish it was more is that it looks like from the cloud provider is a radio button rather than like a check Like a but like so it seems like you only have one provider at a time Like just from looking at the ui. I don't know I I only just read this now and that makes me unhappy because I don't know about anybody else, but I have a lot of different you know media providers File providers on my phone. I've got dropbox. I've got drive. I've got photos. I've got other things So I'd like to see how this shakes out. I mean, it's it's definitely a step in the right direction um I just and it is weird um, michelle as you said for them to kind of more or less whitelist That's probably a better phrase than using that but basically kind of like having it be a little bit gated like this because There's already like a whole system on android where you know, any app can say hey, I can provide you Files I can provide you media and granted that might it might not align with a new api, but I it it again kind of is like I don't I you can sort of I I don't know like I You're totally right It does feel like they're kind of reinventing the wheel a bit like the old Um documents or the system file picker that this whole photo picker is replacing that already supported integrating with google photos With google drive with like everything. There was already an api and existing integrations with that All that basically needed was like an updated ui and like kind of just specific filtering for photos and videos, but instead we have this entirely new independent system that apps have to specifically add support for again And over a year after it launched. We're finally getting integration with google's own photos app. So like when I like when are we going to get other apps like who knows? Yeah, and that's and that's the thing though is like And I kind of ranted about you know apps like instagram and stuff kind of making their own pickers And them being just like poor but they're poor for the same reason the photo picker was poor is that you can only see Photos on your device and you should just make it easier for people to just be able to have access to all their media cloud or not and again step in the right direction Looks like we lost win I thought that was my internet for a second It's been wonky all day. So I was like, oh, oh, no it happened But apparently not. Yep. All right. Well for now We'll have to remove win from the stage. We'll just we'll just wrap up that conversation for now Shall we shall we move on into email or Yes, and I'll happily take the first one. Yeah, take the first one. Yeah, so our first email Comes in from blake in texas Who wrote into contact at android faithful? Dot com contact at android faithful dot com. We love to hear from you. Please send your emails Blake says hello to the entire android faithful team After using galaxy devices for over five years I decided to switch to the pixel 8 pro overall I enjoy it and love not having to app stores to update However, one thing I would love to replicate is the modes and routines it had When I would connect the bluetooth in my car would automatically update the bluetooth volume of my galaxy to 80 So I almost never had to adjust my car volume um And then he goes on to say in the Second there in the pixel settings the only available rules are for do not disturb and changing the ringer settings Are you aware of any other app or tool to automatically change the volume similar to samsung? It's useful functionality that I hope pixel will adopt. I've been team android since my htc evo 4g And I wouldn't have it any other way. It's great listening to y'all every week So thank you for sharing your passion and enthusiasm and thank you blake for writing in and now that we have win back Um, uh win you uh, you had some suggestions about this Oh, shoot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so, um, blake. Hi. I'm back. Um, so blake. I didn't I didn't know I I was trying to look for this and I couldn't find anything that was like Specifically about bluetooth volume I did see that you know way back in android 6 that android or google rather introduced absolute volume Which is a feature meant to sync Volume on your phone and bluetooth devices for you Of course when someone does something for you, there's a good chance that you know You they will do it in a way that you don't like and there actually is a slew of articles and tips out there even today in 2024 About turning it off and this actually requires you turning on developer mode, which is not that hard Um, but that kind of goes to show you about like You know, I think it requires developer mode. But anyway, um, what you can do is You know, um, maybe try turning off absolute volume and maybe If you do that the individual device volume will be retained between connections Um, and I think I do think it does require developer mode, but and if I can just get you to scroll Yeah, sorry go ahead Yeah, my suggestion would be a third party automation app like tasker or automate just envisioning in my mind This is probably one of the simpler like automations. You could set up just when connected to bluetooth device Uh, whatever your bluetooth device is called in your car Then change volume to 80% and then when disconnect restore volume like Pretty simple. You don't have to do much of anything to set it up but uh, the challenge is the ui like figuring out how the ui works, but Uh, yeah, I there are some apps. I make it really simple. It's basically like a block diagram I think like automate on google play is one of them where it's just like you connect blocks together makes it much more Like iftt intuitive if you use Yeah, like I didn't do it though. Um, I tried it it doesn't allow you to set It allows you to turn up the volume, but not for a bluetooth device. It's just the phone volume which Yeah, so I don't know if that's the challenge in having an app manage bluetooth device ids and then actually remembering per one Um, but yeah, anyway, um, but yeah So barring that if you can't do that try turning that off developer options go to settings and then go to systems Many and try turning up apps of volume. Maybe that'll work, but Yeah, um, you think this was a thing, but apparently not I will say I will say on behalf of the legions of people who find tasker to be completely intimidating It is it is attractive to either have it be baked into the os Or have it have like a a simple app to do it now I agree with you michelle like it's probably one of the simpler tasker ones but I understand some people have hesitation for that so, yeah Well something samsung does that the pixel doesn't do as well All right, um, michelle you got the uh, the next email That's right. We got an email from stealth dave Who is wanting to tell us about the photosphere option? So I've been a big fan of this photosphere option on google's camera app for quite a while now And I've been very dismayed with recent news that the photosphere option might be disappearing on newer phones So I was thrilled over the weekend when I opened the camera on my pixel 7 to find the photosphere right there Next to panorama This is the photosphere that I took at the top of the eagle canyon run at mammoth mountain california on saturday Yeah, and i'm working on it. Sorry. I didn't have to read the email Yeah, I keep going what I was really impressed with was how well my pixel 7 was able to stitch the photos together into A seamless canvas. I've taken photospheres on a variety of phones and while always impressive There was always some visible tearing at the seams But the pixel 7 presumably with some help from its machine learning focus processor It really feels like the photo was taken with a single magical Sphere-like camera lens love the new show and thrilled to have the whole triple a gang back together Keeping the faith stealth dave Thanks. That looks really good photosphere lives. There's a little bit of a tear right there It's it does feel weird that they're getting rid of like 360 degree photos at a time when It's making a comeback with vr and then google and samsung are going to release sometime soon, hopefully they're AR glasses So like when this would actually be kind of useful to have how much of these photos to experience in Maybe that's maybe someone just realized. Oh our bad Our bad It's like it's like when they got rid of android beam and then apple is like Hey, we got android beam on iphone's but prettier now Yeah Nice I forgot about photospheres. It's been a long time since I took this photosphere. That's for sure Well, it's nice to see that it's not dead yet. So Not dead yet Um, thank you stealth dave for that email and finally dave different dave I think or it's stealth dave, but not stealthy not a stealthy Dave in virginia beach says Let me see here and get the email up for you Hi android faithful team. Congrats jason for a great theme song. Thank you dave Just one question. I know the music has the word android before it drops the full beat But the synth voice says something beforehand something like Activate What's the word? This cracked me up really really See I I hear it every time, but you know, I made the song it says android faithful android faithful I that's I thought it was Very clear that it was faithful as well too, but maybe because I hear it all the time Well, no, but it says something like it says the It's before it drops the full beat, but the synth voice says something beforehand I don't let me say there were android Something like activate is it faithful or is there anything other any other words in that song jason? It's just android faithful. So it's faithful. There you go And there's the android which is the thing that dave I think is talking about that might be the activate that it That might be the activate He's thinking of this that the the guttural android says before before the drop. Yeah, no He says I I love how we're deciphering this I know the music has the word android before it drops the full beat, which is true android But the well voice the only synth voice in there says something beforehand something like activate But it's you know, we're gonna play this song in like a minute from now. So you get uh, yes Keep an eye keeping our ears open for that. Let's see here. Let's see here. Is it impossible to like play this and skip forward I think I probably can't No, you can't. No, you can't but we can skip forward. Yeah, I know it's frustrating. Oh, okay. Never mind Yeah, never mind. We'll just stay tuned to the end with this That's a good excuse to wrap it up. All right. So email us at contact at android faithful.com We do love to hear from you. We keep the good emails coming in. We want to pull the curtain tell you about everything that there is That's gonna wrap it up for android faithful number 31. Thank you so much for listening. You guys are all the best before we go Jason tell everyone about the world of Jason. Howl. Yeah Well, um, I think if I'm gonna point at everyone I feel like I have so many different things that I'm pointing people to and that it might be confusing Right now. I'm really working on getting some Regular kind of reviews content up on my youtube channel. So go to yellow gold studios.com. That's a redirect That'll take you to youtube.com slash at yellow gold studios and right now if you go there You're just going to find episodes. I say just as if it's less lesser than but it's actually pretty awesome You're going to find all the episodes of ai inside including new one recording tomorrow All of the episodes and video and then I'm going to be Throwing some videos up there here. Hopefully by the end of this week I'm going to have a review of the one plus open I know it's a little late But I'm going to do my review treatment on that and that's kind of like my test case for What my reviews are going to be going forward and then I've got a bunch of other devices that I'm going to be reviewing In the future. So go to yellow gold studios.com. That's all I have to say about that Very good. All right Uh There we go. There she is Yep, no idea guys. Sorry. It's my turn. It's infectious I was cursed last week and yeah, it seems to have spread We thought it was going to be Jason, but it turns out it's win with the internet connection. All right. Well win quickly While you're here while you're here, where can people find you? Android dev ran about things like the photo picker. Not exactly But other things like that find me at randley typing.com talks Things like that and find me at queen comb monkey really just on instagram But you know, maybe other places. All right, that's it before I drop again All right made it and michelle where where can people find you to get the latest on android 15? Oh, yeah Now is a great time to follow me if you want to find out what's coming under 15 because as we said earlier this show Android 15 is likely dropping on thursday. So if you want to find out what's new follow me on Twitter x masted on threads whatever at michelle ramon And if you want to support my work and chat with me and others on my discord group You can go to patreon.com slash michelle ramon and we'll be chatting about android 15 For weeks and months to come because there's so so much to dig into Yeah months indeed Very cool. Well, thank you michelle and for me you can follow me on social media I'm at ron xo across all the stuff you can find me. I'm easy to find but I will say Do us a favor tell your friends about the show write a review Spread the word If you know people who listen to podcast on spotify tell them to listen to the show Because we're really good on every other platform but spotify for some reason That's interesting. Yeah, it really is. I thought we'd be higher on spotify, but we're not but anyway A lot of people we're very big on pocketcast. That's all I'll say we're very big on pocketcast. So that makes sense Doesn't make sense But yeah, please you know help spread the word you guys are our biggest Supporters and we really appreciate that So let people know you can find everything at android faithful.com And that's going to wrap it up this week and like I mentioned over at android faithful.com You can find links to subscribe to the show on all the various platforms You can find a link to go support us on patreon at patreon.com slash android faithful You can email us do all the stuff. It's all there at android faithful.com We love you all for tuning in We record the show every Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern 5 p.m. Pacific and then we release the podcast shortly thereafter And you can watch the replay on youtube And until next week, this has been android faithful and we'll see you next time. Have a happy valentine's day everybody. We love you See says android faithful. Yeah, I did