 This episode of Android faithful is brought to you by awesome the awesome privacy cable gives you much needed control over when And how your data is shared get more info at awesome privacy comm slash privacy dash cable Hello, and welcome to Android faithful We are your weekly source of Android news hardware and apps for the wonderful world of Android. I am Ron Richards I am went to it now And I am Michelle Roman And we're here welcome Episode one we did it we started Theme song we got awesome hose this and we've got awesome as a sponsor. So it's what else what more do we need? We're off to the races here. So yeah, so this is episode one of Android faithful the the weekly show that is dedicated all of things that are amazing about Android and before we get into the show I Thought we were first start and I really think we got a start by just thanking Everyone out there on the internet For those of you who are longtime listeners of our previous show all about Android and those of you who might be new Thanks to the wonderful folks at the daily tech news show and that conglomerate of awesome shows If you're not aware of us, we've been doing this for several years Talk about Android every week and we love it and we've been blown away by your support We announced the show last week We launched all of our socials. We launched our patreon and I know I don't know about you guys But I've been blown away by the response. It's it's been really awesome Thank you everyone for following us and like following us from our old home to our new home like It's it's been awesome. We have already so many patron patrons. We had so much good love. We had so much sharing It's it's not to use the word again, but it deserves saying it's awesome both in the traditional Reading of the word and also just freaking great very cool So Michelle, what is your reaction been to this? I mean, I'm like relatively new to like twit and all about Android Like I've been on a few shows before I joined as like a regular co-host like maybe I think six total and then you know My stint of 20 before ripped all about Android So like I don't have the kind of history that you do run with the show Like I know you've been through so much with twit and all about Android like over a decade, right? Yeah Yeah, almost 13. Yeah 13 years of talking about Android with with Jason Howell and Eileen Rivera and Gina Trapani and Florence Ion and now who in and now you Michelle. It's great. But listen, it's we It's it's it's a blast to see how many people like the community that we built and how many people still wanted us to keep going and honestly That's really why we're here like when we ended all that Android I was even I said on the last show We're not gonna spin up a new show and I think that maybe lasted like three or four days before we saw the response And both win and I were talking and we're like we should figure this out. Shouldn't we and so yeah I think I posted something like in a chat with Ron like so is it I forgot when this was I was like, is it too soon to ask you get y'all for like podcast Making advice and then it kind of just I mean I think the gears was in motion very soon after that So it made sense and y'all have validated Validated Ron's change of heart and my like too sooning on trying to start something new But and we really do appreciate it. So yeah, so that said, let's get the business stuff out of the way If you haven't subscribed to the podcast go subscribe. We're in pocket cast We're in Spotify. We're even on Apple podcast and yes, we're working on Google podcasts We don't know why it's not showing up yet. We've submitted it, but stay tuned I've been I've also been overwhelmed by the number of you that want Google podcast. So who knew so there you go So we're working on it Who knew that a show full of people, you know geeking out about Android would want their podcast to be on the Android podcast app Exactly who knew it's on Apple podcast. So we got a we get a shit We got it. We got to kind of bring up the the other platforms a little bit Otherwise be a little bit weird. We'll get there. We'll get there but um So yeah, so definitely go subscribe if you haven't if you need to find out where to subscribe all the links are over on our Website at android faithful comm so you can check that out We mentioned support we're live at patreon.com slash android faithful. Thank you to all of our patrons that have already signed up We've got cool stuff on there. You can get you know access to You get to pick a news story that we're gonna talk about on the show a little bit So we'll do that you get access to the discord with the DTS folks You get access to an ad-free podcast feed and we're gonna do cool extras and we've got merch There's a t-shirt and there's the stickers and stuff like that So You definitely want to check that out and support the show. We thank everyone for that Also head over on social you can follow us on Twitter at twitter.com slash android faithful We're on Instagram at Instagram comm slash android faithful podcast And because of that we're also on threads at android faithful podcast and we're on Facebook at facebook.com slash android faithful So go follow us there. Whatever your social media platformer choice We're gonna try to be as active as possible there as we can So do that and lastly the last little bit of business before we get to work You can email us at contact at android faithful comm the thing that we love so much with our Last show was how involved the community was and we really want to continue that so please keep emailing us with your questions And thoughts and things like that. So Yeah, so that's all the stuff at the top of the show to get out of the way So what do you say do you guys want to do a show and talk about the news? Let's do it Let's go. I bet you're waiting to see if we had a news bumper. We don't so we're just gonna dive into the news and Again, like we said, we're gonna we're gonna Please be patient with us as we're getting the show on his row on on its on its legs and figuring all out including Showing our video viewers on YouTube and Twitch, which we're also live streaming every week on what we're talking about So our first story Is about the fact that while we've been gone for the last couple of weeks Android rebranded who knew and part of that rebrand was That they decided to up add an uppercase letter to the Android logo. So what were you guys thoughts when you first saw this? I Don't like it, but I'm also old now. I mean and change is hard I I don't know I think I always liked the lowercase a it felt a little scrappy and also it made most of the letters the same height and also like the androids like the Android buddy is now different like with Black eyes and his little more three. I don't I change is hard obviously, but hey, we've rebranded So it should probably be a little more open to it. I don't know y'all Michelle I Feel like it was probably done for more practical reason It's kind of easier to dress up the 3d droid head in like various different outfits And that's kind of why you saw like they kind of quietly rolled out this new branding at CES early this year Nobody really they didn't really announce that hey, this is androids new branding They just kind of threw it out there and they had like a bug droid with Android auto with Android automotive and all these other things So I think it's kind of easier for them to dress up in like different kinds of styles to you know talk about their various products Yeah, so I can't say oh look I'm very big I can't say that I was surprised by this It's just a funny like it's always a good moment in time whenever Android does some sort of branding update I feel like we've been through there was the little like the rounded letters logo for years that we had back in the day There were those and then you know that we've had this like cleaner lowercase look And so it's just an evolution I do think it's interesting though that the original if we go back and look at it the original or not the original but the Previous Android branding with the little Android head Was very kind of flat material design II whereas this one now has got a little more of the shadowing a little more of the 3d edging kind of thing So, you know could that be an indicator of where material you will go who knows But it's gonna go back to answer for more or not answer for more but skeu morphic We're gonna have like leather stitching. We're gonna gonna go back to like 2003 2005 It's gonna be all 3d again just total this total just everything's a thing but yeah, um Yep, so we'll logo. That's what it is But google android kept on working even while we're gone while we were gone and sure enough Android 14 beta actually arrived today So michelle what what what happened with the new version of the beta? So as you'd expect this is there's one more beta before the stable release later this year So we've already reached platform stability with beta 3 the previous beta and what platform stability means is that There's not going to be any more changes to the api So, you know developers who are working on apps can get started and be rest assured that nothing will change the next release So basically what i'm trying to say is that at this point going forward There's not going to be anything major certificate being added in you know the beta 4 or beta 5 With that being said, there are of course going to be some minor changes The most prominent being the new easter egg, which I know everyone loves the new easter egg, right? It's the new fun little piece of candy to play with you tweeted about that. Let's pull that up there Yeah, so so tell us about this easter egg Uh, yeah, so the easter egg basically, um, you know A lot there's a lot of googlers who are Big into space simulation games and things like that I think they wanted to show their love for those kinds of games in this new easter egg. So basically you Um, the logo itself is like a riff on the apollo 14 mission patch And this easter egg is basically you flying in a spaceship in space. You just like, uh, Direct it And you eventually fly around you might reach a star you might reach like a planet It's it's very very nerdy and uh, I can't really I don't really know how to describe it like I'm not a space sim enthusiast myself But it's clearly like a labor of love here It does have an old school pc vector graphic kind of style like I played all these games on my dad's old like beige uh desktop, uh, you know, uh Machine back in the early 80s are reminded me of that. So masha the key thing is how do you unlock it? How do you actually do it? So with most easter eggs you typically go into settings and the about phone page And then tap on the android version repeatedly until you see the android 14 logo pop up And then all you have to do from there is just tap and hold on the android 14 logo And you'll see like the star starts getting by in the background and then Uh, you'll get the little spaceship mini game. Cool. Very cool. So there you go. There you can do that That's a little easter egg, uh with the with the new beta, but um Android 14 and beta is all the rage, but also also while we are gone while we were down The july update rolled out for the for the pixel, which is pretty good So it rolled out last week, um, and it uh across, uh, pixels from four from the pixel 4a Upwards through the five series six series and seven series. Um, and it also included an update to tablets And then as we also saw today The pixel fold got the july pixel update So, uh, did either of you update the your pixels with the with the july update yet? And did you notice any fun stuff for not yet? But I have we were a little busy today But I will check that later. Um, yeah, I've been trying to keep my fold Um, kind of like low key and just functioning for you know, possible talking on the show later But um, oh, I want to have that to look forward to after the show. Yeah So actually speaking of the fold, um with beta 4 they also launched the beta for the pixel fold and the pixel tablet So question for you when are you going to be installing the android beta on your fold? Oh heck, yeah In terms of keeping it pristine I'm more just about any errant dust that might get in things in places that might turn me into ron. Um, audio, uh, but um I think software wise we're going to be okay. So i'm definitely going to try it That's one thing i've actually been missing and for folks that I guess are new i've been on a z fold Something for the last year And so I have been missing, you know being more active in like the pixel betas and stuff like that and actually missing You know these kind of drops and and actually getting into like the next version of android So i'm back baby and we're going to be like trying some new software on this thing. So hello and also a little tease for later on the show because You've got a pixel fold you're going to talk about i've got the pixel tablet I'm going to talk about right and michelle's also got some fun hardware. We're going to talk about we'll save for that Oh, there's a there's a you watching you saw him flash it, but uh, it's nothing. It's nothing really to get excited about everybody Nothing really so Cool well, so yeah, so the world of android was busy while we were gone So you got a july update to android 13 rolled out across all your devices for pixels the pixel update And android 14 beta and we're getting closer to the release of android 14 So i'm glad that we're back up and running here on the show So we really dig into it when that release happens just to level set and to revisit our bets If you had to pick Let's do over under if you had to pick android 14 launching before labor day or after labor day What would you watch your bet right now here on july 11th, uh, michelle you start What do you think it's gonna be before labor day or after labor day? um It's gonna be right around it like early september is my guess right now. All right, so you're gonna say after labor day Yeah, okay. All right, when what are you gonna go over under i'm gonna say after after yeah, just just just after All right, i'm gonna say before because here we are with beta 4 and it's july 11th I feel like we get a month of this and we can see a drop in august or before before labor day So i'm gonna go before so okay, we should we should have a board or something now We should have a board with like things like this like we need some yeah So yeah, we need a fatality or some kind of graphic that we can keep updated and see who's who's winning on their predictions Yeah, so so another thing we love to do on the show is keep track of market share numbers, right? That's always fun. And so when you've got some exciting numbers for us to share, right? Yeah, well, we like foldables We so so I think for sure we like foldables. We like any kind of alternate form factors and we like numbers and Because we like both of these things we were very lucky and couldn't help but talk to y'all On this episode one about a report recently coming out from counterpoint technology market research That is kind of big news in terms of the foldable world Basically in q1 2023 global foldable shipments grew year over year by 64 Percent to 2.5 million units. That's insane 64 percent year over year growth q1 2023 in foldables And a lot of this growth was driven by the chinese market Which even though that market overall saw a start a smartphone market, you know drop of 8 percent over year over year their foldable market the chinese foldable market rose 117 percent to Just in china alone 108 million units and it's kind of funny because If you are a fan of ours from shows before, you know that we've talked probably about About about foldables that we can't get here in the us as much as foldables that we can get And so this is probably not too surprising To see that a lot of the growth in the foldable in these alternate form factors is being driven by the chinese market and It right currently it's being led by huawei, of course And we I think we've mentioned in shows past about the pocket s and of course oppo with their n2 find and or the n2 flip And the n2 and just the n2 But but surprisingly samsung as well and that's actually a good graphic there on the right there Samsung has also gained quite a bit of share in the chinese market with their Chinese variants of the z fold 4 and z flip 4 and so basically you've got huawei oppo and samsung I mean, I think pretty much equal really kind of Leading the charge of foldables in china And yeah, I mean, it's just is 2020 Did we call 2023 the year of the foldable or something like that? I've been trying to predict the year of the foldable for several years now But I do I do feel as if 2023 is becoming the year of the foldable between Once google got in the game with pixel fold that legitimate legitimized it It is funny though because that report we're looking at you know is teasing or saying with apple expected to enter the The the foldable market in 2025. So so that's the year of the foldable. Yeah, that that will become it's like when cereal came out And then that podcasts were just invented, right? So I do think we're on the cusp of like a foldable breakthrough in like the mainstream market But it's not going to be the You know the book style foldable that I think will lead it It's definitely going to be the clamshell in my opinion So like there was a lot of buzz around the moto racer plus like all the reviewers love that device with its big cover screen display And then samsung is also going to be unveiling, you know, they they're they already announced that they're going to be unveiling their new foldable devices in soul later this month And we're going to see a new clamshell style flip phone and a new book style fold phone And you know depending on what samsung prices those at and like what kind of trading offers they give You know, I think there's going to be big hits like the z flip 4 and z flip z fold 4 were And yeah, I really think we're about to see foldables like make a huge breakthrough in the market Could be near the fold Sorry. No, can we still call them flipable though? I kind of like that. Sure. I think I haven't heard. I haven't heard anyone call them flipable I think I think flipable is a subcategory of foldable. I think that's that's where that's where it comes into for sure. Yeah, so Um, yeah, I don't know and it's funny because I wanted 2023 to be the year of the tablet But it it seems like it might be it might start to become the year of the foldable But it does look like it's growing pretty well. So um side note. I just today got a razor plus Um, I actually got it from my dad because he has still has he does not have a smartphone He has what do we call him a regular? We'll call a dumb phone. That's rude Regular flip phone But I thought that the razor plus even though it's kind of a flagshipy device would be something that he might like because of large Screen he can keep it folded in its pocket. So if y'all want to review of that I might steal it I might not give it to him for another couple weeks and if y'all want to review of that or just my thoughts on it Um, yeah, let us know. Um, but yeah, we'll we'll see how that goes as well Giving my dad a flippable All right. Well speaking of samsung, um, michelle, you recently had a great piece in android central We wanted to kind of spotlight and talk about um, which has to do with uh samsung's maintenance mode. What can you tell us about this? Yeah, so maintenance mode is this 50 feature samsung announced last year that basically lets you Hide all of your apps and personal data from, you know, people at the repair center So for example a lot of times right now if you were to send your phone into a repair center They need to have access to your device so that they can install apps to you know Do some diagnostics on it But in order to do that they need access to your pin or passcode so that they can unlock your device and install Stuff onto it, but obviously you don't want to do that So a lot of times like the support center will tell you factory reset your phone before you send it in And obviously that's a huge pain to do because you gotta delete all your apps And then once you get it back set everything back up and nobody wants to go through that I mean obviously if you have no choice you're going to do it, but Wouldn't it be better if you could avoid all that by just you know hiding everything During the temporary period where your phone's out of your hands That's basically what maintenance mode does and i'm arguing in this article that google should bring it to their pixel phones and You know potentially also upstream it to the android open source project So that other manufacturers can implement it too And I also provide a way that they could implement this like a like an explanation on um A potential way we could see it implemented in pixel phones and it uses this nifty feature that google added to test you know android generic system images which are basically pure builds of android And by using this mechanism you could actually simulate a factory reset on a device So that um your device is uh not really being factory reset like all your data is still there But the when your when the repair center gets your phone It's as if it's been factory reset so they can do whatever they want They can install whatever they want and then when it's back to you you can just turn that off and then your phone's back to normal I love how not only do you do you argue that they should do this But you give them a way to do it michael which is great And we've seen google take good ideas Usually from small developers and not big companies like samsung and implement them, but you know, we never know what this might happen It's true. They're listening. Yeah, that's true We hope they're now Someone in the commons did ask and I did this I did address this in the article. Someone asked Ken, what about guest mode for for when someone wants to borrow your phone for a call? Right now the way android is set up is that when you boot up your phone You're required to provide the primary user's pin or passcode in order to unlock it Like even if you have three different accounts on your device and you set up a guest profile when you boot up You have to unlock with a primary user's pin I don't know if that's an artificial limitation or if that's because of the way encryption is set up Or if that's because of you know, the way android is designed, you know in terms of the users and everything But that's the way it is right now So you can try it for yourself Just reboot your phone and then you'll notice that you're forced to unlock your phone with your primary user's pin or password cool All right Well, so it is that time and we don't have any audio for it yet But we maybe maybe somebody out in the community is going to want to contribute and help us this But it is time for the patron news pick. We need a better name for it too, but Already and we're blown away by this the fact that we launched and we lost our patreon One of the one of the things we wanted to offer to our patrons was that to get you in on the conversation and choose An article for us to talk about our news item for us to talk about on the show And then this first episodes picks We had three New stories to choose from a google calendar makes event sharing as easy as an image sharing The one plus v fold could get a more reasonable name at launch And google beta testing new pixel call screen possibly with conversational ai And sure enough the winner by a landslide by 66 66 of the vote Was google beta testing the new pixel call screen with ai So then what is this story all about? Well number one according to mike We need to take two shots now because we mentioned ai. That's a good point. Yes So, um, yeah, so the inaugural of course the inaugural patron pick was about ai But this is actually kind of interesting. So back in in april Google tees that the pixel call screen call screen not screen as in you know a rectangle in your hand, but screening of You know suspicious calls unknown numbers in spam that this particular feature Which of course is part of the pixel call assistant is actually going to get a little bit of an upgrade There was a tiny upgrade in terms of the the ui making a little bit simpler But what we really care about what we really do in the drinking game for Is the addition of a multi step multi turn conversational ai? So the idea is probably that they're going to be using their large language language models their llms their Their their chats and their bots and everything just to make the process of you know interacting with a you know I want to say suspicious, but a A screened call in a more natural way And so that's basically it actually was kind of low key announced back in may in the support forms And it has been rolling out So if you are using a pixel 6 or newer pixel device, you may again start seeing a slightly simplified ui But more importantly maybe some ai enhanced, you know conversation In that pixel call screen so that the end the idea is just to make it quote more natural sounding And when you're determining who's calling and why so there you go Um, I and I I'm kind of really enjoying this because one thing I have missed in pixel land is like pixel call assistant So I haven't used it myself Did do either of you use the pixel call screen or pixel call assistant in any way? Oh all the time and I Whatever I I don't recognize a call and it gives me the option to screen it I hit that because it's just very fun I think it's very funny to make somebody receive the pixel call screening and recently somebody called I didn't recognize the number and um And normally they hang up like halfway through the the robot telling you what it is But someone went through all the all the way through it then it transcribed their response And they said what is this even and then hung up? So I feel like the call screening is not something the regular world is ready for yet Because inevitably no one ever had I never actually have a call or stick through it and do that kind of conversation So I'm curious if this will change that or not like if it's if it's more human sounding They'll think it's actually you so the kind of stick around a little bit longer and try to feel it feel it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so We'll see. Michelle. Do you use the call screener? I did a lot when I uh daily drove my pixel 6 pro But you know since I've been swapping around phones a lot and none of them are pixels. Unfortunately, I've missed that feature Yep. All right. Cool. All right. Well, that was our very first patron news pick So thank you very much and and we're going to post that every monday on patreon So you patrons can look out for it every monday like around noon eastern About 24 hours before we start planning the show so that way we can get the vote in and pick it on tuesdays when we record So you can only do that by signing up at patreon.com slash android faithful. So please do that Um, excellent. So with that, uh, we are going to take a break and we are going to thank our very first sponsor Because this episode of android faithful is brought to you by awesome and the awesome privacy cable And listen, I can't say enough nice things about the folks about awesome. They they they saw we were launching the show and they said We want to be a part of it and uh, we couldn't be more excited about about that. We couldn't be more excited about, uh, the privacy cable Um, and if you haven't seen this yet, the awesome privacy cable basically gives you much needed control over when and how Your data is shared. Uh, it's got a built-in switch that cuts off the usb pins that deliver usb data So there's no software wall that you get broken into and it's just a simple and straightforward air gap Uh, they've got an led that flashes when data may be trans transmitted when the switch is enabled Giving you an early heads up when a connected device is doing more than you expect Uh, and what's even cooler is that I've got it right here. It comes in this awesome nifty box And you know how when you get a new cable and it there's some kind of cheap feeling ones and then they're the nice Threaded ones that really feel durable. Well, sure enough. This is that high build quality really nice threaded cable around it and the uh, the The switch to block data is clear and it feels strong. It doesn't feel flimsy This really feels like high quality build materials, which is fantastic And so if you are worried about protecting your data when you're using when you're plugging in your device to charge it Worried about whether you know if you're in on an uber and you want to charge your phone Or you know or other various kind of scenarios This is a great way to protect yourself because it really mitigates against the vector of hypothetical juice jacking attacks that the fbi and fcc have warned about Um, and it's important to note that these attacks have never been observed in the wild yet But if you're worried and carry sensitive or highly valuable data, it's an added layer of protection Uh to have for the future And as I mentioned, it's got that durable design abrasion resistant braided nylon sleeve and adenized aluminum end caps And the switch was was designed to feel satisfying and tactile and you know how much I love my tactileness It's like snapping in the pixel tablet into the dock flipping that switch feels really good and knows that you're protecting your data So it's got up to 60 watt charging speeds and data speeds And what's even better is now you can get all that data privacy protection For just 30 dollars and it's on sale during amazon prime day Which is happening currently right now on amazon today and tomorrow You can get it for just uh, you can get it for 20 off on amazon.com So check it out get more information at awesome privacy.com slash privacy dash cable And we thank awesome for supporting android faithful and for keeping our data safe Thank you so much. Awesome. You're you're you know, you're awesome I wonder if they get tired of hearing that but they who would get tired of being so awesome so All right, cool. So uh, that said we are going to get into our hardware block Where we're going to talk about exciting things and michelle you have got a first look at the new hotness, don't you? Yeah, it's not awesome, but it's not nothing either. It's the new nothing phone 2 So I don't know if you saw the launch announcement earlier today. Sorry. It's kind of reflecting a bit right now It's very reflective as you can tell You know the company that launched the nothing phone 1 the nothing buds and the nothing buds 2 Um is back again with a new smartphone this time a flagship device. Well flagship specs in a lot of ways Not flagship price the new nothing phone 2 starts at 599 in 8 gigs and 128 gig storage And it has the snapdragon 8 plus gen 1 6.7 inch uh full hd 120 hertz variable refresh rate display So it has a lot of things going for it spec wise, you know, there's um I've had the device for a little over two weeks now Although because the full review embargo hasn't lifted yet. There's a lot i'm not allowed to talk about But I can tell you about you know the design and general new features in nothing os 2.0 So like you can tell just right off the bat. This thing is very visually distinctive There's no other phone that looks quite like it. In fact, like, you know d-brand they started selling They're something skin. So if you want to make your phone look like a nothing phone you could slap a something skin onto it like I'm not kidding. It's it's pretty smart. They're they're pretty clever over there d-brand, but yeah, um This is the kind of phone that I one of the few phones I don't want to slap a case onto just because of how good it looks Like, uh, unfortunately the one downside for me is that it does feel a bit slippery because it's not like matte It's like I'm not mattin. It's not a matte back coating. So, uh, there's not a lot of grip to it But still I really love how it looks and uh, yeah the glyph interface I can't really tell you if I'm going to be using it a whole lot The glyph by the way are those leds that light up on the back Um, they do things like they can alert you whenever there's notification You can create your own ringtone as you're showing it there like the glyph composer It's it seems like when nothing phone one came out and we're like, oh, there are lights on the back of it Cool. What do they do and we're like, oh, it doesn't do much. It just lights up whatever It seems like now they're really leaning into it, right with what what it can do because now you can customize it You can set your own patterns You can attach it to like it This seems like to be delivering on the potential than the phone one that we had hoped that the glyph would provide Is that right? Yeah Yeah, they've certainly done some interesting things with it Like, um, one of the things they announced is the ability to track your ride Like so like say if you hailed an uber and you're waiting for it to arrive It can start like a little countdown on the back. Um, like this I don't know if you can see it this led strip Yep, right here That's like counting down. You like it like slowly start counting on the upper the glit the circle of the glyph the upper right one by the camera Yeah, yeah, that one start counting down like so like if you just put your phone face down and Like it'll count down as your uber starts to arrive And the way it works like it's actually just pulling the information from the uber notification So like ubers I mean nothing has done a lot to basically make their feature work with a lot more scenarios than what you might use your phone Of course, like you can't fully customize it to the extent you can hook it into whatever app and service you want because that would require Then providing an api and developers supporting it through an api But uh, you know, they're doing their best. They've certainly expanded what you can do with it And um, yeah, I'm really looking forward to see how nothing os 2.0 or nothing os evolves with 3.0 and on Cool. So specs wise it seems pretty competitive and for the price at 599 of like Of a good value of the As a flagship like it seems like all the specs improved over phone one, right? Oh, yeah, certainly, especially the processor the display Like at 599 having an ltpo, which is what allows for that, you know one to 120 hertz refresh rate That's that's a pretty crazy deal Like you won't find a lot of phones at this price range that have an ltpo Uh display. Yeah, cool. So first look thumbs up thumbs down. Michelle. What do you think of it? Is it I know it's we're not doing a review, but are you are you excited for it or or dismayed by it? Yeah, I give it a thumbs up. All right. Excellent. Very good So nothing phone 2 i'm excited. I want to get my hands on it. I think it's really cool I was talking to a friend of mine who is looking to replace his pixel 3a And he's like, I don't know. This is this looks like it's scratching my itch. So we'll see if it does that or not. So All right, so that's not the only new hardware hotness that we got When you got a new toy, didn't you I do I have the pixel fold I've had it for about six days. Um, and again, so just to mention Before I've been using a z-fold 4 or a z-fold for about a year. I had the z-fold 3 Before I didn't have a pixel 6 I was especially as an android developer The pixel is probably I think the most It's probably the most useful device to have I mean, you need to test on everything but the pixel again given that it's a google device given that it has all these like drops and And is stock android. It generally has become I guess the phone of choice for android developers So when it went crashing under my sister's Oh, sorry Oh, my my my workout timer started. I should be doing Tabata right now. Um Sorry about that Nothing like a live show, right? Anyway, um, yeah, so when my pixel 6 went crashing on my sister's ceramic floor I actually used a z-fold 3 that I had gotten at a google event and I have basically been a foldable convert for a year So that being said, I am not going to sit here and convince you all that you should buy an $1,800 phone It's that's just not what I'm going to do Um, because it is an expensive phone and and the only thing I can say is like if you are going to buy an $1,800 smartphone that folds The pixel fold is fold is a dang dang dang compelling device. So And am I liking this phone? I'm just going to tell you straight up. I love this phone a lot right now. Um I I've been extremely happy as a z-fold 4 user But I think anything every every part where the z-fold 4 has not been a great experience for me the pixel Fold has been able to kind of address that so I mean first off just looking at the foldable The front screen is usable. So I've been using the z-fold 4 for a long time I love this device. I was kind of sad to give it up because it's been very good to me But as many people who are even z-fold Fans will say this screen this narrow screen is pretty much for most people unusable Like typing on this is I mean, maybe it's maybe I got big thumbs But the typing on this is just not really functional. Usually I use this for like boarding passes to answer calls I have I have missed using a regular candy bar size screen And I actually do I think it's been like 30 of my time using the front screen, which is kind of remarkable You know for a foldable phone. So I think number one that is like the biggest thing is that if you want something that is You know a bridge between a regular candy bar phone and a foldable phone. This is it this screen is extremely usable And I mean I think also is that you get the benefit of the pixel experience obviously So whatever that may have you all the pixel feature All the picture feature drops all those like little little niceties and you know stock ish android that being said though It is interesting because I think for me the thing that has really sold me on foldables is productivity so I have actually found myself using a foldable whether it's the z-fold 4 or the pixel fold More than I use my laptop. I mean, I'm a I'm an engineer. I'm a gamer I pretty much like I'm glued to I was glued to computer for like the first 39 38 years of my life or not not true like or 20 something years. I've been glued to a laptop I have been using both of these phones in place of pretty much most of my day-to-day computing. So um, I think that's the compelling part About foldables is kind of like that ability to kind of replace a laptop that being said I think that you know productivity is a very like compelling use case for foldables I will say though that I am missing parts of one UI which is absolutely devastating for me to say because as a developer I used to just like rag on one UI all the time But the thing about one UI is that it is meant for power user. It's it's highly customizable It's got all kinds of shortcuts all kinds of like little, you know additions that make you make make a power user super powerful This is a pixel device. It's using the pixel experience. So it's it's a little bit of more stock, right? There there there are kind of like some productivity things, but not really in the software But in the hardware is where they're part of again So I think that's really interesting if you are someone who loves Samsung Who is a power user who who likes all of your little kind of customizations and shortcuts and everything You might miss it on this phone from the software side that being said There is so much compelling about the form factor of this because the z-fold 4 the inner screen is 6 by 5 Which basically square? So that's still a portrait mode that's it's basically got a note on speed The pixel fold when you open it up is a tablet. It's a landscape it's a it's a landscape aspect ratio and It might even remind you of a nexa 7. Let me turn it back on so you can actually see it So I think the real promise of the pixel fold is that it is a tablet when you open it up It's not just like a really wide note Or anything like that. It is a tablet that sits in your pocket And it's a tablet lives with a regular sized phone and that's been the most amazing thing is to actually open this up And have a proper landscape experience Um, that does mean I have to use a split keyboard and thank goodness Gboard added a split keyboard in the last year because I wouldn't be able to type without it. Um, because It's real wide that was on quite reach, but I think This is the pixel it makes an excellent use case for all those things in 12 l all those like all those little tablet features That google's been telling us about for a year and a half. They were like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's nice They come alive on the pixel fold like I wish I'd taken screens caps like Look at, you know, people think apps that people have already mentioned google weather Look at calendar and you can kind of see the potential And the full power of using large screen features on the pixel fold like Just this wonderful actual landscape screen Is freaking awesome. Um, and I love it like it it feels great to use I don't I'm not a person that cares about bezels. I really don't care about the bezels Um, I mean and the fact that the camera the inner camera here is in the bezel means that you know It doesn't have a really kind of muted kind of slightly fuzzy, uh inner camera it has a very clear Still like, you know in a Selfie front-facing camera, but it's a a lot better. I actually I do have photo a couple to take a couple photos I will say that the It is nice that this device does have a proper interfacing camera that is not An under display pinhole under display camera. That's pretty awesome But I mean, yeah the software the software side of it. I think really shines on the pixel. Um, rather Other than the one ui, I think apps shine like really really well tuned large screen device devices or apps rather shine on this device Um, and then yeah, so like I mean, there's a lot of things people have already talked a lot about the pixel fold Like I know there's questions about durability. I know I kind of lampshaded like ronamadio's article where he Had an issue with you know some dirt or some kind of like debris getting in between you know the gap between the screen protector and The cover and it cracking after four days. I have to admit. I've been very careful because of that review um, so yeah, but I think otherwise, um I think I I it feels fine so far and I think I did hear actually that the hinge is aluminum Which I guess may again question the durability But I will say something that this is significantly lighter than this like I'm a rower. Well, I'm not a really rower I'm not like I don't do crew but I have a rower and it's really funny because every single time I would try to like prop this up on the rower It's it's heavy and durable after like the fourth iteration of this it's heavy and durable But it tends to just catapult off the rower when I'm like pulling really hard I actually was able to row with this and it is light and it is thin enough that it kind of fits Sort of regular smartphone holders, but I think it's the advantage Um, you know, there's other things like I know a lot has been made about the whole fold and flat thing And yes, it's true. It doesn't quite fold all the way. It doesn't snap into place like the z-fold 4 but I use this case in the z-fold 4 My phone does not sit flat and for I guess folks that are only audio only I use a samsung z-fold 4 case that has a silicone handle on it So it doesn't lie flat anyway. That's just not how I personally use it So while I do notice it, um, it doesn't really bother me And maybe if you're the kind of person who uses it more like a book, um, or holds it like a book It doesn't shouldn't bother you There's a couple other things better life is not great. Um, I mean watching movies at full screen brightness with the inner screen unfolded And playing my favorite mobile game polytopia. I maybe got like four four and a half hours of super active time. So That's a thing, but it's foldable 4800 mAh battery It does run a little hot occasionally a friend of mine who has one mentioned this and I do notice it But not all the time. I think when it's just using the radio slash network a lot It is running a little hot. I'm not sure why it did kind of throttle one point But I was in my car and it's 90 degrees out here in Denver. It was in the sun. So that probably hasn't do with it. Um But yeah, I mean I I unabashedly love this. I think that there is something to be said I don't think I don't think it's necessarily better than z-fold 4. It's just different and whatever again, whatever failings or disadvantages the z-fold 4 has Are kind of complemented or or what makes the the pixel shine And I'm going to have a hard time when that pixel when that z-fold 5 comes out not wanting to get that too And seeing how that feels but yeah, I If you're in if you're in the market for a foldable And you want something that's really like a tablet like really like a tablet that can fit your pocket And that's usable as also as a candy bar phone For our first gen device It's pretty dang good y'all. It's pretty dang good So when to add to that the the hinge is actually heavy-duty stainless steel. It is okay So I thought I saw a breakdown that said it was aluminum, but okay, so this stainless steel I thought it was aluminum somewhere, but that yeah, it's still very light. Yeah Well, it's so great to hear you enjoying it because like honestly like first off I like I love the fact that it exists I love the fact that google's embracing foldable and trying to show how it's done I hate the price tag I think it is that I mean it is like that is a Pricy pricey device But after hearing your review and actually I'll give credit to a friend of the show Michael Fisher Mr. Mobile his review was great And I feel like he summed it up really well in that like oh, it's a digital moleskine Right, it's a little digital notebook that you carry around yourself or something like that And like once you think about it that way then it kind of even clicked even more for me In terms of how you could use it and and hearing you talk about how the It's a productivity device. I just think is even more fascinating And so like I'm really really intrigued by it. I just wish it was like some $1,000 Yeah, also, um, I'll give you two tips number one if you buy a pixel fold Do not get the case made plastic case that is on the google store. It's awful. I bought it It actually has a plastic hinge that covers this it makes just the awful like whenever you open it It's three pieces one for the left right in the middle Don't buy it that middle piece just like creaks and cracks and it's just absolutely awful D brand is coming out with some kind of cool Case for it. I don't have it yet, but it has a little kickstand or whatever And yeah, that's pretty much it. Don't get the case made get some kind of case for it And if hey anyone listening if you want to make like a pixel fold case that has this like nice silicone handle So that I can walk around and we're that I'm not going to drop this again very expensive phone Um, please send me I will review it. I would love to have like this. Um, but yeah, I I really love this phone a lot And devs do better like if there's any kind of app scaling issue, it's it's really it's blame us honestly blame devs If you have any app scaling It's going to show up more on this device because it's it's it is a landscape device. Okay. I'm going to shut up now But yeah freaking me. This is awesome. I love it thumbs up for the pixel fold Who thumbs cool? Well, uh Even though it's our first episode old habits die hard and we are running long But I had planned to talk about my new pixel tablet And I think this might be a little more of a tease that I might kick it to next week And we might do it next week But um when I know a couple weeks ago you got in the pixel tablet and you had a very rough time with it Um, I will say that I didn't have as rough of a time with it as you did Um, but just a quick kind of quick preview of it and there's a great picture of my kids if you're watching on the video Um, uh, I think it's great. I love the pixel tablet. Like I said earlier. Like I'm a tablet. I'm pro tablets I really wanted this year to be the year of the tablet and with with uh All the work that andra has done on the operating system to support large large screens and large devices Um, I will say I have a Lenovo tablet that I've been using, you know, mainly as a book reading and media device And while I like that device a lot, it never felt comfortable And the pixel tablet feels comfortable in a way because I'm also using the pixel. I feel like a a uniformity in UI and and an experience And so I've been really in the early, you know, I just got it last or a week and a half ago or so And honestly, I really haven't had that much time to put it through its paces because we've been getting the show ready But uh, just off the bat. I've been really impressed about how comfortable I feel using it Even though it's not exactly like using the phone but using it with a tablet is slightly different But it still feels like, you know, like it's not as foreign as the Lenovo using just kind of a os Aosp and their own little touches and things like that I will echo when what you said about the pixel fold I did not get the case that google sells for it despite the cool little metal ring to snap into the dock Instead I got this spec case Which basically gives me a little portfolio and it just kind of snaps in here It uses the magnet in there and it snaps in it gives you a little bit of that because it gives me the cover the front cover protection The the google case that they come with it the screen is just open out there And for me, I want to throw this in my backpack and bring it on the train or bring it on the plane or wherever I'm going I wanted that a little extra level of protection so I'll go more in depth on a deeper review In next maybe next week or depending on our how much we have to talk about but um, so far for me The pixel tablet got a thumbs up. So which is You know, hard to believe given the mark for google that I've already established that I am over the years but uh, yeah, so So thumbs up for thumbs up for nothing phone to thumbs up for pixel fold and thumbs up for pixel tablet We're off we're off to a good start Maybe we're just in a good mood because we got a brand new show, but I don't know I I just think we maybe we just hit it off with three really good pieces of hardware to start so maybe So, uh, so tune in next week for more thoughts on pixel tablet and uh, yes wild west dan in the chat That's how I am teasing you to come along for next thing to join us for that Um, but and the thing is is that it's so funny because on our old show We really wrestled with, uh This uh talking about apps because over the years So many it became just kind of like what is google doing today or like what new kind of version of Whatever google app there is out there and we saw less and less and less of an impact of other apps really changing the game But sure enough in the past couple of weeks while we've been doing it an app emerged And so I felt like it was necessary that we should have a dedicated app section to talk about apps So here we are Yeah, and that app is of course the one that's getting everybody all excited threads from meta Yes, it's so funny because I um, I think threads launch the day before we announced the show so it all kind of fit together Um, and of course, so if if you happen to not know what threads is You could you could simply say that threads is the instagram slash meta Meta made twitter killer possibly so it is a social it is a platform for sharing text For sharing images for sharing media. That is extremely twitter like It is again, uh made by the team at meta who works on instagram And it is in fact incredibly closely tied to instagram That's kind of how I came across it instagram was just yelling at me like hey This person has joined threads and I honestly did not know what threads was until clicking on that link So yes, in instagram, uh, or rather thread signup is done through your instagram account You can very easily basically port over your instagram profile and actually in existing settings from instagram into threads You do you I think you share the same, uh handle You are again, like I said the your profile is ported your privacy settings are ported Although they do have two distinct settings. You can have separate privacy settings for instagram versus threads But for that initial kind of sign up it is kind of basically like using your instagram profile as a starter An important note there is that like basically if you have an instagram account You have a threads account whether you want one or not and if you don't want to fit threads account You have to say goodbye to your instagram account. Yeah, if you can only delete threads by deleting instagram So that is something that I didn't know Everybody everybody's loving like it's so funny I'm loving I'm loving the embracing of threads because the land rush that's been around threads is like we have Firstly, I haven't felt like this way for a social network for like many many years like five plus years in terms of like everybody feeling they need to jump on it, but I also love the The duality of it and the second thinking of it in that everybody loves to say they're getting rid of facebook and decry facebook For what they did in the election or they don't trust zucker zuckerberg or whatever it is But instagram we love instagram and now instagram makes this new app and we love this and we're just ignoring our hatred for facebook It's just such a it's so it's so contradictory Yeah, go ahead. Michelle. Sorry. Yeah, I mean I do think threads out of all the so-called twitter clones has the most potential to actually overtake twitter But there's one thing i'm a little concerned about and it's like when the instagram head said that Oh, we don't want threads to focus on Politics or real-time news that got me thinking, you know, you know despite, you know Everyone says they hate the political aspect of twitter. They hate doom scrolling But you know, why does doom scrolling exist people love to people would love to hate doing it Well, and it's funny doom scroll and it's funny You say that michelle because like the the whole approach with threads and actually when we're going to get into the developer Point of view on this because which is what we want to talk about But what I do think interesting is that the algorithm is extremely frustrating because You it can be frustrating because I you want that chronological twitter kind of like Timeline But really what this feels like to me is a little more tumblery if you remember tumbler and that it's very ephemeral pieces of content whether text or visual or links and conversation around it that showed up in a feed like Threads feels more to me like tumbler than it does twitter at times. Um, so I don't know if you guys picked up on that either, but uh, you know Well, it's it's weird because that also makes me think of like mastodon and kind of the other fediverse Things that we've been trying to enter them and something to note also and again I'm not a fediverse expert at all But that something something that the instagram team really has spoken of and their goal is ultimately to have threads Kind of work across the fediverse. So it's really interesting It it feels like they're really trying to address the issues people have with twitter so as you said like, you know trying to stay away from politics and negativity which I also agree with you like I Not to get into anything but like this is not also kind of what twitter was good for in I mean or at least what we use it for for good or for evil um But yeah, the the ultimate goal is to have um it work across the fediverse Which I think is interesting because it's kind of the promise of hey like if you are on threads You can be you can communicate and like kind of integrate with you know platforms that are not Threads which is great And especially as we just launched a new podcast and had to like, you know Post across several different, you know, social media networks that is interesting and promising as well And it feels like they are trying to get to the zeitgeist of wherever at now with Whatever the next thing that isn't twitter is going to be I do find it interesting that as you said ron I Not the biggest fan of meta as a company But I still have a soft spot for instagram And and I think if it wasn't for the particular situation that we're in with twitter with everything else that we're doing A lot of these things like the fact that it's tied to instagram is really icky And the fact that they're celebrating 10 million times the first day I was like, yeah, because you've heard of your building up the back of instagram. I'll give i'll give them credit for it I'll give them credit that The launch of this has been genius, right? Because because what you had was you had instant audience in the millions because you have such a strong install base with instagram And I did read an article that was that was saying how it was basically There was discussion whether threads stays inside the instagram app or its own app and what the risks are between the two But like this time to your instagram account and easily migration and launching and michelle the point you made comparing it to blue sky Like on day one I saw people complaining about the product the threads product itself And it seemed like they were talking about the feeds and the algorithm and that was all stuff blue sky does better But blue sky doesn't have the instagram audience and you still and they're still invite only They're making it hard to join which is you know kind of mistaken You know could be a mistake at this point in time but um The the seeing the meteoric rise of threads in this way was just like mind blowing on a real moment in time to see an app go from zero to 11 million users 40 million users in less than two days or whatever it was, you know And the cool thing they actually really capitalized on like, you know in the the height of the twitter You know the controversy with them, um rate limiting people, right? So threads was originally they were they like they had this in app announcement in instagram saying we're gonna launch on friday morning But then like all of a sudden they they they pushed it forward two days and they said we're gonna launch wednesday evening So like like people heard like a lot of people were posting, you know now's a good time for meta to launch your app You know, what are you waiting for and it seems like they really heard that feedback and they said we're pulling the we're pulling the plug Now we're doing this right now. Yeah, so give give them credit there bravo there But so so so in tell us about the developer side of this though Okay, so something really interesting is and this surprised me is that you know for for the for friends who friends who've been with us for a bit Y'all might know that I love a thing called jetpack compose, which is the modern toolkit for android Go ahead and have your drink now and what's super fascinating is that um, you know The instagram app itself is I think I i'm not a hundred percent sure but as I understand it There is some react native. There's some like android native, but it's kind of a mix of things So what's really cool is that threads is written in jetpack compose and there was actually one of the android team Up on threads, of course It's kind of you know discussing, you know that that they use compose for this thing which makes a lot of sense It is the modern android toolkit and I mean from my perspire experience It is like a high productivity toolkit, which kind of makes sense because they probably threw this together pretty fast um Not saying not that's not a pejorative at all. Um, so it was really great to see that yeah, they're using jetpack compose and um Drink that just it just makes a lot of sense. Um, I mean the apps. I mean as someone who works at a huge company There's still a lot of work to do but I think for you know, something that is super ambitious that is getting a So many eyeballs that is a such a high user app. I think they did a very laudable job releasing Especially with compose which is it's only been it's only like I've only been using it in production for like two years So I can only give them props and just wish them continued success and Successful bug fixes. Um, and by the way, if you are using threads, uh on well, you have to use it on app There's no web interface for now So you're using it either on your android or ios device on android. There is a beta program So if you like living on the edge and you want those new threads features as this, you know Hardworking team is rolling them out. Uh, you can sign up all of the usual caveats When signing up for beta, um apply but hey, you know, they're trying to be cutting edge here And of course as as this platform is growing and changing and doing all kinds of stuff Before our eyes if you feel brave sign up for that beta. I sure did. So yeah, why not? Why wouldn't you? and and props to them also for making it federated like like they're making this Threads will be accessible with within mastodon or with other kind of decentralized kind of things So like embracing that side of the argument too, which is you know good there So, um, yeah, that's neat. I threads. I mean over 70 million users in two days I already can't keep up with the dang app. So Also mental note don't launch a new podcast the same day as a major social network launches because uh, We had we had to scramble and launch our android faithful threads account It was pretty uh pretty challenging and figure out works and figure out posting and and finding like I found like a bug about Like how does anyway? Yeah, it was a lot but it was fun. Exactly All right. Well, so uh, yeah, so that's some some big apps news that we wanted to get in about threads. Um, and so with that We're at the end of our show everybody Normally at the normally after we talk about news hardware and apps. We'd like to hear from you the audience So make sure please that you start getting in touch with us You can email us at contact at android faithful.com and we want to hear from you We want to answer your questions. We want to get your pov Do you have a pixel fold? Do you have a pixel tablet? Do you like nothing? Do you like threads? Do you like anything? Email us and let us know um, because we definitely want to hear from you. Uh, so please get a part of get it on the action Um, so yeah, love it. All right. So with that, uh, let's wind down michelle It's always awesome to have you on the show. We love you michelle Where can people find you on the internet? Uh, if they need to or want to So there's I know there's a million different social media sites now But on most of them you'll find me at michelle ramon But on threads specifically You're gonna have to add an underscore between my first and last name because someone else had my username for years on instagram You know instagram there's like, I don't know like a billion users So it was bound to happen on one of those sites, but yeah, you want to follow me It's pretty much just first and last name no underscore or just add an underscore and you'll find me Right and also your your link tree is a place where people can find you, right? So Yeah, uh, it needs to be updated obviously. It does need to be updated. Yeah Awesome awesome. We're so rest rest in peace all about android. We'll miss you. Yeah, we'll update that. You'll update that for us Um, uh, michelle, we love that you're with us on the ride and michelle's gonna be on the show um, whenever, you know, when whenever whenever whenever we got a major, uh os release or update or anything like that to dive into all the great things that you find, uh, I Sometimes I i'm amazed by the things that you posted on your twitter that I don't know how you find that stuff So, uh, we we love you michelle. So Um, all right, when uh, where can folks follow find you? Yeah, you can find me on my website randomly typing.com. I am an android developer That's my day job has been for gosh almost 12 years now 13 years now almost And yeah, just really happy to be back talking android with y'all, uh, especially from a user perspective a little bit heavy too Um, and yeah, you can find me places at queen cobe monkey. That's where I'm on instagram I'm on threads of course that I clicked that button before I knew what was happening. So I got that threads account Uh, and yeah, really really glad to be back here with y'all and um, yeah, and and defam y'all should follow michelle Like he knows more about what's going on with with android internals and most of us do so. Yeah, follow him Follow me and excellent And of course you can follow me over at ron xo I'm ron xo pretty much wherever you can find me on twitter instagram threads Uh, masted on bluska all that fun stuff. I'm available and I I'm too busy making all this work Behind the scenes to pull up any of my websites on the video here But I also do a podcast over at ifanboy.com every month. I pop in there and talk about tv and movies Um, and I've got an awesome, uh startup called scorebit. Go to scorebit.io If you're in a pinball, we've got a mobile app you can find at the google play store And keep track of your pinball scores and fun stuff there Um, but hey guys episode one in the can. This is awesome. It was a blast Um, so as we said earlier, please get in touch and get involved you can go to Uh android faithful.com and that's where you can get all of the links to subscribe to the show to get past episodes Listen to the current episode anything else that you need We're going to do our best to keep the the website up to date and all the cool stuff on there Uh, so please please please follow us on the socials do what you can Email us at contact that I fan contact that ifanboy contact that android faithful.com. It's the f I'm going to deal with that ifanboy and android faithful. The two f's are going to get me every time. Um, but yeah, so, uh, That's it for this week. Uh, android faithful publishes every Tuesday evening Thanks to the fine folks at daily tech new tech new show. We love them and we thank them for making us a part of their family Um, subscribe over at android faithful.com. Email us at contact at android faithful.com And uh, that's going to wrap it up. So we'll see you next week On android faithful so long everybody See you Later I need outro music I'll do that in post There it is All right, we did it. I agree jason that is a really good intro. It's a really good song. Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, it's good stuff