Technology Android

[dilla]

Turns out the router/modem gateway we've been using for almost 7 years has the Puma 6 chip that has been so widely criticized. It's a rented unit from Comcast and we never bought our own modem, so that's like $140 a year down the drain. This might be the push to finally just get our own. The problem is we need VoIP capabilities because we have a phone line that's used all the time. That narrows the choices down.

The thing is, I don't know if the Puma issues affected the router, the modem, or both. We use our own router with the Eero mesh. And as a result, the gateway router has been switched off completely. So unless the issue is with the whole unit itself or the modem, I might be ok.

I read symptoms of the chip struggling and I don't think I've really experienced those high pings or jitters in latency. The only other thing mentioned that may be an issue is the Puma chips being prone to attacks. I don't know how serious of a threat that would be given our usage. The other pros of getting a our own, new, more-recent modem would be DOCSIS 3.1, but we have a 200 Mbps plan and that's overkill.

 

[masta247]

Turns out the router/modem gateway we've been using for almost 7 years has the Puma 6 chip that has been so widely criticized. It's a rented unit from Comcast and we never bought our own modem, so that's like $140 a year down the drain. This might be the push to finally just get our own. The problem is we need VoIP capabilities because we have a phone line that's used all the time. That narrows the choices down.

The thing is, I don't know if the Puma issues affected the router, the modem, or both. We use our own router with the Eero mesh. And as a result, the gateway router has been switched off completely. So unless the issue is with the whole unit itself or the modem, I might be ok.

I read symptoms of the chip struggling and I don't think I've really experienced those high pings or jitters in latency. The only other thing mentioned that may be an issue is the Puma chips being prone to attacks. I don't know how serious of a threat that would be given our usage. The other pros of getting a our own, new, more-recent modem would be DOCSIS 3.1, but we have a 200 Mbps plan and that's overkill.

Intel absolutely sucks at comms, and I also had their Puma 6 chip in my modem. While Puma chips have unfixable hardware flaws, there were many waves of patches that tried to mitigate the flaws related to security and to some extent the ping/jitter issues - they essentially tried to smooth the spikes out a bit, so they typically go "only" to 100-ish miliseconds now. These are still very high ping spikes that can never be truly fixed, but it's okay-ish enough for casual multiplayer games, and ok for almost everything else as it does not affect download speeds, and impacts on general browsing experience are minimal. If you had a choice it's better not to have a Puma chip though. They're the worst running and least reliable of the bunch. Beats me how bad QA must have been for a chip with such latency spikes to actually launch, and even crazier that so many different providers bought them in such quantities.

 

[masta247]

I find it funny how in the absence of new features to be excited about suddenly charging speed became a race. Companies every year getting closer to the answer to "how fast can we ruin your device and still have your money?". Suddenly Samsung and Apple are the enemies for trying to stick to charging speeds that don't actually destroy the battery in products that are meant to last for more than a year, and have built-in batteries .
Now forums are full of people saying "eat a dick, my OnePlus allows me to charge at 3C while your Samsung is doing 'only' 1C, lol". Some tech sites are even on board.

Samsung started doing 25W which is already pushing it for the smaller devices (and thus why most of their devices come with the more optimal 15W chargers) but they're getting shat on because OnePlus does 65W and people think it's a good thing.
I still use 5W (5V at 1A) chargers at home, and have a 9V 15W charger with me only when I need to quickly (and rather rarely) top up. This is even though the impacts to degradation at 15W are small and battery longevities are much better than they were years ago. But having >80% of the battery's capacity after a year is increasingly important as devices are meant to last longer and replacing batteries is challenging.
Doing 25W for a 4000mAh cell already significantly accelerates capacity reduction, which is why Samsung does it only when the battery is relatively drained and aggressively switches to 15W or less mid-way through. With every charge at 65W you are dramatically shortening the battery lifespan with the battery tech they use today though.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

What are your thoughts on Adaptive Battery Charging?

 

[dilla]

Beats me how bad QA must have been for a chip with such latency spikes to actually launch, and even crazier that so many different providers bought them in such quantities.

ISPs probably go for the cheapest, shittiest ones that have the greatest discount and hope their users won't realize. I haven't had games ruined for me due to the lag spikes and I didn't even know until I looked it up. I doubt more casual customers either didn't experience it or assumed it was just a drawback of going wireless or just poor reception if they're far from the router. I still haven't changed the modem/router because my parents still use Voice services from Xfinity. I don't even think it's worth getting them on to Vonage or whatever other VoIP services are out there because one hiccup and they'll want to go back to the old ways, which have been working fine for them. And those Voice plans obviously require a specific modem that supports it.

I find it funny how in the absence of new features to be excited about suddenly charging speed became a race. Companies every year getting closer to the answer to "how fast can we ruin your device and still have your money?". Suddenly Samsung and Apple are the enemies for trying to stick to charging speeds that don't actually destroy the battery in products that are meant to last for more than a year, and have built-in batteries .
Now forums are full of people saying "eat a dick, my OnePlus allows me to charge at 3C while your Samsung is doing 'only' 1C, lol". Some tech sites are even on board.

Samsung started doing 25W which is already pushing it for the smaller devices (and thus why most of their devices come with the more optimal 15W chargers) but they're getting shat on because OnePlus does 65W and people think it's a good thing.
I still use 5W (5V at 1A) chargers at home, and have a 9V 15W charger with me only when I need to quickly (and rather rarely) top up. This is even though the impacts to degradation at 15W are small and battery longevities are much better than they were years ago. But having >80% of the battery's capacity after a year is increasingly important as devices are meant to last longer and replacing batteries is challenging.
Doing 25W for a 4000mAh cell already significantly accelerates capacity reduction, which is why Samsung does it only when the battery is relatively drained and aggressively switches to 15W or less mid-way through. With every charge at 65W you are dramatically shortening the battery lifespan with the battery tech they use today though.

Screen refresh rates have sort of plateaued at 120hz and only flagship Android devices are using those. I think the iPhone 12 is 90hz? Not the full 120. But no company can use 120hz as a killer feature anymore. OEMs know the new frontier is storage but they won't address that. They'll just remove removable storage options and hope people go for the 512 or 1 TB options for $50-100 more.

I was never big on charging speed either. Whatever the S10+ has now is fine for me and I think it's 15W? i usually wireless charge overnight but if I drive and use Android Auto, I plug it in in the car.

Speaking of AA, I now use it wirelessly in my car. In my previous car, I just didn't use AA and was OK with a mount and switching songs on Spotify manually as well as using it for Google Maps. On the other two cars in our house, it's wired and I liked that as well. I was always charging while using AA and that was it. Now, my option is wireless only, and my phone gets rather toasty when I plug it in, which just charges the phone, and use AA. No wired option. I was not aware that wireless AA (and maybe CarPlay too) required both bluetooth and WiFi on in order to use. Apparently, bluetooth doesn't have the bandwidth to support wireless broadcasting to the car for AA. So dumb and it makes me reconsider using AA. I think one issue might be that Google Maps always opens up when connected, even when I don't have navigation directions entered. So I bet that is still intensive on the phone and why it heats up. But I also don't know if Google Maps can be prevented from starting up and providing a satellite view of the route even when you don't have an address entered. But I suspect this is the big culprit.

i also read that Google is ending support of running AA just on your phone. Meaning unless your car supports AA built in to its system, you're going to be without AA. That's shitty, if true. I never used AA on the phone itself but I'm sure plenty of people that don't have a car newer than 2014, or so, still use it via that method.

 

[masta247]

What are your thoughts on Adaptive Battery Charging?

Do you mean the things that Sony and Google phones do where they slowly charge your phone to 80% overnight until 30 mins before the alarm rings where they go up to 100%? It's a decent approach for overnight charging as it both charges slower and reduces the amount of time your phone spends constantly trying to top up battery up to 100%. It does not affect charging during the day though. It's good if you only charge your phone overnight. If you're the type of person who tops up their phone throughout the day, then just do it with a slower charger and unplug before it reaches 100% for an even better effect.

ISPs probably go for the cheapest, shittiest ones that have the greatest discount and hope their users won't realize. I haven't had games ruined for me due to the lag spikes and I didn't even know until I looked it up.

Yeah it's one of those things where you don't realize there is an issue until you compare side by side and see how the game would've played with a perfectly good modem. Maybe you killed someone but it didn't register, or you and your teammates/enemies got out of sync for a very brief moment. It's things like that that will happen more often. For general browsing, for every 30000 links you've clicked you'd have spent a total of an extra hour waiting for them to load compared to a correctly functioning modem. There's a split second extra delay when on VOIP calls, making delays in local calls more similar to what you'd get calling someone on the other coast. It's not exactly very tangible, it's just there.

Screen refresh rates have sort of plateaued at 120hz and only flagship Android devices are using those. I think the iPhone 12 is 90hz? Not the full 120. But no company can use 120hz as a killer feature anymore.

Anything beyond 90-120hz brings very diminishing returns. Most people wouldn't notice a difference between a 120hz and a 300hz display. They could present me a blind test and I wouldn't be able to tell. But it takes twice as much processing power to process. Even flagship gaming displays have settled on 120-144hz. And frankly, I am more than happy with 60hz on a phone. Sure, 90/120hz feels a bit snappier and it's cool that phones do that now for those who care, but to me it's not even worth the battery hit.

I was never big on charging speed either. Whatever the S10+ has now is fine for me and I think it's 15W? i usually wireless charge overnight but if I drive and use Android Auto, I plug it in in the car.

Yup, the S10+ does 15W. It will typically do that up until 60-ish%, then slow down to 10W for 60-80%, and do 5W for the last 20% or so, roughly. It also slows down when your screen is on, and manages battery temperatures to the point the phone is almost cold when charging with screen off. That phone's fast charging is almost by the book for optimal battery longevity. The S21 does 25W "for the spec sheet", but it more aggressively reduces charging speeds, so you really can only tell the difference when your battery is close to drained - it'd charge a little faster from 0-50%, but 50%-100% will take about as long as it did on the S10. Samsung really stepped their battery health game up to perfection since the exploding Notes. Most Apple devices are also doing good in terms of battery health. Those two companies really took it to heart, which is great. I can still use my 8-year old iPad Air for hours before it needs a charge, and things like this ensure devices you buy today can last you for long years too.

 

[dilla]

Do you mean the things that Sony and Google phones do where they slowly charge your phone to 80% overnight until 30 mins before the alarm rings where they go up to 100%? It's a decent approach for overnight charging as it both charges slower and reduces the amount of time your phone spends constantly trying to top up battery up to 100%. It does not affect charging during the day though. It's good if you only charge your phone overnight. If you're the type of person who tops up their phone throughout the day, then just do it with a slower charger and unplug before it reaches 100% for an even better effect.



Yeah it's one of those things where you don't realize there is an issue until you compare side by side and see how the game would've played with a perfectly good modem. Maybe you killed someone but it didn't register, or you and your teammates/enemies got out of sync for a very brief moment. It's things like that that will happen more often. For general browsing, for every 30000 links you've clicked you'd have spent a total of an extra hour waiting for them to load compared to a correctly functioning modem. There's a split second extra delay when on VOIP calls, making delays in local calls more similar to what you'd get calling someone on the other coast. It's not exactly very tangible, it's just there.



Anything beyond 90-120hz brings very diminishing returns. Most people wouldn't notice a difference between a 120hz and a 300hz display. They could present me a blind test and I wouldn't be able to tell. But it takes twice as much processing power to process. Even flagship gaming displays have settled on 120-144hz. And frankly, I am more than happy with 60hz on a phone. Sure, 90/120hz feels a bit snappier and it's cool that phones do that now for those who care, but to me it's not even worth the battery hit.



Yup, the S10+ does 15W. It will typically do that up until 60-ish%, then slow down to 10W for 60-80%, and do 5W for the last 20% or so, roughly. It also slows down when your screen is on, and manages battery temperatures to the point the phone is almost cold when charging with screen off. That phone's fast charging is almost by the book for optimal battery longevity. The S21 does 25W "for the spec sheet", but it more aggressively reduces charging speeds, so you really can only tell the difference when your battery is close to drained - it'd charge a little faster from 0-50%, but 50%-100% will take about as long as it did on the S10. Samsung really stepped their battery health game up to perfection since the exploding Notes. Most Apple devices are also doing good in terms of battery health. Those two companies really took it to heart, which is great. I can still use my 8-year old iPad Air for hours before it needs a charge, and things like this ensure devices you buy today can last you for long years too.

The charging speed on the S10 is fine for me so I have no complaints there. I don't think I can complain about anything on my S10. I'm really going to take this thing to the end of the internals and just do a battery change when the time comes.

I read they brought back MST in the Z Fold/Flip 3 models but I didn't hear about it in reviews. I also didn't look hard for it but if MST returns then I won't be so reluctant to upgrade. It's just the S10 has everything I need and nothing missing or crippled.

I do want to see how Google's chip performs in the new Pixels phones, though.

 

[masta247]

The charging speed on the S10 is fine for me so I have no complaints there. I don't think I can complain about anything on my S10. I'm really going to take this thing to the end of the internals and just do a battery change when the time comes.

I read they brought back MST in the Z Fold/Flip 3 models but I didn't hear about it in reviews. I also didn't look hard for it but if MST returns then I won't be so reluctant to upgrade. It's just the S10 has everything I need and nothing missing or crippled.

I do want to see how Google's chip performs in the new Pixels phones, though.

The "Google" chip is a Exynos 2100 derivative - Samsung are using the same series number for the SKU name with a small bump to the model number to indicate a customization (S5E9855 vs S5E9840). Going by Samsung's naming it's the same gen, same series, same configuration, so you already know the ballpark. Likely the chipset just includes some Google-made co-processors, but that won't be impacting CPU performance. It's essentially what the European S21 came with. Just a less efficient Snapdragon 888.

As for the S10, yeah I find it to be oddly just a really great all-around phone. It might be the most complete Samsung experience. Looking at the S21, it feels like it offers an extra feature for two that it removes. I also think the S10, despite being 2 years old, somehow looks better than the newer Samsung phones. The curved display is just cooler than the flat one on the S21, and so is the flush back without camera bumps imho.

 

[dilla]

The "Google" chip is a Exynos 2100 derivative - Samsung are using the same series number for the SKU name with a small bump to the model number to indicate a customization (S5E9855 vs S5E9840). Going by Samsung's naming it's the same gen, same series, same configuration, so you already know the ballpark. Likely the chipset just includes some Google-made co-processors, but that won't be impacting CPU performance. It's essentially what the European S21 came with. Just a less efficient Snapdragon 888.

Is this similar to what Apple does with the chips in the Intel chips in its Macs? A modified chip that only they have access to that's "opitmized" for the Mac hardware and macOS?

As for the S10, yeah I find it to be oddly just a really great all-around phone. It might be the most complete Samsung experience. Looking at the S21, it feels like it offers an extra feature for two that it removes. I also think the S10, despite being 2 years old, somehow looks better than the newer Samsung phones. The curved display is just cooler than the flat one on the S21, and so is the flush back without camera bumps imho.

I am OK with the curved edges. I think they are referred to as "waterfall" edges? It's not a dealbreaker for me and looking at my S7 which I keep around, I don't know if I prefer one or the other. To me, the S21 offers the 120hz display and 5G, which my specific model of the S10 does not have and that's OK. I wouldn't balk at a 120hz display, even with the increased battery usage, but I'm not itching for one, either. From what I understand. it's not available everywhere and apps need to support it? I think that's correct but I can see apps I use a ton, like YouTube Vanced and a modified IG apk not supporting it or even causing problems.

The camera bumps on the latest iPhones and Samsung phones are a bit obnoxious. I hope they do something about that as time goes on and they can shrink the bump. I don't know if that's technically possible but I hope they try. I value camera quality but I'm not about to have my phone grow an appendage just to accommodate that.

The Fold and Flip both still look really cool. The Flip is offered for $700ish with a trade in at one of the carriers near me but one of the biggest issues I see is finding a case for either Z phone and also being able to get a case with a kickstand. I watch so much video or even browse the web on my phone with the kickstand out. I can't go back to a non-kickstand set up and I will always prefer it be incorporated in to the stand instead of sticking on those kickstands with glue, or whatever, and having it permanently sticking out.

After watching MKBHD's video on the Fold, his concern about dust getting into the screen has me worried, too. I hope there's a fix or prevention measure for this in future models because it would suck to deal with that on an $1800 phone.

 

[masta247]

Is this similar to what Apple does with the chips in the Intel chips in its Macs? A modified chip that only they have access to that's "opitmized" for the Mac hardware and macOS?

Intel does not typically make any different chips for Apple. Intel just supplies off the shelf products that Apple puts in Macs. Apple is in charge of making these work with their Macs.
A better example would be what AMD did for Microsoft and Sony, where they took a Zen 2 processor and semi-customized it for the current consoles. It performs like AMD's Zen 2 CPU+ Navi 2 GPU combo would, but it's configured for a specific customer rather than being an off the shelf product. Even if it's very similar, it may include Microsoft or Sony-made (or requested) changes to the co-processors, for instance. While performance is as expected, those changes may alter some minor features. Samsung is doing that for Google now.
For instance Google may ask Samsung to add something that used to be on the Pixel board into the SOC itself for some power and space saving, or most likely Google would like to replace Samsung's digital signal processor (the thingy processing pictures) with their own.
It's quite a bit more expensive for Google than just ordering the Exynos 2100, but gives them some freedom to ask for those adjustments, as well as make it look more interesting in the spec sheets and perhaps will make some news as the extra they pay likely allows them to slap the Google logo on otherwise Samsung-made chips (kind of like the Ryzen chips powering the Xbox Series consoles have the Xbox logo and no mention of AMD).

 

[dilla]

Jon Prosser dropped a doozy today of the iPhone 14 leaks when we don't quite have the 13 design as yet, one week out from the Apple Event. I like it, if it turns out to be verified. It looks like the iPhone 4's square design, which was one of my favorite phone designs ever. And the camera bulge looks to be gone. And the notch.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/09/08/iphone-14-leak-jon-prosser/

I'm more interested in the software side of things. I daily the iOS 15 beta and have been since it released in June and it looks and feels a lot like 14 did. Just some minor tweaks. But I have read stuff about Apple taking the pandemic in to account and tweaking FaceID and other features to take masks in to account. Also a few states in the US have allowed driver's licenses to be stored on the iPhone, which I hope more states allow in the future.


Also Apple Pay isn't as widely used as I thought it was. https://www.macrumors.com/2021/09/07/only-6-percent-actually-use-apple-pay/.

When I pay at places that don't have the CC machine accessible, like a drive through where they usually take your card to swipe), I usually hold my phone out the window and show it to the cashier. They see it and usually ask "Apple Pay?" and i don't bother to correct them and just tap to pay and move on. So many of these retail workers know about Apple Pay and not Google or Samsung Pay, yet Apple Pay still has disappointing adoption rates. I don't use Apple Pay on my Mac even though some sites have it as an option. That's mostly due to me not using Safari and that's a requirement to use it to pay on websites.

Given the popularity of Samsung phones in the US, I thought mobile payments would be adopted more widely by users. Maybe these users don't know how to set it up or how to use it but it's pretty simple and one would think with the pandemic, people would welcome more contactless-payment options. Samsung could've owned the mobile payment market had it marketed it better and also been more helpful to Samsung owners in offering to help set it up and show them how to use it. I think most Samsung owners don't know about Pay or think it requires using a Samsung credit card or something in order to use, which isn't true.

 

[masta247]

Jon Prosser dropped a doozy today of the iPhone 14 leaks when we don't quite have the 13 design as yet, one week out from the Apple Event. I like it, if it turns out to be verified. It looks like the iPhone 4's square design, which was one of my favorite phone designs ever. And the camera bulge looks to be gone. And the notch.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/09/08/iphone-14-leak-jon-prosser/

I'm more interested in the software side of things. I daily the iOS 15 beta and have been since it released in June and it looks and feels a lot like 14 did. Just some minor tweaks. But I have read stuff about Apple taking the pandemic in to account and tweaking FaceID and other features to take masks in to account. Also a few states in the US have allowed driver's licenses to be stored on the iPhone, which I hope more states allow in the future.


Also Apple Pay isn't as widely used as I thought it was. https://www.macrumors.com/2021/09/07/only-6-percent-actually-use-apple-pay/.

When I pay at places that don't have the CC machine accessible, like a drive through where they usually take your card to swipe), I usually hold my phone out the window and show it to the cashier. They see it and usually ask "Apple Pay?" and i don't bother to correct them and just tap to pay and move on. So many of these retail workers know about Apple Pay and not Google or Samsung Pay, yet Apple Pay still has disappointing adoption rates. I don't use Apple Pay on my Mac even though some sites have it as an option. That's mostly due to me not using Safari and that's a requirement to use it to pay on websites.

Given the popularity of Samsung phones in the US, I thought mobile payments would be adopted more widely by users. Maybe these users don't know how to set it up or how to use it but it's pretty simple and one would think with the pandemic, people would welcome more contactless-payment options. Samsung could've owned the mobile payment market had it marketed it better and also been more helpful to Samsung owners in offering to help set it up and show them how to use it. I think most Samsung owners don't know about Pay or think it requires using a Samsung credit card or something in order to use, which isn't true.

The design would have been nice last year, maybe this year. Not so much next year. I feel like with Apple abandoning the notch and keeping the camera cutout feels a bit 2019, except in 2022. It also looks less iPhone-y, which I'm not sure they'd like to go with.

As for Pay, I agree that they definitely should market it better and show an ad for how easy it is to set up and use. Just add your card and you never need to look at it again, just grab your phone and keys wherever you go. The tech works great and is definitely here, just its adoption is clearly trailing. Most people aren't tech savvy though and don't try new things, as in they don't know that the future truly is now unless it slaps them in the face. I guess Samsung Pay hasn't done enough slapping for it to become mainstream yet. I'm surprised Apple hasn't made a big deal out of it though, as it fits the bill perfectly for being one of those things that they popularize and take all the credit for.

 

[Casey]

Given the popularity of Samsung phones in the US, I thought mobile payments would be adopted more widely by users.

I worked at a UK fintech company/bank for a few years, which had 50,000 users when I joined and now has over 5 million. I was there through the development cycle of supporting Google Pay (which was fairly painless) and Apple Pay (which was a nightmare due to strict Apple NDAs).

Quite simply, there's just no incentive to build out Samsung Pay support from the bank end, so lots of banks don't bother. That's because all Samsung phones support Google Pay. And now, with Samsung switching from Tizen to WearOS on their watches, their wearables support Google Pay also. Google owns Fitbit, so it's almost certain that Fitbit Pay (which has even less adoption than Samsung) will get killed, and Fitbit wearables will also begin to use Google Pay.

So whereas building Google Pay support gives you access to basically 100% of Android phones and wearables, and Apple Pay gives you access to basically 100% of iPhones and other iOS and MacOS devices........ taking the time to build out Samsung Pay gives you access to....... one manufacturer, whose users already have a well supported NFC option.

There's a lot of innovation happening in the space, and has been for a few years, for fintechs and traditional banks alike. For example, the company that I used to work for is now working on a BNPL feature (Buy Now, Pay Later), because of the huge success of Klarna. With all that innovation and product dev possibilities, it's hard to justify prioritising Samsung Pay support.

 

[dilla]

I worked at a UK fintech company/bank for a few years, which had 50,000 users when I joined and now has over 5 million. I was there through the development cycle of supporting Google Pay (which was fairly painless) and Apple Pay (which was a nightmare due to strict Apple NDAs).

Quite simply, there's just no incentive to build out Samsung Pay support from the bank end, so lots of banks don't bother. That's because all Samsung phones support Google Pay. And now, with Samsung switching from Tizen to WearOS on their watches, their wearables support Google Pay also. Google owns Fitbit, so it's almost certain that Fitbit Pay (which has even less adoption than Samsung) will get killed, and Fitbit wearables will also begin to use Google Pay.

So whereas building Google Pay support gives you access to basically 100% of Android phones and wearables, and Apple Pay gives you access to basically 100% of iPhones and other iOS and MacOS devices........ taking the time to build out Samsung Pay gives you access to....... one manufacturer, whose users already have a well supported NFC option.

There's a lot of innovation happening in the space, and has been for a few years, for fintechs and traditional banks alike. For example, the company that I used to work for is now working on a BNPL feature (Buy Now, Pay Later), because of the huge success of Klarna. With all that innovation and product dev possibilities, it's hard to justify prioritising Samsung Pay support.

I finally looked up if the S21 finally brought back MST and it looks like they didn't. I thought I had read about Samsung bringing it back after removing it from the S20 but I guess not. If MST remains dead for future Samsung phones then what I said earlier seems like a lost cause, like you said. If one wanted to make a payment using NFC, it makes sense to focus on Google Pay for the reasons you mentioned. Wider accessibility on all devices. Many people on Reddit seem to not care about Samsung Pay because they claim NFC terminals are at almost every place they shop at. I get the feeling those people frequently shop in a metro area, where I can see popular franchises upgrading their terminals to accept NFC payment. Places like Walgreen's, Panera, etc. all support NFC. But once you head out to the suburbs, NFC isn't as common and many places only have the card-swiper machines and nothing else. MST comes in handy there.

Also it looks like NFC is more popular outside the US. I don't think most US places are willing to invest in upgrading their tech for quite some time, which sucks given that MST is no longer being put in to newer Samsung phones, the only OEM to have adopted MST tech in their phones the past several years.

I hope more places start adding those NFC terminals. On the user-end, paying with Samsung Pay (MST+NFC) and Google/Apple Pay (NFC) all have the same process of swiping the digital card up and verifying a purchase with a fingerprint. People just need to know it exists and use it and businesses need to get those NFC terminals in.

 

[Jon]

I tried using iOS for 18 months. Just switched back to Android (S21) and am very happy again.

 

[Pittsey]

I've been using the pixel 3a since release. Still pretty happy with it, but it's ugly. Going to pick up the pixel 6 when it's released....

Dropped my phone and busted my screen last weekend. So I got the screen replaced for the same price as it would have cost me to buy a new pixel 3a. Haha

 

[Pittsey]

Also... Android auto is a horrible. Would never use it


At least Google TV is decent now though


And I'm still gutted they discontinued the Chromecast audio

 

[THEV1LL4N]

I wouldn't say that the Pixel 3a is ugly - I think it looks pretty decent.

Android Auto is good but very basic - they could have done more with it. But it appears as though it will be discontinued in favour of Android Automotive.

Google TV looks great and I've only heard positive things about it.

The Chromecast Audio was great!

 

[dilla]

Also... Android auto is a horrible. Would never use it


At least Google TV is decent now though


And I'm still gutted they discontinued the Chromecast audio

It's a lot easier to use with a touchscreen. I do not like using the scroll-wheel many cars have. Car Play looks much better though; cleaner and simpler to use but I don't use it myself since I don't have an iPhone but I have used it when someone else's iOS device was connected. But I don't think it allows for Google Assistant, which is far superior to Siri.

 

[Jokerman]

Somewhat disappointed in new iPhone 13s coming. Might skip this one. Better battery and 120Hz adaptive refresh in the Pro models are about the only things that are tempting to me. A15 Bionic sounds good. More nits, don't particularly need. Slightly better camera, don't need. Cinematic Mode video, no. Smaller notch, never bothered by it. Color offerings bland this year, IMO. At least the price stays the same. I'll wait for reviews.