Technology Android

[Pittsey]

Yeah. Chrome looks good.

I'm picking up the 360 when I'm in the USA, next week.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Chrome updated for me last night and it looks superb. I like the design Android is going towards. L is probably my favorite release so far

Did you notice an improvement in performance? It seemed faster for me on my Nexus 7 - not sure if it was anything to do with enabling my bandwidth management settings, but seems smoother.

 

[dilla]

Chrome updated for me last night and it looks superb. I like the design Android is going towards. L is probably my favorite release so far

What update is that? Are you not on Canary builds? That redesign has been out for a while I think.

 

[Pittsey]

Did you notice an improvement in performance? It seemed faster for me on my Nexus 7 - not sure if it was anything to do with enabling my bandwidth management settings, but seems smoother.

Chrome is quicker. I noticed that on my G3.

 

[Casey]

What update is that? Are you not on Canary builds? That redesign has been out for a while I think.

He's talking about Chrome on Android which just had a large update with the new "Material Design" UI aesthetic a la Android "L".

Canary channel is for desktop.

 

[dilla]

He's talking about Chrome on Android which just had a large update with the new "Material Design" UI aesthetic a la Android "L".

Canary channel is for desktop.

Ooops. I knew that.....

 

[ARon]

Thanks Casey.

What's your guys take on the Asus Zenwatxh purely based on looks?

 

[Casey]

I find the Zenwatch to be a bit dull looking. but that might be more to do with that hideous tan colored watch strap rather than the core face unit itself.

 

[ARon]

Yeah, that tan is bad. With a black band it could look good

 

[Casey]

Amazon Instant Video is now available for Android.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...-to-entire-digital-catalog-instant-video-app/

 

[ARon]

The Moto 360 is getting some bad reviews regarding the battery, not good

 

[dilla]

The Moto 360 is getting some bad reviews regarding the battery, not good

The life of the battery is least of Moto's problems in regards to the battery. Even if they are off by 20 mAh, iFixit exposed their false advertising on battery capacity.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014...to-360-finds-smaller-battery-than-advertised/

Right when Moto looked like it had come back from being irrelevant again, it has this shit to deal with regarding its watch.

Looked nice when it was announced. No thank you, though.

 

[ARon]

Moto already addressed that issue

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Either one of three options:

a) They will release an updated version with a bigger battery
b) They will address this with a software update
c) They will revise their marketing to reflect the actual battery size (mAh)

Problem resolved.

 

[ARon]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014...to-360-finds-smaller-battery-than-advertised/
"The typical battery capacity for Moto 360 is 320 mAh and the minimum is 300 mAh. In the mobile industry, sometimes both the minimum and typical capacity is listed on the battery, with the typical capacity quoted as the official battery size. Both figures are included on the batteries of our Moto X, Moto E and Moto G devices. In the case of smaller devices, we aren’t always able to list both figures. For Moto 360 we only had room for one figure and choose to list the minimal capacity of the battery. We see how this can be confusing and we will look into ways to add the typical capacity as well in the future." They actually did the right thing by listing the minimal capacity

 

[ARon]

Goog is batting .1000 with me right now. Hangouts update looks good. I thought funding contacts was kind of weird but this is better

 

[dilla]

Goog is batting .1000 with me right now. Hangouts update looks good. I thought funding contacts was kind of weird but this is better

Batting .10000 is horrible, especially for a beaner.

Re-check the math.

 

[Casey]

The issue with the Moto 360 isn't the 300mAh battery. It's the usage of the 4 year old dual core OMAP 3630 processor. That processor is so old that Texas Instruments don't even make processors any more. Same processor that was in the Droid 2 way back when.

For comparison, the LG G Watch has a Quad core Snapdragon 400 processor and a 400 mAh battery, and retails for nearly $100 less.

Regarding the Hangouts update, I'm psyched. I've had a Google Voice number for years. Being able to make and receive free US and Canada calls from Hangouts is epic. Particularly since my UK carrier, Three, offers free roaming in the US as well. So I can use my normal UK sim when I'm in the US, have unlimited data, and make/receive free US calls. All for £12 a month. I feel sorry for US users paying extortionate fees to the likes of Verizon, not getting unlimited data, and getting fucked on roaming charges for using data abroad.

There's lots of things I don't like about the UK, but our mobile phone system is probably the most progressive and weighted on the side of the customer compared to any other country. I mean, you can get any new flagship phone, sim-unlocked, whether that's an iPhone 6, Galaxy Note 4, whatever, without paying any upfront cost, on the day it launches. With unlimited data. For no more than £45 a month at the absolute most. If you wait 6-8 weeks after the phone launches, it's even less. By Xmas, you'll be able to get a Note 4 or iPhone 6 here for around £30 a month with no upfront cost.

 

[Casey]

Perfect timing since I just bought my Chromebook - first set of Android apps just arrived to Chrome OS including Vine and Evernote.

http://chrome.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/first-set-of-android-apps-coming-to.html

 

[dilla]

The issue with the Moto 360 isn't the 300mAh battery. It's the usage of the 4 year old dual core OMAP 3630 processor. That processor is so old that Texas Instruments don't even make processors any more. Same processor that was in the Droid 2 way back when.

For comparison, the LG G Watch has a Quad core Snapdragon 400 processor and a 400 mAh battery, and retails for nearly $100 less.

Regarding the Hangouts update, I'm psyched. I've had a Google Voice number for years. Being able to make and receive free US and Canada calls from Hangouts is epic. Particularly since my UK carrier, Three, offers free roaming in the US as well. So I can use my normal UK sim when I'm in the US, have unlimited data, and make/receive free US calls. All for £12 a month. I feel sorry for US users paying extortionate fees to the likes of Verizon, not getting unlimited data, and getting fucked on roaming charges for using data abroad.

There's lots of things I don't like about the UK, but our mobile phone system is probably the most progressive and weighted on the side of the customer compared to any other country. I mean, you can get any new flagship phone, sim-unlocked, whether that's an iPhone 6, Galaxy Note 4, whatever, without paying any upfront cost, on the day it launches. With unlimited data. For no more than £45 a month at the absolute most. If you wait 6-8 weeks after the phone launches, it's even less. By Xmas, you'll be able to get a Note 4 or iPhone 6 here for around £30 a month with no upfront cost.

How are data speeds, though? We had Lebara on a prepaid plan and while it was cool and all, the speeds were shit, especially all along the M4 and other places we went. It was enough for navigation, but to look up or stream anything, it took 2-3 minutes to load a page.