The Android Thread

[Ike]

Did some digging and apparently you can play your uploads in the background.

https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/answer/9716522

Quote

You can play uploaded songs in the background, ad-free and offline - even if you are not currently a YouTube Music Premium subscriber. You can also cast uploaded content, or play it from smart speakers and Sonos. 

Guess I got caught up in people's knee jerk reactions who didn't actually know this. Still, I'll wait until I can transfer my library until making any further judgement.

Although I was eyeing up getting a Sony NW-A55L https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07X3XD1BW/ MP3 player which seems quite nice.

[Charlie]

On 5/13/2020 at 12:55 PM, Julius said:

Don't worry, Stadia will probably be next, if that makes you feel any better 

Stadia will be supported for years to come. Developers simply wouldn't have got on-board with it without an agreement from Google that it wouldn't be discontinued if it didn't do well in the first few years. There's a huge difference between Stadia and other services that got canned in the past. Stadia was/is a huge project team with a huge infrastructure behind it. A lot of the services that were cancelled were very small teams and didn't drive any revenue or any meaningful advertising capabilities. 

[Happenstance]

I think Google will support Stadia in the weakest way possible, just to fulfill whatever promises they have made. You already hear next to nothing about it and it just had it’s full launch.

[Julius]

23 hours ago, Charlie said:

Stadia will be supported for years to come. Developers simply wouldn't have got on-board with it without an agreement from Google that it wouldn't be discontinued if it didn't do well in the first few years. There's a huge difference between Stadia and other services that got canned in the past. Stadia was/is a huge project team with a huge infrastructure behind it. A lot of the services that were cancelled were very small teams and didn't drive any revenue or any meaningful advertising capabilities. 

Yeah...that was a totally tongue in cheek jest based on how we've seen them support it so far. 

In all seriousness, though, I do agree with @Happenstance. They're already showing minimal support for it. Stadia is a front for them to get things in place for the future, but the tech and support clearly isn't there (yet) from them. I expect a major relaunch, and probably even a rebrand, in 5-10 years when streaming games (as well as advertised) becomes an achievable reality. Google can then also turn around and give us the whole "from our decade of experience in streaming games, blah blah blah" marketing speak. 

[Rummy]

Here to show my absolute LACK of appreciate for Android and hackers helping root/custom ROM them(trying to freshen up an old galaxy tab). Had about 10-20 diff tutorials and this constantly sticking point - til finally found someone with the same problem as me - all the fucking tutorials don't always tell you the right buttons to press and they do different bloody things! I am gonna be so satisfied if I manage to actually get this working- already bricked once because I got overexcited and did the wrong thing too early now I'm on a whole other page flashing a whole other stock ROM! You'd think with computers so able and capable to do stuff at the clock of a button these days and connected to tinternets it could all just zip it through for you...-.-

[killthenet]

I've been dreading the day all year but I have finally lost access to Google Play Music. I had been holding on to the vain hope that the app would still function, allowing me to just play the music I had saved on my phone, but that was not the case - the app just deleted my downloaded playlists and ceased functioning so I will have to start using YouTube Music from now on.

Not happy about it at all but at least they've patched it so that your activity on YouTube Music doesn't clog up your watch history on YouTube, who on earth thought it was ever a good idea to combine the two?

[Mr_Odwin]

16 hours ago, killthenet said:

I've been dreading the day all year but I have finally lost access to Google Play Music. I had been holding on to the vain hope that the app would still function, allowing me to just play the music I had saved on my phone, but that was not the case - the app just deleted my downloaded playlists and ceased functioning so I will have to start using YouTube Music from now on.

Not happy about it at all but at least they've patched it so that your activity on YouTube Music doesn't clog up your watch history on YouTube, who on earth thought it was ever a good idea to combine the two?

I just want an option/tab for YT Music & Uploads combined, then it'd be bearable. That was the original draw to me for google music. Kinda baffling that after all of the negative feedback they've had for this that they've not added that simple option. Typical google though, they'll probably release another alternative app in a couple of months.

[Cube]

Mine also completely stopped the other day. 

 

An option to combine Streaming & Uploaded music (for searches, auto lists and stuff) would be the main thing for me as well @Mr_Odwin

 

Oh, and having an interface that doesn't hurt my eyes (dark mode is pure evil) would be nice.

[nightwolf]

Resurrection! 

I am finally in for a new mobile, but honestly, I'm fairly clueless and my needs are superficial. If anyone fancies indulging me to give me some pointers. For perspective I've been rocking the Samsung S8 for well over a year now. 

From less superficial to the stupidly so: 

1. It has to be android. Hence why I'm in here
2. I need it to be fairly up to date security wise (so ideally after buying second hand for a while I'd like fairly new!)
3. I have fairly small hands, whilst I use a popsocket, phones that are practically a tablet are out
4. I'd like a decent camera, I document a fair amount. 
5. Honestly if I could get a phone that has easy access to "pretty" phone cases, that'll help too. 

It doesn't need to have a huge amount of space, I find it very rare that I reach the limit on most phones nowadays. I also am not overly picky where its sold from as long as its easy to get a hold of. 

Anyone fancy helping a complete noob out? 
 

[Ashley]

7 minutes ago, nightwolf said:

Resurrection! 

I am finally in for a new mobile, but honestly, I'm fairly clueless and my needs are superficial. If anyone fancies indulging me to give me some pointers. For perspective I've been rocking the Samsung S8 for well over a year now. 

From less superficial to the stupidly so: 

1. It has to be android. Hence why I'm in here
2. I need it to be fairly up to date security wise (so ideally after buying second hand for a while I'd like fairly new!)
3. I have fairly small hands, whilst I use a popsocket, phones that are practically a tablet are out
4. I'd like a decent camera, I document a fair amount. 
5. Honestly if I could get a phone that has easy access to "pretty" phone cases, that'll help too. 

It doesn't need to have a huge amount of space, I find it very rare that I reach the limit on most phones nowadays. I also am not overly picky where its sold from as long as its easy to get a hold of. 

Anyone fancy helping a complete noob out? 
 

I'm slightly biased as its all I've used for years but Googles Pixel line perhaps? The ones that end with A are generally smaller and cheaper to buy outright. Plus Google guarantee at least 2 years of updates and I think maybe slightly longer for security updates?

The newest one is the Pixel 4A and a new Pixel 5A is likely to be released in about 3 months time if you're not in a huge rush (although last year's model got delayed a fair bit because of Covid so who knows if the usual schedule is out of whack now).

I quite like the fabric cases they do too, feels nice and also makes the phone feel more secure in your hand.

[Happenstance]

The Samsung S20 fe range that @Goafer got recently could be another good one for price and size. I’ve got the Note 20 Ultra from that same Samsung generation, too big for your needs but I can say it was a good group of phones.

[Cube]

I have a low range Nokia but it's pretty great for what I want (and stock Android, none of the bloatware other companies add to it). Their higher models have some great cameras.

[nightwolf]

Thanks everyone. I ended up being swayed by the Samsung S21 after watching a lot of reviews. It feels like a more recent version of my Samsung S8, so I'm very pleased with it. Ultimately it was probably too much money for what it is, but I love it. 

I did find I quite liked the idea of the Pixel and the OnePlus 8T, but ended up finding that some of the features (and looks) of the S21 swayed me in the end. 

[killthenet]

Run into an issue with YouTube Music, on Play Music I had a 999 song playlist that I pretty much always had looping on shuffle. Not sure if it actually went through all 999 songs but it at least appeared to, and when it came to the end of the playlist clicking 'next track' would just start it again. Well, not that I have migrated over to YT music every so often the same playlist simply won't allow me to skip to the next track, the times it has happened since it was probably 100 songs in at the most but the button was simply greyed out. The only solution seems to be to open up the app and start the playlist again, resetting the seed, which is inconvenient and annoying. 

Is there some sort of limit on the number of tracks the algorithm picks? I assumed that since the max playlist limit is the same it would function as it did on Play Music. Don't know why they couldn't just rebrand the old software, then the transition wouldn't have been so rough.

[martinist]

Might think about upgrading my Sony Xperia XZ later this year.

I dropped the iPhone since i hated doing everything through Apple. Couldn't even transfer my photos to the PC without doing it all through iTunes. With an xperia I can just connect it to the PC and it transfers without the hassle.

The Xperia 5 II looks nice at £799 but the Xperia 1 II is over £1000 and i'm just not prepaired to pay that ammount of money for a phone.

 

[Ike]

1 hour ago, killthenet said:

Run into an issue with YouTube Music, on Play Music I had a 999 song playlist that I pretty much always had looping on shuffle. Not sure if it actually went through all 999 songs but it at least appeared to, and when it came to the end of the playlist clicking 'next track' would just start it again. Well, not that I have migrated over to YT music every so often the same playlist simply won't allow me to skip to the next track, the times it has happened since it was probably 100 songs in at the most but the button was simply greyed out. The only solution seems to be to open up the app and start the playlist again, resetting the seed, which is inconvenient and annoying. 

Is there some sort of limit on the number of tracks the algorithm picks? I assumed that since the max playlist limit is the same it would function as it did on Play Music. Don't know why they couldn't just rebrand the old software, then the transition wouldn't have been so rough.

Yeah, shuffle is broken with larger playlists. I’ve heard it happens once it goes over 200ish songs.

[Rummy]

Man. I've been getting pissed off at my phone increasingly for a while now cos I don't wanna have to buy a new one because i basically cant afford to with pandemic fun times but it was getting to the point where the bloody usb-c port was getting looser than a wizards sleeve. ofc i finally did the thing any sane person would do at the end of their tether - google the exact question they should have immediately googled the first time and every time since on the very same device right in their hand at every. single. point. of. the. problem.

 

tl;dr TIL lint kinda is a dick and depending on the exact length of the cable protruder bit you are plugging ineven if minimally shorter it will fall out because lints a bitch carefully fucking 10-20 second ream yer usb-c port with a toothpick a wee bit. then check port grip. this is not financial advice.

[bob]

Man. I've been getting pissed off at my phone increasingly for a while now cos I don't wanna have to buy a new one because i basically cant afford to with pandemic fun times but it was getting to the point where the bloody usb-c port was getting looser than a wizards sleeve. ofc i finally did the thing any sane person would do at the end of their tether - google the exact question they should have immediately googled the first time and every time since on the very same device right in their hand at every. single. point. of. the. problem.
 
tl;dr TIL lint kinda is a dick and depending on the exact length of the cable protruder bit you are plugging ineven if minimally shorter it will fall out because lints a bitch carefully fucking 10-20 second ream yer usb-c port with a toothpick a wee bit. then check port grip. this is not financial advice.

My charging cable was similarly loose, so I got a needle and had a wiggle.

Goodness me there was a lot of crud in there! No wonder the USB-c cable kept falling out.

[Rummy]

On 11/05/2021 at 11:13 PM, bob said:

My charging cable was similarly loose, so I got a needle and had a wiggle.

Goodness me there was a lot of crud in there! No wonder the USB-c cable kept falling out.

I'm not gonna lie still now I am amazed at how much grip has returned. I lived so much of my year as a fool -.-

[Sméagol]

Can someone change the thread title to simply "The Android thread"? I cringe every time.

(say something on-topic)

Ok.. I'm actually considering getting my first Android phone next month. The Sony Xperia 10 III.

Why that one? Apart from my first phone being a Sony, there's a good chance I can dump Android down the line and put Sailfish on it.

I don't want to upgrade, but perhaps it's time, maybe 3G disappearing is a sign I should. My 2nd, and current phone, the Nokia N9 still works fine for what I do with it, make the occasional call. But having a working map could come in handy. With a sony being my first phone, and the Nokia N9 being my 2nd, I'm naturally gravitaitng towards the Xperia 10 III, assuming they put Sailfish on it like the 10 II and some other Xperias. I could go the 10 II, but I prefer to stay away from 2nd hand and refurbished. But if I do get an Android phone, I'll make sure to take the necessary precautions so Google can't track anything useful.

[Ashley]

2 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

Can someone change the thread title to simply "The Android thread"? I cringe every time.

Yeah same and yet I never did anything about it...until now.

[bob]

Urgh. Does anyone else here use Tapatalk, and has your app started autoplaying video ads?

It's so annoying, but there's no way of turning it off. I would jump ship to another app in a heartbeat, but there are no alternatives...

[Ashley]

I know @Sheikah uses it

[Sheikah]

Urgh. Does anyone else here use Tapatalk, and has your app started autoplaying video ads?It's so annoying, but there's no way of turning it off. I would jump ship to another app in a heartbeat, but there are no alternatives...

I downloaded Tapatalk Pro which doesn't seem to have the ads. I bought it years back, and it seems to have suddenly come back into existence.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quoord.tapatalkHD

[bob]

On 22/05/2021 at 9:17 PM, Sheikah said:

I downloaded Tapatalk Pro which doesn't seem to have the ads. I bought it years back, and it seems to have suddenly come back into existence.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quoord.tapatalkHD

Hmmm, i thought the only option now was that stupid subscription model. Still, £14 is a bit steep. I might have another go with the mobile browser theme,  but I hate using browsers.