Hey, welcome to Android faithful your weekly source for the latest news hardware and apps in the wide rebranded world of Android. I'm going to it now And I'm Ron Richards And I'm Michelle Roman and we are not rebranded. We are still Android faithful We are still Android faithful and we are super super lucky to have a fabulous guest with us today Friend of the show and someone I've known for many many years. Anise Davis vice president of engineering at meetup. Hey Hey, thanks for having me. We're so excited to have you on so you were a guest on all that Android I think a couple of times a few times at least right and when we were doing our Brainstorming for guests for the for the new show you were like, oh, we gotta get an Easter back And so we're so happy that you could join us Android dinosaur Probably so I'm very very probably so speaking of that, right. Oh Yeah, I had a side so I guess I don't even know what iOS or sorry what not what iOS oh shoot what I owe This is my brain. It's just it's what day of it. It's Tuesday. Uh, yeah Pre-covid right? Oh for sure. I should have looked this up an era long past Yeah, so that's that's our friend Sam Edwards hands and Sam if you happen to follow him He's also an Android dev my husband and Anise and myself. Let me see. Hold on. That's 2019 Oh, so that's right before that's right before the Verona. Yeah So we're for our audio listeners. We're looking at a photo of when an Anise set a previous IO back in the day Yeah, we're younger and more naive And and how and hummed more and all that kind of stuff more and we're not too nervous about sitting very very tightly Amongst other developers at large events So before we get started though, Anise, you know assuming you know not assuming that everyone watching saw your episodes previously on our Old show, you know, can you give a quick, you know, kind of quick, you know, who you are what you do and and and why you love Android, right? So vice president of engineering at meetup. I do everything But primarily I'm responsible for making sure like our platforms API's native applications are good to go Why do I love Android? There's so many reasons But I just remember getting my first Android phone and knowing that I could program it was just like blew my mind like I can Program this thing and show people and I'm like, I did this on my phone And then I was just addicted to Android ever since then Cool, and we've got a fan of meetup in the chat watching live while West Ann says his wife is at a book club meetup right now He loves meetup. So yeah, I love me The other question which I feel like when a Michelle we've been lax on asking our guests, but what what is your daily driver? What is your phone these days? Yeah, so the last time I was on all about Android. I was on the old school pixel three But since I've upgraded to the pixel seven So, you know, I'm doing things making a little bit of moves got a pixel watch Now We actually have someone on team pixel All right, well, we got a ton of stuff to talk about but before we get started the show I just want to give a quick call out when I thank everybody who has overdue patreon.com slash Android faithful To support us and becomes a supporting patron And I want to let everyone know that if you are at the ten dollar a month or higher tier You get access to the ad-free show, which is now finally. Thank you for your patience connected to Spotify So now you can link your patreon account to Spotify if that is your pod catcher of choice and listen to the ad-free version of the podcast there So thank you to everybody. Sorry about the lag took a second to get all set up behind the scenes But there we are so working out the kinks. This is a new show, right? So All right, so should we just dive right into it? What do you say? Let's do it. All right. Cool Well, I've got our first story Which we were talking about before the show started We got a little bit of a political bent this week as there's a lot of geopolitics happening in the world of Android but first up is the fact that Google's anti-trust case in the EU is gonna be not in the EU. I'm sorry in the US, of course I'm so used to you but the antitrust case is gonna be getting underway soon And you know, basically there's a lot a lot at stake for Google in terms of how it distributes its search engine to its users That's the main kind of thing at You know to be debated to be discussed here in this in this case It reminds me a lot of the EU's case against Microsoft in their proliferation of Internet Explorer of how you know, they made that their default browser and the action of Google making Google search the default for In things like Android, right? I mean Michelle that we were talking about the the the ramifications of this towards OEMs and other products is potentially huge, right? What is your take on that Michelle? I Mean, yeah, a lot. Some people are calling this the biggest antitrust case since the one you alluded to where you know Microsoft was sued over bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, right? So this one has huge ramifications for what could happen on mobile devices So right now Google pays literally Multiple billion dollars a year to Apple just to have that default Google search experience on iOS devices Because you know, they're kind of afraid that what happens if we're no longer the default and they push some other search engine as a Default what would happen to our market share in the search, you know the search ecosystem? So that's why a lot of all these billions of dollars are being spent and the lawyers for the government The US government are arguing that this is anti-competitive. This is violating our antitrust laws Google of course is saying it doesn't because you know other Competitors just aren't investing enough in their own search engines. They're just not as good as Google is, you know And they kind of they do have a somewhat of a point like in the you in the EU for example It's already been a couple of years where they implemented the choice screen where you pick your search engine as you start Up your Android device or you start up your Chrome browser You get to pick what search engine is a default and the vast majority users still pick Google as a default And I think Google mentioned this even during the trial like this it actually went underway earlier today They said that you know if you look at windows vast majority people even though that Microsoft sets Bing as a default for everything people still go use Google search. I'm pretty sure that that describes me That describes. I'm sure most people listening to this show right now, right? Let's go around the room like Who has Google as their default search engine on their devices me Right all of us yeah, I feel if Gina I remember Gina Trapani was the one who turned me on to duck duck go and I'm pretty sure that you know Like there are other ones out there aside from Bing, which is a joke Michelle, right? But yeah, but but duck duck go and other search engines are out there, but I don't know I mean Anise I'd love to hear what you think of it like is I mean this is challenging the definition of antitrust versus they just built a better product, right? Yeah, I what I find interesting about this particular Situation is that people literally say we'll just Google it. They don't say just search it on your preferred Browser with your preferred engine. It's like now part of everyday vocabulary And so I wonder if Google like what would happen if they didn't pay those billions Would they still like how much of the market share would they really lose? So that's like the one side of it, but then on the other side There are people who have no clue what a search engine is they just type in a box Yeah, so to them it doesn't matter what it is They're just like my computer is where I find things and this is the thing I click and type words So it's like if they didn't make it the default They probably would lose all those people who don't know any difference So I'm actually really curious to see how this is gonna turn out and I think it will affect different generations differently sure and and I think it's almost akin to the You know the what was the telephony and the telephone companies, you know They broke up big balance a regional bell systems and then now like what we have with cable systems You know our internet connection systems were like this You know there's an illusion of choice in some regions, right? Where you like, you know if you're lucky enough to live in a city where you can choose between spectrum or FiOS or you know, whatever it might be But there's also parts of the country where there's one way to get on the internet, right? Unless you find some local DSL or or a fiber, you know kind of option and it's the same kind of thing where you know Is Google gonna be able to escape by around that by saying? Hey, we're a utility. This is an extension of what we kind of do it But like in the you will give people the choice and let them choose and see where it goes That's enough to appease the government or not I don't know when what do you think? Do you think this is gonna wrap up? No, I honestly don't know And I think I kind of feel what sort of what Anise was alluding to and that you know, it's it's one thing I mean it feels like you know Google is Like for many many many of us regardless of whether we're tech people or even enthusiasts or not search web search and so while I think it's always a good thing for you know Organizations countries governments to stand up to big companies and and hold them accountable for certain things There is kind of a question in my mind about Certainly if they break up Google or if they make Google not not Prevent Google from you know or or at least kind of throw some regulations that make them less the default They will affect them but at the same time it's like what what will actually be will actually come out of the wash We don't know And how what like whatever punitive or whatever corrective behavior we expect from this antitrust, you know Like lawsuit I don't know when we're gonna see the actual impact of it as end users And what will that actual impact be whether it's like I kind of had to like you know Do this little extra annoying step when I set up my new phone versus I had to choose What I had to choose versus most people pie wouldn't even think about it So I don't know I I think it's a good thing that this is happening But I think especially lately. I don't think it like there's I think I think with the success or the effectiveness of antitrust case Is kind of like I'm here like here or there a little bit and we've talked with like in the old show We talked a lot about like different first like different flavors of this case in different countries With like Google mobile services like you know needing to add that to I mean, I don't know They're still here, but Mary you at the U. S. Is he's marketable to see but I'm kind of Neutral to negative or a neutral skeptical Yeah, by the way by the way this The government's case against school is not only about the search engine sure default experience It's also about and the reason why I propose this to be covered on Android faithful is because the government is also arguing that Google's Agreements with Android device makers is anti competitive. So those of you who are familiar with Google Most Android devices they bundle Google apps including the play store from the Google app for search and all these other apps The government is arguing that this is anti competitive that Google shouldn't be allowed to bundle All these apps in exchange to have access to the play store So that's something we've already seen in other countries around the world like you've seen this happen in India in the EU But now it's happening in the U. S. And you know if this happens everywhere that's that could spell big trouble for Google's Google mobile services Licensing agreement like all their all the things they've built up huge ramifications Just before we move on though because there's even more huge ramifications Another story to make all of us collectively feel old watching live in the chat Jesse shared that to be almost the same age as Google. I feel like they've grown up alongside me I use it by choice not by force So one God bless you Jesse because I remember when Google launched and As I as I pulled up my Netscape browser and went to Google calm for the first time Oh, and they had like the number like like as many oh like it like Those are the days for all this business and any trust and like global corporations and data privacy issues So so we'll watch we'll watch this case closely obviously because it could have huge ramifications But when to your point like and an Easter your point who knows when it'll hit us as end users because it takes time and that sort of thing I'm sure there'll be appeals and all that stuff, but it's a big deal. Yeah, we'll stick close to it But so now Michelle is in the geopolitical stage. I'll throw it to you All right, so you remember Huawei when or when they were relevant outside of China I mean that was a couple of years ago like back in 2019 when all of a sudden their plans to launch smartphones in the U. S were just shattered because You know the U. S government imposed Really heavy sanctions on them basically preventing them from having access to Google apps preventing a lot of American companies from even working with them at all and Most importantly it prevented them from getting access to the latest chip technologies The latest chip manufacturing Technologies that they basically required to be competitive with Apple with Samsung with TSMC, etc But now all of a sudden just like last week They released the new phone called the Mate 60 Pro, you know, they're long-standing the Mate series This phone came out of nowhere. It was just launched online. There wasn't any formal launch event No big press extravaganza or anything They launched this thing and all of a sudden users started noticing Hey, this thing is getting speeds that are on par with other 5g-enabled devices like the iPhone like my Samsung phone But when they're running these tests, it doesn't say 5g in the status bar It's just having 5g speeds and the reason that was so significant was because Huawei for years has been banned from basically having access to any Modem technology capable of 5g speeds So like for the last couple of years they've been releasing phones with just 4g modems So all of a sudden they released this phone out of nowhere That's capable of 5g speeds and users are questioning how in the world did they do this with all these restrictions that were imposed on them so it's basically kind of Launched this really interesting geopolitical conversation about did Huawei violate sanctions did some companies violate sanctions to provide them technology and Like what does it mean for the future of chip making in China if they're able to accomplish this based on what Bloomberg has Discovered by actually buying a device and tearing it down there the Kirin 9000s chipset that's in the Mate 60 Pro is being manufactured by SM SM I see which is a Shanghai based fabrication firm on a 7 nanometer process So that's a few years behind the current cutting edge earlier today Apple announced their a 17 pro in their iPhone 15 series and that's manufactured on a 3 nanometer process And I did promise you that I would bring up I was gonna say Let's look at the timecode of the show and how quickly Michelle's run of Apple I did I did say I would bring it up. So yeah Apple's at 3 nanometers, which is the cutting edge the absolute cutting edge technology right now That's manufactured that's fabricated by TSMC or the Taiwan semiconductor firm But Huawei is not allowed to work with TSMC because of the heavy US restrictions put on them by the US government So the fact that Huawei was able to manufacture They were able to get this chip manufactured on a 7 nanometer process is Leaving a lot of annual stunned because they weren't expecting Huawei to achieve this for years to come This is like years further than anyone expected them to achieve So like the fact they were able to get this hardware out That's somewhat competitive like the the chipset CPU and the GPU is pretty much a little bit in between The snapdragon 888 and the snapdragon 8 gen 1 So they're not that far behind in terms of like performance But the fact that they have a 5g capable device on a 7 nanometer chip with Somewhat comparable performance has a lot of people thinking maybe China is gonna be a major player in the chip making industry Very soon But we don't know one thing we don't know is how if they're able to manufacture this at scale yet Like they only sold we don't know how many what made 60 pros It's sold out online, but you don't know if they have only had like a thousand for sale, right? So that means be seen still a lot of questions that a lot of intrigue Behind so this is the beginning of a technology. I got the Christie mystery, huh? I know, right? Where sure locker you need exactly the technology Sherlock, right? All right, well, we'll see what comes of that we'll keep an eye on that story as well That'll be developing Because I know when those sanctions happen. We're like, oh geez what is this gonna do to their business and and you know And then we all we often talk about oh, this one's only available in China This one's only available, you know far east and and you know unlocking unlocking the US market It's got to be a priority for some of those because that's where a lot of the businesses Should be interesting All right, so remember last week when Android 14 didn't launch Yeah, I I wrote in my nuth run well So we'll generally see more Franco Francisco Franco was still dead and Android 14 is still in beta That's that's how old we are. I'm using that joke, but I love that joke. So anyway at least were you prepared for Android 14 last week? Were you all ready for me? I mean, I was trying to get my team prepared. I'm like look this thing is coming Have you tested the app against it yet? I got a little bit longer because guess what and your 14 beta 5.3 went out I actually got this on my phone before I read the article Oh Okay Great, um, and it is chock full of fixes I'm a lot of them are very specific to the pixel fold and pixel tablet Which honestly, I think kind of just generate some developer empathy for me. It's so funny We've been talking for years about how Google is trying to get us to like, you know Accommodate and be optimized for large screens But apparently, you know, it's real hard because even Google with their tablet and their folder having to Continue to roll out a lot of very specific fixes, but there are some things that are kind of interesting performance stability fixes Issues that could cause call or carrier service interruptions Jargon jargon jargon This is an interesting piece of jargon fixed issues with surface flinger that was causing a loss and system performance Just surface flinger is basically a system component an Android component that determines what gets drawn on the screen And I was like, what did you all do to surface flinger? Like that thing's been around forever So and then just various certain things and I mean, it's all jargon, but it's really important So it just seems to be the parade that just doesn't end here with a beta 5.0 Something something something's fixing a whole bunch of stuff. Yeah when just like just a quick fit The one that you brought up the service finger bug. Yeah I from what I know that's actually way more significant of a bug than the changelog makes it out to be Oh, I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it That's from what I hear may have been the reason behind why Android 14 didn't launch. Okay.  It literally is like, hey What is going to be on the screen? In a very very low level way so I put that out there because I know surface flinger is not going to really resonate with people But it's kind of a little shocking that that that that's to see this term in the release notes for sure Michelle like, huh That's a that's a biggie. It's almost like I'm trying to think of like analogy. Like it would be like, I don't know I'm sorry. I can't think of a good analogy right now Like your spark like I don't know spark plugs. It's all of a sudden stop working in your cars or something You don't seem just like what like I thought we had this dealt with but the radiator the The transmission just stopped working you got to make calls right the thing is the thing just makes calls I don't know. I just think I just think it's fascinating. I don't think we've seen a version of Android in many years if not ever and when Anise keep me honest here that like was on the exit ramp and then Had problems this close to the launch. I mean like it's far. It's cool. You know like I I mean have any of the betas gone this deep into point releases Like I feel like this is like the second time now where they had to scramble to get a fix out late in the game Yeah, and Android police in there right up on this kind of harken back to back in February when they release that timeline and the platform stability releases were scheduled for June July What month is it now? So yeah, I don't remember the last time it really feels like the last couple years has been like Oh, he's surprised. Here's your release like kind of earlier kind of unexpected and now it's just like Still not here. So I I don't I yeah, it's interesting to me. I don't know Michelle Maybe you have more like specific insights about Well to be fair Android 12 was also quite late Android 12 it launched AOSP and I believe October 4th and then on pixels on October 19th of 2020 But that was coordinated with the with the hardware launch. That was how coordinated with the hardware launch I felt like I felt like that was like They bundled that where it was like it was a big double rollout, right if memory serves They rolled out a lot of the same day with the launch of the of pixel 6, right? But the stores was still was still a lot Rolled out a couple of weeks before 12. Okay. I'm a few weeks after Yep, I miss 12. Oh So nice. You said you're checking with your team to see if they're ready Like is this repeat like what does it take at a major like you're at a major major company with heat with tons of users You know and like when the Android version comes out like how far ahead do you guys start working to make sure? You're you're up to speed. I mean, this is sad, but it's like as soon as the iOS people start talking about the new version I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right Be a new Android version to what do we need to do for that? You know like make sure we're getting prepared at least have someone just put the app on that and just like see what happens Like that's the very first thing just like run it and see if anything breaks That's the default and then from there. I'm like, okay now we can be more strategic now You can turn on each thing one by one go to the compatibility screen, you know, there's a process There's a known process for dealing with these upgrades But definitely the default is always like just install it and see what happens see what happens right and see what broke Yep. Yep. I can't imagine. It seems very stressful today. I don't know All right, well, we'll cross our fingers for October it'll see if it'll be ready for launch or if we get 5.4 soon, so Actually, I do I do have one question for you and it's kind of relevant to this whole discussion Do you feel You know when you when you guys are working on updating your app to be compatible with new Android versions Do you feel pressure from Google like in because every year they're updating their target API requirements, right? Yep, and like just a couple of weeks ago on August 31st They required that every app has a target Android 13 later. Yep. Yep. Do you feel pressure like to do this? Like is this causing a lot of pressure with you feel pressure because like all of the engineers who have access to the play console Like they're also getting alerts So like, you know, I have so many other things I'm juggling but then it'll be like three different engineers are like We're getting an alert from Google, you know, we have to upgrade the target SDK. I'm like, okay Upgrade it like, you know, do it. What's what's gonna happen? It's like, oh, by the way now that with the notification permission We're not telling anyone special reason why they should give us the permission. I'm like, all right. We'll get to it You know, there's like always so many things happening But I feel I feel like the engineers feel more pressure than probably like I Would because I'm like, okay, that's just it's something that needs to be done. It's just another ticket Yeah, it's just another thing. Yeah, it's gonna happen again next year. It's there's no need to panic I appreciate by the way, I appreciate the attitude and he's not all managers or you know, directors are as chill about it as Anise Some people get super excited also the play console notifications can be scary Especially if you're not used to them a lot of red flags a lot of warning signs a lot of like things that you don't quite understand What is wrong? Why why are you like yelling at me right now? so I just give the news prop because that's that's a that's the best attitude especially with the way things are with Android and the way All the kind of place you have to keep spinning in the air that's like kind of the right way to do it just be chill and Yeah, just figure figure shit out. I mean most things are reversible, right? I mean is it that's that's always the thing I'm asking people like, okay Do the thing that gives you the most options. Yeah, that's almost like the default for life really just do the thing that gives you The most options don't like black is up to a corner. So This is my philosophy the stress. I can't I'm glad I got out of product management. It's just Yeah Well lots going on in the world, but we got one more news story because every week our loyal patrons on patreon.com slash Android faithful Get to vote and pick a story for us to talk about here on the show And this week we had a good mix of interesting stories The winner though was the fact that Google killed the playing movies app on Android TV and we'll get into that to a second But the losers Were Samsung's recent filing showing faith in the foldable market And the fact that the pixel watch 2 was gonna require a newer Android version They're not really losers But the most amount of interest was in and around that Google story and yeah, this actually happened Last week I feel like right after we did that yeah right after we did the show last week Or it might have been in the day we record the show. I forget time has no meaning anymore But basically Google killed the play movies and TV app on Android TV Which you know had a lot of people scratching their head to be honest I didn't think this was all that interesting because I didn't think it was surprising because it felt like this was the direction things were going in with Google TV and as they were making Search the Google TV search more of a portal to other services and things like that I wasn't surprised by this, but were you guys surprised by it or you know what you know a little since I Let myself start buying stuff on Google TV like two three years ago and it actually is my preferred place to buy things. I don't know why I don't have a good reason y'all I just picked one. Oh Just picked one. I picked I chose poorly But no, I mean you're right Ron It's like it's it's kind of like that thing with Google right where You just you kind of think they have a thing and then they start kind of diversifying like all the different products And what is it the phrase you always say left hand doesn't know what right hand is doing? I I literally was just talking about that in a meeting at work about Google And and and how there are multiple left hands not knowing what the multiple right hands are doing Yeah And and so I guess one I mean we and we've had so many like stories and and and like feedback from over the years of This kind of thing happened to other other spots like smart can smart connected things other products And I'm not surprised, but why did I pick Google play? But no it makes sense. Like at some point they need to kind of bring everything back together and so let her With the opposite of diversify Centralize consolidate there you go consolidate. Yeah, exactly. So we'll see I need to use Google to use Android TV You know any any sort of I don't so but I also like actively avoid it not buying it Like I don't want to buy anything from like Google books or like only apps. That's it Because I had a sneaky suspicion this could happen like I I'm not super surprised because I feel like Unfortunately Apple Really got in there early with Apple TV and everyone buying things there that I'm like No one's gonna buy. Okay. No one except when it's gonna buy Too funny Oh well, so poor one out for I don't have a soundboard or sound effects But if I did I would play the funeral music that I gotta load that in I actually do have a soundboard I just need to load in the sound effects, but we would play the the taps the support went out for Google play TV and movies on Android TV the apps still exist though in other places. It's just on Android TV. So Too funny. All right, cool. All right. Well, that's gonna wrap up the news and let's dive right into hardware Because as we all know What is the date Michelle keep me on and what is the what is the pixel launch date again? It's it's October 4th or 4th. Yes, correct, right cuz I have I can't go Anyway, yeah, sadly the the dang pixel launch event is happening in New York in my backyard on the one day I cannot attend so I was very frustrated about that But we're starting to see more and more kind of stuff both from leaks or sometimes Google just says hey We're gonna show you what we're gonna show and this time around They showed off the full pixel watch to design via a sneak peek video and so, you know those you Kind of keep in track pixel watch was announced last year. I tried it and returned it So I'm very curious about the pixel watch to and how that will exist but Google Got ahead of the of the speculation and just gave us a sneak peek of what to expect And honestly it looked very very similar. I don't know what it what did you all think of the pixel watch to? Yeah visually you can't really tell a difference there were two interesting tidbits You could see from the back of the device it had an etching that said IP68 So that indicates that I have an IP68 water and dust resistance rating the previous generation pixel watch only had Didn't have an IP rating formal operating at all. It just said five atmospheres of water resistance So that's one upgrade. The other upgrade is that it says on the back EDA Which we're assuming stands for electrodermal activity sensor, which is what the Fitbit devices used to basically measure your stress levels Yeah, it's kind of an increasingly Increasingly available feature on all sorts of like fitness trackers like I use whoop whoop now is loving to tell me how stressed I am I think the galaxy watch six classic Which I still haven't used very widely Because I do kettle bells and you cannot swing kettle bells in the back of your wrist while wearing a watch I had to figure that out also, you know wanted to tell me how stressed I am So it makes a lot of sense for the for the pixel to also kind of fall in line with that just to meet the standard So Anise you said you got a pixel watch, right? Yeah, I have a pixel watch thumbs up Do you like it? No, I like it. I like it. I am What I'll say is I looked at it closely You know, I got tried to look at the pictures of the pixel too, and I'm like Yeah, it looks exactly the same And yeah, I don't really want you to tell me when I'm stressed out So I'm like, yeah, I might just stick with this one Yeah, I mean whether whether you feel this the stress to upgrade or not I my big and I've everyone watching and listening to the shows tired me talking about it But my big complaint about the pixel watch when I got it at launch last year was the lack of a quality podcast app Because I wanted to take it to go running. I didn't want to bring my phone to go running anymore And the entire experience was just painful Now that pocket casts has a wear OS app. Maybe I'll jump in to the pixel to again Maybe I don't know. We'll see I gotta see but um, I don't know. I just don't like wearing watches I don't really yeah, so and this might be hard for you to answer and feel free to ignore But like have you all ever like looked into the watch as a platform being an Android device and like I mean Does having all these new watch options and having google put their money behind a watch is that kind of Sway you or move you at all to think about hey, maybe we might have a wear OS opportunity here um I just feel like there should be basic things on the app on the watch Like I'm not I don't like try to type long messages. Yeah, it's just like hey, babe. Do you want fries and ice cream? Yes You know like It's just wanted to be like super simple. Um, so I feel like I'd have to think of a really compelling Wear experience Where I'd be like, oh, yeah, this one. This is great. I mean I I have a nerdy watch face That's like a terminal So it looks like code and stuff, which is so cool. So like I I like that It's like something kind of nerdy where I'm like, oh, come on little watch face Well, what's interesting was interesting the use case that you said about responses and at least communication with the device We've made fun of google messages for the ai insertion of like text message responses But like that's a practical application where like if the ai can interpret any text message with a straight question And interpret what your answer might be and it's a single tap to be like i'm running late be right there Yes, let's do it, you know, like whatever that could be a cool application You know, so we'll see how much they push the ai aspect You know like they did at io this best year at the announcement. So and actually there's one more thing. I remember um When I was actively developing I made a wear Aware app combination thing so I could know why I was stuck in traffic Oh, nice. So like measuring like traffic and getting like, well, it was like you uh, yahu traffic api And then I would like click the button And it would like read the one sentence, which was like likely why I was in traffic. Nice Or like something like that.  And yeah, great. That's a very convenient thing But it has to be something so like just one tap that for for watch acts Yeah, because you've got limited real estate, right? So it makes sense. Yeah, it's it's it's challenging enough to come up with a good user experience on a regular phone or a tablet actually even on tablets with large screens So it's funny because I feel like google very often is like, hey, are you all dealing with anything with whereos? and we're just like I'm I'm I'm making confused faces for our audio stream. But but that's the thing though It's like we don't we don't need like not bloatware, but you know, like kind of uh, non essential or over elaborate experiences But there's only so many like very simple necessary like watch like wrist on my wrist necessary experiences that you can have so Oh, well Keep asking us google. Well, that's not the only tip of the hat possibly for the event. Michelle. What's this next one? So earlier this week google released the second and or 14 beta for tv's and while I was digging through it I found a Image or is actually a video within the build that looks like what could be the upcoming remote for the next chromecast with google tv So This remote has a longer shape with more buttons on it But more importantly on the bottom right it has a star button Which internally seems to be called on the magic button that might be remappable It might let you want your favorite app or change the the device input So I included some screenshots of what the ui looks like for mapping a shortcut in android tv 14 As you can see you can choose a favorite app or choose to open the device input screen And uh, can I interrupt for a moment? Yeah, what is going on with that youtube icon by the way? So on the screenshot it says create a shortcut here for your favorite app And there's an app called cast moderator that's got the chromecast a little magic one icon Then it's got the very long word mark of youtube music with the youtube record and then it has What i'm assuming is youtube right michelle. This is youtube. I think that's I think that's the third party Oh, it's a third party. Okay. I had to I think I installed that on the emulator. I don't remember why This is a while ago. So it's not actually youtube. Okay. Good. No, it's not actually youtube. Okay. Sorry to carry on then So, yeah, this remote Looks quite similar in design to the current chromecast with google tp remote I included a photo if you're listening if you're watching the video of my chromecast hd remote Um, that is the same like oblong shape with that rounded circular button on the top Um, it has this the new one actually has four buttons on the left and on the right It also has one Small round button a longer oblong button, which could be the new volume walker right now The chromecast remote has a volume rocker on the right side. I hate the volume rocker on the right side. I hate it Yeah, so that could be the new placement It could be on the front of the device instead of on the side We don't know for sure because none of the buttons are labeled. It's just an outline Uh, but we'll have to wait and see like there are rumors that google is working on a new chromecast They were published earlier this year by nine to five google and this Outline in the android tv 14 beta lens further credence to that rumor So the question is the the last version of chromecast had a back button It obviously had the d-pad at the top and had a back button the the assistant button home button mute And then youtube and netflix So Who wants to take money on how many of these round buttons are disney plus? You know or max. Oh, no, we need more buttons Who's paying for the direct who wants the button the button real estate deal with google? To get the rap on there, right? Do you think they'd ever i mean Do you think they would ever make it customizable because there are too many streaming surfaces period Like i i i i feel like the thing that i loved about this is the simplicity and which is what what generally chromecast is great at You just plug and play cast and that's it. So i feel like adding A lot of buttons that you i mean like adding customization might be a little bit anti the spirit of it in my opinion, but I don't like yeah, is it a witting war? Is it like, you know chromecast? Thunderdome Whoever pays most i'm pretty sure netflix actually requires it like if you bundle They force you to have the buttons. That's why every every tv remote has a netflix button. And why do you think they have amazon prime?  I don't think that will be Yeah, that'll be interesting But netflix i have heard that too and like and then goes to their subscriber numbers, right? I mean we i mean you've seen it like roku has it like the Yeah, the the hard coded button drives me bananas because like i have netflix honestly I barely use it. It's it's probably like like maybe my fourth or fifth most use streaming service Um, so i just never it's just a wasted button for me. So no, it's really fair our nvidia shield remote has one too You or sorry netflix button. So no i'll get on netflix. So all right Well, it wouldn't be a show without talks and foldables. Oh, yeah Yeah, so we we got some fun stuff for y'all this week. Um, actually so we talked about the techno phantom ultimate last week Which was it was the patron pick last week. There was patron pick last week So last week's patron pick was talking about techno, which is a smart a chinese smartphone company that focuses Not on markets that we are that we in on this particular Streamyard right now are on but they do focus on the african market middle east southeast asia south asia latin america eastern european markets and the concept that we discussed last week was a rollable of course, but There they don't just do concepts. Um, if we if you actually wanted to pick up, you know A proper passport slash book style foldable. They did release one earlier this year the phantom v fold Now we talk a lot on this show about foldables But inevitably we also complain about how dang expensive they are And you know the search or the hope for you know cheaper and cheaper foldables to make these kind of devices accessible To more people and i mean unsurprisingly for techno, which is a company that is focusing on emerging markets and you know Markets that aren't the eu and that aren't the us their phantom v fold was actually a Roughly $1,100 usd, which is still expensive as phone But compared to the $1,800 that we are very used to for the sam songs and the pixels and the other foldables that we have People here You know that's it's starting to kind of show That you can make a foldable for cheaper and if you go if you're really interested in this device Which again if you're in the us you cannot get but if you want to kind of Actually hear about a very decent foldable that is not you know almost $2,000 A nine to five google has a really good hands-on look on it. Just basically They like it. Um, there are I mean There are some issues with software, you know, maybe it's a bit heavier It's not going to be as light as the honor magic v2 that we talked about but you can have apparently a good Book style foldable that isn't quite $2,000 1100 dollars um And then yeah, so on top of that if you wanted a flip phone Techno is also going to get into that as well And they basically are set to host a september 22nd event from singapore where they have already said they're going to start I forgot how they worded it, but they're going to join the flip side And yeah, they just kind of restated a commitment to exploring new form factors And redefining the style and functionality of flip phones were passionate fashionable and forward-looking audiences Okay, so techno says flip in style So if you're interested in the world of foldables and flipables check out What's coming from techno is it too much? My favorite thing about foldables is all the word play Everybody's scrambling to do with using different uses of the words flips and folds and things like that So I love that I love that we've never heard of techno before last week And now they're like rollable foldable flip like they're on it, which is fantastic. Yeah And and especially the the markets they're targeting as well, you know, like we It's hard to on the show not to just be very kind of like eu US centric and and of course also china centric because china also has an amazing market Which is just made all the more enticing because we can't get phones from there normally But it's nice to see like another company that is targeting like other markets and really trying to like cater to these markets and make more accessible phones Yeah, I agree. I was developing for techno's primarily at my last job because remember I was Zola electric. Yeah, and we were doing solar energy in africa And so I was responsible for the android app there And they were like look we're sending you a techno You have to make sure the app works on a techno Um, so I was like, oh techno is making foldables. Wow. That's really cool. Like That's I'm just super impressed. Honestly, but that's sorry. Go ahead. No, I have to do it No, I just I love that about android y'all like that's it's just That's the cool thing about android still is that we we can serve all markets and that there are places for things and You know, again, not to be too us you focus, but that's really cool. And yes, anise worked at a really awesome company Working on energy in africa and that I love that how that came around Just like loop back around. Okay. Um, so anise. I'm curious. What do you what do you think of foldables? So as you know, like, you know is Pain in the butt to develop for the future of the of the platform. What do you what do you think? I At first I was super skeptical. I'll be honest. I was super skeptical Then when I had a photo bowl in my hands I'm like, hmm I could see how someone might like this. It's like a tablet, but not Um and now that my daughter with her motorola Flip that she has She's just like so happy with it. Like I don't know She's like so happy with it even though she has an iphone So to me that means like there's just this I don't know. There's this shift where where there's something really, um Fun fun about the flip phones Like we had flip phones and like we would be embarrassed You know when the real phones came the smartphones came out and you still had a flip phone and you were kind of like And now like flip phones are back But I love that too because I think a lot like especially like a lot of skepticism about flip phones can be like Oh, well, y'all are just being nostalgic for you know, the old phone sand But you're 14 year old daughter.  So I just make it a comeback Foldable's drive joy. There it is right there Well, speaking of that we couldn't we could not we could not so so so We were talking about concepts. We talked about the honor v purse last week, which was a foldable phone which Which had two You know hooks on where you could actually attach a chain so that you could basically wear this foldable phone like a purse and what was even more they even had I know I Video stream you video stream watchers were very like delighted by the face that I need to meet as I'm re-describing This concept phone right now So and and you could change the wallpaper to have it have a different texture So it looked like, you know, you were holding a handbag with like maybe a quilted texture Or maybe this or maybe like charm bracelets So we were we were like having a good time discussing this pie in the sky concept phone Well, guess what y'all it is not a concept phone. It is a production phone It's happening. It's happening this this this honor v purse Which again you can put a chain on and wear like a purse across your shoulder and make sure you know You hold on to it tight in case anybody runs by trying to steal your expensive foldable phone Will be debuting in september 19th So the question is when are you gonna get one? I don't know how it's an honor phone, but we'll try We should call Mateo. Mateo will know we got him on the show too Buddy, please I don't know so I don't know So we spent a lot of time making making fun of it a little bit and maybe I don't know We could pull the renders for anise, but anise reaction No No It is not a purse. It is a phone with a chain No We said that last week you cannot put anything in this It is it's not yeah, it doesn't actually hold anything I mean, although like I said like it doesn't hold you I think on the show last week I said it doesn't hold your your uh your id but You've google wallet. You've got a lot of your credit cards. You have other id's like it comes close to it So, um, is it waterproof? One what if you put it under your underarm and you're like running To break your phone Or just like I mean I bump my person to walls and like, you know subway chairs or my car door or the I I don't know But at the same time, I don't know what like in terms of like expression and fashion Which is why I think we kind of try to take it last week Could you see maybe you know a younger person like your daughter Seeing some interest in this or is it just too impractical now? I think it's so impractical Yeah, and like even just how would you even hold it to try to show it off? It's just super weird I might as well just like put on a plastic bag and be like, oh look at my fashion, you know, it's so weird What I what I find really weird is how they marketed this thing at ifa. They called it a concept phone You don't go from a concept phone to launching this in retail just two weeks later I really had planned this from the beginning. Yeah, I I'm with you michelle I feel like they were testing the waters and they plant they they were hoping it would have a positive reaction I don't know what would happen if it didn't have a positive reaction or didn't have any reaction And then they're like, well, we don't release it. What are they gonna do with that? But like, I agree with you I think they had it. This was this was planned So, I mean, is it like no attention is bad attention. No news is sweet. No Sorry, what what's the phrase? There's no such thing as bad publicity. So hey people are talking about it I don't know. I I kind of wondered do they have any kind of like partners with any kind of like local or international like fashion You know, I mean like because that's that's I don't know Anyway, we'll be able to look at one at least in photos for reels or if I'm gonna work on getting you getting I I if you can get me one, I'll wear it around for a week That's not as long. It'll probably last before I bump into something but just when you break the screen All right All right, cool. We are we're running long So we want to we do have a bunch of stories and apps that we wanted to get to Which everyone who listens or watches the show or knows us knows that messaging is a hot button topic And me personally as a whatsapp user took a lot of notice as whatsapp Have you noticed whatsapp's been in the news a lot recently a whole ton, right? Like like yeah, like they've been rolling out features or talk about the rolling out features and things like that But this one is the biggie and tying back to our political topic at the top of the show So basically the eu has identified whatsapp as a gatekeeper in messaging and is giving it a few months to allow interoperability with other messaging apps Basically the eu's digital markets app is pushing for fair competition and give consumers options and This is you know seems to be okay because whatsapp's already been working on interoperability with other apps But it is fascinating to see the concept of gatekeeper Designation, you know and and this whole you know and we're looking on our video Uh view to view is a slide for a presentation from the european Commission which summarizes the 22 gatekeeper services by the eu And they give you a sense of you know in the ads market is google amazon and meta or the gatekeepers of ads And browsers. It's chrome and safari I feel bad for anybody working on another browser other than chrome and safari to be like, well, what's the point then? You know, but like search, you know, we were talking earlier the top of the show as far as the eu concerned There's only one player in search and it's google right when it comes to messaging They identify whatsapp and messenger, but I thought was interesting that they don't flag I message yeah, yeah, which is they actually Apple actually said we don't have enough active users in europe to qualify. There it is They clearly want to easel we still their way out of these They're happy to give their user their user numbers for you for that, right? So um, so either way either way It looks like interoperability with whatsapp is coming On top of like other functionality stuff like that. It looks like whatsapp is going to be very Very different in the upcoming months or you know, at least more open to the world So which is probably a good thing But the messaging doesn't stop there Because google is going to get in the game too Not so much about interoperability But multi device support one of the things that I like about whatsapp is that i'm able to log into it via different devices Whereas google messages Is tied to your phone although fun fact that someone wrote into our email I didn't share with it, but I feel I feel like we should I should dig up to see who wrote in about that It might have been chuck. Um, yeah, I think it was chuck ackerman who wrote in about it You can access google messages via the browser if you if you go to which I use I can't live without I do it all the time. Yeah me too. Yeah. Yep. Um, it's and I have it in shifts I don't even know what the url is I gotta look at what but isn't like webbed up messages or Yeah, is it just messages.google.com for my bed messages I'm sorry. This is the worst the worst podcasting thing ever is watching people google things I'm listening it's messages.com messages.com slash web Oh, and that's where you can scan a qr code and then pair your browser to your phone But now they're preparing multi device support that will allow you to have another phone or a tablet and be able to access your messages Um, which is fantastic. So there's actually an update. It's not, uh, it's it's more restricted than you thought Of course So what it's actually what it's actually likely going to be for is that right now if you pixel tablet For example, and you try to link your tablet to your phone through messages Basically, you load the progressive web app version of messages on your tablet And you scan the qr code to link your phone and your tablet Two together, but this likely will skip that process of scanning the qr code. Don't just automatically Uh pair the two devices together using the same google account So it's likely just improving that flow other than which is fine allowing you to have two different phones together But yeah, it's it's it's better than before but it's not true. What's that like multi there? Like if I have my my, um, Lenovo tablet It's not going to work as as great as on my pixel tablet, right? Is that the case? Is it lock into the pixel platform or is it? I think right now it's just right now like it's kind of awkward to actually Move between devices because you got to scan the qr code and like use the web interface to actually Sink those messages. So all right. Well either way lots of movement and messaging So, um, and in order to use messages, what's the handy app use to type into messages? It's gboard It's gboard and guess what we are here to talk about today is uh, get your drink cards ready ai and ai in your gboard so Google already has this tool called proofread which is of course one of its many ai tools And they probably showed it off a bit at io this year, but it's it's more or less Grammarly for workspaces or rather just to be specific It's a spelling and grammar and also writing style, you know, concision active voice all that kind of stuff So proofread actually will now be available through gboard, of course Not quite as like expansive and again like grammarly like with a full interface as in workspaces But what happens is In if you have gboard beta version 13.4 you'll get, you know The proofread that is available there, which again does spelling and grammar errors and also provides Proposed corrections as well as ways to quickly apply them So what happens is and I just did this today Is if you have the beta version of gboard in the toolbar, which is available above the keyboard You will see the proof read proof proofread logo or you might have to go and change it Which is at a capital a with a check mark on the bottom right And basically you do have to activate proofread and there's like a long Disclosure message where you can say no thanks or go ahead ai me and when you do What happens is is that as you're typing you can manually invoke proofread via the button But once it's activated sometimes proofread will actually proactively read text Once you're done typing and then make suggestions Which you can apply using fix it And yeah, there you go Just ai and it does do not more than just spelling and grammar It does kind of make like you know voicing and wording suggestions Now there's a big huge caveat to this and that the way that proofread works server side so it takes your text Sends it off to a google service Runs a little ai on it and comes back so Obviously if you are a person who wants to keep your data your text and your messages out of google's hands This is not that great of an experience also Question it's questionable about you know like offline support and stuff like that so cool ai But then you're sending your text to google so your mileage might very greatly on that but if you're interested I once again fall back on my defense of that. Nothing. I'm saying is of any interest so you know Oh, I activated it. So I already I already sank in I activated it then read the rest of there But I understand people might people might not want to do that. Yeah, um, yeah, we had again like yeah Anise would you would you would you use this serve? No, I wouldn't because like when I if I'm texting someone I keep it short and if I spell things wrong I don't care and and I don't I don't want to have a long exchange back and forth I'm just like k. Thanks. Bye Thumbs up moving on. Yeah, I should know you're gonna say k thx I do similar. I don't use auto correct I'll just keep trying to type a thing until I get it right So if I misspell like done to my husband when he asked me if I took like the trash out If I misspell it, I'll just keep typing until I get it right and sometimes there's like five or six or seven Misspellings because I can't But yes, I probably will turn this off just because It's but anyway And then our last story, I feel like we need a new drinking game right michelle. Yeah Yep stories stories have been affected another product this time the google play store So if you haven't if you aren't familiar google runs this youtube series called the play report which basically features various content creators and influencers and you know Some other google employees and stuff like that who basically talk about the hottest apps and games on the google play store And now they're bringing that in beta to some users front and center in the google play store So while you're browsing the play store, you'll see this these stories. I mean, I think you know what stories are They're basically every app nowadays Yeah, yeah, short form video content vertical short form videos And I don't know why they just keep going in every single app and there's nothing stopping it It's 2023. You think this trend is already would have already died down, but nope Unless you've got every app unless you've got vertical video in your app. You're not truly an app So crazy because like the When you have stories on a social media app Usually you'll have it because you you have a social media following network You specifically assigned up for certain creators. So yeah, you want to see their content. I'm sorry. I'm Getting older not old getting older So I don't know who at least half of these folks are so it doesn't really You know affect me in like, okay, right? Here's here's some marketing that I don't see I don't understand it is basically what I'm trying to say. I don't get it Yeah, this is like the one case where I'm on the other side Where I've watched the video and I was like Jackie No, my god They got Jackie to do a video for them and then I'm like, what is this app? She's talking about wow I've heard this app and I'm actually like goes to the play store and look at the app I'm like, I've been influenced. I've officially been Of watching this But I think it's a clever way to expose that these people's followers To new apps they would they would have never thought of and I I personally feel like there's hundreds of apps on the play store that I potentially would like But I have I have no way of knowing about them That is fair. That's it's it's we're kind of inundated or this is 2023. We there's way too many apps That's very very there way too many apps but also I do feel as if and I feel like google is is And google can be guilty of this is far too much of reliance on influencers and content creators in that way I think it's great. I think I definitely support people doing it and content creators are fantastic But like is such a lean to on it I think they overestimate the amount of the audience that actually Know the unease in your situation who recognize the person and like want to listen to it And I think to the majority users. This is just noise. So But who knows, you know, good for them. All right All right. Well, that's gonna wrap it up for our stories. We do have a couple emails in east Do you still have a couple of minutes? Can you hang with us or yeah, of course? Awesome. All right Well, so, uh, we only got two emails. So, uh, when won't you take it away for the first one? Yeah, so our first email is from Brandon. Um, so Brandon says I'm a new ish listener I had listened to your episode where you guys discussed the app beeper This app was made for people like me. He's probably 10 different communication apps in the emails throughout the day I dropped everything to download it immediately. I am on the waiting list and very high up on it I was wondering if there were any developments on Or was if there was any developments on a full public rollout How many people they're accepting at a time or any information at all really you're doing god's work, Brandon Um, well first off we're doing we're doing god's work apparently, which is awesome. Thank you, Brandon Never been told that before but that's amazing. Um, yeah, so beeper actually is pretty good about releasing, you know, kind of state of the app reports Um, they had their state of the app for spring 2023. They talk about, you know, like The wait list and you know, like kind of like some features they're working on Um, and their roadmap, of course, they did have a hot beeper summer Um, yeah, which, you know, is there I wouldn't put mid-somar as like the Header image for that because that has different implications But yeah, no, um, I give a lot of credit to beeper for, you know, at least periodically putting out reports Um, but so if you're curious go to blog dot beeper dot com and see what they have, you know, periodically what they say have um, the Hot beeper summer did say that we are on track to hit quote waitless zero in a matter of weeks Um, and that they say they will open door soon. So by the way, just this morning 95 google uh google posted, um, I think I think brendan you invoked this by your email and having it kind of This week for us, but basically 95 google is giving away invites for beeper So if you just cannot wait you you are not on a high on the wait list like brendan and you just want to get You some beeper right now, um, you can sign up for 95 95 google's newsletter and you might be able to get some beeper invites that way They have about 500 invites to give away And they will be first a first come first serve, but hey Um, hopefully you can get on that. Yeah, so happy tuesday. Happy andrew faithful day I will I will say also, um, remember brendan bigly was on the show. He was on talking about beeper He jumped the wait list by just going on twitter and saying hey beeper I want to get get on it They're like sure, we'll set you up like they responded to him So if you didn't get a nine to five google and you don't go very soon because they're close to getting to wait list zero Try hitting them up on twitter and see if they'll respond and see if they'll just get you on Um, that would be cool. They seem pretty cool folks. So, uh, I'm excited about that. Uh, have any of y'all tried it out yet? I haven't and purely I got I was on the wait list and I got invited So I actually have it in right i'm sitting on but like The time to do it is like, you know, like that that that's what's what's been the barrier entry for me Yeah, um, I feel overwhelmed by the work that would be involved in it. So I I don't know how like involved how much work you have to do set it up I just yeah, I haven't had time to actually sit down and do it. Yeah, so um, actually, uh, Brennan bigly did put like a code for some of us to you know, get beeper invites and I might have Hosts of lids used one Snagged it. So I just downloaded on this little computer like literally the computer that I'm I'm I'm using so I just haven't set it up But I'm fun employed now. So who knows maybe that might get set up after this week. You got more time on your hands It's true. It's true. I'm going to and I'll report back. So thank you, Brennan So we got one last email, um, and this comes from matt bat who writes in and says I would like to have two ringtones one for callers in my contacts and one for callers not in my contacts After searching for a while on the web, I couldn't find a good answer One way to make all of your current contacts as a group and give that group a ringtone But as soon as you add a contact, it's broken. Am I missing something simple? Is there some easy way to do this? I just want to hear who are you by the who when someone calls me about extending my car's warranty Love the new show side matt bat and matt. I feel like this is a question We've gotten over the years on all that android and now you're the first person to ask it here on android faithful Uh, the short answer is there is no way to do what you want to do in android Um, you did identify and you did find um, the the hack there's actually two hacks of what you could do one is um, you could uh, you You absolutely can identify a ringtone for known contacts and you do that simply by going into your contacts app Find the contact open the info menu hit the three dot menu and then tap set ringtone And then you could pick a custom tone from the sounds or upload whatever sound you want So when michelle calls me I can have it play one song versus when playing another song or whatnot You also can group all of your contacts and have that ringtone be for those groups But you've identified the problem as soon as you add new contact it all breaks. You need to do it um The so you've got two options You can give a ringtone to every contact in your phone and then therefore your default ringtone is the unknown caller I have over 500 contacts in my phone. I I going back to beeper. I wouldn't have the time to do that um But I did dig back into our archives and sure enough there is a ancient app called group ringtone light Um, which I think was oh my goodness. Yeah You're actually going to say it's ancient. Yeah last updated on 2015 Um, but it does work. It still works. Um, and it's still out there Uh, people were reviewing it as soon as 2019 and 2022, right? So it's still out there. Um, and basically the big thing about this is that it allows you to Set a ringtone for an unknown caller So there's one one caveat to that ron. Uh, unfortunately because of google play's recent changes You if you haven't installed this app already, you won't be able to install it anymore from google play Yeah, there is the problem. You're gonna have to sideload the app most likely Um, they also have a paid version of the app, uh called group ringtone Which I don't know if that has been updated sooner. Yeah 2015 also. Yeah, it's the same problem there. So, um, Wah wah. Well, there you go. That's a bit. This is like pre hollow y'all. This is like version Oh, yeah, these screenshots are just like these are just look at it. I miss it. So I like how tiny that screen is too Look at the I know look at the beveling and the the shading right now. I like the gradients Um, but clearly functionally it is it is michelle. It's something that um It's something that it can be done and maybe if there's a promising app developer out there You want to take up the challenge? Uh, people need that. So yeah All right, and that brings us to the end of the show anise. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. You are the best It's awesome. Um, I made it So if people want to find you after discovering on the show, where can they find you online? What what uh, what would you like to plug? Let us know. So, uh, yeah, find me brown girl dev You can find me online Twitter slash x I guess um I'm there So, yeah Go ahead and connect you want to spell that out for for our readers who are listening to the podcast because it's not You are right and if you're listening to this podcast You can It's b r w in g r l d e v Thank you so much. Awesome Well, thank you for joining us. You're awesome. And we hope you'll come back. Uh, because you're fantastic. Absolutely. We love it Awesome. All right, cool. So michelle, you've got a new cover image on your patreon. I see Yep, finally the time to spruce up the patreon page So, uh, if you want to you know, learn about what's new and coming into android I have a lot of things planned you can subscribe to me on patreon it's just a minimum three dollars a month and uh, yeah if you want to share your support and also join my discord And you know get priority responses to questions and etc. You can go subscribe to me there And of course also subscribe to android faithful to show support for this show Ah, thank you, michelle Excellent. All right, when uh, let us know what's going on in your world. Yeah. Well, actually, um next week Or not next week in two days. I'm giving a talk at droid con new york city because that's what I do And i'm an android dev I go to conferences occasionally And talk and get to meet and be friends with wonderful people like anise at least, you know Well, we we were now we're getting back to it a little bit. So I will be in new york this week Talk about android stuff and for any of my past talks code and video you can go to my website Randomly typing calm and if you're on a social media thing, uh, type in quid co monkey and see if i'm there Then hopefully I am if not, let me know. I need to I need to like hoard all the names All the queen code monkeys. So it's a good test to make. Yeah Um, excellent and I am at ron xo on the various socials. You can find me there I'm probably most active on instagram when posting pictures of bands and food and movies and things like that Um, but as michelle mentioned, uh, you can help support us over at patreon.com slash android faithful We want to thank everybody who has done that. Um, you guys are awesome We've got multiple levels that you can sign up for $5 a month $10 a month $20 a month or our elusive $500 a month Where you get to come on the show and be a co-host Um as the patron of the month. I'm dare somebody to do it But either way it'll be fun. Um, and by signing up for the patreon you can Get access to the discord to the dts discord. We love our dts fan daily tech news show. They're awesome You could we're also live streaming on daily tech news shows youtube channel and good day internet on twitch Um, you get access to an ad free podcast. You get some you get a t-shirt Stickers all the cool stuff. It's all happening on patreon. We thank everybody for their support there so far And of course you can go to android faithful.com And that is where we have all the wonderful links to subscribe to the show Whether you want to listen on pocketcast spotify google podcast apple podcast, etc. We're on youtube youtube music We're all there. Um, and it is always great, uh to have people listen and also want to remind everybody to write into the show If you have an email, please email if you have email everyone has email Email is that contact at android faithful. We love to hear from you. Ask us your questions Let us figure out your problems. Tell us your stories. Tell us about crazy hardware You've seen in the field. We want to hear from you because you all are awesome. We love you so so much Uh, but that's gonna wrap it up for this week's android faithful Um, this podcast records every tuesday evening and we release it, uh For you to listen on podcasts or watch on youtube whatnot and we'll see you next time on android faithful Thanks for listening slash watching


The popularity of Acer's Nitro series is undeniable. The main reason for this is the fact that these devices combine decent hardware with a reasonable price tag. The Acer Nitro 5 is a typical representation of what you can expect from a new Nitro laptop. Every year the laptops get some refresh treatment. Expectedly the improvements for the new devices take place under the shell of the notebooks. The looks of this particular device seem largely unchanged compared to what we saw last year. It is entirely made out of plastic. However, this doesn't mean its chassis is weak, as we found it pretty rigid in terms of structure. It weighs 2.2 kilos and has a profile of about 24 millimeters. Basically, it sits in the middle of the compactness scale. What is more important here is that the keyboard is really comfortable for gaming. Moreover, the WASD and arrow keys are highlighted. Also, the arrows are pretty big, but they feel a bit crammed into the rest of the keys. Once again, we have a solid port selection. It includes a Thunderbolt 4 connector, 3 USB Type-S, an HDMI connector, and a LAN port. Unfortunately, there is no SD card reader. Thankfully, there are options to upgrade your device. You get two Sodom slots for memory expansion, an M.2 slot for fast SSDs, and a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay for large libraries. Check out our teardown video to see how to open the device. Quite often, manufacturers pick lower quality displays to cut costs. This is a bit weird since the display is pretty crucial to your gaming experience. Unfortunately, this is the case with our version of the Nitro 5. Yes, the 1080P IPS panel provides comfortable viewing angles and a good contrast ratio, but it has a pretty limited color coverage and slow pixel response time. Thankfully, it doesn't use PWM for brightness adjustment, which makes it safe in long gaming sessions. However, you could also buy the model with a 144Hz 1080P IPS or even with a 165Hz 1440P IPS screen. Only 2 per 100 people watching this video are subscribers. If you decide to just start following us, we'll be able to reinvest more in our laboratory thus making even more helpful videos for you. Thank you, you're awesome! If you're going all in, you can also get the laptop with the Core i7-11800H and the powerful RTX 3070. Our device comes equipped with the RTX 3050 Ti. It has a 75W TGP and is capable of running the Witcher 3 with 70FPS at full HD resolution and ultra graphics quality. Battlefield V is another demanding title that looks amazing at ultra details. Well, you can't go wrong with this GPU since it achieves more than 90FPS at 1080P with these settings. Weirdly, despite the low temperatures it was running at, the RTX 3050 Ti here wasn't willing to use its full 75W budget. We tried with a cooling pad, and with maxing out the fans. No difference. In a world where budget gaming laptops are around every corner, you have to choose carefully. The Nitro 5 hasn't really changed much over the years, but what is good about it, is that Acer always keeps it up to date in terms of hardware. You can go all the way up to the RTX 3070, and if you pair it with dual channel memory, you can expect miracles. One must have in our opinion, is to get the 144Hz display option. It would make a night and day difference and is definitely something worth investing in. If you want to see the rest of the tests and more details about the device, you can check out our in-depth review. The link is in the video description below.