Now, hold on champ. There's a couple of points here you've conveniently ignored or tweaked to suit your position.
Firstly, I'm not aware of any charter that says I'm obligated in any form to offer the community a say in the decision. Should I have? Morally, there's obviously an argument for yes. But did I have to, no. The choice was mine, and I made one. It's your bad luck that I started the community, I suppose.
Secondly, there was no bullying, soft or otherwise. What I said in the pinned post is what I meant: I want us all to come together in one community, and I'm excited by that community being on an instance that is dedicated specifically to tech communities. I'm excited by the idea of the admin of that community being focused on tech communities, and being actively engaged and available to address the needs of that tech community – rather than waiting on the busy admins of an increasingly massive instance.
As for the rest of it, you can debate it all you like. I had a very eloquent and levelheaded message from @ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world today that I'm in the process of replying to. I don't think they'll like my position, but I'm certainly thankful they came to me, politely and respectfully, rather than lobbing a misguided and factually flawed post into the community.
But hey man, cheers for playing.
TLDR: To promote unity and simplicity, we're 'merging' with c/Android over at lemdro.id (a new, tech-focused Lemmy server!)
Don't worry, you don't need to make a new account. You can still join it even if your account is on Lemmy.World — just click this link c/Android at Lemdro.id and subscribe, the same way you did here. Indeed, many of you are already based on instances other than LW — that's the handy thing about the fediverse.
Why are you doing this?
We've thought hard on this decision, and had some long chats with not only the team running c/Android over there, but also the admin of lemdro.id itself.
Our feeling, and our decision, is that while having multiple communities for the same topic is a key strength of the fediverse, we're keen to avoid unnecessary fragmentation for existing members and confusion for any newcomers.
As most of you know, the team at lemdro.id are experienced moderators, having run the Android subreddit before The Great API Quake of 2023.
Why don't they simply join us here?
LW is a great instance, but lemdro.id's entire purpose is tech, and its admin is working hard to make it the fastest and most robust instance around for people like us. It's the right home for this community.
How does it benefit me?
We're hopeful that our goal of a community managed by experienced moderators is aligned with your expectations for a well-run, respectful community.
We also believe that a fast, dedicated 'world' of tech communities will prove ideal for people like us — people who expect excellent uptime and reliable, fast loading of its features and functions. (No pressure, lemdro.id team! 😂)
Lastly... Well, see the next point.
What happens to this community?
We have locked this community.
As we've said above, we want to avoid fragmentation and duplication of threads, and that's best achieved by not having two identical communities.
Unfortunately, we can't just pack up all the threads here and take them to lemdro.id, but they'll live on as an archive.
It'll always be here if we need it, but right now it's only a few weeks old — despite its massive growth — which means locking it won't rob us of too much historical content.
See you over at c/Android at Lemdro.id!
Thanks Jeff, I appreciate the candour and respectful response here. I confess I was initially miffed that somebody would promote a 'competing' c here, but I quickly realised I'm not interested in rivalries here. Life's busy enough as it is!
I think we're doing pretty well here, but the idea of an instance dedicated to tech is appealing. Happy to chat about it. I'm @mikestevens on Telegram.
I don't think this thread was created by one of them — the creator of this thread isn't listed as a mod over there.
Like @Devgard I was tempted to lock or delete this thread — I feel like it's a bit of a shitty thing to post — but it's pretty clear from the upvotes that most people are excited for it. So... Whatever will be, will be!
That, and you still can't follow hashtags in the official app. Kinda insane really.
Ah damn it, that's what I was doing wrong. Thanks!
Post needs a major update already 😂
Seems like some habits are going to follow us from reddit. Downvoting at the drop of a hat is such a miserable shitty thing to do, but many seem wedded to it.
Great news. I'm probably more likely to use Sync, but seeing not one but two well regarded Android Reddit apps migrate to Lemmy is just bloody awesome.
Feel free mate, just make sure you're clear about it being yours, and don't promote anything that isn't transparent about what it does, what data it collects, what features it needs access to (and why), etc.
The closed display halves almost touch, and that can smash debris into the screen.
>"I didn't do anything to deserve this. The phone sat on my desk while I wrote about it, and I would occasionally stop to poke the screen, take a screenshot, or open and close it. It was never dropped or exposed to a significant amount of grit, nor had it gone through the years of normal wear and tear that phones are expected to survive. This was the lightest possible usage of a phone, and it still broke."
This can happen to any phone of course — there are numerous threads on reddit of faulty S23 phones that are only days old, and of course the first Galaxy fold phones were problematic — but still. Rough start!
Go for it!
I do wonder though if we'd be better off with a series of threads devoted to particular app types... A thread for task/project management apps, a thread for notes apps, etc.
My fellow Aussie, Sam Beckman, does great weekly vids on his favourite Android apps. https://youtube.com/@sambeckman
The cute thing about this is that there are no big fines for political parties, media pundits and companies, or influencers producing and disseminating disinformation — but the tech companies will get fined if they don't stop it spreading on their platforms.
I'll try to keep this post updated with links to important ongoing threads, so that we can hopefully avoid dozens of threads on the same topic.
I won't be deleting many duplicate threads as they appear, but it'd be great if folks can check here before posting a topic or question.
✨ Which niche phone features would appeal to you?
🎮 Best free Android apps and games
🚙 Android Auto bugs & complaints
Pixel tablet threads
Things the Pixel Tablet does better than iPad
Pixel Fold threads
Amadeo's Pixel Fold dead after 4 days
Android 14
Pixel Fold v Galaxy Z Fold 4
Seifert talks about it all a bit more on his mastodon, too.
Man. Nilay's ego can be a bit irritating at times, but he's damn good at holding brands to account. Their editorial policies around background information, NDAs and transparency are likewise much stronger than lot of publishers these days.
🤔 A lot of things can be proven. Somebody either did say something or they didn't, an event occurred or it didn't, a study is founded in data and rigorous testing or it isn't, scientific evidence is peer reviewed or it isn't, etc.
It'll technically all still be there on reddit, right? We can treat it as an archive without actually being active users. Heck, you could even form a volunteer group to collate all the most important threads and key points into some posts here, or some google docs, etc.
Sadly this is more a symptom of how trademark law works. There's a "use it or lose it" aspect that compels brands to fiercely, overzealously defend their logo against any that look even remotely similar, or they risk losing their hold over it.
Brands don't do it for their own satisfaction; really the bad press it can generate is often enough to see any case dropped — but what matters is that they show an effort to 'defend' their trademark.
I'm generalising here and obviously it won't apply to everyone, but I tend to think most people with small phones look at huge phones and say "whoa, too big" and thus never bother to give it a go. People with large phones either love them already, or they love the idea of a small phone — so they go get one, and in most cases, immediately miss their large phone.
Of course, some people have experienced both formats enough to know that they definitely prefer small phones — but, unfortunately, they appear to be a minority. Small phones don't sell well, or else there'd be more of them. And so, these people fall into that all-too-common market category 'You're Not Significant Enough'.
All that said, it absolutely depends on what you want from your phone. I use my S23 Ultra to edit photos and videos, play a few games, get some work done — and all of those things benefit from a big display. Hell, even typing is easier for me on a big screen, thanks to my sausage thumbs. 😂
Well yeah, but that's the difference between volunteering and being on a big salary. Hopefully the influx of new users will lead to more code input though, and more donations.
Has anybody else encountered this? I used to be able to broadcast to my son's bedroom speaker via the usual Assistant command of 'broadcast to...', but that was before he had his own google profile (which is managed by me through Google Family Link).
Ever since then, when I try to broadcast, I now get this (with his full name instead of just the speaker name, which is only his first name). And googling by the exact wording of the message, and things like "add broadcast number to a Google account", has so far given me nothing.
Obviously I can just rename the speaker, but I'm keen to know what's causing this and whether this so-called broadcast number can be added to his account.
A tablet for tablet things, plus a smart display
Just posting the Verge's review for now, but feel free to throw others in.
Gotta say, it is dumb as hell that the speaker can't be a speaker on its own. So if I'm listening to music, I can't pick up the tablet and move over to the couch without severing the audio connection. That is bananas. I'm sure it's a cost thing, given it'd need a chip of its own, but ffs.
Ahoy all,
Unless @Devgard@lemmy.world corrects me, I think I'm right in saying we've only had two reports so far in this community, and even those were very low-level issues.
So, I just wanted to quickly say thanks for the great vibes and mostly mature approach to your discussions — and for not being overzealous with the ol' 🛡 report button.
Nearly 6000 members now, which is awesome.
Cheers all!
It drives me nuts that Samsung Notes is frankly one of the best notes apps out there, yet is only properly accessible from phones and tablets. I'm not using a notes app that I can't sync to my desktop, and I'm sure as shit not using OneNote to do it.
Samsung makes laptops, why do they not consider it a priority to have a proper end-to-end UX for their Notes app? (Apple, gasp, does this very well.)
There are plenty of awesome alternatives, of course, but still. It's right there on my phone and I'd love to use it, but if I can't put my phone down and continue working on that note on my desktop, it's wasted to me.
/rant
As it is, I mostly use Keep for basic stuff (since it still lacks formatting), and Notion for more extensive pages.
What are your preferred notes apps?
Man, I'm glad Android Auto exists, I'm glad it's finally appearing in more new cars with wireless connectivity (although MANY new cars still only have wireless carplay and wired Android), and I'm glad we're finally getting the ability to open Google Maps on our phones while it's also open on the car's display.
But damn it still does some dumb shit.
I'll just drop this one for now: I find it weird and dumb that Google Maps in Android Auto will let you send a progress share to a contact's email address but not to their phone number as a text message with a link.
An email address might send a notification to somebody's Google Maps app, but it's certainly never happened on my partner's iPhone. She just gets a link via email, and she is not the checking email sort — so I usually follow up with a text message telling her to check her email. 😑 (I wish she'd just get a Samsung...)
Because damn that's annoying. With phones being massive now, it makes little sense to make us reach up to the top of the screen to swipe between tabs. Do all their chrome devs just have super long fingers..?
I tried switching to Firefox, which has the URL box at the bottom, but the lack of tab grouping (not the same thing as Firefox's tab collections) is really annoying. I've come to love that feature in Chrome!
So, next question... What's your fave browser on Android, and how well does it handle syncing with the desktop?
So, I thought I'd kick things off here with some community building.
Quote this post with answers to the below!
What phone are you using?
Are you happy with it? What are its best and worst qualities?
Which phones have you had previously? Which were the best and worst of the lot?
How often do you upgrade to a new phone?
What other Android ecosystem devices do you have? Watches, headphones/earbuds, etc.
Do you also use any Apple products, or are you Android all the way? (And/or Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, etc.)
Mike @lemmy.world Mumbling about cars at http://whichcar.com.au | Dad, designer, journalist, photographer, gadgethead, cyclist. Lefty. Proud of my ADHD. 💪