Some Pixel 2 Users Are Complaining About A High-Pitched Whine and Clicking Noises (arstechnica.com) 105
After dealing with all sorts of screen issues, another problem with Google's flagship smartphone is popping up. This time it's an audio issue: users on Google's official forums and elsewhere are reporting odd sounds coming from the Pixel 2 speakers. Ars Technica reports: Customers are complaining of "clicking" and a "high-pitched whine" coming from the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Most reports on the forums say the noises are coming from the top or bottom speaker on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Some reports say the sounds come through during calls, while other users say the speaker noises happen any time the screen is on. A user made a recording of the sound, which can be heard here. Most users are being told to return their devices after contacting support, but at least one person claims they were told this issue would be patched in an upcoming update. One possible workaround is to turn off NFC, which some users say stops or lowers the noises.
Shit components assembled by the lowest bidder. (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember when Apple using quality DACs inside the iPod was a big fucking deal.
These days, it's all disposable junk. All of it. Every single device is manufactured to accept whatever substitute components are available this week, and it's a total crap shoot as to whether or not you'll get something with issues or not. Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung, doesn't matter. You get to pay a premium for a handheld device that's designed to be obsolete in 2-3 years, AND you get to play the game where you're looking for a decent unit with no screen tinting, bad DACs or electrical interference, defective switches, connectors, etc, etc, etc. Companies aren't competing to build the best device anymore- they're competing to build the cheapest shittiest junk they can, and then they turn around and try to sell it for the highest possible price.
Welcome to a digital world ruled by shareholders, where the only objective is to make more money. Gone are the days where people wanted to design a better product, and money was just a side effect of succeeding at that.
Re: Shit components assembled by the lowest bidder (Score:1)
Yeah... I mean who the fuck uses an phone older than that?
I mean it's sooo embarrassing.... that's like wearing a tag that say "I'm homeless" or something.....
That's not to insult homeless people.... I mean using a 2 year old phone.... man that's something....
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I guess I've gotten to "that age" but I couldn't care less about something like that. I've learned to understand that anyone that thinks that way is a complete a-hole and their opinions suddenly stop mattering to me. Think what you want about my old phone, but I couldn't give 2 shits about what you think.
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Why not save on your Tesla the same way? Buy it used on eBay, swap in a $9,000 battery and you're good to go.
Re: Shit components assembled by the lowest bidder (Score:2)
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If the phones suddenly start making "Eh?" noises, they're probably made in Canada.
Re:Shit components assembled by the lowest bidder. (Score:4, Insightful)
Gone are the days where people wanted to design a better product, and money was just a side effect of succeeding at that.
While I generally agree, I wish someone from the 1920s would see this comment. The wizards from the future whine how their magic boxes can't be held to their ridiculously high standard. Gone are the days where everything was universally shitty. Instead everything is a slight variation of absolutely amazing. That said, coil whine drives me crazy.
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indeed, that's why every premium phone isn't worth the money.
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Absolutely. I only buy "middle tier" phone, unlocked. If I had to buy a phone right now it would be the Moto G5S Plus, saw it for $279 and can be on sale at 229.
It has a 5.5" screen, 1080p, 5GHz wifi, SD card, NFC, quick charge, dual camera, fingerprint scanner, etc. The whole shebang, everything you need.
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Absolutely. I only buy "middle tier" phone, unlocked. If I had to buy a phone right now it would be the Moto G5S Plus, saw it for $279 and can be on sale at 229. It has a 5.5" screen, 1080p, 5GHz wifi, SD card, NFC, quick charge, dual camera, fingerprint scanner, etc. The whole shebang, everything you need.
I don't even buy the middle tier phone. I buy the higher-end budget phone. I honestly don't see the problem of paying for shit the old-fashioned way by whipping out a credit card or cash. NFC is an interesting fad which I really think people use to look cool. I would argue that it is insecure as hell and anyone with the right technology could simply intercept the exchange.
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NFC is an interesting fad which I really think people use to look cool.
My camera can uses NFC to set up a Wi-Fi network to transfer pictures to my phone. I've used that a bunch. Mind you, my most recent phone actually has a pretty decent camera, so I have somewhat less need for it.
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People that are insecure and vulnerable believe that they will somehow be the envy of their social circles if they just had the best bling on the block.
There's something to be said about people that need to categorize anyone with different buying habits as "insecure and vulnerable". I'd recommend ruminating a bit on the utter relativity of wealth. Where do you fit in? What would a poor person in Myanmar say about your spending habits?
Companies... (Score:3)
I laugh every time I see something like this. As though that hasn't *always* been the goal of for-profit companies...
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No need to be sorry. That was an era where you couldn't afford a 2nd tv or whatever you need.
I'm happy to be in this era where I can have new shiny stuff all the time at a fraction of the cost. Trust me.... the premium you paid for the quality of old isn't worth it.
It was an era when you could afford a house, a car or two, a spouse who didn't have to work, 2 or 3 kids, a dog, annual vacations, medical expenses, retirement (often with a pension), etc., all with a high school education. Being poor meant you had a single car, limited yourself to only 1 kid (or you had too many), your spouse may have had to have a at-home job or part time job and you had shitty vacations or no vacations. Being broke meant you had to move in with family until you got another job.
It was a
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the premium you paid for the quality of old isn't worth it.
Not sure that's true. A TV that lasts 20 years may cost 3 times the price way back when, but a TV that lasts 5 years has to be replaced 4 times as often.
We have LED backlights now, but my current TV is still a CCFL and it's only a matter of time before it goes. And I'm not going to try to replace that bulb - it's too hard.
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Oh, I member! /SouthPark
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Factor in the price, and energy consumption savings of a modern appliance, and it can last about 1/6th as long and still be the same value. So, your 1980s dishwasher crapped out after a whopping 20 years, that means my 2015 model only needs to last 3.5 years. I guess I'll be buying a new one next year.
"The average dishwasher today is not only more than twice as energy-efficient as a comparable 1981 model, but its real cost today is only about 50% of the price of the 1981 dishwasher, measured in
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You should watch AVE on Youtube to a teardown of an older piece of gear built for quality. Aluminum or steel gears instead of plastic, sealed bearings, actuators made to last for 10's of millions of movements instead of 10's of thousands. Easily replaceable beefy brushes in the motors. beefy wiring on the stator that has been properly affixed, high temperature high strength plastics and resins. Cases that bolt together rather than clip.
Believe it or not there was a time when a products endurance was a high
Re:Companies... (Score:4, Interesting)
And at the same time, those products were out of reach to many people; lowering the quality to reasonable bounds often resulted in something massively more attainable that only actually breaks marginally more often than the original. Its easy to look at the past with rose colored glasses, but the era of "indestructible" washing machines was also the era of poor people washing clothes by hand and frequent visits from your local washing machine repair man (who could indeed repair the washing machine, but was required to do so far more often).
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If the design is sound (meaning has accounted for worst-case tolerances) then proper testing will detect most problems, regardless of how "cheap" the component manufacturer is. (A handful of problems are problematic regardless of testing, such as capacitor and battery failures over a period of time due to poor manufacturing quality.)
The real problem IMO is design shortcuts made for a variety of reasons, ranging from designer incompetence to cost, combined with inadequate testing. For example, a digital
Re: Shit components assembled by the lowest bidder (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the exact opposite of how Apple, and to a certain extent, Samsung, operate. Apple famously pits manufacturers against each other. If the components arenâ(TM)t meeting spec, theyâ(TM)re sent back, at the manufacturerâ(TM)s cost. The whole reason why the iPhone X is reportedly supply constrained is because the dot projector is hard to make and Apple keeps sending them back.
Theyâ(TM)re not faultless, but in general, the components you get in an iPhone are the best ones that can be sourced from anyone.
Samsung has done some dumb things, even in recent memory, but itâ(TM)s hard to deny that theyâ(TM)re nearly always the SOURCE of the highest end parts. I have no love for them, but they make the best screens, have high quality chip fabs, etc. Iâ(TM)ll give Samsung a lot of grief for being a thieving garbage company with immoral leadership, but their high end parts are legitimately well made.
Only Apple has the scale to operate like they do, and only Samsung can build parts as well as they do, and the rest fight for scraps at the margins.
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That's a convincing rebuttal, commenter with no name or sources.
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Sadly, I really AM old enough to have the 4-digit UID that I'm sporting.
In any case, the story about them compromising quality has been denied, and perhaps you could call that obvious or inevitable, but Apple rarely comments on stories at all.
I haven't seen any evidence that Apple uses anything other than the highest possible quality parts, going so far as to not source parts from a company that they've given millions of dollars to (LG) so they can get OLED panels from a major competitor (Samsung).
There are
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Apple almost always has two sources for its components, and this is well known. They had three manufacturers trying to make the dot projector on the iPhone X, they have TMSC AND Samsung fabbing SoCs, etc. Apple rarely single-sources components because it drives prices up. The screen in the iPhone X is a rare exception, but as we've seen from the Pixel XL debacle, LG isn't really up to making high quality OLED screens on mobile yet.
This is all entirely public knowledge. If Apple can't get the prices and comp
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I remember when Apple using quality DACs inside the iPod was a big fucking deal.
These days, it's all disposable junk. All of it. Every single device is manufactured to accept whatever substitute components are available this week, and it's a total crap shoot as to whether or not you'll get something with issues or not. Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung, doesn't matter. You get to pay a premium for a handheld device that's designed to be obsolete in 2-3 years, AND you get to play the game where you're looking for a decent unit with no screen tinting, bad DACs or electrical interference, defective switches, connectors, etc, etc, etc. Companies aren't competing to build the best device anymore- they're competing to build the cheapest shittiest junk they can, and then they turn around and try to sell it for the highest possible price.
Welcome to a digital world ruled by shareholders, where the only objective is to make more money. Gone are the days where people wanted to design a better product, and money was just a side effect of succeeding at that.
This is exactly what happens when you have a brand worth more than the product itself. Samsung, Apple, and Google have developed their brand to the point where their names are what sells the shit. Furthermore, they discovered that they could create a vertical market off of people's dissatisfaction. They can introduce paid support to additionally monetize fixing said shitty product. Of course, this only goes so far because if the product is too shitty, they face backlash from government regulatory agencies.
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I remember when Apple using quality DACs inside the iPod was a big fucking deal.
You remember when, but do you remember why? The first generation iPod was grilled for being horrible and anemic with measurements showing how lack of capacitance near the amplifying components contributed to it being unable to produce any satisfactory dynamics.
The first gen iPod only had it's library size as its "deal" and the Diamond Rios shat all over the frist gen iPod in audio quality.
The second gen iPod changed the focus towards quality of audio.
The first gen Shuffle was equally grilled for poor audio
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More to the point this stuff is getting more and more general purpose. These Smart Phones are more small tablet computers with telephone as one of its features in it. These new devices in a 5" screen have a 2k multi-touch display, advanced camera's, bio-metric readers, GPS, motion and gyroscope sensors multiple forms of wireless stuff, with a CPU and GPU which can rival modern mid range laptops. . A battery big enough to keep it running all day. In a form factor that is thinner then the plastic of the cas
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You get to pay a premium for a handheld device that's designed to be obsolete in 2-3 years,
Your phone is not obsolete after 2-3 years. They market new phones as making old ones obsolete; in truth, the device in your pocket right now will probably still not be obsolete in 10 years. The battery may suck, but the phone will probably still be good enough.
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the device in your pocket right now will probably still not be obsolete in 10 years.
Unless you include planned obsolescence. It's a lot of work keeping a phone patched with security updates when the manufacturer stops after 2-3 years.
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Audio is a race to the bottom right now, especially in the consumer space. Super high integration (read: tiny) and cost are the key drivers because of mobile electronics.
A lack of understanding of just how much components can differ, usually passive components, can turn a decent des
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Welcome to a digital world ruled by shareholders, where the only objective is to make more money.
Thanks Obama!
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm less concerned about the actual noise... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, to be fair, Google's support has traditionally been crap. This has been true since Google started selling non-electronic stuff.
Google, it seems, can sling electrons around like the best of them. But atoms? forget it. Heck, I've ordered stuff through Google, and had it take far longer to arrive to me than someone who went to the store and bought it.
Getting someone on the phone is a novelty to Google - I still remember when your (only) support option was Google Groups.
And as much as you fault Apple, you have to remember Apple's support has traditionally been among the best of everyone. Perhaps not as good as Amazon where it seems everyone is empowered to do anything to make you happy, but still seemingly non-useless (aside from the few incidents that get well-reported because well, Apple news is money making news).. Not that Apple is a saint in the support department - they only recently opened an official Apple Support twitter account, which is like 10 years after everyone else. And they have a nasty habit with the delete button on their forums.
But Google? Well, old school support options they generally suck at. For stuff like this, you're actually better off waiting for the official Google blog to announce something than trust what support says.
Re: I'm less concerned about the actual noise... (Score:2, Insightful)
"I've ordered stuff through Google, and had it take far longer to arrive to me than someone who went to the store and bought it."
Oh really? I wonder how that happened.
Re:I'm less concerned about the actual noise... (Score:4, Interesting)
Google's support for everything has always been the worst out there, because for the most part they don't even have any. I've got a gmail account that I've been using for at least 7 years as a "send mail as" account but lost the password to and can't recover. There's literally no way for me to speak to any human being at google in any way to fix this. Any human could take one look at the system and see it's consistently been used for almost a decade, but all they've got is the terribly designed users-only forum.
At least Valve pretends to have some semblance of customer service.
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Studies show that when an answer, even an unwelcome one, is delivered in an authoritative tone by an attractive Millennial with a septum piercing the user will get back into line and realise it is they who are at fault.
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Electrons too these days. Silly case in point:
Google decided to release a product to build goodwill - the featured photos screensaver for OSX. Nice. Its well done, and displays their logo quietly in conference rooms, etc, all over the place.
It doesn't work properly with the most recent release of the OS. They still offer it, it just no longer works, has no support, and has apparently been orphaned.
Now, are they obligated to keep a marketing offering up-to-date? No, of course not, but that kind of attit
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This has been true since Google started selling non-electronic stuff.
Err. No this has been true since Larry Page and Sergey Brin hacked together a ranking system in their garage. Google's customer service has been utter shite from even its early search days long before they started selling anything.
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It's all rumor and hearsay, with some agents saying it'll be fixed in an upcoming patch, others (like mine) saying they've never heard of it and are not allowed to look up news stories about it.
Eh?!?!?! That sounds quite Monty Pythonesque: "You're not allowed to enter the room . . . "
I've heard of all kinds of screwball restrictions on what support folks can do . . . but reading the news . . . ? Oh, my God . . . by reading the news, the support folks might learn the smarts! Then they will organize a union or form a pitchforks and torches gang!
Again, back to the Python: "I could be arguing in my spare time!" . . . "I could be reading the news in my spare time!"
It's all rumor and hearsay
Yeah, that pretty much sums up wh
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There is an opinion on the Verge about how everybody has dud products once in a while... but at this point in a product, when you're building your brand in a new area, can easily taint the reputation permanently and kill off the entire project.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/... [theverge.com]
Super Useless (Score:2)
and its customer service is super friendly and super useless
Well to be fair you can't expect much from customer support when it's all people who chose to take their 20% of free time handling Pixel hardware calls.
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I know you're trying to be friendly and empathetic
This gives me the shits with modern customer service. I had this with Microsoft. It took 5 fucking minutes to get past the: ...
"We're sorry to hear you're having a problem."
"This is not the experience I want you to have with our device."
"We will try everything possible to get your problem fixed."
"We can offer services in multiple countries."
"What are you calling about today?"
Fuck off! Say: "Hi" Let me tell you the problem, and either present me a very sane option to fix it or give me an RMA number. Nothing
I'm never buying flagship phones again (Score:4, Insightful)
At least if I don't have to for some reason. I'm so happy with my medium priced Lenovo P2 it's unreal...
I think as soon as there is a style value attached to a product buying from market leaders in the top tier is just asking for trouble nowadays... Perhaps the thinking is that if someone is dumb enough to spend X times 2 on a product that does similar things as another costing X, then they have to be stupid enough to accept mediocre quality.
The bottom line is blown up.
Perhaps the midrange has to be better quality because whoever isn't dumb enough to go for the shiny and doesn't just buy on the cheap is usually a person who has done their research?
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"research" my ass. You just picked the stupid thing because it was cheap and had less of useless components like NFC, super charging, multiple stupid speakers, extra slim battery.
What "research" really means - "it comprises "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humans, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications."
Did you increase any fucking culture by buying your stupid phones, you dumbfucking millennials?
Mod this one up! The whole reason for me buying my higher-end budget phone is that I can dispense with the fucking useless NFC. All NFC does is look cool. I'll stick to cash and credit cards because the old fashioned way works just fine. For me a phone is for talking, text messages, weather, news, music, and occasionally for directions. I don't do social media anymore, and believe me, it felt good to tell Zuck to eat a dick by closing my facebook account. Really, smartphones do anything but make phone calls
Solutions (Score:5, Funny)
One possible workaround is to turn off NFC, which some users say stops or lowers the noises.
Turning off the phone completely might stop or lower the noises even more, but I think the embedded surveillance device, actually generating the noise, is always active, unless you take out the battery - oh wait...
[ Obviously, I think I mean this to be funny, but seriously don't even know anymore. Both Google *and* the Government would really like to have always-on tracking and surveillance. /tin-foil-phone-cozy ]
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Give your kids some sweets and stop giving them toy guns might work even better still
So they been beta testing pixel 2 in the Havana em (Score:4, Funny)
I guess we know now how those diplomats got hearing issues- they were all using a preproduction pixel devices.
Do the Cuban diplomats have these? (Score:2)
Maybe that explains it...
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Do Google learn from Nexus??? (Score:5, Interesting)
The bigger problem here is Google don't learn from Nexus devices. They order them, they sell them, and each time a new set of problems appear caused by the overlap between the Google design and the current manufacturer.
In case you didn't know, Pixel2's biggest problem is it snaps easily, because the weak point in the case where the switches are, happens to also be where they the plastic cover for the antennas connects to the back body.
A combination of the circuit board designer (some outside company), the stylist (probably Google person), and the mechanical/testing people (the phone manufacturer) being all disconnected and separate.
Each time they change manufacturers the overlap is different and a new set of problems are revealed. Which is great for the company whose learning (the phone company), since they're making the mistakes at Googles expense not their own, damaging Google's brand, not their own.
Are Google actually learning something from these Nexus Pixel devices, or is it just an exercise in hubris? Because none of their tablets or phones sells in large volumes, and they don't seem to address the problems with any of them in the next generation. Would it really kill them to add a microSD card? Would it really kill them to make a big tablet that doesn't rotate vertically if you open snapchat? Yet they don't learn from each failure.
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Absolute truth here, should be up voted. Coming from someone else who worked on phones at one point and has a long standing history of designing electronics for high-volume manufacturing.
I have three Nexus 4 devices, two with battery charging issues, audio mic gain issues which Google (LG) never addressed. Nexus 5 reportedly has its own set of issues...the trend continues.
But, the products are getting sold and someone is making money. Google is the new MSFT.
Hahaha (Score:1)
Users Are Complaining About A High-Pitched Whine (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
What is that woman angry about ? (Score:1)
Am I the only one here who, after listening to the recording made by that user, had a second recording play, where some woman was angry about something??? WTF!!!
Its the OLED pixels (Score:2)
DON'T buy 1st production run (Score:2)
comparison (Score:2)
Power rail noise? (Score:2)
50kHz on my LG phone (Score:2)
I was testing some components (class D amplifier) and wanted a quick signal source, so I hooked up my phone. I was quite surprised (and concerned) to discover that my LG G6 is pumping out a VERY LOUD signal at 50kHz. I can't hear that high (I stop at about 12kHz now), and earbuds will attenuate it quite a bit, but I imagine it could still cause hearing loss. (BTW, I was looking for ~250kHz noise in the amplifier, but that component was attenuating correctly. It faithfully reproduced the 50kHz whine, how
Game (Score:1)