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Google Cellphones Software Hardware Technology

Google Pixel's Camera Lead Quits After the Failure of the Pixel 4 (arstechnica.com) 121

Posted by BeauHD from the internal-strife dept.
According to The Information, two top executives left Google's Pixel team following the poor reception of the Pixel 4 and "rare internal criticism" of the phone. Ars Technica reports: Pixel general manager Mario Queiroz and "the mastermind behind Google's Pixel camera," Marc Levoy, have both left the Pixel team in the past year. Both Queiroz and Levoy have been visible members of the Pixel team at launch events, where they usually give lengthy presentations about the new features. Levoy, in particular, is cause for concern, since the Pixel's camera has been one of the major bright spots of the phone line. The Pixel 4 has not been a huge success. It has sold less than the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a in its first two quarters. Osterloh was not confident about the device in the leadup to launch, either. The report says that "ahead of the [Pixel 4] October launch in New York," Osterloh called an all-hands meeting and shared his misgivings about the phone. He reportedly "did not agree with some of the decisions made about the phone" and that "in particular, he was disappointed in its battery power." Osterloh runs the Pixel team, so this reporting gives some insight into his management style. For a Steve Jobs type, approving these kinds of broad directions would be a big part of his day-to-day decision making. Osterloh, apparently, is more of a hands-off delegator.

The report says that, following "sluggish sales and tepid reviews" for the Pixel 4, "the company's hardware division needs to maintain favor and funding as Google's top brass look to rein in costs because of a recent slowdown in advertising revenue." Seeing Google Hardware in the same sentence as Google's cost-cutting efforts is a bit scary -- Google has been aggressively killing products that don't regularly pull in millions of users, and it's hard to make an argument that the Pixel line has been doing well or is even getting better over its four years of existence. We've already seen some branches of Google Hardware get the ax: Osterloh has admitted the team has quit the tablet business after poor performance from the Pixel Slate.
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Google Pixel's Camera Lead Quits After the Failure of the Pixel 4 More

Google Pixel's Camera Lead Quits After the Failure of the Pixel 4

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  • For me what did it in... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @08:35PM (#60058114)

    ...was they basically copied Apple. For years they were doing things way before Apple, then with the Pixel 3, and again with the 4, they just decided to get behind Apple instead and add a stupid notch, then get rid of the fingerprint sensor, and then adopt the stupid gesture system that the iphone x series uses. I was bothered a bit by the loss of the headphone jack, but that didn't stop me from buying the pixel 2 because I rarely listen to music anyways, and even more rarely carry around any headphones at all.

    Of course, the reports about bad battery life didn't help, especially because the pixel 2 had such good battery life that I've been spoiled by for all of these years (and my pixel 2 XL is still holding strong, despite its age.)

    • Re:For me what did it in... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @09:13PM (#60058206) Journal
      When the Pixel 4 isn't clearly better in terms of features than the Pixel 3, and the Pixel 4 costs twice as much, the decision is easy.
      • Normally every product goes through focus groups to make the release successful. As this was not to plan - somebody stuffed up. How much would you expect to pay was probably one question, and double was probably not in the middle. prices are going down, and with covid, the impress you peers factor has also died. I am guessing airtravel bans means a competent global phone meant that market died as well.

      • Re:For me what did it in... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday May 14, 2020 @04:10AM (#60058862) Homepage Journal

        The Pixel 4 is actually worse in many regards. No fingerprint sensor, only face unlock that was pretty half baked when it launched. It looks like the 4A has brought the fingerprint sensor back.

        The radar gesture thing was a complete flop too. Barely worked and no one wants to use it.

        The 90Hz display was botched, only worked at high brightness levels. It was a bit too early, now OnePlus offers a full resolution 120Hz display that works all the time.

        The camera choice was weird. One normal camera, one telephoto. People were expecting the second one to be wide angle, telephoto is an odd choice. The image quality is excellent but not a massive step up from the Pixel 3 or 3A.

        For the Pixel 5 they should just bring back a fingerprint sensor, introduce a wide angle camera that people will actually use, a proper 120Hz screen with no compromises and a bigger battery that can be replaced. A headphone jack is probably too much to hope for.

    • This is totally consistent with my experience with the Pixel 2 XL. Despite the sub-par screen, it has been performing great on all front and in particular the battery is keeping up fantastically well (in fact it got better with time and OS updates). It was audacious in its own way (the panda design, the use of the Visual Core chip) at the time when even Apple seemed behind in the "smarts". And I got it refurbished 2 years ago. There has been no reason for me to upgrade, as the 3 and 4 didn't actually delive

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Gwala ( 309968 )

        Yep, another person still on a Pixel 2 XL here as well - battery is the main reason I haven't upgraded (even after partially smashing my screen); the 2XL's battery is still fantastic.

      • A friend of mine gave me her old Nexus 5x (I think that was the model) because I told her I could update it to Android 10, and I could. (Success!)

        The first thing she asked me to do was turn off that stupid gesture crap. Maybe it is better with a bunch of radars in the phone, but I doubt it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sphealey ( 2855 )

          The Nexus 7 was a great tablet which gradually died under the weight of OS updates from Google that added absolutely nothing to usefulness but weighed down the system until even with a full factory reset and reinstall it could not get out of its own way. And of course there was never a successor with that size, shape, and (initially) simple UI.

      • The screen wasn't really bad. Sure, the blue tint was noticeable at some angles, and there was the black crush issue (software bug) but the comments about it having a bad screen were way overblown. They mostly came from people who are used to oversaturated iphones and samsung phones. That was what made the pixel 2xl great; it came sRGB by default, so the colors were accurate. Samsung and iphones don't even give you the option of color accuracy (or at least, they didn't at the time I last looked at them, whi

        • Only problem I have with Pixel 2XL's screen is its black levels are actually fairly poor (like some of my older bad-ish LCD projectors). So watching 'dark' scenes of shows and movies is difficult, particularly when you are in the dark so the screen's overall light output is reduced.

    • Re:For me what did it in... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Thursday May 14, 2020 @12:22AM (#60058602) Homepage

      Pretty much. Loved the 2, so I foolishly upgraded to the 3. 3 is good, but the 2 was great. Saw that they got rid of the finger print sensor on the 4 ( opting for facial rec ), decided i was good with the 3.

      The finger print sensor is just so damn useful; it's a great feature that integrates well with most folks flow, so of course they think to kill that off. Too many companies underrate UIX, but it really can kill an otherwise amazing product.

      Hint; The latest wizzbang feature doesn't make UIX great. Making the damn thing work intuitively is what makes UIX great. You don't need the latest processor or tons of memory for that. You just need a team dedicated to that work flow. This was the "magic" steve jobs brought to the table.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I really don't understand the decision to get rid of the fingerprint sensor. They are cheap and reliable. Why not have both on such an expensive phone?

        • Why not have a headphone jack on such an expensive phone?

          The answer to both those questions is the same: Me too!

        • I really don't understand the decision to get rid of the fingerprint sensor. They are cheap and reliable.

          Olives are cheap too, and if you remove one olive per year from the salad until customers finally stop ordering it, you'll be able to show savings each year, but the sales will only drop every third olive or so, so even if you come out behind, it will look like you increased profits in the face of a declining product and they'll write lots of books about you. Fingerprint sensors cost more than olives.

          What if they're too reliable? Would they still be reliable? My phone has the technology, and I sure as heck

      • Too many companies underrate UIX, but it really can kill an otherwise amazing product.

        It's not that they underrate UIX. It's that they have idiot design leads who think "new" = "better" when it comes to UI. So if fingerprint sensors are standard, then getting rid of the fingerprint sensor will improve the device.

        You just need a team dedicated to that work flow. This was the "magic" steve jobs brought to the table.

        Jobs was hyper-focused on the user experience. Probably everyone knows the story now about

        • Too many companies underrate UIX, but it really can kill an otherwise amazing product.

          It's not that they underrate UIX. It's that they have idiot design leads who think "new" = "better" when it comes to UI. So if fingerprint sensors are standard, then getting rid of the fingerprint sensor will improve the device.

          That's kinda my point; that's not UIX design. I guess "underrate" makes sense in my head, but I should explain; if companies knew how important UIX was, they'd make an effort to understand what it is. Ironically, it's a strangely unintuitive concept.

          Instead they accept that the eccentric with an arts degree MUST be an expert, and of course they have no idea what an expert would actually look like, thus here we are.

          This, incidentally, applies to more than just hardware; why is it damn near every software u

      • Pretty much. Loved the 2, so I foolishly upgraded to the 3. 3 is good, but the 2 was great. Saw that they got rid of the finger print sensor on the 4 ( opting for facial rec ), decided i was good with the 3.

        I'm currently using a Pixel 4 XL. The decision to switch from a fingerprint sensor to face recognition is the only thing I dislike about the phone. My biggest complaint is that because face recognition is a bit less secure, they adjusted the password reauthentication requirement from 72 hours to 4. I agree with the security decision, but having to enter my password a few times a day bugs me. The battery life isn't a problem for me, in fact it seems pretty good. I don't see a lot to distinguish it from t

    • I guess I need to hold onto my Pixel 2XL for awhile longer! Yeesh.

  • How to succeed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JfTbUwZbCa2T ( 6721572 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @08:38PM (#60058122)
    1. Return the headphone jack. 2. Removaeable battery. 3. SD Card support Google will take over the market if they choose such a bold strategy as releasing a phone with features to match its phones of almost a decade ago.
    • I was going to say that the Pixel does have a removable battery. But I guess that's only because I'm willing to pry off the screen, unscrew a circuit board, detach some wires, and then put it all back together. Simple stuff, doesn't even require solder. /s
    • That shit don't move units. Maybe SD cards. Otherwise, it's about not being overpriced and underpowered.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Syberz ( 1170343 )
      I'd love this, but you've just removed any incentive to buy a new phone every year. Why the hell would Google want to do that?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 )

      1. Return the headphone jack. 2. Removaeable battery. 3. SD Card support

      iPhone has none of those 3 and that's why it will never be successful.

    • 1. Return the headphone jack. 2. Removaeable battery. 3. SD Card support Google will take over the market if they choose such a bold strategy as releasing a phone with features to match its phones of almost a decade ago.

      Ugh, the typical 2020 complaints - no headphone jack, no battery, no SD card. The majority of folks don't really care about that stuff. Never once have I wished I had a battery to swap. There are these things called outlets that I plug my Pixel 4 into at night (or in the car) and it charges the phone if necessary. Crazy, I know! I had a SD card on my LG G6 and found I never really used the external storage. Then again, I don't use my phone like a file-server, so I may be in the nerd minority.

      • Having a replaceable battery is more useful for being able to replace it when it degrades than for swapping in a charged one when you're low on charge.
        You may not use SD cards but I have all my pics and music in one. I use the internal memory for applications

    • 1. Return the headphone jack. 2. Removaeable battery. 3. SD Card support Google will take over the market if they choose such a bold strategy as releasing a phone with features to match its phones of almost a decade ago.

      Consumers voted with their wallets. There are phones on the market that have those features and no doubt you've not heard of them because they have all been gigantic flops.

  • Camera is great... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PhantomHarlock ( 189617 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @08:41PM (#60058128)

    I have a Pixel 4XL and have no complaints about normal operations. I specifically bought it because I am a professional photographer and wanted a decent option when I wasn't carrying around the big DSLR. I don't do Apple products so I was looking for the best Android solution with a good camera. It shoots in RAW mode, portrait mode is pretty slick and its long exposure night shooting capabilities are pretty good. For something in your pocket at all times any modern smartphone is nothing short of a miracle.

    However I've had a problem with it that has just cropped up again. After trouble free use for a few months, when you put the phone in your pocket it shuts off. Every time. Gradually it gets worse and worse and eventually won't boot anymore. This is my second phone and I'll be sending it in again under warranty for another. Fortunately I have a backup I can use in the mean time.

    So no complaints on the camera, but the persistent power issues have been troublesome.

    • Just get an iPhone (Score:1, Interesting)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 )

      I don't do Apple products so I was looking for the best Android solution with a good camera.

      If you are a photographer, you should really think about getting an iPhone.

      For one thing, Apple makes great camera hardware.

      But more importantly is the software - Apple itself has pretty good camera software but there are some great photo and video apps on the iPhone - Halide [halide.cam] and FilmicPro [halide.cam] respectively.

      I also have real cameras I take with me traveling but the iPhone is an excellent side companion with a lot of optio

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Khyber ( 864651 )

        "Apple makes great camera hardware."

        Since when the fuck does Apple manufacture their own sensors?

        They don't, it's made by fucking SONY.

        Try again when you actually have a clue.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dfghjk ( 711126 )

          make != manufacture. It also includes design (which Apple does themselves)
          camera hardware != sensor. Camera hardware encompasses more than just the sensor (lens, flash, image processing)

          While we will all agree that SuperKendall doesn't have a clue, neither do you.

  • I sure hope they aren't lumping all pixel devices into the same category for cost cutting ideas. Honestly the phones aren't terrible at all, they were just priced a little high after some inspiration taken from iphone9000s being sold in exchange for whole gold bricks. Only real problem with the pixel phones was price.
    The pixel slate? The sound was terrible. The keyboard was terrible.
    The pixelBOOK....now that was a magnificent machine. Really nice keyboard, more satisfying in your hands overall, and goo

  • Why is there lead in the camera? Or is this just part of the connection solder?

    Or do they mean LED?

  • What did they expect? (Score:3, Informative)

    by melted ( 227442 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @09:20PM (#60058224) Homepage

    What did they expect? It's ridiculously overpriced for what it is. It's also about half as fast as a recent iPhone, and software on the Play Store is an absolute steaming pile of excrement, by and large. And on top of that they don't have much of a marketing effort for it.

    • What did they expect? It's ridiculously overpriced for what it is. It's also about half as fast as a recent iPhone, and software on the Play Store is an absolute steaming pile of excrement, by and large. And on top of that they don't have much of a marketing effort for it.

      The software available on Google Play isn't hurting the sales of other Android phones, and it didn't hurt the sales of older Google devices, so that's irrelevant.
      The newer Google phones are all expensive, ugly, and have terrible battery life. There is no excuse for all of those features to exist on one device.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's the camera. The Pixel 4 camera is the best on any phone. There are some which do a bit better in specific areas, like the iPhone has better video and Huawei have excellent sharpness and zoom, but overall the Pixel 4 is best.

      Even if the rest of the phone is mediocre the camera sells it. The problem the Pixel 4 had wasn't that it was bad, it's that the Pixel 3 and 3A are cheaper and their cameras are about 95% as good. You can get a 3A super cheap at the moment because the 4A is due soon, and it's an abs

  • Price (Score:3)

    by dohzer ( 867770 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @09:26PM (#60058242)

    The only reason I purchased the Pixel 3a XL when the Pixel 4 XL was released was the cost. Nothing else.

  • Pixel 4 is an embarrassment (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mschaffer ( 97223 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @09:38PM (#60058262)

    For crap's sake it the Pixel 4 wasn't even ready for Google Suite when it launched. It launched with an English-only assistant (which only worked in the US) and forced people to use gesture navigation. What a cluster f**k. Combined with missing headphone jack, terrible battery life, and being s...l...o...w for a flagship phone with a very flagship price, what do they expect?

    • For crap's sake it the Pixel 4 wasn't even ready for Google Suite when it launched. It launched with an English-only assistant (which only worked in the US) and forced people to use gesture navigation.

      It doesn't force gesture navigation, but it does default to gesture navigation. You can go into settings and change it to activate the soft buttons.

  • Yep, another person still on a Pixel 2 XL here as well - battery is the main reason I haven't upgraded (even after partially smashing my screen); the 2XL's battery is still fantastic. recruitmenttrendz.com [recruitmenttrendz.com]

  • What users like me really want, is
    - user changeable battery
    - dual SIM
    - memory card slot
    - plenty of internal storage
    - waterproofing

    Google pixel never offered any of that, hence never of interest

    • This is exactly the kind of thing I want also.

      I also want a current version of android that is patched

      I don't need anywhere near as powerful of a gpu and cpu that modern phones have since I don't play games on them. So long as they can handle spotify, youtube, podcats etc that is fine.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kalpol ( 714519 )
        I'm still hanging on to a S4 Mini and an LG G4 because they have the battery/headphone/SD card, are reasonably water resistant, and LineageOS was pretty easy to install so I have the latest patches (international versions both). So best compromise of everything, really.

    • What are you people doing with batteries? The battery in my 2014 iPhone 6 plus is still at 85%.

      • Actually using the phone. Having a separate battery was a great on trips (because airplanes, airports, and boats still rarely have any sort of AC or USB charging) because I could remove the drained battery, slap in the spare, and I'd be at 100%. Back in the Samsung Galaxy S2/S5 days, things like Location Services and games were a big drain on the battery, enough that fairly intensive use for 4 hours or so was enough to totally drain it.

        When I got the Pixel 2, the battery was very high quality. Huge capacit

    • As mentioned below, I loved having a replaceable battery with my Samsung S5. But when I got the Pixel 2, having the phone last all day no matter what I do on it meant I didn't miss not being able to replace the battery. And it's been over two years and the battery still lasts as long.

      I've accidentally dropped it in water a number of times, being immersed in water never bothered it.

      Sure wish I could expand that storage though. My MP3 collection doesn't fit on it, and streaming SUCKS. At least the internal st

  • How to make the Pixel 6 XL *not* suck (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Miamicanes ( 730264 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @10:37PM (#60058390)

    It's too late to do anything about the Pixel 5, but here's how to make the Pixel 6 the next phone to die for:

    1. Removable 5,0000mAH battery. Removable, so that when it inevitably starts to lose most of its capacity after 9-15 months, all it'll take is a $20 replacement battery from Amazon to fix it. 5,000mAH, because that's big enough to get most people though a workday and home, yet a double-size 10,000mAH extended battery combined with custom case and replacment back is still a popular size.

    2. MicroSD Express Card slot. Go big, go for the gold. Apple tries to be "bold" by taking things away. Google can be bold by being the first to give us something NOBODY has given us yet... a phone that supports not only MicroSD Express (basically, MicroSD wired up to 1x PCI Express), but implicitly supports UHS-II and UHS-III as well. And do it right... release the full buildable sourcecode to the kernel module needed to support it, so the community at XDA can fix everything wrong with the official version and make it work right. With MicroSD Express, we can finally have microSD cards that are basically miniaturized mSATA SSDs, with performance that theoretically exceeds the phone's own native flash. Hell, for the "XL" version, go with a full-sized non-micro SD slot, just to give first-gen SD Express cards plenty of room.

    3. Unlocked bootloader, and full compatibility with proprietary American network features like VoLTE and wifi calling for the Google-branded version as a condition of selling any carrier-branded variant. If AT&T or Verizon won't agree to it, fuck them. This will be the Android phone to die for, and they'll not only lose subscribers if Google gives them the cold shoulder, they'll ALSO lose subscribers when the people who left in protest tell their friends and family members to leave, too. Put on your big-boy pants, Google. Google, along with Apple, is one of the few companies with the power to beat AT&T and/or Verizon into submission. AT&T and Verizon are about as Proudly Evil as they come. This is Google's chance to look not only non-Evil, but look like the goddamn motherfucking MESSIAH by comparison.

    4. Fingerprint reader, flawless implementation of 802.11 (including all the optional parts needed to make seamless handoffs on a managed network work properly), and front-facing stereo speakers that would make the Razer Phone 2 proud. Fine, go ahead and make the non-XL Pixel 6 a bezel-free with compromised audio if you must, but don't gimp the XL.

    5. Don't even THINK of putting a glass back on it. Ship it with an aluminum back (like the LG V20), and a Qi-kit that replaces the aluminum back with a plastic back & Qi coil, knowing that nobody will actually BUY it because thirdparty ones will end up being cheaper and better-looking anyway, and that it's purely a reference implementation for others to copy and a bullet point to list in the initial press release.

    6. Somewhere behind the back cover, expose the USB bus on testpoints, along with all the signals exposed to a MicroSD Express card. That way, people can make cool add-on modules that run the full gamut from USB to PCI Express & attach with their own custom back covers (including cameras). Take note of the ones that end up working well and being useful, and think of it as free market research for the Pixel 7 or Pixel 8.

    7. Make its "stock" Android AOSP-derived... and release everything necessary to BUILD the stock ROM from a combination of source and binary blobs (for things where Qualcomm & others just won't allow you to release the source). Make it so we can treat the stock ROM as a starting point to extend and make better, instead of having to throw the baby out with the bathwater and waste the phone's first 9 months reinventing the wheel just to get 95% of the way to where the stock ROM was in the first place. If you want, go ahead and copyright the build files & officially restrict their use to only people who own a Pixel 5(XL). Stallman will bitch, and Linus will buy a half-dozen

    • Re:How to make the Pixel 6 XL *not* suck (Score:4)

      by Miamicanes ( 730264 ) on Thursday May 14, 2020 @03:21AM (#60058792)

      Argh, somehow I accidentally deleted an entire paragraph while editing. I forgot one of the most important points of all (though it's somewhat implied by point 8): 1440 x 2560+ display, 120hz refresh.

      Oh... and a touchscreen digitizer that either has something like a 240hz brute-force sampling rate, or its own DSP logic that can reliably figure out that I've touched the screen and have begun a swipe maneuver within 1/60th of a second so I won't have my finger move an entire centimeter across the screen before Android finally figures out that I'm swiping the screen.

      • or its own DSP logic that can reliably figure out that I've touched the screen and have begun a swipe maneuver within 1/60th of a second so I won't have my finger move an entire centimeter across the screen before Android finally figures out that I'm swiping the screen.

        That could be a little dangerous. I still screw up text entry because my Pixel 2 is sometimes interpreting my clicking as a swipe, then it does that stupid gesture input on the keyboard.

    • The aluminium back of the V20 was the reason for its shitty reception - LG had to put crippled antennas into the bezels.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Pixel phones already have an unlocked bootloader. Well, it's locked but only for your security, you can unlock it (which wipes all data because it destroys the chain of trust on the encryption key) with a simple ADB command in a couple of minutes. I think that's fine, it's secure by default but people who want to risk it can unlock easily.

      Qi wireless charging is a hard requirement, can't be optional. Plastic back if you must but glass doesn't actually stop the battery being removable, it's the glue that doe

      • I don't object to Qi, I just object to the glass backs manufacturers use Qi as an excuse for imposing... especially since a Qi coil could just as easily go on the back of a case. With the Qi electronics in the phone, the coil itself is almost academic if the battery and back are removable. Put the default coil on the removable back plate, and allow thirdparty accessories to move it outward to a better location if they'd block the default one.

        Personally, though, I think Qi is presently such a non-negotiable

      • Pixel phones already have an unlocked bootloader. Well, it's locked but only for your security, you can unlock it (which wipes all data because it destroys the chain of trust on the encryption key) with a simple ADB command in a couple of minutes. I think that's fine, it's secure by default but people who want to risk it can unlock easily.

        This was actually one of the biggest selling points for me -- I cared about root access a lot. Granted, once I got the Pixel 2, the reasons for actually wanting root access went away so I didn't crack it.. I didn't need to micromanage storage like I had to on the Samsungs, and I had stopped playing the game that I wanted multiple user profiles in (those were saved to drive, and I used a shell script to swap profiles).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      2/ Remember that Google was one of the first to remove the SD slot. Everything after the Nexus One didn't have one even though it was standard at the time. They were clearly against it, citing potential confusion caused by having several storage volumes.

      5/ For me, the only good material for the back is plastic. Glass is stupid and metal interferes with reception. Good plastic is thin, light and durable. It may not look as good but it is completely irrelevant if you are using a case.

      6/ Good idea, but unfortu

      • Valid point about confusion over how Android used microSD in the past, but Android's new(-ish) AdoptableStorage largely fixes that.

        I agree about plastic backs being superior. They could also compromise... ship with plastic, but design to accommodate (with reduced RF performance) an aftermarket aluminum back. And expose something like microSMA connectors for the antennas, so someone needing a BETTER antenna could get a case with replacement back & oldschool stubs sticking out. The feds might restrict ant

    • 6. Somewhere behind the back cover, expose the USB bus on testpoints, along with all the signals exposed to a MicroSD Express card. That way, people can make cool add-on modules that run the full gamut from USB to PCI Express & attach with their own custom back covers (including cameras). Take note of the ones that end up working well and being useful, and think of it as free market research for the Pixel 7 or Pixel 8.

      When I started reading this I thought ... what the hell ? And by the end of the sen

  • Look what happened to General Electric, they decided they would branch out into everything. They have a financial services and heathcare division, and probably can't even keep track of their own products. Focus on search google.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • GE's real problem was when they got into finance. Made a shit ton of money, but it made their industrial products look like they were under-performing against financial products.

      "Call-me-Jack" Welch Six-Sigma'd their industrial business into the ground, and now they're a shell of what they used to be.

      Like the rest of US business, it turned into a short-term-gain festival of this quarter's numbers and executive cash-outs and debt legacy.

  • Irresponsible management (Score:4, Interesting)

    by khchung ( 462899 ) on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @10:52PM (#60058424) Journal

    Osterloh was not confident about the device in the leadup to launch, either. The report says that "ahead of the [Pixel 4] October launch in New York," Osterloh called an all-hands meeting and shared his misgivings about the phone. He reportedly "did not agree with some of the decisions made about the phone" and that "in particular, he was disappointed in its battery power."

    Then why the heck did he ALLOW the launch to go ahead? And who approved the decision about the battery? Battery life isn't some obscure feature, it is one of the most prominent data in the tech spec.

    Osterloh runs the Pixel team, so this reporting gives some insight into his management style. For a Steve Jobs type, approving these kinds of broad directions would be a big part of his day-to-day decision making. Osterloh, apparently, is more of a hands-off delegator.

    Yeah, obviously he just take credit when things work and blame his subordinates when things went bad. Typical irresponsible manager. Apparently Google picked the wrong guy to run the Pixel team.

    • Skipping a release is a bad look, and once the production has locked in, it's not like you can really go back and change major things. This is the same reason why you're unlikely to see a fingerprint sensor of any type on the iPhone 12 this year, even though a lot of people would like one in these face-covered times—it's much too late. These decisions are locked in months or years in advance, and they happened to make some bad or marginal ones too early on to do anything about it.

      I'm not disagreeing w

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by khchung ( 462899 )

        I'm just saying that he 'allowed' the launch to happen because there was effectively no other choice.

        Leaving himself with only bad choices is poor planning, and for a manager to do so made him an incompetent manager.

        Then speaking as if the bad result was none of his doing made him a despicable manager that no one would want to work for.

  • When I usually think of an ideal phone, I want to combine the features of the best Galaxy Note with those of the best phone Caterpillar makes, add in an easily replaceable battery and the full size SD slot from my old Treo, and that's about the dream hardware I'll expect no one to ever produce. However, this time... Cat has a thermal camera. Have a thermal camera and an app that purports to tell you if a person around you is running a fever. Even if the knowledge does nothing whatsoever to protect you from
  • Something that doesn't pack every feature but is still a good phone at an affordable price. Wild idea but one which might work. Doesn't stop them selling more premium models but the emphasis should be affordable / mid-range up, and not expensive / top-tier down.

    • https://store.google.com/us/pr... [google.com]

      They kinda did bring back the Nexus.

      Maybe there's a 4a forthcoming? If the 3a is any indication, it'll be the better phone of the 3 series.

      • Your link has been switched to the Pixel 3a for some reason, but a search brought up the Nexus; the part that caught my attention though could explain why its future is in doubt:
        If a 5.2-inch phone is too small for you, then you'll want the Galaxy Note-esque 5.7-inch 2560x1440pixel Nexus 6P, built by Huawei in concert with Google

        The quote above is from Gizmodo

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          That's why I say mid-range up. It shouldn't be an afterthought but the primary focus. They can still sell a model with a larger screen or more storage.

  • This is why I think my Pixel 4 is a disappointment

    • Launched with huge microphone problems. Recording from all apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Mp3 recorders etc. was full of buffer-pop noise. I suppose the new sound API version they shipped was not at all implemented in recent app versions. As a result nobody would post anything with sound from their new so called flagship phone. I also use my phone for recording music, this was impossible for months.
    • Ridiculous face unlock performance. Removing the fingerprin

  • I skipped the Pixel 3 and 4 because each model is significantly bigger than the last.

    I'm done with phablets. If the industry doesn't want to sell me shit I actually want, I'll stop using smart phones.

    This shit is ridiculous. Zack Morris phones are supposed to be ironic, not stylish.

  • is no notch! I'd gladly plunge back into the iDevice ecosystem if they got rid of that stupid cut-out at the top of the screen. I'll keep buying Pixels or any half-decent phone that doesn't have a cut-out or hole anywhere in the screen for the stupid front facing camera. How people put up with that rather noticeable notch on iPhones I'll never know.

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