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@mikestevens@lemdro.id avatar

mikestevens

@[email protected]

Mumbling about cars at whichcar.com.au | Dad, designer, journalist, photographer, gadgethead, cyclist. Lefty. Proud of my ADHD. 💪 Find me here: getmikestevens.com

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mikestevens ,
@mikestevens@lemdro.id avatar

Hmm. What you’ve posted isn’t far off Samsung’s shade, except for some weirdly wide buttons at the top and a media controller that doesn’t add anything to the experience.

Yes it’s got minor but not insignificant aesthetic differences, but to say Samsung’s is awful and then hold this up as an example of good design… 🤔

Here’s my Samsung’s shade in its two positions (which can be changed to open fully on the first swipe if preferred).

https://lemdro.id/pictrs/image/cf1def90-1021-4074-8099-a71670d10211.png

https://lemdro.id/pictrs/image/1f5b38be-886b-4e8e-aaf1-e8f561a0627a.png

mikestevens ,
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I was referring to the weirdly wide buttons on his shade, not mine. :)

mikestevens ,
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Looks fine, I guess. One UI is getting into that boring zone, but that’s consistency for you.

mikestevens ,
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I’ve got the Galaxy Watch4 and I love it. I get nearly two days of battery, which is fine by my standards, and the UX is snappy as hell.

mikestevens ,
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A very utility-focused home screen for me. I love looking at minimalist home screens, but I always seem to come back to this.

https://lemdro.id/pictrs/image/69204652-f392-4585-a6cd-442fd6e79317.png

mikestevens ,
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Extremely frustrating, but I suppose I get it.

I’ll probably get some airtags. I have an iPhone I don’t use, but I’ve taken to carrying a bag more often when I’m out, so I guess I can just keep the iPhone in there for these sorts of things. (And hope I don’t lose the bag. 😂)

mikestevens ,
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Pretty tempted to order one of these. I really want a folding phone, but damn it’s hard to talk myself into a Fold 5 when I know this exists.

10 years ago, Google launched the 2nd-gen Nexus 7, and no tablet has captured its magic since (www.androidpolice.com)

Ten years ago today, Google released the 2nd-generation Nexus 7, just days after a surprise announcement. Back then, Android tablets still felt fresh and exciting. It seemed like anything was possible, and things could only improve from there. Well, we know what happened next. But the depressing state of the tablet market to...

mikestevens ,
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I had the first gen, and it wasn’t great in terms of performance, but damn I Ioved it. Very fond memories.

Also, I do have to chuckle at the progress since then. My S23 Ultra’s screen is almost as large at 6.8 inches, yet the overall device is much smaller and obviously much, much, much more powerful. Progress!

mikestevens ,
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Hmm. I have a Tab S4, a Tab S6 Lite and a Tab S8, and the S8 is markedly quicker.

mikestevens ,
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Honestly can’t say enough good things about my Tab S8. I use it for editing photos in Lightroom Mobile, and it works so damn well with the stylus. Very responsive and fast.

mikestevens ,
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Sorry yes, those are all Samsung model names that I was listing.

Well, I can’t speak for the Lenovo experience as I’ve never used one, and I’ll happily admit that any Samsung device needs a little tweaking to begin with, but I use my Tab S8 regularly for editing 60mb RAW photos off my full-frame camera and I can confidently say it performs very well.

My daughter uses my Tab S6 Lite and it’s more than up to meeting her demands — which includes a lot of educational games and so on.

My son uses my Tab S4 and he’s had no complaints either.

I mean, there’s not much else a tablet is meant for, really!

mikestevens ,
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That’s what he said.

mikestevens ,
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the unsaid part is that they’re focused more on productivity apps than social apps, but I could be wrong. Also wouldn’t be surprised if Instagram doesn’t care about getting downranked, given its brand and market awareness somewhat transcends the need to appear in top-apps lists.

mikestevens ,
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What carrot? A carrot is an incentive. Google didn’t embrace the tablet format until very recently, in the grand scheme of things. They haven’t offered devs any special deals that I’m aware of — say a revenue split from the play store or paying them to deliver a tablet version of their app — so they didn’t incentivise devs to focus on Android tablets.

iPads have dominated the market for so long, and remain a fairly predictable and consistent device to develop for, so… why would an app developer have poured time into an app for Android tablets in years past?

Samsung might make a shock return to Exynos for the Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy S24 models (www.pocket-lint.com)

Pocket-lint has been told by a reliable source that Samsung may be considering using its own Exynos hardware again for the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE and potentially the 2024 Galaxy S24 series in some regions, moving away from Snapdragon....

mikestevens ,
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Hmm, yeah, I don’t have it yet here in Australia. I tend to prefer SwiftKey anyway, but this looks like a pretty handy feature!

mikestevens ,
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Nova. I actually really like the One UI launcher anyway, but I’m just used to Nova. Mostly just the extra gestures and the bigger home grid. Not interested much in the cosmetic tweaks it’s able to make.

But yeah, One UI is quite good too. I got used to it back when Android gesture nav didn’t play nice with 3p launchers.

mikestevens OP ,
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Thanks, bot. Three of the four suggestions are what I already said I’m not looking for, and as ‘you’ noted, the fourth isn’t available on Android — regardless of it maybe potentially possibly being in the works.

I also can’t find any evidence that an Android version of Spectre is in the works…

mikestevens ,
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Apart from Disabled, I tried each of these and didn’t get a picker with an overflow menu. Disabled is the only one that allowed me to get to the system media picker.

https://lemdro.id/pictrs/image/d774171c-769a-4f26-b7de-255948c55b39.png

mikestevens ,
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Aaah, of course. Yeah, none of the options gave me that older picker, apart from Disabled of course.

mikestevens ,
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I prefer my Tab S8 over my 2019 iPad Pro, because all I use my tablet for is editing photos and watching media — but because it has user profiles, I can also share it with my young kids and control their app and content access, etc. So, Android is a very easy win for me in that regard.

mikestevens ,
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It is, but I find Infinite Painter is largely up to the task for most of my drawing needs — and what it lacks aren’t significant enough reasons to splash out on an ipad.

mikestevens ,
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It does, yeah, but not giving it to you is part of how they’ve sold so many iPads. Think of how many parents and couples would be happy with one shared multi-user iPad instead of having to buy one for each user.

mikestevens ,
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I hear you, but at the same time, there are so few apps I want to use on a tablet more than I’d prefer to use it on my phone – which is likewise always with me.

Reading comics, watching video, editing photos, drawing, reading meal recipes on the kitchen bench… that’s about the extent of my tablet use. Browsing social media? I’d rather do it on my phone. Productivity, notes, gaming? Even that, I’d rather do on my phone – if not my Macbook, of course.

So it’s been a pretty easy decision for me to stick with Android tablets, especially Samsung, which obviously ties in well with my S23U.

mikestevens ,
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Briefly thought this was saying that Android was finally getting a native notes app as capable as Apple’s notes app…

I use my S Pen a lot, but never for writing. It’s generally just photo editing, sketching, annotation, etc. I’ll be bloody sad if Samsung ever ditches the silo!

mikestevens ,
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Looks great! I’ll be watching the progress on this one, for sure. Keep us updated!

mikestevens ,
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Man. I had no idea LocalSend existed. I’ve been looking for something like this for ages. I’d been using Snapdrop on and off, but it was pretty unreliable.

I use MacOS, so this shit has never been as simple for me as it should be!

mikestevens ,
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You don’t… You don’t think any exec cares about user experience, do you? Well, they do, but only to the extent that everything they do is just below our threshold for leaving in outrage.

mikestevens ,
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Oh no doubt. I don’t have one yet though, so I’m watching closely. The new hinge makes it appealing for me, but I know it’ll likely be the 6th gen that introduces more significant changes.

mikestevens ,
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This reminds me of how glad I am that so few people in my life use whatsapp. It’s improved over the last few years, but I still find it an ugly and frustrating platform.

mikestevens ,
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I’m in Australia, haha. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of Aussies use it. It just hasn’t been something I’ve been forced into yet!

mikestevens OP ,
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Hahaha, this is me. Nailed it.

mikestevens ,
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💯

It’s what stopped me getting one. There’s just no way I’m gonna bother listening to media on the thing, only to have it stop if I want to pick up the tablet and sit on the couch.

I assume they did this to keep the speaker cheap enough to include for free and at a compelling price for as many people as possible. Here’s hoping they, or a third party, release a premium version at some point!

mikestevens ,
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They got ya.

mikestevens ,
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Still just using the PWA, tbh. It’s not perfect but I’m overall pretty happy with it. Probably won’t move to an app until Sync or Artemis launch.

mikestevens OP ,
@mikestevens@lemdro.id avatar

Nice! I’m pleased to say my S23U holds up to editing lots of huge photos without getting too hot, so I’m stoked with that.

I also use a Tab S8 (did you mean Tab S8 series btw?) and it performs well too.

mikestevens OP ,
@mikestevens@lemdro.id avatar

Love this, you’ve described my exact process. I keep a compact SD reader in my EDC, and I’ll often get my RAWs onto my phone before I get home, get some selects and crops and light edits done, and then take over on my MacBook — the photos having synced in Adobe cloud before I even get home.

mikestevens OP ,
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That’s interesting, I’ve honestly had zero issues with LR on my S23U! It’s been an absolute dream.

mikestevens OP ,
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An Ultra, you mean. 😉

But yep, I went from an S21 Ultra with no stylus, to the S23 Ultra with siloed stylus, and it’s wild how much use I get out of the stylus. Absolute dream phone.

mikestevens ,
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111 days here 😉

mikestevens ,
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This is the level-headed reply I was hoping for.

mikestevens ,
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Well, yeah, but right now lemmy is pretty convenient. No instances are asking users to pay or donate, and obviously many people would sooner flee to another instance than accept the idea of paying for the service they use. But that can’t work for an actual business.

mikestevens ,
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Do you pay for youtube premium?

mikestevens ,
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Must admit I’m perfectly happy with the free tier of feedly.

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