I've been using Android since before it was released in the UK. When I was working at Vodafone, I got a pre-release HTC device with an early version of Android on it. I've been pretty much in the Android ecosystem ever since. Recently, I treated myself to an upgrade - a Pixel 8 Pro. The biggest, fastest, fattest, AI-stuffed Android phone yet. It's pretty good! The camera is excellent, the…
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Some of my best friends are designers. But I think we can all agree that - however well-meaning - they can be a little obsessive. Whether it is fretting over tiny details, or trying to align to a grid which doesn't exist, or spending time removing useful affordances in the name of æsthetics - they always find a way to make something prettier at the expense of usability. Google used to have some …
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Android's user-hostile interface never fails to disappoint! I was struggling to get a new eSIM working. I could make and receive calls / texts, but data just wasn't connecting. I tried rebooting, flipping to aeroplane mode, changing bearer, manually selecting the network. Nothing! Then, I remembered my ancient GSM knowledge. All mobile networks need an APN - Access Point Name - in order to…
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These are notes to myself - and anyone else who finds them useful. Before starting, I booted the Google OS to install the latest firmware and an eSIM. After a few days of enduring Google's naggy software, I was ready to commit to installing something better. I tried using the Web Installer. It managed to flash some of the partitions and then failed with: Failed to execute 'claimInterface' on…
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TfL Go is a handy app. It gives you real-time access to the timetables and delays of London's tube and bus network. That's all you can do with it. You can't buy tickets, store a photocard, or anything like that. Which was why I was annoyed when this popped up in-app one day: I emailed them asking why they were doing this. The reply I got back was underwhelming: Thank you for contacting us…
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I don't know if this is a bug, or just the way the world works now. Several of the people who live in my phone use artistic black and white headshots. They look very cool. But my Android phone shows their image with inverted colours - so they look like pure shite. Here's what my very real human girlfriend looks like when I ring her to go for brunch: Come the evening, my phone switches to Dark …
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It's always a bit concerning when a new icon suddenly appears at the top of your phone's screen. Without any warning, my ageing OnePlus 5T - which now runs LineageOS - started showing this: I know that, from right to left, it is showing me my battery percentage, WiFi strength, and that I'm using work mode. But what's the weird circle? ZOOM! ENHANCE! Well, that's not much help, is it! …
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I'm writing this post in the hope someone will rip off my idea and start selling it on Ali Express. Many years ago, I got a "Pressy". It was a little dongle which fitted into your phone's headphone jack. It had a single button on the top. It came with an app so when you tapped the button the app would do something. For example, tap once to open email, double-tap to switch to flight mode, etc. …
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I want a new phone! I went to a wedding and everyone had one of those new folding phones. Social marketing has done a number on me and inveigled its way into my brain. Hey, I make decent money, perhaps I'll buy one. How much could they possibly cost? About £1,700 for a Pixel Fold or a Galaxy Fold. WHAT THE JUDDERING FUCK!? That's over twice the cost of my laptop. Over 4x the cost of my large …
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I really like this article from Rohan D "Every Phone Should Be Able to Run Personal Website". In it, they make the convincing case that phones are perfectly capable of hosting websites and - if we want more people to escape the walled-gardens - this could be a good way to get people back into self-hosting. I loved hosting a small site on my Nokia N95 back in the day, and I'd be overjoyed if…
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Apple have an Android version of their Apple Music app. The Amazon FireStick runs Android. So you can run Apple Music on the FireStick, right? WRONG! The official advice is to link Apple Music to the Alexa Skill - with its justifiably low review score. But we're hackers, we can do better than that, right? Here's how to run the native Apple Music app on a FireStick so you can listen to some…
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The good folks at InfiRay have sent me their latest Infrared camera to review. It is tiny. It's smaller than a normal USB stick and barely weighs anything. Shove the USB-C protrusion into your Android phone, launch the app, and... nope - that's it! Pretty much instantly plug and play. There's also a reasonably long USB-C extension cable, so you can poke the camera in small places without…
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