From the internet this is tech laundry a weekly show broadcasted live on Google Hangouts where I chevy bear and my buddy Tris is with a day top tech and shoot the shit here we go Welcome everybody to the 24th episode of tech laundry. I'm Jeff and I'm Tris. Yes, and today we have a very special guest He's the third man the very first time we've ever had a third person on the show. I believe that's the first time I've I've like taken as a bad before You have you have and we've three episodes when I mean my roommates Matt did it It was quite good loved a game game it up.
So please welcome Ben Ben introduce yourself hello, I'm Ben That's a sweet that is a sweet intro. I try 10 minutes writing that yeah, hey, I'm Ben. I mean like you have a bunch of like Nice it was everything we needed really I mean I want to break it gave you a good break now brag now Speaking of bragging I don't know about that's actually a thing. Oh, five is a thing and as a person who has never really own an Xbox in his entire life But has always been shot everybody else's Xbox it released yesterday today It's the day and it's like a midnight kind of thing like it was 9 p.m.
Yesterday because I guess Eastern time was midnight Yeah, okay, so I go for you Yeah, I know you're like the type of person that like you will power like you play the game you power through the entire story So that way the next day you can't get spoiled you just experienced everything before everybody else did So yeah, it's good. You know me too. Well, it was great. Yeah, I'm a really big story person and halo Specifically has like just got me in its claws as far as sorry as our story goes So it was good.
It's hard to talk about the story without smiling anything, but it was good It was good. Okay in terms of like how would you rank halo 5 in terms of all the others? How high would it be on like the ranking all the other halos? Yeah, number one Really be all the other hey as far as story goes though.
You're saying overall. I guess oh I do not have enough experience I've overall to rate it I mean I only played the campaign and I played one multiplayer match I can't comment at all on multiplayer because I don't have any experience there as far story goes like just pure story Actually, no, I take it back number two the first Story was like it's hard to set up such a big universe like that and they did it very well But the story in halo 5 couldn't be possible without the universe that halo one set up Damn so if I was to like come in and just start playing halo 5 would I be like what the hell's going on? Yes, it would not be anywhere near as like Fundably, I guess it would not be fun to play you would not understand what's going on You wouldn't understand half of the terms they're using okay I'm not you wouldn't understand some of the terms that they're using that are like pretty core to the storyline I would not recommend doing that but if you do want to get into it Yeah, you should so would you like recommend? Would you like to make people like okay?
You have to buy the master chief collection edition or whatever? I mean, it's hard to recommend it. Is that like fixed? I know people have a lot of problems with like the master chief collection the problems with master chief collection were mostly in Multiply around they were mostly around release I again.
I'm not like a big multiplayer person I don't know if the multiplayer problems have been solved But I haven't heard as many complaints about them since you know a month or two after it came out So I assume that they're fixed as far as recommending that sort of I don't know It's like timeline of like playing all the games. It's really hard to do It's really hard to say you should play five hours or sorry five games each consisting of like seven to ten hours of gameplay before Doing xyz like before playing this game You really have to want to do it And if you want to do it that badly you probably don't need me to convince you to do it No, dude, so speaking of like space opera stuff. I totally just finished watching Firefly. Have you ever seen that?
Have we ever seen that we ever seen that? What kind of a question is that yeah, no I Far from exactly top five shows. I've ever watched in my time like that. Yeah, I just like I just Started Saturday and I just finished maybe two hours ago So I'm gonna watch the movie after we record this or watch the field I haven't seen Serenity yet So we'll see and what the thing here's the thing is I already know you know some of the details because it's been around for a while Yeah, yeah, especially since I read like I own nine a lot that like I know There's some horrible things that happen because it's Joss Whedon and he's a murderer.
He loves doing that He loves the good old age What what made you start on the series just curious? Okay, so I promised my friend who got married on Saturday that I would watch it at some point and since she got married I was like, okay, I guess I'll just do it in honor of her So I just like watched the first nine episodes on Sunday and then I finished it today That's that's a funny thing to honor on honor of your marriage. Oh, do you like someone when someone dies? You know you honor their last wish but this was like a marriage like I mean Please kill yourself or something they made a big stink about me not watching firefly.
Okay, it was just Yeah, everyone's writing on me like how would you be like this kind of nerd guy? I have never seen firefly. How do you not know what a brown coat is? I get that sometimes about Star Trek Yeah, I get that about Star Trek to you.
I feel like like they I've seen enough of Star Trek to know to like get to working knowledge of Star Trek But like people dream that episode where like you ever was playing the game and like became like game consume them and like the Borg and like Picard and I don't know man. You're dropping really good turns. I'm not understanding you slow down That's it. Yeah, like there's very like fire.
I love firefly I think there's very few shows like it that are like so charming and fun to watch and like you just like love the characters and like the story and the universe is so interesting and It really is I really like the whole a mishmash of the western and the you know space opera kind of thing I definitely see you know some garden scallops see how that influence garden see galaxy and all that and just a sheer joy of it all But one thing though, I hate that opening sequence so much. I love the song But it really had this like really cheesy 90s kind of awfulness to it Did you did you not like the opening sequence like the one where they're like the title sequence? No, it's like take my room to get that one. I love this song I love the song but like just I really hated the aesthetic of that I mean the graphics won't hold up as well, but I didn't really mind Yeah, once they get it passed like once in a time is past we just like oh, it's an older show.
It's fine I think I mean overall if you told someone like hey guys, there's a great show It's a cowboy space themed genre. That's a hard sell like someone's like oh, I don't know space It's not it's not a hard sell it. I think it's a bit more It's not really for casual viewing. I don't think I don't think you can just jump into the middle of the show and know exactly what's happening No, you definitely have to you definitely a lot of the yeah, there's a little lots of little things going on in there that wow I did not realize what we talk about this much like that seriously I don't see that stuff cowboy.
There's a right there. Can we be a lot of posting right never seen it never seen that same great great show Really maybe you watch like I think it's only 12 to over 24 episodes I can't reverse two seasons or not I was one It might just be one and like it feel the whole move like show feels like a singular movie and it's like I love I love art So I love the story and I love you first. Yeah, I there's another one that I have like Akira I've never seen Akira everyone. Yeah, it's like one of those like I feel bad for not seeing this because it's so much a part of like just nerd culture to be you know to love Like Star Trek and all that crap and I thought Akira was one of those kind of like must watch kind of deals like you know Like you meet somebody who's never seen like episode four and you just want to throw a brick out at them Yeah, it's funny.
I was watching YouTube video where a guy was doing a Q&A He's like I've never he's like a 35 year old kind of like he's a proud nerd guy And he's like he's never seen Star Wars and like he's like he's like so like he's like everybody just gets so upset I say that like like you've never seen star. Well, you're gonna watch right now He's like no I just don't have any interest in like the universe or whatever, but then like people still get mad Oh, and yeah, I don't know what I mean I just I feel like like Star Wars I feel like that's how people feel about the Bible, you know like you've never read the Bible You got I mean I got a read the butt you have to read the heart of a little bit. I mean it's got everything you want magic Vengeance God it's got yeah, vengeance got it's got I mean if you if you really it's got prostitutes and justice and crazy Like incest both yeah seriously Large books little boats boats boats boats. No, no no boats and like vegetable Jewish men.
It's like everything I've wanted a show. I mean what can I say that's every single checkbox I have yeah, right? Why haven't you read the Bible? Corinthians broke Corinthians wish they should really take the Bible and like just turn it into a drama like but like I think they've done that I think it's called the Bible.
There was a show called the Bible not a joke I think that's pretty recent. I think was like this year last year I think there's something like that. They should read yeah, and they made the devil look like Barack Obama Huh? It's not a joke.
That's not a dis that's not like a terseous joke. That's a true fact look it up search the Bible Barack Obama I don't wait. It's not something. I know it's gonna show up me like oh you must love Barack Obama So I show you ads everything has help with like Barack Obama's ads about Barack Obama His acting team Maybe that was him.
I think you're mistaken. I think he plays a Anyhow, let's get into the show 12 minutes in rock and start So with the dawn of the not the Nexus 5x we talked about a few weeks ago Then here is a huge Android user particularly with the Nexus line and he has received the 5x last week And he's had about five week. I don't know how long have you had it been. I don't know.
I've had it four days Four days, so how wait so before we get into the need to greet the of it Let's talk about like your nexus kind of you know like life I guess so what is the first nexus device you purchase like what is your shatch to them first? I guess is the main kind of idea I want to try to see first. Yeah sure so My first smartphone wasn't an iPhone Jeff remembers this was an iPhone 3G. Oh, yeah, and it was really good Yeah, like it was operating from a non smartphone to a smartphone so no matter what that phone is it's gonna be good.
I I'm not sure why I decided to try out Android after that, but I got a an HTC incredible was looking back as like a really crappy phone, but I I couldn't really say no to just like I guess the customization options of Android and My second phone after that was a droid DNA, which was very like powerhouse It was a very powerful phone, but still had you know HTC since plastered on top of it I think I kind of started catching on to the fact that everything I eventually grew to hate about my smartphones was manufacturer inflicted in terms of software and Eventually got a used galaxy nexus. It's already been out for a while and I don't know why I didn't pick up on it when it came out But I think I traded my DNA in for a used galaxy nexus that was worse like in every respect in terms of hardware It was worse than the one that I had and I loved it It was like the best phone I had ever used it was so clean There was no stupid ESPN apps on it that I couldn't take off for some Yes, yeah, you know those months you get a phone from horizon It has this like bloatware stuff on it yeah And even though like Android kind of allows you to disable those apps They're never quite gone and that always irked me It was just super great having the pure Android experience and that was maybe six years ago Actually, no, I think it was more like four years ago, and I have not had a non-Nexus Android device since then Wow, that's really interesting and that's five more nexus devices. I have how you you've rifled through your phone I've got my big sack of nexus devices here. Mm-hmm.
There are five of them plus the gonzi nexus that I had Yeah, he has like a nexus or a nexus sandwich or a net no, I don't know if the term would be for it Damn, so well to go so It was like oh man, you know I actually had the exact same experience with Like kind of seeing bloatware I think like I think what you just try like everyone's just kind of grabbing at phones in the beginning like oh, you know This has all these features and all that and no one really knew what stock meant or you know what what where meant then up until you just Really started noticing like I don't really need all this crap on my phone And I think that's when I started reading up on it and research it and and trying to figure out How can I get all this Samsung bloatware out of this freaking phone because I like the phone? But I will never use all these weird Samsung apps and that's how we figured like you know learn about you know Just stock Android and pure Android and I still remember I had a galaxy S3 and I like for God for like three or four days I would not stop reading about trying to like side-load the Google experience app launcher on there Just because I hated how the freaking Samsung like icons looked I remember like I tried to find like icon replacements and everything Just because I wanted just cleans myself of all that crap. Yeah, something that wasn't like, you know like 3d It's kind of trying to do it like it's just got like a coating of wax something So yeah, that's exactly that's how I think I can you know relate to that kind of idea like fuck bloatware Yeah, it really is and like it's just so funny that like I would have never expected when like because like we're kind of You still having it on like if you buy a PC from a big name manufacturer They're gonna have like bootware on there You're gonna load it and then have a bunch of just front load it after just because that's how they make money by like you We give you X money you include like anti-virus software on there Yeah, and that's just what it works But then now they're doing it's phones or something that's like so much more personal you carry it around and so I'm so glad that With recent offerings for from Google that the Nexus line has really stood the test of time and particularly these last two models the 5x and 6p Are how you say pretty fucking nice? So to for those who want like technical details, I mean No, there's nothing actually no technical details You can look at our past episode on that one and you know what's funny too is like the fact that since these next Us of the vice have become more popular a lot more companies have started scaling back on like the apps They've you know put in I know the galaxy s6, you know It was kind of like how to get back that there's very little bloatware on there So the next is how really kind of shaped the rest of the Android market not to mention when you when you're using an x-ophone You get the software updates quicker than any other manufacturer.
So everybody who has an excess right now is running a marshmallow So, so Ben what has been your your last your few days of impressions? How has it been since like you're so what did you upgrade from initially good question? I upgraded from Well, that's a little bit complicated. So I had the Nexus 5 when it came out I bought the Nexus 5 when it came out about the Nexus 6 when it came out, which was the last generation and then I Break my Nexus 6.
Okay, how did you break it? What did you do? I don't think I want to explain the whole story because it's a little bit long and it requires a lot of context but there's a software toggle in the Nexus 6 and 9 I believe that is unique to those two devices. I think that basically prevents you from wiping Android.
It's a security feature It's like if you haven't flipped the switch in your phone's operating system the ruler will not let you sideload anything onto it And I got into this weird state where I had flipped the switch off sideloaded something on flip the switch on and then formatted the device and so I was left in the state where there's no operating system But the toggle which is somewhere on the phone I'm not sure where it is still prevented the bootloader from sideloading anything else Oh, I don't think that it's a permanent brick Which is like a little bit oxymoronic but as far as I know there's no one on XDA or anyone who knows actually how to flip This switch without actually having Android on the device so for the time being it's bricked damn so I Pulled my Nexus 5 out of the drawer and started using that until The 5x came out which was actually not even the name for it yet It was just rumors at the time and I waited like a few months for that to happen So I'm coming directly from the Nexus 5 to the Nexus 5x but I've used the 6 Okay, which is like you know the X is like the kind of just obvious successor to the original 5 in terms of size and all that Yeah, that's correct That's like I didn't think it would be as correct as as that but it definitely is like after using the 5x It is the 5 it's the Nexus 5x is the Nexus 5 to For all intents and purposes Every company like the Nexus like your Nexus iPhone 6s and it's good with the 7 like Oh, no, it gets worse than you have the plus on there the I mean the iPhones could have avoided this Before slapping an s on anything I think I think the problem that the Nexus line experienced was that they Incremented the version and they also just so happened to increment the screen size by about an inch every generation until you know You can't keep incrementing the screen size into like 11 12 inch phones So eventually you have to settle on a size and at that point Okay, so Sorry, okay, so I remember you're also in a weird carrier situation You're using like T-Mobile data only as far as I know right or like texting and data I'm no longer in that situation because it was really complicated to get that relationship to work smoothly with T-Mobile I did have a what's called a hearing impaired phone line through T-Mobile Which is their way of saying it's a date only line But it's for a phone because they for some reason still distinguish between tablets and phones So as far as they were concerned, I was a deaf person who had a phone line that couldn't be used to make phone calls But was very cheap like it was I think I was paying somewhere between 20 and 30 dollars for to get two gigabytes Like the whole bill was $20 $30 not just that line But yeah, that relationship got a little bit complicated to maintain and I had to do all sorts of work around to get Google voice to work Over data and stuff like that. So I eventually dropped it and just I've ready to a full phone line with unlimited data And it's much simpler. Yeah, I do only use the data part though from those parts Were they ever like shocked on a phone you called support and they were responding awfully fast for a deaf person No, no, so when I say as far as they were concerned I was deaf I don't mean they actually thought I was deaf I just mean in their system I had a deaf person's line the way I got the deaf person's line was not by lying It was by explaining my situation to them and they said basically that's interesting But we do have a thing that accommodates that it's called hearing impaired. Yeah, let's pick you on it That seems crazy to me because it's like we don't like literally know in the entire organization was like no one wants just data So we have to relegate it to someone who has a disability Hey Jeff, do you remember how I used to live before that was like so poor that I couldn't afford a data plan?
Like remind me. Okay, so I used to have a sample. This is what I had to sample in Galaxy S3 Basically, I lived off of Wi-Fi and like so I would only go to class at like my house and sometimes at the bit You know the bars. I would just have no service So like people are always like oh how do I contact you so I like downloaded like a like a text messaging app Which I get to pay like a dollar for like so in someone a minute or whatever But to try to like get around that I used to do the Google surveys thing and they'll give you like credits So use those credits to pay for like this stuff.
Oh my God. I still do I still do the Google surveys Yeah, and you know it's a good way to get free stuff and that's I remember that's how I Like kind of got through like not being able to pay my phone bill But then when I went to New York, I actually got a freedom pop One of those little like hotspot thingies, which she was like oh we got like five hundred megabytes of free internet And I use that to text and stuff and I was like traveling. It was just the biggest pain in the ass Damn, it's like a that's that's that's like I mean, that's how a poor person But it's not like a dirtiest poor person I don't live without it, but I'm not gonna pay for it So like I took every kind of like sidestep approach to it. It's bonkers So it's instead of asking people for food You just like yeah, but my past you know what?
The table until someone knows what the wife has it is and they'll like tell you it because sometimes it's secret or whatever the owner There's actually this big secret interconnected group of poor people using cell phones to exchange Wi-Fi passwords with each other Really? No, I'm joking That'd be awesome to just like all the Wi-Fi thingies in the area you would just know it so you could just like hop on whenever you move forward or something That'd be nuts. That'd be amazing I know Google already like saves your like your Wi-Fi passwords to their clouds when you migrate to new phone or device It's just like oh you're doing the keys So I'm like somewhere some about someone out there if they were like kind of engineer I'm just like I'm gonna have it so my cloud just has all And then you wouldn't have any problems. You have to like make friends with all of your neighbors It's make me friends.
Yeah, right? Just pay $50 a month and I have to talk to anyone or just have to like frickin like load up all like Linux instance to like try and crack They're like wpa pass like really like it's nothing so many like hoops just to get internet I remember so long ago. I wanted this device called a Milo It was a Sony Milo was in for the my life online and it only worked on Wi-Fi It was just like like like they wanted to work so well Like so much but like the thing is it doesn't work on sale and like back in the day There was like why like Wi-Fi was not anywhere near like ubiquitous is it kind of is now like you should go to a store So they probably have something but then it was like nothing so it's like so we're gonna use this like home on the couch And maybe a Starbucks down street and I'm like I'm never at Starbucks. So Yeah, times have changed even though it hasn't actually been that much time So anyways, so let's talk about build quality.
Let's talk about like okay, can you compare the previous five to the five X? I can They're really quite similar I got a blue one. I don't really know what to say the build quality is good Like it feels like a sturdy phone. It doesn't feel like anything's gonna snap off or it doesn't feel flimsy You know all your checkboxes for a decent quality build.
Sorry. What if you do the shake and you hear something? You can do the shake test. I can yeah You're like premium phone Oh, that's what the piece has for its desperate Pete plastic I don't know I was trying to see if my brain would come up with something clever for it did not pieces of plastic So it feels nice.
How's the weight comparatively? It's a little bit heavier Yeah, it feels like a five inch phone. Nothing surprising about it I'm actually quite surprised with how slick the fingerprint sensor is on the back Yeah, it looks just like another part of the back case like it doesn't look like there's a fingerprint sensor There just looks like a circle around some weird area of the case Yeah, it just looks like the Motorola like dimple of the Simple yeah, they finally have a functional dimple. Well, it's not a dimple actually.
This is a Motorola It's just yeah, that's what I mean. It looks like something that kind of Motorola wish they had the It makes me think like is there a point in time where we'll get to a phone that has a fingerprint sensor on the entire back So you don't have to finger and still it sounds expensive I'm trying to think of a phone. There's there's a recent phone I don't have a name escapes me, but there is one that actually has a fingerprint sensor on the power button or the sleep But so you click it anyhow and it already just you inherently click it Well, that's it's not on the sleep week. It's on the side.
It's on the home Oh, it's actually on the side. So as you grab your phone Okay, and I think the the fingerprint sensor on the new Nexus which is called next imprint That's the brand name that's the brand name terrible name really It's town so sciencey doesn't doesn't roll off the tongue the next imprint dude imprint like just solid now I agree it's kind of a weird name, but on the other hand, I don't really care I'm not really gonna be calling it by name. Yeah, it's just the thing that I put my finger on wait wait The fingers here that's what I call it Broken, so why did you choose the five like X versus the six feet? Obviously the six feet is like a much more premium device.
It's like all-male instruction You know it looks pretty freaking cool looks like it's definitely a phone that like a stormtrooper would use why Cool like it has like a little visor at the top. Why didn't you choose the more expensive kind of premium handset? The size that's all comes down to for me is the size. I don't really care about the money.
I don't really care about the Specs a bunch. It's really just the size I mean obviously I care about the specs I want my battery to laugh I want the phone to feel fluid But I use the six as I said before I used the six before moving back to the five the original five and After moving back to the original five I started to realize holy crap the six sucked I Couldn't move my hand to the far left of the stream while it's in one hand It's pull out because Android commonly has menus that pull out from the left side of the screen And if you're holding the phone in your right hand You have to reach through them all the way over to the left side of the phone And I constantly either couldn't do it dropped the phone while I was doing it or was successful But it just felt really weird to do and I never had that problem when I downgraded back to the five So that's really like the only thing it came down to for me was I want this one to feel comfortable while I'm using in one hand I mean you already got the stock engine because it is an excess device So I guess it was the only if you don't care about metals and all that I mean I I care a little bit but not enough to actually make the decision for me. Yeah, then you don't regret it at all No, I don't I see something really cool about the six P that I'm missing out on I just pick up my six and I Do the most I don't even have to turn on I just do the motion of trying to reach my thumb over to left And I'm like oh, yeah, that was why good thing Only my hands were just a little bigger and see if they grow a little bit next year You always do the test to like see if you can reach. Okay, so let's turn the conversation a bit Jeff You just got your six S plus yes I did and you operate from a five so it's kind of comparable in terms of sizes How have you been reacting to the size difference?
Because it's a huge jump, right? It is so like okay, so I will say I upgraded so quickly because like okay, so here's my phone It's shattered so that's a six. This is the five and you can see like in there I dropped it like I've got my phone a lot and I've always it's always been caseless for the last For three years like two and a half three years and it served me well But it finally like just I just dropped it from hip-hop and it just shattered and I was like GG it's over So so I've been looking forward to upgrade to the plus and I've always like if you compare like the two early Just like a pair side-by-side like this is the new phone This is like my old phone and like you can just it just completely it warps it. It's like this phone is like it's really big but I So far, I mean, I just got this like I literally is only three hours So like who knows a week from now me like fuck this size But like right now I'm like I'm loving it.
I I love I'm a big media consumer. So like I'm on YouTube I'm watching twitch twitch TV such a big boxes You can you can like I just like I like big text so like I'm reading text I just wrote my reading credits. It's just really nice like I like my text was just gonna white balance I guess my camera won't can't handle the brightness of my phone right now It just the screen real estate was a big problem for me and while this is like a really nice more factor like my five Sure, it was small and but I could did everything fine And like yeah, I was then said I can reach any point on the screen with one hand and not have it be an issue But I just I want to try bigger screen and so far I'm digging it I'm digging it for sure. It's not as big as the six.
I will say the six is straight up just six inches, right? Yeah, and I It's pretty close So how about you like do you ever like miss the whole kind of the viewing experience on your six versus your current five? X not a ton obviously it's nice I watched YouTube videos once in a while maybe once every one or two days not a ton probably something with twitch I'm more of a desktop computer consumer of twitch and YouTube So yeah, I didn't get a whole lot of use out of the enhanced media experience It was nice to to get the use that I did but it wasn't really worth You know just hassle and the kind of just yeah I mean that's one of my things with my six is that like you know They gave the reach ability function and I never use that I'll just force my thumb higher and it never feels comfortable Yeah And I really do think if I had a choice between Like a five with the internals of a six out of a chosen the five because of that same reason because I feel like I do most My multimedia consumption on my desktop on my laptop and I just want my phone to not be so cumbersome Yeah, honestly if there were one thing that would have made me get the six P it would have just been the battery I I loved having the battery of the six. I loved being able to end the day at like 52% which was ridiculous That's ridiculous, but it's just not worth it There so yes, so speaking about how is your how is the battery been on the five?
It's been so while in use it's been about the same as my five was Like not super impressive better than mine was just because my phone was old and the battery was dying But Does is great. Do you know what does? Yes, so I for those who were not in the know do tell us what does this so does is Android I guess March my life is a hardware hardware requirements for it or not but it's marshmallows new way of Lowering your battery consumption while your phone is doing nothing So if you set it down on a table and you don't move it You don't touch it. You don't turn on the screen it enters does which is Basically just cutting off all your applications sinks and internet and battery using features until you know Let's say 10 minutes from now at which point there will be 30 seconds for all the options to be able to sink And then it'll like keep expanding that area like then it'll be 20 minutes before they can sink And then it'll be an hour before they can sink I don't know if there's actually the real numbers But it basically lets you put your phone on a table and go to bed and wake up with only a few percentage points of battery used So it sounds like if your phone doesn't like kind of detect any movements like with a gyroscope or accelerometer It like puts up on airplane mode basically.
I'm not familiar with what airplane mode is like it just cuts off all like all they kind of Data signals and all that and I kind of yeah, that's a good way to do that Okay, and you can you can look at the battery the battery graphs for when does is on and it's just flat Like the better consumption just flattens out when it's dosing. It's very obvious when it's happening. It's great That's awesome. Yeah, that kind of just kind of like made me want to just get a new webcam because my webcam would have not been able to do that Did you see that auto contrast in auto?
Oh, yeah? Yeah, you actually use it Amazing. Oh, okay, so going to your next topic house Android and working on for you there So I'm gonna be cautious when I say this I don't really notice a lot of changes It seems like just a slightly more refined Android experience The two things I have noticed are now on tap which I haven't actually gotten used out of yet I use it once in a while just to access Google now, but I haven't really had much use for the contextual now on tap stuff Yeah, it's not like when you hold like like a press and hold and it kind of shows you search results on kind of what you have on screen Yeah, it basically reads all the text on your screen and tries to give you Google now cards relevant So if your friend says hey, let's go watch the Martian today, you can press your home button I think that's exactly like the like the example they use and that's why it's the example I'm using It's current events it's movies. It's maybe they're getting ad money from it.
It's a good example And I wish that's sweet. Um, so yeah, really does end and now on tap really only differences I notice in marshmallow Yeah, I guess do you have like other than those who you have like three more of your favorite Android M features that you didn't notice before? No, I don't I can't even list three more features I mean I haven't been looking at changelogues or anything like that. I am a casual Android M upgrade I'd received a phone with Android M on it and I started using it and that's my experience with Android M So I actually don't know of any other differences.
Those are the only two I've noticed well I mean that from what I read it's a lot of refinement on something that's already really good So I guess that kind of bearers you're kind of experienced with it. It's not really a giant leap forward But like let's make it cleaner a more kind of stable approach to a really good operating system Yeah, and I don't want to like undersell that that's super great Like if they spend 90% of their efforts on things that I never notice I will continue to be happy with Android because it will still feel Or it will continue to be feeling smooth and great and smoother and greater But it's hard for me to notice those things. I guess my final thing on the phone is the camera A lot of people that's like what a make or break thing for them and as a bonafide next user You probably know about the kind of biggest drawback of next is are their cameras. Can you talk to us about that?
I can talk you about how I've heard the biggest drawbacks of Nexus's Unfortunately, even though three of my immediate family members are Semi-professional photographers I know nothing about cameras and I could not tell you if a photo was taken with a good camera or a bad camera So I'm thankfully immune to that disadvantage of Nexus's I've noticed that you can double tap the power button to access the camera from screen off or screen on that's kind of cool That's really the chop chop stuff like if you the chop chop yeah, the twist yeah What is that you like double twist yeah, you double twist to turn a camera on for of the Motorola one, but this is the Oh for the oh I see I've never tried that motion before but it seems like the awkward Sometimes still the chopped up turn my flashlight on even though I'm using an iPhone it makes no sense But I just want that feature like I like how it replicates like how you would actually just bang on like a flash Like yeah, yeah, but this doesn't make sense in turning on your camera Like a double tapping the power button does like hurry up. Let's go So what we did okay, so what are some of the things that keep you in the Android ecosystem? Like give me like a list of like top top three top things that keep you in the Android ecosystem Why haven't you thought about you know what go on iPhone now? Oh I thought about it great cap.
Oh, you have yeah Make no mistake. I thought about it. Yeah, all right number one is definitely Google voice about maybe five years ago I converted my phone number to Google voice or not actually convert my phone number I like got a Google voice phone number and I started telling all my friends. Hey replace the phone number you have for me with this one this is my new phone number and It took a long time for actually that to propagate out to all the people that I know but now every single person that I know Has my phone number for my Google voice account and I can switch carrier carriers like with no problem I can have data only lines with no phone numbers like I did for a while and it's great All my text messages come through on Hangouts all my voicemails come through on Hangouts transcribed for me I can access both of those things from my phone my tablet my computer my laptop anywhere I wouldn't trade it for the world It's it's the coolest thing that my phone doesn't have any functions that my computer doesn't I literally never need to pick up my phone If I'm home because everything that I can do on it.
I can do on my computer That's number one damn. All right, number one I think number two this one's maybe more abstract I don't really think that I'm the type of person who's comfortable with having some things in one ecosystem and some things in another if I try to switch to the Apple ecosystem I will have this weird fragmented world where some of my contacts are in iCloud because I want to try it out Some of my males are in Google because I'm still using Gmail because you know I could I want to get a list of reasons And I would just like ultimately feel worse that I don't feel like I have one home as weird as it Sounds to call a digital ecosystem at home It's it's nice that all my contacts are in general because I can start typing their names into Google or into Gmail to bring up Their phone numbers or whatever and it's nice that all my music is in Google music because You know, I've had no no problems with their support on different platforms and stuff like that and It would be very hard for me to start making that switch to start buying Songs in iTunes or to start storing contacts in iCloud or any one of those things that could change It would take a real big commitment for me. Damn Experience right now because so what happened is that my brother he got when the Nexus 6 edge came out someone offered him That's a galaxy Next next next next next I said next is I was like oh my god You met the Samson galaxy s6 edge really gorgeous. Oh god with a long name.
So that phone came out and It's a really expensive phone. It's really pretty. It's really nice phone He was given to it for free from someone who worked there or was like a sponsor of stem some sort like you want to phone Like we have to you know, it's a dog. Yeah, you're gonna refuse a free phone So he got it and he's been really enjoying it and but the problem is that the problem if it's a problem It's annoying me is that he's kept on it and because he's using it We can't have iMessage groups because he's on it and right so we have to use Google hangouts Which is like not a huge deal But the thing is like we have a huge group like chat and it's all like everybody is on everybody has to use the app And it's not integrated into this like the ecosystem like the ecosystem thing So if I'm on a laptop, I'm like, oh, do they say something?
That's like I'll have to you know go to hangouts instead of having integrated into the OS like how I messes is And I'm like every time like me I'm always like see around god damn it like why can't we just like switch like why can you just switch back like he's like He's like he's like actually using the phone or he's using because he got free like I don't know I actually have that shit on eBay and you both I Don't know actually ask him what it's very is because I think there is a lot of things He does like and particularly something that attracts a lot of people to enjoy is Google now Yeah Well now is something that pops up usually when he's expected because you don't nearly notice it until like it's like you're like Paul the cards by accident some pop something is like oh your package is right into it Like oh my god, it's so cool. It starts pulling information from your calendar from your email from all that stuff It's very powerful and I remember the time when I have scary. It's scary. Totally scary It's kind of scary but the same time I'm like if it's if it's if there's any idea that giving me awesome utility like that I'm kind of okay with it um As much as I think oh big brother loves you Jeff, you know It's big brothers.
These give me some sweet sweet sweet and rafetures It would do stuff like you know It would monitor traffic and it would know when you left work generally the timelines I think you should probably leave now because traffic is gonna start getting bad in about an hour So I'm like oh, we visually work sooner. Thank you big brother What should I eat next? Soilant So your package of soilant is here Oh, man, I'm waiting on actually I am waiting on back at your nose Okay, so continue with your list Yes, so I keep it in go ahead Third last thing last thing you actually led very well into my number three, which is that I trust Google more The reason that you led into this is because you mentioned how when one of your family members left the apple ecosystem He was no longer able to keep in touch with the people who are still inside of it And if the situation were reversed if you guys were in the Google ecosystem and one of you decided to jump ship to Apple to try it out Nothing would happen you that person would start using Hangouts on their Android phone instead of or sorry on their iOS device instead of on their Android device and it's great like Google lets you change ecosystems more easily than Apple does Apple Makes everyone around you hate you when you change ecosystems It's true Google is actually Google has at many points in time had better iOS apps than Android apps They spend so much effort making sure that their stuff works across all platforms on OS X It works on Windows on iOS on Android on frickin fire TV. Maybe I don't know weird stuff like that Yeah, that's not a thing Easier to leave the Google ecosystem, which is weird like that's what makes me want to leave it less because if I believe to us It's harder to leave than my options are even more limited than they are today Yeah, cuz you do become kind of sept into the apple ecosystem like all your content everything I was there And it's not exactly easily kind of exported.
Yeah, cuz you know you can't there is no, you know iCloud on Android There's no messages as Android. I don't even think there's iTunes on it. They might be coming with Apple music, but not iTunes So it's like I'd be surprised there's wait. Are you saying there's an Apple music coming out on Android?
Yes, oh, okay Yeah, it's it's weird, right, but I think is there trying to get as many subscribers as possible It's not necessarily about the hardware, but about the kind of like streaming service So they have to compete into like Spotify is available Yeah, any device so compete with that they have to compete on Android too. So that is one weird exception to it Okay, I'm glad that they're doing that. That's good news. Yeah Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure why that is but it's funny Yeah, even for someone like myself who uses a lot of Google services It's the one thing I do trust Apple more with is privacy.
Yeah, I think they weigh the way they handle permissions in the way that they keep my data is Let because Google I mean we're on Google most people know that you are the product that they're selling and you were submitting to like They mean they know everything Google knows about you cuz I use my email on there look pictures onto it We're on Google Hangouts right now. I use YouTube so it knows it has a whole profile on who I am and you know That's big red letters nerd this guy's a real nerd. Oh, man, and it's And you know like that day is definitely like it's it's being an automized and it's being like You know people are monetizing on it in some way for advertisement and stuff like that and like in parties Like I think I'm I'm okay with that because they're doing the answers but the other part is like like I mean Google shown themselves to be trustworthy in terms of like, you know That just the overall aim of the company's always been positive. It's always been like Don't be evil thing.
Yeah, don't be evil thing or I think they changed it to do the right thing I think that's what the new motto is do the right thing and so don't be evil but like don't be evil like holy shit And it's like an intense like motto by the company And they're always the ones that's like oh, we're gonna do this and it's gonna be free like they're always like Like what are you gonna do about it's free and then like Google fiber? Everybody's dying for Google fiber because I just want to get saved by the clutches of a time order and You know you trust Google more than you trust time Warner. Yeah, Google might you know be selling your data But time Warner is stealing your money. Yeah, but at least like Google's completely competent and like the other companies are totally not So and yeah, I love to with the dawn of Google 5 also being think also better You can Google like customer at some point.
I have no idea. That is an option to you. It is Yeah, yeah, every next device is Definitely you can probably become a fight thing. I think those are the only devices that can do it an exercise So that's like the next step for you and you're like kind of yeah, you're right.
It is dig myself deeper into the ego Might as well go for it. Yeah, make sense. It's cheaper Actually, yeah, probably is cheaper compared to paying for full-fledged plans So if you're only paying for what you need, um, yeah, I think Google I might be one of the few plans that are cheaper than T-Mobile is one of those you know They're all about the uncarrier thing, but Google 5 is another level of it speaking of which so going back So one of the big news today was Apple released its earnings call and the kind of this is a big number They wanted to say was 30% of the new the new iPhone buyers were formerly Android users So like knowing that number like that's a lot. That's a third of new Apple like a new product sold by Apple It's from Android going from there.
What do you think Android needs to do? This is for Ben by the way, but you think Android needs to do in terms of offering a service to keep their Android users stay with Android What can they do to better kind of compete with Apple in that sense? Okay, so before answering your question I like to address the research. I'm curious Exactly what the question that they asked to people was if it even was a survey me it was a survey 30% of people who bought iPhone 6s were formerly Android users You said that doesn't necessarily mean they decided to switch from an Android device to the iPhone 6 and that was their conversion Maybe they use an Android device once ten years ago, and then switched Apple maybe they have been alternating Apple Android ever since Okay, I they're just like they're kind of they're not like a super flag, you know They don't stick with one company.
They're like, oh, we'll get this one this year kind of people do cars Yeah, I mean like if you were to I think maybe that's the the the least Likely use case but for instance if you were to ask me if I was a former iPhone user I'd say yes because I once had an iPhone 3G that I used I don't think that that's fair to then say one out of three people in this call Surveyed says that when they purchased the next is 5x they were a former iPhone user and that's a little bit misleading to say it makes sense Yeah, so it's definitely sounds like puffer to you or I just like I'd like to look into obviously I would do it now, but I'd like to look into actually where those numbers came from but to answer your question good good point Thank you Saying to your question. I think Nothing I think that they should keep doing what they're doing. I don't think that they're losing I'm not saying that Apple is losing. I don't know if anyone is losing But like HTC is definitely losing.
Okay. Well, HTC is a manufacturer I think that it's bad to try to play catch up If you look at your competitor and see what features they have that you don't have and then you implement those features You will lose you will be constantly doing that and the other the other company will be busy innovating while you're playing catch up I think the right thing to do is To actually just look at your own users and see why they came to you and why they continue using you and to just Try to develop around that good point done No, it's true because there is we start playing the catch up game early and all these so you have to offer something else And pretty much what that is is that it's The whole ecosystem of people. I don't know if you've ever swapped phones, but we swapped phones It's pretty slick. It's all you have to use just log into the new one and then it just cloud like oh We had all these apps.
I'm just down at all this for you. Here's your contact list It's like literally it's all inclusive assuming that I don't know about any other phones But just for next is twice is it makes it that easy Yeah, I think The show you want to talk about the right max? Well, if you want to like look up anything on join max we actually have a small little article on there on the technology podcast website So be sure to check that out. I like to thank Ben for joining us today.
Thanks for you know Joining us and scheduling with us tonight. No, thanks Ben. Thanks for being a good time. I did Well good.
Good. Make sure to follow Ben on his Twitter handle. What is it? GLCLS that's glacial so say it and he's also on twitch.
What's your I'm glacial's on twitch? It's like the word Yeah, with vowels on twitch though. Oh, we'll have Ben stuff on our website Like all the links to his like kind of work and all that stuff So be sure to do that and Jeff and yeah So I think I think that's pretty pretty inclusive thing is very much the android episode talking about impressions of it in the ecosystems of Android next week. I'll have more time to kind of get an idea of exactly why I like the new form factor for the iPhone I just literally got it.
I'm like, yeah, it's good. I don't know. It's just a phone So we'll talk about that next week. I don't think we have any Schedule quite yet, but we're gonna start releasing our weekly articles at very least we will be moving to a new host soon on a cost So you will be hearing and very soon Pre and post roll ads nothing in the mid we've decided that for right now and Yeah, I guess I'll be having before the month also be logo soon You find all over stuff at technology podcast you can find me on Twitter at Jeffrey a Varen It's a screen should be in show notes as well.
It's on your phone and until next time guys