android updates on smartphone

[Stompa]

On the few occasions I've tried it, Google Lens does a pretty good job of identifying plants.

[Urbandreamer]

I will definitely check out one or two of the suggested 'aps' though will see if I can get them on laptop as big screen and big keys

The thing about apps, is the selection very much depends upon how you live your life and what your interests are.

For example I use to work aboard a bit and found google's translate function invaluable. Simply point the phone's camera at a menu etc and see the words translated into English on the screen.

However my phone no longer does that, because I no longer need it to do so.
I use to check tide times when on holiday at the sea side, but currently don't need that either.

Likewise I had an app that could show me the star constellations and the current position in the sky of the space station. No longer on my phone!

I use "My stocks Portfolio" (MSP) to track my portfolio, FiiNote for task lists and quick reference (Oven temperature conversion table etc). From time to time I may use the Kindle ebook app (though screen size is an issue) and I often use the Audible app for talking books.
AntennaPod is my podcast client. Which I use to catch up on the FT briefing and R4's more or less, amongst other things.
Paprika is the brilliant recipe app that I use in the kitchen, but I use OurGroceries for shopping lists. There is an Alexa skill that allows us to verbally add items using the smart speaker in the Kitchen.
I'm sure that someone will point out that the Alexa app allows you to check their shopping list, but OurGroceries uses a shared account, meaning that my wife and I see and update the same list. However you can use the Alexia app as an intercom between your phone and your smart speakers.

I don't use my phone to access my bank accounts but do use Google Authenticator for 2FA when dealing with A J Bell. I also have a couple of bitcoin wallets (Muun, Samourai, Coinbase and Phoenix).

By the way, why did you go for an Android phone? I'm a fan, but you have an Ipad. I would have thought that you would wish to stay in the walled garden.

[kiloran]

My sister has a smartphone, and used Tesco PAYG. Not an avid user like some, but sometimes needed to make a call while she was away from the house, or maybe check email. She was spending around £10 per month for relatively little usage, and was forever switching the 4G data off and on. I got her to move to GiffGaff... £6 per month for unlimited calls and texts, and 2GB of data per month. It's transformed her life. No longer worrying about calls costing 20p per minute or whatever, and expensive data. She's making phone calls while she is out and about, using Google maps and navigation, WhatsApp messages, checking price and availability of shopping. And she's not tied into a long-term contract, she can change the £6 per month at any time to get more or less. She's using nowhere near the 2GB limit, and the phone automatically switches to wifi when she's at home.

She just loves the freedom it's given her

--kiloran

[mc2fool]

I got her to move to GiffGaff... £6 per month for unlimited calls and texts, and 2GB of data per month.

Thought I'd look into that and in the process found ... Lebara (who?), unlimited calls and texts, and 5GB of data per month. £1.98 for 3 months £4.95 after, no contract, Vodafone's network. https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/sim-only-deal/5f30358313bb4c902142a15193b539218a27db87/

[kiloran]

I got her to move to GiffGaff... £6 per month for unlimited calls and texts, and 2GB of data per month.

Thought I'd look into that and in the process found ... Lebara (who?), unlimited calls and texts, and 5GB of data per month. £1.98 for 3 months £4.95 after, no contract, Vodafone's network. https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/sim-only-deal/5f30358313bb4c902142a15193b539218a27db87/

Yes, there's lots of other deals around, but I've been with GiffGaff for 10 years with no problems, GiffGaff uses the O2 network (in fact it's owned by O2) and since Tesco uses O2 I knew that her network coverage would be fine. I didn't want to suggest something else and then find she was in a not-spot.

--kiloran

[BullDog]

I got her to move to GiffGaff... £6 per month for unlimited calls and texts, and 2GB of data per month.

Thought I'd look into that and in the process found ... Lebara (who?), unlimited calls and texts, and 5GB of data per month. £1.98 for 3 months £4.95 after, no contract, Vodafone's network. https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/sim-only-deal/5f30358313bb4c902142a15193b539218a27db87/

I have been using Lebara on the Vodafone network for several years. It's cheap and cheerful and works just fine. It's not a great option if you regularly travel outside the UK and EU. The international roaming outside UK and EU is very expensive, or it looks that way to me anyway.

[Infrasonic]

Thought I'd look into that and in the process found ... Lebara (who?), unlimited calls and texts, and 5GB of data per month. £1.98 for 3 months £4.95 after, no contract, Vodafone's network. https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/sim-only-deal/5f30358313bb4c902142a15193b539218a27db87/

Yes, there's lots of other deals around, but I've been with GiffGaff for 10 years with no problems, GiffGaff uses the O2 network (in fact it's owned by O2) and since Tesco uses O2 I knew that her network coverage would be fine. I didn't want to suggest something else and then find she was in a not-spot.

--kiloran

GiffGaff do an eSIM option now along with Lyca (EE MVNO).

I've got Smarty and Lebara SIM cards in my Pixel Pro 8 and Pixel 6a respectively, neither currently do eSIMs for the UK - hopefully they will soon to stay competitive...

[mc2fool]

GiffGaff do an eSIM option now along with Lyca (EE MVNO).

I've got Smarty and Lebara SIM cards in my Pixel Pro 8 and Pixel 6a respectively, neither currently do eSIMs for the UK - hopefully they will soon to stay competitive...

AIUI you have to have a phone with eSIM capability, and it seems on a cursory google that's not so common, although may be becoming increasingly so with newer models.

I did however find https://esim.me/ who sell SIM cards that, in conjunction with their app, will give many phones eSIM capability. Not cheap though at €24.95 for a single device 2 eSIM card, and €29.95 for a single device 5 eSIM one...

[Infrasonic]

GiffGaff do an eSIM option now along with Lyca (EE MVNO).

I've got Smarty and Lebara SIM cards in my Pixel Pro 8 and Pixel 6a respectively, neither currently do eSIMs for the UK - hopefully they will soon to stay competitive...

AIUI you have to have a phone with eSIM capability, and it seems on a cursory google that's not so common, although may be becoming increasingly so with newer models.

I did however find https://esim.me/ who sell SIM cards that, in conjunction with their app, will give many phones eSIM capability. Not cheap though at €24.95 for a single device 2 eSIM card, and €29.95 for a single device 5 eSIM one...

My Pixel 3a, 6a and pro 8 all have eSIM, the 'a' phones are the mid range 'affordable' Pixel versions (only bought the 8 pro because it has 7 years of software and hardware support and had a free Pixel Watch 2 thrown in as part of the deal).

At the budget end eSIM may be rarer but you can pick up one or two year old S/H refurbed mid to high end phones from reliable dealers with ease these days.

In terms of where the industry is going then it's eSIM - the last iteration of the US release iPhone Pro Max was eSIM only, there was no physical SIM capability.

[GeoffF100]

I very important factor is the time for which you get security updates:

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/mobile- ... -old-phone

Samsung and Google are the only contenders for Android phones. The Samsung A14 is the budget option, and the Google 6a is a more expensive option. Apple is super-expensive.

[Infrasonic]

The longest Android support lifecycle of all is Fairphone... https://endoflife.date/fairphone

[UncleEbenezer]

Whatsapp also allows you to group contacts together. Handy at times when you want to tell the whole family something. You only have to type it once and it goes to everyone.

I don't think that kind of thing was new when I first used it in the 1980s.

[Urbandreamer]

I very important factor is the time for which you get security updates:

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/mobile- ... -old-phone

Samsung and Google are the only contenders for Android phones. The Samsung A14 is the budget option, and the Google 6a is a more expensive option. Apple is super-expensive.

Of course the long support of the OS is a good thing. However you will need to get the battery changed at some point in that period. Apple have a very poor reputation when it comes to deciding that old phones need to run slow, regardless of the age of their battery and preventing anyone else but them changing batteries.

It's good to see that Google don't make it impossible to change the battery yourself (only more difficult than some might like).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQVtP9G7HyE

I believe that it's somewhat easier on the Fairphone or Samsung A14.

[GeoffF100]

Of course the long support of the OS is a good thing. However you will need to get the battery changed at some point in that period.

My Nokia 5.3 Android One phone ran out of updates in June, 3 years after I bought it. The battery does not appear to be degraded. I should be able to use it for another year with too much security risk.

The Samsung A14 and Google Pixel 6a currently both have about 4 years support. (The both had 5 years from the date they were released in the US). I would not expect battery life to be an issue, for a light user. The Samsung A14 is reasonably priced at under £200, but the Google Pixel 6a costs £300. I would expect a long life for that. Nonetheless, the more expensive Pixels currently appear to have less secure life left. The Samsung A34 has more secure life left, but is even more expensive than the 6a.

[Infrasonic]

https://9to5google.com/2023/09/20/pixel ... le-counts/

Google just launched the first beta of Android 14 QPR1 today, and within it, there are some key changes and upgrades, including support for battery charge cycle counts on Pixel phones.

Under Settings > About Phone, a new “Battery Information” section will appear on Google Pixel devices, which contains, expectedly, information about the battery. This includes the manufacturing date of the battery, as well as the count of charge cycles that the battery has gone through.

I've got Android 14 on my Pixel 6a and 8 pro and I'm not seeing this yet so I presume it will be in the next update to 14 stable.

I run Accubattery pro monitor app. on my Pixel 3a, 6a and 8 pro.
May 2019 3a is currently rated at 46% in health (and the battery is swollen) - July '22 6a is at 96%.

November 2019 Lenovo S340-14 Chromebook displays a cycle count of 667 and a health of 89% in the native diagnostics app.

[jaizan]

The other aspect of "upgrades" is that eventually, they slow the phone down to an unacceptable extent.

My last top of the range phone was working fine after 4 years, except the continual bloating of the software made it too slow.
So I had to replace an otherwise perfectly good phone.

Organisations like the EU are faffing around with minor things like standardisation of charging cables, when they should go after phone companies for maliciously slowing down their devices. And selling them with non-replaceable batteries.

Just for comparison, I'm typing this on a mid-range 2016 Windows PC, which cost less than most high end phones, but is still fast after over 7 years.
Who makes an Android or iOS phone that's still fast after 7 years ?

As for batteries, my latest Samsung device has an option to limit charging to 85%, which should in theory prolong battery life.
My Pixel phone does not, but most of the time I limit charge with a countdown timer & I know every 15 minutes is about 5%.

[Infrasonic]

...when they should go after phone companies for maliciously slowing down their devices...

It isn't 'malicious' it's a perfectly valid way of reducing the current draw as older batteries can't produce what is needed with phones that are running at full speed, so they underclock them.

I've been there with an old 2013 Nexus 5 - it went into boot loops on an old battery (replaced once) until I plugged it into a Belkin 20,000mAh USB battery pack that could meet the current draw needed for boot - then it booted and ran without issue.

Same with an old 1998 W98 Dell P11 266 laptop still on its original battery, can't get past boot without it powering down suddenly unless I plug it into the mains.

[jaizan]

It isn't 'malicious' it's a perfectly valid way of reducing the current draw as older batteries can't produce what is needed with phones that are running at full speed, so they underclock them.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the battery.

My last Samsung phone had replaceable batteries. The phone was equally slow with an almost new battery as with a much older one.

My more recent LG phone had a battery swell up after about 2.5 years. I sent it back to LG, who fitted a new battery. After about another year, with the replacement battery still in top condition, the phone was getting unbearably slow.

All of these devices were equally slow with or without the charger lead plugged in.

And on the subject of batteries, it's about time we had some legislation specifying that the batteries must either retain a guaranteed 80% of performance at 6 years or be user replaceable.

[servodude]

And on the subject of batteries, it's about time we had some legislation specifying that the batteries must either retain a guaranteed 80% of performance at 6 years or be user replaceable.

That's easy for EU to say

[Infrasonic]

It isn't 'malicious' it's a perfectly valid way of reducing the current draw as older batteries can't produce what is needed with phones that are running at full speed, so they underclock them.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the battery.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-stop ... g-iphones/

LAST YEAR, CONTROVERSY stirred as Apple acknowledged that it had, in fact, purposefully inhibited iPhone performance when the battery neared the end of its useful life. The good news: It wasn’t just in your head! The less-good news: Apple will continue the practice with the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X.

While reports of the throttling first surfaced last December, Apple said it had started the practice in 2016 as a way to elongate the lives of iPhones. As a lithium-ion battery degrades over time, cold weather or high current demands can lead to a device shutting down altogether. Apple pushed a software update intended to keep iPhones from sporadically turning off, by limiting how much strain they could put on the battery in the first place.

Cont.

Thermal throttling of CPU's is also an issue, especially in anything passively cooled i.e. 99.99% of mobile phones...

Even actively cooled laptops will thermally throttle if pushed hard enough, controlled under ACPI p states.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACPI#:~:t ... breviation


When a smartphone battery is replaced it needs the new battery to be re-calibrated, which depending on the phone can involve a hard full factory reset and/or just charging from zero to 100 to reset the battery and overwrite the battery log .bin file. Been there done that as I replace my Android smartphone batteries myself, I don't send them off and I had to research how to get a new battery reset done so the readings were accurate.