Be Excellent To Each Other

That would have reduced the DRAMA of the situation though.

The time is actually written on that image.

Also, surely that's nothing to do with your phone?

That’s his workaround. Every time his phone installs an update he takes a picture of it and WhatsApps it go someone to get the time.

The Garmin Connect App on my phone flashed up earlier today about a MEGA CRITICAL UPDATE that it needed to install to my watch (specifically citing Huawei), based on past experience it's about 50/50 as to whether or not it'll wait until I get home and connect it to my PC via USB, whereby it pushes the update out via the Garmin app on my PC.

However, what it does some of the time (including today) is basically say 'Fuck that' and pushes the update to the watch whilst it's in normal use on my wrist. I can only assume the app downloads the update using my phone's data connection and pushes it to the watch.

Well now I want to know where my update is.

I can only ever remember one update in the past.

Have you got a Hawaii-Five-O phone? The updates always make specific mention of this, along the lines of 'THIS IS TO FIX AN ISSUE WITH YOUR CHINESE HACKERS PHONE'.

Yup, I have the same phone and watch as you.

Clearly a style guru.

Going commando in Chinos next for you then.

Hang on, who copied who with the phone and watch?

I think you copied my phone then I copied your watch.

Quite liking Sega Heroes so far. Match-three and Sega nostalgia is always going to sit well with me.

I like them too but they're always too complicated.

Yeah, I'm certainly finding that already. I'm already ignoring a lot of the things that are going on in the game.

The Google Now launcher is beginning to get on my tits* and I'm fucked if I'm going to use any Samsung nonsense so what's the current state of the art in terms of third party Android launchers then?

*It rarely recognises the "OK Google" wake-up phrase and uninstalling apps by dragging the icon to the top of the screen just fails hilariously every single time. Digging around in the options to find a particular app is a giant pain in the arse and I'm sick of uninstalling stuff that way.

My usual recommendation of the Evie launcher. Can be heavily customised but day-to-day use is very simple. The stock Xiaomi launcher doesn't even let you remove icons for system apps from the home screen, so I replaced that straight off.

I actually remembered that I used to use the Nova launcher way back in the day and it's still in active development so I'm giving it a shot. The uninstall process is better, although it just gives you a shortcut to the apps properties and you can uninstall from there.

The voice wake up still didn't work and, embarrassingly, I now suspect it's because I've been habitually holding my phone so my fingers sat over the mic. :rollseyesatself: I never had any issue in the past so fuck knows why I've apparently decided to start holding my phone differently!

I'm finding the Samsung interface pretty good actually (One UI, I think they call it now), and don't currently have any major concerns with it. I certainly don't find it to be as hateful an experience as many others seem to have.

It has been a while since I used a plain Android (back on the Nexus 5X before it died).

My Xiaomi-redmi-note-5-plus-very-specific-model-they-made-for-ten-minutes recently updated and gave me the option of choosing the app that opens up when I click a web link. I would like Chrome, but it detailed to the in built browser and I selected it by mistake.

How do I change this?

Some variation on Settings > apps > whatever the built in browser is called > clear defaults

Thanks!

Is this the main phone thread? I already took back one question as I thought I was in the wrong place, so I'll try again.

I'm after an android phone that does the basics but has a decent camera and good sound quality over headphones, I thought that would be easy, but there are way too many phones on the market. Budget would be up to 400-ish, bit more for miracles.

The ones that seemed that they might do the job were the LG V40, V30 and another of theirs I can't remember. Am i on the right track? Any ideas?

I'd have thought the pixel 3a is what you need.

I'll certainly look into that - don't suppose you happen to have one/had one yourself in the hope of a personal opinion?

I don't, but I think others on here have one.

Just had a quick look - 450 over here, what hi-fi (no idea how reliable they are) say "disappointing audio performance"

Anyone have any thoughts on those LG models? Are they rubbish?

Sounds like Xiaomi are prepping to announce the Mi A3. I'm on the Mi A1 and I really like it, but I'm kinda looking for something new and shiny. The Mi A2 was an OK upgrade for the most part, but they removed the 3.5mm port so I wasn't that interested.

Rumours suggest that the Mi A3 is going to be a rebranded version of the CC9, but with the processor swapped out for a 730 instead of a 710. That means it would have a headphone port.

All the Mi A phones have been an existing Xiaomi phone rebranded and with Android One instead of their custom rom. I found the Mi A1 to be a really solid phone. It comes with stock android with really rapid updates, it's build quality is comparable to a phone twice the price, and it's got excellent specs for the price. Even has an IR blaster which very few phones have (which makes it a great TV/AC remote replacement), and on paper the Mi A3 would retain all these elements whilst offering a bigger/nicer screen and the spec boost you'd expect with a newer phone. Battery life is great on the Mi A1, but the CC9 has a 4000mah battery vs the 3000 one in the Mi A1.

If they price it right, and there's no major drawbacks, that's probably what I'll get.

Due to be announced at an event on the 17th.

Well it only took 12 months but Huawei have now pushed out an update for the P20 Pro that displays multiple notification icons on the always-on screen, i.e. WhatsApp message, text message, Facebook message etc.

I guess they have finished with all their Chinese Hacking now so are able to divert some resources to actually improving the phone.

Chromebook updates aren't for ever.. Just spotted this in The Register and discovered that Mrs. W’s device stopped getting updates a few months ago. I don’t know if she had an email about it, but either way, it’s a bit naughty.

TBH Chromebooks are so expensive now they don't really make sense IMO, you can get a Windows 10 laptop with a reasonably sized SSD for not much cash.

When my Chromebook really started to chug last year, having surveyed the market I realised it didn't make sense to replace it with another Chromebook and just got a Windows laptop instead.

Depends on what you're using it for, I guess. And also whether you've really fallen out with Windows (particularly 10), which I have. I dunno if it's got better since my sister-in-law last needed my help with her W10 laptop, but it just annoyed me with ....... everything, really. She seems to have stopped using it and prefers her Kindle Fire instead.

Mrs W. doesn't need a lot of storage space, she plays a couple of games on her phone, not on the Chromebook, and she really can't be bothered with demands to download and install updates, etc. I was initially surprised at how quickly she got to like her Chromebook, but she uses it every day which is something she didn't do whern we only had a Windows laptop. So for someone just wanting to check mail, browse, buy stuff and check the bank account from time to time she still finds it really convenient.

For the price I paid, and the price of similar models now, it would still be her preferred choice if she really needed a replacement, but now I'd know its worth checking how long is left for the updates when buying it.

D is at her house, i'm at mine.
Any recommendations for some games we can play against each other on our mobiles, being as it looks like we are unlikely to be able to get together for boardgames and Overcooked for a little while.

I’m guessing you don’t both have PCs? Tabletop Simulator would be ideal for board and tabletop games if so. There’s a Gloomhaven mod and everything.

Predictably, I'd go for Word With Friends 2. At least they seem to have finally ironed the bulk of the stupid bugs they kept introducing into it.

I've seen the mod, it looks very impressive, but getting her up and running and using TTS is very unlikely to happen.
She runs everything on her phone, including all her work where possible. I don't get it, but I don't comment So phone to phone is the only option.

Sexting

If you like chess then Chess Time is good. Carcassone, XCOM, Star Realms.

Good shout, we used to play that ages ago, probably worth firing it up again.
We recently had a few rounds of Kryss, which was quite good, while you are in the free period. Eye-wateringly price gouging when you get past the first 10 games though! Competitive crosswording to a time limit.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... d&hl=en_GB

Ruzzle! Basically the Boggle version of Words with Friends.

That reminded me of Microsoft's Wordament; I hadn't played it in ages, so I've just downloaded it and it's certainly been tarted up since I last used it. More of a single-player experience, but the multiplayer option is still there, but you play the same board live against everyone else. Probably doesn't meet Trooper's needs too well, but it's a good game.

My favourite game of the genre was Letterpress, which was an ace combination of risk and boggle (in a more abstracted way than Quarrel), but seemed to be hard to get a game, last time I tried it.

That looks worth a go

Fresh blood!

Quiz Up!

Feedback from Donna "Stop choosing word games you twat, you know i'm dyslexic"

Well we didn’t know that!

TTS on PC

If anyone wants a game of Ruzzle or Letterpress over the coming weeks, I'm findusfop on both.

Don't really know the right place to post this, but I recently noticed that I am no longer able to cast to my Sony Bravia tv.

I used to be able to from Youtube and things.

Now I only seem to get my Google Nest Hub thing as a destination.

Anyone else experienced this?

Yes. I have.

As far as I know, Google have switched off the ability with Pixel phones as I can't cast to my Amazon fire stick. You'll be able to cast to a Chrome Cast though which makes sense from Google's point of view.

Annoying though isn't it?

Not sure if this helps:

https://community.phones.nokia.com/disc ... -10-update

The 'solution' at the end of the thread is a bit garbled but he's saying that the issue is 'Wi-Fi Direct' needs to be enabled but can't be unless (for some reason) you need to activate location setting on that screen. No idea if that's relevant to you guys.

Thanks for that Bamba... I have found the Wifi Direct settings on my phone but there's no option to turn them on or off and I always have my location settings active. It still doesn't work but it's worth a shot.