IWETHEY v. 0.3.0 | TODO
1,095 registered users | 0 active users | 0 LpH | Statistics
Login | Create New User
IWETHEY Banner

Welcome to IWETHEY!

New Three weeks in.
The screen is still awesome. I picked up some LG HDR 10bit demo videos. Stunning stuff.

Biometrics: iris scanner is eerily good (unlocking my phone by looking at my bleary 2AM eyes in total darkness in about 1 second flat). Fingerprint scanner is very accurate and fast - on par with the iPhone 6S+ which was so fast people whined about it. It's actually a little better than the iPhone's scanner at dealing with your fingerprint at jaunty angles. Face scanner? Dunno, don't use it.

Smart lock is the shiz. This is a feature where you can set the phone to stay unlocked in a particular location, or in proximity to a specific device, or both. I keep my phone unlocked when it's near my watch (Gear S3), or at home.

Always-on is nifty; no more unlocking your phone to see what the time is at night, assuming you're a post-clock person. You can flip the phone over to snooze an alarm. You can flip the phone to effectively put it into do not disturb mode.

Fast charging is les tits.

Surprisingly, the Samsung apps are actually very good, and in most cases are better than the Holy Stock Apps Of St. Google. The internet browser is faster, lighter, and fuller-featured than Chrome, and supports adblockers. The mail program looks and works great and has a nifty ability to "snooze" an unread email. It's long been known that S Planner is a better calendar than Google Calendar. The phone dialler has built-in spam call detection. Samsung Health is the mother of all health dashboards; I get to understand what a lazy shit I am in excruciating detail, all handily presented for at-a-glance viewing. This is also better than Apple Health, btw, and not just because it doesn't have those fuck-awful, un-disable-able tutorial videos front-and-centre.

One notable exception to this trend is the keyboard. Gboard is better. Not in a slam-dunk way, but definitely better.

Most of the time, the S8+ is better than my iPhone S6+ - not just in the hardware (which is basically front-to-back better and objectively so, but then it is two years newer) but in the software, too.

Tracking autofocus in the camera. Fast HDR that actually makes a difference. Tuning the output of the sound system to match your exact ears. LastPass integration in apps, so no dicking around with the shitty iOS multitasking to copy and paste passwords. Split screen multitasking. Driving your phone from your PC via SideSync. No, I dunno either, but it's cool. Any MP3 as any notification sound. Driving two separate Bluetooth devices from two separate sound sources, simultaneously. No, I dunno either, but it's cool. Being able to change the system font to a serif font made a huge difference in readability to me. A BlackBerry-style notification LED (although I would like more configurability for this one feature). Themes, if that's your thing. I downloaded a bunch and then reverted to the default (although I do have this as my wallpaper). Whitelisting apps so they don't get put to sleep by the system when it's saving battery. A compass that doesn't want to be recalibrated every five fucking minutes. The "game launcher" thinger that scoops up all your games together into a folder where you can manage performance attributes so five minutes of Creature Quest doesn't eat 25% of your battery. Or it does, if many frames per second is what you like. OH HALLEFUCKINGLUJAH YOU CAN JUST TYPE A TIME INTO A TIME FIELD WITHOUT HAVING TO TWAT ABOUT WITH THE SPINNY THINGS. Notifications are still much better on Android. The Gallery app is a million times less confusing than iOS Photos. Or Moments. Or whatever the fuck it does or is called.


There is also a bunch of stuff I miss. Swipe left to go back in just about everything. The iOS emoji are the best. Safari is a shitty browser from a webdev's POV (but eh, who cares?), but it handles video just about the best of any mobile browser. The mute switch is presumably patented out the wazoo, because this particular stroke of utter genius isn't present on any other phone I can think of. Being able to quickly swap aspect ratios in the camera. (sounds nerdy, but it's basically changing from "Instagram" to "normal" and back). But honestly, that's about it. This part of the post would be a lot longer if I was balls-deep in the Apple ecosystem, but I'm not, so it isn't.

There's stuff that's a wash. Apple Pay and Android Pay are basically the same app with the same dumbass system for looking at your previous transactions. Both OSes have a giant pile of settings that need a search function. Since Android 7, permissions are no longer a slamdunk for iOS. (My old Nexus 7 tablet finished up with Android 6, and its permissions stuff is dogshit). Both phones shipped with a pile of tones and sounds that are all crap. Apple's stock wallpapers look better in the demo context, but Samsung's wallpapers work better day-to-day. Both phones look totally badass and are pretty much invincible when I slap an Urban Armor Gear Pathfinder case on them.

So, no regrets.
New Couple more things I miss.
FaceTime. The nearest you can do is FB video chat, which isn't as good. iMessage is also excellent. FB Messenger works, but seamless handoff to and from SMS is what makes iMessage cool. You can swap the compass into being a spirit level.
New Re: Facetime
...Google Hangouts?

I'm pretty much your definition of an Apple Fanboi at this point, and I don't much care. But the rest of my family lives on the Google Phone ecosystem, so if I want to video call them, I use Google Hangouts. None of them are tech-savvy enough to even know how to spell Skype, I wot, so that's right out.
-Mike

@MikeVitale42

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
New Re: Facetime
Heh, no. Never getting chained to any Google product that isn't search, maps or mail. That goes double for messaging. They're all on Facebook anyway.
New Why that distinction? No Hangouts, but yes Mail
--

Drew
New Google burns everything that everyone loves
...that isn't mail, maps or search. YouTube is probably safe. Probably.

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/06/27/discontinued-google-products-services

And that's four years old!

Personally, I'm not forgiving them for killing Talk.

Man, I loved that program.
Expand Edited by pwhysall May 16, 2017, 12:45:50 PM EDT
New I liked Reader
Plenty of other people spun up replacements, and I'm happy with what I've got now, but that one seemed stupid. Why would they not want to know what people are reading?
--

Drew
New Pity that your Main Hat is (in the betting parlour?)
because that's just the bestest al-punte Review I've seen in donkeys' years :-) Someone would PAY you just for them l33t communication skillz. [prolly not enough, though {{sigh}}]

I mean, the shit be all ranked in importance, nary a phrase on some niggly-inconsequentiality (is that even a word yet?) and.. it a l m o s t . . makes me want to play in the same sandbox of, finding the Max-[+]s / a min of [-]s in one of these gadgets. But nope; I have yet-to ...watch the bloody 1.5 hr. How-to video of all the stuff in the 6S+, though I Can see that I'd use more of the featurz-Sets/sets/and outsourced, were I to force the little grey cells into that genre.
I just Don't want to HAVE-to have this sucker at arms length! 24/7-next ... and forever.

Y'Know??
(obv.: when it makes one's own Job lots easier/or even possible, in some instances ... well, that's a hearse of another colour.)
     So long, Apple. It's been fun. - (pwhysall) - (63)
         Enjoy it. - (Another Scott) - (38)
             Edge does not preclude case. - (pwhysall) - (36)
                 No glass screen protector, though... :-( -NT - (Another Scott) - (35)
                     Boom! Verizon (!) to the rescue! - (pwhysall) - (34)
                         Interesting. Thanks. -NT - (Another Scott) - (33)
                             OTOH... - (Another Scott) - (32)
                                 Fairy snuff. - (pwhysall) - (31)
                                     I use the same brand - (drook) - (15)
                                         Six? Amateur - (pwhysall) - (14)
                                             Geez, now I want to try to remember mine - (drook) - (1)
                                                 Now you've tempted me... - (static)
                                             Look how I thought the iPhone 3G's screen was "vast and bright" :D - (pwhysall) - (8)
                                                 I've a somewhat lengthier view of er, Bitchin resolution (but with similar retrospectives.) - (Ashton) - (7)
                                                     S8+ display is 529dpi. Good film is ~5000dpi. - (pwhysall) - (6)
                                                         Thanks much, all good points - (Ashton) - (5)
                                                             Re: pressing the shutter at the right instant - (drook) - (4)
                                                                 Good thoughts, thanks. - (Ashton) - (3)
                                                                     I've heard the heartbeat theory ... Don't like it - (drook)
                                                                     Don't contemplate doing it yourself - (pwhysall) - (1)
                                                                         Thou sayest and, shall seek such a One via the magick of (hell, Google or Other) - (Ashton)
                                             5 - (malraux)
                                             Wow, that list will delay your retirement! :) -NT - (a6l6e6x) - (1)
                                                 What you guys get to spend on healthcare, I get to spend on gadgets -NT - (pwhysall)
                                     My V10 would have been very unhappy without the glass screen protector. - (Another Scott) - (14)
                                         Shirt pockets. - (mmoffitt) - (9)
                                             Re: Shirt pockets. - (pwhysall) - (8)
                                                 When you get old enough to require reading glasses I think the pocket will return. -NT - (mmoffitt) - (3)
                                                     I'm already there - (pwhysall)
                                                     Nope. Progressive bifocals FTW. -NT - (malraux) - (1)
                                                         +1 True -NT - (drook)
                                                 Well, I learned something about skate shoes! - (a6l6e6x)
                                                 That I'd like to see - (drook) - (1)
                                                     That'd be awesome - (pwhysall)
                                                 Here we wear the plaid shirt/jeans/skate shoes even on client/board/etc. days. - (malraux)
                                         Last time I put a phone in a shirt pocket ... - (drook) - (3)
                                             Shirt pockets are deadly. - (malraux) - (2)
                                                 I don't either, that's why I put my hand over my pocket when I bend over. ;0) - (mmoffitt) - (1)
                                                     Me too! .... bend over next? hand-over-pocket is now robotically inculcated :-) - (Ashton)
             On LG - (pwhysall)
         Not HMS QE's deck I hope >:-) -NT - (scoenye) - (1)
             I'd be waiting a while, if so! -NT - (pwhysall)
         *chucks and runs* - (malraux) - (9)
             bgr.com? - (pwhysall) - (4)
                 Why do you think I ran? :-) - (malraux) - (3)
                     Re: The Belkin one - (drook)
                     £35. Bloody hell. -NT - (pwhysall)
                     Speed will be interesting - (pwhysall)
             Re: *chucks and runs* - (pwhysall) - (3)
                 It was a drive-by. - (malraux)
                 Yeah, that 4K rendering stuff was kinda meaningless. - (Another Scott) - (1)
                     There is a price war going on, right now - (pwhysall)
         It's here. - (pwhysall) - (2)
             Oh, one more thing - (pwhysall) - (1)
                 That's sinister! :) - (a6l6e6x)
         Galaxy S8 and and S8 Plus drop test - (Bman)
         Three weeks in. - (pwhysall) - (7)
             Couple more things I miss. - (pwhysall) - (5)
                 Re: Facetime - (mvitale) - (4)
                     Re: Facetime - (pwhysall) - (3)
                         Why that distinction? No Hangouts, but yes Mail -NT - (drook) - (2)
                             Google burns everything that everyone loves - (pwhysall) - (1)
                                 I liked Reader - (drook)
             Pity that your Main Hat is (in the betting parlour?) - (Ashton)

Mere flesh wound. Have at you!
97 ms