pingveno

I just upgraded to the Pixel 8 Pro when the Pixel 5 went out of official support. The screen fingerprint reader works fine. Where it is flawed is that it’s not as quick to unlock from the front. I’m looking forward to the greatly improved support period. Three years was ridiculously short. I know something like GrapheneOS is always an option, but I’m hesitant to do so when I don’t have a backup phone.

The Pixel 8 Pro has been treating me well. Great photos and video, snappy UI, good feature set. And it sounds like I’ll be getting feature drops for the next few years, so that’s nice. The battery life is good. I added on Peak Design’s case and mini tripod, so I can quickly set it up on a surface to take videos or make a video call.

Interesting. I’m not going to stop doing it, but still, interesting.

Make your bed each morning. Your bedroom will look more organized and you will have a nice bed to lie down in at night.

For reading, digital. I can have access to a functionally unlimited number of books. They also tend to be less expensive. That makes a difference for media like manga where it racks up pretty quickly. And I can make adjustments to the text and lighting that help with readability.

I still like having some books around as decoration. They bring a room together nicely.

Don’t panic. Think globally, act locally. Help the next generation be better than your own. Know that successive generations are likely to keep improving. Watch the arc of history instead of despairing whenever there is backsliding or push back.

I think it’s becoming better overall, not worse. Yes, there’s a populism issue at the moment, but this is far from the first time that’s happened. We’re dealing with the introduction of an entire new means of communication, online media in general and social media more specifically. That brings all new hazards and benefits that need to be dealt with.

The era after the printing press was developed brought intellectual development, but it also sparked revolutions. Those didn’t always wind up with that right people getting into power. It took a while for society to adapt and stabilize. I expect the same will happen with Internet communication.

I’m also hopeful because studies have shown that successive generations generally improve their abilities in abstract thinking. (I’m having trouble sourcing that statement, unfortunately). That’s important for the economy because the jobs of the future will need that abstract thinking. At least in my experience, it also acts as a bulwark against bad actors because people with poorer abstract thinking abilities tend to be more gullible, at least when it comes to lies that they like.

Oh, Br’er Musk, I don’t care what you do with me, so long as you just don’t throw me in that briar patch over there.

I get the point you’re trying to make, but it wouldn’t be at all out of character.

I’ve had a positive experience overall. I have had the Pixel 2 and now 5 on Google Fi. It’s nice to have a phone that is close to stock Android. My bone to pick until the Pixel 6 was a short support life at just three years. Now it has security updates until five years, which is less than I would like but much more acceptable. When my phone’s security support life ends in October, I am planning on a new Pixel. I’ll still take a look at my other options, though.

Overall, I’ve been very impressed with the camera, including some very challenging lighting scenes. I have a few photos up on Wikipedia that are just me popping out my cell phone and taking a well framed shot.