Disqus - Latest Comments for d3x7r0

Re: Trigun Stampede dares to be different

Dextro — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 07:57:05 -0000

Fully agree. Was a big fan of the original myself and while the first two episodes felt a bit off, from episode 3 onwards I find the show to have found its footing and the story really picks up its own, new yet familiar direction.

Re: Gurren Lagann: the anime that got me into anime

Dextro — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 05:16:02 -0000

Hard agree on everything here (including having the time to marathon stuff like Bleach and Naruto and still have leftover time for seasonal shows. Those were the days).

Gurren Laggan is just hype condensed. I can still remember when I was watching the compilation movies, even after having seen the entire story, and how I kept creeping further and further forward on the couch. Almost jumped up in excitement at some of those final battles where stakes keep getting higher... and higher... and higher!

Really. If someone hasn't seen TTGL they don't really get how high the stakes go. It's absolute, sheer, insanity!

Raw Raw Fight The Power!

Re: After ruining Google Now and Chrome, news articles start popping up in Assistant's daily snapshot

Dextro — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 07:21:47 -0000

I disabled the feed on my phone as soon as it became just a place for news. I don't need my phone to constant give me existential dread, I need my phone to have my personal data (emails, calendar appointments, messages). If I want news I'll open one of the many options to find them, don't need google to feed them to me.

Re: Google's new icons for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Meet all look the same

Dextro — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 05:39:33 -0000

I'm constantly opening google photos when I want to open Maps just because I placed them close to one another on my launcher. It's ridiculous how alike they look now!

Re: Sony schedules Xperia phone announcement for September 17

Dextro — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 06:46:39 -0000

From my experience having had the Xperia Z3 Compact and the X Compact what I found was around 6 months delay in major versions and roughly bi-monthly security patches for around 2 years after launch which honestly was above average for back then.

Sony has also contributed quite a few things to AOSP and their skin is mostly a few tweaks sprinkled here and there on top of stock Android. I wish they would jump on the Android One train though since they are 90% of the way there anyway.

Still I'm very tempted to get the Xperia 5 II if the rumors are right. I know the price will be a little bit higher than the competition but I liked my previous Xperias more than the Nokia 7.1 I'm rocking right now.

Re: Hear me out: Google should bring back the headphone jack

Dextro — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 12:07:21 -0000

I consider it. I was very impressed by the OnePlus Nord for example but without an headphone jack I'm passing on it and looking into alternatives like the Xperia 10 II (I need dual SIM atm).

Re: Carriers be damned: Google is rolling out RCS messaging in the US

Dextro — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 12:18:21 -0000

Does that mean that Google will roll out E2E encryption in this or is it still going to be in the clear? I seem to remember that was one of the missing features in the protocol.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV (2019) review: The best Android TV box for pretty much everyone

Dextro — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 12:19:03 -0000

Any idea how the volume control actually works? Is it an ir blaster in the controller or is it using HDMI-CEC?

Re: The 80/20 Guide to Maps in JavaScript | www.thecodebarbarian.com

Dextro — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 16:11:41 -0000

Just a word of warning for anyone wanting to use Maps who still supports IE11: that browser does not support passing in an array in the constructor with data to populate the array and will just silently create an empty map. Always double check support first in a place like MDN: https://developer.mozilla.o...

Re: Android's iconic dessert names are going away, starting with Android 10

Dextro — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 09:13:13 -0000

Well, the new word mark is positively plain. There's absolutely no charisma there. :(

Re: Guide: How to make your own personal VPN in under 30 minutes

Dextro — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 11:00:37 -0000

A good option as well if you can trust your home connection is to just pick up a raspberry pi and run pivpn on it. It might be a bit trickier since you'll have to find out how to get port forwarding working on your home router and find some way of getting a stable hostname (dydns) if you don't have a fixed ip address but it does have its advantages.

As a bonus you get access to your home network as if you were home.

Re: Sony’s smartphone shipments dropped 50% last year

Dextro — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 14:39:45 -0000

This. Sony has been derided for their perceived quality for the price but after seeing the "quality" of multiple LG phones and moving over to the Z3 Compact I understood why they're not even even in the same ballpark. The phone is still alive and well today, it just has old software and I eventually replaced it with another Compact.

But then they dropped the side mounted fingerprint sensor (which I very much apreciated) and the headphone jack (again which I find essential). While I do have a very good pair of Sony MDR1000x for travel and work I still find use to just pop in a couple of cheap earbuds when I'm just commuting for example.

I also liked their boxy design. It was simple, understated and it screamed Sony from a distance (that used to mean great design, just ask Apple ;-) ). Now the new ones just look like ugly plastic blobs... Let's just say I needed to change phones this year because I was looking for a dual SIM and while Sony had quite a few I ended up with a different brand. Real shame.

Re: Mozilla outlines plan to replace Firefox for Android with 'Fenix'

Dextro — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 14:08:21 -0000

In principal I agree. That's their competitive advantage but if the browser offers the built-in privacy protection that focus currently has then I personally stop needing any extensions myself (it basically works as well or better than ublock).

I just really wish Sync would work better on android

Re: Mozilla outlines plan to replace Firefox for Android with 'Fenix'

Dextro — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 14:06:04 -0000

That's because the google app, unlike others, doesn't respect the default browser choice when "open web pages in app" is enabled so it'll always open in chrome regardless of your system settings. I know this because I use Firefox Focus as my main browser which replaces the embeded webviews with GeckoView with all the advantages of Focus itself (privacy protection, delete history on exit, etc) except for the google app. I had to disable the option to open links inside the app on that one to force it to use my choice of browser.

Re: Nokia 8.1 launches as global edition of China's Nokia X7, sporting a Snapdragon 710 for €399

Dextro — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 18:26:32 -0000

Honestly this looks pretty good for me:

Headphone jack - check
NFC - check
Minimum of 64gb of memory - check
Clean android with updates - check

I almost jumped on the 7.1 but the 3gb of ram on offer was a bit too hard to swallow. Now I just hope it doesn't feel as gigantic as the 7 Plus did. I've been rocking the Sony Compact models for so long that everything else just looks huge by comparison.

And to those complaining about the price I would like to point out that these HMD Nokia phones, at least in Europe, seem to constantly be on sale. During black friday I saw the Nokia 7.1 go as low as 230€ which is quite a bit less than the 330€ MSRP.

Re: Sony Xperia XZ3 review: After years of mediocrity, Sony is finally ready to compete

Dextro — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 07:30:37 -0000

Add me to that list.

Stuff that made me keep buying Sony phones:
1 - Close to stock Android
2 - Boxy design with compact versions that can be used one handed

3 - Side mounted power button with integrated fingerprint reader

All but one of those are now gone. I'm currently looking into getting an XZ1 compact to hold me over. My stop gap X Compact I got on sale is starting to show it's age and I'm not keen on letting go of LDAC support on my next phone. Anyone know if there are other phones who support that? I seem to remember Sony contributing that back do AOSP.

Re: Weekend poll: Which music streaming services do you use?

Dextro — Sun, 20 May 2018 17:30:40 -0000

I use Play Music since I can mix streaming for the most popular songs while uploading mp3 I purchase in other stores to fill in the gaps in the catalog. This is almost essential for me use case since I like to listen to some stuff that's almost always available to buy on iTunes but it's a no show on Play Music to stream.

Because of this I've been thinking of some sort of plex setup from now on if Google decides to kill my use case like Amazon did in the past. I play more music that I buy than I stream from play music anyway.

Re: Google will require OEMs to regularly deliver security updates

Dextro — Sat, 12 May 2018 12:30:59 -0000

Google does love their April 1st jokes don't they? They even release them almost 2 months after the date.

Re: Taboola partners with ZTE to launch a news feed for smartphones (and you won't believe what happens next)

Dextro — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 06:23:34 -0000

I've literaly resigned from a company because they started dealing with these kinds of shady recommended articles. It's fair to say I won't be buying or recommending any ZTE devices in the future then.

Re: Plex updates Chromecast interface with a fresh look, better slideshows, and more

Dextro — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 18:27:36 -0000

It also seems to have fixed a longstanding limitation in the old chromecast interface: it no longer requires you to accept a non-secure connection when casting :D

Re: Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact hands-on: Sony takes a [small] step in the right direction

Dextro — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 05:24:39 -0000

Honestly it seems like 1 step forward and 3 steps back to me:
+ screen and bezels
- headphone jack
- side-mounted power button/fingerprint reader
- looks (subjective but I preferred the older, more boxy look. At least it looked distinct)

Re: Persona Waifu Wars Round 1 Heat One

Dextro — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:41:36 -0000

Narukami Boss! Even as a waifu!

Re: Google is rolling out the tabbed Google app interface to more users

Dextro — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 05:07:35 -0000

I have this on my Nexus 7 but not on my X Compact. On the other hand the Google Assistant just showed up on my cellphone (Portugal, British UK language setting) which is about time I think

Re: Sony CEO Shawn Layden Says PlayStation Vita is Still a Viable Platform

Dextro — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 16:52:13 -0000

So let's count the ways:

1 - It was more expensive than the 3DS

2 - Insanely expensive and proprietary memory cards (and by insane I mean insane even today). I had to import a 64gb one from Asia since that was never released in the west and boy did that cost me an arm and a leg. Same thing happened with the locally purchased 16gb card I tried to make do with before.

3 - Proprietary chargers on the v1 also didn't help. Luckily the v2 moved to microUSB

4 - Virtually non-existent first party support after the initial launch window. Sony's studios dropped the console like a brick after the first year was up.

5 - DRM'ed up to the neck. The way you have to move data in and out of the console (for music/screenshots) is absolutely ridiculous.

6 - No multi-account support. This is a bit of a pet peeve but it could have helped improve the console's chances after it became a niche machine. If you import games then you must always do so from the same region otherwise you get locked out of any downloadable content that the game might have (or suffer through a cumbersome system reset to move to a different account).

Bonus Round: Vita TV. WTF was Sony thinking white-listing the games in such a random way? Games that were TV compatible in JP and US were incompatible in the EU, others worked in JP only, others in JP and EU but not US... It was silly to say the least. Just give us an update to unlock every game without having to resort to hacks Sony and we'll call it even.

And yet, despite all this, I still bloody love my 1st gen Vita. The screen is gorgeous, the games are mostly niche but entertaining and luckily Bandai Namco, NISA, XSeed and the like have kept the system alive despite Sony by releasing a lot of niche Japanese games in the west. I would bet that the attach rate of the Vita is one of the best in gaming history (along with the Wii U) but sadly that isn't enough. It doesn't matter if every owner buys dozens of games if there are only dozens of owners total and not millions.

Re: Android TV is getting a new launcher with Android O

Dextro — Wed, 17 May 2017 17:19:04 -0000

The Mii Box is still on Android 6 though so who knows if and when it'll get the update