pretty soon android is just going to be an llm interface and now im depressed
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Not like they have made anything with innovative with pixel anyways, other their obsession with using AI
I really do not want anything innovative in my phone TBH. Android works ok and the heavy lifting is done with apps. I really don't want Google to move more crappy features into the OS and I really do not need stuff like those LIDAR sensors modern iPhones have. Just give me a smartphone with several years of security updates, enough speed to run my programs without issues, give me a good camera and I'm fine.
I agree with you except I really want lidar, making 3d scans of things is fun and cool. I got really into photogrammetry a few years ago and Lidar is the one iPhone feature I'm jealous of.
It's a really cool thing, but if we are honest: That is nothing for the general population. I'm not really sure what Apple is doing with that feature, but there is no way that Grandma Smith will 3d scan things and send them to her grandchildren for 3d printing
Seems to be gaining popularity with real estate and construction to help visualize spaces as they’re being built and/or sold
True, I suppose I'm fairly niche in that regard. I mostly made scans of environments using photogrammetry. Basically just documenting a space in time. Like my room, or house, or place I work. It's cool having a 3d environment, it hits different than a photo. I will be able to explore my old spaces I use to be in everyday in the future if I want to reminisce.
Correction:
Other than their obsession with using ai to surveillance & use that to control everyone in different ways
remember that android core app, that used to spy on people. nothing very useful.
....good.
The reason people use Pixels has always been utility. The Ai garbage was like putting jelly on a biscuit.
I don't mind the jelly, personally, but I came for the biscuit, and its still there.
You can still root them, still unlock them, still use custom Roms, kernels, operating systems in some cases. They're still what they've always been.
people used pixels and nexus phones largely because the other oems were terrible at the time and riddled with carrier bloatware but that's not really the case anymore. especially once samsung did away with touchwiz and went to the modern oneui.
Samsung still is terrible. You can't disable their store or utilities. They always pop right back up and start themselves. One might argue that's hardly a problem when phones have 6GB+ of Ram now and better battery optimization, but on budget phones that some people get "free" from carriers, it makes them lag-ridden slogs to use.
Their cameras and image processing tech were innovative at the beginning right? They were beating out most other phone manufacturers until they caught up. Also their folding phones seemed pretty innovative in regards to their form factor. Idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
pixel has better camera than some other androids, but thats about it. theres very little difference between androids relatively speaking.
Isnt that like all phone makers recently?
10years ago I was told that if everyone from my graduating class across the USA went into computer science there still would be too many developer jobs to fill. I wish I could go back. With so many layoffs im competing with hundreds thousands for jobs, fml
Everyone needs to start creating Unionozed-cooperative businesses. Sharing the load that there can be more jobs. Not enough businesses being made
Got told the same thing about systems administration 20 years ago. I struggled in my initial years. It's just an upsell to get more people paying for school.
I went back to school and now im about to graduate.
It'll work out.
That's amazing! Good for you. What are you studying?
Computer science lmao. I started construction in 08 crash, now going to attempt to start white collar work now. Preferably software work but I'd take IT too to get started
IT is probably a reasonable job to get into theres usually demand for that.
The job market is nuts right now for computer related work, but yeah im sure something will work out
That's fantastic! IT is how I got started.
10 years ago jobs for cs majors were pretty poor prospects already(as with all stem majors(, I think the Prof was out of touch. I was in a state school in West Coast,where a large percentage of students were cs, majors and the most common complaint is the jobs. This is from multiple forums, + in person experience. I had several people I know who had cs majors, job prospects are lacking,so they went to another state. Seems like they shouldve just got programming certifications instead, I'm not a techie. If their idea is to getting into development and research, like stem, it's extremely difficult to get into.
Maybe that's why the pixel and watch updates in March were so flawed.
While at the same time opening new positions for Pixel teams in Poland, for example.
Well, if you don't need programmers to work in place place at the corporate headquarters, you can hire them anywhere.
Yes I agree. I just wanted to point out that articles like linked should not be immediately interpreted as "oh noo recession". They move labor wherever it is cheaper, Eastern Europe, Ukraine, India, or China in case of manufacturing, that’s all.
Privileges of being a megacorp?
Yeah, I wouldn't consider this a sign of recession. Instead, it is the confluence of various structural changes in the industry.
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Because the industry was forced to work in a distributed manner, it has removed the location premium in a lot of salaries. Companies are firing high cost of living areas and hiring in lower cost of living areas.
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Outside of cost of living, total supply for developers has increased significantly.
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The return on investment for software development has either dropped or are starting to be included in more decisions. This is leading to development budgets getting slashed.
Why would they need more staff if they plan on developing it in a closed source manner now?
Android has always been developed in a closed-source manner by Google engineers, the recent changes only reduces the visibility of ongoing changes and the ability for developers outside of OEMs to contribute to Android (such contributions were already rare).
This is explained further in this article:
While some OS components, such as Android’s Bluetooth stack, are developed publicly in the AOSP branch, most components, including the core Android OS framework, are developed privately within Google’s internal branch. Google confirmed to Android Authority that it will soon shift all Android OS development to its internal branch, a change intended to streamline its development process.
the recent changes only reduces the visibility of ongoing changes and the ability for developers outside of OEMs to contribute to Android (such contributions were already rare).
Why is this so underplayed as if it's nearly meaningless though, is my question? A huge part of open source code is transparency, and this decision is a big blow to exactly that.
Only posting the code when it's finished increases the risk that it will not be correctly scrutinized in the way its been until now, not to mention the precedent this sets. Death of the OS in AOSP by a thousand shallow cuts is what I see here.
No one really scrutinized it while it was in development anyways. For example graphene os always looked at and made changes to the aosp releases.
Maybe that's what they will do now. But that's not what the announcement said.
IIRC that announcement came a couple weeks ago.
Good, they've been pushing out updates nobody wanted for years now