Is it full of bloatware? If I recall the last version had some people mad because samsung likes to install their os on top of android so it effectively doubles the used space
One UI doesn’t use that much more space compared to other skins if you judge by the size of the super partition. Unfortunately, ArsTechnica jumped the gun on the topic without doing proper research.
I’ll edit this comment later with a list of pre-installed apps on the US unlocked model later.
Edit: List of pre-installed apps on the (* denotes it can be uninstalled)
-In the Google folder: Google, Chrome, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Drive*, Google TV*, Meet. And Photos*.
-In the Microsoft folder: LinkedIn*, Microsoft 365*, OneDrive, and Outlook*.
-In the Samsung folder: Find*, Health*, Members*, Messages, My Files, PENUP*, Shop Samsung*, SmartThings*, TV*, Voice Recorder*, Wearable*.
Apps outside the folder: Assistant, Calculator*, Calendar*, Camera, Clock*, Contacts, Facebook*, Gallery, Gaming Hub*, Global Goals*, Internet, Messages, Netflix*, News, Notes*, Phone, Play Store, Settings, Spotify*, Store, Tips*, Wallet*, and YouTube Music*.
Im still rocking my s8 because I havent seen a reason to upgrade as my phone has been working great so far and that claim didnt help with the decision. If the 24 has any major pros it might be worth it
If you’re still fine using your S8 by all means, no reason to upgrade. The point I was trying to make was that the storage issue was misinformation.
What it boiled down to was two main things: the device showing the advertised storage converted from GB to GiB but displayed as GB, and users not granting the proper permission for the Device Care causing storage taken up by apps to be lumped into the system storage. Samsung later updated devices so users wouldn’t be confused.
GSMarena is saying South Korea gets the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 variant. If that’s true, it’s a safe indicator the Exynos is dogshit. Wouldn’t be surprised if performance/watt is worse than the 865 since no Samsung fabbed SoC has beaten that one yet.
Edit: seems like South Korea are getting Exynos for the S24 and S24+. Looks like GSMarena are wrong. Hope it isn’t a shit show like the 990 and 2200 but I don’t expect much.
They decided the pricing 20 years ago during the early days of EDGE data pricing. Then they realized that the money that’s flowing from users that accidentally send them is a gold mine, so they left the crazy pricing
We didn’t have unlimited texts long after WhatsApp. Nowadays every plan comes with thousands of them but just because nobody uses them and a big number is free marketing
MMS never free except some scam from Tim and Vodafone where if you paid 10 euro to recharge a PAYG account, they would actually credit you 8 euro and give you 50 MMS “free”, but expiring in 30 days and could only be sent free only if on the same network. But how could someone know if it was on the same network??? Exactly, it was designed preying on the fact that it was possible to change network …
I remember my girlfriend back in like 2004 used to blast me with text messages whenever she got mad at me. It was like $0.12/msg and there was nothing I could do…but that was a long time ago.
MMS yes, by deleting all the APN profiles. Always did it since 20 years ago
Can disable SMS sending by changing the “SMS center number” but I don’t think can disable reception
Luckily in my country the carrier in the early 2000s they decided to scam users with MMS and the “internet button” nearby the “OK” button and not with the “SMS double dip” where both sender and receiver would be charged for texts - too prone to abuse from assholes with large plans
“Internet button scam” explained for young people: in the early 2000s some carriers charged 1-2 euro each time you started an internet session. This for two main reasons:
To block new chat apps. We had “jar” apps like ebuddy, IMO or jacksms that could let the user chat spending much less. They were super optimized for data saving and even at the astronomical 20 euro per MB that they were charging at the time, it meant a chat session with a friend would cost 8 cents instead of 3 euro of texts. I would make two short calls to my friend, it would mean “go online and check the chat”
Get free money from people with fat fingers. Opening the browser would immediately charge the user 2 euro. There was a competition between phone makers to place the “internet button” in the most asshole position. Nearby the “call” button, or as a dynamic button, like at the home screen, the “ok” button would open the internet, while in the menu would be “ok”. I had a Motorola where they placed it in the middle or the D-pad and I always accidentally pressed it. This could be mitigated by avoiding the purchase of a “carrier branded” phone because it could be toggled off. If you bought a phone with Vodafone branding instead every button had a way to let you spend money
I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you. Everyone, and I mean everyone, uses WhatsApp here. Friends, family, work, doctors, landlords, etc. Not using WhatsApp will make you miss get togethers with friends, make it way harder to communicate with colleagues, take away a lot of convenience when talking to your doctor or landlord or something.
I have Signal groups with friends, but you’re never going to be able to fully lose WhatsApp here unless you’re prepared to be “that person” everywhere and miss a lot of convenience.
Americans on Lemmy/Reddit always say this, but it’s not easy.
WhatsApp is essentially SMS. If you don’t use WhatsApp, you’re gonna have a bad time. You won’t be contacted by friends or family, you’ll struggle to make friends or get dates, you won’t receive 2FA codes for a load of services, in some places even government stuff is done via WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is about as optional as having an email address. You basically need it unless you want to live as a hermit.
Yeah, once I made the switch to wireless earbuds, I didn’t miss the jack at all. People have valid complaints about them, like the price and the limited battery, but I think the convenience is worth it.
I use Windy, it’s meant for boating, but it’s really useful for me at work (stonemason) because rain isn’t great for fresh mortar, wind driven rain is even worse, and if it’s too windy to climb up the scaffolding I’d like a heads up.
Edit: The free version is somewhat limited, but I haven’t bought a license and still find it really useful.
I liked Windy’s UX, but the developers were of the type that knew better than everyone and refused to even make an option to default to anything but wind. IIRC if you wanted to see precipitation forecast it was always like 3-4 taps deep. I moved from that to Weawow which is really nice since you can choose from multiple weather sources, including hyper-local sources which is important in Chicago where two different parts of the metro can vary by 30-40° F. But yeah, if wind is important, Windy is the better app.
I disabled the Google App back when "Google Now" was still a thing. Remember when it would give you directions to get where you were going after you were already on your way? I'd be on the train, it'd tell me "oh, you wanna go somewhere? Get off the train, take a cab to the nearest train station, get on the train..."
They removed everything but sports score tracking, I kept using it for a while, and then I realized that I could just fucking use my browser for search, since that's where I wanted to read search results anyway. And that's what I did.
They're going to keep doing this again and again, making their app worse and worse.
No idea why I would ever want the Google app back.
Because software bloat grows faster than storage and RAM sizes. Remember when Android phones had 1GB RAM and felt fast? Roughly 12 years ago. For what most people use their phones for, those old phones would still be perfectly usable, but gotta bloat the software because fuck you
Phones are developed to store as much in RAM as possible. Storage is slow, and users are expected to switch between apps constantly. It’s not uncommon for hundreds of apps to be loaded, including their state, at the same time. Apps that don’t fit into memory are saved to storage, but the most common apps and services are kept around.
Common files are also cached in memory for performance reasons. If you don’t have any RAM available, browsing files or photos would be terribly slow.
The GPU shares RAM on many devices, and that’ll take a significant chunk out of your system memory. Rendering 60 frames per second on a 1440p screen isn’t cheap, especially if you have ten different apps ready to render full screen at all times.
My phone has about 4½GB assigned to applications, the rest is cache. I’d say phones with less than 6GB of RAM would work, but not very smoothly.
The more RAM, the easier switching between apps becomes. Websites and apps have become huge, not only because of inefficiencies but also because of how huge the graphics they need to render have become, and the expectation that everything works with a smooth 60-90-120Hz all the time. Do you need 12GB? Hard for me to tell. I can tell that my phone’s 6GB struggles when Firefox is open while Youtube is playing and I need to switch to my password manager. It’ll hold out, but only just, one more app and Firefox gets unloaded. Then again, my password manager seems to be suffering from some kind of memory leak, because there’s no reason it would need this much RAM.
I don’t know what Macbook you have, but if someone is buying a laptop these days, I wouldn’t recommend getting anything with less than 16GB of RAM or an upgrade slot. Web browsers have become operating systems of their own and buying 8GB laptops now will make your device last less than five years, at least comfortably. I would personally advocate for 32GB or more if you’re planning on using your laptop for ten years, based on current trends.
Even still, many people can and do use phones the wag they did desktops ten years ago. It’s not surprise to me that phones have grown to have desktop class RAM specs. Many people don’t know about it, but you van hook up a Samsung phone to a monitor and have a fully featured desktop right there waiting for you in DeX, you just need a Bluetooth keyboard+mouse to control it. I bet my parents could use a phone as a desktop without ever running into any trouble, partially because of how much RAM those phones sport.
If all you need is basic browsing and social media, you can go with 6GB of RAM, or even less. As time goes on, your phone will start to struggle with the ever growing websites and apps, but it’ll keep doing what it always did, you just see a few more loading screens when switching between apps. Any €350 phone will do fine for most people these days, I don’t get why people spend three or four times that on a phone if all they do on it is browse social media.
They had a very specific and useful purpose: notify of ongoing processes. Some apps using them wrong sucked, I agree, but since we have already got a lot of customisation for notifications on a per-app basis then perhaps this should be a customizable thing as well
Google isn’t exactly excited about the concept of local files. They would prefer you to keep everything in their online services.
If you need support for these, then installing a separate file manager app is your best bet.
I’m using this one: f-droid.org/packages/me.zhanghai.android.files/
(No idea, though, if it supports unpacking RAR archives.)
I’ve given up on it. While I think it was silly to remove, I’ve come to find it just as silly to be so attached to a cable. Bluetooth and USBC headphones have worked just fine for me.
Yeah I’m a bit salty that it’s gone, but I’ve actually found using Bluetooth earbuds to be a way better experience. I’m no longer snagging a cable on everything and ripping them out of my ears. Maybe I’m just a clumsy idiot, but I did this all the time with wired headphones.
One thing that Bluetooth headphones still suck for is gaming. The lag is too obnoxious. So I have a pair of headphones that can convert to wired for that purpose. I don’t game on my phone so that part is a non-issue for me.
You can also get a decent pair at a relatively inexpensive price nowadays. It used to be crazy expensive to jump in, but there are a lot of cheaper ones out there nowadays that still offer great sound.
Edit: I saw a commenter complain about the lag when watching videos. This doesn’t happen for me. I’m not sure if the tech is in my phone itself or in my headphones (I have two different pairs from different companies), but there is some sort of processing that goes on that makes it so the audio and video are synced, no matter if I’m watching a local video on my phone or a YouTube video. I can even manually adjust it with a “Bluetooth metronome” setting/app, but I’ve never needed to manually adjust it. For me, lag only happens when playing video games.
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