Google IO 2013 thread

[WelshBloke]

No need, just go to the Play Store from a desktop/laptop and install Hangouts that way, it will update Talk on your phone.

I was at work. No access to desktop play store.

Still not sure if it's a major upgrade. It looks nicer but it doesn't seem to do a lot more.

 

[WelshBloke]

Anyone tried uploading epub books or pdfs to Google books yet?

 

[Red Storm]

I was at work. No access to desktop play store.

Still not sure if it's a major upgrade. It looks nicer but it doesn't seem to do a lot more.

Yeah I honestly don't like it at all. I need to be able to organize the contact list, right now it's just a mess.

 

[lopri]

I signed up for the all access trial against my better judgment. (been trying to avoid Google services) I have to admit it's one of the better music services I've experienced. Quality is pretty good to my ears. Does anyone know at what quality songs are encoded?


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[s44]

I signed up for the all access trial against my better judgment. (been trying to avoid Google services) I have to admit it's one of the better music services I've experienced. Quality is pretty good to my ears. Does anyone know at what quality songs are encoded?

Everything I've bought from Play Music has been 320k mp3.

Btw, could you turn off the sig in your app?

 

[lopri]

I looked but here is no settings for that. I must be blind..


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[s44]

I looked but here is no settings for that. I must be blind.

Huh, interesting. I guess the rest of us just bought Tapatalk ages ago.

What I don't get is that at about 320k you could compress the CD master losslessly to a FLAC... so why not?

 

[ChronoReverse]

FLAC is still larger than 320kbps mp3. Depending on music complexity it can even be >1000kbps

Not an issue for a large microSD but I actually had to re-encode when I had my 16GB One X.

 

[VashHT]

It would be nice if the downloaded music was FLAC or it would play some lossless format if you were on a good connection. For mobile though it would blow through data way too fast, I just ripped some cd's last night and FLAC is like 40mb or so per song at the highest encoding so that's not very friendly for streaming. I don't think it even streams 320 mp3's unless you're on wifi or you force it to through settings.

 

[bucwylde23]

They're dropping XMPP support, so the answer seems to be pretty clear. It's "unified" in the sense that if they force everyone to use their application, then everyone will be on the same service.

I'll have to go yell at my GTalk contacts to get on AIM or something; requiring another client for IM is absurd.

It's kind of funny that Microsoft JUST integrated Gtalk into Outlook.com and then Google basically makes Gtalk go away.

 

[s44]

I don't think it even streams 320 mp3's unless you're on wifi or you force it to through settings.

Yeah, you can easily force it though. And, you know, that's what 4G is for.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Yeah, you can easily force it though. And, you know, that's what 4G is for.

If only my data cap isn't 6GB. LTE burns through that fast =/

 

[s44]

Looks like 4.3 is "a few short months" away.
(comment about next API level, which = next release)

... though the API bump could also come with 4.2.3, the 4.3 footprints suggest otherwise.

 

[A5]

Looks like 4.3 is "a few short months" away.
(comment about next API level, which = next release)

... though it could the API bump could also come with 4.2.3, the 4.3 footprints suggest otherwise.

4.3 makes more sense I think. They usually don't add new features to ..z revisions.

 

[VashHT]

Yeah, you can easily force it though. And, you know, that's what 4G is for.

Yeah the only reason I don't do it is that it burns through data ridiculously fast, I've gone over my 3Gb limit a few times already streaming from my phone in my car.

One thing that still annoys me about google music is the album art, when I look at an artist it shows all these super low res album covers from stuff I uploaded and then I'll look down at the stuff from googles servers and they have these high res album art for all of their albums, I don't see why they don't apply that when you upload your own music. It doesn't seem like it should be hard considering it seems to detect that I already own the album (won't let me add it to my library says it already exists).

 

[Ravynmagi]

Argh. I pinned a playlist to my phone last night. Today I opened up the playlist and added another song to it. So I tapped on the pin icon to see if I can prompt it to download the latest addition to it and instead it immediately un-pins all my downloaded music without any warning. ARGH.

So I tried to pin the playlist and download everything again, but now getting a "Can not download music right now" error. ARGH.

Edit: Nevermind... apparently it just won't download over my 3G connection (wish the error could have mentioned that).

 

[dlock13]

How do you get the new Play Store or the Google Play Games Services? I keep checking my phone, but there's absolutely nothing on there. I don't understand if it hasn't rolled out yet or not.

Can someone enlighten me?

 

[WelshBloke]

Anyone tried uploading epub books or pdfs to Google books yet?

Quoting myself but this works really well. I am a very happy Welshbloke. :biggrin:

I have always liked the Google books app but its not always the best way to buy stuff but with a combination of Calibre and Play books upload its now the best book reader for me.

 

[Riceninja]

the new hangouts app is kinda lame, it took away the ability to see who's online and what their status is. now its just another whatsapp, with limited functions.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

i think online/offline status behaves more like an IM app oriented for desktop computing. it also seems to take more resources/battery to keep gtalk running. Hangouts has far fewer wakelocks.

 

[s44]

i think online/offline status behaves more like an IM app oriented for desktop computing. it also seems to take more resources/battery to keep gtalk running. Hangouts has far fewer wakelocks.

Probably because it's using the new GCM API with continuous connection support, etc.

All the new APIs seem pretty awesome. The low-power location one is long overdue, and likely now pushed for Glass.

 

[Riceninja]

on my browser gmail, in the sent mail page its completely clogged up with chat logs. its so hard to differentiate between what i sent as convo to friends and what i emailed for legitimate purposes. not to mention the "sent mail" chat logs are segmented and just convos with 3 ppl can take up an entire page in the sent mail section. very annoying and no way to change it back.

i hate having these updates shoved down my throat. google is beginning to feel more like microsoft.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Probably because it's using the new GCM API with continuous connection support, etc.

All the new APIs seem pretty awesome. The low-power location one is long overdue, and likely now pushed for Glass.

Well, Kik, Whatsapp, Kakao don't use much battery life. There may be better APIs now but it was already possible before. GTalk integrates heavily with the system and you see whether your contacts are online/offline in the people app as well. I used it for like 30 seconds one day and it was the second highest wakelocking app in my system. Compare this to Whatsapp where I'm on it for at least 15 minutes or so chatting with my friends a day and it barely even makes a tick in battery life.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

look at this, by day 2 this thread is over, thats how lame google i/o was this year...next year they gotta bring the new toys...and the skydivers...man, larry page is boring...oh well at least we have that new iphone announcement next month, go apple, yeah....

 

[foghorn67]

look at this, by day 2 this thread is over, thats how lame google i/o was this year...next year they gotta bring the new toys...and the skydivers...man, larry page is boring...oh well at least we have that new iphone announcement next month, go apple, yeah....

It wasn't lame, stop trolling.