Category: Rants

It’s a little late in the release cycle, with the Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 having been released, but there’s a number of points I’ve been contemplating on this premium-priced phone for some time that I’ve wanted to Blog about.  Here goes…

Phone Retailer: Avoiding the Bloat-ware

I purchased my Pixel (in Australia) direct from Google about 12 months ago (as at December 2017). One of my primary reasons for purchasing a phone direct from the vendor is to explicitly avoid 3rd party (Tel co) pre-installed, forced additional ‘value’ software.

Telephone companies (collectively, Wireless Providers, Tel Co, Phone company, Mobile Company, Cell Provider or whatever your term is) seem to take vanilla smart phone firmware, and force-install their own additional software that they see as adding essential functionality. They also mark such software on Android as being not uninstallable, leaving the consumer with space consumed on their device for software they potentially don’t want, or may want to free up later.

Telcos have a history of producing some fairly horrible 3rd Party software. Somehow they get the combination of inefficient software that drains battery life, causes system reboots, consumes inordinate amount of phone storage capacity for no obvious reason, and often has horrible security throughout, none of which is in the consumer’s interest.

Given this software is not uninstallable, the consumer has two options over the life of the phone: either put up with the issues, or apply security updates for this bloat ware — if they are made available — which inevitable consumes more device storage space (apparently never less), and spin the wheel on changes around battery life, stability and security.

You’ll note I say ‘consumer‘ in the above, because if the Telcos treated the people paying them as customers, then perhaps they’d pay a bit more attention to customer experience and customer satisfaction, rather than forcing their own poorly implemented branded bloat ware on these devices. Even a boot logo — I’d rather have the default boot logo rather than have to fetch the animated loop for a Tel co to be displayed to me when I turn my phone on.

I had this with the original Google Nexus phone perhaps a decade ago, but phones I have used since then have suffered this bloat infestation. My wife has a Samsung Galaxy S4, with a combination of additional Optus and Samsung software crowding out the fixed-storage-space in the S4.

The Pixel

While Nexus returned with the 5P, it was the time that the Pixel launched that my S3 was on its last legs; and with an option of going direct to Google, I ordered one; a reasonably easy ordering process, good tracking for delivery.

The install looked great: just hook up a USB cable to the older Android phone, and everything should transfer — except it didn’t work at all. The S3 (from Optus) was capped at Android 4.4, the Pixel shipped with Android 7, an the delta was too long a divide for a promised smooth transfer.

Oh well, looks likes this may be useful in future for easing the upgrade/transition/replacement path I thought.

Pixel Sound Issues

Then the speaker started to play up.

Over the course of three months, the sound quality from the speakers (ie, when playing music, YouTube content, and phone Speakerphone mode) degraded (and eventually stopped, later). When the phone ‘rang’, it would be highly distorted audio. Speakerphone was not possible – you couldn’t make out the words the caller was saying.

This is when I first contacted Google support.

Google Support

Conveniently, Google support was contacted through a menu on the phone; either text chat, or a ring-back system that must have registered me into a queue, and called me when an agent was available. Neat.

After performing a few checks (ie, volume turned up), I was asked to firmware reset the phone. With MFA enabled on my phone for a few accounts (>30), I didn’t want to loose those seeds; but would like to transfer them to a new handset, especially if the promised transfer experience was going to avoid me having to recover MFA set up. After explaining this, the call ended, but no replacement was forthcoming.

Fast forward until October, and the audio on speaker phone was completely dead, and I’d even tried the new Oreo release and any other software solution. So now another call with Google support; this time they confirmed on the phone they would send a replacement.

Replacement procedure

What they didn’t say was that they would send a time sensitive email to my Gmail address (not my primary address) that Gmail would automatically filter into a folder called “updates” (ie, not my default view of my Gmail inbox) that required me to a lick a link to order a replacement model within 5 days.

So a week after the call, wondering where the process was up to, I discovered email (having not been told to click a link in an email); but the link had expired, so another call to get a fresh time based link generated.

Confusingly, while I was trying to replace a Pixel, support sent me a link that would only order a Pixel XL. I wasn’t looking to change form factor (the Pixel fits nicely in my pocket). Another call – to sort this out, turned up that there were no Pixel replacements for RMA, and I would have to move to a larger handset.

The RMA procedure also required me to order a new one, a daunting process of having a UAD$1400 hold on my credit card, especially late in the pay cycle when there wasn’t $1400 clear on my card to hold. A few days later, another support call, a fresh link to click and start the “order” (RMA) again.

Transferring Pixels

Finally, it arrived. I connected the magic USB cable to initiate the transfer… hoping to keep copy media on the device, and the precious MFA seeds.

But it failed to start. Pixel 8.1 → Pixel XL 8.0 wouldn’t connect over the USB cable, but after trying various options, and proceeding to join a common WiFi network, it did promise to copy over WiFi.

Sadly, account logins only for Gmail. No media, no seeds. Not even the set of applications installed on the old phone.

So the promise of a seamless upgrade over a back-to-back connection between handsets seems unfulfilled.

Symantec Touchdown

For my various work email addresses, I purchased and have been using Symantec Touchdown for about 6 years. Its a reasonable exchange client, and consisted of the Touchdown application, and the Touchdown License application (ie, two installations).

Now as stars align, Symatec have End-of-Lifed Touchdown. They did this by pulling the license installation from the Play store. So I am transferring my applications, and can no longer install the license I purchased from Symantec.

Pixel & Pixel XL USB-C PD (Power Delivery) charging

One of the nice points about the Pixel was that it charges quick., using a new USB connector. This rectangular connector is effectively symmetrical; it can be plugged in either way, and starts a very rapid charging process (like a percent per 30 seconds or so).

However, it appears to wear loose pretty quickly. Even on the Pixel XL (now two months old) the USB-C PD connector actually needs to be held in place to acquire a rapid charge. Numerous times I have connected it, seen the rapid charge begin, but returned to find that it had dislodged and not been charging at all!

So now I have to regularly check on a charging phone to ensure I don’t need to grab-and-go and find its flat.

Pixel & Pixel XL Performance

So some positives: the snapdragon processor seems pretty speedy; applications respond well.

The Chrome browser is regularly updated, and Security updates come through each month without delay (didn’t get that with a Telco branded firmware).

The camera takes nice photos and videos, including some reasonable slow motion (either 120 or 240 fps) and nice panorama and photo-sphere pics (stitched on camera). The integration of photos.google.com into the phone to backup (and offload) media from the device works well.

The placement of the fingerprint sensor works well on the rear; with the same hand I am holing the phone I can unlock it. And unlike FaceID, it doesn’t stink: I can register multiple fingers (ie, one from left hand, and one from right – H/A for my hands).

Wish List

Google:

1. make transferring phones also install the applications from the older phone into the new, and set them up with the same settings
2. transfer media from old to new over the back-to-back USB-C link
3. improve the support experience for RMA; perhaps extend the link validity a little longer (2 weeks?), tell customers to look for the email that customers have to order the device
4. have the USB-C click and lock into place, or something else to help it not spring back and loose connection

Symantec:

1. can I get my licence key or a refund?

Tel cos in general:

1. stop forcing your software onto customers phones; make your ‘essential’ services available as web apps without requiring client side bloat, make them uninstallable, and ensure that Androind updates flow to customers as soon as possible (have you pushed WPA Krack updates yet?).

Today I went and sat yet another of the AWS Certifications; I’ve been doing a bit of a Pokemon approach and collecting them all.

AWS’s certifications fall in what are essentially three classes: Associate, Professional, and Speciality (still in beta at this point in time).

Each of the certifications requires sitting a proctored exam at a certified exam venue. Subjects are not permitted any personal equipment, watches, wallets, or anything else that could be used to collude or circumvent the test integrity. The testing is done on a locked-down PC, and are generally multi-choice of:

• Choose the best answer (think: radio box)
• Choose N answers that apply (think: tick the check boxes)

The Associate certifications are effectively entry-level: the number of questions is around 55, and the permitted time is around an hour and a half.

Meanwhile the Professional and Speciality certifications are around 100+ questions, and three hours assessment time.

The calibre of the questions have made these certifications some of the most valuable, and thus desired certifications in IT. I’ve been lucky to spend several years working on some large projects to hone these skills, and am pleased to hold all five of the AWS certifications.

Certification Venues in Perth

Over the last few months, two more venues have appeared as options for sitting these certifications, and I have now used all three to compare them. For several years, AICT (next to Myer in the Murray Street Mall) has been the only option, but now Saxons Training Facilities at 140 St Georges Tce, and now ATI-Mirage at the redeveloped Cloisters have become available.

AICT is probably the most dilapidated venue. They have set aside a small room at the very rear of their location just by their lab technicians hub and on-premise data centre, with small screens on the testing PCs, no windows in the room, and at times, a lack of adequate cooling assisted by a pedestal fan. They can test about 5 people at a time here.

Saxons became available in January: their rooms were considerably larger, well lit, and had large windows for daylight. The facilities were much cleaner and newer. A very large break-out kitchen/coffee area was there, but I had no time to use it. The room would have held about 18 people, but I was the only one the morning I sat this certification.

And today, ATI-Mirage – I was their first Kryterion exam to go through since ATI-Mirage started offering them. Their testing facility was reasonably well resourced, no windows but well lit, with enough room for around 12 people or so to sit exams. This is shared with their Pearson-VUE testing, and this morning, was full.

If I had to order the facilities, I’d probably chose Saxons first, followed closely by the very friendly people at ATI-Mirage, and AICT last. But then again, my office in the Perth CBD is opposite Saxons, so its a short walk to hop over the road!

I was wandering around my esteemed local hardware store (Bunnings) and obtained an Arlec Wireless LED Sensor Kit. I’d been looking for something to give “under cabinet” lighting, particularly at night in my bathroom. Not wanting to get mains power outed to near floor height in a wet room, this looked like a great solution.

The kit consists of three “bars” of LEDs. One of these bars is a control unit, and also has an IR sensor in it. The other two are slave units to the master containing just an array of LEDs.

For the most part, this does as you want, but with a bit of thinking the product could do so much more. So Arlec, here’s some product research that frankly, you could have done in 20 minutes of thinking about your product:

1. The light stays on for one minute, and then goes off. Regardless if the IR has been triggered again, during the last 60 seconds, its on for 60 and then off. Followed by madly trying to re-trigger this in the darkness. Surely if the IR triggers again you should reset the timer.
2. Who choose 60 seconds? This should be configurable by the user. Minimum 5 seconds, maximum an hour?
3. When the lights come on, they come on at 100%. Making an ease-in, ease-out to bring them up to “full brightness” would be much nicer.
4. Why have the LEDs always go to 100% brightness. Perhaps that should be configurable.
5. The LEDs are quite a cold white color. For me, Warm white would have been nicer. Others may want specific colour.
6. When triggering, the slave units take some time to come on, and they trigger on in a random order. I have mine all in a tight two, and I’d be happy to run a small 2 or 3 wire cable between them and have them trigger simultaneously. Furthermore, with only 3 channel available, I’m limited to deploying this in larger settings. If I wire slaves together, then they should ignore their wireless receivers.
7. The random order triggering of the slave units should be configurable. I may have a set of 10 of them going up some stairs, and want to put a 50ms delay as the light appears going up the stairs. Coupled with ease-in and brightness control this could look quite good.
8. The master unit has the IR and a bank of LEDs, but I may not want LEDs where my IR trigger is: separate the IR and control unit into its own module.
9. Give me the option of having multiple IR sensors (perhaps either end of the array of lights) to trigger the LEDs.
10. Sell additional slave units individual, and in 5 packs.
11. 3 channels is not enough if I have multiple sets in close proximity, and subject to interference. So give me the option of disabling the wireless signalling completely.

A smaller form factor would also be neat – perhaps a hard-wired version that could sit flatter under surfaces and be less obtrusive. But that’s my first few things that I think a bit or R&D would uncover.

In the mid 80s, my Dad wrote a lyrics for a song for my primary school – Woodlands -  with one of our neighbours creating the music. It became the official school song for nearly 30 odd years, and was only recently supplanted. I was trying to remember the lyrics, and found only one document with it left on line, so I thought I ‘d paste it here to preserve it a little longer.

At the bottom of the hill

Nestling by the trees

Warmed by the sun

Cooled by the breeze

There’s a place for learning

There’s a place for fun

It’s the school at Woodlands

We welcome everyone

Banksia gum and wattle

They are just a few

Of the many trees around us

That make our little school

A good place to learn in

A good place for fun

It’s the school at Woodlands

We welcome everyone

The Banksia is our emblem

We wear it with pride

Endeavour is our motto

It means we always try

A good place to learn in

A good place for fun

The BEST school in W.A.

Woodlands number one.

– John A N Bromberger