This week, we do a follow up segment on Android Oreo. We also talk about the announcement of a brand new Android One phone. Cristian reviews another Oreo. We discuss tips and tricks for figuring out if a particular tech news/video is just marketing fluff or an actual informative piece of content.
Show Notes:
- Follow-up – Android O
- Ron Amadeo’s review
- 00:37 Emoji system
- Cristian talks about the new emoji and the new Emoji Compat library in Android Oreo
- 04:15 Project Treble
- Sadiq talks about the new Vendor Interface in Android Oreo (Hardware Abstraction Layer(s) and the potential benefits that this brings to the Android ecosystem
- Project Treble is one of the biggest architectural changes to Android
- Episode 75: Project Treble – for the HAL of it (if you want more in-depth on Treble)
- 00:37 Emoji system
- Ron Amadeo’s review
- 10:20 New Xiaomi-built Android One phone to launch in 40 markets
- Sadiq makes a really
badgood DJ Khaled pun - Cristian proceeds to do the introduction to the Xiaomi Mi A1
- This is the highest end Android One phone yet
- We also talk about possibly importing this phone and whether it will work with carriers in the USA and Canada
- Sadiq makes a really
- 17:00 Thin Lemon Oreo Reviews
- Cristian reviews the Thin Lemon Oreo
- Cristian apologises for his comments about Tim Hortons last week
- 20:25 Patreon of The Week: Crow Moore
- [bloop noise]
- This weeks Patreon that you should support is Crow Moore’s page. Crow is an artist. They do sketches and other types of art — which you can find at their portfolio website thefishcrow.com. They also have a science fiction webcomic at crowblogs.com. Supporting their Patreon gets you access to their private sketches and abstract concept work. You can find their Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/thefishcrow, that’s https://www.patreon.com/thefishcrow. Back to the show.
- [fading swirl noise]
- 21:05 Microsoft to hold Surface keynote in London next month
- Cristian suggests hopefully that there might be a Surface Phone announced at the event
- Snapdragon + Windows devices may be announced
- Cristian talks about how Windows 10 is converging across devices
- 27:25 Picking out marketing copy in technology reviews
- Exhibit A – Is this marketing or a proper review?
- Nokia sponsored the reviewer’s trip
- Excessive praise and no negative points mentioned
- Cristian suggests watching out for the tone of the video
- Some YouTubers are not great actual critics
- Cristian suggest checking out Erica Griffin as an example of a phone reviewer who is not ad-funded and is on Patreon
- Sadiq suggests that some psychology may be at play
- Trusting the reviewer and/or outlet
- Cristian suggests visiting a site, turning off ad-block and seeing how many ads there are, which might suggest that the site is a content farm
- Sadiq suggests watching out for posts that are glorified spec sheets vs. an actual critique
- Cristian suggests watching out for excessive use of glowing adjectives
- “Hands-on” vs. proper review
- Sadiq explains game review embargoes
- Cristian and Sadiq talk about the funding models of various tech news sites
- Exhibit A – Is this marketing or a proper review?
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