Unix\Windows at work and home here. Android for mobile.

The thing I can't quite figure out is...why do hardware makers continue to play in the Android sandbox? Aren't margins per device near zero or even, in the case of some the Chinese manufactures, weirdly negative?

Yes, I know Samsung makes money as a corporation, but on the phone business alone?

To be fair:

Microsoft made a better OS for integrated work computers than Apple.

Apple made a better phone device than Microsoft.

Android based smartphone manufacturers made better phone devices than both Microsoft and Apple.

All of the above have been massive technology innovators who have earned their market shares.

Choosing one over the other for a specific purpose is sometimes a practical choice, sometimes a lifestyle choice and sometimes just a matter of familiarity. If one choice seems cooler than the others to you, then that's a reflection of your criteria when making a choice and doesn't reflect on anyone else's choices.

My biggest complaints about Covenant:

1. David killed ALL the engineers? How? Why would that be the only city on that planet? Makes no sense though I guess it can be implied that all life was *eventually* killed by the black spores.

2. The chestbuster morphing into a mini-xenomorph so quickly was retarded and looked so out of place. Also the gestation period was ridiculously fast.

3. No hazard/bio-suits when landing on an unknown planet with almost your entire bridge/command crew? Come on...

4. The stupid back/throat-bursters. I almost laughed when the first back-burster was revealed. Why even introduce them at all? More time could have been spent with David getting someone impregnated by a facehugger.

5. The whole premise of Alien is that no one really knows what the hell it is or where it came from. That mystery and uncertainty lends more weight to the terror of the xenomorph. Why do movies always have to try and explain every detail - leaving it up to the viewer's imagination can be so much more effective (e.g. see explanation of "The Force"...f.u. George Lucas lol...)

6. David creating the xenomorphs just doesn't make sense either. Why would he create something that requires a host when there is no life remaining on the planet and he couldn't have known that a ship would arrive carrying people to impregnate?

7. Having the xenos walk around in bright lighting doesn't make them appear very menacing. Alien and Aliens were all about claustrophobic environments, dim lighting, and surprise attacks.

8. Yes, let's do exactly what the clearly scheming android told us to do and walk right up to that slimy egg that just opened. You would think that these people should be smart, right? They are the custodians of over 1000 colonists, starship pilots, and scientists and clearly hold high ranking positions yet frequently make some of the WORST choices possible. Ripley might have just been a lieutenant of a simple cargo hauler but the idiots of the Covenant make her look like a genius.

*ban
Android Recovery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOQw-v_JVGg

Great video, great explanation technique.

If we created a brain from a map (even a perfect one), put it in an android and set it going, how would we know that it would behave the same way as the person who was mapped? I'm not sure there is a way to really know. Is it alive when it's good enough to trick someone? Is it alive when it's smart enough to turn to you and say, "If you switch me off, will i die?" Is it fair to "kill" that one but not the ever-so-slightly less advanced one who didn't ask the same question?!

Let's say we create a simulation of someone's brain and run a particular scenario by it. Could we predict possible outcomes and their probabilities? That's kinda close to minority report. If our justice system is right 95% of the time but the brain simulation was right 98% of the time, less people would be wrongfully judged so we should act on thought-crime.

There used to be, but for security purposes the savegame is moved to a safe location. You may be able to transfer it by doing a complete backup and restore, but don't hold me up on that - it works on iOS, but not sure on Android tbh.

If you're logged on to facebook on them, your score does transfer, but not the rest.

Hey gwiz. Is there any way to transfer your Subway Surfers progress from one Android tablet to another? All signs point to no (aside from options requiring rooting), so I thought I'd give you a try as my sons' last hope to carry their stuff over to the new tablets they got for xmas.

Perhaps I misunderstood, but I thought it was simply transmitting electricity, not creating it. I was thinking it would work as a sensor where, when it's stretched passed the limit, it will no longer have continuity and could sound an alert.
If I'm wrong and it does MAKE voltage, then yes, synthetic muscles for anything really, not just prosthetics, but androids, underwater machines, etc.

Would love to see a full length normal speed video of this.

The 360 fov video they released last month is worth watching on android. Even better with cardboard.

Probably possible on android, but I'm pretty sure that iOS apps can't use the phone functionality like that.

It's a good idea though and I think Apple/Google should integrate it into the os.

Couldn't (shouldn't?) somebody make an android / iOS app that has permissions to force turning on GPS tracking, dials 911 and lets the user talk as normal, and uses text to speech to repeat the lat/long coordinates from the GPS at a low volume every 15-30 seconds or something?

That wouldn't require a technological standard -- from the 911 dispatch perspective, it is all just analog / audio information. It would require people to download/install a 3rd party app, which isn't great since most people don't exactly plan ahead for emergencies like that. But, if it worked well enough and was unobtrusive enough, Google/Apple would probably be well served to adopt it as a standard feature of Android/iOS.

It's one of those rare cases where I think it's fair to say that Apple is offering something that is good value.

$400 if you don't plan to use a lot of apps / load music, movies etc on it, for the 16GB version outright is a pretty good deal. The A9 processor tops many benchmarks against top of the line Android phones. That plus 2GB RAM puts it on par with the 6s/Plus. The resolution is fine for the screen size, since the DPI is above 300.

If you are fine with or prefer a smaller screen and want the iOS app store, it really is a fair deal. Yes, something like the Xiaomi Mi 5 still blows it away on the Android side, but if you exclude Xiaomi, I think it's very competitive with the more mainstream Samsung / LG / Sony competition which will not include a top tier processor at this price range.

Here's a recent article to support my point that it's default encryption that's the issue:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/why-are-so-few-android-phones-encrypted-and-should-you-encrypt-yours/

I love that app. The only downside is that I usually end up laughing so damn hard with whoever I'm doing it with that it completely screws up the effect every time.

For what it's worth, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, this app is called Face Swap Live, and it's only on iOS right now. There are a hundreds of Face Swap apps on Android and iOS store, but the "Live" version is the only correct one (others don't have the same functionality).