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Maps. There’s still unfortunately nothing better.
And they’ve been neglecting that. There are a couple of street names that they have wrong, and I’ve been using the edit feature fruitlessly for over 8 years. I’ve included links to local business web sites with the new name of one, links to municipal web sites with the new name, geo-tagged photos of the street signs, and even links to the municipal ordinance that changed the names in 2003. It all goes into the same black hole.
On iOS I find Apple Maps to be better in general. I don’t think Google maps is as much of a monopoly as it once was
That may be, but then you’re in the unfortunate position of owning an Apple device.
I’m fine with that, I’ve always had trouble with android devices but I haven’t had any issues since switching a few years ago. To each their own
I’ve always said “Apple devices ‘just work’ for people who think throwing money at a problem is a valid solution”.
Case in point: Louis Rossmann on why he hates Apple devices
Maps was crowdsourced like wikipedia. Still is.
It will turn to shit as crowds migrate. And the crowds are migrating.
Pixel phones are a joke? They’ve been the best phones I’ve owned.
my 6a has been nothing but shit. You cant charge it and run the GPS at the same time or it overheats. Thats just one of the many issues ive had with it.
Was considering the 6a until I saw the charge speed and screen to body ratio.
Sometimes even when I’m just browsing lemmy it decides the screen needs to be dimmed for the next 20 minutes because im just being so very strenuous on it by looking at memes.
Same here. Have had Nokia and Iphones before and have my Pixel 3a right now for about 4 years and still happy with it.
They lost me right there, lol
Tbf a lot of Google is shite but i will never deny the pixel
I got a Pixel 6 last year after owning a Samsung Galaxy 7 for 6 years. I have a notes page with 49 complaints.
Disagree. I owned flagship Androids from the G1 until last fall.
Android is a privacy nightmare, and serves no technical advantage over an iPhone. So I got an iPhone. It’s 100% as adequate of a black rectangle that runs apps as any Pixel.
The newer ones are nice, but as an owner of the first 4 because I need unbloated OSes, they were a complete joke in hardware support and failures. Can’t count the number of times I’ve lost data to my pixel 1 randomly resetting, had bluetooth issues with 1-4, and had a smattering of other nonsense issues with everything up to the 6. Eventually I gave up and hopped over to iOS.
I hate Google and try not use it anymore but there’s still one thing I can’t do without : Google Maps.
Have you tried open street maps? I suggest organic street maps for your phone
Organic Maps are great, however if you’re looking for shops and restaurants (or rather their reviews) Google Maps are second to none.
OSM can technically replace Gmaps for shops and restaurants if enough people were using and updating it.
However, Gmaps in unbeatable for public transportation :( no alternative at all
In Europe you can usually download an app for the public transit in that specific country/city. However, Google Maps is the only one that will show you how to get to a specific address (not just the train/bus station).
Oh, I’m well aware of that, but there are so few cities that have been mapped to the degree to compete with gmaps, that I doubt we ever will reach that level.
Also reviews. I’m not sure if there even is a way to fix that without creating a separate program with a separate ecosystem in the process…
Unfortunately the reviews at GMaps are becoming less and less reliable though, as many businesses begin to have bad reviews removed through lawyers.
I’ve had it happen to a couple of mine, where Google forwarded the request of a law firm to prove I had actually been at a restaurant more than 5 years ago (where I reviewed it with 3*).
Even if you can prove it, most people won’t and in that case the restaurant went from 3.8 stars to 4.6, which is a shame really. It confirms a hunch that just as with Amazon the reviews get a lot less reliable.
Gmaps in unbeatable for public transportation
citymapper
Ooh, nice. Thanks for making me discover it! I would have liked a FOSS alternative, but this is pretty good.
Edit: argh, it’s nice for local urban commute, but it doesn’t work outside or between big cities :(
I tried it but in my area it doesn’t have a lot of places on it. Especially the satellite view being so old it’s hard for me to figure out how to contribute
Docs is good too
That copy & paste block thou, never again for me
I mean, a lot of the points are valid, but the Pixel phones are pretty great, Android is pretty great and getting better, and the Chromebook gamble is playing a really long term game where they could end up uprooting Microsoft if they play their cards right. From my understanding, US kids now on average know Chromebook OS better than Windows by far, and will probably prefer to continue using it if they could. If Google makes the OS more viable for professional use and flexible and play their cards right, they’d have a really good chance at uppending Microsoft’s dominance, especially since Microsoft is seemingly trying to shoot itself in the foot with Windows.
Pixel phones are garbage compared to Nexus line at the time. Android is garbage now too, like the OP said. Chromebook is gonna have to turn itself into a real platform with powerful machines and software to ever be relevant beyond disposal classroom computers. Frankly I think SteamOS has a better chance at making a comeback, and that’s a long shot.
US kids now on average know Chromebook OS better than Windows
Source? I would like to read about that ropic.
As a parent, my kids are issued Chromebooks by the school for “e-learning days”. I imagine mainly because of cost and ability to be managed remotely.
ability to be managed remotely
Thats kinda of the problem
My Pixel 6 is not “great”.
What exactly does Google have left that people like? Gmail?
Shhhh! Dammit. Now they are definitely going to realize they haven’t ruined it yet.
The way Gmail orders conversations/email chains makes it SO hard to figure who’s reply to what and what the latest email is. Each email in the chain contains the entire chain before it and you end up reading everything twice just to work out what the hell is going on.
I keep forgetting that Gmail is a website and not just an IMAP server.
I just sent a reply to an email I forwarded instead of the original email and it’s entirely the fault of how Gmail orders emails on Android. Unironically.
No further questions!
They’re the #1 in streaming. More people watch youtube on their TV’s than Netflix
Doesn’t Youtube famously bleed money?
Not anymore lol. It used to, but they make a lot of money on youtube now.
No clue, but the question was what do they have that people like. People really really like youtube
Liked. They make it worse every day, there’s just not a viable alternative. Without revanced and 5 different plugins on the browser, I’d have stopped using it already
But they didn’t invent that. They bought YouTube after it was already popular. The only thing they’ve done to the platform is put in more ads.
Was that a qualifier? “What exactly does google have left that people like?” Youtube, they have youtube
I dont like youtube, im being forced to use it if i want to wach content from my favorite creators, which by the way, also ain’t exactly happy with YT. Thats exactly the reason as to why so much people try it to migrate to twich and facebook gaming.
Chromebooks are insanely locked down at schools. I got one on eBay for $40, installed linux, and now it can play Minecraft Java at 60 fps so that’s something.
Theres much much more… Smaller kills sometimes are the most effective. Think about Google RSS Reader the best rss reader to ever exist…
Theoldreader.com is a good clone
The UI for GMail is awful. Can’t even follow conversations on my phone app. Just put that shit in order like Outlook does. Fuck.
I dunno that Outlook redesign is fucking awful
If/when they screw up gmail, I’m blacklisting Google for good, that’s gonna be such a goddamn pain to disentangle myself from.
the chromebook keyboard layout is stupid, especially if you like tiling wms
they removed capslock and moved super to where it would normally be, and renamed it to “search”
they put nonsensical function keys that don’t exist like “refresh” and “fullscreen”
and then the keys are mushy too
Even my 8yr old complains about how backwards the chromebooks at his school are.
CapsLock is vital for my muscle memory when configured to act as an extra Ctrl key. I have other shit configured to my Super key so that sort of kb would definitely require a major config overhaul to be usable.
Google has become Microsoft 2.0 where everything (consumer facing) they touch turns into shit.
The problem is how microsoft doesn’t want to lose the title as shittiest software company, that shit about copilot is absolute distopian nightmare fuel.
Even orwell would be like; “wow wow wow, thats to far”. At least we could say we were in a “happy world”, now this shit (USA, EU) is north korea ccp edition 2.0, redux.
Aside from Pixels, they’ve pretty much ruined all their products.
It sucks, because I actually like Google products, minus the gross privacy violations and ads. I used to pay for YT Premium.
Visual voicemail is broken on my Pixel, but that might be my carrier (Mint)
BTW if anyone has a fix or a recommended app for visual voicemail please let me know
Do what a normal person does. Let it fill up and you won’t have to worry about it anymore.
Well yeah, that’s what I’ve done, but I’m self employed and some of my customers are old and don’t text. I’ve definitely lost some business because my voicemail is full
Googles call screening works kind of good if the other person doesn’t think they have the wrong number because a robot answers.
I remember Visual Voicemail being broken for me back when I used to use Mint as well.
I switched to US Mobile on Verizon’s network and it works perfectly fine.
YouTube music/premium never grew on me. It simply wasn’t as good as google play music. ( in my honest opinion )
It’s ok, and getting better. My big problem with it is (like you) that Google Play Music was incredible, so good, and they discontinued it in favor of the much worse and awkwardly named YouTube Music.
Whoever convinced them to give up the branding of “Play Store, Play Music, Play Movies” should be drawn and quartered.
I never really used it for YT Music. I don’t like YT Music.
I liked no ads + background playback on iOS and Android without having to go through hoops like using NewPipe/Revanced.
Not even gmail… They turned that to shit years ago.
All it should be is a goddamn mailbox. Instead it’s now an ad-fueling chunk of spyware that has fucking social media bullshit built into it. I started paying for Proton and have been emptying my Google crap
Android is still great. The Pixel phone is the best Android phone by several metrics. Usability and Camera come to mind. Android TV is by far the best TV interface. Just because it’s sideloadable and decently usable. Low bar, but here we are.
Gboard is good. The pixel launcher is good enough to not bother switching off. The Google Home certainly turns my lights on and off. And as soon as Google opens RCS, I’m leaving Google Messages.
But that’s the only Google stuff I use. And I’m thinking of switching to Graphene OS.
I still miss swype. Gboard is usable but it doesn’t compare for me.
