Category: Google Pixel XL

Google today announced that their own first and second generation of Pixel phones now are certified as Android Enterprise Recommended devices.  I means that the four Pixel phones – the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL – join the ranks with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, LG V30, Nokia 8 and others.  You can see the complete list of devices here.

The Android Enterprise Recommended program certifies devices that meet criteria for manageability, support, productivity, security, and reliability.  The idea behind the program is to eliminate the guesswork on which devices are up to the task of being ready to handle the wear-and-tear of being an enterprise phone but also manageable from an enterprise IT perspective.

According to research from IDC, Google enjoyed a doubling of shipments of their Google Pixel phone lineup in 2017.  In all, the company shipped some 3.9 million units for the year, mostly comprised of the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL which were introduced last October.

The figures once again come from IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo who yesterday reported the paltry numbers for Essential.  While the numbers for Google are obviously better, they are still pretty small in the overall smartphone shipments market.

Google has released the January 2018 Android Security Update patches for the Google Nexus and Pixel lineup of devices.  Normally the patches are released on the first Monday of the first full week in any given month.  Given that yesterday was New Years Day and a holiday, it was delayed until today.

Like previous Android Security Update patches, there are two that have been released.  The first patch is dated January 1 and primarily focuses on core Android fixes and addressing security vulnerabilities.  In this patch there are a total of 20 fixes included, four of which are considered critical fixes.

One of the most common questions that I get asked, both here on the site, as well as by friends and family has to do with the hardware and software I use every day.  It is a fair question and one that people ask out of both curiosity as well as doing a “stare and compare” with their own tech.

I’ve always said that you need to use the right technology that works for you.  That may be an Android Phone or an iPhone.  That may be a Windows PC or a MacBook Pro.  Whatever the technology, it has to get the job done for you and for me, this list of hardware and software, works for me.  I encourage readers to look into what I use to see if it fits their needs but at the end of the day, it is a personal use case as to whether it will or will not.

I’ve broken this article into two parts.  The first is the primary hardware that I use each day with the second focused on the apps that I use on them.  The apps could be on my phone, my tablet or my Chromebook and I’ll note that as I go along.  As for hardware, I’ll cover what I use every day as well as other devices I use from time-to-time.  You’ll note that very little of what I have is new and that’s on purpose.  I tend not to buy the latest and greatest because I, like most of you reading this, are looking for value in my purchases or I use things for a long time before replacing them.

From a stats perspective, the camera in the Pixel 2 XL is better than that of the original Pixel XL.  But if you can pick up a deal on the Pixel XL, are you sacrificing too much in photo quality?  That’s the question that fellow Google Top Contributor Scott Peachey tries to answer in his latest comparison.

Scott gives a detailed overview of the cameras in both the 2 XL and the original XL from a video, images and selfie images of both devices (he even squeezes in some Pixel 2 discussion in there too).  He explains his method for testing and you can see the results of the comparison in the six minute video.

Google as a general rule has done a good job of getting fixes out to their devices in a timely manner.  This time however, they failed.

A small subset of Google Pixel owners have been experiencing not receiving SMS messages after upgrading to Android Oreo on their Pixel or Pixel XL.  The problem seems somewhat isolated to Verizon customers but users on other carriers have been impacted too.  The bug first popped up a couple of weeks ago and there is a long thread about the issue in the Google Product Forums.  It appears that it took a while for Google to pinpoint exactly what the issue was but now are stating they have gotten to the bottom of it.

We want to let you all know that we have been able to identify and implement a fix for this issue. Thank you to those that sent over bug reports and for including detailed information here on this thread.

There was an issue introduced in the release of Android Oreo that affects text message (SMS) delivery for a subset of Pixel (not Pixel 2) users.This issue was only seen on a small number of carriers. Unfortunately this has resulted in devices getting into a state where they do not receive messages.

The problem is that users who are impacted by this issue will have to wait until the November Android Security Update to get the fix.  That’s right, you get to live with it for at least another 2 weeks.