Shades Of Brown

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)




10:20 New Xiaomi-built Android One phone to launch in 40 markets

* Sadiq makes a really bad good 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


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