this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
109 points (97.4% liked)

Android

27994 readers
710 users here now

DROID DOES

Welcome to the droidymcdroidface-iest, Lemmyest (Lemmiest), test, bestest, phoniest, pluckiest, snarkiest, and spiciest Android community on Lemmy (Do not respond)! Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules


1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.


2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.


3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.


4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.


5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.


6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.


7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.


8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.


Community Resources:


We are Android girls*,

In our Lemmy.world.

The back is plastic,

It's fantastic.

*Well, not just girls: people of all gender identities are welcomed here.


Our Partner Communities:

[email protected]


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
all 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] comrade19 24 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago

bro the lack of Dex on my Pixel feels embarrassing for google.

[–] machinin 4 points 4 months ago

I believe so.

[–] woelkchen 1 points 4 months ago

Like Samsung dex?

No, if the state shown in the video somewhat matches the final release, it's not going to be a competitor to DeX anytime soon.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Ive never really understood the appeal of desktop modes like this or Dex, like, whenever i am somewhere with a keyboard, a mouse, a monitor with some cables, the likelyhood of there already being a fully working computer are very high, and the chances that the computer works better at what I want to achieve are much higher than my dinky phone with phone apps on it

[–] [email protected] 47 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Because this pocket computer is your enclave, with your data, and settings. You don't have to login to someone else's computer.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago
[–] Quackdoc 7 points 4 months ago

I use it a lot, I keep a little dock with me and a small bluetooth mouse and keyboard, when I'm typing on the go, I can just plug in when I come home and everything is there.

exact same thing with my emulators. I can also chroot into arch and get a full blown desktop environment if needed

[–] Dran_Arcana 4 points 4 months ago

I think the vision was what Motorola delivered briefly a decade ago with webtop. The original version of it was a chrooted lubuntu with full access to apt, and custom applications that let you render your phone, or phone apps as an application. It was powerful enough to get me through my first 3 years of a computer science program in college with a lapdock as my primary "computer". (Think a brainless laptop, that you dock your phone into)

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/03/motorola-atrix-the-ubuntu-powered-webtop-experience/

When they moved from android 2.3 to 4.0, they dropped the lubuntu webtop in favor of Android's tablet mode, which was a huge bummer, and what made me get an actual laptop. Outside of gaming, if that were the average computer paradigm today I'd be a happy camper. Why buy two computers when you can buy one instead?

[–] scarilog 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm honestly surprised this feature is still around. Don't get me wrong, I love that it's available when I get the chance to use it, but it's so rarely, I question whether the development effort necessary to keep it going is really worth it.

Edit: completely forgot the value Dex has for Samsung tablets. Happy that they make this feature available on phones too.

[–] shalva97 1 points 4 months ago

because they are powerful. Maybe your phone is slow. My phone can run games at 144fps and does not need to have active cooler, but PC runs at 60C and needs active cooling for a simple YouTube video

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

i use dex but if they can find a way to let this desktop mode work with 3rd party launchers unlike dex it'll be welcome

[–] Quackdoc 1 points 4 months ago

it should, AOSP external desktop mode does work with 3rd party launchers, and you can even kinda get it working on samsung, but it was a massive hassle getting it to work for me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

how about fucking finally

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I'm impressed how el Reg fleshed out a pretty sparse story with a bunch of relevant (self) links.

[–] TurdMongler 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Probably won't work on Pixels

[–] Quackdoc 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

in development options I believe you can enable desktop mode one external display, it's been around since like A10, and with A12L they really fleshed it out. but A14 was another decent improvement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I've seen this option before but most people online say the Pixels only work with DisplayLink. I'm really tempted to order a cable and see if it works

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

The Pixel 8 and onwards technically support DP alt mode again. I'm not sure about stock, but I believe I read about some people having it just work in Graphene OS.

[–] Quackdoc 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah, for sure. The primary issues that Pixel phones do not have DisplayPort out over USB-C enabled. Well, I think the newest ones do.

You also have the option of using scrcpy for testing this. But it's a bit of hassle.

[–] FreeLikeGNU 1 points 4 months ago

This makes more sense when coupled with AR glasses (Xreal, Viture, etc) especially when riding in a plane or car for a long trip. With DEX at least, your phone becomes a track pad, but without a typing device it's a bit limited. Unfortunately many android apps don't translate well to landscape mode.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This has been a thing for a long time

[–] woelkchen 2 points 4 months ago

This has been a thing for a long time

Yeah, duh. The story is about it no longer being hidden and requiring activation: "Android 10 gained a hidden desktop mode in its developer features, but it wasn't easy to find."

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago