My Pocket Is In Play
I plugged in my Moto G last night for a bump charge prior to leaving to the grocery store. It was honking at me at 12%, which is nothing to be alarmed about, and I wanted to make sure the Our Groceries list and podcasts could both survive the HEB trip. I walked back to the phone about an hour later and it said “1% Remaining, Charging”, which - as an experienced, seasoned Android user - prompted me to get very mad, blame the charge cable, but then suspect the OS instead. I rebooted the phone to discover I actually had over 70% of charge. I don’t know if the phone would have gone into crisis shutdown had I not discovered it at that point, or what.
My network connections, since the belated Stagefright update from Moto, constantly report error state (overlaid exclamation mark and no report of TX/RX status). Forums confirm the issue with no resolution at last check.
I’m due to get Marshmallow at some point (probably comfortably into next year, now that we’re General T’so Moto post-divestment). I expect solutions and new problems to come from this. And probably hampered performance.
Google Wallet is sorta-changing into Google Pay, and my loyalty accounts (the only reason I really ever even try to use Wallet) are going to Pay, but I apparently can’t use Pay unless I set up a device PIN, which is an awful thought for me. I haven’t confirmed this (maybe loyalty works sans PIN?), and the auto-update rollout I’ve been expecting hasn’t happened. Don’t know if I want it to happen.
I agree and admit that I own a marginal phone in the Android universe, which basically means I don’t have a Samsung flagship or a good Nexus. Moto is losing my confidence at this point as they shank new Moto X users on updates, and I find the much-anticipated Nexus 5 updates this year to be uninspiring. I appreciate a lot of what Samsung is doing but feel far away from ever taking the plunge into TouchWiz, despite its meteoric rise from ick over the past few flagships.
Then those damn iPhone 6S commercials come on, and I’m just thinking: Touch ID, Apple Pay, 3D Touch, things working, volume buttons on headsets working, real customer support for software updates, first-tier app support, a non-potato camera, all that stuff. Plus finally being able to pay cash or payments on an iPhone without a carrier lock. And the ability to hand my phone over to Claire without counting 3, 2, 1, and then helping her dismiss yet another random means she discovered of replacing her activity with the Google Now display, or pulling down the shade, or deleting my photos.
My table stakes for a phone platform swap are Google Play Music All Access (check), Pocket (check), Our Groceries (check), and Pocket Casts (check). I would like bookmark syncing with Chrome (pretty much check), a decent IP cam viewer (check-ish, not as good as my Android app), Google Play Newsstand (check), and a couple of other things that probably have better support in iOS (Sonos, for example).
In the end I think I’d be out about $10 to replace my investment in the Play Store ecosystem, and this cash would go to the developers of my favorite, essential apps (Pocket Casts, Our Groceries), apps I would buy multiple times over to reflect the value I derive from them.
It’s a thought. My purchase of the G was to get me a non-broken phone and figure things out later. I wonder if I’m at that point now.