pawel orzech blog

And today on Android I’ve installed Sum Up and now all of my

And today on Android I’ve installed Sum Up and now all of my chat messages get summarised. This is happening on a $300 device, for free. I have an assistant that allows me to ask even the trickiest questions and I can do stuff like circle to search.

Since I have moved onto the Pixel I find myself using Gemini

Since I have moved onto the Pixel I find myself using Gemini a lot. I do it a couple times a day and my questions are mostly about small things. Yesterday I asked what the hell is baba ganoush, today I have asked what does “habibi” actually mean. We were picking new heaters and I wasn’t actually sure how do we calculate the wattage and it just answered me. MOST of the times I did fact-check and it was actually right!

This is a big change to my daily workflow. Because whenever something comes to my mind – I can (and I am!) ask about it and learn something new.

There are moments in which I’m missing my iPhone, sure. I do have these thoughts daily, but my sim card remains in the Pixel for about week and a half. Whenever I think about the iPhone, I remind myself that this tool has better assistant, better screen, does the same job and have OUT OF THIS WORLD notification system. And – that was new to me, seriously – these are to me worth more than iOS ecosystem? And the funny part of that is because I’ve moved from Apple to more open Google (evil, but a bit more open) – I can still access my photos and messages on my Mac. Because they are available in the web.

Crazy experience. I know we said these things about Apple, but they just figured some nice things out. You’re getting to bed and plugging up your phone? It’s getting darker and black & white, so you go to sleep instead of scrolling. Someone’s calling you and you can’t answer now? Flip your phone screen down and it will be silenced because obviously.

So, if anyone asks – I do like Pixel 8a.

After a week I’ve got used to the bigger border or fingerpri

After a week I’ve got used to the bigger border or fingerprint scanner (I found out that using a bit more force on it actually improved my finger readability). The only thing that right now is frustrating is the slow charging speed. Everything else is fine.

Just to add to the point of iPhone feeling more expensive/pr

Just to add to the point of iPhone feeling more expensive/premium and 8a feeling cheaper – I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, because I feel safer and have to be less careful with Pixel. I love glass, don’t get me wrong, but iPhone with case feels chunky and without one – very slippery.

Few random thoughts about iOS vs Android:

Few random thoughts about iOS vs Android:
– I like Apple Pay experience more,
– the assistant on Android (the normal, non-Gemini) is so much better than Siri,
– I still have to keep around an iPhone because of smart home (thermostats are HomeKit only) – at least until we move in the new flat,
– I love Android back gesture and I miss it a lot on the iPhone,
– Android feels playful, but not in a way that makes me addicted to it,
– omg proper file system, I missed that!
– build quality on 8a vs 14 Plus is no match, iPhone feels expensive and 8a feels – unfortunately? – cheap,
– iPhone has better vibration motor but it doesn’t bother me that much, what bothers me is lack of very important notifications on the wrist, missed a couple calls already (can be fixed with getting a smartwatch what will happen eventually because my Apple Watch is getting old.