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Some Pixel 2 Users Are Complaining About A High-Pitched Whine and Clicking Noises (arstechnica.com)
After dealing with all sorts of screen issues, another problem with Google's flagship smartphone is popping up. This time it's an audio issue: users on Google's official forums and elsewhere are reporting odd sounds coming from the Pixel 2 speakers. Ars Technica reports: Customers are complaining of "clicking" and a "high-pitched whine" coming from the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Most reports on the forums say the noises are coming from the top or bottom speaker on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Some reports say the sounds come through during calls, while other users say the speaker noises happen any time the screen is on. A user made a recording of the sound, which can be heard here. Most users are being told to return their devices after contacting support, but at least one person claims they were told this issue would be patched in an upcoming update. One possible workaround is to turn off NFC, which some users say stops or lowers the noises.
I remember when Apple using quality DACs inside the iPod was a big fucking deal.
These days, it's all disposable junk. All of it. Every single device is manufactured to accept whatever substitute components are available this week, and it's a total crap shoot as to whether or not you'll get something with issues or not. Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung, doesn't matter. You get to pay a premium for a handheld device that's designed to be obsolete in 2-3 years, AND you get to play the game where you're looking for a decent unit with no screen tinting, bad DACs or electrical interference, defective switches, connectors, etc, etc, etc. Companies aren't competing to build the best device anymore- they're competing to build the cheapest shittiest junk they can, and then they turn around and try to sell it for the highest possible price.
Welcome to a digital world ruled by shareholders, where the only objective is to make more money. Gone are the days where people wanted to design a better product, and money was just a side effect of succeeding at that.
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At least if I don't have to for some reason. I'm so happy with my medium priced Lenovo P2 it's unreal...
I think as soon as there is a style value attached to a product buying from market leaders in the top tier is just asking for trouble nowadays... Perhaps the thinking is that if someone is dumb enough to spend X times 2 on a product that does similar things as another costing X, then they have to be stupid enough to accept mediocre quality.
The bottom line is blown up.
Perhaps the midrange has to be better quality because whoever isn't dumb enough to go for the shiny and doesn't just buy on the cheap is usually a person who has done their research?
One possible workaround is to turn off NFC, which some users say stops or lowers the noises.
Turning off the phone completely might stop or lower the noises even more, but I think the embedded surveillance device, actually generating the noise, is always active, unless you take out the battery - oh wait...
[ Obviously, I think I mean this to be funny, but seriously don't even know anymore. Both Google *and* the Government would really like to have always-on tracking and surveillance. /tin-foil-phone-cozy ]
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Well, to be fair, Google's support has traditionally been crap. This has been true since Google started selling non-electronic stuff.
Google, it seems, can sling electrons around like the best of them. But atoms? forget it. Heck, I've ordered stuff through Google, and had it take far longer to arrive to me than someone who went to the store and bought it.
Getting someone on the phone is a novelty to Google - I still remember when your (only) support option was Google Groups.
And as much as you fault Apple, you have to remember Apple's support has traditionally been among the best of everyone. Perhaps not as good as Amazon where it seems everyone is empowered to do anything to make you happy, but still seemingly non-useless (aside from the few incidents that get well-reported because well, Apple news is money making news).. Not that Apple is a saint in the support department - they only recently opened an official Apple Support twitter account, which is like 10 years after everyone else. And they have a nasty habit with the delete button on their forums.
But Google? Well, old school support options they generally suck at. For stuff like this, you're actually better off waiting for the official Google blog to announce something than trust what support says.
I guess we know now how those diplomats got hearing issues- they were all using a preproduction pixel devices.
Maybe that explains it...
It's all rumor and hearsay, with some agents saying it'll be fixed in an upcoming patch, others (like mine) saying they've never heard of it and are not allowed to look up news stories about it.
Eh?!?!?! That sounds quite Monty Pythonesque: "You're not allowed to enter the room . . . "
I've heard of all kinds of screwball restrictions on what support folks can do . . . but reading the news . . . ? Oh, my God . . . by reading the news, the support folks might learn the smarts! Then they will organize a union or form a pitchforks and torches gang!
Again, back to the Python: "I could be arguing in my spare time!" . . . "I could be reading the news in my spare time!"
It's all rumor and hearsay
Yeah, that pretty much sums up what the cell phone market is . . . and all it ever will be.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
"I've ordered stuff through Google, and had it take far longer to arrive to me than someone who went to the store and bought it."
Oh really? I wonder how that happened.
The bigger problem here is Google don't learn from Nexus devices. They order them, they sell them, and each time a new set of problems appear caused by the overlap between the Google design and the current manufacturer.
In case you didn't know, Pixel2's biggest problem is it snaps easily, because the weak point in the case where the switches are, happens to also be where they the plastic cover for the antennas connects to the back body.
A combination of the circuit board designer (some outside company), the stylist (probably Google person), and the mechanical/testing people (the phone manufacturer) being all disconnected and separate.
Each time they change manufacturers the overlap is different and a new set of problems are revealed. Which is great for the company whose learning (the phone company), since they're making the mistakes at Googles expense not their own, damaging Google's brand, not their own.
Are Google actually learning something from these Nexus Pixel devices, or is it just an exercise in hubris? Because none of their tablets or phones sells in large volumes, and they don't seem to address the problems with any of them in the next generation. Would it really kill them to add a microSD card? Would it really kill them to make a big tablet that doesn't rotate vertically if you open snapchat? Yet they don't learn from each failure.
It's just funny.
Google's support for everything has always been the worst out there, because for the most part they don't even have any. I've got a gmail account that I've been using for at least 7 years as a "send mail as" account but lost the password to and can't recover. There's literally no way for me to speak to any human being at google in any way to fix this. Any human could take one look at the system and see it's consistently been used for almost a decade, but all they've got is the terribly designed users-only forum.
At least Valve pretends to have some semblance of customer service.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Can you call it best, when the answer is "you are doing it wrong, won't fix?"
"Does the high-pitched whine stop for a while if you stop complaining?"
Ezekiel 23:20
If the complaints weren't all being filed by iphone IPs.
Welcome to the next stage of capitalism comrade.
sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
Studies show that when an answer, even an unwelcome one, is delivered in an authoritative tone by an attractive Millennial with a septum piercing the user will get back into line and realise it is they who are at fault.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
There is an opinion on the Verge about how everybody has dud products once in a while... but at this point in a product, when you're building your brand in a new area, can easily taint the reputation permanently and kill off the entire project.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/...
I laugh every time I see something like this. As though that hasn't *always* been the goal of for-profit companies...
I believe these were the ones made in Cuba!
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Alien Invasion!
Yeah... I mean who the fuck uses an phone older than that?
I mean it's sooo embarrassing.... that's like wearing a tag that say "I'm homeless" or something.....
That's not to insult homeless people.... I mean using a 2 year old phone.... man that's something....
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This is the exact opposite of how Apple, and to a certain extent, Samsung, operate. Apple famously pits manufacturers against each other. If the components arenâ(TM)t meeting spec, theyâ(TM)re sent back, at the manufacturerâ(TM)s cost. The whole reason why the iPhone X is reportedly supply constrained is because the dot projector is hard to make and Apple keeps sending them back.
Theyâ(TM)re not faultless, but in general, the components you get in an iPhone are the best ones that can be sourced from anyone.
Samsung has done some dumb things, even in recent memory, but itâ(TM)s hard to deny that theyâ(TM)re nearly always the SOURCE of the highest end parts. I have no love for them, but they make the best screens, have high quality chip fabs, etc. Iâ(TM)ll give Samsung a lot of grief for being a thieving garbage company with immoral leadership, but their high end parts are legitimately well made.
Only Apple has the scale to operate like they do, and only Samsung can build parts as well as they do, and the rest fight for scraps at the margins.
Electrons too these days. Silly case in point:
Google decided to release a product to build goodwill - the featured photos screensaver for OSX. Nice. Its well done, and displays their logo quietly in conference rooms, etc, all over the place.
It doesn't work properly with the most recent release of the OS. They still offer it, it just no longer works, has no support, and has apparently been orphaned.
Now, are they obligated to keep a marketing offering up-to-date? No, of course not, but that kind of attitude even in a simple digital product makes me far less likely to trust them for more expensive goods, whether physical or virtual. What GAE API will be the next to get silently deprecated?
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
This is an excellent phone to look at if keep it powered off. Pure dark screen, no whining noise, no interference,...
This is consumerism at its best.... I just ordered and waited 40 days for a xaomi Redmi Note 4.... Costs 1/6th the price, it's got a excellent battery, no hum, no screen issues, is fast enough to do pretty much everything...... Granted this u still considered low end, but is feature rich and does everything I want, the pixel bring cutting edge is more like owning a apple expensive bleeding edge that is so great I don't get even a analogue headphone jack or a SD slot? So they can make it ultra slim crap. A oled with chronic issues, but bleeding edge, this is just a phone for rich peoples bragging rights that is all..... If you need to buy or spend this much give your head a shake and get a life they love you though......... I'm glad they have issues because it won't effect me and even if I was rich I'd avoid bleeding and cutting edge and get a phone that was designed for the masses rather than the riches......
Am I the only one here who, after listening to the recording made by that user, had a second recording play, where some woman was angry about something??? WTF!!!
at it again.
god damn.
Its the OLED pixels screaming in pain as they get burnt in.
Phones. Typically, they have a glitch here or there. I always wait, and buy the LAST of "this years" model. Bugs are gone, software is usually as up to date as it will be (android outside google phones). The best part, usually a LOT LESS cost.
I guess I've gotten to "that age" but I couldn't care less about something like that. I've learned to understand that anyone that thinks that way is a complete a-hole and their opinions suddenly stop mattering to me. Think what you want about my old phone, but I couldn't give 2 shits about what you think.
First of all, it's obviously the aliens from Signs. Second, I can't remember a nice quality high end desktop that had a defect rate similar to that of phones. Laptops maybe depending on brand but not desktops and certainly not custom-built ones. Considering phones cost double in some cases, this is pretty pathetic.
he was clearly using sarcasm...
anyway.. not a single phone has been made in 2016 or 2017 that is a better product than Samsung Galaxy Note 4 or BlackBerry Priv... Untill then, I will continue to use my 2+ year old phones :-)
Unfortunately most of what you say is not true.
Welcome to the next stage of capitalism comrade.
Still better than any stage of communism or socialism.
If the phones suddenly start making "Eh?" noises, they're probably made in Canada.
#DeleteFacebook
So now we know what happened in the US embassy in Cuba, clearly the diplomats had been outfitted with new Google phones.
Was it designed in Cuba?
What the fuck? Every manufacturer tries to get the best out of their sources. If Apple is famous for this, please link to a single article about how they are famous for this (protip: you can't).
Apple almost always has two sources for its components, and this is well known. They had three manufacturers trying to make the dot projector on the iPhone X, they have TMSC AND Samsung fabbing SoCs, etc. Apple rarely single-sources components because it drives prices up. The screen in the iPhone X is a rare exception, but as we've seen from the Pixel XL debacle, LG isn't really up to making high quality OLED screens on mobile yet.
This is all entirely public knowledge. If Apple can't get the prices and components they want out of a manufacturer, they'll dump them in a hot second for someone that says they can.
That's a convincing rebuttal, commenter with no name or sources.
and its customer service is super friendly and super useless
Well to be fair you can't expect much from customer support when it's all people who chose to take their 20% of free time handling Pixel hardware calls.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My first thought is a noisy power rail and analog components (DACs, preamps, power amps, etc) that have poor PSRR (power supply rejection ratio), and the noise is getting amplified.
Put the volume on low and play a song from internal storage. You will hear tons of static as the electronics that read the internal storage cause interference on the speaker circuit.
I know you're trying to be friendly and empathetic
This gives me the shits with modern customer service. I had this with Microsoft. It took 5 fucking minutes to get past the: ...
"We're sorry to hear you're having a problem."
"This is not the experience I want you to have with our device."
"We will try everything possible to get your problem fixed."
"We can offer services in multiple countries."
"What are you calling about today?"
Fuck off! Say: "Hi" Let me tell you the problem, and either present me a very sane option to fix it or give me an RMA number. Nothing more nothing less. I certainly don't give a shit what *you* Mr $1/hr Indian support keyboard monkey thinks about my experience, and I know for a fact you don't care either.
It's quite sad that we live in a world where I now thank people who don't offer this friendly bullshit.
This has been true since Google started selling non-electronic stuff.
Err. No this has been true since Larry Page and Sergey Brin hacked together a ranking system in their garage. Google's customer service has been utter shite from even its early search days long before they started selling anything.
Personally I buy used phones, 1-2 years old. Swap in a new battery for $20 and I'm good to go. I just got a nice galaxy s7 active for $90 off ebay. It's good enough for me and will be for the next year or two. It's just not that big a deal, I'd rather save money for another new Tesla.
Lul. A fool and his money part ways. As the old saying goes.
Why does Apple sell so many iPhones if people want the cheapest thing possible? Your theory doesn't hold up.
Why not save on your Tesla the same way? Buy it used on eBay, swap in a $9,000 battery and you're good to go.
Beeeeep! . . . . . . Beeeep! . . . . . . . . Beeeeeeep!
Glad to see you logged into to make your response, cause your first post was screwed up by your iPhone in unreadable in its current form.
I mean the story right now is saying that they are getting behind and are willing to compromise quality, but you trot in and extol the virtues of Apple being top quality.
Log off of your daddys /. account and grow up a bit.
I am an old timer having used punch cards as well. I have seen HP going through this transformation as well. Google and FB are AOL of the future.
I was testing some components (class D amplifier) and wanted a quick signal source, so I hooked up my phone. I was quite surprised (and concerned) to discover that my LG G6 is pumping out a VERY LOUD signal at 50kHz. I can't hear that high (I stop at about 12kHz now), and earbuds will attenuate it quite a bit, but I imagine it could still cause hearing loss. (BTW, I was looking for ~250kHz noise in the amplifier, but that component was attenuating correctly. It faithfully reproduced the 50kHz whine, however.)
I won't be listening to music on this phone... now I have to test my other phones.
Sadly, I really AM old enough to have the 4-digit UID that I'm sporting.
In any case, the story about them compromising quality has been denied, and perhaps you could call that obvious or inevitable, but Apple rarely comments on stories at all.
I haven't seen any evidence that Apple uses anything other than the highest possible quality parts, going so far as to not source parts from a company that they've given millions of dollars to (LG) so they can get OLED panels from a major competitor (Samsung).
There are bound to be some edge cases, but it's incredibly hard to argue that Apple doesn't use the best components it can get its hands on (at scale), and that Samsung doesn't manufacture the best parts (at scale).
(And don't blame me for /. being so unable to cope with text from an iPhone. I mean, the thing has only been out for 10 goddamn years.)
perfect line of place Gesture Lock Screen