Google – SenpaiSilver

The Google golden age has ended

Everything sucks now. Google Photos will no longer provide unlimited uploads, Google Music has shutdown and YouTube Music is not a proper replacement, YouTube will now run ads even on unmonetized videos…

Google Photos no longer unlimited

Since I recently got into photography this one hurts quite a bit even though I already understood I was not going to benefit from unlimited uploads from my Canon 90D.

Prioir to 2020 I was snapping pictures right and left with my OnePlus 6 and I enjoyed it quite a bit. When unlimited high quality uploads was a thing I toggled this setting right away, even if it wasn’t archiving the original quality I was more than happy about it as it was.

On June 1st 2020 Google will no longer provide unlimited uploads, previous uploads that were part of the unlimited uploads will not count toward our storage usage. But this still sucks.

I was heavily using Google Photos to share albums with family and friends, I was also heavily pushing friend and family into using it instead of Facebook and WhatsApp because of how simple and efficient it was.

Now I know that photos coming out of Lightroom wouldn’t be able to be part of the unlimited uploads, but now I look like a fool.

YouTube Music

As someone with a small following and a nice number of uploaded videos to YouTube I use a brand account: SenpaiSilver.

Brand accounts permit users to have channels under a specific name instead of their own real name, used for the Google account, just like the good old Google+ pages back in the day when this had to be a thing.

So I can use YouTube Music to listen to some sick tunes with that brand account right? Possibly.

I can’t use my brand account to access my own uploads though, this makes using YouTube Music a very bad experience since I need to switch to my main account. Someone’s gonna get doxxed one day by forgetting to switch back.

Another list of issues come from the Android app:

Scrolling through your library requires loading after a couple of titles, can’t just scroll down through my small 500 song library in one flick of the finger;
The app attempts to sync very often and it might take more than minutes, killing my 2 day battery in under a day while I’m quarantined home;
The app might play music that is not within your queue, I’m not sure if it’s because I shuffle my music or loop it and I was not able to reproduce it.

Nothing seems right about how YouTube Music works and I wish for it to die a horrible death since I don’t see the appeal of it. Unlike YouTube Gaming, YouTube Music is an attempt a break something that was working really well and it just does that, even though no one asked for it.

YouTube running ads EVERYWHERE

As someone that is unable to monetize my own videos due to not meeting the requirements for that, I decided that the best thing to do would to just not show ads at all. Many viewers, including myself, run uBlock Origin to avoid ads and tracking anyway so how about I cut the middleman and make sure YouTube doesn’t bother trying to load ads ? Well I won’t be able to do so anymore.

YouTube will run ads on videos for channels that are not part of the YouTube Partner Program. I’d love to be a partner but I’m not meeting the requirements and YouTube is not a job nor a hobby of mine.
Previously we were able to just opt-out.

While I just confessed to blocking ads (and actually much more with uBlock Origin) I’ve subscribed to YouTube Premium for the past year and a half. I did that in part for Google Music and also because I liked the benefits such as picture in picture, downloading videos to my phone to watch later and not having ads on mobile. The thing is that right now it’s starting to become hard to justify.
I consume so much YouTube content that I make it worth it but is it really?

The golden age is over

Google isn’t the only one making bad decisions to improve growth and benefits. We could say that the internet golden age is over and direct the blame to Twitter, reddit and other popular services.

Gaming is not immune to that either, console game prices have increased, microtransactions are everywhere, storage requirements are too damn high and where’s the real fun?

Upgrading Android on a rooted Nexus 4 without wiping

Nexus Root Toolkit

If you’re running Android 5 Lollipop and you have rooted it you may fail to update whenever an OTA update is available.

Nexus Root Toolkit

The Nexus Root Toolkit is the best tool you will ever need for your Nexus device.

This great piece of software will simplify anything you want to do such as:

Flashing a bootloader or a ROM;
Making a backup of your device;
Fixing bootloop and bricks;
~~Make tea, pour and stir it.~~

Flashing the updated stock ROM

In my case I’m running the stock ROM of Android 5 Lollipop since I’m mad at ~~Cancérigènemod~~ Cyanogenmod for failing at making my phone work as a phone.

disclaimer: I’m not responsible for any of your actions in case something goes wrong.

To update without wiping or resetting the device to factory settings you can follow these easy steps:

Enable USB debugging in your dev settings;
Connect your device to your computer;
In the Nexus Root Toolkit you must select “Flash Stock + Unroot” with “Device is on/Normal” selected;
Select “Automatically download”;
Tick “No wipe”;
Tick “Force Flash”;
UnTick “Post-Flash Factory”;
Then follow the instructions.

Source: http://redd.it/37dxt3

Can’t attach files in GMail with Firefox

UPDATE 2020/03/04: This issue is no longer relevant, ignore this post.

So recently I needed to attach several files in mails to send, while Google Drive is great for large files I felt that I shouldn’t have to use Google Drive for a few PDFs.

In Firefox type about:config in the address bar;
Click the button stating you’ll be careful;
Search for network.http.spdy.enabled and toggle it to false;
Try attaching files in GMail.

There a several reasons I prefer Firefox over Google Chrome right now so this fix was needed.

Get PSO2es’ APK file

Update: The game has been release, you can get it on Arks-Layer.

If you don’t feel like setting up a VPN or if you can’t set it up, there is another way to obtain the game. You’ll need:

An android device (2.1+)
Google Chrome (on a desktop)
A Google Chrome’s extension called APK Downloader
Drag’n’Drop skill points

Disclaimer

I’m not responsible of anything. If something breaks or works it’s because of you.
If you follow the instructions, it should work, otherwise the instruction were not followed correctly.

Continue reading Get PSO2es’ APK file

Get Phantasy Star Online 2es (VPN)

Update: The game has been release, you can get it on Arks-Layer. Don’t bother with a VPN.

After receiving a mail saying that I was chosen for the closed beta of Phantasy Star Online 2: es, I wanted to install it on my phone like anybody who’s supposed to play it.

Like always, things don’t go smoothly: it’s region locked on the Play Store.
I’m using a Nexus 4 running the stock Android 4.3.

Disclaimer

I’m not responsible of anything, if you have a problem with scanning a QR Code you can get Google Goggles. For other problems I consider you know how to read so there should not be any.
Keep in mind that your device is probably not compatible.

Continue reading Get Phantasy Star Online 2es (VPN)

Can’t upload music to Google Play Music ?

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Today I looked at my music on my Google Nexus 4, but I decided to clean a bit that list since I’m not listening to all the 300 songs I had, I then decided to wipe my Google Music after backing it up.

The problem I encountered was that I couldn’t reupload some MP3s.

The solution

I downloaded and installed foobar2000, an advance freeware audio player (for Windows).

Once foobar2000 is installed;
Import the music you want to fix by dragging the files into the software then select all the files;
Right click and select Utilities, then Fix VBR MP3 header.

You can now upload your MP3 to Google Play Music.

Hands on Google Nexus 4

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I used to have a Samsung Galaxy Ace (S5830) that was great for an entry level smartphone, but lacked memory (only 189MB) and whenever I was under 20MB left on the phone, I could not receive any SMS/MMS. I even had to uninstall apps that were installed on the 2GB micro SD card !

I’ve acquired the 16GB version of the Google Nexus 4, it’s currently running Android 4.2.2.

What seduced me ?

What seduced me over a Samsung Galaxy S3 or an iPhone was first of all the price, since I couldn’t put the price of an iPhone in a phone and because I hate Apple.
But what about the Galaxy S3 ? It’s not Apple and not that expensive right ?
Yes but no. Samsung uses a custom firmware with their software. I don’t want some Samsung branded software to be honest, it takes useless space and I can’t uninstall it without rooting my device.

What seduced me too was that it’s branded as a Google Phone, that means that we will have support for the future updates, and they will come out much more faster than Samsung’s updates. The Google Nexus has also very interesting features like the NFC support (with Android Beam), the Google Now app that is supposed to give information about everything and enything, and all the new features of Android 4.2 !

What I like in it

What I like is very simple: nearly everything !

It has a 4.7″ screen with a resolution of 1280 by 768 (320PPI) wich is perfect for watching 720p videos, even on Youtube. The phone is really responsive and the apps a really nicely integrated (Twitter, Facebook).

If I had to complain about it, I’d say that it’s a shame to not have an “Enter Key” when writing a SMS with the stock keyboard (AZERTY since I live in France).