[HN Gopher] Android 14 adds support for using your smartphone as... ___________________________________________________________________ Android 14 adds support for using your smartphone as a webcam Author : amadeuspagel Score : 52 points Date : 2023-09-21 20:04 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.esper.io) (TXT) w3m dump (www.esper.io) | cassidyslivers wrote: | About time I don't have to use 3rd party software often full of | bloat to do this task. | james2doyle wrote: | I've been using the Camo app for over a year. Works excellent. | Even supports viewing the camera over wifi. No cable necessary. | It is free for a basic account. Find it here: | https://reincubate.com/camo/ | mattbee wrote: | I liked it too, paid for it for a few months. But every so | often it would start lagging by about 1000ms. Tthe only | solution was to reinstall the Windows drivers. This happened | with both iPhone and Android devices, and more than once, so I | cancelled when they didn't have a better solution. | goodburb wrote: | [deleted] | saagarjha wrote: | Most of them, except for one thread, seem on-topic. | minroot wrote: | When will Android phones get video output on their USB-C port? | dazhbog wrote: | My Oneplus 7T seems to have it but never found a use for it | (its just basic screen mirroring). I think Samsung is the only | one with a docking UI system (DEX) though | ewoodrich wrote: | I can plug my Galaxy S23 into a normal USB-C to HDMI or | Displayport dock and use any external screen with Dex. Or do | you mean something different? | | Edit: Just tried it on my dock and it can also mirror vs acting | as a separate display via Dex. | recursive wrote: | I've been doing this for years. In what way is support not | already present? | mholt wrote: | Too little, too late for me... I hate to be the guy having those | "hot takes" or whatever, but hear me out for a sec: | | I didn't get a cell phone until 2013. (Yes I used land lines | until then.) It was a Nexus 4 (still love the grippy sides and | sleek glass back). Every 2-3 years I traded up, all the way until | Pixel 6. | | Tomorrow my first iPhone will be delivered. Why? A lot of | reasons, but some are: | | - I can't just plug my Google phone into an external display to | mirror it. Uh, hello?? DisplayPort out is explicitly disabled in | the source code with no reason given: | https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1189998588023234560 -- | yet this works great in other phones. | | - I can't access my text messages from my Android phone (without | a separate app like SMS Backup & Restore) -- go ahead, try it. | Yeah, do an adb backup. Maybe rooting your phone would give you | access, but it's impossible otherwise AFAIK. And I think rooting | your phone deletes everything in the process. | | - I can't access my phone backup. It's ONLY stored on Google's | servers. The only way to even get close is to restore it to a | phone. This is a physical device I bought and literally am | holding in my hand but can't access all the stuff on it! Did you | know you can just plug in an iPhone into Windows or Macs and dump | a backup to your computers? It's all right there, text messages, | system settings, contacts, photos, databases, EVERYTHING (except | maybe hardware-protected keys). It's amazing. | | - Do I even need to mention all the Google shenanigans? We all | know what I'm talking about, right? The mess of messengers... the | killing of various services, the lack of support, the stronger | integration with ads and tracking. | | Apple's not perfect either, but I feel like it's worth a shot | inside the walled garden for a bit. I like that some of these | common sense things are not a problem with iOS: | | - Display out. | | - Accessing your own device. | | - Messaging that actually makes sense. | | - At least it feels like Apple cares about privacy; | counterintuitively, I feel way more in control using Apple | products than I do Google ones. | colordrops wrote: | Unlocking your phone wipes it. Rooting does not. | | I've used LineageOS + MicroG on a pixel phone and it's been | great being free of Google spyware. | njroute22 wrote: | Why do you need to mirror your phone? Why do you want to access | your messages? For what purpose? What do you need to backup | besides (maybe) photos? Which is easy (drag and drop) anyway. | Sounds more like you have some kind of device dependency beyond | normality. | hackmiester wrote: | Displaying something on a TV is beyond normality? | teawrecks wrote: | I think when you say "why do you need to ____?" you think | you're saying "what are you trying to do, and maybe there's | another way to accomplish that", but what everyone hears is | "you're right". | | And for the record, "because it's their device, not Google's" | should be as good a reason as any. | paulddraper wrote: | > I can't access my phone backup. It's ONLY stored on Google's | servers. | | What options do iPhones have for saving/restoring backups? | JumpCrisscross wrote: | > _What options do iPhones have for saving /restoring | backups?_ | | iCloud and local. | wlesieutre wrote: | You can also do more granular backups with software like | iMazing | | https://imazing.com/ | mplewis wrote: | iPhone lets you manage backups from your computer. Learn | more: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204136 | moonchrome wrote: | I switch between both every few years, on iPhone 14 ATM. | | Honestly Android does a lot of things better - there's so many | stupid "because Apple" things on iOS. For example it's | impossible to tell the charging speed/estimated charge time, I | have a lot of charging bricks between places and I can't tell | if I picked an iPhone compatible fast charger/cable or not ? Or | when I have Chrome/Firefox installed, highlight text and tap | search the web - it takes me to Safari ? A lot of small | annoyances like these where you can't do anything about it | because the OS is so closed down. | | Android is way more customisable, easier to side load stuff | (like running GBA emulator on iPhone). Also a lot more exciting | phones in the Android ecosystem (eg. Samsung flip phones) | | I like the ecosystem integration with my Mac but I wouldn't say | one is clearly better than the other. | DavidPeiffer wrote: | I've been using android phones since 2009 and am highly | considering a switch to Apple for the next one. | | Along with the reasons you state, the ecosystem is really | messy. I've bought Nexus/Pixel phones for the last 10 years and | continue to be bummed by their performance. | | Pixel 1 XL was fantastic, but after about 2 years the camera | kept failing. 3+ seconds to load, and it would commonly crash. | Ultimately the battery life degraded, and the replacement | battery degraded within a couple months, so I moved on. | | The 3a fell out of my pocket and broke 2 months prior to the | end of security updates. That was a decent phone overall, but | not supported by Google as long as I would have liked. | | Pixel 6 Pro has been fine so far, but my wife has been having | issues with her Pixel 5. Slow performance, unreliable cellular | connectivity, etc. | | "Don't buy Pixel phones" could be the lesson here, but | alternatives are arguably more of a security nightmare. My | experience with Galaxy phones has been that they're preloaded | with an _incredible_ amount of junk that needs to be un- | installed. With Pixel it 's exclusively Google apps, most of | which can be removed. That gives a smaller privacy and security | concern than having 30 different companies with their apps pre- | loaded (and possibly not removable). | | > Apple's no angel either IMO, but I feel like it's worth a | shot inside the walled garden for a bit. | | I've hated on Apple a lot over the years and am disappointed | that switching platforms seems like the best move after all | these years. | ttt3ts wrote: | Soon as I can sideload another browser with real AdBlock I am | switching. Looks like the EU might force apple to allow it :) | mardifoufs wrote: | Yeah I have been using android for every single phone I've | ever had, but I don't see the point once iOS allows | sideloading. They have locked down the OS so much(I kind of | understand why, but still) that the sideloading is pretty | much the only difference now. So why go for android? | KomoD wrote: | > - I can't just plug my Google phone into an external display | to mirror it. Uh, hello?? DisplayPort out is explicitly | disabled in the source code with no reason given | | This apparently changes with the Pixel 8 | | > - I can't access my text messages from my Android phone | (without a separate app like SMS Backup & Restore) -- go ahead, | try it. Yeah, do an adb backup. Maybe rooting your phone would | give you access, but it's impossible otherwise AFAIK. And I | think rooting your phone deletes everything in the process. | | > - I can't access my phone backup. It's ONLY stored on | Google's servers. The only way to even get close is to restore | it to a phone. This is a physical device I bought and literally | am holding in my hand but can't access all the stuff on it! Did | you know you can just plug in an iPhone into Windows or Macs | and dump a backup to your computers? It's all right there, text | messages, system settings, contacts, photos, databases, | EVERYTHING (except maybe hardware-protected keys). It's | amazing. | | This is not applicable for all Android phones | | > - Do I even need to mention all the Google shenanigans? We | all know what I'm talking about, right? The mess of | messengers... the killing of various services, the lack of | support, the stronger integration with ads and tracking. | | No I don't, none of the dead services have impacted me, what | mess of messengers? Lack of support for what? | pests wrote: | I don't have an opinion but.. | | > what mess of messengers? | | Meet, Hangouts, GChat, Talk, Allo, Duo, Meet, Voice, | Messenger .... | | With various levels of integration, merging, and unmerging of | the servies over the years. | teawrecks wrote: | As someone who has been running de-googled android for years, I | don't identify with any of your complaints. | | Good luck leaving that walled garden by going to apple. | filereaper wrote: | This is a welcome addition, companies spend time and effort | building cameras with tracking and portrait mode etc.. | | I just feel this feature comes a bit too late where there was a | scramble during the pandemic to get webcams as everything | suddenly went remote. | | Would have been good to have shipped this feature back then | instead of buying 3rd party apps that provided this feature. | xnx wrote: | Exactly. I for sure would've thought this would be a "20% time" | app as lockdowns became common. Wyze figured out how to allow | its security cameras to be used as webcams in March 2020! | https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/31/21202022/wyze-firmware-up... | jsight wrote: | Better late than never. I bought a webcam for those days, but | I'm guessing my phone will still have far higher quality. | orbital-decay wrote: | Most Android phones don't have a good USB controller though, as | it's not considered a priority. Without it you'll be restricted | to the blocky MJPEG garbage with terribly downsampled chroma | squeezed through the USB 2.0 connection, and get the quality | equivalent to a laptop webcam. | ClassyJacket wrote: | 480mbps isn't enough for good quality video? It's 3.75x the | maximum bitrate of a 4K Blu Ray. It should be fine. It can't be | lossless, but it should be damn high quality. | duskwuff wrote: | > 480mbps isn't enough for good quality video? It's 3.75x the | maximum bitrate of a 4K Blu Ray. | | Webcams need to be very near real-time to be useful. That | severely limits what kinds of compression you can use on the | video stream. | ClassyJacket wrote: | That's absolutely true but I still very much doubt it's so | bad that you would exceed 480mbps even on a decent | resolution stream. We're not talking multiple orders of | magnitude difference. Like... if all else fails just send | every frame as a separate image with a fast encoder and | you've still got 1.6 megabytes for each. | | Steam in-home streaming needs to be realtime too, but is | very playable, and most people aren't realistically getting | 480mbps out of their wifi. | | 4k I don't know... 1080p no problem. | | Don't most phones have dedicated hardware video encoders on | their SoC now anyway? | GuB-42 wrote: | To make a point, early webcams were USB 1.0, 12Mbps maximum, | and it was enough for SD-quality video. USB 2.0 is 40x | faster, which, assuming similar encoding (i.e. 20 year old | tech), should be more than enough for 1080p video. It should | be enough to best any laptop webcam, which are usually USB2 | internally, but with worse optics and without the processing | power of a smartphone behind it. | | Using more fancy encoding, 4k should be no problem, even with | a bit of headroom for on-device encoding and low latency. | Dalewyn wrote: | >without the processing power of a smartphone behind it. | | Considering the cheapest of desktop/laptop CPUs and iGPUs | are more powerful than the best mobile CPUs and GPUs, this | is a problem with the encoders and video chat software | involved. | Retric wrote: | The best cellphone CPU's easily beat cheap laptops's from | a few years ago. | orbital-decay wrote: | I was going to say something about MJPEG, but it looks like | UVC supports H.264 for a decade already. I guess I was | confused by the cheap USB 2.0 webcams, they mostly use MJPEG | and yes it's utter trash. | | Still, good webcams use USB 3.0 and no chroma subsampling, to | avoid recompression and enable certain tricks. I hope the YUV | 4:4:4 mode will be supported in this, for those who have the | speed and want chromakeys/non-blurry reds. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-09-21 23:00 UTC)