Second Opinion

By The NexusTechnology

Second Opinion episodes

June 29, 2016Second Opinion #7: Pebble Time + Pebble Time Round Review
UPDATE
As of December 7th, 2016 Pebble has been acquired by Fitbit. Fitbit is not continuing the Pebble brand with new products, and will not be bringing new features to existing models. Basically, you should not buy a Pebble. But it is still useful to discuss what Pebble was doing right and what they could have improved on, so the review stands as it was in June. See the following link for more information about the Pebble acquisition:
Pebble – Pebble’s Next Step
Overview
Pebble 2, Time 2 + All-New Pebble Core by Pebble Technology — Kickstarter
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor - Organic (electric edit)
47 min
May 30, 2016Second Opinion #6: Gboard and Google Keyboard Review
Overview
Gboard — Search. GIFs. Emojis & more. Right from your keyboard. on the App Store
Nintype on the App Store
Google Keyboard - Android Apps on Google Play
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor - Organic (electric edit)
37 min
February 08, 2016Second Opinion #5: Fenix for Android Review
Ryan Rampersad and Ian R Buck review Fenix for Android, contrasting Twitter's first party Android app to a great third party Android app.

Links
Twitter – Android Apps on Google Play
Fenix for Twitter – Android Apps on Google Play
Ryan Rampersad on Twitter: “My sentiments exactly. https://t.co/1aQJjoXC8c”
Overview
Pros of Twitter (first party Android app):
It’s free
Supports features Twitter hasn’t released to third party apps
Polls
Moments
While you were away
Notifies when multiple people you follow tweet about the same thing/like the same tweet
Shows photo tags. But who tags others on Twitter?
Notifies when a favorite user retweets something
Pushbullet opens notifications as twitter.com
Pros of Fenix:
Dark theme
Displays Instagram photos (and probably a few other things that Twitter doesn’t)
Doesn’t have ads (aka “Promoted Tweets”)
Has multiple feeds
Timeline
Favorite users
Especially useful because their tweets don’t get lost if the notification is lost
Activity
Messages
Mentions
Likes
Shows what client other posts came from
Option of circular or square profile pictures
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor – Organic (electric edit)
This episode of Second Opinion has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #365: SO #5 — All These Things With All These names!
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
51 min
February 07, 2016Second Opinion #5: Fenix for Android Review
Links
Twitter - Android Apps on Google Play
Fenix for Twitter - Android Apps on Google Play
Ryan Rampersad on Twitter: "My sentiments exactly. https://t.co/1aQJjoXC8c"
Overview
Pros of Twitter (first party Android app):
It’s free
Supports features Twitter hasn’t released to third party apps
Polls
Moments
While you were away
Notifies when multiple people you follow tweet about the same thing/like the same tweet
Shows photo tags. But who tags others on Twitter?
Notifies when a favorite user retweets something
Pushbullet opens notifications as twitter.com
Pros of Fenix:
Dark theme
Displays Instagram photos (and probably a few other things that Twitter doesn’t)
Doesn’t have ads (aka “Promoted Tweets”)
Has multiple feeds
Timeline
Favorite users
Especially useful because their tweets don't get lost if the notification is lost
Activity
Messages
Mentions
Likes
Shows what client other posts came from
Option of circular or square profile pictures
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor - Organic (electric edit)
51 min
January 25, 2016Second Opinion #4: Nexus 5X Review
Ryan Rampersad grills Ian R Buck about his experiences with his Nexus 5X.

UPDATE: The Nexus 5X is involved in a class-action lawsuit against LG. This suit claims that the Nexus 5X suffers from a hardware issue in which the CPU soldering cracks under normal use, causing the device to get stuck in a permanent boot loop. Ian R Buck and Ian Decker both had this problem with their phones, and had to get them replaced. In Buck’s case, even the replacement device succumbed to the issue after only two months. You should not buy a Nexus 5X, but we are leaving our original review here for you to listen to because the other aspects of the device still merit discussion.
Links
Nexus 5X – Fingerprint Scanner – LG – Nexus – Android Phones – Google Store
Nexus 5 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hardware
Size
Just a tad larger than perfect
Still feels well-balanced
Way lighter than Nexus 5
Buttons
Placement is suboptimal, but not terrible
I miss the ceramic buttons of the Nexus 5
Fingerprint sensor
Really fast!
No false positives, relatively few false negatives
Placement is good; when holding a phone this size, you don’t want to have to hold your thumb on the chin of the phone
I trained it to recognize three fingers: both indexes, and right middle finger
I am conflicted about the fact that unlocking with the fingerprint sensor skips the lock screen. I have to decide whether or not I want to see and/or interact with my notifications BEFORE I take the phone out of my pocket. So I still have some of the Smart Lock features on so I don’t have to worry about the pattern when I open a notification instead of using the fingerprint sensor.
I like the matte plastic
Doesn’t slip out of the hands
Doesn’t feel cheap
Camera
Camera bulge actually was incorporated into the design of the phone
Flash is really good
Camera app takes a moment to open
Headphone jack is on the bottom! Halleluiah!
USB Type C
The future is now
Having a reversible connector is REALLY nice
You want to get a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cord so you can use the vast majority of charging bricks
Speakers
Front-facing
Only the bottom one is a proper speaker
Great for watching things
Less great for hearing notifications when it is in the pocket
Notification light
Very clever placement in the middle of the bottom speaker grille
Screen
Perfect size
I am glad that they did not go up from 1080p
Not AMOLED is a bummer
Battery life
Good!
Lasts most weekdays with over 15% left at the end.
Playing Zombies, Run! on the way home from work has changed that. Often charge it during my nap.
Rapid charging goes up about 1% per minute.
Software
Always has the latest version of Android
Currently 6.0.1
https://thenexus.tv/episode/so1/
Ambient display
Black-and-white view of the time and notifications
Doesn’t have the best sense for when I want to see the time vs. when it is just being jiggled
Activates when a notification comes in, à la iOS
Always listening for “Okay Google”
The setting sometimes gets turned off for no reason
Has trouble (I think when Doze is throttling the phone)
Performance
No significant difference from the Nexus 5
Has trouble with the same types of situations
Doing several things at once
Link Bubble in use
Keyboard stutters
32GB storage is still fine, but doesn’t let me go crazy installing everything.
Nexus Protect
Haven’t broken my phone yet, so I don’t know how smooth the system is
Has given me the confidence to forget about getting a screen protector
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor – Organic (electric edit)
This episode of Second Opinion has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #362: SO #4 — Bloatload!
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
1 hr 1 min
January 24, 2016Second Opinion #4: Nexus 5X Review
UPDATE: The Nexus 5X is involved in a class-action lawsuit against LG. This suit claims that the Nexus 5X suffers from a hardware issue in which the CPU soldering cracks under normal use, causing the device to get stuck in a permanent boot loop. Ian R Buck and Ian Decker both had this problem with their phones, and had to get them replaced. In Buck's case, even the replacement device succumbed to the issue after only two months. You should not buy a Nexus 5X, but we are leaving our original review here for you to listen to because the other aspects of the device still merit discussion.
Links
Nexus 5X - Fingerprint Scanner - LG - Nexus - Android Phones - Google Store

Nexus 5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hardware
Size
Just a tad larger than perfect

Still feels well-balanced

Way lighter than Nexus 5

Buttons
Placement is suboptimal, but not terrible

I miss the ceramic buttons of the Nexus 5

Fingerprint sensor
Really fast!

No false positives, relatively few false negatives

Placement is good; when holding a phone this size, you don’t want to have to hold your thumb on the chin of the phone

I trained it to recognize three fingers: both indexes, and right middle finger

I am conflicted about the fact that unlocking with the fingerprint sensor skips the lock screen. I have to decide whether or not I want to see and/or interact with my notifications BEFORE I take the phone out of my pocket. So I still have some of the Smart Lock features on so I don’t have to worry about the pattern when I open a notification instead of using the fingerprint sensor.

I like the matte plastic
Doesn’t slip out of the hands

Doesn’t feel cheap

Camera
Camera bulge actually was incorporated into the design of the phone

Flash is really good

Camera app takes a moment to open

Headphone jack is on the bottom! Halleluiah!

USB Type C
The future is now

Having a reversible connector is REALLY nice

You want to get a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cord so you can use the vast majority of charging bricks

Speakers
Front-facing
Only the bottom one is a proper speaker

Great for watching things

Less great for hearing notifications when it is in the pocket

Notification light
Very clever placement in the middle of the bottom speaker grille

Screen
Perfect size

I am glad that they did not go up from 1080p

Not AMOLED is a bummer

Battery life
Good!

Lasts most weekdays with over 15% left at the end.

Playing Zombies, Run! on the way home from work has changed that. Often charge it during my nap.

Rapid charging goes up about 1% per minute.
Software
Always has the latest version of Android
Currently 6.0.1

http://thenexus.tv/episode/so1/

Ambient display
Black-and-white view of the time and notifications

Doesn’t have the best sense for when I want to see the time vs. when it is just being jiggled

Activates when a notification comes in, à la iOS

Always listening for “Okay Google”
The setting sometimes gets turned off for no reason

Has trouble (I think when Doze is throttling the phone)
Performance
No significant difference from the Nexus 5

Has trouble with the same types of situations
Doing several things at once

Link Bubble in use

Keyboard stutters

32GB storage is still fine, but doesn’t let me go crazy installing everything.
Nexus Protect
Haven’t broken my phone yet, so I don’t know how smooth the system is

Has given me the confidence to forget about getting a screen protector
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor - Organic (electric edit)
1 hr 1 min
December 20, 2015Second Opinion #3: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review
Overview
Non-spoilers
General thoughts
It was very derivative; followed the formula of A New Hope far too much. Feels like the series is stagnating, when I want it to be moving forward.
Starts on a desert planet

Utility droid we have to protect

Escape in the Millennium Falcon

Rebellion hiding out on a lush planet with an old temple

Big bad Empire building a superweapon

X-Wings vs TIE fighters (where did the rest of the ships go?)

Yoda figure

The Hero’s Journey

Subvert the Damsel in Distress trope

Wilhelm scream

Avoided the complex galactic politics of the prequels so much that we have no idea about any details regarding the First Order, Republic, or Resistance. Everything was reduced to the simple “light side vs dark side”.

The special effects were really good of course
Lasers felt more kinetic

Really cool shot of some TIE fighters with the sun behind them

Camera moves around too much in the space battles

Too many particle effects

Story was slow
The entire movie could have been coalesced into about half an hour

Things that happened: character intros, slight exposition, explosions

Forced romantic subplot
Verbally brought attention to the hand-holding

More subtle stuff (Fin looking at that butt)

Lazy plot devices

When they did the action stuff, it was good
Good use of sweeping continuous shots

Wasn’t over-the-top

Didn’t drag on too long, which has been a problem in past Star Wars movies

Soundtrack was okay
Didn’t push boundaries; previously, John Williams would add a new memorable piece in each movie. Most memorable was the Resistance theme.

Used musical themes from the original series to good effect (specifically, Imperial March and Luke’s Theme)
Specific things
BB-8: not just an R2 clone
Has a very different personality

Has different tricks up his sleeve, both for mobility and tools

Liked the subtle variants on stormtroopers. Not as explicit as “scout troopers” or “snow troopers” but they carry slightly different sets of gear.
Would have been better if they showed different designations working on their specialities

A few signs of technological advancement
New Imperial Shuttle

Loved the way that the people living on Jakku mostly settled around the wrecks of old military vehicles

Wasn’t able to spot a 1138 reference. It’s gotta be in there though.

[Buck] I still think the crossguard design for the lightsaber is stupid
The only reason that design would be any good is to block other lightsabers? but there are no other Jedi??

The only reason for it is because ever since Darth Maul, every dark side lightsaber has to have a gimmick.

Fin sounded like he was just John Boyega hanging out.

Rey’s athleticism & creative terrain use should have come out more

Where were the aliens? Where was the culture?
Spoilers
If you would like to read the notes we have on spoilers, please view the source code of this webpage. The notes are contained in an HTML comment.
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor - Organic (electric edit)

The Elevator Bossa Nova | Muzak Royalty Free Music
1 hr 33 min
December 09, 2015Second Opinion #2: Titansgrave Review
Links
Titansgrave | Geek and Sundry
Titansgrave - YouTube
Overview
Titansgrave: the Ashes of Valkana is a video series featuring a group of minor celebrities playing through an RPG campaign.
Setting
Love the combination of science fiction and fantasy!

[Buck] Of course I was inclined to root for the technological solutions.

A world with ancient evils that haven’t been seen in millennia is a fun trope. Makes me think of A Song of Ice and Fire.

[Decker] I agree with Buck on the melding of Fantasy and Sci-fi themes- it was cool to see! I appreciate that there was still a love of good beer! I do wonder how more of the political systems worked though- although Wil created a vast world and introduced many characters, he didn’t really develop things like the society that they were in as much as I would’ve liked.

Story
[Decker] I wish that more things had been explained- there were things, like Lemley’s amulet and why her family was despised, that were never answered. I also felt that it was a bit short, but I’m also used to novel-esque stories.

Time for a sequel!

Characters
Most of the characters had quite a bit of depth. This was intentional, of course, because Wil had each of the players come up with major and minor goals for their characters.

Most of the characters were well-specced for combat, except for S’Lethkk

[Decker] I think that it helps for the PCs to have good actors behind them as well- that makes for some fun characters. I wish that Wil had kept up the whole character keeping secrets from others thing later into the story as well- it would’ve made for some interesting interactions.

Players
Looks like a fun group to play with!

Wil Wheaton
Did a great job coming up with the whole setting

Went to the effort of incorporating the player characters’ backstories into the missions they were going through in the campaign

[Buck]Seemed a little heavy-handed in guiding the players through the campaign

[Decker] I agree a bit, although I also think that he did a pretty good job of improvising and working with what the characters wanted to do along the way (5 gold and a party). The story was definitely a bit railroaded, although he did include a few choices for the characters to make, which is always nice.

Laura Bailey
She was great! She got really invested in her character, Lemley.

[Buck] I’m always impressed with people who have to play a character with low intelligence, because they have to reign in their own ideas.

Hank Green
He had a really well developed backstory

[Buck] He is too snarky for his own good. Wil had to punish him in the game a few times.

[Decker] No such thing as too snarky... that may have just been part of Ankia.

Format of show
40 minute episodes felt pretty good.

[Buck] Maybe 30-35 minutes would have been ideal.

[Decker] I would’ve gone the other way to 1hr episodes. I thought that it felt like the story was getting clipped short in a lot of cases.

The intro was really long, and we started skipping it

Production quality
Love the bottom third they have when someone rolls dice! Especially since they change the numbers when somebody makes a mistake with their math.

I enjoyed the art style- big brush strokes leaves some “smeared” details, but that fits well with the noir and dirty feel of a lot of the setting.

RPG system
Looks really fun!

Using three dice pushes most rolls towards the middle of the pack. Bell curve, you know.

The stunt points counter this by making even regular rolls a bit more exciting

Combat seems mostly balanced- sets up both PCs and NPCs for success

Spellcasting seemed almost underpowered- many of the spells had not as much damage as the other weapons, both melee and ranged

Armor damage reduction for all characters was really nice!

Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor - Organic (electric edit)
37 min
November 23, 2015Second Opinion #1: Android 6.0 Marshmallow Review
Ian R Buck and Ryan Rampersad share their experiences with Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Links
Nexus Special #41: Google Nexus Event 2015
Android – Marshmallow
Overview
Keeps the UI of 5.0, and adds a bunch of new features. This is great, because material design is beautiful.
Now on Tap
Removal of swipe up to Now/listening
Doesn’t seem useful most of the time; it’s a neat shortcut, but more of a peripheral feature
I wish they had left the swipe up gesture, so you could choose at any time if you wanted to do Now on Tap or go straight to your Now Cards
App permissions
Many Google apps are asking for permission first, which is great
It will take a long time to get many major apps (Facebook, Instagram, et al) to participate
I have been experimenting with revoking permissions to various apps, including apps that have not been updated to fit the new permissions system. I am not sure if I have broken anything yet.
Do not Disturb
Total silence
Much better placement in the quick settings area
Volume control
Still no visual toggle for volume in quick settings
System UI Tuner
Tune your quick settings
Remove some of the clutter in the status bar
“Demo mode” is hilarious. 6:00!
Great start, needs more
SD card: adaptable
Sure, if any Nexus phone had SD support
This feature will be a godsend to people with 16GB devices with expandable storage
Text selection
Better, needs finer controls anyway, possibly included in a coincidental tablet update
Everyone says Google “fixed” it because they use words now instead of icons.
I do not like that “Select All” has been hidden in the overflow menu. When I select text, most times I want to select all, then copy it.
Battery
Doze
I will have more to say about this once the SHIELD tablet updates to 6.0; that device spends most of the day sitting on my bedside table.
App Standby
But wakelocks are still rampant in first party and third party apps
Lock screen: voice search replaced the phone
Best change ever, sort of
If you use that, there are some voice commands that will tell you “Actually, I can’t do that while the device is locked. To keep going, unlock your device.” even if SmartLock has the device unlocked.
Memory section in settings
Great
Now show what part of Android Account Manager and Google Play services is screwing me over
Shows average memory usage over the last 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours.
Bolder clock on lock screen
Beautiful Roboto Mono: https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto+Mono
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor – Organic (electric edit)
This episode of Second Opinion has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #349: SO #1 — That’s Suggestive Too!
Listen to more at The Nexus and follow us on Twitter and Google+ for our latest episodes and news.
40 min
November 22, 2015Second Opinion #1: Android 6.0 Marshmallow Review
Links
Nexus Special #41: Google Nexus Event 2015
Android - Marshmallow
Overview
Keeps the UI of 5.0, and adds a bunch of new features. This is great, because material design is beautiful.
Now on Tap
Removal of swipe up to Now/listening

Doesn’t seem useful most of the time; it’s a neat shortcut, but more of a peripheral feature

I wish they had left the swipe up gesture, so you could choose at any time if you wanted to do Now on Tap or go straight to your Now Cards
App permissions
Many Google apps are asking for permission first, which is great

It will take a long time to get many major apps (Facebook, Instagram, et al) to participate

I have been experimenting with revoking permissions to various apps, including apps that have not been updated to fit the new permissions system. I am not sure if I have broken anything yet.
Do not Disturb
Total silence

Much better placement in the quick settings area
Volume control
Still no visual toggle for volume in quick settings
System UI Tuner
Tune your quick settings

Remove some of the clutter in the status bar

“Demo mode” is hilarious. 6:00!

Great start, needs more
SD card: adaptable
Sure, if any Nexus phone had SD support

This feature will be a godsend to people with 16GB devices with expandable storage
Text selection
Better, needs finer controls anyway, possibly included in a coincidental tablet update

Everyone says Google “fixed” it because they use words now instead of icons.

I do not like that “Select All” has been hidden in the overflow menu. When I select text, most times I want to select all, then copy it.
Battery
Doze
I will have more to say about this once the SHIELD tablet updates to 6.0; that device spends most of the day sitting on my bedside table.

App Standby
But wakelocks are still rampant in first party and third party apps

Lock screen: voice search replaced the phone
Best change ever, sort of

If you use that, there are some voice commands that will tell you “Actually, I can’t do that while the device is locked. To keep going, unlock your device.” even if SmartLock has the device unlocked.
Memory section in settings
Great
Now show what part of Android Account Manager and Google Play services is screwing me over

Shows average memory usage over the last 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours.
Bolder clock on lock screen
Beautiful Roboto Mono: https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto+Mono
Attributions
Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor - Organic (electric edit)
40 min

About Second Opinion

From the publisher's feed

Second Opinion is a reviews show about anything and everything under the sun. If we can experience it, we can review it.

Share Second Opinion

Sign up to save your podcasts

Second Opinion

Second Opinion episodes

About Second Opinion