My Current Homescreen

Comments (Archived):

1. What’s the lock icon next to Slack?

   1. Pretty sure that’s the Android icon for the Signal messaging app from Open Whisper Systems.

      1. yup. that is Signal. maybe the most important app on my phone

         1. Ah, thanks.

         2. Why Signal? Is Whatsapp inadequate due to cloud backup?

         3. Who do you Signal with? Friends? Family? Coworkers? International people of mystery?

            1. If he told you, he’d have to kill you.

            2. Not sure how it works in iOS, but in Android you can make it your default app for SMS. You can use it for that (without any encryption) and if you contact happens to have Signal too, then it switches to encrypted comm. It is a great way to convince people to install it.Protecting communication should not be tied only to super secret things. If that were the case, by the fact of using encryption, you’d be signaling that specific communication to be attention worthy. The best way to protect sensitive comms is to use encryption for everyday comms too.

         4. vulnerable to man-in-the-middle intrusion, apparently. check keys.

2. I added Dark Sky (weather) and RTM (todo) this year. (I don’t use RTM).https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

   1. +1 on Dark Sky. Fred, you need a better weather app. TWC has an old-school, interruption marketing mindset that wrecks the UX. Not a fan.

      1. +2 on Dark Sky. Great while golfing, when it starts raining you can see when it will end and decide whether to wait it out or go in.

   2. You need to catch up on a few things 🙂

   3. Curiosity question: What does pocket give you that evernote does not give you?

      1. Pocket is pretty great for saving things to read later. In iPhone I’m in twitter and can just hold down on links and save them to pocket in a click. I save every URL there that I also want to keep somehow like a bookmark, which is a bad habit but I still don’t have a delicious replacement.

3. Where is Lyft? I have Lyft & Uber side by side. V useful in SF.

   1. i don’t travel to SF very much.

      1. A-ha, thanks. So when in NY, Juno is the better app to have.I’m wondering if someone has done a global map of which app is better in each region.

         1. Am a long time UBER user, but don’t use it much in city. Mostly Walk or take subway or use Gett 10USD flat rides in Manhattan. How is Juno different and better?

            1. Like Fred, I now keep only Juno on my home page. In NYC, Uber takes 35-40% of the fare, Juno takes 10%. And prices their service 10% lower than Uber. So I pay less, and the driver gets more. Win Win. Almost all Uber drivers in NYC now are also Juno drivers, in fact my Uber VIP driver gave me the code back when it was invite only.

            2. Thanks for sharing that.Juno was the only app icon I wasn’t familiar with so I googled it and discovered it was a ride-sharing app.Hence my question about Lyft and Uber.

            3. I will try Juno. I am UBER VIP myself and when Juno was invite only wrote to them stating am UBER VIP and would like an invite to try JUNO. They did not bother to answer. Have you tried GETT 10USD flat rides in Manhattan? I dont think any service is cheaper than them.

            4. My impression is Gett doesn’t have enough cars. And I am not looking for the cheapest rides per se, I want something fair to both me and the drivers. Common sense says they should get paid more for a longer ride.

            5. I never had a problem with GETT. Max i waited was 7 minutes. Yes if you are talking of a snowstorm and UBER is surging 3X there wont be any GETT. But in those occasions its prudent to take the subway and avoid the bad weather driving conditions.GETT pays more than UBER as it Takes only 10% cut. The 10USD fare is for passenger. GETT drivers get paid by time and distance and full fare.

            6. This is exactly why I say high gross margins are a blessing and a curse.No gross margins and network effect in technology. Blessing. High gross margins……not a moat. A wondrous castle to be pillaged.

            7. Great comment.

         2. what’s juno?

            1. Ride-sharing like Uber, Lyft and Gett.The name makes me think of that indie movie ‘Juno’ with Ellen Page where she’s accidentally pregnant.

      2. really?

4. no widgets? gotta have a calendar widget.

5. gotta have the slack! love it

6. do you get a full day from the Pixel’s battery?

   1. yes

7. I recently ditched the MIUI iPhonish start screen back to the Google one with folders, like this. Much more productive. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

   1. how are these start/ homescreen snapshots captured?p.s. yes, looks better.

      1. Press simultaneously Volume Down and Power button.

         1. It worked! Educated. I knew my avc investment would pay off eventually.

      2. on Droid, you can just swipe you hand across the screen. Not sure if Apple works the same way.

         1. diagonally with one finger ? hmm, it’s not working on my xiaomi.

            1. Hmm. Maybe it’s Samsung only? I usually turn my palm sideways and swipe with the whole side of my hand.

            2. It doesn’t work on my Moto.

   2. I love how the icons are arranged so you can see your dog!

      1. Exactly !

      2. That is, by far, the best app in the homescreen!

   3. William Mougayar:that was just one more reason to rid ourselves of the MIUI on Xiaomi headset. They just copied and are a knockoff of APPLE’s IPhone. How we enjoy disliking overpriced hardware from APPLE. 🙂

8. cool – has anyone compiled the homescreen app data?

9. I’m glad to see the swarm users in this community! One of my favorite apps, although I wish the apple watch integration was a bit better (i.e. just faster).

10. Given the current administration, Signal should be on everyone’s homescreen.

    1. The government, any government, is not able to prosecute any and all wrong doing even if they know it is happening just because they are reading all communications. They don’t even issue all of the traffic tickets they can for a multitude of reasons.Average people, most people, have no need to encrypt information they send unless it is of particular interest to people who might be trolling for personal info to steal identities.

       1. Not sure I follow your argument. Encryption isn’t important because the government can’t always prosecute? And yeah, the average communication is probably unimportant, but given that we have an admin with a vindictive prosecutorial stance to anyone who disagrees with him, i think innocuous info can be exploited. (But maybe I’m projecting: as a sometimes and former journalist whose last boss was his son-in-law and now senior advisor, and who often says critical things about Trump, Imma err on the safe side.)

          1. but given that we have an admin with a vindictive prosecutorial stance to anyone who disagrees with him, i think innocuous info can be exploitedEveryone or just a small select group of people and I will add ‘if even that’?as a sometimes and former journalist whose last boss was his son-in-law and now senior advisor, and who often says critical things about TrumpI actually knew that. Kushner. Gawker. Observer. I decided not to mention but I thought that was more ironic than anything. I googled you prior to making my comment.I was responding to the overreaching “everyone” which I took to mean “everyone”. Reading your reply I think confirms that you think this. That’s not healthy honestly. To much anxiety over such a really really small if any chance of that happening. Sure anything is possible if there is a large enough population someone will get the shaft for the wrong reason. For most people though the system works the way I see it.i think innocuous info can be exploitedYou are making as if we are going to be like the Soviets or some third world country. That’s extreme and I am almost certain that you are overreacting. If I am ever in your area I will take you to lunch and present my point of view more clearly.

             1. Happy to discuss further. My reaction is based on what I know about Trump and Jared from direct personal experience. So it’s not just an impression. I also think it’s a low-effort easy precaution. Why not be on the safe side?

             2. I am always 100% in favor of being on the safe side when it is practical. But using that logic you shouldn’t be living in NYC (if you are) it’s not anywhere near as safe as where I live. And Fred shouldn’t be boarding an airplane to fly around as much as he does and certainly not Phil Sugar. Anxiety plays a factor in life and making people worry about something and also taking clueless people and making them think something is a threat when it’s not is just not a good thing the way I see it. I think perhaps since you are a journalist your frame of reference is a bit different if I had to break it down a bit.In any case what people need to feel is the same way you feel when you go to your doctor. They want to be re-assured not worked up thinking the worst especially if the majority of them can’t do jack squat. It’s just not good for people mentally to have them walking around with such fear that the world is ending.

             3. I am a fan of taking meaningful but big calculated risks. We all tolerate a certain amount of anxiety intentionally because the upside of the anxiety-producing thing outweighs the downside. I am fine with NYC because what I get out of it outweighs how much of a pain in the ass it is to live here. I also think you’re overblowing my level of anxiety. Installing Signal isn’t doomsday prepping.

       2. We use(d) sealed envelopes to send letters through the postal system. Why?

    2. I am an equal opportunity hater.But why this administration?Under whose administration did Snowden happen?Don’t trust government, I get you.”Seen the old boss same as the new boss”

       1. My primary gripe with the Obama admin was that it greatly expanded the government’s surveillance capabilities in ways that are not fully justifiable. This admin will be worse because A) they’ll go further, and B) we have a narcissistic president who thinks nothing of using state power for personal gain and will happily use the surveillance capabilities at his disposal to persecute critics or anyone he perceives as a threat, no matter how petty or inconsequential the slight.

          1. persecute critics or anyone he perceives as a threatThis is not to be taken as for or against the new President, just to address what I think are your over reactions.That’s what he uses twitter for actually.Can you give me a concrete example of how he would persecute critics by reading their info?For example it’s easy to see who you are and that you are criticizing him, right?What do you think he could turn up in your personal communications that if he wanted if he was that ‘baad’ he couldn’t simply make up?

             1. I think he could (and does) make things up. But for example: as a journalist I don’t want anyone knowing who my anonymous sources are. ESPECIALLY the Trump admin if I happen to be writing about the Trump admin. That’s beyond personal embarrassment to me; it puts other people in danger.

          2. I am really sorry. Trump got elected (not voted for by me) in part because he had net worth, unlike Clinton who amassed a huge amount by getting money from banks, and governments she was supposed to support me against:http://fortune.com/2016/02/…People hate when the ass kicking boot is on the other foot.I remember conservative friends saying how great the Patriot Act was when Bush jammed that through.That day I said you just wait until somebody you don’t like has access to that.Well, that day came. Now another day has come.

             1. Last time I checked, Trump’s net worth was negative. You can be eyeballs deep in debt and still have a private plane, though. I get why people are confused by it.

             2. $3.7B: http://www.forbes.com/donal…I have given you articles from Fortune and Forbes.You have cited nobody.Sorry if its negative do you know what one of the things you can repossess with no bankruptcy repercussions?Trains and Planes: http://scholarship.law.corn…This is what enrages people and gives rational people like myself question for why I didn’t vote for him.

             3. Yeah, I saw the Forbes article when it came out. I get the way they calculated, but think those valuations are high for CRE right now. I am also admittedly basing my assessment on the fact that I think his debts are much much higher than reported. People are starting to figure it out though: http://www.wsj.com/articles…

             4. Look I know I might be coming off as a “gaslighter” but I am just telling you if you hate Trump (and I can understand that) you are not going about this in the right way.I am telling you the view from the bowling alley and diner. Look me up. I did you.

             5. Oh, I don’t think you’re gaslighting me. And unlike POTUS, I’m pretty thick-skinned so I don’t mind disagreement. I think we’re working off of different assumptions about his debt though. And not sure what you mean by “view from the bowling alley and diner”. If you’re implying that I’m looking at things from some kind of east coast elite NYC bubble perspective, that’s possible. But I grew up in pretty rural Alabama and sadly for me, my entire family voted for Trump.

             6. Yup. My wife is from Clanton. I’m sure you know that Peach Water Tower. Go there every year.He has debt that is for sure. He has tons of real estate that is for sure.When do real estate people get wiped out?? During Recessions.All of the press never had a peep about Clinton taking money from foreign governments, foreign governments when she was Secretary of State.But my point is if you don’t like the guy, and he really is unlikable and doubles down on crazy. You didn’t convince any of your family to not vote for him, probably just the opposite.

             7. No, my opinion has no bearing on their votes. My mom voted for Trump because she’s virulently anti-abortion and wants to roll back Roe v. Wade. I will never convince her otherwise because she’s an Evangelical Christian who believes that abortion is murder–and she’s a single issue voter. And for those who liked the idea of a Muslim registry and a wall, you can’t really argue someone out of their racism either. They’re not single issue voters, but they are two or three issue voters. If they voted for economic reasons I could have maybe talked them out of it, but they didn’t.re: Clinton – I still find it ludicrous that anyone thinks the Clinton foundation taking foreign money is a proxy for Hillary Clinton personally taking foreign money. But clearly we’re not going to agree there.And yes, I know the peach! That, as we always said driving by it, “looks like a butt!” Clanton is roughly a 20 minute drive from where my parents live.

             8. Should also mention that for economic voters, my biggest argument would be that Trump doesn’t actually understand how much of the US economy is fueled by international trade, and he’s happy to enact trade unfriendly policies because he thinks it scores him political points to demonize foreign powers.

             9. On this we strongly disagree. I think we should double corporate taxes and then give a $10k per year tax credit for each U.S. employee that you pay more than $15/hr with benefits.I have been beating this drum since I, Jeffery Immelt, and U.S. Senator Tom Carper and Joe Biden got in a dust up in 1999 at a technology roundtable.I am a technologist. Technology has hollowed out the middle class. I don’t know what to do about that.Think about travel. You used to call a travel agent talk to them about your trip, get a ticket couriered to the office, and then check in at the counter. Now??? Phone.Think about trade. I first went to work for Mitsubishi Corporation (trading company) in the 1980’s. Their biggest asset??? Of a company that did 100’s of Billions of trade??? A telex network. Communication?? Now free.Trade with China? I have to be a 49% owner and give up my Intellectual Property and they can come compete with me with no restrictions.So we have to solve this.Don’t kid yourself. Trump has enough good ideas that appeal to people,It comes down to which side of the 20% bat shit crazy stuff that makes you nuts or you overlook.

             10. You know that visiting there, I think that there is less racism there than I see up here Maybe that’s just me, but going to weddings etc, I think today, and that was certainly not a long time ago people that have to live together have figured out how to get along.I think there a couple of things that people need to give up.Abortion is here.Gay marriage is here.2nd Amendment is here.If you don’t like any of those. Too F’ing bad. Don’t do them.Control but get over it. Realize that every restriction you put on it will have the other side you are worrying that you are just going down the road of getting rid of.I love my state’s passage of Gay marriage which said you have the right to marriage, but in addition no church was forced to marry you. Fine, great. Landslide win.

             11. +100

             12. he might be bankrupt?

             13. No, like 2/3rds of USV companies they will go under. This in no way is an indictment of USV. It’s a fact of life. In no way an endorsement of Trump. Just a fact of life. If we don’t let this happen in the U.S. our system goes away. A/C Taj Mahal??? What a failure. Ok. Move on.

             14. ok

    3. Hell yes

       1. <3 you for this

          1. ShanaC:We realize your intend of signalling three more positive votes for Fred’s post.—————Symbol WordsExample Use= equals1 + 1 = 2≠ not equal to1 + 1 ≠ 1> greater than5 > 2< less than7 < 9≥ greater than or equal tomarbles ≥ 1≤ less than or equal todogs ≤ 3

    4. Added it election night. Also, everyone should be using TorProject.org to help provide herd immunity for those who *must* use it.

       1. Tor may have been broken.

11. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

12. What launcher do you use?

13. New additions this year are Apple Home and Sonos. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

    1. Hi Aron,Home – what is your setup? I purchased a Honeywell Lyric T6 ( Thermostat) and just recently purchased some Lutron Caseta switches.

       1. August Home Lock/Doorbell/Keypad, Ecobee Thermostat and I’ve tried out switches from Elgato and iDevices so far. Working fairly well!

          1. I have been watching the August products. Waiting for them to rev their doorbell / camera . Was hoping Schlage had a lock that had geo fence like the August one does.

             1. It’s not perfect yet. Still too many glitches. But all in all, I’m happy to have it.

14. I’ve relegated Sonos to my 2nd page, as Spotify can now play directly on Sonos. 100% better, as the Sonos app has always sucked.

    1. I don’t use Spotify. SoundCloud all the way baby!!!

       1. So get Soundcloud integrated with Sonos!

          1. Soundcloud is integrated with Sonos. I get why FW has both apps though. I have Sonos, Soundcloud and Google Play apps on my phone — all for different reasons.

             1. To clarify, Spotify app can now select Sonos as an output and play directly. I don’t think SoundCloud can do that yet. Once you can stream direct, there is no reason to ever use the Sonos app, it is just clumsy.

             2. I don’t use Spotify. I always found it to be sort of clumsy and gave up on it a few years ago. I also could never find a lot of music I wanted to hear on there. (Maybe it has changed and become more intuitive. I don’t know? But my 20 year old son also does not use it either. Either way, I don’t have time. Love my Sonos system and love Soundcloud for podcasts and for finding new music).I have my own huge music library. Lots of stuff — especially old jazz — that you can’t find on the internet. I ripped my entire CD collection to MP3, with the help of my teenage son, a few years back. Then we moved on to ripping my Mom’s collection, which dwarfs mine, and which includes my Grandma’s collection of oldies.

             3. What software did you use to rip the CDs, and on what OS did you do it?

             4. I just used Microsoft Media player. I know there are better tools, but I just wanted my music. We used various OSs, all Microsoft. I guess I may have been on Vista when I first started ripping my CDs. I’m on Win10 now.

             5. Cool.

15. How do I share my flip phone’s home screen? : )

16. I got 2 home screens: https://uploads.disquscdn.c…https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

17. CONTRIBUTORS:The creative, technical types are known for clutter. Our Home Screen on our headset is clean and uncluttered. Ten items shown. Positioned on bottom of the screen in two rows of five. Organized in categories stacked with no more than three items in one group. Very clean and organized. It appears you can tell much about the life of a person viewing their desk and now screen shot.Can envision and visualize living like Rock Hudson of the the Rockford Files character in current year Winnebago Brave traveling to every Championship event around country whenin the States.https://uploads.disquscdn.c… RV .

18. 43 degrees Fahrenheit in Utah in January ought to be telling the phone to display snow scenes and not palm trees on the homescreen.

19. Anyone else has a Second Space on their phone, where you can switch to a different home screen with different apps and accounts? Like home/business or for kids for eg. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

    1. Everyone, surely?

20. Google Drive is a huge life hack. It’s changing the whole way I run my life.andScanbot is fantastic. Just scan stuff right away (incredibly easy) and save to Google Drive.

21. Four messaging apps on the dock. Five if you include the phone.

22. https://uploads.disquscdn.c… This is probably pretty standard.

23. shouldn’t you be on vacation 🙂

24. Honestly, I think the 2nd screen is more telling. What’s on the 1st screen is 90% predictable.

25. As an outsider to tech and being from a small irrelevant city, scrolling through all those homescreens broke my brain. I wish I had time to look up what all those apps do. Such an interesting study in personality types and phone/app usage awaits some keen social scientist there. Feeling pretty small-town-ish right now. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

    1. Horoscope?! How was today’s? 🙂

       1. Eerily accurate. That’s the best horoscope app on the internet, hands down. (their “Chatty” one.)

26. I’d like to see the garagescreen, the interesting stuff.

27. I wish it could show usage stats based on the number of times you clicked the app.

28. I’m surprised to see Slack on the bottom rail. We’ve tried to be Cool and the Gang and love it like everyone else, but we just don’t get it. Our fault, obviously — but I’d love to know what we’re missing….

29. Battery usage % gives deeper insights

30. I go back and forth between the two regularly. It helps to make them similar

31. Correct

32. Got it, thanks!

33. FRED:Hopefully Googles Pixel will promote you to never return to the IPhone line. (Hopefully)