PA Bans Spoofed Calls, But I Won’t Notice on my new Google Pixel!

Fighting Calls

This is an excellent step for frustrated Pennsylvanians like myself who are bombarded multiple times a day about their auto warranty or solar roof options, etc. Typically robocalls, but some telemarketer, these calls appear to come from a local number. Unrecognized but local numbers are the second most likely call you will answer, after recognized numbers (in contacts list).

Especially frustrating for me as a business owner, I had to answer them because it could be a new client. Notice I said ‘had’ (past-tense) to answer them.

My Google Pixel

A few months ago my former co-workers at a medium-size IT MSP convinced me to get more bang for my buck by switching from my flagship Samsung Galaxy S21 to a Google Pixel 5a. Both are 5G, however the Pixel was $449 in price – hundreds less than my GS21. I sold it on eBay and recovered the difference, having only owned the phone a short time.

Pixels have been out since 2013 but were not the best phone. A lot has changed and big improvements to the hardware each time a new series came out, really since the Pixel 3 has put these phones in the flagship league.

Pixels are great because is raw, untouched Android OS sits on your phone, free from appearance, skin, and bloatware the wireless carriers and manufacturers install on their phones. Samsung phones are notorious for this, and you can’t disable many of their services unless you root the phone. There’s also far less privacy with manufacturer and carrier bloatware installed, and more advertising data can be pulled from you.

Since the Pixel is just pure Android 11 (12 is downloading to my phone right now), even though my phone has a smaller battery than my former, I have twice the battery life! Yes, twice! My 5a lasts me 2 days, my old GS21 lasted only 1 day, even though that had the bigger battery. Both cameras on the phones are really good in terms of zoom and low-light, but the Pixel stands out because it does not post-process the color. Samsung and Apple both doctor the colors and make things more bright and lively than (especially photos of clouds), but I want just a raw photo I can edit on Picassa on my computer later, so the Pixel is like having an SLR camera that simply just captures the image and lets you control how you want to edit later.

Call Screening – ROCKS!

My Pixel 5a, and all Pixel phones feature Google Assistant and its fantastic Call Screening. This uses the assistant’s powerful AI to answer calls for me, asks who and why you are calling, and as the caller speaks, transcribes it to text on my screen in real time. I can even push buttons to have the assistant ask more questions or send to voicemail or hang up the call. For Pixel 4 and higher, you can even go into your phone’s settings and hear the actual audio.

This is what call screening in action looks like on the Pixel. You can press buttons to tell the Google Assistant what you want it to ask/say next.

Overall, I can’t say enough how much I love my Pixel 5a 5G on the Google Fi network. Use this referral code and we both get $20 off our bill! Google Fi works with any GSM phone and switches between T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular networks wherever you go! You only get charged $20 per line for unlimited talk and text, (or less with more lines) and pay $10/GB as you go. So if you only use 2 MB worth of data for a month, your bill is $22! Plus, you can finance your Pixel for $15/month for two years. This can boost your credit score because you can automatically pay this small loan, as long as you don’t already have too many lines of credit open!