intro
yup - it's that simple. i know, nobody but nerds know what a "google pixel" is. however, with the pixel 6 release - that may have changed. but i'm not here about that one - i'm here to talk about the OG pixel 1.
you can get unlimited original quality google photos storage for photos and videos when uploaded from the device. now that's a fuckin' deal, especially since google finally decided that they had enough training data using our pics and made uploads take up space ):
i think that this is so worth - that i bought two google pixels in-case that one of them dies and i bought two extra batteries as well. the total cost is like 180 dollars - but that had already paid for itself (if google photos doesn't shut down....if it joins that google graveyard i swear...)
if you're thinking - "have you tried using an emulator for this...???". well i've looked it up and it seems like google uses some metadata to detect if you're uploading from an og pixel or not. it has previously worked before but as of writing - that seemed to be patched. and if i discovered a way to emulate it successfully - there's no good reason to tell anyone because it would get patched lmao.
how much data i use
each raw photo from my nikon z50 is around 25mb...
just one minute of 4k footage from my mavic air is around 500-800mb. the mavic 3 can record up to 25mb per second lmao
how to upload
the quickest way to get photos into your phone is by file transfer via cable. just move the photos into your dcim/camera folder and it's golden
if you want to automatically upload photos - you can download an app like syncthing. here's a youtube video on this.
that means, you can leave your pixel at home, and the photos you take will get sent to your google pixel and be uploaded from there. really cool honestly!!
how to not kill your battery
buying a used pixel - a phone that was released in 2016, probably means that the battery is shit.
here's a great article about battery life optimization
it's best to keep it below ~65% charge there are two options
- buy a hardware-based battery limiter like chargie
- root the phone (what i did)
there is an option is to monitor the phone and unplug it when it gets to 65%....ya that's a no from me dawg
there are a lot of videos that go over rooting a pixel one that you can find on youtube - but i would recommend using a mac because it didn't work for me on windows...
after i rooted my phone - i downloaded an app called "battery life extender" after "battery charge limit" didn't work