Wife had an old tablet. Battery would last about an hour. She bought a Pixel Tablet. It's really thin and light weight. The audio is really good. I wish it had a stylus and it's a bit pricey. Happy wife, happy life.
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Pixel Tablet
- Thread starter AugieTN
- Start date
Mr. Lucky
Android Expert
My wife got one too (yesterday). Nice size and build quality but we almost thought she'd have to return it and start over with something else. The problem was that it would not work with Hulu. It kept saying that it couldn't determine location, even though Location services were enabled, and the device showed that Hulu had requested and been granted location. We tried the usual stuff... cleared cache and data, restarted device, tried access via Chrome and Firefox, even tried uninstall/reinstall of the app. Nothing worked. Finally, I dug into the settings in a last ditch effort to find something before factory resetting and returning to Amazon. It turns out that there is a deeply buried system setting for "enhanced location" and it can only be gotten to by manually navigating there; the Settings search bar doesn't find it. The path is:
Settings > Location > Location services > Google Location Accuracy > Improve Location Accuracy
Funny thing is, other streaming services she tried (Youtube, Tubi, Peacock, Freevee) all worked fine without this setting enabled. I searched the Hulu FAQ page and the Hulu user forum, but there is no mention of this. Maybe there should be.
Now that this is settled, she likes the device. It's great for media consumption, and the included speaker dock and Ring doorbell integration are nice touches.
Settings > Location > Location services > Google Location Accuracy > Improve Location Accuracy
Funny thing is, other streaming services she tried (Youtube, Tubi, Peacock, Freevee) all worked fine without this setting enabled. I searched the Hulu FAQ page and the Hulu user forum, but there is no mention of this. Maybe there should be.
Now that this is settled, she likes the device. It's great for media consumption, and the included speaker dock and Ring doorbell integration are nice touches.
That's interesting what you had to do to get Hulu to work.
What location abilities does the Pixel tablet have?
I ask because my first reaction to something requiring "Google Location Accuracy" to be turned on is "why?". But if the tablet doesn't have GPS then presumably with the wireless network based location turned off (which is what that setting actually toggles - the name does not describe what it does) the only location information it will have is from your IP address. Even so that should be more than enough to tell what country you are in, which is all that a streaming service should legitimately care about, but you can use a VPN to spoof that. So perhaps the reason they want that is so that they can prevent you using the service in another country and using a VPN to fool it?
Of course if the tablet has GPS then I'd be less understanding of them wanting the wireless network based location turned on as well (though as tablets are mainly used indoors it might not have an up-to-date GPS location).
(The reason this caught my eye is that I personally leave that setting "off", so anything that requires it "on" will attract my attention. It's just because enabling it allows Google to collect supposedly anonymous location data, which I prefer not to do).
I ask because my first reaction to something requiring "Google Location Accuracy" to be turned on is "why?". But if the tablet doesn't have GPS then presumably with the wireless network based location turned off (which is what that setting actually toggles - the name does not describe what it does) the only location information it will have is from your IP address. Even so that should be more than enough to tell what country you are in, which is all that a streaming service should legitimately care about, but you can use a VPN to spoof that. So perhaps the reason they want that is so that they can prevent you using the service in another country and using a VPN to fool it?
Of course if the tablet has GPS then I'd be less understanding of them wanting the wireless network based location turned on as well (though as tablets are mainly used indoors it might not have an up-to-date GPS location).
(The reason this caught my eye is that I personally leave that setting "off", so anything that requires it "on" will attract my attention. It's just because enabling it allows Google to collect supposedly anonymous location data, which I prefer not to do).
Mr. Lucky
Android Expert
Good point, one which I entirely overlooked - no GPS.
I'm with you on this! One thing we noticed though is that Google Maps works in the car when wifi connected via hotspot to one of our phones. I wonder... is GPS data getting piggybacked to the tablet, or is Maps using the Location Accuracy "feature"?
it does not have gps, but.......
That's an interesting question. I'd not expect a hotspot to pass its precise location on to devices connected to it because it's not necessary, so only someone whose main business is data mining would code it to do that... OK, so maybe I should expect that from Google!
. But unless the tablet has cellular capabilities I'd also expect the wireless network location to be pretty useless on the open road: OK in urban environments with lots of WiFi sources around, but once you are away from built-up areas there won't be anything. How accurate does it look: accurate to 3-5 meters or to 10s of meters? The former would imply that the phone was passing a GPS location, while the latter is what you get from wireless networks alone.(Unless Bluetooth is involved somehow? Bluetooth on Android requires location access, so perhaps there's a route for the tablet getting precise location from the phone that way? I'm just speculating here - it's not something that could happen by accident, but I'd not put it past Google building that in without telling anyone, whether via BT or the hotspot)
Mr. Lucky
Android Expert
I'm a poor judge of distance, so I can't answer that first question. I can tell you though that it seems to acquire way points and notify of turns simultaneously with the phone... regardless of whether it's from the phone it's tethered to or the passenger's phone. Interesting (but at least it works).