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TheBenior
March 24th, 2014, 05:33 PM
My fiancée Janelle and I had been thinking about adding her to my T-Mobile plan for a while, but she was still under contract with AT&T on her family's plan and wanted to keep her existing black HTC One and port her phone number. Turns out that the only way that AT&T would unlock her phone was to terminate her line at the same time, losing the ability to port her number.

To get around this, we ordered an unlocked Nexus 5 from Google for her to use for a few days until her HTC One was unlocked, then to replace my Samsung Galaxy S3, which has a cracked screen (my 3rd party insurance requires me to send the phone in for service WTF). We'll probably unlock the S3 and sell it on eBay. We ordered the 32GB Nexus 5 in "bright red," which looks intensely safety orange under a lot of lighting conditions.

375

So far, I'm quite satisfied with the Nexus. It's much faster than my S3 in every way. The S3 has started to lag more with newer versions of Android, and it doesn't support T-Mobile's LTE network. With the Nexus 5, I'm regularly seeing 25-29 Mbps download speeds, faster than the AT&T LTE in this area, which is might be due to added spectrum that AT&T had to sell to T-Mobile on account of the failed merger. Boot time is of course faster than on my Samsung and carrier bloatware riddled S3. The only hiccups are that T-Mobile's visual voicemail doesn't support unlocked Nexus 5s at this time, and T-Mobile's Wifi calling doesn't work on unlocked Nexus 5s. The 16GB Nexus 5 through T-Mobile and the 32GB unlocked Nexus 5 through Google are both ~$400, so I'm okay with losing out on Wifi calling in exchange for 16 extra GB at the same price.

Since the camera was controversial on the last forum, here's a couple of pictures under challenging lighting conditions at my local bar, The Beetle Bar and Grill (http://www.thebeetlechicago.com/)

HDR+ mode off
376

HDR+ on
377

Low light camera performance isn't as good as Janelle's HTC One, but it's definitely better than my Galaxy S3's camera was.

drew
March 25th, 2014, 02:18 AM
Wait, fiancée? I missed something, I think.


Congrats!


(back on topic) I still love my Note 2. I have no plans to upgrade anytime soon.

Jason
March 25th, 2014, 02:34 AM
Same here, congrats (I think?) :D

Yw-slayer
March 25th, 2014, 03:14 AM
Get wasted, bro.

es nes
March 25th, 2014, 03:51 AM
Galaxy Mega for when the Note is too small?

TheBenior
March 25th, 2014, 05:07 AM
Engagement's been Facebook official since November. Drew, I'm pretty sure we told you in person the last time we saw you, but I'm guessing that you've got a few memory holes from that night.

On topic, even though the T-Mobile visual voicemail app isn't officially Nexus 5 Android 4.4.2 compatible, I found the APK today and it works just fine.

Yw-slayer
March 25th, 2014, 06:46 AM
Wifi calling is surely a waste of time if you're making domestic calls anyway. I can see it might be useful for making/receiving international calls.

Kchrpm
March 25th, 2014, 10:41 AM
WiFi calling is great if you have limited coverage at your house, or not a lot of minutes (T-Mobile's coverage isn't great, and their really popular cheap plan is only 100 minutes for those of that care more about the 5 GB of data that comes with it).

TheBenior
March 25th, 2014, 11:10 AM
T-Mobile seems at least as good as any other carrier in Chicago, in my experience. Way out in the exurbs or rural Illinois? Sure, Verizon's better, but I live and work in the city.

Kchrpm
March 25th, 2014, 11:24 AM
Yeah, it's very much location (and roadtrip) centric.

SportWagon
March 28th, 2014, 08:38 AM
We didn't have an Android phone thread because I posted phone stuff into the Android tablet thread because Android phones are just little (usually) tablets with telephony capability. In fact, I've accumulated several quite useful aPods over the years, snapping up unlocked Android phone bargains at electronics liquidators, and using them without SIM cards.

So my original Motorola Atrix (I'd acquired it soon after Cam's Hamilton GTXP) got to where its touch screen was flakey. Certain areas predictably registered beside and never at the correct location. That was about last December, exactly two years into the three year contract. I'd actually bought a prepaid (for same provider) Samsung Galaxy Discover a few weeks before, for aPod experimentation, before the flakiness, so I just switched the SIM card. Seemed to work OK, although mobile would seem to be unrecoverable after about a day or so, and seemed to need a reboot to fix. And all network use was pretty slow. The Galaxy Discover is a small cheap version to allow consumers to discover they need something better. But it is a very nice size.

But I'd taken to haunting the displays at stores, trying to decide between an S4 and S4 Mini. Got talked last weekend into an S4 for the cost of my buyout plus only a small increment for a two-year contract on a customer loyalty plan.

I was surprised he couldn't use my old SIM, as I learned I had a Mini SIM, whereas the S4 needs a Micro.

http://www.everymac.com/images/other_images/nano-sim-sizes.jpg http://www.myhow2.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/iphone_SIM_card_size009.jpg

(Someone pointed out to me that that so-called "Standard SIM" in the big blue diagram is in fact just a credit card; the "Normal SIM" in the other set of diagrams is the "Mini").

SIMs being free to retailers and customers, they at the store didn't offer to trim my old one, although that is possible.

A scam^H^H^H^Hservice Bell Canada is currently pushing is Push to Talk (http://mobilebusiness.bell.ca/industries-and-solutions/push-to-talk/). "Just say DISABLE". Might be something reasonable for high-volume business users or something, but as an ordinary consumer the advantages seem to be more for the carrier than the consumer. Trouble is, until disabled, the PTT app tends to send bizarre notifications soliciting you to sign up. Almost seems like malware. Glad the web told me how to DISABLE it.

The S4 certainly seems a bit more fragile in a number of ways than the old Atrix. And I'm still thinking "Perhaps I should have gone with the Mini". But you lose a few toys--IR transmitter at least--with the Mini. Display resolution would have been adequate (better than my old Atrix), whereas the Discover had noticeably bad resolution; web pages with tables would occasionally lose random horizontal dividers! Oh well, the Discover will remain a fun aPod, and perhaps I'll even try to root it.

Another easily available prepaid I'd considered co-opting was the Huawei Ascend Y300 (http://support.bell.ca/Mobility/Products/Huawei-Ascend-Y300). Around last Christmas when I'd got the Discover you'd see them for about $50 prepaid. But at $100 prepaid they still seem to get snapped up and was never there if I felt in the mood to really buy one. It looks thick compared to modern phones, but as I compare my Atrix to the new Galaxy, I think the thickness causes little inconvenience, and would seem to represent extra robustness.

Freude am Fahren
March 28th, 2014, 10:23 AM
So I just discovered free tethering (FoxFi) my phone (NOTE 2, AT&T). It works great and now I feel better about getting a wifi-only tablet. However, apparently my work email (MS Exchange) prohibits internet sharing. Whenever I try to turn on a hotspot through FoxFi, it gives me that warning, and can't start a hotspot. The only way to get around it is to delete my work account.

Is there A) a way around the security policies of my work account, or more likely, B) a way to just disable the account to allow sharing, rather than having to delete it. I don't want to have to set it all up and re-sync again whenever I need it.

TheBenior
March 28th, 2014, 01:01 PM
But I'd taken to haunting the displays at stores, trying to decide between an S4 and S4 Mini. Got talked last weekend into an S4 for the cost of my buyout plus only a small increment for a two-year contract on a customer loyalty plan.

I was surprised he couldn't use my old SIM, as I learned I had a Mini SIM, whereas the S4 needs a Micro.

A scam^H^H^H^Hservice Bell Canada is currently pushing is Push to Talk (http://mobilebusiness.bell.ca/industries-and-solutions/push-to-talk/). "Just say DISABLE". Might be something reasonable for high-volume business users or something, but as an ordinary consumer the advantages seem to be more for the carrier than the consumer. Trouble is, until disabled, the PTT app tends to send bizarre notifications soliciting you to sign up. Almost seems like malware. Glad the web told me how to DISABLE it.

The S4 certainly seems a bit more fragile in a number of ways than the old Atrix. And I'm still thinking "Perhaps I should have gone with the Mini". But you lose a few toys--IR transmitter at least--with the Mini. Display resolution would have been adequate (better than my old Atrix), whereas the Discover had noticeably bad resolution; web pages with tables would occasionally lose random horizontal dividers! Oh well, the Discover will remain a fun aPod, and perhaps I'll even try to root it.

I probably wouldn't have bought an S4 Mini due to the gimped processor relative to the Galaxy S4. My old Galaxy S3 had (IIRC) a slightly slower version of the same processor as the S4 Mini, and that phone had gotten laggy as of late with newer versions of Android and when loaded with apps. Of course, if you mostly use your phone for web browsing and maps, then it might be fine, but I wouldn't count on Samsung not to half-ass updates after my experience with the Android 4.3 update on the S3 which made battery life noticeably worse. I recommend getting a decent case for the S4, as it and the predecessor S3 have a reputation for their screens being more easily cracked than their competitors. The S3 remains the only smartphone I cracked the screen on, and my iPhone 3G and HTC Evo took considerably more unprotected drops without incident.

As for Push-to-Talk, I'm so glad that it lost it's popularity with ghetto black people in Chicago. I hated hearing that shit when I was on public transportation, or outside my apartment when I lived on the West Side.

SportWagon
March 28th, 2014, 01:23 PM
Yeah, they did say the S4 Mini speed was slow. But for reasonable use, the only problem I noticed with the Discover was a lag before web pages finished loading. One of the salesmen said a normal customer wouldn't notice the speed difference. (On the other hand...) All-in-all I'm realizing what a great phone the Atrix was for its time. Shame about the (apparently common) touch screen failures.


So I just discovered free tethering (FoxFi) my phone (NOTE 2, AT&T). It works great and now I feel better about getting a wifi-only tablet. However, apparently my work email (MS Exchange) prohibits internet sharing. Whenever I try to turn on a hotspot through FoxFi, it gives me that warning, and can't start a hotspot. The only way to get around it is to delete my work account.

Is there A) a way around the security policies of my work account, or more likely, B) a way to just disable the account to allow sharing, rather than having to delete it. I don't want to have to set it all up and re-sync again whenever I need it.Really weird that your work email disables your whole hotspot rather than merely refusing to work itself. Does your work MS Exchange provide owa? Surely then you could read email without it knowing what else you're doing. But then if they're so worried about something, they probably don't provide owa (outlook web application).

These account security policies aren't really visible in Accounts settings, are they?

Third-party tethering seems to be on its way out, in general, however.

Hmm. So I see "Microsoft Exchange" is a special category of account. Could you access your work email via a normal IMAP account ("Email"), lose some functionality but avoid the security policy?

(Unrelated: Gee I hate apps with unnecessary permissions.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.konami.DASH.frogger_IGA
Bah. That's meaningless for what I'm saying. Shouldn't permissions be visible even before you sign in to install? But if you start installing, it seems like really it's a survey app. Location? Accounts? Read/Modify USB Storage (hmm maybe it has save/restore game state?) Pay version still wants Accounts and Network Communication as well as USB storage. Hmm. Free version is ads version. Perhaps that explains Location.)

Actually, using
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.denper.addonsdetector
it definitely seems that that alleged (proably legitimate) Konami Frogger app is quite rare in requiring at least one of its perms.

Freude am Fahren
March 28th, 2014, 02:29 PM
Actually they do have OWA. But that's kinda a pain compared to just integrating into the phone.

I could try looking into IMAP, but I guess I'd lose my calendar.

SportWagon
March 28th, 2014, 02:34 PM
Oh yes, calendar, right. I use calendar via owa, and mostly ignore my email on Exchange, since it's all also forwarded to places easier to use.

TheBenior
April 5th, 2014, 04:57 AM
Janelle finally got her unlocked AT&T HTC One (M7) to send MMS messages on T-Mobile's network. She had to root it to do so. It appears that AT&T hid some APN protocol settings that had to be changed to get MMS working on another network when they did the Kit Kat update.

SportWagon
May 7th, 2014, 02:44 PM
Android is SO DUMB!

How dumb is it???

It's so dumb that when you set the time, there's no way to specify the seconds. Actually most Samsung and HTC devices do the obvious thing and reset seconds to zero when you enter, but other devices, e.g. Motorola, the seconds get remembered from what they were. So you can't get any closer to the actual time you want than 30 seconds. It's amazing that secure connections mostly work.

It also won't let unrooted devices use GPS as a source for time sync, AFAICT.

Kchrpm
May 7th, 2014, 03:38 PM
Most of them get time from the tower they're on, I believe. Have to admit, that's a complaint I don't think I've ever heard before. I've no clue how iOS handles it, for comparison.

Random
May 7th, 2014, 04:32 PM
Most of them get time from the tower they're on, I believe.

Which was goddamn annoying when the tower at my house and the tower at the freeway were a minute off and the phone kept asking if it was ok to update the time (this was several years ago). :mad:

Yw-slayer
May 7th, 2014, 06:39 PM
LOL, I can see how that would get old real fast.

DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE

Godson
May 8th, 2014, 10:06 AM
#winning



Lol

SportWagon
May 8th, 2014, 10:37 AM
Several of my Android phones currently have no Mobile service, but they still work as very useful little computers. On WiFi, or as a GPS standalone.

Kchrpm
May 8th, 2014, 11:48 AM
I have a few WiFi only Android devices as well, it's been so long since I've set their time...but yeah, the seconds thing is interesting.

CudaMan
May 11th, 2014, 10:43 AM
My 2-year contract with AT&T will be up in a few months, so it's probably time to start thinking about phones again. I've been quite satisfied with my S3 since I got it. That is until it performed an OTA update to Android and it started getting laggy and mini-freezy. I dislike waiting 10 seconds to be able to enter my unlock code. And besides I'm always looking to improve the camera that I carry with me all the time.

Initial research shows most of the good smartphones continue to get larger. I kind of decided when I got my S3 that I didn't want anything bigger in my pocket. The S5 is tempting at an early glance (I am familiar with the Samsung Way) but it's a bit large on paper. Looks like the NEXUS 5 is slightly smaller. And the LG G2 seems to hit the sweet spot - larger screen fitted into a case the same size as the S3. The G2 is a little older, soon to be replaced by the G3 which I believe has gone bigger as well.

There's currently a deal on the G2 where I could get it free with a contract extension, and I can trade in my S3 to Amazon for ~$100. That's tempting.

Just early thoughts for now. I'm sure I'll pour over it more before too long.

Kchrpm
May 11th, 2014, 11:33 AM
A few suggestions, to go along with suggesting you buy unlocked and off-contract so you can save on your monthly bill:

Sony Xperia Z2 - because it's a spec monster, and Sony doesn't bog down their phones like Samsung does; bezels make it larger than the screen size would indicate
Motorola Moto X (or Moto X+1) - cheaper, smaller, slightly lower spec'd than top models but just as fast because of lightweight software; camera was very bad at launch, improved with updates
OnePlus One - top specs, highly customizable, low price, but at 5.5" is larger than you'd like

Why I didn't recommend anything from Samsung or LG: because, as you've seen, they have a tendency to go crazy adding their own services, apps and customizations that slow down the system as a whole.

TheBenior
May 11th, 2014, 01:01 PM
I don't know if you want the hassle of selling on eBay for an extra $50-70 (after fees), but my old Galaxy S3 just sold for $190 on there.

SportWagon
May 11th, 2014, 07:05 PM
A refurbished Motorola Atrix I bought a few weeks ago to use as a hopefully more reliable GPS device does seem to work well for such, no SIM card.

Recorded all bicycle rides I tried. One day it stopped GPSing when I did a much-of-day recording, with lots of driving. It stopped while I was inside a WalMart where GPS probably won't reach. And later I noticed the time had set itself to probably factory default time. I checked the partially completed log a couple of times that day with https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vecturagames.android.app.gpxviewer and it didn't seem to cause a problem.

But this weekend the Samsung Galaxy S4 recorded both 40km Saturday and 60km Sunday in the Strava app alright. I used https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cochibo.gpsstatus to make sure "Xtra data" was downloaded, and also started https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gpslogger simultaneously. And https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gpslogger on the Atrix recorded both rides also. I didn't check on the S4 on Saturday until I'd finished. On Sunday I checked only once, when I stopped for a snack at about 45km. I realized that I should pay attention to what the screen is when I turn the phone off and put it away. I might make my main home screen blank so even if it gets tickled somehow it won't start or stop anything I don't want.

But it's not clear to me that accidentally touching anything would cause the entire GPS service to apparently stop. (No apps seemed to be able to see any satellites until a hard reset of the device).

CudaMan
May 11th, 2014, 07:05 PM
Benior - It's probably not too much hassle to clear data from the phone. I imagine at that price it's rooted or jailbroken or whatever they call it these days. Mine is tied to ATT, and I remember struggling for a few days to unlock my original Galaxy when I moved to England.


suggesting you buy unlocked and off-contract so you can save on your monthly bill:

I didn't know this was an option with ATT. This seems new. It'd save me $300/yr on the bill to go off contract. Phones cost quite a bit more though. Hmm. I'd come out just a bit ahead if I buy a top of the line new Galaxy every 2 years vs going on contract.


Why I didn't recommend anything from Samsung or LG: because, as you've seen, they have a tendency to go crazy adding their own services, apps and customizations that slow down the system as a whole.
My GS3 was fine until it updated to Android 4.3.

I'll take a look at the other phones you mentioned too. I have several things to balance -- physical size, battery life, camera quality, price -- and I doubt I'll find all the ideal things in one phone. :)

Kchrpm
May 11th, 2014, 07:32 PM
I didn't know this was an option with ATT. This seems new. It'd save me $300/yr on the bill to go off contract. Phones cost quite a bit more though. Hmm. I'd come out just a bit ahead if I buy a top of the line new Galaxy every 2 years vs going on contract.
Having your bill be cheaper for not having a subsidized phone is indeed new at AT&T, previously the only benefit was that you could cancel service at any time. The top Samsung phones will definitely be expensive, especially if you buy them direct from AT&T, but you can find other phones from other places for much cheaper and get nearly the same experience.

CudaMan
May 11th, 2014, 09:12 PM
If I go off contract and have an unlocked phone, I could use my phone as a wifi hotspot? Or would ATT still find a way to block that?

neanderthal
May 11th, 2014, 10:51 PM
I use Solavei. No contract, pre- paid. $50 a month unlimited errthang.

TheBenior
May 11th, 2014, 10:54 PM
If your contact is paid off and you have another phone, AT&T should unlock it for you. Or you could get an unlock code for a few dollars from an unscrupulous foreigner on eBay.

Typically, the best prices on eBay are paid by foreigners or resellers for foreign markets (that I assume have excessive import taxes), who will unlock a phone anyway. My GS3 and Janelle's GS2 were bought by Dominicans with Florida mailing addresses, and her Galaxy Captivate was bought by a Russian.

My GS3 also got laggy after the 4.3 update, and the battery life got noticeably worse.

As for the AT&T mobile Hotspot, I can't give a definite answer since I don't have an unlocked phone on AT&T. On my Nexus 5 which I use on T-Mobile, the portable hotspot tethering is in the system settings instead of an app. I did have to install the T-Mobile voicemail app via finding the .apk on a forum, for some reason it didn't show up in the app store. It did show up there for Janelle when she used her unlocked HTC One that she got from AT&T.

I wish I could give you a blanket yes/no if things would work perfectly, but there's a lot of 'it depends' on carrier and phone model when it comes to unlocked phones.

Kchrpm
May 12th, 2014, 03:00 AM
The Galaxy Nexus I have could hotspot because it wasn't an AT&T modified phone. If you buy an unlocked phone that is their version, it probably still won't work.

Kchrpm
May 15th, 2014, 07:44 AM
http://www.androidcentral.com/sony-xperia-z2-review


...the Xperia Z2 is the one of the very best Android phones available right now, excelling across the board, but scoring major points in the two areas of smartphone tech still open to improvement — camera and battery. And if you can deal with the blocky design and sheer size of the phone, it's definitely worthy of your consideration.

Yw-slayer
May 15th, 2014, 06:23 PM
I'd probably get one IF I needed a new phone (which I clearly don't), and IF it had a 64-bit processor. As things stand, even IF I needed a new phone it'd certainly be more worthwhile to get a Z1.

Godson
May 19th, 2014, 09:54 PM
Kicking the idea around for a new phone in the next 6 months or so. Current phone Motorola Atrix HD is getting slow to load, and battery life seems to be lagging. I am using an App killer and it still runs at 65-90% memory in use on a regular basis

Godson
May 19th, 2014, 10:19 PM
So after looking on Sony's site. I was looking between the Xperia ZR (which is around the same size as my Atrix HD), but 500 USD. I scroll down to the Xperia Z Ultra LTE which is 50 USD cheaper, but offers more overall.



:erm: Why would I bother with the ZR?

Yw-slayer
May 19th, 2014, 11:04 PM
No flash for the Ultra's camera, which is also crap.

Godson
May 20th, 2014, 07:09 AM
Gotcha.


So the original Xperia Z is only 380 new from Best buy.



I wonder what newegg has it at?

SportWagon
June 4th, 2014, 09:41 AM
A refurbished Motorola Atrix I bought a few weeks ago to use as a hopefully more reliable GPS device does seem to work well for such, no SIM card.

. . .

But this weekend the Samsung Galaxy S4 recorded both 40km Saturday and 60km Sunday in the Strava app alright. I used https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cochibo.gpsstatus to make sure "Xtra data" was downloaded, and also started https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gpslogger simultaneously.

. . .

But it's not clear to me that accidentally touching anything would cause the entire GPS service to apparently stop. (No apps seemed to be able to see any satellites until a hard reset of the device).

Later I bought another refurbished Atrix, and it wouldn't do anything until a SIM card (didn't seem to mind that it didn't have service) was inserted. At that point I was able to postpone "Motoblur" setup and install a bunch of apps. It wasn't the SIM I eventually plan to use, so we'll see whether I run into problems because of it.

But as to the Galaxy S4, I had applied the Kit Kat upgrade after purchase, and a couple of weeks ago an almost mandatory update to that came along. (Best you could do to delay was say "remind me in three hours"). And since applying that I've been 6 for 6 in success recording rides via GPS using the Strava app on that phone. Most of those six I also recorded on that with GPS Logger, though I forgot once. And I've been carrying the Atrix as a backup and recording with GPS logger there too. But that is a little tedious, and I'd like to reduce ride start overhead and back pocket bulk. And recording with GPS Logger on the same device as well as Strava only has the advantage that I get a first-hand GPS record; it was always the case that GPS failure affected it as well as Strava. (Though the backup Atrix did rescue a record of my ride at least once).

Godson
June 8th, 2014, 08:57 PM
Anyone know what the difference on the C6603 and C6602 Sony experia Z is?


I have looked over the infor and can't see the difference.




I found it. c6603 is newer and supports 4g. That settles it, I have found my atrix replacement

Godson
June 8th, 2014, 09:09 PM
and for another 60$ I can get the Z1S.



hmmm

21Kid
June 18th, 2014, 12:02 PM
Just discovered Google Camera (http://lifehacker.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-the-new-google-camera-for-an-1592592689). (I'm probably behind the times, I know...) But, it has some neat options that the default camera on my Moto X doesn't, like camera-sphere and lens blur. Took a couple of photos with it and it's pretty neat. However it says that there's an HDR feature, which I can't seem to find in the options. :?

Kchrpm
June 18th, 2014, 12:06 PM
It's the default camera on Nexus devices, so try to find a tutorial or something for the Nexus 4 or 5 (GNX's didn't get all the updates, I don't remember if it has it).

21Kid
June 18th, 2014, 12:52 PM
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2838995?hl=en

High Dynamic Range-Puts the camera in HDR mode, which captures greater detail in bright or dark areas of a photo. (This setting isn’t available on all devices.) Seems odd that it isn't available on my phone, since the default Moto X camera has it. :|


I looked. Theres supposed to be a HDR symbol, which isn't in the settings on my phone...
Hopefully they update it soon.

Godson
June 24th, 2014, 08:50 PM
Soooo . I broke not only the digitizer in my cell, but the LCD also. Do I spend another 20$ on a new lcd with the intention of replacing the phone in 3-4 months, or just use the loaner for another month and replace it with the exact same phone I am going to buy in 3-4 months....

TheBenior
June 24th, 2014, 10:04 PM
Atrix 1 or 2? If 2, they still go for $50+ on eBay, which would make fixing the screen for $20 worth it.

Godson
June 25th, 2014, 06:19 AM
Atrix HD


And I may have messed up more than just the LCD. I can't tell. I am currently borrowing a Galaxy SII from a friend, so it is not like I am out a smart phone right now. I might just wait it out.

Blerpa
July 19th, 2014, 02:37 PM
My Galaxy S2 started to suddenly overheat while I was at work (I'm a courier and I spend much time driving on a van) and died out for a bit. Since I need a phone, and I can't afford a top tier phone right now, I barged in a big electronic shop during a pause between shifts and got a simple black 8GB Moto G. It's the base model (unfortunately there's not a single shop in town selling either the 16GB version or the new 8GB LTE version with MicroSD) but since I was strapped for cash I was left with just buying this or some cheap Huawei phones (the Huawei G630 would have been a very decent alternative but not yet in shops in my hometown), best bang for my bucks.

I've used the Moto G since the 11th of this month, and after 8 days I can say I'm pretty satisfied with the little rascal.

PROS

1) Display. The 4.5" 720p display is just stunning. It puts to shame some of the displays of my friends' big bucks phones of last year or before (Galaxy S3, iPhones, etc.). Very bright too. Beats the 800x480 4.3" display on the Galaxy S2 by large (understandable, the S2 is a 2011 device)

2) Not too big, comfy to keep in one hand, simple to use (only power button and volume rocker).

3) Audio is STELLAR. Very decent call audio. Very good audio from the rear external speaker. STELLAR audio from ear/headphones... to the point I've had to lower the volume when using headphones. I've read in reviews it rivals audio quality from top devices. Awesome.

4) FAST. It may have only 1GB of RAM (like the S2 has) but the quadcore 1.2 Snapdragon 400 is... snappy. Never a lag, never a fuss about. Outstanding so far. Same for the Adreno 305: I don't game on mobile, but tried out GT Racing 2 and Asphalt 8 - no lags.

5) Battery. It is a 2070mAh non-removable one. I do not like non-removable batteries on phones, but this is an emergency buy, so I had to give in; yet, it lasts decently for my quite extreme uses (I've an average of 60 to 70% of display use which really hits on battery duration and also I may have a 20 to 40% of Call time, which is also a battery killer), and I've been able to use it without charging for a whole 4 to 6 hours work shift with ease and still some juice left.
Also it keeps working like a champ even under 30% of battery left (not that it is recommended to let battery get that low before charging it again, but nonetheless).
It is not the Galaxy Note 3 or Xperia Z2 battery duration that I dream of, but for a device costing less than a third of those phones I'd say it is great.
[GSMArena battery test puts the Moto G at 54h of battery duration, against 40h of my old S2, 40h of the overrated Nexus 5 - gladly I had continous doubts about splashing money on a Nexus - and measly 30h for the abysmal Nexus 4]

6) Still... battery related, the phone is really quick to charge. Either from a normal AC charger or a car one. I've used my Galaxy Tab 2A charger for it with no trouble: Motorola recommends to use a charger between 1A and 1.5A but if you use a bigger amperage charger is no trouble, since Motorola states the device filters it and gets its nominal max 1.5A charge. Very good, very quick to load. Almost on the verge of being amazing.

7) GPS locks quite quickly and painlessly. A totally different story than on my Galaxy S2. Very good.

8) Motorola did a great job to not fill the device of unnecessary apps and stuff: Aside from GApps (half of which I deactivated), AOSP stock android keyboard and HP Print Service plugin, Motorola did put its own Migrate app (which I deactivated, no use as all my contacts are already backed up in Google) and Assist which I'm using to silence the phone and block calls and texts - aside from my favourite list - when I sleep between working shifts. It managed to replace Samsung own outstanding Blocking Mode (still the best I've ever used) with little trouble, thankfully.

9) Not even the time I got the phone out of the box and already 2 firmware updates were available. Updated to latest 4.4.2 KitKat firmware and now waiting for the staged rollout of 4.4.4 to hit it in these days. Feels like I may quietly look forward to have Android L (5.0) on this phone in the not so far future.

10) Hey, funky coloured back shells! I've to look around Amazon to get myself a cyan or lime, or even fiery red, back shell for fun! It's not the MotoMaker madness you get with the MotoX but in a sense it's even easier, just buy the back shell you want and replace it! Reminds me of old Nokias with replaceable and custom-made back covers.

11) Notification LED. Sweet. It can only light itself up in white colour, but nice nonetheless. The S2 didn't have one at all, at it is a small but pretty nice feature.

Continues in next post...

Blerpa
July 19th, 2014, 02:38 PM
CONS

1) The box is BARE. There's only the phone and a decent USB-MicroUSB cable. Nothing else. Zilch. No earplugs, no charger, no anything else. Not even a manual. Just the phone, a quickstart leaflet and a multilanguage guide to warranty.
Cool for me that already have the GS2 earphones (btw, they do work fine either for music listening but also for phone calls) and some various microUSB chargers lying around but someone with less hardware at home could be forced to spend more money of the cheap 179,90 euro envisioned to buy the device.

2) No MicroSD support is a bit of a pain. I mean, there's plenty of space on the phone to install and use apps. But... I was listening to an mp3 on the phone. It was so good sounding that I thought "hey this would work wonderfully as an mp3 player, too". And then seconds later it did hit me "No, it won't. It has only about 3.04GB available left - out of real 5.52GB of total space - and my 60+ GB mp3 collection is not going to fit in here, not even doing some pretty harsh choices".
Ok, I got the phone in a hurry and I may change it in 6 months time, so it doesn't bother me that much, but do ponder if 5.52GB are enough for your usage, really.

3) Non-removable battery: once again I may change the phone in 6 months or a bit more, so it's not going to be such a problem, but differently from the S2, once the battery is going to crap out, there's no magical "I'll just buy a new one, open the back, replace it and be done with it for other 2 years".

4) Phone functionality is just about. Don't expect features. There's none. None of the tiny details that do make OEM phones much more entailing that a barren Nexus.
Practical case in point? I used religiously the "flip to mute phone call" on my S2. No such a feature on the Moto G. Cut costs and such. Yes. Sure. Too bad that my 2010 Nokia 5230 (a smartphone without even wi-fi, but yet with everything else my S2 - a 2011 top tier phone - had) had that flip feature. And the Nokia 5230 did cost *119* euro in 2010. So, spare me the crap about costs.
Also... we are in 2014 and yet Android (since the Moto G is practically stock Android) does not have an option to add a percentage number of battery charge in the notification bar? Buffoons.
Some people on The Verge forums told me it is probably an intentional choice, to avoid the user the stress to keep constantly looking the battery percentage: I call bullshit on that since I get stress by a stupid icon with vague information as it is, instead.
Fixed it with battery percentage icon by Power Toggles app. And fuck Google stupid lame choices.
This leads to point 5...

5) Android Stock UI is, IMHO and FOR ME, abysmal. Icons are ugly designed, menu still have that DOS-like feel of badly readable white text on dark background that appease to geeks stuck in the end of the 80's or Geocities emo era.
Goddamn, give me clear white backgrounds with decently readable black text already. Sheeesh, seems like Google designers purposedly ignore anything about readability rules from the last 20 years.

The Quick Settings panel is accessible either with *two* passages or pulling the notification bar with two fingers... pretty idiotic for me, especially when I'm driving and I need a quick glance or toggle on the phone.
But in general, as usual with Google... bad design and unnecessary slight little more efforts to get to what you need.

Same as with the toggles: how retarded stock Android toggles can be? I'm so used to one click fast toggle on-toggle off on Samsung devices that it really irks to have to long press to toggle them on or off on the stock Android panel.
I solved some of these problems with the Power Toggles app: now I've *two* convenient lines of customized toggles (Samsung-like) straight in the notification panel. Good riddance idiotic stock Android Quick Settings panel.

As Motorola opted for Stock Android you suffer from same idiotic design in the Home and its pages: 5 fixed pages (you can't put more or reduce the number of them, and you can't "infinite scroll" between them), a fixated google search widget on top of each page (which cannot be removed) and a clunky app drawer with subsequent widget drawer.

I fixated all of this with the phenomenal Nova Launcher, with icons of my liking too. Also added a sorely needed (how Android doesn't have this in 2014 is unfathomable) unread notification counter with Nova very own Tesla Unread plugin.

My opinion on Android Stock still stands in the years: to be an OS that makes also customization as one of its strenght the stock android UI pretty much sucks.
Only good thing? The swift launcher choice menu. Nice.

6) No LTE on this model. Too bad for me. I could have tried buying the LTE model online, but it was a emergency buy. Thankfully LTE in Italy only works in big cities, so it's not like I'm missing much. And I'd have to pay for a more expensive plan in order to get LTE, anyway.

7) The camera. Yes, it's mediocre. But yet, not as bad as I thought. Still, the Galaxy S2 camera was better. I did know about it already beforehand, but beggars can't be choosers, so I've to settle for it.

8) No MHL capability. Why? Damn.

9) No Screen Casting capability. WHY??? Maybe it will get fixed in next firmware releases.

10) For the love of god I don't seem to be able to share files between the two phone with wi-fi direct. I could from my S2 to my Galaxy Tab, so I think something is up with the Moto G.

11) Once again, for last, back to Android Stock critiques: the dialer/contacts UI is confusing (although I can praise the use of white backgrounds with dark text, finally!) and the favourite listing is really badly designed.

12) No file manager in the phone. Swiftly fixed installing File Expert or FE Explorer or Astro. Just what you prefer to use, really.
Oh, also... no damn music player in the phone! (No, I don't consider Google Play Music crap a music player) and no video player either.
I fixed it with Powerplay and MX Player, respectively. No Audio Recorder either. Stock Gallery is ok, but nothing to talk about, so replaced it at once with vastly superior Quickpic.
Stock SMS app is almost bearable (not like the horrible looking one on the Samsung's) but replaced it with Handcent SMS.


So, there you have it.
Afterall, pretty pleased with the little rascal, as I already said at the start of this post. Wishing it had a bit more features and a better camera (Moto X+? It certainly is a device to look for, since my experience with the G is so positive... but I cringe at the idea of going back to an AMOLED display now that I'm savouring LCD brightness) but as an interim phone it looks like a mighty one, especially price wise.

Also, my GS2 is still working again. I think the heatwave of last week had to do with its temporary dead. Yet it was getting long in the tooth, especially with hiccups and lags, so it's not like I regret the Moto G buy. It's day and night between the two devices.
But I may keep carrying along the GS2 as my principal camera from now on, something the Moto G can't really truly replace the S2 for.

CudaMan
July 19th, 2014, 03:39 PM
Oh, rather good timing with Blerpa adding to this thread now.

I did buy a phone, took delivery yesterday. B&H had the best price on an unlocked no-carrier S5. $50 cheaper than other places *and* no tax for me in CA. The only other contender was the OnePlus One but with them being hard to get, huge, and having some initial hardware/software issues I took the 'safe' bet with another Galaxy (my third - I skip every other generation). Looking forward to seeing what the camera can do. Already it's not playing nice with my home WiFi (causing my desktop to drop out sometimes, and sometimes the phone loses connection itself) but my GS3 was the same way after the Android update.

Also, I finally got brave with a white phone. And promptly covered up the back with a black case. :lol: I decided on two cheap cases this time - a clear one should be arriving soon.

As it's not AT&T branded I'm hopeful I can use it for WiFi tethering.

Now to go change my plan to go off contract. And sell the S3 somewhere. Anyone have experience with Swappa.com?

SportWagon
July 21st, 2014, 10:59 AM
Blerpa do you use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.abcOrganizer.lite ? Or would it help?
(or maybe even pay for the pay version).

Note that between Jelly Bean and KitKat Android removed normal write access to the external SD card for apps, which is a real nuisance.

On my Galaxy S4 GPS was flakey after the initial KitKat upgrade (might bomb out for all apps after anywhere between 90 minutes and four hours), but the KitKat patch seemed to fix that.

Blerpa
July 21st, 2014, 11:43 AM
Sw, thank you but I'm quite used to File Expert :)
Yes, I know about KitKat stupidity by Google: that's one of the things I hate by Google and its not-so-subtle continous tries to move everything on cloud. Pfff. Right now is not a real worry for me since the Moto G has no MicroSD capability.
I'll deal with it in the future... and that's why, (maybe next Motorola phones manage to surpass this) I'll keep buying OEMs, since they *do try* to circumvent Google's crap.

GPS on my Galaxy S2 was awesome on ICS, but went down the drain when upgraded to Jelly Bean. Using GPS Status app did fix it a bit initially but didn't manage to make it anywhere near to lock a single satellite later on in my recent usage.
Moto G is awesome in regard, really.

SportWagon
July 22nd, 2014, 04:42 AM
Folder Organizer lets you create short cuts to things, and "folders" of apps, even if the vendor home screen manager doesn't. It's not like File Expert.

21Kid
July 22nd, 2014, 05:05 AM
My wife's phone (Galaxy SIII) kept overheating and draining battery. Check your battery condition to find out what is draining the power. It turns out her phone had upgraded google+ and was auto-uploading all of her pictures to the cloud. She disabled it, and now it's back to working normal again.

Yw-slayer
August 11th, 2014, 12:53 PM
Got an invite to buy a Oneplus One. *fistpump*

Freude am Fahren
August 14th, 2014, 05:09 PM
So AT&T rolled out the 4.4.2 update on the Note 2 recently. And now my battery life sucks, it won't charge and I can't get any mp3 info to go to my HU through BT.

Ugh.

TheBenior
August 14th, 2014, 06:08 PM
Sounds like 4.3 on my Galaxy S3.

Samsung's updates for older phones haven't been so great lately.

Drachen596
August 15th, 2014, 01:30 AM
interesting, Sprint gave me 4.4.2 a while back.
my battery life is not as good as it had been, i never use bluetooth though.

FaF- I'm sure you've already done so but check your charging cord if you're using the one Samsung gives you with the phone. mine died a while back, i could plug it in but it would take FOREVER to charge if it would at all and the cable never felt 'locked in' like it did before. new cord solved the problem with charging for me. downside is now the cable i have is shorter than the stock one.

Kchrpm
August 15th, 2014, 08:47 AM
4.4.4 has been great on my Z1S, except for some weird rotation issues and a new app crowding up the Google Now swipe-up menu.

Freude am Fahren
August 16th, 2014, 08:50 AM
Yeah, my cable is actually in pretty bad shape. I'll have to look for a new one. I do like the length they give you. Also, AT&T is usually last to put out the updates.

As for the battery life, I have noticed the Android OS is now always the top battery consumer. It used to be things like Netflix, Player Pro, Pandora, etc. Now it's almost always the OS.

It also hangs a bit now. Pretty much every time you turn the screen off, the music stops for a second. And when I was traveling last week and the weather program was looking for new sources, it would stop the music for a moment. I often see all the widgets and non-oem icons disappear and reappear when going back to the home screen from an app too.

overpowered
August 16th, 2014, 08:54 PM
I finally got around rooting my Bionic. I haven't had root on it since it ran Gingerbread. Never had it with ICS. Now have it on Jellybean.

I can now use Foxfi to tether my TabPro or my laptop.


Android is SO DUMB!

How dumb is it???

It's so dumb that when you set the time, there's no way to specify the seconds. Actually most Samsung and HTC devices do the obvious thing and reset seconds to zero when you enter, but other devices, e.g. Motorola, the seconds get remembered from what they were. So you can't get any closer to the actual time you want than 30 seconds. It's amazing that secure connections mostly work.

It also won't let unrooted devices use GPS as a source for time sync, AFAICT.This was actually one of my secondary reasons for wanting root. I can now use Clocksync to do NTP time synchronization. Verizon's network time is consistently 15 seconds off and has been for years.

The author of Clocksync has begged Google to create a permission for apps to update the system clock and they have determined that it is too risky. Apparently it's something to do with licenses that expire or some other silly crap.

Godson
August 19th, 2014, 08:38 AM
Currently trying to decide if i need to spend 400+ on a z1 or a z1c. Also trying to decide on which of tge two i would benefit from.

Kchrpm
August 19th, 2014, 09:14 AM
FWIU they are mechanically the same, so it's just a matter of 5" device or 4+" device. Maybe go play with two device of similar size, and remember that the Z1 is likely a little larger than whatever else you can find in the 5" range because it has large bezels on top and bottom.

Blerpa
August 19th, 2014, 09:43 AM
Z1 Compact is sold on offer at 379 euro in here. Almost tempted (the Moto G camera really is not up to the task) and I tried the Z1 C in the shops: weight is fine, slab shape is really fine, I don't mind the plastic back (it's glass in the Z1) as it is one less thing to worry about, the camera shutter button is something I miss dearly since I jumped from Nokia smartphones to Android, I wouldn't mind either the lime or white version (pink one is way too garry even for me) and the display is GORGEOUS (maybe even more than the Moto G one which is surprisingly awesome) BUT... 1) the display is 4.3" and it feels diminuitive after I got used to the 4.5" one on the Moto G (yes, it's only 0.2" difference but yet I could totally notice the feel of lacking display space, must have been the humoungous bezels in the Sony) and 2) the irksome thing of having a default screen protector on top of the display which gets easily scratched and ruined.

I'm painfully holding myself from splashing the cash on it (camera, waterproofing, space and long lasting battery are needed. Moto G is great, but limited in certain things) and trying to wait for the Z3 Compact (Sony is going to jump the Z2 Compact) which will sport snapdragon 800 or 801, 2GB ram, waterproof, similar long lasting battery, similar decent camera, 16gb + microSD AND a new 4.6" 720p display which would be awesome and what I could really need to substitute my Moto G with! And no screen protector anymore as the Xperia Z2 already ditched it!

But man, the Z1 Compact looks so sexy... almost good it has those two annoying (to me!) flaws so I cannot waste my money on it (for now) :P

Godson
August 19th, 2014, 05:31 PM
Yeah, and that is the issue. I cant put my hands on a songle one as sony doesnt have them in ANY stores in the us.

I am thinking of just getting a cheap android based phone, but at the same time i dont think id be happy.

I have also thought about the nokia lumina 1020. I however do not want to learn a new ui.

Godson
August 20th, 2014, 08:48 PM
I am going to be ordering an LG G2. I can't justify the purchase of a 400$ phone, and the LG is free.

Kchrpm
September 3rd, 2014, 07:27 AM
Sony announced the Z3 and Z3 Compact today, both with similar internals but different sized screens.

Perhaps the most interesting new feature is PS4 remote play.

http://gizmodo.com/sony-xperia-z3-will-let-you-remote-play-ps4-games-1630036758

Samsung has shown the new Note, but more interestingly the Note Edge, which has a screen on the right edge that can act like a ticker, clock, shortcut tray, notification bar, stuff like that.

http://gizmodo.com/the-samsung-galaxy-note-edge-is-one-weird-looking-smart-1629770804

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--DnoQHv9q--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/e1mkybk0p2eaz7nxyxxx.jpg

Freude am Fahren
September 3rd, 2014, 08:17 PM
Neat bit of tech, but I don't really think it's that useful in this application.

FYI, my battery problem is stranger and stranger. One day my phone will be at 65% or more at the end of the day, even though I used it the same all day including MP3 streaming over BT, then the next day (like today) it wil lbe at 15% at the end of the day....

I think the charging issue was just the cable, though.

Figured out the Player Pro meta problem. Apparently with the new media lock screen in Kit Kat, having the old PP lock screen still checked was screwing everything up. Unchecked it and went to the default android media lock screen (which is better anyway), and it's all working now. I even get time info on my head unit now.

Blerpa
September 4th, 2014, 01:02 AM
Z3 Compact looks like a pretty candidate for my Moto G future replacement. $499 though. I may swap the Moto G for the Moto G2 in the near future (selling the original Moto G to get back some money) if the size isn't much bigger, considering I'd like LTE, 16GB of space, better camera and MicroSD storage... obviously if the price stays around and *under* $240.

pl8ster
September 4th, 2014, 07:24 AM
Am I the only one here who has a Droid Maxx? Got it about a month ago (gratis, w00t!) when we switched from Sprint to Verizon. Pretty good upgrade from the three-year-old HTC Evo 4G that I had before. Battery life is probably its strongest point - I can go at least a couple of days without worrying about charging it. The 10MP camera does a good job, and the built-in speaker has gotten compliments. Other than that, probably pretty standard Android fare.

Blerpa
September 4th, 2014, 09:10 AM
The Droid phones are not sold in Europe, so it's up to our canadian and us fellows! ;)

Kchrpm
September 5th, 2014, 05:32 AM
New Moto X and Moto G announced today, here are a couple hands-ons. They sound like winners again, and the Moto X is available with a real leather back!

Moto X: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6108473/the-new-moto-x-could-be-the-best-android-phone-ever-made

Moto G: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6107389/the-new-moto-g-motorolas-cheap-smartphone-gets-even-bigger-and-better

Blerpa
September 5th, 2014, 09:44 AM
Incredibly I've read people commenting on the Moto G being disappointed.
I mean... bigger screen (ok, not everyone likes that), MicroSD added storage, front stereo speakers, better 8mp rear camera and 2mp front one, a charger now included in the box (old Moto G only has a MicroUSB cable in the box), Alert, Home and In Car Moto Assist features finally added (to old Moto G too... WOOT!), got new shell colours and... same price!
And yet people are disappointed. FFS, people.

I can understand being disappointed by the Moto X as "is too big" or "I hoped for a cheaper unlocked price!" or, yet again, "Damn, only 2300mAh battery? That's going to suck with that big 5.2" 1080p screen!" [I'd be worried on this too, honestly, since the Nexus 5 has similar battery and its duration is less than stellar, actually quite crappy for heavy users] but damn the new Moto G is all improved and costs the same and you complain??? Damn people.

Oh, I'm not much into the Moto 360, or any smartwatch for that matter... but that Moto Hint actually got me interested. Too bad it is going to be costly.
Now, I just have to wait to see the new Moto G in the wild to decide if it's still small enough for work use... in that case it's going to be the new phone for a bit, before I will have enough money to splash on the Z3 Compact.

Meanwhile also Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge have been shown... but, MEH? I can't really focus myself using Samsung phones anymore. It is not Touchwiz (I don't like stock Android either and use Nova Launcher anyway) nor the deluge of odd features and pre-installed apps, just I'm finding myself more and more into smaller and tighter, simpler devices. Efficient sleepers. The Z3 Compact very probably will be the king of them all (small awesome beasts).

And HTC? Oh dear, I cannot fathom how someone can buy something so boring. Dear lord, I'd find myself more intrigued buying an iPhone 5C than one of their latest presented Desire devices.
Huawei showed the Ascend Mate 7: enormous. Asus showed a shitty looking smartwatch and cheap Zenphone stuff: not interested the least.
What else? Let's wait tomorrow and see if Google will officially announce the name of Android L!

SportWagon
September 5th, 2014, 12:21 PM
Will it be magically delicious?

Tom Servo
September 9th, 2014, 08:56 AM
My wife just took advantage of the "Google appears to be offloading all their remaining Nexus 5s in preparation for the new phone" and got a new handset shipped to her to replace the one she had with a broken screen. I remembered reading something about being able to do full desktop backups with the developer mode and damned if it didn't work almost perfectly. We just did a backup of the old and restore on the new and so far it looks like it restored all of the desktop arranging she'd done, all of her app data (like savegames and the like), and made it about as painless as possible to move from one handset to the other. Thinking it's time to perform a backup on mine tonight - it took about an hour or so to do the backup and almost two hours to restore.

Kchrpm
September 9th, 2014, 09:09 AM
I hope you didn't pay to replace a Nexus 5, they just announced that they would fix any of them with broken screens for free.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/03/yes-google-will-now-probably-replace-your-nexus-5-if-you-bust-the-screen/

Just now seeing the other qualifications.


The phone must have been purchased through the Google Play store. So buying a broken Nexus 5 off Craigslist probably won’t work.
It’s a one-time exception.
You must be within one year of the purchase date.
The phone you get will be a refurb.

21Kid
September 9th, 2014, 01:11 PM
I really like my MotoX, still. I just wish the memory was removable. :|

Tom Servo
September 10th, 2014, 05:29 AM
Nope, we didn't pay, we used that same deal. Though our phones were purchased more than a year ago, but Michele didn't have any problems having them send her one. It is a refurb, but looks brand spanking new to me.

21Kid
September 10th, 2014, 10:49 AM
I have never had a problem with refurbs. I think they go through more testing than new, to be honest.

Random
September 25th, 2014, 12:01 PM
Mapper's phone (a Samsung Galaxy Victory) is on the blink. Randomly powers down. We have phone insurance, no problem!

Except the deductible is $100 on a $150 phone. :mad: DubyaTeeEff.

21Kid
September 25th, 2014, 12:13 PM
I've never gotten phone insurance. :?

Yw-slayer
September 25th, 2014, 03:42 PM
I got another oneplus one invite. Does anyone want it?

Random
September 25th, 2014, 06:58 PM
Out of my price bracket. :)

Random
September 26th, 2014, 09:05 AM
I've never gotten phone insurance. :?

Naomi drops her phone a lot. ;)

Kchrpm
September 26th, 2014, 10:15 AM
Otterbox!

Random
September 26th, 2014, 10:16 AM
Got that too. :D

Kchrpm
September 26th, 2014, 10:27 AM
Btw get her a Moto G (the 2nd gen one that just came out) if you can. Best <$200 phone.

Random
September 26th, 2014, 10:41 AM
I'm actually looking at the 1st Gen with LTE. Her usage tends to need more/faster bandwidth rather than processing power.

thesameguy
September 26th, 2014, 11:14 AM
I'd recommend something that bounces.

Kchrpm
September 26th, 2014, 11:27 AM
I...am not going to say what I was thinking about Naomi and bouncing.

Random
September 26th, 2014, 01:27 PM
She bounces a lot, too, especially without her case. ;)

Kchrpm
October 16th, 2014, 10:32 AM
Nexus 6 - http://www.google.com/nexus/6/
5.96" screen but physically smaller than the iPhone 6+ w/5.5" screen; wireless charging; water resistant; $649 for 32 GB

http://www.google.com/nexus/new/images/nexus6/N6-moreeverything-1600.jpg

Nexus 9 - http://www.google.com/nexus/9/
8.9"; 64-bit Tegra K1; $399 16 GB WiFi

http://www.google.com/nexus/new/images/nexus9/N9-wlp-1600.jpg

Nexus Player - http://www.google.com/nexus/player/
$99; Chromecast + 10 foot UI + gaming support

http://www.google.com/nexus/new/images/player/player-entertainment-1024.jpg

http://www.google.com/nexus/new/images/player/player-gaming3-1024.jpg

Android 5.0 Lollipop - http://www.android.com/versions/lollipop-5-0/
64-bit support, new battery saving tech, Material Design (simple layers with physics-based animations), notifications on lock screen, ART runtime, more security/account options,

http://www.android.com/new/images/versions/android-l/devices.jpg

http://www.android.com/new/images/versions/android-l/your-device.jpg

SportWagon
October 16th, 2014, 12:12 PM
Aw... So it won't [go commercial again and] be magically delicious.

Freude am Fahren
October 16th, 2014, 04:17 PM
Went in to turn in my old iPhone 4 for the $200 towards a Note 4 (Best Buy is doing it, any working smartphone = $200 on a Note 4). Didn't realize I still have a month until upgrade time. Shit. Also realized it's not water/dust resistant like the S5. Not sure why. I don't think the stylus should make a difference, couldn't they just seal off the holder? Or does it need some kind of contact? Still, disappointing. I hope it gets Android L quickly, as it would be a huge improvement over that somewhat bulky old android+touchwiz.

Random
October 17th, 2014, 10:02 AM
Mapper's phone (a Samsung Galaxy Victory) is on the blink. Randomly powers down. We have phone insurance, no problem!

Except the deductible is $100 on a $150 phone. :mad: DubyaTeeEff.

Ended up with a Galaxy S3, which was what the insurance company had in stock.

Not bad!

overpowered
October 17th, 2014, 10:56 AM
If you have a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 you can get preview system images for Lollipop today if you want to try it out.

The359
November 9th, 2014, 10:38 PM
I just bought a Droid Turbo this week, should be upgrading to Lollipop in a month or two. They already updated the Gmail app to match the Lollipop aesthetic.

Yw-slayer
November 10th, 2014, 01:49 AM
Nice one.

Kchrpm
November 10th, 2014, 02:37 AM
Yeah, the apps are upgraded quickly since they're just pushed through the app store. As long as there isn't anything that requires a new API that's part of the new system update.

Here's hoping all the companies live up to what they've said for this update, there are a lot of cool system level things that might trip up.

21Kid
December 9th, 2014, 07:30 AM
At $180, the 2nd gen Moto G was already one of the best deals in tech. Today (http://smile.amazon.com/gp/goldbox)though, Amazon's (http://smile.amazon.com/gp/goldbox)taking an extra $30 off.

Kchrpm
December 9th, 2014, 07:36 AM
I hope it gets Android L quickly, as it would be a huge improvement over that somewhat bulky old android+touchwiz.
Just saw this, remember that whenever you get a Samsung device, you will always be dealing with Android + TouchWiz. Android L is not going to change that. In fact there's a good chance you will not see many of the changes that Android L introduces, because the design changes will be left out and the functionality changes may be re-interpreted or replaced by something uniquely Samsung, so that they can continue to offer a unique, Samsung-only experience.

Blerpa
December 9th, 2014, 10:03 AM
Freude, just install Nova Launcher and activate themes, icons, animations and app drawer in Lollipop style, if you are worried about it.

SportWagon
December 9th, 2014, 01:16 PM
Hmm. A Samsung-only experience. Is that why Pocket Trains does not work? (Exits before really starting).

Random
December 26th, 2014, 03:28 PM
Posting from my new 1st gen Moto G LTE. :cool:

Waiting impatiently for my SIM to arrive from Straight Talk. :mad:

Random
December 30th, 2014, 08:59 AM
Anyone had one of the new fabric/woven cover USB cables in their hands? Are they in fact more flexible than the standard plastic covered version?

--

Waiting for my number to port... *twiddle*

Godson
December 30th, 2014, 07:59 PM
Seems the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact may be available in the US already...

Yw-slayer
December 30th, 2014, 11:11 PM
I think I may have bought two. They seem slightly better overall, but it could be because they "feel" new to me. Mine were made by King Power and are under their XPower1!11!1!!!11! brand.

Blerpa
December 31st, 2014, 10:02 AM
Seems the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact may be available in the US already...

I thought it was indeed. Been available here in store since late October: feels much longer while actually is only about 2 months.

A week later I'm pretty satisfied with the device: display is fantastic, built feels good, it is so tiny, even compared to my Moto G (and yet it has a 4.6" 720p panel vs. the G 2013 4.5" 720p one), camera is actually doing well (haven't had the time to tool around much but I did find myself pretty much everytime saying "fuck it" and just fire it up clicking the shutter button and shooting in Superior Auto Mode (which is the default when you wake up the camera by the mechanical button). Stereo front speaker are fine, not HTC One material, but way better than a Galaxy S5 or iPhone 6 even. RAM is plenty even if *only* 2GB instead of the 3GB on the full blown Z3, the Snapdragon 801 is a beast and the phone has never once lagged on me.
Battery is simply phenomenal. Already getting around safe 9-11 hours a day it tops like almost 2 days with Stamina mode on... and I've not even bothered with the optional other energy saver options.

Few niggles with the device:
1) after owning a Moto G which I used with no cover and no glass protector (and it fell from my pockets and hands many times when at work) the Z3C feels fragile or rather in need of be nurtured and protected. I'm mighty worried about the glass on the back (and the front too) and I should order soon on Amazon a protective case. Too bad it will ruin a bit the gorgeous aesthetics of the fiery red model, but better be safe than beautiful.

2) Having to open the flip stuff to charge the phone is annoying and worries me the flip will break and render the phone waterproof protection pretty moot, I've looked in town for the magnetic dock but to no avail, once again it will be ordered online soon. Same as the magnetic adaptor for the microUSB cable.

3) Automatic Light feature... simply doesn't work on the device! It doesn't dynamically adapt to changing light conditions for the sake of its life! Must be a bug, and a pretty serious one! If that wasn't enough, Auto Light mode by default sets itself at a pretty low value, but you can manually adjust it.
In the end I deactivated it and, since battery is so great, just set a quite decent fixed light value. Hope they fix it nonetheless.

4) Sony UI ain't bad at all - but I already put Nova Launcher on it - too bad some of the main Sony bloatware *cannot* be deactivated, even if this is a device with KitKat. Bad Sony, Bad Sony. Luckily I don't use them and they are not bothersome once notifications are deactivated for them. Only annoyance is the Album (Sony own gallery app) that is the preset app when viewing pics from the cam and you cannot set another default for it (on the Samsung GS2 and Moto G I used to set QuickPic as my gallery app with no problem, and deactivate the OEM gallery app).

5) Ok, this must be my biggest problem: the phone doesn't have a Do Not Disturb Mode AT ALL. I mean, the phone has a blocking mode, but it's just like a number blacklist. Nothing else.
Whereas on my Galaxy S2, even when it was on Gingerbread!, the Blocking Mode was a mode to block phonecall and other notification with option to let throught your favourite numbers and let alarm clocks work. Same for the great Motorola Assist app with the Rest mode. This is problematic with me and handling sleeping in the pause between shifts as I used to let myself available for my mother, my 3 colleagues, my boss and my firm in case of emergency but block anyone else.
I hope Lollipop, which in stock Android *does* include a DnD mode, will bring this feature... it is the one single things that really bothers me a lot about the phone.

I don't root and do not unlock bootloaders, so those kind of options are not available to me.

Random
December 31st, 2014, 05:21 PM
Google Play music player supports FLAC files. Time to rerip my collection?

Freude am Fahren
January 3rd, 2015, 04:10 PM
upgraded to the Note 4 this week. Very little time with it, but it's been great so far. Not a lot different to my Note 2, except everything it does is better, faster, smoother. The software had kind of outgrown the 2's hardware, I think. Really impressed by the charging. It came with a ~66% battery. Plugged it in to charge to 100% while it was updating apps and being activated. It did an OTA without asking overnight, and finally reached 4% around 7p.m. tonight (so about 22 hours, which included lots of downloading of apps and the OTA update (big chuck of the battery there) over both WiFi and 4G, lots of BT streaming and GPS loc while driving, and moderate data via web and media apps). I just looked, and after about an hour on the charger, it's already fully charged. My note 2 was sturggling to do a full charge from more 25-30% overnight.

I don't see an option on it for lock screen shortcuts. I used those all the time on my note 2, being able to open right up to mail, or message, etc. Anyone know where those might be found now?

Random
January 3rd, 2015, 05:16 PM
On my MotoG, you swipe right on the lock screen and a big [+] shows up*. Tap that and you can add things to the lock screen.

I added a clock! (such a power user) :lol:

*didn't work until I added a pattern lock, FWIW.

Kchrpm
January 3rd, 2015, 06:23 PM
I can do it with just having a non-secure lockscreen.

Random
January 3rd, 2015, 06:35 PM
Yeah, I just played around with mine some more and got it to work. Having the default "slide" as your unlock gesture confuses it a little bit, maybe? Maybe I just didn't hold my mouth right when I did it. :p

overpowered
January 9th, 2015, 10:07 PM
Erm...

http://www.androidcentral.com/lamborghini-phone-will-cost-you-6000

SportWagon
January 12th, 2015, 08:17 AM
Lamborghini phone will cost you $6,000

No it won't. (Because I won't buy one...)

Godson
January 12th, 2015, 07:18 PM
Seems like the specs are similar to a Sony xperia...or am I just generalizing again?

SportWagon
January 16th, 2015, 09:18 AM
I am very impressed by my acer liquid z4 (purchased unlocked at Staples). You can search for info on it yourself. Some day I might get over to 7-11 and purchase a SIM card for it. Right now it's just another aPod playing another disjoint game of Pocket Trains. JellyBean not KitKat (yay!). My KitKat Samsung Galaxy S4 doesn't seem to want to play Pocket Trains. Which, while it would seem to be a minus, might overall be a not bad thing (for my personal life and productivity).

(Hmm. Actually APOD stands for Astronomy Picture Of the Day).

The screen is very vivid, and performance seems reasonable. Oh I left it at home today.

Drawbacks: Their softkey menu implementation requires a double-click, and, in general it's hard to work the three semi-soft keys.

A good deal for $100 or so. GPS seemed intermediate, and IIRC it does not have a magnetic compass sensor.

I will revise when I have it in my hand.

Oh yes. Battery life seems exceptional, although it does spend a lot of time in airplane mode.

Freude am Fahren
January 16th, 2015, 02:18 PM
Note 4 Impressions:

The good:
-The screen, oh the screen. It's gorgeous.
-The feel/build quality is greatly improved over the Note 2. I love the metal edges. No case on mine right now. May keep it that way. It's a battle of size to protection.
-The S-Pen works much better, and almost everything I write looks just like it would with pen and paper. And it's symmetrical! So it doesn't need to be right side up to stow anymore. (just side to side, not tip to butt, obviously)
-Battery life has been great. Haven't gone below 50% since I first got it. This weekend will be a good test. Two days camping and streaming (slingbox) the Pats game. I'll probably just get a quick car charge.
-Also the charger. The thing charges to quick.
-Camera seems great, but I haven't done a lot with it yet.

The Noteworthy:
-No serious upgrade in audio quality listening to music, but my headphones are pretty cheap.
-Bluetooth seems a bit more reliable in my car, but still sketchy at time (I think that's more the head unit)
-Touchwiz running much more smoothly, but it is still touchwiz, which some hate.

The Bad:
-Had one complete freeze already, had to remove battery to reset
-The Back/Menu buttons: First of all, they've moved them out (not sure compared to Note 3), so they're easily hit on accident by your palm when holding. Also more difficult to move your thumb from middle to back or menu b/c of the longer distance.
-The Menu button: It's not a menu button anymore, it's a recent apps button. You can hold it for menu, but that means you lose the in-app search by press and hold the old one had. Hold on the home button now brings up Google search/now. I liked the old way better.
-High memory usage, I need to find out ways to get rid of some Samsung/AT&T bloat.
-I miss the quick shotcuts and alarm note on the lock screen. Also no lock screen widgets, which were just added in one of their last OTA to my Note 2.
-Google now can be annoying (I never used it before), telling me the drive time for work at all times, except when I actually need to go to work, thinking I work somewhere else, etc.

Kchrpm
January 16th, 2015, 02:54 PM
-The Menu button: It's not a menu button anymore, it's a recent apps button. You can hold it for menu, but that means you lose the in-app search by press and hold the old one had. Hold on the home button now brings up Google search/now. I liked the old way better.
-High memory usage, I need to find out ways to get rid of some Samsung/AT&T bloat.
-I miss the quick shotcuts and alarm note on the lock screen. Also no lock screen widgets, which were just added in one of their last OTA to my Note 2.
-Google now can be annoying (I never used it before), telling me the drive time for work at all times, except when I actually need to go to work, thinking I work somewhere else, etc.
Menu button to recent apps is a change that all Android has made, the idea being that different apps had menu buttons or settings buttons or neither, so it was better to make it a system level thing and let apps handle their menus.

Look into third party lock screen options, I remember using one but I don't remember which one or how to make it work.

You can change all that Google Now stuff. I turned off work commute drive times, and you can manually adjust your home and work addresses.

Freude am Fahren
January 16th, 2015, 06:27 PM
Re: Google Now. I do have the correct Work and home, which it sometimes gets right, but sometimes it picks a random spot for work. Though it hasn't done this in a few days, so maybe it's realized its mistake. I actually like the commute alert because my drive can vary so much by traffic from day to day.

Kchrpm
March 2nd, 2015, 05:06 AM
Two major flagships announced. Well, actually three. Either way, more to come likely as Mobile World Congress is this week.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/1/8128619/samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-announcement-mwc-2015

Galaxy S6 Edge
https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2xJAyJ3_1n9oBilZKZnKw27Rmjs=/1000x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3456668/galaxys6-18.0.png

Galaxy S6
https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AisuQSJFvxZKjYhzJTTZ0DJfNm0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3456662/galaxys6-9.0.png


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QJIayQLY7c

Samsung is aiming closer and closer at the iPhone, not just with design language but also functionality: previously trumpeted features are now gone: microSD support, waterproofing, removable battery.

--------------------------------------

HTC One M9

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/1/8126431/htc-one-m9-hands-on-preview

https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pzIRA01zyt9V48gVvs87Er2_YAk=/1020x0/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3456318/vs02-26_1741cxs.0.png

Looks about the same as the M8, but they've given up on the fewer/bigger pixels camera, and has the new Qualcomm guts inside.

Yw-slayer
March 2nd, 2015, 05:27 AM
*Yawn* Waiting for the Oneplus Two.

Kchrpm
March 2nd, 2015, 06:06 AM
Sony announced a new mid-range phone, the Xperia M4 Aqua, that hints at how their future flagships will be upgraded: waterproof USB port (so you don't need a flap over it like on all previous waterproof headphones), and a 64-bit chip.

http://gizmodo.com/sony-xperia-m4-aqua-hands-on-proper-waterproofing-two-1688850062

http://www.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/files/styles/larger/public/article_images/2015/03/sony-xperia-m4-1.jpg?itok=Y9WjcBHH


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWQ3E6gG4_E

stephenb
March 3rd, 2015, 09:23 AM
Anyone care to recommend me a new phone? Looking to buy a sim free handset as I use GiffGaff. Checked a few contracts for the Z3 Compact, which has caught the eye, but all worked out more expensive them buying the phone myself and staying with GiffGaff.

Main uses for me are music, calls and photos (a physical button to take said photos is preferable). I don't want anything big, hence looking at the Z3 compact, but being realistic I probably don't need anything that expensive either. Ideally I'd like to get something within the next 2-3 weeks.

Kchrpm
March 3rd, 2015, 09:37 AM
Unfortunately most of the smaller phones get lower quality cameras, and don't have the software processing to make up for it. The Moto G 2014 and Z3 Compact get the best reviews for sub 5 inch Android phones.

stephenb
March 4th, 2015, 01:40 PM
Thanks, looks like I might have to stump up for the Z3C.

Freude am Fahren
March 4th, 2015, 02:08 PM
Glad I didn't wait for the S6. I'm happy with the Note 4 for the most part, and the S6 is a severe let down.

Kchrpm
March 4th, 2015, 02:15 PM
If you can hold out, the price may go down soon, the M4 Aqua should put some pressure on it.

stephenb
March 16th, 2015, 02:44 PM
Quick update, spotted a Xperia Z1C which had been traded in at my local Game. £160 with a 12 month warranty. A few marks on the back commensurate with being in someone's pocket but overall in good knick. I went for it. Haven't had much of a play yet but did discover some photo's which must have been left from the previous owner, I guess they didn't do a very good job of wiping it. Seems to be functioning OK so far. Have just loaded a little music on to test it out, will be buying a large micro SD card before I transfer my current collection on there as it currently weighs in at 10GB and I have plenty more albums I never got around to ripping. Cards seem quite cheap so might as well go for 64GB.

Kchrpm
March 17th, 2015, 07:09 AM
The new leaked renders of the Xperia Z4 are only interesting because of the unknown port joining microUSB on the bottom.

http://www.androidauthority.com/xperia-z4-render-leak-594654/

http://cdn04.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Sony-xperia-z4-leak-1.jpg

http://cdn04.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Sony-xperia-z4-leak-2.jpg

It's smaller than the micro USB port, so not USB type C, and there's no hole on the side for it to be part of a lanyard slot. The speakers and microphones are on the thicker black lines on the top and bottom edge of the front face.

Of course it could just be a fake render, or a really early one, or on and on.

Blerpa
March 17th, 2015, 10:51 AM
That's the cord hole in the Z3C. Could very well be the same hole.

Kchrpm
March 17th, 2015, 11:28 AM
Hmm, I see they switched to a new cord hole design on the Z3C that does need the hole on the side, just a division in the middle. It's possible we just can't see the division in the render, so that would make sense.

http://fs01.androidpit.info/userfiles/3971960/image/sony-xperia-z3-compact/androipit-sony-xperia-z3-compact-7.JPG

Jacee
March 18th, 2015, 06:25 PM
Without going through the entire thread, what is the best Anti-virus app you're using?

Kchrpm
March 19th, 2015, 06:42 AM
I'm using the little option that doesn't allow apps to be installed from third parties unless I need something very specific, and not installing random apps from the Google Play Store.

SportWagon
March 19th, 2015, 03:13 PM
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.denper.addonsdetector&hl=en
isn't really anti-virus, but it will detect which apps are causing "push notifications", which is sort of virus-like behaviour.

I used Kaspersky (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kms.free&hl=en) on my first phone, but now I use the Krunch approach.

I also tried to be careful about what I installed from google play, but I did get suckered in by the fake VLC early one April.

Addons Detector (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.denper.addonsdetector&hl=en) did show me that it was causing the annoying push notifications.

Kchrpm
March 19th, 2015, 06:03 PM
Nowadays the push notification thing is built in: hold down your finger on a notification, and it will pop up an App Info button. From there you can see what app caused the notification, and block that app from causing notifications or uninstall it.

SportWagon
March 26th, 2015, 05:17 PM
Oh dear. One of my favourite old pre-rooted Gingerbread tablets is on its way to becoming an ex-tablet.

Booted it up this morning, and browsing apps a bunch appeared to be missing.

In particular, I could not start Pocket Trains for a time travel experiment. (to verify what the "Event" (mission) had been on October 30, 2013).

So I shut it down sadly. Or, rather, I sadly shut it down. Plugged it in for a few hours (although battery seemed to have a reasonable charge).

Booted it speculatively in the late afternoon, and it seemed to be working more properly. In particular I was able to perform the crucial Pocket Trains time travel.

I had thrown a couple of things out of the cache (Spartacus Rex Terminal IDE seemed to have been working earlier in the day, and also su support), but I don't think that was the key problem. I think the memory ("internal sd") is getting flakey. :(

Yw-slayer
March 28th, 2015, 05:19 PM
A Xoom?

SportWagon
March 30th, 2015, 06:05 AM
A "Kross".

Yw-slayer
March 30th, 2015, 07:27 AM
Yeah, let's put it this way, the really cheap Android tablets out there can have issues with durability. Sometimes you really DO get what you pay for.

Tom Servo
March 30th, 2015, 03:12 PM
I had huge problems with my ASUS Transformer Prime due to the same stuff. The internal memory degrades, from what I gather. After about a year it was running slower than my wife's TF101 Transformer (the previous generation of the Transformer). Just trying to play Scrabble meant 30+ second screen transitions, making it essentially useless.

Yw-slayer
March 30th, 2015, 11:47 PM
Yeah, although ASUS make good MBs I have not been as impressed with their notebooks and tablets.

SportWagon
March 31st, 2015, 06:16 AM
At least with a cheap tablet you can't end up paying for what you didn't get.

Freude am Fahren
March 31st, 2015, 02:58 PM
So my Note4 camera is pretty fxcked up. It first of all, will randomly not save images, I just get a broken thumbnail in my gallery. Then when I open the DCIM folder on my PC, everything is upside down. Every single picture and video. Really fucking frustrating.

edit: The SD card seems to have gone bad. Can't delete/cut/move/format at all. Can still read and copy, but no more writing it seems. Not sure how that would make everything upside down though. Also, vertical images were rotated on their side.

Yw-slayer
April 1st, 2015, 01:00 AM
Damn - sounds like it's got to be sent in. Very disappointing for a device that can't be more than a year old.

Tom Servo
April 3rd, 2015, 04:25 AM
Sounds like somehow it's not writing the EXIF data correctly, though that'd be extra bizarre since there's no hardware reason it would just not write the same part of a file each time.

Yw-slayer
April 3rd, 2015, 04:51 AM
Full hard reset?

Tom Servo
April 3rd, 2015, 03:20 PM
Seems worth a shot.

Tom Servo
April 4th, 2015, 06:10 AM
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but I learned a valuable lesson - never clear the cache/data from Google Play Services through the Apps Settings. I did that to clear out a bogus permission that I accidentally installed on my phone when working on an app and it left the phone completely goofed up. Half the notifications stopped working (e.g., I got notified when I had email on two of my four email accounts, but not the other two), some apps would auto update and some wouldn't, all sorts of weirdness. Only way to fix it was a hard reset.

Freude am Fahren
April 23rd, 2015, 07:36 AM
The Note 4 (ATT) has been updated to Lollipop 5.01. Mostly I like it. Looks better. Runs a bit snappier too :up:

I don't like how I don't have a mute/vibrate/sound options on the long press power button screen. I guess I'll get used to using the notification panel toggle.

Also, I'm split on the new notifications on lock screen. I like the idea, but the implementation is pretty bad. First of all, you can't choose a-la-carte what you do or don't want there, just some vague all/hide sensitive/none options. And you can't even use the second to make it work like you want, because it still shows a panel, just doesn't show the information, not to mention you can't set just any app to "sensitive" or not. So I have all my persistant notifications show up like weather, which I don't need there. The searching using GPS shows up whenever it's there, etc.

The other problem with the lock screen is music controls have disappeared. I used them a lot, but now the best I get is a small panel from my music player notification thing. Meh.

Yw-slayer
April 23rd, 2015, 08:34 AM
I flashed my Oneplus to Cyanogen12 (Lollipop). I'm pretty sure that battery life has taken a bit of a hit, even though I've turned of "Dynamic Screen" or whatever it's called.

SportWagon
April 23rd, 2015, 09:19 AM
I bought two http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/rca-10-tablet-with-keyboard-case/6000191673834
(One for me, one for missus).
I think they may be the most powerful computers in our house.

USB keyboards, with a somewhat fragile-seeming connector attached to the book cover. And Micro USB pass-through down the edge of the keyboard. (Though I haven't actually tried that connector yet).

I have an old 7" noname Ice Cream Sandwich tablet that worked with an NTFS memory card, but I think that may be an anomaly. (That allowed me to run a 12G or so Linux chroot loop file off it). Supposedly exFAT is where it's at now, so sometime I'll need to see if these tablets will read such. I'd like to get the Galoula chroot running on these too, though. (Well, working within a 4G loop file is possible, too, but awkward).

Bah. The similar http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/rca-10-tablet/6000189150433 (bluetooth keyboard) claims larger memory card capacity, which might imply necessitated exFAT support.

Kchrpm
April 23rd, 2015, 09:23 AM
The other problem with the lock screen is music controls have disappeared. I used them a lot, but now the best I get is a small panel from my music player notification thing. Meh.
This is a common complaint I'm seeing, hopefully all the music player apps will modify their notifications and they can end up really nice.

SportWagon
May 4th, 2015, 02:10 PM
So I eventually got a Linux chroot working on one of those 10" RCA tablets from Wal-Mart. Eventually went with NTFS as the format for the memory card.

Learned my original old reliable galoula.com software had become deprecated to the point of recent removal from Play Store (https://play.google.com/).

It seemed he was about to help you get X apps running, but perhaps not quite. The upgrade process was awkward as you needed to decouple your environment from the helpful GUI management process. I'd just about almost managed that. But not quite.

Linux Deploy (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.meefik.linuxdeploy&hl=en) seems to be where it's at now.

I got very greedy and tried for Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome.

I learned that repeated "dpkg --configure -a" will eventually converge.

But packages seemed to be downloaded (to cache) which didn't get installed. Discovering tightvncserver was in that state was key to getting X running on my small prototype machine.

Installing was often a process of allowing the processes to run until they ran out of memory and rebooted the machine. But starting afresh, more progress could be made.

And I gave up on Gnome, and did "apt-get install lxde" instead (well, as well). And that actually works. (After you change the obvious config files for the VNC user).

But once you manage to get X running, you really wonder still whether it can really be much more than a toy/demo.

I mean, having the ability to ssh to a fully-featured Linux has at least one great advantage; a properly working vi. (and many more fully standardized commands besides). I find it difficult to believe that even on the larger (in pixels) 10" tablet I will really be able to get X working reliably enough to do much useful. Mapping mouse buttons is the biggest problem. Perhaps a mouse will just work through the USB pass-through on the keyboard?

I did a lot of work on my 7" tablet, and decided it would be worth cloning the system (i.e. Linux disk image file) for use on the 10". Wasn't sure you could get a fully-ready system running under Linux Deploy (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.meefik.linuxdeploy&hl=en) but then I noticed the "Import/Export" facilities.

So export, modify the image location (external SD card name change between different implementations), and then import on the new machine. And, indeed, it worked!

An interesting phenomenon; the old 7" tablet appears to have a "sparse" file being used as the loop file for its root. Claims 9G in size, but currently occupying 1.7G. But it dd'd to a full 9G on the destination memory card, and seems to work.

As for other news, someone keeps trying to force a Lollipop down my throat. On my Galaxy S4. I need to be assimilated sometime early this week I guess. When there seems to be enough time to leave and watch that everything works okay. Resistance is futile. And tedious. Just hope Strava (and GPS in general) still works properly afterwards.

21Kid
May 27th, 2015, 08:56 AM
I guess it's not really a phone... but too bad. :p
Android Auto Preview (http://gizmodo.com/android-auto-preview-its-not-perfect-but-you-want-it-1707102125).


The TL;DR version? I want it in my car, like, now. I bet you’d like it too.

Kchrpm
May 27th, 2015, 05:57 PM
T-Mobile finally approved and pushed out Lollipop to my phone, a day before the likely announcement of Android M. Now to play around with the new bits and hope for minimal bugs!

Kchrpm
May 28th, 2015, 12:09 PM
Google had their I/O conference keynote this afternoon. Link to all of The Verge's articles: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8666787/google-io-2015-latest-news

A few key things:

Android M officially announced, with mostly optimization features vs design changes (http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8675257/android-m-os-update-google-io-2015/in/8430828)
The changes to how app permissions work is likely the biggest thing. Now instead of accepting all of the permissions when you install the device, you get a pop-up the first time the app actually wants to use each of them, and you can accept or reject them individually (and go back and change it later).

Brillo is their attempt at making one single OS to be shared among the "internet of things" (aka turning normal stuff into smart stuff) (http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8677119/google-project-brillo-iot-google-io-2015)
There's a related piece called Weave to help items talk to each other, even if they aren't using Brillo.

Photos has been separated from Google+, and new features have been added to help with search and sorting. (http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8673471/google-photos-hands-on-cloud-storage-io-2015)
Free unlimited storage of 16MB pictures and 1080P video, as well.

Now on Tap makes Google Now more context aware (http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8681875/now-on-tap-is-the-coolest-android-feature-google-io)
This basically lets Now figure out what the app you're looking at is doing, and make results out of that. The examples they showed included knowing that you're asking a question about the music you're listening to, pulling up info on a restaurant mentioned in a text, and suggesting a reminder based on a text asking you to do something.

Maps will add offline search and navigation, with voice (http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8680345/google-maps-io-2015-offline-search-navigation/in/8430828)
As a T-Mobile user, this will be great for me.

Random
May 28th, 2015, 08:34 PM
Still waiting for Lollipop. Ho hum. :(

thesameguy
May 29th, 2015, 12:36 PM
Maps will add offline search and navigation, with voice (http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8680345/google-maps-io-2015-offline-search-navigation/in/8430828)
As a T-Mobile user, this will be great for me.

Man, that is ginormous. :up:

Kchrpm
May 29th, 2015, 03:14 PM
There are some features of Android that are hidden and/or not mentioned.

http://bgr.com/2015/05/29/android-m-features-hidden-tips-tricks/

The biggest is probably multi-window support (which isn't listed in the above article), though it's reportedly early and buggy.

Yw-slayer
May 30th, 2015, 12:02 AM
The battery life is horrendous on the secondhand Nexus5 I use as a backup phone.

Jason
May 30th, 2015, 04:40 AM
Maps will add offline search and navigation, with voice (http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8680345/google-maps-io-2015-offline-search-navigation/in/8430828)
As a T-Mobile user, this will be great for me.

If the old school navigation apps/units weren't dead yet, they certainly are now.

Jacee
May 30th, 2015, 08:23 PM
Got update, Lollipop on my phone...Samsung Galaxy s5. I don't have a clue what's this supposed to do:
http://www.androidorigin.com/samsung-galaxy-s5-lollipop-update-bug-fix/

I know computers, not phones http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/jcee/shrug.gif LOL

Random
May 31st, 2015, 08:25 AM
If the old school navigation apps/units weren't dead yet, they certainly are now.


Yes and no. My Garmin still does a better job of knowing what some of the freeways and exit names are. I'm in the habit of truth-checking Google directions now after getting bitten a couple times. :|

MR2 Fan
May 31st, 2015, 11:59 PM
I just ordered a Note 4 to replace my Note 2....and I'm going to buy a Samsung Galaxy VR for it next, just because I want one.

Yw-slayer
June 1st, 2015, 02:09 AM
I want all sorts of stuff, but more and more often I will hold off buying stuff unless something is really, REALLY going to make my life much better.

Kchrpm
June 1st, 2015, 02:06 PM
This will be great when they get it to work.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/this-is-android-ms-highly-experimental-multi-window-mode-for-tablets/

http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Screenshot_20150529-141225.jpg

thesameguy
June 1st, 2015, 02:11 PM
I want all sorts of stuff, but more and more often I will hold off buying stuff unless something is really, REALLY going to make my life much better.

Cynicism comes with age.

:sadbanana:

MR2 Fan
June 1st, 2015, 02:44 PM
I want all sorts of stuff, but more and more often I will hold off buying stuff unless something is really, REALLY going to make my life much better.

how is a VR headset NOT going to make my life better? :p

Yw-slayer
June 1st, 2015, 03:46 PM
It's a VR headset powered by a phone.

Blerpa
June 2nd, 2015, 01:55 AM
It's a VR headset.

Yw-slayer
June 2nd, 2015, 08:59 AM
So, useful mainly for King John-type stuff.

MR2 Fan
June 2nd, 2015, 03:30 PM
so anyway, transferring files between my Note 2 and Note 4 now and HOLY CRAP the screen is SO MUCH BRIGHTER...both at max brightness levels. I only expected minor differences.

Freude am Fahren
June 2nd, 2015, 08:07 PM
Yeah, I noticed that too with my same upgrade.

Still pissed about the shit media control in lollipop. In addition to the shit lockscreen (not just in relation to media), I also no longer get info on my dash unit when using Pandora (youtube sends info I just found out today). Also, and this may be player related, but when I get in my car or on my Sena, it always autostarts my mp3 player, not Pandora if that was the last I listened to, like it used to.

Also, lately I've been getting "no sim card" error, and have to restart twice to get it back.

Kchrpm
June 3rd, 2015, 06:29 AM
That's odd, the autoplay, though it rarely works, always starts the last music app I've used (which in my case is a podcast app).

SportWagon
June 24th, 2015, 06:32 AM
Fun with my Linux Ubuntu 12.04 chroot.

Many major applications fail when trying to use VNC.

chromium-browser and VLC. Unlike Firefox however, they both do not notice the "RANDR" failure, and continue on with content-less windows.

Some success and interesting learning about chroot.

Inserted a USB drive. No "lsusb". Web search, and "apt-get install usbutils".

Drive didn't really work. Found a powered USB hub (marketed as for PS2/PS3 actually). Drive was visible.

"ntfs" was an unknown filesystem. "apt-get install ntfs-3g".

And then, inside my chroot, I was able to mount the drive properly.

Later I verified it wasn't some non-reproducible occurrence because of the first-time install or something. So from inside your chroot you can install some drivers for your own use. An oddity seems to be that even though I umount within the chroot, some part of Android actually still has the drive mounted somewhere, and I get a warning (in the Android notifications) when I disconnect it.

Bad news, however, attempt to "mount -o loop" a DVD iso image failed. No kernel support for UDF.

"apt-get install dvdbackup" obtains something which can read DVDs or isos, and allegedly VLC can do likewise (although VNC stops the display from rendering).


Anyway, sometime I should try to see if I can get the X running with a proper frame buffer. The LinuxDeply app claims to support that. And then I can see if those high-intensity graphical applications work.

Kchrpm
July 20th, 2015, 09:38 AM
After giving up and doing a factory reset, Lollipop is running excellently on my phone. The battery still has some issue, though, so it's not back to full strength.

SportWagon
August 6th, 2015, 10:14 AM
Motivated by Stagefright, I installed https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.greyshirts.firewall&hl=en on my Samsung S4 (still Kit Kat).

Lots of fun. Your apps like to spend their time and little bits of your money talking to...

google.com (obviously)
1e100.net (get it?)
akamaiedge.net

21Kid
August 11th, 2015, 06:07 AM
Got my daughter the Moto E after she drop/smashed her old phone. Pretty decent phone for $120

Yw-slayer
August 13th, 2015, 06:33 PM
LOL Samsung fanboys http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/note-5-unpacked-samsung-has-abandoned-its-most-loyal-fans

(waits for blerpa to come in and start ranting about something)

Blerpa
August 14th, 2015, 08:21 AM
No rant, I totally agree with the writer of the editorial.
Right now the only Samsung phone I'd be interested in is the Galaxy S6 Active. But 1) It doesn't have MicroSD 2) It comes only in 32gb of storage option 3) It's an US exclusive, AT&T precisely.
So, that's that.

Yw-slayer
August 14th, 2015, 09:07 AM
That looks like a rant to me.

Freude am Fahren
August 14th, 2015, 09:49 AM
Blerpa said exactly what I was thinking. The Note has just become an S6+. I wont be upgrading anytime soon as I have only had the Note 4 for half a year, but Maybe the Note6 or S7 will interest me more.

Yes, I care about external storage, and yes I care about removable batteries. I also care about environmental protection, and as more were doing, I was hoping it would make it way up to the Note, but not holding my breath.

Kchrpm
August 14th, 2015, 12:10 PM
http://phandroid.com/2015/08/14/dual-sim-note-5-microsd/

The dual SIM version of the Note 5 will alternatively accept a MicroSD card in the second SIM slot. Cue the true devotees hitting up international stores.

Of course that was going to happen anyway, since the European market is only getting the Edge Plus, not the Note 5 (Samsung's research found most Europeans didn't care about the stylus).

Blerpa
August 15th, 2015, 09:23 AM
Actually Phandroid bombed that news: it seems that phone is actual the newest Galaxy A8.

thesameguy
August 28th, 2015, 03:22 PM
SO UPSET.

I love my Windows Phone. It's the best phone I have ever had or used by a wide margin.

However, we are getting a new phone system in the office and the one feature I really, really want only supports iPhone and Android. I know I do not want an iPhone because I cannot tolerate the keyboard, so that leaves me with buying an Android phone.

What phone? I don't want to exceed 5" (the 4.5" Lumia 920 suits me great) but other than that it's cost no object. I just want the phone that is going to kick so much ass I won't miss the superior Windows OS. I am thinking about a Galaxy Active, but I find TouchWiz to be awful and I don't have the patience for customizing the shit out of my phone. I just want great ActiveSync support and, well, that's it.

WHAT AM I BUYING NEXT MONTH?

Random
August 28th, 2015, 03:27 PM
Moto X? I've been very happy with my 1st Gen LTE Moto G.

edit: derp, it's been super-sized to 5+ inches. How about the newest Moto G (http://www.motorola.com/us/products/moto-g)?

Yw-slayer
August 29th, 2015, 02:50 AM
Forget it man, big-screen phones are where it's at for Android.

Get a OnePlus One or Two, or one of the more hardcore Motos like Russ suggested.

Blerpa
August 30th, 2015, 11:25 AM
Moto X or upcoming Sony Z5 Compact (may be too late for your one month deadline - then Z3 Compact).

thesameguy
August 30th, 2015, 07:25 PM
I am depressed about this whole thing. Enough that I am seriously considering going for a Win10 phone and seeing if the Android version of the software I want to run will work.

Yw-slayer
August 30th, 2015, 10:54 PM
You could. I'm hoping for great things from the Win10 phones.

SportWagon
August 31st, 2015, 04:09 AM
Does Win10 support Android apps by running essentially the Android SDK test environment?

Acer makes a series of phones with designations usually featuring "Z", sold cheaply and often unlocked. And they feature more compact models. I don't think huge phones are driven by consumer demand. I'm happy with the Z4(s) I got from Staples for c,$100 each.

Edit: In addition to "Z", these Acers tend to feature "Liquid" in their designations (referring to the quality of the display, I think...)

thesameguy
August 31st, 2015, 08:54 AM
No, it is binary compatible with Android. It will execute apps natively. Apparently it works incredibly well.

I spent some time looking at Android phones over the weekend and I am underwhelmed - mostly by the OS and not by the hardware. I'm just not into Android. Bah.

SportWagon
August 31st, 2015, 11:10 AM
Yes. If you looked at several phones in detail, you might have noticed a lot of inconsistency in the interface. The "go back" arrow moves from one side to the other in different versions, and sometimes appears as a downward-pointing caret. The permanent menu key disappears as the version gets newer. How you get a list of currently running apps changes from version to version (and this can mean different vendors running allegedly the same Android version).

thesameguy
August 31st, 2015, 01:23 PM
I'm actually more put off by the OS rather than the hardware. Every time I have to use someone's Android phone (happens a lot, I'm the IT guy :) ) I am appalled at how much looking and scrolling there is to get anything done. I started using an iPhone for my home phone (TL;DR) and the first thing I did was put everything into a folder called Horseshit except for the eight things I will do with it. Now it's like my Windows phone, except I can't make the eight things bigger and easier to hit on the iPhone. My Windows Phone literally has the entire home screen divided into eight buttons which represent everything I do. I don't do "fun stuff" with my phone at any level, it's just a tool for me and I want it to behave as such. Pretty colors, animations, and pictures just slow me down. I'd wager someone out there has these same concerns and has glued a no-frills UI onto Android, but that's something else I don't want to do - spend time customizing my phone. I want to turn it on and have it be 100%. I readily realize what I look for in a phone isn't what most people do, so the things that make a phone attractive to other don't help me.

I will say the OnePlus phone YW suggested *looks* awesome to me. I think they "get it" as far as I'm concerned, but the size is a killer. It's so close I'm tempted to give it a go, but I don't want to have to explain why I spend cash money on a phone I don't use. Maybe hold it as a backup plan and wait for the new Lumia.

SportWagon
August 31st, 2015, 01:51 PM
Oh yes. Each Android vendor has their own version of how homescreens (including folders) should work too. I forgot that. Sometimes more than one idea for the same vendor and even device.

I use the following a lot...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.abcOrganizer.lite&hl=en

I might pay for the pay version except at one point I read you couldn't import your free version configuration into the pay version.

That helps me find my stuff, except that on devices with less CPU and memory it seems it loads the system a bit.

Kchrpm
August 31st, 2015, 03:21 PM
The apps I use most are in folders on my main screen. I have widgets to surface info I want to glance at on the additional homescreens, that's about it. I've never looked into making the icons bigger, I presume it can be done with either the Easy mode a lot of phones have now or some other custom homescreen, but as you said you're not interested in that.

It is funny to me when tsg talking about tech sounds like George talking about tech.

thesameguy
August 31st, 2015, 03:33 PM
I know, believe me I know. The thing is that I have so many "things" in my life and so much technology I have to deal with I try to compartmentalize and keep things simple that don't need to be complex. I carry a phone because I would die without email/text, sometimes I'm being murdered and want to call 911, and I have a proud habit of getting in the car without having the faintest clue where I'm going. I want my mobile to do those things and only those things. I don't want themes, I don't want games, and I don't want your establishment's custom app to help improve my shopping experience because I buy everything on Amazon and I'm never coming back anyway. :lol: But, really, it's about me not needing more distractions. That includes a big clock display, the weather, or a folder I have to open to get to my mail. I just want a giant button that says MAIL so I can a) get to it quickly so I can get back to drinking and b) get to it quickly later after I have gotten back to drinking. I'll spend my gaming energy on the xbox and my decorating energy on an '80s car. I don't need a phone sucking up that energy. That's my MO. :D

Kchrpm
August 31st, 2015, 04:06 PM
I wish I could do your setup for you. I would use Minimalist Text to make you big buttons that just say MAIL, TEXT, etc.

Kchrpm
August 31st, 2015, 04:17 PM
This took me less than 5 minutes.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7MP12JE4bTNM_ksWb7lofCyYSxruQOD5y0u7lxmR1ejf=w557-h989-no

Yw-slayer
August 31st, 2015, 05:42 PM
Heh. Nice one Krunch.

I agree with you about iOS. Apart from the stupid vibrating f crap, why do I have to put everything on the fucking screen, even if it's in folders? I put all of the useless Apple crap in a folder called Useless Crap.

With Android I have the full menu of apps if I want but my phones have the core and useful stuff easily accessible over 2 homepages.

thesameguy
September 1st, 2015, 09:22 AM
This is what I look at daily:

http://www.sacsaabs.org/sacsaabs.org/windowsphonehome.jpg

I notice there are a few Windows Phone launchers for Android, including the aptly named WP Launcher. Anyone tried these? That could be a solution. Although I like the live tiles, they're hardly critical.

thesameguy
September 1st, 2015, 09:23 AM
Side note: iOS is about *the worst*. There is nothing good about it whatsoever. The phone itself feels great, but the UI is wretched, even with all the recent gesture etc. enhancements .

Kchrpm
September 1st, 2015, 09:26 AM
I used it a long time ago, never stuck with it. Live Tiles are what I would have wanted. Minimalist Text doesn't make room for images (not surprising, based on the name), but it can easily do the big boxes with just text.

thesameguy
September 1st, 2015, 09:33 AM
I <3 Live Tiles. It is the correct answer.

Kchrpm
September 1st, 2015, 09:39 AM
I just installed this, pretty cool.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lx.launcher8

Wow, it changes a lot of stuff, even when you're not using it as your launcher it changes your status bar and adds a widget with some toggles.

thesameguy
September 1st, 2015, 09:54 AM
I'd be interested to know how it goes for you. It seems to be the one that gets the most press, so maybe it's actually good. :)

Kchrpm
September 1st, 2015, 09:57 AM
I've already uninstalled it :) It prepopulates a LOT of stuff, and I don't want all the duplicated functionality. If I could just randomly play with it, I would, but I don't want all the extra stuff it was doing all the time.

thesameguy
September 1st, 2015, 10:04 AM
Haha... no worries. :)

Kchrpm
September 2nd, 2015, 07:20 AM
Speaking of sub 5" phones, Sony officially announces its Z5 line, including the Z5 (5.2", 1080p), Z5 Compact (4.7", 720p) and Z5 Premium (5.5", 4K).

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/02/sony-xperia-z5-premium-compact-hands-on-video/

http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/fd1f070acf6bb9740b4d2cb9eee7b3fd/202557950/z5family_1200.jpg

Yw-slayer
September 2nd, 2015, 07:42 AM
Z5 Premium sounds good. Might skip the Oneplus Two due to no NFC.

Kchrpm
September 2nd, 2015, 09:41 AM
I want a gold premium.

21Kid
September 2nd, 2015, 11:17 AM
Why would anyone need a 4k phone? :erm:

thesameguy
September 2nd, 2015, 12:22 PM
You mean fully automatic weapon, 250mph supercar, or $10,000 Apple Watch?

Blerpa
September 2nd, 2015, 01:09 PM
If they finally got the camera right (and less flaps, better waterproof protection and decent audio) I could ditch my Z3 Compact for the Z5 Compact. The fingerprint sensor seems to work very well.
Meanwhile the Galaxy S5 Active remains exclusive to US and AT&T... sigh. And I've no interest in any other Android phones.

EDIT: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135084-sony-xperia-z5-camera-sample-images-and-new-tech-explained Seems they finally have OIS.

Yw-slayer
September 2nd, 2015, 02:10 PM
The slightly larger screen is the only reason I'd want the Premium over the normal. But the 4K screen does see! A bit pointless to me at the moment. I am a fan of built-in waterproofing.

Kchrpm
September 2nd, 2015, 03:14 PM
EDIT: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135084-sony-xperia-z5-camera-sample-images-and-new-tech-explained Seems they finally have OIS.

Seems like they have optical for images and digital for videos.

SportWagon
September 4th, 2015, 09:06 AM
Does Win10 support Android apps by running essentially the Android SDK test environment?

No, it is binary compatible with Android. It will execute apps natively. Apparently it works incredibly well.

Actually Blackberry (RIMember them?) has had Android compatibility for some time. You should be able to achieve it for most Apps efficiently by running the appropriate Java Virtual Machine. And my colleague's experience with apps supports the idea that is what is going on. Many apps work flawlessly, but if you have something that needs true binary compatibility (e.g. a "busybox") it won't work.

So he wasn't able to install my favourite terminal emulator with built-in busybox IDE. (Though that developer seems to have been remiss in his updates and recently I needed to arrange to have access to a different ssh binary in order to ssh from a phone to a particular host which seems to have got fussy about what sort of ssh connections it will set up).

21Kid
September 4th, 2015, 09:30 AM
I got the original Moto X when it came out in 12/13... Now the Pure edition is coming out which is bigger & better! Maybe I'll have to upgrade soon. :)

Kchrpm
September 4th, 2015, 09:36 AM
It's reasonably priced and arguably the best Android experience one can have :up:

But IT'S NOT GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!

Kchrpm
September 4th, 2015, 09:55 AM
This video says that Sony is describing the image stabilization on the Z5s as a hybrid of optical and digital, but when they actually explained how it works, it sounded to the person making this video like it was just digital.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIMUKr06fuQ

21Kid
September 4th, 2015, 11:22 AM
It's reasonably priced and arguably the best Android experience one can have :up:

But IT'S NOT GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!

No. :( But, you can get it in Leather, Wood, and a variety of other color combinations at Moto Maker (https://www.motorola.com/us/motomaker?pid=FLEXR2&action=designNew#backplate). once it becomes available.

Kchrpm
September 4th, 2015, 11:30 AM
They don't have orange :down:

Freude am Fahren
September 5th, 2015, 06:06 PM
My Note 4 battery seems to be getting worse and worse. And it literally just went from 17% to 4% in an instant.


edit: And now it's dead.

Yw-slayer
September 5th, 2015, 07:35 PM
I find that the latest Cyanogenmod 5.1.1 update is killer on my Oneplus' battery life.

FaultyMario
September 7th, 2015, 03:04 PM
Grandia II clone/tribute/remix in teh playstore?

Someone (here?) said the Sq/enix antipiracy interface was dumb...

21Kid
September 8th, 2015, 09:49 AM
They don't have orange :down:
Yeah, spice is the closest... it's more of a pumpkin-ish color.
http://cdn.gottabemobile.com/wp-content/uploads/Best-of-2014-Moto-X-2014.jpg

Kchrpm
September 13th, 2015, 06:29 AM
Watched a few more hands-on videos of the Z5 Premium, the consensus seems to be that the 4K difference is negligible, but the placement of the fingerprint sensor on the power button on the side is great, being more convenient than having it on the home button.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daoJ2BktV5E

Kchrpm
September 29th, 2015, 09:56 AM
Nexus 6P (https://store.google.com/product/nexus_6p) = $500 (32 GB) = 5.7", aluminum body/frame, Huawei-built, QHD, camera focused on low light, 3450 mAh battery, Snapdragon 810 (current top-end), USB Type C w/quick charging, 64 GB for $550, 128 GB for $650

https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iswMxbgGnv6Hm9Tc19IqxtmR2F8=/1020x0/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4107356/CQFVIIkUAAAV0lE.0.png

Nexus 5X (https://store.google.com/product/nexus_5x) = $379 (16 GB) = 5.2", built by LG, 1080p, camera focused on low light, 2700 mAh battery, Snapdragon 808 (current but not top-end), USB Type C w/quick charging, 32 GB for $429

https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wE7wiA0UVbcc0t1WlK8XAIgtja8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4107658/5x.0.png

Kchrpm
September 29th, 2015, 09:59 AM
Both phones are also eligible for an extended warranty ($89 and $69 respectively) called Nexus Protect (https://store.google.com/magazine/nexus_protect) that adds 2 year of coverage against accidental damage and 24-hour phone or online claim submission, and promises a replacement on the next business day with free shipping both ways. $79 deductible, 2 incidents covered in the 2 years.

MUCH cheaper than the $10-15/month+deductible insurance things that are out there now.

Freude am Fahren
September 29th, 2015, 03:17 PM
Does the fact that they sell different sizes mean they don't have expandable storage?

TheBenior
September 29th, 2015, 03:51 PM
The Nexus line hasn't had removable storage for at least the past two generations.

Yw-slayer
September 29th, 2015, 04:12 PM
128gb model sounds good

Kchrpm
September 30th, 2015, 11:02 AM
A day after the Nexus 6P takes second place on the DxOMark rankings for cameraphones (behind the Galaxy S6), the Xperia Z5 comes and takes the overall lead by 1 point.

http://www.dxomark.com/Mobiles/Sony-Xperia-Z5-Mobile-review-Best-mobile-photo-video-scores-to-date

Yet to be tested: iPhone 6S.

Yw-slayer
September 30th, 2015, 04:54 PM
For me it'll be a toss up between the Z5 and both Nexus phones. Fuck the Oneplus Two.

Tom Servo
September 30th, 2015, 07:28 PM
Trying to decide between the Moto X Pure edition and the Nexus 5X. I'm leaning Moto...

Tom Servo
October 6th, 2015, 11:06 AM
Well, had that question answered for me. Nexus 5 hit the skids yesterday. Screen will occasionally come on and even more occasionally respond to touch, but most of the time it just goes dark and can only be interacted with via ADB. Nexus 5X isn't out, so the Moto X has been ordered.

Random
October 6th, 2015, 11:42 AM
Hallo, Moto!

Tom Servo
October 6th, 2015, 01:07 PM
I do like that I can give it a custom wake up phrase other than "Ok, Google". Have to come up with something good.

Also like that I can put a custom greeting on boot, so "Ahoy, Fancypants!" seemed good.

Tom Servo
October 9th, 2015, 07:53 AM
Ordered it through the Moto Maker, took a couple of days to build, then shipped from Shenzhen, China. Hit Memphis and is now in a customs hold because apparently there's a discrepancy between the value of the shipment and the declared value. It looks like this happens a *lot* with Motorola shipments, I see a ton of other people saying the same thing. The fun part is that some people say it cleared up in a matter of hours (it's been about 5 hours for me so far), others say it took over a week. So....who knows when I'm getting it.

Freude am Fahren
October 11th, 2015, 09:20 AM
AT&T has rolled out the 5.1.1 update or the Note 4 (and some others). I think it's mostly stability, but my phone does seem to be running much better.

Tom Servo
October 12th, 2015, 10:23 AM
Got 6.0 on my Nexus 9. That doze mode is awesome. Lost something like 4% of my battery over the course of 24 hours or so. Otherwise, there's not a ton of neat new features with 6.0, at least not that I've noticed.

Moto X was delivered to my local FedEx store this morning, so I get to play with that tonight while watching the Chargers lose to the Steelers.

Random
October 12th, 2015, 07:57 PM
Ditto (6.0 to N9)--haven't played with it yet, though.

Yw-slayer
October 12th, 2015, 10:25 PM
Still waiting for it to hit my 5. Also waiting for the Lumia 950 v 5X v 6P reviews.

Tom Servo
October 13th, 2015, 11:56 AM
Really liking the ability to turn specific permissions off for apps on 6.0.

Got the Moto X, only to find out it uses a nano SIM which I didn't have. Still could play on Wifi though. I like it a lot so far, it's definitely fast. Not so sure about the "low power mode" screen thing...it's kinda annoying to have it keep turning itself on and off when I have an email. I guess that's its exchange for not having any sort of notification light. It is kinda nice to be able to check what time it is/whether I have anything worth paying attention to just by waving my hand over it.

Used the Motorola Migrate app to move everything over from my old phone. It didn't move accounts and stuff like that, but it did move my text messages, call log, and some other sundry items which was pretty handy. Did it pretty fast with minimal pain, too.

Not having buyer's remorse yet, so that's a positive.

21Kid
October 13th, 2015, 01:33 PM
Is that the Moto X Pure? I am waiting for Republic to roll it out. I didn't realize it was a nano card... I don't have any of those. :| I was hoping to use my microsd card.

FYI, you can choose which items show up in the notifications. So, if you don't want to see emails come across you can de-select it from Active Display, Select Apps. (At least that's where it is on my original Moto X)

TheBenior
October 13th, 2015, 02:11 PM
6.0 got pushed to my Nexus 5 today, a buddy with a Nexus 5 got it 2 days ago.

I have no idea what's different :lol:

Tom Servo
October 13th, 2015, 03:43 PM
Yeah...what I want is the notifications, but I don't want it to light the screen up on its own. I just want to see them when I wave my hand over it.

A little confused on the microsd/nano SIM thing. It still uses a micro SD for extra external storage, just the SIM card is smaller. Ran me $16 at T-Mobile for a new SIM, but they offered to cut down my existing SIM for me. I've had bad luck in the past with cut SIMs, so I opted to just buy a new one.

As for 6.0, the big things that I'm aware of are:

* Doze mode, saves battery when the phone is sitting still and the screen is off.
* Ability to turn off individual permissions for apps
* Google Now integration into just about everything (e.g., if someone texts you about a restaurant and you hold down the home button while looking at that text, Google Now will try to look at what's on the screen and pop up relevant information, like a link to that restaurant and reviews on Yelp or something).