The Android Thread - He;pl - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The Android Thread - He;pl

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

FistEnergy posted:

.

It was veeery

If you did something even as simple as doing a quick Google Maps search to get the specific directions or check traffic, that's how it knew.

It's surprising, and a little creepy at times, but overall pretty darn helpful. Especially if you have a vehicle running Android auto

# ¿ Aug 24, 2015 01:15

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 21:34

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Grumpwagon posted:

Has anyone seen really poor GPS performance on a Nexus 5 recently?

My fiancee's GPS as of a couple of weeks ago has had huge delays in updating where she is (i.e. she opened Maps just now and it is showing her at a location she was at on Sunday evening). We use G+ location sharing pretty regularly, so we know it worked well up until a couple of weeks ago. It's probably a coincidence, but it started happening when we were at a location with terrible service for a couple of days. Obviously I wouldn't expect location to be precise while there, but it has remained awful ever since. I'm having her download GPS status and clear GPS data like that, but if that doesn't work, does she have to do a full wipe? Is this a known issue?

EDIT: If she opens Maps and sits there for a long time, it usually (but not always) eventually updates to the right place, but it is much longer than the usual GPS lock acquire time (several minutes, even on a very clear day). Background location services seem universally awful though, unless she actually triggers a manual update.

Nexus 5 has always been prone to GPS issues. Make sure the back is fully snapped on. Then download the GPS Test app and see if it's getting satellite lock when outside.

There's also a "fix" that involves sticking a piece of cardboard in there too keep the antenna connected. Google it. I'm on mobile otherwise I'd link you.

SB35 fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Aug 25, 2015

# ¿ Aug 25, 2015 22:04

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

IuniusBrutus posted:

New thread title is excellent.

Best since fastball into a wall.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2015 03:39

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

pun pundit posted:

Do you mean to tell me this handy configurable toggle menu on the top of my notification shade isn't stock Android? And that it's bad for "power users"? Who else but the tech savvy will ever care about enabling or disabling their WiFi or mobile data or Bluetooth at the swipe of a finger?

The thing is, you don't need to turn on/off most of that poo poo. Having Bluetooth or NFC on 24/7 is barely a blip on the battery meter. The important toggles are included in stock Android and none of the extraneous ones. (Samsung's 29 different toggles are just that, extraneous)

# ¿ Aug 31, 2015 07:30

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Drythe posted:

My S6 Edge + is really cool and I've talked three people into getting the new Samsung phones.

I also had a coworker hate the Nexus so much he returned it and got an iPhone. He also agrees my Samsung is awesome.

You're literally the worst person in this thread.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2015 15:42

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

XIII posted:

Correct in maps, but it will occasionally report incorrectly in G+. How do I clear AGPS? And, yes, high accuracy.

Sometimes when towers go down in areas, the carrier will put up a portable tower and oftentimes those portable towers will report incorrect locations. For instance I recently went to a music festival and my location was reported on the other side of the country.

It's possible that the tower near you is undergoing repairs and based on this happening to other people, it seems even more likely.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2015 02:17

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Rusty Kettle posted:

But there is one feature that I need more info on. Next year, my wife and I will be visiting China for a couple weeks. We want at least one device with unlimited data to back up pictures online and look up stuff, and I think that'll be my phone. Do I need to look into anything fancy when phone shopping? Is dual SIM necessary? Should I not worry about it, and there is a better procedure?

Unlimited data? Um what are you talking about? That won't likely happen but you can easily get several GB and use hotel/hostel WiFi which is commonplace.

If going for only a few weeks either go without service or just pick up a China Unicom sim card. Get a VPN and backup pics to Dropbox or G+ over WiFi and VPN when you're back at the hotel.

You don't need anything special when it comes to phones, China Unicom supports the same 3G standards and frequencies as the rest of the world.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2015 05:11

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

LastInLine posted:

Isn't Google blocked in China?

Yep, that's why he needs a VPN.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2015 06:16

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Rusty Kettle posted:

T-Mobile has something about no roaming charges internationally for their simple choice plan. I might call and chat with a representative when the trip gets closer. Does anyone have any experience with this, particularly in China? I might ask this again in the T-Mobile thread later but while we're on the subject, experience would be great.

Until then, I'll look into VPNs. Thanks for the info.

1. You'll get the international roaming in China no problem, but it's only edge speeds, which is sufficient enough but not pleasant. But might not be a great signal or any at all if you're way out in the countryside (likely you won't be).

2. You might not need the VPN for this. I think the TMo roaming actually jumps the wall for you, lemme check on that.

3. If you have questions about this come to the tourism & travel China thread.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2015 16:13

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Airborne Viking posted:

I guess the only way to switch it back is by using Nova?

Likely yes. Which is sad. I like the Google launcher but my thumbs move more smoothly side to side than up and down. Not to mention muscle memory. Ugh.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 18:51

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Event starts in an hour, is there an event thread?

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 16:03

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

ThermoPhysical posted:

I think the idea of using the old thread one last time as the event thread and just making a new thread when a new Nexus device comes out works fine.

Cool. I just wanna make sure I'm shitposting in the right place.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 16:27

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Aluminium, lol

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 17:09

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Love this guy's shirt

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 17:11

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Surprise me with Qi charging on both so i can buy one!

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 17:13

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Give me the loving notification ticker back!

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 17:22

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Just give me the detailed specs on the 5X (3GB? Qi?) Rumors say no, but my fingers are crossed.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 17:34

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

What a jerk, doesn't even give his parents pics of their grandkids.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 17:38

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

JIF? You mother fucker.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 17:45

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Despite saying he's excited, I'm not really feeling like he is...

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 18:02

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

6P has a notification LED!

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 18:26

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

ordered a 5x and a 6p, we'll see which is better.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 18:28

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

iajanus posted:

Wait, it's legal in America to sell phones and give no warranty? How does that work?

e: asking from Australia where we have relatively robust consumer protection laws that don't allow that.

Typically they are international versions sold by online importers. The warranty is only applicable in the country for which the device was intended. Thus it would be cost prohibitive to send your phone to the originating warranty repair center.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 04:14

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

TollTheHounds posted:

Blackberry Priv can shoot 4k ( who cares ) and comes with "SafeGuard" for security.

http://mobilesyrup.com/2015/10/06/blackberry-priv-can-shoot-4k-video-and-will-come-with-blackberry-safeguard/

Maybe the one thing that might make me still consider this Blackberry is their "security" angle if it's legit. But if you look at the screenshot in that article, it's just a loving gauge that tells you if you have Dev options enabled, device encryption turned on, and a screen lock. I suppose it's convenient if you just don't know about poo poo like that but it really doesn't offer any sort of extra security if you already have all that poo poo enabled/disabled anyway.

Security related, as I'm hovering over the checkout button for this gargantuan 6P, is that apparently Huawei sold lovely routers a few years back and other chinese items like irons & kettles come pre-hacked from the factory. An example is an iron with an unadvertised WiFi chip in it that scanned for open networks and then dialed back to China for...profit? Probably old news ( 2012/2013 ) but I'd never heard of it. This is probably just and everything is made in China anyway, and a lot of poo poo has changed in 3 years.

"The most controversial routers come from Chinese telecom companies ZTE and Huawei. The House Intelligence Committee released a report in October 2012 warning American businesses to avoid the two companies due to security risks. Similar warnings against Huawei, in particular, have been upheld by governments around the world, including in Taiwan and Australia.

“China is known to be the major perpetrator of cyber espionage, and Huawei and ZTE failed to alleviate serious concerns throughout this important investigation,” said Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in a press release. “American businesses should use other vendors.”

Huawei has launched a public relations campaign to fire back, yet independent research has only justified concerns. Just prior to the report from the House Intelligence Committee, in July 2012, security researchers at hacker conference Defcon uncovered critical, and extremely basic, vulnerabilities in Huawei routers.

“This stuff is distrusting,” Dan Kaminsky, a well-known security researcher, told International Data Group News Service. “If I were to teach someone from scratch how to write binary exploits, these routers would be what I’d demonstrate on.”"

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/366229-pre-hacked-electronics-come-straight-from-chinas-factories/

The Epoch Times is a major China and Chinese Communist party hater. They continually spread FUD regarding China and Chinese companies.

However I'm sure that Huawei isn't completely innocent. Fortunately there's probably enough eyes on this device that any kind of rootkit out spying will be outed pretty quickly.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 21:28

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Tiny Lowtax posted:

So is there any app that can do what iPhones do with their Live Photos? I'm using an iPhone 6s right now and that feature is the coolest thing I've ever used on a phone. I have a one year old, so every picture makes me smile a little more seeing her moving and laughing. I don't want an iPhone though, so I'd rather find an android app that does it.

HTC Zoe. But you should probably just stick with your iPhone.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 04:45

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Thanatosian posted:

Yeah, this is what I thought. Just wanted some confirmation from the thread. Thanks, all.

Is there a Project Fi thread anywhere, or is this it? Any reason not to switch to it from T-Mobile? Anyone currently using it have some opinions?

You might be interested in checking out the Prepaid Thread

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 06:40

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Shai-Hulud posted:

HTC announced the new iPhone!
For 399$ you get a 5' 1080p, Snapdragon 617, 3GB Ram, 32 GB storage phone.
It's got a fingerprint scanner, a micro SD slot and marshmallow out of the box.
There's also 13 MP camera with OIS.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/20/9567471/htc-one-android-6-0-marshmallow-iphone

When did HTC start copying that stupid Samsung-esque physical home button? Ugh.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 20:42

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Hadlock posted:

What competes directly with the Moto G these days? Bonus points if it's quad band, dual sim, or under 5.2"

My Moto X 2013 developer edition with the white fiberglass back is not aging well. At all.

How about a new in box Nexus 5?

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 02:41

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

gently caress it. I'm still interested in the Priv and I'll totally pick one up when BB inevitably firesales them.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 18:02

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

The Merkinman posted:

I think we may have found the reason Chase bank was suddenly removed from supported partners of Android Pay.

I really like my Chase Freedom card but seriously gently caress ChasePay and MXC. All they're doing is holding us back with their stupid QR code scanning system and encouraging other OEMs to forego NFC (lol OnePlus Two). Get on board with ApplePay and AndroidPay or gently caress off.

Encourage everyone to tweet at them @Chase @Chasesupport.

In the meanwhile, I'll be looking for a new card to use in my AndroidPay enabled 6P

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 20:53

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

XIII posted:

So, a friend pulled the stereotypical white girl move and dropped her phone in the toilet and needs a new one to get her through. What's the go to model and activation process for getting her a Moto G working on VZW (post paid)

Actually if she needs the cheapest phone in a pinch, she can probably buy a Verizon Moto e.

If you pop her old postpaid SIM into the phone before ever turning it on out of the package, it'll work great.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 04:37

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

My frost white 6P is coming today and I can't find any good cases :cry:

I really just want a bumper or something that shows off that sexy white back, but all I can find is ridiculously colored cases or black.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 21:36

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

pun pundit posted:

So it turns out either my charger, USB-C cable, or phone USB port on my brand new Nexus 5x is broken, because the phone is not taking any charge. No brick-and-mortar store that I can find sells USB A-to-C cables and I don't know if my battery can last until I get the one I've ordered. The google store does not yet sell USB-C chargers in Norway. I see that Apple uses USB-C for their macbooks. Is there any reason a charger designed for a macbook would not work on my 5x?

You should RMA it. It's brand new.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2015 21:30

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

minusX posted:

Also has anyone else found a way to save/link images found on google image search on mobile? They seem to have gimped the results to only allow you to browse and look at the source page not a direct link to the image.

This annoys the poo poo out of me. I would seriously use an app just for this purpose if I needed to but I'd love to be able to just take pics out of GIS.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 23:09

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

ThermoPhysical posted:

He's also defending Marshmallow not being on the phone calling it nothing more than a beta OS that was feature complete a month before launch, so BB did better using Lollipop and not Marshmallow because "in the 5 months Google gave, they did nothing but change features from beta to beta instead of adding and strengthening them".

While I can understand Marshmallow being new, calling it a "beta OS" isn't exactly true. But, is it true that the OS wasn't finished until a month from release?

It's almost a given that marshmallow wasn't completed until a month before release, hell probably days before release. Blackberry CEO is living in the olden days where software had to be completed months ahead of time because there was no opportunity for OTA or updates. Nowadays it's common that you have an OS update right when you take the new phone out of the box. So, "beta OS"? Yeah, whatever.

That said, marshmallow has been the best Android OS I've used yet. Doze really works, my battery life is significantly improved.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2015 18:13

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Chimp_On_Stilts posted:

I had a Nexus 5, carrier free. I could tether with it no problem, from KitKat to Marshmallow.

Now my brand new Nexus 6P is refusing to allow me to tether as I had been doing problem free (and without rooting) for years.

Tethering is one of the primary things keeping me on Android vs. going back to iOS.

Why did this work before and not now?

Same thing here. Same SIM card (AIO > now Cricket). Wifi hotspot works on my N5 running Marshmallow, but put it in my Nexus 6P and it prompts me to call 611 or visit att.com to enable tethering.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 05:39

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

TenaciousTomato posted:

Another bad thing is apparently Verizon isn't supporting Voicemail on the 6P since it wasn't sold through them. I am switching to Cricket soon so hopefully that will fix the VM problem, but has anyone encountered the .zip issue? Why would this occur? Thanks goons

If a quick Google doesn't solve this issue other people have had luck integrating their voicemail into the dialer by using Google voice for their voicemail. (It's nearly seamless and relatively easy to setup)

# ¿ Nov 15, 2015 16:48

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

ilkhan posted:

I still haven't used Android Pay yet. The fingerprint sensor is nice, but I'm still getting used to the size in my pocket.

Had to use the old N5 for something, and wow did it seems small.

And yes, it does need finer grain power stuff.

Apparently I wear girly pants because it actually sticks out of my pocket a bit. Good thing pick-pockets aren't common around here.

Also needed to grab some files off my super tiny N5 yesterday. How'd I even live with that thing?

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 04:10

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Hat Thoughts posted:

Is there anywhere I can go to see - like - collected Black Friday phone deals or something? Need a new phone, despite the amazing capabilities of the HTC DESIRE 510

Here's the online deals and here's the in-store deals.

Honestly, most of these deals are on rather crappy phones and all of the decent phones will likely be locked to their respective carrier for a required amount of time. If you have a budget, we could probably suggest something.

SB35 fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Nov 22, 2015

# ¿ Nov 22, 2015 16:23

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 21:34

SB35: Jul 6, 2007; Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Ev posted:

So I did something stupid. My hand and arm twitched (drat neurological disease) and I dropped my Nexus 6 in just the right way to shatter the screen. I've been looking at prices for a new screen and what Motorola would charge to fix it and I'm thinking it might just be better to use this as an excuse to upgrade to something newer.

Has anyone here ever replaced a screen on a Nexus 6? It looks like a pain in the rear end to do it myself, plus the screen alone looks like it might even cost more than I would have to pay Motorola to fix it.

Anyway, other than the pain in the rear end that would be replacing the screen, is there any other good reason to not just upgrade to a newer phone? I not keen on having to drop the money on it, but if that makes more sense in the long run then I could see myself going that route.

Consider that you can now buy a new Nexus 6 for about $300

# ¿ Nov 23, 2015 20:11

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