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

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

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Present posted:

Why is Samsung getting slammed in this thread on the regular? I'm not a cellphone expert by any stretch of imagination and the only Samsung device I've owned is a Galaxy Nexus that I'm writing this very post on.

And this phone is a piece of poo poo that restarts randomly and has insane memory leaks. Is this a regular Samsung phone experience then?

Nope.

That's the *good* Samsung experience.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2014 22:10

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# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:40

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Just download them all from your free Google+ backup.

You do have a Google+ backup, right?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2014 17:20

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

With 2013 Moto X's being as cheap as they are, there's not really a good reason to get a Moto G right now. A Verizon one will not work on T-Mobile. BUT, I have a barely used, unlocked Dev edition I'm going to be selling shortly.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2015 20:53

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Don't worry, the next nightly is SURE to fix your problem!

# ¿ Jan 2, 2015 16:46

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Technically, they're all on the Play store, they're just not available to most devices.

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=moto%20display

# ¿ Jan 9, 2015 00:14

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Doomsday Jesus posted:

I'm not sure where to ask this but what's the best way to unlock a G3? Will AT&T do it or should I buy an unlock key?

They'll do it if your contract is completed or the phone is paid off, whichever applies to you.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 02:28

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Doomsday Jesus posted:

If it isn't is there a trusted site to do it?

Anyone doing it is just a disgruntled AT&T employee that doesn't care if they get fired, so put your expectations at that level.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 02:38

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Daily Forecast posted:

If you seriously can't think of more than 32GB (actually even less because of the OS) of stuff to keep on your phone then what are you even doing with a phone

Also, as far as batteries go, "shut down phone, swap battery, power back up, full charge in less than 30 seconds" will never be less convenient than "plug phone into external battery, wait three hours".

edit: Also, considering that the Note 4 is every bit as capable of cloud stuff, I will just not understand the stance of "well I'd RATHER my phone be a crippled piece of poo poo HARRUMPH". Having a removable battery and SD slot adds so much capability and them being present takes away none. So just what is your point? "Yeah well I didn't need it anyway"? That's stupid.

Nothing is more crippling than Touchwiz.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 14:27

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

SIR FAT JONY IVES posted:

If you ever need more than 16GB of music or videos on your phone please kill yourself.

B-b-b-b-but if you can't think of more 32 GB of things to put on your phone, you shouldn't even have a phone!

# ¿ Jan 17, 2015 10:32

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Cacator posted:

Starting to see reports of the back cover of the Nexus 6 coming off because of weak glue or expanding batteries. Then I checked mine which I got on Wednesday and the cover on the left side edge is slightly higher than on the right (which is flush with the frame), HOW PARANOID SHOULD I BE?!?!?!

It's literally going to explode in your pocket tomorrow.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2015 01:36

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Why don't people use the free Google+ backup??? I don't even use Android much and I use it. It's free and requires literally no effort beyond saying "Yes!" to it.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2015 11:21

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

I'd rather have a Lumia 635 than a Galaxy S4 Mini. At least the Lumia comes in bright orange.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2015 15:32

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

stickyfngrdboy posted:

My lg one m8 has just told me it wants me to install lollipop. Is it a good idea to update now or is there some reason I should wait ?

You should probably hold off since your phone is confused about it's manufacturer. Give it time to decide on its own how it identifies itself before making any drastic updates.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2015 19:17

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

An unlocked one will work fine on AT&T. In the unlikely event there's a Sony Style Store near you, they'll have it.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2015 02:14

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

MaxDuo posted:

Hilariously (?) I think that would be an improvement to how my droid 4 is at this point. I'll probably still try to suffer and hold off of a new phone for a few more months now, unless the next time I throw the phone while drunk and angry breaks it (I've got to hand it to my phone's cheap $1 case... it damaged the wall but the phone and case are still fine)

Oh you're one of those types.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2015 22:54

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Pyroxene Stigma posted:

... I thought everyone viewed them chronologically. Are you a Time Lord?

I wrote a Chrome extension that reorders posts randomly. I like to call it Forum Remix.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 15:23

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Internet Explorer posted:

So what's the best bang for the buck 100 Android phone these days? Would have to work on Verizon.

On contract? A Moto X.

Off contract? No such thing.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 18:34

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

whatever7 posted:

See this is kind of poo poo that make me reluctant to upgrade. I haven't seen anything from 4.4 or 5.0 that make me want to give up the awesome quick controls from AOSP browser.

I recently picked up a Padfone X running on 4.4 for a song. I got almost everything work except AOSP bowser and GMD guesture control. I ain't giving up GMD gesture control either. I think I will just stock up on 2013 phones.

This is the weirdest tech ludditism I've ever seen.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2015 20:42

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Surely given the plethora of alternate browsers available in the Play Store at least ONE will offer the edge-case functionality that makes the AOSP browser somehow indispensable to you.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 15:45

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

kitten smoothie posted:

I wish there was something good like this too, just for my office. We've about six Android phones, an iPhone, and an iPad that we use for testing. I wish we could just have an easy place for them all to sit and charge when we're not using them, without having eight USB chargers octopused off a power strip with the cords all tangled.

If you search for "USB charging hub" on Amazon there's lots of them. Or, at least, a better option than dealing with a power strip, I think.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 19:36

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

isndl posted:

My Moto Maxx isn't on the list...

The Droid Turbo is right there.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2015 23:19

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Rice and silica gel don't actually do much since they need direct contact with the liquid to absorb it, so at best, it will slightly speed up the evaporation, and it's the deposits left behind that cause electronics to die, which are going to be there regardless of how fast it dries.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2015 11:34

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Skeezy posted:

Why the gently caress do they not just sell the phone outright at this point lol.

Because then they wouldn't get free blogger headlines every few weeks or so to remind idiots their lovely phones exist.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2015 16:17

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Maker Of Shoes posted:

I shouldn't ever have to do this let alone reboot every 2-3 days. Neither are an acceptable solution for regular people in 2015.

I guess it's a good thing regular people don't buy Nexuses.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2015 19:27

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Massasoit posted:

I have a Nexus 5 as my very first smartphone and it's running lollipop 5.0.1. Seems to work great to me (with no other reference points besides fiddling with the occasional iOS device). I'm seen a lot of complaints about having to restart a phone and I guess I just don't get what the issue is. Can't stop watching that anime for two minutes to restart the phone?

edit: still poo poo at typing with swipe writing after 3 weeks.

If you have to restart your phone with any regularity (ignoring updates), that's an issue.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2015 23:13

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Guillermus posted:

Indeed. There is literally no reason at all to get an OPO when you can just get a Moto X, Xperia phone, Huawei Honor 6 (it has 3Gb RAM aswell if that matters) or loads of other options.

I don't really think a Huawei is a legitimate improvement over an OPO.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2015 20:50

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

I'm the road warrior that needs 450 Mbps download speeds on his phone.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 18:22

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

You can still get a 2013 Moto X for that and it's better than a Moto G in every way unless you absolutely insist on an SD card or a larger (but same resolution) screen.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2015 03:16

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

They're not carrier locked in the US, so, uh, open the box?

# ¿ Feb 19, 2015 18:19

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Pyroxene Stigma posted:

This is why I'm strongly considering the G Flex 2.

This seems like the worst kind of buying from a spec sheet possible.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2015 14:01

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

You're crazy. It looks nothing like an Incredible.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2015 17:46

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

*runs in*

AHEM without an SD card and removable battery how can I be expected to watch 4 hours of animes every day on the bus?

# ¿ Mar 1, 2015 22:59

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

ShoogaSlim posted:

I'm an iPhone owner popping in because I'm interested in the new phone announcements. Can "most" Android smartphones really go a day or more without charging? Seems far fetched but I'll be impressed if that is the case.

No. There's a handful that can, and they're all being mentioned specifically, but most Androids have roughly the same battery life as an iPhone.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2015 10:22

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

LeftistMuslimObama posted:

That's stupid. Increasing the screen size would increase the drain on the battery too.

Only when it's on.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2015 16:54

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

LastInLine posted:

I agree with you entirely, but then how could Google breathlessly run up to the podium after Apple announces all of their devices securely and transparently protect the user with full device encryption and shout "NO REALLY WE WILL TOO!"

I feel like the only reason Apple would do that at this point is just to egg Google considering iPhones have had full device encryption since like the 3GS.

Which I guess is something Apple would do.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 18:06

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

LastInLine posted:

Exactly.

I mean I can see they're explaining in the way the circle glows and grows but it's certainly not apparent that the phone lives on the left and camera on the right. I don't have a problem with the functionality or even the shortcut; I have a problem that the gesture doesn't connect to an action in a way that a user can logically intuit before performing the action. It's certainly not obvious that a dialer lives on the left and you're pulling it into view by dragging left to right and in fact there isn't even an animation in practice, merely an indicator that it will eventually happen if you keep dragging in that direction. The wallpaper doesn't even move as though the view to the screen is moving, it literally just happens. Where's the material there? You're not moving a view to another pane.

That's not good UI, it's simply a thing you need to memorize. Good UI would be being able to look at the lockscreen without touching it and knowing what motions will do what action. There's no way a person who has never used a smartphone would know how to use it just by looking at it.

When Apple first added the camera shortcut to the iOS lockscreen (iOS6?), it wasn't (and still isn't) immediately apparent how to use it, with the obvious thing being to tap the icon. Doing this just makes the bottom of the screen bounce a little as if it's saying "Hey, I'm under here! Swipe up for me!" which I always thought was cute.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 17:55

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

22 Eargesplitten posted:

Okay. I'm on T-Mobile, I'm looking at a last-gen phone. <300 used, so far I've been looking at an older HTC one, LG g2, or galaxy s4. Less so the s4, my work s4 is scratched to hell after 8 months. I like that the g2 has a gorilla glass screen, but I'm worried about the non-replaceable battery on a used phone, I don't know how well it's been treated. Durability and battery life are most important to me. Less so body durability because I'll probably get a case for whatever phone I decide on.

See that part where he mentioned Motorola? You can get a new 2013 Moto X for that.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2015 02:28

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

LastInLine posted:

Consider that the resistive touchscreen in my wife's new Subaru BRZ allows her to move one position at a time, not looping around, at a rate of maybe one position every two seconds. Need to get to an artist beginning with S? Hope you have fifteen minutes to stare at a touchscreen because that's literally not an exaggeration.

My FR-S has the cheap stereo just because I heard how awful the upgrade one was (not sure if the Scion and Subaru ones are the same or not). It has Bluetooth and I get in the car and it connects and autoplays whatever I last had on, so no real complaints about it.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2015 21:27

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

LastInLine posted:

That's sort of the point though. On Verizon the cost of the phone is hidden and built into the charge. You pay it whether you're paying for the device or not.

This isn't really the case anymore. Verizon is pushing EDGE just as hard as AT&T is pushing NEXT and T-Mobile is pushing JUMP (and Sprint is pushing whatever theirs is called).

# ¿ Mar 23, 2015 03:08

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# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:40

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

LastInLine posted:

Ah, okay. I only looked at them when they first launched and it was absolutely hilarious how much of customer loving both were.

They were lovely at launch, but they're both actually good plans and actually make their services reasonably priced if you don't actually need unlimited data and bring your own device or use Edge/Jump. At standard prices, a 3 GB plan on AT&T is only $5 more than T-Mobile, for instance, though the difference at 5/6 GB is $25. Verizon's are like another $10 on top of those because of course they are.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2015 03:42

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