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

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

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Ashex posted:

Battery Stats are complete poo poo with kitkat, is there an app that will fill my need to figure out why my battery sucks?

Accessing battery stats requires root as of KitKat. If you have that you can use BetterBatteryStats or GSam Battery Monitor.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2014 12:30

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:36

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

LastInLine posted:

I'd add that from a UI/UX perspective it sounds like it would be a nightmare to have a system-level mechanism for managing the colors of every app on the device. What you'd have would either be a way to select a predefined theme that you then have to enforce every app be somehow compatible with or you'd have a list of installed apps that you could select the changeable attributes for each one. Neither is the kind of thing any normal user should be confronted with out of the box as the former option won't be flexible enough to make the people interested in customization happy and the latter would just be a terrible experience.

gently caress, stop it, you're giving me flashbacks to that one time that I installed Paranoid Android.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2014 02:45

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Variable_H posted:

Holy poo poo, did that guy actually just use his wife's dead dad as a way to review a nexus phone?

He doesn't even really name anything that he did that makes these Nexus devices a particularly good choice. The video is basically: modern technology is great. Which actually could have been a decent video, talking about how we take these things for granted during stressful times or whatever. But somehow his conclusion from this is: buy a Nexus phone.

Tunga fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Dec 28, 2014

# ¿ Dec 28, 2014 01:56

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

AnonymousNarcotics posted:

1. The camera is really slow. This makes taking pictures of pets almost impossible. Do you guys think this is a hardware or software issue? Do you think there will be a fix for it? Is anyone else having this issue?

Do you have HDR+ turned on? You need to disable that for action photos.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2014 16:06

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

I'm also confused by the statement that News & Weather is somehow a better replacement for Currents than Newsstand is.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2015 14:05

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Bizarrely, Google were in the PMA while selling phones with Qi.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 18:33

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

The Circle of Sumsung'd Again.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2015 15:19

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

The answer is actually just that Maps is dumb and sometimes uses whatever voice it decides to use, this has been a thing since forever.

This thread is years old and 90% of it is people reporting the same issue:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/qYhKWUz7SdY

Tunga fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Jan 12, 2015

# ¿ Jan 12, 2015 15:38

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Vykk.Draygo posted:

Android takes up 8gb on the nexus 5?

It's about 3GB. Then you lose a couple of gig due to GB!=GiB and the usable space is actually more like 26GB rather than 24. I imagine he was just rounding down a bit since the precision of this number wasn't actually relevant to the point being made.

Edit: beaten, kinda.

Decius posted:

600 MB for the OS actually. But you need recovery, you need space for updates, you need space for cache, you need all kind of space not being occupied by actual OS files. Also, 32 GB aren't 32 GB.

System partition is ~1GB as far as I remember. But yeah, there are other bits, cache etc.

Tunga fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Jan 13, 2015

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 14:10

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

r0ck0 posted:

I just got an update to the google now launcher via the play store on my Nexus 5 running 5.0.1. Do you think they will be able to fix the memory leak with a google play update? I hear they can push almost any type of system change via google play. Confirm/deny

In addition to the other answers, Google Now Launcher is not the same thing as Google Play Services anyway.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 18:35

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

r0ck0 posted:

Who said it was? I said they are able to update core components via google play, eg the google now launcher. Perhaps they could also patch the memory leak by updating the offending app or service.

Google Now Launcher is not a "core component", it's an app like any other. Totally different thing to patching the kernel/framework/drivers/whatever to fix an OS memory leak.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 19:16

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Personally I wish I could toggle the removable battery-powered SD card slot on/off with a capacitive button below my physical keyboard.

Edit: And the headphone port would be on the side.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2015 10:23

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Sir Unimaginative posted:

backups are device-specific.

This isn't true. Prior to Lollipop restoring would download a bunch of apps that are installed on one or more of your other devices except you can't determine which device or apps you get in any way. Also none of your app data is restored unless the app specifically implements it, it literally just downloads the app from Play.

In Lollipop you can now chose which device to restore from and then customise the list of apps and the whole thing works a lot better. Restoring data is still down to the app, however.

I have no idea why your G2 is broken but I'd recommend you replace it with a good phone anyway because that thing is old and the UX is garbage.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 10:20

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

SIR FAT JONY IVES posted:

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

Bonus points if you choke on an SD card.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2015 03:40

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Can't be done without root. The actual answer is "get your carrier to disable voicemail", sorry.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2015 08:50

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Guillermus posted:

It can look exactly (and work) like stock with the bonus of letting you tweak about everything and be actually good.

Doesn't have Google Now integrated, so if you're attached to that it's a downgrade. But otherwise, yes.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2015 21:22

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

SIR FAT JONY IVES posted:

http://store.apple.com/us/iphone

I don't know mate, this looks expensive.

*Flashes OG Galaxy Ace with ToyotaMarshmallowROM*

:smug:

# ¿ Jan 27, 2015 18:19

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Rastor posted:

To fully expand with a single pull, use two fingers.

Or drag once and then tap the top bar (which is the exact same steps as was required on KitKat except back then you had to hit a specific icon with the tap).

Edit: Two finger drag also work on KitKat. It's basically identical to the old one.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2015 18:40

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Guillermus posted:

I had a single pull for quick settings since CM or Stock+xposed. If I don't have notifications, i want to have quick settings that's why I pointed KK+xposed (gravity box). It's better for single hand when you're doing something else.

Triple tap system bar also works. Or drag + tap as mentioned.

I know you'll say this is still not as good as your old hacked version or whatever but I don't really have any issues using it one handed. How often do you even need quick settings?

# ¿ Jan 28, 2015 19:15

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Oh Samsung, never change.

(Context)

# ¿ Feb 3, 2015 13:03

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Massasoit posted:

Can anyone recommend an external battery between 2000-3000 mAh that won't explode or destroy my Nexus 5? Something with an attached micro USB out would be preferable.

I have a few Anker products and have been happy with the quality, use them regularly with N5/N7/N10, they put out enough power to still charge the device with the screen on and while gaming or whatever. Can even run the Moto 360 dock off of these to charge my watch

.

The Astro Slim batteries have a built in cable of sorts, you can see it on the product pages.

http://www.ianker.com/External-Batteries/category-c1-s1

# ¿ Feb 4, 2015 00:42

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

I'm looking to replace my mess of cables with something simpler. Ideally I want a solution that uses a single power socket which can connect at least four devices via some kind of retractable USB cables that store away neatly but can be pulled out at least 1m (preferably 2m) to connect to devices (and which lock somehow so that they don't drag the devices towards the charger!). So either one pre-made device that does all of this or some combination of the right charger and cables to make this work. And it has to be available in the UK, preferably on Amazon Prime.

Any ideas?

(And before we get the obvious reply: yes, already I use wireless charging when I'm at my desk, but I also want a simply neat solution for charging my tablets, guest phones, etc.)

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 16:25

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

LastInLine posted:

The best I can think of is one of those crazy charging hubs and keep some cables nearby.

For some reason all the retractable USB cables I can find have horribly garish logos on them that look like trade show giveaways. Also considered braided cables but they are all ridiculous bright colours!

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 17:24

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Annath posted:

So apparently you can't do OTA update checks if you're rooted?

This is a Lollipop thing. Also you should really post this poo poo in the root thread.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2015 02:04

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

LastInLine posted:

I do think stylistically the Nexus 5 is quite boring but the perfect notification light makes up for it.

Not perfect, it cannot do always-on for some reason.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2015 17:12

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Woolie Wool posted:

Is it inevitable with any sort of Android phone for Android to throw out the contents of tabs you aren't looking at and have to re-render/refresh a tab when you switch tabs?

There are some issues on Lollipop which can cause this sort of thing to happen, which is probably what you read about.

However, your problem has nothing to do with that and everything to do with the fact that you are still using a Galaxy Nexus in 2015. It's time to upgrade.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2015 01:22

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

wooger posted:

My N5 has terrible battery life with Lollipop, can't quite believe that google have releases the update and left it this long with obvious bugs like this.

Would not recommend it to anyone right now, though its been fine since release.

Mine is like this and I have no clue what is using the battery because it just straight up doesn't tell me. The Battery screen will add up to like 25% and my battery will be down 50%. Phone will go for long periods where it is warm to the touch where the CPU is located (below camera). I've tried killing every app I can find running, restarting the phone, uninstalling apps I don't need, disabling location services, messing around with Wi-fi settings, disabling Tasker, and a bunch of other stuff. I just have no idea what else to try beyond factory resetting the thing. The battery screen is now entirely useless for resolving these issues.

The best part is that it randomly starts and stops doing this for no reason that I can determine. It'll be fine and then a few hours or a day later it's warm again and draining fast. Then it just stops and goes back to normal. It's been bad since about 16:00 yesterday but probably by this evening it'll stop again.

Mostly it doesn't bother me because my phone is rarely unplugged for more than 3-4 hours. But when it is I have to carry a battery pack with me because I never know when it'll decide to pull this poo poo.

I guess I'll have to re-root the drat thing and see if one of the battery stats apps can help me figure it out.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2015 12:32

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Protocol7 posted:

My guess is some piece of poo poo app keeping a huge wakelock on your phone or something.

My issue is not so much "Google, why you are killing my battery" because it may well be some third-party app causing it. My issue is "Google, why is the battery usage screen complete garbage?"

# ¿ Feb 11, 2015 15:24

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

LastInLine posted:

Hasn't that always been the case?

Yes, but battery stats apps didn't used to require root, so it was irrelevant.

Maker Of Shoes posted:

My N5 is about 2 steps from completely unusable on 5.0.2. So bad that I've been trolling CL and the likes to swoop in on an N6 deal.
- Battery life is horrid
- I have to reboot it every 2 to 3 days so I can have Maps and *gasp* Music going or it will kill one or the other
- App switching after a couple days is glacial. Same with launcher redraws. Oh, sometimes it kills my alarm clock app randomly so I've had to plug in my old HTC Sensation with a shattered screen to use it as an alarm clock.

Just when I thought iOS 7 on my ancient iPhone 4 was the worst mobile experience ever imagined Google pulls this.

Yep, this is mine too. Maybe not quite as bad as yours but I have to reboot it every few days to keep it running smoothly.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2015 16:47

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

The Dark One posted:

It confused me because I had no idea what "time-specific" updates meant, since the thing would upload any picture I took as soon as I took it.

I have used auto-upload since the day it was released, have re-set it up on probably a dozen devices since, and I have absolutely no clue what "time-specific" uploading is.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2015 21:28

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

nerve posted:

Any Google Play Music All Access deals? My free three months is about to run out. Did they give anything away to Nexus 6 buyers?

There are lots of ways to get three months free but you can only ever use one because they are only valid for new subscribers. As soon as you've subscribed once you can't use another one.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2015 22:35

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Rastor posted:

All Google Wallet transactions are covered under Google's 120 day Google Wallet Fraud Protection.

This is garbage compared to the protection my card gives me (in the UK so may be different there).

# ¿ Feb 24, 2015 21:31

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Penguissimo posted:

Why don't you people charge your goddamn phones overnight I will never understand this

Some people don't have power near their bed. My house is old (like, a century old) and only has one socket point in most of the bedrooms and I don't want to traipse wires all over the rooms.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 16:42

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Thermopyle posted:

Simply get a new house so you can charge your phone. Duh.

My parents say I'm not allowed to build a new house in their basement, what now?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 16:47

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

stickyfngrdboy posted:

why does it need to be near your bed?

Because my phone is my alarm (and I like to read blogs and stuff on my phone for a bit before I get up).

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 17:15

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Oh good, I see that the "Lollipop is fine bro" brigade are out in force again, I just love reading these posts. You know when I love reading these posts the most? It's when I take my phone out of my pocket to browse the forums and my battery has done this:

So my mobile signal is poo poo, right? Well, no, since the part when my signal was weak doesn't actually show worse drain than the earlier part where it was fine. Also the radio usage is way down the list:

So what else do we have here. Maybe I just used it a bunch?

Not even 70 minutes of screen on, an absolutely pittance compared to the 3+ hours that I would get under normal circumstances.

Of course there's a bunch of wakelock showing on the "awake" graph that you can see in the first screenshot. So what was responsible for this?

What the gently caress am I supposed to do with this info? Android sort of admits "yep, that was me, gently caress you" but yet claims this only used 5% of the battery and the only way to find out more info is to root my drat phone. All of the numbers on this screen are garbage. The values all add up to 42% even though I was down 80% of my battery. Android OS wakelocked my phone a bunch but still claims to have used less than Chrome (which was used for about 20 minutes). Play Services shows a few minutes of wakelock but somehow apparently used 7%. All of this is useless information and doesn't explain where my battery went. None of it helps me actually solve the issue. And "uninstall Facebook" doesn't work because I don't have that poo poo anywhere near my phone.

Tomorrow I'll get up and use my phone and it'll work perfectly. And maybe Monday. And then on Tuesday it'll do this again. And I'll still be none the wiser.

Lollipop is horribly and fundamentally broken on some devices and the whole "works for me" thing that people love to post is just laughable.

Tunga fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Mar 7, 2015

# ¿ Mar 7, 2015 23:22

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

nerve posted:

And also if you are admitting that Lollipop is broken on your device (I had major issues with 5.0 when it pushed to me N5 before I upgraded to an N6) then why don't you loving roll back to Kit Kat like has been recommended? Or do you not have enough time to do that, but plenty of time to complain about it?

I need it on Lollipop for app development purposes.

Even if that wasn't true, I actually like a lot of things about Lollipop so I just carry a battery pack rather just rolling back. Doesn't make it any less poorly coded though.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2015 23:37

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Blitter posted:

Why don't you root it and get some accurate stats about what is tearing through your battery? If you use it for development purposes why is it an issue to root it? It's a nexus - the whole process of rooting, checking and removing root is a few minutes worth of effort, probably less than your screenshots (unless your boot loader has never been unlocked, which I'm guessing it isn't as you've said you flashed factory images previously).

You see the irony in me having to "break" my phone to fix my phone, right? I probably will do this tomorrow though since I also want to poke around with the new Xposed a bit (but not until I figure out the battery stuff).

Blitter posted:

Why is your dev phone your daily driver? Can't use the SDK's lollipop emulator?

The emulators have a come a long way but they are still pretty janky and bad compared to just using an actual device. It's my dev phone because it's my phone and I have better things to spend money on that another N5 (that could be just as broken anyway).

Blitter posted:

I'm sure you know it's probably not strictly an issue of a "lollipop being poorly coded" but probably a wake lock from an app being a POS

I don't think it is, to be honest. I am pretty good about what I install on my phone. Running services right now: Settings, Goggles, Moto Connect, Tasker, Google App (i.e. Search/Now/GNL), Maps, Google+, Android Wear, Google Keyboard. There's also Play Services and a weird Qualcomm thing that just shows a package name. Pretty sure none of these are doing it. Maybe Goggles I guess, but it never shows up on the battery screen at all.

We'll see what battery stats throws up next time it happens.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2015 00:53

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

I'll buy a new Nexus every year if they don't make it so huge!

# ¿ Mar 8, 2015 01:04

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:36

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

FAUXTON posted:

Basically it'd be an insertable version of a power brick, except the juice is instantly available rather than needing to trickle charge.

This sounds like the opposite of what you have proposed. You'd need to leave a giant battery pack connected to the phone permanently instead of the current system of just connecting an external one for an hour.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2015 18:24

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