The All-Inclusive Android Thread - Page 32

Yes but I would wager that the perceived percentage of rooters, approximately 5%, further drops significantly to a minor percentage of those people who are simply changing the UI.  Agree?

No.  There are tons of custom launchers that don't require root to change the UI to whatever you want (ADW, LauncherPro, etc).  The majority of people who are rooting and installing custom ROMs are doing so for performance increases, enabling features of the OS that the carrier has locked in their stock ROMs (Wi-fi hotspot and USB tethering in particular), and upgrading to versions of Android that the OEMs or the carriers either won't upgrade their handsets to, or are taking too damn long for.

Fair enough.  I'm not as in to the rooting community and lingo as I could be I'd wager.

 

Problems over the hill for Android?

 

Anyone else have problems with ringtones and notifications sounds spontaneously changing?  This has been my biggest recurring for the life of my phone.  My Gmail alerts today changed all by their lonesome from the Boondocks quotes they should be to random Beach Boy songs in my music library.  My sister's ringtone was some random song I didn't even know the name of.

I'm a rooter and have rooted over half a dozen Android devices, and I'm firmly in camp ICS. It's amazing, and I like the steps that Google is taking to provide a more unified version of the OS.

 

Rooting does provide far more than UIs. I do prefer Sense based ROMs over all others, but HTC seriously needs to get their act together when it comes to the stability and functionality of their ROMs. They are resting on their laurels and it shows every single time I switch to a new ROM, and it's smoother, more stable, and has better battery and power management over standard Sense.

 

THAT is what is going to differentiate one Android phone from the next.

Eventually I think I will need to bend your ear in a PM or two.

The Samsung Galaxy S II X is now mine. I'm gonna be up all night playing with this sucker.

My fiance's iPhone 4S came today and after playing with it some I'd say the screen is so great and the photos are quality but it's so hard going back to a non-Swype keyboard and the lack of widgets is pretty glaring.  I have to assume that iOS 6 is going to be widgeted like a mother because that seems like the biggest remaining issue.

 

Siri misunderstands me somewhat and I keep accidentally activating it when trying to kill apps.  It's also tough to lose the 'back' button.  Rethinking my plan to switch to the iPhone 5 next fall.  It'll really depend on whether the Atrix gets Ice Cream Sandwich though (and if ICS kills the battery).

 

Still no way I'm picking up an Android tablet though.  Can't wait for the high-res iPad 3.

So now that I got this thing and I'm starting to understand it is there any apps that any can recommend? Preferably free ones.

The glory of Android, most of my apps are free. I have bought maybe 4 apps ever.

 

Amazon Android always has one free app a day.

Yeah, and now that I've started running again I'm actually glad I picked up Cardio Trainer Pro when Amazon had it free one day.  Great for tracking my runs.  I just wish it had customizable intervals with the 'pro' module.  And the dev seems like it was a 'for hire' job so I don't think it'll be getting any more significant upgrades.

Santa, please?

Wow. I think I found my first tablet.

I'm still waiting for the iPad with Retina display.  Seeing how much nicer the display on the iPhone 4S looks compared to my Atrix (I hate the jerk who invented the PenTile display), I'm going to wait until tablets have a similar ultra-hi-res display.

So... I love that tablet. But with quad core processors and large internal memory, why can't I run a laptop operating system on it? (Linux or Windows or OSX)

 

Edit to elaborate:

 

I want laptop functionality in a tablet. I don't want a large cellphone that I can't download any software to that wasn't designed for my Ipod touch.

Yeah that Transformer Primer looks amazing. I might actually end up getting a tablet because of that.

That Transformer Prime is bad ass and probably the first Android tablet that is worth the $500 price tag. If I were in the market for a tablet, I would definitely get this.

Google is currently pushing the Ice Cream Sandwich source code out! That means ICS ROMs in the near future! FUCK YES.

I hear the Galaxy nexus is about to be delayed to december...WHY GOD WHY do you play with my emotions

 

My BB CURVE can only hold out for so long!

 

DONT MAKE ME GET A RAZR SAMSUNG...DONT YOU MAKE ME DO IT

For the love of Jesus! I have been holding on an upgrade for 6 months. My MotoDroid 1 is two years old! That's like 70 in cell phone years.

Anyone fellow Android lovers want to tell me why I should buy the Nexus?  DROID RAZR is out because I loathe MOTO, the HTC Rezound has nothing going for it right now that I am interested in.  If the Beats inclusion was hardware and not software trickery then maybe I would consider.  And, honestly, I am waiting to see what happens with Sense and ICS.

 

That obviously leaves me with the Galaxy Nexus.  I don't like Samsung because of their update issues being worse than HTC.  Of course, that point is moot with the phone being the Nexus.  However, I have a friend who has the DROID Charge and it is a POS.  The build quality on it sucks and it is buggy as fuck.  I don't like the build quality on the Nexus S which of course is a Samsung phone as well.  The plasticky design just doesn't square with me.  It just feels sub par for a flagship phone.  Some places I read Samsung has great hardware components, others people say they are junk.  People I know who work for Verizon don't care much for their hardware.

 

I'm stuck.  Unless HTC has another monster phone with no hardware buttons and a well integrated ICS/Sense package coming up in March or something I believe I may just finally get down to rooting the Incredible and seeing if CM9 will run on it.

 

Any advice?

Look, I intensely dislike Samsung. My kid is on her third Samsung refurb'd unit in as many months, and most people I know who are dissatisfied with their Android devices are Samsung users.

 

The Nexus line is a different story though. Nexus users get all of the upgrades first, they get stock Android, nearly every ROM works flawlessly, seamlessly on Nexus devices, and they're much easier to root. There is something to be said for the Google seal of approval and knowing that you will most likely get all upgrades to at least see out your two year contract period. Check out the forums, and most Nexus users are upgrading to new Nexus devices.

 

I'm not sure why Google has decided to go with Samsung again over Moto or HTC for the next Nexus phone, but if I had my choice of Android phones, I would choose the Galaxy Nexus. And this is coming from someone who really likes HTC Sense, but it is certainly not the end all, be all of Android.

 

Tzu, are you familiar with any other Android devices and/or ROMs outside of your Incredible? A tablet perhaps?  I think that if you spent a considerable amount of time with other Android devices, you would see that there is life outside of Sense.

BTW, if I were on Verizon, I would love to have the Incredible S, and then root the living shit out of it. The size of the phone truly is the sweet spot for me.

 

I was able to have access to and play with, twice a week until getting my phone, a Nexus One and would have purchased it but the Incredible was to be on Verizon.

 

Most of the Android people I know(people who have asked me for advice on their next phone) and the ones I see in passing(students in class) are usually HTC(Incredibles, INC2's, EVO's).  That being said, I am familiar enough with TouchWiz and my knowledge of Blur(although I hear it is nearly non-existent on the RAZR) is zero.  I have a friend who has a Galaxy Tab(purchased refurbed) and he has had no problems with it at all.  I've had a go at it slightly more than one would in store.

 

I haven't gotten into ROM's because I'm just honestly afraid of fucking up my phone. 

 

I'm mostly afraid of, as you mention, the fact that the Samsung owners I know have the most problems with their devices.  And from helpng them troubleshoot I am hard pressed to figure out if it is TouchWiz or the hardware.

 

And to finish off on a slightly fanboyish note, Sammy's design choices in their UI remind me too much of Apple icons.

 

Right now I feel like waiting until I can play with the Nexus and if I don't like it, going root and if I brick the Incredible, hey my upgrade is available.

 

*EDIT*

 

Yeah, phone sizes are outta hand...
 

 

Nexus One rehash...

 

But, HUBBA-HUBBA!  Design language like that, moving away from the red ring, the hourglass shape, the curved vs. contoured back... I don't need quad core... fast track that with Rezound internals and I would be a happy man.

 

Although, looking at those external design changes makes me hope that Sense is less intrusive with the advent of ICS.  UI overlays are oviously the way OEMs can differentiate themselves in the Android ecosphere.  I'd love to see design language take over as the dominant nudge to one maker or another as ICS unifies the Android brand.

 

*EDIT*  I haven't looked at desktops since 2009.  HP currently has a Pavilion with a 2.6GHz Intel chip.  If that Zeta hit the market with those specs we'd be looking at desktop processing power in the palms of our hands.

Samsung's Apple style grid bothered the shit out of me too.

 

In fact, I might have mentioned it here, but I actually installed a ROM a few weeks ago that looks Apple inspired (MIUI) and I couldn't even last the night with it. Those silly, cartoonish icons and the lack of an app drawer wounded me.

 

I commend you for sticking with stock so long. I had one of the first monster/beastly 4.3 inch phones, so my battery life basically came off the charger at 7 am and lasted through breakfast, I really had no choice but to root. Sense is certainly the best skin of any Android OS, but they've still got a long way to go. I really shouldn't have had to root to get the kind of battery management and stability I get with custom ROMs.

I agree you shouldn't have.  That was the first EVO, wasn't it?

 

I have stayed stock because for all the minor quirks I have come up against I was able to quickly figure out how to tinker with the phone to overcome it.  With the recent episode I had wherein I to hard reset it makes me think more and more that the problem is not Android's source code that is to blame for most people's issues.  I don't think it is even Sense or the other overlays.  I believe firmly that app interactions are the problem that leads to most phones going a bit skittish.

 

Much like your pharmacist can make sure to not give you two medications that might kill you, I think the inverse of the Market is that Google has left it so open that many programs are conflicting and causing problems that otherwise wouldn't be there.

And maybe this is for another thread, but if the only way to make the Android operating system better is to tightly control its market place, then I don't want it better.  Big Apple does that and I didn't choose them because of it.

I'm not saying tightly control it, more just theorizing.

 

Seems like when I read forums that people who are heavy app downloaders seem to have the biggest problems.  Could just be talking out of my ass though.

I said this a while ago, but it might bear repeating:  If you're having a ton of trouble with your Android phone and you're running some sort of App Killer 'Power Management' app, get rid of it.  The OS manages power just fine on it's own, and App Killers will keep trying to kill system processes that will just start up again, and then get killed, and etc, and your battery will actually drain faster, and you'll get a ton of stability problems, too.  The only power management you should need is the little power management widget that lets you easily toggle wi-fi, bluetooth, gps etc on and off.

The best thing I did for improving my battery life was to quit having my work's Exchange server connected to it.  I'm easily getting 25-50% better battery life without that.

 

And I think that running a bunch of apps definitely could cause problems.  I think it's an Android architectural issue that allows all of those apps to cause the problems they do though.

 

As for manually monitoring the app market, that really doesn't seem like Google's MO.  It seems a lot more likely that they'd eventually write something that evaluates the byte code of the app and analyzes the potential threats they pose that way than do anything like what Apple does.

So close, yet so far.

 

I very nearly made the jump from Sprint to Verizon on Sunday during Amazon's one cent sale. I went back and forth, agonized over it, and when I finally got off of the pot and made a decision, Amazon yanked the high end phones, citing "while supplies last". I of course, was almost devastated and I'm still pissed at myself for waiting so long. I literally had the phones in my cart, and when I went to check out, they were back to $199.

 

It was an HTC Rezound by the way. I LOVE that phone and I want it bad.

 

So now I wait for it to go on sale again. It will, Android phones always do. I'm so over Sprint. But part of me is still a little happy that I get to be in the EVO club for a little while longer, I'm not ready to give it up yet. Hence the initial indecision.

I was *this* close to picking up the Galaxy Tab 10.1 today (Woot had refurbished 16GB wifi-only models for $320) but then I remembered that I had to pay my phone and cable bills so then I ended up spending the money that way instead.  So tempted though.  Mostly because I'm sick of going to sit on the couch in the evening and having to try to browse the internet on my phone or laptop.  A tablet would be so much nicer.

 

Guess I'll keep waiting for the retina display iPad 3.

Transformer Prime for the win, nachos.

 

Also, here you go folks.  Tried one of these out yet, Cocoa?

I just would like to move up to the ultra high resolution that I'm hoping the next iPad has.  If I'm not paying for that then I'd want a $300 or less 10" tablet that all of the free Amazon Android games I've got will work on.  I would consider the 10" Kindle Fire that I've heard rumored but I don't like the idea of being stuck running their Silk browser.

Holy crap, this 10 Billion Downloads promo on the Android Market is INSANE. Swiftkey X Keyboard for 10 cents? Yes please.

 

Edited to say that this is 10 apps for 10 cents a piece, for 10 days.

Yeah, picked up three of the promo apps last night just because they were cheap.

 

On an unrelated note my Gmail has not been pushing properly since my Incredible got it's finalized GB update.  Going to root today.  Which ROMs should I head to first?

 

*EDIT* NVM on that, I just jumped into the forums to follow a guide and looks like rooting a DINC that is 2.3.4 is not easy at all.  Shite.  Guess I need to go shopping Friday for that POS Nexus.

Edited by TzuDohNihm - 12/7/11 at 1:04pm

Early List of .10c promo apps for today.

if verizon would fucking release the galaxy nexus already i could be buying these apps too.

 

now its not even likely for this FRIDAY anymore...this is ridiculous.

Hear, hear!

 

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting. I need a new phone. My current is two years old, but this never knowing of a release date is killing me.  Does anyone know what the problem is? The Euro version (GSM) has been out for weeks.

 

You can buy them and link them to your google account through market.android.com, you know.

did not know that!

Noooo. I want to put an ICS rom on my Nookcolor BADLY.

 

My EVO is so kaput, it's not even funny. I am back to using my old HTC Hero until we port over to Verizon, and it's killing me softly.

 

I'm still trying to decide between the Rezound and the Nexus. I hate that the Nexus has no expandable memory card slot, but I like that it is a Nexus--which no pun, is like the Lexus of Android devices.

I like that the Rezound is HTC, has Beats, and 32gb of memory right off the bat. But it's not a Nexus, and won't have ICS for who knows how long.

 

I'm torn. So torn.

Someone convince me to put the cash back under the mattress....

 

Galaxy Nexus on sale tomorrow.

 

My local store has 60.  At an off contract price of $650 I doubt it will be worth it to flip one before Christmas, huh?  The GSM versions on Ebay are going for around $700.

STILL HAVE an upgrade.

 

upgrading tomorrow.

 

the wait has been so long im not even excited anymore...i just need a new god damn phone

 

ok...I'm a little excited.

You GUYZ. I think I'm going to go for the Nexus tomorrow, sight unseen.

 

For the record, I spent an hour today playing with both the Rezound and the Razr, and was VERY impressed with the RAZR's offerings. The Rezound was nice, dependable, and nearly identical to all other HTC offerings--please understand that I like this, and I know exactly what I'm getting in an HTC phone. But the RAZR was so sleek and sexy, and the screen was one of the best I've ever used.

Despite my infatuation with the RAZR, I would still go for the reliable Rezound over it.

 

That said, if I can score a major deal on a Nexus tomorrow, there's no way I can pass up owning one at least once.

Cocoa, buzz is that corporate stores are offering $100 discounts for upgrading from 3G to 4G phones.  Try to finagle that as well.

White RAZR sway you, Miss Cocoa?

The Verizon sales associate actually came out with the white RAZR and tried to entice me with it! I do love white phones, but this phone I think looks better black--in person anyway.

 

If I go to Verizon, it will be as a new customer so I wouldn't qualify for the $100 discount. Also, California charges us tax on the full unsubsidized price of the phone. I am not paying this hell hole state an extra $80 dollars for the privilege of purchasing in store. I'll be ordering from either Amazon or Wirefly.

 

I'm punking out on ordering the Nexus. I still can't decide between that and the Rezound.

Just spent fifteen minutes playing with the Nexus. No way in heaven or hell would I pay $299 or even $150 if I got the 3G>4G discount AND my upgrade discount for that phone. The plastic build quality is beyond sub par. I almost broke the battery cover taking it off. The battery cover is more flimsy than a credit card. The sides of the phone are cheap plastic, this thing ought to be metal or thicker plastic at least. It is light, I will give it that. Of course I would have a case on it but this thing falls, case or no, it is suffering major damage I bet.

I cannot stand the name "Rezound" so looks like I am riding the Incredible out another month or so.

*EDIT* The case for my Incredible is better quality than what is wrapped around this flagship device.
Edited by TzuDohNihm - 12/15/11 at 7:14am

LOVING THE NEXUS RIGHT NOW TZU.

 

I agree though the battery cover is beyond flimsy...it was frankly really disappointingly cheap.  The phone does not have the high end sleek sheen of a Moto phone thats for sure

 

But, superficiality aside, jesus christ the thing is LIGHT.  way lighter than one would expect.  Frankly, this is a big plus.  Its still quite thin and seriously, the weight has to be felt to be believed guys.

 

ICS is great so far, but I have literally spent no time with it.  Android is android, its a good phone OS.