All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

My girlfriend and I are looking into ditching Virgin Mobile. Since we moved to our new apartment, we often lose signal and drop calls in our own home, and it's not any better at the factory where I work either. Sprint/VM usually has pretty good coverage around Cleveland, but I guess we're just in a dead zone. Also, they started capping the "unlimited" 3G data and throttling it down to 2G after 2GB of use...then again, the data is always so unbelievably slow, it may actually be physically impossible to get 2GB of data through this network in the course of one month. I'm also slightly annoyed by the very limited phone selection; the Triumph I have is still the most advanced Android phone they offer.

I'm looking into T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go plans. We'd really prefer to not get tied to a contract. Right now I'm paying $35 a month for 300 minutes, unlimited messaging and unlimited 3G/2G data; my girlfriend has the same except $45 for 1,200 minutes. T-Mobile has a similar plan; $30 a month, for only 100 minutes, but unlimited data with 4G for the first 5GB, and 3G after that. They also have a $50 unlimited everything plan, but with only 100MB of 4G and unlimited 3G that my girlfriend likes. I've heard that since T-Mobile uses GSM instead of CDMA, I'd be able to use any Android phone with a SIM card, is that true?

Anyone have any recommendations other than that?

 

Check into Walmart's new mobile phone service. It's $45 and it's unlimited everything. I forgot what it's called but supposedly they leech off of other carriers networks.

 

T-Mobile's "Monthly 4G" prepaid is the best option for prepaid. I had it before, because the ability to get any android phone I wanted and just stick the SIM in and use it. (So, yes T-Mobile uses SIM cards , when you set up and order the plan, you can select to just get a SIM instead of a phone) Their 3G speeds are better than any other carrier and they usually have good 4G coverage, BUT make no mistake, after the "4G limit" it goes to 2G. Which is horribly unusable, I know from personal experience, you get about 0.02Mbps down.

But aside from that, they have the best offer than anybody, since you can use any GSM phone you want, which is not the case with any other (reasonably priced) prepaids.

Straight Talk They run off of Verizon's network.

 

I just switched from the Straight Talk Unlimited $45 plan to T-Mobile's $30 100 Minutes(Unlimited text and data) plan. Have you looked at Straight Talk's offerings? They sell sim cards that run on T-Mobile and AT&T. You get unlimited minutes, texting, and about 2GB's of data. I believe on the $50 plan, after 100MB it throttles to 2G speeds. I could be wrong though.

You can use a T-Mobile sim in any GSM phone that is unlocked or T-Mobile branded. But, the phone must support T-Mobile's 3G/4G bands, if you want 3G/4G.

 

[QUOTE='[>>ahl395<<]


Straight Talk They run off of Verizon's network.[/QUOTE]

Actually, Straight Talk sells phones on all four major carriers: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

They also sell sim cards that run on AT&T or T-Mobile.

I believe Wal-Mart Family Mobile runs off T-Mobile's network.

 

Yeah, I have! But when I ask "What's the best phone ever?" it crashes :laugh:

Deodexing is being done and improved to all GSIII apps for CM9 support. Should be ready in a few days

This fw dump will also accelerate openDESIGN development!

 

The thing is though, you really can't just use any GSM phone for T-Mobile prepaid, as it has to support their AWS bands for 3G/4G.

You can literally use any 3G phone on Straight Talk, since they have roaming agreements with every major GSM carrier in the US.

 

Looks like im going back to plain CM9 instead of an AOKP, the newest update includes pretty much everything AOKP did.

Ah yeah, forgot about that. T-Mobile's bands suck

 

not to mention T-Mo's Flagship phone is always the last to receive any Android updates. Vibrant and now GSII.

 

Nice! But I do miss my notification drawer customization... But damn CM9 is light years fast with Siyah kernel!

Also, dat car...

 

So it has to be a phone compatible with T-Mobile's bands and unlocked...but after I run out of 4G, I get bumped straight down to 2G? That sucks, I'm really trying to avoid that. >:|

 

Yes, and sort-of. The only phones you're likely to find that will work correctly on T-Mobile's bands will be a T-Mobile phone... unlocked or not.

But no, T-Mobile uses HSPA/HSPA+ for 3G/4G. When you pass your cap you get bumped down from HSPA+ "4G" speeds to regular HSPA "3G" speeds.

 

You sure about that HAL? When I had T-Mobile's "Monthly 4G", it went straight to 2G unusable speeds after the limit was reached. Which is why I couldnt stand it anymore and switched to sprint

 

I think it depends on how congested the local infrastructure is. I trialed it from December to February gratis from T-Mobile as part of a job offer and I never had to deal with real 2G EDGE. Maybe I was provisioned differently?

I know with Verizon/ATT, if they throttle you they do so on a lower level than the tower, meaning you're still connected to 3G/4G services but the network will only provide so much throughput. If the local infrastructure isn't congested you usually still get decent speeds... about 1-1.5Mbps downstream and about .2-.5 upstream on HSPA.

 

You're switching away from AOKP to CM because they've copied AOKP?

 

I'm glad netbooks died off in short order. Useless little things. This -PHONE- makes them look worse than useless.

Exclusive: New LG Eclipse Image Reveals Removable Battery and NFC - BriefMobile

 

I think it's the other way

 

Most likely the case!

 

Yep

Siyah v3.2.5 released!

 

Oh damn... Time to flash already?

 

If you read what he said, quite clearly it's not.

As was discussed before, even if LG manage to get it to market, it'd be crippled by their firmware.
And if they're producing that, then it adds weight to the rumoured HTC super-phone for Verizon.

 

I think he meant what he said - that CM9 can do everything AOKP can do now... AOKP had many more features than CM9 when I first got my phone and was considering which ROM to use.

 

Is this true:

Samsung Galaxy S 3 - Page 4

 

Well, their firmware aside... they also have unlocked bootloaders. So if for nothing else, this would be a good community supported phone. Technically, I only buy Samsung for the hardware as well. So buying an LG with the same plastic build quality and a non-pentile 720p IPS LCD wouldn't really be any different for me. But that's me, and I know a lot of people are going to think differently.

 

Having never owned an LG handset, I may be mistaken but my impression is that LG's handsets don't have the same community support as similarly-specced Samsung or HTC handsets.

I would say that it's liable to be more different than you anticipate.

LG handsets, a little like Motorola, always feel like there's something missing or that a corner's been cut somewhere that Samsung/HTC wouldn't.
It's like all the pieces are there but when they're put together, the sum of the parts doesn't measure up to the sum of the competitors' parts.

Also, whilst I know LG are supposed to produce decent displays, would it actually be better than the LCD panels HTC are using?

 

Some don't. Some do. The G2x, Optimus LTE/Nitro HD and several other LG phones are directly supported by the heads of CyanogenMod. I know the G2x was directly endorsed and developed for by Steve Kondik, if I remember correctly. The Nitro HD/Optimus LTE/P999 has been 100% supported almost since release. It's just that there's not that many people that buy them (enthusiasts or no).

I definitely understand what you're saying. The Atrix is a prime example. It should have been a great phone, but it just isn't. It doesn't feel like a well put together handset, it's screen sucks, it's locked down and best of all it has visible frame flex just from normally pressing the stupidly placed power button.

BUT... my experiences with high-end LG handsets, hardware wise, have been pretty much all positive. The G2x is a brick of a solid built phone. The Nitro HD felt like a Galaxy S phone. Heck, the Revolution on Verizon felt like a nicely built phone. If all that's holding them back is software, I'll gladly buy one of their high end models and put some CM on it. The G2x with CyanogenMod is probably the best example of a Tegra based phone.

 

Yeah, that's one part I'm not familiar with - LG's US models.
They seem to focus on the US a lot more than Europe, or the UK at least.

We never did see enough of the Optimus 2Xs to be able to tell if they were good, bad or indifferent but the Optimus 3D just seemed shoddy - every single one we sold was faulty.


Personally, I'd have reservations about buying an LG.
But if the specs were good enough and there wasn't a comparable HTC, Samsung or SE handset on the horizon, I guess I'd give it a go.

 

Yep

I have the dreaded OFD I always flash twice a day

 

Yeah me too. But I think it was tablets that killed the netbook. When they perform much better and are in the same price point its kind of a no brainer.

As for NFC Im kinda worried about this as I dont want to walk by a person and have them hack my phone due to it being enabled. If I keep my gnexus Ill likely be getting a non NFC cover with my extended battery.

 

If we're honest, one particular tablet killed netbooks.

You can disable NFC in the settings, plus you pretty much have to be pressing against another NFC device for them to interact.

Also, if you get a metal battery cover that kills NFC, it's liable to affect your GPS performance too.
Not to mention, the NFC antenna is in the battery, so a 'cleaner' solution would be to get an extended battery that doesn't support NFC ( though that probably means getting a cheap/nasty one as all the reputable manufacturers now do them with the NFC antenna embedded).

 

NEVER!

Well Im thinking along the lines of someone using an amplified signal that makes it not necessary to bump the devices. As for the battery the ones I always go for are siedio, although thinking twice about it after the last cell I got from them. But that is all on hold pending the radio performance issue of my galaxy nexus...

 

I still like the idea of a netbook, sometimes you need a small screen that can run windows.

 

In a predicament guys. Just wanting to get your feedback. I have had my note for some months now, and I love it more than any other phone I have ever had. As I said earlier in this thread it is awesome for browsing the internet, which is what I still mainly do with it. The problem is, it might be a little bit too big. I can't one hand it at all which can get quite frustrating sometimes. For example, when trying to use the phone app one handed, when I need to hit a button that is on the top row such as keypad, logs, contacts, etc. it is nearly impossible. Any ideas? I am seriously considering selling it for a smaller one. Maybe the nexus, one x, or another. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

All you can really do is try other handsets side-by-side with your Note and see what you think.

Do you use the S-Pen at all?
If so, there's really nothing else on the market that will match it.

 

Galaxy Service II?

 

PlayBook autocorrect or fo' reals?

 

HAL, I've been wondering... What's the maximum number of flashes that my GSII can take? I flash almost everyday, is that bad?

 

I've honestly ever used the s-pen a handful of times if I have to attend a lecture for class or something. So I wouldn't care to lose that.

 

In that case, you should probably start with the Galaxy S3 for comparison purposes, if that's still too big then both the One X and Galaxy Nexus are marginally smaller again.

 

So proud of my phone

 

Why would there be a limit? You can install windows on a PC as many times as you'd like.

 

I don't think you have to worry about anything. The type of NAND used in phones is fairly robust. Just make sure to keep the flashing clean, as in if you flash a LOT you need to completely wipe and reformat the internal partitions every 3-4 months or so.

 

Thank you for your help, Step. I will probably either sell or trade my Note for the OneX or the S3.

 

Wow sprint only has 1 ICS phone out now and the evo LTE is a "coming soon" which means retail availability is looking nil for at least a week or so. I love the galaxy nexus but the radio performance is terrible. Anyone else with this phone having similar issues?

 

Ok, I know I promised these a while back but it's really not easy to get thoughts out into Photoshop (especially CS6 ).

This is my first one, and it applies to every notification that uses the shade. What I would like to see is something general like this banner that groups your notifications together, but is still compact. Basically the banner will show how many notifications a particular app is trying to show. In the case below, when you drag down on the banner with two fingers (actually use those multitouch screens!), your most recent unread emails will roll out from under the banner like a window shade. Once rolled out you can swipe them off the screen like normal, tap to view the message or use the reverse "two finger up gesture" to roll them back up under the banner.

I could see that working for a LOT of apps that sometimes have multiple notifications, or as a way to just take a peek at information while NOT cluttering up the notification shade.

Preview:

Spoiler

(And yes I know my email address is in there. If you really feel the need you can add me or email me or whatever... )

 

Its a great idea but the two finger thing would ruin one handed usability....

 

With larger and larger devices coming out, one handed usability is already out the window.

 

Time to bring back the optical trackpad!

 

Ah, thanks!

So around in June, I'll do this :

1. wipe data, cache, dalvik cache
2. Format system
3. Flash the CM9 nightly update
4. Reboot
5. Flash Siyah
6. Reboot
7. Go to settings, wipe internal SDCard

That's it, right?

Well, I don't know... Because I have heard that flashing wears out the NAND chip, so I wanted to be sure

 

You're welcome.

The important thing is to make sure you try them first though - last thing you'd want is to go through the hassle of selling the Note and buying a replacement only to find it's still too big.



@Jason: that is awesome.
Though perhaps a possible alternative to the two-finger swipe to expand the 'group' notifications could be a double-tap, with a setting to allow you to choose one or both methods.

So how do we get this implemented?