All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Picked up a Note II today. My first Android phone. I've got two weeks to return it in exchange for something else (would be a nexus 4 if I stayed with Android or the iPhone 5 if I decide to go back to iOS).. I think I'll have more fun with Android as my iPhones are getting stale, but it is much simpler to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

Anything you guys would suggest to really draw me into the Android world with this phone?

 

Try out the multiwindow feature which lets you use two apps at the same time.

Sent from a Galaxy far, far away

 

one of the first things i tried out.. pretty cool feature, but sometimes it doesnt let me use certain apps together.. like it wouldnt let me pull up anything w/ maps..

 

The only limitation of multiwindow is that it's something Samsung have had to code from scratch, it's not something the Android OS supports by default, so it's not going to work perfectly all the time.

 

From what I've read only certain apps work with mutli-window. I thought Maps was one of them (I'll check later).

It's really useful because I was doing a search for local businesses and where there is a website link, it opens it in the 2nd window (using Chrome). It really makes use of all that screen real estate. It's also cool to watch YouTube videos while browsing in the 2nd window. It's really something they should show in their commercials (since they are rumored to be adding it to the Galaxy S3 too).

And on the whole "phablet" issue:

The *actual* advertising for the Note 2 is:

"Phone? Tablet? Best of Both."

That's not saying it's neither. So that's going to lead to the usage of "phablet" more than it won't.

 

So I checked, Maps *is* one of the multi-window apps.

When you long-press the back button, it activates the mutli-window tab which is a small tab on the left, when you use it, it lists all the apps that can multi and you can drag and drop from that list. From my list, it's mainly AT&T apps, Samsung apps and Google apps. Polaris is also on that list, but none of the things I've downloaded other than Chrome appears. To make the little tab disappear, just long-press the back button again.

 

Yeah, i'm not sure what was going on yesterday. Software glitch maybe. It seems to be working as it should after turning it off and charging it all night.

Anyways, what else is cool about Android? Today will be my first test of battery life. I saw that they sell extended batteries if needed, so that's cool. Still working out all the features of the S Pen, any of you find anything really cool to do with it?

I was surprised at how intuitive some of it is though. Like right now my iphone would have rotated to landscape mode of I hadn't toggled the lock. This can get tell that I'm wanting it to type in portrait mode while I'm holding the phone sideways (laying down).. I have it set up to use one handed keyboard by default which helps quite a bit still a stretch for some things though. The other thing that I haven't quite gotten the hang of is swipe, but it's pretty cool so far!

 

Flashed 4.1.2 to the Note 2, and then flashed a mod. Kind of disappointed. Restoring to my stock state of 4.1.2, and in a few days will flash back to 4.1.1. 4.1.2 has too many issues :/

 

Interesting. What particular issues were you having? The only thing I noticed with DKL7 was Bluetooth would sporadically fail to pair.

Press shots of the Yuga and Odin (Xperia Z and ZL) were leaked by Sony Mobile:

Sony Xperia Z 'Yuga' and ZL 'Odin' make a press shot debut on New Year's Day

 

I have DLL4. Gallery lag (pinch to zoom namely) and some overall UI lag. I'm going to use it for a while to see if it settles down, because if it doesn't, I'll revert to N7100XXALJ3 UK. AnTuTu speeds are blazing fast tho, 18.5K

Also, battery seems to be draining faster...

 

Good idea, let it sit and sort itself out. In addition, try Note2Core kernel. The OC version gives a pretty good performance boost and has better clock frequency table.

Try playing with the UI's appearance, check out third party launchers such as GoLauncher, it allows you to change the look of your UI, everything from the dock to the application drawer. If you want to take phone customization to a whole new level, feel free to head over to XDA-Developers and learn what makes your phone tick and perhaps more ideas on what else you would be interested in doing with it.

 

Looks nice! What's your word on NEAK and Perseus kernel?

 

Perseus didn't really do much for me. The developer doesn't release new version often, so it's a good fall-back kernel if your Note II has issues with others.

NEAK, on the other hand, has the most bleeding edge features. It's worth a try if you're looking for a totally open kernel with everything due to adjustable GPU/CPU voltage and frequencies, but I had screen rotation and intermittent freezes on mine. Keep a backup kernel in your SD card if you want to try this.

 

Woah, I'm not even going to try Note2Core, NEAK sounds way too delicious to resist it. SO MUCH USAGE OF THE WORD TWEAKS AND SPEED!

I'll flash it tomorrow and I'll report on how it is!

 

Hopefully you have a better binned Exynos SoC so you can do some moderate undervolting. Mine refused to lax up on the voltages but it ran fine up to 1.8 GHz with the stock voltage.

...I hope the XDA developers can do something with the Optimus G's battery life. Going from the stellar RAZR MAXX HD/Note II endurance to the borderline awful Optimus G's battery life has been quite a polarizing experience. This is the first time I've managed to take a phone from full charge to shut down in three hours.

 

Yeah, I'll see! I want to discharge my battery (still at 25%) to charge it again and flash the kernel and update my TWRP recovery to the latest!



4h10 screen time with a system restore inbetween. Wifi is almost constant, 3G too, youtube, facebook, loads of browsing... You get the point

Oh, and the starting charge level was ~60%!

 

Phistachio: do you notice that your phone barely charges when you're using it? Or is that just me?

Is there a way that I can see how much charge my phone is receiving? Or does it have to be rooted for that? Speaking of rooting, does it kill your warranty? I thought I read something about there being a flash counter...?

 

My phone seems to be normally charging when using it...

4.1.2 seems to drain more battery tho, 77% with 4h and 1h30 of screen on time :/ Although I used a lot of facebook, browsing, music and youtube....

 

Are you using the charger that came with the Note2?
Because it should be a 2A charger instead of a conventional 1A one, so if you're using a third-party unit it won't charge nearly as well.

 

Yeah, I'm using the 2 amp 5 volt one that came with it. I am apprised though that the battery life seems to be much longer than my iphone had. I got 5 maybe 6 hours of usage or of my iphone whereas I used the N2 all day yesterday and still had 45% battery left by the time I got home. I didn't take down any numbers, but for my uses, it had been a very welcome boost.

Edit: yeah this bad boy is discharging while I'm plugged in and browsing the internet. What to do, what to do...

Edit 2: got it figured out. I was using a usb extension cable. Can't belive I didn't think of it sooner. Must not be a high enough amperage.. Now I have to find a higher amperage usb extension cable. Or I guess a longer 2 amp usb-micro cable. Wonder what the highest amps this thing will request is. Anyone know? I'll look over at XDA when I get a chance.

 

Use the official cable?

Also, any idea why Modern Combat 3 is detecting my Note 2 as a mid-range device? It's not activating the full GFX in the game, so I'm left with much lower-res textures and no FX vs the GSII that I had...

 

Do they sell a longer official cable? The included one isn't long enough for my tastes..

 

This phrase has so much potential to be mis-interpreted

Isn't there any kind of official yet longer cable for sale?

 

Did you get MC3 for your GS2 from the Samsung app store? Gameloft is really sketchy about optimizing for certain platforms, and usually you have to change your device ID in the build.prop or use Chainfire3D drivers to get the advanced effects to kick in.

 

Yeah, both in the N2 and S2 I got MC3 in the Game Hub. Meh, already uninstalled it, it's pretty boring

 

Any e-mail apps worth considering besides K9?

 

Only if your head's in the gutter

Gonna try this cable after I get back to school
Amazon.com: AmazonBasics USB Cable - 2.0 A Male to Micro B (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters): Electronics

 

Optimus G went bye-bye for a lightly used, mint condition One X+.

Since November, I paid roughly $590 including tax for Optimus G. -$590
Traded that a week afterwards for a Note II. -$0
Traded the Note II for a Nexus 4 plus $200 cash. +$200
Traded the Nexus 4 for a Optimus G plus $200 cash. +$200
Traded the Optimus G for a One X+ plus $100. +$100

So three months later I have a woefully inadequate Tegra 3 Android phone and made $500. I'm not sure if I should be proud of myself for making $500 out of all this, or be ashamed for letting go of the greatest of Androids such as the Nexus 4 and Note II to end up with an overclocked Tegra 3 powered HTC.


For those that are not quite aware of the transgression with what I've gone through with trading phones, this is equivalent to passing up dating Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova and settling with Serena Williams.

 

Tegra 3.....................

-shudders-

Now sell the One X+ and buy a Nexus 4 16GB and enjoy 600 dollars.

 

Oi. The HTC One X+ is akin to the U.S. market Nissan 240SX in the automotive world. It catches the corner of your eyes and you think to yourself, "My, what a nice sleek looking sporty car"..and then you prop the hood open and see the KA24DE truck motor.

 

Everything you said here... I like it.

 

Is there a way to add app shortcuts to the drop down menu? I like that when I have the S pen or it gives me a few apps in it. I'd like to customize that and add battery info as well.. im getting fantastic battery with this beast, but I like to monitor it.

Currently at 36% with 11hrs on battery, 4hr 41m screen time, browsing most of the day and an hour of Pandora. Huge improvement over my iphone!

 

That's when you swap a 4.5L Q45 V8 in it and call it a day. Oh wait you can't do that with smartphones.

 

I love the quick glance feature! Also installed the SwiftKey Flow beta keyboard and it's working out much better so far.

Any of you note 2 users get 4.2 yet?

 

I don't think there are any Note II 4.2 firmware yet, unless you are talking about custom ROMs.

 

Oh hey TailGunnner, did your Nexus 4 have 4.2 on it?

 

Nexus 4 ships with 4.2.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Samsung Galaxy S IV leaked press release shots? | SamMobile

You know, this may very well be the Galaxy S IV, but those specs sure aren't. Samsung can try all they can, but I REALLY REALLY am almost positive they're not going to be able to fit Exynos 5450 in a phone. They can barely fit 5250 in a tablet, with respect to battery life.

It does show that Samsung is finally going to ditch the physical buttons, which I can't really say I'm happy about... especially with an AMOLED panel. Burn-in, anyone?

 

I'm not sure I agree with that.

They manage to fit the 5250 and a screen with ~33% more pixels into a body with a battery more than 25% smaller than that of the iPad 3/4 and still produce similar battery life figures.
Doesn't sound like there's much of a problem there.

 

I can definitely see the concern for putting the 5450 in a phone though. The Nexus 10 gets comparable battery life compared to its competitors, but when you bump the clock up by an extra 300 MHz and add two more cores to a device that might have a third or quarter of the Nexus 10's battery capacity, it certainly raises a concern.

Then again Samsung has done well implementing the 4412 in the S III and the Note II, so perhaps they can make the 5450 manageable by either transiting to 28 nm High-K process or implementing some new tricks achieved from developing the 5250. I'd love to see what the Mali T658 can do against the PowerVR SGX554.

 

But, but... How could you pass on ANNA KOURNIKOVA?!

But seriously though, the Note 2 surpassed my expectations. It's super SUPER fast, lots of dev going, and it actually feels premium due to its chrome edging and weight. Loving every single aspect regarding this device. Couldn't have asked more! Screen is just gorgeous and there's no pixelation and everything is sharp!

Perhaps, perhaps

Yeah, looks good! Try it out and tell how it goes later!

Looks legit. Specs aren't though, but we never know.

Regarding burn in, I never had any on my S2. No idea what the fuss is about!

There aren't, only CM10.1. Latest stock is XXDLL5 which is 4.1.2.

Yeah, I found that festure by accident, and now I use it everytime... So entertaining!

 

I don't think that's a huge concern. I have two friends with the Galaxy Nexus, which has both an AMOLED display and only software buttons, and I didn't notice any burn-in as far as I could see.

I do find it far more annoying to wake up devices that don't have a front hardware button, though, so I would miss that.

 

You mean Air View?


I installed SwiftKey Flow today, liking it much more than the stock S3 keyboard.

 

No, quick glance!

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Tips & Tricks (Episode 33: Quick Glance, Smart Alert) - YouTube

This shows it fairly well.

Are you rooted Phistachio?

 

HTC CEO blames poor marketing for 2012 results - GSMArena.com news

No Chou, it's because your company insists on using a UI that originated from the Windows Mobile 6.5 days that has not shown a hint of any attempt at optimization or refinement at all, but rather an ugly little mole that has done nothing but grown bigger over the years. Then there's the hardware...the current handsets (One X and going forward) are well designed and looks like a premium design, but then any potential to make those handsets be truly top of the line is tragically flawed by either Sense, too small of a battery for the hardware (J Butterfly/Droid DNA), or uses an obsolete SoCs to cut costs.

Samsung indeed puts a lot of effort in marketing, but they also continue to offer a wide spectrum of devices for different wants and needs, appealing to enthusiasts and casual users alike. Trying to do something as simple as restoring the stock firmware or reverting to an older one should not need technical skills that rivals a Senior Software Engineer. Get a clue or end up like being bottle-fed like Nokia.

/Thinking Aloud

 

Ah, ok, I've never seen that before.

I personally like Air View, really neat for e-mails and calendar entries.
That and Quick Commands, though I haven't really set that up properly on my Note 10.1 yet.



As for the problems with HTC, it's all about the hardware IMO.
People would forgive/out up with Sense if the handsets were anywhere near as good as Samsung's but they're not.

 

Gah, this thing is annoying to try to highlight text on. Definitely not as simple as iOS in regards to copy /paste functionality..

 

Yup, rooted, TWRP'd and flashed 4.1.2 XXDLL4

 

Personally, I'm still amazed that Peter Chou is still the CEO.