All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Well duh, obviously... The tech-heads are a very small percentage. The 30+ million GS3s sold wee mostly to average Joes. Only 20% or less were bought by true XDA techies, so.

Plus, contract is cheaper.

And it's not going to be really that more expensive. I got my GN2 unlocked for 500eur. Other sites at that same time were offering 650 up to 750, so it really depends where you buy and your ability to find good deals.

 

A few thoughts on Google Play Music All Access for those who haven't tried it yet.

The web interface means that it's got a competitive advantage for multiple-OS options like its two main competitors, Xbox Music and Spotify. You can run it on any OS. Good luck using Xbox Music on a Mac or an Android phone, for on the other hand.

The audio quality is nothing to write home about. Sounds more like Pandora One quality than Xbox Music or Spotify quality to me. Not bad, but not as good to my ears.

The lack of offline play is a serious disadvantage when compared to Xbox Music or Spofity for mobile users. You can't download your All Access music so that you can listen on the road without eating through your data plan, or listen in the subway despite intermittently losing signal.

The library lags Xbox Music's selection, which in turn lags Spotify's.

In a bizarre move, the Nexus Q can't use All Access. Nexus Q owners must be furious. Wasn't streaming Google media the whole point of the device?

All in all, it feels a bit like a "me too" effort and just not that special.

 

But that doesn't mean there's not a market for it. It doesn't have to be the best selling phone ever to not be a flop.

 

Offering an unlocked version of a phone is like offering a manual-transmission version of a car. It probably will only be about 10% of sales in the US market, but it's still awesome that an OEM does it, and it doesn't add much cost to the OEM's R&D, and it's a great benefit to the 10% of buyers who DO want it.

 

Except on iPhone's it's just built into G+. If someone from G+ or from Google Talk (which Hangouts replaces) sends me a message, it shows up in Hangouts (if I have it installed).

Ok, so the actual INTL unlocked (baseband and bootloader) i9505 sells for around $730. The locked (baseband AND bootloader) AT&T version is $640. Google's version is MUCH cheaper than the INTL version and it's $10 more expensive than the locked in both ways, TouchWiz'd up, AT&T bloatware'd cousin. This also buys you, over the Nexus 4, a better screen with a much higher resolution, a better all-around SoC, a larger removable battery, microSD storage, LTE capabilities, and a very nice camera upgrade.

Sure, the Nexus 4 sells quite well. But this is much more phone than the Nexus 4.

All 12 of them.

 

Im not a fan of this whole Hangouts business. I don't like how it is proprietary and not xmpp.

I also hear that if someone's not a g+ user but uses talk, you cannot contact them (or vice versa).

Anyone know if that's legit?
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

I can prove that one wrong now... you were on Talk earlier, and I was on Hangouts. All of my Talk friends are in my Hangouts app and on the Hangouts part of the web interface of Google+.

 

For those that wants to shell out $350 for a device to play Android games...and you know, do nothing else that your current phone plus a Bluetooth controller can't already do, nVidia moved up the pre-order date for the Shield to today:

Pre-order NVIDIA Shield | Portable Handheld PC Gaming

 

This is a screenshot from their own website of a free included game. As fun as this game may be, I don't think I'd spend $349 on a portable console just to play it. Hell, phones from 2010 could play this...

EDIT: And as far as "Expendable: Rearmed", I get better graphics than that on my N64 emulator on my Note II.

EDIT2: Also, I thought included games (or pre-packaged) were supposed to showcase the device's graphics capabilities. If so, cheers NVIDIA, and welcome to 2010.

 

The only thing the Shield offers that is of interest is the PC streaming software, but then again with the nature of the Android platform, I'm sure it wouldn't take long for someone to reverse engineer it to work with other devices.

 

What makes it worse is that modern portable game consoles don't even cost near that much. The Nintendo 3DS costs $165 and the Playstation Vita costs $249.

 

Vita > Shield

EDIT: So it's pretty much confirmed that the Galaxy Note III will have a 5.9" display. 5.5" was my limit. Sorry, Samsung. I'll go with the S4 if I have to upgrade this generation.

 

Darnit! I feel the exact same way. No way will I go above 5.5". They have the Mega for that. I was really hoping that they would keep the same screen size or maybe even go back to 5.3" but a smaller body. Kind of how the S3 to the S4 went. Looks like I won't be upgrading this generation.

 

SIM cards contain a complete microcomputer, with a processor, RAM, EEPROM Storage and ROM with a built-in OS.

<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/1975209" width='427' height="356" frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style='border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px' allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen> </iframe>

SIM Card Overview from C. Enrique Ortiz

I'm sure a lot of you knew this but I didn't.

 

That's not what happened with the S4 though - they put a larger screen into what was effectively the same-sized body.
That'll almost certainly be what happens with the next Note.

 

Unless they plan on going with software buttons, and getting rid of the home/capacitive back/menu, not possible. The Wacom digitizer that sits behind the AMOLED display panel can't be any larger and still fit in the same size shell.

 

Hangouts Easter eggs: Someone at Google really likes My Little Pony | Android and Me

 

If that's the case, then would it matter if they were capacitive keys or not?
If the digitiser can't be any bigger, then that must mean that no matter what sort of buttons they use, the screen can't be any bigger either.

I suspect you'll find that, especially with Samsung owning a stake in them now, Wacom will work on reducing the bezel on their digitisers - not just for phones, they're cleaning up with multiple brands of tablet too, so it's in their interest to make their components better suited to mobile devices.

 

5.9" Note 3 wouldn't be a phone, it'd be a tablet, silly Samsung.

 

I know. That's why I said kind of haha. I want the same screen in a smaller body.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

 

The Note 2 is not as wide as the Note, so making it bigger to fit the 5.9" screen using the S4 styling of really small bezels might make it not much bigger than the original Note, which is manageable.

I don't see why they have to make the screen bigger, going to 1080p should be enough, but some people don't feel it's new model unless something physically changes.

 

Holy Crap! 5.9"!?!? What's the point of having a slate if you get a Note III?

By this rate, the Note 6 will be the size of the Nexus 7. Someone at Samsung's got their head stuck up where the sun don't shine...

 

It's the most obvious and justifiable handset to increase the size of the screen on - the S-Pen works better with a larger screen.
As it stands, even at 5.5", it's pushing how small you can comfortably use the S-Pen, especially for handwriting recognition.

 

Anyone know of a Gingerbread launcher that's super duper uber lightweight and has a "stay in memory" option?

Edit: I'm seriously thinking about going the custom rom route just to get working SMS chat heads :|

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

Python S3 is a new tablet that can't decide: boots Ubuntu, Android and Windows 8

 

I used to use Zeam on my OG Droid but I can't recall if it has a Keep In Memory toggle.

 

No disagreement but at any point does it not become a phone? I like them and I do use my S3 less as a phone more as other things. I like Samsung and I like that they offer. It might be a bit big for me but like that it is made.

I do go into Best Buy and hold the Note II up to my ear and laugh, they are big.

 

What is a phone at this point? I would define it as a device that requires a voice plan, which is a pretty terrible definition, but I can't think of anything better. The Note may blur the lines between traditional tablet and phone form factors but I think at this point Samsung understands the market well enough not to release a product that there's no audience for.

 

If the Note gets any bigger, they will be taking away from their tablet sales, 6" phone vs 7" tablet, and the Note would have better specs, better screen, there would be no point in buying the tablet. Thus I think making the Note any bigger would be a bad decision for Samsung.

 

I think it's a great definition. A telephone is something you make voice calls with. Whether it be the size of an earring or a dinner plate.

 

And Samsung is happy to give you that choice. Dinner plate: GT-N8000.

 

That's not the way to differentiate between phones and tablets - people can use smaller devices like iPhones more for web browsing, e-mailing, taking photos etc than actually calling or texting but there's no way anyone would claim they're tablets and not phones.

I can provide a better definition.
A phone is a device that can make calls without the need for an external headset, that doesn't come with a wi-fi-only variant.

As HAL has pointed out, the 3G version of Samsung's 10" tablets can make calls but no-one would ever describe them as phones - not least because they don't have an actual earpiece. Newer, smaller 3G Samsung tablets like the Note 8 and the Tab3 7 have earpieces but I think we can fairly safely say they're tablets as well due to the fact that the 3G models are niche variants and they will primarily sell in their wi-fi-only variants.
Compare to them the likes of the Note2 and the new Galaxy Mega models - they not only come with earpieces as standard but you can't buy them in any other form, they are obviously phones even if their size is quite large.

And a significantly higher price.
There will always be a market for budget-oriented models.

 

Note 2 can be had in the US on contract for as low as 200 dollars, same price as Samsung 7" Wifi Galaxy tablets.

 

Apples and oranges.
Not everyone wants a contract, not everyone uses their phone enough to justify the costs attached and even if they do, not everyone wants their phone to be that big - they may prefer a more pocketable phone but something around the 7/8" size for use in the house or on holiday.

Larger phones won't render small tablets obsolete.

 

I disagree there. I bought the Note II in place of a 7" device. Works beautifully.

 

Lets be fair though, you're far from an average consumer in terms of needs or usage. And even you have said you wouldn't go any larger for a phone.
If even you wouldn't go for a phone that was that large, what are the odds that the wider market, who are flocking to 7-8" tablets, would?

 

True. True. True.

 

I just "upgraded" to Hangouts in GMail....yeah sorry over half my contacts are predictably gone.

Not impressed. Reverted to Talk again.

Tried Zeam and its great but there's no keep in memory option. I'm using ADW and so far so good.

 

I would think you are mistaken. Most phones purchased here in the US are contract phones. Most people can't justify a 600-800 dollar unlocked phone purchase if they intend to be on a contract anyway. US != EU.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah, it's a bit rough around the edges. I really, really dislike how there's no way to tell whether a contact is actually online or not. As in the GMail component of hangouts, it could just be a simple green underline. Can't see why that was omitted. Also, it's far laggier than GTalk, and you aren't able to simply swipe between conversations anymore. Hangouts definitely needs some work.

 

But you can't just completely discount something because you don't happen to be in the market for it. Just because a segment doesn't make up the majority of the market doesn't mean it's irrelevant.

 

I know about the "is the person on or offline" thing. That is irritating. Even a simple "only show online contacts" option would be appealing.

I thought it was my crap phone causing the lag but I guess its just a poorly optimized app. Honestly it shouldn't have replaced talk until it was more fully baked.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

I think you missed my point. Majority of phones in the US are purchased on contract, and thus my ~200 dollar comparison between the Note and Tablet was my argument.

The point being, to an average joe, who buys a Note on contract vs buying a tablet, there would be no point in buying a tablet if the Note got any larger [better specs, hardware, etc].

 

Except that the tablet doesnt require a monthly plan...

 

See the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active for the first time - GSMArena.com news

This unit is also supposed to be coming to AT&T in July as well.

 

I want this casing on an i9500.

 

Traded my Note II for an S4

Nexus 4 - Stock

 

Intel's answer to ARM: Customisable x86 chips with HIDDEN POWERS • The Register

 

The HTC One might join the stock trend:

HTC One Google Edition release date said to be end of the summer | BGR

I've always thought that vendors should have done this from the beginning... have their UI layer as a default but give them the option of going vanilla Android. While I understand why they wanted their custom interface, I think it confused some consumers due to the UI fragmentation.

 

I would be all over that, 64 GB variant please.

So this AT&T variant of the S 4...the 32 GB model pretty much washed away the issue I had with the low internal storage, but it runs like crap. I've got the firmware updated to the latest UAMDL firmware and uninstalled all the AT&T crap, but there is so much stuttering and lag in the UI animations that wasn't even present in the unlocked Exynos version. What's up with that? This thing needs CyanogenMod bad.