All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Spent yesterday afternoon playing around with a Galaxy NX.
It's really nice.

 

If the NX were available via mainstream, I would have already spent a large amount of money on it. The f/1.4 Rokinon was in my shopping cart... I just couldn't find it available when I wanted to get new camera gear.

 

Oh hell no!

LG can take their G2s and stick em up AT&T's butt while singing "I will survive".

/chocolate sprinkles

 

Bassheads, this is your setup.

 

Guys, what does it mean when I call someone and it instantly shuts down? Like I'm trying to call a friend, dial the number, appears on screen, and instantly beeps once and shuts the call down. We were mid call, it dropped and from that point on he got unreachable. He's Roaming but has credit on his SIM card, and so do I.

If it was a dead battery or lost service, I would've gotten a notice from the carrier... How can I reach him? Is it my or his end?

PS : I can make calls and send texts perfectly fine.

 

Sounds like a SIM provisioning error.

 

Tried dialing +351/00351 before the number, and still didn't work. Sent him a text and it seems to have been delivered (at least on my end). Would using another phone work?

 

Not if it's provisioning related. He probably needs a new SIM. They do fail every once in a while.

 

Crap, that ain't good :/

 

Or it's a network preemption. That can happen If there's a lot of traffic on the network at that location so it gives higher priority to certain users and kicks others off.

 

I tried calling him 2h later, and it stil didn't work, so I doubt that's the case.

 

Did he pay his bill?

 

Of course. Also, called him today, it worked.

 

So he paid his bill this morning then?

 

Best thing since sliced bread... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.texty.sms

 

I used to use that a while ago, back when it was a Chrome extension.
Nice idea, it didn't feel particularly polished back then though.

 

I've been using MightyText for over 6 months now. Now I can text at work and in class without looking away from my computer screen.
A real time saver.

 

You should try it again... it seems pretty polished to me. I have been using an alternative, and this one is MUCH better.

 

Is it any better than just using Google Voice?

 

Well, it depends on which service you primarily text with... GV or your carrier.

 

All Access was just released in Portugal. Got my debit card, got the trial.

I'm absolutely blown away. The quality of songs is amazing, and there's everything I want. Hell, there's so many of the same I struggle of choosing the best. And for 8€ a month? It's a steal, this is hands down the best music service I've used.

 

I had no complaints about the audio quality or the price, but I found the interface of the Android app, and the lack of a PC client, both very frustrating. I still prefer Spotify.

 

Quality is pretty good, I have to admit. If you save them locally, they're usually 320Kbps.

I use the Chrome extention for Google Music. Works pretty nicely... plus I can set it up in the superbar.

 

Spotify is good as well, has some music that GMusic doesn't have, but the lack of Spotify for Android in Portugal breaks the deal.

Could you link me to the Chrome extension? Would be interested in trying it.

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-play-music/icppfcnhkcmnfdhfhphakoifcfokfdhg?hl=en

 

Android Users Lack Access to Many Top Apps Built for iOS: Canalys

 

So many things wrong there. Example:

"While nominally free, set against a paid version of the app, ad-supported offerings typically deliver a poorer and often more limited user experience, sometimes taking a considerable toll on device battery life and often subjecting users to unskippable videos or other unpopular intrusions," Canalys analyst Daniel Matte said in a statement.

^That quote. Sure, some apps are ad supported... but taking a toll on battery life? Unskippable videos? What?

I'm not saying Android isn't lacking certain apps, but I hear no complaints.

 

Right and wrong. Android definitely has it's own selection of apps which aren't available on iOS for various reasons. Primary reason Android users don't have access to these "top iOS apps" is because their developers are in it to make a profit. That is kind of difficult on an open source platform like Android where there are more pirates than the Caribbean.

 

Piracy on Android has been dramatically reduced this past year since Google introduced a LOT more ways to pay for apps. It's now actually convenient to pay for an app.

 

The argument about why developers don't put as much effort into apps for Android is that you make more money from iOS but no-one seems to have grasped that you can't expect people to pay as much for an inferior product, so developers need to up the quality of their apps before they can expect to generate the same revenue as they do on iOS.

 

Oh yes.

I think there's only two apps and a game I've ever paid Google for. I will stay away from the paid apps cause they're not even worth the $1 spent on developing them.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm glad most people don't feel the same way. There's a TON of quality apps in the Play Store, paid AND free. PLENTY of them well worth the time and money it took to develop them.

A few of my paid apps...

AccuWeather Platinum
LightFlow
Angry Birds
Apparatus
Asphalt 6
BackStab
Tapatalk 4
DicePlayer (before they went freeware)
Root Explorer
Galaxy on Fire 2 HD
Play Music (subscription)
Instant Heart Rate Pro
Launcher Pro (when I was on Gingerbread)
Nova Launcher Prime (been using this since 4.0)
Babel - German
UberMusic
MobileFax
My Beach HD
Osmos HD
Paperland Pro
Plex for Android
Wolfram Alpha
RealCalc Plus
SimCity Deluxe
SketchBook Mobile/Pro (phone/tablet)
SoundHound Infinity
Unified Remote Pro
Wave (LWP)

 

Apps I've paid for on the Google Play Store (not a complete list):

Nova Launcher Prime
Swiftkey
ProCapture
Business Calendar
Accuweather Platinum
N7 Player
PlayerPro
Plants v. Zombies
Final Fantasy Dimensions
Final Fantasy III
Osmos HD
Sonic the Hedgehog
Pandora (subscription)
Netflix (subscription)
Spotify (subscription)

I do think the proportion of Android users who have a sense of entitlement about apps is much higher than the proportion of iOS users who have the same sense of entitlement. By sense of entitlement, I mean that instead of saying "there's no such thing as a free lunch, here's $2 for an app, sounds good," they basically say "unless this is the BEST APP EVER, you'll never see a penny from me. Try harder next time." Still, there's a good number of Android users who will happily drop $2 here and $4 there for useful applications and fun games.

If anything, I'm wary of free apps. In my experience, a lot of free apps fall into at least one of two categories: (1) you get what you pay for (i.e., bad quality), or (2) there's no such thing as a free lunch (microtransactions and other hidden charges).

 

People like you is why devs leave Android. I WANT MOAR!!111 but i dont want to pay.

 

Yes. I know, I'm a cheep SOB.

I've only ever paid for (by way of actually keeping) FF3, Fpse, and PowerAmp. All the other paid apps I've tried I returned cause either the free version worked just as well, or the paid version just didn't do what I'd hoped it would. So yes, I am impossible to satisfy. But A), I don't use a 100k apps like the rest of you all, and B), if I were to buy something (no matter what the price) and it doesn't do what I need it to do, I will return it instead of keeping something I will never use.

 

I think I have mellowed as an Android user/dev. I've been on the same ROM since June.

The thing is, CM10.2/TRIM doesn't really matter if you have good NAND in the first place, which is why I love Samsung. Aside from the NAND firmware issue (which has been patched), you won't find devices with better NAND. Look at how fast the NAND is in the Nexus 10... O_O

 

Same. Been sitting in CM10.1 for a few months now, only changing to stock when travelling and need the best battery life and a fully working camera.

 

I've been happy with the SlimBean Rom for quite a moment now, but the Youtube app keeps freezing, it's annoying.

In other news:
Is this the first image of the Google Nexus 5?

I'm a rumour sucker at the moment, I want a new phone already!

 

Something doesn't look quite right for pictured device. Nexus phones, even the prototypes, should have the Google logo instead of the manufacturer's. I'd wager this is either a different model (The midrange L9 II) or a variation of the G2 for a different market like the Optimus GJ.

 

Looks like the Optimus G Pro in white. Very uninspired design, from what I can see. The Nexus 4 looks 10x better.

 

Well, it looks less bulky than the Nexus 4, and a lot like the SGS4 actually.

 

Samsung Galaxy Mega hitting AT&T, Sprint and US Cellular this month (updated)

Big phone is big.

 

I wonder how well it will sell, this phone is stupidly big and it does not have flagship specs.

 

It will definitely be interesting to see how the consumer reacts to it. I got the opportunity to handle the Xperia Z Ultra that is slightly bigger than the Mega and it is too impractical to carry around as a phone, even in a purse or handbag. Hopefully the three American carriers do not offer this phone with the base 8GB internal storage.

As far as the upcoming Android handsets I look forward to, it's between the HTC One Max or the Xperia i1.

 

It's actually really nice, since I started using it I'm finding the S4 too small.

 

I could see the Galaxy Mega being very successful on US Cellular. The only other phablet they offer is the Note II, at a painful cost of $299+plan, and US Cellular customers tend to be more value-conscious than AT&T or Verizon customers.

 

I'm not surprised to hear people liking it, I watched a couple of video and it looked like a nice device. But the Mega is pretty much Samsung's way of testing to market to find how big is too big.

 

All that is true. But that's consistent with Samsung's strategy historically. Apple tries to do a lot of market research and release just one model that it thinks is exactly what is perfect for people. Samsung releases a half-dozen different models and lets the market sort out what survives and what doesn't. The next-gen Samsung products are then based off the survivors, and the process repeats.

Basically, Samsung's product development is evolution (in the biological sense): mutation, natural selection, repeat.

 

The way staff in the shop talk about it reminds me a lot of when the original Note went on sale - it's seen as a bit of a joke because of the size, very much as the Note was, but I suspect it will prove to be more popular than people expect in exactly the same way.

A lot of staff I show it to really like it and that's half the battle.

 

Silly Samsung, 6.3" phone is tablet with 4G/voice.