All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

My concern with non-Samsung Galaxy phones at least here in the US are the accessories and resale value.

Like iPhones, there is a large support for Galaxy S series phones and you can resell them after 2 years (although not as well as you can sell an iPhone).

As for display resolution, I'm all for pixel density but not if it's going to sacrifice battery life. We don't even have ubiquity for 4k on TVs, so why for phones? There isn't even that much 4k content. When that does happen, the S5 will be end of life anyways.

 

I'm disappointed that Qualcomm caved in and made an 8 core (low IPC) processor. It is like the MHz myth all over again, but in core count. I can't blame Qualcomm for wanting to succeed in China. It's easier/cheaper to make an 8-core than to educate the consumers.

 

That and an 8 core processor would wreck your battery life, which is why quads/octa is so silly.

 

Don't scoff at me...with Android switching to an AOT compiler, our devices will need more RAM to be able to hold multiple large applications open without bogging down the OS or forcing it to close others in the background.

Mr Kitty, you're incorrigible. We gave you a very simple solution, and you snubbed it like cheap kibble. Therefore, if big brother deletes your music cause it doesn't approve of the complete works of 50Cent, don't come crying to us...we warned you.

 

*Was just listening to 50 cent*

*Looks suspiciously at radji*

 

I'm pretty sure it has to do with Exynos. The ART compiler and bigLITTLE don't mesh well. I think once official KK source gets merged mainline, they'll bring it back.

Anything Qualcomm is using Qualcomm's WCD9320 DAC. If it's Qualcomm and less than high-end/flagship, it'll have WCD9310. In their later implementations, they've been pretty spectacular... if you get Faux Sound and turn the hardware amplifiers up.

Yea, that was a brain fart. I was thinking of the M3's V8, and for some reason I put V6 and bi-turbo. I had my old 335 in my thoughts ATM. As for the V6 part... IDK? Maybe I've popped a synapse. :/

Tell that to my G2. Humming along nicely, even overclocked at 2.49GHz, and still gets phenomenal battery life. I think it's the longest lasting device on call-time (barring the phablet Lumia 1520)... 23.x hours vs the iPhone's 10 hours. The G2 has about double the iPhone's battery capacity, and lasts about 2x as long all around. You do the math.

Now, as far as octa... the i9500 can EAT batteries when you push it, or so I've witnessed. It's pretty efficient, though, as long as you're not pushing it really hard.

 

*cough*

Spoiler

 

That's uhmmm, not a phone...

 

LOL. Well, I did say "device" not "phone". My bad.

 

I know, I was taking the proverbial - hence the

 

Wonder how long would last one of them Cadillacs with onboard phone on one tank. Not too long I recon...

 

You wanna repeat that?

 

Usable storage space of a 16 gb Nexus 5: 12.55 gb.
Usable storage space of a 16 gb Galaxy S5: less than 8 gb, as per Android Central.

Somebody stop Samsung. This is getting ridiculous. I thought the agreement between Samsung and Google would mean less bloat?

 

I'm sure Samsung had prototyped their own Linux based OS.

Stopped reading at G2. Don't mess with my power/volume button/rocker. That and stock LG software **shudders**, Optimus G was really bloated, stopped looking at LG phones seriously after G.

 

If the phone world is anything like a lot of businesses, the GS5's base software preload was likely locked in months before the Google/Samsung deal. The cost to change things at this point, along with the possibility of having to delay a launch was likely something that they couldn't stomach.

Anyway if I were in the market for a GS5, I'd have to get it in black or white...dunno if I'd like any other colors. Of course, I won't fully judge it until I'm able to try it in person.

 

We all seem pretty critical of the new design, but those who have actually held it seem to like it.


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You shouldn't have. They're some of the best phones on the market right now.

 

When I went back to Verizon in June 2013, there were no good Android smartphones I wanted. There was the Galaxy S 3, Galaxy S 4 (had just come out, it was $$$), Galaxy Note 2, Optimus G, some other crappy LG Optimus phone, and the HTC One (NO.). I will eventually switch back to a SIM carrier, and the G2 does not top the list, Nexus 5/4/whatever new Nexus is by that time, or a Sony Android phone. Unless LG can deliver a clean stock rom, it'll be no.

 

HTC Desire 816 looks pretty good for a $400 midrange device. 5.5" 720p screen that Ars says is gorgeous quality in person, 1.5 gb ram, Snapdragon 400, front-facing stereo speakers, 13-megapixel camera and 5-megapixel cameras, microSD expansion (off 8 gb onboard storage).



Forget flagships: HTC's Desire 816 may make the midrange where it's at | Ars Technica

 

I mean there's the Nexus 5, and Nexus 4 which are still pretty good deals...I wouldn't pay 400 for an HTC with those specs unlocked.

 

That's a great looking device for mid range. I hope it means good things for the new One v2..

 

Nexus devices aren't compatible with my carrier (US Cellular, a CDMA carrier, who has better rural Oregon coverage than anyone else) and aren't available subsidized from carriers. They're a great deal if they fit your circumstances, but they don't fit mine.

 

True, my Nexus 4 didn't support CDMA/LTE bands. But alot of Europeans don't have contracts so phones must be purchased off contract and that's where Nexus devices should shine, but VAT usually quashes that notion fast. So Nexus only really helps T-Mobile/AT&T/GSM/SIM carriers, though there was the Galaxy Nexus for VZW/Sprint.

 

So, I've been messing with Samsung's KNOX bootloader for a while now (about 2 weeks) and at this point I think Samsung, their devices, and their software can burn in a fire.

ALL. OF. IT.

It's a giant FU to their customers, especially since they pulled a fast one with the people that had already bought the S3 and the N7100. I was once a loyal Samsung customer. They'll not have me or my recommendations to anyone I know until they change KNOX, which is never. So no more Samsung for me, or my family. I will flat out not let them buy Samsung.

Now, you may be saying "well Apple doesn't let anyone do that either" or "Apple is just as locked down". Or, you were the one who bought it... This isn't Apple. This isn't iOS. And they didn't advertise KNOX would be transplanted to older models. This is Android, with a hardware company's vision of a smartphone. Samsung has no authority dabbling in software or security. How is the device I hold in my hand any different than my laptop or desktop, aside from one having telephony/WWAN and one not. Telling me, specifically, what software I can and can't run on the hardware I bought makes me indescribably angry. Apple has been like that from the beginning, hence me not buying into it, but briefly. Android has always been a "make what you want of it" mobile paradigm, and that's what I bought into.

Samsung needs to just go ahead and ruin their business model, phones, and what little software chops they have, and move to Tizen. Leave the Android platform the hell alone.

 

It took you two weeks to decide Sammy can stick their KNOX where the sun don't shine? What took you so long?

 

I was basically prodding it for two weeks looking for vulnerabilities. Surprise! Found none. This is almost as good as Motorola's locked and ENCRYPTED bootloaders. Plus the fact they can't be downgraded back to the old bootloader (the one it shipped with).

 

Its a cat & mouse game. Us mice want to be able to remove bloatware, load up our own ROMs, and customize our devices in whatever way we see fit. The fat cats don't want their devices open for us to tinker with for obvious proprietary reasons.

Eventually, it will end up in front of the Court of Appeals. What happens then is anyone's guess.

 

What proprietary reasons?

Samsung never posts the source to their proprietary apps or hardware features.

 

Proprietary reasons being Sammy & Sprint/Verizon/etc. do not want their devices to be rooted or bootloader opened because you can flash all sort of things from uninstalling the bloatware that makes them all that extra advertisement money to free wifi hotspot. And lets not forget about Big Red's master plan of locking bootloaders to prevent users from flashing different modems and firmware and taking their devices over to another carrier (far-fetched I know).

I just see it as the carriers & OEMs trying to stick their hands up our butts to make us dance like puppets. It's derogatory, and serves no purpose other than to force their control over us.

 

In the case of Knox, it's actually Samsung's bid to start getting enterprise to adopt Galaxy phones instead of Blackberry or iPhone. Android has been pretty unsuccessful so far on the enterprise scene, and Samsung is making a very visible bid to change that. I realize that a side-effect of Knox is to make life harder for tinkerers such as yourself, but I don't believe that's Samsung's primary motivation. Not when there's such a legitimate business reason behind the software.

 

Trying to get Android to replace the Blackberry Enterprise Server platform is like trying to get the VW Beetle to replace Tesla or Maserati.

You (Samsung) are stupid for even thinking such a pipe dream was possible.

 

Apple has done a pretty good job of eating into traditional Blackberry territory, and they're not trying half as hard as Samsung currently is to court enterprise. For criminy sakes, the way things are going, Blackberry might not even exist in two years. So I wouldn't call it a stupid pipe dream.

 

Blackberry was supposed to die a horrible death last Christmas.

And Apple has gobbled up the RIM market share with a touch of innovation followed by a torrent of marketing (superb marketing at that).

The real core issue with Sammy's bid to unseat BES is they are trying to do it with... ANDROID!

Android: an open source OS platform developed by Google (not Samsung) designed to be devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Nowhere in that mission statement does it say commitment to mobile device security. And no one in their right mind would consider an open source OS is good choice in a secure enterprise platform.

 

Clearly not everyone agrees with you on that last sentence. ArsTechnica: The Navy's newest warship is powered by Linux

More directly on point, the Galaxy S4 beat the iPhone to get Department of Defense security approval. So Knox is working: PhoneArena: Galaxy S4 becomes first Android phone to get DoD security approval, beats iPhone

 

I have no doubt Knox is designed to be hacker-proof. How long that will last is anyone's guess. After all, new versions of iOS are jail-broken just days after launch. My point is, whilst Knox is designed and implemented to be secure, Android is not. So forcing Knox onto their consumer smartphone lineup is only causing grief to us end users. Besides, I don't think the government would approve a phone with a secure bootloader, but running a malware vulnerable OS like Android. More that likely, they've modded it heavily to make the OS functions secure and the communications functions encrypted.

But still... U.S. Government Issues Warning About Security on Android Phones

That is interesting the Navy warship is powered by Linux, but again, Linux can also be retooled to be more secure than Windows.

And the Apple devices got their rubber stamp 2 weeks later.

 

I doubt iOS or Android will be in most govt agencies anytime soon, such massive changes will take years to research, approve and implement. My FDA phone is a 3 year old Blackberry Bold, and we spend $$$ on BES and for BES admins. I doubt we would go anywhere anytime soon. plus they are not as secure as BB.


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Have you guys seen the new YotaPhone? It looks pretty cool to me.. 4.7" qHD E-ink touch screen on one side, 5" 1080p on the other.. Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 8-megapixel camera, wireless charging support, NFC, 2550 mAh battery.









I like how it looks like the E-ink display just blends in with the color of the phone. Too bad the earliest possible US release date is Q1 '15..

 

Why on God's green earth would anyone want a screen on both sides of the phone???

It just doesn't make sense!

In other news: I'm seriously considering jumping ship to T-Mo.

 

The draw here is the battery savings imo.. E-ink displays sip power and if they set it up right as a notification center and maybe for those that read a their phone. It sounds like their aim is to make it so you can push between them easily..

 

YotaPhone 2 hands-on: No, dual OLED and e-ink displays on a smartphone is not as awesome as it sounds | ExtremeTech

Reading the specs, it says apps need to be specially programmed to use the e-ink display. So why would the developers of Dolphin, Twitter, FB, or any of the games want to special program for an e-Ink when the phone users won't use the back display for such operations. I can understand for apps like USA Today mobile, but an e-Ink back display on a smartphone just seems silly and unnecessary. It reminds me of that dual screen Kyocera Android phone some years back. The extra programming and extra drain on the battery outweighed the innovation.

 

I'm pretty surprised since Knox was fully compromised at least once last year. Guess Samsung was willing to reach deeper into their pocket for the purposes of persuasion than Apple this time around.

And the ship is probably running Chinese APT's already anyway

 

the yotaphone is pretty sweet. you can use e-ink to read pdfs. etc.

 

Won't be going to T-Mo after all. All Galaxy phones now come standard with 4.3 (aka KNOX).

Guess I'm gonna have to wait until someone breaks the bootloader wide open.

 

It'll happen. The Verizon GS3 initially had a encrypted bootloader and it was cracked wide open really fast.

 

Why don't you consider the nexus 5? I know, no removable storage but honestly it should check off the biggest box on your list (lack of out of the box encryption)

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I don't know where they got their figures from but that is all wrong.


Here's the storage screen from the one I was playing with today ( apologies for the lack of free space figure, I thought I'd scrolled down):

Spoiler

Ok it's a pre-production unit but it's not far off of the final software.
There is no way that the free space is going to plummet by 4GB in the next few weeks.

 

Impressions?

 

Immediately, it feels much better in the hand than the S4.
The back seems much more understated in person but that could've been because it was a black unit.

The camera and the screen are both top notch, which you'd expect. Everything ran incredibly smoothly too, even though it's pre-production, there wasn't a single hiccup - the only things that didn't work were features that required internet access because there were no SIMs in them and we had no wi-fi.

It basically seems ready to roll off the production line, which is more than could be said for the S4s I saw at a comparable time last year, which were still in their Xperia Z1-esque decoy bodies.

 

I may seriously do so. It does check off the first box of no KNOX. But I am a crazy person, and as crazy as I sound, I do prefer Touchwiz for my UI. Time to see if the Nexus 5 has a ROM or theme for Touchwiz.

 

CM11 CM10.2 TouchWiz 5.0 theme