All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Okay, cool man. And yeah, only reason I didn't or haven't bought the One m8 was because of its camera.

 

So, I bit the bullet. Switched from T-Mobile to AT&T and got myself the LG G3 this past Sunday. Unfortunately, my credit is apparently not good enough to allow me to buy the phone via Next, so I had to sign a 2-year contract, meaning I had to pay $200 for the phone up front, but on the plus side my monthly payment is $65 instead of close to $80 with the service + Next payments. And either way, I'm quite happy to say that for the first time in a veeeery long time, I've had uninterrupted phone service for three straight days! I have yet to actually find a place where I don't have LTE coverage, even inside the building at work, where my Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile just left its reception at the door. The only downside I can see is that with my old phone and service, the 1GB cap was a joke since I physically could never get more than a couple hundred MB out of it within a month. Now, three days in and I'm almost at 200MB, although I partially blame the phone doing a bunch of initial setup and updates the minute I turned it on before I could even connect to wifi.

The only complaints I have are about the crap that AT&T did to the phone. Bunch of apps that duplicate the functionality of perfectly good stock Google apps, and apparently they disabled the wireless charging and FM radio tuner than other versions of the phone come with.

 

Just want to share these pics I took today with my HTC. The camera is still pretty darn good.





And I liked this filter.

 

I caved and bought the black Xperia Z3 from Handtec. I know I should wait but the thought of it shipping next week was too great. Have straight talk so gonna use it with them.

 

When will Android make it simple just to "install to..." giving you option to install to internal memory or SD card? It's ridiculous that this isn't implicit in any modern OS, mobile or not, but especially mobile.

 

I just picked up a 32GB 1st gen manufacture refurbed unit. Any good free games out there for 2014 that will run well on my Nexus?

 

Reaper is a really fun side-view action RPG, and up through level 10 is free so you can decide whether you want to spend a couple bucks on the rest of the game. Not sure how well it'll run on that device, but there's no harm in trying.

Later this year, Hearthstone (Blizzard's CCG) should hit Android, and that's the most fun I've had with a F2P in a long time.

 

guys, recommend me a decent RSS reader. I prefer list style with or without pics, no magazine styles, and prefer not having to make an account.

All the ones I have tried so far have had bugs. I really cant stand it when it loads tons of articles I've already read from weeks back.

I've tried a few, but these are the recent ones:
RssDemon - was my favorite until it started pulling old articles. also very slow to fetch.
gReader - my current reader, but has been glitching and listing old or already read articles.
Sparse - nice but has problems fetching some feeds.

 

Guys, I've got a problema... Today was raining like heck in Waterloo, and I was skyping at the same time while riding my bike. And now my speakers got water damaged! What should I do? :/

 

It's simple <del>we kill the Batman</del> <del>YOU CAN'T KILL ME</del>, don't text while you drive.

 

Basically, just hope they dry out and start functioning again.

 

What about pouring rice on the device? I heard somewhere that it helps.

 

Rice is a dried grain, it absorbs moisture, thus drying the device out quicker.

 

Apparently it's working fine again, it even seems to have the same oomph. So I guess all is fine for now

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

Adunno if I prefer the Z2 or the Z3, I prefer the Z2's looks, but it seems like the Z3 is a slight evolution over the Z2. I really want to get back to a sim carrier, I am starting to dislike my iPhone.

 

my wife needs a tablet to help teach her students and she was going to get an ipad and i informed her there was an equally good route at the fraction of the cost...aka android. What are the current best tablets for ~7in and ~10 in range? I thought there would have been a new nexus by now but there isn't so i am wondering if there is any new news on better hardware coming out because these things always get obsolete so dang fast.

 

The Android tablets that are half the price of the iPad are not comparable in quality to the iPad. The $499 iPad Air is very good quality for the price, and similar-quality Android tablets (like the Xperia Tablet Z2) will be similarly priced. Same with the Retina iPad Mini (compare the specs and price of the iPad Mini to the Galaxy Note Pro 8.4 or the Galaxy Tab S 8.4).

If you want a cheap Android tablet of decent quality, my top recommendation would be the LG G Pad 7.0, which sells for $149, and the Galaxy Tab 4 7.0, which sells for $179 (the Samsung has microSD expansion if that matters to you, but I think LG's recent light-weight approach to skinning might be a better fit to lower-spec devices than Touchwiz). But don't tell yourself you're getting an iPad Mini for half the price, because you're not.

Keep in mind that the iOS app store has got a ton of tablet-specific software but Google Play does not. If you're looking for a dedicated tablet as opposed to a phablet (the focus in large-screen Android devices right now), I think your wife has the right idea and iOS is probably a better bet.

 

I think the Nexus 7 is going to be the best overall Android tablet you can get for a decent price. It has modern specs, a high resolution 1920x1200 beautiful screen, good battery life. Of course you aren't going to get no fancy UI's, but very clean and fast vanilla Android. 10" is a bit of a toss up as most are into the 400-500 range as Mitlov has stated.

 

Dragged the drunkard into T-Mobile. Got herself a new LG G3, case, and new plan. She won't be paying any more than she already is.

:thumbsup:

 

T-Mobile is the only American version of the G3 with an unlocked bootloader...the rest of us are stuck with the stock ROM, all we can really do is root and try to get rid of preinstalled carrier and LG bloatware and hope for the best.

Did T-Mobile cripple the phone's built in features (switching from Qi to the much more limited PMA wireless charging, completely removing the FM radio) like AT&T did despite still charging you the full amount?

 

Not sure. Didn't look too much at the wireless charging or FM capability.

 

you can root sprint phones. You just got to ask the guy/gal when you get your new phone to write down the code you need when they activate it. It pops up in the process.

 

Samsung should fire whoever did the "it doesn't take a genius" ads and hire this company full-time instead:

 

god that is one annoying commercial -_-

 

Here here! Gnusmas should just quit doing/ordering commercials. SSD one was horrible, smartwatch wasn't any better, and now these hipsters... Seriously, stop it...
Also, who the hell watches (well OK, I did, guilty as charged) a 4min+ commercial?

 

i thought the galaxy watch commercial on hulu was very good and classy in my opinion

 

That's unlock, not root. You ask a Sprint sales rep to give you the code to root your phone and they'll give you this dirty look like "you wanna do what to me???"

 

once unlocked it can be rooted....

 

Are you referring to Bootloader unlocking? Sim unlocking is completely unrelated.

 

He must be. But I am under the impression only the manufacturer can provide the code to unlock a bootloader (i.e. HTC, Motorola). Sprint would just give me the company line of "your device should only run Sprint certified android software to ensure it has no compatibility with any of your favorite apps and to make sure all the bugs in it never get fixed".

 

maybe i am mistaken and getting the two confused but i thought you can get the code in set up process.

 

You can get the carrier unlock code for unlocking the device from the carrier, that way you have an unlocked device which can work on any carrier by swapping the SIM.

Unlocking the bootloader is a whole nuther ball of wax. You get that unlock code from the manufacturer, if they allow unlocking of the bootloader.

 

well i know i could do it for my EVO 3D though it didn't work for me.

 

Compact smartphone fans rejoice; the Z3 Compact is coming to the US after all. So the AT&T-exclusive Galaxy Alpha won't be the only compact premium Android phone on the US market. Not to mention that unlike the Alpha, the Z3 Compact is waterproof and has a substantial battery (2600 mAh instead of 1,860).

Xperia™ Z3 Compact waterproof mobile - Sony Smartphones (US)

 

I knew the new Moto X had a worse camera than its direct competitors, but it turns out that it even has a worse camera than Motorola's own Moto G, which costs 1/3 as much.

Moto X (2014) vs. Moto G (2014) camera comparison: is the Moto X camera really that bad? - AndroidPIT

I'm not sure if I've ever seen a worse camera on a higher-end smartphone. Too bad, because I was somewhat intrigued by the new Moto X but this is a total deal-breaker.

 

That review seems to be in the minority. Most other reviews don't have much of a problem with the camera.

 

is it worse then the HTC one/max camera? that thing blows

 

As I said earlier, I purchased a Z3 from Handtec. However I was unfortunate enough that they sent me the compact on accident. I did return it and will have the regular Z3 soon. But the compact was insanely awesome. The phone is tiny, and thick enough that it is the most comfortable phone I've ever held. My favorite part was the battery life. It was utterly unbelievable. I cannot describe how crazy that battery was. For anyone looking for a small phone, that is a must. The only reason I returned it is because I wanted a bigger screen. That is it.

 

I take it you haven't used one.

 

i have the htc one max and the camera on it blows. the G2 is way way better on so many levels

 

The Verge, Engadget, ArsTechnica, and Marques Brownlee, all singled out the camera as a downside of the new Moto X. Most have called it "inconsistent" instead of, say "consistently bad," but the camera is always mentioned in the negatives of the phone, not the positives. It's a bummer because camera quality is really important to me, but otherwise, I really like the new Moto X, I love Motorola's current approach to software, I love that it's only $99 on-contract (as opposed to the $299 of the Note 4 that I'm also considering), and my wife really has had a good experience with her first-gen Moto X. I'm just a little wary of the camera quality because I use my smartphone as my main camera to take pictures of my kids and family outings.

 

problem number one.

My wife and i use our camera to take pictures of daily things but anything remotely significant i will bring my RX100. I obviously dont use it for everything but i will use it anywhere i plan on taking more then a couple pics.

 

^^^And this is where people forget: a "camera phone" is a smart phone equipped with a camera...not a camera with a smartphone built around it. Occasionally you get something like the Galaxy Zoom where a decent camera was paired with a smartphone. I imagine the Zoom (or the like) can probably take a decent photo. But if you want to photograph your family reunion, don't plan on doing it with your iPhone.

 

We have a dedicated camera (a Nikon point-and-shoot, not as nice as your RX100, which I would love to have) for when I bring it. For trips to the beach or or interstate vacations, we bring the Nikon. For spontaneous shots in our backyard or trips to the park, the Nikon typically is still in a drawer at home whereas my smartphone is always on me.

 

backpack thats what i do. I also carry my RX100 with me where ever i go but that is because i always want to be prepared if i see or get trolled by the po pos. I carry it in my car typically or in backpack if i want ti with me. FYI the RX100 goes for like 400 now instead of 650. It is worth every penny trust me on this. Compared to other cameras worth 300-600 bucks it performs like a $1000 camera. I just wish there was better

http://www.fatwallet.com/eBay-coupo...xmor-cmos-digital-camera-dsc-rx100/2507203-3/

$330 NEW enjoy.

 

I appreciate the comments, and if I wanted a dedicated camera, the RX100 would be it, but (1) I'm not going to start carrying a backpack everywhere I go, and (2) right now, I don't want to spend several hundred dollars on a camera in addition to buying a new smartphone.

 

May I recommend not dinning out for a month and buy the camera instead. the higher quality memories will be worth it. FYI as I said I keep it in my car most of the time so if u go to the park just pull it out.

 

I've got multiple SLR cameras and a SX150 but I don't use then nearly as often as my cellphone camera. For 50% of things the quality of the cellphone image is good enough, and for the other 40% I don't have the full size camera on me. I agree with Mitlov about the camera being something to focus on. Couple a cellphone with dropbox and you never lose pictures, and you don't have to transfer them to your PC, its all automatic.

 

I appreciate you're trying to be helpful, but please understand:

(1) I am shopping for a phone, not a camera. I don't want to start carrying a camera everywhere I go.

(2) I really don't have an extra $400 sitting around above and beyond what I have earmarked for my next phone. I wish I was eating $400 of nice restaurant dinners per month. You don't know anything about my family's financial situation, the debts and other obligations i have, so please don't give me advice about how to rearrange my household finances to create $400 I already said I didn't want to spend.

 

Without a doubt, my G2 took better shots. But neither of my M8s took bad or unusable pictures.

I'd argue that being the worst feature of an otherwise excellent phone doesn't automatically make it awful.

Obviously though, camera performance is at least somewhat subjective. I'm only looking for Facebook worthy photos(though I never post any).