All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

Hmm picking up a Desire Z for $240 in an hour or so. Hopefully it's not a scam, if I don't come back, you all know what happened. D:

 

Don't you already have a Desire HD?! O_O

 

Buy -> unlock+root+update -> sell

Profit.

 

I guess you're done with uni and bored so you figured out a way to make money huh?!

I don't like the desire Z, my sister has one, it is slow and thick. And the keyboard looks pretty but it also looks weak, I'd be afraid to break it.

 

Awesome. I really think sony missed an opportunity slightly here. If they would have released a dual core phone WITH their bootloader unlocking tool, they would have grabbed a lot of the XDA community, especially nexus one users looking to switch. Still great to see sony opening up their phones though

 

This. My nexus one does not feel limited at all by its processor/ram GPU. I am just getting frustrated with the touchscreen issues it is known for, hence the switch.

The galaxy s2 will be mine though! (if it is ever released in the US )

 

Yeah, if I was rich, I would TOTALLY request a custom one with Galaxy S II specs into the Xperia Arc

 

At this rate, so long as SE keep reasonably up-to-date with their hardware, I reckon there'll be more and more people switching to them.

HTC are heading down the Motorola route, there's rumblings that Samsung are too, Motorola's comments about looking to find a solution that would provide security for their customers but also embrace the modding community have amounted to nothing.

So as long as they don't change their position on unlocking the bootloader, SE don't have to be right at the bleeding-edge in terms of hardware, they can afford to tale a bit more time.
I mean, if they turn round and announce they'll have a dual-core handset out before the end of the year, I think some people would be tempted to wait.

 

Being rich has nothing to do with it.

 

HTC is moving towards encrypted bootloaders, but samsung is not. They recently stated that unless google requires them to, they will keep it open.

I agree that sony is really moving down the right path... which is why i said a slightly missed opportunity. I am really impressed with how quick they are learning from their past mistakes (the x10).

 

You sure? im pretty sure the Galaxy S II's bootloader has been found locked.

 

It will be locked from the factory (as all bootloaders are, even in the nexus line) but it will not be encrypted like motorola devices and some new HTC devices.

 

Ohh, shows how much i know i thought that meant the same thing

 

I mean, like give them 100000€ to make your own custom cell phone

 

Still would not help you. Research and development (amongst other costs) is expensive, they would not change their entire hardware roadmap and plans just for one purchase.

Your age is showing here, you really don't understand how the world works.

@ Ahl... its an easy thing to mix up unless you are a huge phone nerd and research them constantly. lol locked/encrypted sounds like the same thing. Actually the whole bootloader mess can be quite confusing for those not that familiar with it.

 

Ehmmm, hello? Now we can't even joke...? ._.

 

It's just that a lot of the questions you have asked can easily be answered witha google search. Up until you posted in this thread, it has been an interesting discussion of manufacturer trends with android handsets, design direction, launcher choice etc. You slowly turned it into a "what phone should i buy thread " and speak about hardware specs with no real knowledge of how they effect the plattform.

Just afraid if this trend continues and now with you "just joking" this thread will go down with meme generator, like many of the threads you enter do.

 

Glad to hear Samsung's not going to use encryption. I don't know why HTC is suddenly changing their tune, unless for warranty purposes or something..still...confusing.

I totally agree, SE has got a lot of goodwill now, especially deciding to port GB to the X10 anyway, that helped them even further in terms of Android "street cred." They can take their time because of that, better to get a product right the first time IMO.

It'll be interesting to see if they expand their unlocking scheme to carrier locked devices. I'm sure there's plenty of Verizon Xperia Play intender's who would love to get it with a decrypted bootloader.

 

I hadn't seen that statement.

I'm sure that Jason said the Galaxy S2 he'd had a play with had a 'signed bootloader' - I may have misunderstood but isn't that just a different description for what Motorola do?
The whole idea is that you can only flash ROMs that are signed, which I'm sure is the same as Motorola.

I'm not disagreeing entirely.
If SE had a handset coming out with a dual-core CPU, then it would be a real contender, even without the unlocked bootloader. So with the unlocked bootloader, it is a missed opportunity in some ways.

But I think there's plenty of time for them to catch up and, for now, learning those lessons you talk of is the best thing they can do.
Walk before you run and all that.

 

Even if that was the reason for HTC locking things up and hiding they key, I'm still of the opinion, that an end user should have absolute rights over the products they buy. If I unlock my phone, I may lose my warranty coverage, but that's a risk/reward decision that is left up to me.

I suppose I'm just speaking in hypotheticals, since I don't dig too deeply into the customization as much as others in our community, but the prinicple remains a sore spot with me.

 

Never going to happen.
They have always stated, from the very first moment they mentioned the idea, that it would be limited to unlocked/unbranded handsets.

 

Heh, the phone's been giving me its fair share of trouble already. Currently trying to downgrade it in order to root it.

 

No. The one with the payment was the first, and last joke. Don't worry
I only start with the meme's when everyone is on the "wave", if you know what I mean

Anyways, I believe in price/quality ratio the HTC stand out more ( according to retaioers in my city ), but in design and quality, I believe the SE stands out from the crowd.

 

Same for me on all points. I as of right now won't buy a Motorola phone out of principle. The same goes for HTC..I'm hoping the Merge (if it's not dead already) missed the encrypted bootloader mandate...if not i'll just give up my desire for a full keyboard and buy a Samsung Fascinate 2 or whatever.

I know , one can dream though right!

 

Well, the site spits out the unlocking code for locked handsets, it's just that the method for unlocking the bootloader on unbranded handsets doesn't work on locked phones.

But I'm sure someone will work out how to adapt it soon enough.

 

Does anyone know how to add a contact as just a regular phone contact in FroYo? I could do that with Eclair, but now whenever I add a contact, it only lets me choose between Facebook or Google contacts, and when I add them in either of these categories, they don't show up in my contacts list.

 

Try to type the phone number and then save it?

Anyways, i just want to make sure about my purchase : Taking off the Galaxy S II, the HTC Sensation and the HTC Incredible S as options, the Xperia Arc is the best smartphone available, right? If not, are there equal or better alternatives?

 

Like I said, that only lets me choose between saving it as a Google or Facebook contact. And if I choose either one of those, it won't show up in my contacts list after I save it.

 

Mmm... That is odd... Perhaps the contact-reserved memory is full?

 

Weird, I can always choose between Phone, SIM and google.
I choose Google anyway since that way I won't lose any contacts the day I switch phone.

 

I don't have a direct answer to your question, but I may be able to help remedy your google contacts not showing up.

When I bought my new phone, I had contacts on my phone itself, and had contacts backed up to google (It was a windows phone). When I got my android, Sprint exchanged numbers to the new phone from my old (Similar to swapping SIM cards), but as soon as I logged in to gmail, google pulled all of my contacts as well. So instead of 500 numbers, I ended up with 1,000, half of which are duplicates.

Go into Contacts>Menu>Display Options --- This is where you should be able to alter what is visible in your contact book or not.

Hope that helps.

 

Well, that got my new Google contacts to show up...when I opened the menu, the "System Group: My Contacts" and "All Other Contacts" boxes were checked, but the unlabeled box was unchecked. I checked that and they appeared in the contacts list. Weird.

 

Is it under the same name as someone else? or even a nickname?

Google automatically combines names. I added "Bill" and it combined it with "Billy" and I couldnt figure it out forever

 

No, all my contacts have first and last names. I've never had any issues with automatic combining...the contact I added was there, it just didn't show up until I checked that unlabeled box.

 

Glad it worked at least.
Are your contacts syncing to gmail and populating correctly after that?

 

I disabled automatic syncing because I don't want all my Gmail contacts showing up in my phone contact list; same with Facebook. I really prefer to keep those lists separate, and that was no problem in Eclair.

 

Just remembered/found out that the Fascinate has less RAM than other Galaxy S phones. Thanks Verizon for crippling it...I'm sorry but there's no way I'm going to buy a new phone with only slighty more RAM than my Droid 1. A shame as it looks good by any other measure and I'm desperate and refuse to buy Motorola.

Compare phones: Samsung Fascinate, Samsung Captivate, Samsung Galaxy S - Phone Arena

 

Could be worse... The Epic has no internalSD storage, and only 512MB of ROM.

 

True but to me, RAM for things open is more important, esp. when you have a SD card slot. IDK, Maybe I shouldn't worry about it..but I'd be stuck with it for 2 years so yeah...prob not a bright idea..esp with Galaxy S II on the horizon.

 

Indeed. The Droid Charge is coming soon... It's going to be uber pricey though.

 

Samsung Infuse 4G coming to Walmart in May for $178.88 | Android Central

$178? I honestly think it should be priced at $99 like the Inspire, especially with the GS2 around the corner.

It will be interesting to see if HTC releases something like the sensation or evo 3d for ATT. It would be dumb for them not to

 

I think the price is a bit much, 150 at most for the Infuse...you're correct that's way too much.

Just saw this when I googled "fascinate RAM" How Much RAM Does the Samsung Fascinate Actually Have? - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

So maybe it's not crippled....if so it's gotten more tempting....

EDIT: http://forum.androidcentral.com/verizon-fascinate/33867-ram-fascinate.html

So yay it's definetly not crippled. Now....to get it now or not...it's dirt cheap on Amazon..but that's probably for a good reason (galaxy s II)...

 

There's a rumor floating about that Virgin Mobile will have a third Android phone sometime soon; the current ones being the Samsung Intercept (what I have) and the LG Optimus V, both relatively low-spec phones. Including the Blackberry Curve 8530, it would be the 4th smartphone overall on VM.

According to the rumor, the new phone is being made by Motorola, but it's not any of their Droid models, nor the Atrix. Rumored specs so far include a 4.1" screen (far larger than the Intercept/Optimus V, both 3.2"), and a 1GHz processor (the Intercept's is 800MHz, the Optimus' is 600, supposedly the same used in the EVO and Nexus), 5MP camera, HDMI output and FroYo.

If it's true, this could be VM's first real higher-end Android phone. It certainly would be nice to have a phone like that for $25 a month...although the phone itself will likely cost $300 or more, based on the current $200 price of the Optimus V and Intercept.

http://pocketnow.com/android/motorola-android-slate-tipped-for-virgin-mobile-usa-image

 

Like they said, it's used as a sort of swap space. You can actually make the reserved amount smaller, but then HD video recording won't work. The video recorder uses that space as a buffer cache before writing to NAND.

About the new VM Moto... All I can say is that it probably won't have Blur and it'll likely be an OMAP platform. Blur requires backend services from Motorola and unless VM specifically wants that feature it's not included. The carriers pay for the Blur services, and that gets compounded into the contract price of the device. Off-contract or prepaid isn't set up for Blur, IMO. I'm only guessing here, but I predict the new Moto (if there is one) is going to be a Bravo or Cliq2 type of device.

 

I'm not particularly concerned about Blur, so it's really not a loss to me. I'll just be happy if the device itself is as powerful as the rumors say.

 

They pay to make the phones worse?

Are you sure about this?
We sell SIM-free/PAYG Defys that are set up exactly the same way as the ones we sell on contract - they all have Blur.

Or are there extra Blur services my Defy doesn't have?

 

Do you have to create a Blur account on the Defy? I tried to see if any Verizon prepaid phones run Blur, and I found the Citrus but it's not a true "Blur" phone...it doesn't have the Blur branding on the back cover that usually indicates that the phone includes Blur backend services. It seems that there's three "levels" of "Blurrness" on Motorola phones:

*Phones that require you to create a Blur account and offer to have Blur take care of your social networking stuff through that Blur account (EX: Cliq, Devour, BackFlip, etc.)

*Phones that have a slightly modified Blur UI but don't let you create a Blur account (Citrus, maybe more??)

*Phones running "Motorola Application Platform" that don't have the same UI as Blur and don't offer Blur services (All the current Motorola Droid devices)

Am I missing anything, I'm genuinely curious now...

 

The Defy has a Blur logo on the back cover.

Some ROMs prompt you to create an account, others don't.
I believe that even if it does prompt you, you can skip it though.

 

They do. We do. The carriers want to push social networking because it requires you to have a data plan. People get addicted to social networking and they pay whatever ATT wants to charge to have it. Carriers care nothing about phone performance.

You sir, are correct. Prepaid phones don't usually come with all the "connected" services because they know that most prepaid customers don't always want to be charged for data, because blur requires a consistent data connection. Blur would eat a prepaid customer's minutes up... really quick.

Blur on the Droid devices is mostly hidden services built into the core apps like the address book and such. If you setup a Facebook SNS account, it updates information in the address book app with friend status and birthdays and such. With the other Blur devices like the Bravo and Defy, blur runs a tad more things and integrates more social networking features. The Backflip was blur version 1, later upgraded to version 2 which is what's used on the Bravo/Defy/Flipout/...

When most people think of Blur they think of that blur homescreen. That is just BlurHome... the launcher. Blur runs VERY deep. Total, there are around 35 or so blur apps on every phone that features blur services.

 

i'm buying an htc sensation the day it's released!