All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

UEKI8. Nice. You have a newer build that most of the Galaxy S phones.

I'll get back to in just a bit...

 

Thanks no rush.

 

Well if anyone cares to hear it, here's my initial impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0. I'm new to Android devices and smart phones. So first a little history. I used to love my Palm PDA (ok, I'm old), and haven't found anything to replace it yet, not to mention my first generation iPod failing years ago and never replacing it, well with only some el cheapo 1GB or 2GB music players. I also wanted a video player, web access, camera, and ability to play some games. I just had no interest in getting a new iPod because I didn't care for Apple's business model, although was tempted because there wasn't much else available with similar features. Lo and behold, along comes the Galaxy Player.

It's supposed to be similar to the Galaxy S phones minus the phone of course. First look out of the box was that it was bigger than I expected. This is good, but I also wanted something to be able to put in my pocket, well thankfully it still fits! The screen is phenomenally bright and crisp. I thought it was at full brightness, but it was only about 60% so still room if needed in a bright outdoor condition (can't test because it's raining today). I am so very happy with a capacitive touch screen. OMG, after using the POS $100 7" Android tablet I bought for my niece for her birthday, I realize how crappy it really is, lol. But she's 10, she'll survive.

The menu, home, and back buttons (sorry if those aren't the appropriate terms) at the bottom of the device are actually touch sensitive buttons and not physical buttons at all. I guess I shouldn't say touch sensitive, because they require a little bit of pressure. The back of the case is white with a couple speakers, 3.2MP camera with LED flash. Volume buttons and power button on the right side, nothing on the left side, mini USB, headphone jack, and built-in mic on the bottom, and microSDHC slot on the top.

A couple things off hand that I wasn't real impressed with was that the battery seems to be taking forever to charge, and seems to have stopped at about 80-90%. The other thing is the camera is not that great. I wasn't expecting miracles, but I almost get better quality from my cheap cell phone. Plus it takes forever for it to snap the photo. I got an app called Camera Zoom FX which thought it would improve the experience, but doesn't seem as well featured as I thought it would. Hopefully I'll get my $5 out of it anyhow.

Otherwise, just getting used to the interface and google market. Not real happy with the built in PIM stuff, as there really isn't any, so will be trialing a few to see which work best for me. Why can't anyone mimic a Palm type PIM? Seems it should be simple enough, and IMHO it was the simplest, yet best way to manage day to day stuff. I used it all the time for work and personal use.

Overall, I'm very happy with the responsiveness of the machine, ability to stream movies using Plex, and how crisp and clean everything looks on the screen. Haven't loaded any music yet, but plan on doing that soon. I also plan on finding a couple decent games. I was so looking forward to Galaxy on Fire 2 but seems it isn't compatible. Maybe I can find a way!

The device came with a set of earbuds that has a built-in play/pause button and mic. They're white and come with a couple different changeable ear bud adapters I guess if you prefer one over another.

So I guess that's it, regurgitation of my thoughts to the keyboard... I plan on spending quite a bit of time with this boy. I love it so far, and hoping the camera won't make me feel bitter about all its other wonderful features. I also hope to be able to root it, and thanks to H.A.L. 9000 I may be able to. We will see!

 

Do any of you think the "Hot Android Phones" are coming out too fast?

The poor RAZR only had a few hours in the spotlight and then it got Nexus-jacked.

At this pace... I'll be getting a Nexus 12 next year.

(I guess I'm looking at the teaser for the ASUS Transformer 2 and my current Transformer is giving me sadface)

 

No.
Motorola have only themselves to blame for scheduling their announcement the same day as Google's.

Competition and choice are cornerstones of Android - the last thing we wants is to end up like WP7 with nothing to pick between the handsets.

 

Damn ICS is looking sweet, I need to get some on my SGS2.

 

lmao, Nexus 12, that does sound good.
That's the thing though with Android, while the hardware is super sweet and crazy fast, it changes sooooo often!
My top-of-the-line phone I bought a year ago is now just as attractive as a fat teenage girl (bulky, round, slow..).

 

I don't. Android is driving innovation at a quick pace. This is a win for everyone even non Android users. iPhans will have better iPhones thanks to Android's progression, and the public will have a more exciting mobile phone market and better choices because of all the new varieties of phones being released often. The mobile phone market has never been this exciting before IMO.

 

I don't think any other market has been this exciting before! It's crazy to see the rate at which we see new capabilities, faster processors and better screens.
At one point though, it will slow down, or else the smartphone will outperform a notebook in a couple of years!

 

I care because I want one, nice impressions.

Here's what i'm really interested in, is the sound. I've own an iPod, thankfully it broke. I have a Zune HD and (3) Cowon PMP's. I'm looking for a device that competes with at least the Zune HD in the sound dept. Also check to see if the device has scalable EQ rather than Presets ?

I've read the player feels cheap because of the overuse of plastic. Valid point or not true? How is it browsing the web with the 5" screen.

FYI: I've learned that it's better to charge batteries via a USB/AC Adpater. Trying to charge the battery from a USB port on a laptop can give you unpredictable results, reasoning being some USB don't put out enough power to properly charge the battery correctly.

 

Any of you guys have the "Voice Actions" app? If not I urge you to get it. It's pretty epic.

 

I think it's hard to assess audio, at least by me. I'm not a huge audiophile. As long as it doesn't crackle and doesn't sound like I'm in a tunnel, I'm happy.

Regarding the player itself, I guess the plastic didn't bother me one bit. It's solid and tightly assembled. Metal back would be nice, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice teh beautiful screen or get a crappier CPU because of it. I would like to see a dual core in the future, along with a better camera, but those are features and not defecits. As a total package I guess it's what I expected and performs better than I thought, and the screen is bigger and better than I expected too.

Edit: oh yeah, browsing isn't too bad. I love the pinch zoom feature. Quickly zoom in if you need to click something, but then zoom out real quick to read the page. The touch type keypad though is a little rough for me. I don't have really fat fingers but I always have to turn the unit sideways to make fewer typing mistakes. Could probably do better with a stylus.

 

I totally agree that it's great that Android phones are evolving so quickly... but phone contracts are still mostly 2-year. You can pay more to get a non-subsidized phone... but then some of these new ones are going for $599... that's more than tablets.

One thing I liked about the Sprint Premiere program is they gave you a 1-year upgrade option but now that's gone. Seems like I need an upgrade program that runs on a 3-month cycle.

 

Check out Swype: Swype | Text Input for Screens

It's definitely my favorite on-screen keyboard.

 

Same here, I can't do normal onscreen keyboards anymore after being spoiled by Swype.

 

swype is gorgeous. greatly speeds up texting.

 

Also, without too much effort.

 

Have the iTrolls been superseded by the WP7Trolls?

 

Did they change swype so that it isn't constantly adding your mistakes to the dictionary?

 

Swipe comes pre-installed and part of the device. I couldn't get the hang of it. Words were COMPLETELY off.

 

Quick request: What are some of your guys favorite games on android? Amazon gave me a 5 dollar credit in their appstore for buying from them and I could use some ideas on games.

 

I used to have swype on my droid, ah I miss it. I could type text messages perfectly without looking at my phone. It takes a while to get used to and you have to adjust the settings until its good for you, but its really fast once you get the hang of it.

 

This just in:

Behind the glass: a detailed tour inside the Samsung Galaxy Nexus -- Engadget

 

I might have missed it on the announcement, but what applications would the barometer come in handy for? Mountain climbing?

 

Altitude adjustments for GPS data.

 

Cut The Rope is my recent favorite

NOVA is a very well known FPS game.

 

So... mountain climbing?

I wonder if someone will design an app or game to utilize that. Seems like its only uses are for space travel or diving.

"Vlingo, will I get The Bends?"
"Yes... stop ascending."

or

"I detect no atmosphere, please put on your space helmet."

It's really becoming a tricorder now... but I need one for blood pressure, not atmospheric pressure.

 

So has anyone tried the "Voice Actions" app from the Market? It's like Siri.

 

Yeah I did (after I saw someone mention about it here).. and I thought it still needs quiet a lot of improvement..

Some questions I asked included "Which is the best soccer team in Germany?" and I got the reply "None"... and for "How are you?", I got the reply "I am fine and running on 49% of battery power" (it was true btw - the battery was at 49%).

I have tried "Iris" too, but I thought "Voice Actions" seemed to recognize what I was saying better than "Iris"..

By the way, before I forget, I noticed that the audio from the Music Player was messed up with both "Iris" and "Voice Actions", even if those app's were not running! In particular, the 5.1Ch audio didn't work at all though the equalizer' and stuff worked as they should.. (I have a Samsung Galaxy S II, btw).

 

I hear some complaints about it in the market, but for me it's been amazing, asking math questions, peoples birth dates or random info, calling someone, texting a contact, setting an alarm, or turning on my wifi or bluetooth, or going to specific areas of my phone work flawlessly, odd that it works great for my SGS2 but not yours, I'm at a loss as to why it works perfectly for me but not for others.

 

That would be no good IMO - your altitude doesn't need to change for the air pressure to change, so how's the handset supposed to tell the difference between you climbing a mountain and a cyclone approaching?

 

So, you mean the Audio issue doesn't happen to you? You still can hear the 5.1ch sound in the Music Player?

For the other things, well yes.. it does work in all the ways you suggested.. I just wrote down a couple of things I remember and have had a laugh with my friends. For instance, it did come good when asked about the weather outside, and so on. Anyway..

 

I just tested it, seems to be fine, I don't notice anything odd. Is there something specific I should be listening for?

 

Well, nothing 'specific' as such..

The 5.1Ch works only in the earphone mode, and I saw that, from the moment I installed either "Iris" or "Voice Actions", the 5.1Ch sound doesn't work! When I uninstall the app's, it's back in action with the sound in all its 5.1Ch glory!

 

So far I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with the battery life of this Galaxy Player. Granted I've been pushing it quite a bit lately trying out different things, lots of video and games and internet and music. But I only got a few hours before I noticed the battery was at about 20%. I guess if I am not using it as intensely it should last a day without a problem, but still seems a bit short for a small solid state device with power sipping CPU. The screen shows it's using 73% of the energy from the unit, so it's not like wifi or games or video are significant contributors. I even have screen brightness at like 40%.

 

Yep, working fine here. I don't know whats going on there. Never used Iris before though, so maybe it's an issue with some files from it?

 

If it's not the altitude, then what can it be? (Beside from humidity control of some kind..)
Ah, problem solved; http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/20/galaxy-nexus-barometer-explained-sam-champion-not-out-of-a-job/

Spoiler

:O I got sigged!

Welcome to the Android world, my SGS has the same problem, if I use it non-stop for 4 hours the battery will be dead. I actually bought a second battery that I carry around just in case.
Sadly Android is still one very power-hungry OS.

I'm gonna give it a try, I am currently using Vlingo for my speech to command/text function!

 

Bummer man and I think i'll pass on the unit. That's one thing I don't like about Android devices. The OS runs so much stuff in the background you literally have to unlock so as to disable startup programs.

That was my concern and since I can compare it to my Zune which sounds fantastic it gives me about 10-25 hours of battery life depending on how hard I push it. My Cowon PMP's depending on the model average around 45 hours of battery life.

 

Yep. Like Thierry said, this is still a big problem with Android. There's no hardware acceleration in the UI, so every time something happens (UI event wise) the CPU is ramped up to it's max frequency. That's where ICS is going to be really great. It's bringing full hardware acceleration to the UI... it's going to be much more efficient with the given hardware, in your case Hummingbird.

I'm still looking into ways of rooting your particular device... since you don't have too much experience with ODIN or any kind of recovery software, I wouldn't want you to follow my directions and soft-brick your device. Since Gingerbread ships with a 3e signed recovery, you can't flash a different recovery and just simply flash superuser and the SU binary.

I would suggest you read up on ODIN though... it's very helpful with Samsung Android devices. Familiarize yourself with Download Mode and Recovery Mode. Those will be very helpful to you should you have issues with Android.

 

Plants vs. Zombies-the real one.

 

So does this mean the Galaxy Nexus (and future ICS phones) will have better battery life than the current crop of Gingerbread phones? Even better than the RAZR?

 

IMO, yes. Gingerbread isn't taking advantage of the hardware it's given and battery life suffers. If you look at some of Samsung's devices, Gingerbread has enabled partial hardware acceleration and the battery life of those devices are some of the best in the Android community. The GSII, the i9000, Infuse, all of those have received partial UI acceleration and with Gingerbread it has roughly doubled the battery life of the Hummingbird based devices.

 

How's the SGII performance after downloading apps and whatnot...I will be getting this phone in about a month...the white one, DROOLZ.

Any recommendations??? Or should I look for another device (not thrilled about the Nexus Galaxy, I believe 4.3" screen is more than enough)...android fan here, so any other device non android is out of the question.

 

I can't help thinking that any slight savings from hardware acceleration will be lost compared to the added power requirements of a larger, higher-res screen and LTE radios.

 

The only reason why I'd go with the Galaxy Nexus is the constant support by Google. You will always be running the latest version of Android.
Besides, the SGII is one hell of a phone, the performance should be more than enough.

 

Sorry for double post.

 

How does the audio DAC (Texas Instruments TWL6040) compare to current phones? It sounds disappointing already

 

Abysmal. Ugh. I was sooo wanting something decent audio wise. Looks like I'll keep on with my Hummingbird devices.

TWL6040 is an integrated PMIC/Audio Codec. It's very basic in design.

EDIT: Francois Simond (AKA Supercurio) is reporting that the Galaxy Nexus is showing 648MB of total system RAM. 630MB available.

 

Welp, there go my plans for getting a new phone. =/

 

650? We'll see if this is well enough for ICS, Motorola's Razr has a whole Gig...