Topic: Smartphone Megathread. It's the shit.

[gpw11]

God ,they make the screen sound pretty horrible but Beo alleviated my fears a bit and I've been browsing threads on XDA where people seem happy about it.  All in, I don't know if I'd notice coming from a desire Z and even then, cost and size are probably going to be the deciding factors here.

[Xessive]

God ,they make the screen sound pretty horrible but Beo alleviated my fears a bit and I've been browsing threads on XDA where people seem happy about it.  All in, I don't know if I'd notice coming from a desire Z and even then, cost and size are probably going to be the deciding factors here.

Yeah, they really ripped on the One S' screen. According to Engadget that seemed to be the only downside, which based on user reports is not that bad, making the One S a pretty damn good phone overall.

[gpw11]

Yeah, people seem pretty happy with it.  I'll probably go with it and iI can always switch it within 30 days or something.  Although, I'd still be carrier limited.  People on the internet seem really happy with it at least.  Too bad we can't get that sweet ceramic black version in North America at the moment.

[ren]

I think I'm going to pick up the LG Optimus Black One. It's pretty cheap so I can have the subsidy paid off in a year and be ready to get the next year-old midrange phone. Ye Olde Blackberry Curve is getting a bit dated and I don't want to wait until October for Blackberry 10.

[gpw11]

I've never owned an LG but I really like the look of that phone.

I think my Desire Z usb charging port finally bit it, so I transferred everything back over to my spare Milestone.   Sure, it's slow as fuck, has no app storage, and a slew of other problems, but the phone just feels right.  All metal and hard corners.  I think I likened it to holding a gun here before and I still stand by that.

Droid/Milestone for life.

[gpw11]

I went and checked out a demo unit of the One S in the store yesterday.  Now, I may be blind or something, but Plentile doesn't seem like such a big deal at all.  The screen looked great and I couldn't even tell until I got like an inch away...and then the phone crashed. That aside, is this just one of those things people bitch about on the internet for no reason (because I've yet to see anyone who owns the phone bitching about the screen).

[ren]

I went all the way to the store and then chickened out and stayed with my blackberry. I'll probably end up sticking with it until something that feels like a must-have hits my provider (Koodo). I'm guessing that'll either be a Windows Phone or Blackberry 10. I just wasn't excited enough about Android to make a two-year commitment to it.

[gpw11]

You know, if your phone is working fine, that's probably the best call.   I'm a big Android fan, but it's not for everyone and if I was in your shoes I'd wait to see what Windows Phone 8 and Blackberry 10 have to offer.  Both seem pretty cool...and hell, if you still use BBM a lot you can't beat it.

[gpw11]

After going back to my Milestone (OG Droid for you Americans) while waiting for my corporate account to get this whole HTC One S thing going I've come to the conclusion that Motorolla are a bunch of fuckups and Apple is on top of their shit.  How/why?  Apple finds a form factor and design that works and stays with it. Motorolla, on the other hand (and every other manufacturer out there really) spastically try to change things and the results have pretty much turned it all to shit.

The build quality, durability, and screen on the Milestone are still pretty amazing by today's standards.  I haven't come across anything else with the same feel (The follow up droids are all more plastic feeling and not quite as impressive), the screen is bright great resolution for the screen size and has pretty impressive ppi (not quite Apple levels, but close), and is still fully visible in direct sunlight. The keyboard kinda blows, but they solved that in later versions, even if everything else was somewhat of a step down.

Honestly, I don't know why they didn't go with the Apple model and just release the Droid with small refinements - fix the keyboard, bump up the processor and ram, increase the ppi of the screen, on a yearly basis.  I mean, they kind of did that, but with every new version they've also fucked it up by addressing issues no one had problems with and decreasing the overall quality. Poorer (but bigger) screens, cheaper materials for a lighter feel, etc.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the poor specs (the slow processor isn't really a problem but the low ram/lack of internal storage is) I'd probably just go back to rocking this for a few years.

[scottws]

I dont get the lighter feel thing. I associate heft with quality when it comes to phones.

[W7RE]

Anyone have any knowledge/experience with buying cell phones from Amazon? (wireless.amazon.com)

I'm wanting to get a phone and Amazon has it for 1 penny (with contract). I'll be adding the phone to an existing Verizon family plan as a new line, which Amazon allows you to do during checkout. The only catch I can find anyone talking about is that there's a fee paid to Amazon if you break the contract within the first 6 months. There's also the standard $35 activation fee which gets added to your Verizon bill.

The phone would normally cost $100 (looking at verizonwireless.com).

[gpw11]

I haven't heard anything about it (you know, Canada), but I have come across at least one horror story online about a retailer charging a fee for early cancellation (RadioShack in this case).  That said, six months is nothing and I can't see it being that big of a deal.  Plus, taking the internet into account, if that's the only complaint you're probably golden.

[W7RE]

I went ahead and ordered it. The thing you agree to says that they give you the $250 savings and if you cancel your service before the end of the first 6 months you owe them the $250. It also had free 2 day shipping, so I'll have it on Thursday.

[gpw11]

Yeah, I don't really see how you could go wrong with that.

[gpw11]

Bought the HTC One S.  It's completely amazing.  I can see how pentile would be a huge issue for some, but I'm fine with it and the colour saturation and contrast on this screen are worth it (for me).  I'm also finding it the sweet spot for size (for me at least, both in screen and overall unit.  And it's thin enough to make throwing an Otterbox Commuter on there and never taking it off a viable option (not so sure about the defender).

But most of all, it's hella fast and the battery life is pretty stellar.

[Xessive]

Awesome! Congrats, man.

Btw, Nyko announces Android Bluetooth Gamepad at E3 2012. Cool or not cool? I like the idea but it'll almost exclusively appeal to gamers rather than casual players.

[gpw11]

Thanks man, the thing is amazing. The screen isn't as nice as the Galaxy Nexus, but I like the size and form factor more.  And it's fast as hell.  Amazingly fast.  I don't know what I'm going to do with that since mobile games are about on par with PS1 right now, but it's fast.

As for the Bluetooth gamepad, I think they've been out for a while, but probably nowhere near that level of support or quality.  It's an idea, and would be good for emulation, but besides that, most mobile games don't really lend themselves to a separate pad (or at least don't need one).  Sonic CD, however, sure as hell could have used one.

[W7RE]

I got my phone from Amazon. It activated just fine and I've been using it for a week now. I did run into an issue with my bank rejecting the $0.01 charge, so the support guy changed the charge to $1.01 and then refunded me $1. The number was added to the existing family plan just fine, and so far the Amazon deal seems to be exactly what it says, and I indeed got a new phone for 1 penny (plus $35 activation fee for the new line, Verizon standard).

As for the phone itself, it's not actually a smart phone (but this is THE phone thread on here). It's a Samsung Brightside, which is a feature phone with capacitive touch. If sort of gives the impression that it wants to be a smartphone, but with its proprietary OS and lack of apps, it does sort of fall short. It's got a web browser and email, but the whole reason I got this instead of a smartphone was to avoid a data package, so I won't be using those. I've been using the hell out of texting though.

My one real complaint about the whole thing is that it's not completely clear what uses data and what doesn't. (this may just be due to my inexperience with cell phones) When I check the account on the Verizon site, it lists texts with images under texting, not under data. However, the "data call" icon shows up when sending or recieving one. Also, if I turn off data on the phone or on the website, I can't send or recieve sms with images. I also don't think the data usage on the site is changing when I send/recieve one (tested by sending one and recieving one, then checking online the next day).

[scottws]

Speaking of data, I need to call Verizon.  I checked out their little app the other day and I noticed the 4GB plan was the same price as my 2GB one, which I have.  I need to see what that's about and see if I can go to the 4GB plan.  If it's a plan that will automatically go up after a year or something I won't do it because the most I've used in a month is 1.2 GB and usually I'm under 1 GB.

In other news, my Galaxy Nexus finally got Android 4.0.4 this week.

[gpw11]

Stay away from smartphones as long as you can.  Once you get into them you can't go back.  But picture texts fall under texting here at least and I'd be surprisedif it was different anywhere else but you could always call Verizon to double check.

[gpw11]

Speaking of data, I need to call Verizon.  I checked out their little app the other day and I noticed the 4GB plan was the same price as my 2GB one, which I have.  I need to see what that's about and see if I can go to the 4GB plan.  If it's a plan that will automatically go up after a year or something I won't do it because the most I've used in a month is 1.2 GB and usually I'm under 1 GB.

In other news, my Galaxy Nexus finally got Android 4.0.4 this week.

What are the upgrades in 4.0.4?  I'm amazed.at how much better ICS actually is.

And we really get the shaft with contract length and pricing ok n everything cellular related in Canada.

[ren]

So Koodo had the HTC One S on sale which made it almost free with the tab so I caved and got it. I'm really loving the screen and the overall interface but having no keyboard is painful right now. I'm assuming I'll get used to it with time. Until then, it's interesting to note how differently I use phones. With the blackberry, I'd usually sit down for a few minutes a day and go through all of my messages and write replies. It was faster than loading up my crappy computer and I can type basically as fast on the blackberry keyboard as a regular keyboard. With a touch screen this practice has immediately stopped meaning I have to use a computer which is really making me want to upgrade. I'm waiting to see how all these new ultrabooks and Windows 8 pan out though.

Android is weird. I was completely lost for the first hour or so but I've started to get over the learning curve. The blackberry button was essentially a right-click so it was very easy to figure out everything the phone could do. Holding down on an icon or sliding it to different areas of the screen isn't something that came naturally to me, I had to figure it out.

A couple of questions on Android.

1 - How do I quickly change between profiles? Going from silent to vibrate to normal is something I do dozens of times a day and I haven't found a faster way than to go into the settings menu, go down to sound and manually select. Doing this with one or two clicks (or swipes) from the home screen would be ideal.

2 - What are some good apps? So far I've gotten Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Rdio, Barcode Scanner, IMDB and Netflix. Oh, also all the Google ones. Google Goggles is pretty much the coolest thing ever and got rid of any second-thoughts I had about upgrading.

[beo]

If you do a long press on a free space on one of your homescreens, choose shortcuts, settings and then sound, that'll speed up switching to silent and back.

edit - scratch that. much better way to do it is add the "profile" widget to the homescreen - it's under settings (htc) in the widgets menu.

[ren]

I found an even better way. Apparently I can just use the volume rocker. Lowering the volume to mute puts the phone on silent and one more push puts it on vibrate.

[gpw11]

So Koodo had the HTC One S on sale which made it almost free with the tab so I caved and got it. I'm really loving the screen and the overall interface but having no keyboard is painful right now. I'm assuming I'll get used to it with time. Until then, it's interesting to note how differently I use phones. With the blackberry, I'd usually sit down for a few minutes a day and go through all of my messages and write replies. It was faster than loading up my crappy computer and I can type basically as fast on the blackberry keyboard as a regular keyboard. With a touch screen this practice has immediately stopped meaning I have to use a computer which is really making me want to upgrade. I'm waiting to see how all these new ultrabooks and Windows 8 pan out though.

Android is weird. I was completely lost for the first hour or so but I've started to get over the learning curve. The blackberry button was essentially a right-click so it was very easy to figure out everything the phone could do. Holding down on an icon or sliding it to different areas of the screen isn't something that came naturally to me, I had to figure it out.

A couple of questions on Android.

1 - How do I quickly change between profiles? Going from silent to vibrate to normal is something I do dozens of times a day and I haven't found a faster way than to go into the settings menu, go down to sound and manually select. Doing this with one or two clicks (or swipes) from the home screen would be ideal.

2 - What are some good apps? So far I've gotten Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Rdio, Barcode Scanner, IMDB and Netflix. Oh, also all the Google ones. Google Goggles is pretty much the coolest thing ever and got rid of any second-thoughts I had about upgrading.

Did you get the One V or One S?  I know Kodoo has the One V (smaller, with chin), but didn't know that they had the One S yet.  The reason I ask is because if you're rocking the One V, you could always check Swype out to see if you like typing on that better (a ton of people do).  It's not currently compatible with the One S at the moment though due to a resolution problem.

And I'll get back to you about apps.  Probably when I'm not starving to death.

[scottws]

What are the upgrades in 4.0.4?  I'm amazed.at how much better ICS actually is.

The most obvious changes in 4.0.4 are that the recent apps button and auto rotation are much quicker.  I also
Noticed the sound menu was changed around.  I was hoping the issue I am having setting a ringtone to a specific contact would be resolved but it was not.  I still hear the default ringtone.

[scottws]

A couple of questions on Android.

1 - How do I quickly change between profiles? Going from silent to vibrate to normal is something I do dozens of times a day and I haven't found a faster way than to go into the settings menu, go down to sound and manually select. Doing this with one or two clicks (or swipes) from the home screen would be ideal.

On my phone (a Galaxy Nexus), I can hold the power button.  I get a dialog box that gives me the option to power off, turn on airplane mode, or to choose a sound profile (on, vibrate, or silent).  But I have base Android.  I'm not sure if that functionality exists in the manufacturer versions.

2 - What are some good apps? So far I've gotten Facebook,! Twitter, WhatsApp, Rdio, Barcode Scanner, IMDB and Netflix. Oh, also all the Google ones. Google Goggles is pretty much the coolest thing ever and got rid of any second-thoughts I had about upgrading.

Pandora, Any.Do, Astro, Tapatalk, CamCard, Gas Buddy.

[gpw11]

On my phone (a Galaxy Nexus), I can hold the power button.  I get a dialog box that gives me the option to power off, turn on airplane mode, or to choose a sound profile (on, vibrate, or silent).  But I have base Android.  I'm not sure if that functionality exists in the manufacturer versions.
Pandora, Any.Do, Astro, Tapatalk, CamCard, Gas Buddy.

Doesn't fly in Sense.  You get:  Power Off, Airplane Mode, Restart.  You either have to hit the volume rocker or use a widget.  I find it interesting that the don't do it on the lockscreen anymore.  One of the handier "features" of my Milestone was the ability to just swipe into silent without actually unlocking the phone.  Probably strictly because I was in school. Is it still an option on the Google Experience devices?

As for Apps, what are you looking for?  Entertainment?  Productivity?  Games?  All of them?  The App enviroment on Android is a million times better than when I got my first phone, and it's to the point that if it's on iOS or you can think of it, you can find it pretty much.

[scottws]

Well I use the pattern unlock, but before I enabled that I had the option to unlock to the home screen or unlock to the camera.  With the pattern unlock I just can unlock to the home screen or emergency dial. No sound profile changes from what I can tell, though I can silence a ring by pressing the volume rocker.

I don't recall my HTC Incredible having such an option either.

[ren]

Yeah, HTC One V, not S, sorry about that. I keep thinking of HTC One V as One 5, not One Vee and then 5 and S look kind of similar so I keep using them interchangeably.

As for Apps, I'm not looking for anything in particular, just anything useful that you'd think would be useful. One thing that I am looking for is a replacement to Blackberry Protect. It would let you locate your phone by GPS if you lose it, leave a message on the screen remotely (Please call ____ if found), wipe the phone as well and make it emit a loud noise so you can find it when you leave it in the house.

I've started using Swype or whatever the HTC Sense equivalent is and it's working pretty well. Now my only gripe with the phone is the reception. While the Blackberry got full bars everywhere, this phone goes down to one or two bars quite often and even loses reception entirely. It's kind of annoying but I think I can live with it. I have 14 days to return it no questions asked though so if it gets bad enough I may do that.

[scottws]

Where's My Droid.

[gpw11]

Yeah, honestly (and sadly) the only thing that can compete with a Blackberry on reception is another BlackBerry.  I believe the common conception is that Motorola and Nokia come next, followed up by everything.  I know people with the One S have been complaining about the reception, saying it's sub par, but it's about the same for me as my last couple of phones.  Might be something with the entire series that they will update through software, but there's never a guarantee on that. 

And I hear you. No reception is maybe the most annoying thing ever.

[ren]

Where's My Droid.

Awesome, thanks.

Yeah, honestly (and sadly) the only thing that can compete with a Blackberry on reception is another BlackBerry.  I believe the common conception is that Motorola and Nokia come next, followed up by everything.  I know people with the One S have been complaining about the reception, saying it's sub par, but it's about the same for me as my last couple of phones.  Might be something with the entire series that they will update through software, but there's never a guarantee on that. 

And I hear you. No reception is maybe the most annoying thing ever.

Oh really? Interesting, I hadn't heard that before. That's good to know that it's standard and not just my phone.

[gpw11]

Yeah, that's what some people say on the internet.  Take it with a grain of salt.

[gpw11]

The One V with Sense has a lot of built in apps that remove the need to download quite of a few (not taking, clock widgets, Calender widgets), etc. but here are some Android apps that I use a fair bit.

Games
-Words with Friends (Scrabble online)

-Draw Something (Kinda like pictionary)

-Cut the Rope

-Game Dev Story (only pay app I'll probably have on here)

-Home Run Battle 3D/Home Run Battle 2

-Mega Jump

-7 Words

Gameboid - may not be in the app store anymore, but who doesn't want to play GBA games on their phone?

*Note: I don't play a ton of games on my phone, these are just ones I've enjoyed at some point.

Productivity
-Astrid (much like Scott's mentioned Any.do.  Not sure which is better, but a task manager app that can link with Google tasks and has a widget.  I just noticed that HTC has a native app, so maybe use that)

-ColorNote.  Not sure if this is redundant with HTC's Notes app, but a simple note taking app where you can post "notes" as widgets - like post-it-notes
-Dropbox.  Use it.  Also, you may have gotten some free storage with your one series phone.  Use it.

-Evernote.  I know this is integrated into HTC's Notes app, but haven't played around with it.  I've been using the standard app for years.  Take any note, picture, voice note and it will upload to the server so you can access it wherever.  It's been handy a ton of times.

-Habit Streak.  Like a task app but for reocurring tasks you want to do daily.  Keeps track of how many days in a row you've done them.

-Realcalc scientific calculator. Maybe not neccesarily this one, but depending on what you can do, you can find a calculator with more usefull functions for yourself than the very simple stock one.  From graphing to construction calculators, they'll have something handy in the Market.



Media

-MX Player - Best video player I've found.  

-Quikpic - Best Photoviewer I've found.  I use it out of habit, but HTC's Gallery app is pretty good as well.

-Poweramp - Great music player. Free trial and then pay.

-Winamp - Free

Skifta - If you have a media server/shared media stored on  PCs, you can access it through this.  You can also access it through HTC's media player, but I find that this is a bit faster in browsing the server.

Communication

Skype

WhatsApp - Multiplatform messaging service. Uses data. Might be the closest thing you find to BBM (Note, the second "checkmark" on a message doesn't mean that it's been read, just that the server has delivered the message to the recipient's device.

GoSMS - If you ever decide you want a change from the standard HTC messaging app, use this.

System

Astro - File Browser, etc.

Swype - Not in the appstore, but probably the best keyboard replacement out there.  The HTC equivilent is close, but not quite.  Have to sign up for beta on their site to download


News

-Reader.  People like this.  I'm torn, I find the web app just as good, maybe better.

-Flipboard Like Swype, you need to sign up for Beta on their webpage (for now).  Pretty cool.

-Chive Everyone likes entertaining low-brow pictures


I'll add more as I come up with them, but there are a TON of apps out there for pretty much everything. Don't like the camera app?  Get a new one, etc.  If I was new to android, I'd check some Android news sites, they seem to have lists all the time.

[ren]

Awesome, thanks a lot. I haven't gone through them yet but I appreciate you writing that up.

[ren]

I got SwiftKey 3 because I hear it's the new hotness and it's half price right now. It's certainly impressive but I'm not sure that I prefer it to swiping.

[scottws]

I've owned SwiftKey 3 since the $0.10 Christmas deals, but never tried it out. I just enabled it. We'll see how it goes. I don't mind the default keyboard in ICS all that much.

[gpw11]

I got SwiftKey 3 because I hear it's the new hotness and it's half price right now. It's certainly impressive but I'm not sure that I prefer it to swiping.

I've never used it myself but have heard good things. All the 3.5-3.7" phones I've owned have had physical qwerty's.  I've adjusted reasonably well to pure touch typing on my (awesome as hell) One S, but I think I'd have way more a problem with a smaller screen.

You guys should let me know what you think about SwiftKey.

Also, Nike+ was just released for Android.  It's purely gps based (as opposed to iOS version's compatibility with the pedometer foot sensor), but I still prefer the service to competitors.  That might just be me, but it looks like it's also been improved upon a bit with the interface and tracking.

[scottws]

I tried out a MHL-HDMI adapter for my Galaxy Nexus. This let's you mirror your phone screen to a HDMI display such as a TV or monitor. My phone is aware of the connection as it rotates the desktop to a horizontal arrangement and gets rid of the Google search box. I also bought a mini Bluetooth keyboard with trackpad.

The experience was horrible. The interface would frequently freeze, and sleep the screen, and video was beyond choppy. It was completely unstable as a light duty desktop replacement.

I did some research and some people are saying it is a problem with the Texas Instruments CPU in the Galaxy Nexus. Others said it is a problem with Android 4.0.4 and that certain custom ROMs don't have the problem. Others said that they had trouble with the cheapest MHL adapters but the official Samsung one was better. Others said the Samsung one didn't work right either. Still others said it worked great for them.

I decided to return the cheap Menotek adapter I bought and get the Samsung one.