dan-likes-trees Posted October 19, 2011 Posted October 19, 2011 Finally hauled myself into the 21st centuary after being on a £10 brick for the last age. Got a Desire on the cheap (I know it's old hat now but whatever) my god I love it lots. I only have 250mb data per month, but even though i turn off auto-sync I still seem to use up a fair bit of data, probably more than I can afford. Not sure why? I don't really get the difference between 'background data' and 'auto-sync'. Is background data manual? Similarly, despite having the guardian autodownload via wifi every morning I still seem to use up data when I'm using it out and about, even though as I say auto-sync is off. And is sywpe significantly better than the keyboard? Current one is a pain in my ass. Aside from that I totally love it.
Ten10 Posted October 19, 2011 Posted October 19, 2011 Auto Syncing is mainly related to accounts and email (google, facebook, twitter etc.) which will update the information according to a set schedule. Background data is any application that needs to poll the web for information from time to time like weather apps and the market. Your issue with the Guardian is more related to the Guardian. There are apps that can define what applications are allowed to use 3g or not but I can't think of them at the moment. What you can do is download 3g watchdog from the market and set your limit in that app. It will stop the phone from going over your data cap. Additionally what you can do is press and hold the power button and disable mobile data network until I can materialise a better solution. Swype is great for single handed operation. I always liked to use the HTC Sense keyboard with two hands for speed. But Swype is great one handed and probably a lot faster too. This probably doesn't make any sense but I'll fix it once I've had a chance to sleep on it.
david.dakota Posted October 19, 2011 Author Posted October 19, 2011 Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is here (almost). For those who have not kept abreast of the tech websites today, Google and Samsung announced a new version of Android, along with a flagship device Galaxy Nexus. An overview of the device is over at T3, but for ease here's a run down. 4.65inch sAMOLED screen which offers 1280x720 resolution - a true 720p HD screen. 1.2GHz processor 1GB of RAM 5MP rear camera with zero shutter lag, panoramic imaging and 1080p video recording. With 8MP becoming de facto in smartphone, it looks disappointing, but video and photocaptures seem from today's press seem to show its capable, if not otstanding. 1.3MP front facing camera for video calls etc A barometer - yes, a barometer. Android 4.0 has had a nice lick of paint - Facial Recognition phone unlock. Android Beam - content transfer by NFC New tabbed broswer which syncs bookmarks with Chrome Data management for those on limited allowances A general new look and feel
dan-likes-trees Posted October 19, 2011 Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) Auto Syncing is mainly related to accounts and email (google, facebook, twitter etc.) which will update the information according to a set schedule. Background data is any application that needs to poll the web for information from time to time like weather apps and the market. Your issue with the Guardian is more related to the Guardian. There are apps that can define what applications are allowed to use 3g or not but I can't think of them at the moment. What you can do is download 3g watchdog from the market and set your limit in that app. It will stop the phone from going over your data cap. Additionally what you can do is press and hold the power button and disable mobile data network until I can materialise a better solution. Swype is great for single handed operation. I always liked to use the HTC Sense keyboard with two hands for speed. But Swype is great one handed and probably a lot faster too. This probably doesn't make any sense but I'll fix it once I've had a chance to sleep on it. Nah that's great info, thanks a lot pal. Think I'll try and find one of the apps which defines which can use 3g then. Edit: hmm so I got 'trafficstats lite' app, in the last day the guardian has used 100mb and the rest barely anything. So there's no simple way to set an app to only connect to wifi and not to 3g? Edited October 19, 2011 by dan-likes-trees
James Posted October 19, 2011 Posted October 19, 2011 100MB on the guardian, are you sure? Have you set it to update 10 minutes or something, change it to 3 hours. As far as i'm aware there is no option to change an app to only use wi-fi when available, although some apps do have this as an option mind.
Ten10 Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 There is an app for that, it's called Droidwall the only problem is that you have to be rooted to use it. Also the feature is built in, in Android 4.0.
ReZourceman Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 If I were to get a Galaxy S II, what is the best contract deal? I've seen fairly good ones for around £24 and paying £50 ish for the phone.
McPhee Posted October 20, 2011 Posted October 20, 2011 (edited) http://www.comparemobiledeals.com/ http://www.comparemobiledeals.com/mobile-phones/Samsung/Galaxy-S2?&tab=Pay-Monthly&page=1&sortby=Cheapest 600 Minutes 500 Texts Internet (no idea how much though, prob at least 500MB) £30.64/month Free GSII 18-month contract £95 cashback through the retailer £60.60 cashback through Topcashback Total: £395.92 That seems to be the best deal. If you want 12 months instead this deal is still the cheapest, just cancel in month 11 (you give 30 days notice) and they'll ask you for £153.20 as a final payment (plus month 12's bill), which would make the total £365.28 for the year. You could recoup the early termination fee by selling the Galaxy, you won't need it assuming the reason for cancelling was to get a new phone! While I dislike the Galaxy (it looks rather dull, just a slab of plastic with a big screen that's too bright and oversaturates colour) it is kinda hard to see the iPhone 4S, Nokia N9/N950 or HTC Titan as good value when there's such a powerful phone going this cheap. It's quite disgraceful really. Edited October 20, 2011 by McPhee
Frank Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 With regards to the Galaxy Nexus -- what exactly is the Android Beam? It looks interesting!
david.dakota Posted October 23, 2011 Author Posted October 23, 2011 With regards to the Galaxy Nexus -- what exactly is the Android Beam? It looks interesting! I believe Beam gives the ability to transfer literally anything from your phone to another phone by NFC (you just touch the phones together and file transfers). Functionally, it works like the Bump app on iPhone and Android but does not use Bluetooth, it used NFC. To have this baked into the device is pretty neat - a major hit to file transfer apps like Bump.
Ten10 Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 Android beam works a lot like bump just that it uses NFC instead of data networks.
flameboy Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Does anyone have any experience of budget android tablets. Thinking of getting one the archos 101 looks alright. But then keep thinking I could just save my cash!
Cube Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Does anyone have any experience of budget android tablets. Thinking of getting one the archos 101 looks alright. But then keep thinking I could just save my cash! To put it bluntly...they're all crap. Based on announced tablets, if you want a decent cheap one, wait for the Kindle Fire.
flameboy Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 To put it bluntly...they're all crap. Based on announced tablets, if you want a decent cheap one, wait for the Kindle Fire. Yeah looking around they all skimp on something that makes it an issue!
James Posted November 1, 2011 Posted November 1, 2011 (edited) Anyone with a Desire S should be able to recieve Android 2.3.5 and Sense 3.0 now, it's been rolling out over the past few weeks. I just got mine and it seems rather swish, I like the lock button. Edited November 1, 2011 by James
triforcemario Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Does anyone have any experience of budget android tablets. Thinking of getting one the archos 101 looks alright. But then keep thinking I could just save my cash! Avoid the Archos 101. I've returned two (the second time for a refund) since the speakers kept buggering up, plus the touch screen would uncalibrate itself frecuently and it had barely any ram (256MB is just not enough). Dell Streak 7 can be got on the cheap, and they recently released an official update for it to Honeycomb 3.2, and although I don't own one, I've played around with one and it seems quite decent.
Rummy Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Does anyone know about swapping over to new memory? Got a 16gb microsd on the way for a HTC Desire HD. I want to be naiive enough to believe I could just copy the old SD to the new via windows, but I'm almost sure it's not that easy, is it? I've got a majority of apps on the present SD card.
ReZourceman Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 I have asked this before, but never for myself, so A) What are the best android apps? B) What are some android apps that you think I would like.
Cube Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 A) What are the best android apps? I really don't know a good question for this. It's like asking "What are the best websites?" - there's so many and vary massively in quality, but in the end it depends on what you want from apps/websites.
Mr_Odwin Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 I just got WifiKill and it is soooo much fun. (But you need to root your phone.)
Ten10 Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Yeah I know I haven't been to visit for a while. Anyway interesting app popped up the other day. Think Angry birds meets final fantasy? Princess punt: download from android market - https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.gungho.kerihimequest I have asked this before, but never for myself, so A) What are the best android apps? B) What are some android apps that you think I would like. Answer to A and B: Check this list http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/06/38-best-and-3-wtf-new-android-apps-and-live-wallpapers-from-the-last-2-weeks-102211-11511/
Ashley Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 B) What are some android apps that you think I would like. Grindr.
bob Posted November 18, 2011 Posted November 18, 2011 (edited) I got bored of only having Android 2.1 on my phone (the original Xperia X10 mini), so i rooted it and installed Gingerbread 2.3.7 on it. Now i am the ultimate badass because i have slightly different software on my mobile phone. EDIT: My phone is green. Edited November 18, 2011 by 130131301364 Forgot to say what colour my phone was!
Ten10 Posted November 18, 2011 Posted November 18, 2011 I got bored of only having Android 2.1 on my phone (the original Xperia X10 mini), so i rooted it and installed Gingerbread 2.3.7 on it. Now i am the ultimate badass because i have slightly different software on my mobile phone. EDIT: My phone is green. Android 2.1 is pretty sucky. I mean you don't even have a lot of the awesomeness that 2.2 brought to the OS. As for me I'm the king of badass. I turned my old HTC desire (which is now with the mother while I'm using a crappy Galaxy apollo) is now a HTC beats audio phone. Turns out beats audio is pretty much just a fancy way of saying equaliser.
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