Yeah better models getting out, although after using the Desire for a few months I'm not really bothered with it. 4G I won't be able to use here in Belgium for at least 5 years (not even on 3G at the moment!) HD or a better screen etc not necessary for me. And the thing is powerful enough as it is.
The Desire does everything I could really want from a phone anyway. Email, messaging, browsing, GPS, even calling occasionally. Until battery tech starts rapidly improving I can't see where else these phones can really go.
I'm eagerly awaiting someone making it so I can go "Phone, tell me about 'X'" and it'll go summarize the wikipedia article, like on Star Trek
I might even be willing to go to the dark side and buy an iphone if they made one that could do that
OTA 2.1 firmware updates for the HTC Hero happened a few days ago in AU. As soon as I had it all installed, my Wifi stopped working. When I turn Wifi on via the settings menu, the little tick appears in the box, but no icon appears in the top bar, and no networks are seen.
I contacted HTC, they told me to do a soft reset, but it still doesn't work... grrr.. Now I'm waiting to hear any follow up replies from HTC.
What I'm wondering is if I download the 2.1 firmware again manually from somewhere (via mobile internet) and do a re-install, would that fix anything? any ideas?
that probably won't fix anything
I recommend that you just work with HTC to get a replacement phone, chances are there's some hardware defect with yours that didn't show up until now, and if you get on them enough they should be willing to swap out your phone for a refurbished one.
Yeah better models getting out, although after using the Desire for a few months I'm not really bothered with it. 4G I won't be able to use here in Belgium for at least 5 years (not even on 3G at the moment!) HD or a better screen etc not necessary for me. And the thing is powerful enough as it is.
The Desire does everything I could really want from a phone anyway. Email, messaging, browsing, GPS, even calling occasionally. Until battery tech starts rapidly improving I can't see where else these phones can really go.
I'm eagerly awaiting someone making it so I can go "Phone, tell me about 'X'" and it'll go summarize the wikipedia article, like on Star Trek
I might even be willing to go to the dark side and buy an iphone if they made one that could do that
Question about the stock Gmail application. Something that really annoys me is often when I open it, the app often starts with some random message open, rather than going to the inbox.
Initially I thought it was because I had just left the message open the last time I used the app, and since the app never actually closes it's just there from before. But there are times it opens messages that are very old and there's no way I was reading them the last time. The behavior seems to be that it often gets stuck on a message for a while, every time I go to the app that message shows, regardless of the state it was last in. Then it will be ok for a while, then find a new message that it won't just let go of...
Anyone have this problem and know a way to fix it? Everything still works, it's just a behavior I'm really beginning to get annoyed with: I really don't need to see that four week old email anymore, but thanks for the info Google.
You can create a shortcut to Gmail Label = Inbox instead of a shortcut that simply launches the Gmail app.
If you're using ADW.Launcher, you can even set it as one of your action buttons or put it on the dock bar. Same if you're using LauncherPro plus you can set a custom icon for it. There are other ways to set custom icons for stuff that without LauncherPro, but I'll leave that for another post.
Hello Android thread, I have a question. I'm looking to upgrade from my crappy Samsung Glyde to a shiny new smartphone through Verizon and was wondering if the extended warranty ($2/month) is worth taking. It's only another $2, but if it's pretty much worthless then I simply won't bother. I'm generally rather careful with my possessions and tend not to bother with extended warranties, but it's a cheap addition and shit does happen with these things.
Now to make the choice between the Droid X and Incredible. Ugh.
EDIT: To make this a little more on topic...
I've been reading through reviews of both phones and they both seem like fine machines that I'd get along fine with, but admittedly I don't follow phones too closely and am not well versed when it comes to the devices. Are there any major glaring flaws that have been discovered with either phone that I should be aware of before making my decision, and does anyone recommend one of the phones over the other? I'm leaning towards the Incredible atm, but I've heard that the Droid X could very well become the best Android on the market once it gets the new version of the OS.
I was in your exact position up until about a week ago. I had the Samsung Glyde (shittiest piece of shit I've ever had the displeasure of owning) and I upgraded to a Droid X. Pretty much everything Dehumanized said is true, you can't go wrong with either phone. The one thing I can say is that I don't know what everyone means when they say Motoblur is bad because I've never used another smartphone before, compared to my old Glyde it's fucking wonderful.
The Desire does everything I could really want from a phone anyway. Email, messaging, browsing, GPS, even calling occasionally. Until battery tech starts rapidly improving I can't see where else these phones can really go.
I'm eagerly awaiting someone making it so I can go "Phone, tell me about 'X'" and it'll go summarize the wikipedia article, like on Star Trek
I might even be willing to go to the dark side and buy an iphone if they made one that could do that
They.. can already sort of do that?
yeah, just like how you could sort of stream video on your palm device running windows CE 3.0 back in 2001
Right now you're lucky if voice recognition can tell "Call John Sanders" from "Call Ned Flanders" on any device. The functionality that's there now just barely works in an ideal, noiseless environment
I need to figure out what's been sucking my battery dry. It died on me at 5pm on Friday, and even with mid day charging blinking red by 7pm yesterday. Seems like in the last couple weeks something has really been eating things up. How can I check batter use?
I don't use Google maps that much, but I plan to next week when I go on vacation. Is there a way to preset destinations as favorites? Such as "home" and things like that? I've not really messed with it too much.
I don't use Google maps that much, but I plan to next week when I go on vacation. Is there a way to preset destinations as favorites? Such as "home" and things like that? I've not really messed with it too much.
You could star them on the location information screen? Don't know that you could manage them like, say, bookmarks... but that'd be nice
Edit: You can add locations to a personal map through the website, and then manage how the locations are named through that list, but you can't open the custom maps from the maps app, just starred items.
Starring destinations is probably the best way, then you can just go "navigate to" -> "starred location" and select from the list.
You can also create home-screen shortcuts to destinations in Navigation. I've got a "go home" shortcut that launches navigation and takes me home. Just add a shortcut to "Directions & Navigation" and put the address in.
SporkAndrew on
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
And of course, you can star and create My Maps at your leisure on a desktop at maps.google.com, and they'll show up on your phone. The beauty of Android.
Starring destinations is probably the best way, then you can just go "navigate to" -> "starred location" and select from the list.
You can also create home-screen shortcuts to destinations in Navigation. I've got a "go home" shortcut that launches navigation and takes me home. Just add a shortcut to "Directions & Navigation" and put the address in.
Oh my god I never even KNEW what "Shortcuts" meant. I just used widgets and apps.
This is incredible. I'm making shortcuts to like every place I go (simply because they have a custom icon for everything), and I will be so incredibly hooked up to the world it is rediculous.
I swear, my Android experience has been MILES ahead of the 3 years I spent with an iPhone already.
mxmarks on
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
I likes it, but it felt ponderous from day one, and now that I know there are better alternatives, I want to take advantage of 'em. Ideally I'd like to get something with good battery life. I can drain the G1 in like half a day of doing intensive stuff while out and about.
I have T-mobile, and my contract is up in a few months, I'd switch to another provider with the quickness though.
Oh my god I think I like shortcuts better than Widgets.
WHY HAVE I NEVER LOOKED UP SHORTCUTS BEFORE?
Texts to specific people?
Shortcuts to phone calls?
To directions?
TO ANYTHING!
I used to have a "speed dial" page that was full of direct dial shortcuts. Now I just have one direct dial shortcut and use the favorites tab in the phone.
To those that responded, thanks for the info. I did some more digging and, though still ultimately undecided, am now leaning more towards the Droid X. It sounds as if the performance issues with the DX will be ironed out when 2.2 drops. Speaking of, has an exact date been announced for 2.2's arrival to the DX? The most specific I could find was late August, and that seemed to just be speculation. I'm guessing that I'll probably end up rooting whichever device I get, so that takes care of the extended warranty dilemma.
So while I was probably going to grab a Captivate next week, now I hear the HTC Desire is coming out next month. Is the HTC Sense and their phone specific stuff much better than Samsung's?
As a friend put it, "This is why you'll never buy a smartphone, because you always know whats coming out next month!"
DragonPup on
"I was there, I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor." -Cpt Garviel Loken
So while I was probably going to grab a Captivate next week, now I hear the HTC Desire is coming out next month. Is the HTC Sense and their phone specific stuff much better than Samsung's?
As a friend put it, "This is why you'll never buy a smartphone, because you always know whats coming out next month!"
HTC Sense is quite nice while Samsung's TouchWiz doesn't (deservedly imho) get much love. Sense adds a bunch of functionality including some great contact and social networking integration stuff along with a nicer dialer and other tweaks. TouchWiz just tries to look like an iPhone homescreen and doesn't touch much else. I wouldn't write off the Samsung just because of that though. There are several very good homescreen replacement options for Android, many are even free.
Do the home screen replacements require any special modifcations to the phone, or just install from the market and go?
Install and go. Next time you press Home it'll pop up the chose application dialog giving you the option of which home screen to use. That's all there is to it.
Cool. I know someone who works at AT&T who can sell me a new Captivate for $100 since I am out of contract. Seems like a good deal to jump on. Any final thoughts before I take the plunge?
Edit: In addition to my 15% service discount from my employer.
DragonPup on
"I was there, I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor." -Cpt Garviel Loken
Cool. I know someone who works at AT&T who can sell me a new Captivate for $100 since I am out of contract. Seems like a good deal to jump on. Any final thoughts before I take the plunge?
Edit: In addition to my 15% service discount from my employer.
Check if you can get discounts elsewhere.
AT&T Android phones are hobbled like hell. No sideloading is a HUGE thing.
Vanilla android does pretty much all of the social networking link-in that Sense does, Sense just kind of does it better and make it easier to manage (in my limited exposure to it, at least. I have a Droid 1).
if you get Launcher Pro or Launcher Pro Plus you can basically use that to mimic a lot of the cool stuff that sense does on vanilla or other skins, as well
LPP is basically the best app ever
EDIT: yalborap get launcherpro. it's free, gives you up to 7, and has a shit ton of other awesome features as well. through some kind of magic wizardry it actually does homescreen stuff faster than non-skinned android, too
Cool. I know someone who works at AT&T who can sell me a new Captivate for $100 since I am out of contract. Seems like a good deal to jump on. Any final thoughts before I take the plunge?
Edit: In addition to my 15% service discount from my employer.
Check if you can get discounts elsewhere.
AT&T Android phones are hobbled like hell. No sideloading is a HUGE thing.
You can sideload to AT&T phones using a tool like this. Or you should also be able to use Dropbox to sideload.
H*R on
Nintendo Network: WarrenMSP 3DS: 4184-2362-9697 PSN: Skywarrd
Evo on Sprint's site: Base price is $450. With the full upgrade, price is $200.
Evo on Best Buy's site: Base price is $600. With the full upgrade, price is $200.
Thing is, I have one upgrade on the second line that's just $75 off a new phone. How does that work at Best Buy? Is it still $150 more? That's fucking dumb.
Cool. I know someone who works at AT&T who can sell me a new Captivate for $100 since I am out of contract. Seems like a good deal to jump on. Any final thoughts before I take the plunge?
Edit: In addition to my 15% service discount from my employer.
Check if you can get discounts elsewhere.
AT&T Android phones are hobbled like hell. No sideloading is a HUGE thing.
You can sideload to AT&T phones using a tool like this. Or you should also be able to use Dropbox to sideload.
Until AT&T finds a way to update the phones to break that from working.
AT&T costs more and offers less. i understand if you have a massive discount there that actually makes it affordable, but if you don't, or if you can get a discount elsewhere, there is no good reason to buy an AT&T android phone. They are all held back, and their top of the line phone is the same thing that is available on EVERY carrier.
Cool. I know someone who works at AT&T who can sell me a new Captivate for $100 since I am out of contract. Seems like a good deal to jump on. Any final thoughts before I take the plunge?
Edit: In addition to my 15% service discount from my employer.
Check if you can get discounts elsewhere.
AT&T Android phones are hobbled like hell. No sideloading is a HUGE thing.
You can sideload to AT&T phones using a tool like this. Or you should also be able to use Dropbox to sideload.
Until AT&T finds a way to update the phones to break that from working.
AT&T costs more and offers less. i understand if you have a massive discount there that actually makes it affordable, but if you don't, or if you can get a discount elsewhere, there is no good reason to buy an AT&T android phone. They are all held back, and their top of the line phone is the same thing that is available on EVERY carrier.
Oh I hear you, i'm just stating that at this time it's possible.
I'm looking to leave AT&T (iPhone3G user) and switch to Android so i know the crap that AT&T pulls. It just seems it's the same evils at T-Mo and VZW. Though you only really do hear the bad stuff, not the success stories.
H*R on
Nintendo Network: WarrenMSP 3DS: 4184-2362-9697 PSN: Skywarrd
Cool. I know someone who works at AT&T who can sell me a new Captivate for $100 since I am out of contract. Seems like a good deal to jump on. Any final thoughts before I take the plunge?
Edit: In addition to my 15% service discount from my employer.
Check if you can get discounts elsewhere.
AT&T Android phones are hobbled like hell. No sideloading is a HUGE thing.
You can sideload to AT&T phones using a tool like this. Or you should also be able to use Dropbox to sideload.
Until AT&T finds a way to update the phones to break that from working.
AT&T costs more and offers less. i understand if you have a massive discount there that actually makes it affordable, but if you don't, or if you can get a discount elsewhere, there is no good reason to buy an AT&T android phone. They are all held back, and their top of the line phone is the same thing that is available on EVERY carrier.
Oh I hear you, i'm just stating that at this time it's possible.
I'm looking to leave AT&T (iPhone3G user) and switch to Android so i know the crap that AT&T pulls. It just seems it's the same evils at T-Mo and VZW. Though you only really do hear the bad stuff, not the success stories.
I'll admit I'm biased, but i really haven't seen tmo pull any of the same sort of crap that other companies do, and I've been on all four of the majors within the past three and a half years. The major issue with tmo is just coverage (which is getting better)
I'm looking to upgrade my g1 to the mytouch slide, soon. It seems like basically a better, faster g1. Has anyone gotten their hands on one, or heard anything detrimental about them?
Posts
I'm eagerly awaiting someone making it so I can go "Phone, tell me about 'X'" and it'll go summarize the wikipedia article, like on Star Trek
I might even be willing to go to the dark side and buy an iphone if they made one that could do that
that probably won't fix anything
I recommend that you just work with HTC to get a replacement phone, chances are there's some hardware defect with yours that didn't show up until now, and if you get on them enough they should be willing to swap out your phone for a refurbished one.
They.. can already sort of do that?
You can create a shortcut to Gmail Label = Inbox instead of a shortcut that simply launches the Gmail app.
If you're using ADW.Launcher, you can even set it as one of your action buttons or put it on the dock bar. Same if you're using LauncherPro plus you can set a custom icon for it. There are other ways to set custom icons for stuff that without LauncherPro, but I'll leave that for another post.
I was in your exact position up until about a week ago. I had the Samsung Glyde (shittiest piece of shit I've ever had the displeasure of owning) and I upgraded to a Droid X. Pretty much everything Dehumanized said is true, you can't go wrong with either phone. The one thing I can say is that I don't know what everyone means when they say Motoblur is bad because I've never used another smartphone before, compared to my old Glyde it's fucking wonderful.
yeah, just like how you could sort of stream video on your palm device running windows CE 3.0 back in 2001
Right now you're lucky if voice recognition can tell "Call John Sanders" from "Call Ned Flanders" on any device. The functionality that's there now just barely works in an ideal, noiseless environment
Steam ID: Good Life
That being said, ebuddy uses more battery than a crack whore does crack
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/07/even-better-way-to-find-places-nearby.html
Robots Will Be Our Superiors (Blog)
http://michaelhermes.com
Lovely
The navigation view of Google Maps really turned awesome.
You could star them on the location information screen? Don't know that you could manage them like, say, bookmarks... but that'd be nice
Edit: You can add locations to a personal map through the website, and then manage how the locations are named through that list, but you can't open the custom maps from the maps app, just starred items.
You can also create home-screen shortcuts to destinations in Navigation. I've got a "go home" shortcut that launches navigation and takes me home. Just add a shortcut to "Directions & Navigation" and put the address in.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Oh my god I never even KNEW what "Shortcuts" meant. I just used widgets and apps.
This is incredible. I'm making shortcuts to like every place I go (simply because they have a custom icon for everything), and I will be so incredibly hooked up to the world it is rediculous.
I swear, my Android experience has been MILES ahead of the 3 years I spent with an iPhone already.
Yeah, any Google contact that you've populated the address fields will show up in your Maps too.
Android really has got the whole connectivity thing down.
WHY HAVE I NEVER LOOKED UP SHORTCUTS BEFORE?
Texts to specific people?
Shortcuts to phone calls?
To directions?
TO ANYTHING!
I likes it, but it felt ponderous from day one, and now that I know there are better alternatives, I want to take advantage of 'em. Ideally I'd like to get something with good battery life. I can drain the G1 in like half a day of doing intensive stuff while out and about.
I have T-mobile, and my contract is up in a few months, I'd switch to another provider with the quickness though.
Steam ID: Good Life
As a friend put it, "This is why you'll never buy a smartphone, because you always know whats coming out next month!"
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
HTC Sense is quite nice while Samsung's TouchWiz doesn't (deservedly imho) get much love. Sense adds a bunch of functionality including some great contact and social networking integration stuff along with a nicer dialer and other tweaks. TouchWiz just tries to look like an iPhone homescreen and doesn't touch much else. I wouldn't write off the Samsung just because of that though. There are several very good homescreen replacement options for Android, many are even free.
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
Install and go. Next time you press Home it'll pop up the chose application dialog giving you the option of which home screen to use. That's all there is to it.
Edit: In addition to my 15% service discount from my employer.
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
Pictures!
Check if you can get discounts elsewhere.
AT&T Android phones are hobbled like hell. No sideloading is a HUGE thing.
if you get Launcher Pro or Launcher Pro Plus you can basically use that to mimic a lot of the cool stuff that sense does on vanilla or other skins, as well
LPP is basically the best app ever
EDIT: yalborap get launcherpro. it's free, gives you up to 7, and has a shit ton of other awesome features as well. through some kind of magic wizardry it actually does homescreen stuff faster than non-skinned android, too
You can sideload to AT&T phones using a tool like this. Or you should also be able to use Dropbox to sideload.
3DS: 4184-2362-9697
PSN: Skywarrd
Evo on Sprint's site: Base price is $450. With the full upgrade, price is $200.
Evo on Best Buy's site: Base price is $600. With the full upgrade, price is $200.
Thing is, I have one upgrade on the second line that's just $75 off a new phone. How does that work at Best Buy? Is it still $150 more? That's fucking dumb.
Until AT&T finds a way to update the phones to break that from working.
AT&T costs more and offers less. i understand if you have a massive discount there that actually makes it affordable, but if you don't, or if you can get a discount elsewhere, there is no good reason to buy an AT&T android phone. They are all held back, and their top of the line phone is the same thing that is available on EVERY carrier.
Though now I need to find some cool widgets to use in my extra home screens. Any handy, lightweight ones you guys would suggest?
Oh I hear you, i'm just stating that at this time it's possible.
I'm looking to leave AT&T (iPhone3G user) and switch to Android so i know the crap that AT&T pulls. It just seems it's the same evils at T-Mo and VZW. Though you only really do hear the bad stuff, not the success stories.
3DS: 4184-2362-9697
PSN: Skywarrd
I'll admit I'm biased, but i really haven't seen tmo pull any of the same sort of crap that other companies do, and I've been on all four of the majors within the past three and a half years. The major issue with tmo is just coverage (which is getting better)