The Android Cell Phone Thread

[insomnia]

iphone isn't 4g though. nexus came out to 250 for me after the 3g to 4g upgrade discount, if that matters.

[halomunkey]

got the nexus as well. pretty much agree with the things people have said so far. Especially with the text thing that insomnia was talking about. Another problem i got in regards to that is one time my draft actually appeared in another number's conversation.

Another huge thing that most people forgot to mention is the battery life. Pretty bad imo. It especially sucks if you are a heavy user. I ended up buying the extended battery from verizon online since its on sale for 50% off right now(online only), it adds about 15% more life (1800mah vs 2100).

Other than that everything runs amazingly fast and smoothe. Worth the wait.

Edited December 18, 2011 by halomunkey

[pepper davies]

I can't exactly explain why, but I hate my Droid Bionic. I had been using an iPhone 3gs for years, and this just doesn't feel as smart to me. What am I missing out on? What's the deal with rooting? Would that help things?

[evisu 2000]

well you gotta tell us why it doesn't feel as smart

[pepper davies]

It's hard to put my finger on it, but I hate all the bloatware and I can't play Flac files. Both of these are true of the iPhone, but the iPhone feels more agile, I think. Would rooting help? Also, the autofocus on the camera is pretty slow and I wish there was an instagram app. I know this message makes me sound like an idiot, but I don't know. Are there different options as far as OS goes?

[evisu 2000]

titanium backup gets rid of bloatware i think

if you root you can run a custom rom, which also gets rid of bloatware

you can play flac files

i think a lot of android users hope instagram never comes to android

[Nicorice]

titanium needs root to function.

technically you only need root to get rid of the bloatware, but you'd have to navigate through the file system to find where it is.

i think a lot of media players do flac? just not the stock one. the stock apps suck anyway.

[evisu 2000]

yeah, but i'm assuming he's not trynna fuck with the term

although i guess there's always root explorer, but i've never used that

i just figure titanium backup is the easiest to use? haven't tried that either

not sure if he wants to get rid of blur either... most people do but it has some cool widgets

but blur has been known to be sluggish, although on the newer phones it's pretty smooth

and yeah most players play flac... even google music will convert(?) flac files for you

[evisu 2000]

as for apps everyone should be fuckin wit gameboid

obviously beats any game out the market

[pepper davies]

Thanks for all the information guys. I'll look into all of this and come back if I have any more questions.

[Gecko]

The GPS on my galaxy S2 takes fuckin ages to lock in my location, anyone had this problem?

[tangerine]

insomnia, thanks for the detailed review. I still need to go to a store and play with the GN, then I may have some more questions for you. I have seen other comments about the phone getting hot, so it's not just your phone.

gecko, my OG Droid sometimes would take a long time to get GPS lock. My brother's sometimes wouldn't lock even when mine would. I think there's a lot of variance in the quality of the GPS radios. Does your Galaxy S2 only have problems in certain locations, or is it always slow?

[pepper davies]

I've been doing some reading and I'm interested in rooting. Is it as risky as people make it seem? I don't want to accidentally brick my phone.

Any recommended walk throughs for a Droid Bionic?

[evisu 2000]

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1254516

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1006

[jigrushable]

s2 over gnexus?

[blackfuture]

Another annoyance: I hate how my texts are right aligned. Anyone know what to change that?

GoSMS is awesome, efficient, and free. You can make it as simple or as flashy (tacky) as you want. It's part of the Go! app suite which is updated all of the time, so I'm sure there's a ICS-compatible version on the android market.

The GPS on my galaxy S2 takes fuckin ages to lock in my location, anyone had this problem?

Do you have wi-fi enabled (even if you aren't in a wi-fi hotspot)? My GS2 GPS will also take ages to load with wi-fi switched off, regardless of whether or not I'm near a wi-fi source. Enabled wi-fi, and it works perfectly fine over 4G. A bug, as far as I'm concerned.

Edited December 22, 2011 by blackfuture

[conqueror]

The GPS on my galaxy S2 takes fuckin ages to lock in my location, anyone had this problem?

define 'fuckin ages'?

also, i gotta be the only s2 user who JD does absolutely nothing for - if anything, i think it actually makes my battery worse.

[pepper davies]

So I figured out the thing that pisses me off about my phone. The autofocus is terrible. I could just press the button on my iPhone and the picture would be in focus 9/10. On my droid I have to press to focus like 6 times and the pictures never come out as good as my moms 4S. Is this user error?

[NatseOklim]

Just ordered myself an android tablet, Motorola Xoom (cheapest half decent one I could find, about 2/3 the price of an ipad2 but with the same specs). I've finally convinced myself that I have a use for one, hopefully it's not going to just be an expensive toy.

[pepper davies]

Finally getting around to rooting my Bionic. Not nearly as daunting as I would have imagined...

[birrch0]

i've got a q. i'm in the market for a droid phone and i'm on tmobile. i'm hoping they release the nexus galaxy for tmobile, but i haven't heard about it. what phone do you guys think i should get? i am planning to buy in the next few weeks, so i want something that is new or going to be released soon. thanks

[pepper davies]

Sorry for always asking you guys for help. I recently rooted my phone. Trying to remove bloatware using Root Explorer but even after moving the files/renaming them the apps don't disappear. What am I missing?

[tangerine]

So I figured out the thing that pisses me off about my phone. The autofocus is terrible. I could just press the button on my iPhone and the picture would be in focus 9/10. On my droid I have to press to focus like 6 times and the pictures never come out as good as my moms 4S. Is this user error?

iPhones take much better pictures than any Android phone I've used. Android is arguably better for some other things, I just bought my second Android phone after considering switching.

Sorry for always asking you guys for help. I recently rooted my phone. Trying to remove bloatware using Root Explorer but even after moving the files/renaming them the apps don't disappear. What am I missing?

I don't know, I've never rooted my Android phones, but there is a pretty good forum full of knowledgeable people and FAQs that can probably provide the answers you seek:

http://www.droidforums.net/

[evisu 2000]

Sorry for always asking you guys for help. I recently rooted my phone. Trying to remove bloatware using Root Explorer but even after moving the files/renaming them the apps don't disappear. What am I missing?

gotta clear caches maybe...

anyway check out this thread

http://forums.androidcentral.com/bionic-rooting-roms-hacks/117820-droid-bionic-apps-safe-remove-once-rooted.html

[OTL]

been using gs2 lte (skyrocket) for 2 month.

this thing is beast........Also LTE changed my experience with mobile web 180 degrees.

BOO YAH

Edited January 12, 2012 by OTL

[pepper davies]

gotta clear caches maybe...

anyway check out this thread

http://forums.androi...nce-rooted.html

I was using that thread for information originally. I don't think I'm making any mistakes... Clearing caches/restarting hasn't done anything.

[evisu 2000]

everything is still there? or just some...

just installed an alpha build of cm9 on my slow ass phone

runs pretty snappy, gmail widget finally

seems pretty dope so far, most shit is updated and feels more homogenous

[TruMoo]

Anyone got the NOTE? gonna copp soon

Edited January 15, 2012 by Phongables

[shoreman]

Is there a review I can find that pits the iPhone against the leading Android operated phone?

[Fycus]

leading android > iphone hands down. the only way i could recommend you get an iphone is if you already own a laptop, ipod, computer, etc and have some of their devices and run their OS. the hardware and potential of the android right now make it a much better choice, however that may all change if apple beefs up the iphone 5 come this summer. samsung is really moving at lightspeed with their phone releases and they may be the dominant player (some argue they already are) this next year.

I also don't want to include a link, im sure you can find by googling nexus vs iphone 4s etc, but there are a lot of similar android devices right now that are competitive and there isn't a dominant player in that regard. i think the skyrocket is as good as the nexus(assuming the skyrocket gets ics) maybe even better. The skyrocket HD is supposed to be released in the next month so this figure is constantly changing. I personally have a galaxy s2 i-777 and am pretty bummed samsung keeps putting out new models and making mine look even more inferior, however progress is good.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Fycus