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HiTempguy
HiTempguy UltraDork
9/23/13 1:38 p.m.
Chris_V wrote: I really, REALLY do not get what "work" you think needs to be done to a android phone.

To make it a functional piece of equipment that isn't laggy? I have a tough time understanding how you guys don't understand how frustrating that is. Every iphone I've ever used that hasn't been updated to the latest iOS at the time has had seamless operation.

Also, for an iphone, updating to the latest iOS is optional. Yes, that prevents you from getting the LATEST AND GREATEST APPS (oh teh noze) but for about 95% of the population its a non-issue.

So I dunno. My anecdotal evidence is that my S3, purchased brand new, was laggy from the start. It hangs often, web browser crashes, etc etc. It hangs for a considerable amount of time when the screen "flips" back and forth when moving the position of the phone, especially when in camera mode. It is more difficult to transfer files with it than an iphone (which you don't need itunes to do if you enable the correct settings), and everything is still integrated for iphones in this day and age.

Also, subjectively, the S3 feels like a cheap piece of crap in my hand compared to any iphone. Same with the S4. The Nexus 4 is decent, but doesn't have LTE.

All the same reasons my girlfriend owns a mac laptop. For 99% of boring, everyday use, its perfect. Never hangs. Doesn't crash. Does its job.

Edit- Maybe my perception of how quickly a phone should do its job is what doesn't get across. Any perceptible difference between the time I tell the phone to do something (whether that's rotate the screen, select a new hyperlink, take a picture, etc) is unacceptable to me. When I'm typing on a keypad and the letters are 5 behind to display when writing a text, that's BS.

donalson
donalson PowerDork
9/23/13 1:47 p.m.

sounds like most of your issues have to do with stuff samsung has done... i've got a note 2 and the only issue you mention that I find a pita is data transfer to the computer, my other android phones have all just hooked up to a computer as another external drive.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
9/23/13 1:51 p.m.

No you don't understand.... every Android-based phone is like that, it's just that none of you see it.

I mean.... da fuq?

Chris_V
Chris_V UltraDork
9/23/13 1:56 p.m.
HiTempguy wrote:
Chris_V wrote: I really, REALLY do not get what "work" you think needs to be done to a android phone.
To make it a functional piece of equipment that isn't laggy? I have a tough time understanding how you guys don't understand how frustrating that is.

What the hell do you mean by "laggy?" Mine's 4G and it's not laggy, it just works. Just as fast as my wife's iPhone 5.

Every iphone I've ever used that hasn't been updated to the latest iOS at the time has had seamless operation.

Ok, give me an example, because I'm not seeing it.

So I dunno. My anecdotal evidence is that my S3, purchased brand new, was laggy from the start. It hangs often, web browser crashes, etc etc. It hangs for a considerable amount of time when the screen "flips" back and forth when moving the position of the phone, especially when in camera mode.

Never had any of those issues with my Droid X or my 4G HTC Rezound.

It is more difficult to transfer files with it than an iphone (which you don't need itunes to do if you enable the correct settings),

So you're saying you have to do work to your iPhone to transfer files? I just plug ny phone in and it shows up like a disk drive with folder structure that's easy to transfer files to and from it.

and everything is still integrated for iphones in this day and age.

Like what? My car seamlesly connected to both my HTC and my wife's iPhone 5. BT works as easily with both, and it automatically does BT audio and controls my Pandora with no setup. And the OnStar app on my phone controls the systems that OnStar lets you control the same on my phone as on my wife's.

Also, subjectively, the S3 feels like a cheap piece of crap in my hand compared to any iphone. Same with the S4. The Nexus 4 is decent, but doesn't have LTE.

So you're really saying your S3 was bad, but you don't have experience with a lot of phones. I like the solid feeling of my old Droid X and now the Rezound. I have felt cheap feeling Androids in the past, though, so i can sympathize, but I can't and won't say that they are all the same and make broad generalizations about what does and doesn't work well.

All the same reasons my girlfriend owns a mac laptop. For 99% of boring, everyday use, its perfect. Never hangs. Doesn't crash. Does its job.

My wife has a Macbook Pro, and she has had problems when trying to do real work on it. It's pretty decent most of the time, but there are issues. And my HP Envy laptop has worked fine since I got it, to do Autocad and heavy 3D animation work.

Adrian_Thompson
Adrian_Thompson PowerDork
4/2/14 9:23 a.m.

Zombie resurrection. I've been an Apple fan boy for a long long time, I haven't bought a windows machine since 1994, it's been Mac for a long time now, computers music players and phones. After hell showed the first signs of frost last year when I bought two Android tablets, it has now hit full on artic vortex and is freezing fast. I've just ordered a Moto X smart phone over an iPhone. My wife is still keeping her 4S iPhone so it's going to be an interesting side by side comparison of Android Vs. iOS in the same house. I have read literally every review and watched ever video on the web spending hours and hours making this decision. I started looking at the Nexus 5 etc., but after going into stores I just decided these stupid big 5" phones are too large for me so I narrowed it down to the Moto X and 5C/5S. At the end of the day power & Performance Vs. price, plus a desire to taste the forbidden fruit swayed me. Let's see what happens.

I do wonder what the future of Apple is if long long time users like me are starting to see life beyond the grace of the hallowed hall of Jobs.

ultraclyde
ultraclyde SuperDork
4/2/14 10:01 a.m.

I went from an iPhone 4 to a Moto X not long after the X came out. I like it a lot. More than the Apple, actually, even though I was never really unhappy with the iphone. It's more flexible from a set up standpoint, which I really like. There are three or four points where the Apple was still better. 1) If you use the phone as a music player, the iphone is better. The jukebox apps for the X are so-so, I haven't found skip/play/volume control earbuds that work yet, and most aftermarket car radios won't talk to it. 2) I would really like to assign custom text tones to individual contacts, but it's not well supported on the X whereas it was baked in on the 4. 3) The default mail app is not real consistent on it's retrieval. I have yet to go through the pain of trying other mail apps, so maybe there's a better option. 4) Lastly (and this may be a provider issue but I don't think so) the 4 had the voicemail resident on the phone but the X depends on the provider's call-in system which sucks because it's Verizon.

Any and all functionality beyond that and the Moto wins hands down for me. I was already deep in Google's ecosystem so that has been painless. The voice control is really useful while driving but feels odd to me most other times. Battery life is better than the 4, but it was 2 years old so that may not be a good comparison.

One app I will highly recommend is Llama - it lets you adjust your phone settings (volume, screen timeout, wifi, EVERYTHING) based on location. The location is based on cell tower learning, so it's low power consumption and not GPS or wifi related. Setup can be complex but once it's set up it works seamlessly.

If you've got other questions, PM me or post up. I'll help if I can.

EastCoastMojo
EastCoastMojo GRM+ Memberand Mod Squad
4/2/14 10:05 a.m.

Last year I was 100% ready to buy an iPhone, but when I went into the store I fell in love with the HTC One. I absolutely, positively love this phone. I wasn't too thrilled with the KitKat update to the OS last month, but I have found some workarounds that let me continue to enjoy the versatility that my HTC has to offer.

BoxheadTim
BoxheadTim GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
4/2/14 10:06 a.m.
Adrian_Thompson wrote: I do wonder what the future of Apple is if long long time users like me are starting to see life beyond the grace of the hallowed hall of Jobs.

I haven't been a long time user like yourself, but I've also been looking outside the fruit. I'm not massively happy with the iPhone 5 I have; it's a decent phone but after using it for six months, I don't think I'll end up buying another one. In fact, I find myself reaching for a long-term loaner Windows Phone more often that the iPhone.

Same with the computers, I bought a used Mac Pro last year, I've already decided that I'm not going to replace that one with another Mac Pro, if I have to replace this one I'll probably just build myself a PC and run a combination of Linux and Windows on that instead of OS X and Windows like I do now.

NVHEngr
NVHEngr New Reader
4/2/14 11:26 a.m.

I bought a Nexus 5 when it first came out. I must say I love it. It is nice to have completely unlocked phone with no contract.

https://www.google.com/nexus/5/

Adrian_Thompson
Adrian_Thompson PowerDork
4/2/14 12:18 p.m.
ultraclyde wrote: There are three or four points where the Apple was still better. 1) If you use the phone as a music player, the iphone is better. The jukebox apps for the X are so-so, I haven't found skip/play/volume control earbuds that work yet, and most aftermarket car radios won't talk to it.

This will be interesting. I use a music player a lot, but, I tend to listen to Podcasts 90% of the time, not so much as music, so rarely need to skip. Not worried about car compatability, I just use an Aux Jack. For the Volvo it’s the only option and being a big podcast consumer no car interface is any good so I choose the Aux port even if there’s a choice. Screen control on devices always seems to be best.

ultraclyde wrote: 3) The default mail app is not real consistent on it's retrieval. I have yet to go through the pain of trying other mail apps, so maybe there's a better option.

I know there’s a Gmail app in the Playstore for Gmail which is my personal. I’m going to get the ‘Good’ app to sync with my corporate Outlook mailbox for work.

ultraclyde wrote: 4) Lastly (and this may be a provider issue but I don't think so) the 4 had the voicemail resident on the phone but the X depends on the provider's call-in system which sucks because it's Verizon.

No idea what that means, but I’m on AT&T so I assume no issue

ultraclyde wrote: Any and all functionality beyond that and the Moto wins hands down for me. I was already deep in Google's ecosystem so that has been painless. The voice control is really useful while driving but feels odd to me most other times. Battery life is better than the 4, but it was 2 years old so that may not be a good comparison.

This is good news and the battery is bigger with longer life no matter of the age. The voice control was a big selling point to me, Siri really sucks and is way behind my Samsung tablet for understanding me.

ultraclyde wrote: One app I will highly recommend is Llama - it lets you adjust your phone settings (volume, screen timeout, wifi, EVERYTHING) based on location. The location is based on cell tower learning, so it's low power consumption and not GPS or wifi related. Setup can be complex but once it's set up it works seamlessly.

Will check it out.

ultraclyde wrote: If you've got other questions, PM me or post up. I'll help if I can.

You’ve asked for it, I’m sure there will be many.

Tom_Spangler
Tom_Spangler GRM+ Memberand Dork
4/2/14 12:44 p.m.

Podcasts: I use Doggcatcher, but there are several others that are well-reviewed in the Play store like Podcast Addict and BeyondPod. Most are free, I suggest installing 2-3 of them and figuring out which one you like best, then uninstalling the others.

Email: The Gmail app is great and simple. The "regular" Android email app has always worked fine for me for my ISP email (AT&T and Comcrap). Not sure about using it for corporate mail, you may need to jump through some security hoops for that. Check with your IT folks.

Get a "flashlight" app that will let you use your camera LED as a flashlight. There are a bunch, there's really no difference.

The new Yahoo! Weather app is probably the nicest-looking of all the weather apps, but I still like Weatherbug for notifications and detailed info.

The Amazon app is a must-have for when you are shopping and want to know how much something costs at Amazon. Scan the barcode and it comes right up. You'll want a regular barcode-scanning app, as well, but I think Android might come with one.

There's an official F1 app with timing, scoring, and news.

Pick yourself up a cheap OBD2 sender and get the Torque app so that you can have full gauges and check codes on your cars.

For a music player, they are fairly interchangeable. I use MediaMonkey, but DoubleTwist and Winamp and others all do pretty much the same thing.

Mazdax605
Mazdax605 SuperDork
4/2/14 1:42 p.m.

I don't own a smartphone, but have one for work. I don't pay the bill, and wouldn't if I didn't have this job. However when my old flip-phone diesd two years ago I was given a smart phone. It is a Droid Charge by Samsung. I must say it is maybe the worst phone ever!! I am on my second one, and now it is starting to do the same thing the first one did which is not charge correctly. The first one wouldn't charge via the car or home charger, and this one will only charge with the car charger.Sometimes that is. I have gone out on my own, and bought a charging port, and second battery just because this thing is such a pain in the ass!!

I recently spoke with the person who is in charge of ordering new phones, and she said my contract was up on March 10th, and that she could get me a new phone then. I have no idea why we even have contracts when we ARE the phone company, but that is above my pay grade I suppose.

I asked if I could get a iPhone 5C like my co-worker just got, and she said sure. Well I got an email from her yesterday saying my new phone was ordered, and showed the details. Turns out I am not getting the iPhone, but rather another droid! This time a Motorola Droid Ultra. I have read reviews,and it is not looking promising, but we shall see. Anyone have any input on this Droid Ultra from Motorola?

ultraclyde
ultraclyde SuperDork
4/2/14 2:20 p.m.

There are several good podcast apps out there and using the headphone jack solves the music issue. I still keep all my music in iTunes on my PC - I'm far past the point of of changing that, plus I still have several iPods. You can sync playlists from iTunes to the X using an app called iSyncr, and can still use the phone as a remote control when playing music over the home stereo system from iTunes using one called Retune. Syncing the playlists is not particularly streamlined but is doable.

You can set Access (motorola's driving/meeting/sleeping utility) to read your text messages aloud and you can reply by voice. You can also dial by voice. Even with my raised-in-georgia accent I can communicate about 80% of the time on the first try, more if I've been using it a lot.

I think the Google gmail app is the same as the native email app on the X because it's the Google phone, but I could be mistaken.

The voicemail thing - when I had the 4, you could record your outgoing message or check messages directly on the phone. The incoming voice messages were downloaded to the phone, essentially like text messages, and the interface was similar. On the X, I have to dial an outside phone number and wade through Verizon's numeric menu system to check my messages, just like i did when I had flip phone. After using the iPhone system it becomes apparent that dialing you voicemail is a ridiculous 1998 way to do things. Luckily I don't get many voicemails. Again, it may be a Verizon thing, but I don't see the software in the phone to handle it differently, so...

I meant it about the questions. I'm happy to help. Bring it.

Tom_Spangler
Tom_Spangler GRM+ Memberand Dork
4/2/14 2:39 p.m.
Mazdax605 wrote: I asked if I could get a iPhone 5C like my co-worker just got, and she said sure. Well I got an email from her yesterday saying my new phone was ordered, and showed the details. Turns out I am not getting the iPhone, but rather another droid! This time a Motorola Droid Ultra. I have read reviews,and it is not looking promising, but we shall see. Anyone have any input on this Droid Ultra from Motorola?

Light years better than the Droid Charge. My wife had one, it's still stuck on Android 2.3, the battery life is awful, the camera is just OK, etc. It was one of the first LTE phones on Verizon, and it wasn't fully "baked" when it came out, IMO. Now, I'd have chosen the Droid Maxx over the Droid Ultra to get longer battery life, but the Ultra is a current-generation phone, whereas the Charge is about 3 generations old at this point. It should be much better.

Mazdax605
Mazdax605 SuperDork
4/2/14 2:56 p.m.
Tom_Spangler wrote:
Mazdax605 wrote: I asked if I could get a iPhone 5C like my co-worker just got, and she said sure. Well I got an email from her yesterday saying my new phone was ordered, and showed the details. Turns out I am not getting the iPhone, but rather another droid! This time a Motorola Droid Ultra. I have read reviews,and it is not looking promising, but we shall see. Anyone have any input on this Droid Ultra from Motorola?
Light years better than the Droid Charge. My wife had one, it's still stuck on Android 2.3, the battery life is awful, the camera is just OK, etc. It was one of the first LTE phones on Verizon, and it wasn't fully "baked" when it came out, IMO. Now, I'd have chosen the Droid Maxx over the Droid Ultra to get longer battery life, but the Ultra is a current-generation phone, whereas the Charge is about 3 generations old at this point. It should be much better.

Thanks for the review. I didn't get a choice I guess. She asked me what I wanted, and I said an iPhone to go with all the other apple products we have at home, and she agreed to order that one for me. Well I guess somehow the order was changed, or she listens to me just like my kids do.

The ironic thing about the Charge is that it was aptly named. It seemed all I ever did was charge this thing. Well when it wanted to charge that is.

Mazdax605
Mazdax605 SuperDork
4/8/14 1:29 p.m.

Got my new company Motorola Droid Ultra today. It was a nice white phone with some cool features. Notice how I said "was". Yeah I had it about 6 hours, and dropped it once, and now the screen is shattered. I feel like Bill Hader in the AT&T commercials. I can't believe I did this. Also can't believe the company didn't get a case for the phone. I suck at life!!!

neon4891
neon4891 UltimaDork
4/8/14 7:20 p.m.

I'm on my second iPhone, and I think at this point my only motivation for sticking with one is iMessage. Most of my friends are also on apple products, and I live in a dead zone so the wifi texting has been worth it.

Adrian_Thompson
Adrian_Thompson PowerDork
4/9/14 8:14 a.m.

I've finally got my moto X. I'm dictating this on it and the voice control is as awesome as Siri is crap

mistanfo
mistanfo UltraDork
4/9/14 9:39 a.m.
John Brown wrote: My issue is the "I am on Straight Talk and I really like only paying $45.00/mo for everything" so I took the $99.95 option. Idiot. Hate it. Needs to be rooted just to handle what is installed from the factory. Since there is no Straight Talk S4, I am going to get either an iPhone4s or save up for a 5... priorities

Fixed that for 'ya.

Mazdax605
Mazdax605 SuperDork
4/9/14 8:49 p.m.

Looks like it will cost $500 to replace the phone because we didn't have insurance on it. I still don;t understand why if we are the phone company that it is a big deal, but that is a different argument I suppose.

I stopped by a local kiosk at the mall that replaces broken screens. The guy there didn't thing that the digitizer was replaceable, but found them for sale online. He told me he would attempt it, but no guarantees. Said it would be $150 which sucks, but what can I do? He called me back later, and said that the digitizer was impossible to replace alone, and that it required the whole lcd, and digitizer as a unit. He said it would be $300. I looked up the part online, and i can get it for $239 with free shipping. How hard could it be to replace the whole front of the phone? Should I attempt it alone?

Man I really berkeleyed this one up!!!!

donalson
donalson PowerDork
4/9/14 9:12 p.m.

I assume you are going with verizon? you can get the motoX for $100 less... I wonder if you could get the motoG @ the $99 and use it... but you do give up the LTE... but it's prob the cheapest way of getting a new phone to replace the droid you dropped :-/

BoxheadTim
BoxheadTim GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
4/9/14 9:32 p.m.
Mazdax605 wrote: Looks like it will cost $500 to replace the phone because we didn't have insurance on it. I still don;t understand why if we are the phone company that it is a big deal, but that is a different argument I suppose. I stopped by a local kiosk at the mall that replaces broken screens. The guy there didn't thing that the digitizer was replaceable, but found them for sale online. He told me he would attempt it, but no guarantees. Said it would be $150 which sucks, but what can I do? He called me back later, and said that the digitizer was impossible to replace alone, and that it required the whole lcd, and digitizer as a unit. He said it would be $300. I looked up the part online, and i can get it for $239 with free shipping. How hard could it be to replace the whole front of the phone? Should I attempt it alone? Man I really berkeleyed this one up!!!!

Have a look at ifixit and similar sites to see if someone has the description up that shows how to replace the screen.

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