Considering an Android phone... options?

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#658928 20-Jul-2012 10:12

I see no benefit to having it turned on, and the downside is battery draw, so I turn it off. Nokia phones alarms work when the phone's turned off.

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#658931 20-Jul-2012 10:17

Like i said earlier, i just plug mine in next to my bed.. Battery lasts until i go back to bed. Never gets switched off, just muted overnight. Which is really easy on the s 3 as there's a toggle when you tap the notification bar.

Btw, the s3 has an option to mute when placed face down...

timmmay

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#658938 20-Jul-2012 10:20

Thanks blak. I did a quick google, no Android phones alarms work when the phone's turned off.

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#658987 20-Jul-2012 11:37

Most people don't turn them off! ;-p

Linuxluver

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#659001 20-Jul-2012 12:13

I prefer "SlideIt" to Swype.

SlideIt supports custom "short cuts" and you can use these instead of the full words if you want to create the shortcuts that represent your most common contractions. Maybe Swype does this...I don't know.

As for battery life, 2-4 days is common among all Android phones if you disable data and never turn the screen on......thus emulating your olld Nokia phone. :-) But if you plan to use the display much / moderately and / or use wifi or 3G data....then getting through a single day is about all you can reasonably expect. I use an external powerpack to top up my phone when it gets too low. It's a 4000mah unit from Belkin. It holds two, full charges for a phone with a 1500 or 1800mah battery....so you can generally get through a day even with reasonably heavy in-your-face constant use.

This is just a fact of smart phones.

So it boils down to screen size, speed, RAM.

Screen: My eyes are happy with anything provided its big enough. For me, 4.3" is now the minimum and I prefer 800x480 to anything higher on the screen size because I'm able to read it more easily.

Processor: Anything with dual-core 1GHz or better is fine.

RAM. 768MB minimum.....preferably 1GB.

Internal storage: 8GB minimum...with option for 16G or 32GB microSD. I don't buy phones that I can't put an external microSD into.

OS: GB 2.3.6 or later. I'm not fanatical about 4.0 or later. In fact...I'm indifferent. GB is more than good enough.

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I've been on Geekzone over 16 years..... Time flies....

timmmay

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#659023 20-Jul-2012 12:44

Thanks LL. If I had a smart phone I'd probably use data and features. I can get a cradle to keep the phone on at work easily enough, or charge at night. I guess I can get used to the keyboard too.

I might wait for the next Nexus or S4, just because I'm doing expensive renovations at the moment, and my Nokia will last a bit longer.

timmmay

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#660563 23-Jul-2012 18:36

Handle9: You need to log out of the itunes store on itunes then scroll down to the bottom. You'll see an NZ flag, click on that and select the US app store. Follow below for the rest.

http://www.ghacks.net/2009/02/09/create-a-free-us-itunes-account-from-any-country/

The "free" option's gone, even if I use a VPN so it looks like I'm in the US. It looks like you need a credit card to get a US iTunes account these days :(

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Handle9

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#660570 23-Jul-2012 18:53

timmmay:
Handle9: You need to log out of the itunes store on itunes then scroll down to the bottom. You'll see an NZ flag, click on that and select the US app store. Follow below for the rest.

http://www.ghacks.net/2009/02/09/create-a-free-us-itunes-account-from-any-country/

The "free" option's gone, even if I use a VPN so it looks like I'm in the US. It looks like you need a credit card to get a US iTunes account these days :(

Nope, definitely still possible, just created a new account and downloaded a free app (I was on VPN but works either way.

Do this:

1) Log out of your account in the itunes store
2) Scroll down to the NZ flag at the bottom and click on it.
3) Select United States store
4) Go to App Store
5) Select a free app and hit install
6) Click continue
7) Agree to ts& Cs
8) Fill in details for email adress/password etc
9) Select None for payment type
10) Enter billing address/phone number etc (I usually google a KFC store for billing address)
11) Hit Create Apple ID
12) Verify email address
13) Download pandora and sync to ipod touch
14) Enjoy free pandora goodness.

timmmay

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#660601 23-Jul-2012 20:02

Thanks, that got the account and the app onto the PC :-)

When I plug the iPod Touch in it doesn't seem to sync apps by default. If I go into the iPod in iTunes it has the option to sync apps, but if I check it it warns me that "all existing apps and their data will be replaces with apps from this iTunes library". Will it delete my existing apps, including paid ones, or will it only replaces ones that already exist?

Handle9

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#660609 23-Jul-2012 20:18

It'll sync every app that's in your itunes library, regardless of the account associated with it. You may have the PITA that is resyncing music etc but you keep your apps. When you check sync apps you'll see all of them are available to sync over - not sure if you loose save games or not, might be worth checking on google.

timmmay

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#660613 23-Jul-2012 20:28

I'm in a game where I have my highest score ever of Bookworm, I don't think I want to risk it right now!

What it seems to imply it it'll delete all the apps associated with my NZ account if I sync my US account. Is that not the case then? I know you've suggested not... I just don't want to lose everything on it if I can help it. Though all I use it for these days is music and very very occasionally games so it's not a huge deal.

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#660943 24-Jul-2012 12:15

After a few months of 'training' I get 2/2.5 days on the stock battery with the Ideos X5 and it is running a stock 2.2 and can be upgraded to 2.3. There are random days when the battery does die rather quickly though.

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#660989 24-Jul-2012 13:29

blakamin: Like i said earlier, i just plug mine in next to my bed.. Battery lasts until i go back to bed. Never gets switched off, just muted overnight. Which is really easy on the s 3 as there's a toggle when you tap the notification bar.

Btw, the s3 has an option to mute when placed face down...

This...

Charge it at night on mute

There are free apps that let you choose what time of day the phone needs to be quiet and it will automatically mute it at bed time and unmute it just before your alarm goes off

As for being too lazy to plug it into a charger next to your bed every night, well, can't help you there... :)

timmmay

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#660993 24-Jul-2012 13:36

It's not laziness, it'd be trivial to do, I just think a phone that can barely last a days normal use is a poor excuse for a phone. What if I forget one night, or I need to make a lot of calls due to an emergency? Sure I can keep a charger at work or in the car, but that's preventing a problem that should never have occurred. Add the 1mm like the Razr Maxx did and have decent battery life.

I'm just not a Motorola fan, hoping for a Google phone with good battery life.

blakamin

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#661056 24-Jul-2012 14:59

you'll be waiting awhile because current battery tech won't handle a smartphone for 2 days +...

My s3 had now been unplugged for 7 hours, battery is at 45%.. That's 2 hours screen time, and the radio going for 5 hours... Not to mention phone calls, texts and all things syncing. You have to remember that they do more than make calls! If my MP3 player hadn't broken, it would still be on 75%

Even a "feature" phone wouldn't last 2 days doing this.

You have to change your ways when moving to a smartphone...

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