Evo acid test - work day, hard use, battery life, issues, etc - EVO 4G General

Today, I went to work with both the Evo and the TP2, and it involved over 100 miles of travel, and a large amount of videos shot with the Evo's camcorder and emailed.
There are a lot of observations I made about the Evo, both good and bad, so here goes, in no particular order:
I started with both phones charged fully, and I ran the Evo down to 1% battery in 8 hours. The TP2 was at 45% by that time. HOWEVER, how I used the Evo was rather punishing. I took 10 videos with the Evo, totaling just shy of 50 MB's, and emailed them to customers, etc. I only took 1 little video with the TP2, and it was only 1.5 MB. I used the Evo phone for 4 minutes, the TP2 for 10 minutes.
On the 50 MB's of videos I took, after sending them, I then forwarded them to myself, so 100 MB total upload. To forward them, I had to go to the Sent box, and instead of just forwarding, I first had to upload the video from Gmail. That never happened with the TP2, but I was using Yahoo for all sending on the TP2. The attachment would always still be there. Not so on Gmail, or I presume that is the issue (Gmail), and not the Evo's issue per se. So I had to download all 50 MB's, one email at a time, just to forward it, and then when it came to my mailbox, another 50 MB's, so 100 MB's download as well as upload. However, I only got to about 80 MB on the downloading before I hit the 1% on the battery level. I also forwarded the 1 little video I took on the TP2 to myself, so 3MB total upload on the TP2, and 100MB on the Evo. On the download side, all 50MB also came to the TP2's Inbox, and downloaded without intervention by me (unlike the Evo).
On the TP2, there was 2 outgoing texts, and one incoming, and on the Evo, 1 outgoing only. I don't think the texting was a factor at all. I didn't have Bluetooth or any other radio other than the phone on at all, on either phone, all day.
As far as incoming mail, the Evo falls short in the attachments area. I have it set to download all attachments, with no size limit, just like on the TP2 (and both on Gmail). Yet, I always had to click on attachments, and then hit the download arrow (then a little spinning clock replaces the down arrow). The TP2 downloaded all 50 MB's automatically. But what is worse on the Evo, if you don't stay in that mail while the downloading is taking place, it aborts the download (not just suspends it). You have to start all over. You can't hit the back arrow, open another email, and start the downloading on that attachment. Leaving the 1st page at all aborts the download totally, even going to the homepage, or switching tasks. On some emails, the videos were about 10 MB, so that meant quite a wait without being able to do anything else. Disappointing, for something that should have happened automatically, without even having to push a download arrow. The TP2 wins hands down on this one.
Going through one familiar road that always turns the screen on with the TP2, it never happened with the Evo, but happened 7 times with the TP2. Switching to Roaming, or whatever else triggers the TP2 (and Mogul, maybe all the Windows phones) to turn the screen on and sometimes get buttons pressed in the pocket or holster, simply doesn't happen with the Evo. Evo wins this one.
The main difference in battery life obviously was all the video and emailing. I don't think the TP2 would have lasted that long with that load. Consider that it's battery was at 45% when the Evo hit 1%, and the TP2 had to deal with only 1/4th of the data load (200MB's up/down for the Evo, 50MB's for the TP2), plus all the time spent shooting the video, addressing the email and writing the messages that went with each one, etc.
Also, on the Evo, you can't specify where on the SD Card that you save attachments. On the TP2, Mogul, etc., you can specify a directory. For instance, when I get a PDF file, I put it in a directory called, PDF, same for videos, photos, cab files, etc. The way the Evo saves, say for instance, a video you took called VIDEO0007.3gp that is saved after you shoot it as "SDCARD/DCIM/100MEDIA/VIDEO0007.3gp", is saved when you download it as an attachment, in the Download directory. You have no choice, and have to use a file explorer to move it where you want it to be. True, there may be a hack to change directories, but is there a hack to let you choose with each and every attachment you want to download? TP2 wins on this issue, so far.

Keep in mind, the differences are between windows mobile and android, not necessarily the phones themselves.

mrono said:
Keep in mind, the differences are between windows mobile and android, not necessarily the phones themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I can live with the attachment issue for now, as well as the lack of true multi-tasking in the case of downloading attachments. I know so little about Android, I'm not even sure if it is considered a multi-tasking OS. Any explanation would be appreciated.

Related

WnW Proxy Not Affecting My Browsing Anymore

I've just noticed right this minute that the proxy that T-Mobile use on their web n walk tariff to compress images isn't affecting my browsing. None of the images are loading compressed anymore.
Has anyone else noticed this?
I hope it's gone for good but its probably just a temporary thing and I'll have to go back to refreshing pages just to see the bloody pictured properly!
My browsing speeds also seem to have shot up right now. It hardly hangs around 'locating' now and just loads the page. Could that have anything to do with the extra crap T-Mobile use to squash images down? Or am I chatting rubbish here?
Just gave it a go on a few pages (NASA Astronomy picture of the day site, and my Flickr page) and yeah, it seems like it's not transcoding JPEGs on the fly any more (though as I've dropped back to GPRS due to crap reception in my house, that's kind of a pain! haha). Indeed, the Flickr page is taking forever to loud, and it's almost done a meg (just imagine that on pay as you go data! it makes me grin having web 'n walk) so yeah, looks like it's uncompressed.
I really wish it was switchable via the T-Mobile Favourites page, that'd be a really good use for the recompression instead of just forcing it onto people (and increasing their pageload times)... You could just click an "image recompression: on | off" link at the top of the page and it'd set a cookie and stay like that.
I might even email TM and suggest it... Getting the raw HTML via VXUtils indeed shows it to be untouched by the on-the-fly javascript script which the proxy always inserts when it recompresses pics... Guess it's good news really Thanks for pointing it out though, I wouldn't have noticed for a while otherwise!
Bloody thing has gone back to normal now!

Official Sprint Picturemail Released by Sprint

Hi guys, long time lurker, first time poster but I didn't recall seeing this anywhere so I figured I'd share with you guys some good news. (Not sure if this is the correct forum or not so please feel free to move)
Sprint finally has released an official Picturemail app which can be downloaded from
http://softwarestore.sprint.com/wap/downloads/picturemail/WinPM.CAB
From your phone or from your computer
Enjoy and like I said feel free to move to wherever appropriate.
this has been out for a very long time, rstoguy over at ppcgeeks made it into an oem for me, but thanks for the info
What exactly does this cab do?
works perfect on the mogul, lets u send pic mail to myspace, photobucket, youtube, as well as other people, dude say its been out for a while but its new to me so thanks haven't seen this anywhere else
kingofdachevy said:
works perfect on the mogul, lets u send pic mail to myspace, photobucket, youtube, as well as other people, dude say its been out for a while but its new to me so thanks haven't seen this anywhere else
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been out for quite a while, atleast a month now... but since it's here if any of you first time installers get an error after install while trying to open/configure/send in the picture mail app saying memory too low just uninstall and reinstall the app. I had this problem on my Mogul/Titan and no matter what the memory condition I couldn't get it to work. Hopefully this will help someone.
im having the same issue...
and ive tried uninstalling and reinstalling it
im still just going to use sMMs until this has the kinks worked out or i get my touch pro
it works for me on my touch except one little bug:
after i send a picture, i get a black bar on the bottom on my today screen and can't seem to get rid of it until i soft reset. I use Ultimate Launch for my today screen and dcinobar.exe to get rid of the bottom soft button display but this black bar takes its place without any functionality. Tried running dcinobar.exe manually again but still doesn't go away.
any suggestions?
superflysocal said:
it works for me on my touch except one little bug:
after i send a picture, i get a black bar on the bottom on my today screen and can't seem to get rid of it until i soft reset. I use Ultimate Launch for my today screen and dcinobar.exe to get rid of the bottom soft button display but this black bar takes its place without any functionality. Tried running dcinobar.exe manually again but still doesn't go away.
any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had this issue with dcinobar, basically I just open and close my keyboard forcing it to redraw.
I keep getting the error - G66: There was an error trying to register your phone.
jhw549 said:
I've had this issue with dcinobar, basically I just open and close my keyboard forcing it to redraw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well when the black bar appears with the keyboard icon i tap on it to show the keyboard and then tap it again to make it go away but the black bar remains. can you be more specific as to what you did to make it go away?
Can someone confirm for me. I have a Sprint Mogul without DATA on my plan. I was tired of it constantly dialing the #777 number for data even when a program wasn't needing it. So, as recommended by someone on the ppcgeeks board. I called Sprint and had them disable data on my account altogether.
I received a picture mail via SMS text the other day. I wasn't at home where I have WIFI. I tried to open it, the #777 popped up but it wouldn't connect obviously.
So, if I had data enabled (but still not paying for it). Would I have been able to open that picture mail? And would I have been charged for using that data to open the picture?
This whole thing pisses me off. We have two phones on a shared account with the $99 vision plan without data. Sprint now has a $99 plan for a single phone with data. If we wanted data on our's, we have to pay an extra $30. What?
if you have data blocked on your account you obviously cant download pictures unless you use wi-fi
if you dont have data blocked and you dont have a data plan then you will get charged per kilobyte...unless you use wi-fi of course...
if you have a data plan there will be no charge...
and data doesnt automatically pop on for no reason...its initiated either by the user or by the phone automatically (for example to update the time or automatically downloading email)
and for a very long time the smallest data plans have been 15 dollars per line
a very long time ago you had 10 net and unlimited text but customer service wont activate those plans anymore and if you have them now you stay in them until you change your plan
the 99 dollar everything plan is an exceptional value...its priced the way it is to 1 prevent overages and customers leaving bad bills because of overages...2 the higher the rate plan a customer is on the more money sprint makes and 3 makes its easier for the rep to set up your plan (they've found that some 20% of customers have their plans intially setup wrong) and the customer to get what they want quickly and easily
130 dollars gets you 1500 mins 2 lines and unlimited messages, data and gps...thats a helluva deal
Soltioun for low Memory problem for Sprint Picture Mail in Sprint Mogul
If anyone has had problem with low memory RAM notice after installing Sprint's Picture Mail program in Mogul, here is the solution:
Sprint tech support emailed with these instructions to solve the problem with low memory for Sprint Picture Mail program: Un-install, soft-reset, and download and re-install the Sprint Picture Mail Program in Sprint Mogul phone. After doing so, the low memory warning for RAM memory was no longer displayed whenever my RAM was occuped in exess of 70%. Good luck.
rdcolga said:
I keep getting the error - G66: There was an error trying to register your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unplug it from your computer and try it again.
any screenshot to show what is this
Thanks for the tip. I have it on my mogul but rarely use is because of the low memory. I literally have to close all other program to use it.
RE: Sprint Picture Mail and low RAM memory problem in Mogul
shahriar5252 said:
If anyone has had problem with low memory RAM notice after installing Sprint's Picture Mail program in Mogul, here is the solution:
Sprint tech support emailed with these instructions to solve the problem with low memory for Sprint Picture Mail program: Un-install, soft-reset, and download and re-install the Sprint Picture Mail Program in Sprint Mogul phone. After doing so, the low memory warning for RAM memory was no longer displayed whenever my RAM was occuped in exess of 70%. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I have now noticed that removing and re-installing the Sprint Picture Mail program only initially stopped the low memory warning for RAM memory. Once you soft reset after first use of the program, the same problem with low RAM memory comes back.
Sprint: please fix this program!!!

Thinking of Getting an i9000

I'm thinking of getting an i9000, but have a few questions. I'll be honest from the start: I'm not much into tech.
My main purposes for this phone will be: 1. reading e-books, 2. a secondary internet device at home, 3. making phone calls and sending text messages. What makes me even stranger is that I don't want a data plan or any 3G services. Most of what I plan to do will be WiFi at home (although the option is there to get a data plan should I change my mind or find some use for it). I know about the GPS problem, but I don't think I have use for a GPS anyway. Music is not important to me, so I doubt I'd have more than a handful of MP3s I'd ever want listen to; movies and TV shows are a must; games are of no interest to me; photos are more of a perk than a necessity. I love, Love, LOVE the Super AMOLED screen, which is why I'm leaning towards this one rather than the HTC Desire.
1. The 8GB version is 2,000TWD (approx. 60USD) cheaper, which is worth it to me. Given my intended usage and the extra cost, why should I realistically consider the 16GB version? I'll have to buy an SD card anyway, won't I?
2. I still don't understand that thread about the device not having or not being able to see the full 512MB of RAM. How does this impact the performance? How does Froyo address this issue? Am I likely to notice any impact given my intended usage?
3. What is Launcher Pro, and why do some people feel it is better than TouchWiz?
4. I'm in a geographic area that doesn't have access to paid apps (Taiwan). However, there is a workaround. Given my intended usage, what paid apps would you suggest?
5. I'll have to hook up wireless internet at home (I'm running Windows XP on my PC). Without going into too much detail, what equipment and services will I need to set this up for both my PC and phone to share?
I know this may be a lot to ask. Feel free to just address one question if you like. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks.
the SD card is optional, but definitely wort it to have more storage, if you plan to have a large MP3 and Video collection on the road with you
then leave the internal 8 GB SD for application use.
if you ever install a GPS software, it will automatically eat up 2 GB in one shoty
the 8 GB is really 6 GB, because 2 GB is used for ROM software, the remaing is aprox 5 GB of usable space
if you load a GPS software that goes down to 3 GB of free space, and some games downloads a few Hundreds of a MB to play, so games require a full 1GB... anyways it adds up really quickly.
Thanks. GPS is not important for me, nor are MP3s. Any video I watch will most likely be uploaded, watched, and removed within hours. I'll be reading on it if I'm ever on the road.
Looks like I'll be leaning towards the money-saving 8GB one.
SlowRain said:
Thanks. GPS is not important for me, nor are MP3s. Any video I watch will most likely be uploaded, watched, and removed within hours. I'll be reading on it if I'm ever on the road.
Looks like I'll be leaning towards the money-saving 8GB one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I were you, I'd almost definitely go with the 8GB. I think the main reason is that, my plan would be to store my e-books on the external sd card, so if my battery or device died I could easily move them to my pc or next device.
Besides that, I'd suggest, as much as I love my device. Thinking about iPhone 4 or the Dell Streak (if you can get them wi-fi only) and/or a Kindle (not great for internet, #2 on your list, but you'd also save money). IPhone 4 will, probably, be a better reading experience, I can't be sure. Dell Streak has 25% more screen real estate, it also has gorilla glass. Downsides being it's not Super AMOLED, I don't think it's wirelss N, probably has less battery life and is currently stuck on 1.6, though I think 2.1 is imminent.
Not trying to convince you to get a different device, I wouldn't trade my phone for either of the two devices mentioned above.
To answer your other questions, I'd think about:
E-book software...I'm not sure if this is your first e-reader. Kindle, Aldiko might be the two most popular (doesn't mean best).
I'd get brut maps because it'll cache Google Maps pages to your SD card so you won't need data but can still use Google Navigation, My Tracks (I think? can't remember), and Google Maps if you ever have the need (you'll need to look at the areas from your wifi first to get the pages to cache).
I'd probably get a wi-fi analyzer, wi-fi analyzer works well for me.
For your case, thats the majority of what I'd get. I'd think about looking into getting Flash enabled instead of waiting for FroYo if my phone's second functionality would be web surfing.
SlowRain said:
Thanks. GPS is not important for me, nor are MP3s. Any video I watch will most likely be uploaded, watched, and removed within hours. I'll be reading on it if I'm ever on the road.
Looks like I'll be leaning towards the money-saving 8GB one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, spend money on your saved 8GB into extra 2-3 batteries, it's more important for your purposes than 8GB. I can nearly guarantee.
ALL I CAN SAY IS DEFINITELY GET ONE...
I have been using mine constantly for the last few days or so since I sold my Iphone 3gs and before that came from a touch HD2, windows phone.
I can't believe I didn't go across to the android world sooner to be honest and I think I have at last made the right choice of phone, this galaxy S is simply a joy to use, I love it.
I have 7 completely customisable screens that you can scroll between I bought beautiful widgets (highly recommend this) just simply because I am hooked to these widget things. I have Beautiful Live weather wallpaper which displays some grass waving about at the bottom of the screen and clouds with sun, rain etc..moving perfectly acrosseach of the 7 screens, I know this is all old hat to some of the longer Android users, but for me I Love it...I have also bought the Pure calender widget which displays all your up and coming appointments etc...this again is completely skin-able, brilliant...seconds screen has some of my shortcuts to applicaitons, live UK TV guide, market, appbrain market, maps, zedge, calc, youtube and mail, my third screen has all these toggle widgets to quickly turn on airplane, wifi, bluetooth, sound controls, volume and battery, Screen number 4 has my Days dairy which I quite like, screen number 5 has my feeds and updates which automatically updates my facebook and twitter stuff, then onto screen 6 with the BBC news and History widget, number 7 is blank so I can stare at the weather...
I can't seem to stop type , the Swype keyboard is just so easy and quick to use, I actually enjoy typing on a small screen these days, not that the Galaxy has a small screen in fact its the perfect screen and if your into reading books like I am, I am using the free Laputa ereader, simply import all your epubs into it, Aldiko comes already installed which is equally as good, but without the funky page turn effects. the screen is so clear reading books is very nice.
Will continue on later, got to get back to work for a bit....
no no no... if you moved to Android sooner, you would have not enjoyed it.
I was also waiting for the Perfect Phone, before moving to Android
If you moved to Android when it was Android 1.5 you would have most likely ended up hating it.
It was Raw, not many apps, phone hardware were rather not at part with the HTC hardware, etc.
THUDUK said:
ALL I CAN SAY IS DEFINITELY GET ONE...
I have been using mine constantly for the last few days or so since I sold my Iphone 3gs and before that came from a touch HD2, windows phone.
I can't believe I didn't go across to the android world sooner to be honest and I think I have at last made the right choice of phone, this galaxy S is simply a joy to use, I love it.
I have 7 completely customisable screens that you can scroll between I bought beautiful widgets (highly recommend this) just simply because I am hooked to these widget things. I have Beautiful Live weather wallpaper which displays some grass waving about at the bottom of the screen and clouds with sun, rain etc..moving perfectly acrosseach of the 7 screens, I know this is all old hat to some of the longer Android users, but for me I Love it...I have also bought the Pure calender widget which displays all your up and coming appointments etc...this again is completely skin-able, brilliant...seconds screen has some of my shortcuts to applicaitons, live UK TV guide, market, appbrain market, maps, zedge, calc, youtube and mail, my third screen has all these toggle widgets to quickly turn on airplane, wifi, bluetooth, sound controls, volume and battery, Screen number 4 has my Days dairy which I quite like, screen number 5 has my feeds and updates which automatically updates my facebook and twitter stuff, then onto screen 6 with the BBC news and History widget, number 7 is blank so I can stare at the weather...
I can't seem to stop type , the Swype keyboard is just so easy and quick to use, I actually enjoy typing on a small screen these days, not that the Galaxy has a small screen in fact its the perfect screen and if your into reading books like I am, I am using the free Laputa ereader, simply import all your epubs into it, Aldiko comes already installed which is equally as good, but without the funky page turn effects. the screen is so clear reading books is very nice.
Will continue on later, got to get back to work for a bit....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

List of issues, any solutions?

Cause I'm about to return this thing.
Software/OS wise:
- I guess this is an Android "thing", but the phone is constanly launching random programs in the background that I had nothing to do with, and it noticeably slows the phone down. If I see Sense stuttering, I'll run ATK, kill the dozen or so random things thta somehow launched all by themselves, and the phone is snappy again. Today I was typing a text message, and the phone was so slow, it was only registering one character every 5 seconds or so in the message. I went tho ATK, a whole ****load of random stuff was running, I killed it all, text messaging goes back to normal. How can you use an OS that randomly launches apps that degrade system performance? And as far as I can tell there's no way to remove the apps, or keep them from randomly launching on thier own in the background. I thought Android apps running in the background were supposed to not use any resources? But these a re having a noticible impact, clear as day. Sluggish UI, run ATK, kill the apps, silky smooth UI.
- I despise threaded SMS and you can't turn it off.
- I hate the little gray faces in the people list, and you can't turn them off
- Don't like the transparent folder backgrounds, and you can't do anything about it.
Hardware wise:
- The volume rocker is in a terrible positoin and is way to easy to accidentally hit. And apparently you need root to do anything about by remapping the keys
- If the phone is locked, sliding out the keyboard just a little bit wakes up the phone unlocked. andthen when trying to slide the KB back in you end up hitting buttons and hittingthe volume rocker, it's just annoying
- Suffers from the iPhone 4 "holding the phone in your righthand cuts your signal strength by 3 bars" problem
I mean, by themselves, none of these is a huge deal (except the OS slowing itself to a crawl, WTF is up with that?), but add them all up, on tp of the fact I'm paying $30 more a month over my Mogul, and I think this thing is going back to the Sprint store this weekend.
Kinda shocking that 5 years later the latest Androis phone still can;t match my Mogul in terms of useability.
emkorial said:
Cause I'm about to return this thing.
Software/OS wise:
- I guess this is an Android "thing", but the phone is constanly launching random programs in the background that I had nothing to do with, and it noticeably slows the phone down. If I see Sense stuttering, I'll run ATK, kill the dozen or so random things thta somehow launched all by themselves, and the phone is snappy again. Today I was typing a text message, and the phone was so slow, it was only registering one character every 5 seconds or so in the message. I went tho ATK, a whole ****load of random stuff was running, I killed it all, text messaging goes back to normal. How can you use an OS that randomly launches apps that degrade system performance? And as far as I can tell there's no way to remove the apps, or keep them from randomly launching on thier own in the background.
- I despise threaded SMS and you can't turn it off.
- I hate the little gray faces in the people list, and you can't turn them off
- Don't like the transparent folder backgrounds, and you can't do anything about it.
Hardware wise:
- The volume rocker is in a terrible positoin and is way to easy to accidentally hit. And apparently you need root to do anything about by remapping the keys
- If the phone is locked, sliding out the keyboard just a little bit wakes up the phone unlocked. andthen when trying to slide the KB back in you end up hitting buttons and hittingthe volume rocker, it's just annoying
- Suffers from the iPhone 4 "holding the phone in your righthand cuts your signal strength by 3 bars" problem
I mean, by themselves, none of these is a huge deal (except the OS slowing itself to a crawl, WTF is up with that?), but add them all up, on tp of the fact I'm paying $30 more a month over my Mogul, and I think this thing is going back to the Sprint store this weekend.
Kinda shocking that 5 years later the latest Androis phone still can;t match my Mogul in terms of useability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok - a long list of complaints. I'll try to address a few, but I don't think there are any "fixes" for any of these problems.
1. Have not had this happen on this phone. Not sure what is running....what were you doing at the time? What apps do you have installed?
2. You'd prefer a single message? Not really sure I understand the issue with threaded SMS...
3. If you hate the gray faces, you can customize the picture for each person - if you don't feel like doing that, then stop complaining. To assign a picture for your contacts - Contacts - "Joe Smith" - Edit - then click the Camera to the left of the contacts name. You can assign any picture you want.
4. This is something that can be modified once we have perm. root, I believe. Is customizable if you modify LPP or ADW.
5. I see a lot of people complaining about the terrible placement. I've only hit them once when closing the phone, but they are almost in the same position as my Heroc, so it must be a habit from avoiding that rocker.
6. My slider needs to slide until I see the 2nd row of keys before the screen turns on. Not sure if yours is diff. or not, but that seems acceptable to me. Perhaps you want to put a lock code or pin on, and then it won't open to the homescreen, etc.
7. I have noticed that too, but really almost every phone has this to some effect. And I've only watched the signal strength bars in the notifications bar. We should watch the signal strength (dB) to see if there really is a drastic difference. It hasn't negatively impacted my use of the phone (on a call, or surfing the web) so I don't really see it as an issue, but more of a pet peeve.
Sorry to hear you are so turned off by your experience so far. hope some of what I've written is useful.
There is no need for a task killer. Just because you see those apps in the backround doesnt actually mean they are running. Android works different in the fact that those are stored in ram to actually save battery if you were to open those apps. It doesnt use more battery to have those apps stored in your ram. Since froyo was introduced there is no reason to use ATK unless there is an aftermarket app that you know will cause power drain.
There is an app called Volume Locker. It will keep you from being able to change the volume level.
Also, there are different dialers out there that offer different looks if you dont like the sense dialer.
I dont have any issue with my bars going down when holding my phone. The reason that happens to an Iphone is because they built the antenna around the case of the phone. It's not built like that with the shift.
Is this your 1st android phone?
emkorial said:
Cause I'm about to return this thing.
Software/OS wise:
- I guess this is an Android "thing", but the phone is constanly launching random programs in the background that I had nothing to do with, and it noticeably slows the phone down. If I see Sense stuttering, I'll run ATK, kill the dozen or so random things thta somehow launched all by themselves, and the phone is snappy again. Today I was typing a text message, and the phone was so slow, it was only registering one character every 5 seconds or so in the message. I went tho ATK, a whole ****load of random stuff was running, I killed it all, text messaging goes back to normal. How can you use an OS that randomly launches apps that degrade system performance? And as far as I can tell there's no way to remove the apps, or keep them from randomly launching on thier own in the background. I thought Android apps running in the background were supposed to not use any resources? But these a re having a noticible impact, clear as day. Sluggish UI, run ATK, kill the apps, silky smooth UI.
- I despise threaded SMS and you can't turn it off.
- I hate the little gray faces in the people list, and you can't turn them off
- Don't like the transparent folder backgrounds, and you can't do anything about it.
Hardware wise:
- The volume rocker is in a terrible positoin and is way to easy to accidentally hit. And apparently you need root to do anything about by remapping the keys
- If the phone is locked, sliding out the keyboard just a little bit wakes up the phone unlocked. andthen when trying to slide the KB back in you end up hitting buttons and hittingthe volume rocker, it's just annoying
- Suffers from the iPhone 4 "holding the phone in your righthand cuts your signal strength by 3 bars" problem
I mean, by themselves, none of these is a huge deal (except the OS slowing itself to a crawl, WTF is up with that?), but add them all up, on tp of the fact I'm paying $30 more a month over my Mogul, and I think this thing is going back to the Sprint store this weekend.
Kinda shocking that 5 years later the latest Androis phone still can;t match my Mogul in terms of useability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) if your talking about things like FM radio, Sprint navigation, NFL, Sprint TV, etc running in the background. they arent using processor time just small bits of memory they launch in the background after certain triggers like "SMS Recieved" occur and you cant change that without full root, or you can use the temporary root and set it after every boot
2 and 3) i believe you can with handsent or chomp
3) not without full root and nand unlock
as for the rest, havent had any issues with signal either on or off my airave so i cant really replicate your issue, havent had any slowness or slowdowns compared to the painfully buggy and slow mogul for sure.
There is no need for a task killer. Just because you see those apps in the backround doesnt actually mean they are running. Android works different in the fact that those are stored in ram to actually save battery if you were to open those apps. It doesnt use more battery to have those apps stored in your ram. Since froyo was introduced there is no reason to use ATK unless there is an aftermarket app that you know will cause power drain.
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but there is. Performance on the phone is noticably slower, sliuggish screen transitions, today my text messaging was barely working at all the phone was so bogged down. Killing tasks fixes the problem, so obviously those tasks are using some system resources. If they weren't I wouldn't care that they are there, but they are having a absolute impact of the phones performance and responsiveness.
none of the apps running were crazy stuff, there's maybe 2-3 things I installed from the market (Astra and Google Maps being the most frequnt) and the rest is preinstalled stuff, Teleus GPS, Voicemail, Gmail, Amazon MP3, etc. At the low point ATK says I have aorund 30M memory free, clearing the apps out brings it up to 160.
This isn't a "things running in the background bugs me", it's "these things are slowing the phone down.
2. You'd prefer a single message? Not really sure I understand the issue with threaded SMS...
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Yeah, each messgae should be a message. Unto itself. I know some people like threaded, and that's fine, but why is there no option to turn threaded SMS off? I can specify seperate auto completoin settings for the soft keyboard and hardkeyboard for crying out loud, but I can't choose how I want text messages displayed?
3. If you hate the gray faces, you can customize the picture for each person - if you don't feel like doing that, then stop complaining. To assign a picture for your contacts - Contacts - "Joe Smith" - Edit - then click the Camera to the left of the contacts name. You can assign any picture you want.
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Yeah, pardon me while I run off to snap 150 pictures and assign them all. I should be able to customize the view to no show pictures with the contacts, not be forec to have 1 chunk of screen real estate takend up "mystery gray head man"
4. This is something that can be modified once we have perm. root, I believe. Is customizable if you modify LPP or ADW.
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Thats good to know, thanks
Also, there are different dialers out there that offer different looks if you dont like the sense dialer.
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The dialers fine, it's the contact list.
Is this your 1st android phone?
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Yeah, an I knew there' be some getting used to things, but honestly, why am I paying more for a phone I have to get used to (and launches apps to slows down it's performance by itself)? I'l just go back to my Mogul, it works how I want, and is cheaper.
they arent using processor time
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SOMETHING getting auto launched is using processor time, absolutely. When the phone is runing so slow I can;t even type a text message, and killing the running apps fixes the problem, then there's something running in the background slowing the phone down massively.
Might want to try killing apps 1 at a time to find out what the rogue process is... generally task managers do more harm than good.
You can also sync facebook photo's with contacts if any of your contacts are on your fb account... if you use facebook that is You can also assign photo's thru your gmail account on the web, that is an easier interface than on the phone.
There is really no getting around getting used to a new phone.. just takes some time to get comfortable with it. Usually a week or 2.
emkorial said:
but there is. Performance on the phone is noticably slower, sliuggish screen transitions, today my text messaging was barely working at all the phone was so bogged down. Killing tasks fixes the problem, so obviously those tasks are using some system resources. If they weren't I wouldn't care that they are there, but they are having a absolute impact of the phones performance and responsiveness.
none of the apps running were crazy stuff, there's maybe 2-3 things I installed from the market (Astra and Google Maps being the most frequnt) and the rest is preinstalled stuff, Teleus GPS, Voicemail, Gmail, Amazon MP3, etc. At the low point ATK says I have aorund 30M memory free, clearing the apps out brings it up to 160.
This isn't a "things running in the background bugs me", it's "these things are slowing the phone down.
SOMETHING getting auto launched is using processor time, absolutely. When the phone is runing so slow I can;t even type a text message, and killing the running apps fixes the problem, then there's something running in the background slowing the phone down massively.
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You need to read up on this article. like I said before you only need to use it when you have a bad app. Close 1 at a time until you figure out the lag issue as I havnt had a single issue at all with lag. Why you shouldn't use task killers
When you close apps that always run they have to re-open and that uses CPU. All those apps running (except the one giving you issues) arent using any cpu just stored in your memory and if they need to be ran it actually saves CPU. You obvliously have more apps running than you think because I always have at the very least 80mb free. If you decide to root your phone you can always use auto killer memory optimizer and make it so if you hit a certain point it will close the empty apps etc.
Give it some time. Your obviously and amateur Android user (Please dont take offense) and will learn how they work and love it I promise.
I think you're the first person I've heard about who prefers Windows Mobile 6.X to Android. If that's the case, more power to you. Rock that Mogul and cut your monthly bill down and save some bucks. In this economy, nobody's going to argue with you over that.
Sounds like a lot of your gripes are just getting used to the phone. I've never once accidentally hit the volume rocker but I'm coming from a Sprint Hero too, so maybe that's why. If I cup my hand around the bottom of the phone I can get it to drop a bar or two, but I never hold my phone like that under normal use so it doesn't bother me. And my phone doesn't wake up until the keyboard is halfway out (2nd row of keys). If yours wakes from barely moving, maybe something is wrong with it? Take it back for a new one and see if that fixes the problem.
I haven't noticed any slowdown but again, I'm coming from the Hero and that was just a dog trying to run factory Sense. Some people have reported improved performance after performing a factory reset (though that's typically related to data speeds). Might be worth looking into if you're still having problems.
You need to read up on this article. like I said before you only need to use it when you have a bad app. Close 1 at a time until you figure out the lag issue as I havnt had a single issue at all with lag. Why you shouldn't use task killers
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I understand the who idea of android running crap in the background, and if it really worked as advertised and was using no CPU power, I wouldn;t care if there were 100 apps in the background. Whatever is running my my background is causing moderate performance issues most of the time, and occasionally severe performance issues.
Next time it happens I'll try the "kill them 1 at a time" thing and see if I can identify the culprit.
I recognize that most of this is just preference and getting used to the phone, but the performance degradation, the volume rocker, and the signal loss are, to me, enough added up to make the phone just not worth dealing with.
emkorial said:
I understand the who idea of android running crap in the background, and if it really worked as advertised and was using no CPU power, I wouldn;t care if there were 100 apps in the background. Whatever is running my my background is causing moderate performance issues most of the time, and occasionally severe performance issues.
Next time it happens I'll try the "kill them 1 at a time" thing and see if I can identify the culprit.
I recognize that most of this is just preference and getting used to the phone, but the performance degradation, the volume rocker, and the signal loss are, to me, enough added up to make the phone just not worth dealing with.
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Well that sucks you find one of the sickest Android phones not up to par. Maybe you should go back to a Windows phone lol
There's always the Jesus phone.
Also, the battery is doubling as a heater. I played angrybirds for about 20 minutes, my battery is reading 106 degrees F, and my hand is starting to sweat.
fifedogg said:
Well that sucks you find one of the sickest Android phones not up to par. Maybe you should go back to a Windows phone lol
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Well, my windows phone doesn't launch mystery apps in the background to kill my performance, doesn't have threaded SMS, doesn't have transparent folders, doesn't put little grey heads next to my contacts, doesn't have any buttons that are easily pushed by mistake, doesn't have an overheating battery, doesn't unlock and wake up when the keyboard is opened, and doesn;t lose signal strength when you pick it up. So yeah, it's kinda dominating android on those points.
herbthehammer said:
There's always the Jesus phone.
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Herb, I am quickly starting to love your posts!
Sent from my HTC Evo Shift 4G
Uh, I'd be inclined to think the device is defective or you installed something janky. I have only in a few situations with z4root seen lag on this thing.
I would try a factory reset (hold volume down while powering on the device, choose from menu) and see if that doesn't help. It will wipe the handset so be prepared for that.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Hard reset fixed most of my issues, but the only big one was the battery life anyways. Try that and hopefully it works for you too.
Life is too short to be miserable over a cell phone. Take it back and go back to the Mogul. You clearly like it better and it's cheaper per month. Win-win.
Peace out! Go rock that bad ass mogul til the wheels fall off.
Scent phrum mie fone!
etbrandt2 said:
Uh, I'd be inclined to think the device is defective or you installed something janky. I have only in a few situations with z4root seen lag on this thing.
I would try a factory reset (hold volume down while powering on the device, choose from menu) and see if that doesn't help. It will wipe the handset so be prepared for that.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
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How can you back up your contacts? The Sprint store copied them over from my Mogul for me, so they're all on the phone, no on my gMail account.
I'd like to hold out and see if some of these issues are fixable, because there is a lot I like about the phone too. I love the marketplace, I like the proximity sensor, I like close to 99% of Sense, the screen is gorgeous. Is there hopw that when the phone is rooted I'll be able to fix some of this stuff?
Peace out! Go rock that bad ass mogul til the wheels fall off.
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I also got about a 50/50 split betweenn yes and no on whether or not I can go back to my SERO plan if I want to.
I'll give it a week, hopefully real root will be out by then, see if it helps/give the ability to fix some of this stuff, and if not, back to the Mogul. Much love for the 30 day return window!!
Unfortunately I think to get the contacts copied over to Google you'll need to log into your Google account and manually add them.
The nice thing is though, that once you start flashing ROM's they will automatically sync.
I find it much easier to go in and streamline my contacts on my computer.
Also, if you do not use Facebook or have pics to sync up from FB you can add pictures to your Google contacts and they will sync to the phone.

[Q] What do these do now?

Now that all the services are shut down, what exactly does this device do?
rosser725 said:
Now that all the services are shut down, what exactly does this device do?
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This device serves are a cellphone, MP3 Player, Web Browser, E-mail Client, and an Alarm Clock. For me at least..
ditto
Same here - I would say my favorite software feature is the email client. You can set up multiple email accounts, so I have my personal gmail account and my work email account, it's super convenient for me. The slide out keyboard is great - it did take me a couple days used to it (never typed on anything smaller than a netbook before), but now I really like it & I'm able to type emails pretty quickly.
On a recent trip I used the camera a lot. The pictures are decent - on par with photos I've seen from iPhones - and much better than most cell phone cameras. But, I will say this, it's not replacing my Sony Cybershot digital camera or my Flip Video camera. Phone makers love to tout how many megapixels they have, but until you can put a better lens on there, your photo quality is severely limited. As for video, you are limited to recording very short clips, I think it was 1 minute? I was annoyed when I tried to record my brother playing a song on his guitar and I had to record it as 4 separate clips.
I use the web browser to check the weather in the morning. I did a Bing search for "weather 90210" (replace 90210 with your real zip code), then bookmarked it and I usually check that every day before I hop on my bike. In case you don't know, the result returned from that search is a lot like when you search it in Google, it tells you the current weather and the forecast for the next few days (Temps, wind, rain/sun, etc) in a pretty compact format.
I really like twitter on the KIN web browser. Most web pages I have tried work fine on the KIN browser, but I don't like having to scroll so much - you can only fit so much readable text on small screen. So aside from weather & twitter updates, the browser is mainly a novelty for me - hence why I am so happy with this phone and why I didn't "need" a Droid/iPhone w/ a Data Plan.
Which brings me to the best feature, in my opinion, which is what this phone doesn't do: it doesn't require you to pay for a Verizon data plan. For me, this is saving me $60/month (2 lines). The high cost of data plans has been the only thing keeping my from getting a smart phone over the past 3 years, so when I found the re-released KIN w/o a data plan, I was sold instantly.
Hope that helps
I have to agree with you there. I am glad that with getting 2 of these I dont have to buy those stupid Data plans
As for video, you are limited to recording very short clips
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You do realize that you can only record one minute in email quality to keep the file under the size limit? You need to record in HD to record longer and I believe you will find the quality of video much higher.
Thanks for the tip! I hadn't played with the video much, and just thought that was a built in limit. I will need to check the menu and switch to HD.

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