Database Users

Why Can't We Have This Too!?!

..........

because we have TCPMP, WiMP, and can code anything we want to use easily..
want internet radio? shoutcast works fine.
want something exotic? build it, or pay someone to. anything can be done.

.............

TCPMP can stream music/video from any source YOU wish, not controlled by drm. For instance Ive been nicely watching episodes of the simpsons on the train to uni most days, free of charge (I have the DVDs already).
Unless your network provider has a flat rate data service you will pay SHEDLOADS for the streaming data from rapsody anyway?! Invest in a 2GB SD card and go nuts!
We have the freedom on here to develop ANY application we wish, with the expertise here we could easily have an app like that but unless there is a diare need for it i doubt we will see it.

lifterus said:
The Celestial Jukebox in my pocket. My dream. Why can't it be on my 3G WM5 device as well?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/27/nokia-and-real-add-rhapsody-to-the-n800/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do know that you can use The Orb to stream any music from your PC? Also does video and you can view any pictures you have. Best of all it's FREE

............

AT&T (cingular) just signed a deal to start giving free access to "qualifying subscribers" of Napster's content. The bad - you have to buy a blackjack. The good - it's set to work for WM5 so maybe they'll make a version that works with the TyTN?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2108029,00.asp

Only solution left:
Buy an n800.

............

lifterus said:
No, that's very misleading of Cingular. There's still no way to play streaming tracks on your mobile. Cingular's stupid service just lets you purchase tracks from napster or yahoo using your phone. The most pointless thing ever. Its nothing more than a cross promotional scheme.
The subscription music model can and will work. It will eventually dominate download services. But it can only happen when you can access and play the library from portable devices. 3G is here and yet this isn't happening. Its ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it wont be streaming but 3G is pretty fast for DLin a song (should be downloaded much quicker then a minute) and they're GIVING you unlimited service free for at least a year. Clearly it's not as nice but it's still not too shabby either (especially if you can DL over wifi if available!)

well for now i guess all you can do is get a bittorrent client for your phone, download any file/album you want without any DRM.
i don't see any problems with that..

............

............

How about this:
http://www.mercora.com/m/

A few OmniaII -> Epic 4G transition issues/questions

On balance, my new Epic wins hands-down. I love the device, Android, Linux, and it seems to be a far better gaming platform (a bonus -- not what I bought it for, but I'm having a blast with the portfolio of Gameloft 3D FP games -- amazing!)
However, I am lost on a few things. So, here's a thread to get some help. To start, some video questions:
If there's a media player to handle one's video library, I can't find it. The only way I've found to open and watch local video is to find the file with My Files, and open it there. This brings up the native video player, which is rather limited in features.
Once the video player is up, I can't figure out how to get back to it if I task-switch to something else for a moment. Can easily happen with a phonecall, for example. Sometimes the window "stack" facilitates using the back button to get back to it, but under more circumstances than not, you can't.
This is a real PITA, because I lose my place in the video. I have to re-open it, and seek around to find where I was. Am I missing something here?
I was a major CorePlayer fan on the OmniaII. It had it's own problems (lack of graphics acceleration support, the biggest), but those warts were far outbalanced by the rich featureset. I plan to get CP for my Epic when (if ever) it becomes available, but for now I'd like to get something similar if it's already out there. Any recommendations?
I've read a lot about the "lag fix". Do I need to do that? I've got a very new Epic, running DI18 (a week and a half old).
I fell asleep on my Epic, and now it seems to me the slider rails are "loose". I can skew the screen portion of the phone clockwise and CCW, back and forth, when opening, to as much as +/- 5-10deg. I paid no attention to this earlier, so it may be no different. The slide seems otherwise solid and fine, but for this. Are your Epic's similar?
Sprint bloatware: Is there an easy way to disable much of this (services, etc.)? For example, Amazon MP3, Sprint Nascar, and a dozen or so other services/apps that are started at boot and respawned if killed. I won't ever be using this junk, so I'd rather they not be consuming resources, slowing things down. Do I have to root the phone and manually edit Linux startup files to get rid of this junk?
Thanks for helping out this noob!

Was omnia2 android?
Out the box Epic plays more file types than other non Galaxy S phones. On the market "Rock Player" plays all file types, followed by an xda dev's app "vplayer" I think it is. Other choices inlclude Act 1 Video Player and Meridian.
Instead of "My Files" to browse files to use with default player and other function try one of Astro File Manager(my primary), IO file manager, Androzip and more.
Most problem you may have can be solved in the "Market"
Sent from my "Wheres my 2.2 Epic 4G" using the XDA App

Omnia II! I really wanted this phone when it first came out. Omnia II runs Windows Mobile.
+1 on rockplayer
No lag fix needed on the Epic, there are lots of threads on this.
Not sure how to fix your slept on epic part, you'll have to read up on that.
As far as bloatware, you can follow this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=780333
Be Careful, if you want to use sprint updates you have to leave certain apps like sprint hotspot, Amazon mp3, etc or else you'll get a validation error when doing updates.
This has become such a pain for me I just leave those apps on the device. There are devs, who have great workarounds too you just have to read up on it.

Registered WP7 Developer looking for ideas!

As the title states, suggest away.

direct sync to outlook .pst
What the [email protected]#$% was MS thinking by leaving this out? Even the iphone syncs to outlook.

mightyeric said:
direct sync to outlook .pst
What the [email protected]#$% was MS thinking by leaving this out? Even the iphone syncs to outlook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jesus, how many times is this going to be brought up? The function is NOT there, and it was known BEFORE any device came out. Quit the *****ing and get a phone that supports it, or move on.
Anyways, I'd like a good sports app like Sportacular that has notifications when games start, during and after with the scores. Fantasy updates with custom rosters would be great too.

Not sure what the SDK will let you do, but is it possible to develop an app that can be pinned to the start page, that toggles 3g/wifi/bluetooth? I know we can just drop in to the Settings menu, but I would pay for an app that put those three in one easy place.
I would also like an app that rotates, like a slideshow I guess, all sorts of images from the various Xbox games I've been playing across the tile. That would look cool on the start page. Maybe it does a Bing image search to find the images to rotate, etc. I'm not a developer, but it was something I thought of earlier today.

dougp.me said:
Jesus, how many times is this going to be brought up? The function is NOT there, and it was known BEFORE any device came out. Quit the *****ing and get a phone that supports it, or move on.
Anyways, I'd like a good sports app like Sportacular that has notifications when games start, during and after with the scores. Fantasy updates with custom rosters would be great too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is comming in dec development almost done..

The direct sync with outlook is not possible with the WP7 SDK. That would have to be incorporated into the Zune sync software. The WP7 is meant to be a cloud device so I don't see this coming anytime soon.
The idea about toggling the radios is also not possible im afraid. The SDK does not give developers any direct access to the hardware like that. Hell, we can't even adjust the volume.

rruffman said:
this is comming in dec development almost done..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
love to see more on this...

JMackey said:
The idea about toggling the radios is also not possible im afraid. The SDK does not give developers any direct access to the hardware like that. Hell, we can't even adjust the volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That really blows. Just thinking about what various iPhone and Android apps can do easily, it seems this platform is much more closed than even iPhone's. The key to both Android and iPhones success has been as much the developer community as it has been the solid hardware the apps run on, maybe even more so the developers. The new WP7 hardware seems solid enough so far. If MS doesn't open up the SDK to a greater array of components, this will just continue to lag behind, even fall farther behind.
...Hoping someone can cook up some nice WP7 ROM's

ability to take any music file and assign it as a ringtone!

an independent youtube app that doesnt simply goto a web page. Also bein able to watch high def on 3g, and not only on a wifi connection.

TOA Duck said:
an independent youtube app that doesnt simply goto a web page. Also bein able to watch high def on 3g, and not only on a wifi connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's already one in the Marketplace for free. You have to have the YouTube app installed to use it, but it allows for searching, etc. from within the App.

prubin said:
ability to take any music file and assign it as a ringtone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is supposedly coming in January according to reports this morning. See: http://www.wpcentral.com/rumor-january-firmware-update-wp7-include-custom-ringer-support-more
(Sorry, forgot to multi-quote.)

not sure if you can make do this or not, but I would like to be able to connect to hidden networks. Also be able to use the device as a wifi router.

Could it be made downward compatible? It would be nice to be able to run some of my already-purchased software.
As an alternative, the single-largest bummer of making this switch for me will be loss of the two coolest apps I have EVER had – “Pocket Earth”, and “Pocket World” by Bluepoint Studios. These apps, especially Pocket Earth, were stunning! I don’t know their status, but if you could buy the rights and the code and somehow rewrite them for WP7, I suspect you would do very well.
I need programs which are NOT web-dependent. Dictionaries, translation programs, an atlas, etc. which are device-based. Traveling internationally is where one needs the language converters and I work a lot on the plane. I’d prefer to give up space in the device than to continually pay for international data.
Best of luck,
Dave

Battery indicator showing remaining strength in percentage or bars.

A recorder...
There are a few out there, but I need it to either have voice activated start/stop, or stop/start control from my bluetooth. I am a sports photographer, and if I can describe what is on a picture that I take right after I take it, it is much easier to do my captioning when I get home. But I don't have time to take the phone out of my pocket and start/stop after each play.

It seems a lot of the suggestions are things to do with hardware. The only hardware access the SDK gives developers is the GPS, Accelerometer, and the radio. We don't even have direct access to the camera. (When an app takes a picture, it opens the camera app then sends the taken picture back to the app).

riceboyler said:
There's already one in the Marketplace for free. You have to have the YouTube app installed to use it, but it allows for searching, etc. from within the App.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will we ever be able to watch high quality youtube vids over 3g. Now you have to be on wifi. I know on iphone the vids are HQ over 3g.

1) Something that bypasses Exchange-enforced password entry. Android has it; and frankly, PIN enforcement is a meaningless layer of security that does nothing more than inconvenience the end-user.
2) Something that let's you copy synced Calendar entries and Contacts to the Phone instead of forcing them to exist in the stupid cloud. <--I would pay good money for this. Again, something that Android let's you do that I like.
Edited to Add:
3) An app that keeps the phone on and unlocked. I don't like this forced lock/timeout thing, I'd prefer to have complete control of when it is locked and when it isn't.

1) A Remote Desktop Application compatable with MS's current RDP services
2) Something that periodically rotates the Logon Screen Picture
3) Something that would quickly display Battery Life, Used/Remaining Storage, etc...
- MEK

Google Music - Is it Useful?

Saw the announcement today and I got a couple of questions. What's the advantage of having cloud-based music other than being able to listen to music anywhere on any devices? If I were to stream music from the cloud, wouldn't it use up my data bandwidth and consume more battery power on my device? How's the quality of the stream? Is the audio quality going to be as good as the original music file?

As far as battery goes , that would be a yes ....
Yes it will use your data unless you have a constant wifi on the go
All other questions will have to wait and see .. I signed up for Beta .. Hope i get the invite

Chosen_on184 said:
As far as battery goes , that would be a yes ....
Yes it will use your data unless you have a constant wifi on the go
All other questions will have to wait and see .. I signed up for Beta .. Hope i get the invite
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lucky you. Google doesn't give any love to their Northern neighbours.

NexusDro said:
Lucky you. Google doesn't give any love to their Northern neighbours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in Toronto. I signed up for an invite using a US proxy. This is the same way I successfully signed up for Google Voice. Hopefully it works for Google Music.
I also installed the new Google Music app on my N1 (showthread.php?t=1072655), and it's pretty cool. It replaces the stock music player.

As a customer who has 500MB of data a month it's totally useless for me.
Even if I had a 5GB plan, why wouldn't I just throw it on my SD card?

ot86 said:
I also installed the new Google Music app on my N1 (showthread.php?t=1072655), and it's pretty cool. It replaces the stock music player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The new Google app looks nicer, but I don't really like it. There's no way to queue multiple albums without creating a named playlist and there is no notification bar in the horizontal layout. I don't want my music app to hide my notifications, I don't see the point of that.

It's much prettier, but they REALLY need to implement lockscreen controls. I find those to be a must-have for use in the car.

Well right now I use the Amazon cloud and it works pretty nicely. And at first I wouldn't think I would use it at all. But I do use it on my work comp and my phone via wifi only. But Amazon does have the option of downloading to your device and they actually recommend it because of the bandwidth issue.
I too asked for the invite. As n1 user that has the wave, voice and gmail, this would be a great addition to my google pack .

Matt1408 said:
As a customer who has 500MB of data a month it's totally useless for me.
Even if I had a 5GB plan, why wouldn't I just throw it on my SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. Better off just playing directly from my SD card. And FM radio is still useful too
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Actually just read the following on the Music Beta website:-
Not online? No problem. The songs you've recently played will automatically be available offline. You can also select the specific albums, artists and playlists you want to have available when you're not connected.
http://music.google.com/about/

I was in the middle of messing around with my updated Music app when my 2.3.4 N1 rebooted...Anyone else?

I have it
I have the service now and checked it on nexus one and my new tablet. I should say the app is nice and the music service work like charm. You can pin music on your device so you dont need to download them again, but on a new device, you will have all musics again. All playlist will be syncs on all of your devices.
The only feature I love to see now is to sync back musics from N1 and tablet. The only way you can upload now is PC, this is my understanding, I need to play with it more.

updated to new version 3.0 and took almost 10MB of my internal memory!! Using titanium backup to integrate the app's update into ROM fails and it gives a force close...
HHmmm...I don't think I will spare those 10MB's for that one...

No
+10char

has anyone heard on any limits or anything the cloud based music will be? its a nice feature but putting 90gb of music up on googles servers will takes quite a bit of time for me, along with if there is a cost involved, i think my current set up suits me better than relying on someone elses cloud. granted the [email protected] stuff they were demoing puts a much different spin on things with the tungsten devices
I currently use subsonic which sort of makes my home computer the cloud with my music. I can stream my music collection from any pc mac or linux through the web browser or over my n1 or an iphone if i had one. to answer the op's questions about could streaming yes its gonna use a bit of battery and yeah, data usage will go up.
one of the options in subsonic that is helpful to some with restricted data plans is preloading a set list that can be done on wifi and configuring a max cache size in MB, i dont think ive seen settings like this available in the google music stuff yet

I don't see a big sence in Google Music.
Most people have the few songs they listen to on their computer, why store it in a cloud?

I think one of the nice things is it allows us more space on our sdcards for other things. I am constantly moving tv shows and movies between my desktop and phone, and if I cleared up the 15GB of music I have stored on there, that means less moving around of other files.
But, with that being said, I couldn't use this here (and I am not sure I would use it in the states), as they give me a 1GB cap per month which I always get close to or go over (then they throttle your speeds to roughly dial-up speeds)... plus the drive from work to home goes through two different bermuda triangles as far as reception is concerned (and my village is basically devoid of a T-Mobile signal, although I guess Vodophone or O2 has a signal there...). I don't know how much of your collection it will queue. And I definitely wouldn't do it if the songs can't load fast enough in EDGE (never really tested it) as I almost always have 3G disabled to help with battery life.

Just got my invite yesterday...
There's a number of advantages, like always being able to access all your music (I have 100+ gb, so it would never fit on the phone), secure backup for your music (in case of hard drive failure), etc.
You're not forced into using it, so it's just another option. I've previously been using Audio Galaxy, but that requires my home pc to always be available. This is a bit more flexible...

danger-rat said:
Just got my invite yesterday...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still waiting for my invite. I am hoping that I can still use it in Germany (used a proxy for to request the invite... just like Google Voice, which the texting is awesome when overseas), but it may come while I am in the states for a month on leave. Either way, I am always willing to try out new things...
@Rat, how much storage did they give you? I think I remember reading it, but I don't remember... somewhere around 10GB for the free version?

Storage is unlimited and free "while in beta". I've no idea what the final number will be...?

I came across this kinda interesting ....

Hello people,
I've had my Galaxy Note 2 now for about a month, and initially I was euphoric. The size didn't bother me at all, in fact I used to love my ipad and kind of wished that was a phone and that I didn't have to carry my blackberry too! The Note is small enough to be fine in pockets etc..., but big enough to read the newspaper in pubs! I think it's the perfect size. Although I realised it would take a while getting used to a new operating system, I was convinced this was the best phone in the world for the first week...and laughed in the face of iphone users - but things have started to change.
First of all, I come from a blackberry. Having experienced an ipad, I was sick of the lack of apps on blackberry - my phone was text, phone, email....I wanted a truly smart phone in the same vein, and sensed Apple and Android was the way to go. Sat nav, internet, everything...and a big big screen please! Perfect. Having had an ipad, I knew the typing would be difficult (I was light speed on a blackberry) but I wanted apps, so it was a toss up between Galaxy and Apple, both of which were touch screens. So I bit the bullet on losing the blackberry keyboard. Let me tell you, after a month with the galaxy, my typing on the touch screen has not got any more accurate or fast...it is a living hell. I have tried all sorts of keyboard apps to make it easier, but it is just rubbish. Which takes me on to email.....apart from typing being a nightmare, THERE IS NO SPELL CHECK. Excuse capitals, but the keyboard try's to predict what you're trying to type but if your're typing at speed without looking, you want to get the red line saying "are you sure you have spelt words right"....well it doesn't exist! The lack of a spell check is a major major flaw....do you want to send a work email out having spelt separate wrong? Or definitely? No! So let me tell you, typing on the touch screen is a nightmare....and the lack of spell check is unforgivable.... I have downloaded an app called Airdroid, that basically allow me to type and SMS on my laptop keyboard through my phone (which also spell checks on my laptop). This app is abit of a life saver - get it if you get this phone.
* Addition to above....the file tranfer doesn't work using Android file tranfer and Kies is rubbish(lots of forum complaints) ...Airdroid is also the only app that allows you to transfer files with your phone!
Which brings me onto another point, maybe bigger than the first. If you're used to touch screen typing coming from Apple, then everything above means nothing to you. But you will appreciate having a swapable external SD Card on the Galaxy. This phone has a internal 16GB storage and I've added 64GB external storage too. Wow! This was one of the main reasons for choosing Samsung over Apple....but guess what? You cant use itunes of course....so I uploaded all my music to Google Play, the online cloud music service from Google - naturally I thought the Google service would work perfectly with Android. So imagine my shock when I could only download a few GB of music to my phone (offline content - the whole thing will stream on wifi)?! Obviously the music was saving to the internal memory, not external....no problem I thought, it's just a setting away to save to the external card right?! NO!.....I need a breather paragraph...
So...I did a google search. It seems that Google music player doesn't have an option to save to an external card?! Basically this renders the reason to have a big external card (lots of music) pretty useless. Phones these days are a replacement ipod! I promise I'm not lying...also the threads on external forum boards go on for miles and miles (months!)...Google isn't doing anything about it! There is a fix, but you have to have a degree in computing - the fix involved "rooting" the phone (this is like a jailbreak for iphone users)...and mapping or binding drives to the external card!)...I've fixed it but it took my all day.
Don't Google employees have these phones with Google music player on them?! It makes no sense.
Now this reminds me of a story of my old Dell. I bought a cheaper higher spec computer than a Mac, thinking it was better value...but I literally had to have a degree in computing , it was always going wrong. When I bought my Mac Air...everything "just worked". And here I am, "rooting" a my Galaxy Note....and spending a day messing around with the phone in order to just save my music to an external SD Card?! Google is the new Microsoft...
Yes, the phone is big, beautiful, and the specs are great, its cheap and you can out a great big Sd card in it....but if you value your sanity, pay a little bit more and stick with the tried and tested iphone for a touch screen, or get a decent keyboard phone. If Apple brought out this phone, at this size ...(an iphone Max if you will), then I think it would be the perfect phone. This is the right size and the way to go in my opinion. Unfortunately the Android world reminds me of Microsoft of old...all good on the outside, but a trip here and a crash there...and really, its a complete pain...
Great idea, but the operating system lets it down badly. No spell check, no save music in google music player to external sd card, difficult typing = not good enough. Google maps is brilliant by the way, and use it to navigate in car instead of tom tom now...you dont get that on Apple...
If Google brought out an update for the music player (save to external) and a spell check, I would be alot happier - 4 stars, but the forums have been waiting years for these updates....best of luck! Nothing can be done about the keyboard, and this is one of the bigger ones! If i could go back I would get the iphone 5, stick with Blackberry, or get a "vertical" keyboard Android phone (motorola maybe)...this is from the man who initially loved this phone...
Wish I could write a better review for this phone, there are many good qualities, but if Google can get these big things wrong...what's round the corner?

hulkyhulk said:
Hello people,
I've had my Galaxy Note 2 now for about a month, and initially I was euphoric. The size didn't bother me at all, in fact I used to love my ipad and kind of wished that was a phone and that I didn't have to carry my blackberry too! The Note is small enough to be fine in pockets etc..., but big enough to read the newspaper in pubs! I think it's the perfect size. Although I realised it would take a while getting used to a new operating system, I was convinced this was the best phone in the world for the first week...and laughed in the face of iphone users - but things have started to change.
First of all, I come from a blackberry. Having experienced an ipad, I was sick of the lack of apps on blackberry - my phone was text, phone, email....I wanted a truly smart phone in the same vein, and sensed Apple and Android was the way to go. Sat nav, internet, everything...and a big big screen please! Perfect. Having had an ipad, I knew the typing would be difficult (I was light speed on a blackberry) but I wanted apps, so it was a toss up between Galaxy and Apple, both of which were touch screens. So I bit the bullet on losing the blackberry keyboard. Let me tell you, after a month with the galaxy, my typing on the touch screen has not got any more accurate or fast...it is a living hell. I have tried all sorts of keyboard apps to make it easier, but it is just rubbish. Which takes me on to email.....apart from typing being a nightmare, THERE IS NO SPELL CHECK. Excuse capitals, but the keyboard try's to predict what you're trying to type but if your're typing at speed without looking, you want to get the red line saying "are you sure you have spelt words right"....well it doesn't exist! The lack of a spell check is a major major flaw....do you want to send a work email out having spelt separate wrong? Or definitely? No! So let me tell you, typing on the touch screen is a nightmare....and the lack of spell check is unforgivable.... I have downloaded an app called Airdroid, that basically allow me to type and SMS on my laptop keyboard through my phone (which also spell checks on my laptop). This app is abit of a life saver - get it if you get this phone.
* Addition to above....the file tranfer doesn't work using Android file tranfer and Kies is rubbish(lots of forum complaints) ...Airdroid is also the only app that allows you to transfer files with your phone!
Which brings me onto another point, maybe bigger than the first. If you're used to touch screen typing coming from Apple, then everything above means nothing to you. But you will appreciate having a swapable external SD Card on the Galaxy. This phone has a internal 16GB storage and I've added 64GB external storage too. Wow! This was one of the main reasons for choosing Samsung over Apple....but guess what? You cant use itunes of course....so I uploaded all my music to Google Play, the online cloud music service from Google - naturally I thought the Google service would work perfectly with Android. So imagine my shock when I could only download a few GB of music to my phone (offline content - the whole thing will stream on wifi)?! Obviously the music was saving to the internal memory, not external....no problem I thought, it's just a setting away to save to the external card right?! NO!.....I need a breather paragraph...
So...I did a google search. It seems that Google music player doesn't have an option to save to an external card?! Basically this renders the reason to have a big external card (lots of music) pretty useless. Phones these days are a replacement ipod! I promise I'm not lying...also the threads on external forum boards go on for miles and miles (months!)...Google isn't doing anything about it! There is a fix, but you have to have a degree in computing - the fix involved "rooting" the phone (this is like a jailbreak for iphone users)...and mapping or binding drives to the external card!)...I've fixed it but it took my all day.
Don't Google employees have these phones with Google music player on them?! It makes no sense.
Now this reminds me of a story of my old Dell. I bought a cheaper higher spec computer than a Mac, thinking it was better value...but I literally had to have a degree in computing , it was always going wrong. When I bought my Mac Air...everything "just worked". And here I am, "rooting" a my Galaxy Note....and spending a day messing around with the phone in order to just save my music to an external SD Card?! Google is the new Microsoft...
Yes, the phone is big, beautiful, and the specs are great, its cheap and you can out a great big Sd card in it....but if you value your sanity, pay a little bit more and stick with the tried and tested iphone for a touch screen, or get a decent keyboard phone. If Apple brought out this phone, at this size ...(an iphone Max if you will), then I think it would be the perfect phone. This is the right size and the way to go in my opinion. Unfortunately the Android world reminds me of Microsoft of old...all good on the outside, but a trip here and a crash there...and really, its a complete pain...
Great idea, but the operating system lets it down badly. No spell check, no save music in google music player to external sd card, difficult typing = not good enough. Google maps is brilliant by the way, and use it to navigate in car instead of tom tom now...you dont get that on Apple...
If Google brought out an update for the music player (save to external) and a spell check, I would be alot happier - 4 stars, but the forums have been waiting years for these updates....best of luck! Nothing can be done about the keyboard, and this is one of the bigger ones! If i could go back I would get the iphone 5, stick with Blackberry, or get a "vertical" keyboard Android phone (motorola maybe)...this is from the man who initially loved this phone...
Wish I could write a better review for this phone, there are many good qualities, but if Google can get these big things wrong...what's round the corner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Itunes Agent for syncing music to your phone (you might have to take the SD card out and put it in a reader before connecting it to your pc as I think iTunes Agent will only 'see' a mass storage device). Es File Explorer can transfer files via WiFi. There are other options out there.
However, I agree, it's an awful device, but as I'm such a decent guy, I'll buy it off you for £200 if you like

Why couldn't you use the File Transfer? I use Android File Transfer just fine. What about Bluetooth?
And if you don't like the keyboard not having spell check, well this is Android, you can just install a keyboard that has it.

Dude cmon.... If you hook your phone up to the computer you can copy files to the sd card. I copied my itunes folder and google play magically added all of my mp3s.

Try Swiftkey.
Try iSyncr.

Android= smart phone= smart users
IPhone= dumb phone= dumb people
And the reviewe above is my proof.
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You're not going to get alot of sympathy from people here about the spell checker. Almost everyone on this forum came from a previous android device so naturally everyone is all used to touchscreen. And they're all pretty much pro at typing and using an appropriate keyboard for it. The keyboard will autocorrect everything so spell checker isn't even an issue, but rather grammar checker would be more needed here. But in the end, you will have to get used to this. Nothing will ever be a proper substitute to a hardware keyboard. Your blackberry was made to be a super productivity workhorse.
Also, keep in mind, the way you are wanting to use Google Music isn't the way Google actually intends you to use it. Google Music is meant to hold all of your music in the cloud so you will primarily stream it. You pin your most played songs on your phone. Not every single song.
It seems you may have issues with MTP? You mentioned you have a Macbook Air? I can't really comment on this, but the user above seems to be able to use the android file transfer app for macos just fine.
You're not going to win anyone over with your opinions about the note 2 and iphone 5. Nobody here is going to switch over. For god sakes man, this is a developer forum you're in, not a general mobile device buyer's forum.

Wtf?
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Request to pls close this thread nothing beats SwiftKey period.
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What an unnecessarily stupid long post. Don't like the keyboard? Download SwiftKey or another of the tens of dozens keyboards in the market.
The fact that you think the keyboard is Google's fault, when it's in fact a Samsung keyboard, is kinda hilarious. You don't even know what you're saying.
Plug your phone into your computer and drag and drop your stupid music to the sd card. Problem solved. No need to use if you don't like it Google music.
Please, go back to iphone. It was engineered specifically for idiotic people.

hulkyhulk said:
Hello people,
I've had my Galaxy Note 2 now for about a month, and initially I was euphoric. The size didn't bother me at all, in fact I used to love my ipad and kind of wished that was a phone and that I didn't have to carry my blackberry too! The Note is small enough to be fine in pockets etc..., but big enough to read the newspaper in pubs! I think it's the perfect size. Although I realised it would take a while getting used to a new operating system, I was convinced this was the best phone in the world for the first week...and laughed in the face of iphone users - but things have started to change.
First of all, I come from a blackberry. Having experienced an ipad, I was sick of the lack of apps on blackberry - my phone was text, phone, email....I wanted a truly smart phone in the same vein, and sensed Apple and Android was the way to go. Sat nav, internet, everything...and a big big screen please! Perfect. Having had an ipad, I knew the typing would be difficult (I was light speed on a blackberry) but I wanted apps, so it was a toss up between Galaxy and Apple, both of which were touch screens. So I bit the bullet on losing the blackberry keyboard. Let me tell you, after a month with the galaxy, my typing on the touch screen has not got any more accurate or fast...it is a living hell. I have tried all sorts of keyboard apps to make it easier, but it is just rubbish. Which takes me on to email.....apart from typing being a nightmare, THERE IS NO SPELL CHECK. Excuse capitals, but the keyboard try's to predict what you're trying to type but if your're typing at speed without looking, you want to get the red line saying "are you sure you have spelt words right"....well it doesn't exist! The lack of a spell check is a major major flaw....do you want to send a work email out having spelt separate wrong? Or definitely? No! So let me tell you, typing on the touch screen is a nightmare....and the lack of spell check is unforgivable.... I have downloaded an app called Airdroid, that basically allow me to type and SMS on my laptop keyboard through my phone (which also spell checks on my laptop). This app is abit of a life saver - get it if you get this phone.
* Addition to above....the file tranfer doesn't work using Android file tranfer and Kies is rubbish(lots of forum complaints) ...Airdroid is also the only app that allows you to transfer files with your phone!
Which brings me onto another point, maybe bigger than the first. If you're used to touch screen typing coming from Apple, then everything above means nothing to you. But you will appreciate having a swapable external SD Card on the Galaxy. This phone has a internal 16GB storage and I've added 64GB external storage too. Wow! This was one of the main reasons for choosing Samsung over Apple....but guess what? You cant use itunes of course....so I uploaded all my music to Google Play, the online cloud music service from Google - naturally I thought the Google service would work perfectly with Android. So imagine my shock when I could only download a few GB of music to my phone (offline content - the whole thing will stream on wifi)?! Obviously the music was saving to the internal memory, not external....no problem I thought, it's just a setting away to save to the external card right?! NO!.....I need a breather paragraph...
So...I did a google search. It seems that Google music player doesn't have an option to save to an external card?! Basically this renders the reason to have a big external card (lots of music) pretty useless. Phones these days are a replacement ipod! I promise I'm not lying...also the threads on external forum boards go on for miles and miles (months!)...Google isn't doing anything about it! There is a fix, but you have to have a degree in computing - the fix involved "rooting" the phone (this is like a jailbreak for iphone users)...and mapping or binding drives to the external card!)...I've fixed it but it took my all day.
Don't Google employees have these phones with Google music player on them?! It makes no sense.
Now this reminds me of a story of my old Dell. I bought a cheaper higher spec computer than a Mac, thinking it was better value...but I literally had to have a degree in computing , it was always going wrong. When I bought my Mac Air...everything "just worked". And here I am, "rooting" a my Galaxy Note....and spending a day messing around with the phone in order to just save my music to an external SD Card?! Google is the new Microsoft...
Yes, the phone is big, beautiful, and the specs are great, its cheap and you can out a great big Sd card in it....but if you value your sanity, pay a little bit more and stick with the tried and tested iphone for a touch screen, or get a decent keyboard phone. If Apple brought out this phone, at this size ...(an iphone Max if you will), then I think it would be the perfect phone. This is the right size and the way to go in my opinion. Unfortunately the Android world reminds me of Microsoft of old...all good on the outside, but a trip here and a crash there...and really, its a complete pain...
Great idea, but the operating system lets it down badly. No spell check, no save music in google music player to external sd card, difficult typing = not good enough. Google maps is brilliant by the way, and use it to navigate in car instead of tom tom now...you dont get that on Apple...
If Google brought out an update for the music player (save to external) and a spell check, I would be alot happier - 4 stars, but the forums have been waiting years for these updates....best of luck! Nothing can be done about the keyboard, and this is one of the bigger ones! If i could go back I would get the iphone 5, stick with Blackberry, or get a "vertical" keyboard Android phone (motorola maybe)...this is from the man who initially loved this phone...
Wish I could write a better review for this phone, there are many good qualities, but if Google can get these big things wrong...what's round the corner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lets begin with typing : on android the spell check is performed by the keyboard and not the software (gmail, whatever..), so if you want a keyboard with spell check, get a keyboard you like that does it, there are a lot on the market, like some people have recommended, swiftkey is pretty good.
file transfer doesn't work? what? have you even tried connecting your phone to your computer? it just opens the root of your phone, add whatever the heck you want in there.
same goes for music, though i don't get why you would want to have all of your music both on your phone and on the cloud at the same time, just save it on your phone manually if you really feel like it, its very easy to do and you do not need any stinking software like itunes to tell you how to do it.
don't expect your phone to do everything for you, but also remember that this is an android phone, and if you don't like something, you can change it.

Go easy on him people. It's his first android experience.
But I really didn't understand why you upload all of your song to Google Music and then try to download it to your sd card instead of just copying all of them directly to your sd card in the first place. You just plug in your phone to your pc and copy them like you're copying to a flash drive. It can't be more simple. You don't need to install icrap and all. It's just like a flashdrive.
And there are dozens of keyboard on play store. If you google it for 5 second, you can find at least a dozen. Install one of them if you didn't like the samsung keyboard. That's why we're here. That's why we like Android. If you don't like it, you can change it and try different things.

A lot of people are missing that he mentioned that he's using a macbook air. MTP isn't really compatible with MacOS, so google made an app called android file transfer for it. Apparently it's not working for him.

No spellcheck? Are you serious? Or had technology really created dummies out of us? If I am writing a work email, I'd spellchecked it myself. I'd proofread it at least twice over to ensure it's prim and proper. What's the difficulty?
And if you cannot type properly, download SwiftKey, or swype, or some other keyboards. At least there's a CHOICE.

iahk said:
A lot of people are missing that he mentioned that he's using a macbook air. MTP isn't really compatible with MacOS, so google made an app called android file transfer for it. Apparently it's not working for him.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still, with Android, there's rarely just one way to do something. There's gotta be a dozen wireless ways he could've got his music straight to the phone without this ridiculous method he was using.

This is a strange post. I have owned a tons of Android phones. This one has been the best. Not sure about the music issue my phone is playing my mp3s off my sd card....????
Iphone user regret it sounds..
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