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Hi,
I would like to post my feelings about my first experience with an android phone.
I bought the Samsung Galaxy S 4 days ago and I spent a decent time to play with it.
My background : I had the HTC P3600 and then HTC Diamond, HTC HD Mini and Iphone 3GS
As you can see I am a fan of HTC and I switched to iphone just because my company gave it to me.
I used to flash my winphone often in order to get the last update and some customisation.
My iphone had the same treatment
Now regarding the Samsung I must confess I bought this one and not the HTC desire because it was not available on Optus. That's the main reason
And I must confess that for the moment I am higghly disapointed by Samsung and/or android but maybe you could help me to change that
Of course the screen is awesome and the possibility to put easily a divx file and watch is really nice ( I never watched anything with my iphone I prefered to use my archos5)
But the following issues are for me quite annyoing and also I must confess surprising to me :
* the amount of lag. It is not smooth at all for instance when you scroll the app page ( not as smooth as the iphone). I have plenty of delay when I open a mail, when I open facebook, when I open the market, when I use the "go back" button ...
Fortunately this is a 1Ghz cpu !! What would be the result with a slower one ???
* The mail app is not working at all and that's the main issue for me !!! I never had any issue with my mail on windows mobile or iphone. My company is using exchange 2003 and I can't get my mail most of the time. Sometime it works and in this case you can be sure that switching from wifi to 3g or the opposite is going to screw the sync. So I have to reboot, swithc off the wifi ... or even to remove my account and recreate it.
I tested touchdown application so I am sure that the problem comes from the default mail app ( is it samsung or android ?? I don't know)
For the moment I have not been able to get my appointment on the calendar ( I get the one from facebook or gmail but not from exchange)
* Samsung kies ... works only on some desktop / OS ?? I can make it work on my home PC ( vista 64 ) but not at my office ( vista 32) because of a MTP failed error. Looks like it is a godd replacement for itunes .... same crap .. .even worst maybe
*the battery is a joke. I am not using GPS, bluetooth, push, smart backlight ( it is at the minimum) and I try to switch on the wifi as often as possible and it doesn't last a business day ( meaning 8-10 hours).
With the iphonhe or the HTC HD Mini I never had this kind of issue.
Ok I took the phone with one of the biggest screen ... but it is also one of the biggest so the battery could be well sized don't you think ??
The worst thing is when I switch off everything except 3G during the night ... I used to do that with my iphone and lose only 5-10% of battery overnight. With the samsung it is more around 30-40% !! So if I forget one day my plug ... I can forget about using my phone
* minor issues : facebook is crap compared to iphone ( i tested both the samsung app and the android one)
The lack of app is quite annoying. I didn't find anything similar for the moment to FSteam or Sydney Tripview which were 2 of the most used app for me ( tripview is the one I used everyday)
Now I want to keep on trying and thinking that Android could be good.
I have started to download some app like touchdown to back up the flaw of the samsung OS but seriously ... paying 20$ just to get my mail is something I don't get. Funny thing ... I wouldn't mind to pay 20$ for touchdown is the default mail app was working fine just because it add a lot of nice feature. But in this case i would first pay just to be able to see my mail ...
Anyway ... I will keep on digging and trying to fine tune the phone.
I have already flashed twice the phone ( JG1 and JFF) which fix some issues ( but not all the lag ...)
I have already charged my phone completely 4 or 5 times ( in 4 days ...) so the battery should be at its maximum now ... I will see if it's better
Am I the only one who feel that way ?
I really want to conclude at the end that android is better than the iphone but for the moment I must confess I can't and it makes me sad
cheers
Nicolas
I've had my sgs for only about a week but I think i can comment on some of these points.
I thought the lag issue with touchwiz was fixed by the latest firmware? For now just changing to launcher pro and using an auto-kill feature with a taskmanager will fix the issue. It is pathetic imo and the phone shouldn't have been released this way.
Yes kies is a bit unstable and just connecting to a new pc in any way can be a pain sometimes, hopefully samsung will fix this.
My phone says it's been unplugged for 9:28hrs and I'm at 90% battery. It was idling with wifi on. That's pretty good, I use a static wallpaper and use a taskmanager with autokill feature since I was ending up with waaay to many open apps. People keep saying android manages that automatically but my phone gets laggy and low on memory.
The samsung facebook app is crap but what's wrong with the one from the market?
It could be a great phone but right now it's definitely still an unfinished product, but I believe it can and will be fixed in the coming weeks or months.
Well, I am kind of like you: I had an HTC Trinity and an iPhone 3G and 3Gs.
I liked the iPhone, but wanted Flash and got fed up with Steve Jobs' arrogance.
So I paid almost $800 for the 16gb Galaxy S.
Android has come a long way, but 2.1 is definitely not as elegant or as smooth as iOS.
The devil (and Jobs) is in the detail, and the Apple product is almost perfect, and very user friendly. My wife took one look at my Android screen and declared it ugly. And, sadly, the design of the icons, the visual continuity between screens, and the smooth operation of iOS, are just not in Android. Yet, hopefully.
Similarly with of the apps in the Market. Many are poorly designed, compared to the majority of what's in the App Store.
Having said that, I am actually enjoying my Galaxy S. It has a really gorgeous screen. It has much better integration with both Google Voice, and with Phone.com (which I use)
For email, I installed the open source k-9 email client, which, while lacking some visual finesse, is more functional than the regular email client. Get it from here: http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/Email/K9-Android-71552.shtml (it's newer version than in the Market).
I expect Android 3.0 to be on par, and hopefully better, than iOS.
For the battery I will do a precise test tonight and see what happens after one night idle but your experience ( 90% after 9hours) would be good to me !!
Finger crossed
I will try app like autokiller but I think I have to root my phone ?? As I said I am a newbie for android andI don;t know yet how to do ( it looks like it can be done through odin)
For K-9 I already had a look at it but I think it's only ofr IMAP and POP3 and not for microsoft exchange ??
The default mail app is actually working fine for my hotmail account. I only have problem with the exchange account
This afternoon again I amanged to received 2-3 and when I go the notification I went directly to the app to sync .... " impossible to connect to the server "
EDIT : an other drawback compared to all my other phone : how to correct a typo on a text without a trackball or arrows in the keyboard ?? Answer : by touching the screen 10 times until you reach the correct position ... Nicely done
I was the first one to say that the iphone was crap , that it couldn't handle flash or mms ... but android can't even get my mail !!!
Regarding Touchdown I thought it was the perfect app and I just got an example where the iphone works better. When you forward an HTML mail with an array it is either as an attachment ( crap !!) or you can edit in line and have it in ther mail but you lose the format of the array ... I can tell you that my boss ( a real apple fanboy) was very glad to show me this
For Facebook ... I must confess I spent more time this afternoon on the default one and it's OK. The issue with the Samsung one is that it is continously loading data. When you switch from Home to profille and back to home for instance.
I really think too that this phone could be really good but it is clearly for the geek only. If you take it out of the box it is a real crap.
nicoloco said:
I will try app like autokiller but I think I have to root my phone ??...........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to root, just use Task Manager from the market it has an autokill feature.
task manager installed ... there are heaps of task manager
I took the one released by apollo software and I might test also the one released by rhythm software ...
I'm not going to troll, so please dont feel bad about my opinion, but for me it looks like you just didnt read enough before you bought your phone, to get to know your upcoming gadget, everyone have to put a lot more effort in gathering intel.
I'd say the prevention of this problem is quite simple: think before you spend your money, so you can spare a lot of tears and painful hours for yourself. I switched from iPhone 3G to Galaxy S and I am definitely happy with it. Lags gone with the update, all the functions I use are good to me - only thing I had to do is rooting cuz hungary doesnt have the full Android Market either, like Finland.
I see what you mean but I have read a lot of reviews before I bought it and honestly when you look at the phones I had there were always bad comments on the reviews but I used to be able to workaround it. Maybe I will be also able to do the same here
Now as I said my main issues are the problem with exchange, the connection from my work desktop to kies or WM11
I am not sure I could have read somewhere that kies would work for my home desktop but not my work desktop ?
Or that the default mail app would not work with exchange and that I would have to pay 20$ just to get mails. And espcially the fact that the connection would be random.
The battery when you read the review is the same for all the smartphone, something like : not great battery but can last 1 day. It was the same for the iphone or all my other phone. But in my case it far from lasting one day even with everything switched off
For the lag, I knew that the out of the box Rom was not working fine but I expected better from the last Rom. It's better but not as good as an other phone with slower cpu
The only thing that I didn't know when I bought the samsung and that I could have known is the lack of trackball to correct a typo. I found this information only yesterday in a review.
but one more time I see what you means ... and I must confess I have been quite motivated by my frustration of apple ( and itune) and my colleague who has a desire working fine
I use the default mail app for exchange and imap. Works wonderfully for me. I get my contacts / calendar / mail from exchange and a few more email acc on imap servers.
To move the cursor you can press and hold the 123 button in the normal keyboard to get arrows to move the cursor (not found a way to do that with the swype keyboard)
For swype... Just swipe between the swype key and the symbol key for arrows, home/end, select/copy/paste etc. works well and is pretty quick.
Do you have the correct admin privileges at work?
Crabby
To the OP, It's ok to be critical, fanboys do nothing but make companies lazy, just look at Apple for example. I say ***** until it's as good as it could possibly be. In the end it's good for everyone
And thanks for the 'Hold the 123 button' trick! One more annoyance solved.
nicoloco said:
task manager installed ... there are heaps of task manager
I took the one released by apollo software and I might test also the one released by rhythm software ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one from rhythm software looks nicer and is easier to use imo.
About the lags- Flashing to a new firmware reduces the problem, and there's already a solution my MoDaCo.
I just hope samsung implements it in the next firmware.
Either way, the lag problem is not here to stay, we're going to get rid of it soon.
About the battery-
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=716197
After doing some charges/discharges and starting regular use with it, i have to say the battery life is better than any smartphone i had.
About the battery drainage, make sure you go to "About Phone" in the settings menu and check the "Battery use". It will show you what has been using the most battery, and time since you unplugged the phone. My phone drains about 2% overnight in about 8 hours, and when I'm using it it's only really the display and the cell tower that's drawing power, applications shouldn't be consuming huge amounts of power, say above 8-10% unless you really use it a lot. The other day I noticed my phone had drained more battery than usual for some reason and it showed browser at 25% although I hadn't used it much. Make sure you don't have hung applications draining power! The Task Killer should help a lot here
Honestly. As a T-mobile G1 owner, a long time Android user, an Apple hater and someone who is considering purchasing the T-Mobile USA version of this phone soon, I have to admit that I can see where nicoloco is coming from. You expect some things to just work. Although I can understand the need to root my old G1 and use hacks and task managers to enhance its performance, it seem ridiculous that someone need to hack and use task managers to make a state of the art phone with a 1GH processor and 512MB of system memory work without a lag. This means that something is truly wrong! The fact that you need to keep killing processes to make sure you won't drain your battery is a huge problem of Android. You know what, perhaps Apple knows what it's doing with it's solution to multitasking.
I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.
You DO understand it's a 2.5 week old phone and still has some "childhood problems", right?
Even the Nexus one was a bit of a troublemaker at the start, untill google took care of the various problems that popped up.
Give it a month or so, i bet you'll see those slips disappearing one by one.
nicoloco said:
Hi,
* The mail app is not working at all and that's the main issue for me !!! I never had any issue with my mail on windows mobile or iphone. My company is using exchange 2003 and I can't get my mail most of the time. Sometime it works and in this case you can be sure that switching from wifi to 3g or the opposite is going to screw the sync. So I have to reboot, swithc off the wifi ... or even to remove my account and recreate it.
I tested touchdown application so I am sure that the problem comes from the default mail app ( is it samsung or android ?? I don't know)
For the moment I have not been able to get my appointment on the calendar ( I get the one from facebook or gmail but not from exchange)
cheers
Nicolas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why sync is working in the Windows Mobile phones but not in the Android phones?
The reason might be licensing. The Exchange mail protocol is propietary by Microsoft. If you like to sync, you have to pay for it. WinMo and iPhone in these days are used by corporate users, those phones include the Exchange license.
There are fewer Android users which need Exchange sync, why to pay, if you don't use? If you need it, you buy the software for syncing.
WOW, I have the Nexus One and my phone is blazing fast, I'm kinda worried about getting the Samsung Vibrant now.
The Facebook app is not the same as the stock Nexus One ? I know most of the Countries outside the US do not have most of the apps the US does and I'm thinking maybe that's why you can't get a good facebook app.
Sorry but pretty UI's and cute transition screens are for girls lol I'll take function any day .
How many time have you charged the phone so far ? your not going to get full performance untill after 4 or so charges.
You also have to remember THIS IS NOT APPLE, Android is an open source platform, any Tom **** or Harry can publish an app, 1 badly written app can kill you battery in 3 hours, you have to make sure you only download highly rated apps and also read the comments, some apps work on some phones better than others.
Thy to press the back button instead of the home button, the back button is more likely to close an app and the home button is more likely to keep the app open.
Turn off "sync data in background" this sync's data like weather, Market place, GPS and things like that, if your not using it turn it off.
Download a 2G/3G switch turn off 3G if your not on the net or downloading something, that's the 2nd biggest battery drainer, especially if you have a weak 3G signal.
Doing all this should gain you at least 8 hours more
Not doing this on my Nexus One running 2.2 I get 10 hours.
Doing this I get 20-28 hours.
For swype... Just swipe between the swype key and the symbol key for arrows, home/end, select/copy/paste etc. works well and is pretty quick.
Do you have the correct admin privileges at work?
Crabby
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure to understand ? What is the symobl key for arrows ?
On my side I have read more carefully the tutorial for the swype and have found some good tip I didn't know ( like double tap on a word to change it). It's definitely a very fast way to write a text or even a long mail.
Yes I have all the privilege at work. I can install whatever I wnat ( even wow ) and do almost anything.
For the classic keyboard .. .thamks for the tip of 123 !!! it's actually the same that what I had on my HTC HD Mini and works well
I use the default mail app for exchange and imap. Works wonderfully for me. I get my contacts / calendar / mail from exchange and a few more email acc on imap servers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lucky you !! Maybe not the same exchange server model ( 2003 ? 2007 ?)
Yesterday I got some mail coming again from the exchange server. I think it's when I was connected to the plug before I select the kind of usb connection I wanted !!
Anyway I have 30 days ( touchdown trial) to find a way to make it work fine
The one from rhythm software looks nicer and is easier to use imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try this one as I didn't like the one from apollo. I wonder why it shows me so many open app like video player, feeds and updates, navigation .... I never open them since the last reboot. Is there some automatic start for such app ??
WinMo and iPhone in these days are used by corporate users
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear Elisa ... I guess this is a troll ?? I remember not so long time ago where everybody said that winmo and blackberry are for corporate and iphone for girls and fanboy. Iphone is clearly not designed at the beginning for the corporate user. Especially for the first version of iphone. And yet the synchronisation always worked fine for me
In my company we are 1000 and I can tell you that only the syndey office ( 10 people) got the iphone as we are quite isolated and we can do what things differently. The rest are using only BB or Windows mobile.
Anyway, some people manage to get the sync working with android without paying so your point is not very solid.
As as I said, touchdown is so much nicer than the default app that I wouldn't care to buy it. But right now I am just asking for the basic feature ... just get my mail.
By the way, I didn;t find a way to ask the default app to sync the inbox and some other subfolder ?? Something that I used to do with the winphone, the iphone and can be done with touchdown. Do you know if this is possible ?
One last thing ... how the developper who did this app could have done such a crappy way to handle the inbox tree ??? It transfomed my tree of folder in a flat list ordered alphabetically. How dumb it is !!! So the subfolder of one folder ar e not next to each other ... I will have to change the naming ( put 1,2,3 at the beginning of the folder I guess)
Now for the battery ...
As I said I already did 4/5 full recharge of the battery ( it's kind of quick with a phone which last only few hours )
This morning I have a full battery, no wifi, no push, minimum backlight, no crappy app ....
My phone is unplugged for 2h20 now and it has 80% of battery with 55% coming from the screen (screen switched on 39mn)
Is it the kind of consumption that you have ??
Then 12% from the cell phone and 11%(2h20) from the music (14mn)
I guess I can save some battergy by switching off the 3G
I will see in few battery cycle how it evolves
To conclude on my feeling, if I could have the mail working perfectly , the connection to my computer wokring and the battery lasting a little bit longer I would be already quite happy with my phone.
nicoloco said:
Dear Elisa ... I guess this is a troll ?? I remember not so long time ago where everybody said that winmo and blackberry are for corporate and iphone for girls and fanboy. Iphone is clearly not designed at the beginning for the corporate user. Especially for the first version of iphone. And yet the synchronisation always worked fine for me
In my company we are 1000 and I can tell you that only the syndey office ( 10 people) got the iphone as we are quite isolated and we can do what things differently. The rest are using only BB or Windows mobile.
Anyway, some people manage to get the sync working with android without paying so your point is not very solid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The situation varies through the Globe. Here in Finland where the Nokia has been the biggest in many companies, but in these days many companies uses iPhone (it is easy). We have almost 50 000 employees worldwide and the iPhone is now permitted in our Exchange server,too. WinMo has been allowed in years, but it is... Because of the Android 2.1 and earlier doesn't complete all the security issues in the Exchange, so it is rejected and no one can connect Android's to our Exchange server. This is the real life in the bigger companies.
The Froyo will upgrade this:
- Improved security with the addition of numeric pin or alpha-numeric password options to unlock device. Exchange administrators can enforce password policy across devices.
- Remote wipe: Exchange administrators can remotely reset the device to factory defaults to secure data in case device is lost or stolen.
- Exchange Calendars are now supported in the Calendar application.
- Auto-discovery: you just need to know your user-name and password to easily set up and sync an Exchange account (available for Exchange 2007 and higher).
- Global Address Lists look-up is now available in the Email application, enabling users to auto-complete recipient names from the directory.
Hi everyone. I just purchased my Droid X last week, and I'm having some migrating pains coming from Windows Mobile 6.5 (HTC Touch Pro 2, Mighty ROM) over to Android. I'm wondering if the fine folks here at XDA can help me ease into the Android OS a little easier.
Here are the things I miss most about WinMo, maybe you can tell me some viable alternatives.
1) The Dialer. - Skip the next 3 paragraphs if you're familiar with HTC Sense on WinMo.
The dialer absolutely sucks compared to the TP2. Having to click different tabs juts annoys me. In the TP2, the dialer and recent calls were displayed in a single window, so if I wanted to dial Steve, I had 2 ways of doing it.
The first way was to dial 7(S), 8(T). The phone would recognize I am spelling out Steve, and list everyone who fits the ST criteria sorted by most recently called. The more I spelled out his name, the narrower the results got.
The second method was to dial his number. Pretend Steve's number is (123) 456-7890. If I dialed 123, it would sort all contacts with numbers who matched the area code, and it would narrow the results as I typed more of his phone number.
I really hate having to tap between Contacts (there is a contacts soft button next to the dialer anyway), I would just click that if I wanted to from the beginning.
Are there any dialers out there closer to the HTC Dialer?
2) Contacts.
There has to be a better contact manager. Not being able to quickly tap a letter to get to contacts is really dumb.
3) Ninja Applications.
Why do I keep seeing applications running that I never started when I load Advance Task Killer. It's really annoying when I load up an App, and go to close it, and see Skype and CityID running when I never launched either of them. I'm almost afraid to set up AIM on my phone at this point.
4) GPS.
If I keep my GPS on, my battery gets killed. With my TP2, it would only use the GPS when it needed it, so for weather updates, and Google Maps, otherwise it stayed off (or was in a suspend state). I turned the GPS on my first day and had 0 battery by around 2 (left the house at 8). Is there any way to set the GPS to only be used, as needed?
5) APPLICATIONS EVERYWHERE.
Is there anyway to sort these into folders? Also, is there anyway to add an X to the application so I can close it when I'm done with it rather than having to launch an App just to close the App I just used?
I really liked the Sense way of doing it, where I had an X in the Application, and a drop down on the home screen that would list the open Apps so I could close them 1 at a time.
6) MotoBlur.
Ugh, I really hate this UI. Has anyone had any experience with SenseX?
7) Custom Roms.
I've seen a handful of Custom ROMs, and I'm planning on putting one on when I have some time next week. I need a good way to backup contacts, after I just spent an hour linking everyone, but I'd like to know if there is a decent Apples to Apples comparison of the ROMs. They don't seem to be outlines as detailed as I'm used to.
On this topic, are there any problems setting up things like MMS once you install a Custom ROM? It was a nightmare on the TP2, but those ROMs were also made for multiple carriers, which isn't a problem with this phone, so I imagine it shouldn't be an issue.
----------------------------------
Thank you for taking the time to read this wall of text.
Other than the 7 things listed, I love the phone. Finding MortPlayer for Droid made my day. I'm looking forward to unlocking it's true potential, and I hope my list isn't a bunch of things I'm just going to have to adjust to.
Thank you again, have a great day.
EDIT:
Also, it's really annoying that every time I connect my phone to my PC, it launches a Verizon web site. Is there anyway to disable this?
Ok... I will take a stab at this.
FIRST, You DO NOT have to settle for the apps that come preinstalled on your phone! Just had to clear that up... Ok, here we go:
Check an app called "Dialer One" and see if that fits your needs... I haven't used it in a while... but heard it still a great replacement for the stock dialer.
Searching for a better Contact Manager is on my To-Do list.. hope someone comes in and help out a little more with that one
Don't worry about the "ninja" apps TOO much. Android Froyo has an amazing task manager and even though you SEE the apps as "running applications", they are not really RUNNING. They are more like... in a queue.. so they are ready for whenever you come back to them....but you still have to watch what the apps are doing. Some do not play nicely and hog memory. I'll link a good post here in a minute explaining that a little better.
There is a widget that can help you out here.. it's called "Power Control" put that bad boy on your homescreen and the option to turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, gps, etc is at your fingertips (for even more controls... check out "Extended Controls" in the market. It cost like $1 and some change)
I'm... not really following this one. For one.. you CAN use folders on your homescreen and put whatever your heart desires in them.. and label it accordingly. I'm not sure what you mean by the "X" in the app
SenseX?? What is that?? Anyway.. as you will find out soon, 99% of the Droid X community despise MotoBlur!! You can use a different Home Launcher and not use Blur. Two of the major Home Launcher replacements are Adw.launcher & LauncherPro... which one is better is a whole different story. They are both great and only YOU can choose which one is best. There many threads comparing them and they run neck to neck mostly. I'm on LauncherPro personally
Custom Roms?? Eh.. I personally do my own developments and theming on my phone and do not use them... there not really all what they cracked up to be because whatever they have on them... I can do myself. So I'm not much of an help on that one... Somebody else maybe will chime in.
P.S-To fix the Verizon thing, go to the "M" in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen by the clock on your PC and right click it.. there should be an option saying to tell it to NOT send you to the Verizon site when you connect your phone. I don't know the EXACT wording of the option menu.. I'm on a mac
Thank you for your reply.
I will check out the Dialer. Thank you very much.
Darn!
A friend of mine told me that, but it's hard for me to not be a bit OCD about background Applications. I've been a Windows user most of my life, and coming from WinMo, background apps really kill performance.
More than anything, my issue is with things like Skype loading when I do not want to be signed in. I want auto-login when I launch the Application, but I don't want the application loading when it feels like it, and me getting a random IM or call from someone when I didn't even tell it to log in.
It also bothers me that Amazon MP3, something I've never even loaded, has turned itself on. It makes me feel like I don't have control over my phone.
I do have a widget that lets me turn these things on and off, I was just hoping for a way to set it up so that the GPS is "pinged" and only used as needed, and turned back off. My TP2 did this, and was a great battery saver. Having to turn the GPS on and off just to get a weather update based on location is a bit annoying.
I didn't mean on the home-screen, I meant in the application list. So when I hit the application list, I can sort them by "Games", "Google", etc.
For the "X", what I mean is in reference to closing an App. In WinMo, the top right of the screen had an X, and if I touched that X, the app would close. Now, once I exit the App, I need to use an application killer to close said App.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764840
Looks like Sense for the Droid X. In Beta now, so I'm waiting for a stable release.
Really, it's just to get rid of bloatware and take advantage of some performance optimizations that have been made.
A couple of other things that have come up.
I need a better keyboard. One with arrows so I can navigate text. Touching isn't precise enough, and I don't have a stylus with this phone. Today I voiced a text message, and I went to correct an error, but I couldn't get the curse to go in the exact spot I needed it to go into. My old OSK had arrow soft-keys I could tap to navigate with.
Also, I notice when I pull my phone out of the leather pouch I have, when I hit the power button it comes up in landscape, and the accelerometer doesn't pick up on the turn. I need to turn the screen off and turn it back on.
Finally, I'm having extender issues, but I think I need to call VZW for that. When leaving my house, I can't reconnect to Data without a power-cycle.
Thank you for the reply.
my .02
3. Break yourself from the taskiller need. If you have programs allways running that you dont need, ie skype or city id. Root and delete those SOB's. you can look around and there are plenty of articles of why not to use them. Android is a linux based os. Linux is far supirior to Win in memeory management. You dont need task killers.
4. if your gps is turned on its not always running. It only runs when needed. Is by chance your wifi on? that will run all the time by searching for access points. if not you might have maps running, make sure to always back out of maps and not just hit home. That way it closes and doesnt just run in background. (actually goes for most apps)
5 organization- you cant sort the app drawer, you can hide apps (just the icons) using launcher pro, not sure if ADW has that option. Useing folders or the app "app manager" is your best bet
extra. swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.
I came from winmo- so I know all about your "X" pains. But I say forget about a task killer or even killing tasks (except maybe maps and navigation). I did a little reading about pros and cons and decided to try the "no task killer" approach. I haven't had any problems. the task killer is a pain anyways. you can kill apps all day long and there are a bunch of them that are just going to repopulate themselves in like 5 minutes. I just said, "fegetaboutit". My phone runs great.
if you open the dialer and are on the contacts tab just long press the menu button (the physical button) and your keyboard will pop up. start typing and contacts will appear.
I like "Zeam Launcher". There is a thread here on XDA. I have Launcher Pro+ -but actually liked Zeam so much I use it. Just different preferences though.
that's all i got for now.
Thank you for your replies.
I will try to be a bit less OCD regarding my tasks. I did kill a couple of services of applications that kept starting, like Skype.
I'll check out those launchers and see if I like them better.
Any good stock widgets?
EDIT:
So I just tried to check my location on Google Maps with GPS turned off, and it says I need to turn it on.
How do I set it up to use the GPS as needed?
I leave location services on (GPS)
My theory is that applications will only enable GPS when they need them, so if you have a application running that wants GPS, it will use it.
The GPS icon appears in the notification bar when I'm using something that is using GPS, so I assume its only actually on when this icon is present. Leave it on in settings just makes is available.
Any widget or application that has a setting for manual location (Weather, IMDB) I use it, and disable GPS location, to keep GPS from running all of the time.
To exit an app you are using, either hit the back button or the home button.
If you are worried about "ninja" apps using cpu and memory, you can try a minfree adjustment application such as AutoKiller Memory Optimizer. It fine tunes android's inner memory manager to be a bit more aggressive in closing applications.
I use another Rom (rubiX, link in sig) that already has minfree adjusted (according to the author) and it does help in keeping the X smooth. It also removes all (well most) of Blur and default installed apps as well, so you start with a very clean X.
The default home screen (blur) is crap. I would also suggest replacing it with LauncherPro or ADW
For removing the pre-installed applications. Follow this guide
http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/d...ta-3-ways-super-easy-safe-safe-easy-free.html
Some apps in /system/app/ are not named what they are
(IE. mynet.apk = 3g Hotspot)
For a keyboard anywhere, you can hold the menu button, and it will pop up.
Swype is really a few keyboards. Swype from the icon to the SYM button, it will give you the edit panel (arrows, home, end, copy, paste, etc...) press the ABC button to go back.
Swype from the icon to the f key, it will turn into a number pad. Press the ABC button to go back to the normal keyboard.
Run the tutorial on Swype too, it will give you some very nice pointers on it's use. I used Swype on windows mobile and I found out a few things about Swype I never knew.
Also, as for touching where your cursor is in a text field, if you press and hold, and magnifying bubble will pop up. This makes moving the cursor easier
Did you find a dialer yet? I saw these posted and thought about this thread...
http://www.appbrain.com/app/kz.mek.DialerOne
http://www.appbrain.com/app/acontacts/kz.mek.aContacts
Haven't had a chance to try them yet.
bad4u6669 said:
.... swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG. thanks. been loving swype but that has been driving me nuts. Thanks for the info.
Thank you for the replies.
One of the things I liked about my TP2, is I could leave location services on, and it used very little battery.
I guess Weather Bug just SUCKS battery out like crazy. I turned on the GPS last night for something, and decided to see how well it did with battery today. It turns out that some grocery shopping app I wanted to try was sucking my GPS dry (no idea why)... yet another "ninja app" that just started up because it felt like it (this kind of **** really makes me , programs should only start up when I tell them to, not when a component of my phone turns on).
I live in an apartment that has really bad signal (I actually have a Network Extender), so that might be my GPS constantly trying to update when I'm at home killing my battery.
WeatherBug is set to update every hour, so I'm going to see what happens tomorrow with the GPS turned on. It would be nice if I could just set it and forget it, not need to turn it off every time I come home.
Thank you for the contact program, I might check it out. I've been pretty content since I got DialerOne and found out I can get the keyboard up by holding the options.
I tried LauncherPro, and I LOVED it at first, and my phones performance was fantastic!
Then I found out it charges me to resize widgets... WTF is that crap?
I'm going to try some other launchers and see what happens. I'm getting the hang of it, but I still do not like things starting up on their own. Regardless of memory management, my phone should not just decide to boot up programs on it's own.
the phone only does what the app or the user tells it to do. If theirs an app that you don't like, delete it.
And complaining that launcher pro charges for every thing it offers is ridiculous. Every thing it offers for free already ( 7 home screens, 10 rows and columns, unreal speed improvement, etc. ) then to get the extras its less than most people throw away on a daily basis. Where as this three dollars its money that pays off on a daily basis
Adw and lp should be paid apps from the start for all they offer.
You have 3 options, write your own program, use the stock launcher, find a free one.
-end rant
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
I usually leave my location setting on "Use Wireless Networks" and don't bother with GPS other than for maps and navigation. Works fine for all of my other apps that need a location (e.g., weather).
There are apps out there that can turn GPS on and off automatically when you run a particular app, such as Tasker (which can do a whole host of things, but that is one one of them). Tasker is a paid app, but there might be something free out there that does something similar.
Also, I agree with the previous poster re: Launcher Pro. It's really a fantastic home launcher and well worth a few bucks to support the developer. The LP Plus widgets are also a lot better than any of the Blur widgets.
In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.
EtherBoo said:
In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to look into RockPlayer. That's the only one I found so far that decodes ALMOST anything on the spot.
The "Ninja Applications" are running because Android is a true multi tasking OS.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
I hope necromancy isn't frowned upon on this board, so my apologies if it is.
I found a new problem because I had the nerve to attempt to update a contact photo after Facebook had saved it's picture to it.
This is especially frustrating because I'm going to want to override a lot of these photos very soon.
Apparently, updating the photo updates the Google Contact photo, but the phone only displays the Facebook photo. This is a bug confirmed by Moto that will be fixed in a future update.
This leaves me with 2 options.
De-Sync FB, which I'm not thrilled about only because I like getting the most recent status update prior to receiving a call, and There is a lot of info that FB fills in for me.
Copy down all the FB info, and fill it in manually. With Google Contacts not being the best contact manager (I'm very OCD about uniformity in the way things are formatted), I really don't want to do this.
So I figure I need a new contact manager. I tried AContacts, and it crashed every time I tried to edit a contact.
I would love something like the HTC one that comes with WinMo, or maybe even the iPhone one.
I would be willing to pay for this.
P.S.
I'm now rooted and running a custom ROM (zapX I think it's called). I'm loving my phone much more now. My battery life has skyrocketed, and my performance is amazing now. Very iPhone smooth (one thing I was always jealous of, and I hate the iPhone).
Got my Desire Z yesterday
Got a couple of questions if someone could answer them for me please?
1) If Wi-Fi is turned on and I browse the web etc, does the phone use the wi-fi (my home wi-fi this is) over the phone network, i.e. so I don't get charged as I'm currently waiting for my contract plan to renew and my free data does not kick in until next month.
2) Is there a way of closing off apps that I have previously opened, or do I need another app to do this as I assume leaving apps running in the background will be a bigger drain on the battery?
3) I have setup a HTC Sense account, does the phone remain connected to this the whole time? (just want to make sure nothing racks up my data usage as I'm not on free data as yet).
Thanks for any info.
Oh, and PS - can anyone recommend some good apps?
If your Wi-fi is on and you are connected to a wireless network, the traffic will go over this network. You can also edit your settings so that the phone doesn't use phone network to update facebook, weather, etc. This goes for all apps and functions, including HTC Sense, email sync, etc.
Task killers are not supposed to be used with Android. You can read more about that here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=849974
What a good app for you is, depends on what you're looking for. But as for games, I do recommend Angry Birds and Doodle Jump (Santa doodle is just too cute these days )
A couple of must-have apps for me:
ChompSMS - replaces built-in text messaging app
Winamp - media player
Astro File Manager - does so much more than file management
ScoreMobile - real-time updates on sports scores
BuzzBox - RSS reader
Kayak - itinerary manager and travel application
Barcode Scanner
Tim Hortons Finder - for Canadians jonesing for their cup of Timmy's
JuiceDefender -
setCPU - set up CPU profiles for
Battery Graph - tracks drain on battery
TED Mobile
Some games and lighter fare:
Air Control Lite - fun game
Paper Toss
Angry Birds
Hungry Shark
Kobo reader
Aldiko reader
Hope this helps kick you off in the right direction.
stiscooby said:
2) Is there a way of closing off apps that I have previously opened, or do I need another app to do this as I assume leaving apps running in the background will be a bigger drain on the battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to worry, Android handles this automatically. The app won't be doing anything to drain the battery unless there's something seriously wrong with the app.
3) I have setup a HTC Sense account, does the phone remain connected to this the whole time? (just want to make sure nothing racks up my data usage as I'm not on free data as yet).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can control how often the phone syncs with your HTC Sense account just like you control the other things is syncs with such as Gmail, Facebook, etc, etc. So you can set those to sync manually so you have more control, and then only go and sync particular things when you need them.
HTCSense.com doesn't work too well for a lot of people at the moment (though you might be lucky), see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=849410
Thanks for the replies.
So is there one overall setting to turn the data off or is there a setting within each app, where I can turn it off (just for the time being).
Oh, and one other question is there a way of checking how much battery is remaining apart from the little symbol at the top of the screen? Only got it yesterday and it's showing about a 3rd remaining. Seems to have gone down quickly, although I have probably been fiddling a bit more than what I will do once I "get use to it".
Thanks
stiscooby said:
So is there one overall setting to turn the data off or is there a setting within each app, where I can turn it off (just for the time being).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into Menu->Settings->Accounts & Sync and you'll see all the settings in there. One overall setting to sync automatically or not, and then individual sections for each account where you can sync them manually.
Oh, and one other question is there a way of checking how much battery is remaining apart from the little symbol at the top of the screen? Only got it yesterday and it's showing about a 3rd remaining. Seems to have gone down quickly, although I have probably been fiddling a bit more than what I will do once I "get use to it".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also go into Menu->Settings->About Phone->Battery, and if you choose the "Battery Use" section you can see what's been using the battery.
There are loads of extra battery widgets you can install on the Android market, to give you a percentage display. I'm using this one - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=724778
stiscooby said:
Thanks for the replies.
So is there one overall setting to turn the data off or is there a setting within each app, where I can turn it off (just for the time being).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've installed the "Mobile Network" widget so I can turn data off and on at will.
Widgets > Settings... > Mobile Network
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats good to know, thanks
Also, there are different dialers out there that offer different looks if you dont like the sense dialer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The dialers fine, it's the contact list.
Is this your 1st android phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
My single biggest gripe with the Android OS is the way it closes backgrounded applications without the user's permission, unrelated to available memory but rather amount of time the app is left idle. I can be editing a Word document in QuickOffice or Docs-to-Go, then get an incoming call, answer it and talk for ten minutes, only to find my Office application has been closed and all my changes have been lost.
I am wondering if perhaps by some small miracle, the Atrix has been programmed differently from other Android devices NOT to do this, because of its intended function as a desktop substitute via the Webtop environment. No one ever wants their desktop/laptop computer shutting down applications because they left to grab a coffee for ten minutes, so I'm hoping maybe the Moto devs took this into account and somehow turned off the "auto close backgrounded apps if left idle for X minutes" functionality of Android.
It's only a slim hope I'm holding out regarding this, but maybe someone can answer definitively one way or the other.. anyone know for sure?
No, it's still the same operating system. The Webtop is completely separate from Android.
Nope. I'm slightly annoyed every time adw ex is background killed just because I was reading my email, and it has to completely reload.
Not only that, but gingerbread took away the option to keep the launcher persistent
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
turl1 said:
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
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Sorry, but Motorola's responsible for any killing of webtop. X isn't designed to be magically killed the way that Android kills things.
It is worth pointing out this is less of an issue on Atrix given the 1Gb of RAM... but yes, this is still Android and as such the memory management is ultimately the same.
I have had cases on the Atrix where I am playing Angry Birds, get distracted and browse the web, forget I was playing the game... then return to the game 1 hour later to find it's still running as I left it. This certainly would NOT have happened on my Galaxy S!
Sogarth said:
Sorry, but Motorola's responsible for any killing of webtop. X isn't designed to be magically killed the way that Android kills things.
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We were talking about android apps though
turl1 said:
If your app doesn't restore the previous state on restart, then the app developer is to blame, not android. Just saying
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Most apps do restore previous state.
They also take a while to do so.
On the other hand, my biggest gripe is resolved: cm7 has an built in option under he performance setting to keep the launcher persistant, so I don't really care anymore
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From my understanding of Android programming, it only closes Background tasks automatically, all apps are started as Background tasks by default, it's up to the app to tell Android that it's a Foreground app, and it can't be closed automatically.
Hmm, I've used QuickOffice and left it alone for a while (got distracted, went on the internet, checked emails, turned off the screen, etc) and it was still all there when I came back. Does it happen to you frequently?
As a test I just made a new word document and typed some random stuff into it. I'll leave it alone for a day in the background and see if it's still there tomorrow...
Restoring to previous state works for some types of apps, but for others it's not a viable solution. For example streaming radio applications or chat programs like eBuddy, Fring, Skype etc. These need to be left running constantly in the background, not just restored to where they left off, because otherwise you're not available to be contacted through them while they're closed/offline. Some of those apps use the workaround of an ongoing notification to avoid being shut down, but that is really just a trick that developers shouldn't have to resort to.
I find that both QuickOffice and Documents-To-Go get shut down constantly when left idle in the background, even with nothing else running or using memory, and after only ten minutes or so of idle time. And I always lose all unsaved changes - the previous state is never restored.
What seems to happen is this: I can leave a document in the background for hours, and then come back to it okay, IF I don't do anything else in between. But if before returning to the open document, I launch ANY other app first, even a very small footprint one like a notepad, THAT is when the previously backgrounded apps like QuickOffice get closed by Android. It seems that Android's auto-close-after-idle activity is triggered by the next time the user launches something else. That's when the check is done and idle apps get shut down.
There are free app-switching utilities like AltTabApps and Smart Taskbar which allow you to easily see which windowed apps/tasks are still currently running. Using these I have tested and confirmed that I can actually leave quite a few things running idle in the background for a full day, and every time I keep checking, they are all still there and open, waiting to be switched back to. But then as soon as I open a new small app, and all those others have been sitting there idle and backgrounded for long enough, *POOF*, they all get closed instananeously the moment the new app is opened.
And like I said it's not related to memory, because I can see how much is free, and the app I end up opening is very small as well.
So if you're going to test, don't just leave it for a day and then try to come back to it. Before you go back to it, open something else that ISN'T already running (such as email or text messaging which are always quietly open already).. choose a brand new app to open and then try to go back to your Quickoffice document. On the three or four Android 2.2 devices on which I have tried this, I have never, ever been able to return to a document without losing all changes.
Sorry for the long message.. just important to point out the mechanism at work so as to avoid a false positive result, since there are cases when you can return to documents when you haven't opened anything else new in between.
Ok, I see what you mean now. Tried it the way you said and left it for a good while and it did indeed lose the stuff I had typed. I can see how that would get frustrating...
Have you tried using a task manager and telling it to keep QuickOffice alive (i.e. for the system to never kill it)? Although this will probably eat your battery, so I guess only do this if you really need it. I doubt there's a way to turn the functionality off entirely, as it's a pretty core part of making multi-tasking work on low power consumption devices.
Even with my devices rooted, no task manager I have ever seen or tried has successfully been able to override the core Android system to keep-alive any app that I've specified. These utilities seem only to be able to affect their OWN task-closing habits or aggressiveness levels, but not to prevent the OS from doing its own thing separate from their internal settings.
Not to get side-tracked into an OS comparison, but I have an HTC Leo HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, and it is able to keep a dozen applications open in the background indefinitely, without ever slowing down or draining the battery. I can leave Word Mobile, Coreplayer, Internet Explorer, Opera Mobile, Windows Messenger, and a large handful of others all open and still get a strong couple of days out of the battery. Surely if an older OS like WinMo (and even WebOS and Symbian) can do this, Android should be capable of it too. For this very reason unfortunately, I have had to stick to Android 2.1 or WM devices as I need my apps to stay open until I decide to close them. I am always hoping though that a new 2.3 or 2.4 device will come along that allows disabling of this functionality by the user.
paleozord said:
Even with my devices rooted, no task manager I have ever seen or tried has successfully been able to override the core Android system to keep-alive any app that I've specified. These utilities seem only to be able to affect their OWN task-closing habits or aggressiveness levels, but not to prevent the OS from doing its own thing separate from their internal settings.
Not to get side-tracked into an OS comparison, but I have an HTC Leo HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, and it is able to keep a dozen applications open in the background indefinitely, without ever slowing down or draining the battery. I can leave Word Mobile, Coreplayer, Internet Explorer, Opera Mobile, Windows Messenger, and a large handful of others all open and still get a strong couple of days out of the battery. Surely if an older OS like WinMo (and even WebOS and Symbian) can do this, Android should be capable of it too. For this very reason unfortunately, I have had to stick to Android 2.1 or WM devices as I need my apps to stay open until I decide to close them. I am always hoping though that a new 2.3 or 2.4 device will come along that allows disabling of this functionality by the user.
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The keep persitant value was depreciated from android alltogether in 2.3. However, if cm7 can be set to keep alive the launcher and the messenger app, then it stands to say there is still a way around this.
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