Related
Hi guys,
I have been waiting for a long time for a mature Android phone (have had iPhone for the past 3 years) and i think Galaxy SII is just that. Its fast, speedy, have good camera, thin, pretty good standby etc...
Feature1 (or rather application suite):
What i been missing from Android phones so far has been a OSX sync, backup, music/video/podcast sync application and for Galaxy this is still missing sadly. So you guys who have OSX what do you use for the sync and backup? (it can be both freeware and thirdparty apps that cost, as long as its working without bugs)
Feature2:
This is something all old phones use to have but for some stupid reason have been removed on both iPhone and Android phones. I'm talking about recording calls natively (not interested using services or mic recording). You guys who know the hardware do you know if this is possible or is it like iphone not possible to do with this hardware?
Other then that i really love the screen of this phone so i like to upgrade to this from my current iPhone. Actually i have two sims so i will use both phones
Thanks for all answers
If I'm not wrong Samsung kies can Sync and Backup
And yes Call Recording is possible. Here is more about that: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1065110
Syncing music, videos is no big deal. Kies does it, so do countless apps out there including winamp. You can basically sync any damn Android or smartphone or dumb phone with memory slot using Winamp.
Kies also has functionality to backup your phone (apps can be synced to your google account anyway ).
You could try Kies Air, it is in your browser so it doesn't need any software.
(I could be wrong, because I don't have the SII.)
Thanks for all feedbacks.
I been searching and reading a little thanks to your tips and i the result wasnt all to positive.
At Samsung i found the Kies only for Windows (intressted for OSX).
samsung.com/se/consumer/mobile/mobilephones/mobilephones/GT-I9100LKANEE/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=support
Same goes for winamp ofcourse which is a Win app.
Kies Air seems to be just for the older models also or has any of you actually been downloading it for Galaxy SII? that would be really nice....
I dont have Android phone to see what i can download but it seems all these call recorder apps work on some models and not others.
Call recorder:
androlib.com/android.application.com-opensystem-callrecord-jjDw.aspx
also
sv.appbrain.com/app/call-recorder/com.schass.recording.call
DroidRecord PRO:
brighthub.com/mobile/google-android/articles/101742.aspx
and
appbrain.com/app/droidrecord-pro/com.gonzo.droidrecord
Also read about TotalRecall which seems to be old and not updated.
Has any of you actually tested any of these and can verify that it works (on GSII)? which one?
Thanks for the help guys but please give me some info that you know for sure works on GSII. Links are also very welcome.
Kies Air seems to be just for the older models also or has any of you actually been downloading it for Galaxy SII? that would be really nice....
Its on SGS2 either as stock or via the Samsung update on the phone .
Not that i have ever used it as i copy and paste .
jje
JJEgan said:
Kies Air seems to be just for the older models also or has any of you actually been downloading it for Galaxy SII? that would be really nice....
Its on SGS2 either as stock or via the Samsung update on the phone .
Not that i have ever used it as i copy and paste .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for confirming. I dont understand what you mean by copy/paste though! Music/video sure you can do that but for contact/calendar and backup i dont see how u can copy/paste.
Any way i'm saving some money for this baby so i hope it can work well under OSX. Seems all Android phones are made for windows. On the other hand SGII has other benefits like playing xvid/divx so no need to re-encode movies....
Doubletwist?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
DoubleTwist works great with OSX, I use it .
I can confirm that my GSII came with kies air pre-installed.
I use kies in windows but kies air in linux.
Drag and drop is really easy on this phone as well due to the large internal memory.
I use iSyncr, works great for iTunes music, videos and podcast synching to my MBP. There is an option to sync by Wifi at extra cost.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
You used an iPhone right?
So in baby words, instead of now using iTunes for iPhone/iPod, you use Kies for Samsung.
You can sync all your music/photos/vids/apps and what not
Easy? It's also the official software for it too so yeah
Ahh DoubleTwist AirSync looks the most promising so far. Pretty much same as itunes. Easy to use and just drag&drop, me like
I wish it had Address Bok, Calenday, Bookmarks syncing as well like iTunes but you cant have it all
By the way one thing i'm a but scared of and cant seem to find a consistent answer to is the application and their saved data. On my iPhone when i sync all application and their settings+saved data (game saves and such) are backed up. So when i do upgrades or jailbreak i can always copy back all i had.
How does this work on Android phone (SGII)?
Lets say i have a few games and have many saved data and want to try a new Android build? how exactly do you backup your data and then put it back? Has anyone done something like this?
Sorry for my noobish questions but after 3 years of having had iPhone it feels strange to not know how anything works. Your support makes the jump much easier
if you are installing new roms get Titanium Backup Pro. lets you store all game and app data on your memory card.
also for calendar and contact sync I've been happy with Google doing that and storing it in the cloud.
artesea said:
if you are installing new roms get Titanium Backup Pro. lets you store all game and app data on your memory card.
also for calendar and contact sync I've been happy with Google doing that and storing it in the cloud.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great tips, will download it once i get the SGII. Thanks.
By the way i just might get mine Tuesday next week, the store is getting in 2 of them and i'm in queue so here's hoping. I been to the store 5 times and played with it. Tested my Bluetooth headset and played some music and it worked perfectly fine.
@Rooster19:If you going to help new people get rid of the attitude or just dont help. I love my iPhone but i'm open for trying new OS:es. Respect other peoples preferences and choices. If you dont like something dont buy it but stop judging people based on what they buy. i work in Telecom business myself and fall in love with iPhone directly from the release of the first device. After my 3GS it did felt a bit tiresome i couldn't access the memory, play movies directly (divx,xvid), change themes, play mp3 for ringtone and some other minor things that i saw obvious.
On Android side i tested many of them like Desire, X10 but they never felt smooth enough and the menus felt messy. SGII is the first device i actually think is mature enough for me to abandon my iPhone. I haven't got mine yet so maybe i go back to iPhone but from what i seen i think not. Time will tell.
Android has some flaws too but thats just the nature of products, everything has its pro and con. Anyway please understand that people have their reason for liking or disliking things. Just because you dont like something it doesn't automatically make it the right thing for everyone.
Hi all, I love the XDA forum, have been browsing it for years, but this is the first time I thought I could add something and wanted to post!
This may not be perfect and I'm certain some of it is replicating, however
I thought maybe a post that covered everything in one place would help someone like me out there making their first foray into Android. And please no haters, I have taken a significant chunk out my night to share my travels with you.
I have spent the last three days trying to ratify my decision on replacing the iPhone with the SG2. The first night was filled with lot's of appreciative 'oohhs', as I explored everything from the beautiful screen to the plentiful configuration options which was exactly what I was hoping Android would be about.
I then spent the next few days (until now) trying to do things that would have just taken an hour or so to do on my iPhone. Namely syncing contacts, calendar, music, photos and videos. This post is aimed at Mac OS users who are taking one small step at a time to Android / Windows 7 .
Firstly, connectivity: two options. You can either go into Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging which is used by some synch programs, or more useful Settings->Wireless and Networks->USB Utilities->USB mass storage. You'll need to unplug any cable already in, click on the above, and then plug in your cable. Then click on the button that says 'turn on USB storage'. You should then see the internal storage mounted as a drive on your Macs Finder where you can look through folders etc.
Note that if you have an SD card, this will also get mounted, but as a separate drive. I found it useful to use my Finder to rename both drives so I could always be sure which I was looking at.
Business stuff:
Email: Easy if you have a consumer service such as gmail, yahoo etc. For small business owners like myself, unless you run an Exchange server, first thing you should know is that only IMAP mail will give you 'push' to your phone. POP3 will work but requires manual synch and not the best use of your battery. I use Zen Internet to host my domains in the UK, and they list their IMAP settings which you'll need. Works great, even SSL for secure email. And full push email, for iPhone users, this is the direct replacement for using MobileMe for your work email.
This was the first and consequently easiest thing I did after purchasing that lead me into a somewhat false sense of security at the purchase
Calendar: You'll need to share your iCal with Google. Easy enough, just do a search on Googles help for CalDev and iCal, I can't post the link as a new user
Contacts: If you have a newer Mac OS, you can go straight into Address Book and under preferences, share the book with your Google account. This will also transfer photos for your contacts if you use them which is nice. Note, you need to press the 'Sync now' option in the top right on your Mac screen where the two arrows in a circle are for the sync to happen. If you don't have this icon or it is greyed out, set up iSync in your System Preferences under the Apple logo top left.
If like me, this function didn't work great (seems that ppl have better results importing from Google rather than exporting to Google with this method) you can either download vCards from your existing contact system and import them into your device (after connecting), or import them into Google via a browser connection. They will then sync with you SG2. Note you will NOT get photos from vCards, they are just text. However, the SG2 has a nice facility for adding photos from your photo collection once that is synced.. see below.
Personal Stuff:
Quick preamble, there are LOADS of different syncing softwares out there, most tend to do one thing OK, but no replacement for iTunes and iPhone users will be dissapointed. I downloaded countless types. Doubletwist (DT) as recommended by many on this forum was the way to go for me, although of significant note was the iTunemywalkman app which you have got to love for its simple and effective coding, especially the fast on the fly re-encoding of your music if it is DRM (EDIT: not DRM! see below!) or lossless, or you just want mp3 rather than AAC. You can even set the bit rate, top notch bit of software. It is however focused on music.
However, with a little usage help, DoubleTwist does photos, video and music.
Photos: thought you might like to hear how I deal with this. For those who haven't used DT, it is a one-way sync only of photos e.g. it will put all your iPhoto pics onto your SG2, but won't take photos from it.. - don't worry easy to work around.
On my GS2 I have the 16GB internal and 16GB SD card. I use DT to do my photo sync to get the library onto SGS, then once I have mounted the phone storage and can see it in Finder (as per above), I open iPhoto and import the photos I've taken into my library straight in iPhoto just like any other regular import such as from an email or downloaded jpg. File->Import to Library. Then navigate to your internal storage, and go into the DCIM folder to find your photos.
I then delete all photos from my internal storage on GS2 through Finder. As the DT software will download my library onto my external SD card, I still have all my photos to look at on the phone, but it keeps it on separate storage areas and easy to manage. For me it feels similar to when I would 'delete camera roll' after syncing my iPhone and it is really not a hassle.
Videos you just do the same thing.
Music: Ahhh, music...the biggest pain in the butt. Easy to drag and drop music files and playlists onto your SG2, but for me and many other would result in Unknown Artist, multiple entries for collection CDs and almost worst was complete lack of playlist, despite it being in the storage!!
This is where itunemywalkman comes into its own BTW, as you can send music through grouped by Album, Artist or Playlist (where in the SG2, playlists were listed as albums, partly solved it).
Anywhooo, to ensure you get the best results, I first recommend you go into Settings->Applications->Manage Applications->All and then go to Media Storage. Select 'clear data', this will not delete any existing music (although I recommend you do, except for music purchased on the phone which I would then import into iTunes and then delete from phone). This just deletes the index, which can cause problems in getting the rest to work if you don't.
Then you go into your DT software, and sync your music. Make sure you sync to the right Samsung device listed, again one will be your internal storage and one your external.
It will also re-encode some music for you, but not DRM which you can sort out with paid for apps, or I think burn a CD and then rip mp3. Other threads will explain... pain in the arse considering you 'own' the music. One of the reasons I moved from Apple... Another issue to resolve is the multiple entries per album, this is to do with your iTunes setting, go into all the tracks listed on the album and tick the 'part of a compilation' box and if necessary paste the album name into each track. This will ensure the SG2 will see it as one album despite lots of different artists.
Once you have all the music on the SG2, unmount the storage from Finder by pressing the eject button, and the you can do the same on the phone. It will take a little while for the Media Storage scan to do its thing as it is rebuilding its index.
Then go into the Market, and download a free app called 'MediaFix'. The guy who developed this should be given a Google Knighthood for doing what they seemingly couldn't. It will repair all the missing meta data, such as artist name and album etc... Most importantly for me though, the playlists require the correct meta data and after running this app (it took about 20 seconds to do my whole 8GB catalogue), suddenly all my playlists showed up! Hurrah!!!
One last thing, download from Market 'Cover Art Downloader' to get all your album art back, or at least a fair bit of it. DT has their own version for £2.99 which you'll need if you have lots of covers like me... Cover Art Downloader seems to crash after about 430 new albums discovered!
I should note I use the DT player on my phone too, for some reason the Samsung player still doesn't see my playlists although it does have the track meta-data now.
All with correct info, and the most crucial thing my SG2 needed to do well for me...
DT will keep this sync'd for you, just quickly wipe your Media Storage file before sync and then run MediaFix after. A little painful, but I have noticed in my case anyway that if you don't do this every time your playlists can get a little messed up again missing artist info (even though the songs and albums still have it...)
With this for photos, DT for audio and Google sync for iCal / Address Book I have now got an iPhone replacement. MediaFix from market is essential to get it working properly though (or convert everything into MP3 before syncing, like you need to do for DRM)... this is because music loses meta data with the Android media index, this will also resolve playlists not showing up, which rely on the meta data.
Hope this helps someone.. I have spent days trying to get my (amazing!!) SG2 working. Quite a contrast to when I updated my 2G iPhone to 3G and after a 20 minute synch was basically left with the same phone as before with more memory and slightly faster. A little underwhelming an experience for a new phone (but I can hardly moan at Apple for getting sync so right), the SG2 has been far more exciting and a steep learning curve. . talk about them being at opposite ends of the spectrum.
The SG2 is better hardware, but it takes more effort to get running the synch as well, but nothing good in life comes easy.... I'm quite technical and didn't lose faith, but I have been left far from satisfied with the experience which is such as shame as the hardware is so great. Google will NEVER challenge the iPhone until they sort this. I have to admit, if the iPhone 5 came out looking as amazing as the SG2, I would probably somewhat reluctantly strip off my shame and get back into bed with it - purely because of syncing..
It's hard to believe that the hardware is just so far ahead of the needed unified desktop software written by Google for Android with all Android hardware providers submitting an API into their 'bloatware' (I actually quite like the Samsung TouchWiz).
Sorry for the long post, please let me know if this has helped, it will make the lost 2.5hrs of my Saturday night seem worthwhile..
Peter
MediaMonkey
Hi!
First of all thank you for the post
I just wanted to say that mediamonkey (at least the 4.0.0.1393 build that I'm using on a x64 windows 7 vaio) synchronises your music and playlists to the phone or to the SD card with almost no setup required and I had no problems with the id3 tags or album art until know. I use the stock music player and tunewiki on the phone. I have never tried but it also has options to automatically convert incompatible files, including video...
The only hassle I had was with the genius mixes and I solved it by creating proper playlists using itunes DJ by choosing the genius mixes as sources and importing them to mediamonkey.
By the way I have an unbranded SGS2 with the KE2 stock rom
This seems like a lot of trouble. Do you find it annoying and tedious? I use a MacBook Pro, and am trying to decide between getting the Galaxy S2 this summer and waiting for an iPhone 5. I'm just concerned with how much trouble it will cause me to do simple things (lack of compatibility?) using an android phone with a mac.
Maybe it would be easier if I just ran Windows 7 (already have a license) on bootcamp or say, parallels, when I want to deal with Galaxy S2 things?
All that stuff works fine, but I am all apple and I found two Mac programs to take care of everything I needed.
I used BusyCal for iCal syncing, it works with the new Mobile Me Cloud, so no problem there.
Second I'm using The Missing Sync, this program sync's iTunes music and movies, as well as iPhoto to and from the GS2.
Both these programs cost money but a small price to pay to have them work as well as they do.
Why not use Kies for Mac?
nice posting thompps!
it will for sure help ppl when switching from ios to android.
but is'nt it obvious that syncing between devices of the same manufacturer is more simple then between varous systems?
apple will allways put hurdles in the way when it comes to syncing with other devices, thats the way they keep their customers dependent... (i must confess its not only apples procedure, but they are master in this discipline)
anyway thumbs up for your effort and wish ya fun with your phone!
Yes thanks good post even though Apple is not a product i have ever used .
Should be a sticky for ex IPhone users .
jje
sadly DT on my mac doesn't read my iPhoto library. Missing Sync and FoneSync doesn't see external SD... how can I fix this?
i must say, although i don't have a mac or an iphone, i thank you for your post, i really appreciate when junior members decide to give something back to the community and your guide is well thought out and structured. good work.
thompps said:
Hi all, I love the XDA forum, have been browsing it for years, but this is the first time I thought I could add something and wanted to post!
This may not be perfect and I'm certain some of it is replicating, however
I thought maybe a post that covered everything in one place would help someone like me out there making their first foray into Android. And please no haters, I have taken a significant chunk out my night to share my travels with you.
I have spent the last three days trying to ratify my decision on replacing the iPhone with the SG2. The first night was filled with lot's of appreciative 'oohhs', as I explored everything from the beautiful screen to the plentiful configuration options which was exactly what I was hoping Android would be about.
I then spent the next few days (until now) trying to do things that would have just taken an hour or so to do on my iPhone. Namely syncing contacts, calendar, music, photos and videos. This post is aimed at Mac OS users who are taking one small step at a time to Android / Windows 7 .
Firstly, connectivity: two options. You can either go into Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging which is used by some synch programs, or more useful Settings->Wireless and Networks->USB Utilities->USB mass storage. You'll need to unplug any cable already in, click on the above, and then plug in your cable. Then click on the button that says 'turn on USB storage'. You should then see the internal storage mounted as a drive on your Macs Finder where you can look through folders etc.
Note that if you have an SD card, this will also get mounted, but as a separate drive. I found it useful to use my Finder to rename both drives so I could always be sure which I was looking at.
Business stuff:
Email: Easy if you have a consumer service such as gmail, yahoo etc. For small business owners like myself, unless you run an Exchange server, first thing you should know is that only IMAP mail will give you 'push' to your phone. POP3 will work but requires manual synch and not the best use of your battery. I use Zen Internet to host my domains in the UK, and they list their IMAP settings which you'll need. Works great, even SSL for secure email. And full push email, for iPhone users, this is the direct replacement for using MobileMe for your work email.
This was the first and consequently easiest thing I did after purchasing that lead me into a somewhat false sense of security at the purchase
Calendar: You'll need to share your iCal with Google. Easy enough, just do a search on Googles help for CalDev and iCal, I can't post the link as a new user
Contacts: If you have a newer Mac OS, you can go straight into Address Book and under preferences, share the book with your Google account. This will also transfer photos for your contacts if you use them which is nice. Note, you need to press the 'Sync now' option in the top right on your Mac screen where the two arrows in a circle are for the sync to happen. If you don't have this icon or it is greyed out, set up iSync in your System Preferences under the Apple logo top left.
If like me, this function didn't work great (seems that ppl have better results importing from Google rather than exporting to Google with this method) you can either download vCards from your existing contact system and import them into your device (after connecting), or import them into Google via a browser connection. They will then sync with you SG2. Note you will NOT get photos from vCards, they are just text. However, the SG2 has a nice facility for adding photos from your photo collection once that is synced.. see below.
Personal Stuff:
Quick preamble, there are LOADS of different syncing softwares out there, most tend to do one thing OK, but no replacement for iTunes and iPhone users will be dissapointed. I downloaded countless types. Doubletwist (DT) as recommended by many on this forum was the way to go for me, although of significant note was the iTunemywalkman app which you have got to love for its simple and effective coding, especially the fast on the fly re-encoding of your music if it is DRM (EDIT: not DRM! see below!) or lossless, or you just want mp3 rather than AAC. You can even set the bit rate, top notch bit of software. It is however focused on music.
However, with a little usage help, DoubleTwist does photos, video and music.
Photos: thought you might like to hear how I deal with this. For those who haven't used DT, it is a one-way sync only of photos e.g. it will put all your iPhoto pics onto your SG2, but won't take photos from it.. - don't worry easy to work around.
On my GS2 I have the 16GB internal and 16GB SD card. I use DT to do my photo sync to get the library onto SGS, then once I have mounted the phone storage and can see it in Finder (as per above), I open iPhoto and import the photos I've taken into my library straight in iPhoto just like any other regular import such as from an email or downloaded jpg. File->Import to Library. Then navigate to your internal storage, and go into the DCIM folder to find your photos.
I then delete all photos from my internal storage on GS2 through Finder. As the DT software will download my library onto my external SD card, I still have all my photos to look at on the phone, but it keeps it on separate storage areas and easy to manage. For me it feels similar to when I would 'delete camera roll' after syncing my iPhone and it is really not a hassle.
Videos you just do the same thing.
Music: Ahhh, music...the biggest pain in the butt. Easy to drag and drop music files and playlists onto your SG2, but for me and many other would result in Unknown Artist, multiple entries for collection CDs and almost worst was complete lack of playlist, despite it being in the storage!!
This is where itunemywalkman comes into its own BTW, as you can send music through grouped by Album, Artist or Playlist (where in the SG2, playlists were listed as albums, partly solved it).
Anywhooo, to ensure you get the best results, I first recommend you go into Settings->Applications->Manage Applications->All and then go to Media Storage. Select 'clear data', this will not delete any existing music (although I recommend you do, except for music purchased on the phone which I would then import into iTunes and then delete from phone). This just deletes the index, which can cause problems in getting the rest to work if you don't.
Then you go into your DT software, and sync your music. Make sure you sync to the right Samsung device listed, again one will be your internal storage and one your external.
It will also re-encode some music for you, but not DRM which you can sort out with paid for apps, or I think burn a CD and then rip mp3. Other threads will explain... pain in the arse considering you 'own' the music. One of the reasons I moved from Apple... Another issue to resolve is the multiple entries per album, this is to do with your iTunes setting, go into all the tracks listed on the album and tick the 'part of a compilation' box and if necessary paste the album name into each track. This will ensure the SG2 will see it as one album despite lots of different artists.
Once you have all the music on the SG2, unmount the storage from Finder by pressing the eject button, and the you can do the same on the phone. It will take a little while for the Media Storage scan to do its thing as it is rebuilding its index.
Then go into the Market, and download a free app called 'MediaFix'. The guy who developed this should be given a Google Knighthood for doing what they seemingly couldn't. It will repair all the missing meta data, such as artist name and album etc... Most importantly for me though, the playlists require the correct meta data and after running this app (it took about 20 seconds to do my whole 8GB catalogue), suddenly all my playlists showed up! Hurrah!!!
One last thing, download from Market 'Cover Art Downloader' to get all your album art back, or at least a fair bit of it. DT has their own version for £2.99 which you'll need if you have lots of covers like me... Cover Art Downloader seems to crash after about 430 new albums discovered!
I should note I use the DT player on my phone too, for some reason the Samsung player still doesn't see my playlists although it does have the track meta-data now.
All with correct info, and the most crucial thing my SG2 needed to do well for me...
DT will keep this sync'd for you, just quickly wipe your Media Storage file before sync and then run MediaFix after. A little painful, but I have noticed in my case anyway that if you don't do this every time your playlists can get a little messed up again missing artist info (even though the songs and albums still have it...)
With this for photos, DT for audio and Google sync for iCal / Address Book I have now got an iPhone replacement. MediaFix from market is essential to get it working properly though (or convert everything into MP3 before syncing, like you need to do for DRM)... this is because music loses meta data with the Android media index, this will also resolve playlists not showing up, which rely on the meta data.
Hope this helps someone.. I have spent days trying to get my (amazing!!) SG2 working. Quite a contrast to when I updated my 2G iPhone to 3G and after a 20 minute synch was basically left with the same phone as before with more memory and slightly faster. A little underwhelming an experience for a new phone (but I can hardly moan at Apple for getting sync so right), the SG2 has been far more exciting and a steep learning curve. . talk about them being at opposite ends of the spectrum.
The SG2 is better hardware, but it takes more effort to get running the synch as well, but nothing good in life comes easy.... I'm quite technical and didn't lose faith, but I have been left far from satisfied with the experience which is such as shame as the hardware is so great. Google will NEVER challenge the iPhone until they sort this. I have to admit, if the iPhone 5 came out looking as amazing as the SG2, I would probably somewhat reluctantly strip off my shame and get back into bed with it - purely because of syncing..
It's hard to believe that the hardware is just so far ahead of the needed unified desktop software written by Google for Android with all Android hardware providers submitting an API into their 'bloatware' (I actually quite like the Samsung TouchWiz).
Sorry for the long post, please let me know if this has helped, it will make the lost 2.5hrs of my Saturday night seem worthwhile..
Peter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi, thanks for the post peter. i have registered on xda today, just so that i could reply to the post. so your saturday night 2.5hrs sacrifice is appreciated!
in south africa contract upgrades are only 24 monthly. i was actually the biggest symbian fan and was very reluctant to move to the iphone 3GS. i was sold. but then i found all the nice apps were paid (something which i am against) and it was either jailbreak the iphone 4 or sg2. obviously if i am posting here, i have gone for the sg2.
i have not fully used the syncing properties on the iphone...and was mislead when the usual "connecting to itunes" states "step 2 of 3 backing up" - i upgraded my software after the pdf loophole was discovered - started with blank apps, lost all my photos etc. the contacts somehow remained.
so here is my question. i dont have an imac, i ahve an ordinary dell laptop. i also use my mobile device (either with cable or bluetooth) as a modem to connect to the internet. (this was one of the features that sold me on iphone - swith internet tethering "on" and you surfing in seconds).
having said that: i mainly need all my contacts to be synced.
the rest i can sacrifice, but pics, texts etc will be nice.
so now that you using the sg2, how is the touch screen sensitivity? messages also in chat form? i didnt understand the part of the blog if it allows for push email notifications? i use gmail.
thanks for post once again and thanks for helping me out on my journey to android...
regards
rava
Thanks for the Herculean effort! Have just made the move myself (Samsung Note) and, being less techie, remain daunted. Any experience with Mark Space syncing tools?
Hi everbody,
I've been using my transformer for about a month now and all in all I am very happy with it. It has been rooted and Custom ROMed since day 1 and I got a big amount of apps on it.
As I use the transformer mostly for things I did with my regular computer, it has now come to a point where I find the transformer a bit too less integrated with my android phone.
With my regular PC it's been a one-click-action to send my current browser window to the phone via "Chrome2Phone" and vice versa with "2cloud".
Now with the transformer I have to use a chat app or twitter or anything alike to transfer the links to my phone. It takes a little to much effort to open the chat app, open the message, click the link... you get the point.
But instead of searching for a solution limited to this particular problem, it came to my mind, to ask you, how you "connect" both android devices to get the most out of it:
How do you get the best symbiosis-like experience out of an Android Tablet together with an Android Smartphone?
I'm not talking about having contacts in sync or tethering the phone to the tablet, it's more meant like the above things...
Maybe how you accomplish having apps and their data in sync, easily transfer things back and force from phone/tablet,
make notifications appear on both, have ringtone settings, locks, themes etc synchronized, have the same media on both devices, have a permanent dlna server on one of them to be available at every time, use one device as the input device for the other and so on.
Please think about everything that connects both devices in a smart way. As you can see I'm suffering from a lack of ideas considering how to make most use of my devices.
Is there a way to make an app bought/downloaded from the market on the phone automatically appear on the tablet and vice versa?
I hope we can collect a good collection of input, app recommendations to get more out of our great devices.
I am happily waiting for your answers,
thanks in advance
modmatt
FYI: My setup consists of a Transformer 16gb wifi on the Revolver ROM and a Motorola Defy with CM7.2.
Textab
Swyped from my Nexus One
How about a Samsung Galaxy Note? http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote/note/index.html?type=find
EDIT: it's a 5" (or 5.3 maybe?) tablet/phone combo. Supposed to be able to fulfill both roles.
I have my tablet using my phone's internet when I'm not at home, I have my contacts and calandar synced on both and have a dropbox account. I also have the app Tablet Remote which isn't as I would like it yet but currently does allow me to control my tablet with my phone and vice versa.
I use my phone for music, texting, reading e-mails/news on the go and my tablet for when I settle down. I'd say they're working pretty well as a combo.
@Mutnat Isn't that a bit too big? I mean 4,65 inch is also enormous but it seems it's getting bigger and bigger!
By using more cloud services (Dropbox, Cashbase, etc) and using Tablet Talk for SMS stuff -- works waaay better than TexTab or Bluetooth SMS.
No_u said:
@Mutnat Isn't that a bit too big? I mean 4,65 inch is also enormous but it seems it's getting bigger and bigger!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Likely, yes. Too big for a phone, too small for a tablet. But having never tried one, I can't say for sure.
First of all thank you for all the answers!
The answer from No_u is pretty much what I expected to read
Thanks to Spidey01 I learned about a new cloud service to manage my expenses.
I already read about the shared text stuff beforehand, but unfortunately most of my mobile to mobile communication has shifted to Whatsapp and while there is a solution to run Whatsapp on the tablet, it adds more conflicts, as the tablet left at home with wifi permanently connected catches all those messages I'd rather get on my phone.
Concerning the Samsung Note I go with Mutnat. But it's definetly not an option for me as I prefer to have to separate devices.
One thing I'd like to throw in is Skifta, which is a fairly simple DLNA Server/Client that can be run on any android device. Start it on the phone, start in on the tablet and watch all your phone photos on the big screen.
Still curious what others do, so keep the thread going
Nice Weekend for all of u
SiNJiN76 said:
Textab
Swyped from my Nexus One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd recommend TabletTalk over Textab..
Cool thread idea. Hope we get some more responses coming in.
I've been playing with Evernote and it has some sync-between-devices features.
Box.net is great for cloud storage and with esfile explorer, you can view the contents as an on machine folder on android. Gladinet has a free program that lets you mount cloud services as local folders. Add foldersync from the market to android and you can sync cloud folders to all machines.
Not ideal and not the continuous client you're aiming for, but helps keep the folders (pics, documents, movies, etc) in Sync.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
hi,
he I use DeskSMS for SMS on Tab ...
Work in 3G Wifi ...
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
on exactly what you want, no, i have never seen and dont know. but if you are willing to make an app that collects this data and sends it to the likes of box.net or dropbox and receive it and open on the other device would be good.
Apps like Colornote, Astrid and Evernote sync so quick notes on the phone end up on the tab and Google Voice works on the tab too. I use that number for text messages.
I have found twonky mobile very good for sharing media between devices.
I recommend Google Chrome as your main browser so that you're synced across all your devices. However it works just on Android 4.0.
I'm using so a GNEX, a linux PC, a Windows PC, a Windows laptop and my Transformer and it makes life a lot more easier.
In addition I recommend Google Music makes the handling with Music over multiple devices much easier.
And last but not least Google Docs for documents.
The only thing which I'm missing is an app which gives me the possibility to sync all my ebooks.
Nebucatnetzer said:
The only thing which I'm missing is an app which gives me the possibility to sync all my ebooks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using Aldiko and Aldiko Sync. The pro version has an automatic sync to dropbox. The great thing about Aldiko Sync is it remembers where you left off reading and saves that state, so when you switch devices you can immediately start reading.
Hi,
is it possible to have more than one google account on one Nexus7 device?
(this thread should be at Nexus7 Q&A)
Moved to Nexus 7 Q&A.
EDIT: Never mind, I was wrong, you get the option of choosing which account to use as the person below me has said.
I have a second Google account on my Desire Hd.
Its not much of an issue, when you are using google apps eg. YouTube, G+, Gmail you get a choice of which account you want to use and you can logout and choose the other whenever you want.
Syncing is not a problem either, whichever account you pick when you make changes they will be saved to only that account.
My YouTube widget changes depending on which account i am using when i exit the YouTube app.
Hope this helps
Sent from my Desire HD using xda app-developers app
I use multiple Google accts on my phone (ICS/CM9). Sync'ing, etc works just fine. Whenever it gets to a point where you have to choose the account you want something under, it prompts you. The issue/solution for me for Facebook (for my wife & I) will likely be Friendcaster (which allows multiple accts).
I was thinking more about choosing an user after waking-up the tablet. Just like windows has. One for me, other for my wife.
The perfect solution would be face to unlock, but I don't think it would be avaliable soon.
Tablets feel like windows 98 all over again. I guess this is because of their phone roots (the thought being one user owns a phone). But with tablets, many want to share.
As your example of you and your wife. Or even security. I'm at my bro's and my nephew wants to play with my tablet, and he's pretty responsible, but he could actually start reading/deleting my email, uninstall apps, buy apps via google market. Btw, I expressly choose never to save anything to google wallet, I've only made a few purchases and have been careful of this, but last thing I bought, my credit card info was all ready to go. Sigh.
But yes not only would I like multi-users I would like to make others have limited functionality, as in they can't install/uninstall apps etc. Even a simple thing like letting my nephew play a game I was in the middle of playing, well he cleared all the stages so I have to remember which stage I was on each time I launch it, or clear them all and start over.
But I suspect it'll be this way for a long time.
gieja said:
I was thinking more about choosing an user after waking-up the tablet. Just like windows has. One for me, other for my wife.
The perfect solution would be face to unlock, but I don't think it would be avaliable soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SwitchMe sounds like what you may be looking for?
N.B. I haven't used it.
Thanks Salty Wagyu for the link. I'm gonna try it as soon as i get me N7. It might be what I'm looking for.
Salty Wagyu said:
SwitchMe sounds like what you may be looking for?.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow... I wasn't aware of that app, either. This is from one of the reviews, though:
Log out does not really work like Windows where you log out and then select another user but rather you have to go into the App and say SWITCH user. Once you do SWITCH user, you actually have to wait for the device to reboot into the other user so it is not running multiple instances
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd think that if the dev on this app could get help from or work with the devs on the popular launchers, better integration would ensue... Like the review said, though... great start...
I've actually installed this app and ran it. You do have to reboot whenever you "switch" which for me isn't a big deal. I haven't had a chance to mess with it too much yet but it looks like the closest option to running multiple accts. From what I can tell you can add a pic for each profile and u can choose which acct to load which is nice, but the lite version only allows 2 profiles, you have to buy a key for more.
1 caution though, it may mess things up a bit with the play store. I tried buying a key after switching back to my profile, and I got an error saying my order could not be processed try again. I'm going to give it some time & try again in a few hours & see what happens.
Using it now too. Seems pretty cool. Seeing as EVERYONE loves wanting to see your phone. LoL!! There is an experimental switch feature that swtiches without rebooting, but I'm not too sure that's working just yet. LoL!!
I'll give this a try too. It may seem worth it.
And a question for the OP. Is that your comment I seen in the store? About the wife and kids? LoL!! =.P
I noticed that switching to a different profile doesn't retain apps between users. Say for instance on the admin profile (mine), I have Plex purchased and installed. On the newly created profile with a different account, it doesn't show up in the apps page (which makes sense because it's a different account). This could become a problem for those with the 8gb model (like myself) where you might have duplicate apps installed based on the user(s) which would take up more space. I think for the sake of saving space, it may be wise for me to install only maintenance/tool type apps on the admin profile for tablet management, then, anything else (games, productivity etc) can be tied to the newly created profile so that I'm not duplicating installed apps.
Can anyone that has done this estimate how much space an extra profile consumes? My 8 GB nexus 7 stock out of the box has ~5.75 GB available. Will adding a second profile consume another ~2 GB plus any additional apps, data, etc? I'm hoping that some of that 2 GB is due to medium format, and other reserved space...
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.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
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?
Послато са GT-N7100 користећи Тапаток 2
Request to pls close this thread nothing beats SwiftKey period.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
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.
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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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