Smart Phones - Questions and Discussion

Discussions computers, internet and mobile technology (cell phones, smart phones, iPads).
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Winston
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Post by Winston »

Rock,
What is that feature you have called, where you speak into the smart phone and it types out what you speak so that you don't have to type anything?

How do you know which phones have it?
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Post by ***JP*** »

Winston wrote:Rock,
What is that feature you have called, where you speak into the smart phone and it types out what you speak so that you don't have to type anything?

How do you know which phones have it?

The one I know that is on Android is called voice actions. That feature is on Android phones from Android 1.6 to the current Android 4.1.1 but the Android version 4.1.1 lets you also speak into the phone even when you don't have a data connection after you download the language pack.
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Post by Winston »

Is Android a kind of software that you can download and install into a smart phone? Or is it a fixed aspect of a smart phone? If you have Android 2.0, can you simply upgrade to 4.0 by downloading it, like you can a windows operating system?
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Post by ***JP*** »

Winston wrote:Is Android a kind of software that you can download and install into a smart phone? Or is it a fixed aspect of a smart phone? If you have Android 2.0, can you simply upgrade to 4.0 by downloading it, like you can a windows operating system?

Only way you can get updates to the newer android versions is to have a stock android phone aka nexus devices that are sold by google or a high end phone you can root aka hack into to get the latest software version. Most Android phone manufacturers put custom skins on their phones so when newer versions of android are available they take forever to reach them cause of their custom skins and because some mobile carriers just don't want to update them. One thing I can say is that if you plan on rooting (hacking) your phone study everything carefully cause one error and your phone could end up bricked. I currently have a Samaung galaxy nexus and to be honest even though it's expensive the phone is worth it cause not only is it factory sim unlocked but also has a pentaband radio in it so pretty much I can use it in any HSPA+ network around the world. Also the benefit of a nexus device is that software updates are done by google directly and no third parties. If you own a samsung device with the touchwiz skin you might want to download the kies software to your computer and follow the instructions to update your phone cause Samsung phones with touchwiz are not updated over the air like the nexus devices. If you have a galaxy s2 you might want to download kies so you can update it to android 4.0 To answer your question Android is for phones made for it just like iOS for iPhone. One thing I can tell you is that hackers have been able to install android on devices not meant for it but it takes a lot of coding to do so. Sadly if you bought a midrange android device there's a very large possibility your phone will not be upgraded beyond the version it currently has. Most manufacturers only give software updates to the high end range of android phones.
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Post by Winston »

After doing some research online and looking at reviews on YouTube and on popular cell phone websites, I think I will just get the Samsung Galaxy Ace or maybe Samsung Galaxy S if it's not too expensive. The Galaxy Ace is not too expensive and yet will fit my needs. Its screen doesn't have great resolution, but it does what I need - it has a good camera with flash, and can use Skype as well as other programs.

The thing is, to get a smart phone with really high end resolution will cost at least $300. I don't feel comfortable putting that much money into a smart phone, which could get stolen while traveling, esp in countries like the Philippines. It's like putting too many eggs in one basket. So I think a $200 or $250 smart phone is fine.

The thing about the camera is, just because a smart phone camera has 5mp doesn't mean much, because higher megapixels don't mean higher quality right? Isn't it all about the lens? I've seen good cameras take sharp quality pictures that were only 1mp and shitty quality pictures taken at 5mp. So it seems that other factors determine the quality of the photos, not the megapixels. So what's the point of having a higher megapixel?

Also, I finally figured out how people type letters on smart phones, no thanks to you guys. When you tilt the phone to landscape angle, the keyboard becomes wider and bigger, allowing your fingers to type on it more easily. I wonder why none of you told me that before.
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Post by momopi »

MP count, lens, sensors, etc. all contribute to photo quality. But the biggest factor is the photographer and how he uses the camera. On cell phones the photo app adds another factor into how well and how much control the photographer has on the camera phone.
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Post by ***JP*** »

Winston wrote:After doing some research online and looking at reviews on YouTube and on popular cell phone websites, I think I will just get the Samsung Galaxy Ace or maybe Samsung Galaxy S if it's not too expensive. The Galaxy Ace is not too expensive and yet will fit my needs. Its screen doesn't have great resolution, but it does what I need - it has a good camera with flash, and can use Skype as well as other programs.

The thing is, to get a smart phone with really high end resolution will cost at least $300. I don't feel comfortable putting that much money into a smart phone, which could get stolen while traveling, esp in countries like the Philippines. It's like putting too many eggs in one basket. So I think a $200 or $250 smart phone is fine.

The thing about the camera is, just because a smart phone camera has 5mp doesn't mean much, because higher megapixels don't mean higher quality right? Isn't it all about the lens? I've seen good cameras take sharp quality pictures that were only 1mp and shitty quality pictures taken at 5mp. So it seems that other factors determine the quality of the photos, not the megapixels. So what's the point of having a higher megapixel?

Also, I finally figured out how people type letters on smart phones, no thanks to you guys. When you tilt the phone to landscape angle, the keyboard becomes wider and bigger, allowing your fingers to type on it more easily. I wonder why none of you told me that before.


Be aware Winston that the Samsung galaxy ace will not upgraded beyond android 2.3 Honestly I recommend you go for the galaxy s3 cause it comes with the latest android version, has a better camera and that one is about to be updated to android 4.1.1 Also you will see that spending the extra bucks is worth it cause compared to the ace the galaxy s3 comes with 16gb of internal memory, has a micro SD card slot that supports up to 64gb, processor is way faster than the ace too. I think the ace is 800 MHz or 1ghz. The galaxy s3 is way faster cause it has a quad core processor. Oh and the phone has a front facing camera for video calling on Skype or any video calling apps you use.
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Post by terminator »

eurobrat wrote:Me I do! I also travel with a $1k iPad.
When you get mugged/pick pocketed for the first time you'll change your mind. Are you still going to Europe in a few months? If so, then you'll see.
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Post by Winston »

Indeed. I know a smart guy who lost his android smart phone in the Philippines. All he did was stand in line outside at a mall during Christmas season. Somehow, kids were able to get his smart phone out of his pocket.

Recently, two Taiwanese girls from Couchsurfing who stayed with me told me that they knew several people who lost their IPhone in China. Some were pickpocketed, while others simply had it stolen from their luggage on a train.

That's why I don't want to put too much money into one. And if I did, I'd only use it in safer countries like the USA or Taiwan. I wouldn't carry it while traveling in poorer countries. That would be dumb.
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Post by ***JP*** »

Btw the galaxy ace is not sold in the US so you should try and see also which frequencies does it support. At&t uses 850Mhz for Their HSPA+ network and T-Mobile uses 1700Mhz. Although the T-Mobile network is being re farmed to support the 1900Mhz frequency for people who have unlocked iPhones or other smart phones imported from Europe. I know you won't be coming back to the states anytime soon but was just giving you a heads up on why sometimes getting a pentaband phone is better cause if you went to another country that doesn't support your phone's frequencies you will end up stuck on Edge the whole time and Edge speeds aka 2G and GPRS won't let you use skype for voice or video conversations cause those two last ones I mentioned are very slow data connections. Then again why comeback to this Matrix? Lol
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Post by Winston »

Ok I finally got a smart phone. But I didn't get a Samsung one. I got a Sony Xperia Neo L, for 7700NT. I went to the mall with my friend and she told me it was much better, and at a similar price. She was right. The Sony Xperia Neo L is about the same price as the Samsung Galaxy Ace, but it has some big advantages: It uses Android 4.0 instead of 2.3 like the Galaxy Ace does. The screen resolution is better too. It has a VGA camera on the front so you can do webcam calls. The screen is also a little bigger.

Here is a video review of it:



What do you all think? Is this a good choice?

There's something I don't get though. What is 3G? Is it a way you can access the internet on your mobile phone, without wifi, using the cell phone towers? If so, how does it work and what's the charge? My cell phone carrier is all in Chinese so it'd be difficult for me to find out.
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Post by ***JP*** »

Phone looks good Winston :) Good thing you never bought the Galaxy Ace cause that one is obsolete and will not go above android 2.3 One article I read that will benefit you is that Sony is the only company to pass google their proprietary programing codes to help accelerate the update process so keep an eye on the android sites for when they announce android 4.1.1 By the way 3G is the internet connection signal if it marks H - HSPA+ which is faster than 3G and if the phone goes to E-- Edge << second generation data connection. not very fast and if the phone marks G-- GPRS you pretty much slow to a crawl. On the last 2 I mentioned you won't be able to make skype calls at all cause those last 2 connections are very slow but you can compensate if you find a wifi hotspot.
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Post by Winston »

Questions:

- Why does IPhone seem like a cult with a religious following? It's just a phone. As long as you can make and receive calls on it, and it works reliably, the rest are just luxuries.

- On my Android phone, some of the apps and games do not have an exit button or feature. So when I click the home button at the bottom to get out of the app, is the app still running in the background? If so, how do I know or close it? My friend told me that there is a task manager icon in my apps menu that lets you see which apps are running and lets you do force shutdowns on them, but I don't see it. Does Android 4.0 on Sony Xperia have something equivalent to a task manager?

- I think one of my apps, Viber or What's App, said that you can leave it running and it will not use up any extra memory. Is that true? How can that be?

- Doesn't the phone slow down if too many apps are running in the background or standing by to receive messages, such as Skype?

- How many apps can you install before the system starts to slow down? Can I install all the apps in my SD card? And should I?

Thanks.
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Post by Winston »

This is interesting. I didn't know that Androids ran on Linux.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid- ... round.html
PLEASE READ: Do NOT worry about Apps running in the Background

This subject has been talked about a lot in here since the Droids release. I've talked to a developer who is very well versed in Linux/Android and he summarized the following as correct......

Android is different to most other phone operating systems. It's closer to Linux than any other type of operating system. Lots of services and applications constantly run in the background just like they do on Windows. However, and this is important, they do not have to use up a ton of resources. A service or app can be loaded, yet use almost no additional memory, and 0% CPU until it actually has to do something.

In general, killing off stuff is a waste of time. Android automatically asks apps to close that aren't needed when it needs more memory. Killing off some of the processes you are killing off also means it'll slow your phone down, as these processes only need to reload, and when you do need to use them it means the phone will be slower for the few seconds it takes to reload them.
Here is an interesting comparison of pros and cons between iPhones and Androids. It is a little biased though, but still very helpful.

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonevscompet ... to-buy.htm

Reader responses:

http://ipod.about.com/u/ua/iphonevscomp ... Choose.htm

Most of the readers seem to prefer Androids for various reasons.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
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Post by ***JP*** »

Winston wrote:This is interesting. I didn't know that Androids ran on Linux.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid- ... round.html
PLEASE READ: Do NOT worry about Apps running in the Background

This subject has been talked about a lot in here since the Droids release. I've talked to a developer who is very well versed in Linux/Android and he summarized the following as correct......

Android is different to most other phone operating systems. It's closer to Linux than any other type of operating system. Lots of services and applications constantly run in the background just like they do on Windows. However, and this is important, they do not have to use up a ton of resources. A service or app can be loaded, yet use almost no additional memory, and 0% CPU until it actually has to do something.

In general, killing off stuff is a waste of time. Android automatically asks apps to close that aren't needed when it needs more memory. Killing off some of the processes you are killing off also means it'll slow your phone down, as these processes only need to reload, and when you do need to use them it means the phone will be slower for the few seconds it takes to reload them.
Here is an interesting comparison of pros and cons between iPhones and Androids. It is a little biased though, but still very helpful.

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonevscompet ... to-buy.htm

Reader responses:

http://ipod.about.com/u/ua/iphonevscomp ... Choose.htm

Most of the readers seem to prefer Androids for various reasons.



The operating system is based on Linux. Android isn't the only mobile OS to use a linux Kernel. WebOS from HP, Meego from nokia, Bada OS from samsung and Tizen OS from intel and samsung. All these I mentioned use the linux kernel for their mobile Operating systems.
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