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?
Related
So I bought my first non-WM smartphone. Below is documentation of my quest to replace, and surpass, the experience I was used to with my Touch Diamond 2 running Windows Mobile 6.5. I am what you would probably call a windows mobile 'power user'. I've been averaging about one new WM phone every 6 months since 2005, most of them HTC. But I always keep up on what the other platforms are doing. This is just the first time I've taken the leap, and I quickly became aware of what new doors Android opened for me in just the first few hours of using the Nexus One. The OS is nice, but like most people, it really comes down to the apps for me.
I was initially thinking I'd do a big blog review, but I've run out of motivation. There's plenty of info on the Nexus One hardware and Android out there, so I don't need to rehash that stuff. What I haven't seen a lot of, though, is detailed accounts of people switching and what exactly they found.
There remains a couple major things missing from Android. The lack of an OCS client is probably the biggest one for me professionally, but since it's a Microsoft product, I don't see that changing any time soon. That and the lack of xvid playback will keep me carrying around my TD2 as backup for the foreseeable future. But other than that, I'm extremely happy and will definitely be sticking with the Nexus for a while. The next post will be a comprehensive list of (practically) every app I've installed, what they do for me, and how they compare to their WM counterparts (if there are any).
On to the apps...
Android Apps I've installed and believe I will continue to use.
This is a bit of a brain dump, so I apologize for not editing more thoroughly. Hopefully it will be useful to some, and feel free to suggest other apps you think I should try.
Advanced Task Killer - List of running apps that allows you to easily kill unwanted tasks. Nice to have for an OS that allows background apps, but I don't actually notice it slowing down, it seems to manage memory and close apps as needed.
Aldiko (replacing mobiReader, much better) - eReader with nice UI and quick access to several libraries of free books. Found Doctorow's books right away.
Amazon store - really just easier than using the web browser, but it also does barcode scanning and some other useful stuff.
BeamReader (replacing Adobe's wm reader) - rarely needed, but have to be able to see pdfs on the go sometimes
Beelicious - direct (cached) access to my delicious bookmarks. UI could be better and it's a bit of a pain to wade through them all, but it's useful.
BeyondPod (replacing YomoMedia, HUGE improvement) - It took me years to find a podcast downloader for WM that worked at all, but beyondpod is amazing. The UI is superb and inuitive. The customization is great. I have it setup to download only at night while charging. It remembers my place in podcasts and creates 'smart playlists' to make it easier to start listening. It also integrates with google reader, which is hugely useful because I can add new podcasts I'd like to listen to anywhere from google reader and then import then very quickly into beyondpod later. Also worth noting is the homescreen widget, which gives me access to basic controls and status from my home screen, no need to always navigate back into the app.
Browser (replacing Opera mobile) - Really there's not much difference here. Neither android nor WM have flash or silverlight support yet (although you can sort of get it on WM through skyfire, but that's not performant enough to be an everyday thing). Usability is about the same, but since multitouch zoom isn't enabled on nexus yet (though the hardware can technically support it), you have to use the zoom in/out buttons. This isn't as nice as zooming on the TD2 (zoom bar) or the HD2 (multitouch). Android does links to outside applications better though. It recognizes when you are browsing to a youtube video or RSS feed and will prompt correctly.
Cab4me - Nice little app for finding nearby cab companies making it very easy to see which is rated best, has cars available, and place the call. Not a must-have, but it's one of the little things.
Camera - very fast, 5mp (same as on hd2 and td2 wm phones), the LED flash is certainly better than nothing. Geotagging is default.
Car Home - this is Google's navigation 'car mode'. I think is this very cool, but honestly I won't end up using it much because I have navigation built into my car.
Carr Matey - dedicated app for recording car location so you can find it again. Another little nice thing I didn't have before. Android is just so much better at doing location-aware apps right now.
Documents to Go (replacing ms office mobile) - I'm using the lite version, which does not allow editing, but I have just never had the need to edit office docs on my phone. Sometimes I get one in an email and want to read it though, and this looks to do that fine. I'm happy.
Evernote (replacing Evernote) - I'm using this more and more as a dumping ground for everything that's not in email but I want to remember. This is what I use anytime I want to take a quick note (audio or text), or take a picture of a wine bottle or business card for later reference. It syncs with the cloud immediately and I can search that from anywhere.
Flashlight - not a big deal, but nice to have.
flickr droid (replacing shozu) - i like to have an easy way to upload a picture to flickr, this gives me that. I really like how android allows it to integrate with the normal gallery app. So after I take a picture I just have to view it, select 'share', and then select flickr droid (or other things like email, twitter, etc). It's more centralized than WM.
Flip2Silent and Vibrate During Meeting (replacing WM + HTC ringer management) - The ringer management on android is lacking as compared to WM. I used to be able to have my phone automatically go to vibrate during meetings, and silence the ringer after I pick up the phone (so it doesn't continue to be loud and annoying while I'm deciding whether to answer), AND there was a pocket mode to switch to vibrate and louder ring when the phone detected it was in a pocket. Vibrate During Meeting gives me back the meeting function, but it only works with the google calendar, not the exchange touchdown calendar in which all my actual meetings are stored. My work-around is to sync my exchange calendar with google via desktop outlook, but this doesn't keep it updated unless I have a desktop logged in. The good news is that the developer of this app says he'll look into touchdown. Flip2Silent gives me the option to just lay the phone screen-side-down to mute the ringer/vibrate functions. This will work while a call is coming in and I want to ignore it.
Foursquare - App for checking into various locations. It's treated like a game, you get points, but also get to see where your friends are and if they happen to be near you. Plus people leave tips for places.
g-backup and mybackup (replacing myphone on wm) - MS's myphone app on wm will automatically backup all user data (sms, mms, pictures, video, docs, etc) to the cloud every night. It can also restore these for when you get a new phone or hard-reset your current phone. I got used to having this. All my email and contacts are in exchange or the cloud anyway, but I don't want to lose these other things. MyPhone is also nice because all that data is accessible via the web. g-backup is cool because it will upload all this stuff to gmail, so you have it there, but it can't restore anything. MyBackup will backup and restore most things, but not pictures/video. So I'm using them both, but I'd like a more comprehensive solution.
Gallery (replacing HTC photo gallery) - The nexus gallery is implemented in 3d and is pretty cool, but ultimately it works about as well as the HTC version (which is also flashy). They need to add multi-touch zooming.
GCDroid (replacing gcz) - This is my geocaching app, but only until the official geocaching.com android app comes out (which is soon and it will be cool if their iphone app is any indication). Even though there isn't an official app for wm, the community created apps were pretty good. GCDroid is barely usable, but overall this category will be an upgrade over wm soon.
Glympse (replacing Glympse) - Something I'll rarely use, but it's cool when it applies. You can send a link to anyone that will allow them to track you via a webbrowser for x-minutes. So if you say you're on your way, they can actually see how far along you are.
Gmail (replacing hotmail) - both MS and Google have their email services integrated tightly with their mobile os. I used to forward all my gmail to hotmail so I could easily get it on my phone, so now I just flipped it. I like gmail well enough, and there are certainly features that are ahead of hotmail. I'm just happy to happy to have my personal email pushed to my phone.
Google maps (replacing google maps and bing) - This is definitely better than on WM, but ultimately it does the same stuff. It's smoother and a little easier to navigate (except, again, zooming is more difficult).
Meebo IM - nice to have an app that can log into ICQ, MSN, and GTalk all at once. Likely will rarely use it.
Messaging (replacing txt message HTC app) - this seems to be just what you'd expect. But at least it's very fast and predictable, unlike the HTC app which is sometimes laggy as hell.
Flixter Movies (replacing bing) - MS's bing app was good for finding local theaters and showtimes, this one does it with a bit more flash and some awesome additional features that i just found. It shows the rottentomatoes rating along with every movies. Plus, it has netflix integration, so it checks whether any movie is in my queue and lets me add it while browsing. It also has a list of recent dvd releases, which is great with the netflix thing. It also essentially serves as a mobile imdb. Very impressive.
Mother TED - dedicated app for watching TED talks. It seems ok but not great.
Music (replacing HTC media player) - Nothing special here. I don't know that I'll even use it much since i mostly listen to pandora or podcasts.
OpenTable - for the rare occasions when I make reservations (especially last minute) this will make it easy to find a place with an opening.
Pandora (NOT ON WM) - this is almost a reason to switch by itself. I hate that this isn't on wm yet. Very nicely implemented on android because it has a homescreen widget. I get all the basic controls without even having to go into the app, and I can use other apps while it plays in the background. Sound quality is great too.
Dialer - The android dialer is pretty basic, but it seems to get the job done. At least you can add a pause (with a comma) so that dialing conference numbers is somewhat doable (but still WAY harder than it should be, they don't do any smart parsing in meeting invites). This is still hard on WM though too.
PhoneFlicks (replacing official netflix wm app) - This is barely a replacement. Netflix's own app was better, this one is slower and harder to use, but at least I can do basic queue management from my phone, which is really nice sometimes.
SeattleBusBot - This is SO cool, and something I've wanted but couldn't find on wm. Seattle has the gps info of its buses available publicly, but their website is basically unusable on a phone (even on a desktop). This app will tell you exactly when a given bus is going to arrive, not just when it's scheduled.
Seesmic (replacing m.twitter.com on wm) - really good mobile twitter app. There are plenty of wm twitter apps, and HTC even builds one into the os now, but they tended to be slower. I think the HD2 is probably just as good as seesmic.
ShopSavvy - barcode scanning that tells you the closest places to get the given product and for how much. Haven't had a chance to see if this turns out to actually be useful, but I like the concept and test scans in the house have been accurate (which kinda surprises me because I had heard that phone barcode scanning doesn't work, but maybe the 5mp camera and snapdragon is making it more pratical).
TorrentFu (replacing starting torrents via Live mesh mobile) - This is a major upgrade (and rejected from itunes if I remember correctly). I finally switched to uTorrent on my server so I could use this. It uses the utorrent webui to connect, but exposes all the functionality like a local app. You can see progress, search for and start new torrents, and pause/resume. Very cool.
TripIt (replacing tripcase kinda) - I've only started experimenting with these two services, and i don't travel as much as I used to, but they are pretty good at what they do. Just forward your reservation emails and they build up a comprehensive itinerary and keep you updated. having a native app makes using these that much easier. Tripcase is on wm, tripit (which seems to be the better service) is on android.
tv.com - streaming tv from cbs, showtime, and some others. Haven't used this much, but always nice to have some free content.
Google Voice - At first I was skeptical about this because I don't have a real need to create a central phone number that rings all my phones, which was what i thought this service was for. Turns out you don't have to use that feature, and they also provide visual voicemail on android plus they send you transcriptions of the messages to your phone. so you can see who left messages and what they said (approximately) without even listening. So I'm definitely appreciating this feature.
Wapedia - native version of wikipedia. Nice and quick. why not?
y5 - Battery - This app is genius in its simplicity and value. It simply keeps track of where you are when you enable wifi, and remembers that going forward so it can automatically re-enable it when you come back to the same place. The rest of the time, it disables wifi to save battery. The end result here is that I never have to remember to turn wifi on or off when i come home or leave the house.
youtube (replacing youtube) - works well. nothing special to report except google's browser seems to be better at realizing when it should forward you to the youtube player.
yxflash (failing to replace coreplayer) - The only android app that claims to do xvid/divx decoding. I tried it on an xvid torrent that wm's coreplayer had no trouble with and it choked pretty hard. It played, but with extremely jittery video and slow sound. Not usable yet, but at least i know I might get something soon.
Touchdown (replacing exchange activesync on wm) - Saved the most important (and expensive @$22) for last. Without this app I wouldn't be able to sync my exchange data (contacts, email, calendar, tasks) with my phone because Android doesn't support all the required security features by default. (our company, like many these days, will not sync data with a platform that doesn't allow them to force the use of encryption, pin lock, and remote wipe) Beyond that, without the recently added feature of allowing me to flag emails for followup, I would not be able to switch to android because this workflow is too important to my everyday life.
Explanation: I check email on my phone often, and if I can respond then and there, I do, but if I can’t and need to follow up for any reason, I flag it. This creates a task in outlook which I will see the next time at my desk, so i KNOW i won't forget about it.
But there is an additional, more subtle, benefit at play here. And honestly, it's a little unfair to count it, but it makes such a huge difference in my enjoyment of my phone that I can't ignore it. I'm speaking about how the previously mentioned pin lock for exchange only applies (on android) to the touchdown app. I am not required to set a pin to unlock the phone itself. Ever since they turned on that requirement I've been punching in a 4 digit pin every damn time I wanted to glance at my phone, check the time, or even change the stupid volume! Now I'm finally free of that because google didn't bother to properly build in exchange support at the OS level. NICE! seriously though, this saves me so much annoyance it was almost worth the $530 by itself.
For a true windows power-user, it's worth shelling out the <$10 for Remote RDP. It works incredibly well, even when connecting to my Windows 7 PC from 3G across town (or presumably, the world).
The ability to USE MY HOME PC from ANYWHERE WITH NET ACCESS...
Absolutely incredible for a phone..
EDIT: my home net speed is pretty quick, which owes to fast remote access. Wifi will always be fast, though, and that's what this app is really designed for.
Good recommendation. Just downloaded the Remote RDP demo. Seems to work well.
Thank you for the run down... I just made the switch myself and a number of the apps you mentioned helped me fill some of my void from WM. I'm still a little pissed about the exchange issues but the real truth is any company I work for issues me a blackberry and doesn't allow other devices to connect to thier servers. I worked for one midsized company once that let me and that was the only time I was completely in love with my WM device. Since my personal email is through gmail the nexus one is really amazing as my personal phone.
Good Stuff! I'm in the same boat WM to Android and no turning back I'll check out some of the apps u listed...
One thing I'm looking for is a widget with power/memory/storage/sd gauges.
Always had this on the wm home for reference & cool stats!
If you geocache then GeoBeagle is the other main geocaching app. I don't cache much any more, but I have tried GeoBeagle and liked it, though I can't compare it to GCDroid...
Wanted to say thanks for the excellent app list. Touchdown is awesome. A way for me to connect to work without merging my exchange contacts with the rest of my phone. Now thats a win!
@Seraph321 - want to add my thanks for your app info. i'll be getting an N1 soon and knowing there are options to some of my "must haves" apps/features/functionality (e.g., Exchange) will help shorten my learning curve. i'm not going to abandon WM because it will continue to serve as my work phone. the N1 will be my after work/personal phone until i'm comfortable tweaking Android. that's my plan, but once i have the N1 my plan may change!
Great write up, and welcome to Android
A few suggestions
Text Messaging
The two heavyweights are Chomp SMS and Handcent SMS. Both are considerably better than the default SMS app, it mostly comes down to personal preference.
Browser
Dolphin Browser is hands down the best browser on Android right now. Multi-touch zooming, delicious integration, tabs, themes, and much more.
Flashlight
Do a market search for Nexus One Torch. It utilizes the LED from the camera flash to use as a flashlight. Very bright.
Ringer Management
Locale manages your phone based off time and location. Never used it myself, but heard good things, and I believe it was and Android Developers Challenge winner or something.
Backup
I'm simple and only need to backup text messages (most everything else is stored via SD card or synced with Google anyway). I use SMS Backup to backup my texts to Gmail, and it works fantastic. Uploads directly to my mail account, archives the texts, puts them in threads according to contact, tags them, and marks them as read. I can then easily search my text conversations from my phone or desktop browser via Gmail, and don't have to worry about deleting conversations from my phone and losing something. I've never used g-backup, so it may have this function already.
Twitter
I've tried a couple Twitter apps (not Seismic, though I'll be trying that next) and have landed on Swift, which currently is the fastest, and the best looking Twitter app I've used. I'm not a giant twitter user, so I don't know if it supports all the features any other apps might, but it works great for me, and would recommend it.
That's all for now. I don't have my phone next to me or I'd give it a quick run through and suggest something you might be missing, but I'll have to do that another time.
As for getting multi-touch support in google maps, the browser, and gallery... just wait, it's been hacked in for the G1/MT3G, it will certainly be hacked in for the Nexus One.
I'm still up in the air between ASTRO File Manager and Linda File Manager, but a file manager is an important addition to your tools, if you plan on keeping a lot of documents/files on board. Additionally, I know at least Linda has the DownloadCrutch functionality, associating itself with every filetype so that the browser will allow you to download such. To me, this last bit is essential.
Great stuff, I think a lot of people will be going from WM to Nexus because MS have failed to deliver for so long & there is now a great alternative with an OS that can be modded and a really cool handset.
So far I am happy to leave the N1 standard (not rooted) and play with apps - it is a real joy to have so many available & a single source for them.
Never going back !
+1 for Dolphin Browser... definitely a big step up over the default browser IMHO
SpyderMS said:
Great write up, and welcome to Android
A few suggestions
Text Messaging
The two heavyweights are Chomp SMS and Handcent SMS. Both are considerably better than the default SMS app, it mostly comes down to personal preference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
bofslime said:
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to agree though why doesnt the icon to the app on my home screen tell me how many unread SMS there are?
The Jones said:
I tend to agree though why doesnt the icon to the app on my home screen tell me how many unread SMS there are?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SMS Count
ok, at work with nothing to do, so I browsed through my phone, and here's a couple Apps you may be interested in. Some of these are useful, some are just kind of cool
AudioManager Widget
Nice little app that lets you adjust all your volume levels easily and quickly.
AppControl - Full Version
Best app manager I've used. Really fast, nice interface, and lots of options.
Barcode Scanner
Barcode scanning from the phone is fantastic. It's very pronounced in the Android community as well. You'll see barcodes not only on these forums, but on App websites like AndroLib.com, which let you scan the barcode, and instantly be linked to a website or Android Market page. It's not only useful on the Nexus One's 5mp camera and 1GHz processor either. Worked great on my G1.
Google Goggles
Take a picture of just about anything, and Google will search for relevant results.
Google Sky Map
Virtual Planetarium on your phone.
Layar Reality Browser 3.0
Augmented Reality browser. Displays information about objects in front of you overlayed on the camera display.
Pkt Auctions for eBay
If you use eBay at all, this is a great companion tool.
Shazam
Lets you identify music being played around you by letting your phone listen to and analyze it.
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
handcent settings -> conversation style.
handcent has a ton of settings options, including different settings for individual contacts (conversation style, font, notification tone, etc)
Thanks for all the suggestions. I've already spent too much work time today finding and installing the ones I like.
I don't actually do THAT much texting, so I'm sticking with the stock sms app for now, but I did install sms popup and set my girlfriend to popup. That's convenient.
Someone mentioned SMS backup, and yes, g-backup does the same thing only for more data, but they both need a scheduling option.
I see the nexus one torch app requires rooted access. I'm no stranger to hacking my gadgets, but this app (plus tethering, and maybe installing to the sd card) are the only things I've seen so far that have me interested in doing it. Can anyone provide some examples of why they consider rooting a must?
You mentioned Wi-Fi tethering already, but that reason alone is a pretty big reason. You may also want to theme your phone. Any kind of advancements that developers like Cyanogen come out with will require root as well. Cyanogen is known for pushing the envelope, helping to increase speed, and overall functionality of the G1, and other devices; not to mention you will get features from new versions of Android faster than those without root. I'm sure there are other reasons to, these are just off the top of my head. A lot of people are waiting until someone finds out how to reverse the bootloader unlocking process before they root, in order to preserve their warranty, and that's certainly a good idea if you don't have a lot of use for root at the moment. I did it, like most people that did, just because I can.
I'll make sure to watch the Cyanogen stuff closely. I never followed the G1 enhancements, so I guess I don't know what to expect. Sounds like it's likely I'll do it at some point though.
Is it easy to get all your apps, especially the ones that you paid for, back on your phone after rooting? Does the marketplace just remember it all and let you re-download?
I should just search for these answers.
Do you guys think google gets around on the web and reads what we are saying? If so do they try and listen or do you think they are on their own path.
Reason I say this is because I feel google and android could totally take over the market if they got a couple of things working. Google Music for one. I know they are working it but that is one of the only things I miss about the Iphone is how easy it was to buy / download / sync music.
Another thing is Itunes. It syncs everything pretty easily. I like how we can browse our file system put things where we want but it seems most people want the easiest way possible. if I buy a song, book or app to just be able to plug my device into a computer and just sync without any interaction.
What do you all belive google could do to completely take over the market? Or what would you like to see to make your android experience better?
Have you watched sales reports for the past two quarters? Android isn't losing market share anywhere, in fact they are gaining it in every segment. I don't think they have anything to worry about at the moment.
I think, iTunes is retarded. There is absolutely no reason that in 2011, you need to EVER plug your phone into your PC to 'Sync'. Maybe pull a few large movies over, that OTA is not feasible for - but everything else should be done in the cloud.
One of my biggest issues with iPhone is the requirement of iTunes, even if you just use it once when you first turn the phone on.
Makes it hard to replace a computer with an iPad if it has to be sync'd with a computer to use it the first time.
Most of the larger consumer electronics/web companies have paid staff positions that monitor various blogs and forums and post as consumers (with an agenda).
Saw the announcement today and I got a couple of questions. What's the advantage of having cloud-based music other than being able to listen to music anywhere on any devices? If I were to stream music from the cloud, wouldn't it use up my data bandwidth and consume more battery power on my device? How's the quality of the stream? Is the audio quality going to be as good as the original music file?
As far as battery goes , that would be a yes ....
Yes it will use your data unless you have a constant wifi on the go
All other questions will have to wait and see .. I signed up for Beta .. Hope i get the invite
Chosen_on184 said:
As far as battery goes , that would be a yes ....
Yes it will use your data unless you have a constant wifi on the go
All other questions will have to wait and see .. I signed up for Beta .. Hope i get the invite
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lucky you. Google doesn't give any love to their Northern neighbours.
NexusDro said:
Lucky you. Google doesn't give any love to their Northern neighbours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in Toronto. I signed up for an invite using a US proxy. This is the same way I successfully signed up for Google Voice. Hopefully it works for Google Music.
I also installed the new Google Music app on my N1 (showthread.php?t=1072655), and it's pretty cool. It replaces the stock music player.
As a customer who has 500MB of data a month it's totally useless for me.
Even if I had a 5GB plan, why wouldn't I just throw it on my SD card?
ot86 said:
I also installed the new Google Music app on my N1 (showthread.php?t=1072655), and it's pretty cool. It replaces the stock music player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The new Google app looks nicer, but I don't really like it. There's no way to queue multiple albums without creating a named playlist and there is no notification bar in the horizontal layout. I don't want my music app to hide my notifications, I don't see the point of that.
It's much prettier, but they REALLY need to implement lockscreen controls. I find those to be a must-have for use in the car.
Well right now I use the Amazon cloud and it works pretty nicely. And at first I wouldn't think I would use it at all. But I do use it on my work comp and my phone via wifi only. But Amazon does have the option of downloading to your device and they actually recommend it because of the bandwidth issue.
I too asked for the invite. As n1 user that has the wave, voice and gmail, this would be a great addition to my google pack .
Matt1408 said:
As a customer who has 500MB of data a month it's totally useless for me.
Even if I had a 5GB plan, why wouldn't I just throw it on my SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. Better off just playing directly from my SD card. And FM radio is still useful too
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Actually just read the following on the Music Beta website:-
Not online? No problem. The songs you've recently played will automatically be available offline. You can also select the specific albums, artists and playlists you want to have available when you're not connected.
http://music.google.com/about/
I was in the middle of messing around with my updated Music app when my 2.3.4 N1 rebooted...Anyone else?
I have it
I have the service now and checked it on nexus one and my new tablet. I should say the app is nice and the music service work like charm. You can pin music on your device so you dont need to download them again, but on a new device, you will have all musics again. All playlist will be syncs on all of your devices.
The only feature I love to see now is to sync back musics from N1 and tablet. The only way you can upload now is PC, this is my understanding, I need to play with it more.
updated to new version 3.0 and took almost 10MB of my internal memory!! Using titanium backup to integrate the app's update into ROM fails and it gives a force close...
HHmmm...I don't think I will spare those 10MB's for that one...
No
+10char
has anyone heard on any limits or anything the cloud based music will be? its a nice feature but putting 90gb of music up on googles servers will takes quite a bit of time for me, along with if there is a cost involved, i think my current set up suits me better than relying on someone elses cloud. granted the [email protected] stuff they were demoing puts a much different spin on things with the tungsten devices
I currently use subsonic which sort of makes my home computer the cloud with my music. I can stream my music collection from any pc mac or linux through the web browser or over my n1 or an iphone if i had one. to answer the op's questions about could streaming yes its gonna use a bit of battery and yeah, data usage will go up.
one of the options in subsonic that is helpful to some with restricted data plans is preloading a set list that can be done on wifi and configuring a max cache size in MB, i dont think ive seen settings like this available in the google music stuff yet
I don't see a big sence in Google Music.
Most people have the few songs they listen to on their computer, why store it in a cloud?
I think one of the nice things is it allows us more space on our sdcards for other things. I am constantly moving tv shows and movies between my desktop and phone, and if I cleared up the 15GB of music I have stored on there, that means less moving around of other files.
But, with that being said, I couldn't use this here (and I am not sure I would use it in the states), as they give me a 1GB cap per month which I always get close to or go over (then they throttle your speeds to roughly dial-up speeds)... plus the drive from work to home goes through two different bermuda triangles as far as reception is concerned (and my village is basically devoid of a T-Mobile signal, although I guess Vodophone or O2 has a signal there...). I don't know how much of your collection it will queue. And I definitely wouldn't do it if the songs can't load fast enough in EDGE (never really tested it) as I almost always have 3G disabled to help with battery life.
Just got my invite yesterday...
There's a number of advantages, like always being able to access all your music (I have 100+ gb, so it would never fit on the phone), secure backup for your music (in case of hard drive failure), etc.
You're not forced into using it, so it's just another option. I've previously been using Audio Galaxy, but that requires my home pc to always be available. This is a bit more flexible...
danger-rat said:
Just got my invite yesterday...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still waiting for my invite. I am hoping that I can still use it in Germany (used a proxy for to request the invite... just like Google Voice, which the texting is awesome when overseas), but it may come while I am in the states for a month on leave. Either way, I am always willing to try out new things...
@Rat, how much storage did they give you? I think I remember reading it, but I don't remember... somewhere around 10GB for the free version?
Storage is unlimited and free "while in beta". I've no idea what the final number will be...?
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still, with Android, there's rarely just one way to do something. There's gotta be a dozen wireless ways he could've got his music straight to the phone without this ridiculous method he was using.
This is a strange post. I have owned a tons of Android phones. This one has been the best. Not sure about the music issue my phone is playing my mp3s off my sd card....????
Iphone user regret it sounds..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
after 3 months with the Ativ WP8 I start thinking to change to android (eventually Galaxy4) for good reasons
1. Incomplete BT stack - no keyboard to connect or certain consoles
2. Miserable sync with Outlook and One-Notes
3. Limited camera functions - e.g. where to save and to transfer to a PC)
4. Cannot use DropBox
5. Useless letters in apps
6. Want not and cannot allow certain info an the cloud (SkyDrive)
7. Calendar - no weekly, daily and to-do app
8. No basic info like battery status, signal strength, Wi-Fi visible as a top bar
9. Better organization for apps, e.g. based on importance and not just one long list to scroll, why not at least two
I am aware that WP8 is a great improvement and with good tools, but I have to decide what serves my daily needs the best. Is there any major update in the next few months to expect. Any suggestions
Not sure if trolling or just ...
Sell it to me.
Sent from rehab using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
mcosmin222 said:
Not sure if trolling or just ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not trolling mate, this isn't windowsphonecentral. You're not going to get an army of windows phone enthusiasts trying to go against this guy.
Lol trolls.
Sent from Lumia 810 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
theguitarman94 said:
Not trolling mate, this isn't windowsphonecentral. You're not going to get an army of windows phone enthusiasts trying to go against this guy.[/QUOT]
Given his reasons, I am 100% convinced he is either a troll or too stupid to use a smartphone, in which case, Android/WP/IOS won't make much of a difference.
So I think he is a troll.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean it is very difficult to find the signal strength
If you're not happy with how the phone handles things and if it can't do certain things you need it to do the best way to go is to sell the phone and get one that does. Given that you already tried to find solutions for some of those things and found out that they could not be done differently on WP you are left with only two options:
- live with how things are done/can be done (e.g. Jump Lists in the App List, pinning important Apps to the Start Screen)
- get rid of the phone and use something else in the hopes of it doing things the way you want them done
You can be sure not a troll nor stupid. I use mobile phones from the beginning and can very well distinguish pros and cons. We can and do build out own servers and use the phone as a business tool. Just see what MS did with the BT stack, incomplete, you cannot connect a simple keyboard which is needed when taking notes in conferences, Using the cloud for confidential information is a nono, DropBox does not work with WP8.... Me or someone else calling stupid shows where your standard is.
When I make a final decision to sell the phone you will be the first for an offer. It will come with a nice black leather case open front and 32 GB SD card. I need some additional research to find the right solution.
[email protected] said:
after 3 months with the Ativ WP8 I start thinking to change to android (eventually Galaxy4) for good reasons
1. Incomplete BT stack - no keyboard to connect or certain consoles
2. Miserable sync with Outlook and One-Notes
3. Limited camera functions - e.g. where to save and to transfer to a PC)
4. Cannot use DropBox
5. Useless letters in apps
6. Want not and cannot allow certain info an the cloud (SkyDrive)
7. Calendar - no weekly, daily and to-do app
8. No basic info like battery status, signal strength, Wi-Fi visible as a top bar
9. Better organization for apps, e.g. based on importance and not just one long list to scroll, why not at least two
I am aware that WP8 is a great improvement and with good tools, but I have to decide what serves my daily needs the best. Is there any major update in the next few months to expect. Any suggestions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So to avoid wasting more thread space criticizing OP:
1. Yes, the BT stack is limited, but what's there works well (other phones have all sorts of issues with BT freezing on connect, etc.)
2. If by "Outlook," you mean Outlook.com or an Exchange server, nothing syncs better with those than WP; same with OneNote; the only thing that would make sense is if you mean data stored in a local PST on the desktop Outlook app, which WP doesn't directly sync to-- valid point, but other platforms don't do native sync at all (or very well) either, so the only real comparison point is Windows Mobile 6.x lol; if you do want to do local Outlook syncing, try Akruto Sync
3. What's limited? Plug in a USB cable, or open your SkyDrive folder, and it's all there
4. Actually you can-- see the "Boxfiles" app
5. Don't know what you mean
6. Don't know what you mean
7. The Calendar app has daily, agenda, and month views, along with to-dos- what more are you looking for?
8. All of that is in the top bar- just tap it
9. That's what start screen pinning is for; the list itself has alphabetical and search functions
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
[email protected] said:
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
On the top bar, if you tap anywhere in the bar (on the time or anywhere to the left of it), the cell + Wifi + BT + battery status show up. They disappear after a few seconds in the interest of clean design (then show up only when there's a problem, like no signal or low battery). On the app list, in addition to the alphabetical jump-list, there's also a search button at the top-left.
The Calendar app has to-dos (see the "to-do" tab to the right of "agenda"). Week view is indeed missing-- MS should prob implement it in landscape view, as Apple did when it added week view in iOS 5. You can sort of approximate it by tapping month view -> day for each day of the week. Something weird about the month view is that if you look at it carefully on a 720p device in landscape, you'll notice the number of items matches how many you have scheduled for that day, but the actual text is gibberish (lorem ipsum) instead of your actual items, since it's not meant to be visible haha.
I've been a pretty heavy OneNote user- the WP8 app is not the full desktop app by any means, but it's better than what you get on Android or iOS. The local file manager issue is valid-- WP8 does not expose the file system in the interest of simplicity, which does make things less flexible than, say, Windows Mobile. I use SkyDrive as a sort of local drive, since everything in WP8 can save there-- but if you have concerns with consumer cloud services (SkyDrive, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc.) being subpoenable, etc., that's a valid concern.
There is some motion in that space, though-- I know of many law firms that have switched to Office 365 for Exchange/Sharepoint/etc. (which is a lot more data than just files in SkyDrive), since the uptime and security is actually better than what they had in-house (http://www.microsoftbusinesshub.com/Industries/Legal). That includes "SkyDrive Pro," the Sharepoint file store.
If I can suggest something, take a look at the Surface RT, with the Type Cover. You'll get a full-blown Windows experience, with local files, full-blown Office 2013 (minus x86 macros) with desktop OneNote, etc., and a great keyboard, but 10-hour battery life, in a 1.5 lb form factor. There's a TeamViewer app for WinRT, and you can access almost anything a full PC can (here on XDA, people have even ported x86 desktop apps and an x86 emulator). I generally carry the Surface + WP8 everywhere now-- phone for quick stuff and Surface for longer content.
[email protected] said:
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U couldnt have data from ur clients on a cloud? Then u shouldnt use android
And if u want not to use Skydrive with Onenote u can also create Offline Word Documents and write down ur Meeting Information there.
And what exactly isnt working with One Note on PC and ur Phone?
But for what r u using dropbox? Isnt that a cloud too?
After u press a Letter in the Apps Menu the Alphabet is show so u can select the Letter u want ur App starts with.
For the Topbar u can always touch on the Clock to get the Whole Topbar shown with all Informations.
[email protected] said:
You can be sure not a troll nor stupid. I use mobile phones from the beginning and can very well distinguish pros and cons. We can and do build out own servers and use the phone as a business tool. Just see what MS did with the BT stack, incomplete, you cannot connect a simple keyboard which is needed when taking notes in conferences, Using the cloud for confidential information is a nono, DropBox does not work with WP8.... Me or someone else calling stupid shows where your standard is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Androids bt stack is also incomplete. Most of the other things you mention are there. If its trully business usage you want then buy a WM device, not even your beloved android comes close to wm. The only thing wm doesn't do better is games and video playback and most of that is down to crap drivers from the oems
Sent from my Arc using xda app-developers app
Thanks for your answer but you should not imply like "not even your beloved android comes close to wm" never used it. You asked "And what exactly isnt working with One Note on PC and ur Phone?" On the PC I have in One Note a personal and office section. The office section can only be seen with Sky Drive.Why not having both section direct in the Phones One Note without Sky Drive. Any suggestion? I guess it is possible but do not know to get it done. It seems Logitech will bring a compatible Keyboard for the Ativ,
Calendar, I use Week View 8 what does the most I need, but you cannot change there appointments or to dos, you have to go through agenda.. We have Office 365 and have until today nit made a final decision.A replacement for Team Viewer not found except you run it through Internet Explorer.I will always listen and learn and keep things in an appropriate way.
[email protected] said:
Thanks for your answer but you should not imply like "not even your beloved android comes close to wm" never used it. You asked "And what exactly isnt working with One Note on PC and ur Phone?" On the PC I have in One Note a personal and office section. The office section can only be seen with Sky Drive.Why not having both section direct in the Phones One Note without Sky Drive. Any suggestion? I guess it is possible but do not know to get it done. It seems Logitech will bring a compatible Keyboard for the Ativ,
Calendar, I use Week View 8 what does the most I need, but you cannot change there appointments or to dos, you have to go through agenda.. We have Office 365 and have until today nit made a final decision.A replacement for Team Viewer not found except you run it through Internet Explorer.I will always listen and learn and keep things in an appropriate way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like vnc better then teamviewer personally. Ive never had as problem with one note or outlook syncing. I also enjoy the android os on my tablet. Perhaps that might be a solution for you. I use my Aviv s to provide internet to my android tablet.
Sent from my A100 using xda app-developers app
[email protected] said:
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there is one thing that WP does infinitely better than Android, that is protecting your privacy.
Hell, on android you can even get spyware and trojan downloaded from the marketplace, and you will never even know it. If you want privacy, go for WP and stick with it.
mcosmin222 said:
If there is one thing that WP does infinitely better than Android, that is protecting your privacy.
Hell, on android you can even get spyware and trojan downloaded from the marketplace, and you will never even know it. If you want privacy, go for WP and stick with it.
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LOL.......it seems that 95% of WP apps require access to your location, and they send this also to Microsoft. Having access to my location is fine, as long as it makes sense.
Darkjamzi said:
LOL.......it seems that 95% of WP apps require access to your location, and they send this also to Microsoft. Having access to my location is fine, as long as it makes sense.
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cause yeh LOL google maps location process doesn't run like 100% if time in the background on ANY android phone.