I will openly admit I am a mobile phone slut like no other. I read up on the latest mobile news and am always excited about the next big mobile OS. This is a thread for those like me. Since we have a new Mobile Forum which is about developing for mobile devices I figured it is a good time to start a club thread for those who want to talk about phones.

In this thread you can discuss your current phone, ROM, apps, accessories, news, upcoming devices, whatever!

Some ground rules:
- This isn't a place for flame wars so don't pick fights over whether iOS or Android is better.

- Be respectful of others' opinions and be polite to those who aren't in the know - we were all new to something at one time! If somebody has a question and you can't keep yourself from raging out then just don't reply - their post will either be ignored and buried or somebody will contain their rage long enough to be nice to them.

- Use your common sense. Don't come to this thread expecting expert opinion on how to fix your fucked up phone - you should call your carrier's tech support.

- Do Not try to be a smartass and lead a newblet to bricking their shiny, new (and expensive) phone by suggesting a root or ROM that is not designed for their handset. I know a lot of that stuff is a little shaky but it is technically legal to jailbreak or mod a phone and I want to encourage that ecosystem here.

Members:
- there is no membership criteria or ranks. Just post and have fun. If you want, let us know what your handset is, its operating system and version and any customization you have done to it (like gingerbreak)

I'm currently running: Motorola Droid 3. It came with a locked bootloader so no fun to be had (yet) but at least it came preinstalled with AOS 2.3.4!

Group name explanation: both "mobile" and "phone" may potentially be searched by somebody looking for this club and "club" or "crew" is pretty much useless to search with the limited capabilities of the forum search. ^_^

I recently got the verizon iphone 4 and it kicks ass.

At 7/21/11 10:22 PM, Magical-Zorse wrote: I recently got the verizon iphone 4 and it kicks ass.

I was really torn between upgrading to an iPhone or an Android. I was upgrading from a Windows Mobile 6.1 Samsung Omnia (circa 2009) so I was really hurting for one of the major platforms since I clearly chose the wrong one last time around (it was my first "smart" phone from years with a cheapo flip phone).

I was considering iPhone 4 because the spousal unit has a Droid 2 so it would be kind of cool to have one of each OS but at the same time I really hated the touch screen on my Omnia and thought her phone was the perfect compromise of touchscreen but a huge QWERTY keyboard. When I heard that the Droid 3 was out (it was a very quiet launch) and I saw that I was eligible for an early upgrade I think my mind was made.

The iPhone 4 looks great but it's specs weren't quite what the Droid 3 had and I really liked the experience of my wife's Droid 2. It's really about refinement with Apple so while its phones may have a little lower specs as far as processors and RAM they put a lot of work into good solid design and user interface - something that might be lost on an android phone that a manufacturer would try to pump out with dual core processors and HD camcorders - something I was willing to deal with because of the strong developer communities that have grown around phones like the original Droid.

What was interesting I found was that in a (rather upsetting looking) teardown of the Droid 3 they found it shared the same 3G chip with the iPhone 4.

I have a Palm Pixi plus, I don't have a computer at the moment so I use it to post and I'm constantly on it.

I can feel the cancer growing already :D

I have the HTC EVO. Just the regular 4g one, no 3d for me yet.

I really hate touch screen because I love to text and it's just been a pain in the ass learning how to text with it.

I do love having the fast Internet access wherever I go though, that's been real helpful, especially the GPS.

I have a uhh... Generic pre-paid phone from K-mart. I like it.

I'm no mobile enthusiast. In fact 90% of the time my mobile's on silent, and I mostly use it for listening to music and taking pictures when necessary. But to contribute I'll say I've had a Nokia N95 and despite it having a big-ass screen which eats my battery after like half a week of inactivity on it, it's served me for years and I only dropped it once :3.

I just bought a Samsung B2710. I bought this cuz i have the tendency to drop my phone a lot and this phone it almost water proof and shock proof. It also has nice features GPS MP3 FMradio microSD 2mp cam

- IP67 certified - dust and water proof (the reason i bought it)

I'm using an iPhone, the very first one, with a broken screen, scratches, and the oldest App Store in ever.

Although, I'm going to buy an HTC Desire soon, maybe, probably, no.

I have the new Sidekick 4G (got it the day it came out) and I must say I haven't found a problem with it yet (no glitches, freezes, or low battery life)! I've been in love with qwerty keyboards on phones and I've been a sidekick fan since the first gen so I highly recommend it. Now there are a few flaws to it: 1) NO SWIVEL!!! There's no popular swivel that the sidekick is known for and 2) The camera isn't the most high tech one out there but I must say it does a great job! All in all I give it a 4.89/5. Oh, and no customization...YET!

Okay, for those familiar with the phones that are about in UK, what would you recommend I go for? I'm looking for My First Smartphone, not really sure. I wouldn't say no to an iPhone but I'd like to pay a little less per month than what they offer at the mo. No to blackberry, I just don't like the OS. I'm not bothered about a keyboard... so essentially I'm left with HTCs or Samsungs, anyone got thoughts?

At 7/24/11 04:31 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: Okay, for those familiar with the phones that are about in UK, what would you recommend I go for? I'm looking for My First Smartphone, not really sure. I wouldn't say no to an iPhone but I'd like to pay a little less per month than what they offer at the mo. No to blackberry, I just don't like the OS. I'm not bothered about a keyboard... so essentially I'm left with HTCs or Samsungs, anyone got thoughts?

If I were you, I'd definitely pick up a HTC ChaCha because I cannot live without a physical QWERTY keyboard.

Currently using a Blackberry Curve 9300.

Oh man, I've been neglecting this thread :(

Here's something I am tinkering with: Automation.

When I heard the Droid Razr was coming out they were plugging that smart actions thing that's baked into it and I thought "man, I bet there are already automation apps" so I looked some up. From what I can find the most powerful is Tasker but it costs $6 or so. In the comments on an engadget story from last year the users mentioned a free alternative, llama. So, I gave it a shot.

So far I am really only interested between the "work" and "home" preset profiles - for each you can have the app "learn" your work/school/home locations separately and perform tasks and change settings for those locations (for instance: when you arrive at home it will turn the ringer to loud and turn wifi on). It learns the locations based on cell towers rather than GPS, which helps save on battery life. When you get near those cell towers it can approximate that you are "home" or at "work" and will set the profiles and run tasks if you set it to use the location profiles.

If you are a creature of habit it allows you to set it to do things and change settings at certain times of day - these can run concurrently with the location settings - so if you're at home and it's bed time at 11pm it will change the sound down to "quiet" or silence your ringtone while increasing the volume on your alarm clock.

The first real thing I decided to toy with was having it run an application after a certain "action" - When I plug headphones in it automatically starts pandora. To make it more fun I made sure that it would only open Pandora if I were at home and wifi was on. If I am at work setting and I plug in headphones I have it set to simply start playing music that's on my phone rather than starting Pandora.

I'm currently posting this on the HTC Desire Z, or Vision as it's called elsewhere. It's a great phone, although that's not to say I haven't had any problems with it. For example, after updating Android one time my use of SD cards has completely become impossible, I had a lot of problems with battery life (sometimes it would literally drain from 100% to 0 in the matter of an hour and a half), culminating in me having to purchase a huge battery pack which juts out from the back. In addition, the main complaint is that out of nowhere my ability to make phonecalls has simply stopped, and apparently others have had the same issue. Unfortunately, their customer services are terrible, and someone else with the same issue that I have sent their phone back upon request, only to have it returned with the error still standing.

For these reasons, I would not suggest going for HTC in future, simply for the risks that come along with them coupled with the bad customer service. Not to say that they don't have great build quality and such, but there are many other alternatives that are often safer options.

So plugging my headphones in does open pandora even if the phone has been idle and locked for a while - that is pretty awesome. But I found the leaving and returning home can be a little hard. Since it uses cell towers, if you don't go far or don't give it much time to learn the towers near you it might have a problem noticing that you have left and returned home. Earlier today I ran to the post office and grabbed some food only a mile or so from my house. Llama didn't turn off my wifi since it was a little confused as to whether I left home or not - i'm not sure whether having more cell towers learned is good or bad for that.

When I got home it kept turning my wifi on and off and sure enough it was thinking I was entering and leaving "home" every 30 seconds or so - I guess a vital tower was just beyond reach - so I let it learn my location for an hour or so - it added 2 towers to my "home" mix and it hasn't thought I left home since.

I'll try a further excursion tomorrow to see if it truly works.

Screen rotate was also a little difficult - I had already toggled it to be disabled so I could read lying down in bed but I also set it to enable it between 6am and 9pm but when I got up in the morning (after 6am) my auto rotation was still disabled so I manually enabled it again. Good news is that at 9pm tonight my auto rotation was disabled by the app.

I'm on a 24 month plan with a HTC Legend.

It's awful. The hardware isn't good enough to deliver a decent Android experience in comparison to other Android phones. Avoid at all costs.

Seeing as this place has been bumped I figure I could ask you guys a question.

Basically, seeing as I never ask for anything at Christmas, I was asked if I'd like a new phone seeing as I currently have a Samsung Tocco Lite. A pretty low end touch-screen phone that is generally pretty crap. I was looking at some of the lower end smart phones and found the HTC Wildfire S for £130, which is within the budget.

A lot of my friends (3 of them) have or had the HTC Desire and use that thing constantly. I know the Wildfire is basically a dumbed down version of the Desire, but my question is, will it be noticeably worse? I only really wanted a smart phone so that I could read emails on the move, browse the net while I'm sitting on the bus. Stuff like that. The fact that it has a 5 mega-pixel camera was also a nice touch but I've had mixed responses about the quality of the camera.

Does anyone have experience with this model? Do you think it would make a pretty decent first smart phone or will I regret buying it and wish I went for another phone?

At 12/2/11 05:47 AM, Dean wrote: Does anyone have experience with this model? Do you think it would make a pretty decent first smart phone or will I regret buying it and wish I went for another phone?

For those uses you listed the Wildfire S sounds pretty suitable, and although it's not a high-range phone neither is it a bad phone at all. As I mentioned above, there's a bit of risk rolling with HTC due to their customer service policy being something along the lines of 'get fucked, son', to the point that apparently it was on Watchdog, however you cannot complain about the build quality, and I'm pretty sure that the Wildfire S sold pretty well and thus they will put a bit more thought into it - where the DZ/Vision didn't ship too many units they seem to have no desire (excuse the pun) to sort out any of the issues exclusive to it. I have yet to see a Wildfire S for myself, however I know the original got a good critical reception, and I believe the same could probably be said for the S model, as they are essentially just improved versions of the original (bar from the Desire S, which looks and feels pretty different from the original Desire).

Greenfrost's post above about the Legend seems to be even more anti-HTC sentiment, however that may just be because the Legend is most likely beginning to show signs of age - although I'm not particularly sure if it really is that old at all. All I personally know about it is that it's the successor to the Hero, which a friend of mine used to have, an awesome phone at the time but with how quickly phones age nowadays by now it's been left in the dust-trail of the newer phones coming out. I'm not too sure about the actual age of the Legend, but from what I've heard it's actually quite a good phone, so what I just read is a bit different from the norm. I'm hoping to swap away from HTC on my next phone purchase, simply due to the issues I've experienced and the fact that the customer service department seems to be pretty low-standard. I'm not sure where I'll end up going, however I'll think about that closer to the time, perhaps in another year or so.

At 12/2/11 04:07 PM, Lizzardis wrote: See this, this right here, is one of the only downsides to having an iPhone 4, and it's the ability to post on forums such as this one. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't use any other phone now. The iPhone 4 has literally changed the way I look and use phones.

Posting isn't exactly perfect on the Desire Z, however the key makes it far less awkward to use, and generally I still use the desktop version of sites (I have my useragent permanently set to desktop), so there not being a limited mobile version of Newgrounds doesn't bother me too much. Moving your focus across different sections of the text with a single tap for whatever reason never seems to work whilst making BBS posts, which is certainly strange, however when you hold your finger down over text you go into a selection mode which is slightly zoomed in, and through that it works perfectly. My IRL BFF is actually a HTC -> iPhone 4 convert, and he's liking his decision, and although I'm an Android fanboy I admit that the iPhone is a great phone. Before going over he had both the Hero, and then the Desire S.

I originally had the iPhone 3G but when I say to you, it was slow... MY god. Words can not even describe. The iPhone 4 changed everything.

Ah, I get you. I've used a 3G very briefly and it seemed relatively snappy, however from what I've seen from other people the 4 seems extremely snappy, especially when using native apps. Although I'm anything but an Apple fan (I personally have a pretty negative view of them, however that's primarily based on my opinions of their Mac PCs), I have to admit that their work on the operating system and optimisation of it for use on their selected hardware is great. The problem I find is that due to this optimisation being the reason they stand out, creating a varying range of products is difficult, and from the looks of it they will continue to have a great market share in the medium-high range, whilst both higher and especially lower tiered sections of the markets will pass them by.

Even with the 4S now on the market, the only other thing which is different is SIRI and a faster chip (Which may I add, not a lot of people will see the effects of, until other "more demanding" apps appear) so there isn't much difference.

I agree, I think right now owning a 4S as opposed to 4 is more of a 'bragging rights' thing between the more serious Apple fans amongst us. Voice recognition, including Siri, is something I've never been particularly interested in and before Apple created a rendition of it nobody were - although, as ever, the moment Apple try something out their fans get extremely excited, the excitement spreads outside and before you know you have a bandwagon of other companies trying to capitalise on the aforementioned excitement. The dual-core chip is great in theory, however other than a few of the native applications the majority on the market are not yet optimised for use on it, and it'll take a good few months until a good percentage of their apps begin to make use of both cores in order to extract as much performance as they can.

However, the iPhone has ALWAYS struggled to post on websites such as this. The layout is fine, it's just when posting, the posting message box just doesn't seem to want to work with it. I press the home button, and the app is "still in the background" on multitasking, I open it back up... And I have to log in again. Fantastic.

Ah, that does sound rather annoying. Little things like that may be fixable with alternative browsers, I believe that Dolphin HD, the browser that I use is also available on iPhone, and I imagine that it would perform the same way and clearing temporary information the moment you take the focus off of it will likely come under that same margin.

Anyone know of anything to sort this out? Haha. I heard CitricSquid crated like an app or something to post on NG from his iPhone. Now that... Would help.

Unfortunately, as a non-iPhone-user I do not know exactly. Perhaps you could send a message to Sam asking about the application and whether it actually was created and if he would mind sharing it with you. He seems to have gotten up to a lot, in unrelated news. I was with a bro a while ago and on the Minecraft forums I saw his name before finding out that he was the original host of both minecraftforums.net and minecraftwiki.net in addition to currently working for the company whom purchased the domain from him.

There's an app for everything, and with a jailbroken phone you can bet your arse there's a tweak for everything too.

Haha. Although the more strict DRM that 'jailbreaking' removes is not present on Android, the closest equivalent is 'rooting' giving you access to the root files of the phone and allowing you to install custom ROMs on, including a lot of tweaks and completely user-created versions of the operating system containing some nice little changes. Unfortunately, due to my memory card's failure to be used following a fucked up update I haven't been able to set it up once again after losing my root access whilst formatting the whole thing a while back.

I've never agreed with HTCs, nor Blackberrys (No, this isn't an iPhone Vs Blackberry comment), because I've never got into them. What I find very confusing is that the Android and Blackberry OSs', confuse the hell out of me, and I don't know why. I suppose it's because i've never tinkered with one.

Yeah, it's all a matter of sticking to what you're used to. I personally like the iPhone UI, however I think it feels a little... hollow. It's not a particularly good word, however I cannot think of a better one or how to explain why that word comes to mind. It's far cleaner and is nicer on the eye, but I just do not like it for whatever reason. The Blackberry OS, I believe, is in dire need of a lot of updates in order to keep it on par with the rest of the game. Although it was around before the other 'smart' mobile operating systems emerged, giving it a great starting position when all of the competition, they haven't really expanded too far, despite every competitor catching up and taking over them, they seem to have just created a few modifications to their base operating system. Things just feel a bit on the archaic side, and despite being the 'original' smartphones to find a large market, I barely feel that nowadays most of their offerings deserve the label.

However my girlfriend now has the Blackberry Torch, and she says it's the best phone she's ever had, so opinions differ really.

I haven't actually used the Torch, and nor have I read a lot about it, all I know is that it's their highest-end offering, despite having relatively weak internal components. Due to the low required specs of Blackberry OS, I believe it should perform kinda well regardless.

It depends on what you use the phone for. CNET gave the iPhone the award for World worst phone, earlier last year, yet I think that Apple have sorted out some of the problems pointed out there in the iPhone 4(S).

I have a feeling my phone would beat the iPhone in the 'worst phone' category as it has completely lost the ability to make calls, I can connect and such and hear the other person's voice and yet they cannot hear mine. Supposedly others have had the same problem and in each case HTC refuses to fix it and usually sends the phone straight back.

Think about it, a phone which is good at one thing and not so with others, or a phone that is mediocre at everything?

I'm not quite sure, however for individual people different phones which support better support for individual aspects would be more fitting for their personal goal, which is my personal reasoning behind my preference for my own phone - the physical keyboard makes typing a lot faster, and as I largely use it for typing, that's important.

It's of course based on different opinions, that's just my view on the iPhone 4 now.

Good to speak to you bro.

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At 12/2/11 12:17 AM, Travis wrote: Does my iPod Touch count?

No reason why not. It's just an iphone minus the phone chip bits. I imagine tablets would fit well in here too, as well as wifi-only versions of other devices like the Galaxy S II that are on level with the ipod touch.

At 12/2/11 04:07 PM, Lizzardis wrote: However, the iPhone has ALWAYS struggled to post on websites such as this. The layout is fine, it's just when posting, the posting message box just doesn't seem to want to work with it. I press the home button, and the app is "still in the background" on multitasking, I open it back up... And I have to log in again. Fantastic. Anyone know of anything to sort this out? Haha. I heard CitricSquid crated like an app or something to post on NG from his iPhone. Now that... Would help.

I believe the reason for having issues with posting on the forum is due to the stock web browser on it - I don't believe it allows for much javascript, which is something you need to post on the forums.

I was able to read threads and even post new threads with an flip phone a few years ago (a Samsung Alias if you wish to know) and it was a very bare bones experience. it loaded text only (not a full html browser like you see these days).

Perhaps an after-market browser like Dolphin HD has something for iphones that would allow it to post and view parts of the web. I also think there are apps that can, in a way, make flash content show up on an iphone.

At 12/4/11 08:13 PM, Lizzardis wrote: Literally a few minutes after I read this post, I decided to google other web browsers for the iPhone to which I could use, I decided to go with the Opera Mini browser,

I have a very brief stint of using Opera Mini, however the word 'mini' was just a bit too true for it. It just felt like a shell of a browser and although pretty fast it wasn't too feature rich at all and it throws away Android's ability to use Flash natively (making doing a spot of B/Ping whilst in RE impossible D:). I soon returned to Skyfire, before a few days later discovering my love to this day - Dolphin HD. c:

for the only reason that it compresses the data of the webpage down by 90%, which means it wont munch up all of my mobile internet if I choose to go on Newgrounds at college or wherever.

Heh, in the 10 months I've had my phone my bills have not come through once despite supposedly being monthly. In the past two months I've just been pretty haphazard with the whole thing for that reason, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I'm pretty cautious about suddenly getting the past year dumped on me all in one with going over on the mix too, but fuck it. :3

I decided to post on NG, and the message box, when clicked turns into a white text box which makes things much MUCH easier to do on the iPhone now!

I get that myself, and I'd rather I didn't, but I don't mind too much at all. :3 Just a little textbox colouring.

See now I had the same view as you, up until a couple of weeks ago, when something clicked in my head, and all of a sudden I really want a Macbook Air, and I have no idea why!

It's more understandable with the laptops, due to them getting pretty good performance despite their size, but that's also because homebuilding laptops is far more difficult than desktops. The problem I find with their desktop is they put the exact same components you can find seperately, put them in a case with their logo on and suddenly they feel they have the right to charge almost twice the price as everybody else, in some cases even more than that.

I completely agree! While other companies can not make voice recognition as good as Apples', for example this video which shows SIRI Vs TellMe for Windows Phone.

Haha! At least WP7's equivalent is more appropriate if you're searching for 'teen anal'. My main problem isn't whether it'll react well to my voice (although my voice is hard even for humans to decipher), it's that I'd rather not be speaking to my phone when I could simply just.... y'know.... use the UI. The whole voice-recognition thing's always passed me by because even though I like the idea, in the situation of actually having it at my disposal I just never feel quite like using it due to it just feeling a bit on the odd side. :3

No, I can understand what you're saying, and I agree to some extent.

Good to know someone understands what I mean. :3 Empty is another word. I know it's part of the clean thing, but it's just so routine. The upside to Android being a mishmash of different developers work is that it adds a bit of variation and thing seems to change a bit more often with it. The downside is that some manufacturers add too much making things start to clash a bit, and things tend to get a bit on the unstable side with the experimental nature of open source products on such a large scale. I tend to use any apps developed by the Go Dev team that I can find, such as replacement launchers, messaging apps and contact books. There are some really good examples of work from within the community, and I like Go's team as I've been using their launcher since before they had done anything else and since then they've gone on to become one of the biggest developers of apps around - that and the fact that their apps are just generally really good. :3

I particularly hate Blackberry Messenger Service, with a passion.

I hate BBM, however more for all of the chavvy lots on the bus whom never seem to stop recounting the entirety of conversations they had during it out to the very last detail. I was on a bus this morning with one girl talking through a chat with a boy to their friend and I heard 'AND HE WAS LIKE SMILEYFACE' twice during a 10 minute journey - and it's far from the first time something like that's happened in the past. :3

Ouch! So I'm guessing you've sent yours back, or hopefully will be doing? Seems like an odd problem, yet a big one nonetheless.

I never have, but I decided to finally go ahead and just do it today, it's in a box right now ready to be picked up sometime tomorrow. It's worth a try considering how many issues I've been having with it.

I do miss having a physical keyboard, I have to admit, yet I've used the iPhone keyboard for so long now, I can watch something else, and still type as I have a mental note of where all the keys are.

I actually learned these on my phone's non physical keyboard, but generally when I was typing quickly while not looking I'd look back on the paragraph I'd just written and realise a few mistakes. Even without the mistakes, I just love the feel of an actual keyboard, and a bit of general vibration just doesn't give the same feel. With keys you have a nicer tactile response. For the same reason I wanna try out a mechanical keyboard - apparently they just feel good to use.

Good to speak to you too man! It's been a long time since we've had a conversation like this.

I know right. I curse my lack of any more characters for it forbade me from adding a final kittyface/heart to that sentence. c:

There are browsers such as Skyfire which "allows you to watch Flash videos that otherwise don't work on iPhone."

I used to use Skyfire, and quite liked it but the whole thing just started to feel a bit bloated, as they were always adding media features which I never used, adding extra buttons everywhere across the UI. In addition, they missed out the key feature in a mobile browser I need: the ability to change user agents at will.

At 12/4/11 09:06 PM, EJR wrote: What do???

I'd personally advise against the iPad thing, and if you want to use iOS then the best way is to just go with the iPhone - although that may be biased by the fact that I've never thought much of tablet computing. I find the size awkward, they're too big to be able to fit in your pocket and thus be completely portable and too small to fit strong enough components inside to make it a real workhorse. A lot of people would disagree with me though, and I'd probably wait for more responses first.

At 12/4/11 09:06 PM, EJR wrote: What do???

I'd say get another ipod touch - you said you liked what you had before it broke and that you don't want to get locked down in a contract.

And honestly, if your dad is willing to spring for an ipad, why not pay the same price for an unlocked high-end phone? You won't be on contract, you would own it outright and it'd be brand new..and it's a full phone - for the same price (or cheaper) than a $499 ipad.

At 12/5/11 04:25 PM, EmmDubya wrote: I have a very brief stint of using Opera Mini, however the word 'mini' was just a bit too true for it.

My first smart phone was a WinMo 6.1 Samsung Omnia in 08. I was due for an upgrade and $50 was my max (considering I was all about the free phones until then, so it was a big jump in cost to me). It came preloaded with Opera mobile browser with native flash support. It could play up to Flash player 8 compatible things - so mostly old stuff from Newgrounds. I downloaded opera mobile 10 when they made it available for WM6.1 and I liked it a lot more - but it's flash player was stuck at <9.

Now I use Dolphin HD for my Droid 3. I don't really like the stock android browser much. Gestures and the slide left/right for add-ons/bookmarks is a little gimmicky to me though but I don't use it much so it's not really something I would dislike.

Heh, in the 10 months I've had my phone my bills have not come through once despite supposedly being monthly. In the past two months I've just been pretty haphazard with the whole thing for that reason, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I'm pretty cautious about suddenly getting the past year dumped on me all in one with going over on the mix too, but fuck it. :3

Yikes! considering my bill is $130 for 700 minutes, unlimited data, 250 texts for 2 androids even with a corporate discount rate I don't want to open that bill you get down the line!

At least AT&T just shuts off your service if you haven't paid by the first week of the month and doesn't charge you late fees. My brother does that all the time - all of a sudden his number is out of service for a few days until he pays his bill. Verizon is happy to charge you late fees and interest though!

I get that myself, and I'd rather I didn't, but I don't mind too much at all. :3 Just a little textbox colouring.

The background stays for me unless I use my virtual keyboard in landscape mode, which isn't often. My only complaint is the text selection process or moving the cursor around. The little bugger is never where I'm actually dragging along so I have to compensate. And forget about moving it to a specific spot if you need to go back only a little - I can't imagine not having a physical D-Pad!

I completely agree! While other companies can not make voice recognition as good as Apples', for example this video which shows SIRI Vs TellMe for Windows Phone.

I use voice recognition to search in Navigation every time. Sometimes I use it to dictate short things like texts/tweets. It's not really something I'm overly excited about. I imagine things on the iphone require a few more swipes/clicks to get anywhere since there aren't multiple home screens and widgets like my android so I can see where it's useful for that.

Good to know someone understands what I mean.

I was really impressed with my windows mobile phone when i first got it. My wife had had a Palm Treo and then upgraded to a samsung saga (a blue blackberry-like winmo6.1 device). My Omnia was the touch-screen version of it in a way but it had a touchwiz main screen, but the stock widgets were the only ones you got and there weren't that many.

What impressed me about these phones was that they A) had full HTML browsers, B) full-color screens and C) could do email and write word/excel/powerpoint documents and all the other Windows stuff. Even had little Windows start menus.

But I was really hurting for an ipod touch or Android like option for the last year. Tablets killed the market for ipod touch like android devices! All the manufacturers were only offering the full phones with wifi-only like Apple. The closest were 5" off-brand tablets. I nearly settled on an Archos tablet before VZW gave me an early upgrade and I jumped on the Droid 3 at launch (something I never do, but damnit, I wanted it!) I don't feel bad about the Bionic or the D4 coming out soon because I'm not yet in an LTE area and I'm OK with motoblur and gingerbread (my wife was jealous of my current operating until her Droid 2 got the OTA update to it and it had some glitches). I'm still confused about how Ice Cream Sandwich is so groundbreaking - until gingerbread/honeycomb all tablets and phones ran on froyo and earlier...so it's almost taking a step backward...but that's somehow cutting edge now. (even RIM is doing it with the next BB).

As far as UI, I don't hate motoblur. I tried Go launcher for a while because I really wanted more home screens but it didn't feel as polished - if they had a 2.3.4 motoblur emulator where I got more home screens but the same little 3D bullshit and my quick-contacts widget worked then I'd be all about it.

What I hate is bloatware! Holy shit, there were 30 some odd apps preloaded on my phone that are unremovable. 5 or so were dumbass Verizon V-cast bullshit that nobody would ever use. Or their proprietary "IM Presence" that uses text messages to send IMs...wtf, that's the whole point of signing into AIM...to avoid your fucktarded messaging rates - and they load at startup and sometimes even use CPU for no good reason - but if you end the task they come back which uses more CPU.

I hate BBM,

I've sent a total of 4 real text messages in the last 2 months. I use google talk with my wife since we both have droids and google accounts and we are already mutual contacts in each other's gmails. and google voice - which gives you free texts in the US or Canada. One time my sister called my phone and google voice somehow transcribed the voice mail - I have no idea how that happened because she doesn't know my google voice number and the other voicemails I got that day went into my VZW account.

I actually learned these on my phone's non physical keyboard,

After that resistive touch screen POS phone I had for 2 years it was mandatory that I get a physical keyboard on my next upgrade. I love it - the D-pad gets me though some hairy input fields and I have a dedicated number row which makes passwords a breeze. I can even play games on newgrounds that use WASD movement!

But I've been trying to learn to live with my physical keyboard - it seems most manufacturers aren't putting as much effort into their keyboarded models. For instance, my Droid 3 shares the same processor and other internal components with the Droid Bionic except it has half the RAM, isn't compatible with moto lapdocks and didn't have LTE (granted, the droid 4 seems to have all of the same specs as the RAZR, non-removable battery included). Plus, with 4.3" screens the norm, and my fat fingers doing okay with my virtual one, I think I can jump the keyboard ship next upgrade.

At 12/5/11 05:14 PM, Malachy wrote: It came preloaded with Opera mobile browser with native flash support.

It's funny that Flash worked on Opera (albeit limited by the obsolete version) during 2008 while it seems that it no longer supports it on an operating system that has Flash support integrated in the stock browser.

Gestures and the slide left/right for add-ons/bookmarks is a little gimmicky

The gestures I would definitely agree with being very gimmicky. After the initial 'ooh' factor wore off I realised that although in some cases it saves a few seconds, primarily when typing in addresses, however by simply clicking on a bookmark you get there even quicker. Additionally, there's the fact that especially if you have a lot of different gestures loaded on it often ends up misdetecting and either doing nothing or wasting even more time doing another action. After a bit of time the whole thing's just not so impressive and over the past few months I've never even opened it up intentionally, occasionally whilst I'm scrolling I end up catching it.

Yikes! considering my bill is $130 for 700 minutes, unlimited data, 250 texts for 2 androids even with a corporate discount rate I don't want to open that bill you get down the line!

Hopefully I will not be getting it... hopefully. If that bill ends up coming through then to put it lightly I shall be in quite the spot of bother.

At least AT&T just shuts off your service if you haven't paid by the first week of the month and doesn't charge you late fees.

The bill is supposedly meant to be automatically taken out, and as it has been almost a year now I'm sure they would have decided to jump out and give the gargantuan bill by now. Of course, that twelve months mark is looming and that would certainly be a good time for them to land it. Seeing as I barely used mobile internet whatsoever until August or so it shouldn't be too high.

Even if they do decide to hand out a large bill I should be able to cover it personally considering I've traditionally stashed away any money that ends up falling onto my lap running from when I was about eight or so until when I got a social life (keeping yourself fed and hydrated whilst out every day comes to a surprisingly high amount of money), meaning I have a good personal reserve. Of course, having to fork all of that away would be pretty terrible for any wishes I eventually gain for that money.

The background stays for me unless I use my virtual keyboard in landscape mode, which isn't often.

I usually am in landscape mode using my physical keyboard, however no matter how I use it it always disappears. It doesn't bother me too much at all, but it feels slightly like the developers' art is being wasted somewhat.

My only complaint is the text selection process or moving the cursor around.

I get you. When I drag usually it's fine but whereas on most input boxes I can simply press somewhere and it'll swap on Newgrounds wherever I click the focus will switch to the very end of the textbox, so I end up having to hold it down and move the selection. It may not be the same on non-HTCs.

I use voice recognition to search in Navigation every time. Sometimes I use it to dictate short things like texts/tweets. It's not really something I'm overly excited about.

I can see it being useful, however it's just not my cup of tea.

I was really impressed with my windows mobile phone when i first got it. My wife had had a Palm Treo and then upgraded to a samsung saga (a blue blackberry-like winmo6.1 device).

I've never actually used a WP device, although I recall a while ago a slightly... simple... girl that I knew trying to use a WP6 phone and getting seriously confused with it. My first experience with a smartphone was a friend of mine's Palm Pre, and I rather like PalmOS still, despite its recent failures. His phone had a strange ability to instantly get into any secured wireless network without prompting for any information, which was pretty impressive.

The closest were 5" off-brand tablets. I nearly settled on an Archos tablet.

Heh, I remember someone else I knew coming in with a mini-tablet with the Archos label. For whatever reason, he brought it onto school the day after having bought it and apparently on the way home while he was crossing a road it fell out of his pocket and smashed on impact with the ground before a car added insult to injury for it - admittedly, I found this hilarious.

before VZW gave me an early upgrade and I jumped on the Droid 3 at launch (something I never do, but damnit, I wanted it!)

I don't believe we have that phone here, actually. We tend to have a far smaller range. I think I recall another member mentioning having it - maybe Spiffy, not particularly sure.

I'm still confused about how Ice Cream Sandwich is so groundbreaking - until gingerbread/honeycomb all tablets and phones ran on froyo and earlier.

It just seems a bit like fan pride and press talk to me, although admittedly I don't know too much about the situation. I haven't been following the development of Android particularly closely recently.

if they had a 2.3.4 motoblur emulator where I got more home screens but the same little 3D bullshit and my quick-contacts widget worked then I'd be all about it.

I recall there being a replacement home screen app which mirrors the UI and such of different proprietary replacements, although I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me. Motoblur was certainly one of the options, and I recall it having the option to add or remove home screens. It felt a bit bloated and on the slow side definitely, though, and didn't feel particularly complete. This was a good six months or so ago, though, so it's likely improved somewhat since.

What I hate is bloatware! Holy shit, there were 30 some odd apps preloaded on my phone that are unremovable.

With HTC, Sense UI is always whirring away in the background, even if it's not set as your default launcher, which a lot of people complain about but it uses very little resources when in the background and the improved topbar is noticeable and I rather like that. I originally swapped back to Sense after swapping to Go/that far more popular launcher with an A in its acronym as I loved the inbuilt widgets that ceased to work if you used any other launcher, however I eventually found good enough widgets. I'd recommend Make Look Good, one of their two free themes is absolutely beautiful and fits in with my dark transparency motif very well. I've forgotten its name now and cannot check as my phone is in a box ready to be sent back off to HTC right this minute. :3

Or their proprietary "IM Presence" that uses text messages to send IMs...wtf

I can imagine that helping me, actually, as I have no mobile internet data for free and unlimited texts. Mind you, despite being supposedly 'unlimited' there is actually a secret limit which I have come close to several times and once exceeded (very slightly, luckily). Nonetheless, being unremovable is just a silly move for them.

if you end the task they come back

I know this feeling well. I'm constantly attempting to kill as many applications as possible in order to conserve my limited battery supply, but there are at least eight or nine which always return within just a few seconds despite me rarely ever using them.

I can even play games on newgrounds that use WASD movement!

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work on my phone with the physical keyboard. I press it and even if my most recent tap is on the Flash it goes into address entry mode - although I don't believe I've tried it on another browser, perhaps I could take inspiration from Lizz and try it out on different ones when I have my phone back.

It seems most manufacturers aren't putting as much effort into their keyboarded models.

I can vouch for this as an owner of a manufacturer-neglected phone. :3

I think I can jump the keyboard ship next upgrade.

I'm considering it myself - I think having the physical keys was perfect for transitioning, but not too necessary now I'm used to it - although it's still a big positive in my opinion.

At 12/5/11 06:58 PM, EmmDubya wrote: It's funny that Flash worked on Opera

I think that the OS was built more like Windows and allowed some type of workaround - it also came with Opera pre-loaded as the default browser, so that might have had something to do with it. Opera probably had stuff in the registry baked in.

Hopefully I will not be getting it... hopefully. If that bill ends up coming through then to put it lightly I shall be in quite the spot of bother.

Ah, I forgot you were across the pond. I'm unsure how carriers do things but if they were supposed to automatically deduct from a credit card or bank account then they probably won't remember you till it's tax time and they start going over their accounts and seeing one that hasn't been billed in a year. Eep!

I usually am in landscape mode using my physical keyboard, however no matter how I use it it always disappears. It doesn't bother me too much at all, but it feels slightly like the developers' art is being wasted somewhat.

It at least shows up before you use the text-input field...so there's that

I get you. When I drag usually it's fine but whereas on most input boxes I can simply press somewhere and it'll swap on Newgrounds wherever I click the focus will switch to the very end of the textbox, so I end up having to hold it down and move the selection. It may not be the same on non-HTCs.

My problem is that the text wrapping for when you zoom in doesn't exactly go along with where you are moving the cursor to...like, it has this predefined "wrap" placement but it's sort of fluid by how you move the page around or zoom in or out a little bit more or less and it just gets out of whack so I'd be pressing between two letters and the cursor would show up 2 lines above that.

It is probably a lot to do with different screen sizes and manufacturers.

I've never actually used a WP device, although I recall a while ago a slightly... simple... girl that I knew trying to use a WP6 phone and getting seriously confused with it. My first experience with a smartphone was a friend of mine's Palm Pre, and I rather like PalmOS still, despite its recent failures. His phone had a strange ability to instantly get into any secured wireless network without prompting for any information, which was pretty impressive.

For Windows Phone 7 they started from scratch - so it's worth a look. Some tech bloggers who have been apple or android faboys have said that the new Windows Phone 7 is the perfect combination of the good bits of apple and android and little of the bad. My WM6 device was rudimentary compared to my current phone.

Heh, I remember someone else I knew coming in with a mini-tablet with the Archos label. For whatever reason, he brought it onto school the day after having bought it and apparently on the way home while he was crossing a road it fell out of his pocket and smashed on impact with the ground before a car added insult to injury for it - admittedly, I found this hilarious.

LOL! That's karma for bringing in a new shiny toy to show off as soon as you get it.

I don't believe we have that phone here, actually. We tend to have a far smaller range. I think I recall another member mentioning having it - maybe Spiffy, not particularly sure.

I don't think you do either - it was announced as the Milestone 3 but then canceled. Canada has it as some like ZXLKJFDBF-3 but it runs on an HSPA+ network, whereas mine is made for Verizon which runs on CDMA/EVDO rev A. Perhaps they were waiting for the Milestone 4 with it's LTE capabilities?

It just seems a bit like fan pride and press talk to me, although admittedly I don't know too much about the situation. I haven't been following the development of Android particularly closely recently.

Agreed - it seems like "OMG NEXT THING SO AWESUM WAY BETTER HURRRR!" Then again it is a whole jump from version 2.3.x to version 4 (honeycomb was for tablets and was version "3.x").

I recall there being a replacement home screen app which mirrors the UI and such of different proprietary replacements, although I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me. Motoblur was certainly one of the options, and I recall it having the option to add or remove home screens. It felt a bit bloated and on the slow side definitely, though, and didn't feel particularly complete. This was a good six months or so ago, though, so it's likely improved somewhat since.

My phone runs on version 2.3.4 and it seems to be what Motorola uses for new gingerbread phones so perhaps GO-launcher just didn't have a UI similar to it when I tried it out when I first got the phone back in July.

With HTC, Sense UI is always whirring away in the background, even if it's not set as your default launcher, which a lot of people complain about but it uses very little resources when in the background and the improved topbar is noticeable and I rather like that. I originally swapped back to Sense after swapping to Go/that far more popular launcher with an A in its acronym as I loved the inbuilt widgets that ceased to work if you used any other launcher, however I eventually found good enough widgets. I'd recommend Make Look Good, one of their two free themes is absolutely beautiful and fits in with my dark transparency motif very well. I've forgotten its name now and cannot check as my phone is in a box ready to be sent back off to HTC right this minute. :3

Well, here in the States the carriers subsidize our phone prices but also lock us into 2 year contracts - so we often wind up with a heavily carrier branded phone that has been meddled with since early development. As such we have apps which are baked right into our phones, sometimes good ones like Netflix, Amazon Kindle, etc but most of them are pure bloat like carrier-specific premium app stores or carrier-specific premium music stores...etc. And they run like crazy.

I know this feeling well. I'm constantly attempting to kill as many applications as possible in order to conserve my limited battery supply, but there are at least eight or nine which always return within just a few seconds despite me rarely ever using them.

With gingerbread (2.3.x) you shouldn't use an app killer app because it winds up wasting more battery. The current version of Android already has a set way of dealing with low power and memory and some of those apps don't use power even though they're holding space in RAM..it's more like a linux PC than a Windows PC as far as I have heard the analogy go...RAM can be full and your battery will still be fine, it's when the CPU is being used that it uses power.

It's apparently been a big debate in the android community whether app killers are useful even for earlier versions of the OS.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work on my phone with the physical keyboard. I press it and even if my most recent tap is on the Flash it goes into address entry mode - although I don't believe I've tried it on another browser, perhaps I could take inspiration from Lizz and try it out on different ones when I have my phone back.

Hmm, with dolphin HD a little button pops up allowing me to full-screen a flash frame area and from there I'm automatically interacting with the flash..but I know what you mean - sometimes I have to tap on the flash area again to get it to recognize I want to interact with that and not the rest of the web page.

At 12/5/11 08:33 PM, Malachy wrote: I think that the OS was built more like Windows and allowed some type of workaround - it also came with Opera pre-loaded as the default browser, so that might have had something to do with it. Opera probably had stuff in the registry baked in.

That is indeed likely. Despite my lack of experience and the general dislike others have for it, Windows Mobile/Phone 6 and before had UI that looked unique from the other smartphone, albeit from what I've heard it didn't feel too good to use and ended up confusing quite a lot of people. WP7 looks beautiful in my opinion and I've heard mainly positive about it - it's that kind of overhaul which I believe Blackberry needs to do.

Ah, I forgot you were across the pond.

Yes, and Lizzardis too.

It at least shows up before you use the text-input field...so there's that

That is true. When I get my phone back I'll check it out on some different browsers. It should be within the week. Only when I don't have it on me do I realise how much I use it - I noticed my B/P in a day dropping from 50 on Monday to just 28 where I wasn't able to just check in on the portal at any time and view a few flashes

My problem is that the text wrapping for when you zoom in doesn't exactly go along with where you are moving the cursor to...like, it has this predefined "wrap" placement but it's sort of fluid by how you move the page around or zoom in or out a little bit more or less and it just gets out of whack so I'd be pressing between two letters and the cursor would show up 2 lines above that.

This actually sounds a lot like something I used to have back when I used the stock browser on NG. The same problems never arose on any other website - although Newgrounds, by nature, is not particularly well suited towards use on mobile. That's not to say it doesn't work pretty well, though.

For Windows Phone 7 they started from scratch - so it's worth a look.

I actually really do like the UI of WP7, and the fact that they seem to have been refusing to licence it to use on low range phones seems to have delivered a more unified experience with less variation between phones making developing for all of them easier. Nonetheless, as I have likely stated before (not worth checking), I think the huge variation in Android is one of its most prominent strengths - even if it is, too, a weakness. Don't like the default UI? Purchase a phone from a manufacturer with a replacement, or use one of the launchers on the market. Want a phone that's cheaper than the norm? Just find a perfectly capable lower range Android phone. Most of the issues come with people developing more stressful applications that only successfully run properly on a handful of devices, or even crash upon launch.

LOL! That's karma for bringing in a new shiny toy to show off as soon as you get it.

It was great because he's a bit on the annoying side, too. One of those people whom uses memes in real-life conversation, no matter how ill-fitting it is. :3

Agreed - it seems like "OMG NEXT THING SO AWESUM WAY BETTER HURRRR!" Then again it is a whole jump from version 2.3.x to version 4 (honeycomb was for tablets and was version "3.x").

I especially agree on the 'BETTER HURRRR!" part of that sentence. I'm interested as to when the next major change for Android is. Things seem to have only subtly changed over the past few versions - I'm looking forward to a real mixup of it sometime.

My phone runs on version 2.3.4 and it seems to be what Motorola uses for new gingerbread phones so perhaps GO-launcher just didn't have a UI similar to it when I tried it out when I first got the phone back in July.

It wasn't GOLauncher, I believe. It was a completely separate launcher application. I remember some kind of chemistry reference in the name.

*looks at periodic table*

Ah, I've got it. It was called HeLauncher, just found a video of it which looks nearly identical to the version I tried. At the time, at least, it didn't look like one of the best launchers out there (and in particular I didn't like the lack of fine-tune customisation), but it mirrors the proprietary launchers pretty well and as you can see in that video both the Sense and MotoBlur UIs are very accurate. Bare in mind that video is a year old, so it's a given that at least some improvements must have been made since, perhaps adding a bit more customisation and improving the speed and stability are both factors.

With HTC, Sense UI is always whirring away in the background, even if it's not set as your default launcher, which a lot of people complain about but it uses very little resources when in the background and the improved topbar is noticeable and I rather like that. I originally swapped back to Sense after swapping to Go/that far more popular launcher with an A in its acronym as I loved the inbuilt widgets that ceased to work if you used any other launcher, however I eventually found good enough widgets. I'd recommend Make Look Good, one of their two free themes is absolutely beautiful and fits in with my dark transparency motif very well. I've forgotten its name now and cannot check as my phone is in a box ready to be sent back off to HTC right this minute. :3

With gingerbread (2.3.x) you shouldn't use an app killer app because it winds up wasting more battery.

I have the GoLauncher inbuilt widget and I sometimes kill particular applications (although just those I know do not recreate themselves upon closing), however I didn't know that non-focussed applications used no CPU power whatsoever. Thanks for that bit of information, that should be useful.

it's more like a linux PC than a Windows PC as far as I have heard the analogy go.

I have about two and a half years on and off experience in using full Linux operating systems on PCs and not phones and I don't understand the analogy, however that's likely due to something that I do not know. I do acknowledge that Android utilises the Linux kernel and thus is technically a distribution of the OS.

Hmm, with dolphin HD a little button pops up allowing me to full-screen a flash frame area and from there I'm automatically interacting with the flash.

I sometimes get the same button upon double-tapping on the Flash, however I haven't actually tried out using the keys while in that mode. I'll definitely give that a try, that should improve my yield if I'm able to check up games too.

At 12/6/11 12:47 AM, EJR wrote: Actually the ipod thing does seem like a better idea. Chances are we might not stay on verizon anyways

Awesome. Yeah, I wouldn't want to get an unlocked verizon phone because A) they're one of only 2 CDMA carriers in the States and B) Even if it were a GSM phone (what AT&T/most of the world uses) US carriers make sure to block use of US GSM bands. For instance, my Droid 3 is both CDMA/EVDO Rev. A and GSM - it can work either with Verizon's technology or an international carrier, but Verizon had Motorola neuter the GSM radio in it so I couldn't, say, end my contract and sign up with AT&T using my current phone. I CAN go internationally and use a SIM card if I wanted but I'd have to first ask permission from Verizon to get the unlock code and even then they would prefer I use Vodafone.

At 12/7/11 03:56 PM, EmmDubya wrote: That is indeed likely. Despite my lack of experience and the general dislike others have for it, Windows Mobile/Phone 6 and before had UI that looked unique from the other smartphone, albeit from what I've heard it didn't feel too good to use and ended up confusing quite a lot of people. WP7 looks beautiful in my opinion and I've heard mainly positive about it - it's that kind of overhaul which I believe Blackberry needs to do.

It could do pretty much everything you would expect from a smart phone - firing off emails, use the web, use google maps but there was no app developers for it so it was hard to find anything, especially towards the end of it's life when developers had stopped developing or offering WinMo versions of apps. I remember AP News had one that I used a lot and I checked a few months ago for updates and it wasn't even available to download anymore - they had moved completely on to other OSes.

That is true. When I get my phone back I'll check it out on some different browsers. It should be within the week. Only when I don't have it on me do I realise how much I use it - I noticed my B/P in a day dropping from 50 on Monday to just 28 where I wasn't able to just check in on the portal at any time and view a few flashes

There was a desktop application you could download that would notify you whenever a new flash was submitted - sort of like an email alert....somebody should work on a mobile app for it.

This actually sounds a lot like something I used to have back when I used the stock browser on NG. The same problems never arose on any other website - although Newgrounds, by nature, is not particularly well suited towards use on mobile. That's not to say it doesn't work pretty well, though.

I have it show up with every text input field on any website. Another quirk is that when I'm writing my text will go off the viewable area by a couple of words before dropping to a new line. I guess my phone just thinks I'm always slightly to the left or that it has a bigger screen than it actually does lol.

Most of the issues come with people developing more stressful applications that only successfully run properly on a handful of devices, or even crash upon launch.

Tech blogs get so upset when a phone comes out without the newest OS or latest hardware. I think a great thing for manufacturers is that they could pump out last years models longer and still make money off them if they did it right. Look at Apple - they still sell the 3GS. You can still get a real, honest to god, iPhone and it won't break the bank. But it's really carrier-dependent in the US. They are apt to drop phones after only a year on the shelf, except for Apple.

I especially agree on the 'BETTER HURRRR!" part of that sentence. I'm interested as to when the next major change for Android is. Things seem to have only subtly changed over the past few versions - I'm looking forward to a real mixup of it sometime.

The last few versions have all been "2.x" for phones and "3.x" for tablets. ICS is "4.0" so it seems they are trying to say it is a big jump from what they have been working on lately.

Ah, I've got it. It was called HeLauncher, just found a video of it which looks nearly identical to the version I tried. At the time, at least, it didn't look like one of the best launchers out there (and in particular I didn't like the lack of fine-tune customisation), but it mirrors the proprietary launchers pretty well and as you can see in that video both the Sense and MotoBlur UIs are very accurate. Bare in mind that video is a year old, so it's a given that at least some improvements must have been made since, perhaps adding a bit more customisation and improving the speed and stability are both factors.

I'll check it out if I get the feeling I need more home screens. I've sort of gotten used to only 5 and from the looks of it, Ice Cream Sandwich only has 5. I just thought it was a little odd since my wife's Froyo 2.2 Droid 2 had 7 home screens on the stock launcher but the next iteration of the phone, mine, had only 5...and now she has the same software version and still has 7 homescreens.

I have the GoLauncher inbuilt widget and I sometimes kill particular applications (although just those I know do not recreate themselves upon closing), however I didn't know that non-focussed applications used no CPU power whatsoever. Thanks for that bit of information, that should be useful.

I guess the point was that Unlike using a Windows machine where if your RAM is filled up your computer starts to run slow, your phone will remain just as fast whether RAM is empty or 3/4 full. Beyond that, Froyo and Gingerbread both automatically handle memory situations all on their own - it prioritizes and frees up memory as needed. Unless you have a run-away app that is eating up tons of power and won't exit correctly you shouldn't need to use a task manager. Ending tasks, even bloatware, can cause your phone to be less reliable because those apps might start to misbehave trying to load again.

At 12/7/11 07:47 PM, Malachy wrote: It could do pretty much everything you would expect from a smart phone - firing off emails, use the web, use google maps but there was no app developers for it so it was hard to find anything.

Ah, I get you. Developer support can be vitally important - even on Android, the most popular (at least, the last time I checked) mobile operating system there seems to be less support from big developers than iOS gets, especially considering most of this is in the gaming side of things where functionality isn't as easily replicated. Again, it's a problem caused by the decentralised nature of the operating system - the biggest strength and shortcoming of Android.

Just yesterday The Behemoth announced another game for iOS with little chance of seeing an Android port. I want to love the Behemoth, but they're making it difficult by not releasing games on Steam or Android, meaning that the most recent retail game of theirs I own is Alien Hominid for GBA. In addition to that game, a full release of an expanded Chrono Trigger seems to be in the same situation.

There was a desktop application you could download that would notify you whenever a new flash was submitted - sort of like an email alert....somebody should work on a mobile app for it.

Yeah, that's Portal Guard, I have it open right now. That'd be a really useful thing to have for me, definitely, but I doubt there are too many other people whom do much of their blamming and protecting on mobile. It'd be pretty interesting to know how that application parses the information, although I'm sure Casualty is now inactive, unfortunately, and even if that information could be taken I can't think of anyone whom would carry on his work and port it over to mobile.

But it's really carrier-dependent in the US. They are apt to drop phones after only a year on the shelf, except for Apple.

With the Apple logo popped onto the back not even age is enough to keep buyers away. :3

The last few versions have all been "2.x" for phones and "3.x" for tablets. ICS is "4.0" so it seems they are trying to say it is a big jump from what they have been working on lately.

Hopefully what they say is true, at the moment the operating system seems to have been brought forward only by members of the market developers community as opposed to those working on the core OS as a whole, whom seem to just be tweaking and adding smaller features in. As much as I love it, I do believe that by nature it's very far from perfect and although no OS will ever reach that stage, in order to get as close as possible making such minor changes as they have been. Looking at the Icecream Sandwich screenshots, it certainly looks absolutely beautiful at the very least. I'd say I'm looking forward to it, however I doubt that my phone will receive an update when it finally is released. We had to wait months and months for the previous update and that was only a minor one, and the phone recently reached the one year old mark, meaning support for it from HTC will shrink further as the original twelve month contracts all come to an end.

I'll check it out if I get the feeling I need more home screens. I've sort of gotten used to only 5 and from the looks of it, Ice Cream Sandwich only has 5. I just thought it was a little odd since my wife's Froyo 2.2 Droid 2 had 7 home screens on the stock launcher but the next iteration of the phone, mine, had only 5...and now she has the same software version and still has 7 homescreens.

I personally think five is a better number. Sense is locked at seven, and I always had the issue of not having enough stuff to put on every homescreen without just throwing any old guff onto there simply to fill up space. I actually have mine set to just three at the moment (well, last time I had it on me) with only the widgets I use the most often up there in order to mean I can get to those ones with as little hassle as possible.

How nice of T-Mobile to send me mail alerting me to a free gift. It says it's for loyal customers, but in the small print a loyal customer is defined as someone who has been using their network for at least 3 months... Hardly a loyal customer. I've been with them for a good 4 years now.

Anyway, I wont complain because one of the options is £20 worth of Android Apps, which is convenient seeing as my Wildfire S is now sitting under the Christmas tree. At least I assume it's the Wildfire S. The box seems to be the right size and it was the one I suggested.

On top of these £20 free Android Apps, I think T-Mobile gives all new Android phone owners 6 months of free internet access on their phones, which saves me another £20. The only reason that I've stuck with them all this time is because I've had a 4p per text price plan with them, which is no longer available. £10 of credit gets me 250 texts as oppose to the 100 texts that I'd get on one of their up to date price plans. Hopefully I wont be forced to change price plans if I want to make use of there internet bundles.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a smartphone enthusiast. I'm very pleased with the path that phones are taking today or should I say, the path that computers jumped on to. I was always a geek when it came to computers and have built many computers in my previous years. Since the day I got my computer, I have been always striding for more performance, speed and customization in an effort to use of every last instruction set and memory block to its fullest potential but as technology progressed in recent years, I feel as though we have finally came to the point of good-enough computing prowess. In effect, my overclocking and late night software customizing days have gone to a never re-awaking coma. I have also changed as a person which has left me with less personal time due to work and a smaller, if not obsolete, need for computing power to fulfill all my computer tasks.

With all that said, I have now switch from being the speed-thirsty power user to a more normalized power user that now seeks battery life and portability in an effort to accomplish my everyday computing needs. Ultra-books and smartphones are that next stepping stone that I decided to indulge in. I have a HTC Desire HD (European version of the HTC EVO) and dreaming of attaining one day a Samsung 9 Series Ultra Slim Notebook or another notebook of comparable size and specs (Macbook Air? Seems tempting right about now.)

I love my smartphone to bits, it's almost perfect and flawless in my eyes. I must have used the phone for several thousands of hours now ever since I got it in May this year. I know essentially everything there is to be known about the phone. The screen size is perfect, the uni-body metal chassis that encases the phone is brilliant, the specs within are perfectly adequate for every application on the market, the camera creates stunning images and the placement of all the buttons is perfect (Aside from the power button which is more appropriately positioned for a left-handed user) and it feels like a real sturdy device in hand due to the high quality materials (Gorilla glass + Aluminum).

On the negative side of things, the LCD used in the phone has terrible viewing angles and bad black levels. The plastic caps for the battery and sim/memory cards would be much better if they were made out of aluminum like the rest of the phone. The color of the phone also changes to a flamboyant purple in bright daylight but a nice sleek grey in low light levels. The notification light is also next to impossible to see when looking at the phone from a greater than 45 degree angel (Due to the metal mesh laying on top of it) but this is really nick picking its flaws out. The only other problem I have with the phone is the rocker-button for the volume; it requires a lot of force to be pushed down (This may be a positive, now that I think about it).

So that's my wrap up about my phone. I wouldn't trade it for anything else on the market right now, with the exception of the Samsung Galaxy SII. So if you want a quality phone for a damn low price, get the Desire HD.

I'm rather pissed off at HTC. Perfectly in time for a birthday treat, I was finally sent a quote for minor repair work on my phone three or so days late, simply sorting out the microphone. They offered to sort out that issue out for a nice, comfortable 100 pounds, or return it completely unfixed for just twenty - with charges for labour on that bill somewhere for whatever reason. In another sign of their graciousness they even offered to dispose of the phone absolutely free! This likely meaning carrying out the £5 or so repair before selling it on for £250 or so. For whatever reason, the bill they sent shows charges for a full case replacement (including a new screen, despite the old one having no issues), followed by a partial case replacement (because a job done once is little better than a job not done at all, apparently), coming together to make quite the total indeed for what is likely just a popped microphone.

At 12/12/11 10:15 AM, Dean wrote: a loyal customer is defined as someone who has been using their network for at least 3 months...

Three whole months? In the era of instant gratification I believe that is considered to be a very significant sign of dedication.

Anyway, I wont complain because one of the options is £20 worth of Android Apps, which is convenient seeing as my Wildfire S is now sitting under the Christmas tree.

I can imagine that being very interesting. I am still yet to buy a retail app, being the cheapskate that I am. A cheapskate too young still in order to purchase goods through the majority of online retailers and such, at that.

At least I assume it's the Wildfire S. The box seems to be the right size and it was the one I suggested.

That sounds like it should be - let us know. From what I've been hearing the Wildfire S is a great phone, and as it's one of their more popular models I can imagine that it receives a lot of attention from the manufacturers.

On top of these £20 free Android Apps, I think T-Mobile gives all new Android phone owners 6 months of free internet access on their phones, which saves me another £20.

This is starting to sound like an amazing deal, I may have to look into getting onto the same thing rather than this (albeit well priced) risky deal, especially if you plan on using the internet. For just £5 a month for unlimited texts it's all I really needed it for at the time (although, despite it being supposedly 'unlimited' I actually topped the cap on my first month, not since then though). I'll definitely look into that deal sometime soon.

Hopefully I wont be forced to change price plans if I want to make use of there internet bundles.

If you're capable of speaking on the phone enough, just rage down at them until they go along with it. I have a natural aversion to phone conversations (I just find them absolutely horrible), however a friend of mine whom does not have the same problem ended up getting a fiver shaved off of his monthly bill when upgrading simply by continuously pushing and doing so well. I may have to get him to help deal with my issues at the moment. :3

I'll sleep for now, as I'm feck-tired and wish to actually wake up despite my lack of an alarm at the moment (yeah, unlikely to happen, I know), but I should get time to respond to the rest of the posts in this thread sometime tomorrow, in amongst catching up with the icons that I skipped out today.