Thread: All Things Android

Originally Posted by Nostradamus

Originally Posted by 9999

The Galaxy S they sell are still 2.1, but they told me the upgrade is no worries, and they upgrade to 3.0. Just what I was told by Thai sales staff, so to be taken with a bucket full of salt.

Beware as I also have this problem...

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I'm not going to buy Samsung as they've refused to put 2.2 on the Spica which I only bought in January.

I think mine is still running 1.6 and will not update in Thailand which is unacceptable.

I had to upgrade mine myself (not too difficult). There is a cooked ROM of Froyo for the Spica but it's still in alpha.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I had to upgrade mine myself (not too difficult). There is a cooked ROM of Froyo for the Spica but it's still in alpha.

Still dithering whether to do that or just wait and upgrade.

For my next handset I am going to order from HK off eBay and get it delivered to Australia thus saving money over buying an outdated product in Thailand. Saying that I might just grab a phone in HK when I am next over instead.

Are you confusing the Samsung Galaxy Spica with the Samsung Galaxy S?

It seems the Nexus Two may be getting a bit of press, but it's also Samsung which doesn't endear me to it.

The Nexus One was the very first phone to get the upgrade to Android 2.2, so it makes sense that the Nexus Two will also be a flagship phone for a new Android operating system. If new reports are to be believed, it'll be the first to have Android 2.3, AKA Gingerbread, pre-installed.

The device, which was designed and manufactured by Samsung instead of internally by Google (like the Nexus One), will be officially unveiled November 8 at a pumped-up media event in Times Square. I4U will be on hand at the event to provide all the full details once they become official.

But for now, we're getting word that Android fans should be happy to hear. By incorporating Android 2.3, that would mean the new OS is complete and ready for deployment. Updates to existing Android phones should hopefully not be too far behind, even though most of us have just recently gotten the update to 2.2.

Other early details about the Nexus Two suggest it will have a 4-inch AMOLED or Super AMOLED display, a 1.2 GHz processor, 5 MP external camera and 1.3 MP front-facing camera, as well as 16 GB of internal storage and 512 MB of RAM.

It'll pack a powerful punch to the Android market, as those specs are more powerful than we've seen on any existing Android phone to date.

The Nexus One was well received in reviews among mobile enthusiasts, but due its lack of brick-and-mortar retail availability, and a very underwhelming marketing campaign, sales were abysmal. By placing Samsung, one of the most prolific Android supporters, at the helm of the Nexus Two project, it stands a much better shot at success.

Carriers for the phone haven't been officially detailed yet, but it's likely it will have the same carrier partner as the Nexus One - T-Mobile. Rumors suggest it might also be made available for AT&T.

Again, the Nexus Two will be officially christened at an exclusive, balls-out New York City spectacle, and we'll be there to get all the juicy details. Stay tuned.

^^Galaxy S 4", 22K bht.

The battery life is a bit dissappointing but not too bad. The default settings are for ultra tight arse battery use, such as low brightness and hibernating after being idle for a few seconds.

I'm looking forward to getting an android tablet down the track, will see what happens with the technology first. I'm not too clued up on these apps, apparently there's hundreds of thousands, but all I can find is the market app on the phone and the ones in there, and on the web various lists of the same shit. The range of what apps I find interesting and useful in less than I thought it would be.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It'll pack a powerful punch to the Android market, as those specs are more powerful than we've seen on any existing Android phone to date.

Fuk it! Just after I bought this one, a better one comes out.

I have to look on the bright side. I was going to buy a Nexus One just to get 2.2. Now I won't bother.

There is a "Facebook Mobile" event at FB HQ on November 3rd. Rumours are gathering apace that they will announce their own Android-powered Facebook (or should that be Phacebook) Phone (or should.... oh never mind).

Of course, it might just be a new Facebook mobile client, but you never know.

Android phone sales up 1,309% year on year

Collectively Android phones now make up about 25% of smartphone sales world-wide and approximately 44% in the US market

From The Register

Nothing you can't do with the excellent AppBrain app, but if you're a Stumbler then you get it automagically anyway.

StumbleUpon Takes Aim at Android App Discovery

StumbleUpon is about to take its web recommendation savvy and apply it to mobile apps for the first time. The service, which builds personal recommendations for users who want to find web content, is now launching an app discovery feature for Android apps. The beta feature will be included in StumbleUpon’s updated Android app, which was released in August along with an iPhone app.

Android users will not only get recommendations on good web mobile content but will now get suggestions on apps based on their tastes and preferences. StumbleUpon will look at a user’s profile and their current collection of apps and come up with a list of apps that other similar users have downloaded. StumbleUpon considers the popularity of apps and also looks for apps that are usually downloaded in combination with others.

Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon’s CEO and co-founder, said Android is ripe for such a solution because the Android Market is not well organized for users who want to do more than keyword searches. “I don’t think they’ve put as much effort into the store,” Camp said. “It’s not very personalized yet.”

Camp said Android was not only more in need of a solution compared to other platforms but it was also faster to develop on Android: both the actual building and the approval process. The app discovery feature took one month to create, Camp said. An iOS version is in the works but there’s no time frame for when it will be available.

App discovery in general still needs a lot of work, although Apple has done better than most in helping people find apps. But the lingering difficulty has given rise to third party providers like Chomp and Appsfire, AppsHQ who try to make the discovery of apps easier and more social. The bigger question for StumbleUpon was what took so long to take advantage of the opportunity, though to be fair, the company has been busy lately.

In addition to launching iPhone and Android apps, StumbleUpon has been ramping up efforts to be a recommendation engine for web video. The service is now up to 12 million users, almost five percent of which come from the mobile apps. Expect that number to go up with Android app recommendations.

Don't spose there's a conversion app out there that include rai and talad wa?

Have downloaded and tried a shitload of apps and still generally dissappointed. I'll come back review the best and worse...

I'm sure there is. It's normally called "Calculator" or something similar.

Heh, sweet. Now I just need an app to tell me the ratios.

After bagging the apps, I found a great one that everyone who has a Galaxy S should run. It's called 'one click lag fix'.

The phone was a bit laggy, and certain apps were real clunky, but I wasn't too worried coz it has the hardware. Well this app gives you root access and flashes a kernel that makes the phone run unbelievably faster. After running this it zips along.

There's this Quadrant benchmark thing I only just learned of. Before installing 'one click lag fix', I was running at about 950. Afterwards, up to 2200. Amazing.

I'm getting into this android thing and want to update to 2.2 myself, and maybe even change ROMs as the interface is a bit gay. See how we go. I can't upgrade through the Samsung Kies software as it says I have the latest version, but I definately don't, and have been told I should be able to upgrade through this program.

Is there another way to install froyo 2.2 apart from via the suck Samsung Kies software?

Can an HTC Android bought in the US be used in Thailand?

Is there another way to install froyo 2.2 apart from via the suck Samsung Kies software?

I would wait for Samsung to release their version and do it through Kies, or take it to a Samsung service centre and get them to do it.

Can an HTC Android bought in the US be used in Thailand?

Assuming it isn't CDMA only, like the Droid X, yes. Quad band phones will work fine.

Opera has pretty much confirmed that they are set to launch Opera Mobile for Android later today.

The company already offers the Opera Mini browser for Google Android users. Opera Mobile would be a much better product with a dedicated rendering engine.

We believe that it would be sold at a price and would not be a free product. But it would still be good news for Android users who want another option.

Opera is one of the top four rendering engines on the desktop front (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome/Apple Safari are the others). But on the mobile front they are pretty strong with their Opera Mobile and Opera Mini offerings.

I can't imagine Opera trying to charge for it, especially as Opera Mini works so well, and is free. Adware with a premium no-ad option maybe?

Hell of a spec I must say:

The tablet is becoming more and more of a must-have device and when we think of what’s available on today’s market we would probably have no problems in naming some on both hands. There’s of course the iPad, Galaxy Tab, Dell Streak, Acer 7 + 10″, BlackBerry PlayBook but today it’s the turn of Woow Digital offering their tablet called “The One” which will possibly be revealed to us with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

I have to say that although I have not heard of the company, it’s boasting a name that automatically stands out from the crowd, and from what Ubergizmo have reported, some fantastic features. To give you a little insight, specifications include the 10-inch display still somewhat smaller than the iPad, it will be running on a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip, 16GB of flash storage, Bluetooth, 1GB of RAM, WiFi and WCDMA 3G.

It is due to launch in Japan next month for approximately the equivalent of $500, and early next year it will be seen in other countries such as Hong Kong, Europe and Taiwan. Surprisingly enough news has not been released yet of an American launch.

Anyone found stock of the new HTC Desire HD?

I finally found one supplier on Saturday that I called and they said they'd sms me back later with the price:

Them: Latest price 22,900 + 32 GB Micro SD (quite good I thought, I'll take it)
Me: Ok, great I'll take it, do you deliver?
Them: Oh sorry sir can not sell for you on 1st lot, we reserved for presales only
Me: Oh, that's ok (it's a good price) I can wait.
Them: 2nd lot will launch on or around 7th Jan 7th Jan 2011 na ka (so long they mentioned it twice)
Me: Mai pen rai (TIT)

So, is the Desire HD available in Bangkok? I'll probably head down to MBK and Fortune Town at the weekend but I'm guessing it won't be readily available until the New Year.

Mate forget this phone galadys at the same prive wit tje uodayed froyo 2.2 is hard to beat both spec and os wise

Originally Posted by 9999

Mate forget this phone galadys at the same prive wit tje uodayed froyo 2.2 is hard to beat both spec and os wise

I think our Dutch friend means the Galaxy S....

And a new $399 Android 2.2 10" Tablet from Viewsonic....



Very good spec as well.

The ViewSonic G tablet has a 10.1" TFT-LCD multi-touch screen with 1024x600 resolution, and it packs some power with a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 - dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU. Specs on the ViewSonic G include a 1.3MP front-facing camera, 16 GB internal memory, 512MB DDR2 memory, microSD card slot, USB, 2D/3D graphics processing, and 1080p H.264/MPEG-4 video support.

No mention of connectivity options yet.

should I buy the iPad for Christmas ? would look nice in the office

A nice review of the Galaxy S, which I think will be my Xmas present to myself.

Ironically, it's from macnewsworld.com

Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad has had the tablet market to itself for eight months now, but that's about to change. Leading the charge on the electronic slate's logy perch is the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a seven-inch tablet running Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android operating system.

Rather than take on the iPad head-to-head, Samsung decided to set its tablet apart from Apple's by making it smaller.

There are some advantages to that. The slate is more comfortable to hold in one hand, for instance. It also makes it easier to scale up applications for the display. Since the Tab's screen isn't much larger than a smartphone's, apps don't lose their resolution on the bigger canvas as some iPhone apps do on the iPad.

Moreover, since Google hasn't provided much in the way of guidance for using Android on a tablet, the operating system isn't optimized yet for handling bigger screens. Keeping the display small can help fudge that deficiency.
Dual Cameras

The Tab's smaller size is also better suited for using the unit's dual cameras. Unlike the iPad, which has no cameras, the Samsung slate has a 3.2 megapixel camera at the rear of the unit for taking stills and video and a 1.5 MP snapper on the front for video chats.

In still mode, the camera has some nice features. For instance, it has five shooting modes -- single shot, continuous, panorama, smile recognition and self-portrait. It also has scene modes--portrait, landscape, night and sports. There's even a control for increasing or decreasing the exposure in a shot. The built-in flash can be turned on or off, as well as on full auto. Red-eye correction is missing, though, and is sorely needed for indoor snaps of people.

More customization features can be accessed through the set up menu. Six resolution options are offered -- from 2,048 x 1,530 to 800 x 600 pixels. White Balance can be adjusted for a variety of lighting conditions -- daylight, cloudy and artificial lighting.

Three ISO settings are available -- 100, 200 and 400. You can also automatically geotag photos. And effects like negative, sepia and black and white can be applied to images.

In video mode, the camera shoots 720 x 480 video.

Both stills and video can be shared from the Gallery. Videos can be posted directly to YouTube, aired via Bluetooth, emailed or conveyed via instant messaging. Stills can be sent directly to Facebook, Picasa and Twitter.
Bright, Responsive Display

Viewing photos and video, as well as anything else on the Tab, is a pleasure. Its 1,024 x 600 pixel display is bright, sharp and its colors are vibrant. In auto mode, the screen's brightness is automatically adjusted to accommodate surrounding light. However, brightness can be adjusted manually, too.

The Corning (NYSE: GLW) Gorilla Glass display responds promptly when poked for action or when information needs to be dragged around it. Moving back and forth from portrait to landscape orientation isn't as smooth as the iPad, but the latency isn't too bothersome.

Key settings can be quickly accessed by touching and holding a bar at the top of the display and pulling it down like a curtain. From there, brightness can be adjusted, WiFi toggled on and off, Bluetooth activated, GPS enabled, silent mode entered and the display's orientation locked.

Although the Tab has more controls than the iPad, it's still very simple to operate. In portrait mode, there are four touch controls on the frame at the bottom of the screen -- menu, home, back and search. The menu control is app sensitive so the contents of the menus that it displays depends what's running when it's poked.

Below those controls on the bottom of the unit is the charger-accessory port and speakers. The Tab is charged through the port using a cable included with the unit and an adapter that plugs into an electrical outlet. Although the cable has a USB plug at one of its ends, the Tab can't be charged through a computer.
Worthy Alternative to iPad

On the left side of the unit is a microphone. On the right, is a slot for a microSD card, volume control rocker and power switch. A headphone jack is located on top of the unit. As mentioned before, there's also a camera on the front and one, along with a flash, on the back.

When you turn on the Tab, you need to slide a virtual tab on the screen to access the home screen. A bar at the top of the screen, lets you call up menus for customizing the home screen and the device's options, as well as information about your connections -- WiFi and 3G -- and battery level. Battery life is very good. The Tab is rated at six hours, and I found it did that and more.

A nice feature of the unit is that you can use it as a 3G hotspot for other devices that use WiFi.

You can move through screens of apps by swiping the display. However, a floating bar giving you quick access to all apps on the unit, email and a browser remains on the screen at all times.

My review unit from Verizon came loaded with apps, not only programs from the Android marketplace, but special apps from the Verizon store, as well as access to V Cast Music with Rhapsody, V Cast Video on Demand and VZ Navigator.

Verizon is selling the Tab for US$599.99, with 2 GB of internal memory and a 16 GB microSD card. That compares favorably with a 16 GB 3G iPad, which sells for $629. A no-contract 1 GB data plan from Verizon costs $20 a month.

Feature for feature, Samsung's Galaxy Tab beats the iPad hands down, but a tablet is more than a collection of features. Although the Tab's interface is easy to use, it isn't as intuitive nor as smoothly integrated as the iPad's. What's more, its size makes it feel like an oversized smartphone. Nevertheless, the unit is a worthy alternative to the iPad, especially for folks more interested in consuming media than creating it.