PSA: Android Phones are for Black People.

[SphinxnihpS]

OMG I USED A MARKETING BUZZWORD. THAT MUST MEAN IM TEH DUMBZ. No wonder people don't listen to nerds like you.

I never paid a dime for my backup to the cloud. Sorry to break it to you. and I had to set it up once and it automagically does it every night. Synergy I tell you, synergy! How bout you circle back with me when you can do that mmmmkay?

Last time I checked there is still no service that will back up your android phone in its entirety every single night to the cloud. What service are you speaking of?

I dunno, I do kind of have a problem with "cloud" as well. Cloud was coined to refer to remote processing/application serving, not storage. We already had names for that shit.

 

[cheezy321]

Samsung phones back up all your texts and apps I can't speak for other brands as I don't use them.

If you lost your phone right now and bought a brand new S3 would it be in the exact same state as you had when you lost the phone? Or would you need to do things like move widgets to the right screens, add your pictures, etc? What is the Samsung program called?

If every single thing goes right back on the phone as it was before it got stolen (give or take ~24 hours from when it got stolen) then I stand corrected.

 

[cheezy321]

I dunno, I do kind of have a problem with "cloud" as well. Cloud was coined to refer to remote processing/application serving, not storage. We already had names for that shit.

I understand peoples issues with the usage of 'cloud' but its now been modified to include a whole umbrella of services which most people now call 'the cloud'.

I use it for brevity. Most people (nerds and non-nerds) understand that 'the cloud' is now a blanket term for most internet based storage / applications.

 

[WelshBloke]

OMG I USED A MARKETING BUZZWORD. THAT MUST MEAN IM TEH DUMBZ. No wonder people don't listen to nerds like you.

I never paid a dime for my backup to the cloud. Sorry to break it to you. and I had to set it up once and it automagically does it every night. Synergy I tell you, synergy! How bout you circle back with me when you can do that mmmmkay?

Last time I checked there is still no service that will back up your android phone in its entirety every single night to the cloud. What service are you speaking of?

Photos are backed up to the cloud.
Emails are backed up to the cloud.
Videos are backed up to the cloud.
Texts are backed up to the cloud.
Call logs are backed up to the cloud.
Contacts are backed up to the cloud.
Ebooks are backed up to the cloud.
Apps are backed up to the cloud.
Calendar is backed up to the cloud.

Not sure if I missed anything.

Stock, un rooted SGS3.

 

[phucheneh]

^ all of that, except backed up locally, and manually. It's honestly personal preference. I'm used to backing up NOTHING on my phone, so doing the occasional local backup is enough for me to be satisfied. I'm sure the iPhoners will say 'lol you're just making excuses for not having what we have' or some such. Truth is, I automate nothing; never have, never will. It always proves more of an annoyance than an aid.

Within reason. Yes, Gmail autosaves drafts for me. I save photoshop stuff frequently. Ect. But as far as traditional updates and backup are concerned- don't want it. We come back to that whole 'personal preference' thing.

And by 'premium,' I mean you pay for it with the cost of your phone relative to the actual value of the hardware and capabilities.

 

[cliftonite]

No the difference is you have never used iOS as your main device yet you rail on it all the time. Its a common theme among the fandroids and you are one of thousands of them.

Have you ever not railed on Android? The common theme among apple fanbois seems to deride those that use an Android device.

 

[Ichinisan]

Well first off he needs root it. Then he needs to look up the latest stable CM ROM. Then you gotta try this one app that can stream music. If that doesnt work then there is this other app that might work. But make sure you type in the name exactly right or you might get a malware infested fake version that wont work at all. After a couple hours of trial and error, he might be able to get it to work. Then it will break for no reason about two months down the line.

Rinse, wash, repeat.

:awe:

 

[SparkyJJO]

Your back button with crazy unpredictable behavior?

Never been unpredictable for me. No, I'm not delusional. I know right where it is going to go when I hit back, and that is back by 1 screen. Awful darn simple, not sure how you could mess that up dude

 

[dawheat]

I switched last fall to a Samsung Galaxy S3 after using the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4S. My wife has used a 4 and currently uses the 5.

Frankly, using the S3 was painful for the first day. Then I got used to the different UI/button placements and after that, couldn't go back to the iPhone. I think that's the biggest hurdle for iOS users - it takes a few days to get used to it b/c you're so accustomed to certain interactions and behaviors. In general I don't find Jellybean to be any worse (and better in some ways), just different.

My favorites:
1. Today at work, had a hallway conversation with a couple co-workers, one with another S3 and one with the HTC DNA. We all had dramatically different setups (number of screens, how apps are organized, types of widgets, what actions each button does - short and long click, what swipes/double clicks/other motions on screen do, etc) and were making cases why our setups were the best. Frankly the fact that we were all able to customize our phones exactly how we liked it is the best thing about Android.

2. I love the 64GB sdcard - every couple weeks I swap a different dozen or so HD movies from my computer as well as keep my entire music library local. No file conversions - the video app I use works like VLC - it works with nearly any format.

3. I don't use a lot of widgets, but really like the convenience of the few I use.

4. Still use iTunes to manage my playlists and music for my S3 and iPods via iSyncr.

5. The biggest thing - the screen real estate. What finally kicked me out of iOS was surfing forums on my 4S while my wife was shopping. Drove me up the wall with the small real estate. While still not great on my S3, it's definitely acceptable and doesn't drive me crazy. I'd say 75% of my phone usage is browsing, personal email, and work email - all activities where the extra size makes a difference.

Trying to use my wife's iPhone 5 now drives me up the wall - feel like trying to use a 19" monitor on my desktop.

Negatives:
1. At least once a week need to restart my phone - not b/c it freezes but b/c the battery starts draining. Oddly enough, my wife's 5 starts doing the same thing every month or so.

2. Battery life is about the same as my 4S - I have no problems with using it all day while in Manhattan, but it's low by the late afternoon where I work outside the city where coverage is constantly bouncing between LTE and 4G (and I don't use any wifi).

 

[Fritzo]

Photos are backed up to the cloud.
Emails are backed up to the cloud.
Videos are backed up to the cloud.
Texts are backed up to the cloud.
Call logs are backed up to the cloud.
Contacts are backed up to the cloud.
Ebooks are backed up to the cloud.
Apps are backed up to the cloud.
Calendar is backed up to the cloud.

Not sure if I missed anything.

Stock, un rooted SGS3.

Yeah, same here. In fact, if I reset my phone all of my apps reinstall to my phone automatically. Google Apps, Drive, Picassa, and Google+ automatically sync everything else.

 

[ControlD]

If you lost your phone right now and bought a brand new S3 would it be in the exact same state as you had when you lost the phone? Or would you need to do things like move widgets to the right screens, add your pictures, etc? What is the Samsung program called?

If every single thing goes right back on the phone as it was before it got stolen (give or take ~24 hours from when it got stolen) then I stand corrected.

My wife dropped her S3 a few weeks ago and shattered the screen. When her replacement came in, everything that was on her phone was quickly synced back to the new phone. She did have to arrange her widgets the way she liked however. But, seeing as to how we iPhone users still don't have the option to even use widgets at all (without a jailbreak) I would call that an acceptable sacrifice.

I have a 4S and have spent a good deal of time playing with the S3. One thing I have to say is that the touch interface is simply better on the 4S. You can't really put it down to one simple thing, but everything is just a little smoother on the 4S. Besides that, I find the S3 to be a better overall device in almost every other way that matters. Widgets, customization, drag and drop file transfer are all native to the device. These are all simple things that require a jailbreak with the iPhone. After using the S3 I don't see the point of having to deal with the hassle of jailbreaking anymore. Unless Apple has a serious change of heart I can't see me using an iPhone after my contract is up (even if I am white ....).

 

[WelshBloke]

If you lost your phone right now and bought a brand new S3 would it be in the exact same state as you had when you lost the phone? Or would you need to do things like move widgets to the right screens, add your pictures, etc? What is the Samsung program called?

If every single thing goes right back on the phone as it was before it got stolen (give or take ~24 hours from when it got stolen) then I stand corrected.

I'd have to add the widgets, although I think I could restore those. Nova launcher might save their position I'm not sure.

Pictures and everything else just sorts themselves out.

Samsung just backs those things up.

 

[Lobotomized]

I just got my first Apple product ever (iPad mini), and while it is very intuitive and stable software, I'm disappointed in a lot of simple functionality that is missing. Why can't I open up videos stored on my home network's server? This may be asking too much, but it would be really cool if I could have stable remote access to the desktop. That way on the couch I could open up a movie and play it on the monitor. I have used third party apps and they are clunky and awkwardly integrated

I've come to expect this because Windows has a lot more depth it seems. If you're willing to learn you can do a lot of useful things. Anyway just a general observation as a first time Apple user

Someone once told me "Apple products are so easy to use, even a trained monkey* can use them." My reply was "I'm not a trained monkey*."
I never have and never will own / buy any Apple products.

*Any mammal of the order Primates, including the guenons, macaques, langurs, and capuchins, but excluding humans, the anthropoid apes, and, usually, the tarsier and prosimians.

 

[Fritzo]

Someone once told me "Apple products are so easy to use, even a trained monkey* can use them." My reply was "I'm not a trained monkey*."
I never have and never will own / buy any Apple products.

*Any mammal of the order Primates, including the guenons, macaques, langurs, and capuchins, but excluding humans, the anthropoid apes, and, usually, the tarsier and prosimians.

To be fair, Apple's Macbooks are the best Windows laptops available The touchpad, sound quality, keyboard, and battery life on those things is amazing. If you can pick up a refurb Macbook Pro or Air under $1000 it's well worth the $$$.

 

[halik]

Samsung phones back up all your texts and apps I can't speak for other brands as I don't use them.

Galaxy Nexus will certainly NOT back everything up. You lose your app settings, texts, widgets, ringtones and phone call history.

I couldn't get my apps to load back up automagically either for same reason, but the play store does keep a list of them. You have to install them one by one.

 

[halik]

To be fair, Apple's Macbooks are the best Windows laptops available The touchpad, sound quality, keyboard, and battery life on those things is amazing. If you can pick up a refurb Macbook Pro or Air under $1000 it's well worth the $$$.

I guess if you need windows. I much prefer the unix/osx and vmware if i need to do something in ms office.

 

[JM Aggie08]

I use the iPhone because it's a phone, with nice features, that works. The OS is seemless, battery life is excellent, and I really have no complaints. It's. A. Phone. That, and I spent WAY too much time tweaking my old EVO.

The only reason I use MacBooks - you cannot find a better touchpad on the market. If I want Windows, I have enough memory to run parallels or something similar. It makes sense to me, and resale value is insane compared to a PC.

 

[WelshBloke]

Galaxy Nexus will certainly NOT back everything up. You lose your app settings, texts, widgets, ringtones and phone call history.

I couldn't get my apps to load back up automagically either for same reason, but the play store does keep a list of them. You have to install them one by one.

Galaxy nexus isn't really a Samsung phone.

When you buy a nexus phone you are buying a phone with the bare operating system, that's the point of it.

 

[Fritzo]

I guess if you need windows. I much prefer the unix/osx and vmware if i need to do something in ms office.

I use both, but keep gravitating towards Windows. OSX annoys me with the way it handles window placement and multitasking. Just a preference though.

The hardware however...why can't anyone else make a laptop like that? Asus came close, but their trackpad sucks.

 

[Fritzo]

Galaxy Nexus will certainly NOT back everything up. You lose your app settings, texts, widgets, ringtones and phone call history.

I couldn't get my apps to load back up automagically either for same reason, but the play store does keep a list of them. You have to install them one by one.

Really? I'll have to tell my Nexus that because it's doing it wrong.

(I'm running 4.2 on it)

 

[CZroe]

My experience is the same as eits...you hit the back button to go back to the previous screen. If you're out of "back screens" in your app, it will take you to the previous app (which is what is being demoed in the article you're showing). I've read those "it's unpredictable" articles, but truthfully never really experienced the issue.

Unlike my brother Ichinisan, I've been iOS-free and using Android now since 2011 and I could tell you that this is absolutely wrong. I encounter problems with it every day in multiple apps. Often, it's bad app design but the most damning example is Google's own Google Voice.

First of all, Google Voice stupidly does not integrate with your native Messaging app like iMessage or SMS GV Extention can on an iOS device or BBM on a Blackberry device or Windows Live Messaging on a Windows Phone 8 device. Oh, it has an "Integrate with Messaging" option that SOUNDS like it does what the rest of the industry has led you to expect, but all that does is configure forwarding to your native number at your carrier's rate without all the warnings the website would have given you when setting up the same thing. $30+ later in texting overage charges and I now know better. Now, unlike messaging, it integrates with your dialer just fine and shows merged call history, missed calls, and even transparently makes all outgoing calls from your GV number (your recipient shows in the call history instead of a GV access number). Nice. Why couldn't Messaging integrate a little better? Now, when I want to use the GV app for text messaging, I have a ton of other call history crap breaking up my messaging history and making it difficult to find anything. I have all that where it belongs: My dialer's call history. I don't need it when I launch the app. Ever. Some people might depending on what they do with their GV account and incoming calls, but I don't. Unlike the Maps app that has other icons in the app drawer for launching straight into certain parts of it like Navigation and Latitude, there is no (obviously needed) icon for launching straight into GV SMS, GV VVM, etc. Yes, because Android has no standard Visual Voicemail, which I want, and because I want all my VMs consolidated, I forward my native number's VM to GV also, which only adds to my clutter when launching the app.

WAIT A SECOND! I thought I was talking about the back button. I am. Here we go: The only way to prune through the mess of needlessly consolidated GV call history, VVM, and messages is to go to the inbox, press menu key or action-overflow softkey, and select labels, then filter with a label. The VAST majority of the time, the app is not in the inbox when you launch it and is, instead, showing the last conversation you had or voicemail you listened to. That would be fine if there were a way to get back to the inbox or to go straight to labels, but you can't. You are where you are because it remembers where you were when you were last in GV and also because the notification jumped straight into it when launching the app, bypassing the inbox. If you were doing something else between message exchanges, you were likely sending your quick response and going right back to it, which I often do using recent apps or by going to the home screen (depends on what I was doing). IOW, I don't always use "Back." When another message comes in, I get my notification, jump to it, respond again, and return to what I was doing. Often times, I delay my response so that I can do whatever it was that I was doing and I get a couple messages from different people to respond to. When I tap the notification and jump to one of them, I have no elegant way to get back and respond to the other... or even see it! All GV notifications are cleared as soon as I return to the app instead of when I view the particular message, so I can't jump to it (more on that later). When I press "back" it leaves the app and returns to what I was doing, be that another app or the home screen. When I launch the application manually from the home screen which dumps the "between applications" back buffer I am still looking at the last conversation I had. When I hit menu/action overflow, I have no option for jumping to "inbox" or other labels. When I hit "back" again, I am STILL looking at the same conversation. Why? Because I actually dared to use my notifications menu to respond to my notification multiple times for multiple responses. :rolleyes." Each time I did it, it opened another instance of the same conversation within the app. To get back to the inbox I have to press back multiple times until it leaves the app and then launch it again.

Now, what if I didn't even know there was another message in the inbox because the notification dismissed automatically when I responded to another one? This happens CONSTANTLY. Google needs to fix Android's notification system so that there can be a history of notifications even from the same app. GV somehow combines all unacknowledged notifications and dismissed them all at once, but even that dismissal wasn't necessarily a user acknowledgement. Remember when I said that it clears all GV notifications when I respond to one? It actually clears all GV notifications just from being in the app EVEN WHEN THE PHONE IS LOCKED. This is inexcusable. It's bad enough that I may be actively texting with someone and receive a text from someone else that I don't know about and have no way to go back and see/check, but it's even worse that I have to leave the app between every text to make sure it doesn't happen and EVEN worse that I have to use the back button when I may want to go someplce else on my phone. Yes, if you text someone and lock or set your phone down while waiting for an expected response, you will not get a notification for any other texts or voicemails. When you get a message, the notification plays a sound and the status bar icon shows up for a fraction of a second but disappears before you can even look at it, much less, finish responding to one, swipe the notification menu down and acknowledge or dismiss it. My phone has the ringer turned off at work so I don't even get the sound before it automatically dismisses the notification, but even when I do hear the sound it was in a flurry of other notification sounds that I expected or it was received simultaneously with another. If you were expecting a reply and unlocked your phone to find it, what indication is there that you have another one? None. Even if you could hear each one and the settings were such that it doesn't notify twice and the number of notifications was correct because none played simultaneously, is Google ACTUALLY expecting me to COUNT audible notifications so I can know to leave the app and relaunch it (sometimes several times) to get back to the inbox!? Madness.

One thing I didn't mention is how the service screws up everything and exacerbates the back button problem when it needlessly tries to split conversations. If you messaged me yesterday, then my mom messaged me, then you messaged me today, I will see three conversations in the inbox. If I need to go back and look at something you said yesterday to reply to it, then I can do that. No biggie, right? Except that I dared to convenienrly reply to you from the previous conversation I was reading that had a reply box! Now my incomming texts are randomly going between two threads that I can't properly switch between and I can't even read or jump to from the notifications menu! I once worked out a work schedule change with someone who changed his mind several times and this made it a NIGHTMARE to prove that he was wrong and simply did not show up to what he agreed to do. Nothing was chronological and eveything was split randomly across ten different threads with no time stamping and only a conversation date that was completely useless once the conversation involved multiple days weeks apart. I was right and he was responsible for the no-call/no-show, but he had no such confusion on his phone (simply forgot to ask if I would work a particular day for him). There is absolutely zero reason to not have one thread per contact like everything else similar in this world. If they insist on splitting into threads to intersperse with call logs and VMs, the least they could do is close out previous convos with the same person and link the reply to the new one or disable the reply field in an old one, but that woouldn't fix everything. You'd think that screwing up its own function for a useless threading feature like that is bad enough, but it get worse: A long message is often split up into multiple, and sometimes they branch and form TWO current threads! I wish I were kidding. Othertimes it's like half of the message dissappeared into the ether because that thread never got a response, which is another huge issue: It only forms threads for incoming texts! If you don't get a timely response that forms the new thread, you have no record of the sent text! Absolutely intolerable. Knowing what kinds of problems it can cause with other missed notifications, I sometimes deliberately leave my phone in the app with the sent message on the screen until I get a response. If I have to leave it, I sometimes resort to taking a screenshot before leaving so that I have a record on my phone. My phone is only capable of screenshots because I loaded problematic generic international firmware on it, so bad experience, interface, and design strikes again.

The native texting app isn't made like that. I wouldn't even have to complain about their implementation of notifications and the back button if they TRULY integrated it with the native messages app (like everyone else) or made a VVM and text app launcher/shortcut. Why does Google let the GV team get away with being so dumb/sloppy? Not only is it expected/demanded, but it is the main reason I would consider going back to iOS. SMS GV Extensions means that GV works and integrates better on jailbroken iOS than it does on their own OS. It could also compare to iOS' Visual Voicemail with a different app icon that jumps straight to it. A similar one for texting would let me replace the native one, since I can't integrate with it, and would finally allow me to cut through all the misseed calls and voicemails when I just wanted to text or look up a text. It should also allow you to bring up a per-contact chronological text history like every other phone (WTF is this threading clusterfu*k supposed to do?!).

 

[Tweak155]

Holy wall of text Batman!

 

[Fritzo]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdrtools.apps.gvintegration&hl=en

 

[CZroe]

Holy wall of text Batman!

Yes.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdrtools.apps.gvintegration&hl=en

Expected even if you weren't the type to not notice the problems with the Android back button/function.

I just had to get that out there.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I'm scratching my head because I've not had google voice screw up with the back button either.

But hey, even if the back button doesn't always work the best, at least there is a back button. Apple and their stupid one button everything for idiots just irritate me