Android Phones

[MrBob]

Originally Posted by Tweaker

Something is wrong there. I looked yesterday and in 20 days in my first month, I still have 36mb left. Pleasantly surprised, some days I used it for and hour or so of forum reading, some days not at all.

That is interesting.

[Keyser Soze]

Originally Posted by NikonsAndVStroms

So my girl is getting a new phone...I'm doing the research and of course have to ask the inmates:

Droid Charge VS LG Revolution, is the Droid Charge worth 100 more and what are the big differences?

I had the HTC Thunderbolt...actually went through 6 of them. Awesome phone, just could't hold a data connection out here for shit. They finally sent me the Droid Charge. Not nearly as fast as the Thunderbolt, audio quality is not as good, and it comes with a ton more bloatware Overall I'm not to thrilled with the switch. I wish they could get the the Thunderbolt glitches taken care of. The display is pretty nice though. As far as the LG goes, dunno, never had good luck with those things so I steer clear of them. I

[DualSportDad]

Originally Posted by O-man21

Mr. Meh,

Do you have any experience with Evo 3D's at all? The Sprint version of the Atrix just came out, the Photon, to generally good reviews. It's 20% slower than the 3d processor wise, at 1GHz as opposed to 1.2, but many reviewers said it was smoother than the 3d. I'm still in my 30 day return-it-if-you-don't-like-it period, wondering if it's worth a closer look.

i got rid of my 3D and got the Photon, i couldn't be happier. the Photon is just a all around better phone. the stock launcher on the Photon is kinda laggy so i use launcherpro, it screams. it's a lot faster than my 3D was, no bugs and the phon is built very well... oh yeah and i can hear it ring.

my 3D was a cool toy, but my Photon is literally like having a computer on me at all times.

[MrBob]

I've been puzzling over the my high rate of data usage. Being a smart phone noob I figured I was enabling something that caused this. So, I tapped Settings on my Droid, then Wireless and Networks, then Wi-Fi settings, and then turned off Wi-Fi.
It seems my phone was fetching emails and notifying me when each one came in, which I found annoying.
If I got this right, I can just turn on Wi-Fi when I want to check emails or browse online.
If there is a better way to do this, I'm .

[MillCreek]

^^^ Look at Green Power (my favorite) or Juice Defender. You can set how often to turn on the WiFi and for how long. Mine comes on every 15 minutes and stays on for two minutes.

[Tweaker]

Originally Posted by MrBob

I've been puzzling over the my high rate of data usage. Being a smart phone noob I figured I was enabling something that caused this. So, I tapped Settings on my Droid, then Wireless and Networks, then Wi-Fi settings, and then turned off Wi-Fi.
It seems my phone was fetching emails and notifying me when each one came in, which I found annoying.
If I got this right, I can just turn on Wi-Fi when I want to check emails or browse online.
If there is a better way to do this, I'm .

Using wifi is actually saving your data usage. If you connect to a wifi, you are not using the cell tower to get data. When I am home, I turn on wifi and am getting data through my home network.
Go to Settings, Wireless and network settings, Mobile Networks and uncheck Data Enabled. That will achieve what you are trying to do. Turn it back on when you want to use the internet/check mail, etc.
Turn off the wifi when away from your wireless signal to save battery, it is constantly looking for a signal otherwise.

So, my driod2 will not work properly when plugged into the charger. Is this a feature with all of them or just mine?

[MrBob]

Originally Posted by Tweaker

Using wifi is actually saving your data usage. If you connect to a wifi, you are not using the cell tower to get data. When I am home, I turn on wifi and am getting data through my home network.
Go to Settings, Wireless and network settings, Mobile Networks and uncheck Data Enabled. That will achieve what you are trying to do. Turn it back on when you want to use the internet/check mail, etc.
Turn off the wifi when away from your wireless signal to save battery, it is constantly looking for a signal otherwise.

So, my driod2 will not work properly when plugged into the charger. Is this a feature with all of them or just mine?

Wi-Fi off, data conserved. That was easy, thanks.
That being said, I listed my Android on eBay tonight and in Gear for sale. I guess I'm just an Apple user to the core and not up for spending a lot of time on a new system. I don't mean to imply one system is better than the other, only that I'm satisfied with Mac.

[NikonsAndVStroms]

Originally Posted by MrBob

Wi-Fi off, data conserved. That was easy, thanks.
That being said, I listed my Android on eBay tonight and in Gear for sale. I guess I'm just an Apple user to the core and not up for spending a lot of time on a new system. I don't mean to imply one system is better than the other, only that I'm satisfied with Mac.

Just a heads up an iPhone will do this too....I know how to change the frequency it checks on Android and I'm 99% sure you can in the iOS mail app as well. So if once an hour is fine for you change it to that and it should help. I remember when the iPhone was new a big issue was that it would search for E-mails etc. and rack up huge bills overseas where you are charged roaming by the MB.

Also I have to ask what else you were doing since most plans have multiple GB limits and you would use next to none of that with just the E-mail app even if it searched every few min.

[MrBob]

Originally Posted by NikonsAndVStroms

Also I have to ask what else you were doing since most plans have multiple GB limits and you would use next to none of that with just the E-mail app even if it searched every few min.

The Page Plus plan I most often use is 1200 call minutes, 1200 texts, and 100mb of data for a flat fee of 29.95 monthly. Being a geezer, I usually end up with 1199 unused texts.
If you exceed the 100mb it's possible to buy another 100mb using one of their 10.00 calling cards.
The phone sold on eBay early this morning and it's heading off to Decorah, IA tomorrow. For now, I find that my iPod Touch and POS cell phone seem to be all I need in that department, but, as was mentioned, I'm a geezer.
When the prices on non-contract iPhones comes down or I find a deal like I did with the Android, then I'd love to try one.

[NikonsAndVStroms]

Originally Posted by MrBob

The Page Plus plan I most often use is 1200 call minutes, 1200 texts, and 100mb of data for a flat fee of 29.95 monthly. Being a geezer, I usually end up with 1199 unused texts.
If you exceed the 100mb it's possible to buy another 100mb using one of their 10.00 calling cards.
The phone sold on eBay early this morning and it's heading off to Decorah, IA tomorrow. For now, I find that my iPod Touch and POS cell phone seem to be all I need in that department, but, as was mentioned, I'm a geezer.
When the prices on non-contract iPhones comes down or I find a deal like I did with the Android, then I'd love to try one.

Non-contract iPhones are likely to stay about the same as Apple tries to be leading everyone with each generation....top of the line prices (which the iPhone is) seem to be pretty stable in the stratosphere. But we are on the 4th generation so you probably could find one used for cheap, the bad news is if it needs a new battery that is a huge expense.

[slackmeyer]

Originally Posted by NikonsAndVStroms

Non-contract iPhones are likely to stay about the same as Apple tries to be leading everyone with each generation....top of the line prices (which the iPhone is) seem to be pretty stable in the stratosphere. But we are on the 4th generation so you probably could find one used for cheap, the bad news is if it needs a new battery that is a huge expense.

And for Page plus, he needs to find a verizon iphone- newer and less common.

I got a droid (well used, $40), and have been playing around with it on my wifi network without activating it yet. Pretty impressive. I highly recommend the swype app (you have to get it from swype, it's not in the market). I really love the great scientific calculators and construction calculators available- I would carry this thing around even if it wasn't a phone, at this point, just for use as a decent camera/mp3 player/calculator/wifi device.

[MrBob]

Originally Posted by NikonsAndVStroms

Non-contract iPhones are likely to stay about the same

3G 16GB iPhones on eBay seem to be pricing from 250.00 to 350.00, and up. There are two college towns near here and their Craig's List is about the same. There seem to be an awful lot of bad ESN's in that market.
I like to stay one or two steps behind the current technology and by being patient I usually come out okay. I actually made money on the sale of the Android.
My backup cell is a StarTac, which I active periodically and find to be every bit as good as anything else I've tried.

[slackmeyer]

So far so good on the Moto Droid on Page Plus. Reduced our monthly bill by about $30, and a week into it, I've used about 5% of my monthly allotment of data and minutes, and about 2% of the text messages. And the main plus is that I've had good reception for the entire last week- Verizon seems to be much better than Sprint around here.

I can imagine using up data pretty fast if I wasn't conscientious about it though- as it is, I'm often on Wifi when I need/want to use more data, so it doesn't use the cell network.

[Tweaker]

Originally Posted by slackmeyer

So far so good on the Moto Droid on Page Plus. Reduced our monthly bill by about $30, and a week into it, I've used about 5% of my monthly allotment of data and minutes, and about 2% of the text messages. And the main plus is that I've had good reception for the entire last week- Verizon seems to be much better than Sprint around here.

I can imagine using up data pretty fast if I wasn't conscientious about it though- as it is, I'm often on Wifi when I need/want to use more data, so it doesn't use the cell network.

I'm saving $50/month, did ok on the data and wouldn't mind if I had to spend another $10 for more. Verizon rules in the remote areas I go.

Problem is my phones screen digitizer went bonky and I'm in the middle of replacing it. Cell phone technician is now in my repertoire.

[Stinez]

Droid 3 here and so far so good.

I turned that 'droiiid" shit off too.

Love the voice search feature

Free Apps I like so far:

NFL Mobil (Comcast Red Zone in the middle of nowhere USA is kinda cool)

Google Earth

Barcode scanner (because I'm a cheap fucker and I want to know what others are getting for the things I buy)

My Tracks absolutely rocks and give me Google Earth tracks when asked.

I also installed the Google Sky Map App but haven't used it yet.

The only App I've paid for is SplashID which is a very good password app. I have 30+ passwords with various security considerations and IMO this is a must have App. (The blackberry had it and I loved it)


I also installed the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass event app for this weekend (5 stages 100+ bands) that tells me who is playing when and where. I think that one will serve me well.

PS I like a real keyboard.