Android...

Zascar

Do many here have Android phones? I know a few of you just got them recently, even Jeff who's an Apple fanatic has converted! I switched from the iPhone a while back and absolutely love it... Wanted to post some info for the lads so thought I'd share here anyway...

With Android, cause the OS is open source, hacker dudes make their own customised versions of the OS - and then there are apps that can do or change absolutely antyhing about the phone - its pretty cool, and endless about of nerd fun to be had playing with it...

Anyway I wrote this post in another thread but thoght I'd share here too..

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Rooting: To be able to put on a custom OS or "ROM", first you need to "Root" your phone to get custom rom's on it - see thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055969546

When you have done that, install the "Rom Manager" app from the Android Market. First, make an entire backup of your phone - so you can restore to exactly that state if needed. I would also recommend buying "MyBackup Pro" - which backs up all your data & settings individually. It will back them up to your sd card, or to their servers online, so you don't even need to worry about it, really handy.

Then you need to choose a rom. LeeDroid is the best rom I've found so far. Modaco is very popular too. When u have your rom, transfer the downloaded .zip file to your sd card. Go into Rom Manager - and do a "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery". Then click "Install ROM from SD Card. When you flash a rom, its better to do a clean install - ticking the "clear data and cache" box. If you leave it unticked I think your settings etc remain, but it can be problematic sometimes I think. Rom Manager should restart - load the new rom, install it and do everything for you. Be patient, sometimes it seems like it hangs at a screen for several minutes, just leave it go.

Give that a try. For some reason I had huge problems and errors, but then when it did work it was fine and pretty easy.

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Apps: Using ADW Launcher - fantastic once I got it set up. It totally changes the home screen on your phone and makes it totally customisable. Loving Extended Controls, Handcent SMS, TV Guide (Ireland), LogMeIn (very impressive). Got Google Voice Actions which is surprisingly good. Very impressed with the stock navigation, eat battery though. Can't wait to start using "Car Home" - but need to get a windscreen holder first.

Anyway hope that is helpful. Any other tips people have please share..

ianuss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI

Zascar

lmao!!

Zascar

These are brilliant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLOrr_-twwA

Scubadevils

ianuss wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI

That is gas, genuinely good laugh from that - nice old school style innocent comedy... brilliant

Scubadevils

Oh and also, when I saw the thread title I thought it was something about Android 666 but you'd left out the 666 bit.

I've got an iPhone and HTC of some description and much prefer the iPhone - although I've done feck all with the HTC other than whatever software is loaded as standard. I find the iPhone much easier to use, especially web browsing and emails.

ianuss

Scubadevils wrote: »

That is gas, genuinely good laugh from that - nice old school style innocent comedy... brilliant

Showing my age here but feck it, I used to love the Two Ronnies. Nobody really does comedy quite like that anymore.....unfortunately.

Scubadevils

ianuss wrote: »

Showing my age here but feck it, I used to love the Two Ronnies. Nobody really does comedy quite like that anymore.....unfortunately.

Ah yeah me too, loved them as a kid - hate to sound old school again but a lot of the older innocent comedy was the best. That said there has been lots of great stuff over the years, nothing really grabbed me of late though... that Inbetweeners initially had me hooked but lost interest quickly enough, good for one round of laughs, unlike classic stuff.

joker77

Scubadevils wrote: »

Ah yeah me too, loved them as a kid - hate to sound old school again but a lot of the older innocent comedy was the best. That said there has been lots of great stuff over the years, nothing really grabbed me of late though... that Inbetweeners initially had me hooked but lost interest quickly enough, good for one round of laughs, unlike classic stuff.

Ronnie Corbett was a legend, grew up watching a lot of him. The newsreader sketches with just him were excellent.

These days nearly everything popular on TV comedy wise is 'cringe' comedy - since The Office (or before maybe?) it's kind of watch through your fingers stuff. A lot of repetition, I suppose with anything if it works once they'll do it to death.

Back OT, I got my HTC Desire a couple of weeks before Christmas - love the thing now, except for the battery life. Zascar told me to install JuiceDefender - which I think has helped a little bit alright - might get a day and a half rather than just a day out of it. The data-centric-ness (yea yea it's not a real word) is the major advantage it has over the iPhone for me - all my contacts from various sources are nicely synced up, with total control in my hands of how they're synced. I use Gmail and Google Calendar, and they fit nicely into the phone, calendars are synced as well. Camera is not too shabby at all - not as good as the Desire HD or iPhone 4, but good enough.

I'm going to leave the HTC factory build on it for the moment, when I get too bored I might go for one of the custom ROMS.

jonnny68

Android is far superior to iPhones in every respect, i have a cooked Android build on my HD2 and it's blazing fast,iPhone is probably the most overated item ever IMO plus it's not open source like Android.

seannash

Zascar wrote: »

These are brilliant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s

in fairness,that voice thing is ****e.just doesnt work as it should

Zascar

Really? I find it brilliant - fairly impressed by what it can do the majority of the time. It does not work so well in the car with background noise etc. It's the best speech recognition I've come across anyway. Are you sure its not just your big bogger accent Sean?

seannash

Zascar wrote: »

Really? I find it brilliant - fairly impressed by what it can do the majority of the time. It does not work so well in the car with background noise etc. It's the best speech recognition I've come across anyway. Are you sure its not just your big bogger accent Sean?

ha ha it could very well be,but rest assured theres far worse out there.
its not reliable enough to warrant it being used all the time imo.

i just tried it out on my brothers phone,im not really too bothered about phones if im honest.
i did like my iphone when i had it.im not too fussed about customizing everything about a phone

I think android is a bit of a anti conventional statement too for alot of people(not judging)

I honestly spend far too much time online and dont really need to have the internet everywhere i go.

Zascar

I find it good for "Call David" or "Navigate to Wexford" etc - but I do not use it to send text messages, its not good enough for long sentences. Getting a computer to understand human speech without firstly pre-trainig it to your voice (like dragon dictate does) is a phenomenally difficult thing to do. So considering all I think they've done a great job. Have a look at some of the examples of the other types of things it can do here: http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleMobile
Thing is that this is only in its infancy, so give it a year or two and it will become a lot, lot better.

Oh and if you have not seen this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4

I'm very impressed by what it can do but in truth I have not found any practical uses for it yet personally. But again, in time....

And although this is only for iPhone, this is one of the most impressive things I have seen in an app (which does not even need a data connection to work)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs

seannash

yeah word lens is impressive alright.
its very exciting to see these things develope but for me I dont need my phone to do anything more than text and talk,but i do realise everyone has different needs

oh and your right about the long sentences alright,horrible for them but short commands were fine(even in my bogger accent )

jtsuited

hahahah lmao at the fact the speech recognition doesn't work for Sean!!!!!!
The Dundalk accent is one of the most bizzare methods of speech ever heard.

Even though Sean's accent is fairly mild (in Dundalk terms), I actually reckon it was his accent that through it off.

I'm actually shocked at how accurate the speech to text is on my phone. Then again, it could just be my middle class upbringing...

seannash

jtsuited wrote: »

hahahah lmao at the fact the speech recognition doesn't work for Sean!!!!!!
The Dundalk accent is one of the most bizzare methods of speech ever heard.

Even though Sean's accent is fairly mild (in Dundalk terms), I actually reckon it was his accent that through it off.

I'm actually shocked at how accurate the speech to text is on my phone. Then again, it could just be my middle class upbringing...

Hey!!!!!!:(

jonnny68

Here are some of my essential apps

1-Cabbage - This app allows you to send your free web text messages from your phone, great for when your out and about and saves a packet.

2-Titanium Backup - A must have to back up all your apps,ill be getting the paid version of this soon.

3-Power Amp - I have the paid version of this, the best music player on Android.

4-Miren Browser - IMO the best browser for Android.

5-Amazon Kindle - The Android version works very well,essential for long journeys.

6-Go SMS - The best text message APP on the market and free too

7-Shazam - This incredible app does what it says, a must have http://www.appbrain.com/app/shazam/com.shazam.android

8-AG Newspapers - You can read online newspapers from various different countries worldwide or just filter it to read Irish newspapers if you so wish.

9-Tune in Radio - Listen to radio stations worldwide thousands listed

10-Next Train Ireland - Gives real time info for Trains and DART, free too

11-Irish Flights - Real time info for arrivals and departures for Dublin, Shannon and Cork

12-Fot Mob - Excellent football app one of the best

13-Trip Advisor - The Android version of the well known travel website does what it says on the tin

14-Movies -One of the best film apps for Android

15-Barcode Scanner - Very handy and essential app

16-Real Player Beta - One of the better media players for Android

17-APP2SD - Very handy app that allows you to move your apps to your SD card giving more space on your phone

18-Fancy Widget Pro - Paid version of this is good allows you to customise clock and weather

19-First Aid - Always good to have something like this to hand, very informative and good to have

20-Camera 360 - Much better than the stock Androd camera,ill be getting the paid version of this too

Another app ive just added is Just Pictures which is very good,way too many to mention and i havent mentioned the usual ones like facebook, eBay,YouTube,GMail,Google Maps,etc,etc but these are just some of the apps i have which people might want be interested in as well.:)

Zascar

The ipad is so fuking screwed when this thing comes out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4NqT6u_ODk

Actually no, let me correct that. The ipad will do just fine and continue to sell millions, but Android is going to kick its ass in terms of functionality...

jtsuited

saw that on click today (that bbc show)....looks brilliant.

gavkm27

Hey i recently bought Samsung Galaxy,rooted it and flashed a new ROM,now i will say it's pretty confusing all the stuff about flashing,kernels,rooting etc. and i don't know much about it,so i ended up bricking it,another new term to me.Anyway from reading the problem pages on XDA forums,there are alot of people bricking their phones,its very easy to do if you dont know what you doing and i love the open source on Android but you really gotta take the time to figure everything out.
So im going back to the simple straight forward Iphone and will most likely use Android again in a couple of years once everything settles down a bit.

Zascar

Moral of the story, don't fuk about unless you know what you are doing. You can brick iPhones too you know!

jtsuited

erm, pardon my technology ignorance (and boy i have quite a good bit of that), but what does bricking a phone mean?

Something to do with fcukin it up to the point of no return or something?

Zascar

Yep, if you do something really silly, you're phone is essentially a brick. You void the warranty when you "Root" the phone and put on a new rom so they won't replace it for you. Mate of mine bricked his iPhone. I found if you follow the proper instructions, rooting and putting a custom rom on your Android is fairly straight forward.