The GOOGLE | ANDROID Thread

[2NR Smurf]

^I made sure n got a screen protector for mine. Also got a rubberized case off amazon.

Personally i don't like the screen protectors, they keep my back when using Swype, my finger does jus be skipping across the screen when i try to type, studying to spray a lil Pam

Rubberized case definite, best protection against falls.

^mine dont bother me atall....i swypin like a pro

yuh need a zagg screen protector....best ever

^saw a couple vids of zagg protectors turning a stinky yellowish colour after a couple months use. kinda turned me off from them.

[Captainzaak]

^I made sure n got a screen protector for mine. Also got a rubberized case off amazon.

Personally i don't like the screen protectors, they keep my back when using Swype, my finger does jus be skipping across the screen when i try to type, studying to spray a lil Pam

Rubberized case definite, best protection against falls.

^mine dont bother me atall....i swypin like a pro

yuh need a zagg screen protector....best ever

^saw a couple vids of zagg protectors turning a stinky yellowish colour after a couple months use. kinda turned me off from them.

I bought a whole body for a SE i have, the yellow thing happened about 6mths after putting it on but only to the body suit, not to the screen (due to everyday use i guess). The edges also started to collect dust, so it looks kinda stink right now

U should be cool with the screen protector alone tho.

[M_2NR]

wrt to zagg.. yeh.. they get real stink quickly and the yellowing happens quite quick to... i have a set to send back to them for a n82... but never got the chance. here is how it gets. That is a page in the back that is white...



I like the cheap plastic for screen protectors. I use that with a zagg back and a clear tpu case. The only thing with TPU is that it also discolors so my clear case is now... yukky yellow too

Good thing is though, i can send it back to iFrogz i believe and it will be replaced. Zagg support is excellent as well.
When i was installing mine.. i tweeted... "ouch... stretched my zagg in first install... oh well have to cut it" I got a prompt reply from them (i didnt even tag them) asking if i want a replacement.

[tr1ad]

meh zagg on iphone going strong 2 years now with no change

[Swisha]

Google's 2010 holiday doodle: its 'most ambitious one yet'



Taken a look at Google's homepage recently? If not, we'd recommend you do so, STAT. The image you see here will only be an active doodle -- a name given to Google's "special" logos used to commemorate certain events and holidays -- for a few more hours. According to a lengthy report over at the Wall Street Journal, the Holiday 2010 Doodle is El Goog's "most ambitious one yet," taking five artists some 250 hours to create. Google estimates that it has crafted some 900 doodles since 1998, with a whopping 270 of 'em running in 2010. This particular one relies on 17 interactive portraits of holiday scenes from around the globe, and it took the team a number of months to finally whip up a finished product that everyone was stoked on. We'd encourage you to click around on it to discover what the tiles actually mean, and if you're hungry to learn about the shockingly interesting backstory that surrounds it, the source link has a URL with your name on it.

Wall Street Journal


http://goo.gl/AGta1

[Swisha]

phone still in the box, how long should the first charge be?

thanx tuners.

Pre-charging Tip
Regardless of the specific smartphone you received for the holidays, the weakest link is likely its battery. Treating your Li-ion with respect will not only extend the life and usefulness of your new phone, but also boost its resale value—just in case you decide to dump to back on the market prematurely. Lucky for you, almost all the major manufacturers offer guidance here, including Palm, Apple, and BlackBerry. What they won't tell you, however, is that you must resist the urge to immediately charge your smartphone. Yup, let that 30-60 percent charge go down to zero before plugging in. Juicing up your smartphone in its half-charged state will make the battery components settle faster. That, in turn, will mean it won't be able to re-charge as efficiently in the future. Ideally, you should always wait for the battery to drain before recharging to maintain good health, but the occasional slip won't matter much. If you really want to understand these fickle little bricks, check out our Giz explains feature on why batteries die.


How to Make that New Smartphone Actually Smart

[pugboy]

anybody know how can I get my HTC hero to strip country code from incoming calls so that they will match 7 digit numbers in my contacts ?

[sablo77]

YOU ALL KNOW ANYWHERE I CAN GET MY G1 DREAM 1.6 UPGRADED PLUS CHANGE OVER THE WHOLE CASINGS ......

[Soundwave]

phone fell... won't turn on now.... according to tr1ad... what can he do

[sekhar_777]

Guys I was just thinking. Maybe this fragmentation was a bit too much.
There are just way too many versions out there, with OEM manufacturers slapping on layer upon layer of extra crap that you just don't need.

Making it harder and harder to upgrade efficiently to the latest official ROM's.
.
.
.
Apple and WP7 have the edge here, when they wanna update-they just update...BOOM...everyone at the same time. Just makes more sense. Views?

I'm also starting to look at WP7 phones. Apple? No, they deliberately omit basic features from their products just to make you spend more money. They've also become the "man" in my opinion with all the restrictions they've.

I haven't decided as yet but when I see the uncertainty surrounding the availability of almost every Android update to existing phones I wonder how quckly they (the phone) will become obsolete. That and so many new phones don't come out with the newest O/S version. I do love the apps available for android though. Android's openess will also allow me to get certain apps that Microsoft most probably wouldn't allow.

I'll keep an eye on both WP7 and Android developments. One thing though it's a bit exciting to see how phones are rapidly evolving. Given their functionality it makes me wonder if there is really a need for tablets.

Yup we're on the same page.
I think I'm really holding out for WP7-I was impressed from the get go, and the smoothness of ALL the handsets is amazing. All of them run fast, all of them will get upgraded at the same time. I couldn't ask for more.

Android officials did say they would slow down on releases as things become more stable, but the openness and the lack of control they possess on the manufacturing is annoying. MS explicitly told manufacturers you cannot do x,y,z and only a,b,c.

At first it sounded like tyranny, but now when you see the end result, it's nothing but silky smoothness and great response times. Look Pete above...he still cyar even get his update. That sucks man.

Read the Gizmodo article above...that gives you a great idea of what I'm talking about.

For a ex Winmo 6.5 user, I will never forgive MS for leaving us high and dry. Why even release a Winmo 6.5 if 7 was in the cards. 7 should have been released 2 years ago. And now I will never give MS my hard earned $ no matter how fancy 7 is. Android all the way, just came back from Canada with the HTC Desire Z and loving it.

[~*SiLvA MeRa*~]

fellas, i really need a good gel case or even one of those slip in ones for my galaxy s like today, i refuse to use it without putting it in a case, i have ordered a screen protector already but i am not getting any good reviews on any of the gel cases on Amazon.

Another question is the Samsung Galaxy s and the Samsung captivate the same phone in terms of dimensions, i am seeing an otterbox case for the captivate and i am getting the impression its the same phone just marketed under a different name by the carrier. thanx for any assistance

[tr1ad]

all you need to do is check gsmarena for the comparison yunno

[~*SiLvA MeRa*~]

^^good suggestion, i did and yes, both phone have the same dimensions as well as features.Well the Galaxy S has a bit more, check the comparison link below. thanx

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?id ... hone2=3408

[tr1ad]

so eventually i got the phone to work...

was bored and decided to root via cyanogen....

must say it is faster and very customisable

downside..... market gives trouble at times

[zcarz]

So wrt slideit vs swype, which one allyuh find to be better?

[Swisha]

Android Music Player to Ditch the Featureless Gray List Design Ethic



The default Android music player is a dark and dreary piece of software, that's routinely shamed by the custom media options supplied with HTC's Sense skin and even the likes of Motoblur. But it's about to get better.

This video of a leaked build of a future Android music player shows little in the way of increased functionality, mainly focussing on adding a similar, free-flowing, 3D library layout as seen in the updated Android Gallery app. What is of note is the addition of a soft Menu button in the top-right corner of most of the player's screens, perhaps giving us a glimpse of the vanilla Android user experience of the future.

If you fancy giving it a go (and know what you're doing/don't care if you break stuff) the APK file can be found over on the XDA forums.


http://goo.gl/Cbadq

[Swisha]

So wrt slideit vs swype, which one allyuh find to be better?

swype is more polished. and for that fancy phone u have, u might wanna go swype since i dont think slideit offers a high res version...

[zcarz]

^^ok, thanks, swype seems to be working and looking nice

[DFC]

swype is really cool. i dont use it much though, i got a keypad!.

My fingers to thick to use the touch pad to type.

[Swisha]

currently using launcher pro plus as my default launcher but ADWlauncher EX looks good too...



ADWLauncher EX Adds Lots of Eye Candy, Desktop Presets to ADWLauncher



Android: Open source alternative home screen launcher ADWLauncher is one of our favorite home screen replacements on Android, and the developers have just released a premium version with tons of new animations, tweaks, and a desktop preset feature.

ADWLauncher was already a great app for those that liked to customize the look and feel of their Android phones, and ADWLauncher EX takes it even further by adding five different app drawer styles, eight different desktop transition animations, and icon customization features. It even has a few presets that let you change all these things on-the-fly. Plus, it has all the features of the original ADWLauncher, like themes and extra layout options. It also features some code improvements that noticeably increase the speed, even on older phones—even if you're a LauncherPro fan, this might be one to check out.

ADWLauncher EX is a $3.30 download for Android phones. ADWLauncher is still free, and much of the underlying code of both projects will sync between the two, so you don't need to worry about either becoming outdated yet.


http://goo.gl/QjiWM

[tr1ad]

root root root root

[tr1ad]

phone fall again.....

sigh... 4 times in 3 days..... i feel that's it this time
nothing from it... no power.... usb not reading it

[Captainzaak]

phone fall again.....

sigh... 4 times in 3 days..... i feel that's it this time
nothing from it... no power.... usb not reading it

WTF!

you doh want that phone or what?
Buy a rubber casing for it nah, jeez. lol

[tr1ad]

i ordered a case... lost in transit
the replacement due sometime next week

but too late shall be the cry

[Swisha]

Tiny Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Sequel Has 1GHz Processor and Android 2.3



Sony Ericsson's dinky little X10 Mini Pro phone may've had a few problems under its 2.6-inch screen (running Android 1.6 for starters), but the company's obviously keen to improve, with a sequel leaking out already.

The original Mini appeared in February this year at Mobile World Congress, so it makes sense that Sony Ericsson would be readying a second version for the same trade show. This one looks larger though, with a 3-inch screen, and better specs to appeal to people other than kids, with a forward-facing camera and 1GHz Snapdragon processor. While the Chinese photos don't show it, the slide-out QWERTY keyboard has been retained.

We'll be at MWC in February, so will definitely be getting some hands-on time with this tinsy phone.




http://goo.gl/AZGir

[tr1ad]

i miss my phone

[Captainzaak]

i miss my phone

1tote

[tr1ad]

blackberry isn't fun

[zcarz]

so there's basically no good gps app for trinidad.. google maps is off and navdroyd maps are also incomplete, and there is no garminXT for android so we can't use the venrut maps.. someone should update the navdroyd maps with data from the mNav software.. that would be really cool

[achillies]

I would not consider the GMaps Navigation because it cant give me directions, but i did use it to get myself out of a jam when i got lost on one occasion