Android phones, apps and tablets

Maybe stick wakelock detector on there and see if a recent app update is keeping the phone from sleeping or something?

Returned phone to Virgin. A full charge wasn't holding overnight whilst the phone was switched off so definitely dodgy. They swopped it for a new one that is working fine now.

I'm having a few issues with my Samsung Galaxy Relay. It is like a Samsung Mini but with a slide-out keyboard.

I recently updated the software and on the top menu bar (with the wifi, gps, etc choices) there used to be a button which was an ! to turn on/off the sound of notifications but still allow you to hear the phone ringing. It was really useful for nighttime when I like to keep my phone on for emergency calls but not have the annoyance of the day time notifications that I like. It doesn't appear to be in this update. Please, does anyone know if this option is on any other menu?

The second thing is the phone has started to have some issues picking up the mobile network signal after I switch off the wifi or leave a wifi area. (This was happening before i updated, which is one of the reason I did the update.) I keep checking that it is set to automatic, but very often I am having to turn the phone off/on 2-3 times before it allows me to use data. Any ideas? It is a 4Gphone although I'm only using it on a 3G network, I didn't think it would cause any issues.

Probably the wrong thread to ask, but wasn't sure it warranted a whole thread - does anyone else ever think about ditching their smartphone and going back to a brick-style one?

Yes. For races I use my old Sony because operating a smartphone and bike at the same time is PITA. But for normal life, not a fucking chance.

^^ A work colleague did that. Got rid of the iphone and went for a Nokia brick. Does text & calls and snake (probably). Says he gets about 3 weeks on one charge!

Given the new snooping powers this government is rushing through I reckon old school Nokia is the go. Keep the smart phone VPNd wifi only.

Nokia 3310 in the post. I think the only time I will miss the N4 is when I'm having a dump, but only time will tell.

Interesting article on the new Android Runtime... Some of you are already using it but this explains it a little better.

http://anandtech.com/show/8231/a-closer-look-at-android-runtime-art-in-android-l

shoosh, if your device is supported by cyanogenmod you could always install that. It has a "quiet hours" feature which does exactly what you want and can be configured in a few ways (e.g. only ring for a select few contacts). Operates n 3 modes: Off, on or on between certain times.

Alternatively just dig through the settings screen and see if Samsung have moved the option. It was called "blocking mode" on the galaxy s3 but never did quite what I wanted.

How good is S5? My mum's got s3 and is due an upgrade.

My Sony Experia says it is running out of phone memory, there is loads of space on the internal storage but all the phone memory is taken up with Google crap that I never use like speech recognition and Google+ - how can I remove all this??

thanks

lileth, it will do more than your mum can dream of, and it's water resistant. But she would get a cheaper contract by choosing the S4 (still available) instead. Depends on what your mum wants though. I've just got the BlackBerry Z30 (apologies to this thread's readers) and it's a superb device. Better battery life than my Galaxy Note 2. Less apps, but I doubt your mum's a hard core gamer.

el_presidente, get the app called Apps2SD, then get a bigger micro-SD card. Transfer all apps that can be stored on the SD card.......Not all can. Use Opera browser, and set it's downloads to External SD Card (extSdCard). This would free up alot of space.

How good is S5? My mum's got s3 and is due an upgrade.

lileth, it will do more than your mum can dream of, and it's water resistant. But she would get a cheaper contract by choosing the S4 (still available) instead. Depends on what your mum wants though. I've just got the BlackBerry Z30 (apologies to this thread's readers) and it's a superb device. Better battery life than my Galaxy Note 2. Less apps, but I doubt your mum's a hard core gamer.

Have you looked at the total cost over ownership over the contract period and compared it with buying a Nexus5 outright and getting a sim-only contract?

el_presidente, get the app called Apps2SD, then get a bigger micro-SD card. Transfer all apps that can be stored on the SD card.......Not all can. Use Opera browser, and set it's downloads to External SD Card (extSdCard). This would free up alot of space.

Thanks - I have done this but it just tells me that there aren't any apps that can be moved to the SD Card. All the Google crap is Phone Only and I can't uninstall them either.

Cyanogenmod.

Some of the apps might have cached or saved a fair bit of data too, see if any have and delete it.

Thanks, I have gone through and deleted any cached data or updates and am back to 25% space free. I can't seem to find how to switch off the auto updates, is this possible?

Should be, yeah.

OK done that, it's a setting in the Play Store

thaks all

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/your-android-device-telling-world-where-youve-been

That's why (or one of the reasons) I use Tasker to turn off wi-fi when I leave home.

The flip side of this is, if you leave wi-fi on, your phone identifying itself to access points so they can use your address to track how often you go past, etc like the bins that tracked your location http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10237811/Bins-that-track-mobiles-banned-by-City-of-London-Corporation.html (although they have been put on hold for the moment).

That's what Smart Wifi Manager helps with on the Blackphone - it learns your normal wifi points and associates nearby cell towers so that elsewhere, people can't spoof your wifi points and it disables wifi when not near known safe wifi spots.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.kismetwireless.android.smarterwifimanager