Android phones, apps and tablets

My friend has a Galaxy S and I've seen it do a full day of checking google maps, with the GPS on for a 75 mile ride, calls and texts. Most reviews reckon it has better battery life than the Desire, it definitely sounds like something is wrong BrickMan. Who are you getting your handsets from? Sounds a bit dodgy. I don't think the build quality of the S is that great but it sounds like they're shipping iffy units to you.

OrangeUK.
first 2 handsets were defanatly new boxed, never been touched until I got them. This third on, suspect packaging, some internal baggies missing, battery was just shoved under the lip unpackaged and charger didn't have its tie around it. I reckon its a recon unit though they are mean't to ship new for new within the first 28days.

As a test (for my own purposes) I fully charged it monday night, and turned it on 8am yesterday. Its had all the apps killed and been running in flight mode since then (so basically just a dumb unit). its not 11.30pm on the second day and we're down to 37% battery life. Pretty freaking pathetic considering it is doing absolutly nothing atall!
Had a huge barney with someone in an orange shop on the strand on the weekend, their argument being 'batteries aren't included in our warrenty' and had to retire before I said more than I should. Really had a poor service from orange, shipping a duff unsuable phone to begin with then dragging their heels at every opportunity and lack of knowledge from call centre staff on how to deal with ANYTHING. Not to mention an ongoing bill dispute. Grrrrr.

Still, their better than 02!!

Good tips hippy.

And now for the news. DON'T rush out and buy an Android Tablet or phone until you've read this below.

Competition in the UK Android tablet market continues apace.

Creative launch their own tablet. It seems a bit decent actually.

LG's coming tablet will run Honeycomb and a dual core Tegra 2 CPU.

Southpeak promise games based on the Unreal 3 engine, but only for Tegra 2 phones.

So thats a pretty significant shift. Whereas the Snapdragon processor has been de rigeur for top end phones, it seems like there is certainly stiff competition from Nvidia's Tegra 2. What then for the OMAP 4 from TI, will it be able to match the increased performance of the Tegra 2, much less the newest planned Snapdragons? We'll see. Motorola seem to have climbed into bed with them, at least for their Droid X phone, so its still a bit early to place bets.

andyp and hippy will give better informed opinions than a fanboy can. Me = fanboy.

I like Creative stuff - Had one of the first Zen Micros and still use an 8Gb Zen for my mp3 duties mostly

^^+1 they've never failed me yet, still got a tiny little zen thing.

To improve battery life, turn off sync or increase gaps between syncs, disable background data if you don't sync, turn off location awareness if you don't need it, certainly turn off gps, use 2g or wifi and not 3g, dim the screen, reduce the 'time to blank' setting, turn off vibrate, use a black desktop wallpaper, reduce the number of installed and running apps, install a custom rom and underclock it the cpu.

Or use it flat out and just have a charger at home and work or a spare battery.

2hr battery life is bollocks. I just timed mine and got something like 47 hours from charge with 6 hours active. That's with most stuff off, twitter updates, alarms some calls.
I ran it with the GPS on during a walk in London and it lasted about 6-7 hours. DHD btw not Samshit.

Alternatively, buy a phone that uses an OS that was designed from the ground up to work in low power, restricted memory devices. :P

Alternatively, buy a phone that uses an OS that was designed from the ground up to work in low power, restricted memory devices. :P

Nokia 3310 ftw?

Still, their better than 02!!

If they're better than O2, why are you the one bitching about Orange while I sit here using my phone happy as larry on O2?

Alternatively, buy a phone that uses an OS that was designed from the ground up to work in low power, restricted memory devices. :P

You mean one of those from that company that won't be around much longer? Pass.
Besides which, I'd now rather have a phone that only lasts a day and does useful things.
If I wanted one that lasted a week I'd buy a Sony Ericsson.

GA2G, as for the hardware stuff, I don't get into it much, there's some discussion here.
Mobile Power - Tegra vs. Cortex A8 vs. Snapdragon - [H]ard|Forum

I will say, the bloke from Qualcomm at droidcon was great though and I'd love one of their test machines if only I had the coin and some time to mess about with it.

Oh and I don't think Google is certifying tablets over 7" yet. The say Froyo isn't optimised for tablets.
That's why, of the two Viewsonic models I looked at 7 and 10", the 7 was running 2.2 and the 10" was only running 1.6 (with ADWLauncher for some reason), oh and Windows7.

Here:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/google-froyo-bad-for-tablets#axzz14J7NtONe

If they're better than O2, why are you the one bitching about Orange while I sit here using my phone happy as larry on O2?

Because you bought yours sim free, instead of relying on the network =)

BrickMan 'battery is not included in our warranty' doesn't wash. Nobody expects a battery to retain 100% charge for long at all, but if a phone is supplied as new the battery should be in new condition.

If the battery is already worn or performing badly, it's not fit for purpose under the Sale of Goods Act. Quote that at them in an Orange shop, if they tell you their policy overides it, tell them that the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act therefore overrides any unfair terms they may have made up. If they still say that's their policy, ask them a.) Why the law of the land does not apply to Orange and b.) can they put that in writing please ;)

I saw first evidence of advertising of the Samsung Tab in the press today. I still haven't see one in "the flesh". Also no tabs to speak of in Dixons/Curry's apart from iPad :(

Dixons want to get their 180 quid tablet in before xmas. They won't make noise about it because they don't want to rock the iFad boat. If you want one.. wait a while until 2.2 is common. Unless you want a smaller one already cerified (7")

Desire HD update 1.32.405.6 (18MB)

Improve screen control and YouTube client performance.

I got that off Ebay, amazing thing. It has a pully at the back which brings your phone out. My one was for the Wildfire so I don't know if there is one for Desire.

I have a spare new HCT case that I got off Amazon.

£5 anyone? Pick up Barbican or Brixton. PM me.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

chuckles

Lolz. 0118 999 881 999 119 725......... 3.

Is this the main iPhone thread?

Samsung Galaxy S gets Froyo from today.

Samsung Galaxy Tab will get updates to 2.3 and to 3.0.

Sharp Galapagos 3D phones launched in Japan. Glasses not necessary. One model has 9.6m camera. Run on 1Ghz Snapdragon.

Is this by any chance real, or is it an elaborate hoax? Xperia X10 shows multi-touch ability. Surely, the boffins
and boffettes at GSM.arena would not be the easiest people to hoodwink, or would they?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyI0Q4cJsDg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpycD7HV_X0

It seems that the debate over at XDA isn't conclusive either; though it has been posited that Sony Ericsson are the only big phone maker that hasn't been sued by Apple for using multi-touch technology for their Android phones...and SE are the only ones not to introduce multi-touch to their top-of-the-range Android phones either. Coincidence? SE do hit back by saying that true multi-touch requires more than one layer within the screen, but that their X10 screen is made up of a sole layer only.

Android Tablet news.

Looks like the iPad will be in for some stiff competition in 2011. One analyst thinks that Android will dominate the tablet scene. The very impressive Samsung Galaxy Tab and the very new Toshiba Folio 100 are already on sale (though I believe that the Folio 100 is being shipped to shops now, and is on pre-order).

Some cheaper options are provided by Maplins, Next, Creative, and Elonex. The Augen TheBookReader with its 150 pre-loaded books has me very interested. More serious options may arrive in the new year from LG, Viewsonic (dual OS), Cisco (enterprise ready?), Motorola and HP.

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We had an Avaya presentation today- they were showing off the new Avaya Flare Tab, 11.6" tablet that connects back to your Enterprise PBX, full Unified Comms play, presence, video, email, collaborative working, yada yada.

Who'd like to guess how much they were, per unit at RRP?

£500.oo?

EDIT:

Expected to cost between $1,500 and $2,000 .....(article from Engadget)

Excuse me????!!!!!

Engadget is wrong- £3,000 for the tablet, £300 for the dock.

The fucking power cable (a power cable!) is £75.

Looks good, for the right people, but maybe they hadn't realised there was a recession on?