Android phones, apps and tablets

TBH It's very hit and miss on Android...

I'm still waiting for voice recognition software on Symbian.

Forever alone.gif

kirth aside, how many of you android fanboys have actually used both an android handset and an iphone side by side out of interest?

hello

Why so much angst?

Why isn't root access just a box you can tick in one of the menus? I extracted some shit from some guide into a folder, I don't even remember what now, then lost interest when the wire broke. I will try again tomorrow when I get a new wire, but was just wondering, is there a super simple root guide for N4? I don't have time for this anymore.

Wait, does this mean I am old now?

My Xperia Z has randomly stopped recognising the SD card. Not a game changer but fairly annoying.

Why isn't root access just a box you can tick in one of the menus?

Yes good question. Its like you spend good money on a complex powerful tool and the maker only lets you use fraction of its potential unless you have time and knowledge to perform a complex operation (and you are young enough)

Because (and I realise that this is getting awfully close to Apple territory) root shouldn't really be something that limits an everyday user.
If you're not willing to take the time to do it right, it probably isn't for you (massive generalisation too, sorry).
It also gives far more potential for things to get royally fucked up.

Whose device is it?

I'd agree if you were renting a managed device, but not if you purchase and own the device.

It's mine, I have done it before on my Galaxy a couple of years ago, I can do it again. I'm just irritated it isn't easier. There are a couple of things I want to do that require root, the main one being blocking adverts, stock vanilla android is good enough for me but I just need the access.

I suppose you don't realise the full potential of your gadget until you root it. I cone across the more interesting apps that will only work on a rooted machine yet haven't yet succeeded to do it to my SG2.

Tesco at Surrey Quays had 16gb Moto G in stock today

Picked mine up from Tesco at lunch today, quite like it so far.

You really limited yourself with the 8gb memory thought.

We'll see.

Given how much memory the OS usually take, you probably have between 2 to 3gb of space left.

Given how much memory the OS usually take, you probably have between 2 to 3gb of space left.

The OS will take around 5GB if you have multiple system updates and patches applied over the course of a year or two.

You've probably got 3GB usable on an 8GB phone for the life of the phone.

If you don't use the phone as music and image storage, but instead stream music (Spotify, etc) and have uploaded images to elsewhere (Dropbox or G+), then 3GB is actually very usable.

Just checked my phone, and with no thought or limitation on what I've downloaded my phone is only using 2.0GB of space. That's with some offline map caching, Guardian set to download everything on a sync (everything... including images and comments), and 67 apps installed.

In my case I'd have 1GB scratch space on top of everything I do with a phone.

8GB is probably the smallest amount of storage a phone could usably have, but given that we now do have cloud storage for everything and the phone is only a thin client, it's actually all you really need.

Far more critical is how much RAM a phone has, as that limits the working space, will force the phone to background more (creating a larger scratch space on the internal storage), and will be the thing that makes the phone feel sluggish.

The Moto-G has 1GB of RAM.

Just checking mine again, currently running 14 apps in the background and 1 in the foreground: Using 682MB RAM.

Seems you'd probably be fine there too.

There may be some edge cases in which both RAM and storage are temporarily challenged... but I'd say that a phone with 8GB storage and 1GB RAM would be fine for it's lifetime. Especially if you have no pressing need to consume the internal storage.

The OS will take around 5GB if you have multiple system updates and patches applied over the course of a year or two.

Reasons to use Cyanogenmod Nightlies<<<<<

Reasons to use Cyanogenmod Nightlies<<<<<

Not really.

The raw partition sizes of a freshly installed Cyanogenmod or Android is about 1.5GB of system partitions, not including the data partition.

Many of the things within the OS are packages which expand, and do not include a lot of the base functionality. So you end up having those extracted, and having to download things like Gmail, Maps, etc.

When you download, and when you report on disk file size, you normally only see the packaged (compressed) size.

If you take a Cyanogen system and install all of the Google apps you'll probably find something near 3GB used. The core 1.5GB partitions and a load of stuff in the /data partition relating to the core (caches, preferences, updates, core apps, etc).

Then updates... updates that extend system things, and updates that are system things are usually appended rather than replacing things. The fact that you can uninstall updates should reveal that you are duplicating things on the file system.

Hence my qualifying statement that over a year or two, with multiple system updates and patches applied... you're using close to 5GB on the system, OS, and core functionality (play services and all basic Google apps).

The same is true for Cyanogen.

Of course, it's worse if you're running a HTC or Samsung in that you get a load of crapware. But... in their favour they update so infrequently that the updates will take up way less space (a weird side-benefit from a shite process).

A realistic lifetime use of a phone is therefore 5GB for the OS and related core stuff whichever way you cut it.

I do agree that Cyanogen is better from a privacy control perspective, but totally unconvinced that Cyanogen is better from a pure "my OS takes less space" perspective.

I've yet to see how Cyanogen manage updates over the course of years, and whether they go OTA, and if so how they do this safely. All of which impact space taken.

My point is simply that a phone with 8GB storage and 1GB RAM is surprisingly good enough with today's Android and the kind of apps available that so long as you don't have any need of your internal storage (i.e. you're using Spotify, Dropbox, etc) that the phone will be fine.

It's a conclusion even I'm surprised at given that I went for a 2GB RAM, 32GB storage phone but appear to be not using barely any of it. I could've saved some money.

If you take a Cyanogen system and install all of the Google apps you'll probably find something near 3GB used. The core 1.5GB partitions and a load of stuff in the /data partition relating to the core (caches, preferences, updates, core apps, etc).

Then updates... updates that extend system things, and updates that are system things are usually appended rather than replacing things. The fact that you can uninstall updates should reveal that you are duplicating things on the file system.

:-/ I don't think I have duplicated stuff, how would I identify such "updatable" apps?

finally got a Nexus - walked into Carphone Warehouse and managed to persuade them to sell me one for £280 with a free bumper case thing. Now just need to resist the urge to fuck about with it for the rest of the day and do some work!

recommendations for a mail app to run IMAP and POP mail accounts from?

I use this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maildroid&hl=en

it does exchange too which was the main reasons I installed it.

ugh. Exchange..