Picked up the xoom wifi today, this thing is the tits.

3/31/2011 11:12:18 PM

^yeah dude, I've been burning it up with mine

3/31/2011 11:52:50 PM

where do you guys use it? i can't really justify a tablet in my day to day computing - i just don't sit on the couch long enough where i'd need one. my daily routine isn't very tablet-friendly. i am either at home where i have a desktop or outside working where i have a laptop around, or i'm too mobile and can only have my phone on me, not a tablet.

3/31/2011 11:57:22 PM

http://pocketnow.com/tech-news/verizon-making-scary-changes-to-return-policy



Preemptive April Fools or clever power play announced a day before allowing such an easy cop out if the public stages a mutiny?

4/1/2011 4:47:19 AM

They usually just reflash the phones they receive and send them back out so I suppose it makes sense.

4/1/2011 8:51:02 AM

^^^arund the house, on the couch... basically, I'm replacing my laptop at home, I mostly just browse the web on it... every now and then, I need to do something thats typing heavy... or will need to do something in solidworks...

My laptop is off right now, since late wed, I'm going to see how long it takes me to turn it back on. Since tuesday, I haven't used it but a couple times for a few job applications earlier in the week.

4/1/2011 12:13:18 PM

Not sure if anyone else has been annoyed by the Sports calendars not being synced from your calendar to your phone, but it finally made me to look for how to fix it. Now I see when the White Sox are playing

Here is the workaround I found:
http://androidforums.com/htc-hero-sprint/17798-problem-shared-google-calendars-native-calendar-app.html

Quote :

"Yes, you don't use Google's sports calendars if you also want to see them on the Hero, you use Yahoo's (go figure!). You need a yahoo account; log in, go to Yahoo Sports, to the league of your choice, to the team of your choice, to Score & Schedules (the one *under* the team banner, not the one closer to the top of the page), to Add to Calendar, to Synch with Google and then follow the clear instructions. You will be taken to Google Calendar; hit Refresh and then look on your phone "

4/2/2011 1:37:46 PM

just picked up an atrix today. definitely love the phone and all the features it has. i was playing around with the DLNA client and I couldn't stream some of the AVI files from my PC. what video formats does it support?

4/2/2011 9:02:21 PM

^^Holy crap Matt, I have been looking for that answer for months. THANK YOU

Well, not actively looking for it, but it has been bugging me

[Edited on April 3, 2011 at 2:45 PM. Reason : anyway]

4/3/2011 2:35:02 PM

im running liberty 1.5 on my DX, but see that a rooted, deodexed Gingerbread came out a few days ago, so i downloaded the zip

not sure whether i want to install it, i like the liberty rom so far, only been running it a month

4/3/2011 4:00:15 PM

my phone is making a weird noise......I dont know what it is. Not a text, voicemail, email, alarm.....I duunnoooo!!!!!

4/3/2011 11:45:37 PM

blame it on the a-a-a-a-alcohol. lol. What kind of noise?

4/3/2011 11:50:30 PM

Is the htc merge being released on Verizon? My mom wants a smart phone, physical keyboard a must.

I told her to wait, as the droid 3 will be out at summers end, and that I'd likely be getting one, too... but I just remembered the merge. Though its specs may be dick by now... I don't recall them.

Anyone hear of other verizon key board phones? I don't think my mom has preference for android, but I think it would be for the best. Because then I know how to fix it when she messes it up.

4/4/2011 12:22:57 AM

in gvoice i've turned off inbox sync in the settings and gone to SMS notifications because i like the interface i have on GoSMS Pro but the app refuses to stop notifying me. it pops up notifications in GVoice at the same time the SMS comes in. It's damn annoying. I know I can turn off the notification but that doesn't mean it isn't wasting my battery by keeping the inbox in sync...

any ideas?

4/4/2011 2:13:12 PM

^ I went into Sync and Notifications inside of Google Voice and unchecked inbox notifications, sent myself a message and didn't get a notification other than via email.

Quote :

"Is the htc merge being released on Verizon? My mom wants a smart phone, physical keyboard a must. "

The Verizon branded Merge is a unicorn. No one seems to really know wtf is going on with it. The divested Alltel areas are offering it but that doesn't really help Verizon customers.

4/4/2011 2:30:31 PM

sync inbox takes priority over notifications. i disabled sync inbox and so it grays out notifications. i know i can disable notifications, but that doesn't mean it's not syncing my inbox in the background, wasting my battery.

fuck it, can't wait til sprintegration...i'll just stick with gvoice app til then.

4/4/2011 2:40:44 PM

ok, I'm confused. So why not just disable Notifications and then turn off Inbox sync? If I have both checked, it gives me a notification without going into the app. If I leave notifications checked and uncheck Inbox Sync, it only pops up the notification if I open the app. If I disable both, the inbox refreshes when I open the app but I doesn't give any extra notifications.

4/4/2011 3:08:30 PM

yeah mine's not doing that...if i uncheck sync inbox, it keeps it in sync still, no matter whether the app is open or not...it's a bug on my phone

4/4/2011 4:53:16 PM

Sold the Fascinate yesterday. Farewell Samsung, Hello HTC

4/5/2011 10:16:01 AM

Just upgraded from the original Motorola Droid to a Thunderbolt.

The Thunderbolt for some reason refuses to communicate properly with me car's bluetooth head unity. It will pair, but it won't transmit the audio from phone calls, and seems to sporadically transmit audio from media, over bluetooth. The Droid worked great for this

The front-facing camera seems like an after-thought on this phone too.

The phone is faster than the droid, and has a WAAY brighter screen. Battery life seems about the same (which was very good). The wifi tethering works great with my ipod touch (for when I need a good browser).

The other thing is that the HTC copy/past functionality interferes with Swype. Does anyone know how to change the way copy/paste works on HTC's interface?

4/6/2011 11:49:31 PM

And it continues...
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/04/07/verizon-discontinuing-1-year-contracts-after-april-17/

Quote :

"The bad news seems to be pouring in from all angles these days, doesn’t it? According to the above document, Verizon will remove the option for customers to sign 1-year contracts effective April 17th. Why on Earth would they do such a thing? Well, because very few customers seem to ever choose 1-year deals, but more importantly, this will “streamline” the contract process and help reduce customer confusion. It’s always nice of Verizon to help us decide what we want by removing choices. Like when they eliminated 1-year upgrades and the NE2 program, cut out rebates, and tightened up warranty replacement rules, they were surely thinking of us, right? My life feels super streamlined these days; thank you Big Red. This will not affect those that are currently on a 1-year contract until their contract runs out. From there, you will have the choice of a 2-year contract or a month-to-month."

4/7/2011 7:35:16 PM

Somehow att buying sprint tmobile is good, right.

[Edited on April 7, 2011 at 8:30 PM. Reason : .]

4/7/2011 8:11:18 PM

tmobile

4/7/2011 8:27:41 PM

Doh.

4/7/2011 8:29:41 PM

New Honeycomb tablet - Acer Iconia with just about the same specs as the Xoom for $450 on April 24th.


http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/08/acers-iconia-tab-a500-soaks-up-the-wifi-rays-hits-shelves-apri/

SWEET!!

4/8/2011 4:53:22 PM

16 GB though... a 16 GB 3g xoom should be in verizon stores soon. It was on droid-life today. Presumably a wifi version will follow, at about 450-500

I'd expect it to get updates much quicker than Acer...

[Edited on April 8, 2011 at 11:35 PM. Reason : though moto has been slow to bring gingerbread to their devices]

4/8/2011 11:34:12 PM

wait for this...
http://www.androidcentral.com/toshiba-android-tablet-coming-soon-best-buy

4/8/2011 11:44:16 PM

That one interested me, but I grew impatient. Don't regret getting my xoom, I love the thing.

I'm just waiting for them to release source so I can get some custom cooked roms on this fucker.

I also wish the market would let me look for tablet specific apps. It has featured tablet apps, but I can't see all native apps. (I don't think that the feature list has all apps, anyway. It went from 59 to 52... so unless some were removed....)

4/9/2011 12:12:28 AM

B0j0s has a droid 1 from like late 2009 with a cracked screen, but the screen still works

if he were to report it to Verizon and get it replaced for the $deductible, would he be given a droid 2 automatically or could he ask for a droid pro?

4/9/2011 3:31:03 PM

Hmm, dunno. Do they have refurbed of droids?

4/9/2011 3:44:21 PM

nah I found an article from august '10 that said from that point on they would replace droids with droid2s

didn't know that since new stuff had come out they might have other options for replacements

4/9/2011 4:27:33 PM

that Speedx 3D game is pretty cool, pretty good responsiveness on the tilt calibration and everything

4/9/2011 4:27:46 PM

Quote :

"nah I found an article from august '10 that said from that point on they would replace droids with droid2s"

That was only because they had a shortage of Droid refurbs at the time but it didn't last. I had mine replaced twice shortly after that and got OG Droids both times.

4/9/2011 5:16:40 PM

Maybe I'm stupid but is there to sync Wolfpack Sports calendars (ie Football and Basketball) doing the Yahoo! Sports method?

4/10/2011 6:04:56 PM

I wasn't able to find a way either. But its between seasons (that I follow at least ) so I didn't try that hard.

4/10/2011 6:30:43 PM

I think you have to wait until the beginning of the (football/basketball) season to add the current year's NCSU sports calendars

4/10/2011 6:33:06 PM

I'm trying to decide between getting the Thunderbolt now, the Droid Charge in a week, or the Droid Bionic in a month. Leaning towards waiting until the Bionic comes out, because of battery life issues with the Thunderbolt and rumored high price ($300) for the Charge.

4/10/2011 7:34:40 PM

The battery life on the Thunderbolt really isn't that bad. I've had mine for about 3 weeks and the battery life is on par with the Fascinate I had. Don't have 4G yet here in Raleigh so that's with mainly 3G and wifi use. The ones complaining about battery life are in crap 4G areas which will most likely be the case for other 4G devices as well. Luckily there are shortcuts to disable 4G. Plus SenseUI >>>> Blur and Motorola's less hacker friendly nature is crap. Samsung screens are nice but I wouldn't even consider another Samsung device since they can't manage to update their phones in a timely manner.

4/10/2011 7:44:01 PM

Quote :

"Samsung screens are nice but I wouldn't even consider another Samsung device since they can't manage to update their phones in a timely manner."

The Samsung CEO has "no idea" people want software updates for their devices.

Honestly I want as close to the stock OS as I can get.

4/10/2011 9:22:43 PM

Quote :

"The ones complaining about battery life are in crap 4G areas which will most likely be the case for other 4G devices as well. Luckily there are shortcuts to disable 4G. "

I'm in a Verizon 4G area, and it is my primary requirement (along with a 4.3" screen) in a new phone. So yeah, battery life is a concern to me. The Thunderbolt has only a 1400 mAh battery, smaller than both the Charge and the Bionic.

I'm not the biggest fan of SenseUI, but I've heard the newest versions are better. I should look into that. Stock Android works pretty damn well, IMO.

4/10/2011 9:34:16 PM

Personally I don't wanna touch a samsung phone right now. If I were on Verizon and getting a new phone my decision would be between the Thunderbolt and the Bionic. The Bionic has better hardware but likely a locked bootloader like the Atrix. I'd say that you either have to hope someone miracle hacks the Bionic (kinda like what happened with the Thunderbolt, only this would be a bit more impressive) or go with the Thunderbolt.

4/10/2011 10:23:17 PM

The main reason I'm even considering that Droid Charge is the super AMOLED plus display, which looks quite fantastic. Call me crazy, but I also kind of like the design, with it's physical buttons.

What are the main complaints about Samsung Android phones? Besides slow update schedules anyway? I figure that the Charge will be rooted, which would make updates somewhat irrelevant.

[Edited on April 10, 2011 at 10:33 PM. Reason : 2]

4/10/2011 10:31:08 PM

^you named the only complaint I have- and that is the update schedule... I don't think they are even planning on doing Gingerbread for my phone :-/

4/11/2011 12:13:57 AM

CM7 Final out btw.

4/11/2011 12:26:07 AM

Already upgraded and flashed MB too. Disabled lockscreen woot

4/11/2011 2:05:09 AM

^^^^ It's not that Samsung/Verizon are slow to update their phones, it's that they don't/won't update their phones. The Fascinate is still running 2.1 with not even a whisper that 2.2 or higher will ever come.

4/11/2011 2:10:01 AM

Quote :

"What are the main complaints about Samsung Android phones? Besides slow update schedules anyway? I figure that the Charge will be rooted, which would make updates somewhat irrelevant. "

They don't update their phones. And that GPS BS from the Galaxy S series. And that stupid FS they put on them. Only way I'd get a samsung phone is if it were Google backed like the Nexus S.

4/11/2011 5:45:04 AM

Quote :

"The Thunderbolt has only a 1400 mAh battery, smaller than both the Charge and the Bionic. "

The difference between the 1400mAh in the Bolt and 1500 in the charge is minor. And I have a feeling that will be even more so with LTE because the network seems to be sporadic based on most reports which can be hell on battery life. The screen and cpu/gpu will be way better than any of the upcoming single core phones but the solid development community most likely won't be there and there has been talk of Samsung trying to lock it down.

The Bionic has a 1930mAh which is a significant increase but Android isn't optimized for dual core yet and eventhough it's a new blur, it's still blur and will be a pita for developers. Not much is known about the Revolution and it seems to be overshadowed by LG's dual core models but it should probably be considered. Also don't forget that no one is really sure how far away we are from tiered data plans.

Quote :

"What are the main complaints about Samsung Android phones? Besides slow update schedules anyway? I figure that the Charge will be rooted, which would make updates somewhat irrelevant."

Root doesn't get you far. You need source which requires updates and most of the main developers will avoid Samsung phones like the plague. I originally went Android for the development community and got spoiled by the OG Droid so the Fascinate was a major disappointment. Great phone and loved the screen but if I wanted something "pretty" I would've bought a mePhone. Two days after release and the Thunderbolt had already passed the Fascinate in terms of development. Currently it seems like HTC is the most developer friendly but we'll see how the trend goes of signing and locking bootloaders. Now if they could just fix their habit of trying to put in the smallest battery they possibly can.

4/11/2011 9:46:50 AM

Quote :

" but Android isn't optimized for dual core yet "

Myth. Most applications don't take advantage of two cores (many are working on it), and Google hasn't released any code that was explicitly written for dual-core phones, but Motorola has and I'd imagine LG did too.

4/11/2011 9:56:10 AM

I think it'll be summer 2012 before we see Android apps and a version of Android taking full advantage of dual cores. My next phone will probably be bought then.

4/11/2011 10:05:25 AM