Smartphones

Got my HTC One yesterday, and it's one of the best phone I've ever had.

It just feels great in the hand, and the UI is very smooth. Quite a departure from my lagging Galaxy Nexus.

Installed TrickDroid with TeamSeven kernel this afternoon, running good.

Can't comment on the battery yet as I can't stop playing with it all day, so it's decharging quickly.

Using HOLO on my Nexus 4. HHHHHHHNNNGGGGGGGGGG

Denamian_sl said:

The only thing keeping me from using PIE all the time is not being able to see notifications without bringing up PIE.

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The beauty of a custom rom is... you can. Go into PA settings -> interface -> nav bar 0% -> taadaa notification with PIE.

What apps do you use to control your data usage ? I've seen so far :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...droidwall.free
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...anth.ufirewall
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ndroidfirewall
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....security.lite

I want something that will block all data access for all applications when not on WiFi except for X-Y-Z applications (gmail, gtalk, talkdroid messenger).
Getting 20 30 40MB updates + advertisement kinda sucks (when you have a super limited data plan).

I'm in the Tuco boat, looking to get my first smartphone. I don't wanna do the 2 year contract stuff anymore and wanna just buy a phone and use Walmart plans. Would galaxy S3 be a good starter one? I got a bunch of amazon credit I can use toward one and I want an Android.

BrutulTM_sl said:

S3 is a great phone. You might also look into a Nexus 4. I don't know if that works with Walmart's plans but it's a good phone and relatively cheap to buy off-contract.

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Ya just looked at Nexus 4. Galaxy S3 is about 30 higher than the Nexus. Only thing I don't like about the Nexus is no micro SD slot for extra storage but I will be using most of the space for music and some apps so I wont worry too much if I get the 16mb one probably.

Denamian_sl said:

I would definitely suggest the 16GB N4 over the 8GB. Ever since I uploaded all my music to Google I haven't touched my old 60GB ipod. I keep what I listen to most often on the N4 then stream the rest. The N4 works nicely with Straight Talk, but they only use T-Mobile now. I managed to get an AT&T sim before they ran out of stock, but I haven't been able find any more. T-Mobile sucks where I live, being 2G where they do have coverage and a couple towns having 3G, so that wasn't an option for me. Also, the N4's radio got updated so you can't get LTE on T-Mobile, though that can be fixed if you root the phone.

If you do opt for the N4, I would highly suggest rooting it. It's simple to do and there are some great roms, Paranoid Android being my favorite.

The XDA thread for the N4 version is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2020336

They also post news on PA's G+ here:
https://plus.google.com/107979589566958860409/posts

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So you can't use ATT on it anymore or they just stopped selling the sim cards?

I got the HTC One a few weeks ago and everything seemed to be working better than expected, but I just started to stream movies thru Netflix and noticed a few dead pixels when the video went darker. I downloaded a dead pixel finding app and found 8 dead, few in the center and several around the edge. My carrier is Sprint and since I have owned the phone for 17 they are fighting me on getting a replacement, telling me 14 days was the cut off. I also called HTC about getting it replaced and they told me I would need to send the phone in, which would take weeks. Still fighting with Sprint, hoping they will see the light and replace it for a 10 year loyal customer . Anyways, make sure to look closely because they are very hard to see in well lit areas, but eye sores when in dark spaces.

I think you can ask for a cross ship with HTC. I would definitely try requesting for one.

Sounds a bit like the Multiview tab on that Galaxy Note II. I think you can disable it in settings if that is it.

Tarrant_sl said:

So on my S3 I now have this little tab that appeared. I thought it was a widget at first. When you click on it a tab pulls out and there are apps and stuff in it for "quick access"

How the hell do I get rid of this annoying piece of crap?

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Multi view is awesome. Long press back to get rid of it. AT least on the note 2 that is how it works.

Picked up a Galaxy S4 today, really liking it so far. Played around with it, and the HTC One in my local Sprint store for quite a while, and while the HTC One felt nicer to hold with it's metal build, the Galaxy S4 just seemed like a significantly larger screen so I went with it. Not to mention I like the ability to pull the battery out for a hard reset if I jack something up while messing around with custom ROMs. That being said, the S4 is probably as big of a screen as I can comfortably use with one hand, my thumb *barely* reaches to the far corners of the screen when I hold it, there's no way someone with an average sized hand or a female could reach all areas of the screen with 1 hand.

The sales rep in the Sprint store said he felt that the HTC One had slightly better battery life, I'll have to report back on how the S4 does after a couple days of normal usage.

After using both side by side, the S4 had a noticeably brighter/higher contrast screen, it seemed a little easier to view in bright sunlight situations(used both near a sunny window in direct sunlight), makes me wonder if that might be the main difference in battery life, I'm sure a brighter screen sucks a little more juice on average. In normal indoor situations, the S4 at roughly 50% brightness seems as bright as my S2 used to be at 100%.

If nothing else, the phone is damn quick to load apps, huge upgrade over the S4. Games that used to take 10-15 seconds to load on my S2 are now more like 4-5 seconds tops.