The great combined Smrtphone OS thread

[doppelgänger of someone]

If I have to choose between some knock off phone from China, and an el cheapo Nokia, I would choose el cheapo Nokia, everytime, for reliability sake. YMMV.

[Brandoo]

Originally Posted by BaM

Truly, this is the future.

FM Tuner is great. Beats chewing through your data plan listening to streaming radio.

[Pimp-X]

What is this... radio? Some kind of linear broadcast?!

[MadMax]

Data usage? Pfft. Sux to be u that missed out on vodafones 3gig/$40 plan.

[Pimp-X]

You can put the songs... INSIDE THE COMPUTER!

[ala*]

Originally Posted by Brandoo

FM Tuner is great. Beats chewing through your data plan listening to streaming radio.

[Baal]

Spotify is even pretty tolerable streaming in the car when driving. Craps out in rural areas but that's to be expected on Vodafone.

[Baxton]

Originally Posted by Baal

Spotify is even pretty tolerable streaming in the car when driving. Craps out in rural areas but that's to be expected on Vodafone.

o yea. how much data do you use steaming spotify? I download playlists for fear of cap destructions.

[Baal]

Originally Posted by Baxton

Oh yeah? How much data do you use steaming spotify? I download playlists for fear of cap destructions.

I don't know, I don't stream constantly via mobile data but I have used it on long trips and about town a fair bit. Have 3gb of data a month, most months I use about 2-ish.

[DrTiTus]

So, for $175, there had to be some downsides - and they didn't take long to find.

1. Chinese
Traditional Mandarin, Sweet Navel Orange, whatever flavour glyphs you're into, I can't read 'em. Despite my ROM being "Official Google Play Market", it's actually got some of the Google stuff pulled out and replaced by Baidu (the Chinese search engine). I haven't rooted my phone yet, so there's a bunch of Chinese apps that I'd rather not have which are [at the moment] unremovable, and pop up Chinese notifications despite setting the language to English.

2. Bogus Android "4.1.1"
My first order was cancelled and I was refunded as there was a "mistake in the description". That phone was actually Android 4.0. I got in touch with them when a new phone was listed as 4.1, and a guy told me (in French, no less) that it was in actual fact 4.1. Great, because I needed 4.1 for offline voice to text. I was pleased to be getting a 4.1 phone. Except that it's not. It's a 4.0 phone, with a version string replaced to say 4.1.1. I know this for two reasons: The "easter egg" comes up with Android 4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich. And the build number contains "ICS", rather than "JB".

3. Voice to text (if you speak Chinese)
That key feature I wanted? Not only is it processed in the cloud, it's processed by Baidu. And guess what? I don't speak Chinese! Baidu takes my English words and "recognises" the closest Chinese match. I pressed the microphone, said the word "nonsense" and sure enough, Baidu returned "4-12 degrees Celsius". Spot on, coz that makes no fucking sense to me. I think the Voice Search is a hack widget, because I can't do Voice Input on the current ROM for things like SMS or email (even if I could speak Chinese and wanted Baidu to process it). Frankly, I never actually /use/ voice input, but that's not the point - I'm a geek, I wanna play with voice recognition! Plus, what's the point in claiming Android 4.1 if you're gonna rip out the new features?

4. Edge of the screen insensitivity
With the onscreen keyboard in portrait mode, the 'P' (or '0' in number mode) key is right on the edge, and the last few columns of pixels don't respond to touch, so you have to press it on the leftmost half of the key. This isn't a problem in landscape mode, as the "notification bar" takes up the rows of numbness.

5. Batteries are likely clones and read strange
It takes forever to go from 64% to 79%, and then when you unplug it, it drops to 63%. Immediately. Or at least, that's what mine's doing.
Could be some sort of weird calibration thing, but uh... I think the batteries are just shit. Facebook made the battery reading drop percentage points while I watched (From 63 down to about 53). That took about 1 minute. Then for the next 6-7 hours I messed around in "new phone mode" doing all sorts of new phone things - installing apps/games over wifi (chewed through battery), playing games, messaging, calling, etc. The readings would drop, and then plateau for ages, and then drop again. 35% lasted for an hour or two, 17% was quite a popular reading, and 4% seemed to last forever, even playing "Trial Extreme 3". I was trying to run it flat (hoping to calibrate the battery or something) and it wouldn't seem to die. Wi-Fi definitely kills battery - 3D gaming not so much. 3G does't seem too bad either, though I haven't been using it much. I haven't let it sit idle for too long, but it doesn't seem to consume much power doing nothing (even with Wi Fi enabled but idle). As an example, it's been at 20% for 3 hours, occasionally popping up with my e-mail.

Conclusion
The hardware is superb. The screen's /great/, the speaker is not bad, the actual build quality is fine, 3D games run fantastic, the accelerometer works properly, etc. It's better than my iPod for games. I did get used to my girly hands IDEOS, so it still feels fucking huge. The battery life does make me nervous. The Baidu ROM is a bit of a pain in the ass.

Would I buy another one or recommend one to someone else?
Right now, no. Not until I find a Google(English) ROM and sort out whats going on with the battery/charging/calibration issue. My IDEOS was similar (in apparent consumption) when I first got it, and it seems to run forever (3-4 days between charges) now. I wouldn't recommend the shop I bought from either, until they can explain (in French) why they're making false claims about Android versions.

[p01s0n]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Would I buy another one or recommend one to someone else?
Right now, no.

so basically like every other android phone ever then.

[Vrtigo]

fuck all that shit, flash with a proper rom, solve most of your issues.

[Saladin]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Would I buy another one or recommend one to someone else?
Right now, no. Not until I find a Google(English) ROM and sort out whats going on with the battery/charging/calibration issue. My IDEOS was similar (in apparent consumption) when I first got it, and it seems to run forever (3-4 days between charges) now. I wouldn't recommend the shop I bought from either, until they can explain (in French) why they're making false claims about Android versions.

A++++ lols, would lol again.

[Baal]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

哈哈

Probably a saner option would have been to pick up a nexus s or even a galaxy nexus secondhand, even new the nexus is < $500 now.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Would I buy another one or recommend one to someone else?
Right now
Not until I
until they can

I would have reached the point of "I'll enter a monogamous relationship with Liz Shaw before I ever buy or recommend anything remotely connected with this device" within about 10 seconds. That you can even be so undecided - so non-throwing-this-thing-in-the-trash-immediately - as to say things like those quoted above is incomprehensible to me.

[TnT]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

<stuff>

So basically you're saying 'cheap nasty phone, is cheap and nasty'?

I for one am shocked.

[MadMax]

... ah well. $175 to add +1 to android. congrats.

[DrTiTus]

Nah cheap yet awesome phone comes with nasty ROM and shitty battery. Vrtigo is right - we'll fix it in software! I'm posting from it now, which is a step up from either device I had before - I would have jumped on the laptop by now. I didn't want to spend $500 - I wanted Àndroid 4.1 to do offline voice recognition for the minimum cost. In that respect it failed, fuck China.

[catharsis]

DON'T FUCKING SAY THAT!
Akane will hear you......

[mr selfdestruct]

DrTitus = Poors.

[Heresy]

Android - better hardware, shit everything else.

I'm flying home to NZ from London for a quick visit, which means I've got two 35 hour flights to look forward to. Awesome. To alleviate the pain of this flight, I want some games to keep me busy, so I google "best ios games 2012". Dozens of high quality listings and lots of really good looking games to keep me busy and entertained on my flights. Oh, and the guarantee that they will work on my device, because you know, walled garden/ubiquitous hardware etc. Oh and no malware. Oh oh and the developers actually get something out of it since it is nigh on impossible to sideload games on iOS.

Searching "best android games 2012" results in next to nothing. Angry Fucking Birds? Still? The #1 game I found on this site is a fucking Magic The Gathering clone. Pretty much sums up the target audience.

I've migrated my electronic music consumption from downloading livesets to listening to podcasts, which I can download directly to my iPhone without having to connect into iTunes. I was never really a podcast person prior, preferring to download livesets and mixes from Soundcloud. This has resolved my main gripe with iOS and I'm now happier.

The two things I miss from Android are Swype and swappable microSD cards for storage. Oh, and offline caching for GMaps, but hopefully that may appear in a newer release.

[MadMax]

not sure any phone can keep you entertained for 70 hours.

fuck that

[Heresy]

Yeah, it's only part of an arsenal of things which I will use to keep me entertained. Unfortunately there's no way around it if I wanna live in the UK but visit home occasionally. I'm planning to use the time to rewrite my CV from scratch, which should take.... a couple of hours. Which leaves 68 more to fill. Woop.

[Vrtigo]

Originally Posted by Heresy

Searching "best android games 2012" results in next to nothing. Angry Fucking Birds? Still? The #1 game I found on this site is a fucking Magic The Gathering clone. Pretty much sums up the target audience.

i dunno. Ingress is pretty boss, enjoying it thoroughly.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Heresy

Searching "best android games 2012" results in next to nothing.

In which this is explained.

[DrTiTus]

Herp derp, pretty much fixed. That was a lot easier than I expected. The ROM isn't that bad after all (except it's still only Android 4.0)

Disable Chinese System Apps: Apps -> All -> [Chinese System App you hate] -> Disable -> Yes I'm sure lah
Use Google Voice Search: Install "Google Voice Search" *facepalm*
Voice Input: Install "Gingerbread Keyboard" (or any other keyboard with a mic button) once you have Google Voice Search installed.
Fiddly 'p' key due to insensitive edge: Those Swype-esque keyboards make that dead edge irrelevant.

Battery was at 20% when I left home at 2:30pm, and was at 2% when I got home at 12:30am. I was showing it off, playing games, browsing, calling, texting, etc during that time, so I'm content. If the batteries turn out to be utter crap I'll replace them for $6 Deal Extreme ones - either that or have an old age melt down and throw it in the bin, I haven't decided.

I emailed the crowd I got it from about the "fake" Android 4.1, and Tintin (it's a Chinese girl) replied saying "It's not fake, it's Chinese phone". At first she offered a "retraction" (refund - 15%). I pointed out that I had already notified PayPal of the fake goods (I said headphones specifically, even though I haven't). She then offered that I could return it for a full refund. I might ask for a part refund or a voucher to make up for the bullshit (also to make up for the initial discount I lost after my first order was refunded).

Any buyers remorse I may have had is gone now that I've removed all the Chinese crud and got the voice stuff going in English. The data connection is so fast that I don't really care about the offline voice stuff. I still might find/cook a JB ROM just for geekiness' sake. I have root on it, so I can mess about with it proper.

That anyone would be so stupid and petty as to throw away a brand new dual core 4.5" smart phone due to seeing Chinese characters is incomprehensible to me. Straya cunt. Fucking gooks. Biff it.

[Ab]

You're a walking talking FMCG case study.

[DrTiTus]

How appropriate. You fight like a cow.

[Ab]

My apologies. The manufacturers of your phone are a great FMCG case study.

[_indigo1]

Speaking of Android deficiencies; what's the guts on a decent online music store that runs on droid and actually let's you buy a worthwhile range in NZ

At the moment I'm using 7digital

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Fucking gooks. Biff it.

it's android, right? can't you hack it and turn it into a media player/skype device for your tv or something?

[CCS]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

That anyone would be so stupid and petty as to throw away a brand new dual core 4.5" smart phone due to seeing Chinese characters is incomprehensible to me. Straya cunt. Fucking gooks. Biff it.

Most people wouldn't even buy it in the first place.

[DrTiTus]

Battery's sorted today as well.

No problems

Hence Why Forever A Clone

[CCS]

Were you actually expecting to get a legitimate HTC Titan?

[DrTiTus]

Nope, there was no mention of HTC anywhere - plus the Titan is a Windows phone. I looked for the MTK6577 chipset, with decent screen res, 3G + GPS capabilities.

[CCS]

But you said it's a fake, right?

[TnT]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

That anyone would be so stupid and petty as to throw away a brand new dual core 4.5" smart phone due to seeing Chinese characters is incomprehensible to me. Straya cunt. Fucking gooks. Biff it.

That anyone would post this

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

3. Voice to text (if you speak Chinese)
That key feature I wanted? Not only is it processed in the cloud, it's processed by Baidu. And guess what? I don't speak Chinese! Baidu takes my English words and "recognises" the closest Chinese match. I pressed the microphone, said the word "nonsense" and sure enough, Baidu returned "4-12 degrees Celsius".

is incomprehensible to me

Glad it worked out for you, glad you had the wherewithal to fuck around getting the thing you brought for a specific reason to actually do what you wanted it to and was apparently advertised as being able to do, instead of having it do what you wanted out of the box. Congrats on continuing the cycle of dodgy manufacturers being able to deceive customers and get away with it. Good work.

Seems you put less value on your time than others in the forum. $175 + how much time to fuck around with to get right? Cool you hate iOS, but there are Android phones for not much more than you paid that will do what you want without having to fuck around. But hey, you save a few bucks. Good for you.

[DrTiTus]

Well it's not just a stage prop, it is a real phone. The Android version is "faked", and the design of the shell is "inspired by" the HTC One X (though not identical). The back of the phone has these logos (the "beatsaudio" headphones are definitely counterfeit, I can tell by the shit cord):


Over in China, they have "iHTC" Shanzhai phones, just like how there are Somy batteries and various other suspiciously similar brand names.

I was under no impression that it was a brand name phone, and I didn't expect any logos. I feel like I'm repeating myself, and I don't really know where you're going with this.

@TnT: Congrats on continuing the cycle of Apple being able to charge outrageous markup and consumers lapping it up because otherwise they might be called "poor". If you can find me a similarly spec'd Android phone for even double the price, I'm impressed. I shopped around, and this was clearly the best deal. Free market for life. If I wanted I could have asked for a blank one (they're good like that) - however I didn't realise they were going to send a branded one! Would you be happy if I scraped off the logo?

It took me the time to search for "google voice" to realise that just because Baidu was installed, it wasn't "locked down" in any way. Out of the box it was configured for Chinese users (because China), and I installed the software I wanted. Kinda like how out of the box an iPhone doesn't have Angry Birds and if you want that, you have to download it.

The Android version is not a big deal, because software. Everything else is exactly as advertised.

Don't hate me because I got a better phone than you for way less.

[CCS]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Well it's not just a stage prop, it is a real phone. The Android version is "faked"

I don't get it. How did they fake the Android version? Is it not simply a Chinese version of Android?

and the design of the shell is "inspired by" the HTC One X (though not identical)

It looks to me like it was inspired more by the Titan than the One X, but whatever.

I was under no impression that it was a brand name phone, and I didn't expect any logos. I feel like I'm repeating myself, and I don't really know where you're going with this.

I'm just not certain what you mean when you say the Android is 'quotation mark - fake - quotation mark'. It would seem that, as Tintin said, it's not a fake - it's a Chinese phone.

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by CCS

I don't get it. How did they fake the Android version? Is it not simply a Chinese version of Android?

It's an Ice Cream Sandwich build (4.0.3), with a version string edit so that when you go "About phone" it says Android version 4.1.1. Since Android is so wonderfully open, it would be trivial to edit a string to satisfy a cursory check. It's no secret that this happens.

Originally Posted by CCS

It looks to me like it was inspired more by the Titan than the One X, but whatever.

OK, good spotting Chief, I was just looking here: http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/ and that Titan isn't listed.

Originally Posted by CCS

I'm just not certain what you mean when you say the Android is 'quotation mark - fake - quotation mark'. It would seem that, as Tintin said, it's not a fake - it's a Chinese phone.

If you turn on debugging mode, you find the API version is 15 which indicates a 4.0.3 build. The easter egg also displays "nyan ice cream sandwich droid" and states "Android 4.0". It seems much more likely that they've changed one string in the "About phone" screen rather than created a whole new special fork of Android - the Google Play Store works fine, and from what I've seen in the past, if they're "Chinese Android" ROMs they don't work with the Google Play Store.