I'm a developer for a live wallpaper named aCircuitBoard. I came here for my apps whether it's working fine in evo or not. I've tested it on only nexus one. so can somebody help let me know any bugs on evo?
only one thing I've worried is, it's not free apps. so if u have a time, just buy it. check it working fine or not, give me reviews, and cancel buying it.
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Phandroid's Extensive Droid Review with Video Review
View 1 Replies View RelatedSprint 4G Phone Hits New Speeds, but Battery Disappoints - WSJ.com
What an horrendous piece of work. Apparently the article is not intended as a review of the EVO 4G but rather Sprints 4G network. The actual phone itself is barely touched upon except to say that "a full day use on 4G drains the battery" being alarmingly fast (obviously not compared to any other smartphone on a full day use, especially the iphone 3GS and it's poor battery life). What a joke, somebody please tell me as a layperson knowing nothing about the EVO and happening upon this article, what opinion do you have of the EVO 4G now? What features did you learn about? How about the Android OS and any new updates to it?
Nope, instead you would think "Oh a big, heavy phone with bad battery life".
First if you had problems flashing over this ROM such as being in the sprint 4g boot loop, heres the fix. Take the battery out and boot into recovery . Wipe cache and Dalvik Cache then wipe data. Yes its painfull but this a very nice ROM. Anyway back to the review.
This is a pretty basic rom and not much is changed. Its basically a ROM that removes Bloatware and adds some nice Root apps such as wifi tether. This ROM is on a stock kernel. The one big thing I noticed is the good battery life. I unplug my phone at 7 am and goto school, at school I send 30-40 text messages and check my phone frequently.
By the end of school, 3:15,I was at 80% Now my bus ride is 45 mins long, so to the pass the time I normally play a game or am on phone texting and what not, now before root and rom , by the time I got home i would be around 20-30% but after playing a game for 30 mins (Angry Birds) and texting for the rest. I was at 67% which is MUCH better than the previous Stock ROM i was on. If your looking for a non changing ROM with good battery life and Bloatware removed, I reccomend OMJ 2.2 Froyo ROM
another review:
Sprint 4G Phone Hits New Speeds, but Battery Disappoints - WSJ.com
I have had my EVO for a day and thought I would share my opinion. My my last three phones were as follows. Palm Pre, iPhone 3gs, and HTC Hero, in case I do any comparisons. By the way, I am posting this from my EVO.
The screen size of the EVO is amazing. It is the perfect size for portable videos, gaming, and web surfing. This was the very first thing that I noticed. Now I know some of you are worried that the phone may be too big, it isn't. It has a great feel in the hand and the curves make it feel natural.
The build quality is second to none. I mean this whole heartedly. The only thing I could see being better is the battery door, but you only notice how thin it is when its off. When it is in one piece though this phone is as solid as they come. Again this is the best built phone I have ever owned. The kick stand is great and yes there is a magnet to keep it closed.
The phone is fast and the OS is smooth. Every previous android user will appreciate the keyboard, like I said I am typing all this on the EVO. iPhone users will find the speed and accuracy similar. Web browsing is awesome, this is the fastest I have ever experienceed on a phone. Multi touch is great and on par with the iPhone.
The camera is the best I have seen on a phone. Pictures are clear and vibrant. The video is good, but not anything that stands out and certainly ain't gonna replace your camcorder.
The mobile hot spot is easy to setup and works flawlessly. I even used it to stream netflix on my ps3.
Battery life. I don't know how. But it is better than the Hero. I did learn to keep 4G off unless in use though.
Now my only negative with the phone. It should have been left as just a 3G phone. I live in an area with seasoned 4G and can not keep a signal while moving or when I go into a building. Also, the speeds are not as advertised, not even close. I averaged around 2.1 megs, that's it and the funny thing is it would go as low as 450 klbs and then up to 2.4 megs even when tested back to back. Clear wire needs to get there stuff together and Sprint should drop the $10 fee. It is not worth it and people will be dissatisfied.
Overall, this is the best phone I have ever owned and I am glad Sprint has for once set the bar.
Exclusive: Motorola Droid X preview -- Engadget
View 41 Replies View RelatedHad the phone a couple of days and had a fair old play, so thought I would share my first impressions.
I have had various smartphones over the years, but my last was an iPhone 3G, so some of the comments may make comparison to that. This isn't intended as a direct comparison or comment on the respective platforms, but simply early observations.
Hardware
In the box
Quite a small box, contains the phone, some documentation, Mini-USB cable, plug adapter, headphones (havent even opened these yet, instead electing to use my good quality seinheiser in ear buds), battery and that is it. Only a quick start guide included, the manual is on PDF on the phones SD card.
Looks
In my opinion it looks really classy. I know many people are saying it lacks the style of the Legend, but without having seen the Legend in person, I think that the Desire stacks up pretty well.
Size/Weight
It is almost identical in size to an iPhone 3G with similar weight. Subjectively it probably weighs slightly more, but feels really good in the hand. The screen fills the device nicely with probably an ideal amount of space round it to allow you to grip and hit the buttons without accidentally hitting the screen.
Finish
A combination of metal round the screen/top section of the phone and a sort of rubberised finish on the back, with a glass screen. Again, feels really good in the hand. The back surface means it is easy to hold and gives a good grip.
Buttons/Controls
There is a power button on the top, click to lock/unlock, hold for power and profile options. This sits on the slope of the top and always seems to come to hand really nicely. Volume buttons on the side are standard fare. Click all the way down for silent and then down again from vibrate on the home screen. Home, menu, search and back keys are well placed at the bottom and a lot more responsive than the iPhone dimple. There is also an optical trackball which you can click to select (used in camera app amongst others). You can use it to swipe between homescreens without having to touch the screen which is useful. I haven�t really used it that much, but is nice to have the option.
Connections
3.5mm jack at the top, slightly angled so a bit of a strange fit for normal headphones, but nor real problems, seems to fit standard headphones with no issues. Mini-USB connector at the bottom which sit out slightly from the curved back. The mini-USB cable supplied has a nice rubberised feel to match the back of the phone. J
Rear
Rubberised finish with embossed logo and camera, flash and speaker placed at top. Camera extrudes slightly, but not significantly Has metal surround and glass cover. LED flash sits next to the camera and there is a speaker grille next to that.
Screen
I will come back to the quality etc. of the screen, but in physical terms it is big (obviously), bigger borders than say an HD2, but smaller than the iPhone. It is nice to use, I have seen some comments saying it is slightly sticky, but I haven�t really noticed this. Does collect fingerprints, but I wouldn�t say it is that bad, no worse than the iPhone 3G or any other glossy screen.
Final points
My only other point or reservation is that there is a slight join between the screen and the metal facing and between the metal facing and rubberised back/main body section which does seem to collect dust. Think I may get a
protector soonas I wouldn�t want anything getting in-grained. The little finishing touches like the slight chrome surround on the front speaker, embossed HTC logo on the rear and discrete HTC branding are pretty classy.
Getting Started
Turning on for the first time, it takes a minute or so to boot up seems pretty quick from a standing start. There is an intro /tutorial to run through with guides for setting language, using the keyboard, network type, Google location, sign in to Google account/other mail accounts, sign-in for Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, but no Picasa (there is the option to upload to Picasa, but no obvious way to download), finally date and time.
Signing in to Google downloaded all my contact and filled all the relevant fields (first time I have had a phone I haven�t had to add all my contacts again) J. Also pulls in all your Facebook pals, you can then quickly link in a Facebook profile to a Google/phone contact. Not sure if it updates back to your Google account if you add contacts/make changes, havent checked this yet. Minor irritation, is if you link to Facebook, it appears to overwrite the contacts picture with their Facebook profile pic. Also imports calendar and automatically signs you in to all the relevant Google sites.
I wont discuss the out the box set-up as Android is so configurable it isn�t really relevant. Suffice to say, there are a good range of apps/widgets/wallpapers etc to get started.
First Impressions
Screen
First things first, the screen is gorgeous. I havent been able to test it in bright or direct sunlight (as I live in Scotland and we don�t get that here). But in general conditions so far, no problems with readability. Viewing angle seems excellent compared to LCD, brightness is great and colours are fantastic. Back to back comparison with the same photo on the iPhone 3G and the Desire, both in the default gallery apps, the Desire is much brighter, much better contrast and a lot more colourful. Some colours may be artificially bright, but in general it just looks super crisp and clear. Blacks are dark and the contrast is excellent.
General and first time Android user
I will start out by saying that this is the first time I have really used Android or Sense in depth. First impressions are it is really nice. Basic operations, phone messaging etc are intuitive and easy, everything is very slick, fast and responsive. As previously mentioned, all my contacts were already imported, so I simply linked them up to their Facebook compatriots and that was that. Got some texts in from the network, so got to see first-hand the notification system which is excellent, just so much better than the disappearing vague icons in iPhone OS. Zipping about the homescreens is super fast and scrolling through menus equally slick. There is the occasional judder, I have noticed this in the notifications tray and others at times, but nothing significant. Opening and switching apps is also super quick.
There is an obvious learning experience here too, probably a good deal more so than with the iPhone. I can�t immediately put my finger on what it is, but it just isn�t quite as obvious as some other Oss. I started to think of the Desire more as a mini-PC rather than a more dedicated OS and things became clearer.
Screen responsiveness is excellent, no real problems and nothing obvious like the infamous Nexus One screen videos (this may well still be present, not checked, but not once has the screen done anything I wouldnt expect). Overall everything is super slick, the basics are pretty slick and intuitive and the screen and OS in general are gorgeous.
I have had a few forced closes, not sure if this is to do with something I have installed or something more general. But it appears to recover pretty quickly and I have only had one occasion when I have had to do a re-set when one of the games I downloaded wouldnt close even though it didnt appear in running tasks, but still continued playing the music.
Battery Life
I have been trying to get a few charge cycles through the battery, but so far it has been reasonable. Even with really heavy use with just about everything on, it lasted most of a day on its first full charge. 5 hours into my second day and having fiddled a fair amount and still with everything on, it is just over 60%. Certainly comparable or better than my admittedly slightly tired iPhone 3G. Will see how this pans out.
Included Apps
Picture Gallery
As I mentioned earlier, couldn�t see any way to (easily) pull photos off my Picasa. Copied across several folders full of photos to the default images folder. Imported into the gallery with no problems, though did put all the photos in a single folder in the gallery app despite the fact they were in named sub-folders on the drive. Scrolls through the photos no problem. Amazingly quick considering I have over 600 decent sized photos in the gallery. Thumbnails appear almost immediately. There is a trick to quickly scroll to a given date, if you start a scroll then �grab� the scroll bar at the right, you can then browse by date and quickly move through the gallery. Again, photos appear almost immediately. You can view by grid or a sort of filmstrip view. Overall the default gallery is decent, but I think the Nexus gallery looks neater.
Also no way of filtering, for example to see all videos etc. only options are Facebook and Flickr tabs. Would be nice to have tabs for videos etc. Finally seems to pick up all photos on the SD card, with no real options to set where it looks, for example picked up the Jpegs for some comics I copied across into a separate Comics folder.
Movie Playback
Videos seem to sit in the photo gallery for some reason and not a separate video gallery as discussed above. Playback is pretty basic, doesn�t seem to be any options for subtitles chapters etc. Basic scroll selector to move through the video which is really quick, option to stretch to screen and that is about it. Doesnt auto rotate, always defaults to full screen landscape view. I will look at alternative video players in due course. Drag and drop works without any problems. Quality wise, I have only been able to test with a iPhone encoded movie at 480*208 H.264, but even this looked pretty good. Problems with Handbrake means I have been unable to encode a DVD at a higher resolution, so I will comment further when I have had a chance to play with this. Would have been nice if they had included a high quality sample video to show off the
AMOLED display.
Music Playback
Built in music app is pretty good. Cover flow style album selector and the usual options (shuffle, repeat etc.) Havent had a chance to see if there are any more in depth settings for quality, enhancements etc. but there is nothing obvious. People have mentioned a Dolby Mobile enhancer, but havent been able to find this in the T-Mobile OS.
Email
Had to manually set up my Google push account to work with the mail app, but now set-up appears to work well. Usual views and filters, only issue so far is not being able to select multiple emails for example to mark read/un-read.
Messaging
Works exactly as expected, you can email from contacts, reply to groups etc. all the usual options. No pop-up preview, just notification, unless you install another messaging app e.g. Handcent, but I am undecided which to go for at the moment.
Widgets
Good range here, like the clock with nice little animated weather animations. Power options etc are useful and things like the news feeds all seem to work well. These are all so configurable that it is hard to make any real comment. Only minor problem is that if I change one of the default scenes e.g. Work, it does not let me save over it, so you either take what you are given or have a whole heap of different scenes.
Live Wallpapers
Really funky, love maps with Google Maps 4, like the HTC sense bubbles as well and the snakes like Nexus one is there too.
Keyboard
Keyboard is excellent, love the slight vibrate on keypress. Even in portrait I haven�t had any real issues with typing. Auto complete/suggestions works really well and intuitively. No text to speech though which is disappointing! L Hopefully this will be resolved in due course as I had been looking forward to this.
MarketPlace
Looks pretty comprehensive, a lot more on here than I was expecting. J Confusing that some prices are in dollars and some in pounds. Not sure if you are charged a fee if you buy an app in dollars from a normal bank account.
Like the list of apps I have downloaded, search is pretty good, though I would like to have seen suggestions as I type. Not sure how updates work, do I have to manually update or will I receive notification when a new version becomes available.
Conclusions So Far
Overall I am super impressed. The hardware is fantastic, the OS is really nice and there is so much potential for tinkering and improvements. The Desire is simply the best and most complete Smart Phone I have ever owned. My only reservations are minor, I hope that T-Mobile or HTC release the full retail OS as some of the missing features are a little frustrating, but overall no complaints whatsoever. Awesome phone, would recommend it to anyone with a little bit of tech savvy.
I've seen a lot of people mentioning some sites in passing, but to be frank they are underwhelming and/or not content rich. I'm looking for a much more comprehensive app review website.
View 23 Replies View RelatedWe are looking for a few people to post one or two or however many they want application reviews. Basically all we ask is that you review an application in the same way that we do and in return you can place a link to your blog, website, forum etc (as long as its appropriate or linked to a competing application reviewing site). You can review any application as long as your not bias and own the application. We get thousands of visitors and so it is good exposure for you and your website.
View 1 Replies View RelatedHad my hero one week and loving using it all the time! Finding the keyboard fiddley and hard!
My question is, when I do a review on an app on market I get my name = Adrian, but I would like to put a nickname on, any advice on doin this change?
Does anybody know how to review what permissions you have granted to an app installed from the marketplace without uninstalling and reinstalling it?
I am careful with what I install but I still want to be able to go through my apps and double check that I haven't got something installed which might have some kind of trojan or spyware built in.
I know you can get to the android market via the app on your phone and search through them all. There has to be an easier way to review the apps on the web I have looked at adrolib.com and I know of android.com/market where you can see the most popular. What I am wondering, is there a web site that lists all of them that are on the android market on your phone to look at? It would be faster to look at the apps on my computer than using the slower speed of my phone.
View 3 Replies View Relatedhow to retrieve review from website (www example com) then show in android application
View 3 Replies View RelatedIt didn't take much time for me to fork over the $2.99 to buy the full version of LauncherPro (avaliable free, however some features are locked). This home menu is incredible. You can literally customize everything. LauncherPro is extremely responsive. I haven't experienced any lag using LauncherPro. My phone is rooted, and I use OneClickLagFix (free on market). I have not tried LauncherPro without the lag fix.
Before, I was using Home++, and was unhappy with the amount of lag I was experiencing. Even with OneClickLagFix, Home++ was laggy. I've tried numerous different home menus, and thought Home++ was the best I was going to get. I'm glad I found LauncherPro.
The feature I liked the most is the dock on the bottom. As you look at the pictures I've provided, you'll notice the dock changes on each photo. You have the option to set the number of docks you want, up to 3. The dock floats, and you can slide through the docks on any screen. I like this because I dont like having all my applications scattered across my home screen. LauncherPro comes with the option to use their custom icons for applications, rather than the default icons. I used LauncherPro icons for my main dock, and default icons for the other 2 docks. You have the option to display the number of unread messages or unread emails. You can see below, I have 2 unread emails.
On my default home screen (screeenshot1.jpg), I've got the Google search widget, Clock widget (free on market), Weather (weatherchannel app free on market), Battery Watcher (free on market) and Signal Strenght widget (free on market). You'll notice I have no applications on my home screen (as mentioned before). All the applications are on my dock. You'll notice that the google search bar doesn't take up a whole row like it normally does. LauncherPro allows you to resize your widgets. Just long click the widget you want to resize, and a resize box will appear. Resize is another one of my favorite features.
I have 3 home screens on my Vibrant, however you can have up to 7. On the screen above, I used the LauncherPro Messages widget. This widget posts all my text messages so I can read and reply to them. To reply, just click on the message you want to reply to. I also have the Power Control widget on the bottom.
On the screen above, I used the LauncherPro Facebook Widget. I find this widget a lot more easy to navigate than the default facebook widget. I resized the widget, because the default takes up the whole screen. I added the Pandora widget to the bottom. Pandora is free on the market.
Finally, the above picture is my application drawer. You'll notice towards the bottom, the applications look like they're folding into space. This is a beta option on LauncherPro, may not work so smooth on some phones. It works great with my Vibrant. It reminds me of the Star Wars introduction. You also have a home key option.
The screenshots and descriptions are some of the major features of LauncherPro. Download LauncherPro on the market, and play around with it yourself. It's easy to navigate. You wont be disappointed.
Info on the review procedure followed by Google to publish an App in Android Market.
View 3 Replies View RelatedComing over from a Touch Pro 2, the only thing I actually miss is Nav N Go IGO 8. It was honestly the most amazing GPS I think I have ever used. It had so many little features Like the ability to customize the 3 little info spots with any dynamic value(like Current Speed, ETA, Miles Left, ect), and the little little "Next maneuver after the current upcoming maneuver" display. All of these things made that GPS wonderful. I've been spending days looking for a New GPS software to use on the Evo, but haven't found the perfect one yet. I wanted to review the GPS's that I have tried, to give you all an idea of what you can expect from some of the popular GPS's. I'm a Network Engineer who works alot in the Field, so I use GPS's every day. I've been able to log about 50 miles which each GPS so far.
Destinator 9:
This was a GPS that I found highly rated on the Market... Only issue is, it doesn't recognize the maps on the Evo, making it useless. Shame.
Google Navigation:
I've read so much Hype on this.. But I honestly don't see where it's coming from. Google Navigation is Available in many Countries. It's good with routing, but the interface isn't the best looking interface, and the HUD lacks alot of the extra information that other GPS's show. Google Navigation does do traffic, but doesn't auto reroute (Atleast, I dont think it does). One cool feature is the ability to add layers to the map. You can have a satellite overlay, as well as have an overlay for food, gas, reststops, ect. Otherwise, nothing else really makes this stand out from any of the other GPS's. Oh... and one last thing... The voice in this GPS makes me want to kick babies into tree stump grinders.
Sprint Navigation(Aka TeleNav):
SPrint Navigation is actually an OK GPS. Unless your on the Everything Plan with Sprint though, you arn't getting this GPS for free. It runs $10 a month. Sprint Navigation is only available in the USA, but it's Big Sister; Telenav is available outside the USA as well. The interface is OK. It shows all of the needed information in a News ticker type of display. The ticker is on a Yellow background which makes it harder to see sometimes. Routing and Address finding in this GPS is the best out of any GPS i've used.. Including IGO 8. The Traffic feature isn't too good. I'm not sure where it's traffic source comes from, but I've only rarely been alerted to traffic with this program. And when the time comes to click on that magic re-route button, the magic for some odd reason doesn't seem to happen. It reroutes me right back into the traffic. Since I'm on the Everything Plan, I currently use this in conjunction with the next two GPS's.
Waze:
Waze is a great little community Driven(Har har, no pun intended) GPS, with an amazingly responsive development team behind it. It's available in most country's. What sets Waze off from the rest of the GPS's is it's Community aspect... When you use Waze, your linked up to Hundreds of other Waze Users in your area and around the world. This provides real time traffic monitoring from other users, as well as user submitted accident reports, and speed trap reports. You can also view and post "Chit Chat" comments on the route/map as well so you can talk to user Waze Users. Why you would want to do this while driving? Well lets say your stuck in a horrible traffic Jam caused by an accident with a few other Wazers.. Wouldn't it be cool to have a little conversation going with them all while you wait in stand still traffic? You can also see other Waze users near you on the map as well, which is pretty cool. Waze tries to make driving into a game too. Since the Map is generated mostly by user driving around and sending this information from their app to the waze server, Waze automatically puts "cookies" near unexplored area's. If you drive near these area's you get points. With the traffic being user submitted and automatically monitored based on users speed, ect, the traffic reports are really good. Although it's suppose to automatically reroute around traffic, it doesn't work too well, although their are small workarounds posted in the waze forums, that seem to help users. The interface is ok... It's not the best. It could use a 3D map mode instead of the older 2D almost overhead style of map. There are also times where it won't find a certain address. The Map might also be a little incomplete in certain area's... But this might be just because I haven't zoomed in far enough or it's outside my route, but I also suspect it might be because not enough waze users have driven those area's yet. One limitation as well, is the 200 mile routing limit. You can only route a trip thats less then 200 miles, although this might be increased at a later date. Since it's the waze servers that do the processing, I suspect the limit is in place to keep the load on the servers down. A work around to that limit is to just rout to a city thats less then 200 miles away between you and the destination, and then once you get there, route to the next place thats less then 200 miles, and so on. This is a GREAT free gps to use if your just commuting to work and home, and want traffic alerts, but can also work as a stand alone GPS to use on longer trips (Less then 200 miles though).
NDrive:
NDrive is another Paid GPS program very similar to TomTom and IGO 8. I use this as my Offline GPS (It stores maps on the SD card and doesn't use Data). It's the closest to IGO 8 as I could find. It has all offline maps, and can do Predictive Address Typing, which is nice if you don't quite know the spelling of the place your going, or need to find a cross street. The interface is pretty, but I wish there was a way to control the zoom level. Living in NJ, right outside NYC, it's hard merging onto the correct highway when NDrive decides to zoom out when you get near a junction with an entrance to 4 difference highways. This GPS show's alot of information. There is an information pane in the lower left that you can configure to show different values, like ETA, Arrival Time, Miles Left, Speed, ect. The routing on isn't the best. Infact I think it's the worse out of any of the others i've reviewed. I've ran into experiences were it would route me an extra long way to get somewhere (Ever hear the term, 3 rights make a left? Well NDrive has!), and I've also run into issues with Address's being anywhere from a block, to 2 miles off on the road where they are suppose to be. If it wasn't for the routing issues, this GPS would of been my Number 1, and a very very possible replacement for IGO. It's available in most countries. Although the application on the Market is Free, the Maps are not. You get a 7 day free trial with any map though, and you don't need a PC to download the maps. It'll download right over 3g slowly, or if your lucky and have 4g, it'll download over that, or even wifi.
I'm still on the lookout for the perfect Offline GPS Igo Replacement. Anyone know any other GPS programs I should add to this?
I got my SGS on Saturday, this is my 4th smart phone in 6 years and my first android phone.
Android BTW is very good, and in general i will not review the software side here, I will give each aspect of the phone a rating of 5 stars, where 3 represent Average .
Packaging (4/5): Good and relatively small box, it's include the phone it self, Battery, short USB to micro-usb cable (you should buy longer one), UK charger, in-ear Headset and guides.
Back cover (3.5/5): I didn't find any issue removing and putting back the back cover , just carefully slide your fingernail in the small opening in the bottom and left the cover, you can then align the cover back and press down with small slide downward.
Look and feel (4/5): it's lite , very lite ... it's look good on the front, i didn't like the back cover, but it's still got decent look. needless to say that the phone is finger print magnet, but i found it very easy to clean with small cloth. oh .. and it's look like the iPhone .
Booting (5/5): impressive and fast , no annoying start-up wizard or guide in the first boot, it's boot directly to the lock screen (5 stars to Samsung for that).
Display (4.5/5): Excellent, big and very bright (color pop-out nicely), very Good constrict ratio (Black is Black), however my only issue is the resolution , although WVGA is relatively high for a mobile phone, it's 4" display that translate to 233 PPI only (compare to 326 PPI in iPhone 4), any yes if i hold the phone 30cm (12") away or closer to my eye; i can see the pixels.
i wish it was something like 1024x576.
PS: it's the PenTile sub-pixel arrangement, i still didn't see any issue with it although the text is less sharp than the milestone.
Touch (4/5): Good , responsive and multi-touch , it don't have the cross touch issue like the Nexus one,however it don't seem to be Amtel touch sensor as rumored before as i can't use stylus with it.
Wifi and APN (4.5/5): Wifi setup was super easy (less than 15 seconds) and it's was up and running, Wifi signal strength is good compare to my other phones and i can get poor signal in my room which is 10 meter and 2 wall away from my router, APN Data however was not auto detected since the mobile is unlocked it didn't include my carrier setting, so i searched this info from the internet and enter it manually in the phone APN setting, it would have be nice if the phone can automatically download carriers info from the internet.
Speaker (4.5/5): it's loud and have good sound quality relatively, one of the loudest speakers i owned in a mobile phone. combine this with the excellent 4" AMOLED display and it's the best video experiences i got in a mobile phone.
Phone (4.5/5): very good reception, clear and loud voice. I am very happy with the phone as a phone .
Gaming (4/5): i played Asphalt5 which is an intensive 3D game that come with the phone (under Samsung Apps) , it's very good but i feel sometimes that the accelerometer is not collaborated correctly.
Camera (3.5/5): i was able to take good photos with it indoors (in well lit room) and outdoors also, it's not the best 5MP camera but it's good, HD vedio is also good although there no stabilization and no auto-focus
Here is my one hour take
1. Google voice search works fine and is an app on the device.
2. Google Navigator works just as good as on the Inc and is also on the device.
3. GPS seems just as good as the Inc, but IMO, that is not saying much.
4. Sound quality from 3.5mm- just as amazing as the other Galaxy S versions.
5. Video quality- ditto
6. Display is better than Inc which is already a "wow".
7. Build is a little better than Inc, which is not saying a lot.
8. Camera pics seem same as Inc- in spite of 3mp less.
9. Wiz is like a slower version of iPhone, IMO. Sense kicks it's butt.
10. Wiz seems to slow the interface down
11. Signal reception was similar dBm to Inc.
Summary:
I was one of the people with the pitchfork and torch in regards to Bing, but it is not as bad as people are suggesting (IMO). The problem with the Fascinate is Wiz. It is like a dragging anchor on a ship that could sail smoothly if removed.
This puppy would kick all kinds of butt with Sense or plain Android
BTW, VZW is already worried about Bing perceptions, per the VZW manager and a sales rep. After testing it, it seems to be a very small issue. Wiz IMO is a bigger issue.
I would just like to know if anybody here would like to start an Android Game Review website.I would like to discuss this with anybody who would be interested. What I would really like is if all the reviewers have different Android phones. I know games such as Replica Island don't work as well on my Incredible because of the Optical Joystick, so if we had different handhelds we could compare between the handhelds to give our readers the best possible reviews. This would also help because of all the different specs on the phones. One game that would run awesome on an Evo might not run as well on a G1.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI am developing an Android application for a customer. I want to be able to provide them (no one else) incremental updates but I am not clear what the procedure should be.I don't want them to have to install development tools or root their phone. These are non technical folks who would have no idea how to accomplish root a phone or use a command line interface.When I develop iPhone applications for them this was easy. They just give me the device UDID and I send them a binary that can be drag and dropped into iTunes.How is this done on Android. I have tried loading the application from a web server but the devices says it is not allowed to be loaded because of security reasons. In setting->Applications there is no menu option to "Allow Unknown sources".
View 6 Replies View RelatedI was wondering what app or widget Bonnie Cha used on the CNET review of htc evo to show a tabbed menu at the bottom that lets you filter messages based on status, attachment, meetings, invite, etc. Another one app or widget shows a nice display of google services. I wonder if it was part of the phone apps or third party apps.
View 1 Replies View RelatedFirst impression:
OMG! Did I ever make the right decision! Thank you Verizon for allowing me to turn my dinc in after 59 days!
I put all my apps back. I'll let you know how the rest goes. So far I love it.
used to have an iPhone and the lack of google voice as an app caused me to sell it.I'm currently thinking about getting an Android, but haven't been able to find any information on the web about how the google voice app actually works on the droid...is it like the GV Dialer for the iPhone where you call the number from the app and then google calls you back etc.? Does anyone know of any video reviews of the app.I haven't been able to find any.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI was surfing for this apps and I found twitter feed where Firefox and Adobe AIR review was their! I am very happy with Firefox on my Computer and would love to see it on Android Phone. I found information here:2 Recently Released Cool Android Apps You Have To Check Out I am looking for experts view on it! Is it ok with Beta use or we shall need to wait for further development as 3.0 OS is also coming soon for us.
View 3 Replies View RelatedApplication Review of DocumentsToGo + Full Version Key.
View 24 Replies View RelatedI picked up a gadget guard (full body) for 13.97 from eBay user jusage. You can also order it from iPhone, iPod, Cell Phone, Cases, Screen Protectors, Shields, Covers by Invisible Gadget Guard.
So I received this, steamed up a room for 10 minutes and then made a little bit of a solution (water and a drop or 2 of dish soap) I then began the process to apply it. Trust me, this isn't easy to apply. The video makes it seem easy but it is actually pretty hard. Now as of now the screen has some soap/water bubbles that are under, but it was pretty easy to squeegee out the big air bubbles. I finished that, but then it slid off again so I had to reapply. After this, I went to the battery cover and I put it on. The back was really easy to apply, I just put it on right onto place and it fit perfectly. The bottom of the back was fairly simple to put on because it runs a little bit small. Now the camera one comes attached to the sides and I tried to put it on. It was WAY to big. The hole for the camera was pretty big, but the sides went way over and just didn't fit at all. Then I tried to put the front cover (over the 3.5 and the bottom) and it just didn't fit at all. The actual product itself is okay ( I honestly hope that the bubbles go away) and it isn't to resistant. It is just about the same feel of the invisible shield.
Overall- I would recommend several other products over this. Personally, I would choose the invisible shield over this. It is much easier to put, and just a better product (the invisible shield is what I mean). I would also suggest the screen protector's from AT&T because I have put them on my past devices. So would I buy this case again? Probably not...
Feel- 7/10
Applying- 3/10 (pretty hard to put on well)
Look- will keep you updated
Look in the sun- will keep you updated
I just got it today and let me just start off by saying it is the BEST phone I have ever had.
Design:Very Very well made phone, feels extremely solid and has no creaks whatsoever, the battery cover snaps on and feels just great! Very appealing design and great too look at, the 4' screen is awesome to look at even at Half Way brightness, holding the phone is really nice fits perfect in the hand and never feels like its gonna slip off your hand (yea you N1!), the thing that surprised me the most was its size though, I thought it was gonna be BIG but its just right! In fact it feels a lot smaller than I anticipated (maybe its cause Im coming from an HD2?). Overall 10/10 for design.
UI:This is the important part and imo it delivers very very well. Overall the speed is good, sometimes it can lag for a half a second on certain things (installing various apps at the same time) but for the most part it is very fast, comparable to N1. The only place it really kinda feels slightly slow and I mean slightly, is time and media scape, but nonetheless they are both very usable and Mediascape in particular is very awesome! (being a big music fan and manager). As far as having 1.6 rather than 2.1, its similar to having the hero, yes it has 1.5 but you dont notice at all since HTC Sense makes it look and feel totally different, its no different here SE has done a fantastic job here! It feels great and no one even yourself will notice that it has 1.6. With that being said when it does get 2.1 it will be amazing! 2.1 has been known to speed up phones and I cant imagine what it will do the X10. Overall 9/10 for UI.
Features:I haven't got too far into many of the things on the phone yet but I did a few things, camera I took some pics and its great! Only slight annoyance is that you have to manually turn on the camera light, I downloaded apps from the market and all work awesome and look amazing on the 4' screen, set up my google account, listened to some music, watched some videos, everything has been perfect so far.
So far I will say this It IS the best phone I have ever had, and I have had the N1, Hero, HD2, Satio and more. Feel free to ask any questions and I will answer, I know I didnt cover everything but I will answer any questions if you want, btw I am using ATT in the US and I used Edge to web browse and watch some youtube videos, surprisingly fast and great to use.
I just switched to Android (Motorola Droid) after several years of using uBook on the Win Mobile platform. That powerful e-reader can view virtually any format you throw at it, is full-featured, and highly configurable. But it's anything but pretty.
So with that experience in mind, I tried to find an Android e-book reader which had similar features. The three which seemed most widely-used are:
FB Reader 0.5.27 (FBReader: FBReader for Google Android)
Aldiko 1.2.5 (Aldiko - eBook Reader Application for Android)
Books WordPlayer 11.0.1 (WordPlayer:Reading Released)
Each of them open epub files, but only FB Reader would open any other formats (oeb and fb2). However, thanks to the genuis of calibre (calibre - E-book management) a free e-book management and conversion application which can convert between almost any format invented, having a reader which can read a specific format is less important - simply use calibre to convert it to epub.
Each of the readers has the following features:
-- Configurable fonts (color/style/size)
-- One button toggle for day/night mode
-- Bookmarks
None of them has annotations/highlighting, which is the feature I miss the most from uBook (Word-Player apparently does, per its home page, but per the devs, that feature is not working in Droid).
FB Reader
This is the oldest of the ebook readers, with versions available for multiple platforms. It is also butt-ugly, with an interface that makes my trusty uBook seem spiffy by comparison. (e.g. you have to select books from a list, not icons). And the cover displays in only 1/3 of the screen, in the top left corner (presumably FB Reader is not yet designed for the hi-resolution Droid).
FB Reader was also the buggiest of the three readers. It crashed frequently when trying to change font size, only curable by rebooting the phone, and froze up randomly. Also the Table of Contents was faulty - it would only show one chapter. Another quirk - the menu system appears to be in flux - the font settings was buried in a menu called "Settings (Old)".
Two pluses - (1) the FB Reader's bookmarks feature was the easiest to use of three. Selecting "Bookmarks" brought up one screen at which you could both see a list of recent bookmarks, and add one with one-touch. But the ease of use comes with the loss of flexibility - the bookmark is named after the first few lines of the page, w/o the ability to override it, and (2) it has the option to show/hide the status bar while reading.
WordPlayer
This one seemed promising at first, if only because it interfaced with calibre directly. It was also the only ereader to have text-to-speech, but with a voice that not even a mother could love that also read formatting, it was too distracting to use. One other plus - you could point it to any folder on your SD card to find an book, and it would import it.
This reader was the slowest of the three - chapters took forever to load, and switching between day/night modes was just as painfully slow, as if the entire chapter had to be reloaded.
A couple of other quirks/bugs - a single italiziced letter would often not display, and it added several white blank pages to the end of each chapter.
Aldiko
This is certainly the prettiest of the three ebook readers. It also has agreements with various download sites to enable downloading of something like 10,000 ebooks, but the selection was poor, seeming to consist primarily of sex stories (or erotica). However, since I simply use the reader to view my own epubs, this feature didn't matter to me. And it also was easy to download epubs from the web - clicking on an epub file would import it into Aldiko.
This was my favorite of the ebook readers - the devs put a lot of thought into the interface and usability, and I found no bugs. Chapters loaded quickly, it was the only reader which supported css (though not the @font-face attribute), has fully-configurable gestures, and even an option to brighten/dim the screen by swiping the screen w/o leaving the page you're on.
The bookshelf has to be seen to be believed - beautiful icons, intuitive, and the ability to sort by author, tag. Finally, you can share books via facebook, twitter, e-mail, or even SMS(?).
This would be the ideal ebook reader, and a great replacement for uBook if only it had annotations & highlighting (dev says "we will definitely add in the near future", though there have been two updates in the month since then, and still no dice). And I miss the customized status bar that uBook has, with page number / total pages, and the time.
First let me disclaim: I am not a phone expert, reviewer expert, or anything. I work in the IT industry so I have a natural built-in ability to "deal" with buggy stuff more than a typical end-user. Some folks have posted their experiences here, I thought I would too. Let's roll.
First things first, the shipping/packaging. The warehouse had tons of Epics in stock on day 1 and there was 0 problem getting it shipped to me (I use a corporate account). So we can put to rest the concerns of a shortage like the Evo, at least for now. The packaging is slightly more wasteful (full rectangle vs the Evo's sardine-tin look) but is very nice and pretty typical of a cell phone from Sprint. The phone comes with a charging cable (micro-usb), a plug adapter for the cable, earbuds, and manuals. There is a ton of safety-tape all over the phone. I actually like this, it ensures you have a crystal clear exterior out of the box.
Putting it up to the Evo, I noticed a few things. It looks a LOT nicer when turned off. The phone is just sexy. It's very sleek and full black, rather than the Gray-ish Evo. At first I loved the lack of buttons, just makes it much more sleek, but this came back to bite me later. I saw a reviewer say that taking away the Sprint and Samsung labels would make the sex appeal of the turned-off Epic go through the roof and I couldn't agree more. It is lighter in the hands than the Evo, and the shape feels more comfortable in my hand. When using the Evo, I found myself constantly setting off the soft buttons on the front. On the Epic, I find myself constantly setting off the hard buttons, mostly the camera button on the lower right side. Not a major issue.
The other hardware items are a nice upgrade: the charger being on top presents a much more preferable configuration, when holding/using the device plugged in, but also when using it in the car or at a desk; there is less cord bending needed. The volume rocker on the left isnt as nice as the Evo�s in my opinion, but that�s such a minor issue for me I didnt even care. Some folks complained about the battery cover; it is seriously no more hassle than the Evos and it feels identical in the pressure needed to pry it off.
Turning on the phone is BLAZING fast. I always hated how cellphones took longer than PCs to boot, but the Epic squashes this -- it's unbelievable. So nice to boot in under 20 seconds...
The camera�holy cow. I never thought I�d care but the back facing still and video camera is amazing compared to the Evo in quality. Now, the Evo has a slight advantage (at least mine) in color quality, but in sharpness, field of view, and options, the Epic blows it away. This was suspected, since Samsung makes camera products. The earbuds are nicer than some that come with the Blackberries my office uses, but to be honest I hardly ever use stock accessories, so I dont think Ill use them. Having a few sizes of rubber covers is nice.
Lets turn it on. Right away a former Sense UI user might be bummed. Touchwiz 2.5 is nothing close to Sense. Yes, I do realize apps can fake the clock and other widgets. But this review is about the PHONE not what apps can make modifications to it. The UI is a major disappointment and the Evo blows it away. That being said, USING the UI well that checkered flag goes to the Epic. Despite the lack of useful bits and pieces in TW 2.5 moving to the desired location is easy and fast on the Epic, more so than the Evo. With the screens, I compare the Epic and the Evo to butter and ice, respectively. The Epic screen is smooth, always, even after 100 swipes. The Evo is smooth at first, but if you repeatedly swipe back and forth, you get more friction as time goes on. I really think the Epic glass is superior in that regard. I have not been able to test strength of glass, because this is not a free phone. =P
I went to lunch today with both phones, and while the Epic is miles past the Evo indoors, the outdoors is a different story. The Evo seemed to alter its brightness to counteract the glare. The Epic did not change at all. It was near impossible to make out emails and video on the Epic. I have not played with or tweaked settings, so this chapter isnt finished by any means, we may be able to adjust this.
The GPS�.hoo boy. This has been a long contended item in this community. Obviously the previous Galaxy S phones reported a lot of issues, and I think the Epic is just another in the line of problem children in this arena. My GPS did not work out of the box with any apps. Only after downloading a free app called GPS Status did it actually connect to satellites. Then, the other apps like Maps worked. The Evo, on the other hand, simply worked. Out of the box, with no nudging or coercing. The epic was a huge disappointment for me in this realm because a big portion of the usefulness and fun of the phone for me deals with GPS, and to have it be so buggy.yuck. Ill hold up a glass and toast the Samsung guys the minute this is fixed, and I have every hope that it can be, with software.
Another thing that bugged me was the paltry selection of apps. Oh dont worry, we got Sprint Zone, Sprint TV, Sprint Football, Sprint Curling, Sprint Foxhunting, and Sprint Midget Wrestling, but painfully absent are App Sharing, separate apps for Camera and Camcorder, Navigation (I cant find this on the market either so any help getting this on my Epic would be appreciated), Google Search (duh, shouldnt this be mandatory? Sometimes I dont want to use the widget!), and many others. It REALLY felt like HTC went the extra mile to give us tons of stuff we can use out of the box, and Samsung left it to us to go get. To me, no problem, but to an end-user that can be a real pain. Especially my problem children. =)
For settings, it felt like the Evo just kinda worked like Id expect. The fact that the screen stays on longer before it shuts off is nice. The Epic is literally something like 10 seconds which is horrible. Yes, you can change it. Yes, I like the fact that HTC seemed to take more time thinking about how a normal user would use their phone.
Now, the keyboard. I love the keyboard, Ive been using it for e-mails over 2 sentences long, but to be honest, 95% of my time I use the Swype keyboard. Before Swype was out, I would have loved having a hardware keyboard but now I am thinking that it is less of a need and more of a want. The buttons are a nice size, and I disagree with complaints Ive seen in the past regarding the space button its juuust fine.
The last major nitpick I have is the soft buttons. They suck. They have bizarre timing for being lit or off, and even if you know the order of the buttons: menu, home, back, search, tapping near them doesn�t work, you have to remember EXACTLY where they are. So muscle memory from using the phone for a few weeks will help with this but I hope this is another software fix that we might see, or a settings adjustment somewhere.
All in all I LOVE the phone. Its sexy, it fits into my pants so much nicer than the Evo, and I haven�t even dipped into the real advantage: the graphics processor. Maybe Ill do a follow up review on that side of things. I will be sending my Evo back and keeping the Epic. It has some great potential and I like the improvements over the Evo.
I know this review has seemed a bit like Im a bit of a downer, but I thought it was important to go through each component and I tend to be a bit harder on gadgets, since I work with them daily and need them to be top notch.
Overall, Epic gets 4 out of 5 Squiggs.