Author Topic: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread  (Read 317846 times)

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Offline Plugabugz

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1025 on: June 05, 2014, 12:04:49 PM »
M8 > S5. At first I was on the fence with the S5, now I can say that I flat out do not like it at all. Design is a huge step backwards for Samsung, the S4 (the S4 Active, really) is the best looking phone they've ever made.

I have an M8, it's basically the best thing ever.

I have a Nexus 5 and a iPhone 5C. The problem with the 5C is it's way too slippery to hold - does the M8 have the same issue?

Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1026 on: June 05, 2014, 12:17:55 PM »
Depends on the finish. I have the Gunmetal Gray one, it is quite slipper. The Silver one has better grip, but it's ugly. You can always get a slim case.
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Offline Stogi

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1027 on: June 05, 2014, 03:58:49 PM »
So I have decided to go with the S5 Active. The main reason is its ruggedness and ability to be in water with no major consequences. I'm heading to Thailand in about a month or so and I can see myself using that latter feature quite a bit.

It's not the sexiest phone on the planet, but holding something that isn't fragile will put my mind at ease. In fact, from now on these are the types of phones I buy. I'm going back to the criteria of phones I use to love, starting with the Nokia e71. That phone lasted for years, and I beat the living **** out of it, drowned it and at one point dropped it in a fire. Then I switched to the Galaxy s2 and then the Note 2. Both were fantastic phones, but I was always worried about them. Now it's time to go back to something that can take a beating and swim a bit. My life is too random for anything otherwise. Hell, I can already see myself drenching this phone in champagne.
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Offline Plugabugz

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1028 on: June 06, 2014, 02:56:16 AM »
So I have decided to go with the S5 Active. The main reason is its ruggedness and ability to be in water with no major consequences. I'm heading to Thailand in about a month or so and I can see myself using that latter feature quite a bit.

It's not the sexiest phone on the planet, but holding something that isn't fragile will put my mind at ease. In fact, from now on these are the types of phones I buy. I'm going back to the criteria of phones I use to love, starting with the Nokia e71. That phone lasted for years, and I beat the living **** out of it, drowned it and at one point dropped it in a fire. Then I switched to the Galaxy s2 and then the Note 2. Both were fantastic phones, but I was always worried about them. Now it's time to go back to something that can take a beating and swim a bit. My life is too random for anything otherwise. Hell, I can already see myself drenching this phone in champagne.

So why not get the Xperia Z2? My boss has the Z1 and he walked me into the kitchen and dropped it straight in the sink, dried it out and put it in his pocket.

I realise Sony phones are rare in the USA, but they are significantly more interesting than the nonsense Samsung is churning out.

Depends on the finish. I have the Gunmetal Gray one, it is quite slipper. The Silver one has better grip, but it's ugly. You can always get a slim case.

I already have a case on it. Took less than 12 hours of use before it landed on my face three times to make that decision.

Offline Stogi

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1029 on: June 06, 2014, 03:39:44 PM »
Holy ****. The Z2 looks amazing. It's the have your cake and eat it too phone. That said, it's too bad I'd have to buy it outright since AT&T doesn't carry it. It's pretty damn expensive. Another hundred bucks and you could buy a Macbook Air.
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Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1030 on: June 07, 2014, 10:46:38 PM »
So, I just found that that Reicast (Dreamcast emulator) runs basically perfectly on my HTC One M8. About to try it on the Ouya...but yeah, holy **** that's fucking amazing to me. I was just about to bust out one of my Dreamcasts too.
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Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1031 on: June 07, 2014, 11:19:25 PM »
...and it runs pretty damn great on the Ouya too. Only played Mortal Kombat Gold, but 60 FPS at 1080p in both situations, oddly the Ouya wasn't doing the extra geometry and didn't display videos properly (both were fine on my phone) even though they are running the same version of the reicast app.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1032 on: June 08, 2014, 01:36:43 AM »
Because when I've got the entirety of the Dreamcast library to choose from, what's my first pick? Mortal Kombat Gold. Every time.
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Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1033 on: June 08, 2014, 09:01:23 AM »
I don't know if you're mocking me, but if you are I truly appreciate it. I have a ton of Dreamcast games (ok maybe 20), but yeah, MK Gold is my go to, always. Sure, everyone has the same combos and it takes about 6 minutes to beat it, but it's still fun.
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Offline Plugabugz

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1034 on: June 08, 2014, 05:56:21 PM »
Holy ****. The Z2 looks amazing. It's the have your cake and eat it too phone. That said, it's too bad I'd have to buy it outright since AT&T doesn't carry it. It's pretty damn expensive. Another hundred bucks and you could buy a Macbook Air.

I know it's expensive but it does free you from the claws of AT&T. Isn't that a better option?

The last phone i got on contract was the Nokia 6280 on T-Mobile UK. Hated the experience so badly - the phone had several design flaws and the 3G modem was a disaster - that after the third phone with identical issues i gave up, threatened to leave if they didn't end my contract early and let me get a new phone. They let me out 6 months early.

Offline pokepal148

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1035 on: June 08, 2014, 06:01:34 PM »
The fact that a 2014 version of the note 8.0 hasn't been announced confirms to me that they plan to wait until September so that they can launch it with the rest of the note family and have them all on one product cycle.

Offline Stogi

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1036 on: June 08, 2014, 06:07:45 PM »
I got a pretty good things setup with AT&T. I have 4 lines for roughly 40 a piece with 10 gb of data. Plus, I call and bitch every three months and demand credit. (Word to the wise, they can go as high as $150 without having to file anything).

I bought every single phone I've had by itself, so I'm with you on that boat. Still, I can't afford to this time. I can also unlock any android phone and completely wipe all the bloatware off it too.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2014, 06:24:41 PM by Stogi »
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1037 on: June 08, 2014, 07:46:18 PM »
Not Android, but I've been using AT&T all the way to Chicago and since I've been here, and have had no issues with it. It was good enough to stream the USA-Nigeria game on my phone in HD the whole bus ride to the Sounders game with no hiccups. They seem to have come a long way.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1038 on: June 12, 2014, 11:58:17 PM »
So I got the 4.4 update on my note 8.0 and I guess google thought it was a good idea to have a black and white notification bar that just looks ugly. I'm not a fan of having it transparent either but honestly I'm probably going to go to the play store and see if someone has found a way to put a skin on it or something.

Also not happy with how... like before... ugh *goes through google image search*


Like before you had that division between persistent or 'ongoing' notifications like the ones i have for watchdog and hackers keyboard and actual notifications for things like emails and stuff. Now that division is gone and it's all one big mess.

I really hope those changes aren't the result of some... persuasive maneuvering by Google.

Oh and  g+ photos and google drive showed up for me to disable with all the other bloatware.

Device seems snappy as ever but I don't see any big new features that I care about. I don't really know if I can call it an upgrade.

Oh and samsung seems to have restricted the disabling of certain apps, (mostly their web browser, email, and app store, the things I would want to disable the most,) And flipboard, curiously enough.

Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1039 on: June 13, 2014, 09:20:10 AM »
When you buy a Samsung, you get a Samsung.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1040 on: June 13, 2014, 06:09:06 PM »
When you buy a Samsung, you get a Samsung.
Except I don't think having monochrome status bar icons, or forcing drive and g+ photos on the device was Samsung's idea. Just because I want Google's mobile os doesn't mean I want their everything else. I don't even use google now I just found it such a waste of battery.

Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1041 on: June 13, 2014, 08:47:27 PM »
Samsung is free to modify the icons any way they please. They also don't have to include Google Drive and/or Google Plus Photos.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1042 on: June 13, 2014, 09:21:35 PM »
Samsung is free to modify the icons any way they please. They also don't have to include Google Drive and/or Google Plus Photos.

The OS being open source isn't always a good thing.
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Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1044 on: June 14, 2014, 12:00:56 AM »
GOOD. Samsung is still free to modify the icons - this is apparently more about all the god damn S-Apps and horse **** that Samsung puts on their phones. You can change the icons yourself if you want to.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1045 on: June 14, 2014, 12:05:16 AM »
You mean the b/w style status bar, do tell.

Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1046 on: June 14, 2014, 12:27:22 AM »
You have to root your phone. If you can install Xposed Framework on your phone, then you can install an app called Gravity Box that will let you change them. If not, then you should be able to do it manually (still need root), go to System/App/SystemUi.apk and copy to your computer, extract it with something like WinRAR then in the res/drawable (might be in drawable-hdpi or another drawable folder) you should find the icons they are PNGs, you can edit them with Photoshop or something that can open and save transparent PNG files, or I imagine you can find pre-made status bar icon packs. When you're done editing, put them back in the .apk file, put it back where it came from, cross your fingers and reboot your phone.

Honestly I thought it would be easier than that (though of course you would need to be rooted), but if it really bothers you, you can do it. There are always custom ROMs too.
I think it says on the box, 'No Hispanics' " - Jeff Green of EA

Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1047 on: June 14, 2014, 12:31:03 AM »
Make an account at xda-developers forums and look around in the Note 8.0 Themes and Apps forums, ask questions there if you can't find what you need.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1048 on: June 14, 2014, 12:01:09 PM »
Oh if I have to root then I'm just going to downgrade back to 4.2. **** kitkat.

Seriously apparently my podcast app can no longer write to the SD card which it could before. Google, you may not know this but updates are supposed to ADD functionality, not remove it.

Offline Stratos

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Re: Everything Android - The Official Android Thread
« Reply #1049 on: June 14, 2014, 12:41:17 PM »
Isn't Google purposely dialing back SD card support because they are trying to get everything cloud-based? I don't like it because I am regularly out of service range but it seems to be a rolling trend for Google.
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