Smartphones

Pfft, Android as sourced in China is often limited to two or three installed languages. Android proper has 50-something system languages built in.


But since we're all here, let's not squabble, I have a question for everyone, Googlies and Apples:

how often do you all make a purchase in an app store?

Is it mostly apps?

Does anyone buy media?


Anyone use alternate apps stores? (Appbrain is a familiar alternative to Google Play, and apparently popular; Amazon has its own store too; etc.)

Yes but from my understanding, and from trying it before, those other app sites like AppBrain just work through Google Play anyway. If you click download on a game for example, it'll just direct you to the Play store. Seems totally pointless!

As for your other question, I download games on the iPad mini as I like playing online, and I download certain apps (like Sleep Pillow which is awesome), but I would never pay for music and videos.

Just looking through my apps, it seems like I do use Google Play a bit, but mostly for the free Google stuff--Chrome, Pinyin Input, Translate, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, etc--and keeping them up to date. There's three or four other apps that I've stuck with over the years and possibly could have paid for too.

Actually, one app I use every day, Zite, is downloadable for free from Google Play, and as far as I know that's the only place you can get it. Which is a pity because their most recent update totally rewrote the whole thing and turned it from an excellent news browser into yet another Flipboard clone.

Flipboard blows. (As does Google Now.)

Holy Crap Fatman, I just watched the 4 minute advert for the iPhone 5C. What a crock! They spent over 3 minutes telling you how good it looks. With the exception of a prolonged battery life and camera, there's not much else. Talk about form over function

 

Am I missing something?

Am I missing something?

No. Every year Apple releases a new phone and previous year's model becomes the 'cheap' phone. This year instead of making the iPhone 5 the 'cheap' phone, they discontinued and rebranded it (with some minor upgrades) as the iPhone 5c. So really, it's not any different than what they've been doing before. I suppose it makes sense, especially if their research shows that it was younger people buying it or often used as gifts for teens. It's nicer than I thought it would be though. It seems more like enamel than plastic. There's no give at all, very solid.

The biggest difference for us with the 5c is that if/when they make a deal with China Mobile, the 5c (and the 5s) is supposed to have wiring capable of using China Mobile 3G. (which is not standard)

Quote from: Day Dreamer on September 29, 2013, 02:55:23 AM

Am I missing something?

No. Every year Apple releases a new phone and previous year's model becomes the 'cheap' phone. This year instead of making the iPhone 5 the 'cheap' phone, they discontinued and rebranded it (with some minor upgrades) as the iPhone 5c. So really, it's not any different than what they've been doing before. I suppose it makes sense, especially if their research shows that it was younger people buying it or often used as gifts for teens. It's nicer than I thought it would be though. It seems more like enamel than plastic. There's no give at all, very solid.

The biggest difference for us with the 5c is that if/when they make a deal with China Mobile, the 5c (and the 5s) is supposed to have wiring capable of using China Mobile 3G. (which is not standard)

I thought China Unicom had the only 3g service?

China Unicom has international standard 3G service. China Mobile has 3G service but it's home grown, so you have to have a handset specifically made to use it.

China Unicom has international standard 3G service. China Mobile has 3G service but it's home grown, so you have to have a handset specifically made to use it.

Plus China Mobile's is shite and slow.

Quote from: Stil on September 29, 2013, 12:41:51 PM

China Unicom has international standard 3G service. China Mobile has 3G service but it's home grown, so you have to have a handset specifically made to use it.

Plus China Mobile's is shite and slow.

Yeah.

I have found Unicom's 3G is decent and surprisingly fast.

BUT I have got a LOT more spam and f#@%ing 'push messages' since switching to Unicom. Any idea how to combat this anyone?

I'm not running a stock ROM but I can block any number and disallow push messages.
Try looking for a way to do that....if you haven't already...which I'm pretty sure you have...so this was a worthless post. Sorry.

You may have the option to register a number as spam...easiest way is from the message manager or whatever it's called.

I r bored.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yeah I can register numbers as spam but the godawful 'push messages' don't come from a number, they just pop up in notifications. There seems to be no way to stop them.

I even tried some apps that purport to detect where the push messages come from, but they drew a blank.

 

AirPush Detector?
Lookout Ad network Detector?

Push notifications arise from apps, don't they? Find which app is doing it, uninstall, no more pushing.

For plain old SMS spam, it seems no android system is the same, and implementations vary from brand to brand too. But blacklisting is what you want there. Some SMS apps do it for you (I forget which one worked for me, either Go SMS or Chomp.) There are also blacklist apps. Avira antivirus for Android includes a call and sms blocking function.

Some roms, like Cyanogenmod, include blacklisting as an option for any call or sms. Select the call record or offending sms, select menu, select "Add to blacklist". A large number of variations on China Mobile's 10 6586 886 presently reside in my blacklist. Works perf.

It's very early days yet, but anyone got a Nexus 5? Imma get one, and I'm eyeing the sorely unprofessional-looking Taoabo offerings and wondering what would happen if. Google Play is apparently sold out in many areas so where the Taobaowsers are getting their stock....

Anyway, looking at some reviews, the Nexus 5 will have awful battery life and an inadequate camera. And it's pretty much the same size as a galaxy S3, so there goes my plan to get a smaller phone. But it is the bee's testicles as far as currently new devices go, so there's that. What other phone would a normal person get?


Meanwhile, the geniuses at Samsung have released their version of Android 4.3 for the i9300. But only to Switzerland and Ireland so far. Well screw you Samsung! (a) with a locked bootloader, none of those versions will install properly on my China phone and (b) I already have 4.3.1 courtesy of Cyanogenmod. When the China version of Samsung's 4.3 does finally appear, it'll probably include an updated modem, which will be worth something in terms of local reception, but by then Cyanogenmod will definitely be up to Android 4.4 so whatevs. And with luck I'll already have a new phone.


Goddamn you, technology, and your allure of scarcity!

Well update fans, Barbie has a new outfit, Android Kitkat. It's smoo'. For the i9300, this arrives in the form of temasek's UNOFFICIAL CM11. Official Cyanogenmod CM11 for various other devices do exist, but the i9300 languishes in the "CM IS A SELLOUT, LET'S MAKE OMNIROM" excitement. The device maintainers are still working on CM10.2 (Android 4.3), but they are apparently putting their 4.4 efforts into OMNI. (OMNIROM for i9300 is not bad - but for me it's still a bit too generic thus far - and temasek's CM11 is by far getting more of the love.)

Cyanogenmod Installer has had a setback too. It's been removed from Google Play store.

And Taobao keeps trying to sell the North American Nexus 5s in China. Great plan for early adopters who somehow want neither 3G nor 4G on their 4G phone. (And who buys white phones, seriously?)

That is all.

Grrr...the screen on my HTC is now malfunctioning. It works, it just does not light up, so I cannot see anything on it. This is...hmm...the fourth time this HTC crap has malfunctioned. Went to the phone store today and found that that was a good way of getting a headache...so many phones...so many brands...HTC is definitely not a brand I will be buying again.