Smartphones

Wow. That is bizarre. The rabbit hole is deeper than I thought. However:

Trick for signing in to Gmail through an Exchange account

Were I thee though I'd be (experimenting with ICS roms) finding a completely non-Chinese, not even HK firmware and trying that out.


Bonne Chance, proud phone owner!


ETA: since this is a weird firmware that excludes Google operations, you probably also need to find and install gapps (the Google Apps package, which includes among other things the actual Market app). I would assume it is automatically included in any non-Chinese firmware (as it is in the case of almost every other branded, non-China localised phone).

NON-CHINESE FIRMWARE FTW! (Sorry China.)

yep, that's the gmail trick i used too, and it seems to be ok for me email.

sometime later I'll get around to going deeper into the belly of the beast, but for now I've already burned about 3 days on the stuff, and I have study to do.

Thanks again...

No sweat, my next phone might well be a Samsung so it's been interesting.

More broadly, having a bit of a look around online, it seems like this might be an issue for ALL Android phones brought in the PRC these days. There's some whole thing going on. One is reminded of how the Party screwed Microsoft by realistically threatening to invent Red Flag Linux and thereby getting big Microsoft concessions, but still.... an interesting magazine article on the more general topic of Android and iOS in China:

Understanding the iOS and Android Market in China

This'll possibly be an interesting topic in the e-commerce classes I have coming up this semester! I wonder what students know about it all.

update (since I'm sure you're all riveted by the esoteric jibber-jabber going on here)

tried all the tricks: VPNS/fLight mode/taking out sim and there just seems to be no way to get onto android market and/or amazon market.

what I have been doing is using slideme and applanet to get some decent apps (like facebook and mapdroid for example)

however... what I really want is PLECO (I want it so bad...  )

and I can't even seem to find NCIKU...

I guess I best keep searching...

Dumb Question: does your phone actually have the Android Market app installed?

At the risk of something weird happening:

http://www.appchina.com/soft_detail_172541_0_10.html

Appchina is apparently the biggest China-based app store (with all apps offered for free, aka pirated), and the link above is to Android Market 3.4.4 app. It can be downloaded to pc (and transferred to phone) or to phone directly (somehow). I assume it will follow the language settings on your phone (and thus present in English), and potentially includes no malware at all, though currently there is no way to check. You may have to root to install.

At the risk of even more weirdness, because I'm not sure downloading just the Market is enough:

A Google Apps suite package at Rapidshare

which may or may not be device-specific.

BUT ALL THAT ASIDE...

What I really hope is this whole problem will be solved by flashing a non-Chinese rom.

It appears that the problem you are having is one that anyone buying a non-import Android phone in China will now have (and I'm thinking about getting a Galaxy Nexus, so....) Are you still using the HK firmware? Try out almost any other country version and the Google apps will presumably be pre-installed.

Alt-alternatively... try out Cyanogen. For the Galaxy S II, the Cyanogen mod is buggy but good enough to be called a release candidate. And, once you have it, you can also download the appropriate Gapps package.

For preference, a commercial firmware will probably be nicer to use, but Cyanogen gives you geek cred. (And it gave me Gingerbread when HTC didn't.)


And ETA:

according to the notes on Cyanogen's gapps page, the gapps for CyanogenMod 7 and other Gingerbread ROMs is "is DPI and architecture-independent, so all devices now use the same Universal package." Presumably it can used on any Gingerbread phone and will give you the Market and assorted other useful Google-things.

Quote from: Calach Pfeffer on January 31, 2012, 10:25:22 PM

Let's start by noting that web advertising doesn't work. (He says, without stats to hand.) Most assuredly banner advertising doesn't work.

Banner ads don't work, but Google AdSense works like gangbusters for Google at least…that's where they're getting all that money they make.

Yar. I was thinking more of in-app advertising. Developers make their money either by selling the app or selling ad space in their app. And people (like me, and I guess others) go to some length to avoid that kind of advertising.

And I don't know how Adsense works so I may be talking out my ass. Banners? Targetted placement? Paid search? And this applies to phones?


The general idea I'm having is that advertising concepts on the internet draw still from TV advertising concepts, but the internet, and in particular you on your phone on the internet, is in a different zone. Where TV watchers are passive recipients, internet/phone users are (putatively) active. Advertising, if it's to work well in that medium, presumably has to be interactive in the right way. The user is supposed to get something from it rather than get something projected at them. The user is supposed to guide the experience.

/buttock whispering

@ Calcach - yes I did manage to get an android market app, but it wouldn't let me register. Ditto for Amazon.
I'm back on the original China ROM after an update that fixed all the bugs that I managed to self-inflict after rooting.

I don't really have the stomach for all this rooting, so, Macho, I will eventually take it to a phone shop (but which one? who could I trutst?)

but for now I'm happy enough with my sexy wee phone (albeit with chastity belt), and I will make do with the apps I can get, and petition pleco to send me their product in the mail 

Calach - if you do buy an android, and you do encounter this problem, I'm sure you'll be far more capable of fixing it that I am. I really just need a 'sha gua' 傻瓜 phone, as they say.

*cough*quitter 


Ummmm... after all this, though... ahmm... omg:

"Here's how to install Pleco without using Android Market..."

http://www.pleco.com/androidextfiles.html

he he, yeah, I just figured that one out for myself 

I may be a bonehead, but your selfless aiding of boneheadedness will no doubt stand you in good stead for future android adventures.

See, this is why iPhone is so successful, perfectly suited for mouth-breathers like me 

Well, Fozz, once you get it working, how about a review? A comparison I saw has the Galaxy S2 as approximately the same size as the Galaxy Nexus. The S2 appears to be almost the same width, somewhat shorter, probably a little thinner. What's it like to use? Is it gigantic?


Dr Prof Calach P Peffer Esq's Tech Support.
"Voiding warranties since 2012"

review:

Samsung Galaxy S2:

it's larger that an iphone, but also lighter (at least lighter than the older version my wife uses) nice big screen which is good for messaging and reading papers etc.

fast, hasn't crashed on me yet good camera, 16 gigs of space for stuff.

I have noticed that with heavy use (like constantly playin with apps and going online) the battery doesn't last much more than a day( it'll give you one full day then die in the second).

I'm pretty happy with it now that I've downloaded PLECO (which is an amazing tool, not just for the Optical Character Reader, which is a great gimmick, and potentially very useful, but for its other less flashy tools like document reader, and very good dictionary {better than NCIKU})

... however, if you're the sort of person who want to download loads of apps etc etc, then I wouldn't go for any type of android in China, unless you're willing (and able!) to go through the rigmarole that is detailed in the posts above

good as a phone too, though bear in mind I'm going from a battered old nokia to my first smartphone, so it all seems a bit sexy.

good camera:  8.0 megapixels

what else?

Dr Prof Calach P Peffer Esq's Tech Support.
"Voiding warranties since 2012"

yeah, I might google how to reset that root-counter-thingymabobby, although the official update has remover any surface evidence of tinkering (big yellow warning sign)

I'm pretty happy with it now that I've downloaded PLECO (which is an amazing tool, not just for the Optical Character Reader, which is a great gimmick, and potentially very useful, but for its other less flashy tools like document reader, and very good dictionary {better than NCIKU})

See, the only problem with Pleco is, it's so powerful that once you know how to use it well, you don't actually have to continue to really learn Chinese - Pleco will take care for everything for you.

Quote

I'm pretty happy with it now that I've downloaded PLECO (which is an amazing tool, not just for the Optical Character Reader, which is a great gimmick, and potentially very useful, but for its other less flashy tools like document reader, and very good dictionary {better than NCIKU})

See, the only problem with Pleco is, it's so powerful that once you know how to use it well, you don't actually have to continue to really learn Chinese - Pleco will take care for everything for you.

I hear ye. I can imagine there are a lot of expats out there walking around interpreting China through Pleco on their smart phones. Pleco should make a goggle version.

Speaking of goggles, has anybody tried Google Goggles? Fecking amazing. Truly amazing. Though I needed Virtually all of my Patience and Niceness to get it working.