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Smartphones

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Calach Pfeffer

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #270 on: December 24, 2012, 02:58:40 AM »
Dongdong for Android (not free)
MyBus for [everything and Android] (seems to be free)

Caveat clicker: I didn't try very hard to find the best or easiest source.

Now, phone choices....

As a rule, in China, Android phones are cheap, bewildering in their variety, and riddled with tech caveats. They're functional right out of the box, but they're also being more and more disengaged from google, so to make all the super-duper connectivity and service power work, you have to hunt up bits and pieces here and there from no one particularly well-managed store or site. There's a whole Chinese tech buzz going on though, and if you speak and read the language, you can get a lot of good stuff if people will tell you about it.

Thus, buy an iphone.


Or: XiaoMi, Meizu, Lenovo, Oppo, even Huawei, ZTE, others, and many.

The thing about an Android phone in China is anything you can do with google (barring the bad searches) *is* being recreated with Chinese apps and services. They are out there. It's just they're not monolithic yet, nor even close, not like google (which isn't here) or iphone (which is).


/op.ed
/ymmv
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Monkey King

Re: Smartphones
« Reply #271 on: December 24, 2012, 03:06:52 AM »
An interesting dynamic...'Apple' just about anything is the go to 'look I have money and I'm cool' product for most young people here but in reality more folks are actually using Android and there's a thriving tech community built around it, mainly due to the fact that China and Google don't get along (?)...
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cruisemonkey

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #272 on: December 24, 2012, 03:29:23 AM »
'Smartphone' is oxymoronic.
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NATO

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #273 on: December 24, 2012, 04:08:01 AM »
Meizu MX2 looks tasty, had a little play around in-store today. But no front facing camera  bibibibibi.
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Fozzwaldus

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #274 on: December 24, 2012, 04:26:20 AM »
I'm still thinking iphone, maybe when the 5 comes out I'll buy a 4s
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Monkey King

Re: Smartphones
« Reply #275 on: December 24, 2012, 04:59:31 AM »
Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your apps.
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Nolefan

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #276 on: December 24, 2012, 11:56:53 AM »
Quote from: Fozzwaldus on December 24, 2012, 04:26:20 AM
I'm still thinking iphone, maybe when the 5 comes out I'll buy a 4s

the 5 is out... now is the time.
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piglet

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #277 on: December 24, 2012, 02:03:40 PM »
Sorry guys for the sake of clarity I am intending to purchase the "smartphone" -sorry cruisemonkey,when I go home,because of the google -china battle thing and also because I don't read Chinese.I want a PROPER phone that does everything that phones abroad do. Leaning towards the Samsung since everyone has told me that all the apps are available even tho I like the LOOK of the Iphone better. I don't want it as a status symbol I am too old for that nonsense.But I DO enjoy the sleekness of my ipod...
hmmm  mmmmmmmmmm
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Fozzwaldus

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #278 on: December 24, 2012, 04:07:11 PM »
aahhhh!!!! too much pressure!!!

smartphone stress!!!!  ananananan

makes life easier my ARSE!
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Calach Pfeffer

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #279 on: December 24, 2012, 06:09:00 PM »
Another aspect of a google phone in China is whether you like it or not you will use it as Karl Marx intended. You can install a new firmware or you can buy the phone outside in the Real World, but the Google Play you access from inside China will feature only free apps. Any app that must be paid for or which includes in-app purchases will *not* exist (unless you have a Vibrating Purple Nose). So, for eg, you can download and install the cn Pleco, but to buy full functionality you have to visit their website.

Perhaps some iPeople can confirm this, but as far as I know the Apple app store is not limited this way in China.

iPhone. It just werkx.
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The Local Dialect

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #280 on: December 24, 2012, 06:30:45 PM »
Yeah the Apple App store has some apps that are not available in China, but I have not run across that many, and usually when I do it is because there is a Chinese version that they would rather you buy. I could count on one hand the number of times I've tried to get an app and gotten a "sorry, not for your region" message with the Apple store.

iTunes is another story -- I guess what you do is access a foreign iTunes store and purchase stuff with your US credit card or whatever, there is no Chinese iTunes as of yet, but there also isn't a Google equivalent in China either.

I am thinking of getting an iPhone later in the year and giving my Android to my husband who, being Chinese, will probably appreciate it more than I do. If you have never had an i-product, you won't really know what you're missing, but having one of each I can say pretty confidently that, for China, the content available, again, hassle free, on the i-devices beats Android hands down. 
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piglet

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #281 on: December 24, 2012, 07:18:50 PM »
well CP and LD you guys are totally confusing me. My son,being a Linux buff and anti Apple person by definition,is keen on me getting the Samsung,but I am not geeky enough to know better,and like I said,find the ipod very helpful. I just can't decide.I can only echo the erudite Fozz's comment that this whole thing is driving me insane.
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Calach Pfeffer

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #282 on: December 24, 2012, 08:43:18 PM »
You, Fozz and LD should get iPhones.

Whether real life matches the propaganda or not, Android is "open". This means an Android phone is more like a hobby kit than a consumer electronic device. This will change eventually, and Google, particularly with Android 4, has been moving toward making the system more friendly to non-enthusiasts. (And the bigger phone companies, like Samsung, keep trying to put developers in employee instead of superstar roles.) But it's not there yet.

Interestingly, one of the supposed selling points for the XiaoMi phones is they run MIUI, a custom Android rom that issues new updates *every Friday*. In other words, they guarantee a relatively unfinished, unpolished operating system. It has an unabashedly techno geek cred, but, for eg, a friend of mine who's eyes will glaze over at the mention of any computer talk, has an M1.
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The Hiphoppopotomous

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #283 on: December 27, 2012, 03:00:38 PM »
Quote from: piglet on December 24, 2012, 07:18:50 PM
well CP and LD you guys are totally confusing me. My son,being a Linux buff and anti Apple person by definition,is keen on me getting the Samsung,but I am not geeky enough to know better,and like I said,find the ipod very helpful. I just can't decide.I can only echo the erudite Fozz's comment that this whole thing is driving me insane.

I think you're overthinking it. Whatsoninxiamen for example, you dont need an ap, you can just go to the website.

I actually think that you are suited to an Apple phone though. They 'just work' and will just work in or out of China. I'm as anti-apple as the next person, but there's no point in buying a phone that is gonna give you a headache because you dont know how to fully utilise it. It doesn't really matter what your son thinks because it isn't him using it on a daily basis.
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Calach Pfeffer

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Re: Smartphones
« Reply #284 on: December 28, 2012, 07:37:34 PM »
For those among you with access to Google Play and a handy dandy wifi connection (or a strong urge to spend a lot of money on phone data charges) :

Download and install Google Voice Search
Download and install Google Translate
Go through appropriate setup steps, and voila....

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR!

You speak your chosen language at your phone, it translates (via Google), and at the press of a button will speak that translation back at you!

It's very entertaining, and knows the bad words.


Apple people can do the same with iTranslate. It's slightly harder to use than Google Translate (or at least it is in its new Android incarnation), but produces more natural sounding translations.

The days of language learning are drawing to a close.
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