Google Android catch-all

Chaz wrote:

I need a solution for mounting my new S3 in my car for GPS'in. I have a beanbag dashboard mount that I use with my Garmin GPS. Ideally, I'd just find the clip part that holds the phone and that I can connect to the beanbag mount. How universal are those ball joint connector dealies?

I use this thing on top of this thing with my Galaxy Nexus, although it tends to droop nowadays when holding the screen perfectly upright, so that horizontally I rest the phone in the clamp on one of the beanbaggish corners.

Does anyone know if it's possible to make calendar event alerts vibrate but not play a sound on the S3? There's no setting in the app settings, I've got general system settings set to silent but vibrate on, and text messages vibrate without playing a sound. Calendar alerts remain silent with no vibration.

Getting a new phone tomorrow. Going with Verizon and either a Galaxy Nexus or a Galaxy S3. Wanted to hold out for the Windows 8 Phone in November, but I can't deal with this broken screen anymore, and the wife needs a new phone.

Which of the two I mentioned is better? I'm leaning more toward to the S3 because a comparison I found lists 22 hours of active use on one charge with the S3, while the Nexus was 7 hours.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

Which of the two I mentioned is better? I'm leaning more toward to the S3 because a comparison I found lists 22 hours of active use on one charge with the S3, while the Nexus was 7 hours.

The S3 wins on hardware for pretty much every measure, but loses out on software (Samsung overlay plus waiting for Android updates).

Battery life on the S3 is definitely good* - I get a bit more than 24 hours out of mine normally (which means: many texts, a few casual game breaks, a bit of internet surfing for me).

* for a smartphone.

My original droid is starting to get old in the tooth especially with its horrible 500mb internal storage. I'll probably replace it with the S3 on verizon.

MikeSands wrote:

loses out on software (Samsung overlay plus waiting for Android updates).

Only if you choose to lose out. I've been getting near 72 hours of battery life and could be running Jelly Bean if I chose to.

LiquidMantis wrote:
MikeSands wrote:

loses out on software (Samsung overlay plus waiting for Android updates).

Only if you choose to lose out. I've been getting near 72 hours of battery life and could be running Jelly Bean if I chose to.

I was treating "root and get latest version" as out of the ordinary. Possibly unfairly, here. That said, I have found that the S3's custom software is not annoying me the way my old HTC Desire did (that got rooted and replaced with Cyanogenmod pretty quick).

72 hours of battery life, though - how do you manage that? I figure I could get 48 hours by turning wifi/data on only when needed, and not playing games, but not much more than that.

If it's not too late, I can say that the Nexus is good, and if you get a GSM model, you'll get updates directly from Google -- the Verizon Nexus only just now got the most recent OS version.

The thing I really like about the Nexus is that it's trivially rootable, designed to be rooted from when you first buy it. You don't have to, and in fact I haven't felt the need to do so, because the default firmware serves my needs adequately (read: has tethering, which many ROMs do not), but the fact that I can, to me, means that I own the hardware. If Google abandons it, I can switch to Cyanogenmod, or anything else, with minimal hassle.

The S3's hardware is apparently somewhat better, especially the video chip, so if you're a phone gamer, that might be important to you. But I don't really play phone games, and the couple I do have (Plants V. Zombies and something else) run very nicely. So the Nexus is good for me, but if you care about 3D video performance in your phone, it's not as good as the S3.

MikeSands wrote:

72 hours of battery life, though - how do you manage that? I figure I could get 48 hours by turning wifi/data on only when needed, and not playing games, but not much more than that.

It's admittedly with very light usage, handful of texts, checking email, maybe a short phone call or two. With LTE I keep wifi off unless I need access to my LAN. I'm on this streamlined ROM.

Just got a nexus 7. How do you dictate a "/" or "@" symbol? Whenever I try to speak a url, it comes out as "slash". I also tried "forward slash" but no dice. Likewise, I end up with "at" when I try to speak an email address.

I just did the same debate (upthread, I think), and wound up going with the S3. So far so good. I've only had it for a week now, but I don't hate the Samsung stuff that went on top of ICS. Battery-wise, it's doing pretty well. I was hoping for a bit better than I'm getting, but I've heard that battery life improves as you use it more, so I'm hopeful. Weird thing is that when it's plugged into my car's USB port and navigating, the battery still drains, albeit a lot more slowly than it normally would when navigating. Still, yesterday it lost about 40% of its charge while navigating for two hours while plugged in, so I probably won't be getting rid of the standalone GPS for long trips. Might try an adapter to plug it into the regular power outlet, since the USB port might not be putting out enough juice.

Also, this is the first phone I've felt the need to put a case on. Naked, it's just really thin and slippery, so I had a few close calls. Put an Otterbox Commuter on there for about $20, and it's much better.

Chaz wrote:

Weird thing is that when it's plugged into my car's USB port and navigating, the battery still drains, albeit a lot more slowly than it normally would when navigating.

You need to make sure you have a 1A car charger. Lots of them don't charge at that rate.

A quick way to tell if you're charging at best rate is to go to Settings>About Phone>Status. See if it says "AC" or "USB" charging when hooked up. If it's USB, you're getting a lower charge speed.

(Assuming ICS/JB is still the same as GB)

Also, there are some 1A chargers that don't report to the phone the right way due to the way they're wired. I've modded a couple of old ones I had to do it right. Just takes a slight bit of easy soldering.

All that said, my old EVO 4G is still just barely in positive territory on a good charger when using Navigation.

I think the phone tells me something like "USB connected" when I plug it in, so I'm guessing it's the lower one. I might need to grab one of those adapters then, cuz why not.

Edit: Blarg, a lot of the reviews for adapters on Amazon seem to say that they don't charge android phones at the full AC level without some disassembly and soldering.

Yeah you need a proper charger. I had that problem with my moto droid with monoprice generic cables. But when I got a cheap ($6 sale) Motorola charger off Amazon it worked great. Still works on my Nexus too.

Went with the S3. So much nicer than the Huawei Ascend II I had. Also got a $25 Google Play code with it, so I'd appreciate any recommendations for must-have apps/games.

Stele wrote:

Yeah you need a proper charger. I had that problem with my moto droid with monoprice generic cables. But when I got a cheap ($6 sale) Motorola charger off Amazon it worked great. Still works on my Nexus too.

Was this one that's a dedicated charger with micro USB on one end and a car charger on the other, or a charger with a USB plug on it? Got a link?

This works incredibly well. It's powerful enough and wired correctly for even the Nexus 7 to tell me it's charging (and charge it does).

Kurrelgyre wrote:

This works incredibly well. It's powerful enough and wired correctly for even the Nexus 7 to tell me it's charging (and charge it does).

Cool. I'm hoping there's an option that's cheaper than $30 though.

Anyone with a nexus 7 have a bag they like carrying it around in?

So far I have my eye on one of these two
http://www.amazon.com/Brown-Canvas-T...
http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Leathe...

I'm pretty sure this is the one I got on sale for $1.50 shipped that works fine. With these Chinese places, though, I wouldn't guarantee it's exactly the same product.

I carry my Nexus 7 around in my back pocket and use it like a phone one handed. Like a giant boss.

Allow me to begin by making this clear: I am not a software developer by trade. My knowledge of programming languages is incidental at best. I work for a software development company, but I don't program for them.

That said, I want to make an app. What's the best way for me to get my feet wet?

I want this app to make my weightlifting/workout tracking easier. I want to be able to do the following things with it:

1. Provide me with my prescribed workout for the day based on the date/day of the week (my current workout schedule is that I increment most lifts by 5 pounds per workout, with a rotation of two different workouts every other day).

2. Provide me with a table that shows the right plates to use in the right combination to put the right amount of weight I need on the bar for my lifts that day.

3. Provide me with a timer so I can time my rests between sets. This timer must also notify me when the rest period is over with a sound notification.

4. Provide me with a means to track the number of sets I have completed.

Right now, I organize all of this with a google doc (you can see it here), and use a separate timer app, and a notepad app, to time my rests and count my sets. It's a PITA to have to switch between all of them. I want to provide it with either a procedurally-generated database of workouts, or an importable table (XML maybe?) that contains my workouts, and have it automatically display the correct information on the date associated with that workout. Any resources anyone can provide that would give me the info I need to set up an IDE for Android, the available API, and info on the languages used to develop in Android would be appreciated. I'm pretty sure some Googling would give me all the info I need, but I like hearing from knowledgeable, friendly people as opposed to an FAQ sitting out on the web.

Edwin wrote:

I carry my Nexus 7 around in my back pocket and use it like a phone one handed. Like a giant boss.

I found that my Nexus 7 slides nicely into my inner suit jacket pocket at work. It doesn't even spoil the line. At home, I put it into a folio case I got for £7 from Amazon to help protect it from the kids. When I'm out and about, I have an Ayegear jacket and an Ayegear vest with a ridiculous array of pockets to choose from.

I actually need a new vest.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I actually need a new vest.

IMAGE(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sPToP9Fsc8c/Ty6mUyq_JkI/AAAAAAAALZ8/kZC-DpCY0Xs/s1600/MrBurns+SEE+MY+VEST.gif)

He really likes the vest.

Come on, Android people, help me out. I have this shiny new Nexus 7, my first Android device, and not so many apps. I've got a couple of file managers, a couple of eBook readers, a couple of comics apps, and a couple of games. I've mucked about with themes, widgets and my home screens. What's good?

Lair Defense is a great game. Astrid is great. As is Aldiko if you like to read on it. Currents and Reader, both by Google, are good for reading blogs and things. Google's Listen is, in my opinion, by far the best podcast app on android. Do you play Minecraft? Minecraft Canary is useful. Pax Britannica is a great single button RTS. That's about it for the non-obvious ones.

Flipboard is probably my most used app outside of browsers. I'm not sure if the tablet version is any good though.

Weird thing is that when it's plugged into my car's USB port and navigating, the battery still drains, albeit a lot more slowly than it normally would when navigating.

Yeah, the Galaxy Nexus does that too. You need a charger that reports itself as being a wall plug... I believe this is done by soldering the two center pins together, so you can theoretically just modify a cable instead, but it makes that cable dangerous to plug into a computer. (Do NOT actually do this until you look it up and make sure I'm right, because I'm not certain.)

I had a Motorola charger that was cheap and put out the full 1.0 amp, but it failed rather catastrophically, blowing fuses whenever and wherever it was plugged in, almost instantly. Right now I'm running on an Amazon charger that claims to be 2.5 amps across two ports, but reports as a USB connection so that no sane device will actually pull that much. Pretty frustrating to advertise it that way.