Google Android catch-all

I got me PocketCast, only 30m and I can try it on the commute home. Thanks

BreechLoad wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

Is there another way to listen to the This American Life podcast? I bought their app, but it's by far the most crashtastic I've ever seen.

I think only the most recent one is available for download.

If you buy the TAL app, you can dig into the archive. I can also download older episodes with PocketCast.

NP. I love Pocket Cast, it's an awesome app.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

NP. I love Pocket Cast, it's an awesome app.

Absolutely. Used it for the first time on the commute home and I'm smitten. Especially good when coming from the standard TAL app!

Any podcatcher will pull older TAL episodes as long as you tell it to sync with Google Reader. PC must have something similar going on with their backend.

My Galaxy Nexus downloaded a new system update today. They did some weird things with the lock screen. If you slide over from the unlock pattern you can now have some widgets there. Not sure what else was in the update.

Nevin73 wrote:

My Galaxy Nexus downloaded a new system update today. They did some weird things with the lock screen. If you slide over from the unlock pattern you can now have some widgets there. Not sure what else was in the update.

I recommend DashClock widget for Android 4.2+ phones. It was done by somebody from google I think, and there are lots of add ons you can get for different information that can be added into the display.

Nevin73 wrote:

My Galaxy Nexus downloaded a new system update today. They did some weird things with the lock screen. If you slide over from the unlock pattern you can now have some widgets there. Not sure what else was in the update.

Swype-style default keyboard!

Yeah the lock screen widgets, and also the quick settings menu in the pulldown now.

Definitely happy about the keyboard, as there were a few things that never quite worked with alternate ones. Like if I was trying to text someone a picture, trying to fill the "to" line with a name from my address book wouldn't work in Flex T9. Having to switch back and forth between keyboards was annoying. If this default swiping works good enough I can just use that for everything now.

EDIT: Obviously I got my update last night.

The only thing I don't like about the default swiping keyboard is that it has some internal blacklist of swear words that it will never, ever swipe.

What? No add to dictionary?

I'll be lost if I can't call someone a sh*tberg.

hey all,

I just got home with a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Haven't even turned it on yet. What do I need to know? What are the first things I should get, must haves, etc? What settings you recommend changing, if any?

Or any other points of interest I should know about. Thanks.

I've got the wifi-only version of that, and I've found the GPS to be not worth having turned on. It drains the batteries pretty quickly too. Make good use of the power-saving settings and the auto-screen brightness setting unless you're doing something where battery life is less of a concern than picture quality or speed. The power-saving stuff can make some games run poorly and low screen brightness will cause a lot of glare/reflection while watching movies and playing games.

I picked up this screen protector and it looks and works really well. Just be sure to follow the instructions and watch the youtube video they have before trying to put it on, and let it sit the12-24 hours like they recommend before turning it back on. I had mine turn on in the middle of applying the shield (so it was covered with the solution they include), and freaked out that I had just ruined the thing (which made the 12 hours I waited very stressful), but the only thing that happened was that the date was reset to 1/1/2000 and had to be re-set. For the first day there were some things that looked like dust and bubbles, but they went away after a few more days.

I have this case/keyboard but I can't really recommend it, the keyboard's pretty crappy and doesn't register a lot of key-presses. I mostly just use it as a case and stand, and ignore the keyboard part.

Thanks Stengah. I'll definitely check out that screen protector. Thanks for the other tips too. After 1 day/night, I'm loving the device so far. I've mostly learned the ropes, and now on to finding the best apps.

Stele wrote:

What? No add to dictionary?

I'll be lost if I can't call someone a sh*tberg. :D

You can add them to the dictionary, just can't swipe them.

Is there a good way to keep apps and app data or backup it to a PC without root on a 2.3.3 device?
I am tempted to use the official HTC site to put CM or something else on my crash-prone phone to find out if that would mend the issue, but going through the horrid market interface to find all my apps (not too many, but still enough) and installing them again sounds just too un-fun.
Same goes sorta for sms, has anyone here tried one of the various backup apps and could chip in which one would be worthwhile?

Anyone know of a website to track prices of android apps on the google play store? I've seen some apps to do this, but no price tracking websites.

Android Police has a deals section. It has app and hardware deals.

You know, I think the 4.2.2 update screwed up bluetooth slightly. Ever since I got the update, when I turn my car off and walk away with my phone, when I come back it doesn't re-sync. I have to turn the phone's bluetooth off and then back on to reconnect. I need to look in the settings, however, to make sure one of those didn't reset.

Nevin73 wrote:

You know, I think the 4.2.2 update screwed up bluetooth slightly. Ever since I got the update, when I turn my car off and walk away with my phone, when I come back it doesn't re-sync. I have to turn the phone's bluetooth off and then back on to reconnect. I need to look in the settings, however, to make sure one of those didn't reset.

You know, I've had problems connecting to the bluetooth speaker I keep in the kitchen. It used to sync up every time I turned it on without fail, and I've been having all sorts of issues connecting it the last week or two.

Same here. My Bluetooth adapter in my car worked fairly well before the update, but now it's almost never syncing correctly.

Anyone know how to make Opera for Android fool a site into using the regular version (as opposed to it's mobile version)?

Galaxy Tab 2, and I want Amazon to load it's normal site. When I call it up in Opera, I always get the mobile version. I'd heard that was one of the best perks of the Opera browser.

On a different note, what's the best site for finding Android app deals?

I'm using Firefox at the moment on Galaxy S3. I opened Opera, went to Amazon, near the bottom there is a list of links. The bottom link is a full site link.

M_Bored wrote:

I'm using Firefox at the moment on Galaxy S3. I opened Opera, went to Amazon, near the bottom there is a list of links. The bottom link is a full site link.

Ah, didn't scroll down far enough. Thanks a bunch!

Most browsers allow you to request the desktop site. With Chrome it's Menu>Request desktop site, with Dolphin it's Menu> Settings> Set priority. I'm sure Opera wouldn't be much different.

Are there any Thunderbolt Verizon customers around here? Is ANYONE happy with the OS updates they've been pushing? My phone has been running like crap.

So lately my Galaxy Nexus battery life has been down the tubes. I put it back to stock with no apps, and you can almost see the battery life drop... when it gets down to 15%, where it starts popping up the low battery alert, it pops up almost constantly and keeps bugging me. This happened with both of my batteries, so I'm pretty sure it's a hardware thing.

So before I take it in to get it fixed/replaced, I switched over to Erin's craptastic HTC Rhyme, save me hassle later.

But damn if it didn't survive the night without being plugged in. I forgot what that was like. >_<

I feel like my Nexus battery got worse with 4.2 OTA, but I'm not sure why. Only been a couple weeks.

Can someone enable me on rooting a Nexus 7, please? I have read numerous articles and threads, and they all seem to boil down to "because you can!" Granted, that may be reason enough for me if not for the fact that the process wipes the tablet, but, as it stands, why do it?

I have happily jailbroken iOS many times, but the advantages are very plain there. Aside from Titanium Backup and mods that may provide a slightly smoother and faster performance, what else is there?

spider_j wrote:

Can someone enable me on rooting a Nexus 7, please? I have read numerous articles and threads, and they all seem to boil down to "because you can!" Granted, that may be reason enough for me if not for the fact that the process wipes the tablet, but, as it stands, why do it?

I have happily jailbroken iOS many times, but the advantages are very plain there. Aside from Titanium Backup and mods that may provide a slightly smoother and faster performance, what else is there?

You can actually back up most things on the tablet before wiping it. I did. Also, google backs up a lot of things automatically if you have their function turned on.

I think since the N7 is stock, the reasons are less obvious than many other devices with Android+bad skins. I did it so that I could run some programs requiring root to back up apps, etc. I think using a PS3 controller might require root, too. But I haven't bought the app to try that yet.

If you don't have a good reason, I wouldn't do it. Probably more hassle than it's worth if you don't want to tinker.

Thanks. I nearly did it last night, and used a couple of back up apps, but got distracted my Dr Who and ME3. Some of the apps said that they were restricted and could not be backed up.

I'm quite happy using my OTG cable for my ps3 controller, since the N7 hasn't got HDMI out or a big enough screen to need anything other than a really short USB lead.

Stele wrote:

I feel like my Nexus battery got worse with 4.2 OTA, but I'm not sure why. Only been a couple weeks.

Dammit, we've had complaints of this, hope it's not true for everyone.

So, everyone excited for the Facebook phone?