Ok there are a lot of questions about Android in a lot of different threads scattered about the forum so I thought I would make this topic.
I've had my G1 for 14 months now, in that time I've seen the upgrade from 1.1 to 1.5 to 1.6. I've rooted my device, installed a whole load of Cyanogen Roms, Hero Roms and Super D Roms. I've even installed Debain on my system.
If anyone has any questions about Android please use this thread and I'll do my best to answer them.
How many applications do you usually find yourself running at once and how much effect does it have on battery life in the real world?
Many. Android doesn't close applications it keeps them in the memory until they need to be removed (ie when more memory is needed).
On the G1 I run anything up to about 20 applications at the same time. It's never effected performance and battery life is fine. You generally find you have to charge the phone at the end of the day after heavy usage but the G1 is known for having poor battery life.
Of course you can use Task Managers etc to increase your battery life but it's not really necessary like certain articles/websites like to make out. I get around 15 hours life on my G1 and that's with sending around on average 20 texts a day, a few phone calls, some game time, surfing the net about an hour a day and going on facebook/twitter regularly over about 4 hours a day (basically anytime I'm in a lecture). I also get 2 hours of music playback via AD2P bluetooth headphones.
I've read about people saying that there is a limit to the amount of apps you can install because everything has to be saved to the ROM. (Assuming you don't root it and install it to the SD card). Do you know if this is true?
what are the advantages n disadvantages of android over the winmo ??
luckypoop said:
I've read about people saying that there is a limit to the amount of apps you can install because everything has to be saved to the ROM. (Assuming you don't root it and install it to the SD card). Do you know if this is true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes this is true however the Desire has 512mb of space for you to store apps. I've got a 800mb partition on my G1 for Apps2SD and I have around 200 apps installed lol with no problems so 512mb will probably hold quite a few apps.
They're working on getting apps installed to the SD card in the next android release.
cez10 said:
what are the advantages n disadvantages of android over the winmo ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a broad question, maybe you can be more specific?
Hey brummiesteven, thanks for creating this for Android noobs like me! I've been using WinMo for quite some time. Never played with Android until just a few weeks ago when I tried running Android on my Touch Pro2.
Enough history, on to my questions...
1. Is there a native file explorer? If not, I suppose there are 3rd-party ones. Any one in particular that is considered the file explorer? (The equivalent of Resco Explorer or Total Commander in WinMo?)
2. I read in that there's no native Office doc (ie, Word, Excel, etc) editor. There's only a viewer. Again, I suppose there are 3rd-party ones. Recommendations? Does it work as well as the native one in WinMo?
I guess that's it. These are my only concerns about jumping ship to Android. Everything else, I'm going to have a blast figuring out on my own...
ohyeahar said:
Hey brummiesteven, thanks for creating this for Android noobs like me! I've been using WinMo for quite some time. Never played with Android until just a few weeks ago when I tried running Android on my Touch Pro2.
Enough history, on to my questions...
1. Is there a native file explorer? If not, I suppose there are 3rd-party ones. Any one in particular that is considered the file explorer? (The equivalent of Resco Explorer or Total Commander in WinMo?)
2. I read in that there's no native Office doc (ie, Word, Excel, etc) editor. There's only a viewer. Again, I suppose there are 3rd-party ones. Recommendations? Does it work as well as the native one in WinMo?
I guess that's it. These are my only concerns about jumping ship to Android. Everything else, I'm going to have a blast figuring out on my own...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. No native file explorer, I think Astro is generally seen as the best file exporer:
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/com.metago.astro/
2. Again no native Office. There are quite a few office suites, I don't know which is the best as I have no use for one. Here's one of them though:
http://www.androffice.com/
It will be worth noting that there probably will be a google docs app soon. And you can edit google docs already on android via docs.google.com. There's also a program called GDocs that syncs all your google documents to your handset.
I think the reason why there's no "Native" options for these is because Initially "Stock Android" is aimed at the average customer, they wanted to get the balance right for non tech savy people who just want a phone with apps but also allow the possibility and expansion of turning it into something extremely powerful for someone of the more tech savvy type.
brummiesteven said:
That's a broad question, maybe you can be more specific?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
umm thought you might say that right let me think
- i've been mainly using symbian and winmo devices for the past years and there was some issues with stability and lag etc. on my old n95 8gb i used to get slow downs when ie had lots of apps installed does that happen on android? lags etc?
- are there any custom roms tweaks or in general droid doesnt really require much work to make it better?
- what about security of droids? as its an open source software it might be easily hacked, accessed by 3rd party users?
thats it so far i probably forgot about other more important things
well thanks anyway
cez10 said:
umm thought you might say that right let me think
- i've been mainly using symbian and winmo devices for the past years and there was some issues with stability and lag etc. on my old n95 8gb i used to get slow downs when ie had lots of apps installed does that happen on android? lags etc?
- are there any custom roms tweaks or in general droid doesnt really require much work to make it better?
- what about security of droids? as its an open source software it might be easily hacked, accessed by 3rd party users?
thats it so far i probably forgot about other more important things
well thanks anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Put it this way, I've never experienced any slowdown on my G1 and it has like maybe a 3rd of the spec of the Desire? It is a fast operating system, wont be slowed down by installing a lot of apps but might by by having a lot of apps open but I highly doubt this would ever be a problem on the Desire (as it isn't on my G1).
2. Yes there are custom roms, mostly of different builds. For example the HTC Hero doesn't officialy have 2.1 released but there are already a few 2.1 roms for it on XDA. There will always be a way for devs to increase speed on here... even if it isn't needed speed can always be increased .
3. The only security flaw you would have is if you rooted it, this enables the root account and on a linux system the root account can do things like access system files. Having said this, if you do root the phone, the phone will ask you before it permits anything (program etc) root access. I've never heard of anyone having their phone hacked or anything like that.
I have had my G1 since it came out. Also, I rooted it as soon as that was possible. I have tried/installed over 500 apps and normally have over 100 installed at any given time. I have never had any issue with hacking or security.
That having been said! Recently, I read on an Android site where a group of individuals made an app as an experiment to see if they could access a users data. I believe it was a weather app. A majority of the users (if I remember correctly) didn't read the access rights of the weather app - as it said in the access rights it would have access to the users contacts/data. The app was able to upload user's data/contacts from those who installed the app.
So, MAKE sure you always read any applications access rights prior to installing an application. If the app is requesting access to information within your device that are NOT related to the apps functions - don't install it!
If you do that one thing - you should have nothing to worry about!
@brummiesteven - Didn't mean to highjack your thread. This is a great service you are providing for the new Androidians! Just wanted to remind them (all users) to read those app access rights before installing an application.
Hijacking? Lol don't be silly the more the better
Thanks for answering these questions. This next one is a bit more speculative....
given that winmo 6.5.x is probably going to be the last iteration before WP7S, what are the chances that some kind of emulator will be built to run legacy winmo apps on Android?
would this even be possible?
Hi Steven,
great service
One thing I really liked about my Blackberry, was the ability of customization regarding profiles and the notifications connected to it.
Is it possible to create profiles in Android, like 'Silent', 'Vibrate Only' and maybe one for the office where ringtones and notifications are very silent to avoid waking everyone up at the office
By the way, I recently stumbled over an application called cVolume that seems to enable some customization in that regard.
Is it possible to assign different ringtones for messages, mails, event notifications etc.?
(An example of what I dislike: I actually use a Palm Pre and the launch firmware didn't allow much customization. All notifications (except event reminders), no matter whether new mail, new textmessage used the same ringtone, which also couldn't be changed. That changed thankfully with a later firmware. Profiles are still not supported, you can just switch between 'ringtones on' or 'shut up/vibrate only'. --> Having used a Blackberry before, I felt kinda castrated with that few options of notification-settings )
Thx & Greetz,
69Mws
Sorry, no time to read which questions you have answered! I just copy/past my questions from another thread:
I can not call myself a WinMo veteran, since I have been using the HD2 for only 2,5 months. But the fact that it is already a dead device because of the Developers leaving to 7 Series(Adobe just stopped making flash for it, while they were very close to finishing it) makes me sad. If on 1 April there is still no word on the future of the HD2, I am selling it and getting a Desire.
A few questions to Android users!
How is the Android Market? How many apps? All useable by Desire, or is the divercity of the Android devices making the quality suffer? And only instal to internal memory right?
General Android OS: easy to use? Eye candy? Touch optimized?
Android browser: good or not? Is there Opera browser for Android?
Does HTC Sense work well with Android? Does it become 'one', or stay 2 different things like Sense and WinMo?
What should I know more about Android? What do you Android users think are the bad things about the OS and hope to see changed in the future updates?
I know it is a lot I am asking, but I am making a right decision this time so I need to be informed.
Kind regards
XDA mark said:
...How is the Android Market? How many apps? All useable by Desire, or is the divercity of the Android devices making the quality suffer? And only instal to internal memory right?
General Android OS: easy to use? Eye candy? Touch optimized?
Android browser: good or not? Is there Opera browser for Android?
Does HTC Sense work well with Android? Does it become 'one', or stay 2 different things like Sense and WinMo?
What should I know more about Android? What do you Android users think are the bad things about the OS and hope to see changed in the future updates?
I know it is a lot I am asking, but I am making a right decision this time so I need to be informed.
Kind regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm no Android user yet. But I have played with the emulator running on my Touch Pro2. So I can help answer a couple of your questions.
1. Android Market is much more extensive than Windows Marketplace. Remember, it's not the quantity but quality of apps that matters. And quality there appears to be much more quality apps than WinMo. Perhaps veteran Android users can chime in regarding usability by the Desire and installation location.
2. The Android OS is so much more pretty than WinMo. There are fade in/out animations when opening/closing windows. Everything is finger-friendly. The slide-down notifications bar is extremely handy. The ability to fully customize your home screens with shortcuts and widgets is just great.
3. The Android browser is much better than Opera Mobile on WinMo. I think there's Opera Mini in the Android Marketplace. But really, I don't think there's any reason to not use the default browser. It's renders fast and accurately. I can even access my internet banking site which doesn't work on WinMo or iPhone OS.
4. There's plenty of videos of Sense on Android. Check those out and see for yourself. Personally, I think it's great. Completely different than Sense on WinMo. Sense on WinMo is just a Today-screen plugin and enlarged menus. Sense on Android includes the HTC widgets and Leap among other goodies.
5. This is something I want to know too. Most of us know about what's bad about the iPhone OS and WinMo. But what's bad about Android that you'd want changed?
does Android require soft/hard reset every now and then like those damn M$ Windows Phones ?
I asked these in a different section, but thought I would see what Answers I get here, I know some have been answered before.
1. If / when the Desire gets rooted, will the device be permanently rooted or will official updates from HTC "un-root" it?
So hypothetically, I get a Desire and it is rooted, and HTC releases Android 3.0 (for example), would I be able to upgrade to the newer software or would I have to use a "dev" update?
2. Since the hardware between the 2 phones is very similar, what is the chances of current Nexus One modded ROMs (cyanogen, enmother etc) working on a rooted Desire?
3. I imagine the community will be working on rooting the Desire so it can port the shipping version of Sense UI to the Nexus One?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Stu
69mws said:
Hi Steven,
great service
One thing I really liked about my Blackberry, was the ability of customization regarding profiles and the notifications connected to it.
Is it possible to create profiles in Android, like 'Silent', 'Vibrate Only' and maybe one for the office where ringtones and notifications are very silent to avoid waking everyone up at the office
By the way, I recently stumbled over an application called cVolume that seems to enable some customization in that regard.
Is it possible to assign different ringtones for messages, mails, event notifications etc.?
(An example of what I dislike: I actually use a Palm Pre and the launch firmware didn't allow much customization. All notifications (except event reminders), no matter whether new mail, new textmessage used the same ringtone, which also couldn't be changed. That changed thankfully with a later firmware. Profiles are still not supported, you can just switch between 'ringtones on' or 'shut up/vibrate only'. --> Having used a Blackberry before, I felt kinda castrated with that few options of notification-settings )
Thx & Greetz,
69Mws
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no option for this initially but the system does allow you to assign different notification tones to different events, eg Email and SMS.
There will be apps that allow you to have "profiles". There's even an app called Locale which is pretty much an automatic profiler, will switch your settings dependant on the time, your location etc. For example, if I'm at Uni it automatically switches my phone to silent for all notifications and vibration only.
I've asked this in various forums, since security is the #1 issue for me. I know there are already alot of apps to protect the phones and its contents....BUT is there anything stopping a thief from simply taking out the sdcard and putting it in another phone or reader to view and access the contents of the sdcard?
If you plan on storing personal info on the card, whether it'd be photos/files etc It would be really good to know that even if the sdcard is taken they still cannot access the info.
anything out there as yet? I would've thought this is a pretty common request.
something like trycrypt or storage crypt for the microsd card would be really good.
any help would be much appreciated.
thank you
I'd like to know this too.
(sorry to dig up an old thread but it's better than starting a duplicate one IMO)
To date, I haven't seen full SD card encryption software like we had on WM with Android. File and content encryption, yes (like BioWallet Signature or MyStash).
-----------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
I just switched for a tiny (3" screen) and slow (Leo ROM with WM 6.5.x) Xperia X1 to a more powerful HD7. Nice OS indeed, but there are lots of things that I really miss:
1 on the old phone I used to flash new ROMs very often. I had some CABs in the SD that could be restored in seconds with a few clicks, so after flash all my apps were ready for use. If I'm not wrong, this is not feasible anymore since CAB installation is not available on WP7 and (correct me if I'm wrong) Zune software is always needed;
2 all audio and video files are immediately avalable to view since the phone stores them in its own way (i.e. cannot save them in a specific folder, and open them in the old File/Open way); what if I have some *strictly personal* audio or video file I want to keep secret ?
3 no GPS navigation software still available (I used iGO8 very very often) an nothing foreseen yet;
4 apps marketplace is ridiculous, but I hope that software houses will start converting theis apps very soon (I really miss SPB Wallet and Opera).
5 SD card...well we all know enough about that
Anyone aware of some kind of improvement for what above ?
Thanks
S
Came from an iPhone and then Nexus one. What i really really miss is the ability to buy apps from the marketplace since i live in an unsupported place and hence, a non-US credit card. iPhone had support for my country, while market enabler and google checkout solved that for android.
You can always use a UK/US Live account.
yes i have a US live account, but it still will not accept my credit card, a Mastercard. It says that it can't be authorized, and a lot of people also have that problem because their credit cards are non-US. My credit card is still active though, checked and doubled checked. Just used it to purchase a few items from ebay using paypal and also groceries yesterday.
G'Day, i have been trying too run Phone2sdcard with no success. I have been in touch with the developers abd this is there claim..
The device does not have a real primary external storage, or the primary external storage is emulated.
On Galaxy SIII, the SD card is configured as a secondary external storage.
This is configured by Samsung. Nothing developers can do about this.
Please contact Samsung for details
I did, this was there answer:
Thank you for contacting Samsung Customer Care.
It means that according to the makers of the application that because of the way the Samsung Galaxy S III is configured this application will not work with it. This configuration cannot be changed either so you will not be able to use that application.
I would suggest that you check the Google Play Store for an alternative application with a similar function and you may be able to find one that will meet your needs and can work with the Samsung Galaxy S III.
Does anyone know of an app that will do the job
Thanks
poor reply from samsung
this is what they reply to me too
Based on your issue, we regret to inform you that for S3 models, apps
> cannot be transfer to SD Card as this is the concept design.
>
> We apologise for any inconvenience cause.
Alternative
There is a alternative (Directory Bind) but you will require root, it also requires some work but once you get it setup it works pretty well, certain games will load slower when put on the external card as its not as fast as the internal card.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262
LawlietHD said:
There is a alternative (Directory Bind) but you will require root, it also requires some work but once you get it setup it works pretty well, certain games will load slower when put on the external card as its not as fast as the internal card.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know there is a fix , glad i am on android , one thing which i dont understand is why samsung disable this when its already available last time , anyway i will be flooding samsung customer care to get my message across
Aimara said:
poor reply from samsung
this is what they reply to me too
Based on your issue, we regret to inform you that for S3 models, apps
> cannot be transfer to SD Card as this is the concept design.
>
> We apologise for any inconvenience cause.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LawlietHD said:
There is a alternative (Directory Bind) but you will require root, it also requires some work but once you get it setup it works pretty well, certain games will load slower when put on the external card as its not as fast as the internal card.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate, i don't want to root my sIII. Cheers
Hi Everyone,
To start, I would like to say that I have been a big Apple user for many years and I am making the change to Android to get a better understanding of the other side! I like what Google has to offer and looking for that experience.
I have chosen the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 as my first Android based tablet and have some particular questions for those who have purchased this unit. It is hard to find a straight answer when reading some of the other forums out there. Thank you everyone for your help with my transition!!
1, Is the Tab Pro 8.4 available with internal of 32 Gb memory? If so any idea when?
2, Has any who has purchased the Tab Pro 8.4 with 16 Gb internal memory has successfully trying in using Sandisk's latest 128Gb microSD which I understand it to be an SDXC card? Did it work and what amount of external memory did it give you?
3, Lastly, When downloading free or paid apps from Google Play, can the apps you install on device be stored and used from the microSD card rather than the internal memory?
Thanks again Everyone!
Welcome to Android Tablets.
Good choice on the 8.4. The Note 8.0 on the cheap would be another option.
1. Yes. There is 32GB but not very available right now. Mostly for international market than western market.
You can order it online from only a few places right now or wait another few weeks and it should be at more.
2. Yes. The 128GB card will work fine. It gives you 119GB available.
3. Partly. Some data can be stored on the card. This depends on the app. There are some workarounds to improve this.
But it's really going to depend on your use if that's even an issue.
Wolfman1172 said:
Hi Everyone,
To start, I would like to say that I have been a big Apple user for many years and I am making the ch to Android to get a better understanding of the other side! I like what Google has to offer and looking for that experience.
I have chosen the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 as my first Android based tablet and have some particular questions for those who have purchased this unit. It is hard to find a straight answer when reading some of the other forums out there. Thank you everyone for your help with my transition!!
1, Is the Tab Pro 8.4 available with internal of 32 Gb memory? If so any idea when?
2, Has any who has purchased the Tab Pro 8.4 with 16 Gb internal memory has successfully trying in using Sandisk's latest 128Gb microSD which I understand it to be an SDXC card? Did it work and what amount of external memory did it give you?
3, Lastly, When downloading free or paid apps from Google Play, can the apps you install on device be stored and used from the microSD card rather than the internal memory?
Thanks again Everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to fully utilize that a SD card to its full potential you must root and use a program like folder Mount to move games and certain apps to the sd card. In addition to this you must change a script in permissions in order to bypass the kit kat limited sd card writing. Google, as always, is fighting micro sd cards as hard as they can. If you search you will find the tutorials on how to accomplish all these things very easily however be aware your knox counter will be tripped so your warranty will be void.
Tab Pro 8.4 External SD Storage and how to Root the problem!
conan1600 said:
to fully utilize that a SD card to its full potential you must root and use a program like folder Mount to move games and certain apps to the sd card. In addition to this you must change a script in permissions in order to bypass the kit kat limited sd card writing. Google, as always, is fighting micro sd cards as hard as they can. If you search you will find the tutorials on how to accomplish all these things very easily however be aware your knox counter will be tripped so your warranty will be void.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So as a whole from everyone's response, I understand know that there will be a 32 Gb unit available soon, That the new SDXC mircroSD 128 Gb card will work on the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and finally will be able to store apps to a certain degree.
When it comes to the Android tablet experience how important is storage space going to be when in the Google world?
My main purpose for the tablet will be to play stored or streamed music, watch movies hopefully that will be able to be stored quite easily on the microSD 128 card and finally games and some cool apps.
Now as you had mentioned rooting to allow for full usage of what you wish to store on microSD what are some good links or places where I can learn and understand to do it properly?
Thanks again this forum has been a great help!
For most media like images, movies, and any other bulk files. Those can be stored on the card without issue.
Much easier than iOS to manage files. It's basically drag and drop like a thumb drive. Once the files are there your app will pick up on them or can be pointed at them. Gallery app, music player, etc.
Games are the biggest issue of what you've mentioned if you are planning to have a bunch with large data files on the device at once.
Some store to the card better than others but if you want to have a lot of the biggest games it's best you get the 32GB.
You still have the workaround mentionrd above. That would be my chosen route but it depends on the person.
How to Root the Tab Pro 8.4 to Manage Storage
meboy said:
For most media like images, movies, and any other bulk files. Those can be stored on the card without issue.
Much easier than iOS to manage files. It's basically drag and drop like a thumb drive. Once the files are there your app will pick up on them or can be pointed at them. Gallery app, music player, etc.
Games are the biggest issue of what you've mentioned if you are planning to have a bunch with large data files on the device at once.
Some store to the card better than others but if you want to have a lot of the biggest games it's best you get the 32GB.
You still have the workaround mentionrd above. That would be my chosen route but it depends on the person.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks meboy for your response. So in a nutshell all storable items images, media and music can be reverted to the external SD card other than for the most part apps that are purchased or downloaded for free thru Google play. To get around this what was written earlier is to root your unit to all full controll which I am open too.
Now the final question out here is how do I root the tab pro 8.4 to do this? And when it comes to rooting is there different forms of rooting or just the one that does everything in terms of giving you full control of where you want to store apps that are downloaded?