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My Very Own Protocol Droid

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Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#191

Post by teek »

justinph wrote: post #162
Semaphor wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And some of the android phones (like the flagship nexus 4) don't support transfer via USB? What? I have the Nexus 4 here and I'm 99% sure I transfered files over USB in the 1h before I installed a custom ROM. Additionally I've never heard that complaint before.

The android file transfer app does not work with the Nexus 4. At least, it doesn't if you're on Mountain Lion. Same goes for doubletwist. The Nexus 4 only supports USB MTP mode, not USB MSC (mass storage) mode. I think other newer phones are this way too.

It works in OSX Lion so your comment is a little misleading.

I do however think the Google transfer app is somewhat annoying as it tends to popup every time I connect my device to my computer.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#192

Post by teek »

justinph wrote: post #70

I guess android works pretty slick if all you do is stream from the cloud. But, if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. The Google-supported way is for me to put MP3s in a folder? Really? And some of the android phones (like the flagship nexus 4) don't support transfer via USB? Really? I have to do it via slow-ass WiFi and a third-party program like doubletwist? Total disaster.

If you want music to be stored on the device, you can tell Google Music or Amazon MP3 to keep the copies on the device. This is accessible by long pressing a song or album and then selecting "keep on device". Alternatively in Google Music there's a menu to select multiple songs/albums.

> The Google-supported way is for me to put MP3s in a folder? Really?

That's the 'over the wire' method. I think that's how it should work seeing as how with iOS you need iTunes in order to do it. And then iTunes has a bunch of non-sense about how certain things can/can't be copied because of drm or however iTunes and that particular iDevice feels that day. As for once the files are in the Android file system, the content manager automatically indexes the files so in Google Music or Amazon MP3, the songs are not arranged by file name, but by album, song title, genre, etc.

> I have to do it via slow-ass WiFi and a third-party program like doubletwist? Total disaster.

The problem here is you've been conditioned to think that wifi is slow, and iTunes is superior. It isn't. When I download an album from the "cloud", I don't sit there waiting for it to finish. I get in my car and go, or I walk to wherever I need to be. The device does it wirelessly and because it is wireless, I don't care about sitting there waiting for it to finish. You're stuck in the iTunes mentality where there's a physical cable attached and you do have to sit there and wait.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#193

Post by M4v3R »

Taylorious wrote: post #84
M4v3R wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> XCode is garbage Once in a while I see an argument like this and I wonder - does this guy really do mobile development? For the better part of last year I was into Android development, in Eclipse. If XCode is garbage, I don't know what Eclipse is. Resource-hogging, buggy monster with seven heads with shit on them, probably. I could list annoyances of Eclipse that got me for hours. On the other hand, in last month I…

Well there's your problem. Use Intellij IDEA. It makes every other IDE you may have used look like garbage. Also, the ADT bundle that Google now has works way better than downloading Eclipse and installing the plugin. Although, I agree with you, I think Xcode works quite well. But, there are improvements that could be made...

As a matter of fact I tried IntelliJ. It was nice, but it had it's own set of problems. Two of them: - compilation times of bigger Android projects sucks hard. It's just not fast enough. I even feel that using word fast in this sentence is a misuse. - one of the selling points of the IDE (from their website) is Jabber integration for team coding. Tried for several hours, didn't get it to work. Even filed a ticked for it, which is still unsolved (the package is unmantained for years).

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#194

Post by white_devil »

whichdan wrote: post #21

"With Android (and T-Mobile) I killed my contract. Now I pay just $30/month. For $30/month I have unlimited texts, unlimited data, free tethering, and 100 minutes of talk" Anyone else have experience doing this? My monthly bill for an iPhone with AT&T is $76.40 which includes 300MB of data, 1000 messages, and a whopping 450 minutes (I do have ~2700 rollover minutes though). I don't feel strongly about Android vs iPho…

I couldn't resist the temptation to "brag" a little.

Here's what you can get for 15 euros ($19.5) per month in Finland:

  - 2800 minutes.
  - 2800 texts (and MMS).
  - 1M bandwith with no traffic limit.
  - Month by month, cancel any time with no penalties.
  - No starting fee.
(Bring your own phone)

To be fair, this is a discount package from a subsidiary of a big operator, and it surprised me too.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#195

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

runjake wrote: post #172
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things that make Siri as useful as it is (which for the record IHMO is not very) is tight integration with iOS contacts, calendars and text messages for instance - all things not in the product when Apple bought it and all things which may ultimately enable the sort of integrated experiences people are saying are great with Google Now. Seriously, when Apple bought it Siri was interesting and pretty cool, but it's…

That may be, but don't use a myth to posit your position. The Android that Google acquired is a grain of sand of what it is today. Anything remotely notable or worthwhile out of Android came out of Google. FWIW, Siri is great and I currently use an iPhone.

Except perhaps the most important thing - the idea?

Possibly worth looking too at what I was originally doing - refuting the idea that Android was a major Google innovation where Siri was merely an acquisition.

Even if you say that Google have reworked Android to the extent that it's essentially new, the same is largely true of Siri if you look what it was when Apple bought it (small scale, movie tickets and restaurant bookings). The only difference is one is three years on, the other is ten years on.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#196

Post by runjake »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #195
runjake wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be, but don't use a myth to posit your position. The Android that Google acquired is a grain of sand of what it is today. Anything remotely notable or worthwhile out of Android came out of Google. FWIW, Siri is great and I currently use an iPhone.

Except perhaps the most important thing - the idea? Possibly worth looking too at what I was originally doing - refuting the idea that Android was a major Google innovation where Siri was merely an acquisition. Even if you say that Google have reworked Android to the extent that it's essentially new, the same is largely true of Siri if you look what it was when Apple bought it (small scale, movie tickets and restaura…

What idea? Android? Android was essentially an unknown brand when Google bought it. It certainly wasn't a technology (or at least a technology that has any similarity to Android today).

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#197

Post by jdboyd »

joelackner wrote: post #167
Taylorious wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest going with straighttalk. $45 a month unlimited everything and it uses AT&T networks. I always have a signal. I would suggest going with a good unlocked smartphone to take advantage of it (I went with the Nexus 4). In fact, you can buy a whole years worth of service at a time and it averages out to like $42 a month... not a huge savings but I just like having my phone taken care of for the whole year.…

they have some devices that use the verizon network, too.

If you order just SIM card, it will be AT&T though, which is what I did. I was using T-Mobile, but their coverage just wasn't good enough (defined as not working at my desk at work).

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#198

Post by mikeash »

hboon wrote: post #181
mikeash wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The very same. I hesitate to ask, but, is that good or bad? :)

Good, but to be fair to every other Mike Ashes, they aren't bad either. I just never know of them :) Thank you for the time and effort put into NSBlog. It's awesome. Had no idea you write for Android now. Will there ever be an NSBlog equivalent for Android?

Thanks, glad you like the blog. I've been doing Android fairly heavily (roughly 50% of the time) for a year or two now. As for NSBlog-Android, only if and when I ever get to the point where I feel like I understand it as well as I understand the Mac/iOS side of things. Which will probably be a while.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#199

Post by pzaich »

Irregardless wrote: post #103
xauronx wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "their auto-correct is garbage" The last three people who switched from iPhone to Android asked me what was wrong with Androids auto-correct and why it didn't "work". They ended up having to install a third party keyboard to get anything they could stand to interact with.

Autocorrect is one of the most common complaints I see about the iPhone. Whether it's professional reviewers or normal users, there seems to be a consensus that the stock Android keyboard and autocorrect have now surpassed their iOS counterparts. I'm not sure what your friends were doing or which phones they had, but as others have said, Android at least offers you the ability to switch keyboards if the stock keyboar…

I have a S3 and have all kinds of auto-correct issues I didn't ever have on my iPhone4. For example, it will auto-correct numbers. I will input something like 5 and it will default autocorrect to a phonenumber e.g. 5605432760 that begins with a 5.

Just the other day I tried to type in "damn" and it was constantly auto-corrected to "Damon". Never had anything like this happen on iOS.

Re: My Very Own Protocol Droid

#200

Post by paddy_m »

jjsz wrote: post #50

A good tip for new Android users now that I feel obligated to evangelize Android a bit: Get cyanogenmod [0] and cyandelta [1]. First off your get: Android 4.2.2/3 and the swipable lockscreen widgets, the alternative top right swipe to access the notification toggles, the new 360/panorama camera, and updating is simple since cyandelta runs a scrip where it downloads a delta file of the next cyanogenmod and automagical…

where is there a good overview of the jailbreak landscape for androids. I don't know if I want a rom, root access or what. I find the forums that many of the mods are described on to be scary, I don't want to get a drive by virus or malware.
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