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Poll

How do you usually connect to the world?

I shout.
[ 2 ] (22.2%)
In a pub.:beer:
[ 0 ] (0%)
Mail, telegraph...
[ 3 ] (33.3%)
I don't -- they come to me...:cool:
[ 0 ] (0%)
I have a secretary.:verycool:
[ 0 ] (0%)
I have a landline phone.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Trunking, CB, Morse flashlight.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Cellphone or that sort...
[ 3 ] (33.3%)
Internet apps.
[ 1 ] (11.1%)
A sat. phone.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Something you can't ever imagine. :)
[ 0 ] (0%)

Total Members Voted: 6

Topic: Phones! phones! phones!  (Read 63657 times)

Phones! phones! phones!

Here in this thread we'll cover every phone :yikes: except maybe those funny things with a wheel. Cellphones, DECT phones, satellite phones... Slightly outdated trunking radio phones...
Military radiophones. NASA/ISS "phones". Skype-like apps... 

So, what sort of a phone have you had/do you have? Brand?

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #1 –
Well, I've had two or three old Motorolas so far. Then I bought a Sagem. MyX-something. It has 2MB memory (dynamical). In total. It's rather customisable, but there are language issues.
Then I tried a Fly (slider). Quite a cute thing, has a microSD card slot, blabla...  Also it was a feature phone -- namely camera-phone, by Pantech. The camera is still working, etc...
Last time: Philips. Bought for 2-SIM simultaneously run and gross charge capacity. Rather reliable thing, though having some minor issues. Has a game to shoot space bad guys.:P

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #2 –
.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #5 –
Well, let's talk about all that "smart typing" stuff?
I have a decent T9 on my Sagem -- both languages I use, and it allows for adding new words.
On my Fly it's been pretty simple, but not dull. On my PANTECH - well, I don't use it much, though I can say that the modes tinkering adds a bit of complexity to typing there.
The dullest thing I have on my Philips. Not mentioning the plough-through mode switching, its "smart-typing" thing doesn't feel very "user-friendly" (how to "select" words and how to add punct. in that "smart" mode), and its vocabulary was written by I don't know whom and I don't know if that person was high or what: half the words I deem basic are not there at all (no custom voc.) - moreover, it does even not "know" any word forms at all! Well, I have, say, "crowd", then no "crowds", no "crowded", nothing; I have "go", but there's no "going" -- such stuff I have to add manually. So the mode very soon gets pissing me off. Apart from that, gradually typing gets more and more "thinking about something else" (in any mode) - the more I've filled in the slower it responds to 'irritants'.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #6 –
Smoke signals. It's not easy, especially over any distance.

Last message received: "My blanket is on fire".
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Josh – on
The dullest thing I have on my Philips. Not mentioning the plough-through mode switching, its "smart-typing" thing doesn't feel very "user-friendly" (how to "select" words and how to add punct. in that "smart" mode), and its vocabulary was written by I don't know whom and I don't know if that person was high or what: half the words I deem basic are not there at all (no custom voc.) - moreover, it does even not "know" any word forms at all! Well, I have, say, "crowd", then no "crowds", no "crowded", nothing; I have "go", but there's no "going" -- such stuff I have to add manually.

Unlike English, the PHILIPS "knows" LOADS of word forms in Russian 90% of which simply don't exist and most of them even can't exist by the Russian grammar rules.

Jolla phone

Reply #8 –
I got an offer for some phone called Jolla. I'm not going to fall for it, but a review on YT looks interesting enough to post here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP_opXBWZzc

Highlights:

- Built by ex-Nokia Meego team
- Sailfish OS forked from Meego
- The colour of the "other half" back cover affects the theme of the OS
- Compatible with Android apps
- A tray/screen for all running apps so as to switch to them or kill them conveniently
- Not many apps out of the box, but comes with a terminal emulator on board, and can be hacked to basically switch to Android OS

The default design of the screens is a vertical scroll instead of horizontal pages, which is the way I like it. This long vertical scroll is how I made my apptray look like when I got an Android phone myself, switching away from horizontal flipping pages. On the other hand, access to the phones menus looks kind of confusing for me. Cool, but confusing. Plus I don't like the near-absolute lack of hardware buttons. Some hardware home button or menu button should be there to make sure precisely how dead the device is, when there's a bigger hickup.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #10 –
Funny thing, some people are saying it looks like the iPhone 5c (or whatever version number). Apparently they don't recall this…

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #11 –
Dedoimedo is doing the only smartphone reviews worth reading, for the vast majority have about zero in common with my interests: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/iphone-6-review.html

My own experiences with iPhones have been largely negative. The interface responds smoothly, but trying to send or receive a file via Bluetooth isn't supported (wtf, every phone I've owned since at least '05 could do that) and autocorrect is the most annoying POS I've ever encountered. Note that on Android 5 it's also been made yet more complicated to turn that off than it used to be, but that aside.

When I'll have to replace my current Xperia Ray running CM 12.1 I'll probably go with Jolla. I might consider an Ubuntu Phone instead. But how I despise capacitive touch. Resistive is so much better. Alas.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #12 –
As screens have become bigger on phones and tablets, hardware buttons have become less relevant. While browsing the web with P500 (it's becoming excruciatingly inadequate for even casual browsing), I have thought that scrolling by swipe at the phone's edge would make perfect sense. A slightly rounded edge would also provide more screen real estate while the size of the device would remain compact. Samsung Edge devices do that currently. Incidentally, the very first smartphone ever - Sony Ericsson P800 - also did that by means of a hardware wheel button on its side. It's rather convenient to scroll a webpage this way by swiping along the edge of the phone.

In Sony Ericsson P800, the wheel button scrolled the webpage, and Opera automatically selected links as you scrolled. The same wheel could also be pressed to go to the link. Not sure if Samsung Edge phones are this convenient. There could be a danger in having a constantly active edge on the device. I don't know what the edges of Samsung Edge do when you are answering a phone call, but possibly something very bad is prone to happen.

In the first touchscreen smartphones (such as Sony Ericsson P800), there was a stylus for pressing. This was a better manner to interact with the screen in my opinion. A pinkie's fingernail also worked, while the fat side of the fingers didn't. It provided superior precision compared to the touchscreens we have now. Stylus devices are rare now.

On the other hand, the specs of Samsung Galaxy Note Edge are unbeatable. It must be the best device currently on the market. Outrageously overpriced, yes, but also the best.

By the way, web shopping sucks, particularly when you agonise over the decision. I got jealous over the specs of Frenzie's Zenfone 2 and I cancelled my purchase of Xperia M5 to think things over one more time. Then I thought the full Xperia Z3 looked good - the overall size is just one millimetre bigger than M5, while the screen is .2" bigger at the same reso. On the downside, Z3 is somewhat overpriced at my provider compared to other stores (that's somewhat overpriced, as opposed to outrageously overpriced). I tried to place an order for Z3, but it didn't let me complete the last step - out of stock. Zenfone 2 32GB is nicely available here and perfectly affordable, but size truly matters to me. Zenfone 2 is over 7x5mm bigger than M5.

In the end, some half an hour ago, I placed the order for M5 back, because there's no better option. I would like a smaller phone, but no good ones are available. Z3 Compact would have been perfect and I regret that I could not get it.

The advantage of buying from my own provider is that I can spread the payment across two years without any interest. And they began another campaign on Monday, so I got the M5 now 20 euros cheaper than my order was a few days ago. A quantum of solace.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #13 –
I would still prefer physical buttons. I'm constantly getting windows and tabs opened merely by trying to scroll through a site on the phone. The new Blackberry Priv  has a slide out keyboard, but costs why more than I'm willing to pay for phone. :p
“What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #14 –
Quote from: midnight raccoon – on

I would still prefer physical buttons.

So do I. In my search, I gave some consideration to Blackberry Q10, a phone with very well balanced parameters in every sense.

Edit: But I am opting for a bigger separate keyboard. Right now I am carrying around a netbook, which is a small laptop with 10.1" screen, and a mobile phone so I can connect the netbook to the internet via phone when wifi is not available. The idea in the future is to carry around a phone with a tablet-ish screen and a travel keyboard for it, so I won't need the netbook.

One might think that acquiring a real tablet (8" screen and above) would be more appropriate to replace a netbook. However, with a real tablet to replace my netbook of 10.1" screen, I would miss things that I could do only with a netbook, such as install my own OS on it and tweak it as I please. Android devices don't easily permit this, much less iOS or Windows devices. So, a smartphone will it be.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #15 –
My new Xperia M5 is becoming way too creepy. Yesterday I loaded a bunch of videos on it to test if it plays them (it plays everything thus far) and took a bunch of photos of our heavy snowfall here. Today the phone has, of its own initiative, compiled a film of the material I handled yesterday, except that there's creepy clown music in the background I never heard before :yikes:

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #16 –
lol, did it? :P

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #17 –
Quote from: ersi – on
Today the phone has, of its own initiative,

Smash it to pieces mercilessly. Do it right now before is too late.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #18 –
When things get too bad, you can probably make it run CyanogenMod. :P

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #19 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on

lol, did it? :P

It's not funny, srsly!

The offending app is Movie Creator.
Quote from: http://www.xperiablog.net/2014/07/29/new-movie-creator-app-lands-on-the-xperia-z2-automatically-creates-short-films-from-existing-photosvideos/

The software will automatically determine the timeline to create its movie – so it could take a selection of photos/videos from a Saturday afternoon, or for a three-day period or for a week. When the film is created you will be notified (notifications can be turned off in the settings).

Turn off notifications... How about turning off the app? On phone forums I see people complaining that when they throw the thing out, it keeps returning by itself. The idea of an app tampering with my material whenever the app feels like it is terrible, but it even adds that awful clown music to it. Right now it's notifying me of an update. Has the atrocious feature been removed in the update or have worse features been added?

My first encounter with Xperia M5 was bad enough. When I took it out of the box, I could not tell the frontside from the backside. When the display is silent, it's black glass everywhere. Sometimes I still cannot tell the frontside from the backside when I take it out of the pocket.

Next, it seemed impossible to switch it on. I pressed the main key briefly, then long, then something in between. No reaction. I put it on the charger and tried again. Still no reaction. I got frustrated and put it back in the box, determined to return it and to argue my way to Zenfone 2 instead. However, in the box I heard the thing switching itself on. Pretty creepy.

Heroically, I am doing my best to like my new phone, but the phone is not exactly helping in this difficult task. I am very disappointed with its shape and size. In hand it is constantly out of balance, there's no way to grasp it securely. Zenfone 2 fits the palm much better. I have been looking around for merchandise that would improve the grasp and handling, but things like this are more readily available for the Z*-line, not for M5.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #20 –
Keep in mind there are many models of the Zenfone 2. Rather confusing. Mine isn't making videos by itself though. :p

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #21 –
I know precisely which phone you mean. It so happens that it's the only kind of Zenfone 2 available here, exactly the right kind.

There's one thing I like about M5 - the zoom button on the edge.* Good in browsers that support it for scrolling. And the camera makes gorgeous pics, even though I should probably try some other photo app to get more settings. In the old LG P500 I could select between three different qualities for both pics and videos, but this phone supposedly made for photography does not provide such options. And another good thing is the alleged waterproof body, even though I suspect it's more like splash proof, unless you hold the phone upside down in the rain (the microUSB socket is down under).

*In Zenfone 2, is the long thing at the back the zoom button? Does it work in Dolphin browser?

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #22 –
Quote from: ersi – on
this phone supposedly made for photography does not provide such options.

To be fair, you'd generally want the highest quality. One of my peeves is that most default to medium rather than highest. However, my Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray had such a setting with the default software?

Quote from: ersi – on
*In Zenfone 2, is the long thing at the back the zoom button? Does it work in Dolphin browser?

It's the volume button. I'll have to install Dolphin browser to see if it can be assigned as zoom. In the camera app it defaults to being the shutter button.

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #23 –
Hm, I'm always weary of installing something which proclaims to be the best right in its title. :P

Re: Phones! phones! phones!

Reply #24 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on

To be fair, you'd generally want the highest quality. One of my peeves is that most default to medium rather than highest. However, my Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray had such a setting with the default software?

I think I'd generally want the highest *workable* quality, i.e. the quality easy to play back, share and upload. If I or my contacts can't play it back, why would I want to record this quality?

When recording video, the default quality is 1080p. There's a distinct setting to record 4k, which is unworkable for most common folks and ordinary machines. Xperia M5 itself plays a 4k video without any issues.

When taking a photo, there's no setting whatsoever to pick a quality. They evidently expect me either to engage in postproduction or to download another photo app/extension.

Edit: A workaround would be to zoom in when shooting. Digital zoom upon shooting is the same thing as cropping in postproduction. An optional preset would still be better though.

Quote from: Frenzie – on

Quote from: ersi – on
*In Zenfone 2, is the long thing at the back the zoom button? Does it work in Dolphin browser?

It's the volume button. I'll have to install Dolphin browser to see if it can be assigned as zoom. In the camera app it defaults to being the shutter button.

I'd be grateful if you try Dolphin to see if your backside button scrolls. I think it would be interesting for yourself also to know, how this kind of scrolling works. With an edge button it works pretty good.