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[gizmo]

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or

 

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[Pico]

Poor battery life? Maybe it's defective in some way.

As you can see here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2xGjGO3VVT...WdfSzQxYjQ/edit

 

I'm getting excellent battery life. Almost 18 hours and still have 33% left, that means I could hit about 27 hours before it dies, and I had some relatively heavy usage today.

 

A concern that someone brought up on another site was the place it was made possibly having an impact. Samsung has the Note 2 and the S3 made in either Korea or China. My Note 2 was made in Korea, but my S3 was made in China, both do not have battery issues though. Just something I'm throwing out there.

Well that's a bit worrying then. I'll fully charge it and see how long it takes with heavy usage for it to die.

Remember in the settings you can check the "Battery" setting to see what apps, and if you tap on the area at the top of that screen that shows the battery time it'll open up a chart over time since it was last removed from the charger to let you know how much battery decreased over time, including phone state (asleep, screen on, mobile network signal).

Today was a medium to light usage day and after 13 hours I'm only down to 65%. This phone should provide excellent battery life. You might have an app keeping your phone from sleeping, or just forcing the processor to run at high levels.

 

One other thing, I keep my screen on auto-brightness. That 5.5" can take quite a bit of juice if set to high. You can effectively double battery life if you take it from full brightness down to minimum brightness. So putting it on auto will help keep it at a decent brightness level while keeping down energy consumption.

[lt_yao]

Poor battery life? Maybe it's defective in some way.

As you can see here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2xGjGO3VVT...WdfSzQxYjQ/edit

 

I'm getting excellent battery life. Almost 18 hours and still have 33% left, that means I could hit about 27 hours before it dies, and I had some relatively heavy usage today.

 

A concern that someone brought up on another site was the place it was made possibly having an impact. Samsung has the Note 2 and the S3 made in either Korea or China. My Note 2 was made in Korea, but my S3 was made in China, both do not have battery issues though. Just something I'm throwing out there.

Well that's a bit worrying then. I'll fully charge it and see how long it takes with heavy usage for it to die.

Remember in the settings you can check the "Battery" setting to see what apps, and if you tap on the area at the top of that screen that shows the battery time it'll open up a chart over time since it was last removed from the charger to let you know how much battery decreased over time, including phone state (asleep, screen on, mobile network signal).

Today was a medium to light usage day and after 13 hours I'm only down to 65%. This phone should provide excellent battery life. You might have an app keeping your phone from sleeping, or just forcing the processor to run at high levels.

 

One other thing, I keep my screen on auto-brightness. That 5.5" can take quite a bit of juice if set to high. You can effectively double battery life if you take it from full brightness down to minimum brightness. So putting it on auto will help keep it at a decent brightness level while keeping down energy consumption.

I might have been drunk. Since I fully charged it since the battery died, it's been running for quite a while, the battery seems to be in the 90% range.

[Raavi]

I want to root my Galaxy Note 2 (downgrade from 4.1.2 to 4.1.1 due to wifi issues) using mac. I've used the Galaxy S3 in the past with some nice "black market apps" if you get what I mean. I travel a lot, almost daily for my job and it's a necessity for me to have wifi everywhere I go. So I need to root my phone. But I have no idea how to do so on mac and the tut online isn't working for a lot of people. Does anyone here know how I can do so? Thanks in Advance.

[les]

Anyone on a nexus 7 get the 4.2.2 update? I got it last night; it boasts better battery life. I wanted to see if the folks here saw any improvements. My favorite new feature is the long press toggle for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in the drop down menu -- so convenient.

 

@pico - did you ever get that stand?

[Blackadder.]

I'm running CM10.1, so as soon as I decide to flash the latest nightly I'll be running 4.2.2. The toggles is a complete non issue for me as CM already fixed that particular issue up. In fact the CM way works a bit better, you tap them to toggle them and hold them down to go to the respective settings page. This way you don't have oddities like tap for Airplane mode and hold for Wifi.

 

 

[Whiskey]

I'm running CM10.1, so as soon as I decide to flash the latest nightly I'll be running 4.2.2. The toggles is a complete non issue for me as CM already fixed that particular issue up. In fact the CM way works a bit better, you tap them to toggle them and hold them down to go to the respective settings page. This way you don't have oddities like tap for Airplane mode and hold for Wifi.

How is 10.1? Last time I flashed it on my GS2 I couldn't use my SD card. Really thinking about flashing again.

 

The Wi-Fi toggle is great for my Nexus 7 though.

[Blackadder.]

Not running CM 10.1 on my phone (Galaxy S II GT-i9100), I simply haven't been bothered enough to upgrade from 10 to 10.1

 

Running 10.1 on my Nexus 7 though, works well enough, only thing I've noticed is that System UI crashes on a fairly regular basis (At the very least once every two days, at most a couple times a day) which can be annoying as until you reboot the recent apps button won't work properly. Apart from that though its nice, but on a Nexus 7 it doesn't off a huge boost over stock (the main draw of CM to me is the stock UI, being a Nexus device it already has that) but does add nice tweaks here and there.

 

Flashing 4.2.2 now.

 

Edit: Now running 4.2.2 on my Nexus 7 (CyanogenMod 10.1 edition!). Obviously too early to tell any differences in battery life, but it does appear to move through the UI a tad smoother. A neat change is that on apps that use the ActionBar (where it has the app icon in the top left that functions as an 'Up' button), it now allows you to tap the text nect to the icon to trigger it, which makes it less of a stretch to reach that button on bigger devices.

 

Edit 2: To those of you running 4.2 I suggest you take a look at DashClock.

 

It's a new lock screen widget for 4.2 devices that honestly is the direction I think Google should have taken the lockscreen instead of its weird implementation of lockscreen widgets. It essentially gives you a somewhat customizable clock face with the ability to change the information it presents. Here is a list of DashClock extensions for those interested, by adding these to DashClock you can make your lockscreen much more informative.

 

For those not running 4.2 I believe you can still use it as a standard widget on your homescreen as a clock with extra information attached to it.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Blackadder.

[les]

I've run some variation of CM on pretty much every android device I've ever owned. I'm not sure why I haven't flashed my nexus 7,I guess I just haven't felt the urge to do so yet. I'm still shocked at how nice the experience is at this price point, especially when I try to use someone else's kindle fire or nook tablet.

[Blackadder.]

I have to agree with you there les. The stock Nexus experience at this point is very nice. CyanogenMod is less of a necessity than it is with other devices (either due to lack of upgrades or ugly customisations such as Sense/TouchWiz) and Android 4.2 is so well built that I honestly feel like I could go back to it from CM 10.1 and not really miss the extra features all that much.

[Pico]

I ran CM on almost all my devices up until the Gnex, which I left stock for like 6 months, then went to AOKP which I loved. Paranoid Android seems like a better option at this point. When I tried CM on the Gnex it just seemed... ugly? Something was off with the font and sizing in certain spots, idk.

 

With my Note 2, I love all the Touch Wiz features so I'm running a ROM by Beanstown which seems to be a hybrid CM10 ROM with all the TouchWiz stuff still in place, which I enjoy. It uses the new Aroma feature that allows you to customize the install while in the recovery which is nice, although a bit cumbersome when just flashing an update. It's hard to remember what settings you selected each time. I'm sure this will improve eventually.

 

A member at xda has been busting his balls to bring CM to the HTC DNA. The phone runs HTC's Sense 4.0+ or whatever it's called and man... it just blows. They cripple capabilities (like forcing you to select either browser or Youtube for opening youtube links, not allowing you to select each time. And on top of that, changing it didn't even do anything and all links still open in the browser. Ugh.).

But anyway the CM10 ROM for the DNA is getting polished up and will allow the DNA and its fabulous hardware to live to it's fullest potential. Even though the Note 2 beats the DNA in aspects more important to me, thus remaining my main phone, it'll be nice to have a usable DNA when I do use it.

 

Outside of that... I've got 2 upgrades in April. The HTC One is their flagship phone for the year, and it's nothing really appealing to me aside from the camera. The Note 3 is said to run the latest hardware and a larger (~6.3") screen which might be welcomed by myself. But idk... nothing seems too exciting. Google Glass may be out by the end of the year with a ~$750 price tag. Might have to keep an eye out for that.

[Blackadder.]

I've never had a problem of CM looking 'ugly.' And I'm not too fond of Paranoid Android as I don't really care for f*cking around with the DPI in every app and since they no longer use CM as a base its missing a few useful features.

 

I tried out an Xperia Z briefly in a Sony Centre the other day. Screen is quite nice, and the phone doesn't feel that much bigger than my S2. The power button is just weird though, it feels like a mini camera shutter that has just been slapped on the side.

[Pico]

From what I see in blogs it seems Sony is pretty nice with keeping their phones open to rooting and stuff. I don't pay much attention to them though because I've never had a Sony Android phone. The closest was the Xperia Play that VZW carried and I never owned it, just played with it a couple brief times. Their offerings seem a big lackluster from what I've seen. The designs look okay and the materials look on par with most LG phones. And anything running their Rachel interface looks kind of ugly and useless, but I'm not sure if they use that anymore.

 

I would like to see an offering on VZW from them that's on par with the high end phones (quad core or equivalent, 2GB RAM, ~5" screen, nice camera, etc). I've had phones from HTC, Moto, and Samsung. I've also had extensive use with phones from LG, Pantech, and ZTE which pretty much covers every manufacturer in the US, but almost nothing with Sony, and I'd assume their products are going to be more on par with HTC, Moto and Samsung, while the others for the most part are less impressive.

 

That makes me think back to what I'd previously wanted from a phone and how that has now changed. It'd probably be something like the Note 2 but with a bigger screen that takes up more of the phone body itself, a bit higher specs (although the Note 2 is almost perfectly smooth), better screen all around (colors, PPI, brightness), an even better camera (something at least on par with the one in the HTC One or Nokia PureView), similar battery life or better, and a bit thinner. Throw in some higher quality materials (better to the touch, less wear resistant), and I'm sold. Add in that off screen finger detection (works similar to the way Samsung's stylus does but with your finger) for floating touch input and I'm a very happy person.

Of course, if I could add in some fantasy stuff here, I'd like a phone with an adjustable screen size. Whether that'd be something that folds open to make a bigger screen or something else, but if I could keep the phone smaller for easier carrier then enlarge it when I'm doing browsing and watching videos that'd be awesome.

[kudoboi]

should i get the asus transformer infinity or wait for sony xperia tablet Z? the asus tablet is 1 year old already so i don't really know if i want to buy such a old tablet.

[friendly luggage]

My Galaxy S wont boot up now because as I was trying to put ICS on it, the tutorial I was following linked a .md5 file for a different phone. I can still get into download mode but what do I do now? I can't find back files anywhere and every site I go on hosts files on crappy sites where there is a download limit.

 

Edit don't worry I found this and installed CyanogenMod 10: http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s-x...e-update-51367/

Edited March 2, 2013 by illegal_luggage

[Slingaa]

In dire need of a new phone, had the HTC Desire for about 3 years now and I'm looking to upgrade. Love Android, so I'll definitely be sticking with that. Was thinking of getting the Sony Xperia Z with this deal. Has anyone got the Xperia Z?

[K20]

In dire need of a new phone, had the HTC Desire for about 3 years now and I'm looking to upgrade. Love Android, so I'll definitely be sticking with that. Was thinking of getting the Sony Xperia Z with this deal. Has anyone got the Xperia Z?

that looks like a good deal. be sure theres not additional phone costs.

 

i recently got a sim only contract from three... for 9.90 a month... unlimited internet and 200 minutes or so.

 

bought a htc one x from ebay [unwanted upgrade] a while back.

 

one x is an amazingly quick phone. look into that as well.

[Kevin...]

My Nexus 7 is pissing me off to no end at the moment. I love the thing but there is a bug that is plaguing the f*cker. From what I have gathered, after you get the update to android 4.2+ or you have a custom rom based off of 4.2+ (I'm running ParanoidAndroid 3.1), draining the battery completely makes it damn near impossible to recharge. If you plug it into its stock charger (5Vdc/2A), it will either do a fun pixel dance and shut down or start to boot and shut down and tease you by showing a charging icon...but it still doesn't charge.

 

The fix that everyone on the internet and ASUS are advising is hit or miss. First you have to hope and pray that when you plug your 7 in to charge it doesn't do the pixel dance and, if you are lucky enough for it to start to boot, you have to hold the Vol - button and boot into the bootloader menu. Once you get there, you have to scroll down and select "Power Off". You have to hurry though or it may just die on you again. Once you do hit the bootloader's "Power Off" selection and it powers down, you have to unplug and replug the thing into the charger. Even with all of that it still isn't working for some folks...like myself.

 

For some strange reason, in spite of attempting this with multiple .5A, 2A, and 2.1A (Apple) chargers, the f*cker just wasn't charging. For 5 days I wrestled with the Nexus 7 to no avail. Lucky me though, it somehow started charging when plugged into my laptop USB port...only after I spent an hour at work waiting on hold with ASUS customer service and setting up a warranty repair.

 

It gets even better though. I don't have the original box the damn thing came in so there was no serial number to be found. Tricky bastards hid it inside the damn tablet on the inside of the back batter/internal componet cover you are not really suppose to remove. At first ASUS wanted to charge me $199.99 for a repair to a tablet that cost me $199.99. Awesome logic, right? But thankfully I waded my way through the language barrier (Indians...fine people, can't understand a damn thing they are saying though) and the bullsh*t in time to hang up the phone and somehow found a contact number for a North American service center. By that time I found the serial number and avoided the warranty runaround.

 

I love this tablet but I swear, when I get a few extra dollars in my pocket, I think am going to get me a Nexus 10 or a Transformer Pad Infinity and dump the Nexus 7 on the wife. But who knows when that will happen.

 

 

 

[OverTheBelow]

 

In dire need of a new phone, had the HTC Desire for about 3 years now and I'm looking to upgrade. Love Android, so I'll definitely be sticking with that. Was thinking of getting the Sony Xperia Z with this deal. Has anyone got the Xperia Z?

Yeah, my dad got that phone last week. It's massive, the touchscreen feels a bit too "grippy" for me and the camera app tries to do everything for you, but otherwise it's pretty good I guess. I personally am not keen on the way Sony customise their Android, though. It's a little tacky and I'm pretty sure they cap the global graphics framerate of the phone to 30fps, which is half the smoothness of all other new phones out there. Don't quote me on that though, it's just something I have a feeling about and was the case with the X10 and the Arc S.

 

You could go a different route and get the Nexus 4 which has stock Android. It's the exact same technical spec as the Xperia Z but it's half the price, and the screen is so smooth and slippery. Obviously the Xperia Z is waterproof and that's pretty rare in phones so maybe you want that, I dunno.

 

Or, you could get the HTC DNA if you still want the HTC UI (I also cannot bare this haha) on Android. Again, same technical spec as the other two phones apart from the fact that it has a 1080p screen, so games might be a bit slower than on other phones but it will look extremely sharp.

[Whiskey]

Anyone with a N7 notice increased battery drain? I sure have. Pre-update battery was 3 - 5 days easily. Now it's 3 days max with less usage.

 

Also, those who own a Galaxy SII, Samsung has released the latest Jellybean (4.1.2) update.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1544487

[OverTheBelow]

So, the HTC One. Looks good don'it.

 

 

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/12/htc-one-review/

[Whiskey]

Definitely is a looker. Considering going to bill pay on a €50 contract for the 5GB data. Would make using Google Music a lot easier seeing as I have all my songs on there.

 

[Ryan]

What on earth would you need 5GB of data for? Is there no WiFi around to take advantage of?

[Whiskey]

Nah, I only have Wi-Fi in the house and in the college. I have 500Mb of data prepaid but I run through it like piss. Dublin is miles behind in offering good network connectivity for mobile users. Now that I think about it 5GB may be unnecessary, more likely 1GB - 1.5GB. Would love to start streaming my Google music collection.

[Kaj.]

So, the HTC One. Looks good don'it.

 

 

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/12/htc-one-review/

Hell yeah it does. I'll be activating one for myself on my lunch break Friday. Maybe before lunch, depends on how busy we are and if I can get it done before I've gotta deal with a customer.

 

Can't wait.

[Finn 7 five 11]

Nah, I only have Wi-Fi in the house and in the college. I have 500Mb of data prepaid but I run through it like piss. Dublin is miles behind in offering good network connectivity for mobile users. Now that I think about it 5GB may be unnecessary, more likely 1GB - 1.5GB. Would love to start streaming my Google music collection.

I have 1.5GB, I might use half every month just on general browsing, when I watched videos and streamed music I had 4-5 days every month where I would have to turn Data-Network mode off otherwise I would go over my cap. If you are streaming music though, I would recommend 2GB just to be safe, you could always upgrade your plan if you feel like you're running out too fast anyway.

[kudoboi]

tried the htc one. touch screen felt too sensitive imo. i kept accidentally launching apps while browsing the app drawer. it could just be the screen is sticky or new but thats my experience with the phone.

 

im looking forward to the sony xperia tablet Z launch here. goddamn Sony Singapore still doesn't want to say a thing about when that tablet will be launching here. can't find the tablet on ebay or amazon either other than people who have bad rep or are newly joined. the only person on amazon who sells the 3G/4G version only have a 67% positive and is overpriced.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00...8&condition=all

[Kaj.]

Got my HTC One today. Goddamn it's a smooth, beauty of a phone.

[kudoboi]

does it still have the ugly black options bar at the bottom like the one X?

 

im talking about this

 

 

edit: looks like it still have it. that could be a deal breaker for me

Edited April 20, 2013 by kudoboi

[Kaj.]

A few apps do have the bar, but it's really not much of a bother especially considering how good the rest of the device is.

 

EDIT: Took a few photos of the One.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2013 by Kajun