I was a teenage switcher to Android

fade · Nov 17, 2016

papachronos said:
I use the actual Outlook app from Microsoft, and I find that I really like it.

I've heard good things about it, actually. Seems like MS's android team does good work. I really like Arrow.

I found BlueMail, too. It's similar to gmail, but without the irritating clutter.

---

Another Android dislike(s):

Too many notifications + lack of badges. I know, I can weed out the notifications I don't want. This, funny enough, is one of the things the iPhone haters always point out as a problem with iOS--the weak implementation of notifications. I have to say, I do prefer the iOS way. Badging an app icon is unintrusive and tells me just what I need to know. 3 clicks to delete in a notification is more irritating than going to the app and deleting.

MindDetective · Nov 17, 2016

I miss badges too.

jwhouk · Nov 19, 2016

Welp. Two factory resets later, and the "uncontrolled scrolling while plugged in" issue hasn't gone away. This makes me believe it's a hardware issue. I've already responded to NextBook's support people via e-mail.

The downside is, I don't know where the receipt is, and if I remember correctly, it's been over 90 days since I bought the thing.

Ravenpoe · Nov 19, 2016

jwhouk said:
Welp. Two factory resets later, and the "uncontrolled scrolling while plugged in" issue hasn't gone away. This makes me believe it's a hardware issue. I've already responded to NextBook's support people via e-mail.

The downside is, I don't know where the receipt is, and if I remember correctly, it's been over 90 days since I bought the thing.

Did you buy it from a store? Try returning it to that store.

jwhouk · Nov 20, 2016

Ravenpoe said:
Did you buy it from a store? Try returning it to that store.

...It was over 3 months ago. I also am not sure where the receipt is.

Sent from my Nextbook on Tapatalk

Covar · Nov 22, 2016

papachronos said:
I use the actual Outlook app from Microsoft, and I find that I really like it.

I use Outlook on iOS and love it. Microsoft is really doing some great stuff with both platforms.

@fade, SwiftKey on Android is far superior to the iOS version. Highly recommended.

fade · Dec 9, 2016

After a month and a half, here's more opinions. Most of my experience is just fine and unremarkable, so I'll only comment on the negatives. The phone is slower than I expected. I mean, it drags more in the same apps than my iPhone 5 from 2012 did. I still don't like Material Design. So many of the apps on the Play Store are cancerous, and the ones that aren't are generally the same ones that passed Apple's human-in-the-loop wall. People complain about Apple's walled garden, but really, most of the apps I trust happen to also have passed Apple's check. That's not really pro-Apple if it sounds like it. It's more anti-Apple-hater.

On the email front, I still haven't found a good replacement for gmail. BlueMail and Outlook are nice, but they both are slow. Meaning they both take the same couple of seconds to load each email. When you want to plow through a whole list, that's an issue. Gmail is fast, but disorganized and ugly. Inbox is a good alternative, but it only works for gmail. Can't win.

fade · Jan 3, 2017

I'm just reiterating (because it keeps bugging me) that this new 2016 Samsung S7 Edge is noticeably slower overall at executing nearly every app than my 2012 iPhone 5. By "slower", I mean launch is slower, screen refreshes are slower, graphics updates are slower, etc. Especially Chrome. This very website in fact is nearly unusable on Chrome. Especially typing in this box. It can take nearly 5 seconds for a word to appear after I type it.

Eriol · Jan 3, 2017

fade said:
I'm just reiterating (because it keeps bugging me) that this new 2016 Samsung S7 Edge is noticeably slower overall at executing nearly every app than my 2012 iPhone 5. By "slower", I mean launch is slower, screen refreshes are slower, graphics updates are slower, etc. Especially Chrome. This very website in fact is nearly unusable on Chrome. Especially typing in this box. It can take nearly 5 seconds for a word to appear after I type it.

There's actually something wrong with the website lately, and I'll bet it has something to do with somebody's signature, or something that's linked specifically. What I mean is that I've had a similar bug in Android, but under Firefox, but only SOMETIMES. Some replies are fine, no delays, and some have EXACTLY the behavior you're describing. When I can nail it down further, I'll post with which threads have the problems, but basically I'll bet it's JavaScript gone wild, and that you'd have the same problem on your "old" phone, but even worse.

So blame JavaScript, not phones. Everything else is up to you how it goes. I'm a guy who's been on stock android for a while, and so most of the "this is f'n slow" stuff doesn't apply to me. Samsung... that's something else.

fade · Jan 3, 2017

Okay, but it's not just this website. I don't believe it's the phone hardware itself. But there's something definitely slower about Android Chrome across the board.

GasBandit · Jan 3, 2017

Odd, my 2+ year old LG G3 uses chrome just fine, on this website and others... I wonder if it's something specific to the phone.

fade · Jan 3, 2017

Samsung's native browser performs just fine on this site, surprisingly.

GasBandit · Jan 3, 2017

A quick google search tells me a whole lot of S7 Edge owners are complaining about chrome being inordinately slow.

Maybe try this?

Go to the Chrome Browser
Type or copy/paste “chrome://flags" into the URL bar
Browse for “Maximum tiles for interest area”(#max-tiles-for-interest-area ) in the list
Tap the Dropdown menu titled “Default”and change to 512
At the bottom, select “Relaunch Now”to confirm the changes

fade · Jan 3, 2017

GasBandit said:
A quick google search tells me a whole lot of S7 Edge owners are complaining about chrome being inordinately slow.

Maybe try this?

Go to the Chrome Browser

Type or copy/paste “chrome://flags" into the URL bar

Browse for “Maximum tiles for interest area”(#max-tiles-for-interest-area ) in the list

Tap the Dropdown menu titled “Default”and change to 512

At the bottom, select “Relaunch Now”to confirm the changes

A "find in page" does not show that option on chrome://flags, unfortunately.[DOUBLEPOST=1483465701,1483465608][/DOUBLEPOST]

fade said:
A "find in page" does not show that option on chrome://flags, unfortunately.

Googling shows the option has been removed.

GasBandit · Jan 3, 2017

Try settings -> Privacy and disable "safe browsing"[DOUBLEPOST=1483466833,1483466269][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, just for giggles, you might try the Adblock browser and head off other problems at the pass:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.adblockplus.browser&hl=en

fade · Jan 3, 2017

Safe browsing sped it up a little in general, but it didn't change the laggy behavior in the text box.

GasBandit · Jan 3, 2017

The more I google it (which I shouldn't be doing because work is bonkers) the more it looks like the S7 and S7 Edge (and sometimes even the S6) seem to have that problem a lot - either it works forever or it doesn't and it's a bitch to fix. At this point I'm guessing it's because Samsung did something when they monkeyed with android to make it their own. I've run into one or two irritations myself from verizon nonsense on my phone - I swear, going forward, I'm just gonna buy unlocked phones straight from google so I really have vanilla, unadulterated android and the carriers can just go fuck themselves.

Dei · Jan 3, 2017

Or just buy a Pixel instead of an S7. >.>

GasBandit · Jan 3, 2017

Dei said:
Or just buy a Pixel instead of an S7. >.>

Yeah, that's what I meant. It may cost $600, but I just may be willing to pay that to not have to put up with carrier/manufacturer bullshit, and to be able to change carriers at will without being locked into a contract.

fade · Jan 3, 2017

I bought my s7 edge unlocked from best buy. They had a sale for like 550 bucks right on my birthday of all days. No carrier gunk at all. That actually turned out to be a negative on one count. Most of the carriers enabled the FM receiver on the S7, but the unlocked version has it disabled, unfortunately.

The samsung browser is superior in every way but one: syncing with my desktop. There's a Chrome extension for doing so, but I cannot log in. I am 100% sure my password is correct, too, because I use a manager, and it works when I go directly to the website. But the extension tells me incorrect username or password. And according to the feedback, I'm not the only person having the issue.

Dei · Jan 3, 2017

GasBandit said:
Yeah, that's what I meant. It may cost $600, but I just may be willing to pay that to not have to put up with carrier/manufacturer bullshit, and to be able to change carriers at will without being locked into a contract.

I think it's more than $600, I think my phone was $800 before my husband's work discount. But tbh, the carrier stuff on my Pixel has been completely unobtrusive.

GasBandit · Jan 4, 2017

DarkAudit said:
Is rooting your android phone no longer a thing?

Some people still do it, but I only did to get tethering functionality and now that is standard... so I didn't really see the need to bother with it this time.

fade · Jan 4, 2017

Switching from SwiftKey to Gboard made typing in this box more tolerable. But this is still the only website that has given me any issue. It seems to be related to whatever code is used for this box.[DOUBLEPOST=1483546209,1483545857][/DOUBLEPOST]Seems I'm not alone with having this issue on Xenforo: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/slow-typing-with-nexus-4-samsung-s3-stock-firmware-4-4.66047/[DOUBLEPOST=1483546641][/DOUBLEPOST]Whoa!!!! I disabled the rich text editor in user->preferences, and it is super speedy now! I'm guessing the version here is from before the fix mentioned in that link?

GasBandit · Jan 4, 2017

fade said:
Whoa!!!! I disabled the rich text editor in user->preferences, and it is super speedy now! I'm guessing the version here is from before the fix mentioned in that link?

We've DEFINITELY updated more than once since Jan 2014...[DOUBLEPOST=1483547492,1483547257][/DOUBLEPOST]Just for giggles I've tried manually switching to their provided redactor.js... maybe see if that helps. You'll probably have to flush out your cache, though.

fade · Jan 4, 2017

I wasn't sure about server side caching (CloudFlare, etc.), but that is definitely faster. Not as fast as turning off the rich text editor, but at least I can see my typing now.

GasBandit · Jan 4, 2017

Javascript strikes again (shakes fist)

fade · Jan 13, 2017

It seems the unlocked version of this phone has a slower update schedule than the carrier versions, and there's a lot of buck-passing on who actually does it. I was going to just flash the T-Mobile firmware and be done with it. Then I found out you can just flash the modem firmware. I did that, and my signal is much improved. Battery life, too. I am at about 75% right now, when I'm usually at 45 or so. Less signal searching and cleanup.

I'm still considering flashing the whole T-Mobile firmware. I know there's some bloatware, but T-Mobile has also unlocked the FM receiver. Apparently the unlocked phone is the only one that hasn't (ironically) unlocked the FM receiver. There are some pretty decent T-Mobile network features that you can only get that way, too. Anyway, I can always just go back.

strawman · Jan 16, 2017

fade said:
It seems the unlocked version of this phone has a slower update schedule than the carrier versions, and there's a lot of buck-passing on who actually does it. I was going to just flash the T-Mobile firmware and be done with it. Then I found out you can just flash the modem firmware. I did that, and my signal is much improved. Battery life, too. I am at about 75% right now, when I'm usually at 45 or so. Less signal searching and cleanup.

I'm still considering flashing the whole T-Mobile firmware. I know there's some bloatware, but T-Mobile has also unlocked the FM receiver. Apparently the unlocked phone is the only one that hasn't (ironically) unlocked the FM receiver. There are some pretty decent T-Mobile network features that you can only get that way, too. Anyway, I can always just go back.

And this is the #1 reason I won't go with android.

I like fiddling. I enjoy it. There's an open ended sandbox and I can control every single aspect of it.

But it's sand. It gets everywhere, and takes time to build anything useful. Someone else is always coming out with some new thing I'll have to try, and chances are good I'll be able to actually use the device quickly and painlessly when I need to, but there will be a lot of times I'll need to use it and it'll be slow, crashing, not connecting when it should, etc.

I decided to cut that rope long ago, just use the apple device, accept its limitations, and free myself from the endless configurability and tinkering.

It's not a bad choice either way. But by doing so I've turned it into a tool that saves me time rather than soaking up more time.

fade · Jan 16, 2017

Yeah, same feeling here. That, and as much as I love to fiddle, I never really had the urge on my phone. It's not a full-on device to me. It's a go-between facilitator, so I'm perfectly fine with it functioning as an appliance.

PatrThom · Jan 16, 2017

stienman said:
And this is the #1 reason I won't go with android.

I like fiddling. I enjoy it. There's an open ended sandbox and I can control every single aspect of it.

But it's sand. It gets everywhere, and takes time to build anything useful. Someone else is always coming out with some new thing I'll have to try, and chances are good I'll be able to actually use the device quickly and painlessly when I need to, but there will be a lot of times I'll need to use it and it'll be slow, crashing, not connecting when it should, etc.

I decided to cut that rope long ago, just use the apple device, accept its limitations, and free myself from the endless configurability and tinkering.

It's not a bad choice either way. But by doing so I've turned it into a tool that saves me time rather than soaking up more time.

The solution seems obvious.
Just buy two phones every year. One for work, one for play. Nobody has to suffer.
...except your wallet.

--Patrick

strawman · Jan 16, 2017

PatrThom said:
The solution seems obvious.
Just buy two phones every year. One for work, one for play. Nobody has to suffer.
...except your wallet.

--Patrick

Ooof.

Remember the bad old days? I carried a flip phone and the Compaq iPaq 3630 color PDA.

Eventually moved to a windows mobile phone (slider, don't recall the model) but had to carry a zune for my tunes.

Now I've got a device which pretty much does it all, and I've even combined my wallet with it.

I'm not about to start using two devices again.

(well, ok, you got me, I'm wearing a pebble watch too... )

fade · Jan 23, 2017

So I decided to turn off the 3rd party lock screen replacement I was using (Microsoft's Next), and my battery life increased dramatically. I'm at 71% at the end of the workday. Seems it's quite the hog. Reading the reviews on the Play store, seems I'm not the only one. It doesn't even add a whole lot, so it's gone. Only thing I'll miss are the iOS-like quick settings on the lock screen. For example, switches for flashlight, bluetooth, and airplane mode.

Dei · Jan 23, 2017

fade said:
So I decided to turn off the 3rd party lock screen replacement I was using (Microsoft's Next), and my battery life increased dramatically. I'm at 71% at the end of the workday. Seems it's quite the hog. Reading the reviews on the Play store, seems I'm not the only one. It doesn't even add a whole lot, so it's gone. Only thing I'll miss are the iOS-like quick settings on the lock screen. For example, switches for flashlight, bluetooth, and airplane mode.

Can you not just swipe down on the lock screen to get those? I can on my Pixel.

fade · Jan 23, 2017

Dei said:
Can you not just swipe down on the lock screen to get those? I can on my Pixel.

That just brings up the PIN entry. I'm open to any ideas.[DOUBLEPOST=1485212105,1485211907][/DOUBLEPOST]Weird, the internet agrees with you, but it doesn't seem to work for me. Maybe it only works if you don't have a PIN?

Dei · Jan 23, 2017

fade said:
That just brings up the PIN entry. I'm open to any ideas.[DOUBLEPOST=1485212105,1485211907][/DOUBLEPOST]Weird, the internet agrees with you, but it doesn't seem to work for me. Maybe it only works if you don't have a PIN?

I have a PIN also, but I also have a different phone.