Be Excellent To Each Other

If you do change, for God's sake read up about what you have to do to turn off iMessage (unless that's been fixed).

You can, in theory, now do it via iCloud.com even after the device has been nuked.

Thanks all!

Hearthly - I must say my first experience of a smartphone was the iPhone 4, which to this day remains my favourite phone (aside from the Nokia 8210). My iPhone 5 is fine, but the 6 doesn't do much to excite me apart from the awesome camera (and I do use the camera more than most other functions). The larger form factor isn't floating my boat. I have dainty (hairy) lady hands.

The nexus 5 "+" sounds interesting, though is it being made by Huawei? Not overly familiar with them.

Doc G: the fact you're considering sticking Android is promising - would be interested to know what's keeping you there (though I guess it could be helpful with work?).

It sounds like a move to Android wouldn't be one I'd regret, certainly. Though reports of self-cracking screens on the Z3 is worrying. I can crack screens quite capably on my own.

Cras, Grim... - iMessage stuff? Whagwan? If you keep it on and keep your old number, do messages to your new phone end up in an iMessage box you can't access?

Yeah, basically if other people with an iPhone send you a message, it doesn't realise that you're not on an iPhone any more, so it still tries to deliver it as an iMessage instead of turning it into an SMS that will reach your Android phone.

I've never made the jump myself having always been an Android guy but the days where there were massive difference between the two platforms are long gone I'd say. For your general use case (install and running apps, surfing the internet, taking pictures/video, etc) I can't imagine there's any real difference. The only 'complications' I can really see is that there's much more choice in terms of the handset you go for--and an attendant range of quality to go with it--so you obviously need to be more careful when choosing a handset. On that score, as you've said you don't want a 'big' phone, the Sony Z3 Compact is probably your best bet as it's one of the few Android handsets around that's a proper 'flagship' spec just in a smaller form factor. Most other Android phones are either larger sized or an over-priced shit heap phone trading on the reputation of it's bigger brother. Which is to say: avoid anything Samsung with the word 'mini' in it's name as they're shite. And HTC aren't much better.

I wouldn't worry too much about the various manufacturer skins as these days you can just install Google's vanilla Android launcher and get 90% of the pure Android experience right there. After that you just need to deal with the weird rearrangement of the Settings menu that some of them do; with Samsung being the fucking worst offender there as always.

Obviously there will be a bit of a learning curve as you'll always get when moving from one platform to another (I get stuck on really weird things on the few occasions I need to use iOS) but as long as you're not one of those people that freaks out at having to learn a few new things I'm sure you'd be fine.

On a completely unrelated note, I noticed the other day that the Lollipop lock screen actually lets you delete emails without unlocking the phone. Is it just me or is that pretty dodgy? I realise I can stop those notifications appearing at all but I prefer to have them and would rather anyone getting hold of it couldn't delete stuff.

Thanks Bamba. Like you say, a big complication (and boon) with Android is all the choice. Good to know re the minis. All the Samsungs leave me cold for some reason. Loved my old D900 though, back when phones were phones, men were men, Beex was WOS etc.

TBH I think Bamba is being rather harsh on the Minis.

Yes the Minis tend to have stripped down specs from their big brothers but they're entirely capable phones.

Mrs Hearthly had an S4 Mini (before she broke it ) and it was a great little phone (once you'd sorted out the clusterfuck of the Samsung OS), on paper it was underpowered but in reality it was absolutely fine - in normal use it was an snappy and responsive as any other phone. She has a Moto G V2 now, she isn't allowed nice things.

The HTC One Mini was a very similar story (mate at work had one for a while, really liked it, until the mic broke and he had to send it back to HTC).

You could argue that you pay 'most of the price' for not 'most of the specs' but I'm of the opinion that specs on phones are already getting a bit daft.

The latest nonsense is 2560x1440 screens that do absolutely nothing other than suck battery life and hit performance, and to discern individual pixels you practically need to use a fucking magnifying glass even on 1080 mobile screens.

We're up to octo-core processors now. In a fucking phone.

Hey motherfuckers, how about a battery that lasts more than a day, eh?

That's a properly bonkers way to look at it. Whether anyone needs the specs of the full-size handset or not is neither here not there; if you're paying not-much-less and getting a-lot-less then they're over-priced. That's just the reality of the situation. With HTC and Samsung, compared to their bigger brothers, they're always plasticy underpowered cheap feeling little things which, I personally feel, are just exploiting consumers who want a decent phone but don't want a large sized screen.

Ahem! Come on old chap the S3/4/5 were seriously plasticy, so in that regard the Mini versions weren't really much different.

And the HTC One Mini actually had the same finish of its big brother.

'Underpowered' is a loaded word too, 'less powerful' would be more accurate, as in terms of performance they were just fine. (And this is from someone who's used both the S4 Mini and the HTC One Mini - albeit not as my own phone.)

The fact that the mini Samsungs actually manage to feel more cheap and horrible than their already plasticy big brothers is quite an achievement, thank you for pointing that out.



It's actually got a good chunk more plastic in it's construction. Indeed it was more like the HTC One Max than the HTC One and, as someone who owned an One Max, I know that it didn't feel anywhere near as 'premium' as the original because of that.



Underpowered is exactly the term I mean because I'm gauging it in comparison to price. You can't say the performance is 'fine' unless you're gauging it compared to something and price is the best yardstick. It wouldn't be 'fine' if they were trying to charge £800 for them but, equally, it would 'awesome' if they only cost 50p.

Just having a look now though the "mini" versions seem to be about 25% cheaper on contracts than their full-size counterparts. Whenever I've looked at phones they have been quite a bit cheaper. To buy outright there is a big difference. I was looking just now at Galaxy S5 and the S5 Mini.

Maybe the big ones are overpowered.

I used to have a shit Android phone and now I have a better iPhone twice.

Gah! Underpowered has a very specific meaning and it's got precisely bugger all to do with price. Check it out in a dictionary.



if you think the price to performance ratio in the Minis is poor then that's fine, but it doesn't make them underpowered.

And you really are splitting hairs over the HTC One Mini's construction, I've held both the One and the One Mini in my very own hands - (this dude at work gets through phones like most folks get through underwear (unless you go commando like me)) - and they feel very similar in their 'premium-ness'.

It's good to see that with the success of the PS4 Sony still haven't lost the ability to punch themselves in the balls for no reason. They've got a new Android tablet out shortly, the Xperia Z4, which I was eyeing up; and certainly the reviews reckon it's a very nice piece of kit indeed. However, Engadget have confirmed that it'll only be available to buy in the UK bundled with it's keyboard dock, which pushes the price up to £500 and means they can basically fuck off. Offer a separate keyboard by all means, but bundling it in is going to kill the sales of the thing stone dead. Well, aside from the few people who genuinely want to use their tablet as a full laptop replacement. It just seems insane to force it on people, the twats.

Don't worry, it's an Android tablet, so it'll be half the price in six months anyway.

What's the business user view on it? Is it a good idea from that point of view?

I can't see how, if you're a business user (or, indeed, anyone that wants the keyboard) then you could happily just buy both parts at the same time. Force bundling them makes absolutely zero difference to the people that want the keyboard, but screws the people who don't.

I tried pairing my Nexus 6 with my PS4 pad last night for some VR fun and just couldn't get it to work. The phone could see the PS4 pad quite happily but the pairing would just never complete and eventually the pad would just time out. It works fine when connected by a cable but obviously it would be nicer to go wireless; has anyone else had any success getting the pairing working? I'm using these instructions in case that matters at all:

http://android.wonderhowto.com/how-to/c ... y-0160721/

I did try it a while ago and didn't have a problem. Experia Z3 using the PS app. Then I got bored, went downstairs and put the telly on.

I'm not talking about using an app, just pairing the two through the usual Bluetooth settings in the phone which apparently should Just Work. Though it makes sense that this would work flawlessly using an actual Sony handset.

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Fallout Shelter is finally out for Android.

Android M gets an official name of 'Marshmallow':

http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/17/google ... rshmallow/

Oh man, Myp should totally get one of these:
https://on.google.com/hub/

I'm really not sure what problem they're trying to fix there. OK, the automated frequency hopping is handy, but other than that it all seems a bit pointless.

Asked if the Gooter is going to transmit every last little bit of data it can get its hands on from your wireless network back to its corporate overlords, Mr Bloke In Charge said:


So, basically, he's proud of the fact that it's not going to harvest all your private data.

All the points for Gooter.

"We don't have enough money", at a guess.

I agree with both points. Also, the type of people that this should appeal to (people who can't computer good) aren't going to be tempted to spend $200 on a router when they've already got a free one. Also, I'd be surprised if they even know it exists.

I assume it's the same in the states as it is here? Sign up for broadband and you get sent a router?

I'd be interested for just this:



Of course if someone knows how to turn the lights off on my Virgin Superwhatsit without unplugging it that'd also be great. They be bright.

Blu-tac

Doesn't help, the light bleeds out of the air vents on the top.

But less brightly, no?

I just use the solution of putting it behind my TV.

Mine lives under the stairs. No light bleed.

I don't computer good, but I'd totally buy a new router if it flowed and was shaped like a dinosaur and had a happy face when it was connected but went sad and red when it wasn't.

But that thinger is none of those things so I'm not interested.

They have full remote admin. If your parents had one, you could fix it without going there. Interested now?

I can't think when last time I fixed a router it wasn't by removing and reinserting the power cable.

So does a Virgin router, fortunately. Neither helps much if the Internet is down.

Also what Craster said.

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I'm sure someone has put this here already, but I'm too lazy to read and don't have an android thingy so don't quite know what it is, but amazon have some kind of Android Underground thing running where you basically get a load of premium things for free.

I don't know - you read it, you'll make more sense of it than me: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.htm ... 5_SWMN_AUG

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i have a Honor 4X (Huawei), and it has volume controls, but setting the volume to 0 on the media setting doesn't stop sound when using the chrome browser (and maybe others, not tested).

Does anyone know how to actually shut the fucking phone up?

I've never had that before, the media volume control has always worked for that stuff. Does it have physical volume controls on the phone itself? If so, what happens if you use those to turn it down while you've got something playing on Chrome? It should then turn down which ever volume is think is active at the time which would at least let you see what was going on.

<sings> Bobby's watching porn, Bobby's watching porn,Bobby's watching porn,

:-) thanks Mali!


It does have buttons, but they just bring down the media vol. Am going to try their built in browser to see if it does the same thing.

So there's a beauty of an Android security flaw doing the rounds:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... n-password

tl;dr: if you're using a password on your lock screen (not a PIN or swipe pattern) and you've got a non-Nexus device someone can break into it simply by entering a lot of text into the password field.