Be Excellent To Each Other

Ahhhh! thanks.

Mr Grim... You have plexpass don't you? Is it worth it? It might be the easiest way to get my videos onto my phone.

Too late, i've just signed up for a year...

Cor... this is a bit good innit.

I can tell it to always have the next 5 episodes of a show locally converted and synced, and it keeps that 5 episode buffer as I watch them. Lovely.

The battery on this phone is a beast! I've been arseing around with it a lot due to newness, played a few games of marvel, have all the google now business etc... turned on, and i've been downloading Plex content wia wifi constantly for the past 4 hours, and i'm still at 70%.

Plus, it fits in my pocket just fine.

Grrrrrrr. Someone in my office noticed today that Three has rolled 4G out to the area of the city my office is in and everyone in my team who's with Three picked up a 4G signal. Everyone except me that is. It quickly transpired that in the Network Setting for my HTC One Max there isn't even an option to pick up an LTE network; I only have two options in there (WCDMA only or GSM/WCDM auto) while everyone else with a recent handset has at least one more that mentioned LTE.

I checked Amazon (as that's who I bought the phone from) and they only have a single listing for the phone; though somewhat suspiciously it's completely lacking in any real technical specs for the phone and certainly doesn't mention what bands etc it can deal with.

I talked to a live support person from HTC who took my IMEI and said it was indeed a 3G variant I had as I suspected. However I did another live chat shortly after to ask for more info and the second person said that my handset was LTE capable, but the options available in Network Settings were driven by what your SIM card was capable of (i.e. Three had given me a 3G only SIM so I should talk to them). However I swapped SIMS with one of the other guys who's getting 4G and I still only got a 3G connection so that's blatantly bollocks. Also, one of the other guys in the office has an HTC One on O2 and he's just got a 3G plan with them but he's still at least got the LTE network option so it's definitely got fuck all to do with the SIM card.

I'm now at the stage where I need to check actual box the phone came in when I get home tonight and, assuming it is 3G only, I'll have to chance my arm with Amazon. Although the listing doesn't mention LTE it doesn't not mention it either (as it's got fuck all info at all) and I think it was a fair assumption on my part that the single variant they'd be offering would be the 4G one. Hell, I can't even think why HTC would be offering a 3G variant for the UK; as it's all backwards compatible it just seems stupid.

I'm mentioning all this just to sanity check my thinking with you good and knowledgeable Beexers. Am I right in assuming I've somehow ended up with a non-LTE capable version of the phone, or is there some way to change the available network options? Is pursuing it with Amazon the best bet here? Not that I expect to get anywhere but I might as well try.

I had this very same problem with the iPhone 5 and Vodafone.

The same problem in that it wouldn't pick up their 4G? Or the same problem in that your phone might not actually have been 4G capable?

I'd guess that it isn't just as simple as swapping in a new sim and 4G appearing. Try Three first and see what they say, I expect they may have to send a config down to your phone?

The iPhone 5 is LTE-capable, unfortunately not at the frequencies that Vodafone use. If I switched to 3 or EE I would be fine.

Anyone want to buy a Nexus 4 16Gb and/or a Nexus 7 3G 32Gb before I send them to the great ebay in the sky? £120 for the 4, £100 for the 7.

Ooooh, Samsung have given me 50gb of Dropbox space, that's very nice of them

That's a bit shit.

For my part I finally sort of got it fixed but it's a really stupid situation. There's a key code to get into a hidden setting menu on Android (*#*#4636#*#*) which bypasses the normal options and allows you to force the network mode to any of the ones Android itself supports; so it's got all sorts of weird shit like EVDO and whatever in there. I went in there and forced on 'LTE only' mode and now I can pick up 4G if I stand in certain parts of the office. I've put it to 'GSM/WCDMA/LTE auto' and it should now go up to 4G whenever it gets a strong enough signal and work as it should. Why I've had to do that hack to get it working, and why the normal user level UI doesn't expose the LTE related options, is a fucking mystery though. I'm due an Android upgrade as KitKat is rolling out for my phone at the moment which might sort it but I shouldn't need an OS update to expose functionality the hardware's already capable of. It's really fucking stupid all in and not doing HTC's rep any favours with me.

Be aware that it's only free for two years, after which you either need to pay for it or you'd be unable to upload anything more to your account (assuming you used any other space you've got and started edging into that 50GB of course).

Aye, I saw that. I expect i'll just pay for it after 2 years, as they are hoping. Or i'll swap to my cloud based virtual server and look at the content via my VR interface, while working from my hover office on mars.

Spoke too soon. It worked fine... until it stopped working and now won't sync anything anymore...

*whispers* Media browser

That won't help me when I'm on the train though, will it?

Guess not. Carry on

Wiped everything, downloaded the free client and it seems to be working again...

Hmm... the Note 3 doesn't seem to be very happy with the SD card in it, a few times it hasn't turned back on when i've pressed the power button, and last time it reported that the SD card was corrupted and needed to be wiped when I restarted it.
I've removed it and it seems to be a lot happier.

You can't sync Plex to an SD card. I know it thinks you can, but you can't.

Ah. Maybe that's the issue, as the plex content is the only thing I've put on the SD card, and then the phone started to have a fit.

Man, why do things have to be so hard.

I can't pick up 4G on my Note 3, so I talk to Three, and they tell me I need to update my firmware. The OTA doesn't give me anything new, the Samsung Kies software tells me there is no new firmware for my phone, yet a quick google tells me there is. Why won't the Samsung software find it?

I'll get it myself and install it, I think. There are about a hundred different variants of the firmware out there, and I have no idea which one is the right one to install.

Grim... Any chance you can go into the "about device" screen, and tell me the baseband version and build number you are running?

Try the temporary hack from earlier on this page I had to use on my One Max to see if that gets it picking up 4G.

Enter *#*#4636#*#* on the phone keypad then go into Phone Information and scroll down a bit; you should see a drop-down labelled "Set preferred network type". Change that to 'GSM/WCDM/LTE auto' and your phone should then move up and down between 2G/3G/4G as available. If the 4G signal's a bit weak you can set it to 'LTE only' to force it to grab a 4G connection as a test. If that works you can just run that way for a while and grab the new update when it comes to your phone officially rather than taking a risk with internet downloaded stuff. Note that I think that will reset if you reboot the phone so doing so would mean you need to follow those steps again.

Nope *#*#4636#*#* does bugger all on my phone, I think a lot of things got locked down in Android 4.3.

Looks like i'm going to have to sideload the stock UK firmware via a 3rd party tool, which is a bit shit.

Cheers Grim... That's the version I thought I needed

I totally should have used my stylus S-Pen to scribble a new number in.

Because that would've looked well legit.

You have a lot of notifications, by the way...

Firmware updated and I have 4G mode available!

No idea why I had to sideload though, it should have "just worked"...

The bit that confuses me is why you need a firmware update at all to expose a network function the phone handles at a hardware level out or the box and that's one of the core spec features. It's really fucking stupid.

Ended up at £175 for the 7 and £125 for the 4. Better than I expected!

Cut the Rope 2, you say?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ogle&hl=en

It's a bit "meh" isn't it?

I played the original for about five minutes before getting utterly bored; I never understood it's massive appeal. I have installed the new one though so I'll give it a another chance whenever I get round to it. Mind you, as it's a sequel to a popular mobile game it'll be IAP'd up the fucking wazoo with countdown timers and Facebook bullshit as standard so it's probably got less chance than the original of staying on my phone.

Now I've had the Note 3 for a bit, and have it set up how I like, I can safely say it is bloody brilliant.

5h 30m screen on time so far today, and I still have 25% battery left.

Pricing details have been announced for the OnePlus One and it's hilariously cheap, beating even the Nexus 5 for price vs spec. It's genuinely top end hardware (2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of RAM, 5.5-inch 1080p screen, 13-megapixel Sony camera) and it's only £229 for the 16Gb version or £269 for the 64GB. That aside it's an interesting proposition because it ships with an official CyanogenMod OS which I think makes it the first device to do so. Also, I do quite fancy a wooden or even kevlar back on a phone.

It'll be interesting to see what full reviews have to say about it but it's certainly not your usual Chinese knock-off bullshit.

I'll be moving to PAYG next week when my current contract comes to an end. My trusty HTC One X is now two years old and whilst I do very much like the One M8 it's not £500 of like, and it's not as if I want anything out of a phone that the One X doesn't do perfectly well.

I need very little in the way of texts and minutes, so I'll just be going onto a rolling 30 day PAYG tariff that gives me a big dollop of data (along with far more minutes and texts than I'll ever need).

I'm wondering if we're getting to the point now where a lot of tech is plenty good enough even for nerdy types who care about what's inside the box. My PC isn't exactly cutting edge and yet it does everything I want, our big telly is a seven year old 720p 40 incher that I see no point in replacing, my phone is now two years old and for the first time since forever I'll be going off-contract and onto PAYG because I don't want a new handset. Mrs AE went onto PAYG about six months ago because she's completely happy with her phone, and so on.....

Who do they sell new shinies to when the people who like new shinies stop seeing the point in upgrading?

Oh, you're AE!

I got a virus hit for arm amp if any one uses it without a scanner. Something bolt the virus.

Well, that's what you get for trying to make your limbs louder quite frankly.

Upgrade day: Note 3 ordered. Looking at accessories.Anyone use a case for theirs? I'm thinking Otterbox Commuter. Also one of those nifty spare battery and charger kits.

I use mine naked as the day it came.

Give it a go without a spare battery, it's pretty meaty and I haven't run out yet, apart from when I forget to shut down apps that are poorly coded and keep themselves running the background. Facebook messenger and marvel puzzle quest, I'm looking at you...

Yeah, but there's a lot of exposed glass on one of those things... *shudders at the thought of scratches, let alone dropping the thing face down..*

The spare battery is more for when I go away. To a field with no power. For 5 days in a row. My iphone generally dies on the train home even if I am super sparing in its use. Also it is always a nice thing to have a spare juiced up and ready.

Ex-Mrs B has one of these. It's relatively pricey for what it is because it's official Samsung gear but, because it's official, it's very slim and the phone fits very nicely in it. As someone who eschews cases in general it's one of the nicest I've seen. You actually take the whole back cover off the phone and it clips into the case as a new phone back so it's all very tidy and whatnot.



You'll find you get a lot more use out of it than an iPhone due to the massive battery in the thing, more so if you do the usual stuff like putting the screen on auto-dim etc. Well, I'm saying that; I'm drawing a conclusion from the fact that I've always run all my larger size Android phones at full brightness all the time because I can, whereas I've noticed practically everyone I know with an iPhone keeps the screen dimmed all the way down, presumably to save battery life. Not that it'll do you five days in a field obviously, but hopefully you'll see a positive difference.

Decided on one of these bad boys:

Spigen Armor View

It looks classy, (unlike some of the monstrosities that you see about) it offers quite a bit of protection, and it has all the S view gubbins. Quite expensive though.

'For those Serial Killer wannabes, this phone feels like baby skin. Also it provides a good bonding surface for when you upgrade to the real thing!'