Tablet and smart phone discussion thread

[LOKNLOD]

The iPhone5 looks like a solid phone if you're already invested in Apple apps and comfortable with iOS.

I kind of look at it as the iPhone is kind of like the G19 (traditional, pre-gen4 debacle) of the smartphone world. Unless you've got some compelling reasons to do otherwise, it's a pretty safe bet. Sure if you are into certain features you can get "more" from other places, but for most folks just get it, don't fiddle with it, and use the heck outta it and you'll be way ahead.

Fanbois aside, all the latest generation phones are amazing and it just really comes down to preference.

No kidding. It's a phone, not a religion. It's even sillier than arguing about gun brands. In 2-years anything in our hands will be outdated and replaced. Best not to get attached. At least guns last a long time.

[jslaker]

The manufacturer of the batteries has a recommended charge/discharge schedule for the first 4 cycles.
Whether that's "conditioning" or not I don't know, but that's what they say to do for maximum battery charge and life.

That's more calibration so the charge indicator is accurate than anything.

I just got a Motorola Droid4. It is full of "bloatware" and has a UI that the rooters hate.

I've got no complaints, though. It's fast and does everything I want. They keyboard -- as someone who struggled with the iPhone touch screen -- is a gift from heaven. There may not be a lot of tinkering I can do with this phone, but there's an incredible amount of WORK I can get done.

I've had a D4 since ~Jan/Feb. The original Android 2.3 firmware was preeeetty bad. The 4.0 update that came out a couple of months ago is quite solid, cuts out a lot of the bloat, and, like you, I don't really have any complaints at this point. In fact, this post is being sent from it.

[jslaker]

I kind of look at it as the iPhone is kind of like the G19 (traditional, pre-gen4 debacle) of the smartphone world. Unless you've got some compelling reasons to do otherwise, it's a pretty safe bet. Sure if you are into certain features you can get "more" from other places, but for most folks just get it, don't fiddle with it, and use the heck outta it and you'll be way ahead.

Given all the complaints I've heard about iOS 6 Maps, the G19 pre/post Gen4 comparison seems particularly apt.

[LOKNLOD]

Given all the complaints I've heard about iOS 6 Maps, the G19 pre/post Gen4 comparison seems particularly apt.

Whatever the item is, often the best way to screw up a great thing is to try to improve it...

Funny thing about Maps is that I haven't used it yet. I drive to lots of remote places for work but i guess I am not entirely dependent on the phone getting me there. Usually the time i need help is about the time I get out of decent service range

[Byron]

I know I'm writing to a mixed audience here (some tech-geeks, some technophobes) so apologies in advance if I don't strike the right balance of layman terms and tech terms.

To "root" a device, as noted by Jody, simply gives the user a higher level of access to the device; root AKA superuser AKA admin access. The process of gaining this access does not change performance or battery in any way whatsoever, but it does open a world of possibilities that will affect performance and/or battery.

Once you root a device, you gain access to a number of features otherwise locked down in the device. On the "easy" side of the spectrum are features like those found in Titanium Backup, for example, which can bulk backup/restore all your apps and their data. This isn't to say that there aren't backup apps for a stock (non-root) config, but they will be more limited in their functionality.

Another useful app that requires root is AdFree Android. It works similarly to the old Windows .hosts file trick whereby it maintains a list of known ad/tracker IP addresses and blocks them. This cuts down on the ads that you see when surfing the web or even using some apps.

One more example I'll bring up is avast mobile security. Some of its features can be used without root, but some of its most useful ones need it. For example, the firewall requires root and I find it to be an amazing thing to have (actually it's 90% of why I use the app). Using the firewall I can block certain apps from every connecting to the internet. If you have a rogue app that tries to leech your data connection in the background, a firewall utility could theoretically offer battery savings.

But yes, to get real battery savings requires taking this to the next step: custom operating system components. The two big ones to tackle are the ROM (operating system itself) as well as the kernel (the bridge between software and hardware processing).

The ROM itself won't have a huge impact on battery. Rather, people see battery savings when they flash a new ROM because it invariably carries with it other changes (such as removing pieces of bloat software, etc). But again, you can remove these pieces of bloat without changing the ROM itself; you can get rid of them right after rooting.

[Note: some ROMs come with a custom kernel baked in, while others use a stock kernel]

The kernel is where you will see the biggest performance/battery difference. To use a sloppy car analogy, think of the kernel as the automatic transmission system. A transmission system that is tuned for power might accelerate more aggressively, but burn more fuel in the process. A transmission system tuned for efficiency might use less fuel, but will accelerate more slowly. The same can be said of the kernel.

There are kernels built for pure performance. Many of them will overclock the Central Processing Unit (CPU) i.e. run it at higher speeds than originally set by the factory. Some others will even overclock the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). These performance-based kernels will also scale the CPU more aggresively (going back to the transmission analogy, this is the equivalent of hard acceleration). That is, a 1GHz processor isn't always running at a clock speed of 1GHz. When it only has low-effort tasks to perform (say reading a document) it might be running around 200 MHz instead. When the kernel detects that the phone needs more processing power, it will sclae the CPU up until either the task is complete, the max CPU speed is reached, or the processing needs no longer require that much speed.

A kernel that scales more slowly (i.e. jumps from 200 to 300 to 400) can sometimes save more battery, but will result in a user-experience that feels more "laggy." A kernel that scales rapidly (i.e. jumps from 200 to 1,000 at the first sign of cpu-load) will feel blazing fast, but has the potential to eat battery faster.

This isn't to say you get one or the other. Of course every developer, from Google official devs to hacker kids, wants to find the best balance between the two, and they keep getting better. Android 4.1 (JellyBean) for example, has much better kernel interaction than previous generations of Android, whether using a stock or custom kernel.

This is only scratching the surface of kernel discussion. I'm painting with a broad brush so as to avoid making this long post even longer. There are a ton of other factors involved in kernel selection, and they can ultimately impact the actual hardware features of the phone. For example, my custom kernel on my Galaxy Nexus offers me additional color/gamma/contrast controls for my display that don't even exist on the stock device. Another hardware feature I plan to soon explore with custom kernels is simultaneous USB charging while utilizing USB-OTG (USB-Host). In English, that just means being able to plug a full-sized keyboard or external HDD into my phone or tablet while simultaneously charging it. In stock config, I can only do one or the other.

As for power-saving apps... well... it's hard to offer comment. It depends so heavily on your generation of Android and your usage pattern that I hesitate to even try. I would simply suggest installing GSam Battery Monitor (formerly known as Badass Battery Monitor). It can tell you what parts of your phone are eating the battery (i.e. 70% of your power usage has simply been the screen while 10% has been Angry Birds). From there you can start to make educated decisions on ways to stretch out battery life.

Regarding one-click or user-friendly root solutions, I have mixed emotions. It's great that they open the door to a new generation of power-users who might have been intimidated by more manual means. That said, they also allow people to screw up their phones in quick order without knowing how to un-screw them. Think of them like any sort of DIY project for a gun; some people will get amazing results based on a YouTube tutorial while others will learn just enough to seriously harm their gun.

[Seven_Sicks_Two]

Well I'm not trying to sound like a stereotypical Apple fanboi, but I'm into stuff that "just works". I understand that I probably don't use my current phone to it's potential (I use it mainly for the internet, music, calls/texts and the calendar). But, I want something that isn't going to be a pain in the ass to deal with when I use other features. I like the Glock 19 analogy, I'm willing to throw some sights on, but don't expect me to hand-fit parts. Android sounds like a 1911 to me . It runs great if you're willing to be your own mechanic;, but if you can't turn a wrench, it isn't a daily driver.

[LittleLebowski]

You don't have to tinker with Android to make it run well,7.62. However, you can tinker with it and that is part of the attraction to some folks.

[Carraway]

I just went from a basic phone that I've had for years to an iPhone 5. I held off for a few reasons, including not wanting to become one of the people constantly staring into a smartphone, and now it's hard not to.

So far I'm pretty impressed. Apple's maps app doesn't seem as horrible as has been made out, but it's still not in the same league as even the internet version of Google Maps, which is available. As for other apps, I've mainly loaded mine with news (including CNN, NPR, NY Times and a news aggregator called Flipboard, which I like), music (mainly Garage Band and Pandora) and things like NASA and Star Walk (a very impressive map of the night sky).

I also tried the panorama photo feature for the first time on Monday. If interested, here's a sample at a greatly reduced resolution for posting.

[G60]

LG Nexus phone supposedly "confirmed" for announcement late this month, release mid November.

I'm sold on Nexus devices. My favorite thing about iOS was the lack of bloatware and latest OS for almost every device.
I don't like to tinker too much, so rooting+flashing roms and all that is not for me.

I've played with an iPhone 5 for a few minutes, and it didn't seem as fast as my galaxy nexus. Jelly Bean & project butter are damn impressive. A shame only something like 1.2% of android devices are running it.

I am on at&t and don't live within 250 miles of an AT&T LTE network, so for right now that's a non-issue for me.

[NickA]

Anybody else shopping for a tablet for kids for Christmas? Daughter started kindergarten and wants an "iPad" of her own. The Internet seems to love this kid-specific model:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410515,00.asp
Only potential drawback seems to be it only has access to Amazon app store and not the full Google market unless maybe you root it.
I can't decide if it's worth going with a kids' tablet over something like the Nexus 7, but the Nabi looks to offer the best of both worlds. We already have an iPad and a Kindle Fire, so this one can mainly be hers, but another fully capable Android tablet as a backup couldn't hurt. (I'd love to get a 10" Android tablet, but then she'd have to share it with me