Android Market

[TrinityJayOne]

Somehow this thing managed to arrive today after being sent Friday. Well, do I ever have something to say about this TERRIBLE phone! :mad:













Wait, I meant FANTASTIC phone. It is Sensation-al compared to the latest HTC offerings, and really I was probably a bit harsh in my last post. I don't think they're shit phones, just lazy. It feels like all they did was take a Desire, stretched the screen out, popped in a dual core and called it a day. This thing is something else though. You've probably all read the reviews so I'll keep it brief.

-The screen, oh my lord the screen. It's absolutely sublime and there is not a shred of ghosting to be found. :D There is no difference between a black screen and the screen being off, it's that good.
-CPU is nice and snappy, no issues playing fat .mkv files (well, there was no sound but that doesn't surprise me without codecs/3rd party player).
-No removable storage is a shame, but 16GB is still more than enough for a phone if you ask me. 32GB version is on its way for those that disagree. People have also been complaining about lack of a USB storage mode, but Windows thinking the phone is a media player doesn't really stop you from transferring stuff across.
-The softkey design is great. I never liked the prospect of leaving the Desire's physical buttons after using the haptic controls on other phones, but having the buttons on the actual screen is way different. Not a bad idea for improving space usage either.

Now, the software. Ice Cream Sandwich is the star here, no doubt about it. It takes a bit of getting used to (still doing a long touch to add an app when this now opens the wallpaper menu), but everything they've changed makes sense. The new colour scheme (light blue on black, wonder if they'll change the Android logo...) is very nice and the UI in general is just a lot crisper. Apart from the Facebook profile pic integration in the contact list, I gotta say that I'm not really missing Sense. >_> Seems a lot of the most recent phones will be getting ICS in early 2012 so you'll all be able to test it for yourselves soon enough.

The keyboard in particular I really like compared to Gingerbread. There's a lot of quality of life changes, such as a long touch on shift activating the caps lock and auto-correct picking up when you accidentally hit c,v or b instead of spacebar (I did this CONSTANTLY on the Desire). Also great is the way that pressing space after a word changes the suggestion line to common grammatical symbols (? ! , : ; ) and tapping one puts it at the end of your last word but keeps the space. The only thing I don't like is that it sometimes hangs a little bit when collating suggestions if you type fast enough, but I'd put this down to some poor code.

Overall I give it a solid 10/10. By far the greatest phone I've ever owned.

[Lazlow]

Is there supposed to be a pic there? What thing?

O_o

[TrinityJayOne]

Oh, refer to last sentence of previous post. I got a Galaxy Nexus.

[Italian Stallion]

Having moved on from the Desire recently myself, to an Optimus 2X ($40 to upgrade to a new phone, bigger screen & dual core CPU? sure why not!), I have to admit I'm not really missing much about Sense UI either. Stock Gingerbread is a bit too stock looking, but with the plethora of launchers available it still looks pretty snazzy. Facebook integration was the one thing that I missed too. I also agree about new HTC handsets not really feeling like anything new, just faster/bigger/prettier animations etc. They're still excellent phones, but it's good to try something different after having the Desire for quite a while now.

I've used a very alpha ICS build on my 2X, and it certainly runs like a dream. Some key features are missing so far which prevent me from using it full time, but it was a good example of what's to come. Everything runs so fluidly (apparently due to proper GPU acceleration?), the menu structuring has been improved, and the UI enhancements are great.

Only downside for me with the Nexus is the lack of removable storage.. otherwise I'd be all over it. A Galaxy S II would probably suit me better currently - the main draw on the Nexus is that awesome screen res.. but what the GSII lacks in res, it makes up in slightly better screen quality tech.

I've also heard that the lack of dedicated menu button on the Nexus means it has to be coded into apps, which currently means some apps aren't quite as optimised as they should be?

Try SwiftKey X for an alternate keyboard btw. The predictive and correction is just amazing. I love Swype for ease of use, but SwiftKey is so much better everywhere else.

GTA 3 has hit the Android Market for $5 if anyone's interested as well.

http://i55.tinypic.com/sytcv9.jpg

Seems like Apple's attempts to ban the galaxy tab have kind of worked in Samsung's favour.. so much free advertising and the ability to use their name for more!

[TrinityJayOne]

Some apps get a small "…" softkey appearing next to the dedicated Android version of alt + tab. On a small selectio. Of apps it doesnt even do anything, but you can hardly expect everything to be optimised for ICS overnight.

[Xanafalgue]

Grindr forever.

[Lazlow]

Apparently the Galaxy Tab 7.7 hit stores rather quietly last week (http://ausdroid.net/2012/01/12/samsung-galaxy-tab-7-7-launches-silently-at-jb-hi-fi-dick-smith-16gb-wi-fi-available-for-543/)

After getting a Kindle I quite like the middle ground a between 4" phone and 10" tablet.

[ElPresidente]

I want to hump my ASUS Transformer TF101.

That is all. :P

(don't talk to me about the Prime - do want, can't afford :P)

[tau]

Galaxy Note should be arriving on my doorstep either end of this week or early next week. Can't ****ing wait - 5.3" phone/tablet hybrid ^_____^

My iPhone has been a bitch as of late and I sold my iPad to subsidise a laptop since I needed one to actually work on, but kinda feeling the lack of portable awesome tablet fun. Quite excited about the idea of a hybrid of the two!

[Lazlow]

Posting from my new Galaxy Tab 7.7 :)

[Clift]

Where'd you purchase your Galaxy Note from Tau? Do like. :D

[Lazlow]

Posting from my new Galaxy Tab 7.7 :)

Passed my first test - it plays 1080p mkv's without any fuss. :D

[TrinityJayOne]

I assume that it's basically everything that an Android handset is, minus the phone part? What's the screen like? Is it HD?

Anyone know when ICS is landing for Sensation, SG2, etc? Anyone running it on said devices already?

[Italian Stallion]

Galaxy Note should be arriving on my doorstep either end of this week or early next week. Can't ****ing wait - 5.3" phone/tablet hybrid ^_____^
Let us know how that goes for portability.. it sounds big, but by most reports it's pretty easily pocketable. After moving to a phone with a 4" screen, I don't think I could go any smaller than that.. and for my next phone I'm looking more towards 4.3-4.6". The extra screen real estate is great.
Passed my first test - it plays 1080p mkv's without any fuss. :D
Nice! Does it have HDMI out? And can it do 1080p mkv via HDMI if so? :D
Anyone know when ICS is landing for Sensation, SG2, etc? Anyone running it on said devices already?
Can't imagine it'd be too long.. a couple of (I believe official?) beta GS2 ICS ROMs have been leaked, so it should be around the corner. I ran a very early ICS ROM on my Desire just to play with it.. things were missing, but it generally ran very well. Also more recently ran an ICS ROM on my Optimus 2X with even better results. Not expecting LG to release anything official for a while though, they're absolute dickheads with updates, and it sounds like the Tegra 2 source for the phone is locked down pretty tight making it hard for a good ROM to be made.. but apparently NVidia are releasing the source soon, yay.

[tau]

So it came a lot earlier than expected, which was yesterday morning.

Been using it for the last 2 days. loving the beautiful screen. It's big, but yeah it's easily pocketable. Being a photographer, I'm ****ing loving seeing my photos on it, and they look amazing on the screen's high resolution, vibrant display!

[Lazlow]

Yeah, like when people called an iPad "just a giant iPhone", the 7.7 is a bigger Galaxy Nexus.

The screen is sublime, 7.7" SUPER AMOLED Plus, 1280 x 800 WXGA, 197 pixels per inch. Put one of these in a 10" variant and it'll turn some heads.

It does 1080p playback @ 30fps

The thing I love though is the size. It's almost exactly the same size and shape as my Kindle (Keyboard), and I loved how that just sat in one hand so perfectly. The 7.7 is also crazy thin, but solid in your hands. I wouldn't want to drop it though, I'm currently searching the net for a book style case to match my Kindle.

[Lazlow]

Nice! Does it have HDMI out? And can it do 1080p mkv via HDMI if so?

As far as I'm aware it does, but you'll need a PDMI-HDMI adapter like the 8.9 and 10.1.

Don't know about playback formats.

[TrinityJayOne]

1280x800 isn't too shabby at all, but I wonder why they went with 16:10 when nobody seems interested in it anymore.

So it came a lot earlier than expected, which was yesterday morning.

Been using it for the last 2 days. loving the beautiful screen. It's big, but yeah it's easily pocketable. Being a photographer, I'm ****ing loving seeing my photos on it, and they look amazing on the screen's high resolution, vibrant display!
How's the stylus?

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l92lghc1D11qdoghio1_500.jpg

>_>

[tau]

How's the stylus?




To be blunt? Useless. I never thought I'd bother using it much, and there really isn't that much of a need to draw stuff on a tablet/phone device generally.

[Lazlow]

the voice Google search picked up "anus" as "penis", I think it's confused.

[Lazlow]

2 things the Android Market needs to be clearer on:

- supported devices
- micro transactions

Bought Madden 12 for my Tab, it won't download the additional 300MB data pack. Unless I missed something the Market listing said nothing about unsupported devices but apparently the Tab range are.

Luckily I was able to download it to my Desire with no additional charge.

And; there's a growing number of games that apparently continue to charge for things as small as health regens, weapon upgrades, etc.

[TrinityJayOne]

If the developer is doing their job unsupported apps won't even appear on the Marketplace, unless you browse on a PC (but it won't let you download said apps). At least I assume the developer is the one that controls this.

[Lazlow]

I had a look again and one of the slides in the screenshot gallery says "now optimised for android tablets".

I had a feeling that unsupported apps aren't supposed to be listed.

Either way I emailed them so I'll see what they say.

In other news Riptide GP and ShadowGun sport some very impressive visuals.

[TrinityJayOne]

Oh baby, the new Humble Bundle (http://www.humblebundle.com) is all Android games, two of them only days old and the others a few months. They've all been on PC for a while but who cares about that. A rundown for anyone who hasn't played the games before-

Osmos
Similar to that flOw game, but better. Increase the size of your amoeba thingo so you can eat others. Plenty of different game modes and difficulties. This was one of the games that came included with the GFWL client if I recall correctly. Fantastic touch controls. (Incidently I just bought this for $5 lastnight, got the email about the Bundle this morning. FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUU)

Edge & Edge Extended
Cube rolling puzzle game. Think Kula World crossed with Rush. Pretty sure this is the game that that annoying game "developer" cracked the sads over and caused heaps of companies to put "Edge" in their game titles.

Anomaly: Warzone Earth
This is a gem of a game. Essentially it is your standard tower defence, except you play as the wave trying to reach the goal. You plot the route you want to take through the environment, choose your units and then let things play out. You can also alter the route at any time and air drops can be collected that let you use abilities, such as dropping a temporary repair field that heals your units as they pass through.

World of Goo (if you pay above the average, currently $5 & change)
I'm sure we all know what this is by now, infact I'm almost 100% sure it was in one of the first Bundles. For those of you living under a rock, it's a construction/physics game. I haven't tried this one yet so can't comment on how it handles with touch controls, as I remember needing a fair amount of accuracy for some of the levels on PC.


Laz, you will want these games for your Tab, especially Osmos and Anomaly.

[ElPresidente]

I've played Word of Goo on iPhone, works just as well as on PC so should be no different on Android devices.

[ElPresidente]

Pretty sure this is the game that that annoying game "developer" cracked the sads over and caused heaps of companies to put "Edge" in their game titles.

Got it in one. :)

[TrinityJayOne]

Good to know, I really enjoyed the game. There was one level in particular I loved where you had to climb up the middle of two near-vertical walls with a small amount of the reusable goo.

[Lazlow]

Got them, so far so good, they all work (unlike Madden 12) and they're all optimised for tablet screens.

Had a quick go at each and if I were to put them in order from best to worst:

Osmos - very serene yet quite tricky
World of Goo - got that Angry Birds character with a different hook
Edge/Edge EX - cool minimalism but it feels like the hook is the constant battle with the controls
Anomaly - pick a path, still get shot up, keep repairing. seemed a bit dull

[TrinityJayOne]

You know after playing Anomaly a bit more you are right, the gameplay is not the best. Once you get a few levels in you are basically just spamming different abilities otherwise you die horribly, and it feels like these mechanics could have been done so much better. The concept of a powerup is generally a temporary boost, something that you hold on to and use at the precise moment. The way you use them in this game seems like they should be skills with a resource cost like energy/fuel/whatever and the healing should probably be passive to a degree. Upgrades and cash don't carry over between missions either, which removes some of the strategy. Could have been a lot better.

[ElPresidente]

Yeah, I've lost interest in Anomaly as well.

Osmosis is very enjoyable. Just moving on to the arcade levels now.

World of Goo... well, I love this game. This will be the third platform I'll complete it on (PC, iPhone and now Android :P).

Not spent enough time with Edge to say anything about it really.

[TrinityJayOne]

I'll likely uninstall the last one. I enjoy that style of game but none of the control schemes do it for me.

[Lazlow]

Downside to this bundle; it doesn't appear to be synced with your market account so you aren't able to get updates.

Market tells me there is an update for Osmos but when I tried to get it the Market told me I hadn't purchased it.

[tau]

same with anomaly :(

and I actually found the more enjoyable strategy came later on when different vehicles were unlocked, and you then had to figure out which abilities to use where. Playing on hardcore makes it entertainingly hard but not annoyingly so. Had it on my iPad and got pretty far, might play through it again.

[Big Scib Man]

What is one of the better phones on the market that uses android? I'm in the market for a new phone and not interested in over-priced iphones. I'm looking for a well priced substitute. I was thinking htc but samsung seems to also be okay. What do people suggest? Thanks in advance guys.

[Watchers]

Been using a Galaxy SII since start of this year. Pretty happy with it, and you can pick it up free on relatively cheap plans.

[Big Scib Man]

Been using a Galaxy SII since start of this year. Pretty happy with it, and you can pick it up free on relatively cheap plans.Thanks. I have been looking around the the net today and i feel like i'm leaning towards the nexux s. Is there a good site around the search for plans on particular models of phones?

[Watchers]

I dunno, I normally find the phone I'm interested in, then just go to whatever network's site individually to compare.

[Big Scib Man]

I dunno, I normally find the phone I'm interested in, then just go to whatever network's site individually to compare.That does appear to be the most efficient method at the moment.

[TrinityJayOne]

Guys he said substitute, not upgrade! Head to your nearest toilet bowl to find something that's comparable to an iPhone yet is very cheap.

Moving along, HTC Desire is closest in power to an iPhone 4, but they're a bit old now. Galaxy S2 is an upgrade over that.

[Italian Stallion]

Galaxy Nexus & Galaxy S II can both be had for $29 a month + $5 handset repayments on a 24 month contract with Vodafone. If you're after either, that'd probably be the cheapest way to go.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

I'm in the market for a new phone and not interested in over-priced iphones.

Just get one for its regular price then!

[Italian Stallion]

Cerberus (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lsdroid.cerberus&hl=en) licenses are being given away for free (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFR4VHNka3czd2FJV2FIaXFYTHp0aGc6M Q) to celebrate 100,000 users. The page looks completely dodgy, but their Google+ (https://plus.google.com/111441929456451548230/posts) confirms it's true.

For anyone who doesn't know what it is (and is too lazy to read the market link :)), Cerberus is an app to help you get your lost/stolen phone back using GPS tracking. It can also wipe your device, take photos using front-facing camera if your lockscreen is entered wrongly, etc. Lots of other features too. Seems widely regarded as the best anti-theft app.

[TrinityJayOne]

Downloaded. Will report back after March 1st (when the offer ends) if my phone suddenly locks me out.

[TrinityJayOne]

So the Android Market is now called "Play Store", or "Google Play" when I open it up. Seems they've added music and books and some Google+ integration. Apart from that it's exactly the same as far as I can tell.

I've been using the beta version of Chrome recently and it's pretty good. Doesn't do anything super fancy, it's just a simple browser like the stock one but without the rubbish UI. Only available for ICS at the moment.

[TrinityJayOne]

Anyone interested in the HTC One X? Looks alright to me, much better than the HTC unSensational. Apparently the US LTE version (One XL) drops the 1.5GHz quad core +1 Tegra 3 for a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm as the Tegra 3 is incompatible with the LTE network somehow. There's no Telstra version yet because they want 4G, so I'd imagine theirs will be dual core as well.

The only downsides I've read so far is that HTC Sense messes up a few things that ICS does well, and that the hardware keys aren't as good as the onscreen buttons of the Galaxy Nexus.

[HD Boy]

One X or Samsung Note?

[TrinityJayOne]

Pretty hard question to answer without knowing what you're after, but before getting a Note I'd hold one and make sure you're comfortable with the size.

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

I believe he is after a phone.

GOOD DAY SIR!

[HD Boy]

I'm after size, as long as it fits in my pocket. So yeah, pretty much have to go with the note.

[Italian Stallion]

The Galaxy S III is expected to be announced some time next week, I'd wait and see what that's like.

[HD Boy]

I buy outright, it'll be too pricey I reckon. Do you think the Galaxy III will have the same size screen as the note?

[TrinityJayOne]

Isn't the Note just the GNex screen stretched out? I don't see them making it any bigger than that (720x1280).

[Lazlow]

Getting a bit sick of waiting for the ICS update for the Galaxy Tab 7.7