Some Android-Noob Questions

[PrismaticM]

Hi,

my current phone is an iPhone4 and I want to buy an android phone. But because I' don't have much experience with android I have some questions;

 

-First of all what would you recommend for a phone with nice storage-solutions (sd-card) (around 64GB cos I listen to allot of music), which isn't bigger than the s4 ( < 5"), a good  screen, overall nice specs (camera,cpu etc.), stock android (or just slightly modified) and it has to be available in Europe (Luxembourg) or able to get shipped from America (unlocked)?

 

-Are those features of the S4 (gestures, swiping, eye scrolling etc.) also present on the google edition phone, cos I don't think I'll need them?

 

-Will I be able to shuffle thru all my songs at once, both that are saved on the sd and internally? 

 

-Do I need a tool to synchronise data (music, calendar, contacts etc.) to my phone from a mac, or does the phone gets seen like a drive 

 

-Is there an android version of the app airvideo?

 

-Are the macosx calendar events getting recognized by the android calendar and contacts?

 

Thanks for any answer!

 

PrismaticM

 

PS: If there's any problem that android beginners often have, it would be nice if you could mention them;)

[bartekxx12]

1. As you said I would definitely go with stock Android, Android with skins is, I think, terrible. Touchwizz is especially bad. So yes pick one of the Google Play edition phones right now the Google Play Edition S4 seems like it would be your best choice if you need A LOT of storage but the HTC One is far better build quality. If you can wait a while I would wait for the Google Nexus 5 which will hopefully be released in a month or two. 
 

2. No, they are Touchwizz specific features if you can call them that. They will not be present on the Google Edition and no I don't think anyone really needs them, mostly gimmicks.

3. Yes (Some music players might not allow this but most do, I know Google Play Music and Apollo do, I personally love Google Play Music)

4. Both, you can sync with programs or just go into it as if it were a drive/usb stick

5. Yes there are apps like that, however I don't really use anything like that at the moment so wait for someone else to give you a recommendation as I just don't know what's good right now.

6. Yes, in OSX you can configure both calendar events and contacts to sync to a Google account, which will then sync with your phone...  

[PrismaticM]

1. As you said I would definitely go with stock Android, Android with skins is, I think, terrible. Touchwizz is especially bad. So yes pick one of the Google Play edition phones right now the Google Play Edition S4 seems like it would be your best choice if you need A LOT of storage but the HTC One is far better build quality. If you can wait a while I would wait for the Google Nexus 5 which will hopefully be released in a month or two. 

 

2. No, they are Touchwizz specific features if you can call them that. They will not be present on the Google Edition and no I don't think anyone really needs them, mostly gimmicks.

3. Yes (Some music players might not allow this but most do, I know Google Play Music and Apollo do, I personally love Google Play Music)

4. Both, you can sync with programs or just go into it as if it were a drive/usb stick

5. Yes there are apps like that, however I don't really use anything like that at the moment so wait for someone else to give you a recommendation as I just don't know what's good right now.

6. Yes, in OSX you can configure both calendar events and contacts to sync to a Google account, which will then sync with your phone...  

 thanks man,

 

but google says that the google edition phones aren't available in my country ('yet'), but the nexus are.

 

Ah, so it isn't like on iOS where you have your 'orange' app, you have to download a player that is able to do it, but that google music, does that only work like some kind of itunes where you have to buy the music to listen to it or is it an app where you listen to you music that's saved on your phone?

 

With the calendar thing, I' don't know ifthat is enabled in osx snowleopard, do I have to configure that on my mac or on my google account?

[bartekxx12]

 thanks man,

 

but google says that the google edition phones aren't available in my country ('yet'), but the nexus are.

 

Ah, so it isn't like on iOS where you have your 'orange' app, you have to download a player that is able to do it, but that google music, does that only work like some kind of itunes where you have to buy the music to listen to it or is it an app where you listen to you music that's saved on your phone?

 

With the calendar thing, I' don't know ifthat is enabled in osx snowleopard, do I have to configure that on my mac or on my google account?

 

Right well in that case just get the Nexus 4 or wait till they are available if you can, or better yet wait for the Nexus 5, that will without a doubt, be an amazing phone. 

Your phone will come with Google Play music pre-installed I believe. Google Play Music will show you and allow you to play all music that's on your phone, whether you bought it on iTunes or downloaded it illegally it will show up and play just fine.

 

Apart from that Google Play Music also has a built in music store like iTunes with +18 million songs. You can either purchase them like on iTunes or pay £7.99 / month to listen to anything in the store for "free"  without any limits. 

 

And if you don't like that particular music player you can get any other from the Play Store, but yeah, all will be able to play any music you copy to your phone. 

 

As for the syncing, this website has very good instructions for everything - http://www.macworld.com/article/2039052/how-to-sync-an-android-phone-to-your-mac.html

It says Android phone to Mac and not Mac to Android but it all works both ways. 

 

[PrismaticM]

Right well in that case just get the Nexus 4 or wait till they are available if you can, or better yet wait for the Nexus 5, that will without a doubt, be an amazing phone. 

Your phone will come with Google Play music pre-installed I believe. Google Play Music will show you and allow you to play all music that's on your phone, whether you bought it on iTunes or downloaded it illegally it will show up and play just fine.

 

Apart from that Google Play Music also has a built in music store like iTunes with +18 million songs. You can either purchase them like on iTunes or pay £7.99 / month to listen to anything in the store for "free"  without any limits. 

 

And if you don't like that particular music player you can get any other from the Play Store, but yeah, all will be able to play any music you copy to your phone. 

 

As for the syncing, this website has very good instructions for everything - http://www.macworld.com/article/2039052/how-to-sync-an-android-phone-to-your-mac.html

It says Android phone to Mac and not Mac to Android but it all works both ways. 

 

 

Thanks again,

Yeah, I heard the nexus 4 was a good phone and I think google knows what they are doing and won't mess up the 5, I think I'll wait for it;)

 

but with that 7,99 is the music getting streamed over the internet or do I can download as much music as I want during that month?

 

 

really helpful;)

[bartekxx12]

Thanks again,

Yeah, I heard the nexus 4 was a good phone and I think google knows what they are doing and won't mess up the 5, I think I'll wait for it;)

 

but with that 7,99 is the music getting streamed over the internet or do I can download as much music as I want during that month?

 

really helpful;)

 

No problem  

And yeah, It will be worth the wait, I'm actually waiting for it, will be upgrading from a Galaxy S3

The £7.99 gives you access to their library, you can either stream everything or save whole albums or songs for offline playback with one click/touch, (they will be saved on your device). You will be able to play any of the songs on your phone or basically any other device that can run Google Chrome. It's also all synced, so if you add an album to your library in chrome on your computer, that will then be on your phone. 

However, you can not continue listening to the songs you've downloaded if you don't pay the £7.99 each month, you're basically renting access to the songs, even the ones you download. 

You should be able to explore their store now play.google.com/store/music?hl=en and can start a free 30 day trial if you want to see what they have, I have yet to come across something they don't have. And the ease of saving the songs for offline playback on a phone as well as their "radio" option where you can go into an artist and click "start radio" and they will automatically create a never ending playlist of songs from that artist and artists similar to the one you picked, that makes it in my mind, well worth the £7.99 / month... but it's up to you, as I said the phone will play all other songs you copy to it just fine.

 

[dklhs90]

My advice is to not listen to everyone saying stock android is the definition of perfect and that all other UI are bad. Everything comes down to button position and your personal preferences. People who have bad experiences will over bash certain UI and haters will bash certain UI even though they haven't tried them out.

[dklhs90]

My advice is to not listen to everyone saying stock android is the definition of perfect and that all other UI are bad. Everything comes down to button position and your personal preferences. People who have bad experiences will over bash certain UI and haters will bash certain UI even though they haven't tried them out.

[PrismaticM]

My advice is to not listen to everyone saying stock android is the definition of perfect and that all other UI are bad. Everything comes down to button position and your personal preferences. People who have bad experiences will over bash certain UI and haters will bash certain UI even though they haven't tried them out.

 

thats true but I heard that that touchwizz isn't the greatest. But what would you recommend, I don't know anyone who has experience with android:/

[Lyons]

thats true but I heard that that touchwizz isn't the greatest. But what would you recommend, I don't know anyone who has experience with android:/

I have experience with all of the major Android versions, and stock Android is by far the best.

[dklhs90]

I have experience with Sense UI, Touchwizz, Stock, ASUS twist, Blackberry OS, WP 7 and WP 8, iOS

 

If I were to give my personal opinions on each it will be as followed.

 

Sense UI - Too dark and gritty no major functionality add on, native apps and widgets are not favorable.

 

TouchWizz - bright and colourful many native apps and widgets that add functionality in my use case.

 

Stock - also dark and gritty and apps and widgets are also not favorable in my use case.

 

ASUS twist - also dark and gritty, apps and widgets are not favorable in my use case.

 

Blackberry - clear cut UI, tolerable

 

WP 7/8 - sleek UI, responsive, lacks functionality in my use case.

 

iOS - colourful and bright, limited customisation in my use case.

 

When I say that the apps and widgets are not favorable i mean native apps and widgets that are already installed on the phone, are not in the format/interface I'd like them to be in.

 

I have liked the TouchWizz experience greatly because it had all the functionality I wanted and more, It was not dark and gritty, native apps and widgets were of a lot of use.

[ttam]

Stock vs Manufacturer roms. It really is personal preference. Some people love all the things TouchWiz or HTC Sense has and some people love just the flat, boring but very clean and fast stock android.

[dklhs90]

I have experience with Sense UI, Touchwizz, Stock, ASUS twist, Blackberry OS, WP 7 and WP 8, iOS

 

If I were to give my personal opinions on each it will be as followed.

 

Sense UI - Too dark and gritty no major functionality add on, native apps and widgets are not favorable.

 

TouchWizz - bright and colourful many native apps and widgets that add functionality in my use case.

 

Stock - also dark and gritty and apps and widgets are also not favorable in my use case.

 

ASUS twist - also dark and gritty, apps and widgets are not favorable in my use case.

 

Blackberry - clear cut UI, tolerable

 

WP 7/8 - sleek UI, responsive, lacks functionality in my use case.

 

iOS - colourful and bright, limited customisation in my use case.

 

When I say that the apps and widgets are not favorable i mean native apps and widgets that are already installed on the phone, are not in the format/interface I'd like them to be in.

 

I have liked the TouchWizz experience greatly because it had all the functionality I wanted and more, It was not dark and gritty, native apps and widgets were of a lot of use.

Of course you shouldn't stain your mind with my experience. Form your own experience by trying each variation out at a phone store and pick the one you like most.

[solosdk]

I'd stick with iPhone.

iPhone 5S comes out very very soon and so is iOS 7 which is a complete makeover.

I would stay because iTunes has the biggest collection of songs and also you have an iPhone which means you have purchases on your account

[dklhs90]

-Are those features of the S4 (gestures, swiping, eye scrolling etc.) also present on the google edition phone, cos I don't think I'll need them?

-> I don't have the stock android version of the S4 so I dont know.

-Will I be able to shuffle thru all my songs at once, both that are saved on the sd and internally? 

-> yes i think so...

-Do I need a tool to synchronise data (music, calendar, contacts etc.) to my phone from a mac, or does the phone gets seen like a drive 

-> yes and no, yes

-Is there an android version of the app airvideo?

-> I use samsung Allshare (is this something that is similar to airvideo?)

-Are the macosx calendar events getting recognized by the android calendar and contacts?

-> i think this depends on what email account you saved them on. gmail calender works awesomely well on android and vice versa.

[chaozbandit]

Don't have answers to all your questions but I'll try my best. My answer is based off my experience with various versions of Android for my Galaxy S2 and Asus Transformer TF101. Whatever solution you find to each will be dependent on what you prefer and how well it works with your device.

 

If you find a phone that doesn't have sufficient internal storage, you can always purchase a large capacity SD or MicroSD card for more space, if the phone is able to accept it. Most music players available on the android platform take all audio type files and put them into a single library for you to browse through at once, regardless of where they are actually stored on the device. Programs such as Kies for Samsung devices force you to specify whether you store audio internally or externally, but in the end it doesn't really matter for music playback. As for apps similar to AirVideo, I personally use Skifta to stream content from my PC to both my phone and my tablet and found it work just fine (haven't used Allshare so I can't comment on that). 

[PrismaticM]

I have experience with Sense UI, Touchwizz, Stock, ASUS twist, Blackberry OS, WP 7 and WP 8, iOS

 

If I were to give my personal opinions on each it will be as followed.

 

Sense UI - Too dark and gritty no major functionality add on, native apps and widgets are not favorable.

 

TouchWizz - bright and colourful many native apps and widgets that add functionality in my use case.

 

Stock - also dark and gritty and apps and widgets are also not favorable in my use case.

 

ASUS twist - also dark and gritty, apps and widgets are not favorable in my use case.

 

Blackberry - clear cut UI, tolerable

 

WP 7/8 - sleek UI, responsive, lacks functionality in my use case.

 

iOS - colourful and bright, limited customisation in my use case.

 

When I say that the apps and widgets are not favorable i mean native apps and widgets that are already installed on the phone, are not in the format/interface I'd like them to be in.

 

I have liked the TouchWizz experience greatly because it had all the functionality I wanted and more, It was not dark and gritty, native apps and widgets were of a lot of use.

I like the more clean ui's like stock and iOS, but WP8 and BB have some major flaws that android doesn't have (rotating lock, app support etc.)

 

but thanks for that summary

[PrismaticM]

Don't have answers to all your questions but I'll try my best. My answer is based off my experience with various versions of Android for my Galaxy S2 and Asus Transformer TF101. Whatever solution you find to each will be dependent on what you prefer and how well it works with your device.

 

If you find a phone that doesn't have sufficient internal storage, you can always purchase a large capacity SD or MicroSD card for more space, if the phone is able to accept it. Most music players available on the android platform take all audio type files and put them into a single library for you to browse through at once, regardless of where they are actually stored on the device. Programs such as Kies for Samsung devices force you to specify whether you store audio internally or externally, but in the end it doesn't really matter for music playback. As for apps similar to AirVideo, I personally use Skifta to stream content from my PC to both my phone and my tablet and found it work just fine (haven't used Allshare so I can't comment on that). 

 

And another question I missed, I saw phones that are extansionable up to 32gb (sdcard) but I've seen cards that are 64gb. Has that something to do how the card is formated? (FAT,NTFS etc.)?

[chaozbandit]

And another question I missed, I saw phones that are extansionable up to 32gb (sdcard) but I've seen cards that are 64gb. Has that something to do how the card is formated? (FAT,NTFS etc.)?

 

As far as I know, SD cards are manufactured to cater to specific classes of devices and how they are intended to be used (capacity, transfer speeds, physical size, etc.) FAT / NTFS are just different ways of transferring data, with the latter supposedly being more efficient for large file sizes. Usually it's best to pick a card that is within manufacturer spec (i.e. don't exceed the recommended expandable capacity).

[Frix]

And another question I missed, I saw phones that are extansionable up to 32gb (sdcard) but I've seen cards that are 64gb. Has that something to do how the card is formated? (FAT,NTFS etc.)?

I think some phones just can't take that amount of room on a single small card, go with what the creators of the phone say.

[Zappy]

The Nexus 5 looks like it'll be a very nice handset to wait for http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/05/lg-nexus-5-fcc/

 

Also as for Air Video replacements, check out BubbleUPnP and Emit

[PrismaticM]

The Nexus 5 looks like it'll be a very nice handset to wait for http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/05/lg-nexus-5-fcc/

 

Also as for Air Video replacements, check out BubbleUPnP and Emit

looks nice but why is everybody making 5" phones? 

[dklhs90]

Bigger is better in terms of screen real estate like my Galaxy S4.

 

Here is a screenshot of my Galaxy S4 multitasking. Video + Facebook + Kakotalk. enjoy. (Not trying to force you to like TouchWizz, just a demonstration of what it looks like when I use my phone.) I am probably going to updrage to the Galaxy Note 3 for more screen real estate.

 

[PrismaticM]

ah ok, seems logic but are those muktitasking features only for touchwizz?

[dklhs90]

ah ok, seems logic but are those muktitasking features only for touchwizz?

Screen split and hovering video is only seen in TouchWizz by default but there might be other apps that enables this to other phones.