Smart Phones

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

He likely had a quota to meet that day. 

You likely saved him from a nasty confrontation with his boss. 

[Griffin NoName]

At last! I am typing this on my smartphone!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Woot!

[Sibling DavidH]

At last! I am typing this on my smartphone!

You can tell - the letters look much more modern. 

[Griffin NoName]

Actually, you can tell. There's a little mobile phone symbol top left. Although it is an old style not smartphone.

[Sibling DavidH]

Blimey, so there is.

BTW griffin, you're close to a full year of not smoking.  We must prepare a party!

[Griffin NoName]

BTW griffin, you're close to a full year of not smoking.  We must prepare a party!

Yes, it feels longer than a year........... it still nags at me............ I also think I am operating on a lower setting than I did as a smoker (ie. I am missing the benefits).

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Nicotine is a stimulant, what happens to you when you drink coffee or take 70+ cocoa chocolate?

[Darlica]

I tried several browsers on my phone before I found one that I liked, I think it was Dave H that pointed me in the direction of "Dolphin"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dolphin.browser&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5kb2xwaGluLmJyb3dzZXIiXQ..
It's IMHO better than Opera and very much better than firefox (which was my firs choice) not to speak of the junk that comes with the phone...


For keeping an eye on my data usage I use "Watchdog" which I really recommend.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.rgruet.android.g3watchdog&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm5ldC5yZ3J1ZXQuYW5kcm9pZC5nM3dhdGNoZG9nIl0.
You can set it on alarm, to warn you when you are closing in on your monthly/weekly quota which I think is a good idea (even though I don't need it I have 1GB a month and I only use a fraction of it...)

[Griffin NoName]

Thanks for tips Darlica. I am using MyDataManager at present for data usage - seems fine. Not sure about Dolphin, some of the reviews  say it is buggy. But for all I know, Opera, which I am using, may be too, I haven't investigated, I just went for it due to data compression saving costs.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Lots of people swear by Opera on Android.  Some complain it doesn't support FLASH, but neither do the others, really--- FLASH support for Android is spotty, and soon to be missing entirely.

But that's because FLASH is now an abandoned idea, according to it's owners.

I still use the default browser, mainly due to inaction on my part-- it works for what I use my smartphone for.   And my data is unlimited anyway.  So I hardly care either way.

[Darlica]

I haven't experienced any bugs in Dolphine but I'm not using it that much...
What I like about it is that the different functions are easy to find and no finger yoga needed.

[Griffin NoName]

my data is unlimited anyway.  

Oooooooh! Can't get that here, or at least, not for an affordable price. I am hoping my cheapish 500MB is ample. It should be as mostly I am at home on WiFi.

After installing everything I need and setting all the settings, I found I had accidently deleted so many things by mistake, I had to "factory reset" to get them all back. Now I have to do all the download, install, settings all over again. This seems to be a major drawback to smart phones, or this one, I need an "undo" button. There's no recycle bin, just a trashcan that appears at foot of screen when something dragged there. Also, while I can backup to my google a/c, I cannot see how to restore from it.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I use everything a little bit, the default browser and Chrome mobile (which is quite nice), Firefox (and I can check all my bookmarks from my desktop, plus it works nice on a tablet IMHO), and Dolphin which seems quite complete, plays Flash better than Chrome at times but has no incognito/private feature. I don't use Opera, and when I tried it a while back it seemed quite clunky for my taste, perhaps it's better now, but no support for flash seems dumb despite it's supposed EOL (still king of the hill on many sites) and all other browsers support it at least under Ice Cream Sandwich.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

my data is unlimited anyway.  

Oooooooh! Can't get that here, or at least, not for an affordable price. I am hoping my cheapish 500MB is ample. It should be as mostly I am at home on WiFi.

I pay $40 a month for 1200 minutes & unlimited data.  As soon as I upgrade/replace my phone, I'll have to go up by $5, but that's still quite reasonable.  I've never even once come near the 1200 minutes.

I do have a 2 gigabyte "limit" wherein if I go over that, I get throttled to a somewhat slower data speed-- I've never even come close to that either. 

I am thinking seriously of updating my now somewhat dated Android, it's only running Gingerbread (as in "G", when the latest is "J" or Jelly Bean, and K already on the visible horizon...).

The problem is, my current one has a physical keyboard (albeit a tiny one), which I absolutely require-- I loathe the virtual 'boards on tiny screens (less than 8" in size).   So my choices are somewhat limited.   

The only reason for the upgrade?  Is my main memory, being Gingerbread, is somewhat limited (in contrast to later Androids, who require 1 gig or more main memory, and have superior memory management models too).  I only have 512meg main memory, which due to the constant updating of must-have apps, is gradually becoming cramped...

... I even drastically deleted several programs I used to use only occasionally... and which is also why I'm on the default browser (it's built-in...).  I'm rooted, so I've dumped all the bloatwear already, so that's not an option anymore.

... meh.   

I've moved all the proggies to the SD card that will let me do so, but I still am running out.   The biggest pig is Google Maps-- but I use that a lot, so...  I did dump YouTube (I never used it on the phone--too tiny for me), and all the other video updates-- that helped some.  I also dumped all the social proggies I never have time to use on my phone.  Helped some more.

But I'm still running out... meh.   I wish Google Maps wasn't so frikkin' huge...