Android phones

[EtherealN]

Aye, I love it.

 

I'm probably heading downtown for some hanging-out with a friend and his wife tomorrow, I'll try to grab that plotting thingie for the GPS and try it out. If I understand the "cold fix" (basically, you start the GPS receiver and it's the time taken to get good signal?) they mentioned "about half a minute" on that article. That was without all oyher assists available to the unit though (network stations, compass etc). I've never used the GPS functions though so I'll see if I can figure it out.

 

Tried it now and it gave me a rough position within 10 seconds, but that was based on phone signal only (since I'm indoors with steel roof) so it wasn't very accurate.

 

I'll let you know if I manage to figure it out in time for tomorrow. :)

[leafer]

Assuming all GPS app are the same for Droid phones then according to the linked article, it's pretty good and better than the app on iPhones.

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/185350/droid_vs_iphone_smartphone_gps_shootout.html

 

However I'd like to ask about GPS experience... Is it good? Good I mean signal is strong and its quality is well. Galaxy S1 had crappy GPS :C

 

[Boberro]

Aye, I love it.

 

I'm probably heading downtown for some hanging-out with a friend and his wife tomorrow, I'll try to grab that plotting thingie for the GPS and try it out. If I understand the "cold fix" (basically, you start the GPS receiver and it's the time taken to get good signal?)

 

Cold fix is the time to first stable lock on satellites. This is always the longest time to fix. Then you have "warm" or "hot" one, which is almost instantly (depends on last time when GPS was used).

 

they mentioned "about half a minute" on that article. That was without all oyher assists available to the unit though (network stations, compass etc).

Well if it is without A-GPS, "network based", and similar features it is good sign, but it would be good to know if it was estimated in clear sky or stormy weather and area around.

My modified N95 takes cold fix about 1-3 minutes. Depends of area, weather and how much cable I pull out from the phone's cover :D

It seems it would be great improvement in Galaxy, yeah ^^

 

Tried it now and it gave me a rough position within 10 seconds, but that was based on phone signal only (since I'm indoors with steel roof) so it wasn't very accurate.

If you are going to test it please tell me average GPS signal, stability, precision (well here I expect about 3-6 meters compared to my current 8-17 meters in N95, tested in Sygic Mobile).

Could you make GPS track record in GPX format and upload it example here: http://www.mapmytracks.com/. It is the site where you can view your activities,example on of mine: http://www.mapmytracks.com/explore/activity/216101.

 

I'll let you know if I manage to figure it out in time for tomorrow. :)

Thx :)

 

Once more - about camera. It is full HD, does it have really such god quality or it is overrated feature at all in your opinion?

 

Assuming all GPS app are the same for Droid phones then according to the linked article, it's pretty good and better than the app on iPhones.

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/185350/droid_vs_iphone_smartphone_gps_shootout.html

 

Thx, I would have never thought Google app can be so useful. I'll willingly use it when I buy Samsung (I am horny for Galaxy :D)

Edited August 2, 2011 by Boberro

[EtherealN]

Ouf, the camera is good enough that I don't feel I need a separate camera, but I don't photograph very much. The flash has a serious kick in it though. :P And it does record 1080p video, testing it out now. (I didn't even notice that before. :P )

[Boberro]

bump :D

[104th_Cobra]

The GPS chipset of Samsung Galaxy S is not that good, i read that they where not a-gps activated, wich is not the real problem. It was a week receiver with a long time waiting to receive data and fix position.

 

The new GPS chipset of Galaxy S II is a SiRFstarIV GSD4t, with active jammer remover and high-sensitivity tracking engine. That has a negative aspect: it will be acquiring more multipath noise. But we will not be using this GPS for surveing :)

[104th_Cobra]

Be sure to deactivate the a-gps and be standalone receiver. It will be more accurate.

[Boberro]

Thx for info, now I am more hungry for this phone.

What did you mean saying "more multipath noise"?

 

I do not expect 1 meter accurate but I do not want to have problems as in famous N95 GPS, where Nokia used not good chipset from Texas Solutions. To get it working as it should have been since start I had to solder 10 cm cable to phone's GPS stick on motherboard!

[104th_Cobra]

What did you mean saying "more multipath noise"?

 

I do not expect 1 meter accurate...

 

Multipath error source is related with hard surfaces GPS radio waves reflections. See here some text:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_analysis_for_the_Global_Positioning_System#Multipath_effects

 

Expect 5 meters better accuracy with EGNOS (in Europe) ionosphere error source correction.

 

I'm also thinking about buying this phone because of Android and his GPS chipset. And refraining of not installing an Ubuntu on him :D ... I'm expecting that one application for geodata acquiring will be ported to Android.

[Boberro]

Thx again, so far I browsed some Internet blogs ect and found mostly Samsung has corrected their GPS in SGS2. Its average accuracy starts from 5 meters to 12.

 

I am going to buy this phone because my current N95 is very retro and Nokia since N95 8 GB premiere in 2006 has developed nothing which could be called "super" or something in same status of tech revolution as same as it was during N95 premiere where it dethroned all other phones in 2006.

Also Symbian today is disaster heh

 

I've never used Android phone, but I believe it is nice system, combined with nice phone = simply good choice. ;]

Edited August 6, 2011 by Boberro

[EtherealN]

Sorry, forgot about this thread. I still have the data from my outing in my phone, I'll try to fish them out.

 

During a prelim test with a-gps active I was very impressed - when I correlated the track with the map it actually was able to show which side of the dirt-track road I was walking on. But that was with the advantage of open range with no buildings around, and of course it gets sort of jittery if I switch side of the road quickly (since it then doesn't have time to average out - commercial GPS by definition has a ~50 meter error margin per signal and anything more exact by that has to work through averaging things out intelligently). This all was with the phone in my pocket.

[Bucic]

I'm about to purchase a Samsung Galaxy Ace. One fundamental question. Can those spying features of android phones be completely disabled easily? I don't feel like being an income source to some sorry a* private data mining company.

[EtherealN]

Not sure, but they're not severe at all. (Not even close to the severity that's going on with iPhones.) I personally don't care about it. It's not worse than the "spying" that's happening any time your using the internet on your computer.

[Bucic]

It's not worse than the "spying" that's happening any time your using the internet on your computer.

I'm on it (Opera NoAdds and Ghostery extensions, cookies deletetion, irlfilter...) :sly: and I'd like to know what spying features are impossible to disable on Android phones. The articles on the internet I've seen so far are rather vague.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Bucic

[EtherealN]

Well, technically, you can disable everything. You can install a custom Android if you want. :P

 

Android is just a linux kernel with a java engine, and there's already many user-made distributions out there.

[Cali]

Not sure, but they're not severe at all. (Not even close to the severity that's going on with iPhones.) I personally don't care about it. It's not worse than the "spying" that's happening any time your using the internet on your computer.

 

Not with my foil hat on, they can't get anything from me.

[Bucic]

Well, technically, you can disable everything. You can install a custom Android if you want. :P

 

Android is just a linux kernel with a java engine, and there's already many user-made distributions out there.

Distributions you say. That will be a good starting point, thanks!

[EtherealN]

Heh, the only way to avoid people getting something from you is to not use the internet. Ever.

 

Technically speaking, I have things on you, because I can look at your account, and the server sees where you connect from and this can be tracked. (Now, of course, if I were to misuse this I'd probably get my ass sued all the way to the moon, but you get my point. :D )

 

I mean, when the whole "news" about the tracking that was happening with iPhones and Androuds and whatnot broke, and was played out like some sort of big thing, I actually sent the journalist in question at my local state TV a quick statement: "what, you think this is news? This has been happening ever since anyone ever connected to the internet with anything."

 

And I sort of love how people paint it as somehow nefarious that Google might use whatever information it gets to target advertisments more effectively at you. To be honest, it's totally refreshing! Anything is better than being offered viagra one day and movie services only applicable to a continent on the other side of the planet... :P If they know roughly where I live, well, perhaps I'll find out about some cool new restaurant I wouldn't have heard about otherwise instead of being informed of the fact that I can get a totally awesome deal on a car in California... :P

[EtherealN]

Distributions you say. That will be a good starting point, thanks!

 

Yeah, essentially, the OS on the android phones are stored in a ROM, but in most android phones this ROM is actually writeable. (Not all though - make sure to check this for any unit you consider purchasing!) So if you don't like the one that comes included, you can completely replace the OS. (You could, technically speaking, probably install a jailbroken iOS on it as well, but that's technically speaking - I'm 99.9% certain that it would be illegal, just making the point).

 

Essentially, on an Android phone that does not have a hardware-locked ROM, you have the same freedom to do whatever you like as you have on your PC.

[Bucic]

this ROM is actually writeable. (Not all though - make sure to check this for any unit you consider purchasing!)

Thanks!

[leafer]

I decided instead of buying one iPhone killer, so today I bought two of the cheper models: the Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Mini. The mini for my wife's late, late b-day present. They both came with quick start guide that were useless. Now I have no idea how to use it. lol

[EtherealN]

Checked the specs on the Fit, and I think you should be fine with pretty much any Android-guide you find on the net. The OS on them is "skinned", but stays fairly close to "standard Android".

 

If you have specific questions, it should be close enough to my Galaxy S2 such that I can check it out on my unit and help you out through that.

[Bucic]

It's funny that I'm switching from my Samsung Monte...because it does not have copy&paste function. When I discovered that I was like 10 y.o. cheapo phones had that!

[leafer]

Thanks, EtherRealN. Man, this is going to make me look a fool but I can't get pass the first screen where there are two bottons at the bottom of it. The green button on the left has a padlock incon, and on the other side is a yellow button with a square icon. When I press on one the other goes away briefly and that's it. WTH? There must be a vid on utube but it's block from work.

[Cali]

I heard a bunch of bad things about the droid 2. Have friends that really hate theirs. They have sxchanged them a 4 times cause they freeze up all the time and a few other problems. Before you buy anything always do a little research on what you want.