What does the Fox say?

[engineergurl]

Okay, I got another new phone... same thing but hopefully this one isn't defective.. the guy in Verizon even got annoyed when he was doing the factory reset on the first one and it kept shutting off on him, I was like "yeah, cyclic reboot for two days straight sucks a$$"

I swear electronics hate me.

 

[csb]

KF...I continue to print at work.

 

[knight1fox3]

KF...I continue to print at work.

Engineers are such bargain hunters.

 

[Supe]

So I am finally shedding my last Apple product and should have a 64GB Galaxy S6 showing up either tomorrow or Monday. Any must-have Android apps? Also, any good way to transfer all of my files/contacts over from the iphone to the S6?

 

[knight1fox3]

I've not myself looked in to Apple to other platform transfers. Those I've heard/read about didn't go so well (go figure <_< ).

This Lifehacker Android Pack is a good read if you have time. And a few other good ones listed here. I'll likely be getting the GS6 as well when we are upgrade eligible. :thumbs:

 

[Supe]

Thanks. I will probably just try SmartSwitch via the itunes route.

 

[MetsFan]

I've not myself looked in to Apple to other platform transfers. Those I've heard/read about didn't go so well (go figure <_< ).

This Lifehacker Android Pack is a good read if you have time. And a few other good ones listed here. I'll likely be getting the GS6 as well when we are upgrade eligible. :thumbs:

I thought the no SD slot would bother me, but I've had my 16gb S4 for two years now with no real reason to add one. The S4 has been a great phone though aside from the battery life, so I'm keeping it till it dies.

 

[knight1fox3]

I've not myself looked in to Apple to other platform transfers. Those I've heard/read about didn't go so well (go figure <_< ).

This Lifehacker Android Pack is a good read if you have time. And a few other good ones listed here. I'll likely be getting the GS6 as well when we are upgrade eligible. :thumbs:

I thought the no SD slot would bother me, but I've had my 16gb S4 for two years now with no real reason to add one. The S4 has been a great phone though aside from the battery life, so I'm keeping it till it dies.

Agreed. But that discounted upgrade is always hard to pass up. Plus I'm an enthusiast, so more memory and faster CPU are always tempting. The GS6 doesn't allow for the battery to be removed. That could be a deal breaker.

EDIT: No microSD card either. Double deal-breaker. We'll see.

 

[Supe]

So first impressions of the Galaxy S6:

-Fast, but...

-World's worst text messaging app. Have a bunch of old texts on your phone? It's like taking a typing class in 1990, i.e., type your message, and wait 10 seconds to see it. Apparently a long-term problem that has yet to be resolved. Already dumped it for a different text messaging app which works fine.

-Holy bloatware. Between Samsung apps, AT&T apps, and all the Google shit, the phone felt like a damned Geocities webpage when I first used it. Some of it you can't get rid of, only "disable" it. Starting to feel like all of the Google shit is just as bad as Apple.

-The menu navigation is meh at best. Some settings are in-app, some settings are from one of many screens in the settings menu, not much rhyme or reason as to which. Default for all the software is that EVERYTHING gives you a notification, and I did not see a way to default to off, then turn back on the ones you want. So it took forever to go down the stupid list to turn off all the bullshit app notifications. It was also auto-installing all the apps on my Google account, which ROYALLY pissed me off. I had a bunch of stupid games on my tablet that I have no interest in having on my phone, and it took the liberty of installing all those when I wasn't watching...

-My email is acting quirky. There are a multitude of "sync" settings. Desired output is that I want only my work email to sync/refresh real time, and the rest just when I check on it. Took forever to figure out that the "master sync" defaults to off when you get the phone, and is not where you'd expect to find it.

-The camera is pretty awesome for a frickin' phone.

-I HATE the fact that you can't (or at least I can't figure out how) have stuff "wake up the phone" for visuals. e.g. - on an iPhone, the phone would "sleep" with a maps app, but when approaching a turn, it would wake itself up, give you a voice instruction and visual, and then go back to sleep. Best I can tell, the Android phones don't do that? (If you know a workaround for this one without a third party app, please let me know.)

All in all, impressive piece of hardware, not enamored with the UI. I much preferred the OS on my Nexus tablet to this.

 

[knight1fox3]

Thanks for the update. Definitely having second thoughts.

EvolveSMS is an excellent text messaging app as compared to the stock one. And coupled with PushBullet, you can send/receive texts from any PC that has the add-on enabled. Excellent set-up.

I'm confused on the wake-up feature. I mean I know what you're explaining, but when I have a specific app running (i.e. maps) the phone is already in wake mode and doesn't go to sleep until the respective destination is reached. I'm sure there is a 3rd party app to accomplish what you want but I haven't used anything myself since as I mentioned, when using a dynamic app, my phone stays in wake mode for the duration.

Bloatware is the worst and also the primary reason I root it when I get it so I can blow all that away. SOOOO annoying.

 

[engineergurl]

Yeah with my Note I had to tell it in the Play Store that I didn't want all the apps I've ever had installed...

 

[Supe]

Thanks for the update. Definitely having second thoughts.

EvolveSMS is an excellent text messaging app as compared to the stock one. And coupled with PushBullet, you can send/receive texts from any PC that has the add-on enabled. Excellent set-up.

I'm confused on the wake-up feature. I mean I know what you're explaining, but when I have a specific app running (i.e. maps) the phone is already in wake mode and doesn't go to sleep until the respective destination is reached. I'm sure there is a 3rd party app to accomplish what you want but I haven't used anything myself since as I mentioned, when using a dynamic app, my phone stays in wake mode for the duration.

Bloatware is the worst and also the primary reason I root it when I get it so I can blow all that away. SOOOO annoying.

Essentially, the screen dims to conserve battery life, and just wakes up at the "important parts." Helps a lot without a car charger, and keeps the phone quite a bit cooler.

I will say that SmartSwitch was damned near flawless. Made an iTunes backup of the phone, and it carried everything over, didn't even have to specify where to look for the file, it just found the most recent backup. Moved pretty quickly. The ONLY thing that was wonky was that all of the alarm times defaulted to "on" instead of off. Contacts, etc. moved over seamlessly. I still did have to configure e-mail accounts, though, but no issues with photo/video transfer.

 

[knight1fox3]

Interesting. My phone is set to never dim when real-time apps are running. Maybe that can be tweaked in the power-saving settings.

 

[Lumber Jim]

Supe,

How's the phone's reception? My wife has the S4 and it absolutely sucks when comparing it to my Motorola Razr. Otherwise she really likes her phone but will need an upgrade soon.

 

[Supe]

Supe,

How's the phone's reception? My wife has the S4 and it absolutely sucks when comparing it to my Motorola Razr. Otherwise she really likes her phone but will need an upgrade soon.

I have only had a few calls, but my # of bars of service tend to be a bit lower than on my iphone 4s. That said, I haven't dropped any yet, and the clarity seems much better.

 

[engineergurl]

Supe,

How's the phone's reception? My wife has the S4 and it absolutely sucks when comparing it to my Motorola Razr. Otherwise she really likes her phone but will need an upgrade soon.

I have only had a few calls, but my # of bars of service tend to be a bit lower than on my iphone 4s. That said, I haven't dropped any yet, and the clarity seems much better.

They said that the newer sim cards now have a little bit different reception now that they have had to turn on the radio frequencies in the newer phones.

 

[knight1fox3]

Supe,

How's the phone's reception? My wife has the S4 and it absolutely sucks when comparing it to my Motorola Razr. Otherwise she really likes her phone but will need an upgrade soon.

LOL, you live in MN. Nothing works there.

It's not the phone, but rather the provider and the quality of towers. The internal antenna of the S4 can be considered top of the line with its high gain. And is especially efficient on a TRUE LTE network. Note I said true because there are certain providers who claim LTE, but it's just a marketing ploy. I've been all over the US and a few places international and have never had reception issues on the GS4. Just sayin'.

 

[engineergurl]

Supe,

How's the phone's reception? My wife has the S4 and it absolutely sucks when comparing it to my Motorola Razr. Otherwise she really likes her phone but will need an upgrade soon.

LOL, you live in MN. Nothing works there.

It's not the phone, but rather the provider and the quality of towers. The internal antenna of the S4 can be considered top of the line with its high gain. And is especially efficient on a TRUE LTE network. Note I said true because there are certain providers who claim LTE, but it's just a marketing ploy. I've been all over the US and a few places international and have never had reception issues on the GS4. Just sayin'.

come visit me in the technological black hole, it's the only true test...

 

[csb]

LOL, you live in MN. Nothing works there.

Not even the Vikings!

I'll be headed to the hinterlands of Nebraska next week. Is it worth it to buy a contract free phone from the local wireless company to be able to call home and (more importantly) blast my facebook friends with pictures of my vacation?

 

[Road Guy]

they have cell towers in Nebraska?