Technology catch-all thread

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

FWIW, my G2 has an amazing camera with some awesome features I've never seen before (many apologies if these features have been around for 20 years and I am the last to know). The battery is apparently the best on the market. I took a screen shot of my battery manager app that showed I was at 98% battery after 3 hours of use with an estimated 156 hours left. LOL. And this was after moderate texting, checking twitter, and a couple rounds of Plants vs. Zombies. Now obviously 160+ hours is not typical, but I can get 30+ hours if I am not playing many games.

 

So for me, camera and battery life were my two biggest areas of interest going in to choosing my phone last week, and I feel like the guy at Best Buy pushed me in a fantastic direction, and for only $50, it was worth every penny so far.

 

 

 

EDIT: Also, the "knock on" feature is something I never thought I'd use so much, but it's now ALL I use. I can't imagine having to find a side button to turn my phone on again. Phones will buttons on the face probably don't need this feature, but phones with buttons on the sides need this big time. Basically I can wake up and screen lock my phone by just double tapping on the screen. I don't have to pick up my phone or feel for a button to turn on the screen I just tap with my finger and it pops up. It's a very nice touch.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Chilihead90

[Y2HH]

Help Soxtalk. I'm considering getting a smart phone (or normal phone as it is now) and getting rid of my dumb flip phone. Besides the obvious iphone, which everyone knows about and my wife has, I don't know the first thing about different phones available. I don't need the fanciest one out there. I'd be using it for texting, checking sports scores (and twitter for sports), maybe watching games?, some email. I'm sure there are apps I don't know about that I could take advantage of, but I'll be more or less pretty basic with the phone, just having internet capability etc.

 

I'm open to any opinions on which direction I should look to go here, ones to avoid, etc. I know I can do research on this as well, but getting first-hand knowledge instead of reading specs on a website is a lot easier.

 

TIA.

 

Edit: Not looking for this to bring out the iphone vs other pissing match...just want honest opinions/reviews. I only know some about the iphone from my wife, and know nothing about other ones. I have zero brand loyalty, so it doesn't matter to me either way. If it matters any to this, I'll likely still be using ATT for service.

 

Worth noting:

 

Being that your wife already has an iPhone, if you went with an iPhone yourself, you can login to your phone with her iTunes account and download any apps/music she's already paid for without having to repurchase it for yourself. You can then log her off, and log yourself back in with your own account, and all the apps she's purchased will still run.

 

If she's already significantly invested into the Apple ecosystem, you can leverage that investment free of charge to yourself.

 

There are a lot of good phones out there these days, it's less about the phone and more about the ecosystem you want to buy into at this point.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Y2HH

[StrangeSox]

Make sure to shop around at different stores for prices. The Verizon store wanted $200 for my HTC One while Best Buy had the same phone with Verizon for $50. Amazon had similar pricing.

[Jenksismyhero]

I'd wait another 2-3 weeks. Amazon has had a wireless sale in November-December the last few years where they sell the top phones for a penny if you sign a new 2 year deal.

[Brian]

Getting new laptop on Black Friday. Not getting anything extensive. Just to do some basic stuff on.

[chw42]

Worth noting:

 

Being that your wife already has an iPhone, if you went with an iPhone yourself, you can login to your phone with her iTunes account and download any apps/music she's already paid for without having to repurchase it for yourself. You can then log her off, and log yourself back in with your own account, and all the apps she's purchased will still run.

 

If she's already significantly invested into the Apple ecosystem, you can leverage that investment free of charge to yourself.

 

There are a lot of good phones out there these days, it's less about the phone and more about the ecosystem you want to buy into at this point.

 

 

I've done this before. It's great until you have to update those apps.

[Y2HH]

I've done this before. It's great until you have to update those apps.

 

It's been a while since you've done it.

 

You no longer have to log back in as that user to download the updates (not that this was very hard), it just prompts you for that users password to authorize the update these days. Takes about 8 seconds.

[chw42]

It's been a while since you've done it.

 

You no longer have to log back in as that user to download the updates (not that this was very hard), it just prompts you for that users password to authorize the update these days. Takes about 8 seconds.

 

That does make it a hell of a lot better. It used to be that you can only have one iTunes account at a time.

[chw42]

There's an option in Android 4.4 to use ART as a runtime as opposed to Dalvik. I just switched to it today and I like what I see so far.

[BigSqwert]

Help Soxtalk. I'm considering getting a smart phone (or normal phone as it is now) and getting rid of my dumb flip phone. Besides the obvious iphone, which everyone knows about and my wife has, I don't know the first thing about different phones available. I don't need the fanciest one out there. I'd be using it for texting, checking sports scores (and twitter for sports), maybe watching games?, some email. I'm sure there are apps I don't know about that I could take advantage of, but I'll be more or less pretty basic with the phone, just having internet capability etc.

 

I'm open to any opinions on which direction I should look to go here, ones to avoid, etc. I know I can do research on this as well, but getting first-hand knowledge instead of reading specs on a website is a lot easier.

 

TIA.

 

Edit: Not looking for this to bring out the iphone vs other pissing match...just want honest opinions/reviews. I only know some about the iphone from my wife, and know nothing about other ones. I have zero brand loyalty, so it doesn't matter to me either way. If it matters any to this, I'll likely still be using ATT for service.

The LG G2 is $199 off contract on Amazon today. For Verizon and AT&T

[Y2HH]

The LG G2 is $199 off contract on Amazon today. For Verizon and AT&T

 

I still think you have the best Android phone there is, and it's the only one I recommend people get.

[chw42]

So Google recently decided to make it so that you need a Google+ account to comment on YouTube.

 

You'd think that this would make the YouTube comments section less s***ty and that a lot of people would welcome it and a lot probably do.

 

But there's also a group of people who think Google's pushing Google+ down their throats (they kind of are, but so what?) and that this is the worst thing to ever happen to YouTube.

 

It's like people don't understand that YouTube is owned by Google and that there is nothing wrong with Google requiring you to have a Google account to comment on it (comment, not view, mind you).

 

This is like saying you shouldn't be able to use your Facebook account to use Instagram or you shouldn't be able to use your Twitter account to use Vine. These same people also act like Google shouldn't try to expand its social network site, but that's kind of Google's goal. They're a business after all. If you want to use their services, you need to give something in return. Google isn't a damn charity.

Edited November 8, 2013 by chw42

[RockRaines]

So Google recently decided to make it so that you need a Google+ account to comment on YouTube.

 

You'd think that this would make the YouTube comments section less s***ty and that a lot of people would welcome it and a lot probably do.

 

But there's also a group of people who think Google's pushing Google+ down their throats (they kind of are, but so what?) and that this is the worst thing to ever happen to YouTube.

 

It's like people don't understand that YouTube is owned by Google and that there is nothing wrong with Google requiring you to have a Google account to comment on it (comment, not view, mind you).

 

This is like saying you shouldn't be able to use your Facebook account to use Instagram or you shouldn't be able to use your Twitter account to use Vine. These same people also act like Google shouldn't try to expand its social network site, but that's kind of Google's goal. They're a business after all. If you want to use their services, you need to give something in return. Google isn't a damn charity.

I like it. Google's technology is pretty awesome.

[bmags]

I've yet to see this "make people use their REAL identities" do anything to actually make comment sections better.

 

The things that make comments better is heavy moderation. If you can't supply that, don't allow comments, they aren't interesting.

[Jake]

So Google recently decided to make it so that you need a Google+ account to comment on YouTube.

 

You'd think that this would make the YouTube comments section less s***ty and that a lot of people would welcome it and a lot probably do.

 

But there's also a group of people who think Google's pushing Google+ down their throats (they kind of are, but so what?) and that this is the worst thing to ever happen to YouTube.

 

It's like people don't understand that YouTube is owned by Google and that there is nothing wrong with Google requiring you to have a Google account to comment on it (comment, not view, mind you).

 

This is like saying you shouldn't be able to use your Facebook account to use Instagram or you shouldn't be able to use your Twitter account to use Vine. These same people also act like Google shouldn't try to expand its social network site, but that's kind of Google's goal. They're a business after all. If you want to use their services, you need to give something in return. Google isn't a damn charity.

 

I like it. I actually think Google+ is really cool, there just isn't really anyone I know using it.

 

Places like ESPN have required Facebook for comments and it is far less s***ty now. It's still s***ty, but not nearly so bad.

[Y2HH]

I like it. I actually think Google+ is really cool, there just isn't really anyone I know using it.

 

Places like ESPN have required Facebook for comments and it is far less s***ty now. It's still s***ty, but not nearly so bad.

 

I actually like G+ better than FB, but it's a barren wasteland.

 

I can't say I really like the change, but I don't really care, either. Some people don't want their G+/real lives as easily connected to YouTube, I know I don't. Then again, as with all free services supplied by someone, deal with it...or stop using it.

[RockRaines]

I actually like G+ better than FB, but it's a barren wasteland.

 

I can't say I really like the change, but I don't really care, either. Some people don't want their G+/real lives as easily connected to YouTube, I know I don't. Then again, as with all free services supplied by someone, deal with it...or stop using it.

Youtube comments are where people go to anonymously flame. They want nothing to do with their real identity on there.

[Kyyle23]

So my TV broke a few weeks ago, and I needed one in a pinch so I found a deal on Walmart.com for a Cielo 46" HDTV for 340 bucks. So far so good, although I am really hoping that I dont get burned by an offbrand.

 

Honestly I cant find much on Cielo at all. It is a chinese company, and there really isnt much online about them except in the Walmart customer reviews(which for the most part are pretty good, but I take it with a grain of salt)

[chw42]

I actually like G+ better than FB, but it's a barren wasteland.

 

I can't say I really like the change, but I don't really care, either. Some people don't want their G+/real lives as easily connected to YouTube, I know I don't. Then again, as with all free services supplied by someone, deal with it...or stop using it.

 

I use G+ mainly to join communities and see what people I don't know in real life have to say about certain things. I actually like it better than Twitter, but it's no Facebook replacement.

[justBLAZE]

So i tried to download the facebook app update last night and it crashed my app. I figured I'll delete it and download the app itself again, can't even do that.

 

Cliff notes: Facebook up gone, about to freak out in 3 .. 2 .. 1

Edited November 9, 2013 by Knuckles

[Balta1701]

So i tried to download the facebook app update last night and it crashed my app. I figured I'll delete it and download the app itself again, can't even do that.

 

Cliff notes: Facebook up gone, about to freak out in 3 .. 2 .. 1

The last time this happened for me I shut my phone down, restarted it, then plugged it in to computer to allow it to backup/reload, and then was able to recover the app.

 

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

My phone randomly goes on freakishly long battery spurts. It's not really an issue, but it's weird. Looking at my battery manager right now, my phone has been on the battery for 53 hours and has 55 hours left until I need to charge. My phone has only lost 3% of it's battery from last night. Weird.

[Jake]

I have to wonder if there is a hardware problem; some parts aren't communicating right. Your life will drop down really quickly at some point as you surely lost more than 3% of your battery overnight if it was on

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

I have to wonder if there is a hardware problem; some parts aren't communicating right. Your life will drop down really quickly at some point as you surely lost more than 3% of your battery overnight if it was on

 

It has now used 16% in the last 3 hours, which is closer to normal. I'm at 59 hours on battery with an estimated 3 hours remaining. I'm down to 18%.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Chilihead90

[Jake]

Is it rated for that much?