Best smart phone?: Page 18 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Best smart phone?

Klaus

And yeah, fair enough. I'm a bit vain that way. But when you factor in the clumsiness of the phone with all of the problems I've had with Android then it's a no-brainer for me.

Burnwinter

Apple stuff seems ok from a distance but I have no idea how any of you cope without gesture keyboards.

Irishgunner

Burnwinter wrote:
Apple stuff seems ok from a distance but I have no idea how any of you cope without gesture keyboards.

I'll say it again, jailbreak.

TouchPal keyboard is identical to swype.

goon

Not everyone can be bothered going to the effort of jailbreaking their phone, most probably don't even know what it is. It's something for the younger lot.

Personally don't see why you'd buy an iPhone if you feel the need to jailbreak. You'd essentially be paying a premium for the most reliable, easy to use smart phone out there, and then deciding to undo all that and turning it into something that resembles an Android phone.

Qwiss

Rex wrote:
It is something you get used to though, isn't it? About a decade ago, I could never have imagined myself wanting a phone with a gigantic screen (in comparison to the ones around at the time). Now, I could never see myself going with an IPhone for the tiny screen alone. Goes for any phone btw.

I'm the other way, I think the screens on Samsungs are far too big. I don't think I'd be happy with that size of a phone in my pocket.

Klaus

otfgoon wrote:
Not everyone can be bothered going to the effort of jailbreaking their phone, most probably don't even know what it is. It's something for the younger lot.

Personally don't see why you'd buy an iPhone if you feel the need to jailbreak. You'd essentially be paying a premium for the most reliable, easy to use smart phone out there, and then deciding to undo all that and turning it into something that resembles an Android phone.

It takes roughly thirty seconds to jailbreak. Just connect the cord. Pretty much everyone who buys an iphone have to plug it into the computer at some point anyway since it communicates with itunes. Unless you don't have any songs or media or apps on your device whatsoever, but in that case there's no need to jailbreak to begin with because you're only using it to make calls and send a few texts.

It's not like you disable the good points with the phone by jailbreaking it either. The app store, the reliable OS and all that stuff is still there.

goon

Not really, brother set up his iphone 5S without connecting it to a computer, icloud makes things pretty easy.

It takes 30 seconds but only once you've read up on how to do it, then takes a while to figure out the ways you can utalise it too. The people like ourselves who are fairly tech savvy, it's not a big headache. But most will be lost, I know my wife, brothers and friends either wouldn't be able to do it or wouldn't want to put the effort into finding out how to do it. After that, you still have to worry about updates and what not.

Maybe it was just me. I had a few performance problems after jailbreaking my 4S, to the point where after a couple of months I just reverted back.

In the end I found just going back to an Android phone easier. Are you able to play normal video files on the iphone yet?

Irishgunner

It really isn't that hard otf: http://bit.ly/HAL9XK

Even my 10 year old brother was able to jailbreak his iPod by himself, despite barely being able to read in English.

goon

It's a completely unnecessary step when there are other phones other there that don't require you to effectively hack your own device. It's like buying a white t-shirt and dying it blue when you could have just bought a blue t-shirt.

Also a quick glance at that tells me you can't even update to the second last IOS version, nevermind IOS7...

Klaus

It's not ideal, that's for sure. I'm not going to defend Apple's policy because I detest it personally. But I will say that it's fairly easy to work around, and the information on how to do it is out there. It takes five seconds to find a good hit on Google.

The bigger concern, perhaps, is that people generally don't tend to care about the stuff that is the very reason why things like jailbreaking even exist. This is also why Apple were allowed to grow this big to begin with. Locked-up technology, censored apps and monopolistic software is just not a major concern for most people. I'm genuinely worried about that attitude. The trend is prevalent in every country on the planet and spans across the entire spectra of technological devices, from smart phones and computers to video game consoles.

Claudius

Klaus wrote:
Nah, I never got used to it. I had a Samsung phone but just looking at it used to piss me off. It's such an aesthetic abomination.

you're such an angry man, Klaus. i desperately wanted to like the Galaxy S4 but just couldn't get into one i'd borrowed. wasn't intuitive, and the size was a turn-off. so thought about the mini-S4 until i realised they'd cut it at its knees in terms of processor. the mini-S4 is probably the best size for a smart phone, so that was an unfortunate move. but even then, build quality shouts disposable.

i used to jailbreak iPhones. haven't in a while. most things most people need are sufficiently provided for

Klaus

Claudius wrote:
you're such an angry man, Klaus.

I just don't like how my only two options are poor design or immoral design when it comes to smart phones and tablets.

Khanuppet

Klaus wrote:
Claudius wrote:
you're such an angry man, Klaus.

I just don't like how my only two options are poor design or immoral design when it comes to smart phones and tablets.

Have you considered the HTC One? It combines the good points of a galaxy with pretty decent design. Quite happy with mine myself.

Klaus

Yeah, I might go for a One Mini or even a Desire next year. I can't stand Android either though. It just feels like a bit of a second-rate os compared to IOS.

Burnwinter

The choice of Java for Android vs an Objective C runtime for iOS presents a few interesting differences to developers. Android also had poor stability for a while but that seems to be going away.

At an API level they've been broadly similar, with Apple's proprietary media support being a bit superior, whereas Android originally at least had much better ability for apps to interact via its "intents" system (which manifests as "share via" features in the OS). That I've noticed, though I don't run Apple devices, Apple's "tactile" widgets have also always felt significantly more organic.

I'm hearing reports last couple of days that Google are ditching the Dalvik Java VM on Android for a new one called the Android Run Time (ART). That's a really interesting change for Android, probably one of the biggest ones since its inception:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/11/06/meet-art-part-1-the-new-super-fast-android-runtime-google-has-been-working-on-in-secret-for-over-2-years-debuts-in-kitkat/

That's the kind of change that has the potential to permanently end iOS's advantages in the "snappinesss" stakes.

arsedocmd

Been using the lg g2 for three weeks now. Not a tech guy much so I love that I can use it the whole day without charging, unlike the s2 i had earlier. Plus the video quality is awesome, but mainly battery

Qwiss

otfgoon wrote:
Are you able to play normal video files on the iphone yet?

There are quite a few 3rd party apps that will play most video files.

I used to jailbreak my old iphone but the hassle of it for not many advantages lead me to not bother on my current phone.

Irishgunner

qs! wrote:
otfgoon wrote:
Are you able to play normal video files on the iphone yet?

There are quite a few 3rd party apps that will play most video files.

I used to jailbreak my old iphone but the hassle of it for not many advantages lead me to not bother on my current phone.

Tethering is really expensive in France (and isn't included in data plans), Jailbreaking saves me 360€ per year by allowing me to enable free tethering, definitely worth it in my opinion.

The only things I use my jailbreak for are MyWi (for tethering), Flux, SBsettings, and activator. The hassle of not upgrading iOS is well worth it imo.

kamikaze

iphone blows. im in the minority, but WP is where it's at. cant beat nokia hardware, and WP is a very stable and efficient OS. the app gap has pretty much disappeared, too.

banduan

The post update/upgrade win8 is great.

« Previous Page Next Page »