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Hi I consider buying HD7, I am owning HTC HD2 now, cld u answer my questions pls.
how is HD7 compared to HT2
- Call recording - can some1 test VITO Audio Notes 1.38, does it record both sides?
- Battery Live - HD2 must be charged every day
- playing avi and other formats - no problem at all with HD2 (useing TCPMP)
- email - HD2 can record only on phones memory, so I use Profimail which is much better then original one.
- any navigation? garmin and iGo 8 works perfect on HD2
- is Cookie working on HD7?
- Facebook? working properly?
- Myspace? (not working on HD2)
- Word? (full version?)
- any English dictionares?
Thank you!
I came from a HD2
If i you are a gadget freek and like to play with new things, then go for it. But if you want something that can do everything and not parts then stick with the HD2.
I wish i had waited until things pick up a bit before jumping ship, i would say wp7 isnt ready yet. Ok the basics work but thats about it.
I think your expectations aren't quite right.. Windows Mobile 6.5 apps won't work under WP7. Nevertheless, my thoughts:
- Call recording - can some1 test VITO Audio Notes 1.38, does it record both sides?
Can't find this in the WP7 marketplace
- Battery Live - HD2 must be charged every day
For me, that's true with the HD7, although I've only had it 2 days, and battery life tends to get better after a week or so.
- playing avi and other formats - no problem at all with HD2 (useing TCPMP)
I've not had any problems aside from FLAC so far, but it's probably only a matter of time before apps are out which can play more formats.
- email - HD2 can record only on phones memory, so I use Profimail which is much better then original one.
I've not seen any email apps. I'm happier with the defailt WP7 email experience, compared that that on WM6.5
- any navigation? garmin and iGo 8 works perfect on HD2
Nothing in the marketplace yet, although Bing maps does support rudimentary navigation -- not turn-by-turn though.
- is Cookie working on HD7?
No, and it won't - MS have blocked any changes to the main interface.
- Facebook? working properly?
The Facebook app is one of the most impressive ones I've seen on WP7 to date.
- Myspace? (not working on HD2)
Can't see a myspace app, although the web browser is pretty impressive. I don't use myspace myself, so can't comment on how the website appears.
- Word? (full version?)
There's a Word app -- it'll read pretty much anything you throw at it, but if you start from scratch, it's just a glorified notepad, to be honest.
- any English dictionares?
The SMS app and Word will autocorrect, and underline mistakes.
Thank you guys. I will wait then a month or so, if there is still a lack of applications I will get Nokia E7.
Has anything changed after a month?
Ive still got my HTC HD2, had N8 for a week but it was a crap, considerind HD7
Pls answer the question from post nr1
Cheers
I wish I could change. I already sold my HD2. I really am regretting it. I'm tired of people saying it a brand new OS and give it some time. I think MS sold a barebones OS just to follow the Apple business model. Meaning only add things if the masses demand it.
I still believe in Windows mobile compared to Windows Phone. i think WM was and is still way ahead of it's time. Windows Mobile was MS vision of bringing or taking the PC Mobile; multi tasking and all.
However we live in an AOL Walled garden world which works. People really don't like options. They do want things to work but just don't like to choose. I'm ranting I know but WP7 seems to always get me ranting these days.
I'll hang with MS on this one. I know they're in for the long haul but things really aren't looking good.
alabij said:
I wish I could change. I already sold my HD2. I really am regretting it. I'm tired of people saying it a brand new OS and give it some time. I think MS sold a barebones OS just to follow the Apple business model. Meaning only add things if the masses demand it.
I still believe in Windows mobile compared to Windows Phone. i think WM was and is still way ahead of it's time. Windows Mobile was MS vision of bringing or taking the PC Mobile; multi tasking and all.
However we live in an AOL Walled garden world which works. People really don't like options. They do want things to work but just don't like to choose. I'm ranting I know but WP7 seems to always get me ranting these days.
I'll hang with MS on this one. I know they're in for the long haul but things really aren't looking good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, bare bone or not, there is many basic functions which are missing.
To me it seems like they released it unfinished. Or for 12 year old girls who want to keep up with face book, i mean look at the color options for the tiles?
Not one male color.
Also I get the whole live tiles, but how different are they from apps. only diff is they are bigger then ur avg app icon ( negative feature ) , and they update, whoopty do, u can set software to display updates on the app icon on any of the OS we see now ( if the developers wanted to), but things like alarm or that I have a new message, I dont need a huge tile to tell me, I have to scroll down twice to see if my alarm is set cause my phone, contacts, sms, and 4 email account tiles ( cause u cant view all 4 from one area, you have to have them separate) are all in the way.
The old small tile bar up top of the screen which told you your signal strength, network, battery and a little alarm bell, was very effective, first rule of good business, dont change what works.
But great features like assignable favs from phone book to access are missing
Im ranting to, and I'm ranting cause if they think this OS is what ppl want then they need to fire their R&D
I know I know its new, its in development, when some one tells me something is new and in development I think of a door way to a building, it opens, it closes, it has a door handle, a lock with a key access, hinges, screws, paint, glass, sealed and their working on the art on the glass and adding thumb print access.
OS 7: they gave us a piece of wood with some glass, some slippery stuff to make it very smooth and said "hold on the hinges will be here in a month". but feel free to stare at the ppl tile as your friends faces rotate on them and tell u when little jimmy is updating his face book status cause he went poop.
Sorry guys just expected more, I know read the past its been talked about, well i have not read it, I though it would be an upgrade from HD2 6.5, instead we went back wards.
They just made it more slick, so slick its empty.
Fair enough, it's not for you, but I would totally disagree about it being a step back.
I think they've got a real winner on their hands. Android is already out there for people who want to tweak to their hearts content, have access to the entire OS, and have a slightly unstable phone as a result.
MS have instead produced a focussed, useable platform that does what it says it will. It provides functionality within one or two presses of the screen, it all integrates very nicely and hangs together well. It's easy and intuitive to navigate, and it VERSION 1!!!
This expectation that a brand new, from the ground up, piece of software will be fully featured and working perfectly is utterly unrealistic. Name me one piece of software that has EVER met those criteria?!?!
In fairness to MS, they have taken the decision to release what works, rather than throw in a few extra features that need a couple more months development and will be buggy and generally drag the whole experience down. They have stated that there will be regular updates, and we have no reason to think that they won't be true to their word. As long as they keep to that, and fill in the functionality then they will have a great OS on their hands.
For those complaining that it doesn't do what WM did, it's not meant to - hence why it's called windows phone rather than mobile - it's not meant to be a pocket PC anymore. Also, MS have said that they will be aiming to make the phone more business friendly with future releases next year - right now it's not intended to be a business machine, that's why WM6.5 hasn't been scrapped.
Personally, as much as I love android, I quickly got bored of it - it tries to be all things to all people, and suffers as a result. It's still a great OS, but it's not what I want. I've been following the development of WP7 for a long time, and had a few chances to play with it at MS events, and it really is fantastic. We all knew it didn't have cut and paste, we all knew it doesn't multi-task, so why oh why do people buy it and then complain about these missing features - it's like buying a bike, then complaining that it's got two wheels missing?!?!
WP7 does what it does very well, it's that simple.
rob_p said:
Fair enough, it's not for you, but I would totally disagree about it being a step back.
I think they've got a real winner on their hands. Android is already out there for people who want to tweak to their hearts content, have access to the entire OS, and have a slightly unstable phone as a result.
MS have instead produced a focussed, useable platform that does what it says it will. It provides functionality within one or two presses of the screen, it all integrates very nicely and hangs together well. It's easy and intuitive to navigate, and it VERSION 1!!!
This expectation that a brand new, from the ground up, piece of software will be fully featured and working perfectly is utterly unrealistic. Name me one piece of software that has EVER met those criteria?!?!
In fairness to MS, they have taken the decision to release what works, rather than throw in a few extra features that need a couple more months development and will be buggy and generally drag the whole experience down. They have stated that there will be regular updates, and we have no reason to think that they won't be true to their word. As long as they keep to that, and fill in the functionality then they will have a great OS on their hands.
For those complaining that it doesn't do what WM did, it's not meant to - hence why it's called windows phone rather than mobile - it's not meant to be a pocket PC anymore. Also, MS have said that they will be aiming to make the phone more business friendly with future releases next year - right now it's not intended to be a business machine, that's why WM6.5 hasn't been scrapped.
Personally, as much as I love android, I quickly got bored of it - it tries to be all things to all people, and suffers as a result. It's still a great OS, but it's not what I want. I've been following the development of WP7 for a long time, and had a few chances to play with it at MS events, and it really is fantastic. We all knew it didn't have cut and paste, we all knew it doesn't multi-task, so why oh why do people buy it and then complain about these missing features - it's like buying a bike, then complaining that it's got two wheels missing?!?!
WP7 does what it does very well, it's that simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the problem, we all didnt know, not all of us have been following this thing all this time or its development nor have the time to, but there is basic features which are expected in any phone to have in 2010 era.
Im sorry but not having cut and past on a phone which is all about media is rediculas, it should be part of the code, and its not complicated code, they know how to do it, but if you notice, there is an app out there you can buy that will do it for you. Hence, Microsoft has decided to bank on the app market vs the phone OS sales by giving us nothing and charging us for what we want.
What I predict in the upcoming updates? very basic things, everthing else that we want, that should be part of the basic OS will be available to buy, I dont blame them, it makes perfect sense.
For example, I over slept today, since there is only one setting for volume, I set my phone on vibrate over night so that if I have that one client who just cant wait till 9am to talk to me and calls at 6:30 i dont get woken up, but since the alerm sound is now not working, i sleep right through my 7:30 am alarm.
So the general person would say but no one else needs that, put it ringer on ring, cause most of us wont get calls at 6am right. Say you want to take a mid day nap cause ur head still pounding from going out the previous night, you need your alarm to wake u up but when that girl you chilled with last night calls you five times cause she is emotionaly unstable you dont want to hear it. How would you set that up?
Every phone since, hell 2002 I have seen have the ability to set different ring type and volume on alarm then the master one.
Thats a simple basic feature.
Things like that is what botheres me about this phone, like they forgot to put it in as they rushed it out the door for the holiday season so they can sell them for xmas
@Rysksy
Give it up dude- copy and paste will be in Jan update, along with other stuff. God knows what you did with the alarm but my WP7 phone is set to vibrate for calls and texts and full volume for music/ alarms etc. Press the volume key and you'll see how to do it.
Fair enough to complain about valid concerns, but the comments you are making sound like you haven't actually got one and would just like to have a moan about things which are either well documented and will soon be fixed, or aren't in fact an issue. If you loathe it so much why not sell it (if indeed you do own one), and buy a HD2 again with cash left over?
monkeybutler365 said:
@Rysksy
Give it up dude- copy and paste will be in Jan update, along with other stuff. God knows what you did with the alarm but my WP7 phone is set to vibrate for calls and texts and full volume for music/ alarms etc. Press the volume key and you'll see how to do it.
Fair enough to complain about valid concerns, but the comments you are making sound like you haven't actually got one and would just like to have a moan about things which are either well documented and will soon be fixed, or aren't in fact an issue. If you loathe it so much why not sell it (if indeed you do own one), and buy a HD2 again with cash left over?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the HD2 and the HD7, money is not the issue, id spendn 800$ on the N8 or E7 if I could test it before I got it, just no Nokia dealers in my city.
There is not many alarm settings, and when u press the volume key, your options is to either tune the level of ring up or down, or press in top right corner to go to ring or vibrate, there is no profile selection.
When I set my phone to vibrate, the alarm does not sound, it goes off, in a nice vibrating kind of way, but not sound. That is a bit frustrating, for the fact that some times I need to have alarm wake me up but not my calls or messages, dont have that kind of a setting, heck no setting to keep media volume separte from ringer volume, same problem HD2 had to, if I want to watch a movie I turn the volume up in hte movie, then I get a call and it blares at full volume. Those should be independent of each other.
I am not bitter, I just feel that we were given a half finish OS, lots of promises and not much delivered, but they are capitalizing on us buying things from the market to temp fix what we need. And having to wait for update, they know that most of us have 14 days from the time we buy to return, so they set the new release way out, so that every one is stuck with phone if they dont like it, maximize profits for the holidays, very smart of them.
If i was a car maker, i would not put a car on the market, and say " hold on doors coming soon"
Thats all I am saying
Wait a sec....
rysky007 said:
I have the HD2 and the HD7, money is not the issue, id spendn 800$ on the N8 or E7 if I could test it before I got it, just no Nokia dealers in my city.
There is not many alarm settings, and when u press the volume key, your options is to either tune the level of ring up or down, or press in top right corner to go to ring or vibrate, there is no profile selection.
When I set my phone to vibrate, the alarm does not sound, it goes off, in a nice vibrating kind of way, but not sound. That is a bit frustrating, for the fact that some times I need to have alarm wake me up but not my calls or messages, dont have that kind of a setting, heck no setting to keep media volume separte from ringer volume, same problem HD2 had to, if I want to watch a movie I turn the volume up in hte movie, then I get a call and it blares at full volume. Those should be independent of each other.
I am not bitter, I just feel that we were given a half finish OS, lots of promises and not much delivered, but they are capitalizing on us buying things from the market to temp fix what we need. And having to wait for update, they know that most of us have 14 days from the time we buy to return, so they set the new release way out, so that every one is stuck with phone if they dont like it, maximize profits for the holidays, very smart of them.
If i was a car maker, i would not put a car on the market, and say " hold on doors coming soon"
Thats all I am saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a phone whore and have used just about every mobile platform available and many many many phone devices as well.
I currently have a Samsung Vibrant, HD2 and HD7 and here's my take.
This is not the first phone to come out unfinished and it probably won't be the last. All versions of Apples Mobile OS to this very day have been released with some major feature missing or a ton of bugs. This is really nothing new.
I've been using Android since the G1 and I can remember when many people scoffed at the platform. No one is laughing at Android now.
My HD2 is a pretty phone with a ****ty OS and I hacked and flashed custom ROMs on that thing from day one. My Android devices (all of them) though awesome, have also been customized, Rooted and flashed with all kinds of ROMs. When I used iPhones, I jailbroke them all. Heck, even my iPad is jailbroken right now.
There is no level playing field and there certainly is no perfect phone.
These things take time.
Now granted, some things in Windows phone should probably have been added from jump, e.g. Cut & Paste, but we all know that's coming sooner rather than later.
Regardless, this is a very polished platform that obviously has a lot of room for growth and amazing potential.
The question is can you be patient enough to wait a few weeks/months, or are you going to keep kvetching over the situation?
Once you answer that question, I'm pretty sure your next step will become clear to you
HD7 Really?
So, I got a HD2. . . It has been a decent phone for a few weeks(I got way fed up with my 3G iPhone and found a straight across trade).
It's the usual WMO OS, decent at best. Quite stable, but the menus are just. . . . Well, WMO.
Now, I just ordered the HD7. I called t-mobile and they just wanted to give me this thing. I added a line and renewed a contract and they gave me 2 HD7's for 300 Bucks on some loyalty BS.
So, I went to the T-mobile store to play with it before it got here.
Seriously what gives?
No Background
The tiles look idiotic(the rendering is nice, I guess)
Is there even a file management system?
SPB Shell will not work on it
Can you access the files in a removable storage format?
I guess that about covers it. . . Geez, it's like the iPhone OS in the early days.
rysky007 said:
I have the HD2 and the HD7, money is not the issue, id spendn 800$ on the N8 or E7 if I could test it before I got it, just no Nokia dealers in my city.
There is not many alarm settings, and when u press the volume key, your options is to either tune the level of ring up or down, or press in top right corner to go to ring or vibrate, there is no profile selection.
When I set my phone to vibrate, the alarm does not sound, it goes off, in a nice vibrating kind of way, but not sound. That is a bit frustrating, for the fact that some times I need to have alarm wake me up but not my calls or messages, dont have that kind of a setting, heck no setting to keep media volume separte from ringer volume, same problem HD2 had to, if I want to watch a movie I turn the volume up in hte movie, then I get a call and it blares at full volume. Those should be independent of each other.
I am not bitter, I just feel that we were given a half finish OS, lots of promises and not much delivered, but they are capitalizing on us buying things from the market to temp fix what we need. And having to wait for update, they know that most of us have 14 days from the time we buy to return, so they set the new release way out, so that every one is stuck with phone if they dont like it, maximize profits for the holidays, very smart of them.
If i was a car maker, i would not put a car on the market, and say " hold on doors coming soon"
Thats all I am saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do not know how to google???
Everything you complain about has been covered ad nauseum on the web for MONTHS!!!!
It's not MS's fault you didn't do your homework.
Maybe if you need to put your phone on vibrate when you sleep you should invest in a 10 dollar alarm clock. I've used the same one for over a decade, batteries last about 2 years in it.
If you are within your 2 weeks, I suggest you return the phone.
And FYI, you can adjust the ringer and media volumes separately on the hd2. It's obvious you didn't do your homework on that one either.
samson_420 said:
So, I got a HD2. . . It has been a decent phone for a few weeks(I got way fed up with my 3G iPhone and found a straight across trade).
It's the usual WMO OS, decent at best. Quite stable, but the menus are just. . . . Well, WMO.
Now, I just ordered the HD7. I called t-mobile and they just wanted to give me this thing. I added a line and renewed a contract and they gave me 2 HD7's for 300 Bucks on some loyalty BS.
So, I went to the T-mobile store to play with it before it got here.
Seriously what gives?
No Background
The tiles look idiotic(the rendering is nice, I guess)
Is there even a file management system?
SPB Shell will not work on it
Can you access the files in a removable storage format?
I guess that about covers it. . . Geez, it's like the iPhone OS in the early days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once again, a little research before you buy electronics goes a long way.
nrfitchett4 said:
Once again, a little research before you buy electronics goes a long way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very true, I got it just because it was cheap. It will most likely be sold due to these issues.
But, come on. . . You can't tell me these issues should not be resolved before a OS is released. Some of these issues are unreasonable.
nrfitchett4 said:
do not know how to google???
Everything you complain about has been covered ad nauseum on the web for MONTHS!!!!
It's not MS's fault you didn't do your homework.
Maybe if you need to put your phone on vibrate when you sleep you should invest in a 10 dollar alarm clock. I've used the same one for over a decade, batteries last about 2 years in it.
If you are within your 2 weeks, I suggest you return the phone.
And FYI, you can adjust the ringer and media volumes separately on the hd2. It's obvious you didn't do your homework on that one either.
Once again, a little research before you buy electronics goes a long way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I never said that you cannot do it on HD2, thats one of the features I liked on the HD2, so you miss read my statement as I said that since the HD2 had the feature why not HD7.
Im glad that its been covered and beaten up for months on thousands of diff forums. And I will give you the same answer I gave the other person who made that comment. When I buy a car, I dont spend hours on line to research if it comes with brakes and doors. I research if it has a certain adapter or feature, but usually a quick glance to their site or call to dealer can solve that issue.
I dont have time to spend on line reading the thousands of posts.. which i did do a little research about it before I got one, and sorting through the clutter of personal reviews did not answer the question of what it does and does not have.
Especially since many of the posts were, "I took the fuzzy picture the guy took at the private release that was leaked to us and photo shopped it and rendered it 3d view and it looks like there is a small hole for something but I cannot tell what"
Until the product is released and played with, you will never fully know what it does and does not have. Things like cut and paste which many complained about is not a big deal for me. But alarm features, select all, and view multiple email accounts from one place i did not see discussed, why? cause its not important to most avg users who spend hours a day on google or face book,
I run two businesses, time is limited.
^ Yup. . . . So far from what I have seen of this new WMO Phone it is a fail. They really bit the big one on this. The only way I can use this device is if they release a serious update.
I recently had my HD2 stolen, so for the time being, I have had to go back to my old Orbit. I am so jealous of you guys with multiple phones and OSs
Anyway, to get to the point. I was totally in love with my HD2 and am a long time WinMo user and fan. But now I have the chance to look around for a new phone. Sorry, but iPhone doesn't even come into the equation. I have an iPod Touch and that has put me off the whole iOS. So that leaves only Symbian, Android and WP7. And you can kick Symbian off the list as I don't like the look of the OS. So, Android or WP7.
The beauty of the HD2 was that you can run it with Android, so I have already had a lot of use and fun out of that OS. It is smart and polished and with a lot of regular updates to keep it fresh and up to the minute. A serious contender in the replacement market.
My only experience with WP7 is 10 mins playing with it in a T-Mobile shop the other day and from what I have read here and on other sites. As many say, iOS started off the same; bare-bones with room for more as and when the public cry loud enough for it. But those 10 mins playing with it in the shop didn't give me a lot of faith in it. Yes, it's very fluid and slick, but the eco-system is too restrictive, just like the iPhone. And from Microsoft, I expected more... much more. They had 10 years of WinMo experience which in my opinion, they decided to pass up on and follow the Apple route. Copy and paste may not be something everyone uses, but the world scoffed at Apple for not having it until the 3Gs came along. The tiles on the "home" screen are an excellent idea, for a quick glance at what's new, but you could do the same with WinMo with one or two added apps (or just use Titanium, which also told you you had new mails, messages, etc).
In conclusion, I would most likely be replacing my HD2 with a new HD2. OK, WinMo may be old hat and a bit awkward, but with HTCs Sense it runs like a charm. And if I want Android, I can run that too. And who knows, maybe in the not too distant future there will be a WP7 port for it too. The perfect phone for me!
samson_420 said:
Very true, I got it just because it was cheap. It will most likely be sold due to these issues.
But, come on. . . You can't tell me these issues should not be resolved before a OS is released. Some of these issues are unreasonable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I and most other users don't find anything "unreasonable" missing. It makes calls, texts, emails, plays music, videos, games, has office integration.
rysky007 said:
Actually I never said that you cannot do it on HD2, thats one of the features I liked on the HD2, so you miss read my statement as I said that since the HD2 had the feature why not HD7.
Im glad that its been covered and beaten up for months on thousands of diff forums. And I will give you the same answer I gave the other person who made that comment. When I buy a car, I dont spend hours on line to research if it comes with brakes and doors. I research if it has a certain adapter or feature, but usually a quick glance to their site or call to dealer can solve that issue.
I dont have time to spend on line reading the thousands of posts.. which i did do a little research about it before I got one, and sorting through the clutter of personal reviews did not answer the question of what it does and does not have.
Especially since many of the posts were, "I took the fuzzy picture the guy took at the private release that was leaked to us and photo shopped it and rendered it 3d view and it looks like there is a small hole for something but I cannot tell what"
Until the product is released and played with, you will never fully know what it does and does not have. Things like cut and paste which many complained about is not a big deal for me. But alarm features, select all, and view multiple email accounts from one place i did not see discussed, why? cause its not important to most avg users who spend hours a day on google or face book,
I run two businesses, time is limited.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Time is limited, yet you can't read one review before you buy a phone, yet can post 20 times what you hate about it afterwards. You probably buy an SUV, then complain to everyone when it gets 15mpg, like that is some unknown problem.....
[email protected] said:
I recently had my HD2 stolen, so for the time being, I have had to go back to my old Orbit. I am so jealous of you guys with multiple phones and OSs
Anyway, to get to the point. I was totally in love with my HD2 and am a long time WinMo user and fan. But now I have the chance to look around for a new phone. Sorry, but iPhone doesn't even come into the equation. I have an iPod Touch and that has put me off the whole iOS. So that leaves only Symbian, Android and WP7. And you can kick Symbian off the list as I don't like the look of the OS. So, Android or WP7.
The beauty of the HD2 was that you can run it with Android, so I have already had a lot of use and fun out of that OS. It is smart and polished and with a lot of regular updates to keep it fresh and up to the minute. A serious contender in the replacement market.
My only experience with WP7 is 10 mins playing with it in a T-Mobile shop the other day and from what I have read here and on other sites. As many say, iOS started off the same; bare-bones with room for more as and when the public cry loud enough for it. But those 10 mins playing with it in the shop didn't give me a lot of faith in it. Yes, it's very fluid and slick, but the eco-system is too restrictive, just like the iPhone. And from Microsoft, I expected more... much more. They had 10 years of WinMo experience which in my opinion, they decided to pass up on and follow the Apple route. Copy and paste may not be something everyone uses, but the world scoffed at Apple for not having it until the 3Gs came along. The tiles on the "home" screen are an excellent idea, for a quick glance at what's new, but you could do the same with WinMo with one or two added apps (or just use Titanium, which also told you you had new mails, messages, etc).
In conclusion, I would most likely be replacing my HD2 with a new HD2. OK, WinMo may be old hat and a bit awkward, but with HTCs Sense it runs like a charm. And if I want Android, I can run that too. And who knows, maybe in the not too distant future there will be a WP7 port for it too. The perfect phone for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android doesn't get that many updates. It just seems that way because the android builds for the hd2 pull from all the android OS's. Most of them still haven't gotten an official 2.2 that has been released from google for months.
nrfitchett4 said:
I and most other users don't find anything "unreasonable" missing. It makes calls, texts, emails, plays music, videos, games, has office integration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So does a much lower end phone. . . .
It will just take time as always for people that know what their doing to improve upon where the manufacturer has failed.
I though it sucked really bad. Not only it is lame but it rarely talks about the device itself and they kind of abused their simple idea which was used for the Galaxy S II.
An ad like this one would've worked like magic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvUK2VmbO2I
But unfortunately, this just comes to show how corporate Samsung ruins simple ideas for the money. I bet all what they were thinking about was spending more money to justify the spots costs, while completely ignoring that simple is what works these days.
Only 3 threads so far on this? I predict 10
From the Beast : Galaxy Note
I like it very much,simple yet effective....
Sent from my LT18i using xda premium
I liked the ad a lot.
A. It had the song "I Believe in a Thing Called Love," by The Darkness (LOVE THAT SONG).
B. It had Brian Urlacher
C. It had Miranda Kerr (YES!)
D. It showed the 2 MAIN features of the phone which truly distinguishes it from the iPhone - the 5.3" screen and the stylus without being over-technical. If you ever watch iPhone ads, they are never over-technical and focus more on design and simplicity, which Samsung must do to appeal to the non-techie masses. Have you ever seen an iPhone TV ad stating what speed is the processor or how many megapixels is the camera?
No, but they do show it actually being used for something other than dancing around in the street. You can show real-life usability without being too technical.
hausman said:
No, but they do show it actually being used for something other than dancing around in the street. You can show real-life usability without being too technical.
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Click to collapse
They did show usability:
1. How you can annotate Google Maps using the S-Pen
2. How you can do video chat (just like the iPhone) but without being on WiFi only.
3. How you can take a photo and doodle on the pic directly (in this case Brian Urlacher autographing is picture).
The commercial was ok. Sammy could have made it better tbh.
randomnameftw said:
The commercial was ok. Sammy could have made it better tbh.
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I think it's very rogue. It's meant for the US people.
tytung2020 said:
I think it's very rogue. It's meant for the US people.
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Click to collapse
I'm USA people and I thought it was weird. I thought it did a poor job of selling the product. Instead of trying to knock Apple they should have focused on the next big thing and backed that up with the features. Either that or stick to knocking Apple. To many messages in too short a time presented with far too much ado.
I liked it. It wasn't the best but I guess that's the best it gets from Samsung?
Composed on my Samsung Galaxy Note using XDA Premium app
I really think Bobby Farelly should have done the Me, Myself, and Irene approach. The galaxy note having a dual personality, a phone and a tablet. And a midget.
Thread Moved To Q&A
This is a question, and as such belongs in the Q&A Section
I finally got around to my review:
http://ninjafrog.tumblr.com/post/28888180324/nexus7
Nexus 7 Review (From An iPad User)
Well to be fair you have to compare it to a ipod touch, as they are the same price.
jayman16 said:
I finally got around to my review:
http://ninjafrog.tumblr.com/post/28888180324/nexus7
Nexus 7 Review (From An iPad User)
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Totally disagree with bur post on some of the cons. I own an android phone, iPhone and an iPad.
The thing that bothers me the most (as with several other iOS users) is that the is is so simple its just out right stupid. The fact that apple has to resort to a screenful of icons that do nothing except show a picture of a static image. Of course its fast, there's nothing to do when scrolling.
The notifications in iOS is useless. I constantly see 1 week old emails in my iOS notifications screen.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
jayman16 said:
I finally got around to my review:
http://ninjafrog.tumblr.com/post/28888180324/nexus7
Nexus 7 Review (From An iPad User)
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Click to collapse
The reson iOS is "fast" it's because it doesn't do true multi-tasking. It literally shuts everything down except foreground app. This works great in the era of Palm OS. But as you notice in Android, more and more apps are always on continuously. (eg. all those widgets, web apps, etc are all running and doing something on the background)
Apple will be in a lot of trouble when it tries to put on "widget, because then it will have to do true multi-tasking... (then we will see what iOS lag is.)
It's easy to force user only to push one icon at a time. It doesn't need quad processor/1.4Ghz just to show 4 rows of icons. Of course the damned thing will be insanely fast, since all the processor is doing is flipping pages that contains nothing but 4 rows of icons. But that won't be enough anymore... Let's talk when iPad is doing full service widget and multi-tasking like android.
The lack of physical buttons does get very frustrating... I don't have anything with virtual keys but i know the buttons on my sensation piss me off occasionally when i hit back instead of space. I actually find myself missing the space bar a lot because i try to avoid the back button instead. Swiftkey helps for that correcting words.
And god is the back button on android annoying. I hate how it's like the lottery, hmm... what was i doing before this place... let's see, nope crap, home screen.
But for all that, android is still fun because of widgets and the openness. I think it's like mac vs windows for me... I enjoy having the company of both. Since you don't like your nexus 7 as much anymore... let me give it a whirl? =D
I have the nexus 7 and an iPad 3. I do like customizing my nexus 7 with widgets and such but I actually like the way my iPad handles "multitasking". I use both for different circumstances. I hate web surfing on the nexus and reading PDF files but I prefer the form factor more for gaming on the nexus. Both work great for email and video for me. I don't think any device can fully satisfy all my needs but the combination of the two covers me across the board. I have to credit google and asus. I have never liked android but this completely changed my mind and I find myself promoting both to family and friends based on their needs. When I travel I mount my nexus 7 on my dash for navigation which is tethered to my awesome iPhone 4s so they as well as us here can play nice together lol
I'm not an Apple fan really, but I've owned an iPad 1 and now have an iPad 3, but think of myself as more of an Android fan...
Your cons are wrong, they are your opinions of course. But I think when you spend some time with Android they probably won't really bother you much. Here are my thoughts on those things you mentioned...
The 16:10 form factor (it's not 16:9).
I do actually like Apple's 4:3 ratio quite a bit. I wish someone would make a high quality Android tablet in that form factor. While I don't dislike 16:10. I do like holding my tablet in portrait mode and with 4:3 it's still wide enough in portrait that websites are still readable.
With the Nexus 7 though I'm liking 16:10 more than I probably would on a 10 inch tablet. With a 10 inch tablet I can't really hold a tablet one handed in landscape mode for too long because of the weight, hence why I like portrait mode. But with this 7 inch Nexus 7, I find it's light enough that I can hold it in landscape mode one handed and not be uncomfortable.
It's strong point is most of the screen is used when playing videos. There is some letter boxing (most videos are 16:9 and the screen is 16:10), but it's minor and some apps have the soft keys dimmed on the screen, so just enough room for them and still seeing all of the video. It's perfect.
Chrome does get cramped feeling though in landscape with the tabs and address bar and menu bar at top and the softkeys on the bottom. I wish Chrome had a full screen mode so bad. Maybe some day. Until then there is Dolphin.
The keyboard realestate is a non issue for me since I'm busy looking at the keyboard when I'm typing anyway.
Soft keys.
I'm fine with them. But yeah I've hit the home button instead of the space bar. The Nexus 7 uses the phone UI by default. I like like the tablet UI with the soft keys being off to the left side and the menu bar and notifications being on the right side. And you can switch to that UI if you are rooted and following a simple guide.
I do sometimes wish Android had a home button. My Touchpad and Nook Color with Android do and it's nice to be able to wake the device up with that button on the front instead of having to search for the power button on the side. But other than that, I don't really miss physical buttons much.
Back button.
Never thought much about the back button in Android. I guess I've exited an app quite a bit that I didn't mean too, but I guess I've gotten used to it and just go back into the app. I think always knowing where the back button is outweighs the occasional mess up on my part.
Project butter.
Android still needs more work to match iOS's smoothness. Agreed.
Tablet apps.
Hopefully in time this will improve. The issue is we've had Android 2.x for phones and Android 3.x for tablets. Android 4.x unified things, but it's still on a minority of Android devices. And developers just seem to love Apple more (guess it's easier when developing for a hand full of devices versus hundreds).
Seeing the DirecTV on my iPad and then on my Android, I want to cry.
Audio.
Never though of multitasking audio as bad. Whatever is playing is usually found in the notification tray, so if something is still playing, I can pause or stop it very quickly.
by all the Android users I see in the real world doing double or triple taps on their device to make sure their input goes through. Coincidentally, I see Windows users do this all the time too.
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And iOS users dont? My friends don't use apple very much but I have a friend with iFon 4S, and I always remember he is tapping one or more times OS to recognises his touchs. This is just a part, you are total apple "lover" on your review.
I just aggree about software keys, they suck.
we might be seeing an 8’ iPad for as little as $250-$300 then I really don’t see anyone picking the Nexus 7 over an iPad
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Do you really have a hope to get an Apple device for $250? Good luck
I am really bored of reading Apple fans reviews. They are way too "fair".
Low end Chinese tablets already hitting sub $150. This is powered by dual cores A10, 50nm. By the time apple fans done waiting for magical mini iPad to show up, low cost chinese tablet will be dual core, 40nm. 1.2GHz or so. (in other word, current high end iPad.) Allwinner is already reported to work with ARM creating next generation low cost CPU.
Apple has zero chance winning price war competing against Android.
On the high end side, apple has no chance catching against android either on GPU front. Apple doesn't have its own architecture (as oppose to nVidia, qualcomm/ati, or samsung) Apple's chip will always have bigger size, use more power, running hotter, expensive to make, compared to same fabrication node. Apple CPU is the Chevy Suburban of CPU world.
some battery comparison
iPad3 ...11666 mAh
Nexus7 ...4326 mAh
Transformer TF700 ...6757 mAh
Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 ...7000 mAh
I'm going to say this for everybody and also as a former apple fan who has seen the light.
"Who gives a sh*t about an iPad users lame opinion about an open os and a powerful device too complicated for simple minded sheeple!"
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
I take the points about the soft buttons, but the touch responsiveness on my N7 is great. I think you might have a defective device?
Project Butter: While 4.1 (and the Nexus 7) is the smoothest, fastest, and most consistent Android experience I’ve had; the first iPhone with iOS 1.0 still puts it to shame. When I bought the first iPhone I came from a flip phone. No “smart phone” (I use that term loosely for pre-iPhone smartphones) no BlackBerry, no PDA. So everything with the iPhone was eye-opening for me, and for a lot of people. For me though I was amazed at the UX (user experience) of the OS. Swiping in apps, pinch-to-zoom, double-tab-to-zoom, and the rubber band effect in lists impressed me to no end. Apple dedicates a certain percentage of resources to the UX to keep it smooth and responsive, and they have since day one. My number one complaint with Android has been their touch responsiveness, or lack there of. With “Project Butter” it is much better, but no where close to iOS. If iOS is a 10, I’d rate 4.1 (on the Nexus 7) at a 6 or 7.
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Click to collapse
seriously mate
you have the iBug therefore you can never review android fairly
iUsers somehow mix nostalgia with facts with delusions with whatever and hey presto, iPhone 1 was running at 60fps on it's thermo nuclear processor haha
iFanBoys just stick to your devices, bias people shouldn't write reviews. Go away
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Seriously, 4 out of the 5 first bullet points were "this is not like the iPad; I don't like it".
As for the remaining one, I don't actually trust someone who tries to compare speed by eye; unfortunately, as hamdir hinted, this is subject to way too much confirmation bias.
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Soft buttons are, in fact, an insanely good idea (though I admit they might be ahead of their time), because they're the only type that can be significantly modded. I'm still waiting for rob43 to get a N7 so that he can port over his Salad Bar II. And without softkeys, you can't implement features like edge swiping to bring up/hide the nav bar like in Glazed ROM; you're just stuck with an inflexible button orientation forever.
Finally, I can't honestly believe you're advocating reaching up to God-knows-where in each app just to hit a back button. If you really want to reach around everytime because that's what you do in iOS, then good for you; I'll be sticking to the back button that's near my fingers, tyvm.
thebobp said:
Seriously, 4 out of the 5 first bullet points were "this is not like the iPad; I don't like it".
As for the other one, I don't actually trust someone who tries to compare speed by eye; unfortunately, as hamdir said, this is subject to way too much confirmation bias.
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As for the back button, I can't honestly believe you're advocating reaching up to God-knows-where in each app to hit a back button. If you really want to reach up everytime because that's what you do in iOS, then good for you; I'll be sticking to the back button that's near my fingers, tyvm.
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Click to collapse
Thanks. Exactly what I thought. It seems like you're (OP) trying to be fair and professional but actually have an extreme bias and are giving cons because it's not like what you like, its competitor.
Sent from my Nexus 7.
Was this written by Apple!
There is no comparison iPad3 is £600 for top spec and Nexus 7 is £200, iPad3 is not 3 times better or worth 3 times as much!
Apple doesn't even have a product to compare to, closest would be iPod Touch.
iOS and Android both have strengths and weaknesses.
iOS is aim at the less technical consumers who needs big buttons, iTunes and want things to just work.
Android is Open Source and is aim at consumers with more technically knowledge & providing the ability for customisation.
I no longer own any iOS devices (previously iPhone4, iPad2) this is because every revision of iOS, Apple has locked that the OS even more.
- Example: you can no longer have direct access to GPU
- My £400 iPad2 cant play 1080p out of the box, iTunes movies are 720p, where as Nexus 7 plays both straight up at half the price.
Also, Apple hardware is old tech (they have never been cutting edge, they are more of a marketing company than tech)
They just take existing tech and put together in a shinny Apple stamped case and sell it to morons who are happy to queues for days and pay 3 times the price.
What a tool. Save yourself time. You can sum it up in a sentence.
"it's not like an iPad".
Man. No offense but your "review" sucks... Maybe you are better in some other crap then doing technical reviews.
You compare the nexus 7 to an ipad mini which we don't even know for sure there will be one, but and you are already able to mention how good it will be and what will be the price?
If you want to sound like an expert. Try to root your device, try to download a torrent file while you are browsing and synchronizing some folders of your computer with some of your nexus. Try to put a firewall where you decide what apps can read which informations about you. Try the SwiftKey keyboard, and some nice widgets. Go to your home server folders over VPN or ftp to stream your movie collection.
Do it on your ipad
I will order a nexus 7 as soon as it is available in my country.
Sent from my cyanogenmod 9 powered GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app
Here's a hint, the Nexus 7 shouldn't be compared to an ipad. They are two very different devices.
Guys, there are some people who will follow the Apple train to the grave. Let him have his review and rows of icons, while you customize and multitask for half the price.
Apps: With the Nexus 7 having such great specs, I was hopping to really see what kind of muscle it had while at the same time checking out some great Android apps. I had a very difficult time finding quality apps in the store; made for a tablet. All the basic apps were there: twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, Netflix, kindle, but they all just seemed like phone apps stretched out. This usually results in large blank spaces and awkward buttons that are too big or too small for what they should be. Then the amount of apps is stunningly small. I have heard this before, but seeing it, was still shocking. I didn’t think it was THAT bad. Doing a search for a twitter app gives you maybe 3-4 usual apps, none that I liked. Next I looked for a Dropbox text editor and I found one. This is a category that is flourishing on iOS. There is an insane amount of Dropbox/markdown/iCloud text editors on iOS. Google Reader which I used everyday had a few very crappy apps in the store not including the built-in official Google Reader app in 4.1, which sucks as well.
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anybody know what this notepad/dropbox text editor he is talking about? Why can't he use random text editor and save it to drop box? It's hard to reply since he doesn't clearly say what app/specific feature he is looking for/what is his iPad app list. I thought just about any notepad sync with dropbox these days...
Hell there is one done by xda forumer too.. (Why can't he simply google 'android notepad dropbox'?)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=865456
the store search says 137...(discounting 4.1 filter. but I assume they all work in JB. How much more notepad choice does he need? if he needs something more complicated, he is looking for different tool.)
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=notepad+dropbox&c=apps
and there is 1000 entry for anything related to Tumblr. (I assume he is using notepad to collect material for tumblr, since he is on one) There got to be something in there for his need...
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=tumblr&c=apps
Also, what exact "reader" he is looking for? general RSS? There should be plenty of option than google reader.
Hi All,
I am currently creating a gym application. At the moment i have almost finished coding for Windows 8 and will then be designing images but will be moving onto Android and then Ipad. I was looking for some feedback into what you think is missing from mainstream gym applications that you would find useful. I have only attached a few screen and these are far from developed. I just used them as a base for coding.
I have attached some screenshots of current development (Windows 8) Hopefully porting over to other devices will give me more design freedom.
I was inspired to do my own, but I don't have the special mojo necessary to get it accomplished.
It all depends on how you work out, most of them will work but I listen to music while I work out and I move from machine to machine after a set number of reps and sets. My week works like this...Upper/Aerobic/Lower/aerobic/upper/aerobic/lower/rest
What I am getting at is to have a simple music control placed within the app, like where the advertisement window is, so I can skip a song, and record my weights and reps within the set.
I know it isn't part of most apps, I have tried most of them, but it's the way that I work out, one song just doesn't do it for me and I need something with more force, and to be able to have one screen to control the music, and record the data is what I was looking for and haven't found it.
Dumbells and Machines aren't in decimal settings and typically 5-10-15-20 etc. What I wanted to create was those buttons instead of having to input the numeric value. That sucks with gloves on and tedious on a small keyboard while you are shaking from the previous reps.
Just my opinion. Good luck.
---------- Post added at 02:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:25 PM ----------
So to simplify my ramblings...
Music control
Button selectable weights and selectable (menu) number of reps
Large buttons for back and forward
Editable Calendar with alerts
Goal vs achievement would be nice too.
I know its asking a lot, but if I wanted to make my own, then that is what I would create.
I haven't used a gym app since my son killed most of my available time to workout, but having religiously worked out 5 days a week for the previous 10 years and doing the occasional competition (both weight lifting and body building) I can tell you what I'd want in one. For me, logs are super important to track progress not only with workouts/reps but body weight and body fat percentage. I like to try new diets, supplements and workouts and logs would help me determine the most successful combination. An area for notes would be helpful to note these, per day, per each workout, for example if I used straps one day on dead lift I would note this since I don't always use straps (or gloves, chalk, etc). I would also want to note any injuries to explain low reps/weight or whatever (even a paper cut will affect weight/reps!). I don't always remember the time-frame of my injuries once a year or 2 has passed. Maybe have an ability to save logs in comma-delimited file for Excel use?
App looks good so far!
edge929 said:
I haven't used a gym app since my son killed most of my available time to workout, but having religiously worked out 5 days a week for the previous 10 years and doing the occasional competition (both weight lifting and body building) I can tell you what I'd want in one. For me, logs are super important to track progress not only with workouts/reps but body weight and body fat percentage. I like to try new diets, supplements and workouts and logs would help me determine the most successful combination. An area for notes would be helpful to note these, per day, per each workout, for example if I used straps one day on dead lift I would note this since I don't always use straps (or gloves, chalk, etc). I would also want to note any injuries to explain low reps/weight or whatever (even a paper cut will affect weight/reps!). I don't always remember the time-frame of my injuries once a year or 2 has passed. Maybe have an ability to save logs in comma-delimited file for Excel use?
App looks good so far!
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Click to collapse
I agree with this. It's probably way more than the average gym goer would need but those of us who compete need that sort of level of detail. I would also like to see something that showed me if I hit a PR for that day for that particular lift. Being able to graph the results would also be really cool. It would have to account for gaps in training days though because I don't always do the same lift from one day to the next. I would also like to be able to put in competition results to see if there's a correlation with the particular lifts that I'm doing (and percentage of my max used on those lifts) and an increase in my competition total.
Agree that the app does look great so far.
james
Hi,
Thanks for feedback so far. Completely agree about the adding more detail when doing workouts - I often remember wanting to add something to that particular set to say that i did the excercise slightly differently or assisted etc.
The Play button is a good idea for music as i also remember with the apps that i have used having to minimise gym app then go to music etc and faff about.
Cheers for responses so far. Will look into adding those features.
If you're creating this for the average gym goer then I'd suggest spending the time to write descriptions of either all available workouts for the selected body part. Also allow people to select what type of cardio they did, jump rope, tread mill, arc trainer ect
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Depends on if you are making the app for yourself, or for profit.
For profit, you want to appeal to as many as possible. I would think the true professional bodybuilder represents a fairly small percentage of the society. A Pro and Consumer version may work, but getting 30% of the population versus 4% might be a better use of your efforts if your goal is for profit.
For yourself, I would think that you would tailor it to your workouts.
Notes are incredibly important, and usually that is done in the Pre or Post workout, I would think ease of use and ease of data entry would be an asset, and you will never appeal to everyone, every sport, every activity, when that is tried, it becomes too cumbersome to use.
KISS Keep it Simple S____
Although the logging is great, one thing that frustrates me is the lack of ability to actually do anything with the data. I would like to see various charts/graphs as well as a way to export that stuff...probably as a nice PDF document that you can sync to Dropbox or something. Basically where you can print the graphs and charts in addition to your notes and other logging information.
Updating characters as i do them
Editing characters 1 and 2 at the weekend. Then will finish more code the the additional features marked in the post. The good thing is that it uses an SQLite Database locally and also Azure cloud for backing up data. So I wont have to do much coversion from Windows 8 to Android, IPad etc
I have a charts section but the page doesn't look very good at the moment - just added it in with different reports. Will update once i have formatted them and the page is complete.
Some thoughts going into my second day of use with my new Urbane.
•Battery life is actually pretty good. I took it off charge at 7:30am and it's currently at 72%. The Android Wear app on my phone is telling me I have 12 hours of use left after playing with it a fair bit this morning. It should improve even more as the watch 'wears in'.
•Notifications come in pretty much instantly from my phone. It's frustrating in some regards though - you can't always see images sent to you from Facebook Messenger, sometimes you can. Also, once you dismiss a notification from your watch it's gone for good - you then have to check your phone to see what it was. Having said that, it does give you a very brief period after dismissing it to 'undo' the dismissal, but it's very brief. It would be better if it could archive say the last 5 notifications for you to go and look at after you've dismissed them.
•WiFi seems a bit buggy, for instance when connected to my home network and I turn off bluetooth on my phone or go out of it's range, WiFi does seem to take over but Google Now refuses to work. If I set up WiFi tethering on my phone (and disable bluetooth) it works perfectly so I guess it's just my router - though I don't know what I would need to change to make it work.
•Also (and this is a biggy), don't assume that because the Urbane has WiFi you can just simply log onto any network without your phone being around. This is not the case. Inexplicably, you need to log onto any WiFi network using the Android Wear app on your phone otherwise the Urbane will never use it. There is simply no way to log onto a WiFi network using just the Urbane. Once you've logged on using the phone, the Urbane will then remember the log on information from that point on. This to me defeats the purpose of having WiFi enabled on the watch, you should be able to log on anywhere without the phone..
•The Urbane has difficulty in recognising my 'OK Google' command. Commands issued after that are no problem however. The Urbane gives you the option at set up to choose between US or UK English, but for me that ,made no difference in whether the watch recognised my initial command or not (and you have to factory reset the device to change language...). I did however after some searching online see that after the Urbane is set up properly, it will look at your phones native language and base the information it gives, as well as spelling and metrics on that language. This doesn't help in recognising my initial command, and either my Aussie accent is just too 'Aussie' or the 'OK Google' command recognition is a bit buggy. Perhaps a bit of both lol.
•As someone who takes their watch off as soon as I get home, it's functionality is useless to me after that - unless I go out somewhere and put it back on. I guess at home you'd usually fall back to using your smart phone/tablet anyway. It does feel odd though to discard a $400 smart device like that..
•Heart rate monitoring is good, as is the other fitness tracking the watch does. However, there is two monitoring apps on the device that measure heart rate, Google Fit and and LG Pulse. When you first ask the watch "What's my heart rate", it will give you the choice of choosing which app to use. The problem is, whatever app you choose becomes the default app after that and there is no way to change that as far as I can see.
•Playing with the different watch faces is fun. LG ships the Urbane with 18 different faces to chose from, in various styles. And of course there is a rapidly growing number of user created choices out there as well. Some faces can be a bit buggy but for the most part they are gorgeous or garish, and anywhere in between. It's fantastic to have so many choices.
The biggest issue for me is still the perceived value of owning a smart watch such as this. After playing with it for a day, my thoughts have not changed in this regard.
It's still firmly in the luxury/novelty category at the moment, and I certainly do not need to have it. Is the Urbane worth the price I paid? From a purely technical stand point, probably. The Gorilla glassed OLED display is beautiful, the stainless steel body and overall craftsmanship looks and feels like something the Japanese would make, and the technical mastery of it all as a package feels like a bit of a leap forward, particularly considering where smart watches were a year ago.
But the software is not of the same level, and has a long way to go to really match where the hardware already is. It sort of like having Windows XP running on a 2015 5K iMac - there is a mismatch between software and hardware.
The upside is that Google can, and I'm sure will, improve the software as time goes on. The launch of the Apple Watch ensures that Google will treat Android Wear very, very seriously indeed. And that can only be good for the Urbane.
From a personal standpoint, the Urbane in it's current state is not worth what I paid for it. I would argue even the GWR is still about $100 too high. Do I have buyers remorse? To a degree I guess, but I can see the potential of this device, it can be so much more. The hardware is begging for a heart and soul, and a reason to exist.
I will keep it, and see where it takes me. Being an early adopter and gadget freak in general means that you have to take risks when jumping into and investing in a new product (hello OUYA, yes I got that too at launch lol), that's part of the thrill. Gadgets are a hobby, and a hobby is not worth having if you can't indulge in it every now and then. And obviously I am not alone in investing in the Urbane and Android Wear in general, which makes me feel a bit better.
Anyway, I hope I've given people reading this a bit more clarity in forming your own opinion of the Urbane/GWR. My advice? I would just go for it if you're anything like me, but maybe start off with the GWR.
TLDR, Urbane is an impressive, if slightly flawed device that should get better with time.
Regarding Voice recognition of "OK Google", I'm also struggling with this. It is nowhere near as good as my LG G Watch (square) was, that worked well 90% of the time. The urbane seems to be closer to 30%, and is really annoying me. I'm an aussie too but I'm not necessarily convinced our accents are causing the issue as I swapped straight from my G Watch to the Urbane and noticed problems straight away.
Regarding the default app for heart rate (and others) - to change it go into android wear app on your phone, hit the settings icon, choose your watch (LG Watch Urbane) and there will be an option for "actions" . In the you can reassign default actions.
Dwayne
Thanks for that fix mate!
I find if you lift your arm and wait 1 second before saying "ok google" it works perfect 99.9% of the time.
WOW you're actually right!
An observation of the hardware in general is that these watches are simply too bulky and much more so than they need to be in most cases. Getting the lugs up against the case on this particular watch would have made a huge difference by itself not just in reducing the bulk but the band or bracelet then fits better because it has more "grasp" area allowing for a grippier (if you will) fit for a given level of tightness. In other words the watch can grip better while being looser making it more comfortable to wear. Another... the killer feature these watches need is the ability to mimic a real watch face better and one way to get there is a convincing 3D effect for the screen. It doesn't have to be perfect and of course it couldn't be a battery killer but these smart watches need it. Right now people have some pretty nice stuff out there and I'm in no way taking a shot at some of those efforts which are outstanding work but they cant be convincing without a better screen tech.
Having these two things would move these watches from "what can it do for me" territory into wearing them because of what they can do for you but also just because you flat want to because the damn thing looks nice. Right now its a tool that I toss on the dresser as soon as I'm done with it and the few I know real world with one and most of what I read on the internet implies this is typical. They want to sell these things in a bigger way they need to make them something people wear because they want to because the use case isn't all that great for most people and I don't think having worn one for a while that this will change much because the window between utilizing the watch and it being easier to pull the phone is fairly small.
Keep in mind these are my opinions, I'm curious what other users think about the direction smart watches should be or need to be taking.
krabman said:
An observation of the hardware in general is that these watches are simply too bulky and much more so than they need to be in most cases. Getting the lugs up against the case on this particular watch would have made a huge difference by itself not just in reducing the bulk but the band or bracelet then fits better because it has more "grasp" area allowing for a grippier (if you will) fit for a given level of tightness. In other words the watch can grip better while being looser making it more comfortable to wear. Another... the killer feature these watches need is the ability to mimic a real watch face better and one way to get there is a convincing 3D effect for the screen. It doesn't have to be perfect and of course it couldn't be a battery killer but these smart watches need it. Right now people have some pretty nice stuff out there and I'm in no way taking a shot at some of those efforts which are outstanding work but they cant be convincing without a better screen tech.
Having these two things would move these watches from "what can it do for me" territory into wearing them because of what they can do for you but also just because you flat want to because the damn thing looks nice. Right now its a tool that I toss on the dresser as soon as I'm done with it and the few I know real world with one and most of what I read on the internet implies this is typical. They want to sell these things in a bigger way they need to make them something people wear because they want to because the use case isn't all that great for most people and I don't think having worn one for a while that this will change much because the window between utilizing the watch and it being easier to pull the phone is fairly small.
Keep in mind these are my opinions, I'm curious what other users think about the direction smart watches should be or need to be taking.
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I totally disagree. Have you seen panerai? Hublot? Breitling???? They are all big. Its whats in style, and has been for years.
interfreak said:
Thanks for that fix mate!
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Nice to read your thoughts on it I agree with 99% of it the only thing I would like to see is with Google now be nice to take a breath as you text lol
suzook said:
I totally disagree. Have you seen panerai? Hublot? Breitling???? They are all big. Its whats in style, and has been for years.
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lol Yes, I'm a watch person and own a number of them, surf the forums, etc. I'm guessing I've explained poorly. Its not the size itself so much as the needless bulk. I have several watches that have a face the same size but are quite a bit less bulky. This watch is a prime example with its needlessly large lugs and large bezel around the screen. It has confused no one as to what it is and I would never put it on in place of my real watches which I wear because I like them.
As to watch size in general a lot of people have never made friends with the large watch style, I'm among them. For me 40 to 42 mm is about right and I know a whole bunch of people with the same opinion. That is of course an opinion and I'm old enough to know that they vary and I do of agree that this style is popular right now but the trend is already reversing somewhat. Not surprising really, most people look like crap with a 48 mm saucer on their wrist because they simply are not possessed of the wrist size to put the watch into proportion.and my guess is the truly huge watches are going to continue going away bit by bit leaving the more reasonable 44ish mm sizing as the typical large watch with the larger stuff being outliers. At any rate it isn't just me, most of the reviews talk about the size issue with smart watches in general and particularly with this one where the added bulk particularly at the lugs hasn't been well received.
I take it you feel the size is fine then? You don't think that they might move more of these if they could move to a better and more convincing screen tech?
krabman said:
I take it you feel the size is fine then? You don't think that they might move more of these if they could move to a better and more convincing screen tech?
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Yes, i do love the size. I actually love the screen, Im not sure what you mean? I get compliments constantly. Alot of people ask what kind of watch is that??
Got mine today. Can't work out how to get lg health app to show heart rate data from the urbane. It's meant to appear automatically.
i hate you can't control how long the screen stay on..sometimes I need to time things with second hand...just so frustrating!!
gooner4life said:
i hate you can't control how long the screen stay on..sometimes I need to time things with second hand...just so frustrating!!
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There are some watch faces that do allow you to change this setting (timeout) usually in the android wear app on the paired device. There is also a stopwatch app built in.
This app (StayLit Wear) on google playworks for me
nOISEVAULT said:
There are some watch faces that do allow you to change this setting (timeout) usually in the android wear app on the paired device. There is also a stopwatch app built in.
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This^
And /or this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phonephreak.extendedlight
My first impressions so far
part 1 - http://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/09/lg-watch-urbane-beauty-and-disaster-first-impressions/
part 2 - http://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/10/lg-watch-urbane-part-2/
gavinfabl said:
My first impressions so far
part 1 - http://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/09/lg-watch-urbane-beauty-and-disaster-first-impressions/
part 2 - http://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/10/lg-watch-urbane-part-2/
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Are you using FaceRepo with Watchmaker? Browse the website with your connected phone, and download the faces directly to the app. It's easy to customize the faces from there...
http://facerepo.com/
slaydog said:
Are you using FaceRepo with Watchmaker? Browse the website with your connected phone, and download the faces directly to the app. It's easy to customize the faces from there...
http://facerepo.com/
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Yes I am now, thanks.
I say "ok google" -> it works (but slowly)-> I ask smth or say "set a reminder" and %50 chance it works for a while (slooowly) and says "offline" -> I get crazy. But if I use google now on the phone everything is smooth as butter. Am I doing something wrong? / Is the watch faulty? / Is the bt connection too slow for spoken commands? / Or what?
TheSanitarium said:
I say "ok google" -> it works (but slowly)-> I ask smth or say "set a reminder" and %50 chance it works for a while (slooowly) and says "offline" -> I get crazy. But if I use google now on the phone everything is smooth as butter. Am I doing something wrong? / Is the watch faulty? / Is the bt connection too slow for spoken commands? / Or what?
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Speed can vary. I find just say OK Google and wait for the speak now part. Say what you want in one go, no pauses and it works 8/10.
I photographed all my watch faces on the watch to give everyone a better idea of what they look like, and created a gallery.
Google Photos then made a GIF of them lol
http://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/15/lg-watch-urbane-my-watch-faces-shown-photographed-gallery/
@interfreak and others - thanks for your input, it has been very helpful! (I'm in for one, will be delivered tomorrow)