Technology Android

[ARon]

Batting .10000 is horrible, especially for a beaner.

Re-check the math.

Woop. Just a decimal place

 

[Casey]

How are data speeds, though? We had Lebara on a prepaid plan and while it was cool and all, the speeds were shit, especially all along the M4 and other places we went. It was enough for navigation, but to look up or stream anything, it took 2-3 minutes to load a page.

That was your mistake. Lebara is a shit network aimed at newly arrived immigrants, because it offers cheap calls to Poland, India, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, etc. Using them for data and you're gonna have a bad time.

What you should have done is pick up a prepaid £15 sim from Three network. That would have given you something like 250 minutes, 5000 texts, and unlimited 4G data for 30 days.

There's 4 major providers in the UK - O2, Vodafone, EE (combined Orange & T-Mobile) and Three. Any other networks are just virtual networks that hire cell towers and bandwidth from one of the 4 majors.

As far as using my Three SIM for free data in the USA, as far as I can tell, the speeds are 3G speeds rather than 4G. But that's cool with me. Last time I was there, I had to buy a pre-pay SIM that cost something like $45 and it only had 500mb of data which I promptly burned through in about 3 days.

 

[dilla]

That was your mistake. Lebara is a shit network aimed at newly arrived immigrants, because it offers cheap calls to Poland, India, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, etc. Using them for data and you're gonna have a bad time.

What you should have done is pick up a prepaid £15 sim from Three network. That would have given you something like 250 minutes, 5000 texts, and unlimited 4G data for 30 days.

There's 4 major providers in the UK - O2, Vodafone, EE (combined Orange & T-Mobile) and Three. Any other networks are just virtual networks that hire cell towers and bandwidth from one of the 4 majors.

As far as using my Three SIM for free data in the USA, as far as I can tell, the speeds are 3G speeds rather than 4G. But that's cool with me. Last time I was there, I had to buy a pre-pay SIM that cost something like $45 and it only had 500mb of data which I promptly burned through in about 3 days.

I see. It was like 40 pounds for a gig of data and then some international minutes and 500 minutes. Some Sikh dude at the airport shop sold it to us, so I'm not sure he had our best interest in mind when doing that. We did use a good bit of data, though, but.... we know better for next time.

 

[Casey]

I see. It was like 40 pounds for a gig of data and then some international minutes and 500 minutes. Some Sikh dude at the airport shop sold it to us, so I'm not sure he had our best interest in mind when doing that. We did use a good bit of data, though, but.... we know better for next time.

That is an absolute rip-off. You got conned. Next time, hit me up before you go and I'll advise you the best SIM to get for while you're here.

£40.... ouch.

 

[dilla]

Yeah, well we didn't really know any better. We just found the nearest phone store and went off of that. We had a long drive out of London too, so that was a concern too.

Are there any flagships coming out later this year or early next? I think I've lost touch with the Nexus devices. They're all called Nexus Ones now? Or is that something else? There has to be a successor to the N5.

 

[Jokerman]

"The new Moto X is the best Android smartphone ever made:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/15/technology/mobile/moto-x/index.html?hpt=hp_t4

 

[Pittsey]

So...

I have just got back from LA / Vegas and broke my phone out there (among many other mishaps). So... Now I am going to have to get the UK G3 with 2 gig of RAM.

I heard all the bad reviews of the Moto 360. But ultimately... You still get 20 hours out of the battery which is adequate. The CPU can also handle all tasks thrown at it. I tried to get one, but they are sold out everywhere. It is gorgeous, as is the charger. For £200. I have no problem getting it and upgrading when something better comes in 6 months or so. But it needs to look good, as that to me is the primary function of a watch (telling the time is secondary). If it looks like a kids watch (aka a G Shock or a square digital watch) then I'm not interested.

 

[dilla]

What is with the S5's shitty GPU performance? Why so low FPS?

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-6-benchmark-results,news-19584.html

The only thing it had on the iPhone was battery life, which is huge, but with the iPhone specced at half of the S5, or worse, with RAM and all that, why is it trouncing the S5?

 

[Pittsey]

What is with the S5's shitty GPU performance? Why so low FPS?

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-6-benchmark-results,news-19584.html

The only thing it had on the iPhone was battery life, which is huge, but with the iPhone specced at half of the S5, or worse, with RAM and all that, why is it trouncing the S5?

Why are they reviewing a recently released phone with one that was released 6 months ago. The LG G3 would piss all over both of them. It's only weakpoint is it's CPU.

 

[Casey]

I haven't been impressed with the look/build of a Samsung phone for a while, but I have to say, the Galaxy Alpha looks and feels amazing IRL.

If it had a 5" screen and a 1080p screen I'd be seriously considering getting one.

 

[ARon]

Seriously, Samsung is fucking retarded. Let's make a high quality built phone with mid quality internals, makes sense

 

[dilla]

Why are they reviewing a recently released phone with one that was released 6 months ago. The LG G3 would piss all over both of them. It's only weakpoint is it's CPU.

And it's screen was review by some people as not being that great. Washed out colors, or something of that nature.

People said fingerprint scanners were going to be a gimmick. Looks like the Nexus X is rumored to be getting one too.

 

[ARon]

A phone can still have the capability of a gimmick

 

[Pittsey]

And it's screen was review by some people as not being that great. Washed out colors, or something of that nature.

People said fingerprint scanners were going to be a gimmick. Looks like the Nexus X is rumored to be getting one too.

The screen is great.

Finger print scanners are a gimmick.

 

[Casey]

Seriously, Samsung is fucking retarded. Let's make a high quality built phone with mid quality internals, makes sense

I'm confused by it. The screen is 720p and the size is too small for a flagship, but it has a high end octa-core processor. It's like it doesn't know what it wants to be.

 

[dilla]

Sweet, we can run many Android apps on Chrome now thanks to the APK packager thing. FIFA, Dropbox, etc.

 

[dilla]

Eh, rumors, but some are saying it's not what the next Nexus is, or even who will be making it. http://9to5google.com/2014/09/24/exclusive-this-is-shamu-motorolas-upcoming-nexus-6x/

 

[ARon]

I don't know if I'd want a phone that big. Definitely have to see it in person before considering g something that size

 

[dilla]

Has Android seriously gone this long without lock screen notifications? I could've sworn older versions of CM had it. I can't find it in the lock screen settings now.

 

[Casey]

I'm not convinced by the Shamu leaks that it's a Nexus. The design language is exactly the same as the Moto X, just larger.