[Q] character limit in contacts notes field - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've found other threads about a similar issue, but not for the SG III
The character limit in Android contacts notes field, THAT CAN BE EDITED DIRECTLY IN THE PHONE seems to be about 1000, (968 according to some users)
This also seems to be related only to SAMSUNG version of contacts.
Has anyone found a workaround to this limit?
The bad news are that if you sync with Outlook, you may end up with a loss of information.
I know, I know: 1000 is a lot, contacts is not a CRM program, etc, but any help will be really wellcome.
Regards.

Contacts notes field character limitations
This issue of a limited notes field in the contacts app - while it seems like such a small one to most people - greatly affects many of us who utilize the contacts in our Gmail accounts to store a great deal of information (usually, I have found, due to the kind of work we do). Frankly, for me the limitation is important enough that it has affected and continues to affect which phones and tablets I purchase.
There are only a few Android phones that do not have this limitation. Fortunately, the HTC One M8 and M9 don't have character limits in the notes field of the contacts app. (If you've stood in a store and copied and pasted many times over to test this, you'll want to know that there's a simple tell I've found - the name of the contacts app. If it's called "People," as is the case with the Samsung phones, so far everyone I've tested has had the limitation. If, instead, it's called "Contacts," as is the case with the HTC phones, then there's no limitation.
Some have theorized to me that the phone manufacturers include this limitation knowingly in order to keep phones from being overburdened by data. I have a difficult time believing this, partly because I have approximately 10,000 contacts, and in the accompanying notes fields I store everything from copies of correspondence to research to articles related to the contacts. I've never come close to any data storage space issues related to this particular issue. By the way, there's a bit of a work around with regard to this issue, though it's nowhere near helpful enough to change my feature priorities when looking for a new phone - something I do every six months or so. You can use a PC to do your major notes field creating and editing - and as long as you don't need to make any changes via your mobile device, you can get along OK. That is, while you can edit the notes field using unlimited characters space on your laptop, then read everything in the app on the phone, any editing on your mobile device done in notes which exceed the limit is limited by the character limitation.
I love my HTC, but I probably would be using a Samsung were it not for this issue. I've spent some considerable time - and many different times - on the phone with people at Samsung about this issue. Most of the time, after lengthy back and forth conversations (most people don't fully understand the issue initially; then, once they do, their usual responses range from some level of disinterest to judgments about why no one should ever need to reach much less exceed the maximum), I rarely can get anyone in either support or development to even agree to mention the issue to the development teams with which they at least share company benefits.
This issue is one of several that restrict the phones I buy. Unlike many (I'm guessing, based on the number of phones built with the relevant specs), a micro SD card is important to me. The importance to me of that one feature narrows the phones in my market considerably. In fact, based on very unscientific research, I believe my desire/need for a phone with a micro SD card and unlimited space in the notes field of the contacts app limits me currently to precisely two phones - the HTC One M9 (my current phone) and the Sony Xperia Z. As to high-end tablets, I own a Google Nexus 7 because it doesn't limit the notes field, but I just bought a Sony Xperia z2 tablet (because it also has a micro SD card).
Fortunately for me, both the HTC One M9 smartphone and the Sony Xperia z2 tablet are top-notch pieces of hardware. I used to own a Motorola Droid Razr M - when it included an SD card - because it, too, didn't limit the notes field. But it no longer has an SD card.
Surely there is some way for the phone manufacturers to get rid of what seems to be a spurious limitation. I know, for me, at least it would give me the opportunity to purchase from a less limited market.

Thanks
Thanks so much for your comment that I absolutly agree with.
My Contactc list is about 5000, with the same issues and use as yours.
I'm also commited to devices supporting external SD cards, it has saved my day a few times already
Just to be fair, I've to comment some "news" on the issue.
I'm actually on LG band (LG G-III to be more precise) and It's both a capable and excellent performer, with less limitations tan current Samsung devices (not to mention the iPhone-likes S6 family)
Regarding the notes field, LG (Or KitKat/Lollipop, not sure) has a different approach, though a bit cumbersome:
When you open in your device an existing contact from your Contacts list, in the Notes field (NOT created by default on new contacts, you have to manually add it) the number of characters SHOWN is limited to about 1000 characters.... this limit applies ONLY to how many characters are DISPLAYED.
BUT if you enter the edit mode inside the contact ... .¡THERE IS NO LIMITATION! NO LOSS OF INFORMATION EITHER IN THE PROCESS OF SYNCING. you read/edit the NOTES field in FULL with no limitations.
As soon as you "Save" or "exit" the edit mode, you are back to the restricted character display, but the "rest of the info" is there.
IN SHORT: The LIMIT is in the number of characters displayed NOT in the STORED info.
It may help you broaden your device buying options as it did with mines.
I don't know if this applies to other devices.
Give it a try if you like.
Regards.

Simpler problem for my s4 is not enough characters in the contact name field...only 17 characters doesn't cut it. Also curious why I don't have the plus/minus symbols for adding another number to a contact (say they had home/office/fax/etc). What did I turn off that affected the plus/minus symbol?

asdfasfd said:
Simpler problem for my s4 is not enough characters in the contact name field...only 17 characters doesn't cut it. Also curious why I don't have the plus/minus symbols for adding another number to a contact (say they had home/office/fax/etc). What did I turn off that affected the plus/minus symbol?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never heard of such a thing, it has to be a different issue. Maybe you should reset your device to get a fresh Contact manager start-up.
Sorry not being able to help.
Regards.

Related

Why is there no CLEAN/LEAN/STABLE builds?!

Sorry to make a whole new thread about this, but just curious if anyone else has been having this 'issue'
ive flashed quite a few of the roms on the forums, and for some strange reason, i cant seem to find a rom which just WORKS
the main thing i use my handset for is email and SMS messaging, in any given month easily 4000+ SMS' will be sent and the same number received.
this for some reason appears to 'break' a lot of the rom's
the phone slow's riiiight down and when exiting one conversation to go to the next, it hangs every single time, when i go to select the messaging application, it just hangs, or doesnt even go in at all.
i've used the Energy roms, the Chrome roms, Da_G's clean rom, NATF's roms
i've been through pretty much all of the rom's on here and they ALL break once the SMS count gets in the 3000+ region, and i appreciate its simple to just 'delete' the messages, but this isnt particularly practical, at the moment i'm having to hard reset every month or so and this really takes the piss
can anyone point me in the direction of a nice lean rom that can handle an obscene amount of SMS' and emails?
with thanks
I guess no one send and receive 4000+ SMS' per month except you
that's why nobody tried to check with this issue
but the phone should be able to handle it! i mean, one of my older nokia's can handle the 4000+ with ease
The microsoft SMS program just cannot handle that many of messages. Either back them up (remove from inbox) periodically, or delete them periodically.
you may want to disable sms conversation (threading).
just out of curiosity, why do you need 4000+ sms a month ?
one question... where are your messages stored? in phone memory or on the storage card?
Pampilius86 said:
one question... where are your messages stored? in phone memory or on the storage card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for the email, the attachments are stored on storage card
otherwise, i never knew we could change where SMS's are stored?!
the 4000+ sms's are just what i use tbh, thats on a good month tho, usually hovers around that mark however
i remember back in the wizard/hermes time clean rom's were all the rage, now, since we've got the devices with huge amounts of ram/rom all we're seeing is bloated rom's!
bursucul said:
you may want to disable sms conversation (threading).
just out of curiosity, why do you need 4000+ sms a month ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the thing is, i use the threading facility a LOT, back before wm6/6.1 i actually had an application i would install on my ppc to have the SMS' threaded
but to be honest, why should the tp not be able to handle that many SMS's without slowing down?!
duke_stix said:
Sorry to make a whole new thread about this, but just curious if anyone else has been having this 'issue'
ive flashed quite a few of the roms on the forums, and for some strange reason, i cant seem to find a rom which just WORKS
the main thing i use my handset for is email and SMS messaging, in any given month easily 4000+ SMS' will be sent and the same number received.
this for some reason appears to 'break' a lot of the rom's
the phone slow's riiiight down and when exiting one conversation to go to the next, it hangs every single time, when i go to select the messaging application, it just hangs, or doesnt even go in at all.
i've used the Energy roms, the Chrome roms, Da_G's clean rom, NATF's roms
i've been through pretty much all of the rom's on here and they ALL break once the SMS count gets in the 3000+ region, and i appreciate its simple to just 'delete' the messages, but this isnt particularly practical, at the moment i'm having to hard reset every month or so and this really takes the piss
can anyone point me in the direction of a nice lean rom that can handle an obscene amount of SMS' and emails?
with thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think this would be the ROMs fault. You see the more messages you store in your fone the less memory and stability it has. Instead of having old messages in your fone why not delete them? Talk about practicality, whats practical about having old messages in ur fone just to take up excess memory? So someone texts u one question, u answer it and have no intentions of messaging them back, yet its more practical to keep these messages in ur fone and then complain that u have to hard reset instead of deleting a few messages due to having all these redundant mesages that u really dont need? Seems to me an intelligent person would rather delete a few messages rather than hard resetting their device and lose everything. Maybe u can make a fresh ROM with no extras and nothing more than a fone and an email device. I mean, why have a PDA if all ur gonna do is text and email? Seems to me u can save a few hundred bux and just get a cheap lil fone that has no customization whatsoever to leave all the room for messaging? Sorry if I sound like I have an attitude, honestly I dont, I just think that the chefs u mentioned have awesome ROMs that keep getting better and better yet u diss them cuz ud rather hard resest and lose everything rather than simply deleting a few hundred messages that u dont need anyway.
It's like if you don't clean your house regularly and just throw your rubbish everywhere, then you complain that you're living in a pig sty and your house fills up with rubbish so fast you can't move around the house as quickly as you used to. Then after a month, you need to fully renovate the whole interior of the house again so that you have space to walk...
My suggestions :
1) start learning some housekeeping(make that little effort to delete the sms yourself)
2) get a bigger house (new phone with more ram and faster CPU)
3) get a cleaner to come in to clean your rubbish once in awhile (there might be some sms program out there that can auto delete your sms on a regular basis)
4) or reorganise the layout of your house so that it's more efficient (forget about sms threading and use the conventional format, I'm sure it'll speed things up a bit since it doesn't have to load the entire conversation everytime)
duke_stix said:
but the phone should be able to handle it! i mean, one of my older nokia's can handle the 4000+ with ease
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your older nokia using sms threading and displaying the whole history of the conversation everytime you enter the inbox?
I highly doubt it.. so you've got your answer there already.
I used to be a project manager, I would send about 500 emails a day at work easily. After a month of working it would take FOREVER to open outlook. Thats because it has to load the entire contents of 10k + emails. Its the same with your phone. Back up and delete or don't complain. Flash a stock ROM and open your windows folder, and then flash a custom ROM and do the same. you will see the speed increase there. Also, if you leave SMS open and just hit end key it wont have to reload everything every time you open a message.
I have the same problem that your talking about since i average about 7-12K a month of sms.. Like everyone said the only way to deal with it is just to clear your inbox or put it to unthreaded.. Our phones just werent meant to hold that much sms i suppose..
duke_stix said:
the main thing i use my handset for is email and SMS messaging, in any given month easily 4000+ SMS' will be sent and the same number received.
this for some reason appears to 'break' a lot of the rom's
the phone slow's riiiight down and when exiting one conversation to go to the next, it hangs every single time, when i go to select the messaging application, it just hangs, or doesnt even go in at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe most of the problem here is that you don't precisely understand what's going on behind-the-scenes. Your CPU/processor is only capable of running a single instruction at once- and thus only process a finite amount of data per unit time.
When designing an algorithm (in this case, the algorithm that reads SMS/E-mail database entries and displays them onscreen), tasks which apply to more than one or two items are usually completed by either iteration or recursion. For a task such as enumerating SMS messages onscreen, the process would be iterative; for example, if you were to break it down into simple steps, those steps might be:
1. Read the current SMS message from the database.
2. Display it on screen.
3. If there's another text message after this, repeat this process for it.
Step 1 itself actually is composed of several detailed steps, which take the time to perform a second algorithm, which tries to locate the current SMS message in the database, usually based on a unique identifier and a hashing algorithm. This takes time, but is faster than the alternative- which is to check each SMS and ask "is this the one I want?". Instead of having to check each message, the device usually only has to check a few until it finds the right location.
You can think of this as the device automatically categorizing messages into virtual 'boxes'- you have to spend a hell of a lot less time digging through a box to find 1 document out of 10 then by searching through a much larger heap of 4000 documents.
Step 3 is also composed of several steps, as the device has to figure out which SMS message is really next. As the user is capable of configuring the way in which the messages are sorted (by date, sender, etc.), the message that's next in the database is probably not the next message that's stored in the database. Time has to be spend finding the message, usually by yet another algorithm.
The problem is, each of these steps, and each of their sub-steps, and each of the sub-steps required to run those (all the way down to the machine code level) take time, and each have to be executed for every message the application would like to display.
Thread-view further complicates the matter by creating additional relations between the messages, and requiring the OS to look for even more posts during each step.
And this process isn't all that's going on at once- the operating system is trying to do something called TDM, or Time-Division Multiplexing (Multitasking), which allow you to run more than one program at once on a single CPU (which in turn can only do one thing at once). This basically lets the individual processes take individual turns so quickly that they seem simultaneous.
Because of all this, computer scientists rate their algorithms by degradation. We actually have a measure called Big-O (asymptotic) notation that tells you how well an algorithm handles load.
A good algorithm generally has performance of O(N) or better. This means that for every N elements (in your case, e-mail), it takes approximately N iterations to complete. Note the assumption that each "base iteration" executes in a (roughly) fixed time.
Assuming the WM message app uses a sensible algorithm (and it would be difficult for it not to), we can assume its efficiency is approximately O(N)- as it is simply O(N) for non-threaded, and it is O((N/S) * S) for threaded, which simplifies to O(N). This means that for every 4000 messages, it will need to iterate 4000 times.
Considering the application can't store 4000-messages worth of data, it spends a lot of time during each iteration moving messages in and out of memory.
Given all of this, the Windows Mobile message parsing algorithm is the cause of your 'slowness' and 'hangups'. These periods of non-responsiveness are simply WM trying to run through the algorithm for all of the huge quantities of messages.
Hence, the problem is that Windows Mobile simply wasn't designed to bear the load you were forcing it to bear. This means the problem isn't related to the implementation in any given ROM.
can anyone point me in the direction of a nice lean rom that can handle an obscene amount of SMS' and emails?
with thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A ROM isn't going to be your solution- every ROM uses the same core Windows Mobile messaging applications.
It is possible that a combination of a data structure and message parsing algorithm (with the addition of hash and cache optimized for the way you specifically use messaging) could handle all of these messages without any considerable degradation; but it would run far less efficiently on small amount of messages than the current WM scheme. (And think: how many users have as many messages as you?)
Since no one really needs as many messages as you seem to, consider your options:
1) Implement a database optimized for large amount of messages. Implement a program that hooks all messages and places them in this database instead of the WM one. Write your own message reading/writing application and use in place of the WM one. Note that no one will do this for you. It's not a public interest: if you want it, you'll have to write it. We can help you- but we're not here to do the work for you.
2) Try a third party SMS reader/writer like Vito SMS-Chat. I don't think these will fare much better (in fact, they may fare worse), but if they implement any database of their own and any type of localized caching (especially of recent messages), they may work a bit better.
3) Remove your older SMS messages. This is probably the best option. If you don't need those messages anymore, a Microsoft applet called InboxExtender adds buttons to delete all messages (and to mark them all as read.)
4) Don't use threaded mode. This will decrease the time each parsing iteration takes.
---
This isn't a bug; nor is it a glitch, nor is it WM being crappy. It's much the same as if you tell photoshop to open an 8GB file on your desktop. Your computer may slow to a halt and take forever doing it- but the cause isn't that your computer is crappy, but rather that you're trying to open such a huge file.
Wow! Talk about a detailed explanation. Great explanation ktemkin, u obviously know what ur talkin about. Im actually a part time computer programmer. The biggest problem I see/hear about is people sayng their systems are getting way too slow. No surprise that the biggest reason for this is the used space in their computers hard drive for out-of-date programs, used cache space, ...basically all of the things theyve used before and just never cleaned out. I install 1 program, free their computer up of its junked up memory and update their programs. On this I get credit to simply sit on my butt and delete a few things, lol. Id suppose regardless of the device/computer its all the same. IE, the more room u have to work with, the faster the device's responsiveness is.
Best advice for these PDAs and smartphones for emails is dont leave all of your emails in your inbox folder. Make different folders, then as u go through your emails simply move the selected ones to the selected folders. Then DO NOT sync all of your folders to your device. Only sync the inbox to your device. Then if u ever need a message, u will know which folder its in, then sync that 1 folder, download the message(s), then after ur done, remove that folder from your sync list. When u organize your emails this way u will have a much enjoyable and longer life experience with your device. Hope this helps.
panthersdzynes said:
I dont think this would be the ROMs fault. You see the more messages you store in your fone the less memory and stability it has. Instead of having old messages in your fone why not delete them? Talk about practicality, whats practical about having old messages in ur fone just to take up excess memory? So someone texts u one question, u answer it and have no intentions of messaging them back, yet its more practical to keep these messages in ur fone and then complain that u have to hard reset instead of deleting a few messages due to having all these redundant mesages that u really dont need? Seems to me an intelligent person would rather delete a few messages rather than hard resetting their device and lose everything. Maybe u can make a fresh ROM with no extras and nothing more than a fone and an email device. I mean, why have a PDA if all ur gonna do is text and email? Seems to me u can save a few hundred bux and just get a cheap lil fone that has no customization whatsoever to leave all the room for messaging? Sorry if I sound like I have an attitude, honestly I dont, I just think that the chefs u mentioned have awesome ROMs that keep getting better and better yet u diss them cuz ud rather hard resest and lose everything rather than simply deleting a few hundred messages that u dont need anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fact of the matter is, that a lot of the messages on my handset DO need to remain on there for at least the remainder of a fortnight following receipt of said message.
the only 'qualm' i was having was that my older wizard and hermes devices seem to have managed that number of SMS' and more perfectly fine, but my Raphael begins to struggle.
lukesky said:
It's like if you don't clean your house regularly and just throw your rubbish everywhere, then you complain that you're living in a pig sty and your house fills up with rubbish so fast you can't move around the house as quickly as you used to. Then after a month, you need to fully renovate the whole interior of the house again so that you have space to walk...
My suggestions :
1) start learning some housekeeping(make that little effort to delete the sms yourself)
2) get a bigger house (new phone with more ram and faster CPU)
3) get a cleaner to come in to clean your rubbish once in awhile (there might be some sms program out there that can auto delete your sms on a regular basis)
4) or reorganise the layout of your house so that it's more efficient (forget about sms threading and use the conventional format, I'm sure it'll speed things up a bit since it doesn't have to load the entire conversation everytime)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have already tried disabling the SMS threading and although it speeds it up a little, i then also lose track of what message has come from whom.
i understand that 'doing a bit of house keeping' is what i should be doing, however, i barely have time to do said house keeping, and when i do attempt to delete a large volume of messages in one go the phone hangs on me again!
panthersdzynes said:
Wow! Talk about a detailed explanation. Great explanation ktemkin, u obviously know what ur talkin about. Im actually a part time computer programmer. The biggest problem I see/hear about is people sayng their systems are getting way too slow. No surprise that the biggest reason for this is the used space in their computers hard drive for out-of-date programs, used cache space, ...basically all of the things theyve used before and just never cleaned out. I install 1 program, free their computer up of its junked up memory and update their programs. On this I get credit to simply sit on my butt and delete a few things, lol. Id suppose regardless of the device/computer its all the same. IE, the more room u have to work with, the faster the device's responsiveness is.
Best advice for these PDAs and smartphones for emails is dont leave all of your emails in your inbox folder. Make different folders, then as u go through your emails simply move the selected ones to the selected folders. Then DO NOT sync all of your folders to your device. Only sync the inbox to your device. Then if u ever need a message, u will know which folder its in, then sync that 1 folder, download the message(s), then after ur done, remove that folder from your sync list. When u organize your emails this way u will have a much enjoyable and longer life experience with your device. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my emails are already pretty much organised, and i've only got it syncing the last 7 days for me, emails to be honest are fine its moreso the SMS side of things.
I was not complaining nor targetting any particular chef, i was merely voicing my concern that a device as powerful as the raphael seems to baulk at the prospect of a few thousand messages when the older wizard and hermes seem to manage perfectly fine.
i'm not exactly expecting an instantaneous loading of my inbox, i'm not entirely thick, i appreciate that having such a large number of SMS' will inevitably slow the handset down, however, i do not see why the handset should HANG when i try to open the messaging application, or why, when i try to go and open the messaging application it just doesnt register that i've asked it to open the application, just stops and i have to 'tap' it a few times before it opens.
duke_stix said:
the main thing i use my handset for is email and SMS messaging, in any given month easily 4000+ SMS' will be sent and the same number received.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4000+ sms' send AND receive???
so that means:
8000 per month / 30 days in a month = 266,667 per day
266,667 per day / 960 minutes (16 hours * 60) awake a day = 0,278
so say you are 16 hours awake on a day than you send/receive a sms every 15 seconds?? don't you have a real life?
TheWeird1 said:
4000+ sms' send AND receive???
so that means:
8000 per month / 30 days in a month = 266,667 per day
266,667 per day / 960 minutes (16 hours * 60) awake a day = 0,278
so say you are 16 hours awake on a day than you send/receive a sms every 15 seconds?? don't you have a real life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not all of the messages that are sent and received are single SMS' long!
majority, if not all will be 3/4+ messages long and the replies can be twice as long
duke_stix said:
The fact of the matter is, that a lot of the messages on my handset DO need to remain on there for at least the remainder of a fortnight following receipt of said message.
the only 'qualm' i was having was that my older wizard and hermes devices seem to have managed that number of SMS' and more perfectly fine, but my Raphael begins to struggle.
I have already tried disabling the SMS threading and although it speeds it up a little, i then also lose track of what message has come from whom.
i understand that 'doing a bit of house keeping' is what i should be doing, however, i barely have time to do said house keeping, and when i do attempt to delete a large volume of messages in one go the phone hangs on me again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 thing's for sure, the wizard and hermes are definitely non-threaded sms. But it's hard to compare apple to apple. Did you have 4000 in your Inbox and Sent folders on your Wizard and Hermes too?
I don't think the phone has hung, it's probably doing the processing for you. Have a little patience and let it sit there for awhile and do it's thing and see if it's really hanged.
duke_stix said:
my emails are already pretty much organised, and i've only got it syncing the last 7 days for me, emails to be honest are fine its moreso the SMS side of things.
I was not complaining nor targetting any particular chef, i was merely voicing my concern that a device as powerful as the raphael seems to baulk at the prospect of a few thousand messages when the older wizard and hermes seem to manage perfectly fine.
i'm not exactly expecting an instantaneous loading of my inbox, i'm not entirely thick, i appreciate that having such a large number of SMS' will inevitably slow the handset down, however, i do not see why the handset should HANG when i try to open the messaging application, or why, when i try to go and open the messaging application it just doesnt register that i've asked it to open the application, just stops and i have to 'tap' it a few times before it opens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you should try Da_G's test ROM.. the feedback is that it's very fast. If that doesn't work for you, it's time to get a new phone.. maybe consider one of the 1GHZ models...
i have 8000 plus messages on my tp n it doesn't slow down
thing is, i don't use threaded sms. can't get used to it cos i've been using wm since wm5 n it doesn't have it. i guess i got used to the older stuff

SMS Database

I know this question has been asked before, but never answered and I was hoping that things might have changed by now.
I was wondering if there was any way whatsoever to get WM6.5.3 to store the SMS database on the micro-sd card, thereby not forcing me to keep trimming my sms messages as frequently as I have to.
I have a Tilt 2, running the latest NRGY ROM.
Thanks
~Z
I am not so sure about your phone, but I am positive you could find out on the respective thread. I know for my Excalibur, there is a 'hack' (mod really) that allows for a larger number of SMS to store ... I don't think it re-routes it to the SD card though.
The issue is primarily that the SMS database file is the same as the Phonebook, Recent Calls, and VoiceMail records(?)...I honestly forget. I did some digging into this a while ago, but stopped. Its rather inconvenient since its all partially encrypted, or at least not that easy to just parse through.
I have been contemplating starting a project (which I have already started conceptualizing) that will replace the dumb CE MAPI once and for all. It would be a suite of programs [Replacement SMS/MMS/EMail/etc. Transport DLL, Replacement tmail.exe, Replacement database] ... with end-users in mind, such that data is easy to obtain. I would probably store it as XML or something similar. If I do go through with this, I will be sure to consider storing to Storage Card AND/OR main memory

Barcode data transfer idea

Hello XDA-Developers!
I had an idea this morning.
Current Transfer Tech:
Bluetooth - Requires the user of both devices to enable their bluetooth devices, then they have to go about pairing the devices to allow file tansfer (this is not always the case though). then the, shall we call him "sender" has to select a file and attempt to bluetooth the file to the, shall we say "reciever", who in turn has to accept the data and then the transfer starts.
Wifi - not used very often but files can be transferred through an app or through an ftp server etc from one device to another. this however requires a little, if not more, skill to complete and can be fustrating looking for ip addresses etc.
NFC - this is an emerging technology that is being implemented in more and more devices such as the Galaxy Nexus. This is a very efficient and fast way to transfer data from one NFC enabled device to another NFC enabled device, however like most of the android community, my phone does not have this capability.
My Idea:
This is just an idea and you may say what you like about it but i thought i would write it down here, the first place that came into my mind where i thought that someone could take this idea further.
Now my friend uses a blackberry, and i know that that word is almost taboo on this forum but hear me out. He uses his blackberry for a service called BBM (Blackberry Messenger), i am sure you are all familiar, and to add a friend of his so that he can contact them using the service, he simply uses his blackberrys camera to scan a 2D Barcode on his friends device and all his BBM Pin and other data is transfered through the phones camera so that they can communicate on the service.
I though that this could be used more on android devices. This could be used to transfer small files from one device to another such as contact information, websites (already a reality), even larger files such as word documents and other reletavely small documents. Now i know that these files cannot be displayed on a single 2D barcode but maybe they can be send using not one barode but a series, the barcodes could be in an animation on the device screen, showing one barcode after another all and the "reciever" could simply hold his device's camera over the animation and it could read the series of barcodes and then compile all of the data to create a single document.
Now i realise that this could be a silly idea as the ammount of data that can be transferred through a 2D barcode is not huge, al lot of barcodes would be needed to transfer a larger file than someones contact details.
Let me know what you think, and you are free to do what you want with my idea, i wont hold it against you
hazzahex
Hello
I know it's a little late (only 3 years lol), but I just wanted you to know that I've implemented a system similar to the one you describe
It was my college's final project
hazzahex said:
Hello XDA-Developers!
I had an idea this morning.
Current Transfer Tech:
Bluetooth - Requires the user of both devices to enable their bluetooth devices, then they have to go about pairing the devices to allow file tansfer (this is not always the case though). then the, shall we call him "sender" has to select a file and attempt to bluetooth the file to the, shall we say "reciever", who in turn has to accept the data and then the transfer starts.
Wifi - not used very often but files can be transferred through an app or through an ftp server etc from one device to another. this however requires a little, if not more, skill to complete and can be fustrating looking for ip addresses etc.
NFC - this is an emerging technology that is being implemented in more and more devices such as the Galaxy Nexus. This is a very efficient and fast way to transfer data from one NFC enabled device to another NFC enabled device, however like most of the android community, my phone does not have this capability.
My Idea:
This is just an idea and you may say what you like about it but i thought i would write it down here, the first place that came into my mind where i thought that someone could take this idea further.
Now my friend uses a blackberry, and i know that that word is almost taboo on this forum but hear me out. He uses his blackberry for a service called BBM (Blackberry Messenger), i am sure you are all familiar, and to add a friend of his so that he can contact them using the service, he simply uses his blackberrys camera to scan a 2D Barcode on his friends device and all his BBM Pin and other data is transfered through the phones camera so that they can communicate on the service.
I though that this could be used more on android devices. This could be used to transfer small files from one device to another such as contact information, websites (already a reality), even larger files such as word documents and other reletavely small documents. Now i know that these files cannot be displayed on a single 2D barcode but maybe they can be send using not one barode but a series, the barcodes could be in an animation on the device screen, showing one barcode after another all and the "reciever" could simply hold his device's camera over the animation and it could read the series of barcodes and then compile all of the data to create a single document.
Now i realise that this could be a silly idea as the ammount of data that can be transferred through a 2D barcode is not huge, al lot of barcodes would be needed to transfer a larger file than someones contact details.
Let me know what you think, and you are free to do what you want with my idea, i wont hold it against you
hazzahex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Sync SMS between multiple phones & tablets?

I'm using multiple android devices, all of them under one phone number (only one plan that includes five separate sim cards). All of the services are available under any individual device, BUT! Text messages (SMS) ONLY arrive at the devices that holds the "primary" or "master" sim card.
What I'd like to have, is the ability to somehow send any arriving messages from the primary device via something (email? im?) that doesn't require them to be in close vicinity (so no wlan/bluetooth). So that it wouldn't matter which device I hold, I'd always receive any incoming text messages and they would be available on all devices. Best would be, if also SENT messages would sync between devices.
Also of note is that the sync should be (almost) instantaneous (as fast as can be achieved via push-gmail or instant messaging). So no scheduled syncs or anything that requires an interval.
Each one of the devices are capable of sending/receiving sms on their own, so no technical barriers exist on that front.
By syncing, I mean that the messages would be available at each device's own "messaging system", NOT just backed up in email or something. (so SMS2Mail of backupsms -style apps are out of the question.)
The devices are running Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.1 and come next year, android 4.0.
I'm going to use:
* Samsung Galaxy Note
* Samsung Galaxy Tab
* Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
* Samsung Galaxy Gio
* Motorola Defy
I've looked into TotalSMS Control, DeskSMS, Phone Control and various other apps, but they all lack some part of what I need. (DeskSMS looked the most promising, but apparently doesn't work on Honeycomb, at least market doesn't show DeskSMS for my Tab 8.9).
If this exists, please tell me. If it doesn't, I'm willing to pay some.
Note: monthly/yearly fees are not out of the question. The services need not be free, just working
Did you ever find an app that worked for you? I'm in a similar situation and would be interested to hear what you settled on.
No, unfortunately I didn't. I'm currently using Phone Control. I needed to change my primary device from Tab 8.9 to Note to get PC to work (since it required telephony). It is hands down the fastest of what I have tested. Unfortunately it only sends the arriving sms as email to the other devices, there is no way to actually 'sync' anything between the devices.
AnttiV said:
If this exists, please tell me. If it doesn't, I'm willing to pay some.
Note: monthly/yearly fees are not out of the question. The services need not be free, just working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bump.
AnttiV said:
I'm using multiple android devices, all of them under one phone number (only one plan that includes five separate sim cards). All of the services are available under any individual device, BUT! Text messages (SMS) ONLY arrive at the devices that holds the "primary" or "master" sim card.
What I'd like to have, is the ability to somehow send any arriving messages from the primary device via something (email? im?) that doesn't require them to be in close vicinity (so no wlan/bluetooth). So that it wouldn't matter which device I hold, I'd always receive any incoming text messages and they would be available on all devices. Best would be, if also SENT messages would sync between devices.
Also of note is that the sync should be (almost) instantaneous (as fast as can be achieved via push-gmail or instant messaging). So no scheduled syncs or anything that requires an interval.
Each one of the devices are capable of sending/receiving sms on their own, so no technical barriers exist on that front.
By syncing, I mean that the messages would be available at each device's own "messaging system", NOT just backed up in email or something. (so SMS2Mail of backupsms -style apps are out of the question.)
The devices are running Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.1 and come next year, android 4.0.
I'm going to use:
* Samsung Galaxy Note
* Samsung Galaxy Tab
* Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
* Samsung Galaxy Gio
* Motorola Defy
I've looked into TotalSMS Control, DeskSMS, Phone Control and various other apps, but they all lack some part of what I need. (DeskSMS looked the most promising, but apparently doesn't work on Honeycomb, at least market doesn't show DeskSMS for my Tab 8.9).
If this exists, please tell me. If it doesn't, I'm willing to pay some.
Note: monthly/yearly fees are not out of the question. The services need not be free, just working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello AnttiV,
I have already posted my setup (somewhat applicable to your case) in this Thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1368228).
To make best use of the app that I use in my setup (mysms) I would slightly modify it. You can install mysms on you main device (which has the SIM card that is marked as primary). Then you can access and write messages from all other smartphones via the mysms mirror app (search for 'mysms mirror' in the play store).
I used the free Web app to text from my iPad until I decided to purchase the app from the App store.
Hope this helps you.
@eileenfj0713:
that's not even remotely usable in this scenario? That's only SMS transfer, not a simultaneous receiving.
However, I've now been using MySMS for about year, and that seems to be the best solution (it's even cross platform! Works from iOS also) available. I heartily recommend MySMS to anyone looking for a solution to this kind of a problem.

Android 8.1.0 unable to save contacts?

Not particularly mobile-savvy and days of forum searches have yielded nothing, now heartily sick to the back teeth with this data hungry time-vampire and at this point would quite happily drop kick it across the yard and revert to my little Pixi3 so here goes...
Bought a pair of Wileyfox Swift 2+ phones for myself and one of my sons, my lad's happy to leave the Google defaults ex-factory and can enter and retrieve contacts without issue via something called Google Play which seems to have delusions of grandueur and one eye on world domination 8-{ I on the other hand am totally old skool when it comes to handing over personal data to who knows who and cannot see any good reason why Mr. Google should have any involvement with or access to my contacts so have disabled its permissions. Trying for the first time to save a mate's phone number as a new contact threw up a "Couldn't save contact changes" message. Why not? Wot's yer problem??
Restoring permissions for all apps to do what the hell they liked when ever they liked made no difference at all, it still wouldn't and still won't save a contact? Nothing I've yet done has had any effect, it really wants me to use Google Play (whatever that is)
A functional contact directory would seem to be fundamental element of a mobile phone so why on Earth does this now have to be farmed out to an off-device server??? It's insecure, unnecessary, raises all sorts of privacy issues and frankly is taking bloody liberties in my book Why is their no option to either save a contact to the SIM or SD card, what's so hard about that?
The Guv's now pulling out what remains of his prematurely greying hair and needs to know where all the hidden switches are to get this thing to remember that at the end of the day (and the reason for its purchase) ... it's not a life coach, bank clerk and change agent rolled into one - it's a damn phone.
many thanks in advance folks for any assistance
Guv

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