Hello everyone,
I received a Samsung Vibrant S for christmas and am a real noob to the android scene. I come from the world of WinMo 5.0 so please bear with me.
I have been playing with this thing for a just a few days so far and am hesitant to root the phone as I don't know yet all the features I currently have in my possession, let alone the amount of money this 'super computer' costs. But I am enjoying the phone so far.
So, I have at the moment just a few questions and would really like your opinions and suggestions on what you use to do certain things.
My Vibrant has the Eclair 2.1-upd1, UVJI6. I'm currently running the system without a data plan, just a basic phone service. With my WinMo 5.0 and having internet at home, a wifi on the rails to/from work, internet at work, there is no need to spend an extra 30 a month for a data plan.
First, I need to sync my outlook calendar on my desktop to the phone. I have tried Kies but the thing doesn't recognize the phone half the time and the other half is used in trying to figure out why there is no connection.
[Q] What do you use to sync your calendar events with an XP / Windows7_64 MS outlook calendar? I am not necessarily interested in syncing email, I have enough of that already, no need to add it to my phone. I would like to sync my personal contacts though, seperate from those at work.
[Q] I have noticed there are very few places to download an APK file. Most are simply installed from the market. From the old WinMo 5.0 days, I had to watch what applications would run on what systems, so my practice has been to download the application and save it to a disk so when I needed to reset my phone/PDA, I could just pull the applications off the disk. You can't do that now with the market. So what do you use to back up your purchased/free applications so you can get them back if you need to?
[Q] I've noticed there are so many upgrades that can be done to this phone, and with all the posts here at XDA, it is very overwhelming. My question here is what about the apps from the market, can they be used with any version of android?
[Q] I have many more questions, but I know you all would simply refer me to the endless amount of posts and suggest I do a little research. The problem I am finding with this approach is the mass amount of data and all the little quirks that set one issue/solution different from another. You can easily spend weeks going through page after page to try and get an answer to a single question. So my last question is this; Do you have any suggestions on how to weed through this conglomerate data to find what you seek without spending too much time?
Thank you all for your insight and hospitality.
First off I would say check out the bible in the development section . You will find most of your answers there . As for your question about app capability most android apps will run on any android phone with a few exceptions . To back up your apps you could use TitaniumBackup but you most be rooted . Read up before you do anything . If you get stuck our are uncertain just ask . The community is usually very helpful .
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Hello everyone, first a huge THANK YOU to all the developers and contributors! A wealth of information here!!!
I have searched and searched and searched the net all over and can't find a solution (other than having people resend the email as plain text) to view certain emails with attachments from people sending via Outlook. I get the winmail.dat file. Yes, it seems there are many viewers available for all platforms other than Android. I am sure if someone made an app for viewing winmail.dat files on the Android OS that they would make a good amount of money
Even the iPhone/iPad has a viewer: (well, since I'm a noob, I can't post a link, but its on the iTunes App Store called Winmail File Viewer
I'm actually in the process of replacing my laptop with a Xoom tablet. I can do almost everything I could on the laptop, but this is one of those "argh" things and in my searches, I've found many people searching for a solution as well.
So, my questions are...
1- Is there something out there for Android to view winmail.dat and I just missed it?
2- Would someone be interested in making a solution?
Thank you for your time.
I have been unsuccessful myself to find such an app for Android so I decided to create one.
You can find it here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1488466
Ok so. I've been really wanting so much to like this new Nokia Lumia 920. I've had been waiting to get rid of this IPhone 4 because I remember the days of my brick HTC Tilt and how customizable Windows 6 phones were. So far, I'm am disappointed. It isn't that I hate the phone. It is just that I expected more. I was expecting a lot out of this phone and it has not met the high standard that I (they) set for it.
The first major complaint is the camera. Are we being fooled into thinking it is that much better in low light. Yes, from what I've seen in reviews, it is better, but in my own experience, it isn't that much greater (I have tried auto and night mode). Am I too used to SLR pictures? The camera was supposed to be a big selling point! We have already been fooled once by Nokia about their "Pure View." (http: // articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/06/business/la-fi-tn-nokia-fake-ad-20120906) I wonder if all of this is just a scam. Now it seems that Nokia is owning up to more camera flaws (http: // pocketnow.com/2012/11/05/nokia-lumia-920-camera-fix). I really hope that this isn't a hardware issue and that they fix it right and not try any tricks. It isn't that the pictures/videos I take are bad, but they aren't that much greater(if they are greater) than the competition. Duped?
Battery life: I just switched from an IPhone 4 with no 4G LTE so i'm unaware of the battery consumption of 4G LTE but I have noticed that the battery sure does drain a lot quicker. I'm used to being able to go a couple of days without having to charge. I have noticed ways of getting the phone to last longer. Ff you run Nokia Drive beta, the GPS stays on in the background even when it is closed (you will notice a target at the top status bar remains on). You can turn the background option off, or you have to restart your phone to turn off the GPS and it can consume your battery. Yes, this should be an easy fix, but think about all the people that have to deal with this. Also there is not way to switch off 4G LTE.
Limited voice commands: I'm a big user of the voice commands to play my music. One of the first things I've noticed about this phone is that there are no voice commands from the touch and hold windows button that allow you to play your music. I get it that you can get the "Hey DJ" app and use voice commands for music, but why didn't they just integrate this into the OS so that I don't have to unlock my screen, and tap a few places. Isn't the point of voice commands so that you don't have to look at the screen.
Here are some other small complaints (Maybe some XDA developers could help cook up some changes.... I have paypal ).
No separate volume for ringer and music.
Internet explorer is limited when you search through Google
It is easy to accidentally press the back or the search when using the phone with one hand and reaching across the screen.
No apparent way that I have found to get the Nokia Drive Beta to repeat the last spoken direction.
No seeking option in visual voice mail. You have to listen to the whole thing all over again to get to one point in the voicemail.
Bottom line. This phone seems rushed and unpolished. I got it that some of these issues are OS issues, but come on! Am I expecting too much or isn't this the phone that Nokia was making such a large deal about? 10 more days to give this a try before my return policy expires. Come on Nokia and Microsoft. Change my mind!
Camera taking blurry pictures is a SW issue, as you probably know from having read about it, which hopefully theyll have sorted out fast in an SW update. The nighttime pictures Ive taken are very nice, though, so I dont know whats going on there.
Battery for me is fine, Ive only had my phone for a day, so I cant really say much, but the way its worked so far it seems about the same as my SGS3 in that department. Which is quite good. But of course, I need more time for that.
Voice commands I never was a big user of, since I feel like a moron walking around yelling commands in english (especially when Im in a non-english speaking country). But Im sure its annoying.
Volume thing I agree on, that should be an easy fix for MS to make, really.
Not sure what you mean by "limited" when searching through Google?
The accidental pressing is much like on the SGS3, really. Just a habitual thing, youll get used to handling the phone so you eventually dont mispress.
Iunno, I have a single real annoyance and that is wordwrapping in IE10.
i'm not sure what you were expecting from the camera, but the low light shots are some of the best i've ever taken with a smartphone. and i've had my share of smartphones (this year i've probably had between 8-10 different handsets from various oem's) the daytime shots are a little bit soft, but on par with some of the better smarphone camera's i've used, and it's something that is completely possible to fix via firmware updates (as in, it's not a hardware flaw, but rather a software one)
battery is pretty good for me, on par with my SGS3, it's so much better than my 4s on iOS6 though. there are a couple quirks that are causing the battery to drain rapidly, but people haven't been able to point the blame completely yet. some people have had google accounts getting stuck on syncing constantly and that is killing the battery and the only solution for now is a hard reset. it's an odd issue since it wasn't present in wp7.x and afaik the method wp8 uses to sync is the same as before. it's something that will most likely be fixed via software updates as well
limited voice commands are something that wp8 has the ability to deal with but i'm also bummed they didn't add more voice controls to the built in apps. music in general seems like a really rushed revamp in wp8 which is surprising since the zune software was quite well done in 7.x and was also a major feature which i liked a lot about windows phone. they're changing a bunch of stuff though so it's something that will probably be updated over time. personally i don't like voice commands outside of when i'm driving because i feel like it's faster to just use my fingers, but i understand your disappointment.
volume is something i agree on as well, why microsoft hasn't figured out this is something people have been wanting since 7.0 is beyond me, it really seems like a pretty simple change to make, especially when one is rewriting the entire OS.
accidental pressing is something that will lessen with muscle memory, i always have a lot of issues with button presses and a lot of typos when switching phones, but after a couple weeks you learn to do it a lot less.
i remember getting drive to repeat the last direction, but for the life of me right now i can't figure out what i did. if i figure it out, i'll post it.
the OS isn't for everyone, but for people who like the curated user experience a semi-closed system provides, but don't like apple's 1 handset philosophy it's a good platform.
i admit, i get bored sometimes and end up going to android, but almost always, after about a month of whatever the latest and greatest android handset, i always come back to windows phone. once you figure out your workflow on it, it's really the most efficient and fluid mobile OS out there.
Slai said:
Not sure what you mean by "limited" when searching through Google?
Iunno, I have a single real annoyance and that is wordwrapping in IE10.
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Word wrapping is exactly what I mean when I say searching through Google is limited. If you use IE and search through google, at the top of the page, you get a: "This page adapted for your browser comes from...." If you search through through the built in Bing search, you don't get the word wrap. You get the actual page. This is very lame and I think its Microsoft's way of getting us to use Bing instead of google.
Also if you just enter the URL, there is no text wrapping.
Okay? Ive set Google as my default search engine in IE10, and while word wrapping doesnt seem to exist and double-tap to zoom isnt really working perfectly, I havent seen a big change from searching with google and searching with bing or just using a bookmark or directly typing in the url :s ?
vangj said:
Word wrapping is exactly what I mean when I say searching through Google is limited. If you use IE and search through google, at the top of the page, you get a: "This page adapted for your browser comes from...." If you search through through the built in Bing search, you don't get the word wrap. You get the actual page. This is very lame and I think its Microsoft's way of getting us to use Bing instead of google.
Also if you just enter the URL, there is no text wrapping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will happen if you have the 'defaul view' as desktop, if you select 'mobile' they will display fine, it is annoying, what I did was install the Google app and I just use that for my search and browsing.
Slai said:
Okay? Ive set Google as my default search engine in IE10, and while word wrapping doesnt seem to exist and double-tap to zoom isnt really working perfectly, I havent seen a big change from searching with google and searching with bing or just using a bookmark or directly typing in the url :s ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so it does text wrap well if you choose the mobile option for internet explore. I for one do not like the mobile version and chose to set my settings to desktop (sorry still a newbie so i can't post links)
ht tp://postimage.org/image/w6w5t09ml/
If you set your IE settings to desktop and search with Google, you get a funky altered website that looks like this at the top.
ht tp://postimage.org/image/j1gnmwfr1/
It seems like the phone is sending to Google that it wants to still be a mobile phone. When you search with Bing you don't get this option. If you search with Google in Desktop mode, you can scroll to the bottom to get to the desktop site but it can be a hassle.
ht tp://postimage.org/image/5zuyx1rct/
Like I said, I like the desktop mode because I can zoom in and out and make great use of this huge screen.
Hoping google releases Chrome.
Yeah normally I like using desktop mode myself, but my most visited website works really well in its mobile form, so I figured "what the hell".
Would be interesting to see Chrome for WP8. I dont see why not, it is available for W8.
vangj said:
If you set your IE settings to desktop and search with Google, you get a funky altered website that looks like this at the top.
http://postimage.org/image/j1gnmwfr1/
It seems like the phone is sending to Google that it wants to still be a mobile phone. When you search with Bing you don't get this option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look at the URL of the page in your sample image, the URL is one on Google.com. It seems that Google recognized that you're on a phone and gave you a search results page that contains modified URLs that point back to Google itself (not to xda-developers.com) and that Google then proxied it for you, reformatting things to fit your phone.
Your complaint seems to be with Google for forcing you in to a "mobilized" view. Unless Google can't tell which "website preference" you're set to (mobile or desktop). I don't know how that preference gets conveyed in HTTP requests. Sorry.
vangj said:
Also there is not way to switch off 4G LTE.
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Click to collapse
My Rogers variant has the "max speed" option to shut off LTE. The AT&T one doesn't seem to have that... so this is an AT&T issue, not a Nokia one. And if AT&T is doing this on Windows Phone, I'd assume they are customizing their Android phones similarly, no? (I have no experience with Android.)
vangj said:
Limited voice commands: I'm a big user of the voice commands to play my music. One of the first things I've noticed about this phone is that there are no voice commands from the touch and hold windows button that allow you to play your music. I get it that you can get the "Hey DJ" app and use voice commands for music, but why didn't they just integrate this into the OS so that I don't have to unlock my screen, and tap a few places. Isn't the point of voice commands so that you don't have to look at the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an OS issue, so not too much to do with Nokia. The voice commands in WP8 are extensible. That means 3rd party developers can easily create apps that support it. I think Urbanspoon, Hey DJ and Audible are already out and support voice commands (meaning you can launch the apps by long pressing the windows button).
I expect a lot more apps will add that feature because it's so easy to implement. That makes the lack of voice commands for the built in apps really strange.
EShy said:
This is an OS issue, so not too much to do with Nokia. The voice commands in WP8 are extensible. That means 3rd party developers can easily create apps that support it. I think Urbanspoon, Hey DJ and Audible are already out and support voice commands (meaning you can launch the apps by long pressing the windows button).
I expect a lot more apps will add that feature because it's so easy to implement. That makes the lack of voice commands for the built in apps really strange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhm, you could always launch ANY app with your voice, even on WP7.
Those new apps support voice commands for other things. For example, from your start screen you might be able to say, "Urbanspoon, find nearby burgers" and it'll launch and go straight to finding burger restaurants around you. I have no clue what their apps actually support, but I know that it's possible to make an app that does that!
This is the first phone that I and probably a lot of people have owned with the NFC chip. I have been digging around on the phone and reading about it on the internet but I still have some unanswered questions. I know it takes two chips to tango so there may not be much information or many users with experience with the technology out there, but any info would be appreciated.
1. What native capabilities/apps does the DNA have to utilize this chip? - Found the setting for it under settings>more
2. What apps on the Google Play store are good to use for this?
3. Any tips/tricks/interesting uses people have found for it?
4. Any other pertinent information.
bsSkunkApe said:
This is the first phone that I and probably a lot of people have owned with the NFC chip. I have been digging around on the phone and reading about it on the internet but I still have some unanswered questions. I know it takes two chips to tango so there may not be much information or many users with experience with the technology out there, but any info would be appreciated.
1. What native capabilities/apps does the DNA have to utilize this chip? - Found the setting for it under settings>more
2. What apps on the Google Play store are good to use for this?
3. Any tips/tricks/interesting uses people have found for it?
4. Any other pertinent information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Transferring pictures, videos, music
2. Google Wallet
3. Showing it to people with an iPhone
4. No
Sent from my Droid DNA. 1080p never looked so sweet
Some people on the Galaxy Nexus forum started writing their own NFC tags. My friend fooled around with it, and made some tags that opened things like Facebook and Gmail when scanned.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Take a look at the app nfc task launcher. You can buy some nfc tags and program them to automate all sorts of tasks and activities on your phone.
There are a few other nfc apps to play around with.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
jasoraso said:
Take a look at the app nfc task launcher. You can buy some nfc tags and program them to automate all sorts of tasks and activities on your phone.
There are a few other nfc apps to play around with.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will, sounds like something fun to do in my free time.
Where is a good place or who is a good manufacturer for these tags?
Edit: Found a link on how to program your tags: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57370478-285/how-to-program-an-nfc-tag-with-your-android-device/
There are a lot of useful/cool things you can do with NFC Tags. Most revolve around automation.
On my website, I keep a list of the NFC Apps that I find work the best and are most useful (there are a ton of nfc apps on google play, but many of them are useless or just not built well). Here's the link to that list: http://www.andytags.com/nfc-apps.html
On other pages, I have list of ideas of things you can do as well as some videos demoing some of the apps/uses. If you use Tasker, then the possibilities are endless since Tasker can do almost anything. But even without tasker many of the apps will do the things you'd want to do most.
hollywoodfrodo said:
There are a lot of useful/cool things you can do with NFC Tags. Most revolve around automation.
On my website, I keep a list of the NFC Apps that I find work the best and are most useful (there are a ton of nfc apps on google play, but many of them are useless or just not built well). Here's the link to that list: http://www.andytags.com/nfc-apps.html
On other pages, I have list of ideas of things you can do as well as some videos demoing some of the apps/uses. If you use Tasker, then the possibilities are endless since Tasker can do almost anything. But even without tasker many of the apps will do the things you'd want to do most.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasker looks amazing.. has anyone tried it on their DNA? Some people were mentioning compability issues so I just wanted to see if anyone here had any experience with it.
For those of you who are interested, here's the app we're talking about: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm
I finally bought some Mifare 4k NFC tags and tried some stuff with NFC Task launcher from the app store. I programmed one to open Pandora that I can scan when I get in my truck and another to toggle airplane mode for my building at work. I haven't gotten a lot of use it of them though because they are a little problematic to scan. Sometimes it takes several seconds. I can just unlock my phone and start an app in that amount of time. Not sure if it's the tags, the chip in the phone, or both.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
I use them to program my business card into my customers phones.
Posted from my Verizon Employee Edition DROID DNA #01749.
xShin said:
Tasker looks amazing.. has anyone tried it on their DNA? Some people were mentioning compability issues so I just wanted to see if anyone here had any experience with it.
For those of you who are interested, here's the app we're talking about: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasker works fine for me, I have it set up to detect when my phone is wireless charging.
First of all, please note that there is a difference between 'filter' by date and 'sort' by date. I am fully aware of how to filter by the date, but would like to sort by date with videos in bing. I am trying to embed videos of a specific search term into a web based home page I am working on and have them sorted by date. I am not partial to bing, but have found that most other search engines don't allow their results to be embedded. So bing or another search engine with videos, as long as it can be embedded, would work. Any help would be appreciated.
What has Bing ( a search engine ) to do with Windows 11 OS this forum is dedicated to?
xXx yYy said:
What has Bing ( a search engine ) to do with Windows 11 OS this forum is dedicated to?
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Click to collapse
I'm using a windows 11 operating system on the computer I'm trying to get it working on. It was either this or 'Apps and Games'. Neither of which felt like it was a great fit for it as it's a browser and not a typical app. Either way, still trying to figure out how to do this.
With that said from earlier. Is there a better forum for this post? And really it's a search engine and not a browser that I am asking about, so even less of a definitive of a topic as it does that same regardless of what operating system or browser you are using.