Hello friends
I made this article because I wanted to share my experience in buying a Xiaomi phone. In my case I bought 2 devices over the past two months. The first is a Xiaomi Mi5, which I ordered for my sister and the second one is the Mi5s, which I ordered for myself.
First, I’d like to talk about my choice of an online retailer. There are a couple of things to consider here.
1. Most importantly you want to be confident that the device will come with the original MIUI software. There are many online retailers that would sell you a device with a Global version of the software, only for you to find that it is actually some kind of a fake custom ROM. You want to avoid that, as flashing the original version of the software, although relatively easy, might be a lengthy and frustrating process for many. After all you'd like to begin using your device from day one, not spend time figuring how to fix it.
2. Secondly, the price. Naturally you'd like to find the best deal possible. You should be aware of the fact that there are many retailers that do fake promotions. They would for instance write down a higher price on the product and allegedly discount it to its original price. You don’t want to fall for such cheap tricks. The best thing you could do is either observe the price of the product every now and then, or compare over a couple of retailers.
3. Delivery. Ordering a device from China sometimes means waiting for more than a month for it to arrive. This depends to a big extend on the shipping agents that the retailer uses.
After doing about a month of research I decided to make my purchase from Fastcardtech.com Why? The driving factors were as follows: I was told that they ship devices only with the original software. The second is that they offered the best price at the time of the purchase. Thirdly, I considered the services they offered. As you can read on their website they have extensively explained their policy when it comes down to the payment, shipment and after sales services (warranty). They also offer secure payment through PayPal, transport insurance and customs insurance. Transport insurance means that they would ship another phone in case the first is lost during transportation. Customs insurance costs 7% of the total order price, but means that you would get compensated if your device ends up in the customs office.
Regarding, the shipping time, I can confirm that the Mi5 arrived for 2 weeks and the Mi5s for 3 weeks. The shipping agents in both cases ware SF post and Netherlands post. Upon booting them up for the first time I was pleased to find out both devices were running the original Global stable and Chinese stable software respectively.
When it comes down to the price at the time of the purchase the Mi5 costed just under $240 and the Mi5s $297. I bought both of them in December. I paid a small fee of around $7 for processing the transaction since I used PayPal. I’d recommend that you use Paypal too, as it is a secure method of purchasing. I also paid $3 for a transport insurance. Both are included in the above stated prices. The insurance is a valuable service offered by Fastcardtech.
Regarding the packaging, unfortunately I have thrown it away but the phones came carefully packaged in a thick layer of bubble wrap. You have the option of choosing different sorts of packaging on the checkout page One aspect about Fastcardtech I'd like to criticize is that they marked both items as commercial. The value they stated was 20usd. You should explicitly tell then to mark them as gifts, otherwise you might have to visit the customs
Now I would like to tell you what it is to use a Xiaomi device. First of all, upon booting it up for the first time I was charmed by the esthetics of the software. In my view it looks better than stock android. Furthermore, I highly value the added functionality. Out of the box the phones have applications like a compass, a file explorer, and a QR scanner. A great addition is the inclusion of WPS office. In fact, I like it so much that I wrote this article on my phone. Really a great office suite optimized to work fantastically on a phone. The security app is also a great convenience tool since it is the one place to go to optimize the work of your phone. It can analyze battery usage, clear unnecessary files from the system and in general makes sure that the phone runs smoothly. You might be wondering what it is to use the phone with a Chinese software and what the differences are with the Mi5, which runs on the Global version. Fortunately, I can make a direct comparison.
All in all, there aren't any big differences between both versions, at least when it comes down to general layout. My Mi5s came with the Google apps preinstalled, however if you do not wish for anyone to open the phone there is a great application by Xiaomi that you can download to install the essential Google services framework and the play store. You can find it on the following link: http://en.miui.com/thread-405166-1-1.html What might concern some of you is the presence of Chinese apps. Some of them are quite useful do be honest. An instance is the fantastic Reader application, which is way better than any other I have seen. The only problem is that it isn't translated in English. Some of the Chinese apps push notifications but it's very easy to mute them. I have just put them in folders and have forgotten about them. As you can expect the Google apps work well. There is this small bug that there isn’t an icon for the Google app. Consequently, I have to use the widget instead. The Mi5, which runs the global version on the other hand has no bloatware has and all the essential Google apps preinstalled. The main difference between both devices however lies in optimization. The global version is optimized to work with the Google apps and other applications like Facebook and messenger. This doesn't mean it launches them faster or runs them smoother. It is just far better at "managing them". By this I mean keeping them in the background more effectively and pushing notifications more consistently. If you want that on the Chinease version, you have to tweak the Autostart options and the hide options in the settings menu so that your favorites apps are managed better. Still, this might come at the expense of battery life. Otherwise as you would expect all native apps are perfectly optimized - notes, calendar etc. Just link them to your Google account and have no worries about missing your reminder.
When it comes down to general system performance both phones are blazing fast and keep apps in memory very well. No issues here at all. Once again I would like to mention the utilities that the security apps provided. I can be set to clear the cache of the phone regularly, remove trash after it reaches certain size, reboot the phone aromatically every now and then. As you might have guessed these are important functions that do not come out of the box in stock android but are essential for keeping the system running smoothly. Speaking of MIUI features, the 8,2 update has brought cool feature like automated tasks and smart assistant which will bring even more functionality and automation to then phone. I have the update available, however haven't taken advantage of it yet, because I wanted to finish my review as it is.
Having mentioned that there isn't much more to tell about these devices. There are 2 issues Mi5s users are regularly complaining about. Battery life and fingerprint. Perhaps the update will fix them. My observation on the topic is that battery life is generally very good. There is some kind of a bug however that's drains the battery but that happens rarely. Still it isn’t very plesant to see it, but a restart fixes everything. The fingerprint is a bit tricky too. Personally, I think it is one of the best available, but needs a lot of optimization. I have seen it rarely unlock the phone after a bear tap on the button, which was intended to just wake the screen. Still more often, you’d have to put your finger in the exact way you registered it so that it is recognized. Which is sometimes inconvenient
Such an informative post in this thread.
Really appreciate.
rhrokib said:
Such an informative post in this thread.
Really appreciate.
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Thank you! I am happy you found my post informative! If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer!
Ifo0 said:
Thank you! I am happy you found my post informative! If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer!
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Actually I don't find any question now. If I just found one then I'd do.
Thanks for asking.
Related
Not sure if this is the right forum.
I've created my first app, just a simple card game. I'm wondering if I should offer a paid ad-free version.
Right now its free with Admob. About 2500 active installs out of about 9000 total installs. It took about 1mo to get the first third, the 5mo for the second third, and 2.5mo for the last third. I've found that I get alot more new users whenever I have any sort of update to my app. With Ads, I've made about $1400 in about 9.5 months from 2.6M requests. Since its a game with ads, the longer a user plays, the more ads get shown and the more money I make.
If I have a paid version, I get a one time payment and then zero after that. I don't see charging more than a dollar or two. If I charged $1 and everyone that downloaded it bought it, I'd have $1750 and then thats it. If I waited a few months I'll have that much from ads.
It seems like I'm going to make much more just sticking with the ads. I'm new to all of this, am I missing something or does my logic seem sound.
Do an adfree version. Some of us don't like ads may I ask what app you made?
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 4G LTE
enricong said:
Not sure if this is the right forum.
I've created my first app, just a simple card game. I'm wondering if I should offer a paid ad-free version.
Right now its free with Admob. About 2500 active installs out of about 9000 total installs. It took about 1mo to get the first third, the 5mo for the second third, and 2.5mo for the last third. I've found that I get alot more new users whenever I have any sort of update to my app. With Ads, I've made about $1400 in about 9.5 months from 2.6M requests. Since its a game with ads, the longer a user plays, the more ads get shown and the more money I make.
If I have a paid version, I get a one time payment and then zero after that. I don't see charging more than a dollar or two. If I charged $1 and everyone that downloaded it bought it, I'd have $1750 and then thats it. If I waited a few months I'll have that much from ads.
It seems like I'm going to make much more just sticking with the ads. I'm new to all of this, am I missing something or does my logic seem sound.
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You're right ads are the way to go. Do you have any methods of sharing the app? That will bring more users and that means more income from ads.
Edit: I offer professional mobile marketing consulting if you're interested.
Questions should be asked in Q&A forums, not Development forums.
Thread moved.
This is the app I made: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rcs.video_poker_trainer_dw
I actually made 3 apps but the code is 99% the same.
I've gotten some useful comments in the reviews but also some very confusing ones (like the last one)
Sharing? The app is on the market. I figure that's the best way to share it.
So far the biggest annoyance has been working with the layouts and getting them to look right on as many phones as possible.
delete
enricong said:
This is the app I made: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rcs.video_poker_trainer_dw
I actually made 3 apps but the code is 99% the same.
I've gotten some useful comments in the reviews but also some very confusing ones (like the last one)
Sharing? The app is on the market. I figure that's the best way to share it.
So far the biggest annoyance has been working with the layouts and getting them to look right on as many phones as possible.
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Yes sharing. By just putting on the market you are doing passive marketing. By switching to active marketing you can get a higher number of active users and a higher income from ads.
If, like me, you find you are dissatisfied with the ridiculously low amount of storage space available on this phone, it may be worth emailing Sony. I have sent the following email to them, as I feel, havjng read their website, the representations they make regarding the internal storage, and the now numerous websites which clearly detail that the phone has 1.26gb available, I am sure that, certainly within the UK, this breaches ASA guidelines. I am going to wait to see what they say, however if no satisfactory response is received, I intend to pass it to Trading Standards.
The phone itself is brilliant, but, without root, or a method to use the SD card as a merged partition, the phone is utterly useless if you actually want to install any apps.
If you've bought the handset, and are disappointed with storage, please email Sony. Perhaps, if they receive enough complaints, they may offer a solution to removing some of the bloatware.
Copy of mail to Sony.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I recently purchased this handset as an upgrade to my Xperia SP. I am extremely disappointed with the internal storage. The phone claims to be an 8gb model. This, according to your website gives the user around 3gb, however this is untrue. With non removable Google and Amazon apps, I am left with 1.2gb free. You also state that you can choose to install apps directly to the SD card. Again, this is a misrepresentation, as the app must first be installed to the internal storage. Having installed the essential apps for daily use, I am left with 600mb of storage space. This is simply not acceptable. I am unable to install a simple game, and then move it to the SD card due to the severe limits on space.
I understand that 8gb isn't the amount of space available on an 8gb handset, however, 1.2gb, I feel, breaches advertising standards in the UK, and falsely misrepresents the capabilities of the phone.
Since I am unable to root the device, or partition the SD card without voiding the warranty, I am hoping you will be able to provide a satisfactory solution, either by replacing the handset or by software patch which permits merging a partition on the SD card.
If I am unable to reach a satisfactory solution, I will, regretfully, have to pass the matter to Trading Standards, as I am confident that 1.2gb of usable space on an "8gb" handset is a clear breach of their guidelines.
There are numerous webpage sites now reporting this issue, which is seriously going to impact the decisions of prospective buyers of this model. I wish I had been aware of these limitations prior to upgrading. As it stands, I trusted your website and the claim that 3gb would be available.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Nice! Well, I guess it worth a mail (after I found the corresponding institutions here in Hungary ). Btw. I'll also add that in theory, this phone would be The mid-range flagship of Sony, which is a big fail in this case. Big as the small storage.
MetalOllie said:
If, ....... I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
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Well, actually I have run quite a few campaigns against Sony in the past years and you would be surprised to know they have pretty bad feedback and pretty bad support for midrange devices. Even at times leaving out bugs and glitches which affect a lot of users, but then again they do not care actually. We had over 100,000 followers over google+ and change.org but at both instances , Sony did what it always does. Ditch a midrange hanging on a thin hair.
However, there is some good news for you. Sony usually upgrades a midranger for a year after which they completely leave it as it is. So you still got some upgrades left. I will be actually surprised if they give you Android M but that could happen but is not a guarantee. Android M would come around later in November of this year. Give or take 4-5 months, Sony would be announcing upgrades for its flagships devices. At that moment, just before it upgrades flasgships, it will give you a small bug fixing upgrade so Sony can officially say that it has given you a year of upgrades.
If you are very lucky enough, you might get it or maybe Sony leaves you at the last straw by providing a very buggy AOSP broken device tree and it would tell the world that it is very user friendly towards development. Xperia M4 users be left hanging on 5.1.1 officially but I am hoping against hope in the case of M4 that it might actually see a last update to Android M.
Amazon amongst many other bloatware you find on your device, they all pays royalties to Sony for preinstalling these apps. This means Sony is actually making a lot of money by just preinstalling these apps so why would it like to breach its agreement with bloatware companies or stop itself from earning?
Only thing I see happening is that they would merge the device storage into one or maybe decrease the size of their FTF by cutting out few apps or even allow users to move their apps to their sd cards. Worse case scenario, they might even discontinue the 8gb version and stick with the 16Gb and keep on receiving royalties.
However, you have an extra advantage in your favour, I must add. Many(read all technology based) websites have flooded the internet with how little M4 storage is. This might give Sony a reason to think otherwise!
Fingers Crossed!
As anticipated, Sony have responded in a cavalier manner. Below is the their email to me, followed by my response to it.
Dear Darren,
Thank you for contacting the Sony Xperia support centre regarding your Sony Xperia M4 Aqua handset.
I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the memory of the phone.
The phone has 2GB of random access memory and up to 8GB of flash memory. However, internal processes on the phone will take up some of this memory. I would suggest that you try uninstalling any apps which you do not use, however please note that it will not be possible to uninstall some of the apps. In order to do this, you will need to go through the apps individually. To do this, please do the following:
1) In the main menu of the handset please select Settings.
2) Scroll down and select Apps.
3) Scroll the screen from right to left until "all" appears at the top of the screen.
4) You will need to go into each app individually to see if the option to delete them is available.
With Sony Xperia, you have a repair warranty with your handset. However, as your handset is not defective, we would not be able to offer this. If you are looking for any other resolution then you will need to speak to your retailer as this would be offered by them at their discretion.
I hope this helps you.
For the latest news, information and product support please visit www.sonymobile.com.
If you require any further assistance then please do not hesitate to contact us again. Please use the below link for all our contact information.
http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/support/contact-us/
Please be aware that should you not respond within 5 days of this email your query will be automatically closed. Any further communications will not reach our support and a new query will need to be raised.
My reply....
to [email protected]
Dear Louise,
Thank you for your response. I now intend to take the matter up with Trading Standards, the Advertising Standards Agency and BBC Watchdog.
Your suggestion that I "uninstall apps" would be fine, were they not preinstalled and unremovable. Further, you have not addressed the claim on your website which CLEARLY states 3gb of available storage space, when in actuality, there is less than HALF of this available. This is a clear misrepresentation of the capacity, and breaches ASA regulations.
Neither have you addressed the claim that apps can be installed to the SD card, again, a false representation of the capability of the device.
My issue is less with the phone, and more with the false advertising and misrepresentation by Sony.
I have purchased Sony products for over 30 years, and have always been extremely satisfied, however the false advertising of the capacity of this product leaves me wondering whether I should I ever purchase another Sony device.
You should be aware that there are many forums reporting the storage issue with this handset, and many users on social media complaining of the same issue. This does not reflect at all well on Sony, and neither, I am afraid does your response, which I will be posting to XDA forums, whom you are doubtless aware of.
A simple resolution would be a software patch to allow the removal of the copious amount of unnecessary apps, by companies such as Amazon.
Best regards,
Darren S******
It appears that Internal Storage isn't the only area Sony are misrepresenting. According to their website, the sound specifications are:
Sony 3D Surround Sound technology (VPT)
Clear Audio+ – Sound improvement software
Clear Bass™
Manual equaliser
xLoud™ Experience
However, I can't see xLoud anywhere on the handset. Does anyone else's have it?
The Hungarian email support is the best. After I wrote the text and clicked on the send button, nothing happens. Tried 4 different browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Spartan), nothing. Very clever!
update: ohh, finally I realised that the problem was the lenght of my mail, it was too long - but nothing warned me about this, I had to guess...
Any further response from them?
Wow. I was going to buy this phone and now I am disappointed. Overheating issues, front camera not working, memory size. I think they can fix most of the problems with one big update, but i dont know is it worth the risk buying it.
Sent from my Y320-U10 using Tapatalk
We know that google introduced new mobile payment system i.e. Android Pay
In order to use android pay we need to Have NFC on our mobile device . One plus 2 which is known as "2016 Flagship killer " Should have NFC so , can we add NFC to OP2 as I have seen two terminals at back of device.
IMHO it doesn't make sense to release a 2016 "flagship" without nfc, now that there is all that payment thing going on; this is a dealbreaker for me.
let's hope they make a nfc enabled back cover or something.
yeah i really need a nfc enabled back cover, or a diy NFC solution is also ok
elban said:
now that there is all that payment thing going on
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Over time millions of people will lose their jobs because of people getting used to using their phones with self checkout registers. Millions of people who will have less money to spend on things or services that other companies need to sell in order to hand out paychecks to their employees. This will have terrible consequences.
and people will lose their job because we use electricity instead of oil to light up the streets...
but the handsfree system could use Bluetooth
http://www.slashgear.com/google-hands-free-sounds-like-android-pay-sans-android-28385795/
if adoption is good enough this could make nfc useless
sssggg said:
Over time millions of people will lose their jobs because of people getting used to using their phones with self checkout registers. Millions of people who will have less money to spend on things or services that other companies need to sell in order to hand out paychecks to their employees. This will have terrible consequences.
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Why are you using the internet to talk to people?!
SEND LETTERS!!!
Think of all of the postmen losing their jobs because of people like you!
I rest my case.
sssggg said:
Over time millions of people will lose their jobs because of people getting used to using their phones with self checkout registers. Millions of people who will have less money to spend on things or services that other companies need to sell in order to hand out paychecks to their employees. This will have terrible consequences.
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This isn't really a very good argument. You could say the same about any technology. Might as well be living in the stone age.
sssggg said:
Over time millions of people will lose their jobs because of people getting used to using their phones with self checkout registers. Millions of people who will have less money to spend on things or services that other companies need to sell in order to hand out paychecks to their employees. This will have terrible consequences.
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Wait, doesn't this argument work for credit cards at self-checkout registers too? Or... cash? Not sure how the phone is relevant.
May be NFC is not used frequently , but for those people who need it , it is necessary
thebobmannh said:
Wait, doesn't this argument work for credit cards at self-checkout registers too? Or... cash? Not sure how the phone is relevant.
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Of course it does. And it's relevant, because NFC payments that are being authorized by using your phone's fingerprint scanner are making things MUCH easier and faster. The more people get used to paying this way, the more self-checkout registers you will see in the wild.
You guys may be laughing now, but last time I bought something from IKEA, they had at least 6 or 8 self-checkout registers open but only one where you could pay in cash. Pretty much the same situation at a nearby supermarket and the hardware store and this is just the beginning.
sssggg said:
Of course it does. And it's relevant, because NFC payments that are being authorized by using your phone's fingerprint scanner are making things MUCH easier and faster. The more people get used to paying this way, the more self-checkout registers you will see in the wild.
You guys may be laughing now, but last time I bought something from IKEA, they had at least 6 or 8 self-checkout registers open but only one where you could pay in cash. Pretty much the same situation at a nearby supermarket and the hardware store and this is just the beginning.
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I don't know about laughing, but certainly chuckling at how dramatic you're being. I for one welcome our new robot overlords. As others have said, technology will always displace jobs, and new jobs will alwyas pop up in their place. At least, they have historically. ATMs "replaced" bank tellers like 40 years ago, and I'm sure people were crying to the heavens then too.
Sorry you lost your job, though.
sssggg said:
Of course it does. And it's relevant, because NFC payments that are being authorized by using your phone's fingerprint scanner are making things MUCH easier and faster. The more people get used to paying this way, the more self-checkout registers you will see in the wild.
You guys may be laughing now, but last time I bought something from IKEA, they had at least 6 or 8 self-checkout registers open but only one where you could pay in cash. Pretty much the same situation at a nearby supermarket and the hardware store and this is just the beginning.
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Which brings me back to my previous argument. What about the car? I bet plenty of horse and buggy drivers lost their jobs. What about automatic telephone connection? Switchboard operators lost their jobs. What about computers? Plenty of manual calculators lost their jobs. Do we just denounce all tech?
Heisenberg said:
Which brings me back to my previous argument. What about the car? I bet plenty of horse and buggy drivers lost their jobs. What about automatic telephone connection? Switchboard operators lost their jobs. What about computers? Plenty of manual calculators lost their jobs. Do we just denounce all tech?
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Yes.
Lol
Sent via Note 10.1 2014 Edition on Tapatalk
elban said:
IMHO it doesn't make sense to release a 2016 "flagship" without nfc, now that there is all that payment thing going on; this is a dealbreaker for me.
let's hope they make a nfc enabled back cover or something.
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ok the following:
a) that payment thing is going on for quite a while and it will take another while until it will be well established and if you're so much for the latest stuff, by then you'll have the next or over next generation device already
b) you can add nfc to ANY device for exaxtly 1$ and by typing your bluetooth address into the right spot. since i do not have oxygen OS i can only tell you where that is when i have the device and albeit i don't currently us nfc i will probably do it just to show all the moaners how silly they were
to pay so much attention to something so easy to solve.
magnamentis said:
ok the following:
a) that payment thing is going on for quite a while and it will take another while until it will be well established and if you're so much for the latest stuff, by then you'll have the next or over next generation device already
b) you can add nfc to ANY device for exaxtly 1$ and by typing your bluetooth address into the right spot. since i do not have oxygen OS i can only tell you where that is when i have the device and albeit i don't currently us nfc i will probably do it just to show all the moaners how silly they were
to pay so much attention to something so easy to solve.
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Click to collapse
1) you can pay with NFC since some years ago, so it's not a new tech waiting to be accepted and widespread, because it's already.
2) NFC has a lot of other uses other than paying.
3) I expect a flagship to have at least all the hardware that the other mid range and even some low cost phones have.
4) If you like the phone buy it. I won't.
elban said:
1) you can pay with NFC since some years ago, so it's not a new tech waiting to be accepted and widespread, because it's already.
2) NFC has a lot of other uses other than paying.
3) I expect a flagship to have at least all the hardware that the other mid range and even some low cost phones have.
4) If you like the phone buy it. I won't.
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yeah, we flew to the moon in 1996 but still the average user cannot book any trip up there. those payment methods are both, available very sparse and used even more sparse. my point was not if it's technically available or if it exists, it was about whether this is a MUST have NOW which it is not, albeit i agree it's a NICE TO HAVE which is not the same. if it's that important to you just choose any other device with that feature and everyone is happy. i have wireless charging and don't wanna use it and i have NFC for years and only use it since lollipop to fetch settings from google upon clean install, which i can do without also so it's ok to use it but if not, wo what. of course this does not apply to everyone, but then again, those people should and/or will simply opt for another device, no harm done.
BTW i'm looking for years to again have a phone with xenon flash which i had on my nokia N8 but never found one that suits, if any. but because of this i do not complain every day why the "stupid" oems don't make one. it is as it is and what we get is very good and getting better.
why should i pay twice as much for another imperfect phone from sony or samsung and the likes. no. they are all flawed in one or another way, bezels, build qualities, price tag and so on. so if i have to choose i take best value for money which meets my priorities.
sssggg said:
Of course it does. And it's relevant, because NFC payments that are being authorized by using your phone's fingerprint scanner are making things MUCH easier and faster. The more people get used to paying this way, the more self-checkout registers you will see in the wild.
You guys may be laughing now, but last time I bought something from IKEA, they had at least 6 or 8 self-checkout registers open but only one where you could pay in cash. Pretty much the same situation at a nearby supermarket and the hardware store and this is just the beginning.
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Click to collapse
That's funny, I went to IKEA this weekend and used a self checkout line and paid with cash. Most if not all self checkout lines accept cash...
Mobile payments have NO influence yet over companies adding self checkout lines!
The thought/point you are trying to make is invalid.
---------- Post added at 10:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------
magnamentis said:
yeah, we flew to the moon in 1996 but still the average user cannot book any trip up there. those payment methods are both, available very sparse and used even more sparse. my point was not if it's technically available or if it exists, it was about whether this is a MUST have NOW which it is not, albeit i agree it's a NICE TO HAVE which is not the same. if it's that important to you just choose any other device with that feature and everyone is happy. i have wireless charging and don't wanna use it and i have NFC for years and only use it since lollipop to fetch settings from google upon clean install, which i can do without also so it's ok to use it but if not, wo what. of course this does not apply to everyone, but then again, those people should and/or will simply opt for another device, no harm done.
BTW i'm looking for years to again have a phone with xenon flash which i had on my nokia N8 but never found one that suits, if any. but because of this i do not complain every day why the "stupid" oems don't make one. it is as it is and what we get is very good and getting better.
why should i pay twice as much for another imperfect phone from sony or samsung and the likes. no. they are all flawed in one or another way, bezels, build qualities, price tag and so on. so if i have to choose i take best value for money which meets my priorities.
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Starbucks seems to think otherwise.
http://www.nfcworld.com/2015/07/24/...ks-sales-in-the-us-made-with-mobile-payments/
People *****ed when stores like Walmart, caused problems for the smaller stores, now Amazon is hurting Walmart sales, it never ends. Even so, it was one of the most stupid moves for One Plus to make, was to not support NFC. So much for "Never Settle" and "Flagship Killer of 2016" Even cheap $179 Boost Mobile phones have NFC.
Has anyone considered adapting something like this?:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...onfcboard-easy-nfc-for-the-internet-of-things
or
http://www.micro4you.com/store/nfc-module.html
One could easily place one of these devices into a case that would carry it on the Oneplus 2.
The first one is an autonomous NFC capable device, so it would seem that you could find a way to use your device to send a message to the device to make a payment via something like bluetooth. The problem (with at least the second) is that it would probably require root to get the drivers and required libs and HAL settings installed into the OS, which would cause Android Pay to fail it's checks, so that would still be a no go. But, if someone in the community had the ability to adapt it into a workable solution, we could lobby Oneplus to include the drivers in a future Oxygen OS release.
I would be interested in assisting in the development of this as a project if a dev who had more knowledge could spear-head it. Certainly, someone who has knowledge to say if it would ever be possible with the requirements of Android Pay to ever work.
As a side note...does anyone besides Samsung Pay use magnetic secure transmission for payments? It seems like a better method in the long term.
I know these aren't for sale anymore since Samsung bought the company, but this seems like it would be doable if any other companies were pursuing it: https://www.looppay.com/products/ Until Samsung bought out this company we would have had the option to buy this device and simply adhere it to a case and use LoopPay to make payments. If this is possible, then surely this or another method would still be a possibility. We just need to find a way to retro-fit it into the current AndroidPay software without failing checks.
By the way, if you are dying to make mobile payments and have a OnePlus 2, you can still find the Looppay device if you scour the internet and the Looppay app is still a free download. It connects to the phone over bluetooth. The downside to the device is that it is a bit large.
Inderjit2332 said:
We know that google introduced new mobile payment system i.e. Android Pay
In order to use android pay we need to Have NFC on our mobile device . One plus 2 which is known as "2016 Flagship killer " Should have NFC so , can we add NFC to OP2 as I have seen two terminals at back of device.
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those terminals are for one plus 2 flap cover its not for nfc
Hey guys
I used billminder for years and years on IOS and I was happy to see that it was also available on android. I installed but unable to login to pull all my info into application. Seems it hasn't been updated since 2013 and no longer supported. I am looking for an application to keep track of bills and provide charts overtime. Anyone know of an application that runs on both android and ios for bill reminding?
Thanks in advance.
AnThOnY- S7 Edge
I haven't tested that feature but I just started using Andromoney and it seems pretty good. I don't know if they have an version for Apple but it wouldn't be hard to check.
Awesome thank you. I will check it out. ALSO has IOS version.
I have been giving Prism a run too
AnThOnY- S7 Edge
I'm liking this more and more. It does have one incredibly stupid UI bug in that it doesn't display money amounts as fixed decimals for example 21.30 shows up as 21.3. Reported this via email yesterday and got an answer saying they will look into it. I am using the backup/restore to device and then I can sftp the backups to my other devices. No cloud, no google, nobody's dirty paws on my data.
If they fix the decimal display issue and if I go another week with this and it doesn't crash I'll definitely buy it. It is not perfect but it's a darn nice app. I am using it right now for accounts in multiple currencies and it even handles that nicely and uses exchange rates from online to give you totals in whatever currency.
I use Mint: Budget, Bills, Finance on my Android as bill reminder. The same app is available for iPhone. It is a simple tool that helps you track your earnings and expenses.
I have been very disappointed with the bloatware pre-installed on my new TV. Of the 3gb internal memory, 2.72gb is occupied by the o/s and these pre-installed apps. There are numerous accounts of users unable to install new apps of their own choosing as the updates and bloatware take all the memory.
This is the official response of Samsung to my email complaint at the bottom, please read that first:
Dear Tony Brown,
Thank You for contacting Samsung.
Please accept my apologies for the difficulty you’ve had with your Samsung product and for any inconvenience caused.
I am sending this to you to confirm that you have made an official complaint to our Samsung Customer Solutions team and that this is logged.
Furthermore, we understand that you are requesting for a firmware file to delete the built-in apps on your television. However, we are not going to be able to provide the option that can remove the built-in apps on your television.
I am sorry this is not the outcome you are wanting to hear but after investigating this previously we will not be changing our stance.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us on 0330 726 1010. We are open daily 8am – 10pm.
Kind Regards,
Baasit
Samsung Customer Solutions
On Fri, 30 Dec 2022 at 06:34 PM <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please see the below email trail concerning my issues with my new tv, and the responses from your technical department.
I am formally requesting an updated firmware file from Samsung that will enable me to delete these unwanted apps and reclaim the memory for which I paid.
Please consider this escalated to a formal complaint.
Tony Brown.
cc. Sang Ho Jo CEO Samsung UK.
On Thu, 29 Dec 2022 at 10:50 AM <[email protected]> wrote:
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That's consumer electronics for you. OEMs like Samsung are generally not going to go out of their way to accommodate power users like us; their phones and tablets are a prime example of this, stuffed with bloatware that not only is impossible to remove without root, but is heavily and annoyingly intertwined with the workings of the firmware.
You have to realize that a manufacturer like Samsung mass produces products for a broad consumer market, and is often incentivized to "bundle" additional software/features into their products that may result in revenue for the providers of such software. They only do the "one size fits all" thing, and aren't going to provide anything special for those of us who want to use the device on our own terms.
If you can install Package Disabler or do adb edits you can stop the bloatware from loading at boot. Some of those bloatware apps may have dependencies you use... don't go too nuts.
That's about you're only options on a stock device other than giving Samsung as open box special for a full cash refund. Return it and have the bank do a charge back on the purchase if the vendor refuses to do so. I go for the latter; actions should have consequences.
Lean all over them like a cheap suit... I've gotten a refund from Sony and that's a very tough nut to crack
V0latyle said:
That's consumer electronics for you. OEMs like Samsung are generally not going to go out of their way to accommodate power users like us; their phones and tablets are a prime example of this, stuffed with bloatware that not only is impossible to remove without root, but is heavily and annoyingly intertwined with the workings of the firmware.
You have to realize that a manufacturer like Samsung mass produces products for a broad consumer market, and is often incentivized to "bundle" additional software/features into their products that may result in revenue for the providers of such software. They only do the "one size fits all" thing, and aren't going to provide anything special for those of us who want to use the device on our own terms.
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Click to collapse
@V0latyle Thank you for responding. l do realise Samsung would have done all sorts of dodgy deals with these other suppliers of streaming services. It would just be good to replace this Tizen with a vanilla version.
vidtek said:
@V0latyle l do realise Samsung would have done all sorts of dodgy deals with these other suppliers of streaming services. It would just be good to replace this Tizen with a vanilla version.
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Oh absolutely, I agree. Just like how installing an AOSP GSI on a Galaxy S22 means you can really enjoy your hardware without the bloat. I'm a Pixel guy myself but you get the idea.
blackhawk said:
If you can install Package Disabler or do adb edits you can stop the bloatware from loading at boot. Some of those bloatware apps may have dependencies you use... don't go too nuts.
That's about you're only options on a stock device other than giving Samsung as open box special for a full cash refund. Return it and have the bank do a charge back on the purchase if the vendor refuses to do so. I go for the latter; actions should have consequences.
Lean all over them like a cheap suit... I've gotten a refund from Sony and that's a very tough nut to crack
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Click to collapse
@blackhawk Thank you for responding. That's an interesting idea, I'll take a look at Package Disabler. Perhaps I'll be able to sideload it onto the Tizen o/s. I haven't had a go at adb yet, I thought I'd see what sort of response I get here first. After spending over £1499 on a TV I don't want to brick it within the first month.......And I really like this tv, the piccies are amazing once it has been properly calibrated.
vidtek said:
@blackhawk Thank you for responding. That's an interesting idea, I'll take a look at Package Disabler. Perhaps I'll be able to sideload it onto the Tizen o/s. I haven't had a go at adb yet, I thought I'd see what sort of response I get here first. After spending over £1499 on a TV I don't want to brick it within the first month.......And I really like this tv, the piccies are amazing once it has been properly calibrated.
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Click to collapse
You're welcome.
As long as you can do a factory reset adb edits or Package Disabler for that matter can't brick it.
They only effect the user data partition so you can purge the bad settings if need be.
This is interesting from the Financial Times 30 paragraphs of proposed new legislation to curb tech giant's practices.
Early version of Digital Services Act shows EU is squaring up for a fight with Silicon Valley
This includes a new regulation to stop the use of apps pre-loaded onto hardware platforms, phones, computers etc.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/j2k1fp
https://www.ft.com/content/1773edd6-7f1d-4290-93b6-05965a4ff0db
The EU ‘Digital Services Act’ Could Force OEMs to Make Bloatware Removable
The EU is discussing ways to compel smartphone makers to make their bloatware uninstallable, through the ‘Digital Services Act.’
www.technadu.com