Mobile Phone thread - please include links to good deals

[VR46]

Have you experienced it running out of core storage space? Mines starting to go beard because of this its only got 210mb left and there's nothing to delete its full up with OS stuff, most of which ive disabled.

Does the S2 have the Task Manager of the later Samsung phones, the middle tab at the top is a quick and easy way of freeing up memory used up by closed programs etc.
Original Desire was well stingy on the internal memory, sure it had about 100mb after OS updates, if that.

[Lebowski]

Never understood the beef with I-tunes to get music on any phone you have to plug into a computer or conect it via wifi dont you? so instead of having a ton of folders to drag about you have a graphical interface for adding music, evil evil apple

Saying that I've stopped using itunes altogether, apps like Sony music unlimited, and tune in radio have pretty much stopped the need for having any offline music on my phone. Music unlimited have recently added offline playlists too so its a fantastic service now and new albums are always there on a Monday morning too same as a bricks and mortar store or the usual itunes delivery system.

drop box takes care of my photos and uploads them to my storage automatically so i can get them anywhere, everything else on the phone dosent need itunes or conecting to a computer, its teh future.

[speedlolita]

iTunes used to miss a lot of the files that I had.

Also iTunes used to be horrible on Windows, although I've not used it since the iPhone was released.

For me I have a music collection on my PC and iTunes is just one more step to having them on my mobile. Copy and pasting folder trees is a doddle. Not to mention iTunes doesn't see FLAC - unless they've changed it and who wants MP3s now?

[Brad]

Problem with iTunes is the 1 pc thing. I have a computer at home and one at work and I want to be able to put music on from either pc.

[charlesr]

Yeah, itunes doesn't see FLAC so it thinks I have no music. It's archaic. Google Play music sees them happily. Squeezebox server sees them happily. Even my Sansa Clip+ plays FLAC. Any decent application sees FLAC. itunes is therefore useless. And much like all the other apple stuff, it's just so restrictive. And the fact that it converts your music to a different format just for the hell of it (or security??) is further daftness.

My music usage is pretty oldschool though. I don't use playlists (apart from random play maybe limited to genre). I just listen to an album at a time. I only need a few select albums on the go at any one time.

[speedlolita]

I'm the same as you charlesr. Never got the appeal of playlists really.

[EJG1980]

Never understood the beef with I-tunes to get music on any phone you have to plug into a computer or conect it via wifi dont you? so instead of having a ton of folders to drag about you have a graphical interface for adding music, evil evil apple

Yeah, never really understood that myself. Plug in iPhone -> select the songs you want from a list -> press sync. Same with films, tv shows, etc.. I suppose you do have to add non-iTunes purchased stuff to the iTunes library before you can sync it, which is an extra step, but still only takes a few seconds.

I think a more valid complaint is that iTunes / iPhone doesn't have native support for anything other than a select few file formats and to get stuff into iTunes you have to convert it to whatever file format Apple has deemed appropriate. I downloaded a few old episodes of BBC Horizon that I missed when they were on telly and had to run them all through handbrake before I could add them to iTunes to stream to my Apple TV. Would have been nicer if I could have added the MKV files to iTunes without needing to convert.

[charlesr]

50% of my music are DJ mixes so I guess actually that's like having a playlist created for me - see no work for me

[EJG1980]

I agree about playlists, I never use them. I either listen to an album fully or just turn on shuffle.

[Neon Ignition]

My S2s memory hasn't needed freeing up, still plenty going in it

Apple used to update itunes every 5 mins and eventually you get to a point where you have to install it. More than once the update has failed and we got to a point where several idevices were messed up or bricked due to itunes. The way it operates is a pain in the arse and it seemingly does so just to help Apple maintain a vice like grip on content. Get rid of it altogether and that would help massively, its easily the most cited reason I hear for Apple defectors.

[charlesr]

My main reason* for defecting was Safari's refusal to let me use the URL bar as a search box. More archaic behaviour.

*possibly exagerated

My Galaxy Ace 2 comes with a 1500mAh battery. Anyone have any experience with using aftermarket extended batteries? I used one on the Nokia 5800 so that it would last 2 weeks instead of one. I've found this one which is over double (!) at 4000mAh, but at that price, I'm highly eyebrows raised...

[fishbowlhead]

My main reason* for defecting was Safari's refusal to let me use the URL bar as a search box. More archaic behaviour.

*possibly exagerated

My Galaxy Ace 2 comes with a 1500mAh battery. Anyone have any experience with using aftermarket extended batteries? I used one on the Nokia 5800 so that it would last 2 weeks instead of one. I've found this one which is over double (!) at 4000mAh, but at that price, I'm highly eyebrows raised...

If something looks too goo to be true, it usually is. In that case, probably with explodey after effects too.

[VR46]

Yep go for a official one if there is one, or sone with good feedback/reviews on Amazon. fishbowlhead is spot on with his assumption. Or why not just carry a spare battery about Charles.

[wakka]

iTunes is an irritation, I stopped using it years ago. That was more to do with my transitioning away from stored files to internet streaming though. Soundcloud fulfils 99% of my needs in terms of new music, and Spotify has all the old stuff. Netflix means I don't need to bother downloading and transferring films, and saying that I never watch video on the move - I would much rather read; news, articles or books. Or play games of course! (But only proper ones on 3DS or PSV)

Transferring stuff to your device and managing it is just so LONG. Who's got time for that any more?

[ETC]

In all fairness its literally only the galaxy note's that have decent battery life on android, all the rest are the comparable to ios on an average day.

I had a IP5 which I charged daily, I'm currently sitting on 33% on day 3 on my Note 2 I the battery and the fact I can carry a spare about. Was pricing up a travel adaptor for iPhone before instead ill just buy 2 or 3 batteries and it will still be cheaper