The official tablet (and other useless electronics) thread!

[Apoc]

I downloaded Google Messenger for texts, but the concept of having two apps named Messenger bothers the shit out of me (Facebook Messenger being the other one). Maybe GoSMS or something?

Disa. It combines SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp into a single app. It doesn't do Google, but I never use that so it works for me.

[Apoc]

Also, Mac's OS doesn't justify the cost. I like the one I use at work because the display is nice and the battery lasts forever, but I can't imagine using it for personal uses. Maybe it's because I've been using PC for 25 years, but I just don't think the OS is intuitive. I still have to google how to do things a year later. I sucked it up and got a behemoth Alienware gaming laptop for personal use (editing photos and video) nine months ago.

[JPolen01]

Also, Mac's OS doesn't justify the cost. Maybe it's because I've been using PC for 25 years, but I just don't think the OS is intuitive. I still have to google how to do things a year later.

This is my biggest complaint yet we bought a new macbook a few months ago because that is what the wife has used for the last 15 years so her complaints are the same as yours just opposite. She uses the damn thing every night so if it costs a little more for her to look for jobs and pictures of puppies on a mac instead of a PC and that makes her happy than that is fine with me. I wasn't going to win the PC battle and her last macbook lasted a damn long time so at least there is that.

[Jake]

I'd prefer to have another Mac, but Windows 10 has been a good experience for me the last year or so - and any special programs I'd need to run are all for racetrack/BMW stuff, and they are all Windows-only. Not really worth getting a Mac then, if I'd have to Boot Camp or VMware a Windows partition, leaving OS X for what, Facebook and Spotify?

I will say Apple has consistently nailed it on battery life and high-quality trackpads. Until very recently, every Windows laptop had the worst imaginable excuse of a trackpad, which alone made the extra cost for an Apple laptop justified.

I'm finally seeing new Windows laptops with tolerable/good trackpads, but I still want to try them in person versus just buying willy-nilly off the internet.

In other news, I've dicked around part of today getting this phone set more to my liking. Changed to the Google Now Launcher which is neat. Got more settings configured. Still debating what I want to do with the messaging app(s) as part of me likes having SMS be self-contained. Hmm.

[Jake]

I downloaded Google Messenger for texts, but the concept of having two apps named Messenger bothers the shit out of me (Facebook Messenger being the other one). Maybe GoSMS or something?

Disa. It combines SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp into a single app. It doesn't do Google, but I never use that so it works for me.

You sir, win the internet today. Great recommendation.

[Ken]

I will say Apple has consistently nailed it on battery life and high-quality trackpads. Until very recently, every Windows laptop had the worst imaginable excuse of a trackpad, which alone made the extra cost for an Apple laptop justified.

I'm finally seeing new Windows laptops with tolerable/good trackpads, but I still want to try them in person versus just buying willy-nilly off the internet.

I'll let ya know how this Samsung one works out, apparently it's pretty close. My SP3 keyboard is pretty solid, but even then it's probably only 80-85% as good as a Mac trackpad.

[Jake]

Word.

Apoc's suggestion of Disa as a messaging app has been spot on so far, I dig it.

The dedicated Back button is pretty neato.

I set up Samsung Pay yesterday and attempted to buy a bottle of water at CVS with it... it worked fine until the PIN pad asked me to insert my chip card and the phone didn't fit in the slot. So, had to pay the old school way. Still a neat concept.

Battery life will take a few more days to sort out, it seemed to suck down quite a bit on my way to kickball, but maybe having Google Maps and Grindr running at the same time isn't the best idea. Does Android leave shit running in the background unless you open the app switcher thing and hit Close All? I know iOS puts running apps to "sleep" of some sort to help with battery.

The only photo I've taken so far is a selfie in a dark bar. It looked okay. Will report back with "real" camera experience later.

[rherold9]

Make sure your wireless isn't always on and unless it's an app that uses your GPS it should put it to sleep. GPS and WiFi kill android batteries. Other than that they have great battery life.

Edit: as in don't leave WiFi on when there is no network you are trying to connect. Should be a quick swipe down from the top of the screen to turn the stuff off. And you can customize to whatever you want it to be for the quick settings

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[JustinG]

Latest versions of Android put apps to sleep in the background.

Big thing to save battery, cut your screen time back so it'll cut off at like 5 seconds when not in use. Use Wifi when available, cell radios eat battery.

In Battery settings look at App power Saving settings.

Set power Saving mode to turn on automatically based on battery %.

You mentioned your Fitbit, I remember when I had my Surge, it would om nom my battery.

Also, you can go to Settings, Apps, and see if you can disable any of the bloatware apps.

[Jake]

GPS and WiFi kill android batteries. Other than that they have great battery life.

So the battery life is best if I just turn the phone off, then? :thumbup:

[rherold9]

GPS and WiFi kill android batteries. Other than that they have great battery life.

So the battery life is best if I just turn the phone off, then? :thumbup:

Edited my post. But, if you have bluetooth, wifi, gps and shit constantly on for no reason regardless of phone it will drain the batteries. Also, android screens drain a lot of battery as justin says...

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[JustinG]

Oh yea, you can also make your apps update over wifi only and I think only when charging. Same deal for backing up your pics. Which if you aren't using google photos to do, you should be. Unlimited cloud storage for your photos unless you upload the full size original pic

Also, join or bookmark <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.AndroidCentral.com">www.AndroidCentral.com</a><!-- w -->

[rherold9]

Oh yea, you can also make your apps update over wifi only and I think only when charging. Same deal for backing up your pics. Which if you aren't using google photos to do, you should be. Unlimited cloud storage for your photos unless you upload the full size original pic

This is a good idea. They'll download automatically at night as you sleep. Also if you are worried about battery you can turn off "high" accuracy mode and when you open the app it will ask you to change it back if it needs it

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[rherold9]

Auto brightness is a big thing on samsung phones that kill battery. AmOLED or whatever they are called are super bright as is. Your phone should be getting an easy two days brand new after a little optimization. My S5 did. It doesn't now. But that's normal for any phone that's two years old.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[.RJ]

I set up Samsung Pay yesterday and attempted to buy a bottle of water at CVS with it... it worked fine until the PIN pad asked me to insert my chip card and the phone didn't fit in the slot.

Get used to things working in theory and failing in practice :lol:

[Beej]

don't leave WiFi on when there is no network you are trying to connect

Seriously? Like, you've gotta turn off wifi whenever you leave home and turn it back on when you get back? That's terrible, and I can't imagine most people do it.

I still get a full weekend out of my measly (and 3 year old) iPhone 5s pretty frequently. :dunno:

[rherold9]

don't leave WiFi on when there is no network you are trying to connect

Seriously? Like, you've gotta turn off wifi whenever you leave home and turn it back on when you get back? That's terrible, and I can't imagine most people do it.

I still get a full weekend out of my measly (and 3 year old) iPhone 5s pretty frequently. :dunno:

Don't have to at all. I don't but if he wants the best battery life possible it's an option. Not sure why he is having problems with battery life, it should be plenty? Something else is going on here.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[JustinG]

Wifi and Bluetooth are always on for me. But there are apps that use GPS to switch your wifi on/off based on location.

[Sully]

Auto brightness is a big thing on samsung phones that kill battery. AmOLED or whatever they are called are super bright as is. Your phone should be getting an easy two days brand new after a little optimization. My S5 did. It doesn't now. But that's normal for any phone that's two years old.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

S5's were much easier on the batteries. S6's were god awful and the S7 is somewhere in between. That said, I don't really turn anything off or try to optimize anything and I still get a day usually with heavy use and that's heavy screen and data use so big battery drains. I do leave GPS off unless I'm using it. Using GPS and maps will definitely eat some battery.

We just got iPhone 6+'s for work phones. Omg I hate Apple. First, it's the size of my tablet. They gave us a belt clip and I can't sit down in the truck without it digging into me or the seat. The maps is terrible too. Like I just want to scroll along the route to see what the turn is ahead of time but you have to like click something and zoom all the way out. Can't remember if it let me swipe the next turn bar to skip to turns but I don't think it did.

And how do you people live without a back button. Like i know it's Apple and is supposed to be super sleek and sexy but what the hell man. Settings are impossible to navigate and you can't customize shit. Although ours are pretty locked down so maybe some settings are too. They don't really have anything other than a few basic apps and call and stuff. No web browser. I really only use the one app were supposed to but damn I'm glad I didn't listen to my girlfriend when it was time to upgrade.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SlimKlim]

Lol. I love how "I'm not familiar with this" immediately defaults to "it's awful".

Top left of the screen takes you back to your previous app, double clicking the home button shows all your previous apps. Apps that require going backwards have their own buttons, top left of the screen in the Chrome app has back/forward buttons.

I don't like the size of phablets either, I even prefer the smaller 6S to my G4, that being said you can alleviate some of the frustration by double touching (not clicking) the home button. It'll scooch everything halfway down the screen until you interact with it, so you can hit the top row of buttons while using the phone one handed.

Not that it helps you if the device is locked down, but after all my different iterations of smartphones, my personal "perfect porridge" is an Apple phone running almost exclusively Google apps. As soon as I got this 6S I dumped all the default Apple shit into a folder and replaced it with Gmail/Chrome/Google Maps/Google Search/Google Docs/Google Calendar/etc. The only default Apple apps I use regularly are the Messenger/Phone/Alarm/Find Friends. Oh and Apple Pay I guess, I've actually been using that quite a bit.