The New Phone Revisited Again

I like the Android Market and Amazon’s Appstore (something free every day). Compared to Apple’s iTunes Store the Android Market is very much like the Wild West!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been writing about my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone. Bucking the trend I moved from Apple to Android. So far I’m pretty happy, but there are shortcomings.

Though the iPhone virtual keyboard was sometimes tough to wrangle the Android keyboard on this Samsung is worse! I’ve tried nearly everything and am still unhappy. Granted, my phone isn’t ever going to be a major writing tool, but it is used for emails and notes all the time.

This is a major fail. Android users I’ll take any suggestions.

As mentioned earlier I’ve started playing Words with Friends&#185. The Android app from Zynga seems a giant battery/CPU drain. This is true as long as this app is on-screen, even if the screen has timed out and gone black.

Words with Friends has run through 150mb of data so far. For what? Is nothing cached? I’m missing something here. That sounds like an awful lot of up and downloading. Glad to be grandfathered with unlimited data, but still!

I like the Android Market and Amazon’s Appstore (something free every day). Compared to Apple’s iTunes Store the Android Market is very much like the Wild West! Anyone can put an app in no matter what’s in it!

You won’t find reviews like this for the iPhone as I did for an Android app tonight.

DO NOT UPDATE!!! Read everyone’s comments first. Lies in the description & changelog, Dangerous permission change!! Why is it suddenly asking for full network access. There is nothing in the change log which mentions that. This is called ‘bait and switch’ and is a classic conman tactic. There is a changelog for this sort of stuff, by hiding the changes the devs have shown themselves to be untrustworthy.

On the other hand there are a lot of clever apps that Apple would never allow.

There are strategies to keep from being burned with just a minimum of caution. I’m trying my best.

I am still thrilled I got this phone. Nothing’s perfect.

&#185 – Please don’t ask. I’m overloaded already with friends, colleagues and relatives. I like the game, but need a life!

7 thoughts on “The New Phone Revisited Again”

  1. I have a Samsung fascinate, Geoff. That’s a generation behind yours, but I have similar gripes. I HATE the virtual keyboard – not sure if there are other keyboards that can substitute for it. I’ll poke around and see if there is something.
    Battery life is my biggest gripe although I can get about a day and a half before I have to charge it.
    You take the good with the bad in the Android world!

  2. When I first got my Iphone after having a blackberry I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to the keyboard… I searched the app store and there are apps for larger keyboards .. Also you can purchase a “plug-in” keyboard for the bottom of your phone… I’m not sure if any of these suggestions will help you … just thought I would mention them… Have a good night!

  3. I’ve been doing the jail breaking thing now for bout 3 years now I guess. I presently have an iPhone 4 and am do for an upgrade. 4s jailbreak isn’t available yet and I’m feeling the tug of an android. What iPhone did u have before the Samsung purchase Geoff and safe to say you would do the same again? No envy for the 4S? Trying to make a decision. Screen sure is pretty on the S2. Probably it’s biggest draw. I’m just wondering if the OS is mature enough coming from a jail broken iPhone. Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

  4. Try searching for an app that changed the keyboard slightly to your liking. I believe the most popular one out there is Swiftkeys. I have never been a fan of touch screen based keyboards, and have stuck with the droid family by Motorola that has the slide out QWERTY keyboard. I’ve been extremely happy with my Droid. I’m glad I never went down the propiatary-ness spiral of Apply products. I may move onto the a touch screen when the Nexus Galaxy comes out shortly. That will also have the new Android OS, ICS. This may have a new keyboard, and assist with any troubles you may have.

    -Dan

  5. Geoff, there are a couple of third party keyboards you should try. My favorite is Swype which you can get here http://www.swype.com/category/get-swype/. It’s not in Android Market which is really the only downside and it does take a little getting used to but then you will be flying. Like the name implies you slide your fingers over the letters as opposed to regular typing like the Android keyboard. It’s worth checking out. Swiftkey is another good one in Android Market but personally I’ve used both and prefer Swype. As for Words With Friends, it’s a known battery hog and kills my battery as well. Too bad it’s so addicting!

  6. Ive been an iphone user the last 3 years. Heavily modified w/ jailbreak. However I am going android soon. I held out on the sgs2 for hopefully the samsung galaxy nexus. Doesnt look like att is getting it so will probably have to buy an unlocked one 🙁

  7. I won’t buy a phone that doesn’t have a slide-out “real” keyboard. That’s why I’m sticking with my Droid X Global even though the battery life is awful and there are much better, faster, “cooler” Droid phones out there now.

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