Android Phones

[deanb]

I got an update yesterday for my Note 3 (which also started with Kit Kat). Only major thing I've noticed so far is it seems my dimmest screen setting is now pretty bright, and what was "GPS" is now "Location". Which also means that I have to have GPS on for Google Now to properly work cos apparently if you don't have it on it can't figure out where you are (despite mobile masts and wi-fi doing well enough for it so far). Shouldn't burn up too much extra battery I guess/hope but I'll keep an eye on it. Oh also Gear has dropped connection with phone several times already today whereas normally that only happens when it dies. Not sure if related to the update, or the Android Wear stuff getting pushed out (Which I'd hope wouldn't touch the Gear at all)

[TheMightyEthan]

You can't go into the settings anymore to individually activate/deactivate GPS and network location?

[deanb]

There may be some now hidden setting to switch GPS on or off, but as it currently stands what was once "GPS", allowing me to opt to enable it or not (normally only for using Maps) has become "Location", near tear drop icon too instead of the old GPS cross hair. If I disable "Location" setting it turns off /all/ location stuff, which then means stuff that just casually used location, such as Now (which I quite like for weather and transport and such) goes into a fit. Thing is now it's all bundled with GPS what I am noticing is I'm getting much more "near you" recommendation like restaurants and what not.

 

Probably worth pointing out that Samsungs have kinda different quick settings menu to most other phones (they kinda pioneered the idea before it became part of AOSP), before FDS fails to attempt to be all knowledgeable again.

(Incidentally once again: just cos the software number is bigger doesn't immediately make it better. For one Kit Kat intro'd code that's fucked up all kinds of MicroSD functionality that was fine before, meaning lot of app makers having to work around it)

[TheMightyEthan]

Huh, I've got an S4 on the newest firmware and I've still got separate settings for GPS and network location.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

If you click on location, between the toggle on/off button and recent location requests, does it say mode? If you choose battery saving that only uses mobile and wifi.

 

Does it make a difference if you go into the full settings menu rather than the quick menu, or do Samsung meddle with the main settings too?

[FredEffinChopin]

Yeah, I've had this Moto X for maybe a month now, and it's sort of annoying the way they treat "location" now ("now" because I'm assuming it's a KitKat thing). The power control widget doesn't work properly anymore, as location now has 3 settings: Off, on, and high accuracy mode. What's weird is the default power widget does have a display for both types of "on", but can only toggle between two settings. I've found though, that my battery seems to drain equally no matter what I have on or off as far as GPS/Wifi, so I'm leaving it on. Kinda creepy. Makes me think that they're just always on no matter what I tell them. I wouldn't be even a little surprised to find out that that's the case. 

 

Google Now just got pushed to a bunch of my friends' phones in the past couple of days, and it's funny trying to watch them makes sense of it. It's funny watching Google try to make sense of it. I think the idea is "Get the ultimate data-gathering service into play now, and figure out how to make it sound appealing to users later". I have been experimenting with it and trying to see if it's got anything to offer. I've mostly come up empty, but there are a couple of neat things going on, even of the whole thing isn't fully cooked as far as the options go. I do like that if you take a steady commute it tries to show you different routes and travel times. That's really the only thing it's done that I've found very cool. The weather card is nice too, and I'd like it if they put the slider on the card itself, though it's quick enough to open the window.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

The locations settings changed with 4.3, not KitKat. I much prefer this system, provided Samsung hasn't royally fucked it up on their phones.

[Mister Jack]

Great, I just noticed another problem.  The home key doesn't take me to the home screen anymore.  Oh, it'll take me out of whatever app I'm using and put me back onto the "desktop" or whatever you call it on a phone, but it no longer takes me back to my actual home screen where I keep all my most commonly used apps like Google and steam and my email.  This was never an issue before the update, but I am using the Nova launcher so part of me is wondering if perhaps the new Samsung update created some kind of compatibility problem with Nova, which hasn't been updated for a while.

[TheMightyEthan]

My home button has always just taken me back to whatever desktop page I was last on, and then if I hit it again it takes me to the home one.

[Mister Jack]

It used to work that way for me too but it doesn't do the latter anymore.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Look into your Nova settings.

[Mister Jack]

I did, and there was a big green check mark on the corner of the screen I usually use as my home screen, which I assume is supposed to mean it's my default and yet somehow it isn't.  If that's not it though, then I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to look at.  I didn't do a whole lot of fiddling around with Nova outside of adding extra rows so I'm not exactly an expert at configuring it.

[deanb]

So had the weekend to fiddle a bit. Unfortunately not with the new dual-data "Download Booster" thing where it'll use your mobile data and wifi at the same time (mainly cos best I got was Edge).

 

The Location quick toggle is pretty much just as it came across initially, you either have your location completely on, or completely off, and GPS is completely gone as a toggle. Unfortunately can't use Power Toggles to fill in the gap, since the "GPS" toggle is now (maybe always?) just a button to the Location controls in the settings. High and Low Accuracy stuff was always a setting, but all it did was either use Wifi & phone masts, or Wifi, phone mast and GPS. So now I've got to go into settings, into Location settings, then go in and change the Accuracy settings where before it was just there in the quick toggles. Kind of a bummer, but I guess I can just leave GPS on all the time and hope it doesn't change battery usage too much.

Conspiracy side of me wonders if this is a change to make folks have their GPS on all the time so Google can use the more accurate data for use in their Navigation app (and more).

 

As for your Nova woes:

Nova Settings - Gesture and Buttons - then change your Home Button to "Default Page" and/or toggle the "only on default page" should you have a different option there. (Mine is "Recent Apps")

 

@Fred: Only just getting Google Now? It's been out for a couple years now, unless you mean the new "OK Google" everywhere-ness (I've yet to test it out, not been in a place where I'd not come off like a prat should it work/fail). Being out of the US means I lose out on a fair chunk of usefulness with it, also with not following sports or having Gmail as my main too. The weather is useful, I quite like the randomly suggested articles based on recent searches and interests, also when any sites I read are updated. Mainly tends to work with webcomics, but does it for a few slow moving blogs too.

 

http://trendblog.net/list-of-google-now-voice-commands-infographic/ - There's all the searches too, my most frequent being "Do I need an umbrella [today|tomorrow|tuesday]". The converter is a bit flaky compared to the web typed-out version.

 

It's conversational now too, the example shown off being them asking it who was the president of the US: Barrack Obama. Then moving on to "How tall is he?". Which as an independent search would be useless, but it uses context and cues from previous searches to answer the question of "how tall is Barrack Obama"

[Mister Jack]

Is there a way to set up Nova to launch certain apps when you double press the home key?

[deanb]

Same as the above gesture setting, just chose from the "App" tab instead of "Nova" tab.

[Mister Jack]

Hm, well it's not exactly the way I had it but it's close enough.  Thanks for the info.

[Mister Jack]

Ever since my Galaxy's firmware update, I've noticed an annoying change with the steam app.  Every time I use it now, it opens up a new process, even if it already had one going before.  Even if I'm messaging someone, hit the home button to do something else for a bit, and then go back to the same conversation it'll open up an identical process.  After a while I end up with over a dozen steam processes, even if I'm just talking to one person.  It never used to do this before the firmware update.  Does anyone else use mobile steam on android?  If so, I'm wondering if this has happened to others too.

[Hot Heart]

Can't say I've experienced that, but there were occasions where it opened itself without me pressing anything, usually a fair while after I'd logged out and everything, too.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Ever since my Galaxy's firmware update, I've noticed an annoying change with the steam app.  Every time I use it now, it opens up a new process, even if it already had one going before.  Even if I'm messaging someone, hit the home button to do something else for a bit, and then go back to the same conversation it'll open up an identical process.  After a while I end up with over a dozen steam processes, even if I'm just talking to one person.  It never used to do this before the firmware update.  Does anyone else use mobile steam on android?  If so, I'm wondering if this has happened to others too.

 

I'm not sure 1) How an Android update would do that to a non-integrated app 2) if you're even reading the process list correctly 3) why you're using the Steam app 4) Why you even care about running processes. You really haven't had to in years unless your battery life is noticeably crippled by something like an app that won't stop running

[deanb]

See my only confusion is the multiple processes thing. All my apps show as a lone process.

As for using the Steam app, why not? Quick way to chat with people on the move, and buy games away from your PC too.

[Eleven]

At least the steam app actually does things. The damn Playstation app kicks you out of the app and into the mobile site for everything! I had to login 4 times in 1 session I have no idea why. I just want to update my profile... #OfftopicRant

[Mal]

 

I'm committed on getting a Note 4 but the Note Edge is interesting. Useful or practical? I don't know. Ignoring the fact that it's pretty shitty for left handed people, almost every app got to take advantage of that space for it to be useful. It also got to be done correctly (As in being useful). So yeah, I'm not too sure if that will happen.

[danielpholt]

I was really tempted by the Note Edge, but I think it'll probably end up being a niche product that no one develops for; so I'm going to pick up either the Note 4 or the Moto X. Still can't decide between the two at this stage; edging towards the Moto X though.

[FredEffinChopin]

I'm loving my Moto X experience for what it's worth. Motorola Connect and the active display are the features that finally convinced me to buy this one over something more inexpensive (as well as the water submerging tests I saw on the Moto G, which has a similar coating on the inside), and they're the ones I appreciate most regularly.

 

*edit

 

Oh, and touchless control, which I use all the time.

Edited September 8, 2014 by FredEffinChopin

[danielpholt]

I'm loving my Moto X experience for what it's worth. Motorola Connect and the active display are the features that finally convinced me to buy this one over something more inexpensive (as well as the water submerging tests I saw on the Moto G, which has a similar coating on the inside), and they're the ones I appreciate most regularly.

 

*edit

 

Oh, and touchless control, which I use all the time.

 

The battleground seems to be screen size and OS. Atm I'm using a Nexus 5, which has a pretty good size display for what I want; both the Moto X and the Note 4 are bigger. Now I don't mind going larger, but seeing as they're both going to be bigger than ideal, I'm struggling to justify the Moto X; if I'm going to hobble myself with a larger display, I might as well go all the way and get the phone designed with that in mind. So the Note wins that one..

 

Then we have Motorola's cleaner version of Android versus the mess that is Touchwizz. I hear TW is much improved, but it's still a fairly awful skin-job. Motorola takes that one. 

 

Design wise? I honestly don't know. I'd take the Moto X in a heartbeat but I absolutely hate that new logo they've got going on, far too obvious; especially when compared to the previous model which had a much more subtle logo design.