iPhone, Android, Windows phone or Google?

[NickyN]

Originally Posted by mik

No, i don't have a solar charger , was thinking about it yesterday actually(great minds think alike ) although the note has a very good size battery, i wouldn't mind having a solar charger in case i go bush or something for an extended period, you have one NickyN?? do tell.....

Nope I don't have one, but my ex did. Being in the military he bought one so he could keep his phone charged when he didn't have access to charge his phone, like when he went on field training and spent days or weeks away. He liked it and said it worked really well. The solar charger itself wasn't large, it was about the size of his phone and it charged really quickly in the sun and held the charge too.

Costco here is carrying solar chargers for everything now. I think the size of it depends on what you want to charge as well as how much charge it'll hold.
Here's Goal Zero.
http://www.goalzero.com/

(Idk if Goal Zero is what my ex used.)

Yes, great minds think alike.......I'd like to think.

[NickyN]

Know what I recently did without removing the plastic from that phone use booklet? The one still in the box in the bag?

I got my iTunes on my phone that's not an iphone.
Took me awhile but I did it!

[mik]

Thanks for the solar charger info and good work getting the i songs on your phone, sounds like a good trick (: .

[Frdnut07]

My personal choice is iphone, ive had android and it just seemed to freeze all the time and i found most of the upmarket android phones are to large to hold comfortably, we use windows phones an they are rubbish ive never used blackberry but have heard good things

[distortion]

I have a samsung s3 4g, and iphone 5. Personally, the samsung is faster, can do more, and is more comfortable for me. The iphone is smaller and handier for smaller hands. Its OS is easier to learn, because it can't do much. SIRI on the iphone is more accurate and faster than the voice available on my samsung however. I also find the 4g speed on my samsung faster than on the iphone!

If you are likely to use a phone more than just as a phone get an android. (I want an s4!!!) if you want life to be easier, not use the phone for much more than basic calls, and can handle being locked in to an ecosystem, use iphone.

[mik]

one of the features i like with the note 2, well i find it quite handy anyway, is the pencil thing, as soon as you pull it out from the bottom of the phone body it opens up a bunch of note pad items or arty things on screen, some most of which i haven`t used to much yet i must admit, but the note pad thing on its own is very cool, you want to do a quick food stock take before you wizz up the super market the note pad is there.............. you have your phone with you when ever you go out, so you have a small note pad at all times,
you wizz around the supermarket turn on the phone pull out the pen touch your saved note which their maybe a few and up it comes and you start marking off, put a line through it or erase the item , its just too easy, i might add when you do a note you just clik the save button at the top of the screen and away you go.
i think you can actually type onto the note pad with either finger or pencil , have not given it a go yet.

[NickyN]

Originally Posted by Frdnut07

My personal choice is iphone, ive had android and it just seemed to freeze all the time and i found most of the upmarket android phones are to large to hold comfortably, we use windows phones an they are rubbish ive never used blackberry but have heard good things

Didn't Blackberry reinvent their company to compete with the Androids and iPhones? I've heard good things too, and those I know who use BB phones say it's their organizing, like a desk away from their desk.

[NickyN]

Originally Posted by distortion

I have a samsung s3 4g, and iphone 5. Personally, the samsung is faster, can do more, and is more comfortable for me. The iphone is smaller and handier for smaller hands. Its OS is easier to learn, because it can't do much. SIRI on the iphone is more accurate and faster than the voice available on my samsung however. I also find the 4g speed on my samsung faster than on the iphone!

If you are likely to use a phone more than just as a phone get an android. (I want an s4!!!) if you want life to be easier, not use the phone for much more than basic calls, and can handle being locked in to an ecosystem, use iphone.

Exactly! It comes back to the size thing which is what made me hesitate on the L9. I have small hands and it still doesn't quite feel as comfy as the iPhone. To me.

There's pros and cons for any phone. The trick is finding the right phone for you to do what you want your phone to do.

Originally Posted by mik

one of the features i like with the note 2, well i find it quite handy anyway, is the pencil thing, as soon as you pull it out from the bottom of the phone body it opens up a bunch of note pad items or arty things on screen, some most of which i haven`t used to much yet i must admit, but the note pad thing on its own is very cool, you want to do a quick food stock take before you wizz up the super market the note pad is there.............. you have your phone with you when ever you go out, so you have a small note pad at all times,
you wizz around the supermarket turn on the phone pull out the pen touch your saved note which their maybe a few and up it comes and you start marking off, put a line through it or erase the item , its just too easy, i might add when you do a note you just clik the save button at the top of the screen and away you go.
i think you can actually type onto the note pad with either finger or pencil , have not given it a go yet.

Yes you can! I like this note's pencil thing too, it's so much fun to play with! My friend has it and when he's not using it I ask if I can draw with his pencil thingie. He knows what I'm talking about.

My phone has something called QuickMemo. It's on a drop menu and I can draw on captured images with it and play with it. I can also doodle on my images too! It's so much fun!

[mik]

Speaking of chargers and battery`s, has anyone tried the bigger batteries available?
i was actually looking for a just a spare battery to keep for my note 2 for a good price and stumbled across some pretty big batteries,
sorta turns your delicate smartphone into a chubby monster or a weapon for self defence , for my note 2 i found a 7600mah(anyone need a jump start) battery with larger rear cover to fit on ebay for about half the price of a standard battery on its own,
very tempted to get one of these, also going to get a wireless charger, 2 items, one sits inside the rear cover , and the pad you rest the phone on overnight or whenever,
apparently they come in different charging rates, the one i was looking at charges at about one quarter the rate of the normal plug in wall charger, which i think is ok if your phone is going to reside on the pad a fair bit..

[creative]

if its a cheap battery from china on ebay.. be wary! Alot of them are fake.

[mik]

ok , thanks mate , i will sus them out thoroughly first.
cheers mik.

[XWGT]

Originally Posted by Frdnut07

we use windows phones an they are rubbish

Sure your using them correctly? Because quite frankly its the statement that's rubbish, not the phone.

[KIWI-1]

Originally Posted by NickyN

Didn't Blackberry reinvent their company to compete with the Androids and iPhones? I've heard good things too, and those I know who use BB phones say it's their organizing, like a desk away from their desk.

BlackBerry are a very secure dumb-as-dog-**** corporate phone.
Yes, a desk away from home... CONTROLLED by the IT department.

[casabonka]

i've just got a nokia 520, $190 windows phone - I love it! I smashed my galaxy 3, but that was after the motherboard was replaced, and after it constantly froze and lagged. My cheapo windows phone is awesome, has most of the apps available and the market is always growing.

Id like to see what the top of the range Nokia can do!

[NickyN]

Originally Posted by creative

if its a cheap battery from china on ebay.. be wary! Alot of them are fake.

As are a whole lot of things from there. Fake or just junk.

[NickyN]

Originally Posted by mik

Speaking of chargers and battery`s, has anyone tried the bigger batteries available?
i was actually looking for a just a spare battery to keep for my note 2 for a good price and stumbled across some pretty big batteries,
sorta turns your delicate smartphone into a chubby monster or a weapon for self defence , for my note 2 i found a 7600mah(anyone need a jump start) battery with larger rear cover to fit on ebay for about half the price of a standard battery on its own,
very tempted to get one of these, also going to get a wireless charger, 2 items, one sits inside the rear cover , and the pad you rest the phone on overnight or whenever,
apparently they come in different charging rates, the one i was looking at charges at about one quarter the rate of the normal plug in wall charger, which i think is ok if your phone is going to reside on the pad a fair bit..

Did you get it? Which one and how's it working for you? My phone is slim but big, if it got chunkier omg I don't think I'd be using it as much.

[mik]

Originally Posted by NickyN

Did you get it? Which one and how's it working for you? My phone is slim but big, if it got chunkier omg I don't think I'd be using it as much.

No Nicky I haven't got one yet, I did find a couple of youtube reviews on a couple of different brand extended batteries, and they look pretty good, although the extra weight might be more of a pain than the extra bit of width,
I will see if I can dig up the review and post it up.
I ordered a wireless charger last week so that should be arriving soon, the wireless charger requires a pad be fitted inside the phone, I'm not sure if this will interfere with the bigger battery, we'll see in a couple of weeks .
Cheers mik.

[mik]

Some extended battery reviews , one thing none of the reviews mention is if you have a car cradle is the fatter smartphone still going to fit? i suspect it won't in my standard samsung car cradle, but time will tell, these are only for a couple of phones, no doubt there are others.
i don't know if it is possible to put an extended battery in the permanent battery model smart phones with limited battery power, but it would not be a bad thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmBWZB1uATU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu0fGu9X2g4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-Uwmn2pCg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMtFAScoKuk

[NickyN]

Hmm.... idk, that's quite the trade-off for an extended battery. It gets so thick and the weight is double the phone.

What did you decide to do, and how do you like the wireless charger?

[mik]

Sorry for the delay in my reply Nicky, just got my wireless charger this arbo , i can't tell you how good it is just yet, but i can tell you what comes in the package and how it works(or how i think it works ;) ) .
Ok , the package is a pretty much no frills bubble wrap type envelope arrangement, this one came from china, a very basic unit, comes with a copper coil that sticks to the battery behind the rear cover, also with powered magnetic pad, a usb/micro usb cable and a tiny instruction book you need a magnifying glass or really fantastic eyes to read.

when you put the phone back cover on it holds the two contacts from the coil on to ......two electrical contacts along side the phone battery.
The only problem i see with that is if you change batteries you are going to need two kits, (not a real hardship though).

This particular one comes with a usb/ micro usb cable.............. but no plug pack, hmmm wasn't expecting that.......... my blue :(, moving on,

i thought i would give it a try with my protective book case phone cover on , at first it did not charge , i put the phone on a bit more carefully and away it went woo hoo .
i just checked it a minute ago and charge has dropped out, oh well , i will say my case is padded so a thinner one may get away with it,
ok i repositioned it again and it's running again, i will experiment further and let you know how it goes.
the way it works i think is the pad you sit it on is also a coil , but it changes polarity and because of this and the magnetic poles alternating it builds a charge in the stick on coil inside the phone ..... one amp according to tiny little booklet, the pad also has an indicator green light to let you know it is powered up, ok just checked it still going fine.

Ok about 5 minutes elapsed and it has dropped out of charge again,.................. looks like the cover thing may be a no go on this unit................ cover off test happening,

thats is a bit of a dunga having to take the cover off, oh well not such a hardship, i was hoping for a plug pack to go with it but did not come with one on this unit(i should look before leaping ).
I have it running straight from the computer usb port.
strangely i tried the same thing running the charger off my old Asus Lamborghini lap top and the pad wont power up, tried all three usb ports no go, i'll have to ask my geeky brother what the go is there.

the model number is mc- 02 probably hundreds of adds on ebay for various types of these things, it does seem as though it is not a one type fits all.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/QI-Wireless-...item43bdabcd2c

from China this one took about 2 weeks to get here, still going no problems....
i haven't ordered a battery yet, had a few other items on order, car parts and stuff, going to order a big batterie soon and maybe a couple more chargers o0.

OK, not sure what your phone is , should you want one of these, but i just had a look at this one which is in your neck of the woods(well..... in US somewhere ), and you can buy one pad and multiple coils which is handy if you have more than one battery.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/QI-wireless-...item2ec94ded2f

Anyway i'll give this one a bit of a road test for a couple of days and let you know how it goes.
cheers mik.

[mik]

i tried the wireless charger again with the protective case on the phone today and it is charging ok and hasn't dropped out, it seems there is a sweet spot , conclusion if it not on the sweet spot more than likely it will stop charging.
so far i`m liking the wireless charger, and i feel better about not plugging a fiddly micro usb cable into the phone all the time that eventually may wear out the socket or cause a problem later.

Having evil thoughts about wireless charging in the car , i will look into that more.

[mik]

Ok been using the wireless pad charger for a few days now and , what i have found with this particular one, is the charging rate is is a bit slower than i thought it would be, for example leaving it on for an hour it charged my note 2 3100Mah battery 6 percent, so an overnight charge of 8 hours would be a 50% charge approximately which isn't to bad, but if you're in a hurry to top up the battery from a pretty discharged state , the normal mains charger will be the go, but for general keeping the battery topped up from a medium charge it is still a good option, but you do have to do a visual check to make sure it is in position on sweet spot and is charging, i gave up trying to charge through the protective case, sometimes it would charge ok other times it would drop out.

[RayRay84]

Originally Posted by casabonka

i've just got a nokia 520, $190 windows phone - I love it! I smashed my galaxy 3, but that was after the motherboard was replaced, and after it constantly froze and lagged. My cheapo windows phone is awesome, has most of the apps available and the market is always growing.

Id like to see what the top of the range Nokia can do!

Great to see another Windows Phone owner! My sister bought a 520 a few weeks ago based on my advice and she loves it as well

I've got the 920, and it's the best phone I've ever owned - Big screen without being too big, super fast and solid build quality to boot, it really does feel like a premium device, whereas the Galaxy s3 and s4 seem very plastic and fragile, and the iphone is just way too shatter-prone.

It seems people are very sceptical of windows phone at first, but once you've seen the light, you never go back

[NickyN]

Originally Posted by mik

Ok been using the wireless pad charger for a few days now and , what i have found with this particular one, is the charging rate is is a bit slower than i thought it would be, for example leaving it on for an hour it charged my note 2 3100Mah battery 6 percent, so an overnight charge of 8 hours would be a 50% charge approximately which isn't to bad, but if you're in a hurry to top up the battery from a pretty discharged state , the normal mains charger will be the go, but for general keeping the battery topped up from a medium charge it is still a good option, but you do have to do a visual check to make sure it is in position on sweet spot and is charging, i gave up trying to charge through the protective case, sometimes it would charge ok other times it would drop out.

Thanks for all of your patience and doing the research for us! And thorough too, you should be working in QA and QC!

[mik]

always a pleasure.
cheers mik.

[EgoFG]

I am hoping for a 1020 when they come here.

Can anyone confirm the following for existing Nokia Windows Phone:
Maps - as good as my N8 (ie no data needed, and can preload the entire world - I travel sometimes for work)
Simple notification profile switching - as good as my n8 (or any old nokia)
App to support profile switching based on calendar - as good as my n8
I love the HDMI mort, but DLNA will suffice - DLNA server ?
Calendar synch with Lotus Notes (used by my employer) - same as my N8

[screamingkiwi]

Hi guys, I'm a long time Apple user and have just switched from iPhone to Galaxy Note 2 - it was purely a physical thing. I wanted a phone I could read without my glasses. If Apple had a bigger phone I would have got that. I like the Android, like all new things it take a bit to get used to but once you are it is great. My beef with Apple is they used to be a software company that made hardware, now it is the opposite and it shows. The ease of use is not the same as it once was eg I need to access Dropbox frequently and MS Office Docs - it is easier on Android, Apple makes it cumbersome. With Windows 8 Apple is losing a lot of ground and I'll definitely look going PC in the next couple of years if Windows touch screen keeps improving.

[mik]

Originally Posted by screamingkiwi

Hi guys, I'm a long time Apple user and have just switched from iPhone to Galaxy Note 2 - it was purely a physical thing. I wanted a phone I could read without my glasses. If Apple had a bigger phone I would have got that. I like the Android, like all new things it take a bit to get used to but once you are it is great. My beef with Apple is they used to be a software company that made hardware, now it is the opposite and it shows. The ease of use is not the same as it once was eg I need to access Dropbox frequently and MS Office Docs - it is easier on Android, Apple makes it cumbersome. With Windows 8 Apple is losing a lot of ground and I'll definitely look going PC in the next couple of years if Windows touch screen keeps improving.

g'day mate, i have the note2 as well(cool phone ay ;) ), some really good tips on youtube for getting the most out of your note2 , just type in Lucidmike78.
cheers mik.

[GT2]

I've just changed from a Nokia 820 to the new 925. Both very good phones.
I'm not really into apps. I need to be able to open office docs, power point, drop box, RDP etc and sync perfectly with outlook, which it does. Reception is also very good.
I've also started using Skydrive which works well.

[TRAU BLAU]

Originally Posted by RayRay84

Great to see another Windows Phone owner! My sister bought a 520 a few weeks ago based on my advice and she loves it as well

I've got the 920, and it's the best phone I've ever owned - Big screen without being too big, super fast and solid build quality to boot, it really does feel like a premium device, whereas the Galaxy s3 and s4 seem very plastic and fragile, and the iphone is just way too shatter-prone.

It seems people are very sceptical of windows phone at first, but once you've seen the light, you never go back

Mmm,I just got rid of my Samsung Galaxy S2 which I hated right from the start.Before that I had a Nokia E63 which I liked & was stolen.Everybody says I phones are the best but Nokia are cheaper.So they use Windows;what do Apple I phones use?