Android conundrums


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Disclaimer: I AM BY NO MEANS AN APPLE FAN BOY.

 

 

Let me start off by saying  that i've been an apple user since the 3Gs up to the 4s, me and my gf, both had a 3gs, I upgraded to a 4, she upgraded to a 4s later on. Mind you, my other half, as much as I love her, is useless when it comes to technology ( when shopping for a new laptop, she always said "buy the one with the bigger numbers"(whence regarding to specs)), I mention this, because it is key to half my issues with android ( or samsung I guess...).

 

 

First and foremost, out of box experience on a samsung is horrible, pre-installed apps are just nasty and simply don't work.

 

 

1. Samsung music:

 

I've tagged my music properly myself, hundreds and hundreds of MP3s and flacs, enter samsung music,  tags don't appear, album art appears corrupted, it's just a nightmare, I spent HOURS tagging properly, downloading album art and whatnot, yet not even 60% of the music I transfer keeps the proper tags... NOW... Apple also has this issue, as reported by me: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1054131-itunes-tag-album-art-issues-i-hate-itunes/    equally as bad, HOWEVER, iTunes will let you fix album art ( at least...) on the go (eg, just drag and drop album art...), samsung kies on the other hand, doesn't have that functionaly (and I don't use kies that much, I just drag and drop).

 

Ok Ok ok, so i?m a bitch about tags... But then there's the skip/forwarding issue. when the last song is about to finish and the brand new one starts, for some reason and a very random one, the music player skips the first second or so of each song (randomly), again, what the hell samsung? With the tags I can live, but skipping the first second of each song is annoying...  But it doesn't stop there with the music related issues. Say you receive a call, you tend to your call, hang up and are greeted by a hell of distortion, white noise, interference until the player decides to put the song back on...

 

 

 

2. S Memo... THERE'S  LOADING AND SAVING FOR GODDAMN NOTES!!!! This is outrageous on my old iPhone 4, if I was midway writing a note ( in the DEFAULT app) and Say I press home by mistake, I just open the app, and presto, the text I wrote just before hitting home is right there... No to mention it opens up instantly...  Now on the S4 if you select "s Memo" you are greeted by a brief "loading" screen for half a second maybe less. So if you select a "new" note, the first option it default to is HANDWRITING!...  2 clicks just to write a simple note... then say if you by mistake hit the home button... Oh everything is lost... But say you don't and manage to finish writing a 5 word note, you MUST hit save, which takes a SECOND to save... then if you must re open that same note... "loading"...  How is it a simple note application has a friggin loading screen is beyond me...

 

 

3. lack of proper apps:  

3.1 PDF ePUB reader:  Like I mentioned in the beginning, my other half just needs things to work OOB, so say you find yourself with a pdf online and click it... you are greeted with "no app to open"... How is a modern day smart phone LACKING a simple pdf reader? But oh "go download aldiko or moon from the play store", that's NOT the point, the point IS, this IS a basic APP that should be bundled by default, not those by god useless "shealth"

 

3.2  Chaton is USELESS compared to whatsapp or default iMessage, my beef is how you need to "login" every single time (unless you click login automatically), but if you forget to do so, good luck getting messages on time oh, don't have a samsung account, can't use Chaton... what the hell? even third party like stated above (whatsapp, line, viber) let's you use your phone number which is the point!  (in iOS you can chose either phone number or apple account). 

 

3.3 App polish in general is very much lacking compared to iOS...

3.3.3 System wide built in dictionary is  MIA.

3.3.4  Apps like whatsapp and flickr, have as much more options and settings  on iOS compared to android, example #1 if you were to send a photo on iOS, you can actually see a progress bar on how the image is uploading, on android all you see is a clock....

 

Disclaimer: Obviously  this is not Androids fault per se, rather the developers of said apps.

 

3.3.5 there is no default system wide search like on iOS.

 

4.  Notification... OK APPLE COPIED androids notification style bar, yet, in iOS i could see a preview of the TEXT message I got, whilst in android all i get is a "new message". the same goes for notification screen on lock.

 

4.1 Android has a severe notification when on WIFI issue, I hope this has been solved in 4.3, How can there be such a widespread issue with notifications not working when the screen sleeps? (the link below has 1 important links, how it has been identified as a bug with "mid" priority level and even how on XDA, many developers have found it's a deep down kernel issue)

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1163306-android-notifications-woes-with-whatsapp/

 

4.2 Whilst listening to music on iOS, if you get a notification, the music slightly fades and you get your notification, music fades back up, on samsung s4, it's so random, if you use whatsapp a lot, notifications for said app are lower than the music playing, but if you get an email it drastically cuts the music completely, plays the notifications sound, then restarts the music, no fade in fade out.

 

5. Updates... Samsung hasn't officially updated the s3 to 4.2.2  ( last official was 4.1.2) (except for UK, EU and other places, just NOT widespread)   Now, mind you as soon as apple releases a new iteration of iOS, if your device allows it, you can update immediately. This is more a Apple vrs Samsung  (rather than iOS vrs. Android), just a couple of days ago, sony and HTC released a "whitelist" of their devices that will get 4.3, SAMSUNG hasn't even updated their past flagship properly to 4.2.2, so if past behavior is anything to go buy, s4 users (like me) are screwed until samsung feels like updating...

 

6. Then there's screen transition... you can actually see the bars when the screen is "adapting" to  light or lack there of (turning adaptive display of, kinda fixes this to some extent) and before you go and say Oh it's your phone it's defective, it's a widespread issue and has been diagnosed as a software issue ( just haven't narrowed it down to OS display driver or Samsung crap)... on iOS it's nice smooth blend in transitions from dark to light etc. My best description for it "tetris adaptive display", because you can see that ( for a split second obviously, you have to be anal about it to see it... )

 

I left iOS because I was tired of iTunes and Apple's restrictions ( needing iTunes or other software alternative (mediamonkey)) and waited to any brand released a proper sounding "hi-fi ish" phone, the s3 was almost there, the s4 and the htc one finally hit that spot. But these issues, are just frustrating to say the least.

 

 

Please note, the majority of people will say "oh root and get it over with", please avoid saying so, I am talking about OUT OF BOX experience, which in this case, Samsung/Android, severely lacks and not everyone has the time/knowledge to root, no to mention, rooting SHOULDN'T be necessary for these type of issues.

 

 

/rant.

 

 

Anyway, hoping to receive positive feedback...

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Android is one of the most customizable systems.  Basically, for every program built into the phone, more than likely, you will find a replacement one that works bettter (in some cases worse), than the one you don't care for.  There are hundreds if not thousands of launchers (home screen applications) you can use for it.

 

I have a Galaxy Axiom (similar to the Galaxy SIII Mini), and quite literally, every app on there that is from Samsung, I don't care for.  This and I also have US Cellular which bloated the crap out of the phone so every time I turned around, it was pushing some app on it.  (I am rooted so was able to remove them as they were system apps, but shouldn't come to this).

 

With that said - it might be worth while to download different apps to see if they work better. 

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Android is one of the most customizable systems.  Basically, for every program built into the phone, more than likely, you will find a replacement one that works bettter (in some cases worse), than the one you don't care for.  There are hundreds if not thousands of launchers (home screen applications) you can use for it.

 

I have a Galaxy Axiom (similar to the Galaxy SIII Mini), and quite literally, every app on there that is from Samsung, I don't care for.  This and I also have US Cellular which bloated the crap out of the phone so every time I turned around, it was pushing some app on it.  (I am rooted so was able to remove them as they were system apps, but shouldn't come to this).

 

With that said - it might be worth while to download different apps to see if they work better. 

 

Oh no no, I agree on that customization bit... as I'm tech savvy so to say... But try explaining to my 50 year old mom who is used to just opening pdfs without having to download an app?

My point is that exactly, default apps, on samsung at least, lack the out of box fluidity that iOS apps seem to have.

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I've heard good and bad about Samsung's OOBE, but on the whole it's not "that bad".

 

I own a HTC One, and I must admit it's been one of the best Android OOBE I've seen!

Oh it's not horrible, it's just not as "fluid" as iOS is all.

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The majority of those issues are Samsung's fault. And they do sound annoying. I guess that's why I never liked Touchwiz.

To address some of your points though:

2: S Memo. Wow that's horrible design. Some of those issues are covered in the documentation for brand new Android developers.

3.1: PDF reader. It never really bothered me that Android didn't come with one, but you're probably right that it should at least come with a basic reader.

3.3.5: System wide search. I believe Apple has a patent on this.

4: Notifications. That must be a Samsung thing, too because every Android I've ever used shows the message in the notification. It will just say "New message" though on the lock screen if the phone is locked (needing a password or pattern entered).

4.1: WiFi notification issue. I'm not sure if this one has affected me, but plenty of people have complained about it and it does appear to be an Android bug. Not sure if 4.3 fixes this.

4.2: Music notification "ducking". By default, notifications should only lower the music while the notification sound plays. You have to go out of your way to completely pause the music. Not sure what Samsung was thinking.

5: Updates. I think the almost ancient Galaxy S2 is running 4.1 even on major US carriers so you will probably get proper support for some time.

6: Transition. I'm not really sure what you're talking about here. I'd be interested if you could explain more.

A lot of these issues fortunately can be fixed by simply heading to the Play Store, but it sounds like I wouldn't enjoy the out-of-box experience. Most people probably don't notice these things so Samsung might not even address these issues.

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I agree some of the Samsung apps are crap and that's why I don't use them but it sounds like me to be a simple failure to look correctly for alternatives on your part. I use a custom music player, custom PDF application, and a custom launcher and I suffer no quality issues.

 

Also, please stop with the misconception that you need to root to install alternatives for those apps because you don't.

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Woo, here we go. Lets see how I can help. Replying in bold because it's too damn much to reformat, haha.

 

Disclaimer: I AM BY NO MEANS AN APPLE FAN BOY.

 

 

Let me start off by saying  that i've been an apple user since the 3Gs up to the 4s, me and my gf, both had a 3gs, I upgraded to a 4, she upgraded to a 4s later on. Mind you, my other half, as much as I love her, is useless when it comes to technology ( when shopping for a new laptop, she always said "buy the one with the bigger numbers"(whence regarding to specs)), I mention this, because it is key to half my issues with android ( or samsung I guess...).

 

 

First and foremost, out of box experience on a samsung is horrible, pre-installed apps are just nasty and simply don't work.

 

 

1. Samsung music:

 

I've tagged my music properly myself, hundreds and hundreds of MP3s and flacs, enter samsung music,  tags don't appear, album art appears corrupted, it's just a nightmare, I spent HOURS tagging properly, downloading album art and whatnot, yet not even 60% of the music I transfer keeps the proper tags... NOW... Apple also has this issue, as reported by me: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1054131-itunes-tag-album-art-issues-i-hate-itunes/    equally as bad, HOWEVER, iTunes will let you fix album art ( at least...) on the go (eg, just drag and drop album art...), samsung kies on the other hand, doesn't have that functionaly (and I don't use kies that much, I just drag and drop).

 

Ok Ok ok, so i?m a bitch about tags... But then there's the skip/forwarding issue. when the last song is about to finish and the brand new one starts, for some reason and a very random one, the music player skips the first second or so of each song (randomly), again, what the hell samsung? With the tags I can live, but skipping the first second of each song is annoying...  But it doesn't stop there with the music related issues. Say you receive a call, you tend to your call, hang up and are greeted by a hell of distortion, white noise, interference until the player decides to put the song back on...

 

Samsung Music.... Not much else to say. Download a real music player. Most manufacturer's versions of stuff suck. I mostly stream, but I'd use Play Music at least, or PowerAmp if you want more of a quality player.

 

2. S Memo... THERE'S  LOADING AND SAVING FOR GODDAMN NOTES!!!! This is outrageous on my old iPhone 4, if I was midway writing a note ( in the DEFAULT app) and Say I press home by mistake, I just open the app, and presto, the text I wrote just before hitting home is right there... No to mention it opens up instantly...  Now on the S4 if you select "s Memo" you are greeted by a brief "loading" screen for half a second maybe less. So if you select a "new" note, the first option it default to is HANDWRITING!...  2 clicks just to write a simple note... then say if you by mistake hit the home button... Oh everything is lost... But say you don't and manage to finish writing a 5 word note, you MUST hit save, which takes a SECOND to save... then if you must re open that same note... "loading"...  How is it a simple note application has a friggin loading screen is beyond me...

 

Samsung app again, you bought the Samsung. :laugh:

 

3. lack of proper apps:  

3.1 PDF ePUB reader:  Like I mentioned in the beginning, my other half just needs things to work OOB, so say you find yourself with a pdf online and click it... you are greeted with "no app to open"... How is a modern day smart phone LACKING a simple pdf reader? But oh "go download aldiko or moon from the play store", that's NOT the point, the point IS, this IS a basic APP that should be bundled by default, not those by god useless "shealth"

 

This is where we differ. Some manufacturers actually may include a PDF viewer. In fact, I thought a lot of them did at some point. I'd rather them STOP loading **** on my phone. Let me downoad it myself. It doesn't need to be bundled and shouldn't necessarily be bundled. If there was an application built in that could read PDFs like the browser or the Gallery or something, that may be ideal, but don't bundle apps unless they are core apps which a PDF viewer isn't.

 

3.2  Chaton is USELESS compared to whatsapp or default iMessage, my beef is how you need to "login" every single time (unless you click login automatically), but if you forget to do so, good luck getting messages on time oh, don't have a samsung account, can't use Chaton... what the hell? even third party like stated above (whatsapp, line, viber) let's you use your phone number which is the point!  (in iOS you can chose either phone number or apple account). 

 

Third time, Samsung. Chaton is worthless. So is Whatsapp and iMessage. I don't understand in a day and age when EVERYONE has unlimited text messages why we still need silly apps to do it. I do understand they at times work far better or do things texting can't, but for the most part I don't really get it. I've had a few Samsung phones and I don't think I've EVER touched the Chatom app. Anyway, that's just another Samsung issue, not Android issue.

 

3.3 App polish in general is very much lacking compared to iOS...

3.3.3 System wide built in dictionary is  MIA.

Depends on the keyboard. If you're using Samsung's junk keyboard and it doesn't have it, dump it for something better. The stock Android keyboard has a good dictionary and works very well, far better than most OEM's keyboards. Or you can drop a little extra cash for Swiftkey. It's worth it.

 

3.3.4  Apps like whatsapp and flickr, have as much more options and settings  on iOS compared to android, example #1 if you were to send a photo on iOS, you can actually see a progress bar on how the image is uploading, on android all you see is a clock....

 

Disclaimer: Obviously  this is not Androids fault per se, rather the developers of said apps.

 

Enough said. Submit reviews in the Play Store if you don't like something or have a suggestion. Maybe they'll do something at some point.

 

3.3.5 there is no default system wide search like on iOS.

 

Google Search does. Go into the settings and click Phone Search and check whatever apps you want searched when you search.

 

4.  Notification... OK APPLE COPIED androids notification style bar, yet, in iOS i could see a preview of the TEXT message I got, whilst in android all i get is a "new message". the same goes for notification screen on lock.

 

Sounds like your security settings. You can change your settings to just show "New Text Message" or you can have it show a preview. I just sent myself a text to double check and the entire text is readable in the notification drawer. Could, again, be a Samsung thing though. Check in the settings for the text app and see if you can enable previews. Also, notifications in Android are expandable. Sometimes you can use a finger or two fingers to pull the notification down to get more info.

 

4.1 Android has a severe notification when on WIFI issue, I hope this has been solved in 4.3, How can there be such a widespread issue with notifications not working when the screen sleeps? (the link below has 1 important links, how it has been identified as a bug with "mid" priority level and even how on XDA, many developers have found it's a deep down kernel issue)

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1163306-android-notifications-woes-with-whatsapp/

 

We've already talked about this one, of course. I maintain it's a WhatsApp issue and not an Android issue. I've never EVER seen this issue (and I've had a bunch of Android phones), nor have I ever seen anyone else who has. Then again, I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp, so that makes sense.

 

4.2 Whilst listening to music on iOS, if you get a notification, the music slightly fades and you get your notification, music fades back up, on samsung s4, it's so random, if you use whatsapp a lot, notifications for said app are lower than the music playing, but if you get an email it drastically cuts the music completely, plays the notifications sound, then restarts the music, no fade in fade out.

 

That can be tricky and I don't know where exactly this is controlled. I know PowerAmp would let you change how you wanted notifications to come through. Can't help you off the top of my head for that one because I've never really had an issue with it.

 

5. Updates... Samsung hasn't officially updated the s3 to 4.2.2  ( last official was 4.1.2) (except for UK, EU and other places, just NOT widespread)   Now, mind you as soon as apple releases a new iteration of iOS, if your device allows it, you can update immediately. This is more a Apple vrs Samsung  (rather than iOS vrs. Android), just a couple of days ago, sony and HTC released a "whitelist" of their devices that will get 4.3, SAMSUNG hasn't even updated their past flagship properly to 4.2.2, so if past behavior is anything to go buy, s4 users (like me) are screwed until samsung feels like updating...

 

The issue is not enough people care enough about timely updates and hound the manufacturers and carriers, so it's a backburner issue for the OEMs it seems. Apple makes one phone and they make the software and the hardware, it's not hard for them to push to everything, Google can't due to OEM and then carrier customizations which, while they can be annoying at times, is definitely a feature of Android to allow customization like that. Unfortunately Samsung and HTC have never been known to be timely about their updates. You'd have to look at a company like Sony that even comes out with beta updates. That or just man up and update it yourself. :laugh:

 

6. Then there's screen transition... you can actually see the bars when the screen is "adapting" to  light or lack there of (turning adaptive display of, kinda fixes this to some extent) and before you go and say Oh it's your phone it's defective, it's a widespread issue and has been diagnosed as a software issue ( just haven't narrowed it down to OS display driver or Samsung crap)... on iOS it's nice smooth blend in transitions from dark to light etc. My best description for it "tetris adaptive display", because you can see that ( for a split second obviously, you have to be anal about it to see it... )

 

I'm not certain I know exactly what you're talking about. Are you talking about the screen auto-brightness? I'm not certain what "the bars" means. The brightness transition isn't entirely smooth because it takes steps up or down. There's no kind of bars though. Just the entire screen brightness steps down, and it can be slightly choppy. If I had to guess I'd say this was due to battery/processor saving. I don't even really notice it though, let alone have it bother me.

 

I left iOS because I was tired of iTunes and Apple's restrictions ( needing iTunes or other software alternative (mediamonkey)) and waited to any brand released a proper sounding "hi-fi ish" phone, the s3 was almost there, the s4 and the htc one finally hit that spot. But these issues, are just frustrating to say the least.

 

Hi-fi-ish? Like audio quality? The original Galaxy S had the best audio quality on just about any phone due to it's Wolfson DAC and decent headphone amp. This DAC also appeared on a few other phones, including the S2, S3, and I believe the S4, but the international S4, not the Snapdragon version I don't think. Phones with these DACs consistently beat out every other phone including the iPhone which does have somewhat decent audio quality (though it seemed like it was dwindling compared to the iPod and I haven't looked at more recent like the iPhone 5). Unfortunately HTC seems to think Beats means high quality sound when it typically means the exact opposite, so they just toss an equalizer on there and call it a day. The front speakers on the One are fantastic though.

 

Please note, the majority of people will say "oh root and get it over with", please avoid saying so, I am talking about OUT OF BOX experience, which in this case, Samsung/Android, severely lacks and not everyone has the time/knowledge to root, no to mention, rooting SHOULDN'T be necessary for these type of issues.

 

 

/rant.

 

 

Anyway, hoping to receive positive feedback...

 

In short, to me it sounds like you're wanting your S4 to be an iPhone. You sound like you REALLY liked your iPhone, so I'm curious as to why you left it. All you've done is name issue after issue that are mostly phone or app specific, or aren't really issues, just work differently than iPhone. I'm not saying you're an Apple fan boy or anything, I'm just saying from the sound of it you should have an iPhone since you seem to like them more.

 

I can understand not wanting to root your phone to have to do something, and I can't think of anything you listed that you'd need to, but wanting your phone to do everything you specifically want out of the box is a bit much to ask for. It's better that they leave as much out as possible so you can download just the apps that you want. Unfortunately, with companies like Samsung the out of box experience can be a little bloated. On top of that there's the carrier bloat too. The customizabilty of Android is great, but it gets abused by the OEMs and carriers. Everyone offers a slightly different out of box experience, you just have to pick what works best for you.

 

I could have told you Samsung software was doodoo and not to get the S4 though. The One would have been a better choice.

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I've been an Apple/iOS user for a long time too and have owned every phone and tablet Apple has released. I grew very bored with iOS so I bought a Nexus 4 and generally have been very happy. I love how customizable the OS is and the caliber of apps has gone way up, although I'd say iOS still has a big advantage there. If you are talking about Samsung specifically, I played with an S4 at Best Buy and thought it was a wonderful device, even with the Samsung OS. Still though, both Samsung and HTC are coming out with "Google Experience" devices with stock Android and without the extra crap. I was thinking about waiting for those to come out and look at them as well as the new iPhone and iOS 7.

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I've been an Apple/iOS user for a long time too and have owned every phone and tablet Apple has released. I grew very bored with iOS so I bought a Nexus 4 and generally have been very happy. I love how customizable the OS is and the caliber of apps has gone way up, although I'd say iOS still has a big advantage there. If you are talking about Samsung specifically, I played with an S4 at Best Buy and thought it was a wonderful device, even with the Samsung OS. Still though, both Samsung and HTC are coming out with "Google Experience" devices with stock Android and without the extra crap. I was thinking about waiting for those to come out and look at them as well as the new iPhone and iOS 7.

They're out. I have my AT&T HTC One converted to a Google Edition One, and I've been very happy on plain AOSP so far. I've thought about using a modified GE ROM, but I just can't seem to care enough for anything they add over AOSP so far.

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Oh they are? I hadn't realized that. I might still wait and see what the new iPhone and IOS7 brings. I do have a lot invested in iOS apps but I've also grown to love Android.

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Please note, the majority of people will say "oh root and get it over with", please avoid saying so, I am talking about OUT OF BOX experience, which in this case, Samsung/Android, severely lacks and not everyone has the time/knowledge to root, no to mention, rooting SHOULDN'T be necessary for these type of issues.

 

 

/rant.

 

 

Anyway, hoping to receive positive feedback...

 

I don't think there's anything to add, Samsung's customisations to Android are just pure garbage... you have now discovered this.

 

Personally Android is my mobile OS of choice, however i agree the out of box experience on a lot of non Nexus phones is terrible.

 

In regards to notifications, you see a preview on stock Android. I think my mate does on his stock S3 too however i could be mistaken there. I don't really agree about the PDF comment, but apart from that i agree with most of your points.

 

You shouldn't have to root to have a decent phone, sadly that is the case with a lot of Samsung devices. Some people love it though, if i had to pick a manufactures interface it would be HTC's Sense. However for me its nothing but stock Android all the way.

 

There seems to be a new trend of Google editions of popular flagship phones been released, thats the way to go if you want the real Android experience without flashing a custom rom. Plus you get the latest and greatest before any other devices.

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Oh they are? I hadn't realized that. I might still wait and see what the new iPhone and IOS7 brings. I do have a lot invested in iOS apps but I've also grown to love Android.

That's why I use my One and keep an iPad at home. :laugh:

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Yeah I use a Nexus 4 and keep an iPad at home, although I am finding that I am using my new Nexus 7 way more than my iPad.

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Woo, here we go. Lets see how I can help. Replying in bold because it's too damn much to reformat, haha.

 

 

In short, to me it sounds like you're wanting your S4 to be an iPhone. You sound like you REALLY liked your iPhone, so I'm curious as to why you left it. All you've done is name issue after issue that are mostly phone or app specific, or aren't really issues, just work differently than iPhone. I'm not saying you're an Apple fan boy or anything, I'm just saying from the sound of it you should have an iPhone since you seem to like them more.

 

I can understand not wanting to root your phone to have to do something, and I can't think of anything you listed that you'd need to, but wanting your phone to do everything you specifically want out of the box is a bit much to ask for. It's better that they leave as much out as possible so you can download just the apps that you want. Unfortunately, with companies like Samsung the out of box experience can be a little bloated. On top of that there's the carrier bloat too. The customizabilty of Android is great, but it gets abused by the OEMs and carriers. Everyone offers a slightly different out of box experience, you just have to pick what works best for you.

 

I could have told you Samsung software was doodoo and not to get the S4 though. The One would have been a better choice.

 

Well, to be quite frank, everything in iOS just worked like it should out of box, period. Having to buy apps that in my humblest opinion should be included as they are "essential" for a smartphone. Like I replied to someone in a previous post, imagine I gave this phone to my 54 year old dad? You think he would go through all this trouble or rather have it work OOB.  Android phones should have a disclaimer "Geeks Only" :p

 

Oh I  don't mind rooting, my previous iPhone 4 was JB,  sn0wbreezed and ultrasn0wed ( it was an ATT version, needed that for it to work in my country)... but I can root, my  GF can't/won't/is computer illiterate.

 

I do like iphone, the build quality, the timely updates.  I HATE WITH ALL MY SOUL ITUNES and how locked iOS is in general. Hence Why I gave up :p  If you read some of my other posts: iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4 and last 4s, I just gave up. tag wise, itunes is just a mess... it doesn't properly export tags... But that my friend, is a whole different grill.

 

 

on going edit:

 

Samsung Music.... Not much else to say. Download a real music player. Most manufacturer's versions of stuff suck. I mostly stream, but I'd use Play Music at least, or PowerAmp if you want more of a quality player.

 

Re:Why should I? it should work OOB. period, I don't want to spend money on a player when the phone should bring at least a PROPER working one.

 

Samsung app again, you bought the Samsung. 

Re: yeah... Guess so, but a simple note application? come on.

 

This is where we differ. Some manufacturers actually may include a PDF viewer. In fact, I thought a lot of them did at some point. I'd rather them STOP loading **** on my phone. Let me downoad it myself. It doesn't need to be bundled and shouldn't necessarily be bundled. If there was an application built in that could read PDFs like the browser or the Gallery or something, that may be ideal, but don't bundle apps unless they are core apps which a PDF viewer isn't.

 

re:PDF AND EPUB reader, yeah so they can bundle crappy memo app, but not a pdf epub reader?

 

Third time, Samsung. Chaton is worthless. So is Whatsapp and iMessage. I don't understand in a day and age when EVERYONE has unlimited text messages why we still need silly apps to do it. I do understand they at times work far better or do things texting can't, but for the most part I don't really get it. I've had a few Samsung phones and I don't think I've EVER touched the Chatom app. Anyway, that's just another Samsung issue, not Android issue.

 

I live in Honduras, Central America, my carrier allows 200 texts per month and MMS cost $1.50 plus tax. so whatsapp is essential (in replacing iMessage anyway)

 

Depends on the keyboard. If you're using Samsung's junk keyboard and it doesn't have it, dump it for something better. The stock Android keyboard has a good dictionary and works very well, far better than most OEM's keyboards. Or you can drop a little extra cash for Swiftkey. It's worth it.

 

Built in keyboard meaning I can select ANY word on ANY screen (browser or reader) and system wide dictionary will define it.  

 

 

Enough said. Submit reviews in the Play Store if you don't like something or have a suggestion. Maybe they'll do something at some point.

 

naw, There's nothing to do about that, apples requirements are "higher" or "Stricter" so  to say would be my bet

 

 

Google Search does. Go into the settings and click Phone Search and check whatever apps you want searched when you search.

Will check this out, thank you! ( I think I haven't even enabled google search)

 

Sounds like your security settings. You can change your settings to just show "New Text Message" or you can have it show a preview. I just sent myself a text to double check and the entire text is readable in the notification drawer. Could, again, be a Samsung thing though. Check in the settings for the text app and see if you can enable previews. Also, notifications in Android are expandable. Sometimes you can use a finger or two fingers to pull the notification down to get more info.

 

Well I fiddled with the notifications settings without any luck, i'll keep going at  at.

 

 

We've already talked about this one, of course. I maintain it's a WhatsApp issue and not an Android issue. I've never EVER seen this issue (and I've had a bunch of Android phones), nor have I ever seen anyone else who has. Then again, I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp, so that makes sense.

 

No, whatsapp update solved the 3g issue, the WIFI bit definitely is android related ( as we argued before :p )

 

 

 

That can be tricky and I don't know where exactly this is controlled. I know PowerAmp would let you change how you wanted notifications to come through. Can't help you off the top of my head for that one because I've never really had an issue with it.
 
Again, A third party  APP ? :p  But yeah, I think I definitely have to look into power amp.

 

The issue is not enough people care enough about timely updates and hound the manufacturers and carriers, so it's a backburner issue for the OEMs it seems. Apple makes one phone and they make the software and the hardware, it's not hard for them to push to everything, Google can't due to OEM and then carrier customizations which, while they can be annoying at times, is definitely a feature of Android to allow customization like that. Unfortunately Samsung and HTC have never been known to be timely about their updates. You'd have to look at a company like Sony that even comes out with beta updates. That or just man up and update it yourself.  :laugh:

 

Yeah I agree, not everyone cares about timely updates... I just saw sony update their whole range of recent devices to 4.2.2

 

 

I'm not certain I know exactly what you're talking about. Are you talking about the screen auto-brightness? I'm not certain what "the bars" means. The brightness transition isn't entirely smooth because it takes steps up or down. There's no kind of bars though. Just the entire screen brightness steps down, and it can be slightly choppy. If I had to guess I'd say this was due to battery/processor saving. I don't even really notice it though, let alone have it bother me.
 
OH it's blocky as hell, choppy would be a better word, sorry I didn't know how to explain that one... But again, how come my iPhone 4 could do that easily? I'm pretty sure it's samsung crappy screen drivers.
 
Hi-fi-ish? Like audio quality? The original Galaxy S had the best audio quality on just about any phone due to it's Wolfson DAC and decent headphone amp. This DAC also appeared on a few other phones, including the S2, S3, and I believe the S4, but the international S4, not the Snapdragon version I don't think. Phones with these DACs consistently beat out every other phone including the iPhone which does have somewhat decent audio quality (though it seemed like it was dwindling compared to the iPod and I haven't looked at more recent like the iPhone 5). Unfortunately HTC seems to think Beats means high quality sound when it typically means the exact opposite, so they just toss an equalizer on there and call it a day. The front speakers on the One are fantastic though.
 
Don't care much for onboard speakers :p I made sure I bought the Exynos 5 international version BECAUSE of this precise "feature" :p ( And there are so many variants of the S3 it's just luck if you got one with wolson dac)  And it was a decision between the one and the s4... Since I don't live in a country with adequate internet, the cloud is not an alternative for me, hence the ONE's limited storage options were the deciding factors for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The majority of those issues are Samsung's fault. And they do sound annoying. I guess that's why I never liked Touchwiz.

To address some of your points though:

2: S Memo. Wow that's horrible design. Some of those issues are covered in the documentation for brand new Android developers.

 

Really? So developers know of this issue ?

3.1: PDF reader. It never really bothered me that Android didn't come with one, but you're probably right that it should at least come with a basic reader.

PDF and epub reader, but yeah.

3.3.5: System wide search. I believe Apple has a patent on this.

4: Notifications. That must be a Samsung thing, too because every Android I've ever used shows the message in the notification. It will just say "New message" though on the lock screen if the phone is locked (needing a password or pattern entered).

To be honest haven't really messed with notifications much

4.1: WiFi notification issue. I'm not sure if this one has affected me, but plenty of people have complained about it and it does appear to be an Android bug. Not sure if 4.3 fixes this.

Yeah a very widespread issue

4.2: Music notification "ducking". By default, notifications should only lower the music while the notification sound plays. You have to go out of your way to completely pause the music. Not sure what Samsung was thinking.

Yeah a samsung issue sadly

5: Updates. I think the almost ancient Galaxy S2 is running 4.1 even on major US carriers so you will probably get proper support for some time.

6: Transition. I'm not really sure what you're talking about here. I'd be interested if you could explain more.

It's exactly as AJerman describes it, transitions aren't in screen tones/brightness aren't smooth, they're blocky... how come my old iPhone 4 did have that type of "processing power" and the S4 doesnt?

A lot of these issues fortunately can be fixed by simply heading to the Play Store, but it sounds like I wouldn't enjoy the out-of-box experience. Most people probably don't notice these things so Samsung might not even address these issues.

 

 

PS SORRY FOR THE FORMATTING, copy/pasting made chrome go nuts on the formatting.

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I don't think there's anything to add, Samsung's customisations to Android are just pure garbage... you have now discovered this.

 

 

There seems to be a new trend of Google editions of popular flagship phones been released, thats the way to go if you want the real Android experience without flashing a custom rom. Plus you get the latest and greatest before any other devices.

Yeah, sadly it wasn't out yet when I bought my S4.

Custom ROM FTW!

I'm afraid of rooting... There are so many variants for the S4 :(

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Yes, third party apps. You're using Android now, that's how it works. The funny thing is, if you had AOSP, most of their bundled apps are far better than Samsung's apps. Play Music vs whatever Samsung's junk is. I'm sure everyone in the world would love to go buy a phone that knows what they want already and works perfectly out of the box, but that's not possible. You have an icon that's not more than a few swipes away to download alternatives, and plenty of good alternatives are free, so I'm sorry but you have to drop that mindset of not wanting to download apps. Frankly it's kind of a silly mindset. Most things in life require a learning curve. Android isn't going to run like an iPhone, so if you prefer an iPhone, then by all means use one. If you want to use Android, give up the iPhone mentality and take a little time to learn about Android and it's alternatives (which you're doing right now, that's good).

 

I do understand and sympathize with your texting issue if you live elsewhere where you don't have free texts or send international texts that cost more or anything like that. I'm sorry that you have trouble with WhatsApp, but as we determined in the last thread, if you must use that app, you're going to be stuck until they fix the issue or work around what's causing it. I didn't see you said they fixed the 3G issue, I thought your issue the whole time was on both. If they fixed 3G, go back and change your wifi from staying connected always to disconnecting when idle, then when you set down your phone, it'll drop back to cell and will work fine until you pick it up again, at which point I don't think you'd have the issue because you wouldn't have wifi inactivity. See if that works because I'm thinking it may.

 

About the screen dimming thing, it's not your phone because my One does it too. Honestly I just think it's a lack of care of anyone to make it any smoother. I'm sure if that was your only issue you wouldn't even really think twice about it. Give it a little wihle and you won't even notice. That's a functional feature, not a aesthetic feature for me. Like I said, I think it has steps and maybe a finite number of steps and thats why it's not as smooth.

 

Also, cool that you got the Exynos version. That one I'm pretty sure would have the Wolfson DAC and should be very good sound quality. Like I was saying before, Samsung has actually been using this as long as the Galaxy line has existed. That's one really nice thing about Samsung's phones. Meanwhile HTC is in bed with garbage Beats rather than putting a real quality DAC and headphone amp in.

 

I really think you'd be a lot more happy if you'd embrace what Android is about. Coming from iPhone I understand that you're used to using the stock bundled apps, in a way because for some of them you have to since Apple doesn't like people making apps to do things the iPhone already does. On Android it's the exact opposite. A lot of bundled apps are the basics. They get the job done, but they aren't necessarily the best or most fully featured. For that they turn to their third party development community to build huge varieties of apps, each that appeal to a different group. Play around, see what you like. You can replace almost everything on Android, even the texting apps since you noted it didn't show the message, but I know the AOSP version does. There are several other texting apps that a lot of other people like to use. I personally like the AOSP version there too. Adobe is in the store, a huge selection of music players are in the store, hell, even iPhone clones. Don't get frustrated when the software on your phone doesn't do what it needs to do, just look around and find a better alternative. As far as your girlfriend goes, I'm sure you can explain to her to search for apps in the store if she doesn't like what she's using. If my parents can use a store to download apps, I'm sure your girlfriend can.

 

If you do want to root and you're worried about how, PM me and I'll help you get it figured out, though I haven't heard anything you've mentioned yet that would need it. Really most of the time you don't unless you want to do more advanced things like using Titanium Backup to save snapshots of apps or Tasker to script advanced functionality into the phone. The problem is that you're coming from a phone that's very simple to use to a phone that's got endless possibilities to set it up and configure it. It can be a bit overwhelming but I assure you it's not difficult.

 

Oh, and yeah, no dictionary. Never really thought about that before but I suppose that would be nice. I wonder if anyone has made an app that does that.

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Yes, third party apps. You're using Android now, that's how it works. The funny thing is, if you had AOSP, most of their bundled apps are far better than Samsung's apps. Play Music vs whatever Samsung's junk is. I'm sure everyone in the world would love to go buy a phone that knows what they want already and works perfectly out of the box, but that's not possible. You have an icon that's not more than a few swipes away to download alternatives, and plenty of good alternatives are free, so I'm sorry but you have to drop that mindset of not wanting to download apps. Frankly it's kind of a silly mindset. Most things in life require a learning curve. Android isn't going to run like an iPhone, so if you prefer an iPhone, then by all means use one. If you want to use Android, give up the iPhone mentality and take a little time to learn about Android and it's alternatives (which you're doing right now, that's good).

It's not that I don't want to download, i'm just complaining about the included apps being pure crap :p I've downloaded Moon reader for my pdf epub needs.

 

 

I do understand and sympathize with your texting issue if you live elsewhere where you don't have free texts or send international texts that cost more or anything like that. I'm sorry that you have trouble with WhatsApp, but as we determined in the last thread, if you must use that app, you're going to be stuck until they fix the issue or work around what's causing it. I didn't see you said they fixed the 3G issue, I thought your issue the whole time was on both. If they fixed 3G, go back and change your wifi from staying connected always to disconnecting when idle, then when you set down your phone, it'll drop back to cell and will work fine until you pick it up again, at which point I don't think you'd have the issue because you wouldn't have wifi inactivity. See if that works because I'm thinking it may.

 

Will try this!  But the issue is not just on idle, say if i'm sending a message in whatsapp and then switch the browser,  notifications just won't arrive on time (whilst connected on WIFI) until I close the involved app (in this case whats app) and man, if you search for 4.2.2 issues on wifi, tis amazing to say the least, I think this is simply because too many different hardware sets.

 

About the screen dimming thing, it's not your phone because my One does it too. Honestly I just think it's a lack of care of anyone to make it any smoother. I'm sure if that was your only issue you wouldn't even really think twice about it. Give it a little wihle and you won't even notice. That's a functional feature, not a aesthetic feature for me. Like I said, I think it has steps and maybe a finite number of steps and thats why it's not as smooth.

Agreed, it's probably one thing after another.

 

 

Also, cool that you got the Exynos version. That one I'm pretty sure would have the Wolfson DAC and should be very good sound quality. Like I was saying before, Samsung has actually been using this as long as the Galaxy line has existed. That's one really nice thing about Samsung's phones. Meanwhile HTC is in bed with garbage Beats rather than putting a real quality DAC and headphone amp in.

Yeah, beats is enabled by default IIRC?  But yeah, wolfson FTW... Snapdragon is SoC and selfprocessing audio version. Man you've no idea what it's like to finally talk to someone who understands  DACS :p

 

I really think you'd be a lot more happy if you'd embrace what Android is about. Coming from iPhone I understand that you're used to using the stock bundled apps, in a way because for some of them you have to since Apple doesn't like people making apps to do things the iPhone already does. On Android it's the exact opposite. A lot of bundled apps are the basics. They get the job done, but they aren't necessarily the best or most fully featured. For that they turn to their third party development community to build huge varieties of apps, each that appeal to a different group. Play around, see what you like. You can replace almost everything on Android, even the texting apps since you noted it didn't show the message, but I know the AOSP version does. There are several other texting apps that a lot of other people like to use. I personally like the AOSP version there too. Adobe is in the store, a huge selection of music players are in the store, hell, even iPhone clones. Don't get frustrated when the software on your phone doesn't do what it needs to do, just look around and find a better alternative. As far as your girlfriend goes, I'm sure you can explain to her to search for apps in the store if she doesn't like what she's using. If my parents can use a store to download apps, I'm sure your girlfriend can.

 

 

 

If you do want to root and you're worried about how, PM me and I'll help you get it figured out, though I haven't heard anything you've mentioned yet that would need it. Really most of the time you don't unless you want to do more advanced things like using Titanium Backup to save snapshots of apps or Tasker to script advanced functionality into the phone. The problem is that you're coming from a phone that's very simple to use to a phone that's got endless possibilities to set it up and configure it. It can be a bit overwhelming but I assure you it's not difficult.

 

Oh, and yeah, no dictionary. Never really thought about that before but I suppose that would be nice. I wonder if anyone has made an app that does that.

 

Well i'd like to try AOSP, but can I fully revert to samsung firmware afterwards?

Fcuk me i've just waisted and afternoon figuring out why Synctoy wasnt working and go figure:

 

A fix for Synctoy 'failed to create the provider' error message

 
If you use Synctoy, and you install Samsung Kies Software, you may be in the same boat as me.
I started getting the message 'failed to Create the provider' while trying to sync my folders.

http://pojomcbooty.blogspot.com/2010/10/fix-for-synctoy-failed-to-create.html

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Yeah, you can always go back to stock, that's no problem.

 

And tell me about it with the audio stuff. I wish more people would demand higher quality audio and not just silly Beats stuff. I'm planning a project to mount a Nexus 7 in my car to replace my head unit and I'm going to have to use a USB DAC to get quality worth listening to. Like you said, Snapdragon and Tegra too are both crap.

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Yeah, you can always go back to stock, that's no problem.

 

And tell me about it with the audio stuff. I wish more people would demand higher quality audio and not just silly Beats stuff. I'm planning a project to mount a Nexus 7 in my car to replace my head unit and I'm going to have to use a USB DAC to get quality worth listening to. Like you said, Snapdragon and Tegra too are both crap.

I googled last night, following your advice, the roms that interest me ( or that seem most feature packed) AOSP and CyanogenMod are still in development for I9500 :/

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I tried Cyanogen on my Nexus 4 phone and to be honest, I didn't see what the big deal is. It seemed to limit my phone's functionality and I quickly put the stock ROM back in it.

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I'm not sure how it would limit your phone's functionality unless they just hadn't gotten everything working yet, but on a Nexus I wouldn't think that would be the case. Otherwise CM is just AOSP with some extras. But there really isn't a huge difference between AOSP and CM. I converted my AT&T HTC One to the Google Edition version and I'm as happy with it's stock AOSP as I am with CM.

 

I actually usually don't suggest AOSP based ROMs to most people unless they are more advanced at flashing ROMs. Not because there's anything difficult about it or anything, but on a lot of phones CM ends up losing a little functionality from stuff that was proprietary (such as the IR blaster on my phone) or software based (like all the S4's silly software gimmicks), and because it's custom built code and may be more buggy than the ROMs that are simply based off the stock ROM. That kind of stuff tends to turn people off from modding and custom ROMs.

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