The Cell Phone / Mobile Phone Thread

I do favor turning the location services off, hell, I have the GPS off by default, and by "larger", I meant pretty damn much any model of a smartphone, since my current one is ridiculously small ST 21 Tipo. My mom got, I don't know, Xperia M? Xperia L? two months ago, and compared to my Tipo, it's just large enough to be comfortable to use.

Darn, I think I may have to upgrade my Galaxy S2. It's started having battery issues and the mini-USB port needs cleaning and possibly correcting. I might be able to salvage another year of use with some repair and battery replacement, but maybe I should use this opportunity to go for a newer model...one with longer battery life, better screen and better app support.

Do it, upgraded models are pretty cheap these days, and Galaxy S series are decent overall.

I have an S3 and it kicks ass.

It's a bit outdated nowadays, but it was a beast when it first came out, and it's still got some potential under the hood.

Quick question to those in the UK - I'm thinking of buying somebody a phone, but I'd want it to be on Pay As You Go to teach them a lesson on spending.

Which, yes, is silly given what I may well spend to get them a phone.

I've got to ask, is anybody here on a virtual network, and can anybody tell me whether they'd recommend them or not? I've heard good things about a fair few, but at this moment I'm inclined to give them a Three 4G phone and let them budget with something fairly simple compared to other tariffs.

edited 22nd Aug '14 3:04:34 PM by RatherRandomRachel

Is a "virtual network" one of those companies that buy airtime from the real networks and then sell it to consumers?

Sort of - although here it's more about hooking yourself up to a network's towers then paying them to be able to do so.

Well, it ends up being that, because it's usually pay as you go or prepaid metering, but you pay a company that's bought airtime at a bulk discount instead of the company that owns the towers.

Woo, I've just ordered a new Samsung Galaxy S5! It was pretty cheap, since I accepted a deal to just keep my current network distributor subscription for another year. It's not the best distributor around this place, but I was bound to have them until June anyway.

@ Begonia. Tesco Mobile have a good selection of phones, and their plans are pretty cheap (plus free 4G). They also have the best customer support of any network, IMHO. Tesco run on O2.

Fair enough, although given Three's 3 2 1 plan, I'd been looking at them as well.

Still got some time, but I'll definitely give Tesco Mobile a look because while Three's customer service is alright, I know you need some patience with some of their staff.

I'm currently on Vodafone with a pay as you go thingy going on. I usually use this:

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-as-you-go/vodafone-freebees/

The 10 pound option gives you 150 minutes, unlimited texts (or as unlimited as you will get from a provider, I think. Just don't kick the ass out of it, I suppose.), and 500 megabytes of data, which isn't so bad. Particularly since Vodafone's current pay as you go price per minute is 30 pence, which works out at for that 150 minutes if you had to pay the full whack would cost you 45 pounds.

Installing WP8.1 on my Lumia 928 through Developer Preview because Verizon is too fucking lackadaisical with its updates.

edited 4th Sep '14 3:36:00 AM by Boxen

The notification menu's improved a fair bit - especially because you don't need to go into the settings menu for certain things any more.

Just remember to read the options it brings up.

Yeah, I've read.

I've been putting off installing the Kit Kat update on my phone for months now because I want to keep root and I haven't found a way as simple and as safe as last time.

Yeah, I think I heard that Google are making their kit less easy for folks to commit the grievous sin of doing what they want with it.

Of course I could have been mistaken...

@ Boxdad. I didn't know you had a WP. You should also install GDR 1 Beta (also part of the DP). It improves the performance of Internet Explorer so damn much by simulating a webkit browser (ie iOS Safari).

Which leads to the amusing situation wherein one has Internet Explorer 11 running on iOS 7 on a Nokia iPhone handset. Apparently.

GDR 1 also has improvements to the way Cortana works (which I think its awesome, I love Cortana) and also adds Miracast support alongside Live Folders! Jesus man, Live Folders are awesome.

I am downloading this shit right fucking now.

Boxdads, there are only two downsides of the new IE.

1. This◊

2a. You get prompted all the time to download an app from the Apple or Play Stores.

2b. Some websites will automatically shunt you into the Windows Phone Store to download their iOS/Android-only app.

edited 4th Sep '14 12:26:56 PM by inhopelessguy

Fun.

Also, another setback is that Desktop mode is now IE 11 on a Surface RT tablet running Windows 8.0, whereas before, it was IE 11 on a generic Windows PC.

So, you will occasionally be sent the Mobile site of some websites. Or possibly a horribly formatted website because IE 11 for Modern Windows only runs on Windows 8.1...

They fucked it up bad with Desktop mode.

Welp.

So Amazon have bought their Fire Phone to the UK.

Small issue?

It's locked to the O2 network for now, which is boneheaded.

There's quite a few who LOATHE O2 just as badly as Vodafone.

Really, Three or EE would have been far better.