xandros9's iOS and Android Adventure

[xandros9]

I've got a small update this time around.

I picked up a broken Nexus 5 to repair and use. Parts should be arriving eventually since the first replacement screen I got was defective. (and they wanted to compensate me for my time and defective part by offering me a partial refund of $3.)
Naturally I have to push back.

Nothing new in that for now.

I created a secondary email over at Openmailbox.org to use for some things and I found out that because the Windows 10 Outlook Mail app doesn't let us configure port settings and stuff, it just won't work. Despite being IMAP, it just refuses to work, acting in a similar fashion to all those "Your Outlook settings are out-of-date." errors it would throw.
So I ditched the app and went back to Outlook 2016, spending some time to better configure it for syncing with some old Palm OS gadgets. (which was the reason I dropped it in the first place)

Well I added the email account to my iPhone with no problems, but it just will not work on Windows 10 Mobile's Outlook Mail app - although I should've expected it.
I'll try it on some other OSes eventually but I just cannot use it on my 640 which is a big mark against the OS.

Redstone builds are shaping up nicely, but since I don't use it as a daily driver I can't really get a feel for how it is beneath the surface.

And Pokemon Go happened. Most people above 40 probably won't care, so at least that demographic is safe.
It's a nice fad though - a phenomenon I don't think I've ever seen before. It dwarfs Flappy Bird and maybe Angry Birds I dare say. Microsoft's "business" "focus" regarding mobile is now involuntary.

And it's "yet another" knock against Windows, except perhaps overnight "yet another" app has become as important as Snapchat.

For whatever reason, I get Facebook Messenger notifications on my Windows 10 PC and 640 a few minutes after my iPhone and web browser get it. It happens more often than not which worries me.
Beats my still-broken GroupMe notifications though.
Messenger does work OK though. It's got the features I want although performance is middling.

Ironically my 640 gets Facebook notifications while my iPhone doesn't get most of them. Not sure what's up there.

The 5c's battery life is okay. That's it. Just okay. I'm still tempted by the Public iOS 10 beta but I still think I should still resist.

I've found out that I can plug in my iPhone directly into the family car via USB and it'll automatically play music which is convenient and valued by me. It usually forgets to "shuffle" which bothers me however. (and it'll charge!) Oddly enough this iPhone is significantly slower to connect via Bluetooth than any other phone I've used. (dating back to my 920)

In other news I upgraded my friend's Icon to Windows 10 Mobile just over a week ago. I don't think I've gotten any complaints yet!

 

[Laura Knotek]

And Pokemon Go happened. Most people above 40 probably won't care, so at least that demographic is safe.
It's a nice fad though - a phenomenon I don't think I've ever seen before. It dwarfs Flappy Bird and maybe Angry Birds I dare say. Microsoft's "business" "focus" regarding mobile is now involuntary.

I didn't think I'd have any interest in the game, since I had no clue who any of the Pokemon characters are. However, I tried it briefly a couple days ago. It's cute!

I'm not going to spend loads of time playing the game, but I'll probably check it out more this weekend.

 

[libra89]

I've got a small update this time around.

I picked up a broken Nexus 5 to repair and use. Parts should be arriving eventually since the first replacement screen I got was defective. (and they wanted to compensate me for my time and defective part by offering me a partial refund of $3.)
Naturally I have to push back.

Nothing new in that for now.

I created a secondary email over at Openmailbox.org to use for some things and I found out that because the Windows 10 Outlook Mail app doesn't let us configure port settings and stuff, it just won't work. Despite being IMAP, it just refuses to work, acting in a similar fashion to all those "Your Outlook settings are out-of-date." errors it would throw.
So I ditched the app and went back to Outlook 2016, spending some time to better configure it for syncing with some old Palm OS gadgets. (which was the reason I dropped it in the first place)

Well I added the email account to my iPhone with no problems, but it just will not work on Windows 10 Mobile's Outlook Mail app - although I should've expected it.
I'll try it on some other OSes eventually but I just cannot use it on my 640 which is a big mark against the OS.

Redstone builds are shaping up nicely, but since I don't use it as a daily driver I can't really get a feel for how it is beneath the surface.

And Pokemon Go happened. Most people above 40 probably won't care, so at least that demographic is safe.
It's a nice fad though - a phenomenon I don't think I've ever seen before. It dwarfs Flappy Bird and maybe Angry Birds I dare say. Microsoft's "business" "focus" regarding mobile is now involuntary.

And it's "yet another" knock against Windows, except perhaps overnight "yet another" app has become as important as Snapchat.

For whatever reason, I get Facebook Messenger notifications on my Windows 10 PC and 640 a few minutes after my iPhone and web browser get it. It happens more often than not which worries me.
Beats my still-broken GroupMe notifications though.
Messenger does work OK though. It's got the features I want although performance is middling.

Ironically my 640 gets Facebook notifications while my iPhone doesn't get most of them. Not sure what's up there.

The 5c's battery life is okay. That's it. Just okay. I'm still tempted by the Public iOS 10 beta but I still think I should still resist.

I've found out that I can plug in my iPhone directly into the family car via USB and it'll automatically play music which is convenient and valued by me. It usually forgets to "shuffle" which bothers me however. (and it'll charge!) Oddly enough this iPhone is significantly slower to connect via Bluetooth than any other phone I've used. (dating back to my 920)

In other news I upgraded my friend's Icon to Windows 10 Mobile just over a week ago. I don't think I've gotten any complaints yet!

Cool, will be looking forward to your Nexus updates. That sucks about the email thing.

Question: On your 5c, are you jailbroken or just using regular iOS 8/9? Looking into jailbreaking for an older iPhone, most likely the 5c. Not my SE lol.

You're a nice friend to do that for them!

 

[xandros9]

Cool, will be looking forward to your Nexus updates. That sucks about the email thing.

Question: On your 5c, are you jailbroken or just using regular iOS 8/9? Looking into jailbreaking for an older iPhone, most likely the 5c. Not my SE lol.

You're a nice friend to do that for them!

My 5c is on stock iOS 9.3.2. I also have never been on a jailbreakable iOS version at the right time.
I do have a couple iPhone 4's lying around that I play with though.

Thanks! I also feel obligated since my 920 was most of the reason she got the Icon.

 

[libra89]

My 5c is on stock iOS 9.3.2. I also have never been on a jailbreakable iOS version at the right time.
I do have a couple iPhone 4's lying around that I play with though.

Thanks! I also feel obligated since my 920 was most of the reason she got the Icon.

Ooh okay, I see. I think that is probably the issue that I will run into. Not sure I feel like doing a search for 5c iPhones on a certain O.S. only. Thanks for answering as always.

Random question, but does your friend use Facebook (regular and/or Messenger)? It seem like people in these forums that there isn't much that is desirable about it. I was just curious to know if your friend is dealing with it, or skipping them altogether.

 

[xandros9]

Ooh okay, I see. I think that is probably the issue that I will run into. Not sure I feel like doing a search for 5c iPhones on a certain O.S. only. Thanks for answering as always.

Random question, but does your friend use Facebook (regular and/or Messenger)? It seem like people in these forums that there isn't much that is desirable about it. I was just curious to know if your friend is dealing with it, or skipping them altogether.

Well, you may be able to find one by snooping around certain jailbreak areas or subreddit, I know sometimes people try to sell older OS phones and whatnot but they have a premium.

My friend does use Facebook, but I think she's more utilitarian with it/ok with the feature set. A lot of the features I missed were cosmetic and other "fun" stuff. She doesn't always have the phone on her etc. so maybe she doesn't care for it so far.

I did update her to the new Messenger and it seems she's doing fine. I've been worried she was concerned with "missing out" especially since the Pkmn Go craze is in full swing but not a peep.

 

[xandros9]

Alright the Nexus 5 has been in service for a bit now!

After some issues where I broke the camera and whatnot, it's now up and running on CyanogenMod 13 nightlies. They may have (temporarily?) broken my FFC so I'll have to check it later. I hope I don't have to replace it, although that'd be pretty simple to do. I suspect its software but eh. I'll live without seeing my beautiful face. I'm still getting to the bottom of why it isn't working right. It works but then it doesn't. I think I tracked the issue to Snapchat, but more as the situation develops... It appears the mere presence of Snapchat breaks the FFC. Very interesting... I guess its just bad luck combined with my particular software and hardware setup.

I appreciate the 5's easy-to-repair nature. I can swap out parts easily and it isn't a pain to do. (unlike the adhesive atrocity the Alpha was...) Parts aren't pricey too.

Turns out that the battery was just replaced in January so I got lucky with it I suppose. Battery life is okay. I would call it comparable to my 920, which wasn't bad either. My 640 still puts it to shame overall and the 5c wins in screen-on-time I believe. (despite not lasting that much longer I feel)

I've thrown in a custom kernel (ElementalX) so I got to fiddle with undervolting, underclocking and other CPU related things. Nothing crazy there.

It's been a bit of a pain but I guess that's what I get for buying a fixer-upper and running with fancy ROMs and all. The Nightlies system that CyanogenMod has setup runs at a pace that puts the Insider Fast Ring to shame. Although naturally testing is skimped on. (I believe its built and tested by machine automatically most nights) Hasn't been a major issue yet. If I feel like updating, I can, but if I want to hold off on it for a while, sure! Despite its nature, bugs aren't bad. And if I say it isn't bad, that's certainly something.

I've been putting Blackberry's suite of apps to use lately and I love it. I loved the feature in BB10, it's still awesome on Android, although arguably not as much.

I'll admit the troubleshooting is a downside and probably is made palatable because of my free time before classes pick up again. But on the other hand, its mine. I get to have it my way.

I'm not sure what's different this time around. I know I no longer worry about burn in. Eh, I'll write more as it comes to mind.

 

[anon(6078578)]

I didn't think I'd have any interest in the game, since I had no clue who any of the Pokemon characters are. However, I tried it briefly a couple days ago. It's cute!

I'm not going to spend loads of time playing the game, but I'll probably check it out more this weekend.

I'm certainly not much of a games player but I installed Pokemon Go on my LG K7 just to check it out while I do my walking. It certainly does make walking more interesting that usual (Even though I am of the age where I shouldn't be playing this game *cough* *cough*) but as is usual the novelty is beginning to wear off. That's not a reflection on the game but more my playing games in general.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm certainly not much of a games player but I installed Pokemon Go on my LG K7 just to check it out while I do my walking. It certainly does make walking more interesting that usual (Even though I am of the age where I shouldn't be playing this game *cough* *cough*) but as is usual the novelty is beginning to wear off. That's not a reflection on the game but more my playing games in general.

The novelty wore off for me since I last posted about it, and I uninstalled it.

 

[anon(6078578)]

The novelty wore off for me since I last posted about it, and I uninstalled it.

Same here now. I like to keep phone distractions to a minimum. The problem with games is that to really get anything out of them you pretty much have to devote a large chunk of your spare time which of course I'm not prepared to do.

 

[libra89]

Xandros, thanks for the previous update! I forgot to say that somehow.

You mentioned this in another thread:

After much flip-flopping I found Android to be the best fit for me, but that depends on the person. My best recommendation is to try it out for yourself, see how you like it.

I must ask, are you still using the Nexus 5? What made you come to this conclusion? Any general updates? I think the same deal might be similar for me.

 

[xandros9]

Xandros, thanks for the previous update! I forgot to say that somehow.

You mentioned this in another thread:



I must ask, are you still using the Nexus 5? What made you come to this conclusion? Any general updates? I think the same deal might be similar for me.

I'm still using the Nexus 5. I got battery life up to a decent level now, it was okay already but now its improved after fiddling with Xposed and Greenify. Screen-on-time (SOT) isn't amazing but the Nexus 5 always had a mediocre battery life. I can't say undervolting and underclocking it has made a difference, but performance is perfectly fine. I'm really tempted by the 5X but Qi is mostly a requirement.

In a nutshell, the flexibility of Android is quite something.

I'm sitting on a week-old CyanogenMod 13 nightly as mentioned earlier - I did it because CM has a bunch of features I like and also because Google dropped support for it, and will drop security updates soon. (which makes Apple the only player with a "good" record in my eyes)

Photos can be auto-uploaded to Dropbox as they're taken, not just by using some Location services workaround or remembering to open the app. (iOS and iOS/Windows Phone respectively) Android lets me use the cloud service provider I want with minimal fuss rather than getting the only seamless experience on iCloud or OneDrive.

Android's photo picker can grab pictures from Dropbox, Mega and many other apps. iOS is limited to whatever's in the phone's memory. (and synced to iTunes) Windows 10 Mobile's photo picker just crashes. (but when it does work though, its pretty good too.)

I can switch out Google Now with Cortana and vice versa, so I have choice there. I did go back to 8.1 on my laptop but that's another story.

Unlike iOS, I can add Office documents to the home screen, which was a feature I missed a lot from Windows Phone and only recently rediscovered. (and I get my Google Docs too)

Android may get a bad rap for its security issues but I can take things into my own hands in a way. I can grab the monthly updates as CM pushes them and have options like Tor, a firewall, etc. that iOS can only dream of. (A hosts-based adblocker is cool too!)

I can theme the phone. I don't use it for more functionality than WP's light/dark toggle but the option's nice to have.

Apps, they're there, and WC Forums is superior on Android. My FFC is still flaky though, I think Snapchat's still not playing nice. (also I use Keepass as a password manager and it syncs it automatically unlike the app I found on other platforms.

The big downside is that it takes effort on my end to make it work as well as I want. With the iPhone and to a lesser-degree Windows Phone I don't have that control. And I know with the iPhone, Apple has put thought into a lot of its inner workings. And overall speed isn't as great as I had on my 640 (even when 10 Mobile was at it's buggiest) or iPhone 5c but it's "good enough."

I'll have more later as the thoughts come, there are downsides that make it less-great for people who don't care about fiddling with their phone or want something that "just works" with minimal fuss and don't value raw features.

 

[libra89]

Ooh okay. I believe you on that about the Nexus 5, and I agree about the flexibility of Android. That's good that your battery life has somewhat improved.

I agree about the photo picker, that is pretty cool. I think it's cool that you can do so much, front facing camera aside. I do give you props on willing to do the work there. I'm too lazy to. Curious about the rest of your thoughts, but once again, thanks for sharing, it's much appreciated.

 

[libra89]

@Xandros9 so about that iOS 10 update? Curious to know your experiences and thoughts there.

Some have felt like their signal has suffered (feeling like I am in this camp).

 

[xandros9]

@Xandros9 so about that iOS 10 update? Curious to know your experiences and thoughts there.

Some have felt like their signal has suffered (feeling like I am in this camp).

I just broke out the 5c for the next few days while my 5X gets here. (I gave in because battery life, Nougat, and that I suspect my DT-900 is on its last legs)

So more on that to come!

 

[libra89]

I just broke out the 5c for the next few days while my 5X gets here. (I gave in because battery life, Nougat, and that I suspect my DT-900 is on its last legs)

So more on that to come!

Ooh yay! I am also curious about your 5x impressions. It's a nice phone.

 

[xandros9]

Alrighty I've been rolling in work for a while and now just got around to writing stuff up again. I've been using the 5X for something around three weeks now but I've got to touch on iOS 10 on my 5C first.

iOS 10 is, well, the latest major iteration of iOS and it's changed up a lot.

Here's my critique:

iOS 10 is the fourth major release the 2013 iPhone 5c has received and the fifth major release it's hardware (on par with the 2012 iPhone 5) has seen. Major kudos to Apple for getting that down. When just about literally all other mobile players both can't and won't go the distance, Apple does it.
Also impressive is that performance is still good. I won't say excellent yet but it doesn't leave me wanting most of the time which probably makes it adequate for most people. Where previous iPhone's would start bogging down significantly as the updates roll out like the iPhone 4 and 4S, this hasn't quite happened here. Battery life hasn't suffered either as far as I can tell.

The new "press home to unlock" is something I have mixed feelings for. I generally don't like it since without the Raise-to-Wake functionality the 6s and above sees, it increases the required button presses 100%. (not counting AssistiveTouch use)

I like the new Camera gesture on the lock screen though. It's easier than trying to drag that small camera "target".

Control Center.
Since it's been split into two pages, I'm not sure what to think. I don't mind the bubble design over the glass pane design as I mention below but eh, two pages are kinda a bit much.

Notification Center has lost the option to switch between sorting by app and sorting by recent/time. I miss that since I prefer having it sorted by app, but Apple has taken that option away.
I don't mind the "bubble-esque" design, I like it in fact. The search bar on top is a nice touch too, although admittedly I haven't used it much.

Music's revamp is something I like, the unlimited Up Next list is a major perk for me. Marvis has fell to the wayside for now.

Clock's got a dark theme now and a bedtime alert feature. I like the dark theme and wouldn't mind it. And now its 2:30 AM and I lost my train of thought after being derailed by Grey's Anatomy. Hmm...

Oh right, iMessage! iMessage's new bells and whistles are cool but not something I need. The rest of the OS isn't worth it the perks of iMessage and considering Facebook Messenger got some of its own.

And I'll add on more as I find time. Gotta get to the 5X too.

 

[libra89]

Alrighty I've been rolling in work for a while and now just got around to writing stuff up again. I've been using the 5X for something around three weeks now but I've got to touch on iOS 10 on my 5C first.

iOS 10 is, well, the latest major iteration of iOS and it's changed up a lot.

Here's my critique:

iOS 10 is the fourth major release the 2013 iPhone 5c has received and the fifth major release it's hardware (on par with the 2012 iPhone 5) has seen. Major kudos to Apple for getting that down. When just about literally all other mobile players both can't and won't go the distance, Apple does it.
Also impressive is that performance is still good. I won't say excellent yet but it doesn't leave me wanting most of the time which probably makes it adequate for most people. Where previous iPhone's would start bogging down significantly as the updates roll out like the iPhone 4 and 4S, this hasn't quite happened here. Battery life hasn't suffered either as far as I can tell.

The new "press home to unlock" is something I have mixed feelings for. I generally don't like it since without the Raise-to-Wake functionality the 6s and above sees, it increases the required button presses 100%. (not counting AssistiveTouch use)

I like the new Camera gesture on the lock screen though. It's easier than trying to drag that small camera "target".

Control Center.
Since it's been split into two pages, I'm not sure what to think. I don't mind the bubble design over the glass pane design as I mention below but eh, two pages are kinda a bit much.

Notification Center has lost the option to switch between sorting by app and sorting by recent/time. I miss that since I prefer having it sorted by app, but Apple has taken that option away.
I don't mind the "bubble-esque" design, I like it in fact. The search bar on top is a nice touch too, although admittedly I haven't used it much.

Music's revamp is something I like, the unlimited Up Next list is a major perk for me. Marvis has fell to the wayside for now.

Clock's got a dark theme now and a bedtime alert feature. I like the dark theme and wouldn't mind it. And now its 2:30 AM and I lost my train of thought after being derailed by Grey's Anatomy. Hmm...

Oh right, iMessage! iMessage's new bells and whistles are cool but not something I need. The rest of the OS isn't worth it the perks of iMessage and considering Facebook Messenger got some of its own.

And I'll add on more as I find time. Gotta get to the 5X too.

Yay thanks for updating! Interesting that you say that about iMessage because I feel similarly. I'm guessing that you'll keep iOS 10 then, since it seems like you have more positives over negatives and neutral points. Looking forward to your other thoughts about iOS 10 and the 5x and how that size has been for you.

 

[xandros9]

Really quick update, the 5X and 640's button layout is inverted and it's messing with me.

 

[libra89]

Really quick update, the 5X and 640's button layout is inverted and it's messing with me.

Xandros, how's the size of the 5X been for you? Heard that you retired the 640.