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smokey982

Last reply Jun 16, 2010 · posted in The Phone & Tablet Zone

Are all Android phones the same?

So I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to smartphones, so please be nice. I'm still using the old faithfull standard flip phone. But my current ATT contract expires next month and I think I would like a new "toy". It seems the craze right now is leaning towards the android phones. But it gets very confusing trying to sort them out. Am I right in assuming the Verizon Droid is the most popualr of these phones? Again, this is strictly a "toy", I would not use this for business. I've considered the I-phone and staying with ATT, but I get a discount with verizon through my place of employment, so I'm leaning towards going with them. Any thoughts?

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rockymtnhigh

Jun 15, 2010

msmith198025 said:
Something else to consider. Generally speaking, Android phones not running a manufacturer specific UI (such as Sense, MotoBlur) tend to get OS updates faster than those that do.

Yup, that is the truth. AND they tend to be the ones that the modders develop custom roms for, i.e., Moto Droif and Nexus One.

JAG72

Jun 15, 2010

rockymtnhigh said:
Yup, that is the truth. AND they tend to be the ones that the modders develop custom roms for, i.e., Moto Droif and Nexus One.

The HTC Hero has a ton of custom roms so that does not fully fit here.

BlackHitachi

Jun 15, 2010

JAG72 said:
The HTC Hero has a ton of custom roms so that does not fully fit here.

Yes and no.. Yes they have custom rom's but as far as getting updates in a timely fashion.. Also what about running a froyo rom? With sense and motoblur these things take longer and is not as good. The best is vanilla android. This is why i will not be getting the Moto Droid two. Yes motoblur is toned down but still very unnecessary. Still i am very tempted to also get a Droid 2!!

JAG72

Jun 15, 2010

BlackHitachi said:
Yes and no.. Yes they have custom rom's but as far as getting updates in a timely fashion.. Also what about running a froyo rom? With sense and motoblur these things take longer and is not as good. The best is vanilla android. This is why i will not be getting the Moto Droid two. Yes motoblur is toned down but still very unnecessary. Still i am very tempted to also get a Droid 2!!

Never said they don't get the new updates any earlier. Just was talking about the custom roms. There are many plain vanilla android roms out there for the Hero right now. And yes there is one for 2.2 but it is very very very unstable right now.

BlackHitachi

Jun 15, 2010

JAG72 said:
Never said they don't get the new updates any earlier. Just was talking about the custom roms. There are many plain vanilla android roms out there for the Hero right now. And yes there is one for 2.2 but it is very very very unstable right now.

Thank you that is my point.

JAG72

Jun 15, 2010

BlackHitachi said:
Thank you that is my point.

No it wasn't but that is OK.

BlackHitachi

Jun 15, 2010

JAG72 said:
No it wasn't but that is OK.

Humm OK?

JAG72 said:
Never said they don't get the new updates any earlier. Just was talking about the custom roms. There are many plain vanilla android roms out there for the Hero right now. And yes there is one for 2.2 but it is very very very unstable right now.

BlackHitachi said:
Yes and no.. Yes they have custom rom's but as far as getting updates in a timely fashion.. Also what about running a froyo rom? With sense and motoblur these things take longer and is not as good. The best is vanilla android. This is why i will not be getting the Moto Droid two. Yes motoblur is toned down but still very unnecessary. Still i am very tempted to also get a Droid 2!!

Big Dawg 23

Jun 15, 2010

As many others have said all Androids are not the same.

I have the Moto Droid while VZW also carries Droid Incredible and Droid Eris. I would steer clear of the Droid Eris and Wait for Droid 2 or get the Droid or Droid Incredible. VZW also has the LG Android now I believe.

Sprint has the Moment and Hero. Both are now on 2.1. My boss has the Moment and said it is a different phone with a 2.1 now.

T-Mo has the MyTouch and My Touch Slide along with the original G1. The My Touch Slide is a nice phone for T-Mo.

So as usually not all are the same. I really like my Droid and look forward to a Touch Screen only one in the near future.

JAG72

Jun 15, 2010

BlackHitachi said:
Humm OK?

I did not state half of what you said so it does not agree with your point fully. The only point that I agreed with is that there are custom roms and the updates come out a little slower. I have to say the slower updates is still up in the air as there was only one update for the Hero. With 2.2 it will never come fully out as the processor is slower and will not run everything. The Droid and other vanilla Android phones will be in the same boat one of these days. We will see how long it takes 2.2 to come out on the Evo to see how much longer it will really take for the update.

Now on the Sense UI, I actually like it better than the vanilla look and feel. This one is just a preference. There is no right or wrong answer on this one.

JAG72

Jun 15, 2010

Big Dawg 23 said:
Sprint has the Moment and Hero. Both are now on 2.1. My boss has the Moment and said it is a different phone with a 2.1 now.

They also have the Evo.

BlackHitachi

Jun 15, 2010

JAG72 said:
Now on the Sense UI, I actually like it better than the vanilla look and feel. This one is just a preference. There is no right or wrong answer on this one.

Now this is where i agree on it is preference. Sense looks great!! It's just it's to slow and bogs down. So i put faster themes that look like sense and i am very happy!:up

Jonhern

Jun 16, 2010

BlackHitachi said:
Now this is where i agree on it is preference. Sense looks great!! It's just it's to slow and bogs down. So i put faster themes that look like sense and i am very happy!:up

I disabled sense on my Evo and stock ecliar seemed pretty slow. Plus sense adds a lot of useful widgets and the ability to quickly move between screens, so I turned it back on.

ab187

Jun 16, 2010

As far as Sense, keep in mind you can substitute it with another launcher. Right now I am running Launcher Pro and it works great. I still have no idea where people are getting the idea that Sense bogs down the device. Maybe that's true with other devices but it is smooth as butter on the Incredible. The only negative that I will give Sense is that updates might come slower but I am not in a terrible rush to get 2.2 because it is already fast and it includes flash light. Tethering would be nice but PDA Net works great. Its the best of both worlds right now because even though i am not running the Sense launcher I still have the slick black notification bar and more polished menu options. Maybe once the root process becomes easier I will give it a try but right now I'm happy with the device as it is.

BlackHitachi

Jun 16, 2010

ab187 said:
I still have no idea where people are getting the idea that Sense bogs down the device. Maybe that's true with other devices but it is smooth as butter on the Incredible.

From testing. I tried both Incredible and Droid. :up

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reubenray

Last reply 4 minutes ago · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Laptop Shutting Off When On Battery?

Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.

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arlo

31 minutes ago

A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.

dishstaller

4 minutes ago

arlo said:
That's all I got.

That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks

Scott Greczkowski

Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge

Last reply 9 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Song Name Game Part 3!

Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne

Get it?

An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....

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Sweet City Woman - The Stampeders

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Jet City Woman - Queensryche

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FTA4PA

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Detroit Rock City - Kiss

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TRG

Pub Member / Supporter

Last reply 13 minutes ago · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Starlink Router question

I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

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b4pjoe

Saturday at 2:12 PM

TRG said:
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.

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HipKat

Saturday at 11:07 PM

TRG said:
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc

Reactions: Foxbat

Foxbat

Sunday at 12:44 AM

TRG said:
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.

harshness

Sunday at 11:46 AM

If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

Starlink V5 Is Here: What RVers Need to Know

Overview of the new Starlink V5 model along with comparison to the previous V4 model along with a recommended setup for mobile internet users.

mobilemusthave.com

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Foxbat

13 minutes ago

Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.

dishstaller

Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter

Last reply 14 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

I think we could all use a laugh - Rodney Dangerfield on Carson

Good...simple humor. Enjoy

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E92AtfTLge4

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJy0WnejlF4

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Jimbo

Today at 12:37 AM

Not Rodney, but a laugh ...

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WHEcmortfK0?feature=share

dishstaller

14 minutes ago

Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.

dishstaller

Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter

Last reply 23 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

At least 64 dead in Spanish passenger train collision

Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

At Least 64 Dead After Two High-Speed Trains Collide In Spain | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

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Jimbo

Yesterday at 11:24 AM

dishstaller said:
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

At Least 64 Dead After Two High-Speed Trains Collide In Spain | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.

dishstaller

23 minutes ago

Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.

The safest seat to sit on in a train

Safety experts have shared top tips on train safety after a fatal railway crash in Spain killed 69 people, including where the safest place is in an emergency.

www.dailymail.com