Android maintenance apps and tips?

[Ben]

My contract is up on my Samsung in about 15 days, and it's still working great.

The Droid started stinking at about month 6, and kept getting more and more annoying.

My S5 is actually still working well too. I'm two months from the end of my contract, and really not in any hurry to upgrade to another phone unless some spectacular deal on contracts comes up. Super impressed with Samsung over previous smart phones I've owned.

[41magsnub]

My S5 is actually still working well too. I'm two months from the end of my contract, and really not in any hurry to upgrade to another phone unless some spectacular deal on contracts comes up. Super impressed with Samsung over previous smart phones I've owned.

Same, My S5 has been perfect for about 2 years now.

[Perd Hapley]

The Motorolla Droid Mini does not (has 2gig RAM and 16gb storage).  What do you expect for $108 MSRP.

The guy at the store told me it had 8 gig. The phone itself says 11 gig. I went with the Mini because it's the same size as my old phone (fits in my pocketses), and it was about the cheapest option they had. I don't like all the Verizon bloatware, or the hard-wired battery, or the lack of an SD slot, but whatever. I would have liked to go to a TakeThatFeds Fone, too, but that type didn't seem to fit my criteria, either.

[Perd Hapley]

Still wondering what Fisty's got for a phone.... That would suck if it was incapable of accepting a SDCard...

See the OP. 

[zxcvbob]

Contract? 

I have an LG Tribute (paid $35 for it, no contract)  Even it has a uSD card slot.  No slowdowns or problems after 2 years, but that might just be because it doesn't have enough main memory to accept the firmware update that's been trying to download for 6 months. 

[Marnoot]

While most Androids have a microSD card slot, there are several that do not even in the higher-end stuff. The Google-branded Nexus phones and tablets being an example.

[K Frame]

"The guy at the store told me it had 8 gig. The phone itself says 11 gig."

Ah. You got the Glenn Quagmire model. Giggity giggity...

[K Frame]

Totally missed the fact that it was a Droid Mini. Apparently one of the very few phones that doesn't have an SD slot.

[K Frame]

While most Androids have a microSD card slot, there are several that do not even in the higher-end stuff. The Google-branded Nexus phones and tablets being an example.

Well, with Google that means that they're being trendy and cutting edge.

With Motorola they're just being cheap Dbags.

[Marnoot]

Well, with Google that means that they're being trendy and cutting edge.

With Motorola they're just being cheap Dbags.

FTFY. Hard to upsell people on higher internal storage when they have the much cheaper option to just add their own.

To be fair, part of it (though I'm not convinced it isn't on purpose to support the above) is that Android really just wasn't designed with multiple drives in mind. You'll notice some apps do not like being on the SD card, some outright will not work on it. Some phone manufacturers have added-in tweaks that make this quirk of Android less noticeable, but it's still there. Google's purported reason for not including an SD card slot is that it's "not a good user experience". Though, that's only true because of the way they architected android.

[K Frame]

You don't really get sarcasm, do you, Sheldon?

 

[Ben]

One of the nits I pick is Android and PC companies wanting to integrate apple-like hardware and interfaces into their designs. While I have become an Apple fanboy of late regarding their security stance, I still don't like their products for me.

I like to tweak and tinker, and on the phone side, I don't like not having an SD card slot available because somehow the manufacturer knows what's right for me and/or wants me to pay bigger bucks for larger internal memory. Same with non-user replaceable batteries.  I recognize that batteries have come a long way, but I still want the option to replace, or else get my tinfoil on and pull a battery.

Just like the gripe I have with way too many PC laptop manufacturers incorporating the Apple trackpad. If I wanted an Apple trackpad, I'd buy an Apple. Plus the PC manufacturers seem to incorporate the Apple trackpad's crappy cousin, so you not only have the crappy Apple trackpad, but it doesn't work as well as the ones on Macs.

[Phyphor]

One of the nits I pick is Android and PC companies wanting to integrate apple-like hardware and interfaces into their designs. While I have become an Apple fanboy of late regarding their security stance, I still don't like their products for me.

I like to tweak and tinker, and on the phone side, I don't like not having an SD card slot available because somehow the manufacturer knows what's right for me and/or wants me to pay bigger bucks for larger internal memory.

That and apps like Titanium Backup are rather nice to use to take a snapshot of your phone configuration & store it on the SDcard for quick and easy reload, if necessary.  Having to take the extra steps of connecting it to your PC and reloading from that is kind of a PITA.

Same with non-user replaceable batteries.  I recognize that batteries have come a long way, but I still want the option to replace, or else get my tinfoil on and pull a battery.

It's also nice on those very rare times when the damned thing freezes up hard and you'd like to be able to hard-reset it.

[Marnoot]

You don't really get sarcasm, do you, Sheldon?

 

I got the sarcasm, the simplifying FTFY was to extend discussing the point a bit more. Though thinking on it a bit more, to be completely fair on the topic Google's devices are intended more as technology demonstrators than anything trendy. When they produce a new version of Android, they produce (or rather, have produced for them) a relatively bare-bones phone that shows off the new version's newly supported hardware with a plain jane version of Android. Since Google doesn't intend for Android to have app-friendly SD-card support (or simply doesn't care about it enough to implement it), their demonstrator devices don't even include the capability.

[K Frame]

I got the sarcasm, the simplifying FTFY was to extend discussing the point a bit more. Though thinking on it a bit more, to be completely fair on the topic Google's devices are intended more as technology demonstrators than anything trendy. When they produce a new version of Android, they produce (or rather, have produced for them) a relatively bare-bones phone that shows off the new version's newly supported hardware with a plain jane version of Android. Since Google doesn't intend for Android to have app-friendly SD-card support (or simply doesn't care about it enough to implement it), their demonstrator devices don't even include the capability.

Well stated.

Sheldon.