Messages

1

myTouch 4G / MyTouch 4G on Gingerbread

« on: May 13, 2012, 08:58:14 pm »

I know it's a bit passe' now that the (drool) One S is available, but has anyone else noticed how much nicer the MT4G has become since it went Gingerbread? For me the update just sort of appeared in early January, and since downloading it the device has just become an altogether more friendly and capable one. Details:

GPS seems to get a lock more quickly and is more accurate;

Google Maps seems to work better;

The Yahoo Mail app seems to be having fewer problems with downloading messages;

The camera seems to be working better;

The new version of Swype is a huge improvement. Recognizes my swypes better, predictions are more accurate. I've never been very quick keying on a screen keyboard, but I'm developing some speed on Swype. Not exactly part of Gingerbread, but it came with the OTA update

Overall the OS just looks cleaner and runs more quickly. Nice. In fact it's so much better as a device that I'm losing my desire for an iPhone.

2

myTouch 4G / MyTouch 4G Bluetooth issue

« on: May 30, 2011, 01:41:01 pm »

Anyone else have a MT4G and a MacBook Pro? Had any luck connecting phone to laptop via Bluetooth? I can understand the two not syncing via iSync, but they ought to at least connect to share files, etc.  The two paired easily, but won't connect to do anything. I've connected each device to other Bluetooth devices, so it's not likely that Bluetooth is defective on either. So what am I doing wrong?

Speedtest showing just shy of 9 mbps here this AM. 4G, where you can find it, is faaassst..

3

myTouch 4G / MyTouch 4G evolving

« on: April 17, 2011, 01:36:23 pm »

Haven't rooted the phone, but continued tinkering has seemingly dealt with the issues I posted earlier. Or the phone is capable of learning, not sure which. Consider:

Battery life. I placed the power widget on my home screen. I keep sync turned off except for when I WANT to sync. Since I don't do social media this works pretty well. Battery life, with the phone powered down nighttime, is now 2 days between charges. Periods when I use the phone heavily for e-mails, web searches, apps, etc., might start to run out at the end of the first day, but mostly I manage to get to my house on day 2 with charge left over. Nice.

Location. This seems to have healed itself somehow. Google Maps, once GPS is powered up, finds location within about 20 seconds and is on target. Well, within 20 - 30 meters. Still not as good as a real GPS receiver, but I think it's workable. I have yet to try turn-by-turn directions

Volume control. The problem with sudden max volume that I was having returns sporadically and leaves again. Sometimes of its own accord; worst case, I pull the battery and reboot. I've kind of gotten used to it. Mostly controllable.

Speed. Less a complaint than an observation; this thing is fast! I downloaded the Speedtest app last evening. At that time it clocked 5.6 mbps down, 1.6 mbps up. Today I ran 3 tests back-to-back. downloads were 3.6, 4.9, 4.5; uploads were 3.1, 2.6, 1.8. I see posters here clocking bigger numbers, but still... wicked fast.

So, overall I'm still liking the phone a lot. Favorite new app: GasBuddy. I use it to search for locations selling diesel fuel (I drive a turbodiesel) when I'm traveling. Very handy.

4

myTouch 4G / Re: Volume control, battery life issues

« on: March 25, 2011, 12:28:29 pm »

OK, took out the battery overnight. Start-up, after putting battery back in, was significantly longer than usual, BUT the battery had basically the charge I'd left it with the night before. Good to know. Now, is there any way I can turn off this well-meaning Sense feature for those times when battery life is more important than a quick start-up.

The volume control issue continues to come, go, and come again sort of at random. I think it has something to do with pairing the phone via Bluetooth with my car's hands-free system. But I don't know. Curious...

Re. The MT4G vs G2X question. Let's assume the higher price of the G2X is not a problem, and let's assume the G2X has no fatal hardware or software flaw (example: the Vibrants and GPS). It's pretty obvious - get the G2X. Fast because of dual-core. Stock Android; gotta like that. May not do 21 mbps, but should do 14.4; that should deliver pretty fast up/down transfers. Nice size. And... if this merger goes through it might work (might) on both AWS and AT&T's 850/1900 networks. I have the MT4G and like it, but if I was looking now I'd be on the G2X in a second...

5

myTouch 4G / Re: Volume control, battery life issues

« on: March 24, 2011, 10:53:59 am »

Well, that WOULD explain why the phone starts up so thirsty in the morning. Mostly it's not a concern - the nightly plug-in ritual and all - but on a recent vacation I shut down the phone for 5 days because there was (gasp!) no mobile coverage and no internet. I expected the battery to have dropped very little, much as my old SE phone or my iPod Touch would do. Instead the MyTouch was near death, screaming for juice. I'll try removing the battery tonight to see what effect that has on battery drop.

I'll try to get to a T-Mobile store this weekend to see how the handset volume is on a different handset. I've not seen any in the wild here, so I haven't been able to just  ask another user. That's a shame because this is a really nice phone. Even the little touches, like the soft-touch coating on the edges. I can maintain a grip on the phone without having to resort to one of those "skin" things that make the phone more bulky and make sliding into a pocket such a pain. Try that with an iPHone; I almost dropped my friend's new iPhone 4 when the slippery sucker tried to squirt out of my hand. HTC thought of that, and gave the MyTouch just enough grippy surface that it's controllable.

The other reason I wish more people ran the MyTouch 4G is because over most of my area (Milwaukee) HSPA+ is up and running, and pretty darned fast. If I could afford the data charges I would drop my DSL internet and just run on T-Mo's network. On Speedtest the phone is downloading 2 - 3X as fast as the landline. Scary fast... 

6

myTouch 4G / Volume control, battery life issues

« on: March 17, 2011, 07:58:31 am »

I'm having two strange probs with my MyTouch 4G. First, at times the phone just SCREAMS at me. Even with the volume turned all the way down I have to hold the phone away from my head to avoid hearing damage. The only way I've found to clear the problem is to power down, remove the battery, then reassemble and power up. That lasts for a while, then the problem starts again. I have no idea what is causing the phone to jump from normal phone volume to uncontrollable max volume. My only clue (if it is one) is that last time it happened was just after I had the phone synced via Bluetooth to my car's stereo system - one of those "take a call through the car's sound system" rigs. Has this happened to anyone else? Know of a fix?

The other issue is the battery. Not what you think. I've accepted that these phones suck more power than my old SE phone, and am getting through the day on one charge, mostly. But for several days now I'll power down the phone in the evening with the indicator showing half a charge left, yet when I power up in the morning the phone is screaming Low Power and refusing to start until I plug it in. Is there something running in background even when the phone is turned off? Could my battery indicator be that far out of calibration? Is my 2 month old battery failing? Other ideas?

7

myTouch 4G / Re: GPS/location on MyTouch 4G

« on: February 11, 2011, 05:44:17 pm »

It's supposed to warm up some this weekend. I'll play outside a bit more, see if the GPS can get a better signal grab and give me a more accurate sense of where I am..

8

myTouch 4G / Re: Finally a new phone. And a fast one..

« on: February 10, 2011, 10:42:35 am »

5.7 mbps download at my house, where I have many bars of 4G goodness. My laptop has serious speed envy, since my DSL is clocking ~ 2.5 mbps. And now I'm off to the Market....

9

myTouch 4G / Re: GPS/location on MyTouch 4G

« on: February 10, 2011, 10:36:29 am »

Mine appears to be getting a lock of some sort; on Maps it says it knows where the phone is. And it didn't take very long either. It's just not very accurate, saying it knows to the nearest 80 meters. I expected better accuracy than that. Also, the location it's pointing to on Maps isn't actually my location, though I'd bet I could walk to that location and not cover 80 meters.

Do I need to turn off the other radios so the GPS can do the job alone the first time? Any other tweaks I should try? Or should it just WORK?

10

myTouch 4G / Re: Finally a new phone!

« on: February 09, 2011, 11:58:18 am »

On the MyTouch I've seen only "H" or "E". Milwaukee area is supposed to be lit up for HSPA+ according to the map... BTW, clocked 3.16 mbps down this morning. Holding the phone makes a difference apparently, out here. I'm on the edge of coverage here in my bunker-like office. Grabbing the phone I mostly see 1 bar, or no bars, or drop to EDGE. Holding between 2 fingers and thumb, 2 bars and >3 mbps. This thing is officially faster than my home DSL...

Thanks for further suggestions about apps, backup, etc. Getting more used to the phone by the hour 

11

Customer Service / Defective MyTouch 4G

« on: February 08, 2011, 07:05:37 pm »

I finally picked up a MyTouch 4G yesterday, and I have to give a shout-out to the guys in the T-Mobile store at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. The rep was runnin' an iPhone 3GS as his own phone, but he definitely knew his way around the MyTouch, and he took the time to walk me through everything. I so like it when a rep is genuinely enthusiastic without being pushy.

But the best part was after I was sold. He helped me pick out a couple accessories (skin, car charger) that got me an overall 30% discount. Then when we opened up the box, put in the SIM (new SIM too), fired it up. I tried to input data to Gmail, but the screen wasn't responding to me. The rep (name of Markez) tried it himself, did a restart, pulled the battery and restarted, and concluded "It's ****ed. Defective. I'll get you another one."

The replacement works fine. For those of you who've had bad experiences with T-Mobile store reps, there are some good ones out there...

12

myTouch 4G / Re: Finally a new phone!

« on: February 08, 2011, 06:56:40 pm »

Thanks guys. That widget is just what I was looking for. I have yet to start looking at the Market yet; I'm sure there's a world of apps I'll be loading...

This phone can grab a signal. I have 2 - no bars of 3G (4G? Says H in the top line) and it's still clocking 2.3 mbps/0.6mbps. Not competitive with J-Hop, but still quick.

13

myTouch 4G / GPS/location on MyTouch 4G

« on: February 08, 2011, 07:31:06 am »

Remember the furor over the inaccurate location services on the Vibrant? Does the MyTouch 4G do any better? I turned on both WiFi and GPS, went outside to stand around while the phone "found" itself, which it did - but only to the nearest 80 meters. Anyone else having this as a problem? Is there anything else I can do to improve the accuracy? Or is this just inherent in the phone?

14

myTouch 4G / Finally a new phone!

« on: February 08, 2011, 12:26:28 am »

I finally broke down and got the MyTouch 4G. Best compromise available at the moment - I like the clean UI of the G2, but don't like keyboards. Anyway, the phone is fun, of a sort. Voice sounds good, I'm slowly figuring out e-mail, messaging, etc. Still can't get my music over to it, though that's not the phone's fault; my old Powerbook, running OS10.4, won't run DoubleTwist for the Mac. Still working on that one. Anyway, if anyone has suggestions of useful apps, I'm all ears. Not just for music either...

Serious question here: does anyone know a way that I can set up a simple widget on the home screen to turn on/off Bluetooth and WiFi? I hate having to dive into the app drawer every time I want to do this because it's so often. My car has voice through the stereo via Bluetooth; otherwise I'm not using that. And WiFi is great at home when I can going 4G. I'd like to be able to toggle these on and off more readily.

Otherwise, I'm not too fond of the MyTouch overlay, though that may be because I've only been working with it a few hours. We'll see how it goes. By the way, getting 2.0 - 2.2 mbps download, and about 0.5 mbps up. Not rocket fast by HSPA+ standards, but about as fast as my current DSL plan...

OK, when's the Gingerbread upgrade 

15

Vibrant / GPS fixed?

« on: October 14, 2010, 03:39:32 pm »

I'm in need of a new phone. Trying to choose between the G2 and the Vibrant. The lack of functioning GPS put me off the Vibrant, but I like the thin, light, touchscreen-only design of the Vib otherwise. A colleague from Seattle showed up at a meeting recently with a new Vibrant. She says she loves the size, shape, weight. She says it's fast and does a lot of neat stuff, but when she's walking to her building in downtown Seattle the GPS consistently puts her somewhere out in Puget Sound. Recently I read that the official OTA update was finally being pushed. Bothers me that it took so long to fix such a basic problem, which doesn't speak well for Samsung. Still, if it does indeed make the GPS functional it would make it at least an acceptable phone.

So did it work? Is the GPS able to find its way now? Lock enough satellites to get a fix? 

16

General Android Questions / Android and the Mac

« on: October 14, 2010, 03:28:12 pm »

Not sure this is the right place to ask this, but here we go. I'm a long-time Mac user, have two Macs running at home, all my music and a lot of video on iTunes, Use Mail, Calendar, Address Book, etc. So pretty embedded. So far I've been happy with using an iPod Touch for mobile entertainment and some connectivity. Works seamlessly with my home systems.

Now I'm contemplating an Android phone, and "seamless" transfers seem unlikely. However, I'd like to make this as painless as I can. I've heard of something called "Doubletwist" that supposedly can handle transferring files from iTunes to an Android phone. How do I get my Address Book, and Calendar over. Any apps for moving photos from iPhoto to the phone? And etc. There must be some Mac users with Android phones out there. How has it gone? Any tips on making the connection work? 

17

Samsung Android / the GPS issue

« on: September 09, 2010, 05:47:44 pm »

So what's the news on the GPS problem on the Vibrant? Has Samsung rolled their fix yet? And how many of you are actually HAVING the GPS inaccuracy problem anyway?

18

Samsung Android / Re: What's is the REAL Deal-Breaker with the Vibrant?

« on: July 19, 2010, 06:04:58 pm »

I'm not sure there IS one. I marked "camera flash" because I've used phones with LED flash. It does help, and I don't think a night mode is an effective substitute

And two issues not on the list: poor reception and poor GPS performance

But it sounds like these might be software issues (a la iOS 4) and readily fixed. So I'm back to "not sure there IS a dealbreaker".

19

Samsung Android / Re: Want i7500 what should I do in the mean time?

« on: August 11, 2009, 06:04:09 pm »

The question is: does a Galaxy made for T-Mobile Germany have the 1700/2100 mhz AWS radio or just the typical Euro 3G? 'Cause if it only has the standard Euro rig (what is that - 900/2100 mhz), it takes away some of the fun of running an Android smartphone over EDGE or WiFi. On the other hand, why would a phone for sale in Europe have AWS? Conclusion: there's a special version for T-Mo. Or not, if they decide not to bring it.

Just sayin'...

20

MyTouch 3G / Re: Wall Street Journal Review of MyTouch

« on: August 06, 2009, 02:59:26 pm »

Interesting review. Hit most of the things I disliked about the G1 (sorry to all the fans out there) and gives me hope about the MyTouch. The reviewer made a point about the relatively small onboard memory compared to, say, an iPhone. This got me thinking: does the MyTouch have a slot for adding Micro SD cards like so many other phones do? Seems like that would make the memory issue kind of a moot point. Just add as much as you require...