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Can you hear me now? The Cell Phone Thread

Discussion in 'Technical Board' started by Nettdata, Dec 4, 2009.

  1. Tim

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    If anyone has a Nexus 6P they bought from Google, Google is replacing 6Ps with brand new Pixel XLs with 128 Gbs of storage. They're having a pretty widespread problem with the batteries on the 6P. I got mine on Monday.
     
  2. joule_thief

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    Along with what Tim said, if you had a Nexus 5X with the boot loop issue, LG will repair them if you have proof of purchase, even out of warranty.

    I am thinking of getting a new phone and I'm leaning towards the Samsung S8 Active. Does anyone have a S8/S8 Active? If so, how do you like it?

    As a side note, T-Mobile Business is giving me one hell of a deal to switch from Project Fi. $100/mo for 2 phones with unlimited talk/text/web and 10GB hotspot each. I can move up to unlimited hotspot for $25 more. All of this includes one free phone for the second line (Samsung J3, I think?), a Samsung Dex dock and $100 credit for porting one number in from Verizon. The S8 Active is also like $420.
     
    #282 joule_thief, Dec 14, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2017
  3. Rush-O-Matic

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    I have an Android phone (Blackberry Priv; Marshmallow 6.0.1) and I want to migrate everything as quickly and painlessly to a newer Android phone (Blackberry Motion; Oreo 8.1.x)

    I know there are a number of different ways to do this, each with advantages / disadvantages. Content Transfer does a pretty good job, but it doesn't (or didn't the last time I used it) bring text messages over. Is there a solid, inexpensive cloning software or app? Or, does the latest Google app based transfer bring SMS data, too?

    Has anybody used this one?
    https://www.rerware.com/Android-Backup/

    It's been a minute since I updated from one phone to another, so it may be much easier now. But, I have over 3000 contacts on my phone. Some of the transfer programs used to not be able to handle that many.
     
  4. Binary

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    @Rush-O-Matic Are your contacts sync'd with your Google account (which is default)? Go to contacts.google.com and make sure. If that's done, there's no worry about any app transferring contacts. If that's not done, you should absolutely do that as soon as possible since your phone going tits-up would destroy all of your contact lists.

    IMO, the question is really, what do you need backed up? For example, looking at MyBackupPro, basically all of that data is sync'd to my Google account. Chrome browser data, photos, videos, settings, alarms, calendar, dictionary, etc. I use Google apps for all of those things, so they're backed up to my account. Depending on your music service, the music transfer likely doesn't matter, since either it's a cloud service and will just re-download, or it's on your computer and can be re-sync'd. Game data is typically sync'd through your Google Play Games account.

    Many other apps/services use a sync of some kind. Firefox does it. My podcasting app does it. There's a very, very small number of things on my phone that aren't synchronized in some way - my 2-factor authenticator codes, I guess. I just flipped through and don't see much else, though.

    You can see if your account is generally being backed up by going to https://drive.google.com and clicking on Backups. If you see your device there, it'll tell you when the last call history/SMS/apps/settings backup was. You can also check the Settings on your phone and finding the Backup setting, which will typically provide details about what is backed up and when.

    The only thing I know of that is not backed up easily is MMS. Depending on how many photos you receive, you might want to use an app for that.
     
  5. Clutch

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    I used a version of that app ~5 years ago, and it worked for everything I needed it to do, which was copy my text messages and installed apps. Unless you explicitly turn it off, android syncs all of your contact data. I didn't bother transferring my text history or apps the last time I got a new phone, as I wanted to start with a clean slate, though this does mean that I lost several apps that are no longer available from the Play store.
     
  6. Rush-O-Matic

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    Thanks guys. @Binary don't laugh, but "no" and "no." I don't stay signed in to Google, and I don't have my contacts, calendar, photos sync'd. I have always had a Blackberry, and used to use the Blackberry device backup when using the BB OS, which was great. Since I moved to Android, I use storage and content transfer on my micro SD card to make backups. I wanted to keep things local & on desktop for privacy. I know I'm a dinosaur.

    Apps are not a problem, photos are not a problem for either transfer or backup. The convenience of the contacts transferring and getting all the text messages transferred is mostly what I was after. So, I may have to do a little more homework.
     
  7. Binary

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    @Rush-O-Matic

    Ah. Well I used My Backup Pro ages ago and was happy with it. For whatever that's worth.
     
  8. Rush-O-Matic

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    Just to close the loop on this, in case anyone checks back . . .

    I used SMS Backup & Restore, backed up to and restored from my DropBox, for text messages and phone call log.

    I used Blackberry Content Transfer for contacts, calendar, accounts and documents.

    I used Windows File Explorer for everything else (music, photos, misc files) from the old SD card to the new SD card. I did it in two steps SD to desktop hard drive to new SD.

    I used Google Play for all the app stuff.

    It was a little cumbersome, but it worked just fine. All that was free apps, and being able to do it in pieces allowed me to keep working and not tie up my phone(s) for a long time.
     
  9. jdoogie

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    Since my daughter decided to use my current phone as a frisbee I now am in the market for a new phone. My local Costco has both the S10+ or the regular S20 for the same price at the moment. Wondering if anyone here has experience with either or both that could tell me if they have a preference for either one.

    FWIW, I currently have an S8, so I'm already familiar with their core build.
     
  10. Rush-O-Matic

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    I was searching on my phone, Android 8.1.0, on Chrome, was at a Google page and the top header bar turned all yellow. I could still read everything, the background was just in yellow instead of white. When I went to my search, it's gone now. I've never seen that before and it didn't persist. I can't seem to find any reason for that in a Google search. Anybody know what that is all about?
     
  11. dixiebandit69

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    How to disable PTT (Push To Talk) button on Samsung X-Cover Field Pro phone?

    I have been trying for months to find out how to disable this button; it's the biggest button on the phone, and if you inadvertently press it when grabbing it, it clears all of your notifications. This is very annoying, and has caused me many problems since I've had it. No Google search has yielded an answer, besides popping the button out.
    There has to be a better way.

    There are four goddam buttons on this phone that open the screen, but only one that closes it. I like this phone, but sometimes I really hate it.

    There are endless tutorial about how to make the buttons do different things, but NOTHING about how to disable them.
     
  12. GTE

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    Amazon went and fucked off their music app. It use to be that if you were a Prime member, you could listen to anything, at any time, that was in their library. Now, you listen to an artist and then it shuffles to "similar" artists. If I wanted shuffle, I'd just listen to Pandora. The free Spotify app is the same.

    And recommendations for an app or free service that if I want to hear Waylon, it only plays Waylon songs and doesn't shuffle to some other bullshit?

    TIA

    Edit - It has to be for a tech idiot and no Apple products
     
  13. Rush-O-Matic

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    I haven't found a good alternative. I'm hoping if enough people give Amazon feedback, they'll unfuck it. But, it totally sucks now. I had some good playlists for driving. I was fine with having limited choices not paying for Unlimited, and just using what I got with Prime. In addition to the shuffling to similar artists, they've also fucked up the shuffle. So, if you do choose a playlist, even one with various artists, it "shuffles" the exact same way every time, in the same order, with the same songs.
     
  14. Fiveslide

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    I've gotten to where I just search an artist or album on YouTube and play it. It sucks you have hear ads, but what I want to listen to is always there.
     
  15. GTE

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    YouTube works for home and using a tablet or computer but if I'm on my phone, it'll shut off if I try to use any other apps. Or at least it used to.
     
  16. Fiveslide

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    True, YouTube does have to be open all the time. I use it mainly while driving, I'll put an artist's album on and just lay the phone in the passenger seat. I make changes when I stop, if I want to. But it's free, and being able to access exactly what songs I want keep me using it.
     
  17. malisbad

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    So far, Apple Music has been pretty great. I know a lot of people who are paying for YouTube Music now though and they seem to be pretty satisfied with the service. I know that I use it a lot for music these days. I've been doing "Music League" which is tied to Spotify, and man does unpaid Spotify suuuuuuck. It's far worse than YouTube.