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skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

4 edits

skeechan to HiDesert

Premium Member

to HiDesert

Re: Pocket change for the 2nd run Samsung

My TF wouldn't run flash in Chrome, neither would my Xoom. And when I did try it in the stock browser it was so crippled and choppy that it was unusable. All of my Android devices had HORRIBLE native codec support...everything had to be added in, usually for extra dough and then file handling sucked. Nothing like syncing stuff and then leaving only to find 1/2 of it didn't sync.

I ultimately GAVE my TF700 with its dock, Xoom and Galaxy S WiFi away to my brother and nephew because they were frustratingly unusable. And when I first got them, I was like, this is cool...that is cool...but then the negatives kept adding up and adding up. You could do basic thinks like surf the web and type docs (the TF700 dock with its pointing device was awesome) but they were woefully inadequate for anything else. Again, take the TF700 for example...nice 1080P screen, the brightest I had ever seen, near retina quality, but at the time NO APPS in Google Play supporting 1080P. That screen on Android was a diamond in a goat's ass. Games and apps were all scaled and looked like complete dog crap. The only native 1080P apps were things like mail (which SUCKS on Android) and the browser.

All of my Android devices choked (frame dropped) on the MP4 1080P videos I run on my Macs and PCs, while my iPad, iPhone and ATVs play them fine. To get videos to run even on the Tegra 3 I had to re-encode them and I wasn't going to re-encode a 1000 videos just to satisfy Android when the MP4s I already had would play on EVERYTHING else from my phone and tablet to my PCs. I spent quite a bit of money buying different codec packs trying to find one that worked well (obvious some are more efficient than others). Finally I gave up. The solution was simple; get rid of the weak links...Android devices. Maybe someday in the future someone will make an Android device worth owning, but I haven't seen it yet.

As for Flash...HTML5 is now and future, Apple knew it, Adobe now knows it since they abandoned mobile flash development for HTML5 packaging and Google knows it since they don't support it in Chrome. My machines don't have floppy disks either.

The locked down argument is also bogus. You can't run anything good outside Googleplay without JBing the device and you can JB an iPad...the JB for iOS6.1 is rolling out Sunday. Sure you can use the Samsung store instead of Google Play but it is the same crap. The good stuff is the stuff you need to root the device for. My iPhone 4 ran Cydia apps no problem when it was jailbroken.

Then there was not all devices being equal...I would try and get the Sirius player for example and it would be compatible with one device but not the other. WTF? I was at the mercy of the device maker for OS upgrades which for some devices like my Galaxy S WiFi NEVER came. You got 2.2 and were done. I got 2.3 installed but not through any official update. Honeycomb...yeah right. Samsung abandoned the device the day it came out...$220 and you get none of the new goodies. Meanwhile my iOS devices from that same era run the latest OS version; fully supported.

But all of this is details...NONE of these devices would even exist today if Apple didn't gamble hundreds of millions or more creating a market for them and showed everyone else how to do it.

Cheese
Premium Member
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL

1 recommendation

Cheese

Premium Member

said by skeechan:

But all of this is details...NONE of these devices would even exist today if Apple didn't gamble hundreds of millions or more creating a market for them and showed everyone else how to do it.

Yes, they would have
HiDesert
join:2008-08-17

HiDesert to skeechan

Member

to skeechan
That was then. I guarantee if you buy a new galaxy note 10.1 with a quad core you will be able to playback 1080P files no problems. Plus you will have all the added codec support, have sd slot, a file manager and a very fast JB. Your correct, Apple was the only game in town for a couple years on the tablets. But the competition has caught up and offers a hell of allot more choice in customizing your own experience. Even on my tab 2 with JB I can run any 720P file very smoothly, sirius works perfect.. Its a fast tab considering I only paid 280 dollars. If I really wanted the extra speed to play more advanced games and 1080P I would buy the Note. But I am cheap and like great value for my money and still be allowed to do what I WANT and not a big Corp dictating that experience for me. BTW. I can run flash sites quite well using firefox with adbock installed, even on my cheapo tab 2 10.1. I can imagine on the note it would be no sweat at all.

The point is Samsung has caught up with Apple. They have fine phones as well and the S3 and note are starting to get Apple defectors from iphone.. I personlly know many who have made the switch. Apple calls Android fragmentation. I call it freedom of choice. OSX is not so bad, but IOS really is nothing less then a money grab from Apple. And now the lightning jack on the ip5 takes the greed to another level.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

4 edits

skeechan

Premium Member

That was "then"? That was about 6 months ago with ICS and they still don't ship with all the codec packs, you still have to go get them along with 3rd party players trying to find something that works without frame dropping.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Note better not frame drop given it is only pushing 1280x800 ($500 for the 16GB model with such low rez...ouch) That is a far cry from 1920x1080 that the TF700 sports or the 2048x1536 that the iPad 3 and 4 sports. Sure, my TF700 wouldn't frame drop if I re-encode down to HD-lite but then why own a 1080P tablet...can't play 1080P videos reliably and there were no apps...should have picked up a TF300.

And why would I jump through all those hoops to run a 2nd rate OS on horribly built hardware like that found in the Android space? Why would I take 10 steps backward simply to run Android? Why would I re-encode and keep a special set of duplicate everything to run a miserably convoluted and poorly thought out OS like Android that is 3 years behind iOS in usability? I wouldn't and I don't even try any more.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven to skeechan

Member

to skeechan
said by skeechan:

I was at the mercy of the device maker for OS upgrades which for some devices like my Galaxy S WiFi NEVER came. You got 2.2 and were done. I got 2.3 installed but not through any official update. Samsung abandoned the device the day it came out...$220 and you get none of the new goodies.

Um.. You really should look at Cyanogenmod.
said by skeechan:

Honeycomb...yeah right.

Um.. Honeycomb was for tablets, not phones.
said by skeechan:

Meanwhile my iOS devices from that same era run the latest OS version; fully supported.

Bull. I have an iPod Touch 2nd Gen and I can't run the latest OS, not to mention quite a few apps stopped supporting anything less than iOS 4.3 (mine's running 4.2.1). It's almost useless except for Pandora and Slacker. Can't run Rdio on it.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

1 edit

skeechan

Premium Member

Oh, I tried lots of custom firmware but they were all super buggy or plain broke stuff. When I had tried CM9, it would break lots of stuff like BT, the camera and even rotation. Even now, while CM9 has progressed, it is still a bug filled and broken feature mess, making ICS still unusable on the player. It's moot now as I have ditched my Galaxy WiFi 5.0.

At the time, c.2011, all the talk was about HC coming on new HTC handsets like the Pyramid/Sensation (they ended up shipping with GB I think) so I was hoping to see it on my player...then later ICS also not available on the player. And it isn't like it can't run. HTC's new budget handset, I think it's the Desire or something is single core, same 800 x 400 resolution, 1/2GB of RAM...will be running ICS.

The 2nd Gen touch is 3-4 years old, originally released back in 2008. The Galaxy S WiFi and Galaxy Player are still currently shipping models and still aren't shipping with ICS. If I had known that Samsung was never going to update the player I wouldn't have bought it.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Never had many issues with CM9. Of course, I ran the latest build. CM10 gave me a few issues initially, but the 20121215 build was the best. CM10.1 has been a bit sluggish, but I'll give it more time to mature before I switch over.

I've been eyeballing the Galaxy Player 5.0 and been thinking of grabbing one. I'll keep an eye on xda-developers to see if anyone is building a ROM for it.

My Samsung Captivate is 3 years old.. and there are still recent ROMs being made for it to make it do recent stuff. I swear, that Captivate is the most versatile phone I've seen in quite awhile. The only phone I won't buy is Motorola. They lock it down severely so you can't dev for it, then ignore it for updates. This happened with my D2G.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

1 edit

skeechan

Premium Member

It depends on the handset. The Galaxy Player/WiFi (mine was the import) has been troublesome from the beginning. Early on NOTHING worked with CM9. They just recently got BT working and last I checked lots of stuff like the camera still didn't work.

I got WAY better support from Motorola...even out of market factory ROMs where all right there on their support site for download. They also offered all the utils and even 'for dummies' instructions on how to use them them. I ran the au/KDDI ROM on my Xoom because the NA Xooms only shipped with English, French and Spanish support.

But I shouldn't have to run custom ROMs or hack on the device to get new features. The handset maker shouldn't abandon the platform on day one.