The Smartphone Thread

[mercalia]

I have a very cheap smartphone, the screen does not get greasy from my fingers

lucky you, must vary from person to person

[atoz]

Bin it. GCHQ are spying on you already (as soon as you put a simcard in it) and Google are absolutely tracking your every move (even if you have opted out of 'save my history and location data'.) Makes no difference.

Install Duckduckgo as your new search engine (they destroy every search and cookie as soon as they are made) and uninstall Google from your 'apps' settings.

And Facebook... Forget about it, you might as well leave your front door open and give them the combination to your home safe while you're at it.

Because they are. At it.

not me I got a mint £19 Nokia 635 Windows 8.1 phone from Ebay so dont have to use Google anything. The phone and windows 8.1 on it are very nice. Comes with Bing maps that is like the Google version with the difference that can be downloaded for use offline ( eat your heart out Android users ). GCHQ might only be tracking me if I have it switched on all the time - I dont. I dont know if you can do this on Android but in Airplane mode it is possible to manually selectively switch eg wifi back on so turning off the sim ie use the device like the ipad touch mentioned above.

no one yet mentioned any ideas what to do with normal non fish and chip non sweaty fingers, just normal greasy finger marks.

Actually Android does support off-line mapping with an app called Osmand- there are others as well. Excellent app but eats space- make sure your maps are stored on the SD card (if your Android version supports this feature)

[kwackers]

Actually Android does support off-line mapping with an app called Osmand- there are others as well. Excellent app but eats space- make sure your maps are stored on the SD card (if your Android version supports this feature)

The standard Google maps supports offline, use it all the time.

[mercalia]

Actually Android does support off-line mapping with an app called Osmand- there are others as well. Excellent app but eats space- make sure your maps are stored on the SD card (if your Android version supports this feature)

The standard Google maps supports offline, use it all the time.

but can you download all of the UK? I thought it was just parts? The only problem with the Nokia the maps have to be stored in main memory it seems so thats 1GB gone for a burton. fortunately the Windows 8.1 apps I want to use are merely a few mb mostly less than 10mb and they can be used from an sd card, so I have quite a bit of the 8gb left. Most of the apps & their data can be stored on an sd card, there are a few incl National Rail app that says cant due to licensing and also an O2 app.

Out of curiosity do Android phones have a minature speaker - not talking here of what you use for a phone chat. It seems the budget Lumia 635 does and it works rather well

[atoz]

Actually Android does support off-line mapping with an app called Osmand- there are others as well. Excellent app but eats space- make sure your maps are stored on the SD card (if your Android version supports this feature)

The standard Google maps supports offline, use it all the time.

but can you download all of the UK? I thought it was just parts? The only problem with the Nokia the maps have to be stored in main memory it seems so thats 1GB gone for a burton. fortunately the Windows 8.1 apps I want to use are merely a few mb mostly less than 10mb and they can be used from an sd card, so I have quite a bit of the 8gb left. Most of the apps & their data can be stored on an sd card, there are a few incl National Rail app that says cant due to licensing and also an O2 app.

Out of curiosity do Android phones have a minature speaker - not talking here of what you use for a phone chat. It seems the budget Lumia 635 does and it works rather well

I should have added that Osmand is also usuable in "airplane mode" ie with no mobile connection- it will work with GPS or without (you need GPS if you want to find out exactly where you are and track your progress). And in airplane mode it will last longer on a charge because of the way your mobile normally searches for the nearest connection and eats battery to do it with connection enabled

[kwackers]

but can you download all of the UK? I thought it was just parts? The only problem with the Nokia the maps have to be stored in main memory it seems so thats 1GB gone for a burton. fortunately the Windows 8.1 apps I want to use are merely a few mb mostly less than 10mb and they can be used from an sd card, so I have quite a bit of the 8gb left. Most of the apps & their data can be stored on an sd card, there are a few incl National Rail app that says cant due to licensing and also an O2 app.

Out of curiosity do Android phones have a minature speaker - not talking here of what you use for a phone chat. It seems the budget Lumia 635 does and it works rather well

I don't see why you can't download the whole of the UK, both as a whole or as any part of it - although the way it looks like they've packaged it then it could be a tedious process to download the whole (I only download maps for the area I'm going to).

In settings you can tell it to put the maps on the SD card rather than use the phone memory.

The speaker depends on the device but on most new smartphones it's shockingly good.
I can use my phone for navigation on my bike - usually just throw it in my pocket or rucksack and I can still hear it.
In the car I usually chuck it in the glovebox or in one of the storage pockets and the loudness and quality is fine for navigation.
Handily once you start it navigating you can put the phone in standby and the verbal instructions continue (albeit with no visuals).

[mercalia]

The standard Google maps supports offline, use it all the time.

but can you download all of the UK? I thought it was just parts? The only problem with the Nokia the maps have to be stored in main memory it seems so thats 1GB gone for a burton. fortunately the Windows 8.1 apps I want to use are merely a few mb mostly less than 10mb and they can be used from an sd card, so I have quite a bit of the 8gb left. Most of the apps & their data can be stored on an sd card, there are a few incl National Rail app that says cant due to licensing and also an O2 app.

Out of curiosity do Android phones have a minature speaker - not talking here of what you use for a phone chat. It seems the budget Lumia 635 does and it works rather well

I should have added that Osmand is also usuable in "airplane mode" ie with no mobile connection- it will work with GPS or without (you need GPS if you want to find out exactly where you are and track your progress). And in airplane mode it will last longer on a charge because of the way your mobile normally searches for the nearest connection and eats battery to do it with connection enabled

also true for the Windows nokia gps is not turned off by flight mode. ALso can then turn on wifi, bluethooth separately - can you do this with Android?

[kwackers]

also true for the Windows nokia gps is not turned off by flight mode. ALso can then turn on wifi, bluethooth separately - can you do this with Android?

Yep.

[al_yrpal]

Last year before driving around in Canada for a week I downloaded the Osmand + map of British Columbia and used it to navigate all over the place using the GPS signal without any phone charges whatsover. Only annoying bit was constantly being advised by a voice that I was exceeding the speed limit!

Al

[landsurfer]

Just bought a "burner" phone from Argos ... my "ICE" phone for cycling or going out on the motorbike .......£2.49 ...... thats not a misprint £2.49 ...


https://www.argos.co.uk/product/6316901

[mercalia]

Apart from the inbuilt Here/Bing maps there I downloaded some thing called MapFactor that says it is an Openstreetmap app

[mercalia]

Just bought a "burner" phone from Argos ... my "ICE" phone for cycling or going out on the motorbike .......£2.49 ...... thats not a misprint £2.49 ...


https://www.argos.co.uk/product/6316901

well 0.1mp camera - why did they bother. please show a picture on here. Like you I have an old Nokia 106 feature phone for emergency use I always take every where.

[Sweep]

The standard Google maps supports offline, use it all the time.

but last time I checked that out you had to redownload quite frequently or you lost access to the download, even if you were happy with the "old" map.

Sod that - and I get really p'ed off with google maps constant nags on my tablet that even online it won't work unless I tell it where I am sitting. Which is a lie.

And why the F should I tell a map where I am?

I look at a map to figure out why I might want to go.

I now use OSMand plus offline.

It's fine. And never asks me if I am sitting comfortably.

[Sweep]

Just bought a "burner" phone from Argos ... my "ICE" phone for cycling or going out on the motorbike .......£2.49 ...... thats not a misprint £2.49 ...


https://www.argos.co.uk/product/6316901

Tied to the god awful vodafone though.

Something between incompetent and crooked if my recent experience in trying to unlock my mum's Vodafone anything to go by.

Wouldn't touch them if they paid me.

I have two unlocked samsung dumb phones - cost me a tenner each I think.

https://www.samsung.com/uk/mobile-phones/samsung-e1200

excellent.

No I'm not a drug dealer.

[kwackers]

The standard Google maps supports offline, use it all the time.

but last time I checked that out you had to redownload quite frequently or you lost access to the download, even if you were happy with the "old" map.

Sod that - and I get really p'ed off with google maps constant nags on my tablet that even online it won't work unless I tell it where I am sitting. Which is a lie.

And why the F should I tell a map where I am?

I look at a map to figure out why I might want to go.

I now use OSMand plus offline.

It's fine. And never asks me if I am sitting comfortably.

They last a year - even tells you when they expire and prompts you to do so when they 'run out'.
You can also update them more often - who wants out of date maps?

As for telling a map where you are - I guess that depends on the level of functionality you want.
My only experience is that if I turn on airplane mode I get a nag because it can't position itself on your current location (which is a pretty handy feature for a map as far as I'm concerned).