Switching from WP7.5 to Android

[elvisgp]

I thought I would show you my home screens to give you an idea on the purpose of widgets.
This is my main home screen. The only widgets I have here are a simple clock widget and a hotspot toggle widget so I can tether my phone to my nexus 7. The rest of what I have here is folders with the main apps that I use in it.

Scroll to the right and you have my social network and media home screen. I have a scrollable Facebook widget(android pro widget w/ lucid theme in he play store,) which I can post my status, like things, comment, and look at my news feed from(this is like the people hub.) Next I have more folders with media apps in it like games.

Scroll to the left from my main screen and you have my music page. I'm using the stock play store widget, and it shows my recent music played. As you can see, I love the rock band rise against! Lol. Anyway, this widget just offers me easy access to my recently played albums. Next I have my music control widget which allows me easy access to playing and stopping a song. I hope this helps you understand widgets!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[Guidos Dad]

Thanks for the widgets tutorial! Some interesting ideas. That's been part of the fun of digging into this Nexus and android looking at different ways functionally set things up to flow easy around the phone. So, your using the Apex launcher? How would you compare it to Nova? I saw that in Google play also.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[elvisgp]

Actually I'm using the stock jelly bean launcher. I haven't really tried any custom launchers because the stock launcher is good enough for me.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[Guidos Dad]

Actually I'm using the stock jelly bean launcher. I haven't really tried any custom launchers because the stock launcher is good enough for me.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

Oops...got you confused with another who recommended Apex. Really like what you've done though with the widgets! I'm going to look at them in detail. I'm looking for good ideas to set something like wp's "live feed" of your Facebook contacts.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(847090)]

here is the official change log coming from ICS.
Android - Android 4.1, Jelly Bean

the only one i can't get working is the calendar colors....who knows why though

When I synced my Outlook account from work I noticed on my calendar events from outlook are in a brown color while the Google calendar events came in a green color.

The reason why you guys see those colors are because that the color set by default in Google calender in web browser.... Go to calendar here

https://www.google.com/calendar/render?tab=cc

change colors for your calendar on left side under "My calendar" .. If you hoover over you should see a drop down with color selection

or select events and edit it and change the events color... let calender app sync the changes(To sync quickly goto settings--> Google sync then uncheck calendar and check it again)... you should see the new color in your calendar app in Android..

@turdbogls change the color and you should see it in the app.

 

[Guidos Dad]

The reason why you guys see those colors are because that the color set by default in Google calender in web browser.... Go to calendar here

https://www.google.com/calendar/render?tab=cc

change colors for your calendar on left side under "My calendar" .. If you hoover over you should see a drop down with color selection

or select events and edit it and change the events color... let calender app sync the changes(To sync quickly goto settings--> Google sync then uncheck calendar and check it again)... you should see the new color in your calendar app in Android..

@turdbogls change the color and you should see it in the app.

Found that. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[elvisgp]

So, I'm guessing you have enjoyed your experience with android so far? I've seen many wp fanboys debunk android for being laggy and slower than wp, even though android has better hardware. What's your opinion on this? Does jelly bean seem just as smooth as windows phone or is windows phone still a lot smoother? Oh and did you come over from wpcentral? If you did, how are you liking android central and Phil and the gang?

Sent from my jelly bean flavored nexus

 

[Guidos Dad]

So, I'm guessing you have enjoyed your experience with android so far? I've seen many wp fanboys debunk android for being laggy and slower than wp, even though android has better hardware. What's your opinion on this? Does jelly bean seem just as smooth as windows phone or is windows phone still a lot smoother? Oh and did you come over from wpcentral? If you did, how are you liking android central and Phil and the gang?

Sent from my jelly bean flavored nexus

So far yes I'm enjoying my Nexus and android. I've run into a couple issues that may be associated with the custom Jelly Bean on the phone. That same Error..Couldn't Install on USB storage or SD Card that I'm getting trying to update iSyncr, well I ran into it again today with another app. I downloaded Android Pro Widgets and that install fine with no problem. I set up three different widgets with no problem and they appear to be working fine. Well then I wanted to get the License Key so I could use a different Theme and when It went to install the License Key i got that same Error....Couldn't install on USB storage or SD Card! I've installed a good number of other updates to other apps including some to 2 or 3 apps I've installed on the phone, so not sure what the issue. I wrote to the gentleman that I bought the phone from who'd installed the Toro Jelly Bean to see if he has any ideas. He was helpful with my questions when looking at the phone to buy it, so maybe he can shed some light on the problem.

I did come over from WpCentral. I still read up on things there as I do here. One of these days soon I'm going to write over there on the forum to talk about my experiences with the Nexus. Generally I've seen good interaction with people on both forums and a lot of good reporting on both sites. Is one site seem more friendly and helpful than the other? I think you see good and bad on both. I've not been here on android near as long as on WPcentral so it's hard to give a good comparison. Over there at WP, yes there would be some real opinionated jerks as far as I'm concerned. Yes, quite a bit trash talk about how bad android is compared to WP or even iOS. My opinion is there's good and bad probably out of all these phones. I've not owned an iPhone, but my wife has an iPad 2, so I know a lot of the workings of iOS. Quite frankly I just find it boring to use and so I have no wanting to try an iPhone. Now that's not to say maybe I'd see and hear something with iPhone 5 that I'd like. I'll get a good chance to find out, as both my oldest son and now my wife are wanting the iPhone 5 when it comes out. I just signed my wife on to my old Trophy though yesterday to let her use it and get used to a smartphone as her "dumb phone" has been giving call problems so she said she'd try the Trophy. Maybe I can get her to wanting a WP 8 when they come out. She thinks the android phones are too confusing looking to use.

But to what I was saying about good and bad in all the different phones as far as android and WP, I've liked both now so far. Will I get a new WP8 when they come out. Probably not. Got the Nexus, am enjoying it so far so I want to get my money worth out of it. May end up just staying with android. I'll be honest, I'm finding tinkering with the phone enjoyable seeing what different ways I can make the screens look and how I can access information in different way. In some ways I guess I did find myself getting a little bored with the WP. We'll see what WP8 has to offer and what Verizon does with WP8...or not.

Performance of the Nexus with this custom Jelly Bean has been great. I've had the phone lock up on me a couple times. Once today I was playing my music on it and I'd left the room and when I came back after a few minutes I heard it ringing from a call from my wife. I couldn't answer it though and it just kept making the noise of the ringtone. I couldn't do anything with it, not even turn it off with the power button. I finally had to just take the battery out. It rebooted Ok and everything seemed fine. One other time an app froze up and I had to shut the phone off and reboot. With my Trophy I had it freeze up a couple times. You can read all over WPCentral forum off different problems people have had with their WP. Again, good and bad in both. My Trophy overall was smooth performing. Ran apps smoothly. You could flip through web pages and screens very easily. My Nexus with this Jelly Bean has been just as good. It's faster, because it's 4G and has a newer, faster processor than the Trophy which is 3G, but the Trophy performs very well for it's age and some what limited specs that it has compared to todays phones. Overall again though, the Nexus with this Jelly Bean runs real smooth. To me anyway I feel it does.

 

[Guidos Dad]

My short comparison of OS...

Android....You like to fiddle with your phone and variety on how to do things is what you look for and your not afraid to change things up, you'd like Android.

WP.... You like some basic structure, with maybe a little variety to do things differently, plus have an already set up integration of Facebook already there along with good already set up integration with windows ecosystem maybe what you do at your work, you'd like WP.

iOS.....If you like to have things all set up for no matter how it is set up and works, plus you just like all those square tiles filling up your pages then you'll like iPhone. Again, my only experience is through my wife's iPad. Simple to use, simple to learn. To me I'm sure I'd get bored with it fairly quick like I did my wife's iPad.

Each system has something for whatever you want out of a phone. Simple to use and learn and don't care about options, get an iPhone or WP. If you want some pizzaz and spice to life with using your phone, you'd want an android.

 

[elvisgp]

Wow. Thank you very much for the thorough comparison. I've actually considered switching to windows phone before android 4 came out. I really wanted an attractive design, and really smooth performance. Windows phone fit my needs perfectly, but I liked the customizations of android. I continued to wait to see what android 4 ICS brought to the table, and I was amazed by it. I loved ICS, and the holo design looked very attractive to me. I wish there were more holo themed apps in the play store, but it is growing more and more by the day. I actually wasn't that impressed by wp8, but then again I am an android fanboy. So, I installed a jelly bean ROM on my gnexus, and I think that jelly bean is by far the most advanced and fun mobile os to come. The holo design was improved, everything was made smoother, and animations were visually improved. As for your installation issues, it might be a problem with the ROM you are using, after all it is not an official jelly bean ROM so there will be issues. Your lockups can be blamed on the ROM as well. I would recommend changing Roms, but you are still a little new to android, but I'm sure that if you ask the forum members here about your installation issues in its own thread, it will get more attention, and some of the experts might have a better idea of what is causing it. Thanks again for the comparison.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[Guidos Dad]

Thank you for comments also. My comparisons on the OS's may be over simplified to many, but I think it gives the general difference.

The couple app problems I'm sure also has to do with the custom ROM. If I don't hear anything from the gentleman that I purchased the phone from, I'll start asking around some of the other forums to see if some of the master ROM flashers around can help.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Guidos Dad]

Well, gave up on iSyncr. The app people had me try lastly uninstalling the app to then reinstall. Well when I tried to reinstall, I got the same error message!!

So I went and downloaded Android File Transfer to my mac and tonight finished copying over the music files I wanted. Doing it manually has helped me figure out and understand some better where stuff is on the phone. Now I'll use AFT to back up the phone.

Which leads me to a question. Should I back up everything on it? Does that serve a purpose? I mean the phone system files I don't now what they are. For the different apps I got on it, what would the folder(s) be called with those files I'd want to back up?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[elvisgp]

Well, gave up on iSyncr. The app people had me try lastly uninstalling the app to then reinstall. Well when I tried to reinstall, I got the same error message!!

So I went and downloaded Android File Transfer to my mac and tonight finished copying over the music files I wanted. Doing it manually has helped me figure out and understand some better where stuff is on the phone. Now I'll use AFT to back up the phone.

Which leads me to a question. Should I back up everything on it? Does that serve a purpose? I mean the phone system files I don't now what they are. For the different apps I got on it, what would the folder(s) be called with those files I'd want to back up?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

Google should have everything mostly backed up to your Google account. If u get a new android device, and enter your Google account then it will start downloading all of your apps, contacts, music(if you use Google play music,) pictures, books, magazines, and movies.) So no, I don't think you need to manually back everything up.

Sent from my jelly bean flavored nexus

 

[Guidos Dad]

Google should have everything mostly backed up to your Google account. If u get a new android device, and enter your Google account then it will start downloading all of your apps, contacts, music(if you use Google play music,) pictures, books, magazines, and movies.) So no, I don't think you need to manually back everything up.

Sent from my jelly bean flavored nexus

So could I get that one app back from from the Google account? I see in the Help for backup and restore in Settings am I understanding correctly that I can get it back on this phone only by resetting it to wipe all Apps and data off and then restore everything?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Guidos Dad]

Well I am enjoying playing around with different looks for my home screens. I'm liking this part of android!

One frustration has been not being able to load that upgrade license for APW to do some custom theme skins. Also would like to have one or two more home pages, but I haven't gotten brave enough yet to load a different Launcher app to try.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[elvisgp]

So could I get that one app back from from the Google account? I see in the Help for backup and restore in Settings am I understanding correctly that I can get it back on this phone only by resetting it to wipe all Apps and data off and then restore everything?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

Well you could always get the app back by going to the my apps section in the play store. There you will find all of the apps you have ever downloaded. And I'm glad you are enjoying the customization of android. I think you really should create a separate thread and ask some other experts about your issues with installing certain apps.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[Rionken86x]

Here, to show you home screens and such.



Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[turdbogls]

@turdbogls change the color and you should see it in the app.

no it literally wouldn't display the colors....i have them changed on the desktop bu they wouldn't show for me in the app.

THANKFULLY i flashed some new GAPPS and they decided to work as they should, so i am happy now.

 

[Guidos Dad]

Here, to show you home screens and such.



Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

Well after looking at some others screens mine seem simplistic, but that's some of the fun I'm finding with this phone is playing around with different setups. Here's what I've done.


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[Guidos Dad]

Loaded up Pandora this evening. Had back in the days of my Palm Pre and really missed it. This android version has a lot good content on the artists I don't remember on my Pre. App options on WP still does not compare.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums