Android in Canada Blog » Reviews

App Review — Evi (Android’s Siri??)

Ryan Moore — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:33:16 +0000

I have a few iFriends out there. And many of them gushed over the 4S and iPad 2 as we all did over the GNexus (sometimes it’s splitting hairs over who’s the bigger fanboys).

Well, when the 4S came out they loved showing off Siri.

I’ll admit I was kind of impressed at first. Despite how I’d always counter with Voice Actions. But it was neat when they could ask Siri questions and she/he might answer, whereas we just had Google results.

Well, recently an app has come about that is similar to Siri… is it Android’s answer?

Welcome Evi

No… no it’s not. But it’s neat.

Like Siri you can ask it questions and it’ll use some nifty background data to find some results for you. And, can even speak it if you like that TTS voice (not me).

But the big problem, like Siri, is not the voice recognition, but the back end data connection. More than half the tries I had with Evi it couldn’t connect. Then again, it’s new, people heard lots about Siri, and that Evi is ‘our Siri’, so it’s probably being overwhelmed.

Anyways, it’s a nifty thing. I’ve tried several queries, like the typical “how much is 1 teaspoon” or I liked my “tell me a joke”.

So it’s good at answering some simple questions, and using some of your phone information try to tailor the answer to you.

It does have it’s funny translation moments. I can expect some new ‘fail blog’ for auto-translates coming soon.

What it can’t do is stuff that the Voice Actions can do (i.e. “text Fred; you’re fired”), which are action based, these are more query based.

But… it’s kinda neat. I liked having it translate an Italian saying the other day during a co-worker get together, much easier that doing a Voice Action query and getting a Google result, or opening up Translate, making sure I had it in Italian -> English, etc…

All in all – go get it. It’s a nice novel little feature, and it’s brand spanking new, so it’ll keep getting better.

Market Link

App Review — Evi (Android’s Siri??) is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Touch ClockworkMod Recovery Officially Released (Video)

Tom Gray — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:05:10 +0000

A couple days ago I talked about the touch based clockworkmod recovery that was floating around Google+. If you missed that article, you can find it here.

( I rarely make videos, so please be gental of my mistakes )

As you can see from the video, It looks and acts exactly the same as the classic clockworkmod. Obviously touch interaction plays a roll now, but you’re still able to use the volume and power keys if you still feel comfortable with that input method.

Currently the touch based recovery only supports the following phones:

Galaxy Nexus – GSM
Galaxy Nexus – CDMA
Galaxy S
Galaxy S 4G
HTC Desire
HTC Desire HD
HTC Evo 3D
HTC Evo
Motorola Atrix 4G

The list is small, but as time goes on Koushik Dutta will defiantly be working on bringing us more compatibility for a wider range of devices.

If you’re looking to score this recovery for free, you can find it here.

If you want to support the developer (Please do!) you can download Rom Manager from the Android Market and buy the touch recovery from there. Remember, all devs rely on our support verbally and finically to keep producing quality apps.

Link to Rom Manager via Android Market

I personally would like to recognize and thank Mark Lastiwka. He bought this recovery to my attention, and has done a fantastic job keeping me informed on this and various other stories.

Touch ClockworkMod Recovery Officially Released (Video) is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Ryan’s Review: Samsung Galaxy Nexus [video]

Ryan Moore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:29:18 +0000

Okay, so I’ve joined the Nexus rank, and recently been able to pick up my own Galaxy Nexus. Pretty sweet.

Now, this is a top-end phone. Just like a Ferrari, it’s not for everybody, but it’s pretty wicked none-the-less. As one friend described it (who’s an avid iUser), “this is a very clean interface, definitely looks very sexy and appealing, whereas the iOS is starting to get ‘clunky’.”

For those of you who aren’t in the know, the Nexus line of phones are the ‘flagship’ phones that Google collaborates with a manufacturer to build SPECIFICALLY to coincide with a new version of the Android OS. This phone is then built without any ‘top layer’ of a UI (like Sense, or TouchWiz etc…), it’s vanilla.

At this point in time, we’ve all seen plenty of Nexus videos. Tom’s reviewed his twice here (#1, #2), and even talked about some of the issues he’s seen.

So, what’s it like? Well, here’s a quick video covering some of my ‘takes’ on the phone:

Form factor

It’s a nice size… a little wide, so hard to reach everything with one hand. And it’s a little thin on the back, so it feels a little too light and you feel like it’s going to slip out of your hands.

The bezel is really nice, when you have a black screen on it’s hard to see the edge.

Display

This is probably the only real disappointment I’ve found. On ‘greys’ it’s very … hate to say pixellated, but you can make out a faint ‘linen’ look to the screen. This is especially noticed on whites where you have it on low brightness too. Blacks are VERY black, and it’s awesome.

I must say, I really do like the Roboto font. Really makes the letters easy to read. Looks so much better on the phone than on my computer.

Snappy-ness…

…really really snappy. I’ve bogged it down with just about every app I’ve downloaded and it hasn’t slowed. Sure enough exiting out to the home screen sometimes causes it to delay a refresh, but just barely noticeable.

I don’t like how it’s slow to rotate. That’s not cool.

Battery life

Not a big problem as I usually have chargers everywhere, but I haven’t noticed a super huge need to make use of them. So I can’t really comment on it.

Cool Stuff?

Data capabilities – being able to see what’s eating your data plan, just how you’re able to see what’s using up your battery. However, the numbers don’t seem to come close to each other compared to the data counter widget I’ve installed. Maybe I’ll give it some time and see.

ICS swipe to discard notifcations, same for discarding tabs on the browser or running apps.

Really good camera — fast! But there’s no changing the resolution of the photo. Here’ a sample shot, (it’s not as vibrant as I would like, but nothing a little photoshop can’t help with).

And so much other neat stuff in ICS as you’ve already seen (Google Voice Input, Panorama, face unlock, etc…)

Other than that? Issues…

Well, it’s new. I’ve had to get used to that. I’m not a fan of the stock dialer where it can’t look up people by dialing a number and it interpreting the letters.

There’s been big issue with the screenshot. I fumbled a few times trying to get it to work. But even after that, if you choose to “share” it, the end source is blurry. I’ve used blogger and G+ and they both show up blurry. I’ve gmail’d myself one and it was fine then. Backed up photos into a cloud storage (i.e. SugarSync) show them as fine… it just doesn’t make sense. I only noticed after a reader of our blog was complaining. And then funny enough, the conversation attracted the attention of a Googler (one Punit Soni) who has said that they have had an issue and are working on it.

I’ve had about 4 random reboots with it now. Now that’s about a week’s worth of use. With my Captivate I’d almost get one a day. So no complaints here.

No 4G only” switch. In my area, 2G is REALLY strong, as such it tends to want to hop back and forth. And sometimes when it hops to 2G it stays and won’t switch back. Most likely this is a cellular network issue, but I like telling the phone to STAY in 4G and not switch.

Camera is 5MP only. No option to go lower.

I REALLY miss the rich features of the Alarm Clock on my Captivate.

I got too used to GoLauncher/Launcher Pro, that I had to put on Nova Launcher to give myself a few more options.

What else?

Seriously, this is an excellent phone. And at $99 on a 3 year plan it’s a steal for a top level phone. I paid more than that for the HTC Magic AND the Captivate model I got. I bought this phone outright personally, however. You’ll have to just get your own to really feel how this thing works. How it’s snappy, the screen feels amazing… such a nice phone.

Now I have some ‘issues’, but most of them can be fixed with a 3rd party app… just wish I didn’t have to go that route.

How’s it compare to the rest? Well, below I’ve put down the list of how much it costs. Now compare that to the slew of other Androids and it fares well for cost’s sake, it’s about average, for an above average phone.. Heck, the s2 LTE is MORE expensive. It’s about average cost, but what you get is a true Android experience.

That being said, about the ‘true Android experience’, many folk’ll tell you that the Nexus is for ‘developers only’ and if you’re not going to tweak the crap out of it with ROMs and whatnot, just go with another phone. To that I say phooey. I may eventually mod it, but for now I’m enjoying what the Ice Cream Sandwich experience is supposed to feel like before some other manufacturers put their UI layer on top. It’s quite good on its own thus far, and as I’ve said, for the price it’s probably the best bang for your buck. So get it, mod it if you want, don’t if you don’t feel you need to.

So, where can you get it?

Rogers/Fido/tbaytel: $599 outright / $99 on a 3 year contract (Fido lists it as $160 on a 3 year plan)
Telus/Koodo: $649 outright / $159 on a 3 year contract (No Koodo listing yet)
Bell/Virgin: $649 outright / $159 on a 3 year contract
Wind: still coming soon - apparently just in time for Valentine’s day!
Mobilicity: Feb 6th.
SaskTel: $599 outright / $159 on a 3 year contract
Videotron: still coming soon

Ryan’s Review: Samsung Galaxy Nexus [video] is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

My Favorite Galaxy Nexus Rom

Tom Gray — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:00:36 +0000

I covered Galaxy Nexus roms a little while ago, but things have updated with many great features. With all these features in mind, I just couldn’t help posting about again with all the new updates.

I did a really small post about it on Google+ a couple days ago, I figured I would go in to much greater detail for those who are looking for that perfect rom to flash.

I stumbled across Bigxie and his AOSP Rom 4.0.3. What’s so great about Bigxie, is he leaves the rom mostly stock with a lot of under the hood enhancements and customizations, so you still get that pure Google experience. Of course, these under the hood enhancements make the Galaxy Nexus experience more snappy, smooth and in general more enjoyable to work with.

Along with Bigxie’s rom, there is also a black theme for his rom. I have mentioned black Google apps before, Bigxie has included an optional black theme flashable pack that includes all the black Google apps, taking all the work out of trying to make everything black one app at a time. I took a bunch of snapshots to give you a general feel of the black theme.

Click to enlarge

Obviously you need a rooted Galaxy Nexus to flash these roms. If you need a little help doing that, I posted a very easy root guide found here.

If this is something you’re interested in trying out, you can find Bigxie’s Rom here.

You can find the Black Theme for Bigxie’s rom as well as a few other here.

If you have used this rom before, please share your thoughts with our community.

My Favorite Galaxy Nexus Rom is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

TouchRetouch App – want to replace photoshop? [Review]

Ryan Moore — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:47:55 +0000

I’ve seen a fair bit of a trend with the types of people, like myself, who like Android-y things, also like other tech gadgets, like cameras and consider themselves a bit of a photog… like myself. I wont’ claim at all that I’m good, I just like the tech-geekery of it all.

So, going hand in hand with liking to take pictures, we love to be able to edit them, and we have all the “photoshop”-fu to do what we need. However, often that’s on our desktop and not on our phone.

Well, a quick way to touch up your photos on your phone or tablet would be to use TouchRetouch.

Essentially, for those of you familiar with Photoshop CS5, it uses a strong ‘content aware’ algorithm to remove unwanted bits in your picture. Look in my screen shots as I edit out a spot on one of my Androids.

You load up a picture (or take one), then highlight the area you want to remove out, and then hit go… then magic happens and it it does a good job removing the unwanted bits. Now it’s not always going to be perfect, but it depends on how complex the photo is, and what it has to work with (look at my picture of my desk and I try to remove my phone). But it’ll work for the small bits we want to get rid of.

If you find it’s something complex, you may want to try to do it bit by bit, and get a little ‘finesse’ with the drawing portion of the mask (you get a zoomed in preview). Just gotta keep playing.

It’s great for those quick fixes you want to do without having to upload it to your computer, load up PS, etc…, just a quick tap and share.

Going with the paid version gets you a few better editing options

Market Link:

TouchReTouch Free

TouchReTouch [$1.00]

TouchRetouch App – want to replace photoshop? [Review] is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

PressReader – A Newsstand for your Phone/Tablet [Review]

Ryan Moore — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:45:12 +0000

One of the best things I used my old Palm Pilots for, and have continued with my phone and tablet is to use it to read. Comics, Google Reader, lots and lots of books, not to mention web… one thing I haven’t had to do a lot of is read the newspaper.

Tho’, lately, finding a paper has gotten harder as the paper at work disappears pretty quickly. I figure reading the twitter / Google+ / Reader feeds should be enough, but there’s something about the layout that I miss.

Well, I wont’ have to miss out much more with PressReader. This is a service which has been popular on the iOS devices for a while now, but now available for Android. With it you can download (for a fee) newsstand copies of newspapers.

Now there is a fee… I know what you’re going to say. But it’s much less than buying the paper version. And, if you go for the subscription, even better. [the pay per go is $0.99/download, cheaper that many many newspapers, and the unlimited is $30/month -- that's about a dollar more than just the National Post alone]

So, you decide if you think it’s worth it. For me, not quite. I’ll enjoy the pay-per-go version, as they don’t carry my local paper, but it’s nice to get the odd National Post, Toronto Sun or Star and Calgary Herald (got relatives around the country who fill me in).

How does it work?

Well, you first browse through the HUGE catalogue of papers and you can click on one to download it singly, or choose to set it up to download as new ones come in (best to check with subscription service you’re on).

Once you set them up they’ll be in your ‘library’, and from there just click away to read an edition of your choice.

Reading is just as you would expect reading a digital newspaper. Easy. Pan around, zoom, fling to switch pages. It can be a little tricky understanding when you’re in ‘zoom’ or pane mode (you can’t fling to the next page if you’re zoomed in), but you pick it up right away.

When reading you also have the option to put it into a page preview, which is good if you want to quickly jump sections (I’ll admit, I’m not much of a sports guy — nor finance… give me the editorials… and the funnies).

There’s also the option when you’re panning a page to hit the title of an article to jump to a screen with just the text. Honestly, I see how it’d be easier to read, but I LOVE how papers do their layout, so I’ve not used that feature.

Another feature available is to have the program read to you the article. Great for accessibility options, or if you’re on a particularly bumpy train/bus ride to work. Plop the headphones on and listen.

So, not much more to it than that. What I best recommend is users to just download it — it’s free to try (i.e. install the app), and then just download a couple of articles at only a $1 each. If you like reading papers, you’ll most likely start to subscribe to the unlimited. Market links are just below the gallery of screen shots.

Pressreader for Phone

PressReader for Tablet

[which should I install on 4.0+ phones?]

PressReader – A Newsstand for your Phone/Tablet [Review] is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Sync Your Android to iTunes with Salling Media

Tom Gray — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:15:16 +0000

Syncing your Android Phone to iTunes is something that has been asked for repeatedly on the internet, and there are many programs and apps to help you out with that. I wanted to point out one of my personal favorites that I use all the time to manage my massive 3,000+ song collection.

A few people have called me a “Music Monster” on Google+, due to the fact of how much music I listen to. When you have that much music, organization is key. You want to be able to find that album or song without having to scroll all around or flipping through disorganized albums with incorrect art work. There is always the search button, but having the albums right at your finger tips right where they should be is something any real music lover should be able to agree on.

Salling Media.

This is my favorite program of all time for syncing my Android to my iTunes. This program has a free and piad version, obviously the paid version offering more features. I’ve\ only used the free version and it has never failed me. Best of all, this program allows you to sync playlists or only checked songs rather than the entire library. It also transfers over album art.

The reason I keep coming back to Salling Media over all others, is the fact that there is no modifying or apps required to be downloaded on to your Android.

Salling Media has compatibility for many phones, so the chances of your Android being support is great.

For more information on Salling Media, you can hit up their website here.

To skip all that and get right to the action, you can download Salling Media here:

For Mac
For Windows

Sync Your Android to iTunes with Salling Media is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Free Rogers Android Phones at BestBuy

Tom Gray — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:01:23 +0000

BestBuy has been doing an amazing job recently by slashing prices on all our favorite Android phones. It seems within a month or two, Bestbuy finds a way to offer the latest and greatest for just pocket change, if not free.

Galaxy S II LTE: Those who know me well, know I go gaga for this phone. I currently own it and have written a review, which can be found here

This one is the culprit that keeps my Galaxy Nexus sitting on the table all lonely most of the time. The specs are pretty amazing.

1.5Ghz dual core processor
1GB ram
16GB built-in storage
MicroSD expandable up to 32GB
4.5″ Super AMOLED+ screen at 480 x 800
8MP camera + LED flash
2MP front camera
Pre-loaded with Gingerbread 2.3.5
1850mAh battery

Everyday price at BestBuy is now free. If you are less than impressed with the upcoming Galaxy Nexus, this phone might be the one that fills that empty void in your mobile life.

Motorola RAZR: I personally have not use this phone, but my friend and fellow writer Ryan Moore has been using this phone for a little while and has been speaking pretty highly about it. You can find Ryan Moore’s review on this phone here.

1.2 Ghz dual core Cortex-A9 Processor
1GB Ram
16GB Internal Storage
MicroSD expandable up to 32GB
4.3? Super AMOLED Screen at 540 x 960
8MP Camera + LED Flash
2MP Front Camera
Video recording 1080P at 30FPS & 480P at 120FPS
Pre Loaded with Gingerbread OS 2.3.5
1780 mAh Battery

There you have it, two of Rogers greatest phones at zero money down on a 3 year term. Both have been reviewed my Ryan and myself with great things to say. Don’t just take our word for it, head down to your local BestBuy and check these incredible devices out for yourself.

Have you used either of these phones listed above? Feel free to give us your mini version of your own review, or just some general thoughts. I’m sure the community would appreciate it.

Free Rogers Android Phones at BestBuy is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Galaxy Nexus, Hit or Miss? [POLL]

Tom Gray — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:12:25 +0000

Over the past month or so, I have written two reviews on the Galaxy Nexus. My first initial thoughts, as well as my updated review when all the bugs had either been worked around or fixed.

You can find my original review here and my 2nd review here

I was fortunate enough to be able to get my hands on the Galaxy Nexus weeks before it even launched in Canada. I ended up voicing some concerns within my reviews that others didn’t think was all that big of an issue. Now the Galaxy Nexus has officially launched in Canada, we start to see more reviews popping up all over. Reading through, I notice quite a few of these review I find, people are actually pointing at some of the main issues I did as well.

It’s no doubt the Galaxy Nexus is an amazing phone. Every couple of days I’m constantly switching my SIM card from my Galaxy S II LTE to my Galaxy Nexus and back again. Though I claim the Galaxy S II LTE suits me better, something about the Galaxy Nexus keeps begging me to give it another try.

By this time, lots of people have either got their own Galaxy Nexus, used a demo model, or even played with a friends. I want to know what the general public thinks about this phone, for that reason I have created a poll to get a better understanding what people think.

Feel free to throw any additional comments below.

Galaxy Nexus, Hit or Miss? [POLL] is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Galaxy Nexus Review Rev.B

Tom Gray — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:14:36 +0000

Once again, happy Friday ya’ll.

Last week I posted my review on the Galaxy Nexus. Within that review I also compared it to my previous Galaxy S II LTE from Rogers. If you missed that review, you can find it here.

The Galaxy Nexus got a couple bad marks in my books at the time of testing. With recent patches and app updates, I figured it would be fair to give it a 2nd go.

Some of the issues I had were the following:

Low speaker volume
Low brightness/dull colors
Poor picture quality when uploading to G+
Lack of MicroSD and LTE
Signal drops
Music duplication bug
Poor battery/Battery drain.

The list seems pretty big for just one phone. I got this phone early, about two weeks before it went on sale in Canada. Since then, I have tweaked a few things. I either fixed my own issues or google updated apps to resolve issues.

Low Speaker Volume: It is true that the Galaxy Nexus speaker is extremely weak, but there are ways to help people like me who rely on a loud speaker. There is a free app on the market called ‘Volume+’ which will allow tweak the equalizer built within your phone to make the volume appear louder. This of course sacrifies a little bit of quality, as the sound often comes out more tinny if set incorrectly. It’s not a fix for the poor speaker, but at least we have an option to try and put a bandaid on it. There are other apps as well that advertise that same volume boosting options, but none that I found have really done as good of a job as Volume+.

Another alternative that I have started doing, is I edit my sound files in GarageBand or other MP3 editor and then boosting the volume to about 160%. This has made my notifications hearable in a moderately noisy environment. If anyone knows of a better app, feel free to share within the comments.

Low Brightness/Dull Colors: I personally had a problem with the very low ‘auto-brightness’ the Galaxy Nexus has. Quite often I find the screen is too dark, when I really wanted it to be brighter. I’m too lazy to keep adjusting the brightness slider or grab and widget/tool from the marker. I believe this issue comes from the fact that my previous phone is the Galaxy S II LTE. This phone has a very high brightness and the difference was night and day. After using the Galaxy Nexus for a little while longer, it started to grow on me. I didn’t really notice the dull colors or brightness anymore. I still would like to see it a little brighter, but it’s not too terribly bad. I know others prefer the darker screen over the bright vivid screen.

Poor Picture Quality When Uploading to Google+: I can’t recall how many discussions I had about this issue. I primarily use Google+ as my social media app, so having poor picture uploads were a big issue for me. Myself, as well as all other Galaxy Nexus owners were suffering from this issue. We were only able to upload picture from our phones at about 320 x 320 pixels, 16kb size, that’s nearly thumbnail size. Thankfully Google updated Google+ for support of high resolution pictures. My pictures from Galaxy Nexus now upload to nearly 2000 x 2000 and 1.5MB. Picture quality is now and once again outstanding. Thanks Google!

Lack of MicroSD and LTE: The lack of MicroSD is something I have had a hard time dealing with during my two weeks of play. I was forced to slim down my music collection by about 25%. MicroSD isn’t something I absolutely need, but it’s defiantly something I really enjoy having.

LTE is also something I really miss. Those who have actually used LTE will know what I’m talking about here. Going from LTE back to HSPA+ is like going from Cable Internet back to the old 56K Fax dial up modem, you really feel the difference. If you have never used LTE, you may not see it as clearly as we do. Sadly, I’m still disappointed in the Nexus for not including these features in our Canadian release.

Signal Drops: When I initially got my Galaxy Nexus, it was loaded with the baseband ‘I9250XXKK1′. I flashed the recently leaked radio ‘I9250XXKK6′ which has fixed all my signal related issues. Note that not everyone will suffer from signal drops on the stock ‘I9250XXKK1′ baseband, as it preforms differently from region to region.

Music Duplication Bug: The music duplication is something that haunted me for a while. When I would play my music through bluetooth headphones, that’s when it really effected me. When I would stop my music and continue playing a short time later, it would start in the wrong spot or even play an incorrect song. This was easily fixed by disabling the stock Google Music app and replacing it with an Android Market music player of my choice.

Poor Battery/Battery Drain: A large portion of my battery drain was caused from the music duplication bug described above. When I disabled the stock music app, I noticed a substancial battery gain during music playback. Doing a couple other minor things such as, turning off live wallpapers, turning off GPS and disabling background data access for certain apps. The stock music app was the major culprit in my battery drain.

Rooting: Since my initial review, I have rooted my Galaxy Nexus. Aside from using Adfree ad blocker and Titanium backup, I still don’t see a big deal about rooting at this point in time. Although, with many custom roms on the way, that could change very quickly.

I posted a couple days ago how to root your Galaxy Nexus. If you want to find that post, you can find it here.

Final Thoughts: Since the first review I did, many things have been fixed. I have either found a way to fix them myself, or Google has released updates to address the issues. Learning that most of my issues have been resolved, I’m starting to have a new found respect for the Galaxy Nexus. As my Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy Nexus sit side by side on their respective chargers, I often find myself reaching for the Galaxy Nexus more often.

The Galaxy Nexus has the possibility of being my premier phone for a while. I’m pretty sure Google will also help this along by providing constant support. With the Galaxy Nexus being released internationally, we will have many custom roms to look forward to in the future as well.

Galaxy Nexus Review Rev.B is a post from: Android in Canada Blog