Help AAAARRRGGGHHH!! This phone is doing my head in!!!

[kingdave]

I hope that my problems with my Spica/Lite/Portal are just down to it having 1.5 and the 2.1 update will solve everything but at the moment its really starting to frustrate me.

It all started great. Was a fantastic, fast, responsive phone. But now its slow, unresponsive and generally a pain to use.

Take unlocking for example - why is there not an option to switch the screen off but not lock the phone? I'll try to unlock it by holding the button on the side but nothing happens. I've set it up with a pattern unlock too, so sometimes that will flash up then the screen will go blank. Other times I'm holding the lock button for ages and nothing happens.

Its beginning to be really slow in running apps. I was trying to make a phone call before for instance. I pressed dial and nothing happened. Pressed it again and nothing happened. Then all of a sudden it wurred into life and dialled the number I'd called, then, because I pressed diall twice, it stuck the first call on hold and dialled the same number on the "second line". It does stuff like this frequently. Even browsing through the menu is becoming tedious!

Force close: nearly every app I run at the moment is being forced closed. Even basic functionality like dialler or contacts! I have no idea why!

As I said, originally I really loved this phone, but the mind of its own it has developed over the past couple of weeks is really beginning to piss me off.

I'm tempted to upgrade to 2.1 via Odin, but I'd rather wait and do it the official way in case of a warranty claim later on but I'm not even sure if 2.1 will cure the problems.

So frustrating!!!!

 

[kingdave]

Add to that not accepting 3g signal and randomly forcing non running apps to close!!

I was trying to get on the market place earlier and it kept on telling me that Shop Savvy had to force close. It wasn't running!

The Home screen kept on needing to force close.

It was taking an age to download a 350kb app over WiFi - 10 minutes!! By broadband is slow, but not that slow! No other network traffic over it at the time either!

Do I have too many apps installed? Is there a limit? Can they be run from the SD card instead of internal memory?

Is there an easy way to uninstall them all or do a factory reset? It seems that just looking at the phone funny at the moment causes it to have an error!

 

[gusto5]

Add to that not accepting 3g signal and randomly forcing non running apps to close!!

I was trying to get on the market place earlier and it kept on telling me that Shop Savvy had to force close. It wasn't running!

The Home screen kept on needing to force close.

It was taking an age to download a 350kb app over WiFi - 10 minutes!! By broadband is slow, but not that slow! No other network traffic over it at the time either!

Do I have too many apps installed? Is there a limit? Can they be run from the SD card instead of internal memory?

Is there an easy way to uninstall them all or do a factory reset? It seems that just looking at the phone funny at the moment causes it to have an error!

For 3G, are you sure you restored your APN settings after flashing to 2.1?

For your download, try cancelling it and downloading it again.

You could do a reset if you wanted to.

 

[kingdave]

For 3G, are you sure you restored your APN settings after flashing to 2.1?

For your download, try cancelling it and downloading it again.

You could do a reset if you wanted to.

I haven't flashed it yet. I was thinking about it in the hope it would fix all my problems.

Last night I decided to uninstall all the pointless, crap, "fun" apps I've got installed and instantly it seemed to start working faster. I don't know if it was the volume of apps I had installed or a particular one that was causing problems but the speed issue seems to be fixed.

Still keeps randomly dropping 3G signal though.

And why is my Gmail app not properly syncing now? If I read an email in the Gmail app and then later go to the Gmail website, the website says that the mail is unread. This has only started happening in the last week.

 

[sipart]

Welcome to the wonderful open source-open app world of Android The i5700 is 2/3 updates behind the google android updates. So hopefully 2.1 will improve things markedly - but the app's you install can have major effects as you have now found. So best practice is to closely monitor the phone after install of an app - so obviously best not to install 4 at a time (I know it difficult not to randomly browse the marketplace and install loads of 'stuff' though!).

I'm pretty happy with Android and the i5700 (even on 1.5) for the price I paid (

 

[kingdave]

Welcome to the wonderful open source-open app world of Android The i5700 is 2/3 updates behind the google android updates. So hopefully 2.1 will improve things markedly - but the app's you install can have major effects as you have now found. So best practice is to closely monitor the phone after install of an app - so obviously best not to install 4 at a time (I know it difficult not to randomly browse the marketplace and install loads of 'stuff' though!).

I'm pretty happy with Android and the i5700 (even on 1.5) for the price I paid (

 

[amuse]

The most common ShopSavvy issue on Android, is the 'force close' issue. We believe it to be an issue with the operating system. The best way to fix it is to uninstall ShopSavvy, reinstall ShopSavvy and then reboot. This seems to get rid of the 'force close' issue. For all other issues check out our FAQ or Support site.

Our FAQ is located at Big in Japan | faq

Our support site is located at Community-powered support for ShopSavvy (by Big in Japan Inc.)

We are constantly releasing updates (bug fixes and new features) on Android and iPhone. Make sure you are using the most up-to-date version of ShopSavvy.

Check our blog regularly for updates:

Big in Japan | Blog

---
Alexander Muse
214.550.2003 office
Big in Japan | Developers of ShopSavvy

For iPhone: Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store
For Android: http://bit.ly/sslatest

Add to that not accepting 3g signal and randomly forcing non running apps to close!!

I was trying to get on the market place earlier and it kept on telling me that Shop Savvy had to force close. It wasn't running!

The Home screen kept on needing to force close.

It was taking an age to download a 350kb app over WiFi - 10 minutes!! By broadband is slow, but not that slow! No other network traffic over it at the time either!

Do I have too many apps installed? Is there a limit? Can they be run from the SD card instead of internal memory?

Is there an easy way to uninstall them all or do a factory reset? It seems that just looking at the phone funny at the moment causes it to have an error!

 

[sipart]

Android streaming video is utter crap too. we were in the pub a couple of weeks ago when Real were playing Barca. had to leave early to catch a train and so we didn't miss anything my mate got his iPhone out and started streaming it through the Sky Sports app.

Wow!! The quality was amazing. By comparison if I can get beebplayer to work its awful.

I think you have to consider that the Sky Sports iphone app is not free and that Sky have developed the app - they could develop an app for Android if they wanted.

Streaming is no better on an iphone - it's just it has some key well developed apps. You also have to consider the price premium of an iphone and contract over the Samsung (although expensive android phones with expensive contracts exist as well). Beebplayer is severely restricted by the streams available to the (lone) developer - although I agree it is a bit of an embarrassment compared to iphone version (I've had an ipod touch for a couple of years so familiar with the great quality of the iphone BBC developed web player). The BBC choose the platforms to support and android was/is not one of them (although they are testing at the moment - but it looks like you will have to have Adobe flash 10.1 working well on your android phone to take advantage when it comes).

Also remember the BBC used yours and my TV licence fee to develop the iphone player and Sky use considerable financial funds to develop theirs. One guy with no access to the BBC or it's resources developed the beebplayer!

 

[Zargon]

Android is what it is - cheap, open-source, quirky, dirty. Similar to the PC vs Mac debate - there's simply no point comparing something that costs a fortune, but rubs your shoulders at no extra cost to something that's cheap and does (mostly) what you want with a little coaxing.

This phone (i5700) is dirt-cheap in comparison to an iPhone, and can do all sorts of bonkers stuff (particularly in 2.1). Bitching about it's limitations is pretty ******ed IMO and simply demonstrates the fact that you did little or no research prior to going with Samsung/Android.

Example:

Today I was trying out the new UK Google Navigation (woohoo!). It is lalaing brilliant, for free. After a time, it struck me that there were no spoken instructions.

"Drat!" thought I. "I'll have to investigate this problem via the interweb!"

Then it occured to me that there's no way I could hear any spoken instruction emanating from an i5700 above road-noise/car-noise anyway...

Still, now we have excellent, free navigation in the UK.

 

[kingdave]

This phone (i5700) is dirt-cheap in comparison to an iPhone, and can do all sorts of bonkers stuff (particularly in 2.1). Bitching about it's limitations is pretty ******ed IMO and simply demonstrates the fact that you did little or no research prior to going with Samsung/Android.

The Portal may well be dirt cheap in comparison to an iPhone, but my Ford Fiesta is dirt cheap in comparison to a Porsche. I still expect it to work though.

I appreciate it is going to have its limitations, but software glitches, hanging, non responsiveness and random behaviour are either a fault of the poor design of the phone, or poor design of the software.

You're right in that I did little research. I had heard lots about Android and how good it is and when my C905 went tits up and T-Mobile finally agreed to replace it they gave me a budget I could use to buy a new phone. With the budget I could've got a Nokia X6 or another Sony Ericsson, however, from my experience in recent years both of these brands have really suffered in the quality stakes.

On the other hand, I had heard great things about Samsung from friends (and that they keep winning customer service awards - god knows how) so I opted for a make people were recommending with an operating system that was supposed to gave iPhone OS a rund for its money.

I don't regret my decision. When my Portal wants to work, it works well. But when it doesn't work it is incredibly frustrating. But come the end of the year when my contract with T-Mobile ends I don't know where to go after that.

Something like the HTC Desire which seems to be getting fantastic reviews and is (relatively) cheap or iPhone with its expensive hardware cost and/or expensive tariff?