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Help Camera interface.

andreas81

Newbie
Oct 13, 2009
30
0
Hi guys.

So I'm currently looking into different smartphones and intend on buying one in the near future. Right now it's pretty much down to an s60 phone, or an android phone, not much of a limit I know but I haven't been able to find a phone that fully satisfies me yet.

Anyway I was reading a review of the galaxy, and appearently the camera interface is quite, well, crappy... (despite the fact that the camera actually takes good shots), so I was wondering if there's been any change to that with recent firmware updates?

On a more general note, I live in Sweden and we don't currently have access to paid android applications here, so I was also wondering how big a deal that is? Is the freeware market huge or is it considered a "must have" to download applications that cost money? Can't honestly say I am planning to *buy* applications to my phone in the first place, which is another reason for asking this question. Is the freeware market enough?

Oh and another general question, living in sweden we have such letters as
 
Hi guys.

So I'm currently looking into different smartphones and intend on buying one in the near future. Right now it's pretty much down to an s60 phone, or an android phone, not much of a limit I know but I haven't been able to find a phone that fully satisfies me yet.

Anyway I was reading a review of the galaxy, and appearently the camera interface is quite, well, crappy... (despite the fact that the camera actually takes good shots), so I was wondering if there's been any change to that with recent firmware updates?

Camera is a faster with the 1.6 Android system, but samsung hasn't ported it yet. Should get better though.

On a more general note, I live in Sweden and we don't currently have access to paid android applications here, so I was also wondering how big a deal that is? Is the freeware market huge or is it considered a "must have" to download applications that cost money? Can't honestly say I am planning to *buy* applications to my phone in the first place, which is another reason for asking this question. Is the freeware market enough?

Almost all paid apps have a free, lite, version on the market. A few apps are nice to have which are payable. You can bypass the Market using MarketEnabler and it shows you all the apps. :)

Oh and another general question, living in sweden we have such letters as
 
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Andreas, can you point us to the review that you have read?

I wrote a comparison between HTC Hero and Samsung Galaxy, and in the Camera section, you can find a mention of "Camera Magic", a free camera app that brings some features to the stock Android camera. It still lacks an option to disable the shutter sound.

Does anyone know of a way to disable the shutter sound when taking a picture with the Samsung Galaxy?
 
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Thank you for the responses guys.

I must say, right now I feel like android is looking like a great OS for the future handheld devices, yet at this point in time it seems to still be a little too underdeveloped.

The HTC Hero had alot of praise for it's interface, but that was a shell created by HTC on top of the android system. The hero interface seemed very nice indeed, but personally I felt it way too lacking that the camera didnt have a flash, and something else I personally would have valued is a radio. If I am gonna pay 400euros or more for a phone I really don't think these things are too much to ask for.

Currently (yet again) I am falling back to the soon-to-be-released nokia e72. Don't mean to offend anyone here or anything, but this one seems to just pack it all. The *one* thing it's lacking is in the display department, I cant say I'm looking forwarding to browsing on this phone with its crappy sized display and poor resolution.... Which is really why I am looking into alternatives right now, otherwise this phone would be a no-brainer to me.

What I expect in the phone I buy is the following (in no specific order):

1: Decent battery times, not necessary to charge on a daily basis (iphools anyone?)
2: A nice and capable operating system, which allows the user to control most-to-everything the phone is capable of.
3: Ability to *read* office files and pdf files.
4: Wifi - a must have.
5: bluetooth - preferably with sending/printing files capability.
6: camera - one that actually takes "good" shots, with autofocus and flash.
7: GPS - mandatory in my opinion.
8: Radio with RDS (not a must, but definitely a plus)
9: Preferably a 2.8" screen or bigger, but more important is that the size of the phone is pocketable.

That's all, im not picky am I? :p Anyway the e72 has all of this, except the display ofcourse (2.4" for the bloody loss). Truly a shame, but the quality and capability of this phone keeps making me coming back to it after checking out other alternatives.

If anyone has a suggestion for another phone I might be interested in, I'd be very glad if you tipped me off, even if it's a phone that hasn't been released just yet but is coming in the near future?

Thanks all.

// Andreas
 
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I can see why you like E72. It seems like a really decent and competent
phone.

Galaxy can't play DivX movies as of yet, and you need to pay if you want
a decent .pdf viewer. Those two are momentarily the biggest drawbacks
with regards to applications. There are tons of free applications for everything
else you can imagine though.

I was first drawn to Galaxy because it promised 1500 mAh and an AMOLED
screen which is supposedly not very battery intensive. My average is 60
hours, two and a half days. I get to use the phone for two full days and I
charge it at the end of the second day.

It is not easy to type on the screen keyboard. If you need to use a lot of
email for work, then go with a phone that has a hardware keyboard. If on
the other hand you want to surf a lot and watch movies and documents, go
with the one with the bigger screen.

Motorola Sholes might be a great option if you are willing to wait for it to
get released.
 
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Thanks for the objective input Xenon.

I gotta say among the android phones, I really like the galaxy. Be that as it may that it lacks the extra shell on the UI which comes with the Hero, but the sleek and non-pretentious design with some solid hardware makes it very attractive to me. Same thing with the e72 I guess, cus what draws my attention isn't fashion-gimmicks, but functionality and performance.

That in mind though, the lack of a pdf-viewer, flash and divx really feels like too much :/ And you also say it's not easy to write on the screen-keyboard? That doesn't sound good to me, again being the performance freak.

The motorola sholes doesn't quite fit my taste formfactor-wise, but I appreciate the suggestion. On the other hand motorola cliq is more interesting, though for some reason I feel like it's best to stay away from motorola phones atm? Just a gut feeling, things haven't been going too well for them lately... I'm also not sure if the cliq is even gonna get released in the EU/Sweden, seems like alot of phones are developed for specific US carriers these days :/

// Andreas
 
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Be that as it may that it lacks the extra shell on the UI which comes with the Hero

The recently released GalaxHero custom ROM replicates the HTC Hero theme and also includes PDF and office viewers by default (although I've not tried them out). I'd no doubt be more accurate on a physical keypad, but after a few days use I've gotten pretty good at typing on the touch keypad.
 
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The recently released GalaxHero custom ROM replicates the HTC Hero theme and also includes PDF and office viewers by default (although I've not tried them out). I'd no doubt be more accurate on a physical keypad, but after a few days use I've gotten pretty good at typing on the touch keypad.

Very interesting indeed! And if I am not mistaken, this "custom ROM" also includes full flash support, have a look at this video, his english isn't the best but I swear he states flash works seamlessly when he's browsing:

SAMSUNG Galaxy ROMS: GALAXO & GALAXHERO V1 - FINAL VERSION - HDblog - Forum

I also read some other posts about galaxhero on swedroid.se stating the interface and keyboard is much more responsive with this ROM. Go figure...

Really feel like I "risc" getting hooked on the galaxy atm... No DiVX support is a big loss, and I'd like to have a radio although I can probably live without the latter, DIVX/XViD should come sooner or later, one way or the other, don't u think? Man watching the video above when he browses the web is so appealing...

I'd like to know a little more about flashing the ROM, most specifically what the dangers are with doing so. Let's say I'm clumsy enough to erase the ROM entirely, how bad would that be? :p Is it repairable somehow using a PC to upload a new ROM?

And I assume that flashing it with a new ROM would void the warranty on the phone right?

// Andreas
 
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Very interesting indeed! And if I am not mistaken, this "custom ROM" also includes full flash support, have a look at this video, his english isn't the best but I swear he states flash works seamlessly when he's browsing

Flash does work on some stuff, but it's quite an old version I think so doesn't work on everything (youtube has a specific mobile version I presume so that works, but other streaming sites do not).

I also read some other posts about galaxhero on swedroid.se stating the interface and keyboard is much more responsive with this ROM. Go figure...

I never had any problems with the speed of things before, but it does seem a bit snappier since installing this custom ROM.

Really feel like I "risc" getting hooked on the galaxy atm... No DiVX support is a big loss, and I'd like to have a radio although I can probably live without the latter, DIVX/XViD should come sooner or later, one way or the other, don't u think? Man watching the video above when he browses the web is so appealing...

I'd been a Nokia man for years, shunning everything else as I wasn't impressed by what I'd seen.... however these days S40 just doesn't cut it, and I really couldn't get on with S60... So I made the switch to Android and am loving it, yeah things are done a bit differently but it just needs a bit of getting used to. I really think Android is the future :)

As for DiVX/XVid support, that doesn't bother me at all, my MP3 player (Cowon S9) plays music and videos way better than any phone can, and the battery lasts a lot longer too! Is it really such a big deal if the phone doesn't have it?

I'd like to know a little more about flashing the ROM, most specifically what the dangers are with doing so. Let's say I'm clumsy enough to erase the ROM entirely, how bad would that be? :p Is it repairable somehow using a PC to upload a new ROM?

And I assume that flashing it with a new ROM would void the warranty on the phone right?

// Andreas

Well I'm sure I did it wrong several times, and for a while my phone wouldn't boot at all... but I just did the process again once I'd got the restoring of the google apps working and everything has been fine since. I don't think you can really brick the phone completely as it seems you can always just use Odin to flash an original firmware and you'd be back up and running. Not only that, but your mobile provider would be none the wiser that you'd installed a custom ROM.
 
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I'm pretty sure that you can't mess up download mode because its ROM. Also none of the new files reflash the bootloader (II5 etc) with odin.

The Samsung is security unlocked so you can always put a custom recovery partition on it, or downgrade or upgrade, so no problems there.

The baseband also accepts upgrades and downgrades so no problems there.

I guess the only possible way to brick it is if the battery fell out during the baseband update.
 
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You can change the key board. there are few apps free and paid for keyboard with all kind of features.
I absolutely LOVE on-screen keyboards. i have an ipod touch and i'm really used to the keyboard there. I have a really bad handwriting so i use it an a notebook in class. i can easily type as fast as the teacher dictates to it really great.(that story is for all the hardware keyboard lovers(.
 
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Hi guys.

On a more general note, I live in Sweden and we don't currently have access to paid android applications here, so I was also wondering how big a deal that is? Is the freeware market huge or is it considered a "must have" to download applications that cost money? Can't honestly say I am planning to *buy* applications to my phone in the first place, which is another reason for asking this question. Is the freeware market enough?

Most must have apps are free(spareparts, taskiller etc) so don't think this is a big deal.

Oh and another general question, living in sweden we have such letters as
 
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It all sounds good then =) Just the missing radio and the transgression to a full-touschscreen phone (the latter being the only real "obstacle") to overcome....

I really like the android OS, but I kinda wish the samsung moment was available, I do prefer having buttons to use... Anyway, I think I'll need to get my hands on the galaxy in a store and try it out in order to really make up my mind.

Regarding the DiVX/XViD support, one of the bigger reasons for me to actually consider a touchscreen in the first place is the fact that they tend to have a nice big display, which in turn means better browsing AND better ability to enjoy videos on the phone. Hence, the supported video format is really kind of a big deal. Which video formats does the galaxy currently support? mp4, wmv ?

Also, how satisfied are you guys with the camera; interface and snapshot quality? I reckon this shouldnt be an issue but hoping for some validation :)

// Andreas
 
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I just bought E71 (E72's predecessor) for my mom. The 2,36" display sucks
compared to Galaxy's, not just with regards to size but also color quality
and vividness.

After using the touch interface I find myself constantly trying to touch Nokia's
screen. I don't think I would like going back to such a button-heavy phone,
though once I got used to it it would probably be OK.

Kudos to Nokia for packing so many features into such a thin phone and I would
definitely consider it (together with BlackBerry) if I had to type dozens of emails
each day.

As it is now, I wouldn't exchange my Galaxy for it. I really dig the bigger screen
and the openness of the OS and the availability of new applications on the market.
 
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I just bought E71 (E72's predecessor) for my mom. The 2,36" display sucks
compared to Galaxy's, not just with regards to size but also color quality
and vividness.

After using the touch interface I find myself constantly trying to touch Nokia's
screen. I don't think I would like going back to such a button-heavy phone,
though once I got used to it it would probably be OK.

Kudos to Nokia for packing so many features into such a thin phone and I would
definitely consider it (together with BlackBerry) if I had to type dozens of emails
each day.

As it is now, I wouldn't exchange my Galaxy for it. I really dig the bigger screen
and the openness of the OS and the availability of new applications on the market.

Well, in regards to the e71, I can say that the e72 did get an improvement in display quality, regarding colors and vividness. No doubt it's been upgraded, although it's not en par with a LED screen.

Right now I feel I am leaning more and more towards a touchscreen though, mostly cus of the bigger screen. As such, there's really just one OS alternative for me, android. I am not at all impressed with s60 on the n97, or else I would consider the n97 mini. But the OS just doesn't look very "fun" compared to android. Ofcourse I also know about the openness of android, yet I believe this also applies to s60? Still though, android OS is looking like a winner in the long term if nothing else because of its huge fanbase. I just hope the openness will continue and the need to root it will become smaller with time, as I'd prefer not to do this.

Furthermore, having thought about it quite a bit today I also feel like I "need" a full qwerty keyboard. And the design I am really hooked on right now, is that of the samsung moment. Being a sprint-only mobile though, this is pretty disheartening. I *really* like that design and would really, really like to see this phone or something similar come to the european market (sweden). I'd also prefer it to be either htc or samsung to deliver it, both very capable phone producers in my book. Anybody got a tip?? Otherwise I guess I'm screwed for the time being :(

// Andreas
 
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I bought my Galaxy from Germany via eBay. I bought stuff from USA
before without problems. Find a good rated seller, make sure you read
his negative reviews, and if he still seems solid, buy. Stuff I buy on
US eBay is (sadly) often cheaper than European equivalents, even when
I include the shipping and customs expenses.
 
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I know it's tough picking a phone :) any way you look at it there are
always tradeoffs. It either has this great feature OR that great feature.

Phones with slide-out QWERTY keyboards are usually quite bulky. One
reason why Motorola Sholes seems like a winner is that they seem to
have managed to make it as thin as the Galaxy! It probably holds the
record for the slimmest phone of that format on the market.
 
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