Knowledgable, Dubious

[jesstifer]

Background: my first post-college job was cracking open a box containing one of the first IBM PC clones (A Zenith, running the new "MS-DOS, [as opposed to PC-DOS]" and bundled with a crazy new word processor: MS Word, 1.0), and making it work in an accounting office. So I can hack, a bit.

I've been forced to work on Windows machines for much of my adult life.

But I'm also a writer, novelist, animator, producer... you know, "creative" guy. So at home, I use Macs with great joy. I sold my Apple stock when Jobs died, and am hoping for a third party OS.

I have an iPhone (currently, Verizon 4). But my wife demands a hard keyboard, so: only Android phones for her.

I am doomed to tech support for both platforms.

I personally think Android is an iPhone ripoff. But in a kind of good way. Google swiped the iPhone's design, (home screen, dock, swipe between, etc. You can't deny it, it's true) and then added some swell stuff on top. (it's easy to embellish a Michelangelo). There are many times when I find myself grabbing her phone to do something the iPhone can't... mostly when I need a full version of Google Maps/Navigator... which Google is being pissy by not licensing to Apple. But I digress.

Finding Android support for any individual phone, running any one of the various iterations of the software (I still, after much digging and wiki-ing of kernel versions, can't say for sure what version of what frozen dessert her phone is running. Somewhere between 2 and 4?) is a time sucking hell.

But then, in my experience, Windows/Intel/Android people love time sucking hells. So I look forward to asking simple questions here, and letting you enjoy yourselves by spending time answering them.

For now, I would like to note that my wife's new Samsung Stratosphere seems to be the only device in the house that will not charge on a Belkin Valet "green" charging station. Charges fine with same cables, anywhere else, even in keyboard USB port.

And ask... anyone else? Is there a cable or setting that will allow for charging this phone along with all the other devices in the house?

 

[D-U-R-X]

Welcome to the forums!

I presonally like Android - I think you'll find a lot that do on these forums!

Friends who have come to Android from iPhones have said that the main reason is that they changed was the feeling that iPhones are "locked down" and not as open to personalisation as Android devices.

Also, from what I understand, if you jailbreak an iPhone, you have to re-jailbreak it each time that you have an update... once an Android device is rooted, it's rooted... simple as.

For your info, to work out which version of Android you have, you need to do the following (from a homescreen):

menu=>settings=>about phone

You will then get a lot of info about the phone, including which version of Android you are running. As you said your wife has a Stratosphere, I would hazard a guess that it is on Gingerbread (Android 2.3.x), as this is the most recent version, other than Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.x), which has not yet rolled out to oficially devices.

I cannot comment on why you can't charge using the Belkin Valet... I had to google it, as I didn't even know what it was! I am a little surprised, as I can charge my Desire HD (and my wife's Galaxy S) by plugging in to the USB ports on our laptop!

If you would like a little more info on the Stratosphere, you may like to check out Samsung Stratosphere - Android Forums - other users are in there and are the most likely to be able to help with device specific questions.

Hope you find this place useful - thanks for joining!!

 

[Rush]

Welcome to Android Forum -- Thanks for joining.

It's nice to have you aboard...

There are lots of Help, Hints, Tips & Tricks for all Android Devices. I hope you find Android Forum informative and prove to be useful! Happy Holidays.