New phone

[peterb]

Thank you. I had a look at those and it really confirms what I have always thought. To get an Android device to be useful (for me) requires to much faff, plus all the warnings about soft bricking, and then another set of procedures to recover from that. It's too much faff. It's a phone, I want something that works with minimal set up, beyond entering e mail and wi-if settings.

Thanks to everyone for their help, guess Android just isn't for me.

I've just done a factory reset, I might try again, or just return it.

[peterb]

OK, I'll try that. Having reset it it and started the set up without signing in to Google it does seem better, but of course calendar is then completely useless without local storage.

And, call me Mr Picky, does it say "OK Got it". When it asks for confirmation? Wha is the matter with just ok, or next? Very irritating after the first couple of times!

Anyway, enough for now, I'm going to the gym to work off my frustration with it.

[Biscuit]

You must be using a different version!

None of the icons appear to line up on the home screen, and they are different shapes with no uniformity of theme. They DO line up, it's just an illusion caused by poor design. Maybe if I could get rid of the wallpaper they would look better.

I really want to like this, not least because of the price. But I can't access my iCloud calendar, which is one thing I do want, and while I could transfer everything to google calendar, I then seem to lose local storage. The calendar only seems to work with google drive (and the interface isn't that good either).

I suppose this is part of the challenge iOS users face when switching from one to the other. If you had been google and android from the start, you would more likely to be using google services therefore there are less work arounds for what you need. Android setup for me takes little more than a few minutes for the basic stuff.

[Biscuit]

Thank you. I had a look at those and it really confirms what I have always thought. To get an Android device to be useful (for me) requires to much faff, plus all the warnings about soft bricking, and then another set of procedures to recover from that. It's too much faff. It's a phone, I want something that works with minimal set up, beyond entering e mail and wi-if settings.

Thanks to everyone for their help, guess Android just isn't for me.

I've just done a factory reset, I might try again, or just return it.

What is this soft bricking you talk about?

OK, I'll try that. Having reset it it and started the set up without signing in to Google it does seem better, but of course calendar is then completely useless without local storage.

And, call me Mr Picky, does it say "OK Got it". When it asks for confirmation? Wha is the matter with just ok, or next? Very irritating after the first couple of times!

Anyway, enough for now, I'm going to the gym to work off my frustration with it.

There are calendar apps that support the DAV protocol apple use.

[peterb]

I suppose this is part of the challenge iOS users face when switching from one to the other. If you had been google and android from the start, you would more likely to be using google services therefore there are less work arounds for what you need. Android setup for me takes little more than a few minutes for the basic stuff.

Yes, I think that's true. I know that if I added another iOS device, it would be set up like all the others pretty quickly. Integrating Google Calendar on an IOS device seems easier than the other way round. I find The Google in your face aspect just irritating and intrusive.

Still not sure about keeping the Motorola. It feels a really nice bit of kit, hardware wise, but let down (for me) by a so far very disappointing opertiing system experience. For a hard core Android user, it is fantastic value for money.

I really want to like it, but it's making it very difficult!

[DanceswithUnix]

I suppose this is part of the challenge iOS users face when switching from one to the other. If you had been google and android from the start, you would more likely to be using google services therefore there are less work arounds for what you need. Android setup for me takes little more than a few minutes for the basic stuff.

As always, there is an app to help with that though. http://www.androidcentral.com/how-ea...lendar-android

And once synced, there are things like Smooth Calendar app to try to get the ideal widget for you.

Only thing I have problems with is Microsoft calendar integration. That isn't a technical problem, it is down to the people in charge of our Exchange server insisting that they control the security policy on my phone if I want to connect to them. It is my phone, I am not having them monitor its activity or remote wipe it. I would rather risk missing meetings.

[Biscuit]

There is a few guides on the web that actually take iOS users through the various steps needed to understand the differences, benefits and shortfalls. Sounds to me like your mind is made up though.

This is one google published: http://www.android.com/switch/

[peterb]

Well, mind not completely made up, but I've had the phone for nearly 24 hours and it isn't doing much that's useful! But then I had another look at the iPhone 6 and the price, so I'll try the Motorola. Even if it means having to pay for add one to get a phone that does what I want!

Smooth sync looks good though, and worth a punt. However, I didn't see any of the Apps that I bought and downloaded on my other Android based tablet - does that mean I have to buy them again? I was expecting them to either sync seamlessly or at least show themselves available to download.

I suppose I really want it to behave like an iPhone, and that isn't going to happen

[Jonj1611]

I am a complete nightmare when it comes to phones, going through several models a year, I had the iphone 6, the Sony Z3, Galaxy S5 and now an HTC One M8 but I would happily go back to the iphone 6, the bigger screen size has made a real difference to the phone and whatever people may say, for me personally I did find it the better phone in the end.

[Biscuit]

Well, mind not completely made up, but I've had the phone for nearly 24 hours and it isn't doing much that's useful! But then I had another look at the iPhone 6 and the price, so I'll try the Motorola. Even if it means having to pay for add one to get a phone that does what I want!

Smooth sync looks good though, and worth a punt. However, I didn't see any of the Apps that I bought and downloaded on my other Android based tablet - does that mean I have to buy them again? I was expecting them to either sync seamlessly or at least show themselves available to download.

One of the very, very, very bad things about Android and the Play Store at the moment is that there is no option to view apps that you have bought in a single list. You have to search for them in the store. This option used to be there and was taken out, it really does my head in and I wish you hadn't reminded me of it...
There is an option to sync apps from your Google account when you first log in, but I actually use different apps on different devices and sometimes forget to remove apps that I dont use anymore, so I tend not to use this feature and I just get them as I need them.

Didn't you say you went through the process of setting up without logging into your google account this time? The apps that you bought should still be available on the account that you originally signed up for, unless perhaps they released a totally new version and discontinued the old one?

I suppose I really want it to behave like an iPhone, and that isn't going to happen

Nope never, otherwise I wouldn't be blooming using it! Even if you did install some of the roms that make it work kinda like an iphone, that would probably end up annoying you more because it would still have those differences that would drive you mad.
If you accept it for what it is, perhaps you will get used to it and start feeling differently. Millions upon millions of users seem to prefer it, so it cant be that bad!

What about Windows phone? Perhaps look at the iphone 5c.... or second hand market?

[DanceswithUnix]

Apps bought on your tablet are free on your phone, buying them unlocks them for all devices on your account. However, they aren't (usually) installed straight away and you have to choose to install them. I actually hate it when the phone tries to be helpful an installs my old apps. That often includes stuff that I tried out years ago and don't use, and oh look the phone is full and now I have to go deleting stuff.

Installing apps is easier from a PC web browser, assuming your PC has better than a 6" screen

You need to have run the play store app on your phone and logged in, and then log into play store on your PC: https://play.google.com/apps?hl=en

Try that link, hopefully it will show all the apps you have used in the past. Click install, it will prompt for your phone or tablet and like magic push the app to your phone. That also means that while your phone is installing one app, you can be queuing up the next in your PC web browser.

Some free to use favourites of mine:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...watchdog&hl=en 3g watchdog
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...analyzer&hl=en WiFi Anayzser
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....android&hl=en Barcode scanner
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...calendar&hl=en Smooth calendar widget for your homescreen
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...wswidget&hl=en BBC News headlines widget

[Jonj1611]

One of the very, very, very bad things about Android and the Play Store at the moment is that there is no option to view apps that you have bought in a single list. You have to search for them in the store. This option used to be there and was taken out, it really does my head in and I wish you hadn't reminded me of it...

I might be misreading what your saying but I can see all the apps I have bought. If you load the Play Store then touch the three little lines top left then touch My Apps and then on All it should show you all the apps you have ever installed.

Or were you saying something different? If so apologies.

[Biscuit]

You need to have run the play store app on your phone and logged in, and then log into play store on your PC: https://play.google.com/apps?hl=en

Much better on a PC screen but still not good enough. There is loads of stuff on my list I would like to remove, such as discontinued apps, but there doesn't seem to be an option!

Google need to sort this out.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...watchdog&hl=en 3g watchdog

What is the benefit of that over the 'settings' -> 'data usage' page?

I might be misreading what your saying but I can see all the apps I have bought. If you load the Play Store then touch the three little lines top left then touch My Apps and then on All it should show you all the apps you have ever installed.

Or were you saying something different? If so apologies.

I mean specifically apps that you have paid for, not just everything you have ever installed. Quite often I install a few apps, see which one I preffer and stick with that. They all appear on this list... so crap.

[peterb]

Well, going to the gym has worked out some frustrations. I have found some of the apps I bought before, I have looked at, but not yet bought smooth sync, I can look at the wallpaper without needing sunglasses, and I am making sense of it without needing a frontal lobotomy!

As biscuit says, millions of people use it so it must have something going for it, and I guess if you just agreed with everything it suggested, it might be more straightforward. But I can see why Apple users say it "just works".

That said, there was a bit of a learning curve when I moved to Apple, and when I bought the iPad, but I don't remember it being this frustrating!

Ah well, lunch time.

And then I must try out the Built in FM receiver!

I am slowly warming to it.

However I am really glad I didn't shell out £400 plus for one of the high price Android phones, that would have been returned by now and I'd have paid the relatively small price differential for the iPhone 6

[DanceswithUnix]

What is the benefit of that over the 'settings' -> 'data usage' page?

It just gives you a little icon at the top of the screen which is green/orange/red depending on whether you are using data faster than your contract allows. If you aren't on contract, or are on unlimited, then it probably isn't of much interest.

However I am really glad I didn't shell out £400 plus for one of the high price Android phones, that would have been returned by now and I'd have paid the relatively small price differential for the iPhone 6

My wife has an LG G3 as they were "only" £290 at Ebuyer. Not a bad phone, but I do tend to look at it wonder why the heck they put a 1440p display on a phone.

[peterb]

Getting there, smooth sync is ideal. Might be almost ready to start slicing and dicing my SIM card...