I'm thinking about switching to Android from iOS. I'm decided it needs to be a Jelly Bean device, most likely the Note 2. Before i go ahead and part with 600 of the Queen's faces, breaking compatibility with just about everything i have in the process, i was thinking about buying a second-hand jelly bean capable phone and giving it a whirl for a couple of weeks (looks like the 32Gb note 2 isn't available yet anyway). Am i overlooking anything by going for a 2nd hand Galaxy Nexus @ £260 from the bay of fleas? Are there better options around the £300 mark? Whatever i go for should be re-sellable for not much loss within the next month or 2. Rambling other questions... How does android get on with the playstation 3 in practice? The PS3 has a crappy DNLA client from previous experiments and i've fallen out of love with the Apple TV so it's not hanging around to use Double Twist's airplay product with. How does syncing with a Linux host work in practice? The macbook will be switching to debian and my music is in ALAC (will convert it all to FLAC) format. Podcasts, i consume a bunch of video podcasts, any leads on suitable android podcatchers under £10?
Most newer devices are capable of being used as DLNA clients, and there's more than a few applications out in the marketplace that'll let you use them as DLNA media servers - The Missus PS3 doesn't mind if I stick my Xperia S onto DLNA server mode and it'll gladly read songs off it. As for music support; there's little out there on the Android Market that'll support FLAC out of the box. I use Bubble UPnP, but that's only because I wanted a DLNA capable player that would let me shuffle a whole library on the fly - Winamp for Android is very nice to use, but the pro version is required for FLAC support at last check. I'm not sure about Podcasts. I'm pretty sure that MX Player can happily accept them, but I think you'd need another program to point the player to them, otherwise you'll wind up typing in direct links to the file in question, which gets tiring fast. (Avia used to do that, then they cut off support for external renderers, at which point; 90% of my library stopped playing on it, because it only supports MP3/WMA/WAV, While a good chunk of my library is OGG or FLAC.) As for Syncing music: Android phones mount as USB devices, most of the time, So you can just drag and drop your files onto them. Use a backup program if you really want to cut-corners in the transfers, at the end of the day; So long as the phone rescans the SDcard; It'll usually find the music, even if it can't play it at that exact point.
I use poweramp (http://powerampapp.com/) to play FLAC file, but it doesn't have DLNA support. Sync with Linux is as easy as copying file to an USB stick. For podcast, I use TuneIn Radio (came with my HTC Desire X)
I know it's not a phone, but if all you want is to dabble cheaply (relatively speaking) with Android I can recommend the 16gb Asus Nexus 7 (generally around £199). Really happy with mine. It's just a shame that I can't use it with all those videos that I've built up in iTunes (I still use an iPhone 3Gs and a 1st gen iPod Touch for those though).
I agree, the Nexus 7 is awesome ... and the USB port works as a host, with a microUSB --> USB adapter, you can plug a USB gamepad xD
"there's little out there on the Android Market that'll support FLAC out of the box" That's an important little nugget of info. I guess i can convert to another format easily enough - the phone is unlikely to benefit from lossless stuff. The Nexus 7 does seem a good shout but my idea is to ditch the ipad and iphone and replace with a single device with a big screen and swappable batteries. That's the idea anyway, i know how this kinda thing tends to work out for me though!! Keen to get a feel for using android day to day without any other device to fall back on, i figure it's the best way to see if i'm kidding myself about android looking like a much better proposition than iOS (which isn't getting any cheaper to keep up to date with!!)
The S3 looks good but i'm drawn to the note 2. I'd rarely use the stylus and I reckon i'll look a right clown if i ever put it up to my ear. Nah i can't figure the logic out either... :-(
The Galaxy S2 supports FLAC out of the box so I assume the Note, S3 and Note 2 also do too. My S2 is able to stream it using Wifi Direct which I beleive is interoperable with DLNA.
When you say how does it get on with the PS3, what do you mean? I have an s2 and a PS3 which has been rooted and running a custom ROM. I've not done any DLNA stuff with the PS3 but it is great with my LG TV.
"When you say how does it get on with the PS3, what do you mean?" Before i had an Apple TV i used to use the PS3 (it's an old one if that makes any difference - i kept it up to date though) to view films on the big screen. I found the DLNA (why was i typing DNLA earlier :-S) client was a bit flakey. It would crap out sometimes, that really coloured my view of DLNA. Hopefully it's all a lot better now!
Short: Dont get the note 2 yet new version is out soon with 4g or lte? Basicly in the same situation, I purchased the Iphone 5. Obviously the Ipad 3 is awesome... the same is not the case of the Iphone 5 it basicly sucks. I did not understand what all the complant was about untill the third week into having it and actually reached to the device to do some thing meaningfull. The keyboard is absolutely horrible, I nearly smashed the device whilst waking up to highbury and islington. Three soild efforts at typing whilst sober.. was lucky to see one in five of the chracters represented on the screen i was typing, and also the screen is WAY too small, the device is trying to be two things at the same time and it fails in both. I appericate the itunes store have spent what must be hundreds on apps, love nothing better than to sit with the Ipad and relax unwind love apple for producing the Ipad, well done Apple thank you. Also. The battery life on the Iphone, ive given in expecting it to be available for me, every time i look at it, its flat, im not even bothing to charge it any more it is put in my bag as a token, dont cahrge at home or at work. Whilst I am talking on topic.. The cable is a different cable.. ok fair enough new technology BUT WHY HAVE A CHIP IN IT? that just alienates people, and also.. if it is for security or to limit cheap copies, why is Ebay listing Late Oct £6.99 deliveries, what a waste of time the chip is when they are hitting uk in Nov for under a tenner. The Iphone 5 is a mistake device, people are still in the hot mood about it, and they are the must have object but they are actually impractal and also out of date, how can you release a device that is already missing technologies, it should have every thing the S3 has a MORE. This is not an Apple fan boy rant or S3 rant because Id like to give them both a miss, but ... as OP said, the Note 2 looks to be the device that we should go for. Also for ref the first time I saw the S3 in white, I felt in my soul that was an Apple device in Spirt. Was going to get the note 2 delivered on Tuesday held back.. reason.... there is a new version of the Note 2 coming out, 4g version or lite or so my boss has said. As a side note since people may think Im talking sht and dont know what im talking about, if you want to work around the poor keyboard performance I recommend to look at the Iphone 5 SPIKE keyboard, 4s available in Nov, iphone5 in Jan. actually looks really nice almost tempted not to let this stupid 5 go but it will be and I am going to need a big reason reason to revert back to Apple mobile communication devices going forward.
Just a quick shout-out: You can get a Toshiba Thrive 16 (and sometimes 32) for ~$200 factory refurbished. Then you can root it, install CM10 (JB 4.1), get JB. My only real complaint about it is that the glass is known to crack under sub-normal use.
My friend bought an S3 in August and now regrets not waiting for the LTE version. Wants to sell his S3.
Thanks all. Galaxy Nexus arrived yesterday and I'm blown away with it. I didn't appreciate the improved screen size over the iPhone 4S, its also significantly faster than the 4S, in fact its fast enough for everything. Roll on the 4G Note 2 launch... I'm officially converted to android. Got pocket casts for podcasts and happy with it. Got poweramp for flac and it works well too. Still not nailed a DLNA client yet though.
Now unlock the bootloader, root it and instal a custom rom. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392310
I've got the Note 2, in fact typing this reply on it now. I find the phone absolutely amazing, it really does combine the aspects of a smartphone and tablet extremely well. I will say I barely use it for calls mainly for browsing the Internet, various other multimedia and if I do have to calls I nearly always use headphones (avoiding the inevitable dvd case to head analogies). I'd definitely recommend it but that you also try it out at a shop and see if you prefer SIII size or Note 2. Regarding LTE I can't be arsed with it, it's too expensive, download limits are too small and HDSPA+ is more than fast enough for me (just over 3Mb/s ping of about 70ms). I also managed to get the Note 2 for £36 a month with no upfront cost at all so I'm well chuffed . Hope this helps. Isitari
