Help What's Wrong? It the Phone, The OS or the Apps?

[jungleexplorer]

Bought the Galaxy S2 about three months ago (AT&T). At first I was blown away by the phones capability, but now am running into daily problems. I am not sure whether the problem is the Android operating system itself, the apps I am using or if my phone is just a lemon.

I am not an intense smart phone user as I have a high end desktop with an HD 24" screen for any serious work. I really only use my S2 for phone stuff like texting and calling. Because I can't type on the touch screen keyboard worth a flip, I try use voice talk to do all my typing. This is a marvelous app when it works. The problem is that it freezes 3 out of 4 times I try to use it. Once it freezes, it is out until I reboot the phone. I use a Voyager Pro Plus head set (that I love). I am a firm believer in not texting while driving, but with Voice Talk, I can push the button on the headset and have it read an incoming text with out taking the phone out of my pocket, and then respond to it. But it never works like it is supposed to. It freezes up 98% of the time. So it is useless. Using voice talk to make a call only works some of the time without freezing up voice talk. So basically, I am back to doing thing the old fashion way, because the one really useful smartphone app (for me that is) will not work (why did I buy a smart phone again?)

Since voice talk does not work, I started to using the Buddy Icons to speed things up a bit. But about every three or four days all my Buddy icons go blank for no reason and I have to reassign the contacts to each one. WHY!

I have used several other apps, but I have experienced freezes and glitches with almost all of them. I feel like I am using Windows 3.0 again (yes, I am that old).

So basically, I have a $500 stupid phone, because everything that would be smart about it does not work the way it should.

So what is the problem? Is it the OS? Is the Apps? Or is it my phone? What is the solution?

 

[damewolf13]

Bought the Galaxy S2 about three months ago (AT&T). At first I was blown away by the phones capability, but now am running into daily problems. I am not sure whether the problem is the Android operating system itself, the apps I am using or if my phone is just a lemon.

I am not an intense smart phone user as I have a high end desktop with an HD 24" screen for any serious work. I really only use my S2 for phone stuff like texting and calling. Because I can't type on the touch screen keyboard worth a flip, I try use voice talk to do all my typing. This is a marvelous app when it works. The problem is that it freezes 3 out of 4 times I try to use it. Once it freezes, it is out until I reboot the phone. I use a Voyager Pro Plus head set (that I love). I am a firm believer in not texting while driving, but with Voice Talk, I can push the button on the headset and have it read an incoming text with out taking the phone out of my pocket, and then respond to it. But it never works like it is supposed to. It freezes up 98% of the time. So it is useless. Using voice talk to make a call only works some of the time without freezing up voice talk. So basically, I am back to doing thing the old fashion way, because the one really useful smartphone app (for me that is) will not work (why did I buy a smart phone again?)

Since voice talk does not work, I started to using the Buddy Icons to speed things up a bit. But about every three or four days all my Buddy icons go blank for no reason and I have to reassign the contacts to each one. WHY!

I have used several other apps, but I have experienced freezes and glitches with almost all of them. I feel like I am using Windows 3.0 again (yes, I am that old).

So basically, I have a $500 stupid phone, because everything that would be smart about it does not work the way it should.

So what is the problem? Is it the OS? Is the Apps? Or is it my phone? What is the solution?

I moved this into the AT&T S2 forum so that others with your phone can read and post here.

I would think it is a lemon, except it worked great when you first started using it, so I would rule that out. I don't have much luck with the voice talk type apps since they misunderstand so often, so I don't think you can blame the phone for that either, but I really don't understand why your buddy icons go blank, and you keep having to reset all of your contacts.
That shouldn't be happening at all. Are you using the stock contacts icons that came with the phone, or some other app that you installed?

 

[lunatic59]

The icons going blank would be an indicator of failing memory. Early Android phones only extended memory through the use of sd cards and they always mounted at /sdcard in the filesystem. If the card failed, or you booted the phone without the card in it, any apps that were set to run from the sd card would break the links to the icons. Sometimes, if you shut the phone off, put the card in and rebooted, they'd come back but not always. With the SGS2, there is an 11GB internal partition that mounts at /sdcard. If this starts to go bad, you will see icons break and apps crash. If you can repeat this reliably, I'd take it to an AT&T store, show them and ask for a replacement.

Be advised that the first tier of support will perform a factory reset, in case it's an app related problem, so you might want to try that first so if it doesn't fix it, you can tell them it's already been done and the only other option is replacement.

 

[jungleexplorer]

I moved this into the AT&T S2 forum so that others with your phone can read and post here.

I would think it is a lemon, except it worked great when you first started using it, so I would rule that out. I don't have much luck with the voice talk type apps since they misunderstand so often, so I don't think you can blame the phone for that either, but I really don't understand why your buddy icons go blank, and you keep having to reset all of your contacts.
That shouldn't be happening at all. Are you using the stock contacts icons that came with the phone, or some other app that you installed?

When voice talk works I think it does a pretty good job understanding what I say, but it understanding me is not the problem I am having. The problem I am having is with the program getting stuck. For example, say I want to text my brother Pete. I press the button on my bluetooth headset and say "Hi Galaxy". Voice talk then says, "What would you like to do?" and then you hear a little tone indicating that it is listening for a command. I say, "Text Pete". It is at this point that it gets stuck nine out of ten time. It just sits there trying to figure out what I said perpetually. I can go in and hit cancel, but I have figured out that once it starts messing up, it will not work right again until I reboot the phone. Even if I force close the app and restart it, it still will not work once it starts messing up.

I could live with the app happily if it only understood 70% of what I said, but all these glitches with it make it unusable. Why even make an app if it does not work?

As far as the buddy icons app, it came on the phone. All I did is assign contacts to the empty icons that were on the screen.

I am so tired of over hyped unrefined techno junk.

 

[jungleexplorer]

The icons going blank would be an indicator of failing memory. Early Android phones only extended memory through the use of sd cards and they always mounted at /sdcard in the filesystem. If the card failed, or you booted the phone without the card in it, any apps that were set to run from the sd card would break the links to the icons. Sometimes, if you shut the phone off, put the card in and rebooted, they'd come back but not always. With the SGS2, there is an 11GB internal partition that mounts at /sdcard. If this starts to go bad, you will see icons break and apps crash. If you can repeat this reliably, I'd take it to an AT&T store, show them and ask for a replacement.

Be advised that the first tier of support will perform a factory reset, in case it's an app related problem, so you might want to try that first so if it doesn't fix it, you can tell them it's already been done and the only other option is replacement.

Totally confused by what you said. Are we talking about the same thing? I am talking about the "Buddy Icons" app that lets you assign contacts to the icons on the screen for quick dialing. I am not talking about all the regular icons.

 

[lunatic59]

Totally confused by what you said. Are we talking about the same thing? I am talking about the "Buddy Icons" app that lets you assign contacts to the icons on the screen for quick dialing. I am not talking about all the regular icons.

My mistake, I thought you were talking about the direct dial shortcuts on your home screen. I think you are talking about the Buddies Now widget in Touchwiz.

This?

 

[jungleexplorer]

My mistake, I thought you were talking about the direct dial shortcuts on your home screen. I think you are talking about the Buddies Now widget in Touchwiz.

This?

That is kind of like mine except that mine are all spread out like normal icons and not in a Rolodex style. But yes, that is what I am talking about.

You have to forgive me on my "Android" terminology, I am not an android fan and only went with android because I hate anything Apple with a passion, but Android and Apple have pretty much pushed everyone else out of the market, so you don't have much of a choice. I bought and Acer Iconia A500 tablet and had tons of the same kinds of problem with it, so I gave it away. I basically narrowed all the problem down to the immature state of the Android OS and the horribly written apps in the android app market. I was hoping that since most apps in the android market are written for smartphones and not tablets, I might have better luck with an android smartphone. NOT!

I have had a device that can do everything this S2 can do (accept calling) for the last 10 years. It's got touch screen, wifi, bluetooth, IR, SD card storage expansion, tons of open source apps (that work), and is about the same size. It is called a Palm TX. So, in spite of all the hype about these recent smartphones being "New Technology", they are really nothing new at all. It is all advertising and market dominance. The company that does that best job of advertising and creating market dependence win, and it really has nothing to do with whether their products are better or not. Google has used it's power to push Android down everyone throat and has pushed many good competitors out of the market. Even Palm has stop using their own OS and now uses android on their devices. This is bad for consumers, no two ways about it. It is no different then what Microsoft did with windows. If Apple did not have such tyrannical marketing practices I would go with them, but who wants to become an apple zombie slave?

We will see if the new Windows Phone OS survives, but I expect it will not. So it is either, apple or android. Your either choose to trade freedom for safety and stability with apple, or be free with android, but live with an unrefined glitchy product. I value freedom so I chose that latter, but it does not mean I have to be happy about it. If Palm would release and upgraded version of the TX with phone functions, I would throw this S2 in a lake.

 

[lunatic59]

I hear the frustration in your post and there is nothing worse than technology that doesn't work the way you expect it to. I will say that it is a bit unfair to lay this entirely on Google. The problems you seem to be having are with Touchwiz or the hardware itself, which should be a strike against Samsung, but I know it really doesn't matter if it's not working.

Let's readdress the original issues ... apps freezing, force closing and generally not working properly. Widgets losing configuration on their own, etc is not normal behavior.

For the first three months I had my Galaxy S2 I didn't experience any of these problems. I did apply the update to 2.3.6 when it came out and had subsequent battery drain, but that was common and what ultimately pushed me to root and flash ICS. I couldn't be happier now (Well, I could, but it doesn't involve phones )

I would suggest with all these issues that there is something physically wrong with your phone. Perhaps failing memory, perhaps a heat or moisture issue (you didn't accidentally drop it in a pot of boiling pasta?). In any case, you've suffered long enough. Take it to the store and ask for a replacement. After three months they probably won't give you a new replacement, but they should give you a certified refurb.

For what it's worth (also know as "FWIW" in Orwellian internetspeak) I use voice recognition regularly and for the most part, it's pretty accurate and it never crashes. It does, on occasion, fail to recognize what I said, but that's the exception, not the rule. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time i had a force close or an app freeze on this phone. I did have an SD card croak on me a couple of weeks ago, but they tend to be a little flakey in general as storage media.

If you do get a replacement and it works "as advertised" and you want to venture into the land or rooting and flashing, I'll be happy to hold your hand and walk you through it. It's not rocket surgery

 

[jungleexplorer]

I hear the frustration in your post and there is nothing worse than technology that doesn't work the way you expect it to. I will say that it is a bit unfair to lay this entirely on Google. The problems you seem to be having are with Touchwiz or the hardware itself, which should be a strike against Samsung, but I know it really doesn't matter if it's not working.

Let's readdress the original issues ... apps freezing, force closing and generally not working properly. Widgets losing configuration on their own, etc is not normal behavior.

For the first three months I had my Galaxy S2 I didn't experience any of these problems. I did apply the update to 2.3.6 when it came out and had subsequent battery drain, but that was common and what ultimately pushed me to root and flash ICS. I couldn't be happier now (Well, I could, but it doesn't involve phones )

I would suggest with all these issues that there is something physically wrong with your phone. Perhaps failing memory, perhaps a heat or moisture issue (you didn't accidentally drop it in a pot of boiling pasta?). In any case, you've suffered long enough. Take it to the store and ask for a replacement. After three months they probably won't give you a new replacement, but they should give you a certified refurb.

For what it's worth (also know as "FWIW" in Orwellian internetspeak) I use voice recognition regularly and for the most part, it's pretty accurate and it never crashes. It does, on occasion, fail to recognize what I said, but that's the exception, not the rule. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time i had a force close or an app freeze on this phone. I did have an SD card croak on me a couple of weeks ago, but they tend to be a little flakey in general as storage media.

If you do get a replacement and it works "as advertised" and you want to venture into the land or rooting and flashing, I'll be happy to hold your hand and walk you through it. It's not rocket surgery

Thanks for the calm advice after my last rant. I needed it. All my buddy icons (widgets) went blank again today. AAARRRGGG!!!! I have a new 16GB SD card, so I know that is not the problem. I bought the phone from Amazon with a 2 year contract from AT&T, so I can't just take it down to a store. What do I do? I mean the rest of the phone seems to work fine. It makes calls fine, text fine, connects to my wifi fine, takes good pictures and video. The browser it came with stinks, but I guess it does what it is supposed to other then it is a massive resource hog, drains the battery like vacuum cleaner and is slow as molasses in winter even when connected to my high speed wifi. If it were a hardware problem, I think I would be experiencing universal problems. But most of the problems I am having are with the two apps I mentioned in my OP, voice talk and the buddy widgets. Of course these are the two app that I use 90% of the time, so it stands to reason that I would notice problems with them more then the others.

 

[jungleexplorer]

I found this other thread where many people are having the same problem as me with the buddies widget and it appears to be the app is glitchy.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-t/435759-buddy-widgets-home-screen.html

 

[jungleexplorer]

Well, I discovered what is causing the problems with google talk. The app requires a data connection to process the voice input, or in other words, it is cloud dependent. Basically, when you talk into google talk, instead of processing the speech input locally like Dragon Natural Speaking does, it has to upload what you say to the google server and the sever does the translation and sends back the text information back to the phone. While this style of setup this does offer a lot more power, because it is using the advanced google servers to process the speech input, it requires a good high speed stable data connection to work. In a world where good high speed stable data connections only exist in less then 2% of the globe, it is really a bad idea to make any app that is entirely cloud dependent.

The bottom line, is that the reason google talk constantly freezes up for me is that I live 30 miles away from a city and have poor data reception where I live. So when I issue a voice command, it takes a long time to upload that command to the google servers for conversion. And if the the upload gets interrupted because of a bad connection, the app does not know what to do and just keeps trying to upload the data.

So I have phone with powerful dual core 1.2 GHz cpu and 30 gigs of memory that is just wasted because some app designer decided to make the app cloud dependent. What I dumb design!

My question now is; is there an app out there that does the same thing as Google talk that is not cloud dependent?

 

[mvi57]

So I have phone with powerful dual core 1.2 GHz cpu and 30 gigs of memory that is just wasted because some app designer decided to make the app cloud dependent. What I dumb design!

Apple's Siri works the same way...

 

[jungleexplorer]

Apple's Siri works the same way...

I hate Apple anything. I also hate cloud dependent apps. At a time when we have the most capable device ever in history, why would anyone decide to make an app that is externally dependent rather then using the massive on board local resources. I am an individual that treasures independence and freedom, where as it seems that technology is pushing us towards a totally dependent mentality. I hate this. I love my Windows PC for this reason; It is 99% stand alone. I can completely disconnect it from the internet and I can still run 99% of the programs and get work done. I only have to use the internet for research when I use my PC, and only when I want to.

 

[fldude99]

Hate? Pretty strong language to use when talking about a device..especially twice in one post! Take a breath dude

 

[jungleexplorer]

Hate? Pretty strong language to use when talking about a device..especially twice in one post! Take a breath dude

Okay, how about this? I love freedom and "I extremely dislike with a passion from the utter depths of my being" ("hate" is shorter to write though) dictatorial, monopoly style businesses like Apple. Get over your PC sensitivities and join the real world. Is not bad to say you hate something when referring to things like monopolistic style business practices, no different then it would be to say "I hate getting bit by mosquitoes". The word "hate" is not a curse word, it is simply an expression of extreme dislike for something.

But if it is going to hurt your feelings, I will not say hate no more. So from now I will just say, "I extremely dislike with a passion from the utter depths of my being". Is that less offensive to you?

 

[lunatic59]

You know what I hate? I hate having to moderate threads because they get derailed by posturing and hyperbole. So, let's not go there.

I hate this. I love my Windows PC for this reason; It is 99% stand alone. I can completely disconnect it from the internet and I can still run 99% of the programs and get work done. I only have to use the internet for research when I use my PC, and only when I want to.

It's, if you'll pardon the double entendre of the euphemism, apples and oranges. A smartphone is a very limited resource device and a PC for all intents and purposes is unlimited. A PC is designed to contain all the resources necessary to function independently where a smartphone is optimized to provide specific services as efficiently as possible. With the limited memory, smaller processor and low power paradigm, it's not really practical to expect Google voice services to be able to run independently. Perhaps in the future devices will be able to let you choose between internal or distributed processing for these services, but we're not there yet, and given how technology changes, it may never be implemented, whether possible or not.

 

[jungleexplorer]

You know what I hate? I hate having to moderate threads because they get derailed by posturing and hyperbole. So, let's not go there.

Thank you.

It's, if you'll pardon the double entendre of the euphemism, apples and oranges. A smartphone is a very limited resource device and a PC for all intents and purposes is unlimited. A PC is designed to contain all the resources necessary to function independently where a smartphone is optimized to provide specific services as efficiently as possible. With the limited memory, smaller processor and low power paradigm, it's not really practical to expect Google voice services to be able to run independently. Perhaps in the future devices will be able to let you choose between internal or distributed processing for these services, but we're not there yet, and given how technology changes, it may never be implemented, whether possible or not.

While I agree with your last statement that the freedom to choose may (will) never be implemented, I disagree that the reason is because of device limitations. In 1996 I bought a brand new Packard Bell computer from Best Buy. It was top of the line at the time with a speedy 233 MHz Pentium processor, 32 Mb of Sdram, and huge 4 Gb hard drive. Oh, and let's not forget the newly released WINDOWS 95! In 1997 I bought the new Dragon Naturally Speaking software to help me write a book. It ran fine on my system and though the software needed some refinement, with time and training I was able to use it quite effectively. If you compare the power and resources of a Galaxy S 2 to that old Packard Bell system, it would be like comparing a Ferrari with a Geo Metro. So, while by today's standards, a modern Smartphone may be considered a "Limited device", it is certainly more then capable of performing voice to text functions locally.

So cloud dependency is not one of device capability, but it is most certainly one of intentional design. The obvious truth is that the driving force behind smartphone design and could based apps is the "Personal Data Economy". The personal data economy is the largest business in existence today and everybody from commercial businesses to political candidates are ravenously hungry to know as much as possible about you. No company is better at gathering and storing this data then Google, the creator of the Android OS. What I am saying is just an undeniable fact of internet life today. Even what I am saying here on this forum will become a permanent part of my personal data profile. Even if you use made up names to hide your identity, the new "Fingerprinting" technology developed by BlueCava which identifies not you, but your device, so that no matter what name you use online, it will still know who you are because of the devices you use. BlueCava says that it has already identified and created a database of 10 billion internet connected device, and say that it is 99.7% accurate at identifying a person from the device they are using.

So every time you use a cloud dependent app, like google talk, everything you say and even your voice signature is captured and stored in a data base that you have no control over and that is meant to be used to track you and control you. Think I am wrong? Take the following example of as a warning. Greek Olympic athlete, Paraskevi Papachristou, was disqualified from the 2012 Olymipic games for tweeting, "with so many of Africans in Greece, the West Nile virus mosquitoes will at least be eating some homemade food." While some could agree that such a statement could be interpreted as having racial context, it is certainly far from a direct attack. But the issue here is not whether what she said was raciest or not; the issue is that even our own personal thoughts and comments are being monitored by people that have the power to destroy our lives and dreams if the find out something about us that they don't agree with. By doing so, they are trying to express control over our lives and even what we think and say. In a country that was founded upon the principle of freedom and liberty, I am astounded at how complacent Americans have become about the issue of the evasion of privacy that is happening as a result of the aggressive tactics of the personal data economy.

As I said before, I disagree with you that device limitations are behind cloud dependent apps and devices. I think I have clearly articulated that the reason is something quite the contrary and potentially very destructive. And this is why I hate cloud dependent anything.

 

[lunatic59]

While I don't agree with everything you've stated, I will support you in your ability to state it here. However, this is more a topic for discussion in the Politics and Current Affairs - Android Forums forum so if you wish to continue down this path, I can move it there. Otherwise I ask that you stick to the narrowly construed topic of the apps that won't run on your phone.

 

[jungleexplorer]

While I don't agree with everything you've stated, I will support you in your ability to state it here. However, this is more a topic for discussion in the Politics and Current Affairs - Android Forums forum so if you wish to continue down this path, I can move it there. Otherwise I ask that you stick to the narrowly construed topic of the apps that won't run on your phone.

humm... I don't feel that I did anything different then you did; which is to explain why I believe that Google Talk is cloud dependent. Of course I did provide a lot more factual evidence as to why I believe this then you did, but effectively, what I did was no different then what you did. By the way. I would have sent this to you in a PM, but I can't seem to find a way to do that. You can delete it if you want to because it is was intended just for you. If you feel my former comments would be of some benefit on the forum you mention, you have my permission to move them there.