IOS type notifications

[mikedt]

Here's the thing, both S-voice and Google require an Internet connection to work, even if you're just using them to set an alarm or to play some songs. No internet and the things don't work, or have EDGE going to be very slow. Unless I'm using WiFi my cellular data is metered not unlimited, so the more I use it the more it costs. I found "OK, Google..." to be using a lot of data. Think I'd rather put up with a smeary screen than have a higher phone bill.

 

[nickdalzell]

I don't even pay attention to permissions. Many of them cause FUD. Besides, there is always App Ops.

Google's apps are extremely inefficient, drain data (I chewed through an allowance just be leaving Play Music open. Stock Samsung music doesn't do that) and often don't work when you need them to. I've found countless times that Samsung's 'bloatware' not only works better without the usual battery and data draining effects, but often offer features which Google feels are not needed or confuse people. I really don't like Google much right now so I'm a bit biased. My opinion of Android started to drastically change the instant I bought my first Samsung product, which ran TouchWiz. I have more confidence in Samsung than Google

 

[mikedt]

I don't even pay attention to permissions. Many of them cause FUD. Besides, there is always App Ops.

Google's apps are extremely inefficient, drain data (I chewed through an allowance just be leaving Play Music open. Stock Samsung music doesn't do that) and often don't work when you need them to. I've found countless times that Samsung's 'bloatware' not only works better without the usual battery and data draining effects, but often offer features which Google feels are not needed or confuse people. I really don't like Google much right now so I'm a bit biased. My opinion of Android started to drastically change the instant I bought my first Samsung product, which ran TouchWiz. I have more confidence in Samsung than Google

I think the whole Samsung experience has become very polished and quite Apple like, that's their intention. You can do without Google completely if you wanted and just use Samsung's services instead, but then you'd be locked into their ecosystem, which might be a problem if you didn't buy another Samsung, same thing with iOS. In fact that's what happens here, buy a Samsung phone there is no Google, it's just Samsung apps and services on there, apart from Baidu search, and if I wanted to use Google instead, I'd have to void the warranty by rooting it, ...see also iOS jailbreaking. Myself I don't want to be locked into one manufacturer's proprietary ecosystem and ways. AFAIK you want to do anything with a Samsung phone and a PC now, you have to use their Windows only Kies software. I'm sure if Samsung really wanted, they could remove third-party APK sideloading, so no more Amazon or 1Mobile or whatever. In fact that's what's happened with something called Aliyun OS, which is version of Android that is gaining popularity on phones now, including Philips.

Find either a Samsung or an Apple store now, can bet their opposite number is often right next door, or very near. Here we pay almost as much for a Galaxy S5 as we do for an iPhone 5S, just under $950, and the flagship Oppo I did buy recently was about half of that.

 

[nickdalzell]

I use both Samsung and Amazon stores, and only keep Play Movies and Books since there is no such service from Samsung and Amazon has no public domain books. But all my current devices in active use are all Samsung. My Note 3, Note 10.1, Gear 2, Tab 2 10.1 (my first Samsung tablet), Tab 3 7, Tab 4 7, and 32" Samsung Smart TV and Smart Blu Ray player. I've never needed Kies, my Windows 8 Ultra book is shelved, and my current laptop is a Chrome book. Not sure about your gripe with proprietary as ever since Android Market became Google Play the stock vanilla Android apps went from open source to having their development killed off and subsequently replaced with closed source Google bloatware that probably works 10% of the time, and with each update either breaking things or removing features. I still to this day don't understand the blind loyalty to Google and it's infuriating Play Store. Or its failing Nexus brand.

 

[mikedt]

I currently only have one Samsung device, which is a mid-range dual-SIM Galaxy Win i8552 Duos I bought last year, and now kept as a spare, which came with both Google and Samsung services. In fact thinking about it, I've only ever owned three Samsung devices in my whole life, the others were an original Galaxy S with CyanogenMod Gingerbread 2.3, but the screen broke on that, and a CRT TV that my father gave me about 20 years ago....LOL

...trouble is here in the absence of any carrier subsidy along with premium pricing, flagship Samsung devices can be so damn expensive. Just like Apple, or even Gucci and Prada. ...the Note 3 has become yet another status symbol for the more affluent and well heeled, and there's a lot of knock-offs as well.

 

[chanchan05]

Err, Amazon has public domain books. Also, if you have updated Samsung Hub, you will get a link for Kindle for Galaxy, which gives you a free book (that's paid) a month. Kinda like the Free App per Day from the Amazon AppStore.

And well, you can do stuff your Samsung phone without Kies.

 

[mikedt]

Err, Amazon has public domain books. Also, if you have updated Samsung Hub, you will get a link for Kindle for Galaxy, which gives you a free book (that's paid) a month. Kinda like the Free App per Day from the Amazon AppStore.

And well, you can do stuff your Samsung phone without Kies.

A few weeks after I got my Galaxy Win Duos there was a software update, not OTA, and the only way I could see to apply the update was to use Kies on a Windows PC. I've not bothered trying to apply any more updates since then, and the only other thing I've done was to root it using Odin.

My experience of Kies is....come back iTunes all is forgiven.


BTW we've gone completely OT from the OP. So subject closed from me.

 

[nickdalzell]

I took Kindle for Samsung as some web-based knock off with limited support from the Kindle Store. Plus my Note 3 came with the Amazon suite pre-installed so it felt redundant. I found and finished Moby Dick but all searches for others such as Mark Twain came up no results. No results also for Arthur Conan Doyle too. I tried to reinstall Aldiko, which mimics the older iBooks UX but it refuses to download any books, giving an error 500.

 

[chanchan05]

I installed kindle for Samsung on my Note 2, and the usual Kindle app on my Tab. They're identical except for the Samsung Book Deals section on the Samsung version. Plus anything that was acquired for free on my Note appears in my Tab as well.

As for the free books, I've found that the app somehow always points to the paid versions for some reason. If I search on Chrome on my laptop, I find the free ones. I have no paid books on my Kindle, but I got classics like Huck Finn, Frankenstein, Call of the Wild, Tom Sawyer, Pollyanna, etc.

 

[nickdalzell]

The 'official' Kindle app just flat out said 'no results found for Mark Twain' and various others.

oddly enough I tried the Samsung apps version and low and behold it has all the freebies. Thanks for that suggestion.

 

[mikedt]

You want public domain out of copyright books? Try Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org

Haa just about everything, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, H G Wells, etc. All in Kindle, epub, PDF, HTML, etc. No need to have an account and no payment details required.

 

[nickdalzell]

I prefer to read them in Kindle than in badly formatted Adobe Reader format. Kindle app supports volume button for turning pages, while Adobe Reader and Polaris Office require touching (and smudging) the screen.

 

[zipred]

I have searched high and low but cannot find an answer or reason.
I'm currently an iphone 5s user. What I want is to be able to use a pattern/password lock on an android phone (G5 or Htc One ) and have the screen (screen light up) and show who any text is from, who's call I missed, who an email is from, etc. Like my current iphone does. My understanding is if I use a pattern/pin/passwod lock, I will hear the text alert, etc., but will have to "unlock" the phone to actually see who the text, etc. is from. The only other option is to not use a pattern/pin/password. This way I will get onscreen notifications. I need my phone secured and lock. Now many will say then why would you want the screen to display a text, email, etc. if I want it locked. I only want to be able to see who the text, email, etc is from. Nothing else. That way if need be, I can decide whether I want to read it now or later. What I don't want is to have to always unlock my phone to see who texted, etc. Is this not possible with android? Thanks

The flexibility one enjoys in customizing Android is nearly limitless. Yet one must accept the Android OS is different and won't replicate iOS. You may wish to stay with iOS.

 

[nickdalzell]

Certainly there's some means of uncluttering the status bar and getting app badges without simultaneously populating the status bar with redundant icons? That's not a lot to ask..

None of us are attempting to recreate the entire iOS look..besides there are already apps for that, namely Espier Launcher.

The OP and myself just want to preserve the features, look of Android but not have to look at a seriously cluttered status bar.

 

[zipred]

Certainly there's some means of uncluttering the status bar and getting app badges without simultaneously populating the status bar with redundant icons? That's not a lot to ask..

None of us are attempting to recreate the entire iOS look..besides there are already apps for that, namely Espier Launcher.

The OP and myself just want to preserve the features, look of Android but not have to look at a seriously cluttered status bar.

I respect your objectives and believe you can achieve it with patience and perseverance. I've been modding my Android phones quite extensively for years taking advantage of the amazing volume of resources available. It's precisely why Android, not iOS is my mobile OS of choice.

Don't get me wrong, I've used every iPhone from the original up to and including iP5s concurrently with my preferred Android devices. I'm not bashing Apple, I simply find Android much more to my liking and a smartphone that offers the vast range of functionality I require.

 

[nickdalzell]

I agree. It has come a long way and I couldn't go back to Apple if I wanted to (Besides, Samsung does ten times more than Apple and Google Nexus both).

Most of the gripes I used to consider part of the Android experience (random reboots, ANRs, lousy ports of certain apps such as Facebook, no tablet apps, horrid battery life, LAG) are long gone. The one gripe left now is one which infuriated me then and still does now. I really do believe iOS nailed notifications perfectly, with individual app badges as well as a pull down notification shade. The one thing they do better than Android is having a clean status bar where only signal, battery, and clock populate it. Android populates it with ten dozen icons most of them the same icon and it looks extremely cluttered and that's unacceptable. Surely there's a means to get a clean status bar while preserving the notifications in the shade.

The way Android does status bars reminds me of a Windows PC full of malware, with like twenty icons in the system tray.

 

[zipred]

OK, so why not simply make it where notifications show when you swipe down seeing as the only details you get show up that way in the first place? It's simply annoying and messy to have a bar totally filled with cluttered icons alongside vital system info. It's also one of those things you can't even fix with root. There is zero way to get app badges without icons filling the bar up.

Also, I'd love it if Google got immersive mode properly done, as there are times I wish the bar were hidden in certain apps (such as chrome or Google+) because the clutter adds more annoyance always out in front. Implement banner notifications like the new TouchWiz does and no need for the status bar in apps. Nothing is so important that it cannot wait until i back out of an app. The status bar (and navigation bar on certain devices) breaks up the whole design aesthetic

It's not an issue on a large tablet, but on a phone the bar is completely filled, and on Samsung they over scroll, often removing more vital information such as mobile network status to make room, then a little plus icon shows to indicate more notifications which requires swiping down to begin with. The choice needs to exist. The bar is in my view and I'm sure the OP's view cluttered and messy.

Out of sheer coincidence today I was in a meeting with large group of my fellow engineers who also are Android enthusiasts. I asked if anyone had found the notification icons to be annoying. One of the guys said he just cleaned his up. Here's a link to rid yourself of the icons you dislike.


Clean up Your Status Bar by Hiding Icons using Xposed

 

[chanchan05]

You could just use a status bar widget using UCCW and just hide the notification bar.

 

[zipred]

You could just use a status bar widget using UCCW and just hide the notification bar.

Excellent point

 

[nickdalzell]

Would either preserve notifications still? Including the ability to still reveal the shade itself?

Also, is there a Zooper skin instead? UCCW tends to eat battery.

Also, sad thing about widget status bars, they don't hide the real one inside of apps or via the S-View cover display. So there will still be many instances where that cluttered mess shows regardless unless I root and make the system UI where the status bar still provides notifications inside the pull-down but doesn't needlessly populate the bar with icons out the wazoo

The method using Xposed is exactly what I wanted. But it requires root and if I'm not mistaken, as of Kit Kat there is zero means of rooting the Galaxy Note 3 without tripping Knox, especially if you don't want to wipe data by unlocking the boot loader.

I stand corrected. Rooted with Towel Root, installed Xposed, all works but status bar icon hider didn't accomplish jack. Still cluttered all to heck and back. Any other ideas?

 

[mikedt]

You want public domain out of copyright books? Try Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org

Haa just about everything, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, H G Wells, etc. All in Kindle, epub, PDF, HTML, etc. No need to have an account and no payment details required.

Kindle is a waste of time, even for public domain books. Stick with Gutenberg.

Don't travel internationally, might find all your purchased books gone possibly.

 

[nickdalzell]

Update, flashed a custom ROM (Hyper Drive) and got the icons hid plus full S5 TouchWiz too. Finally. A clean status bar!

 

[AnonGuy]

I don't even pay attention to permissions. Many of them cause FUD. Besides, there is always App Ops.

Google's apps are extremely inefficient, drain data (I chewed through an allowance just be leaving Play Music open. Stock Samsung music doesn't do that) and often don't work when you need them to. I've found countless times that Samsung's 'bloatware' not only works better without the usual battery and data draining effects, but often offer features which Google feels are not needed or confuse people. I really don't like Google much right now so I'm a bit biased. My opinion of Android started to drastically change the instant I bought my first Samsung product, which ran TouchWiz. I have more confidence in Samsung than Google

If it weren't for TouchWiz making the Galaxy S work so much like iOS, I doubt I would have touched Android.

It was a huge reason why I got the Vibrant instead of moving to AT&T and getting an iPhone. I always thought that lawsuit was hilarious because that's the only thing that kept me from going iPhone in 2010...

I've tried HTC and Sony Android devices and always returned them because they lacked advanced features or service integration that Samsung phones had, and generally performed worse or inconsistently with their cameras compared to Galaxy flagships.

 

[AnonGuy]

Kindle is a waste of time, even for public domain books. Stick with Gutenberg.
View attachment 74162
Don't travel internationally, might find all your purchased books gone possibly.

You have to worry about that in any media service. Copyright laws and regulations differ by market. Kindle is the most accessible service across form factors, that's why I use it.

Others limit you to a browser window or have worse platform support than Amazon Kindle and their other apps.

 

[nickdalzell]

Anon, you just described exactly how I got off iOS and onto Android despite being off and on Android many times prior but always felt let down, bored with it, or dealt with the issues at the time. That changed after playing with (and months later, buying) a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 in the Best Buy. Then came the Galaxy S3 and S4, then my Note 3, Note 10.1, then a plethora of Samsung products shortly after.

Some say a Samdroid is no better than an iSheep but I disagree. Quite frankly I prefer Samsung's take on Android over Google's boring, unstable, compatibility crap version which is heavily reliant on Google Play which isn't very useful in my location given limited Internet access here.

It's not that TouchWiz copies iOS (the two are world's apart and share no similarity in the UX) it's that iOS 7 was suddenly on both my iPhone 4 and iPad 3 and searching online revealed no way back to iOS 6. I used to revert by jailbreak but even that wouldn't work. Knowing that even if I bought a replacement iPhone would eventually get force upgraded to iOS 7 and meaning I'd have to downgrade to the less perfect iPhone 3GS which didn't support iOS 7, meant something else was needed. Namely, regrettably, Android. At the time Android was cheaper but only if you wanted to live with Gingerbread. Android 2.3 crashed, random rebooted, and sucked battery like a vampire. TouchWiz at least was pleasing to look at, worked very well, didn't do any of the above, didn't lag at all, didn't depend on Google Play, and best yet has a Nature themed UX that combines two of my loves. Nature and technology. It seemed a perfect pairing at the time and still does. Even the flatter TouchWiz looks superior to the My Little Pony looking iOS 7.