Well, hello. I'm the proud new owner of a G'zOne, and I LOVE this thing! Seriously, I'm thinking of having it surgically attached.
This is my first smartphone, as I was waiting for something like this to come to market, all the other smartphones on the market seemed a little too, well, fragile for me. I'm an Auto Technician for a living, and own and operate my own repair shop. I'm also pretty clumsy, and get the "drop-sees" a lot. Plus my phones tend to get covered in every fluid and type of detritus an automobile has to offer. All of these conspire to make me a cell-phone serial murderer. No kidding, I've managed to kill a half-dozen flip phones in the last three years. And EVERYONE I know (all of the guys, anyway) that have a smartphone (either Iphone or android) are looking at their phone through a shattered screen. So, when I saw the ads for the Commando (the ones they ran during the X-games) It piqued my interest, but I put it out of my mind as "yeah right, it still wouldn't live with me owning it". But then I saw one in person, got to handle it, and realized it's the most solid-feeling phone I've held since my old Motorola "black brick" back in 2000. Then i HAD to have one.
So, when our "new every two" (as you guys say) was up, and the batteries in both me and the wife's phone puffed up like balloons and refused to take a charge (my Samsung Hue II actually started smoking while I was transferring my contacts from it to my Commando) we decided it was time to step into the 21st century. So, I bit the bullet and got the Commando, while my wife got an HTC Rhyme, and my dad, (who lives with me and the wife, and is on our family plan) got an HTC Thunderbolt.
And like I said, I LOVE IT! It's already proved it's toughness. I've had it two weeks and it's slipped out of my shirt pocket four times, and I've dropped it twice while trying to answer a call with oil on my hands. All Directly onto concrete. Not a scratch, other than a few tiny dings on the silver part (I can live with that.) And just today I dropped it into a catch-pan full of antifreeze. It didn't care. I killed two LG's and a motorola that way.
Here's my impressions so far:
Pros:
The touch-screen works just fine when visibly smeared with grease and oil.
Looks cooler than any other smartphone I've seen.
It's definitely waterproof. (though I will try and retain it's water-tightness as described here)
The speakers on this thing are great for a phone.
So far it's done everything I have tried to do with it. (except transferring files between phones via bluetooth, but I get into that later)
Cell signal is good. Better than some flip phones I've had. I live in a crappy cell area, and this does pretty well in an area where NO cell phone works worth a dang.
Cons:
The touchscreen, even when clean, is not as sensitive as my wife's HTC. (which to my gorilla sausage fingers, seems a little TOO sensitive) Not enough to be a problem really, but at the edges of the screen sometimes it won't register a touch the first time.
The bluetooth simply does not work.
It will randomly re-boot at least once a day.
Not the fastest phone on the planet (but I knew that when I ordered it)
The battery life SUCKS. I'm charging it twice a day, at a minimum. I worry about the o-ring seal on the charge cover.
Bloatware. (See? I've been reading before I posted the first time!)
Now on to my questions.
As I've said, the bluetooth simply does not work. I got it to connect to my old Samsung Hue II to get some pictures off it, but other than that, attempts to connect it to other devices has been futile. My laptop, the wife's and dad's HTC's, even my bluetooth earpiece (which is a few years old now) all just refuse to connect at all. I've read in other places about people having bluetooth issues, but never any answers on fixing them. Any ideas?
Is there any way to transfer music/pictures between phones? My wife and I can't find any way besides sending through text, and that will only work for pictures, and uses up data when not either at home or at the shop, as we're on Wi-Fi there.
Data use: Even with the 3G turned off, and running Wi-Fi only, the little "My Verizon Data" widget tells me I'm using about ten to twenty MB of Data a day. One night, it shot up over 100mb, while I was sleeping. WTF?
My GPS doesn't work. Period. This thing simply cannot find where it is. I've tried Google GPS, Verizon GPS, they all say "no GPS signal". Now, I LIVE in a dead zone, I live in a VERY small rural town in Nebraska, (about 130 people) and this thing ain't gonna find but the one tower that's about ten miles away from here, the next closest one is twenty miles. Does it need to get a signal from more than one tower for the GPS to work?
If I "root" the phone to get rid of the bloatware and try to improve the battery life, is there any way to restore it back to factory?
Web browsers: The stock one sucks, Firefox for mobile sucks, what do you guys use?
The charge cradle you guys talk about, where did you get it? Did your phones come with it? Mine didn't. I asked at my local Verizon store (local is 30 miles away, lol!) and they looked at me like I was from Mars.
And what are the truly "essential" apps that you guys would install right away? I have Avast! for android and Super Task Killer, but that's about it, other than a bunch of games.
Thanks for your time, guys.
BTW, watching my 67-year-old dad try to do ANYTHING on his Thunderbolt is HILARIOUS!
This is my first smartphone, as I was waiting for something like this to come to market, all the other smartphones on the market seemed a little too, well, fragile for me. I'm an Auto Technician for a living, and own and operate my own repair shop. I'm also pretty clumsy, and get the "drop-sees" a lot. Plus my phones tend to get covered in every fluid and type of detritus an automobile has to offer. All of these conspire to make me a cell-phone serial murderer. No kidding, I've managed to kill a half-dozen flip phones in the last three years. And EVERYONE I know (all of the guys, anyway) that have a smartphone (either Iphone or android) are looking at their phone through a shattered screen. So, when I saw the ads for the Commando (the ones they ran during the X-games) It piqued my interest, but I put it out of my mind as "yeah right, it still wouldn't live with me owning it". But then I saw one in person, got to handle it, and realized it's the most solid-feeling phone I've held since my old Motorola "black brick" back in 2000. Then i HAD to have one.
So, when our "new every two" (as you guys say) was up, and the batteries in both me and the wife's phone puffed up like balloons and refused to take a charge (my Samsung Hue II actually started smoking while I was transferring my contacts from it to my Commando) we decided it was time to step into the 21st century. So, I bit the bullet and got the Commando, while my wife got an HTC Rhyme, and my dad, (who lives with me and the wife, and is on our family plan) got an HTC Thunderbolt.
And like I said, I LOVE IT! It's already proved it's toughness. I've had it two weeks and it's slipped out of my shirt pocket four times, and I've dropped it twice while trying to answer a call with oil on my hands. All Directly onto concrete. Not a scratch, other than a few tiny dings on the silver part (I can live with that.) And just today I dropped it into a catch-pan full of antifreeze. It didn't care. I killed two LG's and a motorola that way.
Here's my impressions so far:
Pros:
The touch-screen works just fine when visibly smeared with grease and oil.
Looks cooler than any other smartphone I've seen.
It's definitely waterproof. (though I will try and retain it's water-tightness as described here)
The speakers on this thing are great for a phone.
So far it's done everything I have tried to do with it. (except transferring files between phones via bluetooth, but I get into that later)
Cell signal is good. Better than some flip phones I've had. I live in a crappy cell area, and this does pretty well in an area where NO cell phone works worth a dang.
Cons:
The touchscreen, even when clean, is not as sensitive as my wife's HTC. (which to my gorilla sausage fingers, seems a little TOO sensitive) Not enough to be a problem really, but at the edges of the screen sometimes it won't register a touch the first time.
The bluetooth simply does not work.
It will randomly re-boot at least once a day.
Not the fastest phone on the planet (but I knew that when I ordered it)
The battery life SUCKS. I'm charging it twice a day, at a minimum. I worry about the o-ring seal on the charge cover.
Bloatware. (See? I've been reading before I posted the first time!)
Now on to my questions.
As I've said, the bluetooth simply does not work. I got it to connect to my old Samsung Hue II to get some pictures off it, but other than that, attempts to connect it to other devices has been futile. My laptop, the wife's and dad's HTC's, even my bluetooth earpiece (which is a few years old now) all just refuse to connect at all. I've read in other places about people having bluetooth issues, but never any answers on fixing them. Any ideas?
Is there any way to transfer music/pictures between phones? My wife and I can't find any way besides sending through text, and that will only work for pictures, and uses up data when not either at home or at the shop, as we're on Wi-Fi there.
Data use: Even with the 3G turned off, and running Wi-Fi only, the little "My Verizon Data" widget tells me I'm using about ten to twenty MB of Data a day. One night, it shot up over 100mb, while I was sleeping. WTF?
My GPS doesn't work. Period. This thing simply cannot find where it is. I've tried Google GPS, Verizon GPS, they all say "no GPS signal". Now, I LIVE in a dead zone, I live in a VERY small rural town in Nebraska, (about 130 people) and this thing ain't gonna find but the one tower that's about ten miles away from here, the next closest one is twenty miles. Does it need to get a signal from more than one tower for the GPS to work?
If I "root" the phone to get rid of the bloatware and try to improve the battery life, is there any way to restore it back to factory?
Web browsers: The stock one sucks, Firefox for mobile sucks, what do you guys use?
The charge cradle you guys talk about, where did you get it? Did your phones come with it? Mine didn't. I asked at my local Verizon store (local is 30 miles away, lol!) and they looked at me like I was from Mars.
And what are the truly "essential" apps that you guys would install right away? I have Avast! for android and Super Task Killer, but that's about it, other than a bunch of games.
Thanks for your time, guys.
BTW, watching my 67-year-old dad try to do ANYTHING on his Thunderbolt is HILARIOUS!