Help New user Strato questions

[bsatchmo]

Hey all, new Android user here. Recently switched after my Blackberry tour finally died on me, was forced to upgrade so I figured now was as good a time as any to finally hop on the Droid train!

I have a few technical and nitpicky questions that I just can't seem to find the answers for, hopefully someone with more experience with androids will be able to set the record straight.

First off, I can clearly see two indicator/light sensors next to my front facing camera, yet I can't find an option or an app that will let me activate them to blink when I have an email or a text. Is it possible to get them working? Or are they both just light sensors and I'm out of luck on this one?

Second is all these garbage programs installed on the device, I have an xbox and a pc for my games and don't need need for speed or a golf game clogging up my phones memory. However no matter how many times I "delete" them they always show back up after a reboot, is there any way to get into the system files to directly remove those games and the other junk programs?

Thanks in advance for any help with these issues!

 

[houseofgrafx]

Hey all, new Android user here. Recently switched after my Blackberry tour finally died on me, was forced to upgrade so I figured now was as good a time as any to finally hop on the Droid train!

I have a few technical and nitpicky questions that I just can't seem to find the answers for, hopefully someone with more experience with androids will be able to set the record straight.

First off, I can clearly see two indicator/light sensors next to my front facing camera, yet I can't find an option or an app that will let me activate them to blink when I have an email or a text. Is it possible to get them working? Or are they both just light sensors and I'm out of luck on this one?

Second is all these garbage programs installed on the device, I have an xbox and a pc for my games and don't need need for speed or a golf game clogging up my phones memory. However no matter how many times I "delete" them they always show back up after a reboot, is there any way to get into the system files to directly remove those games and the other junk programs?

Thanks in advance for any help with these issues!

Welcome to the Android world (and the forums of course)

I don't have the Stratosphere however i'm interested in getting one so I've been doing some research. As far as the bloatware that is preloaded on the phone, I think the only way to rid your phone of it is to root. Other than that there is no deleting those apps.

As far as the LED goes, this too I'd like to know about. I've read that none of the current Samsung phones (Stratosphere, Charge, Fascinate etc) have the notification LED...however, today when I called Verizon to ask a few questions about the phone, the sales rep said it did. She googled it to give me the answer but I'm not sure the answer she gave me is correct. So, with that being said, I'd like to know if it does or doesn't as well.

Let me know how you like the phone so far. Not sure if I should purchase or wait for something better

 

[bsatchmo]

I'm sure there are better ones on the horizon (aren't there always? ) but as a middle of the road phone this one is really enjoyable. Seeing as you have the Charge already I'd say wait for something different to roll out, the specs are very similar and the screen is even a touch smaller on the strato.

 

[p_025]

Those aren't light sensors on the back, that's the camera flash. The camera itself is enough of a light sensor.

As to removing the crapware, yes, root your phone and delete/rename the files. They will be APK files, probably located in /system/app. It's ridiculous the amount of bullshit that comes on these phones, it's almost as if they expect us to root them so they don't have to deal with honoring warranties.

 

[KnightCrusader]

Those aren't light sensors on the back, that's the camera flash. The camera itself is enough of a light sensor.

Actually, he was talking about the front facing camera, and yes, those are proximity/light sensors next to the FFC.

As to removing the crapware, yes, root your phone and delete/rename the files.

If you want to root your phone, my guide and kernel to do so is here:

[KERNEL] [GUIDE] Root Your Stratosphere! - RootzWiki

And it will void your warranty (and they can tell now, the bootloader has a flag set.) The unremovable crapware should be in /system/app.

It's ridiculous the amount of bullshit that comes on these phones, it's almost as if they expect us to root them so they don't have to deal with honoring warranties.

Ha, never thought of it from that angle before. lol

 

[mmanna]

In skimming through the responses, it looks like no one directly answered your concern about the blinking indicator light. Please forgive me if I overlooked it. Unfortunately, the Stratosphere does not have a blinking LED. What you see next to the front-facing camera is a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. Neither of these is a light or an LED, therefore there is no blinking light on this phone. See page 17 of the manual at http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...72818052/VZW_SCH-I405_English_User_Manual.pdf It's sad, as I really miss it too.

I did find an app that someone else suggested to me on a previous thread below called NoLed that might be worth trying. I still can't say I love it, and I'm not sure if I will keep it or not, but you may want to try it. It will create a few different colored dots on your screen and move them around like a screensaver. You can change what the different colors mean so you'll know by glancing at it if you have a new email, new SMS, etc. I've only been able to make it work when plugged in, but I guess this makes sense as it would drain the battery too fast to have the screen on constantly like this.

 

[jansh]

I had a Fascinate and it worked great. Now I have the Stratosphere and can't open attachments with Documents to Go Full, PDf to Go, QuickOffice or Significant. Can anyone suggest a change to make that will allow these attachments to open? I get an error message that says PDF is damaged, but they can't all be damaged. Thanks!

 

[T-Keith]

For those who want the led, there is noled in the market. It uses a few pixels from your amoled screen. There may be other apps as well.