My First Couple of Days with the Motorola Z Force Droid

I REALLY wanted to buy a small phone for my next phone, but the Fates conspired against me.  The only option I had was the iPhone SE, and while I LOVE the size and design of the phone (I really love the hard edge and metal buttons and switch), I know I can’t live in an iOS world.  I would go mad.

The only other option on the market is the Sony Z5 compact, which I REALLY wish I could use, but it’s a GSM only phone, and I live in Denver and regularly travel into the mountains, so Verizon (CDMA) is really the only carrier I can use if I expect to have signal when I want it.

Thus, for my next phone I went with one of the LARGEST phones on the market. [frown]

I ended up purchasing the Droid Z Force, mostly because it was $108 (with two year contract and including tax) out the door at Best Buy (and they threw in the JBL speaker mod to boot).  With Verizon, there is a $40 activation fee that appears on your bill when you purchase a new phone… even at the Verizon store!  Evidently the only way to get that fee waived is to purchase and activate online with Verizon, which would have been a lot more expensive (full MSRP and no bonus mods).

Man... when any store tries to convince you that the monthly payment plan is the way to go, CHECK... THEIR... MATH!  Even with the "monthly line discount" they try and bait you with, if you do the monthly payment, you are paying full price for the device over 24 months.  That means you also pay the tax on the MSRP up front!  That alone was going to be $62, then the activation fee, then the full cost of the phone over time (meaning a higher bill every month).  Crazy business.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 was going to be $220 (with 2 year contract) plus activation, so I just went with what was saving me money, not to mention avoiding the awful one-two punch of the way Samsung and Verizon turn a great phone into a piece of crap with their bloatware (and I have been quite pleased with the "clean" environment of the Moto-verse).

As I mentioned, BestBuy was also giving away the JBL speaker mod with the Droid Z Force, and while it's not going to be loud enough for DJ-ing parties and weddings, it's actually a pretty decent little speaker and will be great for working on location and listening to tunes.  It has it's own battery as well, so that's great (I have read that the speaker battery can actually power the phone, so it's like a battery mod as well, but I haven't confirmed that yet –I have confirmed that you can charge the mod through the phone though).

While I definitely hate how big the Droid Z Force is (bigger than my S5 and probably the same size of the Note 5), I have to admit I'm loving the functionality and speed.  The Motorola fingerprint reader is stellar, and I love how you can use it to lock and unlock the phone one handed.  You can also choose to link it to other passwords and apps, which is nice (though I won't be linking it to my banking and purchasing apps).  They warn you that it's not as secure as a pin or pattern, but I assume that's because you can "lift" a print from the reader, so I'm trying to get into the habit of swiping my finger down after it registers, effectively wiping the reader clean of my physical print.

When I powered up the phone to activate it in the store, the battery was at 99%.  We were on our way into the mountains for a wedding, and the device ONLY comes with the turbo charger (no stand-alone USB-C cord to use with a car charger --you have to order that on your own, which is pretty of annoying since you don't have a good way to transfer files to/from a computer until you do that), so I had no way to charge the new phone except for plugging into a wall.  Even with doing all the initial syncing, playing with the phone and figuring out features, downloading all my apps, etc. (all over 3G and 4G/LTE because I had no wifi), the phone was still at 33% the next day's afternoon!  Way more than 24 hours on the factory charge with a substantially higher amount of use is pretty impressive.

Not only that, but I went from 25% to 100% in less than a half hour charge using the included turbo charger.

I have been using Qi wireless charging with my S5, and I actually love it, so I'm pretty disappointed that the Droid Z Force doesn't have wireless charging, especially since pretty much EVERY other "flagship" has it these days.  I guess the turbo charge will have to make up for it.  There is an external battery pack mod that will do wireless charging, but I’m not going to buy an extra mod just for wireless charging.

I do wish the phone was water resistant like my S5 and the S7, and I'm not sure why it isn't.  The Z Force only has three physical buttons, the card slot, and a USB-C port.  It seems like it would have been relatively easy to seal up.  They advertise that it has a water resistant outer covering, but isn’t all plastic and glass water resistant?  I’m not sure what that even means.

The camera is great so far.  There's a "pro" mode that allows me to set ISO (though not aperture and shutter speed), so I'm loving that.  Maybe there's an app that will allow me to access those extra manual features.  Also... the camera is 21MP, so I can actually do some zooming and still have "flagship size" (8-12MP) and quality on the zoomed image.

Hasselblad is coming out with a camera mod for the phone (there was actually a physical spot for it on the Z Force displace at Best Buy, so it must be coming soon).  I'm interested to see what the price will be and how much higher the quality is (it will supposedly do RAW and will have a 10x optical zoom).  It seems weird to have to get a "better" camera mod for a phone that already has a 21MP camera, but we'll see.  Also, I'm not sure what the advantage would be to having a "mod" instead of a stand alone camera that will likely be the same size, but again, I guess I'll see.

I've read that though the screen is "shatterproof," that feature comes at the cost of being pretty scratch prone (the surface layer that keeps it together is soft), so I ordered a couple screen protectors.  I prefer a matte finish on my screen anyway (no glare and a more pleasing tactile feel).

I'm also trying to figure out which case to get.  I can't imagine not using a case on a phone to protect from scratches and dents, but the PITA about the "mods" on these phones is they won't attach if the phone is sporting a case.  Thus, I need to find a case that is easy to take on and off, and that can weather the abuse of constantly taking it on and off, so I'm able to attach mods when I want.  To me, this is the biggest draw back of the phone (other than it’s size).

There is also a "style shell" that is just a faux wood back.  I guess it looks pretty cool, but it really just adds thickness (almost doubles the thickness of the phone), so I'm not sure what the point is, other than looks (which don't matter if you're using a case).  If the "mod" doesn't really offer any protection, it's seems kind of stupid compared to a case that would protect the back, edges, and front (with a raised lip).

Again, I HATE the size of this thing.  It would be awesome if it were the size of my original Droid Incredible. But everything else about the phone seems pretty great so far.  And I really can't get over how much I'm loving the finger print reader to turn the phone on and off "securely."  Not having to enter a pattern all the time is really nice.  It's actually got me locking the phone every time I turn the screen off, vs. setting a longer time out to lock the phone for reasons of convenience (and making the phone less secure).

…

Why the Best Phone for 2016 is My Phone from 2010

The HTC Droid Incredible ADR 6300 (1st gen) has my vote for best phone of all time.

Yes, in today’s world there is an issue with certain things gobbling up the internal memory and a woefully problematic issue with the phone not being able to use the entire capacity of the internal memory for phone features (and only being able to use a TINY portion of said internal memory), but in 6 years I’ve learned to work around that.  For the trade-offs, it’s absolutely worth it.

And yes, the Incredible doesn’t have 4G LTE capability and maxes out at 3G, but I don’t care.  I just want something that fits in my pocket so I can make phone calls, take pictures, listen to music, and occasionally comparison shop by checking a price online while I’m at a store.  Sure it’s only running Android 2.3.4, but who cares?!  I don’t need Marshmallow to do any of the things mentioned above.

My tablet (LG GPad 8.3 VK810) and other devices (two rooted Galaxy S5’s) tethered to the tablet via Bluetooth take care of my higher speed data needs on the rare occasion I need a faster connection via mobile device, and when I’m traveling or on location for photo/video work, I’ve got those with me for the larger screen, faster data connection, updated Android OS, and more processing power.

But the biggest factor in my decision?  SIZE.

Size. Size. Size.

All currently available phones SUCK as far as size goes.  They’re just WAY too big!  They hurt my hand and just barely fit in my pocket.  At 4.5” x 2.25” the Droid Incredible is perfect.  If I need a larger screen for video, I’ve got my tablet.

Replaceable Battery

Before there were all these power banks so readily available now, you needed to actually swap out batteries, and the Incredible was king.  I have three high capacity batteries.  I can fly from Denver to Tokyo, watching videos the whole way, without worrying about running out of juice.  I’m more likely to use a power bank now, but it’s comforting to know I’ve got extra batteries that are VERY easy to swap out if I need them.  Not to mention my bedside charging dock also has a slot to charge an extra battery.

Expandable Storage

It’s true that the Incredible has issues in regard to internal memory, BUT it also supports micro SD cards.  My current Incredible has a 128 GB micro SD card.  And I’ve got extras for traveling with even more movies and music and photo/video storage.  I’ve got THOUSANDS of movies and lossless music files available (without streaming) at any given moment.

The Dedicated (and physical) Optical Cursor Pad

Why did mobile makers end this fantastic feature?!  My Droid has an optical cursor pad that allows you to move your cursor around the screen instead of trying to pin point your cursor location with your big, fat finger on a mobile screen while you YEARN to at least have cursor arrows always available (aggravating on even the largest of current devices).  Not only that, but it functions as a PHYSICAL button for camera, etc., and since it’s optical, it could have also functioned as a fingerprint reader if they’d have taken the next logical step.

Landscape Docking

The Incredible’s USB port is on the side.  That means the charging dock orients your phone in landscape.  It’s perfect for watching video while connected to power and using as a bedside clock.  Why did phones stop doing this?!

Beautiful and Responsive AMOLED Screen

Why are companies putting 4K screens in mobile devices?!  There is a massively diminishing return on pixel density and resolution for mobile devices, especially since the screen is the number one thing that gobbles up battery power.  The size and resolution of the Droid Incredible is a serious sweet spot that shouldn’t be ignored.

Not to mention, I’ve replaced the screen 4 times (I’m hard on phones).  It costs $10 to do so (cheaper than a screen protector on a lot of phones).  It’s an easy swap, and the screen has always been cheap and readily available via Amazon.

Camera

True, the phone only has an 8MP camera, but the results are actually quite good (though this phone was before phones had HDR, so I do really miss that), and I love that the phone is so tiny that people are less likely to notice you shooting like when you’re using one of today’s GIANT phones.  Plus, the Droid Inc. was the first phone to have a decent LED flash (though it still sucked, as do most LED flashes available on new phones), and one that could actually be TURNED ON to use as a flashlight!  There is also no front-facing camera for video calls, but that’s something I actually prefer.  If I want to make a video call, I’ll use my tablet.

 

So the Droid Incredible doesn’t have a SIM card or LTE, only has an 8MP camera, has some internal memory issues (that can be worked around), and is maxed out at Android 2.3.4.  But all these things considered, to me it’s still a better phone than anything offered today.  For a phone from half a decade ago, that’s pretty… Incredible and STILL the Droid that I am looking for (to my credit, I didn’t do either of those things until now).

 

The current contenders that just don’t cut it:

Sony Experia Z5c

The ONLY currently viable available-to-purchase-new phone where the size is right.  The camera is awesome.  It’s got (had) the best processor available (Snapdragon 810 octacore) until the Snapdragon 820 comes out with the new Flagships this week (S7, G5, etc.).  This is the phone I would have if I could, but I’m not willing to pony up $450 for a phone that might work using only LTE on Verizon’s CDMA network (it’s a GSM phone).  Again, this would be THE phone for me, but no US carrier sells it, so you have to buy it unlocked and outright, and the US warranty version has slower data speed than the euro version and no fingerprint reader.  I can buy the euro version via Amazon, but it’s a gamble.  Why does Sony always take it right to the line and then drop it?!

LG G5

The “modular” thing seems to me like a gimmick and defeats the purpose of having everything you need in/on your phone at all times by requiring you to insert modules.  Why not just carry around separate devices for all the things those modules cover?  How is it different? Plus, the phone is gigantic.

LG VK10

The camera is amazing.  The audio processor is amazing.  It’s beautiful.  But the phone is FREAKING gigantic.

Samsung S5, S6, S7

The S5 has been my main phone for a couple years.  The camera is pretty good (I actually shot a 4K video shoot with it… UNDER WATER FOR 8 HOURS!).  The hardware is actually pretty amazing.  However, the way Samsung and Verizon have absolutely crippled the phone is shameful.  Not a day goes by that I don’t scream “I HATE THIS PHONE!” But it’s not the phone’s fault, it’s the software.  I’ve got a second G5 that I rooted, and it’s fantastic.  But again… the phone is huge.

HTC One (M8, M9, M10)

Meh.  The camera in the M8 was supposed to be a game changer, but it’s really not all that (in fact, it’s quite bad).  I do love the stereo front facing speakers and how the phone looks.  And now in 2016 CFO Chialin Chang is promising, “We can confidently say that HTC will have a very, very compelling camera experience,” but I certainly don’t trust that statement, because it’s what they said about the sh*tty camera they put in the M8!  Also, it’s just too big!

OnePlusX

Not for Verizon.  Even on AT&T there were lot’s of problems with the bandwidth not being correct for the US market with earlier phones (1 and 2).  I’m just not willing to take the gamble.  Plus, its too damn big!

Nexus 6

Seems to be a pretty good phone, though I don’t like the “bump out” for the camera lens on the back.  But it’s gigantic.

iPhone

I hate Mac and it has no place in my work flow.  The end.  Well, maybe not the end.  To be fair, Mac has the prettiest hardware.  I actually like the form factor of the iPhone 5s.  And the iPhone 4 is probably my favorite mobile phone form factor of all time (I love the metal edge with the metal buttons and flip switch).  But with my work flow and being a control freak, I just can’t live in the Mac world.  I also hate how they obsolete (yes, I’m using “obsolete” as a verb) their own hardware every 10 seconds.  Seriously?  You can’t realistically run the current iOS (9) on their last gen phone?! Ridiculous.  And the iPhone 6 (and especially 6 plus) is… too big!

…

Droid Incredible Constantly Asks to Update to Build 4.08.605.15

I really miss my Droid Incredible.  What I don’t miss are the “memory full errors” (the phone not being able to use more than a couple of MEGABYTES for system storage), and, once they had released it, the constant “reminder” to update to build 4.08.605.15.

The thing is, I had already done that… a million times.  Very frustrating.

I still use the Droid as my bedside clock since it has a nice horizontal dock, clock and alarm, the monitor for my kid’s room, the remote for the HTPC, weather, e-mail, texting, etc., etc.

But the other day it started showing the “reminder” for the build update constantly.  Every time I clicked “later” or “now,” the reminder would disappear for a few minutes, but then come back. It just wouldn’t go away for more than a couple of minutes.

Oddly enough, the fifth time or so I clicked download and “reboot” I actually got a screen with a progress bar, as if a file was being downloaded (normally the dialog box just goes away when you click the “do it now” option). “HOORAY!” I thought, “Something different is finally going to happen!!!”  No such luck –exact same problem once the phone rebooted.

I really want to keep using the phone for my bedside device, so I finally got frustrated enough to track down an answer.

The obvious answer would be to root the phone, but I didn’t want a solution that involved (especially when I’m basically only using the device as a clock at this point).

 

I should also point out that my phone’s “info” screen showed that I was actually running build 4.08.605.15m but I also read on a few forums that the .15 build was actually more recent than .20.  Sounds counterintuitive obviously, but who knows why Verizon/Android do the things they do.

Another solution people suggested was to factory reset the device, but then you lost all your data.  Probably not the worst thing in the world considering this is no longer my “actual” device, but I was hoping for something less “erase-y,” so I kept looking.

Another thread suggested installing the update from an SD Card.  This involved downloading the update file (from sketchy, non-official locations), then entering the boot screen to install.  “Surely there’s an easier way!” I thought.

Finally someone suggested simply wiping the system cache (which must be done from hboot). It’s easy and it works.  Exactly the solution I was looking for.

1. Pull the battery and put it back in.
2. Hold down volume and power at the same time until a white screen appears (this is hboot).
3. Scroll down with the down volume key and select “recovery” (select with power button).
4. You should see a screen that has a phone with an arrow.
5. From the phone/arrow screen hold volume up and power until a new menu appears.
6. Select “wipe cache” from the choices.
7. From the next list of choices select reboot.
8. Once your phone reboots, you should get the “update now” dialog box again, but this time when you do it, your phone shoot update and reboot as it has supposed to have done for the past TWO YEARS!

Once my phone rebooted, I got a screen that said “congrats… your phone has been updated to 4.08.605.15 710RD” with a big OK button.

But… as I went to click the “ok” I got the dreaded “system update” dialog box that I had been trying to get rid of!  AAAAARGH!

However, when I clicked “install now,” the message told me I would be installing build 4.08.605.19.  Hmmmmm.

So I did that.  My phone went through all the reboot stuff, and now it would SEEM everything is fine.  I guess we’ll see.

For the time being at least, I’m so glad to have my device back.

…

Verizon Messages (app)

I will be the first to say that I HATE bloatware and carrier/manufacturer specific apps.  I rejoiced to the heavens when Android implemented the ability to disable ANY app (even if you can’t actually remove it from your device).

That said, I am thoroughly impressed with Verizon’s Messenger app (bear in mind, my very least favorite piece of bloatware is Verizon Navigator, so I definitely have no special love for Verizon apps).

When searching for a texting app for my tablet, I wanted something that would do a good job of syncing my communication on all my devices.  From my research, nothing even comes close to Verizon Messages.  Unfortunately, if Verizon is not your carrier, you can disregard the rest of this post, because the app is only for Verizon customers.

With all the other messaging apps you have to create an account and enter your phone numbers for all your devices.  Since Verizon already has all of this information, you aren’t sharing anything with yet another party.

Some apps (quite a few actually) merely link your tablet and phone via Bluetooth and/or wifi.  What good is this?  Unless your phone and tablet are ALWAYS in the same vicinity, your messages won’t be synced!

Verizon is already in charge of storing/organizing/disseminating your texts, so it should (should) stand to reason that they have the power to best sync all this information between your devices (which they are also in charge of).

Sure enough… they do!

Once you have installed Verizon Messenger on all your devices, your messages (ingoing, outgoing, SMS, and MMS) are all immediately synced.  The speed at which it happens is great (immediate).  I’m even happy with the way the interface functions/looks.  To a limited degree, you can customize the look (background color, text bubble colors, etc.).  The program also does a great job of organizing media.  For instance, I can open a text thread from any user, and if I want, Verizon Messenger will show me all the pictures sent from that person in a gallery at the bottom of the thread.  Pretty cool.

So, while I normally hate any proprietary apps (almost always bloatware), I would highly recommend Verizon Messenger to anyone on the Verizon network who needs to sync their SMS/MMS between multiple devices.

[UPDATE: 10-28-14] It’s more than a little annoying that even when you have “display message notifications in status bar” ticked in the settings, there is no notification displayed in the status bar when you have messages.  In other words, you get a text, your phone makes a sound, but there is no notification (no LED light, no icon in the header, just a number on the apps icon –so unless you’re looking at the actual app shortcut, you don’t know you’ve got a message).  So far, this is the only real gripe I have with the app.

[UPDATE: 11-04-14] Oddly enough, it seems that the problem with notification listed above happens only on my Samsung S5.  My LG Gpad 8.3 shows notifications from Verizon Messages in the notification bar at the top of the screen just like it’s supposed to, so evidently the problem is specific to my S5 (which also has major problems downloading all my e-mail from Gmail –it only downloads some of the e-mail –post on this issue coming soon).

…

Samsung S5: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Well, impatience got the best of me and I took the leap with a new phone on Friday.

I didn’t jump on the Samsung Galaxy S5 when it was first released, because I wanted to see what kind of problems popped up (sure enough, some people’s cameras weren’t working, etc.), and I also figured the price would drop after a little while.

Amazon has been offering the phone for $99 from the get-go, and sure enough, Verizon just started letting it go online for $99 (with an automatic manufacturer’s rebate) and for $149 with a $50 mail-in rebate if you purchase it in-store.  Since I wanted mine immediately, I went with the in store purchase.  Hopefully my rebate doesn’t get “lost in the mail.”  I think mail-in rebates are shady.

As an added bonus, I didn’t realize there was a promotion going on that netted me a free LG G Pad 8.3 with a free-for-life additional 1GB/month of data with the “update” of my plan.  I was grandfathered in on an unlimited data plan, but truth be told, the only good it was doing me was “bragging rights.”  Not to mention, I’m sure the time is not far off when Verizon will simply say: eff all y’all and end all unlimited plans anyway.

So, I’ll be receiving a new tablet at the end of the month when they’re back in stock.  I asked the salesperson (who was surprisingly knowledgeable and tech savvy –I even heard him make suggestions to a couple of customers, to their benefit, that I’m sure Verizon would have frowned upon) several times if I got the free extra GB/month regardless of whether or not I added an extra line to my plan for the tablet (an extra $10 a month), and he assured me the data became part of my plan regardless of whether or not the tablet was activated.  There was a $35 “upgrade fee” for the device, but he told me I don’t have to pay the $10/month, so basically it was a one time fee of $35 to get the extra GB/month for life (plus a free tablet).  So I plan on using the tablet wifi only and just enjoying the extra GB/month (which had better be there, because it was a big part of my decision making regarding which plan we’d go with: the 3GB my wife and I share for data is a bit precarious, where 4GB seems “safe”).

So after two days with my S5, here are some of my thoughts…

YouTube freeze/hang.

This one is a big deal.  I can’t watch a YouTube video (via the app, or inline on a webpage) without it hanging around 30 seconds in.  The audio continues to play, but the video hangs (still frame, not black).  I can move the timeline position cursor and the video will start to play again, but after another 30 seconds it will freeze back up.  I can’t find anyone else experiencing this.  I’m hoping a factory reset will take care of the issue, but I haven’t gotten around to trying it yet.  If that doesn’t work, I will HAVE to return this phone.  Hopefully it’s just this particular unit (and I can just swap for another S5), because obviously you CAN’T have a phone that doesn’t play YouTube video these days.  The only thing I’ve read that might make sense as to a reason why is that Android stopped licensing Adobe Flash and YouTube still uses Flash for video.

UPDATE: Don’t know what was causing the YouTube problem, but it disappeared about a week later.  Perhaps a YouTube issue?

Camera Lag, Problems in Lower Light, Photo Review Function

Camera lag is insane when “picture stabilization” is on.  Thankfully I realized this was just a result of using the stabilizer, because I was getting REALLY annoyed every time I tried to take a photo and it took literally 2 seconds or more before the picture would snap.  Once the Image Stabilizer is disabled, the camera really does achieve the advertised “almost immediate” (.3 seconds) shutter speed.

The camera is almost as great as they said it would be.  I’ve seen a lot of reviews complaining about less-than-bright-light situations, and I ignored them until I actually started using the camera and found out they were right.  Shooting in-doors leaves the camera struggling to focus, and most photos, even with sunlight streaming from a window, aren’t as crisp as they should be.  Ticking “Photo Stabilization” will have the camera automatically use the feature if the camera senses there is not enough light, but this means you will need to wait AT LEAST 2 seconds for the camera to figure out what is going on and actually snap the shot (which is absolutely not feasible unless you’re shooting ONLY still life or turtles).

Surprisingly the thing I hate most is the “review” feature.  Reviewing a photo is off by default, and when you turn it on, it’s pretty annoying.  You cannot set a photo review time limit like you can with ALL OTHER CAMERAS.  For instance, normally when you take a photo (on EVERY other device), you are presented with the recently snapped photo for two seconds, and then your camera/phone goes back to the live view.  With this phone, if you set “review” to on, once you snap a photo and are presented with the photo, you actually HAVE to click the back button to get back to the camera.  Pretty stupid.

The burst mode is amazing (and is considerably faster than the iPhone’s burst mode).  I guess it makes sense, since this thing can also shoot 30fps 4K video (holla!).

The Fingerprint Reader

The fingerprint reader is great.  I know it’s horrible practice, but previously I’ve only locked my phone while I’m traveling.  With the fingerprint reader, it’s convenient to have it locked all the time.  I’ve heard a lot of people bitch about it only working on the third or fourth try, and even if that were true, I think that would still be more convenient than entering a password, perhaps still more convenient than inputting a pattern.  However, I think the problem lies within the way people scan in their fingerprint when setting it up.  Think about how you’ll be holding the phone.  Each time you scan your fingerprint, hold the phone a different way, and/or hold your finger a different way.  This way the phone will be memorizing all kinds of options for that particular fingerprint.  It’s pretty rare that I have to swipe my finger (I actually use my thumb –and sideways) more than twice.

I realize “hackers have cracked it!!!” but it takes a good deal of effort, and it’s better than nothing at all (which is what I had been doing previously).

Form Factor

I hate the size of this phone.  Which is to say I hate the size of ALL “flagship” phones these days (other than the iPhone, which is the most perfect form factor, including materials, ever built, but I definitely don’t want an iPhone).  I still have my Droid Incredible as a bedside clock, e-mail checker, and baby monitor (set up with a Foscam), and every time I set my S5 down and pick up that Droid, I long for better days gone by.

While the phone is ridiculously large, it is pretty amazingly thin and light, so that’s cool.

I’m also not wild about the bezel (the silver triple-band around the edge); it’s not a big deal to me though, as I knew I would be ordering a case immediately.  So the “look” of my phone will be solely based on the case, not how it arrived from the factory.

Bloatware

Something that I love Android for… you can kill the bloatware!  You can’t actually remove bundled apps from your device, but you can disable any app including the ones you are forced by Verizon to endure.  This means I can turn off VZNavigator and never have my phone ask me about it again!  YAY! Just go to “manage apps,” click the “all” tab, press the app you hate, and click “turn off.”  Excellent.  All “turned off” apps will be available in a new tab called, you guessed it, “turned off.”  I also just realized that you can long-press an app’s icon from within the main “apps” application, and if the app is a bundled (non-removable) app, you can drag the icon to “disable” from there.

My Magazine

Speaking of bloatware… long press any blank spot on one of your home screens.  Select “Home Screen Settings.”  Untick “My Magazine.”  Your welcome.  By the way, while you’re there, either select “none” for “transition effect” (especially if you’re experiencing UI lag) or switch to 3D rotation, which looks much cooler than “stack.”

Sync Photos with Gallery

Google used to be great when Picasa was their only photo solution.  Then they started pushing Google+, and it SUCKS in regard to photos.  I still use Picasa, but it’s hard to keep Google from screwing things up (they try REALLY hard to force you into Google+ for photos, and it’s left a lot of users who’ve lost years of photos in the process REALLY mad).  HANDS OFF MY STUFF, GOOGLE! To make sure your gallery isn’t doing things you don’t want, go to “Settings” and select “Accounts.”  Click on “Google” and then click on your name/e-mail address.  From here you can select what things will actually be syncing from Google to your Phone.  Calendar? Contacts? Yes. Google+ Photos? Picasa Web albums? NO.

Deselect Syncing Gmail

From the above instructions, I also DEFINITELY de-select syncing of Gmail.  I want to see my e-mail on my phone, but I don’t want it deleted forever if I delete from my phone.  I like to be able to read an e-mail and delete it, but know it will still be in my inbox when I check again on my computer.  I can’t seem to find a way to have Gmail automatically download on my device without selecting “sync” though.  This is very annoying, as I am only able to manually check e-mail from the S5.  Perhaps the answer lies in using the Samsung Mail app (linked to Gmail) instead of using the dedicated Gmail App.  This might make a few other things work better anyway (the device often wants to use just “mail” instead of Gmail to do things). [update: I am now using Samsung’s “e-mail” instead of Gmail from my device]

Lag/UI

I am a little disappointed by the lag I am experiencing.  It’s not so much with the UI, but most often in app (and mostly in Chrome). I heard others mention this, but when I tested the phone out in the store, I didn’t experience anything that bothered me.  But as I really start to use the phone in “real life,” sure enough, there are some pretty significant lag issues every once in a while.  How can this be the case?  This phone has the most powerful, fastest processor currently on the market.  Samsung, you are REALLY screwing things up by not harnessing the full potential of this phone’s processor (or by bogging it down with useless nonsense).  If it continues to be bad, I will likely return the phone and go with the older Moto X, which my wife has and seems smooth as butter (even with a much slower processor).  Some suggestions I’ve found include cutting the animation times in half or removing them altogether, and loading a different UI (though that seems counterintuitive).

The one thing I’ve definitely done, as suggested here (http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/galaxy-s5-problems):

You can go further in Settings > About device by tapping the Build number seven times to turn Developer mode on. Now go to Settings > Developer options > Windows animation scale and set it to Animation is off. You can do the same thing in Settings > Developer options > Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale.

 

Hopefully I don’t regret not waiting for the LG G3 when it’s announced on May 27.  I have a feeling the S5 camera and fingerprint reader will remain good reasons to have chose the S5, but I guess we’ll see!

UPDATE: I don’t regret not waiting.  The Samsung S5 is clearly superior for my usage needs, and the more I use it the more I love it.  I have even did a 4K Film Shoot UNDERWATER (down to 13ft.)!!!  The camera is amazing.  It’s not great for “fine art” (the in-camera processing shows over-sharpening glitches/pixel issues when blown way up), but for a camera that’s always with me (and able to do HDR), it’s pretty fantastic.  The one thing I still can’t get over is the size, and any time I’m using the GS5 and then pick up my old Droid (still using it for a bedside device) it feels like I’m picking up a matchbook.

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Biding Time Waiting for a Phone

Believe it or not, I’m still using a Droid Incredible purchased the day they came out.  I'm on my fifth cracked screen and third speaker (all replaced DIY via eBay or Amazon), and the back cover is just about to fall off (so many little pieces have broken off that it can barely cling to the phone body on it's own).  I’m thinking about using some duct tape.  The Millennium Falcon only looked cooler with all that blaster carbonizing, right?  Same deal.

If it weren’t for the fact that a lot of new apps won’t run on anything that doesn’t have Kit Kat, I’d probably just keep the Droid Inc.  The form factor/size is just SO much better than all the giant “dinner-plates-posing-as-phones” that have come to rule the market.

But since I can’t hold back the tides of change, I have conceded to the fact that I will need to purchase a huge phone.

At least manufacturers are starting to swing back on their decisions regarding replaceable batteries and SD cards (my main reasons for not upgrading before now).

I've got a Samsung S5 in my Amazon cart.  It's been there for weeks.  The only reason I haven't completed my purchase is because until yesterday it was out of stock and Amazon was claiming "*should* ship within 2 to 3 weeks."  Their fulfillment claims are not good enough for me.  I've been burned too many times before, waiting weeks beyond when they’ve said things “should” ship.

But Amazon is selling for $99, as opposed to $200 everywhere else, so that's where I would (will?) be buying from.

The whispers of the new LG flagship started a couple weeks ago (soon after I put the S5 in my cart).

Supposedly it will release on May 27 (with it's own wearable, at an additional cost, but cheaper than Samsung's).

Not much is known about the LG G3 yet.  Probably an octacore processor.  Maybe a 16MP camera, but most likely a 13MP.  The G3 will almost certainly have greater pixel density than the S5, but after using the S5, I can hardly believe that it will matter (the Samsung’s screen is stellar).

The S5 is hampered by Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, but the camera on the Samsung is just SO kick-ass (not to mention the S5 shoots 4K 30fps video, which I will actually use).  And even though the Samsung’s fingerprint reader has it's issues, it's still a great feature.

So now I wait for the G3 specs to surface.  At the very least, I'm hoping the S5 price will drop when the G3 rears its head and I can purchase from somewhere I can walk out with a phone (vs. waiting for it to ship and then going through the hassle of activating with Verizon over the phone).

Until then, I slice my fingers on Gorilla glass and wait.

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