Just got an Optimus One

[Shayd]

I just got an Optimus one and speaking as someone who came from Symbian, this thing is bloody amazing.

I know the phone probably won't compare with a Desire or Galaxy S but for the price(R2800) it is bloody good!.

I am messing around with it now, if there are any questions please feel free to ask me.

/back to angry birds/

[Jan]

I must agree that the LG Optimus One is a lot of phone for comparatively little dosh. It doesn't have the greatest camera and lacks a few high-end features/specs that you get on the Desire and Galaxy S, but for the most part it's a great little device.

I'm not sure that the review unit I was given was the full release version. Can you say whether the default email application fails to open certain emails? A good place to check is mails with attachments. On some occasions I had to go back to the inbox and tap on the mail again for it to display.

Can you confirm what you received in the box (I was told charger, USB cable, headphones, and 2GB microSD card)?

The recommended retail price released by LG was R2499... Where'd you get your phone?

[Shayd]

I mostly use my gmail account for mail/contacts/calendars as they are nice and easy to sync. I was up and running in less than 5 minutes. I haven't noticed any mails not opening correctly and i have tested it by opening 2 pdf's so maybe the problem's fixed?

The box contents was just as you mentioned, swapped out the 2GB for an 8GB...

Installed Task killer and a couple of other apps. I am amazed how much better Android is to Symbian. It's way easier to setup and use. Frankly it is simple to customize and starts off pretty basic then you just add what you want on top. Very Impressed.

Got the Phone at a Vodashop. Getting one has been a nightmare, looking online it seems LG is having problems pumping them out fast enough to satisfy demand.

[Grhardt]

What exactly do you find easier to use? Which symbian did you have and when? Symbian from 2002 is not the same as the one of today :D My dad has the Samsung GallaxyS while I have the N8. Multitasking on any Android flavour is a pain. They basically use java applets where as symbian uses 'real' multitasking. My dad too has to use a apps killer otherwise the stupid java apps block the whole thing. Oh and the camera in the latest symbian device is very nice. Pic quality is basically the same as any dedicated point and shoot. And finally - there must be a reason why symbian is the second most used OS after windows.

[Shayd]

Used S60 on a 5800XM, the phone is comparable in price range to the Optimus one. Symbian has been around for like 10 years where android has existed for what a year? Your straw man argument is terrible.

My fiance got the 5800XM as well and it took her a long time to get comfortable with it, she picked up my phone and used it like a champ in 10 minutes.

On a different note, there is a surprising amount of good apps on the Android market, the WIFI Analyzer is bloody useful to ensure you use the right channel and don't setup a PC in dead spots. All in all I am still very impressed.

[Jan]

I mostly use my gmail account for mail/contacts/calendars as they are nice and easy to sync. I was up and running in less than 5 minutes. I haven't noticed any mails not opening correctly and i have tested it by opening 2 pdf's so maybe the problem's fixed?

The Gmail app was fine when I tested the phone. It's the other "normal" mail client that gave problems. Have you set up a POP mail account on the device?

[HapticSimian]

1. Grhardt is a troll. Don't mind the attention-seeking German.
2. Uninstall the task killer now - Android manages its own processes effectively; using a task killer is likely hampering your phone and definitely not helping it.

[rorz0r]

What exactly do you find easier to use? Which symbian did you have and when? Symbian from 2002 is not the same as the one of today :D My dad has the Samsung GallaxyS while I have the N8. Multitasking on any Android flavour is a pain. They basically use java applets where as symbian uses 'real' multitasking. My dad too has to use a apps killer otherwise the stupid java apps block the whole thing. Oh and the camera in the latest symbian device is very nice. Pic quality is basically the same as any dedicated point and shoot. And finally - there must be a reason why symbian is the second most used OS after windows.

lol, just lol...

[Grhardt]

1. Grhardt is a troll. Don't mind the attention-seeking German.
2. Uninstall the task killer now - Android manages its own processes effectively; using a task killer is likely hampering your phone and definitely not helping it.

Now did you really have to insult me? I am aware of your somewhat 'different' way of reasoning (from previous 'encounters'). I am also pretty much aware of your 'ethnic' group. Yet never and in none of my posts, have I acted the way you just did. Makes one think, doesn't it? My intention was not to offend but to learn! I apologise if my post did indeed offend you. If you should have PMed me, I should have deleted it in a flash. I too am thinking to switch to the Android Os, just like the OP did. I am looking for reasons to do it though. I am a bit unsure at the moment. Needless to say, the answer you posted does not help me much :( Let's leave it there.

[news24]

Android vs Symbian?

Android wins handsdown. I was using Omnia(Windows Mobile 6.1) then I got Nokia e63(Symbian) then I upgraded to Samsung Galaxy S(Android). Symbian is horrible to use, it was like it required some sort of a certificate to use. Thy installing apps from Ovi store, all the apps are model specific, seriously WTF?

[Timken]

What exactly do you find easier to use? Which symbian did you have and when? Symbian from 2002 is not the same as the one of today :D My dad has the Samsung GallaxyS while I have the N8. Multitasking on any Android flavour is a pain. They basically use java applets where as symbian uses 'real' multitasking. My dad too has to use a apps killer otherwise the stupid java apps block the whole thing. Oh and the camera in the latest symbian device is very nice. Pic quality is basically the same as any dedicated point and shoot. And finally - there must be a reason why symbian is the second most used OS after windows.

Grhardt, google the end of Symbian.

With Sony Ericsson and Nokia recently announcing that they will no longer support Symbian, it will quickly fade itno last place. They are trying as much as they can to save the system by making it open source, but it is too little and too late...

[Romito]

from here on it's meego, android, ios4 and wm7. May the best os win.

[Ockie]

from here on it's meego, android, ios4 and wm7. May the best os win.

How dare you leave out BB OS6??????? *klaps Romito!* :p

[HapticSimian]

Now did you really have to insult me?
That's not an insult; merely a factual statement. You troll. It's your thing. You opine, feigning familiarity, about anything and everything without knowing what you're talking about. All in the interest of eliciting a reaction.

I am aware of your somewhat 'different' way of reasoning (from previous 'encounters').
You mean that I do reason & you don't. Yes, I'm also acutely aware of it.

I am also pretty much aware of your 'ethnic' group.
Are you now? What, pray tell, is my 'ethnic' group & what does that have to do with cellphone OSs?

Yet never and in none of my posts, have I acted the way you just did. Makes one think, doesn't it?
Dunno. Did it make you think? That'd be novel.

My intention was not to offend but to learn! I apologise if my post did indeed offend you. If you should have PMed me, I should have deleted it in a flash. I too am thinking to switch to the Android Os, just like the OP did. I am looking for reasons to do it though. I am a bit unsure at the moment. Needless to say, the answer you posted does not help me much :( Let's leave it there.
One learns by asking questions, or listening to those who know more than oneself. Not by acting like an all-knowing git. Not by relating anecdotes for the sake of getting a response. Not by trolling.

[Shayd]

If you two don't get along I will kick your azzes out of my thread. This is a thread about the Optimus One dammit:p

/gets popcorn

[HapticSimian]

If you two don't get along I will kick your azzes out of my thread. This is a thread about the Optimus One dammit:p

/gets popcorn

As long as you uninstall that task killer. Have you yet? :twisted:

[Shayd]

As long as you uninstall that task killer. Have you yet? :twisted:

Have done, just want to find out. Will leaving all those apps open vacuum down battery power?

[HapticSimian]

Have done, just want to find out. Will leaving all those apps open vacuum down battery power?

Not in the least. Read this (http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html) if you're interested as to why not:


Multitasking the Android Way
Posted by Tim Bray on 28 April 2010 at 11:41 AM

[This post is by Dianne Hackborn, a Software Engineer who sits very near the exact center of everything Android. — Tim Bray]

Android is fairly unique in the ways it allows multiple applications to run at the same time. Developers coming from a different platform may find the way it operates surprising. Understanding its behavior is important for designing applications that will work well and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Android platform. This article covers the reasons for Android's multitasking design, its impact on how applications work, and how you can best take advantage of Android's unique features.
Design considerations

Mobile devices have technical limitations and user experience requirements not present in desktop or web systems. Here are the four key constraints we were working under as we designed Android's multitasking:
* We did not want to require that users close applications when "done" with them. Such a usage pattern does not work well in a mobile environment, where usage tends to involve repeated brief contact with a wide variety of applications throughout the day.
* Mobile devices don't have the luxury of swap space, so have fairly hard limits on memory use. Robert Love has a very good article covering the topic.
* Application switching on a mobile device is extremely critical; we target significantly less than 1 second to launch a new application. This is especially important when the user is switching between a few applications, such as switching to look at a new SMS message while watching a video, and then returning to that video. A noticeable wait in such situations will quickly make users hate you.
* The available APIs must be sufficient for writing the built-in Google applications, as part of our "all applications are created equal" philosophy. This means background music playback, data syncing, GPS navigation, and application downloading must be implemented with the same APIs that are available to third party developers.

The first two requirements highlight an interesting conflict. We don't want users to worry about closing their apps, but rather make it appear that all of the applications are always running. At the same time, mobile devices have hard limits on memory use, so that a system will degrade or even start failing very quickly as it needs more RAM than is available; a desktop computer, with swap, in contrast will simply start slowing down as it needs to page RAM to its swap space. These competing constraints were a key motivation for Android's design.
When does an application "stop"?

A common misunderstanding about Android multitasking is the difference between a process and an application. In Android these are not tightly coupled entities: applications may seem present to the user without an actual process currently running the app; multiple applications may share processes, or one application may make use of multiple processes depending on its needs; the process(es) of an application may be kept around by Android even when that application is not actively doing something.

The fact that you can see an application's process "running" does not mean the application is running or doing anything. It may simply be there because Android needed it at some point, and has decided that it would be best to keep it around in case it needs it again. Likewise, you may leave an application for a little bit and return to it from where you left off, and during that time Android may have needed to get rid of the process for other things.

A key to how Android handles applications in this way is that processes don't shut down cleanly. When the user leaves an application, its process is kept around in the background, allowing it to continue working (for example downloading web pages) if needed, and come immediately to the foreground if the user returns to it. If a device never runs out of memory, then Android will keep all of these processes around, truly leaving all applications "running" all of the time.

Of course, there is a limited amount of memory, and to accommodate this Android must decide when to get rid of processes that are not needed. This leads to Android's process lifecycle, the rules it uses to decide how important each process is and thus the next one that should be dropped. These rules are based on both how important a process is for the user's current experience, as well as how long it has been since the process was last needed by the user.

Once Android determines that it needs to remove a process, it does this brutally, simply force-killing it. The kernel can then immediately reclaim all resources needed by the process, without relying on that application being well written and responsive to a polite request to exit. Allowing the kernel to immediately reclaim application resources makes it a lot easier to avoid serious out of memory situations.

If a user later returns to an application that's been killed, Android needs a way to re-launch it in the same state as it was last seen, to preserve the "all applications are running all of the time" experience. This is done by keeping track of the parts of the application the user is aware of (the Activities), and re-starting them with information about the last state they were seen in. This last state is generated each time the user leaves that part of the application, not when it is killed, so that the kernel can later freely kill it without depending on the application to respond correctly at that point.

In some ways, Android's process management can be seen as a form of swap space: application processes represent a certain amount of in-use memory; when memory is low, some processes can be killed (swapped out); when those processes are needed again, they can be re-started from their last saved state (swapped in).
Explicitly running in the background

So far, we have a way for applications to implicitly do work in the background, as long as the process doesn't get killed by Android as part of its regular memory management. This is fine for things like loading web pages in the background, but what about features with harder requirements? Background music playback, data synchronization, location tracking, alarm clocks, etc.

For these tasks, the application needs a way to tell Android "I would explicitly like to run at this point." There are two main facilities available to applications for this, represented by two kinds of components they can publish in their manifest: broadcast receivers and services.
Broadcast Receivers

A BroadcastReceiver allows an application to run, for a brief amount of time, in the background as a result of something else happening. It can be used in many ways to build higher-level facilities: for example the AlarmManager allows an application to have a broadcast sent at a certain time in the future, and the LocationManager can send a broadcast when it detects interesting changes in location. Because information about the receiver is part of an application's manifest, Android can find and launch the application even if it isn't running; of course if it already has its process available in the background, the broadcast can very efficiently be directly dispatched to it.

When handling a broadcast, the application is given a fixed set of time (currently 10 seconds) in which to do its work. If it doesn't complete in that time, the application is considered to be misbehaving, and its process immediately tossed into the background state to be killed for memory if needed.

Broadcast receivers are great for doing small pieces of work in response to an external stimulus, such as posting a notification to the user after being sent a new GPS location report. They are very lightweight, since the application's process only needs to be around while actively receiving the broadcast. Because they are active for a deterministic amount of time, fairly strong guarantees can be made about not killing their process while running. However they are not appropriate for anything of indeterminate length, such as networking.

Services

-- more on the linked page --

[Shayd]

I did install 3G Watchdog though... very useful app to keep track of data usage. Staying synced all the time doesn't take nearly as much data as I thought.

[IdlePhaedrus]

Not in the least. Read this (http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html) if you're interested as to why not:

That was a really interesting post, and as someone who wrote TSR's in DOS in the early nineties on machines with less memory and far less processing power, and have worked with multi-threaded applications (in Windows) it was a fascinating insight into their approach.

However, your suggestion is made by inference, and it doesn't state anywhere in that article that you shouldn't use an App Killer or what side effects doing so might have. Additionally, while their theory is sound, and there are strategies in place to handle errant applications in the OS, not all applications are created equal, and I expect the safeguards may not handle all situations. It is a young OS after all.

One thing that worries me about Android (and don't get me wrong, I think the OS is supremely beautiful) is that applications seem to start up regardless of user patterns or requirements, even though they have been explicitly told not to synchronise or run in the background for whatever reason. This worries me a little, probably because I am a bit of a control freak, but if I didn't ask the app to start, and there was no reason for it to start in the first place because it is not part of the core, and does not facilitate the primary API in any way, then why did it run?

I don't think the article you posted goes far enough in answering that question. But I will look further into that and perhaps we can discuss that in a different thread at a later stage.

Shayd, there are a few stories around that contradict what you say about the data usage of Android, but I am reserving judgement just now. Like you I was very aware of it from the start (especially at R2 a meg OOB from Voda), and I installed a similar app called DataCounter from the store, but it also measures Wireless usage, which is handy for me for other reasons. Given the cost of mobile bandwidth it is important to monitor from the offset, but a lot of people have been caught out, because they haven't, and Voda certainly was not forthcoming with "Your new phone will use a lot more data than your old Nokia, and it won't ask if you are happy with this".

In an ideal world, where bandwidth is cheap, this would not be an issue, but we are not in that situation here.

Lastly, I think Android will probably destroy Symbian, is doing extraordinarily well against IOS given the time-frames, but cannot comment on any of the other platforms because I have not used them, and love my Android, so probably won't move in the near future.

I hope you enjoy your new phone as much as I am enjoying mine!

Phaedrus

[HapticSimian]

/snip

Given your response, perhaps you'll find this (http://www.droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer) equally interesting. I suspect much of the information is repeated, but it's an outsider's estimation of the situation, not that of an Android insider. ;)

[IdlePhaedrus]

Yes I do, especially the Windows (or MS / traditional) vs Google philosophy, but this subject is hijacking Shayd's thread, and that is rude. So, if you would like to discuss it further, start a new thread, and I am sure quite a number of the MyBB heavies would like to weigh in on the issue. It should be an interesting debate.

[Shayd]

I don't really have much else to say about the Optimus. It's battery life is what I expected(1-2 days), the OS is a dream, the screen is nice and sensitive and I haven't noticed any significant slowdowns. If anybody wants to ask questions please feel free to do so.

[Maddmatt]

As long as you uninstall that task killer. Have you yet? :twisted:

There's nothing wrong with having a task killer. It is handy sometimes, the odd crappy app can cause issues in the background. Just as long as you don't carelessly kill every running task. Why ATK even has a "kill all tasks" button is beyond me, imagine bringing up the Windows task manager and just killing everything that isn't part of Windows. You've just killed apps that you might actually want or need running.
Samsung has built in a nice simple task manger in the Galaxy S phones on the newer firmwares. Nice and simple, only kills full applications without affecting background processes (Android separates apps and background "services").
I wouldn't say it's important to have one though.

You can see background services in Application Settings. You can also add a shortcut to this on a homescreen. Hold finger on homescren -> Shortcuts -> Settings -> Running services.

[mfumbesi]

Wow lots of information here, albeit some not specifically about Optimus One, but useful information nonetheless.
I hope you Enjoy your new phone Shayd.

[Shayd]

Been screwing around with Apps quite a bit, amazing how much more functionality a phone can have with apps installed. Anybody know if we are ever going to get paid apps here. I want to use whatsapp instead of sms's but it expires after a year and you will need to purchase another year for $1.99. If I use it for a year and then it expires I will throw a hissy fit to rival Paris hilton.

[Maddmatt]

Instead of Whatapp why not install an IM client like Ebuddy? Then you can use Windows Live or whatever IM system you like.
For paid apps you can go to slideme.org although it's no substitute for Google's Market.

[Romito]

How's the video recording quality? Thinking of getting my sister one of these for Christmas.

[Shayd]

Video recording seems fine.. it's not HD but I dont find it choppy. Remember that this is a mid range phone so the camera is only a 3 megapixel.

[Shayd]

Just installed whatsapp, wow this is one very sexy program. Download and setup done in less than 5 min and it autofound all my buddies who are using it. Amazing app.

PS. Still in love with the phone.

[dojob]

Giving whats app a try, I got Swype installed on my Optimus one, its really amazing.

The only glitch ive noticed so far is the Gmail app is unable to open attachments. it just keeps saying fetching attachment but does nothing :-(

anyone have the same issue.

[Shayd]

Please tell me how you got swype on the optimus... please please please

[wikk3d88]

speaking as a former symbian fanboy, you would have to be completely nuts to choose Symbian ^3 over the latest android flavours

[Shayd]

Got a hold of a SlideIT APK. Wow Swype/SlideIT is amazingly quick, I have big fingers and this speeds up my typing ten fold.

I am forced to pirate at this point but the moment the Paid App store is in SA I will pay for it.

[Budza]

I am forced to pirate at this point but the moment the Paid App store is in SA I will pay for it.

Nice way of thinking of it.

I'll also pay for what I like, when it becomes an option.

[seedat77]

I am forced to pirate at this point but the moment the Paid App store is in SA I will pay for it.

:D :D :D

[Vulk]

Quick question for anyone who bought the Optimus One: what colour is your phone? I know that the Optimus One is available in five colours, but Vodacom usually only gets the standard black for everything other than Blackberry. A friend of mine of is thinking of upgrading, but she thinks the standard black model looks too much like a "guy's phone".

[Shayd]

Black one here... you can always buy pink stickers and put them on.