Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Android, oh dear...

Maybe it was a mistake to get an Android phone. But the HTC One got so much praise, and so has the lastest versions of the OS! So I thought that it was Good Now, like the supposed experts said.

I hardly know where to start, it seems almost everything I try to do is awkward or buggy or just doesn't work.

  • I bought two movies. They won't play. Two contacts with support have not helped. 
  • I side-loaded some of my own ripped videos. I had to try three different video apps before I found one which would play not only the sound, but the picture as well. (Good old VLC Player worked, though it's in Beta here). 
  • I can't find a setting to use the phone as a disk when connected by USB, so I have to use the HTC sync software. It's very buggy and freezes all the time. 
  • The app started with automatically trying to import all my music, which would have used up virtually all the space. I had to find that setting and turn it off. (Why not ask first?) 
  • I have installed correct ringtone files in the Ringtones folder. They play fine when I click on them, but the Ringtones Setting can't see them! (Help videos I've seen says it should.) Rebooting didn't help. 
  • I have tried shortening the ringtone files' names, but now I can't find the folder in the HTC sync app...

And it is typically like that. On all my devices (I have at least 5 Android devices). I don't understand how people can stand it. 

Part of the reason I have them at all is Apple's stupid resistance towards bigger phones. I hope they get over that soon, so I can get a 5-inch phone/ereader which just works.

Update:
I solved the Ringtone deal. I was told that .m4r is the right appendix for ringtones, and my ringtones were indeed like that, so that was hunky-dory.
But then I noticed that for some reason there were already two custom ringtones in the Ringtones folder (the regular ones are of course hidden elsewhere), and those had the extension .ogg for some reason. So I tried to change the extension of mine to that, and that made it work. Geez. If .m4r is standard, why doesn't the HTC One recognize them? 

5 comments:

TC [Girl] said...

Oy vey! What a headache! Sorry to hear it! :-( Did you try the Samsung Note? That was one I was looking at, before I caved to the 'Almighty iCrap Cult!' ;-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Like I've written, I have the Note 1, and I like the hardware a *lot*.
But otherwise, same thing. For example, every time I boot it up, it tells me there's an OS update. I say OK. And it tells me there's no SIM card. It has wifi, why can't it update the software without a SIM card?? Those stupid things.

TC [Girl] said...

Oh yeah...not paying enough attention, sorry; too much rushing around, these days. Very strange how positive the reviews are on 'em... That doesn't sound very good, either. :-(

Janet Tokerud said...

I get wanting a larger phone than the iPhone 5. But now that I'm seeing what's on the way on iOS 7, it is unimaginable to go Android any time soon. Sometimes Apple can be stubborn.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I agree, if it works as well as it seems, it widens the gab.

Hey, Apple: get this: FIVE-INCH PHONE!!