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GeekNights Monday - What Phone Should Rym Buy?

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  • American carriers usually have the FM radios on their phones disabled in hardware or software. Why? I have no idea.
  • Starfox said:

    That seems... Like it should be illegal.

    It is...technically. The car won't play video (it'll still play audio) or let you mess with the satnav while in motion when you buy them, but it's trivial to "fix" that.
  • edited February 2016
    Rym said:

    Yes. The Northam edition has every LTE band that matters, and works both domestically and internationally.

    It also has an FM radio.

    I miss having that in my phone. Sure, I have data and I could stream pretty much every radio station, but a)I don't have to pay for data using FM radio, and b)It's easier to get a reliable FM signal just about anywhere I go, whereas 3g/4g signal, not so much.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • We listened to some radio in Australia while driving to the penguin island. It was interesting to say the least. Very surprised to hear an all Italian station!
  • Apreche said:

    We listened to some radio in Australia while driving to the penguin island. It was interesting to say the least. Very surprised to hear an all Italian station!

    There's a lot of interesting stuff out there. I normally tune in to Triple J in the car(and they do some interesting stuff) but there's plenty of variety. There's also all(well, nearly all) Indigenous stations, LGBT focus stations like Joy FM, Radio Austral is all spanish, Radio National(another one of my favorites) is a talk station, but with shows ranging from technology to arts, to current affairs, to comedy.

    I don't know how it is in the US - I don't know much on US radio that isn't KROQ or that station Leo Laporte is on that he mentions sometimes - but for some reason, radio is still pretty good here.
  • The battery on this phone is amazing.

    So far, I haven't charged it since I got it. It's lasted almost two full days with almost half a battery still. That's with heavy use for most of the first day setting up all my business.
  • I'm with Scott on the AM radio, though I mostly want it for Coast to Coast and other crazy ufo/conspiracy shows. Most of other talk radio around here is all crazy right wing or religious.
  • The FM on my radio was pretty handy when I was up in Karratha, they would send cyclone warnings and updates on the radio when I found myself without data or a spotty signal.

    My Dad actually listens to the Indigenous station in Perth quite a bit when he's driving around. I personally just use my phone for podcasts, music and what not, otherwise switch over to Triple J in case they have a non obnoxious DJ on. Most of the millenial DJ's are very poor at their job or seem to play less variance than their predecessors.
  • sK0pe said:

    My Dad actually listens to the Indigenous station in Perth quite a bit when he's driving around. I personally just use my phone for podcasts, music and what not, otherwise switch over to Triple J in case they have a non obnoxious DJ on. Most of the millenial DJ's are very poor at their job or seem to play less variance than their predecessors.

    If you have a DAB radio, you can get Double J. Don't like the new DJs on triple J? Double J is mostly music, and old Triple J presenters.

  • I walked past a JB Hifi here, (chain store that sells consumer electronics).

    They were displaying the iPhone 6S and 6S+. Holy shit these phones are huge bricks.
    Even though my phone has the same screen size as the 6S (yet has a higher resolution) it was only 3/4 the size of the 6S.

    Virtually every other phone looked reasonable in comparison. I kind of understand Rym's rants on the subject now; as I hardly ever see any of the iPhone 6 or 6+ in public over here.

    Most flagship phones this year have scaled down to about 5" screen size, recognising they went a bit overboard last year but also have separate phablet phones for that consumer base.
  • Pre-order new Samsung and get a free GearVR
  • I use the FM on my Note 5 quite a bit when I'm put putting around the house or walking outside. I have it pretty much perpetually tuned to either KROQ or KCRW.
  • I use the FM on my Note 5 quite a bit when I'm put putting around the house or walking outside. I have it pretty much perpetually tuned to either KROQ or KCRW.

    But when are you starting your own radio station?
  • The only reason I didn't get the z5 was because the camera was getting a lot of reports of problems with blurriness around the edges, sometimes asymmetrical, as well as some weird artifacting from their sharpening algorithm. It looks like the Nexus phones beat them in that regard, and as someone who likes photography but not enough to invest in proper equipment, my phone would be my only shooting device. I just couldn't get the z5. That plus Sony historically has been slow to update their Android, I can't trust them until I see at least some years of commitment to fast updates. They're on the right track at least.
  • I have the HTC One M9. I like it. It's a lovely phone. When they updated the software to 6.0, though, the phone lost an important feature. I used to be able to have my notifications like texts and Twitter messages muted while having the ringer audible. Now, it's ringer and notifications on or nothing.
  • Rym should just get all the phones. Sync data between them, Use a different one at random every day, and pretend he's always had that one if questioned.
  • sK0pe said:

    I use the FM on my Note 5 quite a bit when I'm put putting around the house or walking outside. I have it pretty much perpetually tuned to either KROQ or KCRW.

    But when are you starting your own radio station?
    I actually tried to start a pirate AM radio station 6 years ago on campus made up of multiple low-power, distributed broadcast nodes connected to the internet, all playing the same shoutcast stream, but it was pointed out to me that leaving a bunch of locked, weatherproof boxes with antennas poking out, connected to the electricity on the roofs of buildings might arouse... suspicion.
  • sK0pe said:

    I use the FM on my Note 5 quite a bit when I'm put putting around the house or walking outside. I have it pretty much perpetually tuned to either KROQ or KCRW.

    But when are you starting your own radio station?
    I actually tried to start a pirate AM radio station 6 years ago on campus made up of multiple low-power, distributed broadcast nodes connected to the internet, all playing the same shoutcast stream, but it was pointed out to me that leaving a bunch of locked, weatherproof boxes with antennas poking out, connected to the electricity on the roofs of buildings might arouse... suspicion.
    If you were just looking to use multiple indoor transmitters, this could be adapted.
  • That's... very clever, actually.
  • Is Rym gonna buy a new phone now that the SE is released? Tune in to find out!
  • I am extremely happy with my xperia z5 compact. It's small enough.

    That'll do phone. That'll do.
  • I'm quite satisfied with my Galaxy Core Prime. It's an absolute piece of shit but through a bizarre series of promotions I wound up getting $19 off my plan for it. It has an infuriatingly small local storage but the SD Card mitigates that and really if it can play music, text, call, browse internets, and you're paying me to have it I'll be content.
  • I'm looking forward to retiring my trusty iPhone 5.
  • Greg said:

    It has an infuriatingly small local storage but the SD Card mitigates that

    Yeah I hear that. I've mostly been using cheap Android phones and even though they've usually ran fine, having only like 2gb of free space is really a bitch. Rooting + Link2sd has definitely been a lifesaver.

    Even on a more expensive phone, fuck paying like an extra $100 to go to 64gb when you can buy a 32gb sd card for like $10.

  • The iPhone 6S is a best of a phone.
    Now, I am seriously considering investing on the smaller version of the iPad Pro.
  • I was kinda pissed because I was hoping they'd announce an update of the MacBook Pro and I'm sorta tired of waiting now. So I might consider the Razer Blade Stealth or maybe I'll just keep with the iPad and get the Pro so I can draw on it.
  • MATATAT said:

    I was kinda pissed because I was hoping they'd announce an update of the MacBook Pro and I'm sorta tired of waiting now.

    Me too. I hope the next MacBook Pro is as better than my last MacBook Pro as the new phones and iPads are better than the phones and iPads in 2010.
  • Erwin said:

    Now, I am seriously considering investing on the smaller version of the iPad Pro.

    The 9.7in Pro's camera bump would likely annoy the hell out of me, but I should play with one to confirm.
  • okeefe said:

    Erwin said:

    Now, I am seriously considering investing on the smaller version of the iPad Pro.

    The 9.7in Pro's camera bump would likely annoy the hell out of me, but I should play with one to confirm.
    People be hating on the camera bump. I have it on the iPhone 6. When I consciously notice it and think about it, its easy to see why it's villainous. That OCD just wants the phone to lie FLAT! But in reality, it's never ever actually caused any actual problem. They use the sapphire crystal glass on the camera lens protector. That shit is basically invincible. They wanted to use it for the entire screen, they just couldn't get it done.

    There's a famous fairy tale about this issue.

    image
  • I have completely forgotten what the moral of that story is, or really the story at all.
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