Android phone speedometers?

[ducatilover]

I've been gifted some android phone thingy and was wondering how accurate their speedometer apps are? I'm just assuming they use a GPS system?

[onearmedbandit]

Yup, at about 1hz.

[paturoa]

Depends on the phone / gps. The software for the apps is pretty straight forward and very accurate if the data stream from your phone / gps to the software is accurate.

The best way (but nor fool proof) to tell is travel at a constant speed. The speed displayed on the GPS should be constant. Also depending on which software you use, some keep tracks. After the constant speed run check the point's details on the track, they should be constant too.

[Scuba_Steve]

As a note, best free GPS speed app I've found by far is Ulysse Speedometer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binarytoys.speedometer&hl=en) (I tried about 10 different apps before deciding upon this one). Also worth noting some apps out there can be wildly inaccurate.

[iYRe]

I use the same as steve. Also use a "traffic beating user driven" system called "waze" - if your mates have it and are on facebook, they show up as friends on the map.. quite handy on rides, because you can see how far behind they are at a glance. Does chew battery though.

For Nav, google is ok, but I prefer Sygic (its a pay app). It's based on TomTom and has similar features.

[sil3nt]

Average smartphone here ($300 - $400 phone) and a constant speed in the car has it showing between 90kph and 120kph and never settled. This could be the app though as it was only intended for running/cycling where it performs flawlessly.

[ducatilover]

:niceone: Cheers chaps, will have a play around when I go grab the phone, it's a Sony Xperia mini pro, whatever that means (I'm a Nokia person, but I love free stuff)

[iYRe]

Ducatilover - means its a budget phone.. but should be ok..

Mines a 550$ Galaxy Nexus, and it is usually the same reading as those "slow down" digital speed things the NZTA put up.

[ducatilover]

Ducatilover - means its a budget phone.. but should be ok..

Mines a 550$ Galaxy Nexus, and it is usually the same reading as those "slow down" digital speed things the NZTA put up.

:msn-wink: Budget is my middle name!
It has reasonable specs http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro-3713.php but I'm the guy who loves his Nokia N85... which apparently is so old now that females giggle at it :lol:

[iYRe]

:msn-wink: Budget is my middle name!
It has reasonable specs http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro-3713.php but I'm the guy who loves his Nokia N85... which apparently is so old now that females giggle at it :lol:

Oldie but a goodie.

Yep, Xperia's are decent phones.. so you should be ok.. never sneer at a free android phone.

[ducatilover]

Oldie but a goodie.

Yep, Xperia's are decent phones.. so you should be ok.. never sneer at a free android phone.

I must be the only young fella who is years behind with phones. :rolleyes: seems pretty fangled to me

Chances are I'll destroy it somehow and just get one of my Nokias out the drawer

[SMOKEU]

Install Cyanogenmod on the phone. It should perform a lot better.

[ducatilover]

Install Cyanogenmod on the phone. It should perform a lot better.

What will that do? I'm just a guy who takes pics of bikes and uses my phone fore general... well phone things :sleep:

[Scuba_Steve]

What will that do? I'm just a guy who takes pics of bikes and uses my phone fore general... well phone things :sleep:

probably fuckup your phone & drain your batt... For you I'd say it's just not worth the trouble

[ducatilover]

probably fuckup your phone & drain your batt... For you I'd say it's just not worth the trouble

Fuck that
I want a three day battery, like every other phone I've ever had. These new foo-fangled things are stupidly big and have shit batteries. If I want to surf the webbernet for pr0n I use my PC FFS

[SMOKEU]

What will that do? I'm just a guy who takes pics of bikes and uses my phone fore general... well phone things :sleep:

It will possibly give you a much faster and more stable OS (although that depends on the support for your phone as every phone is different). I've done it on 3 devices so far and it's helped improve battery life and performance significantly.

[cheshirecat]

Almost on the subject but this Google Now is freaky in predicting your travel.

[ducatilover]

It will possibly give you a much faster and more stable OS (although that depends on the support for your phone as every phone is different). I've done it on 3 devices so far and it's helped improve battery life and performance significantly.
I'll look in to it. I'm not sure what the OS is, some retarded name like ginger bread?

[iYRe]

if you want three days, then you'll need a not so smart phone..

i have cyanogemod on my nexus.. battery life is a little worse, performance is a lot better.

[ducatilover]

How flippin' impractical! :mad:

I want my previous Nokia back, had it when I was working in mental health and I'd get 5-6 days of proper use out of it. The N85 manages three solid days of use

[iYRe]

How flippin' impractical! :mad:

I want my previous Nokia back, had it when I was working in mental health and I'd get 5-6 days of proper use out of it. The N85 manages three solid days of use

welcome to the brave new world.. my advice.. suck it up.. :P (http://www.rule5.org)

[ducatilover]

welcome to the brave new world.. my advice.. suck it up.. :P (http://www.rule5.org)

Well, I'll just keep the Nokia for tramping and camping :lol: and anything involving a days worth of MP3 playing and calling.

Why the fuck do phones need all this useless battery draining rubbish on them?

[Glowerss]

How flippin' impractical! :mad:

I want my previous Nokia back, had it when I was working in mental health and I'd get 5-6 days of proper use out of it. The N85 manages three solid days of use

My old ass iphone like, 2 , lasts a good 3-5 days so long as im not constantly using the thing.

The trick is to turn off anything that involves data useage.

Thing used to last like, a fuckin day, till I turned off automatically checking for emails.

You can get pretty good battery life out of em so long as you use em like a phone and not a second computer :bleh:

[Gremlin]

How flippin' impractical! :mad:

I want my previous Nokia back, had it when I was working in mental health and I'd get 5-6 days of proper use out of it. The N85 manages three solid days of use
Welcome to progress! :D

[ducatilover]

My old ass iphone like, 2 , lasts a good 3-5 days so long as im not constantly using the thing.

The trick is to turn off anything that involves data useage.

Thing used to last like, a fuckin day, till I turned off automatically checking for emails.

You can get pretty good battery life out of em so long as you use em like a phone and not a second computer :bleh:
I'll be making sure it's only doing the bare minimum :D just like my PCs.

Welcome to progress! :D

Progress is worse than fish salad

[SMOKEU]

I'll look in to it. I'm not sure what the OS is, some retarded name like ginger bread?

Yes, Cyanogenmod is just a lightweight, stripped down version of the Android OS. Every Android phone manufacturer then takes that OS straight from Google and ports it over to their own devices and adds their own features. Android phones tend to suck the battery like there's no tomorrow (literally) so anything to help battery life is good, right?

[ducatilover]

Yes, Cyanogenmod is just a lightweight, stripped down version of the Android OS. Every Android phone manufacturer then takes that OS straight from Google and ports it over to their own devices and adds their own features. Android phones tend to suck the battery like there's no tomorrow (literally) so anything to help battery life is good, right?

:niceone: Sounds good, I'll look in to it. I like battery life, in case you didn't notice :2thumbsup

[R650R]

If you have fancy phone but don't use the data features you can turn off 3g networks in the menus and it will use heaps less power if you only use 2g networks which is fine for ordinary calls.
My elcheapo vodaphone 845 has been sucking the battery since I got that freebee data and used the maps on walks and stuff. Will have to switch it back to 2G when not using maps.

[Peeteey]

:niceone: Sounds good, I'll look in to it. I like battery life, in case you didn't notice :2thumbsup

The other joy with Cyanogenmod is that most versions have CPU speed control built in. On my old phone that I now use just for GPS, I underclock the CPU so it runs slower and gives me several days battery life usually, depending on use.

[ducatilover]

The other joy with Cyanogenmod is that most versions have CPU speed control built in. On my old phone that I now use just for GPS, I underclock the CPU so it runs slower and gives me several days battery life usually, depending on use.

:niceone: I was wondering about doing that if the battery life is a bit sad

[Dave-]

Turn off any correction using accelerometer options.

Accelerometers in cell phones are notoriously crap and could put you a few km out.

[ducatilover]

Turn off any correction using accelerometer options.

Accelerometers in cell phones are notoriously crap and could put you a few km out.

Handy to know, cheers!
I'll be getting a digital dash on the ZX some time, so hopefully it'll be reasonably accurate and help me set it up
Otherwise I'll get somebody in teh cage, that's 98km/h at an indicated 100km/h according to GPS

[awa355]

Re switching off stuff that doesn't get used. I get a message comes up at times, saying my CPU is operating at 100%. The phone is a Motorola Defy,

I went into the Telecom shop at the base in Hamilton and asked about disabling all the crap that I dont use, which is running in the background. The girl said the programmes were needed and the phone wouldn't operate without them. Personally, I think she had less idea than me, and simply didn't know.

All I use on my ph is the text, camera, phone functions. I dont give a shit about maps, gps, the internet, games etc. I need to find someone who can run my phone thru a bandsaw and leave me with just enough of it to run the 3 functions mentioned above.

Is it possible to uninstall most of the crap I never use, or is the bimbo in the shop correct?

[ducatilover]

I know you can get app killer... apps :rolleyes: they might help and I do know the Defy has an issue with keeping too much info in the cache

Or so my mate with one told me, right before he decided he didn't like it

[SMOKEU]

Re switching off stuff that doesn't get used. I get a message comes up at times, saying my CPU is operating at 100%. The phone is a Motorola Defy,

I went into the Telecom shop at the base in Hamilton and asked about disabling all the crap that I dont use, which is running in the background. The girl said the programmes were needed and the phone wouldn't operate without them. Personally, I think she had less idea than me, and simply didn't know.

All I use on my ph is the text, camera, phone functions. I dont give a shit about maps, gps, the internet, games etc. I need to find someone who can run my phone thru a bandsaw and leave me with just enough of it to run the 3 functions mentioned above.

Is it possible to uninstall most of the crap I never use, or is the bimbo in the shop correct?

Get rid of that crappy OEM OS and install a third party Android distro such as Cyanogenmod.

[awa355]

Get rid of that crappy OEM OS and install a third party Android distro such as Cyanogenmod.

Yea, but how do I get rid of the original OS? Will Cyanogenmod allow me to use the functions I want?

[Dave-]

Re switching off stuff that doesn't get used. I get a message comes up at times, saying my CPU is operating at 100%. The phone is a Motorola Defy,

I went into the Telecom shop at the base in Hamilton and asked about disabling all the crap that I dont use, which is running in the background. The girl said the programmes were needed and the phone wouldn't operate without them. Personally, I think she had less idea than me, and simply didn't know.

All I use on my ph is the text, camera, phone functions. I dont give a shit about maps, gps, the internet, games etc. I need to find someone who can run my phone thru a bandsaw and leave me with just enough of it to run the 3 functions mentioned above.

Is it possible to uninstall most of the crap I never use, or is the bimbo in the shop correct?

nice big buttons and a nice big clock?

I'm gonna get into some android development this year, there might be a case here.

What about the clock and date? just a dirty big old black and white digital clock? and what about a flashlight (model dependant - turns the camera LED on so you can see in the dark - probably the app i use the most considering night time happens fairly often)

[SMOKEU]

Yea, but how do I get rid of the original OS? Will Cyanogenmod allow me to use the functions I want?

1. Install CWM recovery
2. Root
3. Copy CM ROM and Gapps to SD card
4. Boot into recovery
5. Delete data, wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache (last step is optional)
6. Flash CM ROM
7. Flash Gapps
8. Reboot

Support for every phone is different. Some phones have a great CM ports available, while other phones have none whatsoever. You can read on the XDA developers forums about what features work and what doesn't work for your device. So far I've used CM on 4 different devices and the UI is always very similar and easy to use. If you do a Google images search on Cyanogenmod you can see what it looks like.

There are other third party Android distros available as well, but I have no experience with any of them.

Oh, and don't fuck it up. You can brick your device if you do it wrong. As long as you have the device rooted and the recovery installed then it's easy to recover from a bad OS install.

[Dave-]

Also, device dependent, you will void your warranty - dunno about CGA but I think you'd win.

[flyingcrocodile46]

:msn-wink: Budget is my middle name!
It has reasonable specs http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro-3713.php but I'm the guy who loves his Nokia N85... which apparently is so old now that females giggle at it :lol:

I have a N85 that I really like (apart from all the re-starts it does to "improve performance" when I am in the middle of a perfectly adequate call). That and the fact that it often turns itself off and drops calls :rolleyes:. But it is my preferred form factor.

Although I have a dual screen touch book that I enjoy using, I dislike the appearance of all of the big screen touch phones.

The one good thing about the new big screen phones is that they do such a good job of outselling other form factors that their prices have been slashed.

I am just waiting on its very cheap $205 Sony Ericsson W995 slider replacement to be delivered then it's n the bin with the N85.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/sony-ericsson-w995-walkman-hands-on-49301085/
Apparently the W995 has the best music player on a phone (except for the latest I phone). Excellent quality sounds from the stereo speakers and ear buds. (which is probably the biggest selling point for me. Though it also has an 8 MP camera and all the normal features (such as GPS, FM broadcasting, accelerometer, shake & play etc) that top line phones have.

[ducatilover]

Only problem my N85 has had is the speaker is a bit shit sometimes, so people tend to sound like horny robots
I don't like big phones, they don't fit it my riding jacket comfortably