Ask NerdGirl: Always-On, No App Updates, Don’t Kill That Task, Where is Where, and Spica not Galaxy!
by n3rdg1rl
Jun 15, 2010 7:05 AM –
I need to vent here for a second.
I have worked in retail, help desk, customer service, tech support, and hospitality. The quality of a companies customer service should be the companies number one priority. It’s the face of the company and greatly defines how the public views the company as a whole. When someone calls with a legitimate question about a product the correct answer is never, “I’m sorry. You sound confused. Let me transfer you to someone that might understand you.” Then that person that you get transferred to after 20 minutes of holding should never say, “Huh. Did you search for your answer on Google?” You have got to be kidding me! Imagine if this is what Toyota had said during their recent fiasco. “I’m sorry you rolled into a ditch cause your car wouldn’t stop. Did you search for your answer on Google?” *sigh*
Venting complete. On to the questions!
Wait – what?
“On my phone, the HTC Droid Eris, I can go into Settings » Wireless & Networks » Mobile Networks »
Enable always-on mobile data. With this off the phone doesn’t connect to the network without permission.”
I hate to admit how clueless I am about these things, but – I really am clueless about these things. What does that mean, “always-on mobile data”? What is the effect of having it on vs. off? What other settings should I be looking at? What can I do in the settings that can help or harm? Can you give a sister a “Settings 101″ rundown?
Thanks!
Nonie
Never be afraid to admit you are clueless. That’s why there are people to help because you’re not expected to know everything. I can build a computer with my eyes closed, but I have no idea what the heck is wrong with my car. I’m sure you know a ton more about something than most of the people you know. Cell phones just isn’t it for you!
“Always-on mobile data” allows your phone to connect to the Internet whenever it wants. There are certain programs that update their data (such as a stock market app) and others that generate ads that are updated on a remote server. With the “always-on mobile data” off it prevents these programs from automatically connecting to the web. The benefits of having it off would be better battery life and if you don’t have unlimited data prevents a significant amount of data to be transferred without your knowledge.
As far as other settings, don’t be afraid to play around. Just always remember what you changed so if it has a detrimental effect you can put it back to how it was. Nothing will harm the phone, so you don’t have to worry about that. Most of the time when you click on a setting it will explain to you exactly what the setting does.
Hey n3rdg1rl,
Great job filling in for Google as the Help Desk That Cares..! :)
I have a MotoDroid w/ 2.1.
With more and more frequency lately, I’ll patch an App Update, only to be notified the next day of an update to the same app. If it were occasional, I’d figure it was a buggy update, but this happens now with roughly half of my updates. What’s up? Is there a way to fix it, or make the bogus notification go away?
This seems to be a known issue independent of what phone you are using. This is an Android bug and Google is aware of it. It happens on my phone as well.
I recommend using AppBrain App Market. So far this has worked for me as it says exactly what needs to be updated and if I don’t want to update something I can ignore it. I still get the regular Market notifications, but I just ignore them.
Could you publish a list of the recommended apps to keep running (“ignored”) when I clear the decks with TaskKiller? I’ve heard that some apps should ideally be kept running for the system to function properly, so it’d be nice to get an experienced guess at that vs. my own. (I bring it up because I love Google’s Listen app, but it never refreshes when I open it up to view the latest podcasts in my list – I have to refresh manually for each feed, every time. So I’m wondering if I’m at fault for ‘killing’ it when I zero everything else out.)
Thanks for your research and help for all Da Droid FanBois & Goils!
John
Now this will vary by phone of course but here are some that you should watch out for to keep running. If you do kill an app you need you can just power cycle your phone and it should be okay.
- Touch Input
- IQRD
- OMADM
- HtcIQAgent (If you have an HTC phone)
- Clock
- Calendar
- Mail
- NetCounter
Hi Nerdgirl,
I would like to download the app WHERE but when I go to the Market and attempt to find it, the search function does not show the app as a valid choice.
I want to try WHERE. What other choices are there for downloading?
Thanks,
Randy
The issue may have been that it wasn’t compatible with your version of Android. If it’s not compatible with your version it won’t show up in the Market. I just took a look and it does come up on my Market. (I’m running 2.1.) I also saw that it was recently updated to work with all versions so I would try it again.
Hi Nerd girl,
I live in the UK and am having issues finding any schedule on updating android for the Samsung Galaxy portal, any news?
I know the Spica (Euro branding outside UK) was due a 2.1 update but could do with some help with this!
Ben
The industry loves the phrase “in the near future” and it’s used again with this update. It looks like it’s already released, but only in Germany. Samsung is saying that it will be coming out worldwide soon and must be done using their PC Studio 7 software. This means hooking the phone up to your computer and downloading the update somewhere on the Internet.
What they are not clear about is if this update is only going to apply to the Spica (Samsung I5700) or if it will cross over to the Galaxy (Samsung I7500.) I even called Samsung to try to see if they can clear it up and the response was an overwhelming, “Huh?” Thanks, Samsung!
My crazy Jersey Girl definitely came out with today’s questions. It needs to happen sometimes so keep sending those questions to
nerdgirl@androidtapp.com!
~n3rdg1rl