Efficient use of Android smart phone without contract or Internet access plan

Well, what I need my phone is:

• to make and receive phone calls and SMS...
• browse internet, use e-mail on some occasions...
• to find my way using the GPS...

The rest I can do from my computer, that I am almost constantly using in my job.

This actually does not require contract and Internet access plan from your mobile provider. I use prepaid card with reasonable prices (for prepaid card) for Internet access. I try to fully utilize the wifi access I have at work and home (were I spent most of my time) and use the mobile connection for those occasions when I need Internet on the road. The phone turns automatically every 1 hour the Wifi to sync my device but only if I am at work, home or other predefined place where I have Wifi access.

Here is how it is done:

I found Tasker perfect for this job.

I use schedule to sync every 1 hour between 8:00 and 20:00. The sync procedure first checks if the phone is in a predefined location, based on the GSM Cell ID. If yes, it turns ON "Wifi" and "Auto Sync" if the battery has more than 20% charge left and turns it OFF after 3 minutes (enough to sync Google contacts, calendars and other mails). 

With this setting, the phone runs as regular GSM (that does not require much power) and this way my HTC Wildfire runs about 4-5 days on regular use on one charge.

Some other hints for "off the grid" use:

Osmand is turn by turn navigation application for Android Devices with online/offline features. It also has online routing and audible navigation. The application is open source and the offline data is based on OpenStreetMap - the free wiki map (OSM).

Dropbox syncs your files online and across computers for access anywhere. Sync your files between your computers and your mobile device. Now you can browse the files in your Dropbox folder from anywhere! Share links to files, save photos and video from your camera to your computers, and open files using your favorite Android apps.

To keep the applications up to date, I tun ON the Wifi while charging...


Here is how a regular charge/discharge looks like with this configuration:

Samsung JET S8000 vs. HTC Wildfire (smarter than smart phone vs. entry level smart phone)

Or why "Samsung JET S8000" has nothing to do with "smart" or "smart phone" at all....

Ok, I could not bear it more... I got HTC Wilfire replacement... And here is just few points why.

In red color is the clear loosing side and in green - the winning.

I challenge anybody to prove me wrong in my statements!

Samsung JET S8000	HTC Wildfire
Numbers with country code and without are considered as different numbers. My provider sends the the caller number without the code and SMS with - as result I have to add in every contact both versions in order to be recognized normally.[5,6]	What?!? This is not serious... All my previous phones did not have this problem, even with this particular provider...
Every program group have their own Internet access profile. Let me count: widgets, browser, GPS, Java programs, e-mail, active sync. So, every time I was connecting to Internet I made sure that I have selected the proper profile!!!	What for? When you turn Wifi ON, it checks for available predefined access profile and connects. One can explicitly disable the mobile provider connection or all synchronizing services... so simple and intuitive
Touch sensitivity - resistive - simply unacceptable.[5]	Pointless to compare - capacitive.
Virtually no support for additional widgets or programs. Only Java alternatives.	Just look what is available on the Android market.
Bluetooth: Every time it connect you need to confirm the connection... Every time the connection is lost and you want to reconnect!	Automatically connects and reconnects any paired device.
Graphical interface: Mediocre graphical interface - I really expect more from 480x800 pixels resolution...	240x320 pixels is on the border for this size screen but it is acceptable and the GUI is simply perfect.
Ridiculous lock screen - time and date. You have to unlock to see any events.	Excellent. Events can be marked by flashing led as well.
Video player: HERE the JET is unbeatable! Many formats, and large resolutions - excellent! DLNA server (I have never used it). Analog TV out (PAL&NTSC).	Wildfire is not a near match...
Music player: - with good head phones it sound almost perfect, sound profiles, fancy art, no option to only play files in certain folder.	Simple player, art is fine, no sound profiles, good sound.
GPS - on-line Google maps (without navigation) - maps are locally stored - impossible to import POI - expensive navigation fees	- on-line Google maps and navigation - mobile data plan(rouming) dependent - Free off-line maps applications i.e. RMaps..
Contacts, mail and calendar synchronization - it feels almost as gambling. I was left in two occasions without a single contact in my address book...	- absolutely flawless to sync with Gmail service.
SMS - SMS capabilities of a regular phone and limit of about 200 SMS to store, because it stores them on the SIM card?!	- unlimited features and SMS number limited only by the storage of your phone.
Text input - a bit small keyboard	- unlimited features
Updates: What updates?!? ...well I was lucky to get one quite easy firmware update...[4]	Automatic.
PC suite Samsung New PC - bulky, does not provide full access to your phone features, no backup.	HTC Sync I have not tested it yet...

This table will obviously continue to expand...

Anyway, the above summarizes why I think Samsung Jet S8000 is not even close to a smart phone, not even a good mobile phone. It is some sort of semi-advanced media player with phone features.

More links on the subject from the same author (make sure you read the bottom two reviews):

1. Samsung Jet S8000: ActiveSync and Google 
2. Samsung Jet S8000: use as modem (via Bluetooth) to connect to Internet 
3. Samsung Jet S8000: eduroam settings
4. Samsung Jet S8000: firmware update from NPS 
5. Samsung Jet S8000: second round
6. Samsung Jet S8000: my personal opinion

P.S. I have never believed the commercial "Smarter than Smart Phone", that is obviously lie, but I never expected to be so bad... I do not associate with brands, but that particular phone felt like scream in my face ".......".

Samsung Jet S8000: use as modem (via Bluetooth) to connect to Internet

One way to use your phone Internet connection on your computer is through Samsung New PC Studio (NPS). It is very simple. Connect the phone to the computer by USB cable and choose "Internet Connector" from NPS. This, of course, requires NPS to be installed and running on the computer - a bit inconvenient for a small Netbook computer or for a quick share to some other computer.

Connection over Bluetooth
This solution has the advantage that any computer with Bluetooth can be paired to the phone and consequently to use the phone as modem to connect to Internet via your telephone provider.This is extremely convenient for occasional uses where you need quick access to Internet from a computer - because the phone browser is not rendering the page at all (what a surprise), to use your regular e-mail client or just because you want to use the keyboard to type your message..

Here are the key point you need to accomplish to make it work:

1) Make sure you have paired the devices, so the computer can connect to the phone.

2) In you hardware options, modem section, find something that says "Standard Modem over Bluetooth", select the advanced options and enter the following extra initialization command  AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet". /make sure you have enabled the Bluetooth on the computer first/

3) The number you have to dial is "*99#" /without the quote marks/. Another alternatives, if the default does not work for you, are "*99***#", "*99***1#", "*99***2#"

4) Depending on your provider you might need to provide user and password on the dial dialog.

Note: Point 2 is specific for Samsung Jet S8000 devices. All my previous phones were just fine without this additional initialization command.

Hint: Although you might be able get Turbo3G connection on the phone, the Bluetooth connection will still remain the speed bottleneck. The latest versions of the Opera browser have the so called "Turbo" mode where the data is compressed and optimized for slow connection - just the case.

This configuration works for me at two different computers that run WinXP SP3, with Jet firmware S8000XPJA1.

Samsung Jet S8000: eduroam settings

Very briefly, for those that might be interested to connect theirs Jets to the eduroam roaming network. Here are the settings that I use and are confirmed to work at Uppsala University and KTH, Stockholm (S8000XPIJ7 and S8000XPJA1 firmwares):

1. SSID: eduroam
   
2. Auth type: WPA2
3. Encryption type: AES
4. 802.1x settings ===============
   4.1 use 802.1x: selected
   4.2 Validate certificate: unselected
   4.3 EAP-Method: EAP-TTLS
   4.4 Authentication type: PAP
   4.5 Username: username@user.uu.se
   4.6 Password: passwordA
5. Everything else left unchanged

Here you can find some really nice instructions (in Swedish) for other devices or OS:

• iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
• Android
• Windows Mobile

Samsung Jet S8000: firmware update from NPS

Recently, I have updated to SAMSUNG New PC Studio (NPS) version 1.5.1.10064_2 from May.12.2010.

My previous firmware version was S8000XPIJ7 and I have selected Germany as my location during the installation of the software, just to be on the safe side (I was aiming at S8000XPJA1).

And it worked. The very first time I have connected the phone I was offered to update the firmware! Great. The manual says only "follow the instructions on the screen"... fingers crossed.

Warning!!! After the upgrade you will loose all contacts, events, etc - any data stored on the phone!!! Make sure you have backup of this data.

Here are same camera snapshots from the upgrade since I didn't dare to interfere with screen grabbing software. No need to remove the SIM card or the SD memory card (there ware no instructions to do so).

Step 1
The first step says select firmware but I was offered only one - S8000XPJA1 - so I am not quite sure if one can select.

Step 2

Step 3


Step 4



At the end of step 3 there is no progress bar, so you really need to be patient.
After the final reboot I got the phone set in German language but this is how I got it from the online shop, anyway. It is easy to switch back to English.

You have to perform also the camera firmware update to complete the upgrade. Here is a post how to perform the camera update.

Well, the phone is completely reset, so you have re-enable the navigation features (Route66) but apparently the software is installed on the SD memory card, so it works straight away after the activation.

Samsung Jet S8000: second round

Wow, brilliant! But who put phone features on this media player device?

Well, I can't resist. After having the phone for about 3 months I have to share what are the most common and unbelievable annoyances with the model (Firmware: S8000XPIJ7)... Let's get started:

Phone:

• My oldest phone (Siemens S35i with B&W LCD) performed better than this phone. I have switched off the 3G connection because it makes it worse, so the comparison is fair - only GSM connection. I have mentioned already that the phone (that is smarter than smart phone) can't recognize the phone numbers correctly if the country code is included.
• During the call there are 6 buttons on the screen (hold, mute, hang up, speaker...). If your ear touches by mistake one of the 6 buttons (well, you have to admit, that the probability of your ear to be found in this vicinity is quite high) the call will be disrupted or it will be put on speaker if you are lucky. New firmwares have moved those six buttons on the bottom of the screen... - very smart.
• If somebody calls you, there is a dial-pad button on the screen that if you mistakenly press (I have done it on the very first day) you will find yourself in a situation where you can't do much but cancel the call because the answer button does NOTHING. Well, the proper actions are to push back symbol on the screen and answer the call the usual way.
  
• If this was not enough - can you believe this? There is a call answer lag (delay between the moment you push the "answer" button and you actually receive the call) ... and the fix for that - reduce/delete all call logs!?!?!? Link to DF forum: Answering lag
  We are 2010! What kind of software designers are working on this phone?
• Nowadays, you have some decent number of contacts in your phone, aren't you. With respect to that, I usually buy phones that a bit more advanced, so I can manage the contacts from a PC. I would rather save my keyboard than commenting on the official bloatware you are offered from Samsung. Well I will only summarize: in 279 MB (not including the drivers) you get limited possibility of editing your address book, calendar, notes, alarms etc. BUT you can't backup your phone!? You can't update the firmware, can't synchronize SMS (only to copy them to your PC). BUT you can covert and upload any video format to your "phone". Wait a minute - the last has nothing to do with the phone...
  Update: latest NPS 1.5.1 was able to update my firmware - I have to admit - that was incredibly easy and simple!
  
• Something that also miss badly on this phone. When the phone is locked, single push brings the light ON on the locked screen. But that's all. I can see what is the time but not a single chance to peek on the battery or signal status... or the bluetooth is still connected - nope - nothing.
  

Music player:

• Well the sound quality turns out to be related to the quality of the headphones you use - not very surprising. What is annoying is that regardless that you put your song in a separate folder and your ring signals in the RingSignals folder if you don't play your songs from a playlist (in other words - preselected the songs) your songs are mixed with the ring signals. And yes this is not a bug it is a feature and the only fix is to use playlists... Again, what year we are?

Wifi:

• Here I am impressed. The phone connect easier to some particular protocols than WinXP... For example "eduroam" hot-spots connection that needs special software under WinXP. But. There is but again. If you have connected through wifi, the internal "Dolphin" browser will use this connection before the WAP even if WAP is set as default in the "Connection" profile. This is good but it is not the case for Java applications or the GPS+ update features... So, every time I manually switch between the connection profiles to make sure that I use the one I want. Again - was it smart phone or smarter than that?
  

GPS:

• It features Route66 LSB software. Free maps, fast fix on open space, accurate and very expensive navigation fees... So, I found myself using the navigation as an "off line version" of "Google Maps". Well, not bad for free service - indeed, it has very good features. Reading trough the DF forum I could not find anybody who has payed for the navigation service... Perhaps I am not the only one that thinks it is a bit expensive...
• WHAT!?! I can't upload custom list of points of interest (POI)? Nonsense! Please, make sure you understand how seriously bad is this. 
• Update, June 2011: A year later, there are still no updates for the maps!!! Pointless...

Touch screen:

• I can't just skip this. No, really I can't. On the box it says "Brilliant Touch Performance". Here I don't know - shell I laugh or shell I cry!? I haven't tried that many other touch phones, but I cant imagine worse performance than that on the Jet. My colleagues were simply lost with my phone responsiveness while I kept repeating "wait, it will come... wait..., no, no you didn't push... well not that hard... it gets better once you get used to it..."
  Well, honestly, I will rather have high or fast touch performance than brilliant...
  Update: latest firmware S8000XPJA1 performs slightly better...
  

Here is the place to mention some other, less important to me.

• Widgets - don't know what to say? None?
• Games - I am not really interested but the situation is not very bright there as well.
• Additional software limited to J2M, virtually no support from Samsung.
  

Smart phone:

I think you got the picture until now that there nothing smart in the phone. Actually it as a brilliant mobile device besides the phone and touch screen features. Perhaps I can formulate it this way "Wow, brilliant! But who put phone features on this media player device?"

Concerning the proprietary OS, the opinion of most of the users in the Net can be summarized in one sentence - 'anything else but "TouchWizard"'. I don't need to rephrase it for you...

If you continue reading and still have the passion to know more let's mention very briefly the positive features: The "phone" has excellent media features, very nice form factor (dimensions), reasonable battery life, excellent connectivity, document viewer - very nice features that barely compensates for the annoyances mentioned above and as it appears I will be stuck for some time with the whole package...

Here is also my first impression review on the device.

Samsung Jet S8000: my personal opinion

I will keep it, as usual, to the bare minimum.

Here you can find very detailed specification and some complete reviews, so I will try to not overlap with what you can find there.
Samsung S8000 Jet - Full phone specifications

To start with, I more or less agree with the reviews, although I have to admit that phone features are a bit disappointing. My old SE K750i works better as a phone set...

Perhaps, this is the fairest review I have seen on the net:
Cnet.uk: Samsung Jet review (make sure you hear the conclusion!)

In few words: not that bad for a NON-smart phone but a bit overpriced for its capabilities and features!

Update: my second round review Wow, brilliant! But who put phone features on this media player device?