Hey Guys,
I've been playing around with the idea of using google voice as my primary phone number, especially because of the extremely weak signal I have at home. I've seen a few apps on the market that let you use google voice over wifi (grooveip, spare phone, sipdroid) and was wondering what experiences people have had with these apps, and which they recommend.
Thanks,
Ratkid
I used talkatone. It worked well using the free wifi in the hotel in Maui to Vancouver. Being Canadian we couldn't get a number so all calls were outgoing only.
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda premium
So i bit the bullet and purchased / tried the ones I originally mentioned. Here is what I found:
Sipdroid: very complicated to set up. After an hour or two of trying to get it to work, no dice. This was verified by the reviews of the app.
grooveip: when it works, its ok, the problem is it crashed more often than working (may be specific to my setup). It was, however, less power hungry than spare phone, only sipping about 0.5% to 1% more per hour idle. Also, when it works, it used less than half as much power (over wifi) as a normal phone call (i was able to sustain a 1 hour call and it used up only about 5% of my battery).
spare phone: it works better, with less delay than groove ip. I have yet to have it crash on me. The biggest draw back is it's more power hungry. It seems to eat up about 2.5% more battery during idle than not having it. Overall, since i'm almost always by some power adapter, I think i'm going to go with this one. Also tried it over 3g with 3 out of 5 bars. Still sounded pretty good on my end, another +.
I'm not sure how many people are looking for apps like this, but if you are, hopefully my post helps.
i've been using groove ip on sky-jb rom and it works without issues. i flashed cvd nibbles and now groove ip crashes all the time. i don't know what the issue can be.
Related
Title - meant to say randomly lose service and have to reboot
I have only had this happen about 3 times since owning the phone (since two weeks after launch). Occasionally, my phone will altogether lose service and display the blue circle with a slash through it, and I have to reboot the phone to regain service. This happens in an area where I have signal usually, when this happens. Does anyone else have this issue?
I had a problem similar to this last night/this morning. I didn't make any changes/mods to the phone either...
Phone was on the charger last night and when I woke up this morning I noticed I didn't have any emails. I still had the 3G icon and 2 signal bars, but anything I would try to do using internet connectivity wouldn't work (checking mail, navigating to google.com, etc.). I just shrugged it off since this has been the first time it happened.
For what it's worth, I'm running JF6 with UnleashTheBeast and the circle battery meter thing...
RE: Network loss, etc.
I've had issues like this from day one. From my testing, it seems to be related to the radios. (Both wifi and 3g.)
Stock was horrid for me, but then again, I live/work in a place with really crappy radio reception. It was tough to tell if the 3g or voice network service losses were just "the location" or something with the phone. But the fact that it's doing it with WIFI when I'm 3 feet from my AP, and no other devices are having issues is telling. Things have stabilized a bit with one of the SRE 1.2 OC builds.
That, and I'm now having intermittent sound issues too. (Can't play ringtones for a few minutes, then I can, then I can't, etc. )
I'm actually starting to suspect it's relating to the blocking filesystem lag. Almost as if some app is just killing the FS. I'll keep investigating. But it's good to know I'm not the only user who is seing service drops in strange ways.
I'm having similar issues with data connection, and i'm completely stock at the moment. My coverage is great so it just doesn't make sense.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Yeah, it's completely random when it happens, and it has happened two out of three times in an area where I have service...
I find that if I'm in a fringe 4G area, that my phone will often not connect to either 4G or 3G. At home my 4G signal is strong and I always connect to 4G 100% of the time. At work, when i'm in the middle of the building I often get no 3G or 4g signal. From my office I always got 3G with my D1. With my Charge about half of the time i get no signal unless I reboot. It seems like the phone gets confused if there is a weak 4G and a decent 3G. How is the Charge in a 3G only area?
I saw the EE4 release notes and it looked like it was meant to solve this problem. However, I'm seeing the same behavior. What is everyone else's experience.?
I should also add I'm using Juice Defender. I think I"m going to try disabling it to make sure that isn't causing a problem.
I'm going to guess that it could be JuiceDefender causing the problem, disabling data until a more reliable signal comes about. I have had times where I've lost 3G service, or 4G service, but it comes back on its own after a few seconds. I'm guessing that despite the improvement, there are still some bugs, which is to be expected with the new technology. I do notice that I loose my data connection much less often than before, and the improvement in battery life is worth any minor issues for me.
Get rid of Juice Defender, it will cause you many more problems than its worth. All it really does is enable/disable data when it doesn't think you need it to save battery, but you're much better off doing that yourself with the power widgets in the notification bar. I spoke with a VZW network engineer after confusing the various tech support reps because I actually have some idea of how their network operates (go figure), and he confirmed that something like that is not a great idea, especially on the new LTE network. It doesn't save much battery, since its always forcing data to re-sync when it thinks it should even when I don't need it, and sometimes turns it off when I do want it. Also, it seems to take much longer for it to sync or switch 3g/4g when JuiceDefender is running.
I completely uninstalled it, and when I pull my phone out, if I plan on using the internet, I turn on mobile data. If I'm putting it away for awhile, using media/apps/games on the phone that don't require data for some time, or planning on making a long phone call, I'll turn it off. It syncs up right away when I need it, so that works very well for me. In fact, if you keep your apps from auto-synching, it will idle most of the time its not being used anyway, meaning its not using much power anyway.
Just like auto task killers, juice defender seems to be one of those things that's an attempt to save battery power and improve performance, but is typically misunderstood and used improperly, actually hurting the things you want to improve. It seems that proper understanding of how Android works, and learning how to efficiently manage it yourself works better.
Cruiserdude said:
Get rid of Juice Defender, it will cause you many more problems than its worth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You guys rock. I've uninstalled juice defender and have had zero issues for the last 3 hours. Still too soon to tell, but it looks promising.
I'm having issues with this the last few days. I've never had Juice Defender.
Especially tethering as the wife and I were driving around looking at houses. She likes to pull them up on the laptop while doing so. Before the EE4 update everything worked great, now it cut out enough to make it too aggravating to continue to use. And each time it cut out the phone had lost 4g and I had to toggle LTE in the network settings to get it to come back.
Anyone else had similar issues? I thought EE4 was supposed to fix these, not cause more!?
Well, my 4G has improved slightly since EE4.
I actually occasionally get 4 bars of 4G in my office at work, where I never had connection to 4G in the past. It still seems a little dicey with random hand-offs between 3G and 4G, though.
¿GotJazz? said:
Well, my 4G has improved slightly since EE4.
I actually occasionally get 4 bars of 4G in my office at work, where I never had connection to 4G in the past. It still seems a little dicey with random hand-offs between 3G and 4G, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I'd agree with that, better 4G when I have it, but very bad handoffs.
Update, not a single outage since removing Juice defender.
Was just wondering if any could give me some feedback on their experiences with this phone vs other carriers or VM phone models. In the little over a week I've owned it, it's horrible compared to my current AT&T phone service.
I wanted to know if it was a quality issue on the phone, or VM's network.
I've notice in Los Angeles area I almost always have 1-2 bars, often have x1 instead of 3G. I also can be stopped at a major intersection in my car and the bar goes from full 3G to no bars and 1x, then spikes back up to full, then says no service. Even when I have a full bar and 3G I get like 150kpbs using speedtest.net sometimes.
Youtube video even in low quality stutters often, in HQ it's pointless.
I've also noticed the GPS lock times are sporadic but yet a utility shows the phone has a lock on 7+ satellites, but reports only about 100ft accuracy.
Sometimes when the screen comes on it flickers for a split second.
I was also told that the phone's radio only uses the 1900Mhz bands, does anyone know if we could get 800Mhz support once we get ROM development for it?
Has anyone noticed similar issues?
Best Buy just got 8 more in stock I'm going to swap it, but wanted to have some reference before the 30 days are up. No stores have a activated VM phone that I can compare service to.
I really want to update my phone and if I can save my money from AT&T. But need something at least somewhat reliable and consistent.
Thanks,
-Lich
Hey man, I'm in southern Indiana, so I can't really say much about your service area, but mine is great. usually 3/4 bars, with 3g speeds faster than my wifi. If your device is wonky like that, where it keeps jumping from no bars to full bars, then maybe its something with the phone itself. as far as 1x data, that's the network. I'm using an optimus v, rooted running cyanogenmod7, and I have excellent battery life and performance, so if you are going to switch to a different VM phone, I recommend that.
I have had absolutely no problems with this phone that aren't software related. There are quite a few Lemons out there and it seems only people on these forums are getting lemons!
I have software version 039 (Not sure that matters)
My signal strength sitting right here in my house is -64dBm with no tower in sight, full bars. I traveled from Upstate NY to Tucson, AZ on multiple flights with multiple layovers last week with this phone and I had absolutely no problems including getting in flight WiFi.
My Triumph is everything I could've hoped for after selling my iPhone 3GS to get the Triumph.
The screen is large and beautiful with absolutely amazing colors. The screen is responsive (after taking the thick 2nd screen protector off) and nearly as good as the iPhone's screen responsiveness. Phone feels good in my hand with a nice coating on the outside. The camera is absolutely amazing. I have taken beginner SLR quality photos with it, and when focusing you can even get quite a bit of bokeh added. The 720p camera is great, though it's jumpy in low light and I really don't like that it doesn't have video focusing. Battery life will take me through an entire day of normal use.
Any problems I have had, are software related and should be able to be easily fixed. GPS Locks beautifully to 3ft accuracy in under 30 seconds with the GPS Test app, but this cannot be said for Google Maps or Navigation. I think Google has a driver problem in their software which should be easily fixed with a new update to the Maps application. The Triumph does become unresponsive for a few seconds at times, but it's no big deal to me, again that should just be a software problem.
One other major problem I have that I KNOW is software related is that the headphone volume is WAY too low. If you make a phone call while listening to music, the volume will jump up to a normal level. Without making a phone call I have to turn my cars radio up to about 8/10 just to be at a normal level, if I make a phone call I can leave it on about 3/10.
For $300 and $25/month, you cannot beat this phone in any way.
On mt phone I can see little horizontal lines.does any one else see them?
My experience:
WiFi takes a while to turn on when I wake the phone. Streaming video is a bit choppy, and downloading the videos only reduces the choppiness by a little bit. I dont have the flickering issue, and to the best of my knowledge, gps works well. Keeps up with games like my bro's Droid X. Snappier than my friends Samsung Galaxy S. Sometimes the soft buttons require a second press to initiate. Overall I'm happy with it, but will be better when CM is installed.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
My experience is that gps works just fine the phone is fast, the signal in seattle area is only good downtown anywhere els and it sucks. I searched for towers in my area and sprint has very few towers I get 1 maybe 2 bars max signal at home mostly 0 bars but can still make calls.
wifi works great and when I have a good signal 3g works great but the lack of signal in most places is what sucks my battery down.
Sprint just needs to improve its coverage
bugs i've come across :
widgets resize after holding your phone in landscape mode
wifi can't connect to a router and will keep re-trying, causing the phone to reboot
random reboots
back button will stop working, while other buttons work
light leakage between soft buttons and case
i went from 038 to 039 software and haven't noticed anything yet. i always had a good gps lock on 038 but had horrible reception, 039 doesn't seem to improve that
Faster then my daughters galaxy s , 038,sometimes the back button takes a few times to act like a back button, but over all I'm very happy with it.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT
I came from the Intercept, and so far the Triumph is heads and shoulders above that even though it has a few minor bugs. Most of the stuff works great, my gps is fine, my signal is actually better than my Intercept, and I don't have any screen flickering.
I do have a small amount of light leakage (not a big deal to me) and sometimes my widgets resize, but all in all it's been great for me.
I came from using the Droid X and let me tell you that this phone reminds me of it so much. The only thing that i dobt like is that the battery is a little lacking compared to the X. An im just waiting for a custom rom to come out for this. I was running liberty 2.0.1 on the x and i would love to see something similar.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
Other than the atrocious performance of the battery.......Horrible gps performance which much like my wife works whenever it feels like it. The 3g speeds are an absolute joke also. So far i'm not all that impressed with this phone. I hope that it can be solved via software and that these are not hardware issues. It's my second one....the first one had power issues.
No problems either with _38, had it since 7/14.
Signal is about 5dB weaker v. an OV in the same location, however I have seen several people report making/receiving calls fine w/no bars as well as SMS. The areas that I usually frequent, I have 1-2 "bars"(no a good sig str indicator), 3G no problem.
...and I second the app problem causing thing to f'up. I read an article the other month that the VAST majority of Android phone problems usually end up being some app interfereing with functionality. e.g. I had sudden batt drain problems, so I checked batt useage and found Star Chart(FAOD that day) was using 80% of batt, so I killed it problem solved(in that case).
[EDIT]
3G speeds: VMUSA problem, mine are as craptacular on the MT as they were on the OV, i.e. usually about 56k dialup rates.
[/EDIT]
Well here's an update.
I just got back from BB and exchanged the 1st Triumph with another. It's funny the manufacture date on this one is newer but it has the 38 firmware and my old one had 39 go figure that out. Anyway so far the performance seem just as bad, but the screen doesn't flicker on power on.
Maybe I just have the worst luck and need to try a 3rd one. I really love this phone and want to use it and VM it's so cheap. I'm going to try this one for a few days and cross my fingers my house just has extra crappy reception.
I also bought a Optimus V just to compare the signal network speed as a reference, I haven't swapped to that one. I turned it on non activated and it shows 1 bar signal also. I'll be curious if it goes up once it's offically on the network. I really would like the bigger screen and flash support though from the Triumph.
Maybe I like in the wrong state and should move where you guys live..lol
Thanks for the feedback.
-Lich
Common issues for me now are connectivity, battery drain, and light leaking from the bottom right corner. I'm going to swap mine out before the 30 days are up
mr2011 said:
Common issues for me now are connectivity, battery drain, and light leaking from the bottom right corner. I'm going to swap mine out before the 30 days are up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea i think everyone pretty much has all those problems. if you exchange it you will probably get the same problems or worse. hopefully a new batch will have been released by then
I own both the Triumph and the Optimus V. Reception seems a touch better with this one in known trouble spots around town here. Where the Optimus might lose connection, the Triumph retains it, if barely.
I am having issues with a greenish yellow blob in the middle of the camera. It is reducible within some combination of the setting, but in some instances it is still there. Is this a common issue, or are there MTs which do not exhibit this? The reason I ask, is that I am weighing wether to swap my MT out for another.
I also have intermittent lock screen 'flicker', but from what I have read, it seems to be fairly common. I dont see it often within normal use, but if I repeatedly hit the power button, it becomes visible.
Connectivity does however seem to be stable when I have been using it (both wifi and cdma). Even in cases where there are low bars, I seem to have a decent connection for text/voice.
Has anyone else's battery life gotten more and more horrible by the day? It seems like mine is getting worse as each day passes. The first day I got my Triumph I had some heavy use on it getting all my apps installed and configured and it lasted almost a day and a half for some time on a single charge, now 2 weeks later im having to plug it in maybe twice daily for quick charges.
So the flickering screen issue... Major defect? Or can we count on a solution when custom ROMs become available?
I'm on my 4th Triumph now, and at this point, Best Buy is probably going to ban me from making returns if I go back very much more with this crap..
mr2011 said:
Has anyone else's battery life gotten more and more horrible by the day? It seems like mine is getting worse as each day passes. The first day I got my Triumph I had some heavy use on it getting all my apps installed and configured and it lasted almost a day and a half for some time on a single charge, now 2 weeks later im having to plug it in maybe twice daily for quick charges.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try calibrating the battery with charge cycles. Might help. Or maybe it is an app you installed?
Sent from my LG Optimus V running Sense 3.0
Anyone found their Chacha disables it's WiFi on it's own? Mine has done it twice to my knowledge. The first time I assumed it was down to the power saving kicking in, but today, the battery had 60+% remaining and it cut off after about 10 hours.
I've had numerous Android handsets, from 1.5 thru to 2.2 and none of them disabled WiFi. The router is in the room directly below where the phone is, so signal strength is not an issue. The BB9700 that was also in the room at the same time still has it's connection.
On a different note, disabling FB chat and having a good signal (via Femtocell) seems to have improved battery performance. Still have 50% battery after 12 hours and about 30mins of calls and FB/twitter, with WiFi on for 10 hours and tracesaver app, which uses GPS and uploads data on phone usage.
Will do a firmware upgrade, as I'm on 1.15 right now, but there are more bugs in this phone than I've seen on any other Android handset. Like the form factor, but the honeymoon period is coming to an end. Moto FIRE could be a suitable replacement, but I've not had a good history with Moto.
When you say disabling wifi, do you mean wifi turns off? Or you get disconnected from your router?
I have had issues where I will get disconnected from a router before.
Software version 1.15 is waay old, try updating to 1.57 here
swtesting.ro/alex/downloads/ruu_chacha_htc_asia_wwe_1.57.707.2_radio_47.23.35.3033h_7.51.35.19_release_228383_signed.zip
You may need a goldcard (modified sdcard) to run this update, there's an easy tutorial how to make a goldcard here: theunlockr.com/2010/03/10/how-to-create-a-goldcard/
Hope that helps
Mine turns itself on by itself I am pretty sure its an app doing it but not found which yet
sent usin' tapatalk innit.
Overall I am loving this phone. I have never had an Android phone this fast. I can't find a hint of lag on this thing.
I am, sadly, having a couple of other issues and want to get other peoples thoughts on things before I do anything "Drastic".
1) I heard somewhere they boosted the sound by 25%? If I have mine at full... I am hearing static and popping... like it is too much for the speakers. This is when I get a text/ringtone, or when I am playing a game (Robot Unicorn Attack for instance... don't judge).
2) Wifi.... I am getting weird "lag" when I am on wifi. Websites take longer to connect to and load... same with apps and the Playstore. Speed test I am only able to pull down 15MB/s. Low ping... but it takes forever (6-10 seconds) to connect to start the test. Have tried three different routers, same results (Netgear,an E3200, and a D-Link). Everything looks normal under settings. Full strength (in the room of the router... gets worse when I am downstairs). I unchecked the Wifi Optimization. Also it is doing this on 5 and 2.4 GHz.
3) GPS Lag - It seems to be taking longer than normal. I am going on a trip this weekend, and I will really get to test this then... but wanted to know if this is normal for an HTC device now a days (last one I owned was the Thunderbolt.... shivers, and GPS was always wonky).
Any help appreciated. Thanks!
1 - In my experience so far, the speakers are definitely louder, but I haven't found any distortion besides audio files that I artificially increased the volume on for previous devices.
2 - I haven't seen any WiFi lag yet. But I'm on vacation currently and the internet here is only 12mbps, instead of my 65mbps at home.
3 - The Engadget review noted some wonky GPS issues.
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Sent from the all new HTC One M8
NotATreoFan said:
1 - In my experience so far, the speakers are definitely louder, but I haven't found any distortion besides audio files that I artificially increased the volume on for previous devices.
2 - I haven't seen any WiFi lag yet. But I'm on vacation currently and the internet here is only 12mbps, instead of my 65mbps at home.
3 - The Engadget review noted some wonky GPS issues.
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Sent from the all new HTC One M8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you could... when loading up a web page or something... see if it is taking longer than normal to connect to a web page initially. Mine is acting like there is no internet... then all the sudden it loads up fine.
I am also noticing MMS is taking longer than normal to send (I had an S4 before this and it didnt take half as long... maybe it was compressing it more?)
I have just had radio issues in the past with HTC devices and want to nip them before it is too late.
meteron said:
If you could... when loading up a web page or something... see if it is taking longer than normal to connect to a web page initially. Mine is acting like there is no internet... then all the sudden it loads up fine.
I am also noticing MMS is taking longer than normal to send (I had an S4 before this and it didnt take half as long... maybe it was compressing it more?)
I have just had radio issues in the past with HTC devices and want to nip them before it is too late.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been browsing a good bit on WiFi and LTE in the past 2 days. Haven't noticed any lag prior to pages starting to load, at which point I just blame the slow internet here.
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Sent from the all new HTC One M8
Sadly I am still having this issue. Now that the phone has been out a week, anyone noticed anything?
I am not having issues connecting to the Wifi, I am just having issues connecting to the internet once connected to the Wifi. I have now tried this on 5 different home routers and several public Wifi areas and all the same results: going to a webpage has a delay anywhere up to 15 seconds before the page starts to load, and apps have issues connecting as well (Instagram will tell me unable to refresh, and Facebook will tell me I have no network connection). I have tried everything: Renamed the Device to HTC One, tried switching to 2.4 and 5 Ghz band, Unchecked WiFi Optimization... nothing is fixing this "lag".
Speaker issues - Still hearing a popping and crackling of the speakers, and I am seeing others are having the issue as well.
GPS - Went on my trip, I think I was getting the typical "Chicago GPS" lag before, as I would normally get a lock on with my GPS in 3 seconds or less while out in the middle of no where this past weekend.
I personally do not want to go through 15 phones trying to find one that has working WiFi, as it seems the One series has been having issues with WiFi since 4.3. Anyone have any suggestions?
Just browsing the forums for a WiFi issue my M8 has, to hopefully find a fix. This is what I have, not sure if it fits your symptoms as well:
Speedtest on network and bluetooth 11.39Mbps down / 3.85Mbps up
on network no bluetooth 13.98Mbps down / 3.98Mbps up
Speedtest on WiFi and bluetooth 2.53Mbps down / 5.53Mbps up
on WiFi no bluetooth 20.79Mbps down / 6.67Mbps up
Basically, if I keep my BT off, my speeds are fine and inline with what I expect to get, but if it's on it's at a crawl. Seems like WiFi and BT don't want to work in tandem. I haven't found much information on my issue yet, but I'm hoping to before I either do a a full reset or warranty replacement.
blutenchi said:
Just browsing the forums for a WiFi issue my M8 has, to hopefully find a fix. This is what I have, not sure if it fits your symptoms as well:
Speedtest on network and bluetooth 11.39Mbps down / 3.85Mbps up
on network no bluetooth 13.98Mbps down / 3.98Mbps up
Speedtest on WiFi and bluetooth 2.53Mbps down / 5.53Mbps up
on WiFi no bluetooth 20.79Mbps down / 6.67Mbps up
Basically, if I keep my BT off, my speeds are fine and inline with what I expect to get, but if it's on it's at a crawl. Seems like WiFi and BT don't want to work in tandem. I haven't found much information on my issue yet, but I'm hoping to before I either do a a full reset or warranty replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problems here with simultaneous bluetooth and WiFi. I am using a 5GHz router.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Premium 4 mobile app