I was having a conversation with someone and Google Chrome was open on my phone as I was looking something up. He mentioned how he wanted to buy a new phone. The google now assistant (the one on android 7) started speaking about buying a new phone from virgin mobile, (a company I have never been involved with), even when i looked the screen it continued speaking. In my opinion it was not a coincident, we were talking about phones and then it started talking about them when Google Now was not running. Is Google listening to what I am saying?
I am freaked out, does anyone have any explanations?
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Ok, I know this is going to be a stupid question, but I'm a total newbie to "smart phones".
My wife wants to get a "mp3 player" for walking, and she also wants a new phone. (She has a standard "candybar" phone with no data, etc.)
She says the phone just needs to be basic (no data plan is needed), but she wants a fancy touchscreen so it's easier for her to send SMS, etc.
So I was thinking... why not combine the two devices and get a cell phone that can also play mp3 files and has a touch screen?
I thought the iphone would be good, but ... holy cow! Even an old "3g" phone is still $300 on ebay.
So then a friend told me to look at Android phones... which led me here.
QUESTIONS:
1. Does the android system include a decent mp3 player? This will be for my wife who has something like 50gb of songs on her computer which are not organized by folder or anything else. (She uses MediaMonkey to organize.) She has no playlists or anything else. The phone "mp3 player" must be simple and easy for her to find whatever music she wants.
2. What do you think of the "Eclipse Novus phone from chinavasion.com? (I'm new here so the forum won't let me post a direct link.) It's Android 2.2, so I think it should be ok to play mp3 files? (I suppose this depends on the answer to my first question.) It's pretty cheap, so I'm not sure. (One of the reasons I like this phone is because it is quad-band so she can keep using it in France when we move there in August...)
3. Will the phone above work with Skype? (ie: Will any "android phone" work with Skype?) This is also important, because she'll want to use it (instead of her computer) to call home after we move to France.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
First off, welcome!
Yes, Android phones have "mp3 players", they're in the form of music apps. There's a stock music app that comes with all Android phones, but there are also tons of free alternatives. I'd suggest checking out the Android Market from your computer if you want to see what Android has to offer. I have an iPod, but I use my phone for music just as often because I always have it on me.
I'm not familiar with the phone you're referring to, but it will definitely play music. I guess the final decision on which phone would be dependent on your carrier, what they have to offer, and if you're willing & able to switch.
Honestly, I'm not familiar with Skype... at all. I've never used it. I do know there's a Skype app, but I believe it's WiFi only in the US, with 3g calling available in Europe. I'm not 100% sure on this, so I would check it out on the market from your computer as well. You can also use Google Voice to place calls, and there are other apps as well.
One thing to note - most carriers won't sell you an Android phone without a data plan being a requirement. I'm not sure how this works if you buy the phone somewhere else.
I'd definitely recommend getting her an Android, though. Good luck with your search, and if you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask
Thanks very much for your reply.
plainjane said:
One thing to note - most carriers won't sell you an Android phone without a data plan being a requirement. I'm not sure how this works if you buy the phone somewhere else.
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This is exactly why I'm interested in purchasing the android phone from a 3rd party provider and not from a telecom carrier... this way, it is unlocked and can be used for any GSM-based provider around the world on any plan.
In my wife's case, she doesn't need a data plan, so we simply won't tell the provider it is a "smart" phone. She can simply sign up for any basic voice-only service, and use the wifi capability of the phone if needed when possible.
If anyone has any experience with Skype on an android phone, please feel free to respond.
Thanks!
I feel behind the times since I'm not familiar with Skype, but I've never had a need for it. I'm sure there are some reviews of the Android app floating around the internet. Just be sure when reading reviews that they're recent - Android apps get updated and improved, so a review from when it first came out may be irrelevant.
Carriers can tell which phone is being used on your account, but of course they have to check. As long as there's a non-smartphone activated on the plan first, and you activate the new one yourself, you should be fine.
I use poweramp as the mp3 player.
Skype works only in audio mode on android atm.(no video)
yes of course it does...... and if she didn't like the built in mps3 player she can install another one fron android market
I'm using winamp, it's a free app and it is very fast. For me is the best app for music
I'm not sure where else this should go, so here it is.
During the Google I/O they kept mentioning how Google Chrome, the desktop browser, would "soon" include conversational search and hotwording, with that repeated phrase, "Ok, Google." That was back in May, and even today, I can't find where that is possible to a point where I don't think it's been released yet though it's been months in. Just wondering whether it's somewhere hidden or whether my mic just isn't working to a point of me yelling "Ok, Google" at my computer is pointless.
Edit: Official- http://insidesearch.blogspot.in/2013/05/a-multi-screen-and-conversational.html
Although that makes it sound like it might be a long time before it debuts?
Maybe this is just frustration on my part, but I just don't understand why Google doesn't push hangouts more. Just today, my kids are at a friends house and they wanted to video chat, so my friends have an iPhone. They say lets just Facetime, and I tell them I have an Android, so that's not possible. Then I get the, well maybe you should switch then comment. I have them download Hangouts, and then they attempt to give me their email address and they are not getting my Hangout's request. Which just makes them more persistent on saying, see... you wouldn't have this issue if you have an iPhone. Of course they gave me the wrong email address which caused the issue in the first place, and after that was corrected, everything worked pretty much as it should. Only issue right now is on the IOS side with the notification of the video call. Apparently this broke in the latest update. Needless to say, there are a ton of advantages for Google to push this, more so that it is cross-platform and everyone can video chat.
It's the only thing that drives me crazy with Android, (minus updates...) but not enough to make me switch back to IOS. Not that there is anything wrong with IOS, but it isn't for me. UGH!!!
Any thoughts why Google would not want to push this?
OK, Am I the only one? I think this is a MASSIVE PROBLEM and am so sick of it.
Stupid Google voice is constantly interupting my life while listening to music with "To do a Google voice search please unlock your phone" over and over and I want to toss my phone into a wall.
I have looked everywhere for a solution to find nothing but what appears to be hundreds perhaps thousands of people, like me, disgusted to the point of swearing off android altogether. Ok am one of them.
I suppose I could unable the entire Google app and kill the main upgrade of MM just to get rid of this plague but why should I have to?
Please Google give us the ability to eliminate this annoying thing. Seriously, why is there no option under the gazzillion other settings you offer.
This is not just a phone or a brand but apparently a serious issue across all android devices and people are really sick of it.
I've never really used many of Googles apps and services and more specifically given it all the permissions for which it's asked. I decided for no particular reason other than morbid curiosity to go all in this time; give it everything, partake of every privacy smashing feature. So far I'm not really finding the phone experience to be different than when I blocked many of those features.
This had me curious, just how Goog is everyone else going with their phones? I don't want this to devolve into a privacy debate so please leave that for another thread. I'm interested in how Goog folks are going and if they feel the benefits are worthwhile to them.
I've never opted out of anything when I get a new Google device, or even on Chrome from that matter. And even when I get a prompt to opt in to something they ask to help development, or to better my experience I always say yes. I've been doing this since the Nexus One. I'm deep into the Google ecosystem. I use all Google products for everything I can think of (barring OS as I use Windows 10, and not Chrome OS). I've never had any privacy or security issues with Google having all my info, and I'm not worried about it in the slightest. They have millions of subscribers/customers. I'm sure they're not worried about any one individual's info. Anyway I know you said you don't want to get into the privacy/security aspect of it, and neither do it, but I just wanted to throw in my experience with opting in to everything.
Let Google be Google! Seriously though it's not like they track you like spies lol, you'll enjoy the little things that make Google different. Location based stuff mainly
I'm not noting much difference; I'd say none if given more time and I didn't notice some helpful feature between here and whenever I decide to call the experiment. And yeah, Bobby, it is kind of a fine line, privacy is a worthy topic but not the purpose of this thread. I'm just curious if people do go all in or not and if so if they find it beneficial. In other words I was wondering how many go full Goog and if so was it worth it to give Goog the works because of some benefit I haven't yet surfaced. Start talking about privacy,security, that sort of thing, the thread is as good as dead.
I like to use as many Google apps or services as I can. They're usually pretty handy and allow me to get the most out of my phone. This is supposed to be a Google phone, so why not use Google's stuff instead of third party apps? If my data gets leaked then I could always join a class action lawsuit with the others that were affected.
The only annoying thing I've found with signing up for every Google service is pretty much anything I search for on Google shows up in my Google Now feed. For example, if I search for barbershops in my area or ask Google Assistant to find me the nearest one I'll get a few cards in my Google Now feed the next morning related to hair cutting or the latest hair styles. They assume that I'm interested in that stuff and want more info, but in reality I could care less. I just wanted a damn haircut... To avoid this I've been doing all of my searching in an incognito window. I can't turn off search history because if I do I can't use Google Now or Google Assistant
Face_Plant said:
The only annoying thing I've found with signing up for every Google service is pretty much anything I search for on Google shows up in my Google Now feed. For example, if I search for barbershops in my area or ask Google Assistant to find me the nearest one I'll get a few cards in my Google Now feed the next morning related to hair cutting or the latest hair styles. They assume that I'm interested in that stuff and want more info, but in reality I could care less. I just wanted a damn haircut... To avoid this I've been doing all of my searching in an incognito window. I can't turn off search history because if I do I can't use Google Now or Google Assistant
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This exactly!
My wife is always being lazy and asking me to search for something for her (while she's holding her phone!) and she doesn't understand why I hate doing it. It's because I don't want to fill my google feed and advertising ID with info on her (very feminine) interests.