Android requires internet all the time?!?!?

L

litt_o_shotay411

New member
Hey guys,
I'm new here.

I want to buy a HTC desire phone working on Android 2.1 as you all know.
But a friend of mine told me that don't do it, because Android requires internet connection all the time to work, and honestly I didn't like that (if it's true).
So please can somebody tell me how does android work? Does it really needs internet connection all the time? And for what? (is it true that I need the internet to use simple features like the Calendar for instance!!?)
I will be delighted if you answer my questions.

Thanks
 
You dont need internet all of the time, you can use the calendar you just wont be able to sync it unless you are on the internet. Most cell providers make you get a data plan when you get an android phone through them, but if you buy it out right then you should be ok, but with some android phone you have to have data to activate the phone, i am not sure with this one i will let someone else answer that part for you
 
Your friend is not correct.

Android can work fine without any data connection whatsoever, but you won't enjoy the full experience without one.

By default (but you can turn this off), Android like to synchronise your contacts, calendar, and mail from your GMail account (which you don't actually have to use for your email). But when it doesn't have a data connection, it all still works fine, you just don't have the backup of your contacts or calendar online, and you won't get notified of any new emails arriving at your GMail account.

Mobile network providers will try and make you have a data plan because if you don't have one the phone will constantly try and use data. Many mobile networks will allow this, but at huge cost, if you don't have a data plan. So that's why they insist you have one. Most people wouldn't know how to turn off mobile data to prevent this (you use an app called APNDroid to do it).

I regularly go to places that have no phone signal, and continue to use my phone's Calendar and applications (that don't need internet access, like games) fine.

Many people also don't want to pay for a data plan, so they don't get one, and make the phone only use data over WiFi (when you're at home/work).

However, there are some things you do need a data connection for. For example, Google Maps, checking email, downloading applications, chatting on MSN/Yahoo, browsing the internet. Sure, you can do all these over WiFi, but it's often useful to be able to do these while out and about as well.
 
Data connectivity is not a requirement for an Android device to function, although you will be greatly sacrificing the overall functionality of your device without it!
 
I used my phone for almost 3 months without a data plan or being connected to the internet. Android phones work just fine without an internet connection.
 
Okey I understand now; (of course Google Maps, checking email, downloading applications, chatting on MSN/Yahoo, browsing the internet needs internet; I know that; but i thought that you CANNOT use the phone without internet). The issue is that here in Lebanon mobile companies don't provide plans like in the UK or US... so I will have to buy it on my own and get the GPRS or WAP from my provider later on independently.

But I've read some reviews that the batteries drown very fast on Android OS; right?

What about the system stability?! Is Android really that stable? Does the phone freezes?!

Now i'm really confused; I like HTC HD2 that runs on WinMo 6.5 and HTC DESIRE that runs on Android 2.1; which one should I get?! (I know it's an idiot question in here ; but I need logical reasons not sensational ones)

Thanks guys you're awesome!
 
Thanks guys you're awesome!

Guys I'm confused between HTC HD2 (WinMo 6.5) and HTC DESIRE (Android 2.1), which one to get??! (I know that this is an idiot question in here ) (I need logical discussion not an emotional one )

Another idiot question in here: What about the stability of Android OS??! Is it really so stable? Does the phone freezes like in other OS?

Thanks bros
 
The phone works just the same as your PC or Mac would without an internet connection. All the apps will still load and run, but any that need an internet connection won't have full functionality.

A typical user gets at least 1 day of use out of the phone, just like any smartphone. That's fine, as you can charge the phone every night while you sleep. If you're treating your phone like a laptop (playing games constantly on it or we browsing), then expect the battery to last as long as a laptop would in a similar situation - a couple of hours maybe.

Android is incredibly reliable. It has a number of features that protect itself against anything that may cause the phone to lock up. If there are any processes taking longer than 5 seconds to respond, Android will pop up a window asking if you want to Force Close the app, or Wait. I've never once experience Android just locking up to the point where you have to do something like pulling the battery out or anything like that.

Out of my experience with the top 4 smartphone OSes, I'd rank them in the order of Android, iPhone OS, Blackberry, WinMo. WinMo just feels like a REALLY cut down version of Windows, that can't do much, and what it can do it's very slow at doing. It's well known that when you scroll around the screen quickly (such as when viewing a large webpage) WinMo "tears" and the scrolling becomes "jaggy", whereas Android just scrolls smoooooooth.
 
Thanks extorian! That was really helpful!
Another thing I'm concerned of is the MULTITASKING!
Is it true that you CANNOT turn off an application that is running in the background?!?!? (I've read that someplace). I know that android kills automatically the applications when it's running low on memory; but suppose that i want to turn them off by myself!! Could I??
For instance I have now a N96 (symbian) that shows a small circle on applications running in the background and i can shut them off manually! Does android do that in a way or another?!
 
If you think about how you use a mobile phone, you want to have quick and short interactions with it. This is different from a PC that you're sat in front of all day and need things like Word and Internet Explorer open all day.

Android is focused towards this idea of quick and short interactions by keeping applications loaded unless there's any real need to unload them. This means that the application will appear instantly, rather than having to shut down (which uses power and take a few seconds), and then reload (which uses more power and takes even longer) every time you want to access them. This works very well if you leave it alone.

Many apps shut down themselves when you "exit" them.

Many apps have an explicit "Exit" button or menu option to do this.

It just depends what they've been programmed to do by the developer.

Some, however, do stay loaded. But this is a good thing. If Android needs more memory it'll start shutting down apps that you haven't used in a while automatically.

Now some people don't like this, and they want as much free memory as possible, even if they're never going to use 3/4 of it. So they use Task Killers and the like to automatically kill off processes they don't want running all the time.

So, in answer to your question, you can turn off (unload, exit, whatever you want to call it) an application with a Task Killer app. Most apps exit properly anyway, but some don't. Some apps run in the background on purpose (e.g. Twitter to grab your tweets), and you wouldn't want to kill these off.

For the most part, if an app is running in the background it's because it is configured to, or needs to. So killing it off just means it'll load itself back up a few minutes later, or when you next start it.

It's also worth noting that background processes work very differently to the likes of Windows. On Android a background process uses 0% CPU. The app itself does not sit there monitoring stuff or running in the background like apps would on Windows, what happens is Android itself tells an app to run or respond when something happens that that app is meant to respond to. For example, your Messaging app may be loaded in memory so that it can start very fast, but it doesn't sit there polling for new messages or using up any other resources other than a tiny amount of RAM. When an SMS message comes in, Android fires off what's called an Intent, which says "Hey, any apps that respond to incoming SMS messages take a look at this...", and then a bunch of apps will look at the SMS message and do something with it, or not.
 
Okey man i get it now! I'm starting to understand how this Android work!
Thanks a lot man!
As a conclusion, I guess (& I hope) I wouldn't regret switching from my Symbian N96 to an Desire Android after all!!
 
I had a Nokia N95 prior to getting the first (and now regarded as pretty crap) Android phone - the T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream. Newer phones, like the HTC Desire that run Android 2.1 or Android 2.2 are way better.

So let me tell you what differences I noticed, good and bad.

The camera on my G1 is utterly crap compared to my N95. Even the latest and greatest Android phones with 8MP cameras don't seem as good in certain conditions. The Carl Zeiss optics on the Nokia N95/96 is far superior to most Android phones. Similarly, the video recording won't be as good as your Nokia.

After that, everything is better on Android. You'll no doubt find some stuff that appears crap at first, but if that's the case come back here and we'll tell you a bunch of apps that'll make things much better. For example, I was dismayed to find that I couldn't use my own ringtones for SMS tones etc. But you can, you just need an app or put them in the right folder on the SD card. My Nokia (as standard or through an app?) would notify me every X minutes if I had a text message. This was great if I'd been in the shower or something. Android doesn't do this by default, but then I discovered Missed Call, a great app that allows you to configure just about every notification in any way you like and have them repeating as often as you like, even setting the colour of the flashing LED and custom vibrate patterns. It goes further too allowing you to specify custom notifications for individual contacts.

I found the default Messaging app a bit crap. Still I liked it more than Nokia's offering. But then I discovered Handcent that allows you to do a million cool things with text messages and is totally customisable in terms of its look and feel. This is why Android is so good - you can replace anything you don't like with 3rd party alternatives.

Finally, one thing I really missed on my Nokia was having my Calendar entries on my main screen. This has been possible in later versions of Android (since 1.5), but I found an amazing Calender widget called Pure Calendar Widget which allows you to take up as much or as little of your home screen as you like, and display calendar entries in any format you like with as much or little detail as you like, with any "skin" that you like.

Even though I have the first Android phone ever released, there is absolutely no way in hell I'd go back to Nokia. Android is just in a completely different league. Once I'd got to the stage that my G1 did everything my N95 could do, only better, I then discovered that I wasn't even 1% through what my Android phone could do for me. I then started to experiment and found a load of really cool apps.

For a small taster of the kind of really cool apps you can get on Android, have a look at this thread: http://rabroad.com/forums/f7/apps-to-highlight-androids-potential-33883/

I imagine you're getting the picture now... Freedom, customisation, great community support, 60,000 apps to solve all your problems (75% of which are free), and decent hardware to back them up. There are now more free apps on the Android Market than on the Apple App Store.

The only real problem you'll have is knowing what apps exist out there that may improve your experience. There are a lot to discover out there. But this is what we're here for. Many of us here have well over a year and a half of experience with Android, so the community will be happy to recommend decent apps. If there's anything you don't like on your phone, or anything you felt your N96 did better (apart from pictures/vids), or anything you feel "Hey, I wish it could do this....", then just come back and ask. Most of the time there's a good solution.

I personally felt that, until a couple of weeks ago anyway, the HTC Desire was overall the best phone normal people could buy anywhere in the world. I highly doubt you'll regret it, but as with all transitions to different things, there will be a learning curve and you may hate it for the first few days. After that, you'll never look back.
 
I have to say that these last two posts by Extorian have been the best posts I have ever read that explain the Android Os. Thanks for taking the time to detail all that great information.
 
Yes extorian! Thank you very much! I really really appreciate your help over here; and to be honest I have never has such a support in any forum i've been in!
BIG 10x
 
Thanks extorian. But truth be told, you make a great case for buying the Nokia. What I find most annoying about Android is it works just fine as long as you are willing to pile on apps. I have a G1, and did not buy the "gosh, it's just like a little baby, it needs to learn..." crap I got from Tmo when I found that the email app didn't work and Bluetooth would not transfer files (w/o an app and rooting). From reading Android forums, I gather even the Nexus still can't handle attachments (w/o a helper app) and still needs yet another app to make the Bluetooth work for data transfer. My clunky old N80 could do all these things w/o fuss -- plus came standard with almost everything I needed (including an Office app). And yes, a really decent camera. Also... when you shut off data roaming, it really shut down. I gather from postings here that some of the newer Android phones still can't shut down... unless you use yet another app like APNdroid.

On the Google forum users are far less "understanding" of Android's poorly thought out package. Any modern smart phone, especially ones costing this much, should be able to match the abilities of my old N80... when in fact in many cases, even my old Nokia 6600 was more competent.

You want to see better Android phones? You have to demand them.
 
But that's the very beauty of Android. Let's use the example of email attachments as an example...

So you can attach most media already, but say you want to attach a ZIP file, you will need an extra app. So not only do you have a choice of several brilliant file managers like OI File Manager, Linda, Astro, etc, giving YOU the choice depending what you like best, but if something doesn't do what you want there are a ton of free solutions.

I could pick 100 things my Nokia N95 couldn't do that my Android can, despite the hardware being capable of it. On the Nokia you'd be stuck with no solution, but on Android you not only have a solution, but you have have a range of solutions to suite various people.

I personally didn't miss BlueTooth file transfers at all. Email worked fine in the cases I needed it.
 
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