Repeat notifications for GMail and Calendar alarms?

A

Allie L

New member
Right - here's my dilemma. I'm due to upgrade from a G1 in a few weeks. I've narrowed it down to two choices. The HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy S.

I know the specs of both very well, and the SGS is better, but the deal breaker is the fact that it has no notification LED. But I wanted to ask here in case I can live without it thanks to some cool app I don't know about.

Unfortunately, I've become very reliant on the notification LED on my G1. I don't always see/hear/feel the initial notification (vibration/ringtone/etc), and I don't always have my phone on my person and want to be made aware if I've missed something. Currently I glance at the LED, but I don't mind it making a noise or something instead ever X minutes.

Basically, I want to be made aware within a few minutes if I have messed a GMail or Calendar alarm.

Missed calls and text messages aren't a problem because I already know about Missed Call which can repeat a vibrate or tone for missed calls and texts, and FlashNotify can flash the screen by turning it on for a second and then off every X seconds for missed calls and text messages.

So the problem is just getting repeat notifications for GMails and Calendar events. All I have for these seems to be the notification LED, which the SGS lacks. Do any apps offer repeat notifications (i.e. a tone or vibrate every X minutes) for GMail and Calendar events?
 
You might know my answer already. Get the Galaxy S, there's currently work being done by the XDA to remedy the notification problem. Some suggest modding it so the screen comes on when something comes through. There's also talk of manipulating a few pixels on the screen to simulate a notification led.
 
Yep - I saw the pixel trick. It's a great idea for an AMOLED or Super-AMOLED screen as it'll use almost no power. However, this would mean making a notification LED driver that directly accessed those pixels, and with method would probably require rooting, which I'm not likely to do for a while, if ever.
 
Your right but you can gain root access and still remain stock. It's a good chance that if its accomplished they would make it into an app. If so, it might not require root but it likely will need to be rooted.
 
Looking at both of those phones, I gotta say, I'd get the Desire in a heartbeat. The SGS looks plastic-y. The Desire is a handsome piece of hardware. I know the specs of the SGS are better, so maybe I'm being superficial, but that's my $0.02. Also whether one or the other will get the benefit of CM ROMs would be a big factor.
 
I've had both in my hand, and you're right DT, the Desire feels more... I can't think of the word... stylish? Nicer? The SGS is impressively thin though, and it's screen is just truly amazing to use. I just couldn't see the Desire screen at all in bright sunlight, but the SGS is really good still. You can throw your finger around on the screen as fast as you like with as many fingers as you like and it just works instantly. The Desire lags behind a bit, and screws up with two fingers when they cross axis. I kind of like the bigger screen on the SGS too. But then I like the trackball and notification LED on the Desire. The Sense UI keyboard is amazing too. Never used Swype so don't know about the SGS.

Arrrgh this is so hard! I've been thinking about nothing but the choice between these two phones for a month now. The Droid X looks good too, but I doubt there'll be a UK version for a long time. The Milestone took ages to come out here after the Droid was released.
 
Ooo, found an app that might do repeating Calendar alarms: http://www.androlib.com/android.application.amprogz-nudnik-full-jqmAn.aspx

Anyone tried that?
 
I prefer the Desire to the N1 because I think it looks better, and you can get it cheaper over here as the mobile networks sell it. The N1 you have to pay a lot for, crappy exchange rate, exaggerated exchange rate, import tax, and huge shipping.

But in general... I'm unlikely to start installing custom ROMs on my brand new phone, and like my G1 I may never do, so it really is Desire or SGS, boring non-rooted stuff. I'll use my G1 to play with Cyan's ROMs after I upgrade to another phone
 
And this one for GMails... http://www.androlib.com/android.application.ru-orangesoftware-areminder-jqt.aspx

Also this one: http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-jonasl-gmailnotifier2-FDwp.aspx
 
Makes sense. If you're determined not to root then just get what you really like. If the Desire is laggy, then that's an issue. Honestly, the Desire is the only phone I've seen thus far that rivals/surpasses the N1, in the big picture of design+specs. The physical buttons are a big plus. HTC just makes good stuff, but if the innards of the SGS are superior, you might want to go with that.
 
Thats a tough decision man. I don't think I can do the all plastic phones ever again. But that Galaxy is a gaming machine and has a nice camcorder. If games don't matter, then the Desire is the way to go! Plus it has a flash!
 
All good points Thanks.

The Desire and Nexus One didn't feel laggy at all until I used the SGS. It's just truly instant and smooth. This is mostly due to the much faster reaction time of the touch screen and perhaps a tiny bit to do with the faster graphics processor.

I only waited this long as I was tied into an 18 month contract. Here in the UK if you're on a contract and you want a new phone you either have to pay the remainder of your monthly payments immediately and you can then buy a subsidised phone from them, or you can just buy one contract free. Unfortunately they tend to give you massive discounts off the published prices of their handsets, but they don't tell you what the discounts are until the last month of your contract.

I could wait until later yeah, but with Android there's always going to be something better coming out - I'd be waiting forever. At first I liked the sound of the Xperia X10 back when it was announced at the beginning of the year, then I wanted a Milestone / Droid, then I wanted a Nexus One, then a Desire, and now an SGS. I'm more than a little bit tempted to wait for the SGS Pro, as I love my physical keyboards......

*head explodes*

By the way, been trying GMail Notifier. It works very well and is a tiny simple app at only 50K or so.
 
I may be mistaken but on certain tariff plans you can get the SGS free right? It may feel plasticy and lack flash but honestly, you can say it is the first true 3rd gen Android phone. It's has screen technology that is unveiled by anything on the market from any manufacturer, its even capable of 16 simultaneous touches. The GPU is also 3rd generation technology, the closest thing to it is the Droid X, Droid 2 and the iPhone 4. And it has double the graphic performance of all 3 of those. You cant go wrong with the SGS, its future proof.I'm sure it'll get 2.2 and it should get gingerbread.
 
Yeah you can get it free on a lot of tariffs, but, I look at the long term.

For example, I really don't want to be on a long contract, as I'll by dying to get some super-ultra-mega-smartphone with Android 4.8 and warp drive technology on it in about 6 months... The shortest contracts in the UK for the SGS that gives me the phone free is ?40/m for 18 months. So that's 18x40=?720. I can get the phone for ?460 without a contract, and then get a ?5/m 30 day contract with unlimited internet. So that's 5x18+460=?550, a saving of ?170. Plus when you factor in that I wouldn't have to unlock it before I sell it (?20 saving), and I could upgrade whenever I wanted, given 30 days notice, it seems better still.

Of course the ?40/m contract comes with like a million free texts and minutes, but I just never use them. Nearly all my interaction with people is in person or via the internet, and the rare phonecalls I do make either they're calling me or I can use my landline (free calls most of the time) or Skype.

Samsung have stated (according to a number of websites) that the SGS will get Android 2.2 before the end of the year.

Future proof... yeah, but... knowing me I'll want that warp drive phone with Android 28.3 and a 2km wide screen in 6 months
 
LOL, your right and I kinda hate you for being able to access those plans.?5 a month with unlimited internet is awesome. We don't have anything like that here. And it's essentially contract free. You got it made lol, I would pull the trigger on the SGS and sell it when that 2km warp drive phone comes out. I heard it would have Android 35.4 though :-).
 
Well, the ?5/m doesn't come with anything else other than unlimited (500MB) of internet. All calls cost 20p/m, texts 10p/m. There is another ?5/m plan you can get that gives a load of free texts. http://threestore.three.co.uk/simonly.aspx

So I just got back from a store in town that let me spend 10 minutes using the Desire and SGS. They're both nice phones, but to be honest the SGS is way better. The screen just has to be seen in person to appreciate it. The Desire's screen, by comparison, was dimmer, more washed out, and had much poorer viewing angle. I was surprised to find that the SGS viewing angle is the same in all directions, even viewed from the side, top, or bottom. The graphics and touchscreen really do fly.

TouchWiz? You hardly notice it. Widgets aside, you pretty much just get a different app drawer the scrolls a page at a time from side to side, and 7 home screens.

Sense... some of the graphics look prettier. They're both OK, but overall I think I prefer TouchWiz 3. I really really hate earlier versions of TouchWiz, but 3 is OK.

The Desire does, sort of, maybe, look visually better in terms of its build, but the SGS feels solid. But, to be honest I think I prefer the gloss finish of the SGS, and it'll look exactly the same if I put an invisible shield on it.

The thing that I noticed the most difference on was the browser. Oh... my... god.... The SGS just flies along. Comparable in speeds to my PC, and the scrolling and zooming is absolutely perfect. That's not to say the Desire was bad, it wasn't, but the SGS was flawless.

So, after using them side by side, doing the same kind of stuff, I think the SGS is notably better in many ways. It's missing a camera flash, a trackball, and a notification LED, which is a shame, but I think I can live without all of those.

Still, I have four weeks..... see what else comes out

In the meantime, thanks for all the responses guys. They've all been valuable to me.
 
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