Hello Singletrack.
I’m after MyFirstSmartPhone™.
I like tinkering and customisation and compiling things sometimes. I want the most open platform available, and also for it to look alright and impress the ladies.

I’m not too bothered about social networking.
I don’t reaaallly want a contract or to spend more on it than a mid range pair of forks.

What should I get?
What’s the coolest thing you can do with Your smartphone?

Alt question: What are you planning on having for lunch?

You’re just going to shout NEXUS 4 at me aren’t you? Is it any good?

You’re just going to shout NEXUS 4 at me aren’t you? Is it any good?

Yep. Yep.

iPhone 4 32gb and a sim from giffgaff.

I like tinkering and customisation and compiling things sometimes. I want the most open platform available

iPhone

??? 😯

and impress the ladies.

You don’t need a smartphone for that. According to recent scientific research you just need big genitalia.

Having spent most of Monday stuck on two trains that were going nowhere and realising what an utter waste of time it was, I am starting to crumble about the blasted things. My current Nokia of about 10 years of age is possibly slightly limited. It does have a compass though!

All I want is a very simple to use one (can’t work out how the heck to use my Mrs’ iphone)that is rugged for going in the Camelbak. Lots of recommendations by colleagues for a thing from Samsung, but I am building up strength to face the torrent of sneering abuse from the teenager in whichever shop I go into. I know I won’t understand a thing. I wouldn’t dare trying to change anything on it.

Luddite

Another shout for the Nexus 4. Pretty cheap, fairly open platform. Sim from giffgaff, lots of options for minutes and data.

I don’t think you can do anything cool with them, just nerdy stuff. I use mine to control iPlayer or ping youyube videos to the tele, I also use it track my wife when she is flying so I can see where she has landed and go and pick her up.

The lunch one is harder to answer. I think I have eaten all the easy to cook stuff from the fridge

iPhone 4 32gb and a sim from giffgaff.

Op said he want’s it to be as open as possible, although they’re great phones it’s clearly not what he’s after.

>>You’re just going to shout NEXUS 4 at me aren’t you? Is it any good?

>Yep. Yep.
Phwoar! You got one Cougar? What’s the nerdiest thing you’ve done with it?

I don’t think you can do anything cool with them, just nerdy stuff. I use mine to control iPlayer or ping youyube videos to the tele

Nerdy stuff is more than welcome – are you using a smart TV for that or a seperate set top box / media PC?

You don’t need a smartphone for that. According to recent scientific research you just need big genitalia.

Phew!

How easy is it to get an app I’ve written onto a Nexus 4?

I like tinkering and customisation and compiling things sometimes. I want the most open platform available

iPhone 4 32gb and a sim from giffgaff.

I think what you meant to type was “then in no way do you want a crippled OS from a control freak company so the iphone is a non-starter for you.

Oh, and steak, bacon, chips and salad.

Nerdy stuff is more than welcome – are you using a smart TV for that or a seperate set top box / media PC?

I think some teles will do it but I’m using a Raspberry Pi for double nerd points

I think some teles will do it but I’m using a Raspberry Pi for double nerd points

Good lad. How’s it sound?

Its easy to get an app you’ve made onto a nexus4, just copy the compiled apk file over, and install it. You can upload it to the play store if you like but don’t have to, unlike with an iPhone. Way more open!

On Android-setting, switch on developer mode, copy over apk, and run it

On Apple sign up and pay to be a developer jump through god know how many hoops, have your coded vetted and approved by apple and download it from the app store

I think android is best for you

I think some teles will do it but I’m using a Raspberry Pi for double nerd points

Raspberry Pis work really well for this. Have mine setup as airplay speakers, for streaming to the TV and as a backup server. Works particularly well as all of my media is on a NAS.

Very pleased with my Nexus 4 on Giffgaff, it would certainly seen to fit the bill.

Great for all sorts, control my Sky box, beam YouTube to the TV, vnc into my Mac, remote control my music, manage my NAS, admin WordPress sites. Very customisable with launchers and ROMs if you want.

Ononeorange – if you want a simple to use smartphone may i suggest a windowsphone8 handset?
I have the Nokia lumia 820 and find it very easy and intuitive to use – i too am a luddite!

I have one – it’s great, even if you can’t be ar$ed to develop anything for it.

Lunch, hmm, maybe the pub, but more likely the local sarnie shop.

Hi Muddydwarf – how are you doing? (We met at the end of the Marshbrook Enduro last year).

Thanks for the suggestion – luddite help always appreciated! Windows makes sense as that is what I use on my pc, and I’ve always liked Nokia phones as they are robust.

I will take a look, thanks.

No idea what the others are on about on here!

On Apple sign up and pay to be a developer jump through god know how many hoops, have your coded vetted and approved by apple and download it from the app store

Erm… surely not. Yes you have to sign up to be a Developer – but you definitely don’t need to upload every build to the App Store and get it approved just to then download it onto your phone.

You only do that for the release of the app to the general public via App Store.

(Not that it matters – OP said he wanted the most open platform available so that completely rules out iOS)

You don’t need a smartphone for that. According to recent scientific research you just need big genitalia.

Cool.

(iPhone 5 for sale in classifieds 😉 )

Bought a Nokia Lumia 620 and GG sim, first smart phone and I find it easy to use for what I want.

scuzz – Member

What’s the coolest thing you can do with Your smartphone?

Toss it into a skip.

Mrs Grips is due to upgrade her phone soon. She hates her HTC Chacha with a passion, so she’s going to want to go for something properly useful and powerful. Android preferably.

Still Nexux 4?

According to recent scientific research you just need big genitalia.

oh for craps sake. And all the times I’ve been told it’s not important.

edit: Still, at least I’ve got a nice phone.

I like tinkering and customisation and compiling things sometimes. I want the most open platform available

The most open smartphone platform is (was, depending on your viewpoint) Symbian, in which case you want a Nokia 701 or if photography is your thing, the 808 Pureview (£300-£350, only available sim-free in the UK, it is not trendy enough for carrier contracts)

If you want open, avoid the walled garden approach of Apple and Google like the plague – you play by their rules or not at all. Symbian is reportedly dead or dying – but I’m not sure an open OS can die with such huge fan support – the entire code is available to download and tinker with, and even after Nokia ends official support in a few years, custom firmwares are likely to be available for many years. The “clunkiness” of Symbian really is a thing of the past since Belle FP2 firmware.

If you prefer something more modern (to impress the ladies??), whilst keeping the “open” tag then I guess the new Firefox OS may fit the bill, but I don’t think many devices are available yet.

One other plus for the Nexus 4 is that it is one of the devices for which the mobile version of Ubuntu is being developed.

http://pocketnow.com/2013/02/22/install-ubuntu-nexus-4

My understanding is that the initial release of Ubuntu mobile is very much for developers but if you like to tinker it opens up a whole new range of possibilities alongside those offered by Android.

Not sure about Google being a walled garden. Anyone can download the developer kit and write apps for it.

By all accounts Symbian is a nightmare to write apps for.

On Apple sign up and pay to be a developer jump through god know how many hoops, have your coded vetted and approved by apple and download it from the app store write code, send users a link to download app

Fairly obvious you don’t know anything about App development for iOS….

just got nexus from 3 300mins talk,million texts and all u can eat data for £22 over 24months = £528 -£280 for phone and £10 per month for plan, bargin and the phones ace watch movies,music,internetand all phoneee stuff aswell you just need to put it on charge each night.

Phwoar! You got one Cougar? What’s the nerdiest thing you’ve done with it?

Nope, mine’s a HTC Sensation; Nexus wasn’t out when I bought it.

Nerdiest? God knows. I’m rooted and running a custom ROM if that means anything.

Nerdiest? God knows. I’m rooted and running a custom ROM if that means anything.

Ooooh you’ve made my software go all hard… tell me more…

😉

iPhone for me, easy to use, does all the browsing, there’s Always an app for it. But rubbish if you want to play around I Sppose

oh for craps sake. And all the times I’ve been told it’s not important.

Samurai, you know lilets? Can’t feel those

And you a mod!!!

Feigns shock and horror

Another happy Nexus 4 user here, works nicely out of the box and lets you mess about if you feel up to it.

molgrips – Member
Mrs Grips is due to upgrade her phone soon. She hates her HTC Chacha with a passion, so she’s going to want to go for something properly useful and powerful. Android preferably.

Can I punt a suggestion your way….?

I have been racking my brains over what phone to upgrade to, having had my HTC Desire for just over 3yrs and decising it was about time to change.
I hate spending money on my phones. I don’t know why.
I looked around & found the Sony Xperia T on Three Mobile for £23/month with 500mins/500texts and unlimited data; phone is free.

I then found the same deal (albeit with ‘only’ 300 mins) from buymobilephones.net for £18/month; phone still free.

Main bad points about the Xperia T seem to be the battery life & the shallow viewing angles from the screen, although the screen itself it pretty amazing when looking at it ‘normally’.
There was also the option of the Nexus 4 for £22/month or the Galaxy S3 for £24 (or maybe £25)/month….(phones free too)
I tried the Xperia T in the O2 shop & decided to risk the battery life.

Initially, it was battering the battery. But, I found loads of stuff syncing all the time and so I cut these out. I have also charged it a few times now & the battery seems to be reaching full capacity & I’ve stopped fiddling with it every 5 mins too.

It is a seriously good phone in my opinion. Yes, there are better phones out there like the Galaxy S3 & the HTC OneX – but you will pay a premium for these. For me, the premium wasn’t worth the extra performance.
£18/month works out to only £432 over the 2 year contract and that includes the cost of the phone. Bargain.

I did consider the Nexus4, but things that put me off were reviews saying that the UI wasn’t very polished, the memory limited to 16GB (I want to stick all my music on my phone & try to use it as an MP3 player for the first time) and apparently the camera is only average. Of course, your requiremements might vary….

Oh, and it has NFC built in & I’ve ordered some tags so I can set it to do certain things in certain places (silent at work, airplane mode on my bedside table & turn alarm on, bluetooth on in the car) etc….

I’m the opposite – my phone is my phone (obviously), social media/Internet/laptop/email device, walkabout camera, HD video recorder, occasional gaming machine, TV, notepad, mp3 player etc etc.

Considering what I’d pay for all these devices separately (albeit in a more complete package) I don’t mind spending on a phone. Currently using a Samsung galaxy note 2 and it fulfils is duties excellently

Stumpy thanks for that write up. We’ll be staying with Orange/EE and I think they have that phone. Will check it out.

According to me mate the best smartphone is iPad.