I bought a smartphone.

[mthomps]

My blackberry curve finally went when the battery got wet. I could have ordered a new battery for 5 dollars and kept on trucking but being stuck in the same damn rut for so long I went to the store humoring the idea of possibly buying something modern.

I have always hated the idea of touch screens and for the most part I still think its stupid as shit. I was about to have the guy order me an older model android phone with a physical keyboard. 1 gig dual core processor so I thought "nice".

That's when I walked over to the damn wall and saw this pocket beast, an LG G2 sitting there. 2.3 ghz quad core with 2 gig ram. I started laughing out loud because the specs are in the same range as my main desktop.

So on a whim I bought it.

[Sistamatic]

That's one of the phones with an infrared emitter, so you can set it up to remote control your tv, stereo, window unit, what have you. Also, it has a built in FM antenna, so it will function as an FM radio even sans data connection. With all it's myriad sensors, it easily qualifies as a tricorder. Such an awesome phone. Grats.

[pensive_pilgrim]

You shouldn't buy shit like that on a whim, but I've heard good things about them. I think it's basically the N5 with a bigger battery and better camera. I won't comment on the fact that you went to a store and probably bought it on contract.

[mthomps]

That's one of the phones with an infrared emitter, so you can set it up to remote control your tv, stereo, window unit, what have you. Also, it has a built in FM antenna, so it will function as an FM radio even sans data connection. With all it's myriad sensors, it easily qualifies as a tricorder. Such an awesome phone. Grats.

I'm not sure if the USA model has the FM antenna. Mine doesn't have the big metal pull out antenna so I'm assuming it doesnt.

Right now I'm reading on how to back up the oem state so after I root it I'll be able to hide it in case I need to take it in to tech support. I'm looking forward to messing with it and trying things like running other distros in vmware

[mthomps]

You shouldn't buy shit like that on a whim, but I've heard good things about them. I think it's basically the N5 with a bigger battery and better camera. I won't comment on the fact that you went to a store and probably bought it on contract.

Thanks. As far as the stipulations of the purchase, I'll worry about my cell phone plan so you don't have to.

[mthomps]

I am very impressed so far.

Flash video is twice as fast as my damned desktop. Jesus christ.


The thing that pisses me off about these things is the lack of physical input/output ports.

[99Problems]

Think about all the selfies you can take now, life is good.

[mthomps]

What?

No thanks.

I'm more concerned with the fun computer entertainment possibilities.

I have emulators now for every game console I've ever owned. PS1, GameBoy(s), SNES, NES, N64, GENESIS,...havent dealt witih a Coleco replacement yet though. The development community for Android must be crazy busy because all of this works better than it ever did on my PC. WTF is happening right now. I have a a usb cord on the way to allow me to use a ps3 controller to play games.

I love the fact that any asshole can write apps for the thing with Android SKD and I have a full python ide and a terminal emulator (that can't do shit besides the most basic unix commands) without root.

Hopefully I'll know enough to have it rooted comfortably by monday. I wanted to try installing Ubuntu For Phones to see if I can get that to work but it's for developers only right now and I really don't want to break the thing if it fucks up and I can't flash android back on it.

I wish these things had way more input/output. I can't wait until these things are designed as desktop replacements with an entire side of the phone usb ports and the other A/V options. The sides of these things shoudl just be riddled with usb ports.

[pensive_pilgrim]

When they're desktop replacements you'll plug them into a dock and that's where all the ports will be. You could sort of do that now, usb hubs are five bucks and what else do you want? HDMI? There are adapters for like everything.

[mthomps]

multi channel sound. 24 in 7 out would be fine. I record tracks to sd cards first with my zoom r16 unit so even 2x2 audio ports. I'll take RCA becuase the cords to convert to 1/4 are cheap. SPDIF to hook up to friends stereo at a party quickly? I can't dock to a tv or monitor and also use a usb keyboard and mouse and have to use bluetooth

I need linux kernal drivers for prosumer audio hardware.

A dedicated midi port would be nice.

These things should be able to become the hub of anything with a middle finger swipe, but the physical input/output isn't there