So, we’ve got over 30 questions, and I’ll list some of them here. Hope you can provide your input on this as well. If you still want to ask a question there’s the form at the bottom, or just click here.
There’s a lot of confusion about jelly bean updates for Nexuses, so I’ll be doing that one in an entire article by itself, hoping to get some further answers from Google, so it’s not just me talking.
Otherwise here’s some quick answers to some of the questions.
Is there any way to get rid of bloatware on my new htc one s, it came with a surprising number of apps I will never use but I don’t want to root the phone because I’m not a huge fan of the UI of cyanogenmod, (it would also render htc sense useless)
Any help or corrections on my assumptions would be great!
-T.M
You can’t remove bloat apps without rooting, but as it’s a One S, meaning it has ICS, you can ‘disable’ apps. Go into Menu / Settings / Apps, find the one you find offensive and click on it and choose to ‘disable’. Note: you may have to swipe in the Apps to go between DOWNLOADED / RUNNING / ALL to find the app you want.
How do I change the default sound player for playing a clip from an email message?
If you have a second sound playing / music playing app on your phone, you should be offered the choice between which of the two you will use. If you’re not seeing this option there’s 2 possible reasons: 1. you don’t have a second music playing app (go download one) / 2. you had set one up as the default already (so it will no longer ask).
For the 2nd scenario, to get it to ask you again which you’d want, you’ll have to clear the default settings. Go into Menu / Settings / Apps and find the music playing app. Click on it and scroll down and find “Launch by Default” and click the “Clear Defaults” button.
why does TIMGEE do most of the posts?
As most of you probably knew (or I hoped you noticed) for a long while there it was just Tom and myself writing. Tom was the lead writer and I helped fill in where I could. As with life, some things start to take priority and Tom had to pull back his availability as lead writer. As such we needed a new writer. While we waited I stepped in for a few weeks.
But a few weeks back now Tim stepped in to take on the lead writing role. Which means he’ll be doing the day-to-day posts and most of the news updates. Tom, Mark and myself are still writing for the blog, just in a less frequent posting cycle.
how do we get netflix working in revue in canada ?
I’ve had this asked a few times, and I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t working. I use it DAILY on my device. If one of the folks that asked this can give me a few more details, I’ll look into it (i.e. what error are you having, etc…).
I do know that now and again I’ve had the issue where it said “We are having issues connecting at this time…”, but it’s usually something that I can clear up with a reboot, a force close of the app (just keep hitting the back button to get to the main menu of Netflix, then HOLD back until it asks you to exit). If those fail, go into MENU / SETTINGS / APPS and find Netflix and you can try clicking on ‘clear cache’ or ‘clear data’ (you’ll have to re log in tho’). But in the 7 months since I’ve had it, I’ve only had to fix that error like maybe a few times.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus supporting ICS. Android 4.01. I am having a major problem with my battery, When it gets to about 50% I turn it off it keeps turning on. This causes the battery to drain even faster, Is there an upgrade to help this?
Hrmm… I’ve checked on my wife’s phone which has 4.0.1 and it’s not having the issue. I did some research and I haven’t been able to turn anything up. The only thing I can suggest is that possibly there’s an app running in the background that’s causing this.
If it is an app… there’s only one thing to do to try to find out which it is: uninstall one app, then see if it still does it. If not, you can re-install. Then uninstall another app… and repeat the procedure until you find out which app was causing that issue.
Worse comes to worse, do a fresh restart (i.e. factory reset) and don’t install any apps just yet… just see if it still happens from.
Why do so many articles say how easy rooting your phone is, and then when I read on further on how to go about doing it, it seems a lot more complex then I was lead on to believe. I’m fairly tech savy, not software savy however and would like to do it but always stop when I read how because it seems too complicated.
I’ll agree. Lots of folk root, and all too many of them make it seem like ‘simple as pie, my toddler can do it’. But when you go to do it yourself, there’s a small encyclopedia of steps involved.
Here’s the thing. Those that write the steps involved are putting AS MUCH info into the instructions because they don’t want to leave something out and have you ruin your phone. They want to be extra cautious. So, in my estimation, it just LOOKS LIKE that there’s so much to do. When really there’s not.
You kinda have to watch someone do it (thanks Renaud) the first time and then you’ll go “OOOoooooooh”.
The basic steps are usually to: Unlock Bootloader / Gain Root, Flash Recovery, Flash new ROM
Unlocking your bootloader and gaining root are usually attained by some simple ‘one click’ method. But to get the one click you usually need to ensure you have the right drivers for your computer for the device (or it won’t talk to it) and the android bridge tools (adb stuff). After that you can connect to the phone and flash away.
I love Android, and now I want to change my phoneplan to be a pay-as-you-go. But with pay as you go you don’t get the good options for phones! What do I do?
Well, you should be able to just use the phone you have now on the Pay-As-You-Go plan. I’m not all that up on all the different carriers and their options. But I remember at one time you could use ANY phone on PAYGO. But, if you want the better phones you just have to pay for them. I.e. for the S3 you’d have to buy the phone at full pop. Check with the service provider. Say “I WANT THAT PHONE” and I’m sure they’d be happy to sell it to you, or tell you it just can’t work.
“I am wondering if it is possible to output audio through bluetooth headphones and the audio jack at the same time, too allow two people to listen to music for example.
Thank you,
Jeffrey”
Hey Jeff, checked it with my phone with my BT Sennheisers and started playing music. I then plugged in my headphones and they over-rode the BT head phones. No way could I make them both work at the same time.
Anybody else know of a way to make it work?
Which do you prefer? HTC One x, galaxy s3, Or the galaxy Nexus?
Well, you could watch my videos and tell me what you think I would pick… 
Nexus / One X / S3
Let’s see who guesses right, and why!?
“What can we do as a community to get Google to release apps in Canada faster?”
Depends on which ‘apps’. Some things, like the magazines, music and voice require them to get licenses from the government for content. So we could see who Google’s trying to convince to allow the service to be available (I’ve had it told to me by some Googlers that they are trying).
Any thoughts on when the next nexus phone will come out? I love the htc onex but the wifi issue is a bummer… should I just wait? (currently have a nexus s)
The One came out January 2024, the S came out December 2024, the Galaxy came out November 2024 (about 11 months apart every time).
But then we’ve come up with the 7 and Q in June 2024… so that may throw a wrench in the timing. But by my estimates another Nexus phone should not be until at least October 2024.
Takers for bets on who it’ll be? There was that rumour that there will be more than one Nexus device; but does that mean with the tablet and sphere and phone, or will there be multiple Nexus phones still?
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Some other questions… I’m going to look more into these and hopefully come up with an answer, but in the mean time, maybe I’ll leave them here for other folk to provide an answer!
“Which would you prefer?
1. Nexus device which has ready access to latest Android software almost immediately after release and continues to get updates a year or 2 down the road, but does not have the best hardware.
2. Galaxy S III (or similar high end Android phone) which has the latest hardware but not the easiest access to the latest version of Android and could easily take 6 months to get latest Android, at which point a new version comes out and you are left waiting again.”
Why is it that when I have music on my SD card that randomly in the stock music player or any music player that I eventually end up with duplicates of every song. One song will play and the other will not. and there is only one .mp3 file per song. this has happened to me twice now once on GB and once on ICS. Why does this happen? how do I fix it? how can I prevent it?
“I’ve got an unlocked device from one provider and service with another. How do OTA updates work in this case?
Example: I have a Nexus S from Rogers but I’m using it on Bell. Whose OTA update should I keep track of? “
Okay, so that’s enough for now, hopefully that helps some folks.
There’s still plenty in the bank to answer, and I’ll keep researching some and answer them as we go along.
If you’ve got some questions still percolating and want an answer – you can still drop us a line: