8/19/10

my pretty pretty phone

I got this phone (Samsung Galaxy S aka Captivate) about 3 weeks ago.  Of course I can talk about how great and wonderful this phone is but that's boring.  I will instead talk about everything that stinks about this phone.


  1. GPS - it's a known issue and knowingly I bought this phone regardless of this glitch.  Two parts to this glitch.  One, Samsung claims that Google won't allow its android to have "wireless network" feature used in cell tower triangulation turned on by default.  By simply navigating to Settings >> Location and Security >> and check "use wireless networks" will improve its GPS locking time.  Two, Samsung does have a faulty GPS.  Samsung says it will address this issue in big update in September.  I hope this is true.
  2. Android Market Place - I receive this message a lot:"A network error has occurred.  Retry, or cancel and return to the previous screen".  With both my wireless and 3G signals fully detected, I have no idea why I'm constantly run into this message.  Can't really tell if this is Google's side or AT&T side.
  3. Camera hangs up - this turns out to be my user error.  While in camera mode, when power button gets pressed, the phone becomes non responsive.  It's not true.  It just switches to lock mode.  I can simply press the power button again and it releases its lock.  Duh~
  4. Speaking of power button... why in the world Samsung put the power button on the right side.  It's just not a natural place for button which used so often.  
  5. AT&T data plan sucks!!!!! Are you kidding me? $15 gives me stinking 200mb per month??? And once I go over 200mb, they charge me other $15 for additional stinking 200mb.  I am being extra cautious about this data transfer that I make every effort of not using 3G and rely on wireless network to do everything.  This stinks!  I also noticed that many of the apps rely on 3G networks to operate.  (DO NOT use any of the crap-wares that came with the phones)  They all use 3G network even if wireless is detected and being used.  I realized that some apps rely network connection for loading their ads.  I hardly do anything outside of wireless network but those tiny data adds up quickly.  This is what happened just now.  I perform some app updates while my wireless is clearly in place.. all the data transfer use up my precious data instead.  Now I'm down 25% of my monthly quota stolen from me right in front of my eyes.
  6. End call - why in the world ending call take so long?  After pressing end call button, it usually takes about 5 seconds before Android becomes responsive again.  I wonder any of other android phone experience the same thing.
  7. Creating a group contact - I usually store all my contact information on my SIM because I always think that's the best practice.  I'm sure this problem has something to deal with this.  I cannot for the life of me create a simple group contact list.  Please tell me there's something I've done wrong. 
  8. Sound button - There no easy way to control "system volume" and "media volume"without further navigating to Setting.
That's it for now.. Other wise great phone.  Probably best phone I've ever owned.. haha.. Thanks for listening.

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