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[Berrick]

Well Google probably does, not me personally. Have a read

http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/22806/google-knows-nearly-every-wi-fi-password-world

[broadstairs]

On my phone and tablet the setting is OFF ...

Stuart

[kitz]

I bet most arent.   Similar applies to Apple too no doubt?

[CharHolds]

I can't help but think about that Doctor Who episode where a company starts controlling people's minds through their home WiFi.

[GigabitEthernet]

I can't help but think about that Doctor Who episode where a company starts controlling people's minds through their home WiFi.

Actually, it's not their home WiFi. It's a 'fake' WiFi network.

[kitz]

Thanks for the reminder.  Seeing this thread again has just made me check the settings on my new S4 mini.   After rummaging around the settings for a few minutes, guess what I found hidden away 

Ive now turned it off, but its probably too late and a waste of time

Even if Google deletes every copy of your backed up data, they may already have been compelled to share it with others. And, Google will continue to have a copy of the password until every Android device that has ever connected to the network turns off the backing up of settings/data.

Ive lost track of the number of friends that Ive let their phones have wifi access via my home network over the past few years.   

[sheddyian]

How do you find the S4 Mini phone, Kitz?

I'm humming and hawing over which phone I'm going to get.  I have an ageing Nokia 5800 that runs Symbian, and there's no support for it and iPlayer no longer works with it.

I was hanging on to see how much the Galaxy Ace 3 was going to be, then when announced decided that £250 for that spec wasn't worth it (apart from the 4G capability).

For a similar price I could get a Galaxy S3 (much higher spec) or Galaxy S4 Mini.

Or hang on possibly only a few more weeks and see what the price of the Google Nexus 5 will be.  They sold off remaining stock of the Nexus 4 about 6 weeks ago at very cheap prices, and I was annoyed to miss out.  S4 spec phone for £150 - £200 !

So.. yeah.  What do you use the S4 Mini for, and does it do those things ok?

Ian

[kitz]

Im actually very pleased with it.   I didnt want a big phone to carry in my handbag, hence I was torn between the HTC one mini or S4 mini.   I think Ive made the right decision.  The battery life is good and I dont even need to charge it every day which makes a change and I leave wifi on all the time now and it can go several days.  I even had navigate running one day last week and I still had plenty of battery at the end of the day.  I havent used it much as a camera so cant say anything much about photo quality.

S-Voice is a bit flaky and can be temperamental.  The first weekend I had it I couldnt get it to work - turns out it was a remote server issue that weekend, but its been mostly ok since.. aside from the usual fun and games with it trying to get used to your voice.  The more I use it though it seems to understand my own requirements better.   Either its got used to me or Ive got used to it 

Minor gripe navigation volume is low,  I couldnt have the radio on whilst motorway driving at speed due to background noise.  Will get a lead though and try putting it through my jack in the car so that may work better than just leaving it propped in the dash-tray.

re price - mine was free with my contract and I got a pretty good deal from vodafone.  Its not on their site at what I pay.  I had to wait about a week to for them to get the colour I wanted, but I didnt mind that.

On the whole Im very pleased with it.

[sheddyian]

Regarding satnav volume, on my Nokia 5800, I have it playing MP3s and the voice navigation from Nokia maps through the car stereo over Bluetooth.  I also always have a car charger lead plugged into the phone in the car as the maps and GPS eats the battery on my old phone.

But it all works quite well, except that the Nokia is a bit slow and sometimes tells you to take a turning after you've passed it.

If you've got Bluetooth in your car, that might be the solution for you (and fewer wires!)

Thanks for the summary, will have a look at the spec and pricing of the S4 mini.

Ian

[kitz]

I dont have blue tooth to my car stereo, only via a jack point.

The motorway trip last week was a last minute arrangement kind of thing.  I hadnt even had chance to charge my bluetooth headset nor look for a lead.  It was a case of put in the directions in phone and off I went.  I didnt even charge the phone up the whole day despite not getting back home until the wee small hours... although I did have my old HTC charger in the car which should work in case of emergency, I didnt bother though as it seemed to be fine.  I was curious how long it would last.   

[kitz]

The battery life is good and I dont even need to charge it every day which makes a change and I leave wifi on all the time now and it can go several days.

An update on this... Just out of interest Ive not charged my phone now since Wednesday night and Im really amazed to see that the battery is still at 42%.
Its constantly connected to wifi and/or 3G data.   Theres been numerous app updates.   Ive been using the phone a few times each day,  but half an hour is about the longest call.  Theres also been quite a few texts & whatsapp messages... and on Thurs I was messing with the camera with a friend taking photos and for a very short time did turn on sat services.

Bluetooth and any location services (aside from the weather app) are toggled off so its not doing any sat data which could be making the difference.    Im really quite amazed at how efficient its been on battery.   I would have had to charge my old phone each day if Id left wifi on.

[sheddyian]

Well, Google now knows my wifi password too, as last week I got one of the new Google (LG) Nexus 5 phones.

Admittedly almost anything was going to impress me after my very wheezy Nokia 5800, but I'm so far very pleased with this new phone, everything is so fast and pretty much just works.

In some ways, my old Nokia Maps was better than the Google Maps for SatNav - Nokia had speed limits for every section of road, and would warn you if you were going too fast.  Don't see that option in Google maps.  But Google speaks the road names much more clearly and usually pronounces them correctly, unlike Nokia which sounded very false.  But then it was a bit old.

Kitz you mentioned that the navigation voice was a bit quiet, I've found that too - in fact on this phone there's an odd inconsistency - some audio apps give you decent, if not loud, sound.  Others are very hard to hear (through the built in speaker anyway).

eg iPlayer radio can sometimes sound a bt too loud on full volume, whereas iPLayer for TV on full volume seems too quiet all the time.

One of my interests is satellite TV, watching TV from other countries and also just the "challenge" of receiving more obscure sats.  I've just downloaded an app that uses the phone camera and geolocation, such that when you view the screen, you see the sky in front of you (and trees/buildings etc that are in the way) via the phone's camera, but it also superimposes the location of satellites in the sky.

Thus you can determine if a tree or building or simply the horizon is preventing you from receiving a given satellite.

I am truly living in the future.

Ian

[waltergmw]

@ S Ian,

Would you please be kind enough to provide us with a link to that App.

Kind regards,
Walter

[sheddyian]

Walter (and anyone else interested) :

this is the Android app I've installed - I think there might be other similar, and no doubt there are variants for Apple devices too

Satellite AR
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.agi.android.augmentedreality&hl=en_GB

Ian

[kitz]

I got one of the new Google (LG) Nexus 5 phones

Nice

In some ways, my old Nokia Maps was better than the Google Maps for SatNav - Nokia had speed limits for every section of road, and would warn you if you were going too fast.  Don't see that option in Google maps.  But Google speaks the road names much more clearly and usually pronounces them correctly, unlike Nokia which sounded very false.

I ran "Navigation" on my HTC, but didnt seem to have a problem with the volume. Yes I agree that its nice when it also says the road name rather than a number.   Much more useful sometimes.

So far Ive only noticed the volume issue with "Navigation". 

Ive had to use Navigation this week, but I noticed it did drain my battery quicker this time.  Possibly because I had it on for several hours for a few routes.  At the end of the day I was just down to 11% battery.

I keep meaning to try it through the car stereo system, but I keep forgetting to take a lead out to the car..  and of course only remembering when Im at least a few miles from home :/