SimpleSi

I've claimed 15 hours at my overtime rate (£225) -to set up joomla primary school websites and everyone has been very happy with that. Just stick with claiming the hours if you can, as it makes your tax position so much simpler Si

One persons solved the the proxy issue on their 'droid Si

agree with tony (what a rarity that is ) - usb port not important - it connects to my PC with the usb lead that comes with it . (The fact that it doesn't have a file manager is the problem when you want to import/export things outside of native apps but the connectivity isn't a problem) Si

I think (I've got a galaxy tab and and an Ipad) that its a complete 50/50 call. Pros and cons both ways. The tab does practically everything the ipad does - the ipad has some unmatched apps (Garageband,IMovie) and the flash issue. The fact that you mobile music player is 'droid probably tips the balance and once you've decided that then there is a much larger range of devices/form factors to choose from. Si

its a proper firmware that I downloaded from a list on XDA - AFAICT its the latest generic uk/europe firmware that samsung have released. (I bought my phone from phones4u and so I expect they just get generic devices in and then just give you a sim card for whatever network you choose) Si

I'm happy to report that my S2 now works as well as my old Desire having updated my firmware to the KI3/4 flavour - the sound level out the headphones is up to the same level as my wife's HTC legend (10dB better than before) The GPS (long time to lock issue) wasn't automagically fixed when I did the upgrade but for the past 2 days it is as good as my old Desire. I don't know what I did to get it into this state (as I've fiddled with so many things) but I might try and break it to see if I can work out the exact sequence needed to get one from poor to good. One piece of info though - when it was poor, the GPS indicator didn't come on for about 5 secs when a GPS app (e.g Maps) was launched - now it comes on straight away (like my old Desire). I'd be very interested to discuss settings with anyone who has a 5 dec delay when launching an app that uses GPS. A happy Simon

mm - not quite as good in the real world (in car) as sitting on desk at home but still a good improvement on the old voice recognition on my Desire @awiccher - I'll give that a go Si

Bloody Hell! The S2 voice recognition app is absolutely amazing :-) It actually recognises peoples names, understands commands like "send text to joanna" and then understands what you want to say and sends it!!! Slight caveat - it spelt Jo as Joe but I'll let it off. My HTC Desire was a joke and never managed to find the correct person! Brilliant - who cares about the GPS! Si PS I may never type again if I can get it to work with edugeek!

Bloomin Heck - just discovered the double press home button to call up the Voice recognition function - finally - a computer that understands Geordie Si

Sorry - it went off last Friday Si

As we say up north - Calm doon pet There is a difference between the fanbois and your educated edugeek owners Si

Search for the main sparklebox thread - summary - some RBCs block it - others did but now don't. Si

I came into this because there was a lot of love for the S2 and nobody was saying anything negative about it so I thought I'd mention a couple of issues to redress the bias as IPhones are nice pieces of kit as well The next time we are all together - we can do some fair tests to see if its just my handset/firmware version Si

I'm updated to Android 2.3.4 baseband KI1 Kernel KI4 Build XWKI4 Build date Sep 14 Lets see how it goes Si

I'm OK now Just involved re-installing KIES (3 times in all) and turning PC off and on about 4 times until it finally decided it had all the necessary drivers. By golly, this S2 is making life hard for me! Si

I installed Kies but it doesn't see my phone and Odin doesn't either so i suspect that whatever guff Kies installed doesn't work (as many people on T'internet hasve found ) What I can't find is how to get around this so I can flash new firmware onto the phone. Can anybody help? Si

I'll think I just try and get my PC to talk to the phone and update it myself. Lets just try and be balanced here The 4S has been out a few weeks - NO manufacturer admits to anything they don't have too The Galaxy S2 has been out for 6 months and not a word from Mr Samsung about its faults - AFAICT they don't even issue changelogs when they issue a new version of the firmware. That's my point - we don't have the same phone as we are not on the same OS version (and also we have not done a fair test - you prob don't use the GPS in the manner that I do and the variable lock time would not be an issue ) What I'm saying is that if the GPS didn't work - the handset WOULD be faulty and it would get fixed - not so with a 'droid because of the fragmentation of the OS even across the same physical hardware. When I say my Galaxy 2S is faulty what in fact I'm saying that its not as good in some departments as my 18 month old Desire running Froyo - low sound on headphones, which effects me trying to listen to it while MrsW watches BB and very variable GPS lock time which affects me as I use my phone as a speed limit alerter and my Desire always locked up within 100yds of driving and today I had 45 secs, 2 mins, 10 secs and 70 secs in my 4 journeys Si

That's why I said 99% and not 100% Si

Sorry - wishful thinking on my part -mines 2.3.3 Si

These posts are why the iphone people smile Their Ithings do what they say on the packet very 99% of time and without having to fiff and faff The maker issues updates to pretty much everyone at the same time and everyone knows whats what You don't get someone saying my GPS doesn't work and another saying it does - the 1st one just takes it into a Apple store and gets it fixed/replaced so it does work without any hassle. Si

Reasonable price if fitting new mount in new location Si

@teejay Maybe its HTCs that are too loud then (I recorded them both into Audacity and there was a 10db diff) And like I say, the GPS long time to lock is flaky - I'll time how long it takes each time in the car today and post later. What does *#1234# give you back please? I get XWKF3 XXKE7 and XEUKD1 Build date Jun 9 The 7 day return only ran out yesterday so give me a chance Put my phone into download mode and tried using Odin last night but it didn't seem to recognise my phone existed (Then had to pull the battery as there didn't seem to be a method to get out of download mode once your in it!) Si

@Andrew - Ta I think I've managed to unearth the fact that phones sold by Phones4U on the vodafone network aren't necessarily running branded vodafone firmware which explains the discrepency. The other thing I've discovered is that the letter after the K (g in your case) indicates the month the firmware was released so according to my math yours is from July - could you check and dial *#1234# and see what it says please? Si PS just for interest - what version of Android does it say in the About Phone? - mine is 2.3.5

Just to redress the balance a bit on the Galaxy S2 - its very nice to look at but its got at least 2 issues. 1. Low headphone sound level (compared to other devices - 10dB down on my wife's HTC Legend) 2. There are GPS issues (I run my own speedlimit app and whereas it used to get a GPS lock by end of the road- now sometimes if doesn't get one for several miles/sometimes it gets a lock sooner but nowhere near as quickly/reliably as my old HTC Desire) Once you start trying to find out some facts on the T'internet - you get swamped by so much guff its very hard to discern the wheat from the chaff - this wasn't the case with the HTC Desire. Si Si

I was thinking of rooting it (where you have to temp flash an "insecure" kernel) and then wanted to put it back to the original one and then couldn't match what my phones got and what the forums said it should have Once you've done the update, can you re-tell me what it says then please? Si