Samsung Galaxy S, Big Brother, and an unsolicited review [Was: Advice Needed - Bye Bye Nokia!]

[Oleg Goldshmidt]

Amichai Rotman <amichai at iglu.org.il> writes:

> I also heard about some kind of a "Big Brother" issue with Android
> devices?

I am a very privacy-conscious type so I'll be glad to hear about "Big
Brother" issues if anyone has more information.

As far as I know there are a couple of issues to be aware of.

1. You are dealing with Google. They want as much info as they can
   get, even as they "don't do evil" and maybe don't even know what to
   do with the info. My understanding is that by default most Android
   phones sync contacts, calendar, Gmail, with Google. This is what
   most people want and like, because they do not pay attention to the
   fact that their private information and their *friends'*,
   *acquaintances'*, *business partners'* private information ends up
   on Google's disks. This is the main "Big Brother" issue I can think
   of.

   I had a mandatory requirement that my contacts or calendar should
   not be synchronized with any external device or service (backup is
   a separate issue). So I put quite an effort into finding out
   (before getting an Android phone) whether this was avoidable. Long
   story short - it is avoidable on Galaxy S - you need to disable
   synchronization before you input any information to the phone. With
   contacts it is usually not a problem - I didn't see any requirement
   to create or sign into a Google account. You cannot use the
   calendar without first registering with Google though. This is were
   you need to be careful. Luckily, Orange (or, I suppose, other
   operators) cannot transfer calendar data from older phones so there
   is no risk they'll do it before you stop them.

   Galaxy S specifically has a local calendar (called "My Calendar")
   that is not synchronized. When you start the calendar application
   the first time it is not shown, and you are required to sign in to
   Gmail or create a new account (create a new one - it will be
   empty). Once you do that, My Calendar is actually the default, so
   if you do not want to sync it works out quite smoothly.

   If you do want to sync then the fact that My Calendar is the
   default may be a bit baffling. Here is a good description:

   http://kollerie.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/samsung-galaxy-s-peculiarities-01/

   This is not a problem for me.

   I hope synchronization can be disabled on all Android phones, but
   I don't know that and I could not find out. "My Calendar" was a
   major reason for choosing Galaxy S.

2. Another issue that was reported recently is not so much "Big
   Brother" but just a security flaw that sounds very serious. I have
   not verified it, but it seems that even if you set your Google
   account and/or Facebook account to "always-on SSL" some of the
   traffic to/from Androids is still not encrypted (passwords are
   safe). In particular, Google Calendar data was reported to be sent
   as cleartext to accounts configured to use SSL. If you plan to
   co-ordinate anti-government activities using Google Calendar Big
   Brother may find out.

   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/24/android_phone_privacy_shocker/

   Configuring email accounts with incoming (POP) and outgoing (SMTP)
   gmail.com servers allows you to choose SSL among other
   configuration opions, I have not seen any reports of unencrypted
   mail to/from Google.
  
> Any of you know how to get out of the Nokia purchase? The Galaxy wasn't
> available at the time.

Who is your provider? Orange are promoting a "double reimbursement"
scheme - if you get a smartphone and your monthly bill is high enough
(not very high) you get compensated for both the new smartphone and
whatever you still need to pay for your old phone. I don't know the
exact terms, but it should be easy to find out. I am not trying to
advertise them in any way, of course.

> Is it really a good phone?

I can only share first impressions, but since there seems to be an
interest (the other thread seems more interesting, actually) then
maybe someone will find a review useful. I'll include some points that
I could not find out from the net, from talking to Orange Suport,
asking Samsung employees, or from playing with SIM-less Galaxy in a
shop, despite significant effort. I have not tried to root the device
(yet), so these are "out-of-the-box" impressions.

[NB: it turned out long, stop reading now if you are not interested.]

The phone is slim and light, and I don't mind the largish screen. It
is gorgeous, by the way, and it is sort of worth having in 4 inches
rather than 3.5 (that's 30% more area). Ladies with small hands may
mind the size more than I do. I didn't want a large phone, but in the
end my technological curiousity told me that I would never lug a
tablet, and a 4 inch approximation with a similar OS and an ability to
make calls seemed worth trying. Galaxy S II sounds too large.

The screen is a fingerprint magnet, but there actually is a
tradeoff - the fingerprint-repelling coatings reduce the quality
(extra reflection, etc. - I am familiar with the tradeoff because I
wear glasses).

>From Orange the phone comes with full Hebrew, but I cannot comment on
the quality since I changed the default to English quickly.

So far everything works. It took a powercycle to get the cellular data
network going, but no tweaking was necessary.

I can't comment on battery yet. My only benchmark is an old Nokia 6230
that can easily live a week without charging. I have not had any
problems yet, even though I play with the new phone more than my
"steady state" is likely to be. "Play" means quite a bit of internet
via Wifi and cellular data network, fairly long phone calls, bluetooth
in the car, a bit of GPS trials, but not much in terms of music or
movies or stuff like that. The battery is down to 50-60% by the end of
the day, but nothing drastic. Orange supply a car charger by default,
and I use it, but my car trips are rather short thee days.

The charging cycle seems long (the documentation says 5h for full
charge), so you can't hope to charge the phone if your commute is 20
minutes. I bought an extra charger (Motorola-branded that is supposed
to be compatible) and found out that the screen became irresponsive
while it was plugged in. I exchanged it for a no-name charger that
works fine. No problems with the original Samsung charger.
  
No problems with email (local app and Gmail app, both built-in), calls
(good quality, even through the speaker, despite reports that the
speaker is rather weak), or SMS. Internet browsing is surprisingly
effective. The home screen has a dedicated Google search field and you
can search by speaking - voice recognition is pretty good. I checked
youtube - you can do it through the browser or through a dedicated
application that works pretty well. Music videos look and sound
good. So far saw no problems with hebrew sites (haven't tried many
though).

NTLM authentication is not supported (at least I couldn't get to
SharePoint at work). I've seen reports that mobile firefox now has it,
but I have not installed any browsers to check.

Maps are really good. If you need much detail then you only see a
small area, of course, but in general maps work just fine. I have a
difference of opinions with Orange GPS (the other GPS - Google's? -
fails to navigate in Israel, but directions work fine) as far as route
optimization is concerned, but it did get me to the right place every
time I gave it a try. GPS maps show traffic, parkings, gas stations,
ATMs...

Skype - got it from the Market - works great (not sure if there is an
option for video in the mobile Skype application).

Swype (from the guy who invented T9) works quite well and does not
require much effort to get used to.

I am still trying to get used to the phone, and some extremely useful
workflows that old Nokias implemented (I am coming from 6230, probably
the greatest business phone ever if you don't need web/email/Facebook)
are missing, which makes life a bit difficult for me.

One important scenario is creating a reminder to make a call to a
contact. On a Nokia you would go to Calendar, choose a call reminder,
search the contact list and choose a contact and a number, and enter
the time. At the specified time the phone beeps, you hit the green
button, and it dials the right number. This has been working
beautifully since approximately forever.

The Android calendar does not allow you to do this simple thing (it is
bloody amazing that NO smartphone can do it). You can download an app
from the Market (COL reminder is free), but the app is not integrated
with the calendar. So you end up with two repositories for your
schedule - the calendar and the COL reminder list - and you need to
check both. The COL reminders don't show in the "Daily Brief" widget
(sugar-coating, but nice), either. I am used to doing it 20 times a
day and it's a pain after the Nokia bliss. [Aside: not that I trust
Microsoft to implement it right in the next 5 years.]

The contact list is much more versatile than on old Nokias, not
surprisingly. It is extensible, and where on Nokia I sometimes had to
keep two separate entries for contacts with a lot of info (say, home
and office, with addresses, emails, etc.), here it is all together,
and you can have custom labels for phone numbers and other details
which I found very useful. It all works pretty well together: if there
is an entry to a web page you can click on it and the browser starts,
Swiping the contact name to the right dials the default number,
swiping to the left sends an SMS - very nice.

No problems in the car so far. Bluetooth works, automatic answering
(when connected to BT or headset) works. One glitch is that Skype does
not auto-answer or pipe the sound to the speakers. I forgot to switch
Skype off once and someone called me while I was driving. Your choice
is to ignore it, stop safely and take the call, or manage to enable
the speaker while driving - this is not so easy without a physical
button. Better keep Skype off when you get into your car. Maybe every
smartphone owner knows it already, but I had not thought of this.

Another glitch is that Orange GPS does not shut up if a phone call
comes in. This is probably correct in the sense that directions are
more important than most phone calls, but the other party can't hear
you every time the nice lady tells you to take the right turn and may
think the call is about to be dropped.

These are app glitches, of course, not Android's.

Bottom line: overall impression is quite positive, despite the nits
picked above. The interface (TouchWiz) is very nice, looks quite
polished to me. Configuration is intuitive and fairly comprehensive. I
cannot compare the interface to stock Android or to HTC Sense though.

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | pub at goldshmidt.org