This week I’ve been continuing to check out what I can do with the new Samsung Galaxy S5 phone. Right now, I’m exploring apps. I’ve been able to find an app for everything I’ve looked for.
Last week I wrote about how my loyalty to Windows Phones has been waning – I’ve been reading and hearing that Microsoft wants their goodness to be on every platform – and they seem to pay more attention to Android and iOS than Windows folks.So I bought a Samsung Galaxy S5 and am really thinking of switching over to the Android platform.
A Microsoft MVP I’ve ‘met’ on Twitter and email is Richard Hay. He’s been talking about Microsoft going Android quite a bit and getting me thinking about switching. If you like getting Microsoft and Windows news, I’d recommend Richard Hay’s podcast. He used to podcast weekly, but with a lot of changes going on, his output has been irregular. I’d subscribe anyway because it’s really good when we get it!
First, I’m looking to replicate the Microsoft Office, OneNote, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business to contrast the Android vs. Microsoft apps. So far, I’ve been impressed with the app installation process. Before any app is installed, I’m told what the app needs to access. It looks like you have to accept all the items in the list, or you won’t be able to install.
Every app has installed very quickly – much more so than on my Windows phones. Then I signed into each one, but I found when I got to the OneNote app, it just automatically signed me into the Microsoft account I’m using for OneDrive – nice. When I installed the Office app, it asked me if I wanted to link/connect all my Dropbox folders with Office, so I said yes and now when I go to the Office app, all my choices are right there. I can also use Office on the web for free (this has been available for some time now).
I wondered how my SharePoint and OneDrive for Business files would import, but everything looks great there too and the documents were available and synced very fast.
Organizing apps on the Samsung has been pretty intuitive. When I wanted to put all the apps I installed on one screen, I only had to drag and drop and they were there. I do like and miss the live tiles though.
Here are the apps I’ve wanted to have and haven’t been able to get from the Windows Store – Score big for Android and not Windows Store!
| Android | Windows Phone |
| Instagram Beta | |
| Hootsuite | |
| Facebook Pages Manager | |
| Periscope | |
| Local Banking Apps | |
| Local Weather Apps | |
Hootsuite and the Facebook Pages Manager are ones I can use with my business and not having them on any Windows Phones is limiting – keeping me close to a laptop computer instead of truly being mobile.
Problems Wiping Data from Android Devices
I read a troubling article from Ars Technica about the failure of Android phones using the Google OS not being able to be completely wiped when the factory reset is used. One reason given is that Android phones use flash chips and some manufacturers don’t include drivers necessary to fully wipe the flash chips. In the test, after a factory reset was performed, researchers were able to recover text messages, videos, contacts and more. Some recommend that smashing the phone when you’re finished with it is the safest thing to do! Hopefully with later versions of the Android software, they will fix this.
For now, I’m using the phone for the apps – I haven’t transferred over my phone service yet. I’m waiting to put my email on the Samsung until I completely switch over later this month. I did take a look at the O365 email installation and it will involve me getting my server and other information. This is more ‘work’ than just entering in my credentials on my Windows Phone.