Comments for Tokyo Hotel Mega

Comment on Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G Android Cellphone, Black (AT&T) by Eliseo Roman

Eliseo Roman — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:08:45 +0000

84 of 93 people found the following review helpful

Great Phone, November 11, 2011

Eliseo Roman (Hawthorne, Ca) –

This review is from: Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G Android Phone, Black (AT&T) (Wireless Phone)

This is a great phone, I have owned it for 3 days now and i really like it. The build quality is great, even though it is plastic. The phone itself looks beautiful and feels great, the weight is also good it doesn’t feel to light or to heavy. The screen is one of the best ive seen on any phone. Everything cant be perfect though.

I am not in a lte market so i cant comment on that aspect. As far as the phone goes you do have to keep a couple of things in mind. The phone has a 4.5 inch screen, although this sounds great it has some obvious draw backs. With the screen being so big one of the draw backs is size. It is not a comfortable phone to carry around and putting it in you’re pocket as well as pulling it out can be awkward. I wear slim jeans and this has become an annoyance. When you talk on it you notice the size, it feels like holding a scientific calculator to you’re ear.

The second draw back is once again the screen size. This being 4.5 inches it takes up more juice than some of the more standard sizes. I am currently experimenting with ways to reduce battery drain but still end up with a dead phone by the time i go to bed (I am worried about the days i go out and stay up past 11). Another thing that I am concerned about when it comes to battery life is the lte antenna. I am pretty sure lte takes up more battery life than standard hspa or hspa+, and I am a little upset that this phone does not have a switch to turn of the lte antenna. Also unlike most android phones i have used before you do not have the option to switch to 2g networks only, there is probably a work-around for this via the android market but i haven’t bothered.

I will not comment on the UI because i find that irrelevant on an android phone. Some people complain about Touch wiz but i find that android has workarounds for any annoyances. I use Launcher pro on all my android phones because of the heavy customization that i am able to do. Touch Wiz has not hindered me at all.

Regardless of these complaints witch i consider to be minor, i love this phone. I am looking into purchasing an extra battery, this is due to my forgetfulness though. I sometimes fall a sleep and forget to charge my phone and i have always owned extra batteries for all my phones.

Oh and one last note, I love the camera on this phone. I find that it is really quick and there is plenty of settings. Recording video is also excellent.

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Comments (6)

Comment on Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G Android Cellphone, Black (AT&T) by Robert Felice

Robert Felice — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:36:11 +0000

143 of 151 people found the following review helpful

Fast. Complicated. Eats megabytes for breakfast., January 9, 2012

Robert Felice (Silicon Valley Boy) –

This review is from: Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G Android Phone, Black (AT&T) (Wireless Phone)

I’ve checked out what other reviewers have had to say about this phone, and find myself in agreement with most of them.

The phone is amazing.

Here’s what else you need to know:
a) data plan
b) apps
c) user manual

Data Plan: you will need a separate data plan for the phone. My wife has an iPhone 3G, with an unlimited data plan from AT&T. But that phone doesn’t use the 4G LTE network. AT&T is slowing building out its 4G LTE network, and it may not be available in your area. You have to buy a plan whether or not you currently have 4G LTE coverage. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that 4G LTE was available in my area, even though the official AT&T coverage map didn’t include it.

I bought a 200 megabyte per month plan. It seemed like a lot of bytes. Then I started using my phone. Trulia has a great app that lets you find the houses for sale in whatever neighborhood you find yourself in. You can see the entire listing, just like you can at home on your computer. You can even download pictures (bad idea!) Use an app like this, and the megabytes go down the drain. I went through 30 megabytes in the first 6 days of my billing cycle.

So, unless you sprang for an unlimited data plan, I wouldn’t recommend streaming movies, or even your music, off the web. And keep an eye on your usage. You can become a data how a lot faster than you might imagine!

Apps: there’s a ton of apps available from the Android store, and Amazon has done a pretty amazing job of providing apps for the phone on their site as well.

So far, so good. The problem is that AT&T had added a number of their own apps, each of which has a low-cost or entirely free alternative. But none of the AT&T apps can be removed. They are part of the read-only memory on the phone, and you can’t delete them without “rooting” your phone. This isn’t a deal breaker for people with some technical smarts (and who aren’t afraid to risk turning a $600 phone into a brick), but for most of us, you are stuck with these things.

Very annoying. And, quite expensive. For example, AT&T offers Family Map (a “find my phone” service) $10 a month. You can find a 99¢ alternative on the Amazon app store.

Yes, the other Carriers do this, too. That doesn’t make it right.

User Manual: This is a complicated device. It comes with a 20 page Quick Start Guide, and nothing more. I’d like to say the Quick Start Guide covers all the basics, but it doesn’t tell you how to answer an incoming call. I hear you saying to yourself, “How hard can that be? When the phone sees an incoming call, it displays the standard green and red buttons. You press the green one to answer the call, or the red one to send the call to Voice Mail.”

If only it were that easy. To answer a call, you have to “swipe” your finger from the green button across the screen towards the red one. You can push the green button repeatedly, but you will never answer your call.

If you dig around on the web long enough, you will find the missing manual for this phone (hint: it’s on the Samsung web site). Answering a call is detailed on page 42 (Chapter 3, Call Functions). I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the industry when one of a product’s two main functions is buried about one fifth of the way into the User Manual.

To be fair, the Quick Start Guide does provide a link to AT&T’s excellent Tutorials web page. I recommend you go there as soon as you have set up your phone. The interactive tutorials are short and the list of topics is comprehensive. It will take you some time to work through all of them, but it will be worth it.

In conclusion, there are two types of cell phone users: those who upgrade regularly, and those who don’t get a new phone until they either lose their old one or it breaks. I am in the second category. I only upgraded to this phone when my trusty Treo 680 finally bit the bullet. I don’t know when “swipe to answer a call” became such a ubiquitous gesture that it didn’t need to be explained, but as far as I am concerned, this topic really belongs in the Quick Start Guie.

I think you will enjoy this phone. It’s thin, light, and packs a ton of features. Read up on managing your battery life (hint: turn off GPS and Bluetooth when you don’t need those services, and invest in a car charger). Also, watch those megabytes (another hint: use your home or a public WiFi network whenever you can, because data transferred over a Wi-Fi connection doesn’t count toward your wireless data plan).

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Comments (5)

Comment on remote control window shades in japanese hotel space by thebag707

thebag707 — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:17:19 +0000

Who is the jack-ass on the phone?

Comment on remote control window shades in japanese hotel space by alucard2107

alucard2107 — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:33:44 +0000

speak japanese!!! ahhh

Comment on remote control window shades in japanese hotel space by Xshikei

Xshikei — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:47:12 +0000

“Eigo wo hanashimasu ka”

Remember that next time.

Comment on remote control window shades in japanese hotel space by sprout102030

sprout102030 — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:53:02 +0000

lol u sound like microsoft sam u know the computerized voice

Comment on remote control window shades in japanese hotel space by duraimuun

duraimuun — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:12:25 +0000

nice!
“Eigo wo hanasemasu ka” is better I think

Comment on remote control window shades in japanese hotel space by bram18y

bram18y — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:13:20 +0000

hahaha ideed XD

Comment on remote control window shades in japanese hotel space by Saroku1000

Saroku1000 — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:30:58 +0000

or “eigo wo wakate imasu ka”

Comment on 2 PAKISTAN DAY RECEPTION IN TOKYO OKURA HOTEL by CookingAmmi

CookingAmmi — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:09:48 +0000

thats alot of people
and the carpet guy-excellent work

Comment on Japan Airlines Boeing 777-346/ER [JA741J] Takeoff LAX by Airshowlover100

Airshowlover100 — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:29:51 +0000

24L

Comment on Japan Airlines Boeing 777-346/ER [JA741J] Takeoff LAX by SoCalSpottingHD

SoCalSpottingHD — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:47:05 +0000

ok thats what I thought, I actually think this a good spot. The next time I go to LAX (after this trip) i might stay the night, looks good. Can you request a room looking towards 24L?

Comment on Japan Airlines Boeing 777-346/ER [JA741J] Takeoff LAX by Airshowlover100

Airshowlover100 — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:27:46 +0000

um… i’m not sure that you can get a room facing 25R/L (well you can) but you won’t get the full takeoff. this was not filmed in a room just the penthouse public area facing 24R/L. If there is room for a room facing 24R/L maybe they can give you it but i’m not guaranteeing it.

Comment on Japan Airlines Boeing 777-346/ER [JA741J] Takeoff LAX by SoCalSpottingHD

SoCalSpottingHD — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:03:07 +0000

Oh, I will look into it. Maybe that time we can go spotting since u cant go this time.

Comment on Japan Airlines Boeing 777-346/ER [JA741J] Takeoff LAX by Airshowlover100

Airshowlover100 — Sat, 05 May 2012 16:08:05 +0000

maybe? sorry i gotta go i have some HW to do.