[S_U_N]

Originally Posted by carboy

I have some question about Whatsapp - I have avoided installing stuff which I see no use for. However, someone I know who is abroad wants to use it for contacting me and is forcing me to install it. So my questions are

- What the hell is Whatsapp & what can it do which Skype or other things cannot.
- Is it possible to make Whatsapp not allow anyone to contact me except this one guy?
- How much battery does it drain?
- Is it possible to limit how much digging around Whatsapp does on my phone?
- Is it possible to install it on my laptop instead just to keep this guy satisfied?

I have myself avoided 'WhatsApp' due to unknown reasons. But I have seen my wife stay in touch with her big group of school/ college friends. Everyone is on WhatsApp.

I have seen her sharing videos (perhaps with the entire team) and felt the videos got uploaded very fast. So, it does seem a good platform when you want to stay connected to a big group.

I am not sure of what the advantage is if it is just one person that you would like to connect.

[GearOn]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Guys, a friend of mine wants to gift his mother a phone on her birthday which is nearing. His requirements are as below . please suggest phones that meet the requirements.

1. Max budget of 7k
2. Dual Sim
3. camera which takes decent quality pics . Five to six mega pixel
4. Smartphone with full touch

Thanks in advance

Recently purchased XOLO A500S for my mother. It is recently launched and is available for 6.5K. It fulfills all your requirement and has amazing screen clarity and touch is very responsive too. Is great value for money in that price range. Have a look at it.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by carboy

...
- Is it possible to make Whatsapp not allow anyone to contact me except this one guy?
-

Originally Posted by ramzsys

- Is it possible to make Whatsapp not allow anyone to contact me except this one guy?
Yes you can.

I don't think this is possible. Once you create a whatsapp account on your phone, everyone who has your number and is using whatsapp will see you on their list and can whatsapp you. You have the option of blocking contacts once they message you.

[9thsphinx]

Originally Posted by 9thsphinx

@Gandhi: But in your case, if I understood it correctly, I believe you created the hotspot on the phone and shared it with the MBP and a Windows Laptop. I'm trying to do it the other way round. Create a hotspot on the MBA and share it with the phone.

@Latentpotential: There is no option to check the encryption type. All I can do is either choose the WPA2 encryption for a secure connection or keep it unsecured.

Found out a solution and it has to do with the channel I was on. Up until today I was running the hotspot on Channel 11. Changed it to 1 a few days back. Still had problems with connectivity. Today, I tried switching to channel 9, and voila!

In short, for anyone having a problem connecting your Android phones to a WPA2 encrypted hotspot created on your Mac, use channel 9. Worked for me

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by 9thsphinx

Found out a solution and it has to do with the channel I was on. Up until today I was running the hotspot on Channel 11. Changed it to 1 a few days back. Still had problems with connectivity. Today, I tried switching to channel 9, and voila!

In short, for anyone having a problem connecting your Android phones to a WPA2 encrypted hotspot created on your Mac, use channel 9. Worked for me

Well should it not depend on what channel your hotspot is using rather then a fixed number such as 9 ?

IMHO when you configure a hotspot / WiFi router it is a best practice to check the channel will least interference and use it. If you are away from channel your neighbours are using you will get best signal in your home.

[dZired]

Any review of the Micromax Canvas Doodle A111? I am eyeing this phone for my sister but this will be the first time I would buy a Micromax and hence am a bit skeptical about the brand.

[9thsphinx]

Originally Posted by amitk26

Well should it not depend on what channel your hotspot is using rather then a fixed number such as 9 ?

IMHO when you configure a hotspot / WiFi router it is a best practice to check the channel will least interference and use it. If you are away from channel your neighbours are using you will get best signal in your home.

You're right, channels with the least interference are the best. But my issue was something totally different which got solved by changing to a different channel. It could work with any other channel too. I'm not sure how a sort of half-connectivity would be the cause of a high use channel, but apparently a different channel than what I was using worked. Hence, the suggestion.

Since this is an Android thread, I'll leave it to what can be described as I did earlier. If you want your Android phone to have full connectivity to your Macbook hotspot the solution is to try different channels.

[scorpion_blore]

Originally Posted by dZired

Any review of the Micromax Canvas Doodle A111? I am eyeing this phone for my sister but this will be the first time I would buy a Micromax and hence am a bit skeptical about the brand.

My wife used the same phone before marriage, and she always complained of low in-call volume. The in-call audio is too low even when the in-call volume is increased to its maximum limit. Later I gifted here a brand new Sony Xperia L, and it's going strong till now.

I suggest that you stick with phones from known brands like Samsung, LG, and Sony.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

I don't think this is possible. Once you create a whatsapp account on your phone, everyone who has your number and is using whatsapp will see you on their list and can whatsapp you. You have the option of blocking contacts once they message you.

Bit the bullet and installed WhatsApp on my phone & then spent 10 minutes adding all my contacts into the blocked list except 1.

Let me check this for a few days to see how much battery & data it drains.

Originally Posted by dZired

Yes you can. There is a software named "BlueStacks" which can be installed on your laptop through which whatsapp can be used.

I am wondering how this would work - because the app said it sends an SMS to you first and checks it - though I didn't see any SMS in my SMS list - it probably intercepted, read and deleted the message.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by GearOn

Recently purchased XOLO A500S for my mother. It is recently launched and is available for 6.5K. It fulfills all your requirement and has amazing screen clarity and touch is very responsive too. Is great value for money in that price range. Have a look at it.

Thanks mate. Will ask my friend to have a look at it

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by carboy

Bit the bullet and installed WhatsApp on my phone & then spent 10 minutes adding all my contacts into the blocked list except 1.

Let me check this for a few days to see how much battery & data it drains.

One of the major advantage of Whatsapp is that the app is really light weight on resources. I've used it on my 2 yrs old Neo V with just 512mb RAM and it runs very smoothly. Opens quickly compared to Skype or Google Hangouts. Also, it has been the most reliable way to connect to people after SMS. Message delivery is instant and data usage is very low. I've not seen any difference in operation when I fall back to 2G network.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Also, it has been the most reliable way to connect to people after SMS. Message delivery is instant and data usage is very low. I've not seen any difference in operation when I fall back to 2G network.

How is more reliable than GTalk or Yahoo Messenger or the MS one - I have been using some of those for 10 years & I don't remember any problems.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by carboy

How is more reliable than GTalk or Yahoo Messenger or the MS one - I have been using some of those for 10 years & I don't remember any problems.

I'm comparing reliability with their mobile clients. Also, all those clients come to crawling speeds when you are on 2G network. Whatsapp shines on low-end hardware and low-end networks.

Another advantage compared to conventional IM clients is that I don't have to "add" people in my list. It just uses contact's phone number as ID. So people show up automatically in whatsapp as they start using whatsapp. One doesn't need to create any account or anything to use whatsapp, everything happens in the background using the phone number.

[HappyRoadie]

Guys please tell me whether Galaxy Core will be faster than Galaxy S Advance? I am asking this because it has a 1.2 GHz processor compared to 1 GHz processor of S advance.

[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by HappyRoadie

Guys please tell me whether Galaxy Core will be faster than Galaxy S Advance? I am asking this because it has a 1.2 GHz processor compared to 1 GHz processor of S advance.

Don't go by the processor speed alone. S Advance has a Cortex A9 based chipset whereas Core has a Cortex A5 based chipset.

But on the other hand, Core has more RAM than S Advance.

The performance difference may not be apparent in routine operations, but will be a limiting factor for heavy jobs like HD video recording/playback, HD games etc.

I would say, avoid both - go for Sony Xperia M. It comes with the Krait chipset that powers phones that cost twice as much.

Rohan