[TheTeacher]

I explained this in my original post. Even though I asked what corporate types would do, my question actually relates to my data (and no MS Exchange involved).

I have contacts (with address details, notes, etc.) and calendar data that lives in a stand-alone MS Outlook installation on my PC. I want to be able to sync my Android phone with Outlook so the address and calendar data is the same on both the phone and in Outlook.

I am able to do this right now with my Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos because Samsung has Kies software to do it. I was cribbing that only four Android phone manufacturers offer software for download on their websites that enable sync of their phones with Outlook.

I must be in the small miniscule minority that refuses to put this data in GMail to accomplish this.

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

I must be in the small miniscule minority that refuses to put this data in GMail to accomplish this.

Then you shouldn't even use the Android phone in first place, instead Windows phones seem you r best friend looking at your requirements.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

I explained this in my original post. Even though I asked what corporate types would do, my question actually relates to my data (and no MS Exchange involved).

I have contacts (with address details, notes, etc.) and calendar data that lives in a stand-alone MS Outlook installation on my PC. I want to be able to sync my Android phone with Outlook so the address and calendar data is the same on both the phone and in Outlook.

I am able to do this right now with my Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos because Samsung has Kies software to do it. I was cribbing that only four Android phone manufacturers offer software for download on their websites that enable sync of their phones with Outlook.

I must be in the small miniscule minority that refuses to put this data in GMail to accomplish this.

So you should stick to those manufacturers' phones, or install an app like this:
http://www.sync-droid.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...yncdroid&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...net.IntouchApp (looks like it)

Check whether even Windows phones will sync to outlook in the cloud or on PC!

Other alternative - have a tool which saves the contact list say every week and emails it to your PC. Not sync but the next best thing
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...om.eastros.c2x
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...om.mst.contect
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...elcontactslite
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....cotactsbackup

But i dont think its a good idea when you have sync apps available.

[TheTeacher]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

So you should stick to those manufacturers' phones, or install an app like this

Thank you most kind sir, I'll check these out.

[bluevolt]

Been using HTC Desire 816 for over 1.5 months now. No complaints whatsoever but just a concern related to its data consumption. I always opt for 300MB/month 3g plan and as per my usage pattern, it was always enough for me when I had my HTC One V. But ever since I switched to 816, 300MB per month doesn't seem to be sufficient. In other words 816 appears to be data hungry device. I have manually switched off irrelevant syncs and only important apps like gmail and whatsapp and htc weather app are on auto sync.

I am not sure how my device is consuming so much data when I hardly use it!
4-5 MBs are consumed even when phone is on stand by mode and I receive the notification about the consumption when I switch to wifi for youtube or heavu browsing.

Is this specific to HTC 816 or Android 4.4.2 or Sense 6.0?

[Speed.Demon]

Have you tried disabling BlinkFeed?

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by Speed.Demon

Have you tried disabling BlinkFeed?

That was the first thing I did when I switched on the phone for the first time :P

[Lij]

IAF personnel and family members asked not to use Xiaomi phones.

Link to news article -
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/44926994.cms

[bluevolt]

I recently bought a portable charger which has two charging USB ports, one rated at 1amp and second one at 2.1 amp. While I understand that first slot is intended for smartphones and other one for tablets; my concern is that, I have, by mistake, charged my HTC Desire 816 using 2.1 amp output slot for 3-4 times. So is there any problem with that?

In other words, can I use 2.1 amp output to charge my phone quickly in future also? Any associated issues with that with respect to battery life etc?

[ToyotaFan]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

I recently bought a portable charger which has two charging USB ports, one rated at 1amp and second one at 2.1 amp. While I understand that first slot is intended for smartphones and other one for tablets; my concern is that, I have, by mistake, charged my HTC Desire 816 using 2.1 amp output slot for 3-4 times. So is there any problem with that?

In other words, can I use 2.1 amp output to charge my phone quickly in future also? Any associated issues with that with respect to battery life etc?

2.1 Amp charger point is what I use to charge my Moto G as well in my car. There are no problems normally but it might affect the battery life in the long run but it can certainly be done when you are in a hurry.

[Speed.Demon]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

In other words, can I use 2.1 amp output to charge my phone quickly in future also? Any associated issues with that with respect to battery life etc?

Yes, you can use the 2.1A charger in the future without any problems.

The phone will take only the amount of current it needs, so there's no danger of battery damage.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

I recently bought a portable charger which has two charging USB ports, one rated at 1amp and second one at 2.1 amp. While I understand that first slot is intended for smartphones and other one for tablets; my concern is that, I have, by mistake, charged my HTC Desire 816 using 2.1 amp output slot for 3-4 times. So is there any problem with that?

In other words, can I use 2.1 amp output to charge my phone quickly in future also? Any associated issues with that with respect to battery life etc?

Use a charging current measurement app to understand the actual rate which the charger is delivering. All phones have in built protection for this. It's likely that the phone would be getting charged at 1A irrespective of the charger rating.

[SunnyBoi]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

I recently bought a portable charger which has two charging USB ports, one rated at 1amp and second one at 2.1 amp. While I understand that first slot is intended for smartphones and other one for tablets; my concern is that, I have, by mistake, charged my HTC Desire 816 using 2.1 amp output slot for 3-4 times. So is there any problem with that?

In other words, can I use 2.1 amp output to charge my phone quickly in future also? Any associated issues with that with respect to battery life etc?

Is it an Xpower 2.1A + 1A charger? I tested it yesterday and it barely put out 0.8A from each port. Or my friend might have got a fake one.

I got a USB Charger Doctor from ebay.com for 1.5$ and its well worth it to diagnose and check various chargers.



PS: The USB cable matters a lot while charging. If its a AWG28 cable, it will be limited to 0.5A. For more current, you'll need USB cables with AWG24 wires in them. This info will be printed in the cable.

[drmohitg]

Disposed off my 1 week old Xiomi Redmi 1S by gifting it to a friend who was interested. It was a terrible phone as far as my experience goes. The specifications might look good on paper but it is the end user experience that matters. Something where Apple has really excelled as there phones are always usually low on hardware specs but perform really fast in real world usage. The Redmi 1S is terribly laggy. The phone takes its own sweet time to start up from switch off position. So much time that it made me wonder each time if I had pressed the power ON button for a sufficient time or not. Once it fires up there is a certain lag each time you again switch on the device from the stand by position. It really takes close to 3-4 seconds to switch on. Lastly the battery is really insufficient for this phone. It didn't even last a day with practically very little usage comprising of phone calls for 10-15 mins and rest of the time it was just idling with WIFI connected ( but no whatsapp or net browsing whatsoever).

Another irritating thing about it is that it uses a different size of USB cable for charging. Hence you have to carry its charger every where with you since it won't connect to the regular sized micro USB cable that is standard with almost all Android devices these days.

All in all a bad experience. I am contemplating buying either the 2014 Moto G or the HTC 816 as its replacement.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Another irritating thing about it is that it uses a different size of USB cable for charging. Hence you have to carry its charger every where with you since it won't connect to the regular sized micro USB cable that is standard with almost all Android devices these days.

I have purchased a Redmi1s for gifting it to someone (Have to gift it today actually).
It has been with me for almost a month now and I have made some initial setting up and not used it too much (obviously).
Don't know about user experience but the different sized USB is not true. I have charged it with Samsung,Sony and Nokia micro-USB chargers and it works perfectly fine with all of them.
Can you show the differences in pictures if possible?

In other news, Mi India have responded on their Facebook page to the reports of an IAF notice to users not to use their phones. Below is a quote of it

(Posted by Hugo Barra on October 27, 2014)

Mi India fans,

There have been reports about an IAF circular claiming that Xiaomi phones are a security threat. While we are attempting to reach Indian authorities to learn specifics, we would like to clarify a few points to assure our users that we treat your privacy seriously.

>> 1. We provide secure opt-in Internet services that greatly benefit users

We offer various opt-in Internet services that bring great user benefits, are free of charge, and require personal data to be stored in the cloud. For example:

-- Mi Cloud enables users to back up their data as well as sync it to other devices
-- Cloud Messaging allows users of Mi devices to exchange text messages free of carrier charges by routing messages via IP instead of carrier’s SMS gateway

These services are optional (opt-in). Users can turn them on and off at any time. Users can also opt to use similar services from other Internet companies instead, such as Google, Whatsapp, Dropbox and others.

>> 2. We do not collect user data without permission

We do not collect any data associated with services such as Mi Cloud and Cloud Messaging until the user provides explicit consent by turning on the corresponding service(s). Even after users have turned on these services, they can turn them off at any point of time.

We take rigorous precautions to ensure that all data is secured when uploaded to Xiaomi servers and is not stored beyond the time required.

>> 3. We use very high encryption and security standards to protect user data

-- We encrypt data using AES-128 standard before storing, which makes it practically impossible for anyone to steal this information
-- We protect user passwords and identifiers such as IMEI number using cryptographic one-way hash functions *before* they're uploaded, which means we never actually receive the original information
-- No single person, including Xiaomi employees, can decrypt user data stored in Mi Cloud, even if they get access to the hard drives
-- We use extremely strict access control policies with multiple authorizations being required for engineers building services that access any personal data
-- All access to servers is logged and audited

>> 4. We are moving our Indian users' data to servers outside of China, and to India in 2015

Since early 2014, we have been migrating our services and corresponding data for Indian users from our Beijing data centers to Amazon AWS data centers in Singapore and USA. Parts of this migration will be completed by the end of October, and all of it will be completed by the end of 2014. In 2015, we plan to launch a local data center in India to serve the needs of (and store data for) our Indian users.

These efforts help significantly improve the performance of our services and also provide some peace of mind for users in India, ensuring that we treat their data with utmost care and the highest privacy standards.

Here's a recent post I wrote about this:
https://plus.google.com/110023707389...ts/9ARVCHczyvb

>> 5. The concerns raised by F-Secure have been fully addressed

We believe the advisory circular issued by IAF is based on events about 3 months back. It refers to the F-Secure test done on the Redmi 1S in July 2014 about the activation of our Cloud Messaging service (which enables users to send text messages for free, similar to other popular messaging services).

We immediately addressed the concerns raised, which was directly acknowledged by F-Secure 4 days later.

Please refer to this post by F-Secure confirming their concerns were addressed:
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002734.html

Thank you,

Hugo Barra