using Android with Kubuntu on the cheap

[Tom_ZeCat]

I might finally get a smartphone. I haven't bought into the smartphone craze like other people, and frankly have been annoyed by them (like people who insist on texting in a movie theater). I've been getting by with a basic prepaid cell phone. However, I can't deny the value of these smartphones.

My other reason for staying away from this technology is I don't want to get roped into some one or two year contract with a company I may end up not liking. However, I've found a local store that will set you up with a used phone and month-to-month service that you can cancel at any time. I've never felt I needed the latest and greatest for any technology. I've found if you're willing to go with slightly older gear and you do your homework, you can do well on the cheap. What's cool is this company will even let buy your own used Android online at Amazon or wherever and they'll set you up with service.

I miss the days of using a Palm Pilot and carrying around my schedule, word processing files, and spreadsheets wherever I go. I want to be able to do that again. I'm not going to become one of these smartphone-obsessed people, but here's what I want to be able to do:

1. Put my schedule from my Kubuntu laptop (K-Organizer & K-AddressBook) into the smartphone and use it on the go, then put all changes into the laptop to continue working. Keep the two synced.
2. Run the French verb conjugating program, Le Conjuguer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ur.droid&hl=en) on the phone. I already use the Linux version on my laptop. (No need to sync)
3. Carry and use LibreOffice Writer and Calc files on the phone, sync changes when home.
4. Use a chess program on the phone (does not need to sync with anything).
5. Run the Anki for Android flash card program (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...hi2.anki&hl=en) on the phone and keep it synced with the Linux version on my laptop.
6. I'll probably find and use one of those price checking apps that let you scan something in a store and then see if it's available cheaper elsewhere.

That's pretty much it. What I don't want to do is walk into a store and shell out $300 or more for the greatest Android in existence. I want to find something used on the cheap, probably on Amazon. It MUST be something that I can easily use in conjunction with my Kubuntu laptop. If it's a beast to get the data to and fro, I don't want to fool with it. I'm not going to surf the web much with it. That's what a real computer is for. If someone can advise me on finding the right Android for me, I'd appreciate your insights.

[jglen490]

I understand exactly what you're talking about. I miss being able to sync my Palmone Zire with Linux via Kpilot and its really fine conduits. I have to dance around with .ics and .vcf files between Jpilot and Thunderbird/Lightning with my Zire and my Linux box and with trying to import and export without duplicating entries. It's a real pain. Without the Android <-> Linux equivalent of Kpilot, I'm pretty sure you'll be stuck with .ics and .vcf imports and exports for your calendar and address book entries. It could be simpler with the other apps that share data files directly. At least the Android box should show up as a mountable system over a USB connection.

[Feathers McGraw]

I appreciate where you're coming from, I use a feature phone myself, plus a Nexus 7 tablet with 3g. Best of both.

As you're after a phone, try the Nexus 4, they've recently dropped the price and the specs are really very good. My brother and 3 friends have them and they all wax lyrical. It's also easy to flash a custom ROM like cyanogenmod if you think you might like to try that kind of thing someday.

https://play.google.com/store/device...id=nexus_4_8gb

I'm with you on the rolling contract front, it makes much more sense (my 3g contract on the tablet is a month by month thing).

As for the libreoffice question, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but Libreoffice don't have an android app. There are gratis apps that would probably open the files, but in my experience none of them are very good - fine to read content, a pain to edit it, especially for spreadsheets. Depends what you expect to be able to do with them really. The apps are fine for checking something in an emergency, but you wouldn't want to do any serious work on an android device.

Luckily for android lovers, "adb" (Android Debug Bridge) is much easier to install using *buntu than on Windows (it's package android-tools-adb in the repos). You won't have any trouble transferring files.


Hope that's helpful,

Feathers

[Tom_ZeCat]

I appreciate where you're coming from, I use a feature phone myself, plus a Nexus 7 tablet with 3g. Best of both.

As you're after a phone, try the Nexus 4, they've recently dropped the price and the specs are really very good. My brother and 3 friends have them and they all wax lyrical. It's also easy to flash a custom ROM like cyanogenmod if you think you might like to try that kind of thing someday.

https://play.google.com/store/device...id=nexus_4_8gb

I'm with you on the rolling contract front, it makes much more sense (my 3g contract on the tablet is a month by month thing).

As for the libreoffice question, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but Libreoffice don't have an android app. There are gratis apps that would probably open the files, but in my experience none of them are very good - fine to read content, a pain to edit it, especially for spreadsheets. Depends what you expect to be able to do with them really. The apps are fine for checking something in an emergency, but you wouldn't want to do any serious work on an android device.

Luckily for android lovers, "adb" (Android Debug Bridge) is much easier to install using *buntu than on Windows (it's package android-tools-adb in the repos). You won't have any trouble transferring files.


Hope that's helpful,

Feathers

Definitely helpful. Thanks to you both. The word processing and spreadsheet files I want to port around with me will mainly be for viewing. It's unlikely I'll edit them much on the Android. In a pinch, I could save my work as Word and Excel files, though I've been really trying to get away from those formats. For about the first year of using LibreOffice, I had it set to automatically save everything as .doc and .xls files. I finally quit when I was convinced of the superiority of the LibreOffice formats and when I was sure I wasn't ever using MS Office again.

Gonna check out those phones you guys recommend.

[Feathers McGraw]

In a pinch, I could save my work as Word and Excel files, though I've been really trying to get away from those formats. For about the first year of using LibreOffice, I had it set to automatically save everything as .doc and .xls files. I finally quit when I was convinced of the superiority of the LibreOffice formats and when I was sure I wasn't ever using MS Office again.

BTW I didn't mean that the open formats are more difficult to open in apps (but they might be, never tried myself). It was more a general point about how easy it is to edit things like that on mobile devices (you said you wanted to use the files on the phone).

Interesting that you both mentioned Palm, my dad works for HP and was pretty excited when they bought Palm and made a big WebOS push. Such a shame they pulled the plug before it had a chance to gain any ground. I quite liked the "cards" interface, had a palm phone for a while.

Feathers

[claydoh]

1. Put my schedule from my Kubuntu laptop (K-Organizer & K-AddressBook) into the smartphone and use it on the go, then put all changes into the laptop to continue working. Keep the two synced.
2. Run the French verb conjugating program, Le Conjuguer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ur.droid&hl=en) on the phone. I already use the Linux version on my laptop. (No need to sync)
3. Carry and use LibreOffice Writer and Calc files on the phone, sync changes when home.
4. Use a chess program on the phone (does not need to sync with anything).
5. Run the Anki for Android flash card program (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...hi2.anki&hl=en) on the phone and keep it synced with the Linux version on my laptop.
6. I'll probably find and use one of those price checking apps that let you scan something in a store and then see if it's available cheaper elsewhere.

That's pretty much it. What I don't want to do is walk into a store and shell out $300 or more for the greatest Android in existence. I want to find something used on the cheap, probably on Amazon. It MUST be something that I can easily use in conjunction with my Kubuntu laptop. If it's a beast to get the data to and fro, I don't want to fool with it. I'm not going to surf the web much with it. That's what a real computer is for. If someone can advise me on finding the right Android for me, I'd appreciate your insights.

1) may be difficult, as I don't there there is much in the way of "old-fashioned" syncing with the desktop - you are rather tied to the cloud (ie Google) for syncing - though you can have phonebook and calendar stuff that is not using google. There seem to be usb sync apps that work for files, but may seem to be mac/windows specific. Syncing actual files between a pc and android wirelessly is quite easy, using dropbox or one of many, many alternatives, but actually having the calendar and phonebook import that data might not be an easily automatic thing.

Air Droid is a wonderful, good looking and simple tool that connects your phone and computer via a web browser interface. It provides a simple way to access and send things to your phone.

3) there is no usable app that edits Open Document files, yet, though there are some viewers, I have not tried any out in a while, however. They were pretty awful when I did.

5) not sure if this syncs on linux, but if they have their own syncing bit, it should work regardless of OS.

As for which phone you want to get, that is way tough, as there are soooo many. The costs can be high if you don't want a contract, but used phones have a wide price range. As mentioned, the Nexus 4 from Google is a good phone at a fantastic price. If you look at used phones, look for something with a minimum of a dual-core processor, preferably with 2 gb ram, and if possible running Android 4.something. You likely wrong go wrong with the nexus, the price and feature set is nice, and you get the latest Android versions, which actually make a HUGE difference in terms of usability - most carrier-provided phones see very few updates, as they would rather you get a new phone (and the extended contract!) instead. Ask those around you about their carriers, so you can get an idea of good phone/data coverage, that is something important to consider as well. If you live in a good Sprint area, check out Ting.com, they seem to have the best prices/plans, no contracts, and even offer new/used phones - they use Sprint's network. (I wish I had sprint where I am, ting is so significantly cheaper and with better plan options than other carriers its not funny)

Be aware that most newer android devices do not have mass-storage mode any longer (showing up as a usb storage device) and use MTP instead. This should work fine if you are using 13.04, which has far better mtp support than 12.04

[Buddlespit]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...fice_eng&hl=en