Hi! Firstly I’d like to wish everyone on list a Very Merry Christmas and may you all have a Happy new year in 2017 I find myself in a somewhat reflective mood around about this time of year when it comes to Android. It was a year ago on 24 December - Yep Christmas Eve - when I received my Samsung Galaxy S6 which I’m still using and a year before that - 1 December 2014 - I received the lovely Samsung Note4 which is still in use today. The Galaxy S6 has opened doors to me I could never have imagined and taken my using of a mobile phone in a somewhat different direction than I had anticipated and I’d like to share my thoughts on this topic, perhaps other people may have comments or views they could contribute. The Galaxy S6 - as with other Android phones - is exactly that, a great phone for making and receiving calls whether you’re using some sort of voice recognition/dictation to initiate/answer the call, whether its by physical button presses or swiping the screen/placement of the phone. Given that the whole idea of a phone is to do just that - make and receive calls - The Galaxy S6 is certainly up to the job and sounds excellent with HD voice whether you’re using its own internal earpiece, hands free speakerphone, headset or another quality Bluetooth hands free device, I’ve tried them all and have been suitably impressed. I’m now finding that the S6 has turned into a primary media player for me and I put this down to a number of factors. First is the Lossless APTX Bluetooth transfer that the S6 and other Android phones now use, this can make your music come alive on a good portable Bluetooth Speaker or a home stereo setup equipped with APTX Bluetooth. Added to that is the ability to stream files of your choice, you want to play FLAC files? Then go right ahead, install your favourite player such as VLC, pair your APTX Bluetooth device and sit back to enjoy the music. I’ve also used the Galaxy S6 with an external DAC - Digital To Analogue Converter - in the form of the Oppo portable pocket DAC, you haven’t heard your music until you’ve heard it through a good DAC and the DAC in the S6 thankfully isn’t too far behind the Oppo, even supports HD Audio. The Samsung Galaxy S6 goes with me everywhere and is constantly in use, whether it be giving directions thanks to Google Maps or just sitting in my trouser pocket in case of an emergency, I have the SOS function set up here which can send information to four nominated parties in the form of SMS, these SMS messages include such information as a 5 second audio recording, shots taken from the camera at the time of the SOS alert, map locations etc. I have the Galaxy S6 set to alert me by vibration when my doorbell rings, the S6 can recognise the sound of the bell, you record a sample of the sound for the S6 to recognise. Amongst the everyday Apps I use is the very nice Aqua Mail eMail client which has one of the best layouts I’ve ever seen in a eMail client whether that be Desktop or mobile. I have a Twitter feed and thus use Tweetings though I have to admit to not using Tweetings to its full potential. Tunein Radio Pro is a buzz and even more so now that I have the voice command structure for it down to a T using “Okay Google”. But probably most important of all is just how well my S6 interacts with my hearing instruments when I’m out and about, when a call comes in I just press the home button on the S6, the call is answered and the sound immediately transmitted right to my hearing instruments so I may hear clearly. Further more - if I’m out at a coffee shop where there’s a lot of noise - I can make things easier for myself by placing the S6 on a table between myself and the party or party’s I’m talking to. The s6 runs an App for my hearing instruments - actually the App controls most of the processing for the instruments but that’s another topic for another day - but the point here being is that the App adjust the microphone of the s6 allowing me to hear the local conversation more clearly than the hearing instruments would on their own. Happy Android usage to you all.
********** Those of a positive and enquiring frame of mind will leave the rest of the halfwits in this world behind.
