SWMich4G

I've never had a problem with either, and have about 4 of each. However, some of the Barracudas have a head-parking issue that I have yet to find a definitive fix for. It basically stops the drive after a short period of non-use, which makes a really annoying sound. Supposedly it should also put extra wear on the drive, but is done for energy saving. If this is your boot drive, you should consider upgrading to a SSD. It's the single biggest performance enhancement you can make to your system, and assuming you have a second drive for mass storage, they are quite affordable in 128GB and 256GB sizes.

It makes me sad that I paid less for mine 3-4 years ago. I had to switch to Seagates vs paying over 2x as much for the newer blacks.

I did say the only reason to get it is for the things the warranty doesn't cover, so I'm not sure why you're arguing about that (angrily agreeing with me?). But as for full phone price vs the deductible, you ARE already paying full phone price. $11/mo for 24 months plus a $150 deductible is $414. I could buy a like-new S4 for considerably less than that right now. Like I said, there are certainly reasons to get TEP, but in your case you just paid $414 to not have to wait for Samsung to repair your phone. I personally would have bought a Nexus, then sold one of the phones once the S4 came back...but that's me. :/

You realize Samsung phones have a 1 year warranty, right? You're paying $11 per month and a $150 deductible for something that is already covered for free. The only reason to get TEP is for the things that the warranty doesn't cover (e.g. accidental damage), and it's usually still a rip-off because of the deductible.

Ok so I hadn't read much about Knox since it wasn't on the S4 before but now that my phone downloaded the OTA I'm curious: Since this adds Knox, would it be beneficial to root the phone before applying the update to 4.3? Or will the flag be triggered whether I root before or after the update? I'm not sure if I'd ever need to root, but I'd like to know if it would be better to root before updating just in case. Thanks.

And this makes no sense to me, especially since the carriers have tablet-only plans. For $25 more, I'd buy an LTE tablet and use it just on wifi. If I ended up not getting enough out of it with wifi, then I'd buy a plan (or daily data if available). As it is now, I'm not going to pay $100 for a feature I might use at some point in the future. If one carrier made their LTE tablets much cheaper than the other carriers' then they would capture the market on undecided buyers like me. Of course maybe there aren't that many people like me out there (first time tablet buyers who plan ahead for the unknown).

I was more concerned about band 26 since there's no band 41 around here (no wimax).

I haven't followed all the individual phone threads. Are all the tri-band phones limited to single-band until 2014? I know the Nexus 5 is and I thought it was the same for the G2, but dunno about the others. If that's the case, the iphones would be the only phones that can use 800 LTE before 2014, right?

Unfortunately, it's overly generous for their own coverage (as all carriers' maps are) and is lacking quite a bit on the other carriers' maps. You can see they literally have a dot for every verizon tower when you look in areas like Montana and Wyoming, but then entire states like Kentucky, South Carolina, New York, and Nevada are left blank with sprint despite having the same or better coverage than AT&T in some of the cities in those states. There are also areas they filled in in their own map that I know from living in the area that they don't have LTE coverage. And I really don't believe they have that much LTE in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas...there really have to be some LTE dead spots somewhere in the Dakotas. So like all carriers' maps, it needs to be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Negative. With time of day, the hour is the most important, with the minutes much less so, and the seconds almost completely irrelevant. With the date, for the current or very recent date, the day is most important, since you can deduce the month based on that if it's within a couple weeks, and you obviously know the year. Think about what you'd want if you could only be told one: What time is it? Obviously the hour would help the most. When did you see that new movie (date)? Obviously the day would help the most. For historical situations, it's different, and depends on the scale. For short-term within the last year, obviously the month is the most important, but for anything beyond a couple years the year is the most important. Ultimately I would say day-month-year makes the most sense because the majority of the time a date is brought up, it will be a date within 3 weeks of the current date, since people talk about the present more than the past or future (especially when using exact dates).

Here's my conspiracy theory: The leak on the official site was a mistake, and whoever was testing the new page simply used the price from the Nexus 4 for whatever reason (it was in the template, the guy testing it didn't know the decided price, or the price hadn't yet been decided). Now everyone assumes that will be the price and Google is scrambling to decide how to price it because they were planning on pricing it higher. Think about it: something like $399 is still good compared to other smartphones, and even $449 is fair. But when everyone's already assuming from an "official leak" that it will be $349, anything more suddenly comes across as overpriced. So Google has to redo all their pricing calculations with the price leak's effect factored into the equation.

Hence the word "other" before "big companies."

To generalize, heat sinks dissipate heat by having high thermal conductivity and a large surface area touching the surrounding air, with minimal air in between the sink and the heat source. High thermal conductivity means a metal, a crystal (glass, diamond), or maybe rock/stone. High surface area touching the surrounding air means protruding fins. Minimal air in between the sink and the source means using a thermal paste or other filler in between the source and the sink in order to fill in the gaps (so gluing your phone to the case or filling the gaps with a gel/liquid). Basically, it would make your phone larger/pointier, heavier, harder, probably more fragile, and require making the case pretty much permanent. It would be nearly impossible to make a usable case that is a better heat sink than just having a metal back plate.

Exactly. Even though a phone/carrier/sporting team/fabric softener/etc is better for one person doesn't mean it's better for everyone. If Apple made an iphone with a 5 inch screen that could map sensorly I'd be all over it. I do think comparing the features helps people in weighing what they personally prefer before making a buying decision though, as they can learn from other people's usage. Out of curiosity, do most of you go with the base storage model, or do you need 32 or 64GB? One of the great things about the iphone is that I could potentially not have to have both an ipod and a phone since the iphone has the functionality of both. I may be in the minority, but 64GB just isn't enough for the music I'd like to have on me, let alone apps and vids. Have so many people switched to streaming services that the larger models just don't sell? I was always confused as to why Apple seemed to really stall in expanding the storage size each year like they used to.

No it was actually digiblur that came up with the bicycle scenario.

Maybe it's just me but the guys I see with iPhones tend not to have bulky cases and usually have no case at all. I can understand that - if I had a well-built phone like the One or iPhone I wouldn't want it covered up by an ugly case. If you have a cheap, plastic exterior a case often improves the appearance plus gives some protection. I'm being very careful with my GS4 since my last phone hit the ground at least 4 times (but never cracked). The removable battery actually would provide drop protection since it requires force to pop the cover off and increases the moment of the impact ( like a crumple zone). So even with the iPhone's screen usually being a generation ahead in strength, not having a case or having a thinner case is gonna mean more cracks. My main battery issues seem to come from either GPS or signal-hunting. My GS4 lost 50% of its charge overnight last night with no apps that I know of running. It lost another 40% before lunch, sitting unused in my pocket. This is the first time that's happened with the GS4, but the same thing happened to my previous phone on occasion - if I left it in a locker at work it would always be dead by the time I grabbed it at the end of my shift.

I get that. It's a lot easier for some people to slap on an external battery or charger than it is to go through the process of removing the cover, taking one battery out, putting the other battery in, and putting the cover back on. But the Mophie also takes up more space in your bag. And swapping out your battery instead of recharging it extends the life of your batteries (and is cheaper than $80). So there are pros and cons of both. Of course, with a removable battery you can do anything you can with a non-removable battery so maybe there really isn't a con there since you can still use external batteries/chargers. But there are other cons.

Why am I not surprised an Apple user is unable to even comprehend that other people may have different uses and preferences than himself? I understand completely that some people have absolutely no use for a removable battery, or might benefit but not often enough to consider it as a factor in their purchase. As for me, I both want and have use for a removable battery. I chose the GS4 over the One, and a lot of it was because of the battery (iphone couldn't map sensorly so that was a pass). I'm totally ok with users demanding the battery be non-removable so they can fit 3 more mAh in there with the space they saved. That's what some people want. Yet some users will fight tooth and nail against any reasoning that is contrary to how they personally use their device.

I do have a cord in the car. It just doesn't help very much when you're 25 miles away from your car on your bike. Does Apple make a 25 mile long lightning cable? I may have to consider getting an iPhone if that's the case.

Edit: Ok maybe I'll be nice and let you believe what you want to believe. Sorry I insulted the GodPhone

You said "I never understood the allure of a removable battery." I told you the allure.

I just didn't realize how much bandwidth netflix uses until I streamed a movie on my phone last week. The Mega might actually be big enough to be decent for streaming netflix, but you really need wifi to watch more than a couple hours a month.

You're not everyone. Some people don't like spending $100 to replace their battery when it doesn't retain as much charge anymore. Some people like to have the ability to get a fully charged battery in a matter of seconds when they don't have access to an outlet for a long period of time. And yes, you can get one of those portable external batteries for an iphone, but it takes up a lot more space to bring with you and makes your phone hugemongous when attached. Every Apple product I've had has outlasted its battery since I take care of my things and keep them for a long time.

It's probably a good thing she has to go outside for LTE. Using LTE for netflix would use up her monthly data in a day. A hotspot (and I hope you don't mean her phone as a hotspot without paying for it) is not a substitute for a wired connection at home. She should save her money on the phone and get a wired internet service.

Anyone else notice you can't zoom out all the way on the website maps anymore? I didn't realize you could even restrict a google map's zoom range. Please tell me it's just me cause that's really annoying, serves no purpose, and kills my ability to update my comparison maps.