Sony Smartphone for the dumb

OK, so I read the thread on internet radio and thought I'd try TuneIn on the SonyXperia mini that someone gave me because she hated it.

When I first got it I invested a fiver for Orsnge pay and go, tried it once, thought what's the point and went back to my old cheapie clamshell Nokia that sits in my pocket with the coppers, keys etc..

So I found the Xperia wifi and turned it on, connected to my router (with great difficulty because stubby fingers and small buttons don't really work). Went to the apps store, found TuneIn and hit install. I then tried to put in name and password for google, whereupon it said checking in with Google, which failed as unable to get a reliable connection to the server (the local wifi signal appeared to be solid). So I tried to download the app via a PC, went through all sorts of slow updates and installed Sony PC Companion, presumably over the usb link to the PC. Then got to the download page , hit Install and the PC says that no suitable device is connected. It just offers my Android Tablet (which probably isn't suitable, isn't connected and is greyed out) and an "unknown Generic" Device.

The instructions for this Xperia are pretty hopeless. I've just wasted the whole afternoon on this.

Anybody have a clue about how to get this to install via the usb connection?

Reply to
Bill
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If it's not been upgraded to android 4.0, I'd do that first (it is available for that phone).

Then, make sure the phone is on WiFi (or you'll burn up your mobile credit)

on a PC, login to the same google account the phone is using, and visit

formatting link
you click install, it should give you the option to send it to the android device, wait a few seconds and job done.

Reply to
Andy Burns

First, check that the app's description on the web site to make sure it's compatible with your phone. Some apps don't work with certain devices, or older versions of Android. If that's the case, there will be plenty of other radio apps that *will* work.

You should be able to plug the phone into the PC and open it as an external hard drive. If you can, just drag and drop the .apk file for the app you want to install, onto the phone. Then unplug the phone, use the file manager to find the .apk file and open it. (You'll need to enable "install from device storage" first, which should be under settings, security).

Reply to
Mentalguy2k8

It sounds like you need to resolve why the phone is not logging into the google account for it. Once that works you can drive everything from the PC - find it in the play store, click in install, and it will download itself to the phone shortly after. Saves lots of fiddling with small phones etc.

Reply to
John Rumm

I've looked at Google about that, and the first few hits say that Android 4 can be installed, but many facilities stop working, eg camera. I'm on the latest official update.

It is on wifi and the connection seems to work, as it can download updates

It fails to see the phone. The connection seems to remember things the PC has been connected to in the past, but the app checks that these are not suitable and won't let me go any further, so I'm not offered the.apk file.

The phone, connected through the usb, seems to be logged on to Google successfully, but I need to check this further. I'm anxious to avoid syncing GMail etc and flooding the phone with data.

That's where I am tonight. I'll get back onto this on Sunday.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

Reply to
Bill

Check the account is setup on the phone. Touch the menu soft button (bottom left), and select Settings. Then Accounts & Sync. Check you google account is shown in the manage accounts section.

You don't have to setup gmail on the phone. You can also create a totally separate google account to talk to the phone if you like.

Reply to
John Rumm

You shouldn't need to touch an APK file directly, Google will tell the phone to fetch it from them.

Are you sure the phone *is* logged into google, what if you use the "play" app on the phone?

Forget the USB, the phone will be logged into google via WiFi or 3G.

Letting it sync would prove it *is* logged into Google, You can easily purge it again, but I doubt a few emails will kill it.

Reply to
Andy Burns

The Sony PC Connection Suite is an absolute pile of steaming s**te. I only install it for a couple of drivers and after that don't use it. For phone-connected onscreen texting, I use MyPhoneExplorer, but when downloading apps it simply works via wifi, quite seamlessly.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

In message , John Rumm writes

Done

Done

The manage accounts is a narrow bar that doesn't respond when I touch it.

This is where I get stuck. I then go to Add Account, and see Google on the list. Select this and have to enter username and password and it then says it can't connect with a reliable data connection to the Google server. See below - I have tried this with wifi off, so using the 3G connection, with the same result. I've tried this with either the default googlmail that it puts in after the @ after my username, and also when I type in gmail there.

However, I did switch off the wifi and checked that bluetooth was also off, then tried to install the TuneIn app, presumably using 3G, and this time it worked without ant fuss at all.

Then I tried a few stations in the southern part of the USA. Bad idea on a Sunday morning if you are not looking to be saved. They come in OK, but for a random short time only. After this either the app just seems to crash or it shows a small message where the name of the station should be saying "Stream is Stopped". To read this i have to find my glasses and then my magnifying glass.

If I then poke around at various virtual buttons, I sometimes get a message to say that the system has deduced that I am connected by wifi, and that I should connect using 3G to access services.

This morning, for example, I got approx 4 minutes before the silence, rebooted, then 16 seconds, rebooted, then 20 minutes, then said "Can't connect to stream", but there is a Play arrow to press, then it fills the buffer and starts again. After this it has now run for another 40 minutes, with just occasional short buffering breaks.

It is probably me, but I'm deeply unimpressed. It is a small phone, but I regularly hit the wrong button, I keep having to reach for the magnifying glass and the display keeps switching off in spite of having reset the display time in "Settings". Holding it and rubbing its tummy with my thumb seems to keep the display on.

Streaming radio works fine here through the laptops.

Reply to
Bill

It sounds like you have alink reliability problem of some sort.

It should be fine on WiFi...

It sounds like for whatever reason you connection is actually dropping packets or having other reliability problems.

Its possible that you have a genuine fault in either the phone or the router.

I would be tempted to download a ping / tracert tool and check that you are getting reliable throughput.

I have the "pro" version of that phone (i.e. with a slide out real keyboard) and fine the WiFi etc is rock solid stable.

Yup small phones are nice for the pocket, but not so good for the eyes. The real KB on mine makes it much more usable I find.

Unless the app specifically turns the display off, then it should default to the setting selected in the Settings->Didplay->Screen Timout setting (the default is 30 secs)

Out of curiosity, I just installed TuneIn. Seems to be doing its stuff quite nicely here (which I am sure is little comfort, but at least should tell you the phone can do it!)

(quite reasonable quality when you can find stations with higher bit rates).

Reply to
John Rumm

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