The All-Inclusive Android Thread - Page 3

The three best third-party widgets I've found are:

(1) Pure Calendar Widget
(2) Pure Message Widget
(3) Mototorch LED

The third uses the flash as a flashlight and is awesome/essential. The other two are just great productivity boosters.

Love the Mototorch LED. I work in an office but the time clock is in the warehouse, had to stay late at work and my boss shut all the lights off. It was able to guide me across the warehouse to clock out, as opposed to me comically fumbling around trying to find the light switch.

Plus it can send Morse Code messages, which is horribly useless yet awesome at the same time.

I had my heart set on the Storm 2, which would be my first smart phone. After reading this thread, I am seriously considering the Droid. The things I really need in a phone are push email and access to my calendar for my Outlook account. Also, it would be really helpful to access documents through something like Documents-to-Go. Any problems with this on the Droid? Everything else sounds awesome. I love the navigation feature. I was going to beg my wife for a GPS for Christmas, but the Droid seems like it would do the trick on its own.

All I can tell you is that you want to AVOID STORMS. Terrible phones.

Droid has documents-to-go. Exchange is built in (both e-mail and calendar), but I don't use it, so I can't speak to that. My father and I both had storms at one point, while the rest of my family had Blackberry Tours. The Blackberry OS is not made for touch. Don't subject yourself to it.

Oh, and Google Navigation is better than the system that came with my car.

Thanks, LD. I love my Ipod Touch and was hoping to find a good Iphone alternative. I'm with Verizon because it is the only carrier that has coverage everywhere I travel for work. I wasn't even considering the Droid. But after reading comments from you and others in this thread and checking out some reviews, I'm pretty much sold on it. As soon as February rolls around, looks like I'm going for the Droid.

Yeah, I'm going to second "WHATEVER YOU DO DO NOT GET A STORM". So awful.

Documents to Go works great on the Droid I work with excel a lot and was able to make smaller version of my most used spreadsheets. I used to have the (awful) Motorola Q and the Droid is a huge step up.

I actually prefer looking at some PDFs on the Droid over a PC due to the touch screen.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/...tarting-today/

ohmygodddd hopefully

Got my firmware update. Runs way faster, new lock screen's kinda awesome, and the camera is much, much, much better.

Can't say I love the photos of the new lock screen, but I am thrilled to hear that it runs faster. Given the strength of the processor, the performance wasn't what I was hoping for. It's still the best phone on the market, but I'm glad it's going to be even better.

Kinda weird that it's more iPhone-esque in design, but the other one drove me nuts. No idea why.

I really loved the subtle "rotary phone" effect, along with the transparency of the slider. C'est la vie, it's truly unimportant. I have to say, the android app store is getting more impressive every day. Some recent favorites:

(1) Google Goggles
(2) ShopSavvy
(3) Photo Safe (If you're anything like me, a MUST BUY)
(4) Scan2PDF Mobile
(5) Snapit (Scans text in photos!)

Holy shit, Google Goggles. I'm downloading it now, that's positively genius.

Woo, got the update overnight. The increase in speed and responsiveness can't be overstated. It's like a whole new phone.

Also, this may sound kind of obvious, but reboot it one more time after it restarts. Some people had a couple of odd issues immediately after the update and a second reboot took care of them.

I just got the phone and love it already, it does live up to the hype. This is one smooth phone. The voice recognition is outstanding. Can't wait to try out some of the apps mentioned here.

Google Goggles is some mindblowing shit. I was playing around with it last night a little bit and it's pretty intuitive. Snapit's alright, but like with most OCR programs, it has a tough time with some fonts but overall is probably gold with regular, well-spaced fonts.

Translation:

*Damn it, this phone is getting more tempting by the day*

Barr, listen to me: at this point, resisting the Droid is like saying you don't want ice cream because it tastes too awesome.

Now that you guys aren't going crazy with the new apps and whatnot, do you still have to charge the Droid every day?

I get away with every day and a half to two days at this point. It's stellar compared to my old Treo. The only issue I've had since I switched up sync settings was installing the FeedR RSS app and forgetting to turn off auto-sync on that. Everything else is smooth.

I could probably make it through a full day, but I'd need to charge the next morning. Apparently, the update dramatically improves battery life, though. I'd love to have this be a 2-day phone. I'd still charge it every day, but just having the leeway would be great

This phone looks amazing. So how are the 3D graphics capabilities, anybody try a 3D game on it yet?

I'm always leery of first generation tech but I have heard of very few problems with this phone. Honestly, I more expected to visit this thread and hear about issues/problems.

It's got at least as much power as the iPhone 3GS, but Android is not really a gaming system, sadly.

I tried SpeedForge and it was awful, but to be fair it's not ported to the Droid hardware yet from what I understand. Looked pretty, but fuck those controls were the worst.

Jake, I just converted to FeedR. Greed was brilliant at first, but somehow got LESS functional each time I updated it.

Am I the only one who would kill for another home screen or two? I know I could just install one of the home replacement apps, but I am hesitant to add to the base of the OS.

Are you guys able to successfully tether the phone to your laptop? And if so, how's the connection?

I have PDANet installed, but haven't tethered it to my laptop yet. I'll give it a go tonight and report back.

Jake, I don't know HOW you use FeedR, I find it basically unusable. But, Gizmodo put up their best android apps of 2009 today, and introduced me to newsrob. Now THAT is a reader...assuming you use google reader, that is.

Yeah, it's pretty terrible. After 3 days of use, this is clear.

Just got me the multimedia dock. It will be replacing my alarm clock.

Okay, posting via PDANet connection right now. It's working pretty well - I'd obviously stick to forums/email/etc. instead of anything major so as not to invoke the ire of Verizon, but it's great in a pinch.

I'm using PDANet 2.01 Beta at the moment, if you're curious.

Also, Google Navigation is pretty much the best shit ever. I used it today to go visit a friend in Newport Beach (basically met her in a town that I've only passed by a few times in my life) with absolutely no hassle or confusion. Bonus - found out that the car charger for my Dare has the same micro-USB plug connection that the Droid does, so now I don't even need to buy a car charger.

I haven't played with the google nav yet....I'm still kinda partial to my garmin and hell, I don't even use that all the time, only when I'm travelling.

otherwise, love the phone.

Seasonal wallpapers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodo...7623000806368/

I just read through this whole thread, and you guys are killing me. I have a Blackberry Tour that I just got in August, and I'm ready to throw it out the window. Allow me to regale you with my tale of woe:

I had a first generation iPhone that I got a couple of years use out of. But I really hate AT&T. It drops calls like no ones' business, and in some instances, I wasn't getting a signal at all. So in August I decided I'd had enough, and decided to jump ship for Verizon.

But because I'd been spoiled by the iPhone (I loved the phone as a device - I just hated AT&T's coverage), I wanted something in the way of a smart phone. I was luckily discouraged away from the Storm 1, and was lead straight to the Tour.

I should also take a second to point out that I have a Mac, not a PC, so getting everything to run correctly with the Blackberry desktop manager on an Apple computer was no fun. That took quite a while for me to work that out.

While I love Verizon to bits and pieces - the coverage is awesome - I just hate the Tour. Specifically, I have to say, I hate the tracking ball. The fucker either sticks or goes everywhere, and it makes the device barely usable.

But I just got the goddamned thing in August. I was thinking of jumping ship for the Storm 2 (which is getting much, much better reviews than the Storm, of course), but now you guys have definitely swung me over towards the Droid. Anyway, it's killing me, because the Tour is a new phone - I just don't have the money to get another new device all over again before giving this piece of crap a year.

So tell me, while I think it over - are there any Apple users using the Droid on their Macintosh? How does it sync with an Apple? Will I lose applications, or drive myself crazy trying to get it to work with my computer? Is there even a Droid desktop manger for Mac users?

It sounds incredible, Verizon should be paying you guys for the reviews!

Whatever you do, don't get a Storm 1 or 2. You'd be better off carrying around a rotary phone with a long-ass cord that trails you everywhere you go and gets caught on everything instead of that piece of shit.

I have a mac. To the best of my knowledge, there is not a desktop manager, though I haven't searched for one. The phone can be mounted as a generic drive, which is fine for me in terms of moving my music and movies to the device. So far as contacts go, it's a google phone, so syncing isn't really necessary.

Also, Lisa, DO NOT GET A STORM. They're total pieces of crap. You think the Tour is hard to navigate? Also, within 5 minutes of having a droid, you're going to realize just how antiquated the blackberry OS is. It's just not up to snuff with what modern phones can do.

Well, I am a child of the 70s, so I do remember lugging the rotary phone into the closet and shutting the door, which was our way of "taking a call in private". The Droid it shall be then.

I think I'll suffer with the Tour a little longer while I do my homework - in the meantime, if any Mac/Droid users can offer any feedback, that would be huge. EDIT: Just saw LD's post - thanks! There's more Mac related stuff I forgot to mention, gonna elaborate more in a minute...

EDIT again: Okay, so one more thing I forgot to mention - LD, sorry, I don't know if I'm just not tech savvy enough, but I don't know what you mean by a "google phone". In addition to being a Mac user, all my mail, contacts, calendar, etc. is a Mac.com account (my email is "my name"@mac.com) - this made life a breeze when you're an iPhone user, but very tough when switching to a PC based system. The blackberry desktop manager did eventually allow me to synch all my contacts and calendar, and the Verizon tech guy ported my mac.com account over to the Tour, so that was all well. So do you mean I'll need to switch everything over to Google to get the Droid to work? Or can I transfer my contacts, Mac mail, etc. over to the Droid with very little grief?

One more question - I'm on the Verizon Wireless website now, checking it out - but are you guys talking about the Droid or the Droid Eris? Also, I saw something about an Android? How many of these suckers are there, and which ones do you have?

We're talking about the Droid, although the Droid Eris is also an excellent phone, though one that is observably inferior to the Droid. Android is the operating system, and it appears that all Android phones on Verizon are going to go by the "Droid" moniker, with some kind of subtitle added to distinguish one from another.

As far as being a "google phone", it means that Android is made by google, and the OS is designed for seamless integration with google services. (Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar). So far as your mac.com account goes, I feel pretty confident that the Droid can sync your e-mails, contacts, and calendar, as it has applications that are designed to handle all of that. My suggestion would be that, when the time comes, get yourself a Droid phone, and use your 30-day grace period to see if you think it works for you. It's bound to be a better option than a Storm, but I can't vouch for the phone independent of Google's services.

Bottom line, though: It will sync your stuff.

Sweet! Thanks, LD!

I've got to stay away from this thread until February. Right now it's just pissing me off that I don't have a Droid and LD and Jake are just making it worse. So, enjoy your perfect phone, jerks!*






*Can't wait to join you in a few months...

I'll be interested to see some more reports on the new Google phone (for T-Mobile) that is getting tested by Google employees right now.