The All-Inclusive Android Thread - Page 6

Hero is in hand. Google Maps, Google Sky Map, Compass and Flood-It! (a game) are all pretty cool apps. What else should I look for?

this isn't a thread about your penis get outta here

My list for the Droid - not sure what's available for the Hero, so this might change a bit:

-Dolphin Browser (Went from no interest to "holy shit this is great" within minutes of using it. It's better than the default Android browser, and that's saying quite a bit.)
-Aloqa (Helps find local things to do!)
-Astrid (to do list with reminders)
-Google Goggles (Awesome. Take pictures of shit, it finds them on the internet. Try it.)
-BetterKeyboard (improves keyboard layout)
-Documents To Go (you'll need this, basically an Office Suite right on your phone with .pdf viewing support)
-Maverick (pretty awesome all-terrain mapping service)
-MountUSB (to connect your phone as a mountable drive provided you have a miniSD card attached)
-MyBackup (backs up the phone, duh)
-NewsRob (RSS feeds via Google Reader. Indispensable for news nerds)
-Notebook (quick Notepad equivalent)
-OI Shopping List (cool shopping list app, I need it because I'm an idiot and forget things)
-OpenTable (Reservation booking app if you're in a metropolitan area. Saved my ass twice already)
-Pandora/Slacker (Music apps)
-PDANet (Tethers your phone via USB to be used as a modem in a pinch if you're stuck in an area with no wifi.)
-Scan2PDF (Take pictures with your phone, autoscan to .pdf format)
-Twidroid (Droid Twitter app. Solid.)
-SnapIt (Image-to-text scanner)
-MeeboIM (Multi-IM program)
-AndChat (Android IRC program)

Thanks Jake! I got a few of those that interested me. If you haven't gotten Google Sky Maps yet, do so immediately. So cool. I've been looking at the stars tonight and actually able to really identify them (and planets too).

Just downloaded Sky Maps, so hopefully it'll work out alright. I don't see stars TOO often here (hyuk hyuk I know Los Angeles), but they peek through now and then.

RE: The ringback tones - I think you have to go through Verizon for that no matter what. Damn, I hate those things. :P

Verizon does have a shitty selection of ringtones/ringbacks. I wanted the theme from "Bewitched" (which I eventually got), but the one that downloaded (this was when I had the Tour) was *totally* different than the traditional version from the TV show. I have zero idea how it happened, but I finally had to delete that one out and then re-download the version I wanted.

But then again, I hated that whole thing on iTunes where you can make your own ringtone - it never worked well for me when I had my iPhone.

(In other news, I love my Storm 2 sooo muuuch!!)

Oh fuck. I played with an iTouch and I loved it. I could totally see myself with an iPhone.

Phones suck. They're so confusing.

Mine should arrive sometime today/tomorrow. I blame/thank everyone in this thread.

I'll say this - if AT&T coverage is good in your area, then go for it. I freaking loved my iPhone so much, I can't even tell you. The price was right, the plan was reasonable, and it did everything - except hold a call. Seriously, the only reason I'm not on the iPhone anymore is only because AT&T sucks so badly in NY. That's why I wanted another touch screen phone when I left AT&T, I'd been totally spoiled by the iPhone. So if you go to Verizon (which I know you hate, but hypothetically), go for the Droid or the Storm 2. Sprint or T-Mobile, I don't know. But if you get great AT&T coverage where you are, don't hesitate for a second on the iPhone. I loved mine, I still miss it.

If it weren't for the coverage issue, I would buy an iPhone in a heartbeat. I love my iPod Touch, especially where I get WiFi. But two other lawyers I know from my old firm have iPhones and they can't get any reliable 3G service in about half of the city we live in. At times, one of the guys says he can't even get service of any kind when he's sitting in his office, making his phone essentially an expensive iPod. What good is an awesome phone if you can't really use it in your area? Another guy from my old firm has a Storm with Verizon and gets coverage pretty much anywhere he goes. Honestly, if AT&T's coverage didn't blow goats in my area, I would be posting this from my iPhone.

I did a test run of AT&T last year after I left Verizon, and it was by far the worst coverage out of any other service provider in San Diego. I could not BELIEVE that AT&T was the absolute best Apple could do. My bill would have been nearly $150 extra per month for the same services we're getting through Sprint, and I would never pay for the (shitty) privilege. Even for the iPhone.

So, it's not an option at this time, and I think Android is where it's at for the next couple of years, so I really want to invest in it. I'm almost there, almost ready to make the leap. This is scary though, I've been so ridiculously dependent on the relatively safe and user friendly RIM/BB OS.

It's like when I finally made the leap from AOL to the real internet. Exciting, but I felt so lost, and didn't know if I would be able to manage.

Oh and Lisa, I just read about AT&T cutting off online sales to NY customers, and I immediately thought of you. Why in the hell does Apple stand for this shit?

AT&T has wonderful coverage here in Texas, but they really do need to rethink their greedy strategy on data plans.

They have a combination data/texting plan for $30 that I as well as my girlfriend have on our family plan. I've got a touchscreen Samsung Eternity, and she has a Quickfire slider phone that resembles the Droid. That's a fabulous deal, but when it comes to actual smartphones they're now charging $30 alone for the Data plan. They should make the data/texting combo plan available to all phones rather than just the non-smartphones.

It sounds like you're way better off with Sprint and the Android in that case, Cocoa.

As for AT&T cutting off the online users in NY, I just laughed and laughed and laughed. Took a deep breath and then laughed some more...

pretty good read..

http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/29/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes

And then I read Nick's article and laughed some MORE!

Honestly, I just can't get behind AT&T's logic - "We're so awesome that we can't keep up with the demand." "Everyone loves us so much, that there's not enough data to go around!" I mean, it's tantamount to "Even with a dick as big as MINE, I can't satisfy THAT many women!"

And it's not just in big cities like NY and San Fran. Those are the hot spots, I'm sure, but my mother lives in Cologne, NJ. That's a half hour outside of Atlantic City. And when I tell you my iPhone never even worked at all when I'd go to her house, believe it. So, what's AT&T's excuse for having zero coverage in Small Town, NJ?

Honestly, now that I'm back with Verizon, and I've got my little touch screen blackberry, I'm happier than a fat kid with cake. The only thing Apple could do to get me back on the iPhone is switch to Verizon or Sprint.

I think the point is that the iPhone introduced unprecedented data growth that no-one could have anticipated. Even Verizon's network would have buckled under the strain. They don't have any phone that's sold anywhere near the volume of the iPhone nor has near the same amount of bandwidth use per user.

Verizon has the benefit of learning from AT&T's growing pains and expand and upgrade its network as it sees incrementally more data-heavy smart phone users.

That just shows how stupid it was for the iPhone to be exclusive to AT&T. At least Google seems to be getting it right and not tying themselves into any network.

BTW the Google phone (Nexus One) is looking really nice;
http://gizmodo.com/5437495/ten-minut...-the-nexus-one

This. I mean, Apple is awesome and is loved by millions. So for a company that great to put out their first phone and not be prepared when everyone went crazy for it? Yes, it was totally stupid of them to be exclusive. And you can see the effect that's having here in NY. Two years ago, everyone playing around with their cell phones on the subway had an iPhone. The train would come up from outside where we'd get a signal, and you'd see a million iPhones being pulled out of pockets and bags. But now? I'd say that's down easily by half, maybe more. I see some iPhones, but mostly blackberries and smart phones by other companies. And the Droid? Forget about it - they're going apeshit for the Droid here in NY. I honestly think that one thing that swayed Verizon into giving me the Storm 2 for so cheap was that I wasn't asking for the Droid, which is their new hot property. In that long line of people at the Verizon store, I was the only one there NOT getting a Droid. So the Droid is really hurting the iPhone, from what I can see around here.

Cap, how are you liking your Storm 2?

I really like my Storm 2 so far, the real test will come when I travel overseas. My company got an international plan, so if it works with both voice and data while on a trip I'm going to be very happy.

BTW one simple app I really like so far is Nimbuzz, it lets me chat in a unified way with Google Chat and Facebook chat (and other accounts) so it has come in pretty handy so far.

Okay, the Storm 2 just did the most hilarious thing ever. When I synched it up, it synched up all my info on my Mac - it synched my calendar, my contacts, my to-do list, etc. So now, when someone calls me, if they're in my contacts, here's what pops up:

Their name.
Their phone number.
Their approximate location.
Their picture (if I have one of them in their contacts).

Now, when I say "approximate location", Verizon is about 10 minutes off in their locale. For example, my boyfriend comes up as being in the next neighborhood over. No big deal.

So my best friend just called me, and I guess since I've had the Storm 2, I never noticed how it reads her location. She and I both live in Queens, she's about 20 minutes further out than I am. So when it rang and her screen popped up, her location read, "Queens/Riker's Island"! Riker's Island! I mean, not even anything like a normal Queens, NY landmark like "LaGuardia Airport". Nope, "Riker's Island"! So here's this picture of my best friend, this totally normal looking woman holding a cat in the photo, with "Riker's Island" as her locale. I told her to say hi to Benson and Stabler for me.

Finally due for another Verizon phone and it's between the Envy Touch and the Droid. I love the iPhone (my friend has one that I've played with a lot) but I don't use my phone for much except for calling and text (probably because I have a RAZR 3, or something).

Jake's list of apps is a good starting point for me to figure out if I want one, I guess. But my friend (with the iPhone) says NOT to get a Droid and that they've had a lot of problems. As far as I can tell you guys all love yours, right? I'm chalking it up to Droid envy.

There have been no problems with the Droid at all, at least on a macro level. The Nexus One has had problems, but I think that's about it as far as the entire range of Android phones go.

Keep in mind that if you want an EnV Touch, you're going to be paying for Data on that, too. Might as well get a phone that can do something with it.

What were the "lot of problems"?

EDIT: Also, don't get an EnV Touch. The OS on the LG phones is fucking AWFUL.

LOVE mine. Haven't had one problem. *knocks on wood*

He didn't specify, which smells like bullshit to me.

The only real complaint I remember him having was something about, "Why do they keep coming out with new Droid phones? There's only one iPhone."

ETA: I don't pay for data now, since I don't have a smartphone, and I'm having trouble figuring out the plan I'll need. It'll be like $30 for calls, $30 for data, and then $15-ish for text?

Which is pretty much the entire point of Android, actually. To NOT be the iPhone. While Android is no better than the iPhone (and is in some ways worse), it works better for me. I'm glad that, no matter what carrier I'm with, I can find a phone that will suit my life.

I just jumped from ATT to Verizon. My service kept going downhill. On Thursday, I had no service in my driveway or house. I had look at Iphones, but the service problems kept bugging me. I am loving /my droid, I am downloading the dolphin browser now to see how much better it is. Googles and skymaps I downloaded day 1. The compass and level apps have turned out handy in the three days I have had it. I did blind myself with the Led flashlight app. I love this. Any body tried ereaders on the droid?

Eeerrrgggghhh. Took advantage of Sprint's no ETF for January, and had them bottom out my contract, so now I have to decide whether I want to stay or go. The husband is happy with his Hero, so he's staying. Kiddo got the Palm Pixi last night and practically wants to marry it.

I'm still on the fence, but I just heard that Verizon, ATT, and TMo have all lowered their pricing plans this week. Anyone else hear about this? Verizon customers, will you see a change in your price plans?

Is he retarded? Android is an OS, not a phone. Jesus.

I've been tempted by it, but knowing that we're due for 2.1 which will have system level speech recognition has allowed me to hold off.

How I want to get rid of my Storm 1 and upgrade to this....

Not due for an upgrade for a few months.

Ok, I just got this as a belated Christmas gift (the Motorola Droid), and I've got some questions:

I used a ringtone downloader that gave me an option when I downloaded the ringtone to set it to certain people. I did, but also downloaded several more with the idea that I'd figure out who'd they be for later. But once I go to someone's contact tab, all I can edit is their contact info. When I click "Change Ringtone", I just get the standard Droid sounds.

Ditto the mp3s I copied from my computer--I can play them just fine, and there's an option to set a song as my default ringtone, but I can't set them to certain people, nor can I set one to be my alarm clock ring. How, if at all, can I get around this?

Not sure if my plan is going to be lowered or not - I'll have to give them a call and ask. I do know that if you go into one of the stores, they can look over your plan and whittle down anything you're really not using that's costing you money.

Other than that, I'd say if you're happy with Sprint (and all through this thread, you've sounded like you are), you should stick with them. I look at it this way - you can find a phone you love with pretty much any provider. But no matter how much you love a phone, if the provider sucks, then it's no good. If I were you, I'd stick with Sprint and get the Hero.

Still loving the hell out of my Storm 2. My only complaint is that the battery doesn't live as long as I'd like it to, but I made a few adjustments to my settings, and that seems to have helped.

Any tips you can share? I'm probably running too many background apps ...

Make sure you're closing out of everything rather than just looping back to the original screen. I was doing that - just like you can do with the iPhone - but the blackberry's different. You have to go to each menu and hit "close" or "exit" to truly get out of it, or the app keeps running. If you're on the phone with someone, don't just disconnect the call when you're done - disconnect, and then exit out of phone mode through the menu. If you've called someone by connecting through your contacts, exit out of contacts when you're through with your call, too. It's just one of the drawbacks - this is something where you *can't* run a bunch of background stuff, or it really drains it fast.

Also, set it for auto-turn off for overnight. I have mine set to shut down completely at midnight, and to turn itself back on at 5 AM. And of course, if you get calls, it'll turn back on again, so you won't miss anything.

The only thing that the tech person advised me to do that I really can't do is - they said to turn off vibrate and use the ringer - vibrate apparently eats up the battery life. I can't really do that during work hours. I have my bberry on the desk right next to me at all times, but since I"m at the office, I switch it to vibrate. Nothing I can do to change that without my ringtones going off at work. But if you can do without vibrate and just use your tones for notifications, apparently that helps.

EDIT: Oh, and one other thing that helps - unsubscribe to any emails you don't really need notices from - you're just draining the battery by checking your email for stuff you would remember or not need an email from anyway. I unsubscribed from The Onion and Salon.com, because I check those sites every day anyhow - I don't need to drain my battery with emails reminding me to check them.

Cap - I don't know why I didn't think of this, but unless you absolutely have to have the phone on vibrate or have a ring tone, you can set it for "silent" during the times when you're at work and you don't want it ringing out loud. I never used to set it to that, so I almost forgot the setting was there. Tried it yesterday instead of turning it to "vibrate" for when I'm at work, and it saved a TON of juice on the battery!

Thanks for the tips Lisa. I didn't know about the auto-shutoff ... that sounds like it could save me a lot of battery. Basically, if I don't leave it charging overnight the phone is pretty much dead the next morning.

If it receives calls while in this mode then that's even better, I guess it goes into a sort of standby mode?

HEY WHY DON'T YOU GUYS TAKE THIS TO THE BLACKBERRY STORM 2 THREAD

Oh that's right THERE ISN'T ONE AHAAHHAHAHA

(sorry.)

Anyone heard any updates about Android 2.1 yet?

The rumor on HowardForums says Jan 22. I am 90% indifferent to the update, but the speed enhancements and the voice recognition keyboard are going to be AMAZING.

Auto-shut off is in your Options menu - don't worry, I'm so not-tech-savvy, I didn't know about it either. Oh and don't overcharge your battery unless it's down to like one bar - it's really bad for it (that goes for any phone users - Droid, iPhone, Blackberry, whatever - see? Derail ended!). And yeah, you can still receive calls when it's in auto-shut off. The incoming call will just turn the phone back on.

Hey! I'd come out there and kick.your.ass, but you're much bigger, stronger, you're half my age, so you have that whole "youth on your side" thing going on, and you're on the other side of the country from me. You lucked out, punk!

For all you storm users, some leaked photos of the Storm 3 right here

All the Storm bashing completely doesn't bother me at all since I paid $0 for the phone and I pay $0 for it and its unlimited data plan which I enjoy very much.

Okay, I admit, that made me laugh.

Damnit. I missed the memo where I had a forum named after me.