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Post by Mathazar on Dec 5, 2009 12:21:05 GMT -7
So I know most of you have the iSheep, and that's nice for you, but atleast Jake and I have an android so I'm starting a thread.
In the 3 weeks or so I've had the Droid I've found little not to love. I thought before I got it that I "had to have" an hardware keyboard, but I almost never use it. And honestly when Moto launches the keyboard-less model I'll probably get it.
App's I'm currently using FTW: PDANet - without rooting your phone you can use it as a modem via bluetooth or usb. Taskiller - kill running apps fast and easy Handcent - upgraded SMS/MMS client Pandora - if you don't know I feel bad for you. Twidroid - I've almost completely stopped using any other twitter client. Sportstap - fast and easy sports scores, stats, etc. Allows favorite teams and has a widget to show latest info right on the desktop. Where - one stop weather, news, movies, gas prices, traffic, retail deals, resurant search. Can grab your location based on cell tower or gps location. Love this app. MotoTorch - Droid only app. Allows me to control the twin flash led's to use as a flash light, or turn on for video in the dark. Plus it's got a strobe setting and will translate and repeat a short text as morse code. Google Sky - using gps location and the gyro's it overlays a map of the costellations and planets and stuff. This one is a huge hit with my nephews. Listen - podcast app.
So since I'm new to the OS, school me yo.
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Post by p00p on Dec 7, 2009 13:00:57 GMT -7
New electronic toys are always awesome... congrats on the Droid! I'll keep my M$ fanboyism at bay here because I really, really like WinMo. They had the google phone -or Droid now i guess- modded to run on my tilt. I ran it for a few hours one day just to play with it. I'll have to check if they have it for the pro2 and get it installed to play as well. I haven't kept up with how the OS has evolved so to satisfy my curiosity about the phone, here's a few questions for you Droid-heads (pure curiosity, I have no intent to create any flame): - What do you sync with for contacts, google or outlook or ?
- Is there a cloud data backup option for pics or music or txts?
- How's teh sound quality on Pandora? The app for Windows mobile sounds bearable through headphones but crap in a car.
- What phone do you have, is it HTC and have their Sense UI? HTC is the bomb digity of UI for WinMo.
- What are your thoughts about how the OS squares off against the iPhone?
- I know it's much more secksi than any wimno phone, but how's the look and build quality compared to that iThingy?
edit:
- Oh, one more thing; I think i read somewhere that you can't install apps to the storage card, is that true? - I find that hard to believe, I'm thinking I was misinformed.
- Ok, two things; What's the web browser? Can you install other browsers and does it support flash?
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Remy
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Post by Remy on Dec 7, 2009 13:44:45 GMT -7
Once again Math I am mesmerized by your avatar.
Oh and grats on the Droid (Do I need to pay George Lucas for this thread?). My brother has had one for awhile now and he likes it. I agree it really needs to shed that keyboard. He is not the type that installs apps so I can't help in that department.
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Post by Mathazar on Dec 7, 2009 20:22:13 GMT -7
[/li][li]What do you sync with for contacts, google or outlook or ? [/li][li]Is there a cloud data backup option for pics or music or txts? [/li][li]How's teh sound quality on Pandora? The app for Windows mobile sounds bearable through headphones but crap in a car. [/li][li]What phone do you have, is it HTC and have their Sense UI? HTC is the bomb digity of UI for WinMo. [/li][li]What are your thoughts about how the OS squares off against the iPhone? [/li][li]I know it's much more secksi than any wimno phone, but how's the look and build quality compared to that iThingy? edit: [/li][li]Oh, one more thing; I think i read somewhere that you can't install apps to the storage card, is that true? - I find that hard to believe, I'm thinking I was misinformed. [/li][li]Ok, two things; What's the web browser? Can you install other browsers and does it support flash? [/list][/quote] It sync's with Gmail, exchange and face book. I can edit contacts on the phone directly as well (I heard once that android 1.0 couldn't do that). The contacts interface is very pleasant to use, I'm far more impressed with it than I thought I would be. I haven't researched a backup option yet. Pandora sounds great on headphones or through the built in speaker. The speaker quality is surprisingly good. I haven't used it in the car yet though. When marji and I drive to cali this month that will get alot of use though. I have the moto a855. I'd say the end user experience is on par the the iPhone. The ui flows well and I was competent with it in no time, and still have yet to read a manual. I've not spent enough time with an iPhone to make a very good comparison. But being able to turn on the navigator then pull up twitter and then get a call without having to turn anything off is awesome. It's about the same size and weight as the iphone. The body is rubberized and feels solid. The screen is huge and sexy (480x854 3.7inch hd screen has 273% more pixels than the iPhone). It feels durable and still sexy, the iphone always felt delicate to me. And the touch screen is the most responsive I've ever played with. It is true that apps must be installed to the internal rom. 512 total rom, 256 for applications. However only the the app itself must live here. Other resources, like the graphics and sound packs for a game, can be stored on the Micro SD card. I don't really understand this self imposed limit, but that's how it is. I've got two other browsers installed. Steel and Dolphin. Steel was recommended for it's limited screen footprint. You can hide the header and footer and get the entire screen for browsing, and then bring them back with a single gesture. And I just installed Dolphin for a multitouch/tabbed browser, to soon to tell for sure but I like it so far. Adobe says Flash will be available for android 2.0 (so far as I know only the droid has this so far) in Jan '10. It's my understanding that WinMo and Palm WebOS will be shortly after or at the same time.
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Post by Mathazar on Dec 7, 2009 20:27:11 GMT -7
Once again Math I am mesmerized by your avatar. Oh and grats on the Droid (Do I need to pay George Lucas for this thread?). My brother has had one for awhile now and he likes it. I agree it really needs to shed that keyboard. He is not the type that installs apps so I can't help in that department. There are some pics that may be the next keyboard-less droid floating around. If it's true I'll be picking one up.
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Post by p00p on Dec 8, 2009 12:20:38 GMT -7
Sounds like a pretty sweet phone indeed! That 5.0 camera would be nice to have too I've also contemplated going keyboard-less more than once but when I have a longer email or message to write i just can't handle the on-screen. I think if i didn't use the phone for email as much, I'd def skip the keyboard though. Maybe it's just habit though. It almost boggles me that you can't install an entire app to the sd card, but I can imagine it may have something to do with maintaining the user experience. I'm sure if a class 4 or lower SD card were used it would be a noticeable hit to performance and then noobs would blame the phone or OS for it. The flash thing is a bummer. Actually, WinMo and Symbian have had flash-capable browsers for a while now via Skyfire (early '08) and somewhat more recently through Opera. Not like it's huge, it's just nice to see and use a webpage as you can on your computer. It must be a unix-type problem I would have to guess? I can't see why skyfire or Opera wouldn't be breaking down the open source door to get their app on the droid. Heck knows it will prolly get more of a user base than any win phone. The more I look into it, Droid is the type of phone I'd get if I wanted my phone to just work. But since I hate myself and get some sick enjoyment from the hemorrhaging that comes from the bleeding edge of beta OS builds, WinMo will remain my dark passenger.
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Remy
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Post by Remy on Dec 14, 2009 9:17:18 GMT -7
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Post by p00p on Dec 14, 2009 10:19:57 GMT -7
^
I'll believe it when I see it. I'm pretty skeptical about google stepping out in the physical world. I am not impressed with Chrome OS and don't think it will take much of M$'s embedded market and I dont really see it going too far by just slapping it's name to a phone either.
Proof is in the pudding i guess. We'll see how it all pans out.
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Post by Mathazar on Dec 14, 2009 14:50:44 GMT -7
RE p00p - I'm skepical about google releasing hardware also. They aren't in the market to sell stuff. They make things we want to use and then sell us. Even Chrome OS and Browser aren't really products they care about gaining any real market share. They want to get their ideas and tech out there. If Firefox incorporated everything good about chrome into it's next release I think Google would call that a victory. If they are getting into hardware it's only to force the current market to release the truely open and Google friendly features they want to hook the users with.
RE Remy I don't understand what you think the droid is missing that the iPhone does well. There may very well be something with a true wow factor on the iPhone, but I've got no idea what it is. Every single feature that you guys have used to cause me envy your phones I've got on my droid. I have all the power of google in my pocket and I just don't know what else I could want.
I've heard alot of people say "Well I'll jsut stick with my iPhone" when they hear I have a droid. I got that from Nasreen today at lunch. I'll admit I've been known to use Verison like a club on these people. Having seen the level of service people accept from AT&T and T Moblie I refuse to leave Verison (and really don't understand why anyone else would tollerate it). But carrier aside I have gotten little in the way of a compelling argument that the hardware or software is better.
I know that the iPhone handles it's storage better than the Droid, but no one I speak to in the real world seems to be aware of this, and I have yet to have this be any real limitation in practice.
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Post by Mathazar on Dec 14, 2009 14:53:40 GMT -7
RE p00p - I'm skeptical about Google releasing hardware also. They aren't in the market to sell stuff. They make things we want to use and then sell us. Chrome OS and Browser aren't really products they care about gaining any real market share. They want to get their ideas and tech out there. If Firefox incorporated everything good about Chrome into it's next release I think Google would call that a victory. If they are getting into hardware it's only to force the current market to release the truly open and Google friendly features they want to hook the users with.
RE Remy - I don't understand what you think the droid is missing that the iPhone does well. There may very well be something with a true wow factor on the iPhone, but I've got no idea what it is. Every single feature that you guys have used to cause me envy your phones I've got on my droid now. I have all the power of Google in my pocket and I just don't know what else I could want.
I've heard alot of people say "Well I'll just stick with my iPhone" when they hear I have a droid. I got that from Nasreen today at lunch. I'll admit I've been known to use Verison like a club on these people. Having seen the level of service people accept from AT&T and T Moblie I refuse to leave Verison (and really don't understand why anyone else would tolerate it). But carrier aside I have gotten little in the way of a compelling argument that the hardware or software is better.
I know that the iPhone handles it's storage better than the Droid, but no one I speak to in the real world seems to be aware of this, and I have yet to have this be any real limitation in practice.
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Post by Mathazar on Dec 14, 2009 15:10:22 GMT -7
I'm testing a beta of WaveSecure right now for this. Easy backup of SMS, Contacts and call logs. Plus a media upload tool for pics and videos. Web access to all of the above.
Plus via coded text messages I can remotely backup that info and send a wipe or lock command. Remote GPS location tracking and if the sim card is removed the phone auto locks and sends it's location to my email and Marji's cell phone (No sim on a verison phone though).
It's awesome and creepy at the same time. I'm not sure if awesome will win out over creepy in the end. It's just a bit mission impossible.
I'm told there is an app that will do all of the backup you need to a gmail account, but I haven't tested it. I'll look for that one if Wave Secure's creep factor proves to be a problem.
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Post by bl00k on Dec 14, 2009 18:37:27 GMT -7
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Post by Phr0st on Dec 15, 2009 10:14:44 GMT -7
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Post by Jackdruid on Dec 15, 2009 11:23:32 GMT -7
"Restlessly producing instead of sedately consuming." xkcd is brilliant. brilliant. brilliant.
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Post by Mathazar on Dec 15, 2009 15:40:57 GMT -7
Talk to Me. Voice translation app. I speak to the phone, the phone translates and then speaks the translation. Works both ways.
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