(Verizon/Motorola/Google) DROID - November 6th

[nickdawgy]

Kind of lame the car dock doesn't charge.

[Deftones]

Originally Posted by nickdawgy

Kind of lame the car dock doesn't charge.

i think the intent is that it's not designed to leave your phone in constantly, like a GPS unit is in a car. they probably could've included it, but it would seem to be something (in my opinion) that is sort of pointless.

[nickdawgy]

Well if the battery life is so good maybe you're right.

[Suprmallet]

My battery finally wound down. It was at 50% or so when I got it at 11, and it died around 3...so I can see getting a solid 8 or 9 hours off a full charge. And that was with me downloading tons of apps and making calls and texts and using the GPS and so on.

It's weird how you have to retrain yourself to a new paradigm when you get so used to an old one. I've been an iPhone user since first gen, so not having things like pinch to zoom is weird. Also, I thought the browser didn't have tabs before I realized I had to click on the settings button at the bottom to bring them up. This is going to take some getting used to, but I'm enjoying it so far.

[Deftones]

Originally Posted by Jay G.

Widgets are available in the Market. They have 'widget' in the title to differentiate them from regular apps.

also, i just learned this. if you have a program in the home screen, if you press and hold for a few seconds, you can drag the icon to your main screen. now i have all sorts of icons i can just click and get to instead of going through the home screen. guess that's not really widget related, but something new.

[Deftones]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

My battery finally wound down. It was at 50% or so when I got it at 11, and it died around 3...so I can see getting a solid 8 or 9 hours off a full charge. And that was with me downloading tons of apps and making calls and texts and using the GPS and so on.

It's weird how you have to retrain yourself to a new paradigm when you get so used to an old one. I've been an iPhone user since first gen, so not having things like pinch to zoom is weird. Also, I thought the browser didn't have tabs before I realized I had to click on the settings button at the bottom to bring them up. This is going to take some getting used to, but I'm enjoying it so far.

jesus. i've had wifi on and have been browsing web/market, had a few calls and texts and i'm still at about 90%. i love that locale thing. i have it set to change to wifi when i'm at home for the speeds since charging isn't an issue.

[Suprmallet]

Yeah, the whole time I was using 3G. This was off the charge the battery had out of the box, mind you.

[Deftones]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

Yeah, the whole time I was using 3G. This was off the charge the battery had out of the box, mind you.

oh, that explains it. i think it was only about 60% charged. i'd say that's pretty damn good.

[Suprmallet]

Looks like I don't have a card reader that will accept MicroSD. Anyone know of a way to get the HTC keyboard without connecting the micro SD card to your computer?

[emachine12]

Did you try doing an over the air install via the web browser?

[Suprmallet]

No, it didn't even occur to me that I could do that.

Edit: Holy crap, that worked! I could never ever do that on an iPhone. Here's another question. If I buy a song through Amazon, can I offload it to my computer?

[emachine12]

I don't see why not. Just plug the USB cable in and the Droid should show up as an external drive. The MyTouch and Hero did this on both Windows and Mac OS.

By the way, Amazon MP3s are non-drm so there are no restrictions with them.

[Suprmallet]

Hmm, it's not showing up in my Macbook at all. Is there a setting I have to turn on in the phone to get it to mount in the computer?

Edit: So, after playing with this for a day, my initial assessment is that I could feel comfortable ditching AT&T and the iPhone for the Droid and Verizon. Will I feel that way in 29 days? I would like to think so. But just today I've already done a ton of stuff I couldn't do on my iPhone, even after I hacked it, so that's very promising. And the service is excellent.

By the way, Verizon just announced their tethering pricing for the Droid: $30. That's on top of the $30 data fee we're already paying.

[SonOfAStu]

Supr -

When the DROID is connected via USB, pull down the notifications bar from the top and click on the USB connection. There will be an option to mount the SD card.

In addition, I downloaded this last night and it appears to be a great piece of software for managing the media on the DROID:

http://motorola.com/medialink

[Deftones]

thanks for the link, SonofAStu. Gonna download it now.

[Deftones]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

No, it didn't even occur to me that I could do that.

Edit: Holy crap, that worked! I could never ever do that on an iPhone. Here's another question.

hey, could you walk through what you did? I tried doing it via my computer and i got an error message when in installed the file.

[Obey The D]

Figured I would post my initial thoughts after having the phone for a day:

I've been an iPhone owner for the past 1.5 years and during that time I was quite happy with the phone itself. Due to problems I've been having with AT&T as of late and the fact that Apple charges a ridiculous amount for their mobile me service, I was ready to try something new.

One thing I'd like to get out of the way is that IMO the Droid is not an iPhone killer, although I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The iPhone was a nice phone out of the box, but to really appreciate it you needed to jailbreak it or else you were shit out of luck. Want a different wallpaper...too bad, different themes...nope, widgets....try again, etc, etc. All of this and more can be done on the Droid right out of the box.

Coming from the iPhone OS, Android definitely took some time to get used to, but overall it has been a good experience. I really like the Android market, probably due to the fact that it reminds me of Cydia with regards to all the different widgets, themes, etc.

I haven't had any of the issues with the camera that others have stated regarding the clicking at startup and grinding during focus. I can however, hear a few digital beeps when the camera first starts up. I've only taken a few test shots with it, but from what I can tell stationary shots seem fine. Nothing you'd want to frame on the wall quality-wise, but perfectly fine for emailing to people.

The only thing I truly hate is the physical keyboard. There is just no room to type, and this is coming from someone with average size hands. I couldn't possibly imagine someone with large hands trying to use it. The sad thing is it probably would have fine if they had dumped the rocker switch since it basically serves no purpose. The good news is that the touchscreen keyboard is easy to use in landscape mode, so I think I'll try and forget the physical keyboard is even there.

One thing that I wish they had included was a proximity sensor, which would have made ending calls much easier. Also, I like the browser, but I do have to say that pinch to zoom would have been nice, but it's not the end of the world. Hopefully this can be addressed at a later date.

I tried out Google navigation for a few short trips and it worked great for me. I like the fact that the program kicks in as soon as you put the phone in the windshield mount. Honestly, with the quality of both the screen and the loudspeaker, it feels just like having a dedicated nav system in your car.

I really like the google integration with regards to contacts, mail, and calendars. Like I mentioned earlier, I was due to pay almost $150 for a family renewal of mobile me, which essentially does the same thing that Google does for free.

I'm not going to lie, I do miss my iPhone a little, but I think after I have this phone set up with all the various apps and widgets that are available i'll be happy with it. I'd say that for anyone currently on Verizon that needs a new phone this would be a "no-brainer" purchase.

[nickdawgy]

What's the HTC keyboard and how is it better?

[Deftones]

Originally Posted by nickdawgy

What's the HTC keyboard and how is it better?

it's an onscreen keyboard. i linked a page or so ago. it's supposed to make onscreen typing easier, as the keyboard better fits the screen.

[nickdawgy]

Ok, I am up and running on my Droid. I dig the default ring, but that Droid noise scared me

[SonOfAStu]

first thing my wife asked me to change.

[nickdawgy]

Ok a few observations:

Cons

Smudge magnet. The iPhone didn't seem to get as smudgy.

Having to reset to factory defaults in order to remove my Gmail account. I needed to make a new one since my Gmail account always gets a ton of spam and I didn't want constant notices.

Facebook was a little hard to get used to after the ease of the iPhone.

Answering the phone you always have to rotate it? Kind of lame if that's the only way. Hopefully it can be changed.

The browser on the iPhone seems faster and easier to use.

When it goes to sleep/locks, the only way to wake it is slide the keyboard? That is super lame.

Pros

Believe it or not, I actually like the slide out keyboard. I think I'd use the on screen one more, but the slider isn't as bad as people thought.

The camera started right up for me. That was a plus. Didn't try taking a pic yet.

The screen is nice. Everything is clear. Doesn't look like "omgbbq!!!11one" like all the reviews have said, but it's nice.

[Deftones]

ummm, i never get notices from Gmail about spam on the phone. only for things in my inbox. unless you mean spam that sneaks by and gets into the inbox. even so, you can set it to where it's a silent indicator (the led light on top right).

also, about the smudge stuff. i got some ghost armor installed on it today at Best Buy. just the screen. the guy said he'll have the entire phone armor w/in next 10 days. i'll let you know how it is as i'm waiting for it to dry. it was installed there, cost $20 and is guaranteed for the lifetime of the phone. total armor is $30. i figured it's well worth it. my LG voyager got beat to shit up around the outsides and such.

[SonOfAStu]

Just played Super Mario All Stars and Super Mario World on the SNESoid emulator. Both worked great. Looked and sounded like you would hope. I don't remember how to use an SNES controller though, so I have no idea the best way to map the buttons to the DROID keys.

[Suprmallet]

Originally Posted by Deftones

hey, could you walk through what you did? I tried doing it via my computer and i got an error message when in installed the file.

First, I followed the instructions on this site: http://www.allshadow.com/2009/08/12/...board-android/

If you have Astro and App Installer both installed on your phone, you can do all that directly from your phone without mounting it to your computer.

BUT once I did it I kept getting Force Close errors whenever I tried to use the keyboard. So I went here: http://www.allshadow.com/2009/08/12/...board-android/ and clicked on the link they provided, reinstalled it over the previous keyboard, and then it worked. The keyboard itself is much nicer, although clearly not made for a phone with such a high rez screen, since the text does look a little pixelated. But the usability is much greater.

Originally Posted by nickdawgy

Ok a few observations:

Cons

Smudge magnet. The iPhone didn't seem to get as smudgy.

Answering the phone you always have to rotate it? Kind of lame if that's the only way. Hopefully it can be changed.

When it goes to sleep/locks, the only way to wake it is slide the keyboard? That is super lame.

1. It seems about as smudgy as my 3G and 3GS.

2. What do you mean by "you always have to rotate it"? The answer/end call screen comes up in portrait mode, but you can still use the touchscreen if you're in landscape mode.

3. You can also press the power/lock button at the top of the phone to unlock it.

Other than during the initial setup and once more for testing purposes, I haven't used the physical keyboard at all. The HTC keyboard takes care of all my problems on that end. I do like the rocker, incidentally, but it seems pretty useless given that we've got a touchscreen.

Edit: Has anyone else had problems with the Pandora app only working intermittently? I've never had this problem with the iPhone Pandora app.