Droid X, Anyone?

I've played with one before. They're a nice phone but 4.3" of phone is a little big to be lugging around in my pocket. I'd go with the Droid2(physical keyboard) or the Droid Incredible(3.7" 8mp camera).

That's actually what l'm up in the air about. Droid 2 is the one phone that's got me doubting my choice. l thought l would like the on-screen keyboard stuff but my Omnia sucks. Granted, it is an Omnia.

l like the slide out keyboard on the Droid 2 but realistically it's not much smaller than the Droid X. Also, the Droid X has a multi-touch, on-screen keypad that actually works. The HD 720p video and 8MP camera are nice little upgrades from the Droid 2 and from what l've seen on YouTube, it benchmarks much faster.

Really, it comes down to whether or not l want to take a risk on another on-screen keyboard that l might end up hating or sacrifice some performance and very nice camera/video upgrades for a real keypad.

the gf has the droid incredible, and it's a pretty good phone.

my dad got the original droid, and it's one of the only motorola phones i would recommend. motorola used to put out complete garbage, but the droid is actually really solidly built and runs very smoothly. presumably the droid 2 and droid x are similar in terms of quality.

engadget recommends the incredible and notes that the droid 2, while having an increase in processor speed over the droid, is not really any faster.

i actually like the size of the droid x, but it might be too much for some people. it's worth looking at in the store at least.

also keep in mind that you may need to wait up to two weeks; they've been back ordered. my gf had luck at target; they had an incredible in stock and they take the rebate amount directly off the phone.

my phone has a physical keyboard and i've used the gf's incredible.

on screen keyboards normally blow, and the incredible is really no exception. it's not especially bad or anything, just that anyone (mainly iphone owners) who try to tell you otherwise are full of meep. it has haptic feedback, autocomplete, all that meep...still sucks.

that being said, how often are you using it? additionally i haven't gotten a chance to try out the physical keyboard on the droid 2, so you never know. it could be terrible too.

I've been reading everything I can find on the Dell Streak. Seems like the very upper end of screen size that will still fit in my pocket. Waiting to see how the benchmarks and battery life turn out once they release the Android 2.2 upgrade.

If I wasn't interested in as much screen real estate as possible, I might look at the Galaxy S spin-offs. I was really into the Samsung Captivate.

I'm a proud new owner of a Samsung captivate but sadly I'm a drone to the shoddy and expensive AT&T network. that aside I love android and the market and have customized the bejesus out of the phone. I think you will like the new virtual keyboards on android no matter what phone you get. if you get a physical keyboard and decide that the virtual isn't too bad you may wish you chose the phone without the physical, maybe you wanna send some experimental texts from the phones at best buy?

geazerpleazer: I think you will like the new virtual keyboards on android no matter what phone you get.

I would guess, without anything in particular to back it up, that some of the difficulties people report with using virtual keyboards is alleviated by the new Swype stuff -- no need to aim or time keypresses, no meeped-up feedback loop.

I've got a Moto Droid (1) and only played with an X a couple times, but X's just seem so big. They're lighter than a Droid, but overall I just couldn't deal with the size of it. I never ever use the physical keyboard on the Droid. It's completely useless to me. Some people can't stand the soft keyboard though, so your best bet is to go to a store and try typing out some phrases and see if you can deal with the soft keyboard. For me, the incredible would probably be the best option. For you, maybe not.

That said, if you do go back to work and will use your own phone for work, you may just consider going to a blackberry. Their mail and calendar are better integrated with Exchange. 2.2 improved both (can finally search the online address book while in the mail app, and it actually gives you a tiny bit of information about calendar items), but it's still not as refined or as usable as my old 7130 did 4 years ago. And I sure as meep hope you never have a conference call that uses meetingplace with a long meeting ID number. If you click on it, it'll most likely try to find the phone number in google maps, so you'll have to memorize every number. Or write it down on a paper and manually dial it. Which is great when you're driving.

-=Whittey=-

You hipsters and your meeping hipster devices.

could you guys recommend me a laptop, but with significantly less functionality? preferably a device that has been around for years...but maybe from a company that markets the meep out of it.

i have an original droid and love it. like whittey said, i hardly ever use the physical keyboard (except for the ssh app which seems to require it). i have a feeling waiting for the incredible might have been a better decision, but i don't really regret it. when you really think about it, on-screen keyboards aren't any more terrible than tiny keys but that's just me. you can also download different keyboards. i have swype and i don't think i'll ever go back. i would probably go with the x.

vasudeva:

geazerpleazer: I think you will like the new virtual keyboards on android no matter what phone you get.

I would guess, without anything in particular to back it up, that some of the difficulties people report with using virtual keyboards is alleviated by the new Swype stuff -- no need to aim or time keypresses, no meeped-up feedback loop.

I have Swype on my HTC Hero and it's absolutely brilliant for text input; I've personally not missed having a physical keyboard at all.

if it really comes down to physical keyboard or no (and it sounds like it does), then you should probably just swing to a store and meep around with them both a bit. the come home and order from wirefly.

Thanks for the feedback, Nigerians.

l just got back from a cousin's birthday party and while l was there l asked one of my geek uncles if he'd messed with the Droid X yet. He said 'yeah' and pulled one out of his pocket. Awesome.

All of my worries about the keyboard are now null and void. The keys are just the right size and they meeping work. l could actually type with two thumbs quite efficiently. l messed around with it for about a half an hour and l'm pretty sure that's what l'm going to get now.

vasudeva:

geazerpleazer: I think you will like the new virtual keyboards on android no matter what phone you get.

I would guess, without anything in particular to back it up, that some of the difficulties people report with using virtual keyboards is alleviated by the new Swype stuff -- no need to aim or time keypresses, no meeped-up feedback loop.

Yeah, that and the fact that with the Omnia the keys were just too meeping small. l should have known better when it came with a stylus... The other thing l hated with the Omnia was the auto spell always jumping right the meep in your way and just guessing the wrong goddamned word (every meeping time). I never could disable that POS.

vasudeva:

geazerpleazer: I think you will like the new virtual keyboards on android no matter what phone you get.

I would guess, without anything in particular to back it up, that some of the difficulties people report with using virtual keyboards is alleviated by the new Swype stuff -- no need to aim or time keypresses, no meeped-up feedback loop.

Yeah, that and the fact that with the Omnia the keys were just too meeping small. l should have known better when it came with a stylus... The other thing l hated with the Omnia was the auto spell always jumping right the meep in your way and just guessing the wrong goddamned word (every meeping time). l never could disable that POS.

PS: Undo textwar now, kthnx.

_{On 2010-08-22 at 21:41:23, Wotak asked to smell your meep}

I'm going to buy a Droid on Monday. I was going to go for the X, but I was at an STS9 show Friday night and someone showed me his incredible. He was taking pictures of the stage that were coming out perfect, despite all the crazy moving, color-changing backlighting. I was really impressed. Now I'm not sure. I'll see on Monday, I guess.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S Droid. I like it a lot, but I'm coming from a 3 yr old Sony Erickson walkman branded phone that seems like a dinosaur compared to android OS.

Wotak, Gethoht, Nocal, Vas, Geazerpleazer, Whittey, Mund, Lefen, meeproach and R_Parker all wear skinny jeans, and listen to indie music while getting pedicures.

meepgots.

Better that 10 guilty witches go free than an innocent man suffer another unsatisfying portable-computing experience.

dent: Wotak, Gethoht, Nocal, Vas, Geazerpleazer, Whittey, Mund, Lefen, meeproach and R_Parker all wear skinny jeans, and listen to indie music while getting pedicures. meepgots.

not only do i not own an android device, but clavis already tried this tactic.

you macmeeps really are all the same!

Oh, how does nocal love thee, logical fallacy? Let me count the ways...

Handy dandy phone comparison chart:

Also, not a macmeep...still a PC, thx. An imeep, maybe...I happen to like Apple's mobile devices. You may not. I really don't give a meep. I'm not here to proselytize.

I just happen to like meep that works, and the meep I've got works for me. YMMV.

_{On 2010-08-23 at 18:29:27, Clavis_Apocalypticae asked to smell your meep}

for the record, webos is the best operating system.

sadly, paired with meep hardware.

some people are overclocking their pres to 1.2 ghz (!) and the resulting videos are a sad reminder of what webos should have been...or might still be.

palm is likely releasing webos 2.0 on new hardware in the coming months.

Clavis_Apocalypticae: Handy dandy phone comparison chart:

Nice, thanks.

Also, not a macmeep...still a PC, thx. An imeep, maybe...I happen to like Apple's mobile devices. You may not. I really don't give a meep. I'm not here to proselytize.

There's a reason macmeeps exist.

Mac stuff tends to be very good.

EDIT: I just realized I currently have the crappiest phone on that chart.

EDIT EDIT: Well, 'crappiest phone' is probably pretty subjective Kahuna-bait. I certainly have the smallest screen on that chart.

_{On 2010-08-23 at 18:45:13, vasudeva asked to smell your meep}

nocal:

dent: Wotak, Gethoht, Nocal, Vas, Geazerpleazer, Whittey, Mund, Lefen, meeproach and R_Parker all wear skinny jeans, and listen to indie music while getting pedicures. meepgots.

not only do i not own an android device, but clavis already tried this tactic.

you macmeeps really are all the same!

At least give me some credit for trying.

dent:

nocal:

dent: Wotak, Gethoht, Nocal, Vas, Geazerpleazer, Whittey, Mund, Lefen, meeproach and R_Parker all wear skinny jeans, and listen to indie music while getting pedicures. meepgots.

not only do i not own an android device, but clavis already tried this tactic.

you macmeeps really are all the same!

At least give me some credit for trying.

Over the wrist golf clap

vasudeva:

Clavis_Apocalypticae: Handy dandy phone comparison chart:

Nice, thanks.

You're welcome. I ganked it straight from LH.

vasudeva: EDIT: I just realized I currently have the crappiest phone on that chart. EDIT EDIT: Well, 'crappiest phone' is probably pretty subjective Kahuna-bait. I certainly have the smallest screen on that chart.

With all due respect to our esteemed bros, you do have the 'crappiest phone' on the chart, sadly. Ain't them meepas' faults though. They just tryina make a livin. Shame on RIM for not rolling with the changes.

I will say that I miss the meep out of two BB features: Profiles & email management. I never realized what a big deal it would be to me to be able to select multiple messages for action, or to be able to flag messages for followup. And being able to set specific alert sounds per mail account/contact sure was nice.

i absolutely will not deny the fact that the iphone is solely responsible for the excellent state of american phones. and that includes hardware, software, and obnoxiously slow but necessary development of networks. the years before the iphone were absolutely awful in terms of american cell phone service.

as for apple's controlling ways, no thanks

oh and i forgot to mention: i semi hate the design trend. innovate, mothermeepers!

_{On 2010-08-23 at 19:28:44, nocal asked to smell your meep}

Clavis_Apocalypticae: I will say that I miss the meep out of two BB features: Profiles & email management. I never realized what a big deal it would be to me to be able to select multiple messages for action, or to be able to flag messages for followup. And being able to set specific alert sounds per mail account/contact sure was nice.

Not sure what's out there for iPhone, but looking to Android to do real profiles via tasker. I still cannot make my Blackberry ringer profiles do exactly what I want (by which I mean, behave as advertised, not cure my space madness). There's a bit of articulation in there, but it doesn't seem to work at the outer edges. I've never been able to make the phone, say, do a special ringer when the LBP PINchats me. I can assign a special ringer to her phone calls, but the complexities seem to stop there. I will not miss this and am making juicy bonerfaces at tasker through the web browser.

This is actually pretty informative. It shows the Android's awesome text to speech which, surprisingly works 10 million times better than Google Voice... l played with it and it really just worked perfectly for me. The comparison seems pretty unbiased except for the keyboard comparison. The Droid X keyboard is just better and easier to use.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/yexYJDzUKng?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1

This comparison seems pretty unbiased as well.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/goIphYCVVHc?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1

Also relevant to this discussion is the Dell Streak:

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/57OoAiL0XsI?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/Ski1hOvDbKg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1

What sells me on Android is the fact that you get excellent hardware options and network options. This will inevitably translate to more users, more development and much faster product evolution.

Apple's proprietary control hard-on and hardware/developer fascism is always going to equal no-sale with me. Also, l wouldn't enter into another AT&T contract at gunpoint. meep AT&T forever.

Also, flash is available on Android as of 2.2.

I've got a Hero, but I'm moving up to a Galaxy S at the end of the year. I also had a review Droid for a month when they first came out.

My only advice is get the fastest processor you can, and look for a screen at least as big as the iPhone.

Vasudeva, Tasker is the meep. For instance, my phone automatically goes silent when I enter a movie theater, and then goes back to normal when I leave.

Wotak, it takes a few weeks, but you eventually forget you ever needed a physical keyboard, especially with Swype.

Android Zoom is a great place to browse for apps.

Also relevant to this discussion: Big Boy Benchmarks. Streak vs Droid X, head to head. Benchmark vid: EVO vs Droid X vs Nexus 1 (Nexus has Android 2.2, so it's a bit skewed)

Wotak: Apple's proprietary control hard-on and hardware/developer fascism is always going to equal no-sale with me.

I haven't yet found any of these arguments compelling. So they block some apps from the market, which you'll do an end-run around as soon as you jailbreak it. So you have to pay a registration fee to develop apps, which kinda makes sense and weeds out some bottom-feeders. I don't see how this would really factor in for me, apart from the cheap anti-corporate outrage I might join in on while still buying the damned thing anyway.

Lownotes: Vasudeva, Tasker is the meep. For instance, my phone automatically goes silent when I enter a movie theater, and then goes back to normal when I leave.

How does it know you've entered a movie theater? Do you have a widget you hit, or does it detect darkness?

Wotak: Also relevant to this discussion: Big Boy Benchmarks. Streak vs Droid X, head to head. Benchmark vid: EVO vs Droid X vs Nexus 1 (Nexus has Android 2.2, so it's a bit skewed)

Sadly, anything reviewing the (stock) Streak right now is premature, since it's still using Android 1.6.

2.2 has a ton of performance improvements, so it's a totally pointless exercise unless you upgrade it to 2.1 or wait for the official 2.2 release. It'd even make more sense to downgrade the other models to 1.6, so we're at least comparing hardware apples to apples.

_{On 2010-08-24 at 14:14:58, vasudeva asked to smell your meep}

^ You set a GPS switch to tell it you're in a theater.

And, yeah l understand the Streak is hobbled at the moment but l thought it was relevant to see them side by side. That Streak is meepING HUGE even next to the Droid X which is shockingly huge the first time you grab ahold of it.

The top 'Big Boy Benchmarks' has an update link where he did do the Streak upgrade to 2.1 and re-ran the benchmarks, though you've got to do a lot of tab-flipping to put it back into context with the original post's benchmarks. Not sure how it finishes with such a high total score when it's clearly slower than the Droid X and Captivate on most benchmarks, unless he's weighting them funny (e.g., not at all).

You tend to see a lot of bias when you look at these things. l usually look at the numbers and ignore the opinion. The Streak is a meep of a device and l think it'll be an impressively powerful tool for anyone who goes that direction. It's a bit too big for my taste though. The Droid X is pushing my concept of what is too big and l doubt l'd want to haul anything larger than that around in my pocket. (ie: l refuse to hook anything to my belt, ever)

_{On 2010-08-24 at 14:29:01, Wotak asked to smell your meep}

Good lord, Gorilla Glass. This is on the Streak and the Galaxy S spin-offs (and reportedly on the iPhone).

Bluetooth: This is nice and discreet. What are you Swarmers using?

Samsung just announced their Galaxy Tablet. Are you dedicated to the idea of holding a phone to your face? This meep is getting meepy up in here.

I just pre-ordered the Morph:

http://www.youtube.com/v/IX-gTobCJHs?fs=1&hl=en_US

And so...?

I think I'm getting the Droid X. I'm waiting until my contract expires on 10/27 to get the best discount. Soon Danial-san, soon.

meep pocket phones

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Dell Inspiron Mini 10.1 turned into a Dell Mini 3i Android
Uploaded by AndroidFeatures. - Videos of the latest science discoveries and tech.

I've actually had a pretty good go with AT&T as of late. We got the U-Verse (which is pretty meeping great) and since then, the customer service has been really impressive.

I finally got my Droid X and I'm thrilled with it so far. It came with FroYo already installed and it's fast as meep. I can even stream albums from my site with no issues or waiting. Watched a few youtewbs without issues. Networked into my work VPN and read/answered emails, bumped some files around on a couple of my work drives without issues.

After 2 years with Windows on an Omnia, this meeping Android powerhouse blows my mind.

So, Android users - what are the coolest meeping apps you've found?

I am seriously considering the G2

Though I think It will be hard to let go of the iPhone, at least initially.

Wotak: I finally got my Droid X and I'm thrilled with it so far. It came with FroYo already installed and it's fast as meep. I can even stream albums from my site with no issues or waiting. Watched a few youtewbs without issues. Networked into my work VPN and read/answered emails, bumped some files around on a couple of my work drives without issues. After 2 years with Windows on an Omnia, this meeping Android powerhouse blows my mind. So, Android users - what are the coolest meeping apps you've found?

I use AppBrain and its website to manage my apps.

I recommend:

Evernote Barcode Scanner (for QR codes at Appbrain and other places) Tasker Mint Vlingo Last.fm Layar Slacker Pandora Shazam Google Maps Congress Amazon MP3 Queue Man (For Netflix) Metronome (If you play music) Google Goggles White Noise Light Listen and/or Beyondpod Slidescreen Twidroyd PayPal Google Shopper Bump NPR Google Sky Map Urbanspoon Ustream Broadcaster Uninstaller Benpaper (use this with readlater app in your browser) Amazon Facebook Astro 1337pwn.com XBox Live Friends (If you have an Xbox)

Awesome. Appbrain's 'Market' came pre-installed on my Droid.

Thanks for the app tips.

EDIT: Three thumbs up for Urbanspoon

_{On 2010-11-05 at 02:06:12, Wotak asked to smell your meep}

Lownotes: apps

jesus christ you have a lot of apps.

since the gf has an incredible, i meep around with it a lot:

i love pandora, shazaam, yelp, flixster (movie info), and google maps.

mint and evernote both seem cool, but i have yet to really try them. i am slightly skeeved out by giving my banking info to mint and my intellectual property (even though it's worth literally nothing) to evernote.

any website app (salon, engadget) i can't bother with since you can have a homepage dedicated to bookmarks and i feel like it adds a meepton of clutter.

google sky and google goggles are both very cool as "show off" apps. as in, the only time you will EVER use them is when someone says "iphone." OH REALLY WELL I CAN TAKE A PICTURE OF SOY SAUCE AND GET GOOGLE RESULTS meep YOU. mostly useless.

as for the preinstalled garbage (amazon mp3, verizon meep), i absolutely wouldn't be able to resist rooting an android phone. it annoys me, for whatever reason, to have that meep. yes, i would risk bricking my phone to get rid of icons i don't like. meh.

and if anyone finds an app to improve the multi tasking (which is my #1 android gripe), puh-leeeze let me know.

nocal:

Lownotes: apps

jesus christ you have a lot of apps.

Yeah, most don't get used but once or twice a month, or just for fun. Layar, for example, is one of those "This is so cool!" apps I never ever use unless showing off the phone.

The ones I use every day are Evernote, Mint, Tasker, Twidroyd (great for Twitter as it live-previews links, photos and videos) and Benpaper.

Benpaper is the Android workaround for Instapaper.

In the car, Pandora (for music), Last.fm (for stand-up), Listen (for podcasts). Although, I have to admit I go back to the iPod for weeks at a time.

Unified Remote is the most badass thing I've found for my Droid, so far. I now have complete control of my Home Theater PC via my WiFi network (or 3G or HTTP). I just run a tiny server on my HTPC and the Unified Remote App gives me control over the machine and files. I can launch movies, run a browser (Hulu control), run Media Center, share files, use the mouse or run a keyboard, send texts, meep I can even shut the HTPC down with this remote. Basically, it allows me to do anything.

If you have an HTPC, you will meep up over this App.

Oh, and it's free.

Screenshots.

_{On 2010-12-04 at 15:59:40, Wotak asked to smell your meep}