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In Response To The Droid..... Interesting Reading
- Thread starter Excellerator
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Maybe next time I get lost instead of using google maps or navigon I'll whip out the compass app and a map and try to figure it out that way 
Not.
But the Tethering and MMS was actually pretty usefull.
Not.
But the Tethering and MMS was actually pretty usefull.
The compass it mostly a useless app, but done very well.
Which is why WM & Android now have the same thing.
Of course, Android had a compass for use with augmented reality a year before the iPhone 3GS.
As for WM, does anything other than the Omnia II have a compass ?
I didn't imply who had what first. It's well know that many phone had accelerometer before the Iphone. I think the Touch HD2 does, and probably a few others.
None of these things make a phone the "best". I believe the Blackberry Curve was the most purchased smartphone in Q2 of this year. Maybe a business person in the cell phone industry could argue that the 8330 is the "best"? Buying a cell phone is not a competitive sport with number grades. It's awesome that you love the iPhone so much, but I had one for 3 years and while it's pretty cool, it's still just a phone. And believe it or not, some people don't think its "the best!" So, in the eyes of this consumer the iPhone is not the best. Please do not attempt to speak for the rest of the world based on whatever article you read that said it did great in customer satisfaction. I'm going to try and not reply to anything else you write, because after engaging in this argument I am afraid that I will have lost brain cells when I stand up from my desk. Have fun with your iphone, it's a pretty cool phone.
If you had a brain you would have known that consumers choosing the iphone doesn't mean every consumer likes it. I suggest you go and take a class in introductory statistics before I even waste any more time with you.
I have to agree! Primejimbo, with his comments seems to be of the old world thinking back 7yrs ago when VGA camera phones existed. However, Even then when the SE K700i arrived I was getting fairly decent face shots. Then the entire game changed with the arrival of the SE K750i/W800i phones. The 2MP AutoFocus CMOS chips with LED shots are some of the BEST quality 4x3" prints I've taken EVEN compared to some $200-400 Digicam (without optical zoom) from 6-2yrs ago.
I definately vote for the next iPhone to have 5MP camera with LED flash! This doesn't increase battery life consumption because it'll only seldomly be used - LED flash for video recording would be nice. Besides the END user KNOWS & initiates the feature and thus is aware of the battery consumption.
In my personal experience using various smartphones (aside from Android), I'm hoping OS X in the iPhone supports SMP. I believe that even with applications running in the background (apps profiling data usage, mapping info, motion data) can be run at a very frugal energy consumption rate using SMP. Also Apps should be re-written to take advantage of this, have a headless component to acquire & store data, to be retried for display when the full app is launched. This is actually what MIDP3 was to promise but I believe Motorola (who moderates MIDP3) & Sun's acquisition by Oracle (previous attempt by IBM who's against it) has derailed it for some time.
This is the main reason why a LOT of users in Europe purchased Nokia S60 phones - great camera, best in class video capture (until mid 2008), and TV-Out not just of the video but of the entire OS. Well that's mostly why I bought S60; besides the power of the OS without being cumbersome like WM.
There are STILL some refinements I'd like to see in OS X, and for my personal needs Android 2.0 still needs some adjustments but its getting there.
Until phones get focused on Optical zoom ....... 3mp vs 5mp really doesn't make much of a differ to me. Flash would be nice, but I had some phones where it's flash sucked. The best flash on a phone I owned was on the BB 8900 Curve. I know the Droid doesn't take the best pics, but is it's flash as good as the BB 8900 Curve?
Yeah, right! lmao! Notice how the word "fanboy" comes out when someone is either an Apple user or an iPhone user. I love it!
Actually, I think Flash is about to get its ass handed to it (metaphorically of course) by HTML5. Of course Flash has a lot of penetration already, but once people cotton on to the fact that they can use HTML5 to do the same stuff they used to do in Flash but quicker, with better battery efficiency, with less instability and with compatibility with pretty much all browsers without needing a proprietary plugin I think it'll become much less prevalent. If I were Adobe I'd be quite worried right now.
I carry both a Droid and iPhone on a daily basis. My feelings are as follows......
1. The hard keyboard of the droid is terrible. The soft keyboard in portrait mode is unusable. The soft keyboard in landscape registers to many wrong characters. I'm not sure why, but it just does not work that well. Typing on the iPhone (and even the Eris) is far better.
2. Droid camera = terrible.
3. I find the system font on the Droid to be to small. Especially on the widgets. Maybe I am just getting old.
4. I miss lots of my iPhone apps that have not been ported over yet. The ones that have are not nearly as good as the iPhone version.
5. Why have a unified inbox if I cant see both my Exchange and Gmail email together (I would love for a unified iPhone inbox also)
6. Every time I start to use my Droid, I cant wait to start using my iPhone again.
I bet many people that switched to the droid from the iPhone, will start to migrate back soon.
1. The hard keyboard of the droid is terrible. The soft keyboard in portrait mode is unusable. The soft keyboard in landscape registers to many wrong characters. I'm not sure why, but it just does not work that well. Typing on the iPhone (and even the Eris) is far better.
2. Droid camera = terrible.
3. I find the system font on the Droid to be to small. Especially on the widgets. Maybe I am just getting old.
4. I miss lots of my iPhone apps that have not been ported over yet. The ones that have are not nearly as good as the iPhone version.
5. Why have a unified inbox if I cant see both my Exchange and Gmail email together (I would love for a unified iPhone inbox also)
6. Every time I start to use my Droid, I cant wait to start using my iPhone again.
I bet many people that switched to the droid from the iPhone, will start to migrate back soon.
If you dislike the Droid as much as you seem to, why do you carry it daily? If you have a Verizon line, why have a phone on there that you seem to describe as terrible? Why not at least have the Eris, which you seem to like a bit more? Not trying to pick a fight or anything, I'm just curious as to why it seems you are forcing yourself to have a Droid.
New Android coming with video calling
Here's an interesting Open Development Initiative phone with front-facing camera for video calls, and the ability to act as a MiFi-like wireless access point.
Also see Saygus V1 here.
Reportedly it'll be certified and available for use on Verizon soon. (The Initiative allows anyone to build a phone and get certified on Verizon... and demonstrates that making a CDMA phone is not rocket science. If a startup can do it, so can Apple.)
This could foretell a new era, akin to the first days of personal computers, where we see innovative companies arise to make new phones. Especially Android based.
Here's an interesting Open Development Initiative phone with front-facing camera for video calls, and the ability to act as a MiFi-like wireless access point.
Also see Saygus V1 here.
Reportedly it'll be certified and available for use on Verizon soon. (The Initiative allows anyone to build a phone and get certified on Verizon... and demonstrates that making a CDMA phone is not rocket science. If a startup can do it, so can Apple.)
This could foretell a new era, akin to the first days of personal computers, where we see innovative companies arise to make new phones. Especially Android based.
Long term the droid will probably become a better iPhone. Google can just throw millions of dollars at it. Apple can't afford to lose money for 10 years trying to compete.
What did we ever do before "Compass" . . .
Maybe next time I get lost instead of using google maps or navigon I'll whip out the compass app and a map and try to figure it out that way
Not.
But the Tethering and MMS was actually pretty usefull.
The Compass app might be mostly useless but the fact that it can be used in Google Maps to show which way you're going is very useful and it's something a lot of people used to ask for.
And actually when I was traveling in Europe I used Compass along with a paper map to find my way around since using Maps would be too expensive with the roaming charges. So I'm really glad they added an actual app too instead of just the functionality in Maps.
1. The droid is a motorola product, not a google product.
2. Apple has a market cap of about $180b and something like $40b in cash. So yeah, they can spend as much on R&D as anyone.
The droid is just one of many android phones. It will soon be forgotten when the next android device comes along. Android as an OS may well give the iPhone a run for its money, but the droid, much like the pre before it, is already proving to be much more popular as vaporware than as an actual product.
I do support for mobile devices for my company. I also carry a storm 2, curve, and an Eris (Just think of all of that radiation).
Good grief, that is a lot of radiation. Ok, so since you have both a working Droid and Eris, which, in your honest opinion, do you like better? I'm thinking about upgrading my Verizon line to one of the Android phones just to play with the platform, but I just don't seem to quite like the looks and design of the Droid. And it's not as fast and smooth as I thought the hardware would be. I do love the design of the Eris, but it's older hardware and the fact that it's running OS 1.5 is a bit of a turn-off to me. But I haven't gotten to play with a working model of the Eris yet, so I don't know how laggy/sluggish it is. Which do you prefer overall? My ideal Android phone I think would be the Eris body and Sense UI with the Droid "guts".
I actually like the Eris better. The changes HTC made, especially the soft keyboard make a huge difference. I also like the trackball, and multitouch make this a better device in my opinion. It does need the 2.0 update though. I really wish the fonts were bigger. It has some neat widget that I can barely use because of the fonts.
Have you used one? The Droid's keyboard is excellent. The keys are well separated and slightly rounded so they're easy to differentiate, and they have great travel with a satisfying click so you're not wondering if you've actually pressed one or not.
A software update for the camera is slated for Dec. 11th. Also, the camera can still take excellent pictures with its current software, but you do get more throw-aways than you should.
Again, I don't think this is true at all of any battery in current smartphones unless those hours are all standby.
How does the Eris feel in terms of speed within the OS compared to the Droid? Like speed of opening programs, transitions between programs, and multitasking compared to the Droid? The Droid didn't impress me as much in this area as I thought the hardware should. Is the Eris even slower?
Some of my apps on the Eris open up slower than the Droid, but I think Android device just feel sluggish anyway (including the droid). Maybe thats the downside to multitasking. The Sense UI (I especially like the contacts app), is alot better than the Droid stock UI.