Google Android Discussion

[Amaril]

My old man said there's a pair of apps that replace the android market app (something brain, can't remember right this second) that when include better app installation from the computer, and the ability to post an public list of apps on your phone for the purpose of suggestions.

AppBrain.com.

[Notsonoble]

Thanks for that, my office is in a TDCJ unit and I can't have my phone with me *cries*...

[Notsonoble]

On a side note, I'm dling the Android SDK right now... I will probably tinker with a PFRPG simplified character sheet app... just for giggles...

[Phergus]

Also are there any really good free apps people can recommend?

Some apps I have in my EVO:

Barcode Scanner - use it for tracking the books I buy

RockPlayer - video player that handles more formats than the MP4

Tricorder - for fun but it displays a ton of info based on what sensors and capabilities your phone has

ASTRO File Manager - best way to manage files on your SD card

Layar - cool augmented reality app

NYTimes - they have an app to grab news items off their site

IMDb - great for the usual things you do with IMDb

Google Sky Map - fun toy

[Orchard]

Also are there any really good free apps people can recommend?

Some apps I have in my EVO:

Barcode Scanner - use it for tracking the books I buy

RockPlayer - video player that handles more formats than the MP4

Tricorder - for fun but it displays a ton of info based on what sensors and capabilities your phone has

ASTRO File Manager - best way to manage files on your SD card

Layar - cool augmented reality app

NYTimes - they have an app to grab news items off their site

IMDb - great for the usual things you do with IMDb

Google Sky Map - fun toy

STOP IT!!

All you are doing is making me want an EVO even more. And since I live in a 4G market...

Argh!!!!

(I hate my samsung instinct too, so that's not helping either.)

[thecyberwolfe]

Here's a few that Phergus forgot:

-FxCamera is a neat little addition

-KeePassDroid is indispensable for storing passwords

-Several banks have Mobile Banking apps

-WiFi Analyzer can show you things you didn't know about the local environment, handy for troubleshooting connectivity issues.

-WordUp! is a great Boggle clone

-Dice Bag is a cool die roller.

-And don't forget Dropbox.

[Cweord]

Thanks, More apps to play with (woot)

[Craig]

There is a nice little program called Tasker that allows you to automate all sorts of tasks based on events, from as simple as turning on GPS when you open the map and truning it off when you leave, to playing happy music if it's a Friday after 5 and you are in your works car park and sending an SMS to say you will be home soon.

Come to think of it I need to see if I can get it to play my ring tone 10 to 15 minutes after entering the meeting rooms at work...

[Amaril]

If you guys log into AppBrain, you can build a list of apps and share it publicly, then paste links to your AppBrain lists.

[Azhrei]

Come to think of it I need to see if I can get it to play my ring tone 10 to 15 minutes after entering the meeting rooms at work...

Heh-heh. If the GPS works indoors, that sounds like a great app!

Of course, you could just set it up to send a ring tone every 15 minutes. Then start the timer just before the meeting starts.

[Phergus]

Heh-heh. If the GPS works indoors, that sounds like a great app!

I get 8 satellites inside the house with my EVO. Probably won't work that well in a larger, multi-story building.

[dorpond]

I ended up getting the Droid Incredible. In case anyone cares LOL

[Orchard]

I ended up getting the Droid Incredible. In case anyone cares LOL

I have a couple of questions about that, actually.

Did you choose it because you felt it was the best phone on Verizon, or because you like it better than other android phones like the EVO (e.g., did you switch carriers)?

For me, since I have been a sprint customer so long, I see no reason to switch. Especially given that because of Sprint's market position, they have considerably more incentive to try hard than some of the other carriers.

That answered, what do you see as the best and worst parts about the Incredible? It looks like a great phone.

[dorpond]

I ended up getting the Droid Incredible. In case anyone cares LOL

I have a couple of questions about that, actually.

Did you choose it because you felt it was the best phone on Verizon, or because you like it better than other android phones like the EVO (e.g., did you switch carriers)?

For me, since I have been a sprint customer so long, I see no reason to switch. Especially given that because of Sprint's market position, they have considerably more incentive to try hard than some of the other carriers.

That answered, what do you see as the best and worst parts about the Incredible? It looks like a great phone.

I have been testing the Verizon androids since their release (our company uses Verizon so that is what I am testing). Being the IT Manager here, I need to know what is best for our business. When the phones first came out, I tested the Motorola Droid and the HTC Eris. While the Droid was much faster and did some cool stuff (docking for example), I just couldn't stand the way it felt, the keyboard, and some other things. The Eris felt awesome - I loved it. It was easier to use and I really liked the Sense UI.

I was so impressed with the HTC that I was waiting for their next model because the Eris was slow compared to the Droid and it was still running 1.5 for an OS.

Then The Droid Incredible came out. The commercials claimed it was fast and it was new and shiny. I immediately bypassed the test phase and just ordered me one. Yeah, I was that happy with HTC. I got it and I have been using it since.

Then the Droid X came out -- ugh, now I felt a bit mad because on paper it looked better. While I was steaming over the quick release after aquiring my Incredible, a guy at worked order the X. He got it in and we have been comparing the two for a couple weeks now.

These are my thoughts:
- I am glad I have the Incredible. I just don't like the Droid X now that I setup his unit and I am troubleshooting his issues.
- The Droid X is twice as fast as my Incredible after doing a benchmark (Quadrant application) but for some reason it feels more sluggish when finger swipping through the apps.
- I love the way my Incredible does Exchange sync compared to the X. Mine syncs everytime I go into the app also whereas he has to hit a sync button to do a manual sync.
- I seem to get e-mails faster with all my accounts compared to him. he keeps telling me that he has severe delays at times. I have not been able to get to the heart of this yet but I need to determine if it is a specific domain or all of them (Exchange? Time Warner? Gmail?)
- He bought a car doc for his X. It sucks and he sent it back. I have been posting and tracking on this thread here - looks like many people are having same issue:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/G ... 8bfb&hl=en
- Droid X camera does white better. White looks white, whereas mine looks a bit pinkish. Both are same megapixel.
- Motorola dominates the accessory market compared to other Verizon Android phones. HTC for example doesn't have a car dock yet or a desk dock. But, as we can all see, the X's car mount doesn't work anyway
- I can search pdf's and scroll pdf's pretty quickly so as a result now, I have all my D&D books and character sheets right there in my phone. Pinch to zoom works awesome.
- I am still very happy with the Incredible over the X and I will suggest that future Android purchases here are the Incredible.

Things I don't like about my phone... Hmmm...
-No native Exchange Notes/Tasks sync but that is all Android from what I have gathered. It is coming from what I hear though - was a MS restriction in Active Sync but in later versions of Exchange (we use 2010) they lifted the restriction to active sync Notes and Tasks. I guess MS only wanted their OS to be able to sync those - that was stupid and well, they figured out it was stupid so they undid their stupidity.
-Like I said, pictures are a bit pinkish. Not a killer for me though because my device is a phone #1, Computer #2, and other stuff #3.
- Some things bother me but I am not sure if it is Android or Incredible; for example, in Gmail on the device, I cannot save my attachments but in my Exchange mail on the device, I can. So if I want to save an attachment for whatever reason (my D&D character sheet for example), I just send it to my exchange mail instead of my gmail. Again, not sure if that is a android limitation or a specific phone limitation.

In conclusion I have to say this though - I am very happy with my decision. I wouldn't trade my Incredible for an X. I use my phone now more than ever (I owned a Blackberry previously). I read full books with the Kindle app, look up solutions to user issues while I am at their PC via voice search (google search the web), I research stuff while my daughter is in the bath, I take videos of my daughter and pix.. I use this thing all day long. 2 thumbs up.

[Orchard]

I ended up getting the Droid Incredible. In case anyone cares LOL

I have a couple of questions about that, actually.

Did you choose it because you felt it was the best phone on Verizon, or because you like it better than other android phones like the EVO (e.g., did you switch carriers)?

For me, since I have been a sprint customer so long, I see no reason to switch. Especially given that because of Sprint's market position, they have considerably more incentive to try hard than some of the other carriers.

That answered, what do you see as the best and worst parts about the Incredible? It looks like a great phone.

I have been testing the Verizon androids since their release (our company uses Verizon so that is what I am testing). Being the IT Manager here, I need to know what is best for our business. When the phones first came out, I tested the Motorola Droid and the HTC Eris. While the Droid was much faster and did some cool stuff (docking for example), I just couldn't stand the way it felt, the keyboard, and some other things. The Eris felt awesome - I loved it. It was easier to use and I really liked the Sense UI.

I was so impressed with the HTC that I was waiting for their next model because the Eris was slow compared to the Droid and it was still running 1.5 for an OS.

Then The Droid Incredible came out. The commercials claimed it was fast and it was new and shiny. I immediately bypassed the test phase and just ordered me one. Yeah, I was that happy with HTC. I got it and I have been using it since.

Then the Droid X came out -- ugh, now I felt a bit mad because on paper it looked better. While I was steaming over the quick release after aquiring my Incredible, a guy at worked order the X. He got it in and we have been comparing the two for a couple weeks now.

These are my thoughts:
- I am glad I have the Incredible. I just don't like the Droid X now that I setup his unit and I am troubleshooting his issues.
- The Droid X is twice as fast as my Incredible after doing a benchmark (Quadrant application) but for some reason it feels more sluggish when finger swipping through the apps.
- I love the way my Incredible does Exchange sync compared to the X. Mine syncs everytime I go into the app also whereas he has to hit a sync button to do a manual sync.
- I seem to get e-mails faster with all my accounts compared to him. he keeps telling me that he has severe delays at times. I have not been able to get to the heart of this yet but I need to determine if it is a specific domain or all of them (Exchange? Time Warner? Gmail?)
- He bought a car doc for his X. It sucks and he sent it back. I have been posting and tracking on this thread here - looks like many people are having same issue:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/G ... 8bfb&hl=en
- Droid X camera does white better. White looks white, whereas mine looks a bit pinkish. Both are same megapixel.
- Motorola dominates the accessory market compared to other Verizon Android phones. HTC for example doesn't have a car dock yet or a desk dock. But, as we can all see, the X's car mount doesn't work anyway
- I can search pdf's and scroll pdf's pretty quickly so as a result now, I have all my D&D books and character sheets right there in my phone. Pinch to zoom works awesome.
- I am still very happy with the Incredible over the X and I will suggest that future Android purchases here are the Incredible.

Things I don't like about my phone... Hmmm...
-No native Exchange Notes/Tasks sync but that is all Android from what I have gathered. It is coming from what I hear though - was a MS restriction in Active Sync but in later versions of Exchange (we use 2010) they lifted the restriction to active sync Notes and Tasks. I guess MS only wanted their OS to be able to sync those - that was stupid and well, they figured out it was stupid so they undid their stupidity.
-Like I said, pictures are a bit pinkish. Not a killer for me though because my device is a phone #1, Computer #2, and other stuff #3.
- Some things bother me but I am not sure if it is Android or Incredible; for example, in Gmail on the device, I cannot save my attachments but in my Exchange mail on the device, I can. So if I want to save an attachment for whatever reason (my D&D character sheet for example), I just send it to my exchange mail instead of my gmail. Again, not sure if that is a android limitation or a specific phone limitation.

In conclusion I have to say this though - I am very happy with my decision. I wouldn't trade my Incredible for an X. I use my phone now more than ever (I owned a Blackberry previously). I read full books with the Kindle app, look up solutions to user issues while I am at their PC via voice search (google search the web), I research stuff while my daughter is in the bath, I take videos of my daughter and pix.. I use this thing all day long. 2 thumbs up.

Thanks!! Glad to see a rather detailed look at this. I'm on sprint, so I'm thinking about splurging for the EVO, which is also HTC.