Google Android OS

[manaox2]

I just started using my Droid X today and, so far, I'm very impressed. I know there are a couple of members with Android devices and there are a flood of them hitting the market right now.

Right now, no news of netflix yet, hulu+ is probably working hard on making android their next big release, and Android 3.0 should start preparing for release at the end of the year. Not sure thats going to make as big of waves as 2.2 Froyo already has. So far, I love this damn thing and think its only getting better. Any particular apps I should look into? I'm waiting to root it for when the expected Froyo update arrives hopefully within two weeks.

[Nebby]

I like my MyTouch 3G even though it's showing it's age. I wonder what will be out by the time I upgrade it....

[morphsci]

I have an Evo 4g. The apps I use the most are tapatalk, photobucket, dropbox, Pandora and PDANet. Until I bought an extended use battery however, the Evo had shitty battery life. Now it is great, rarely below 65% even with broadband, wifi, Bluetooth and GPS on all day.

Edited September 9, 2010 by morphsci

[manaox2]

Man, I love the Evo for having the 4G ability and the front facing camera with video chat software available. It was a hard choice not leaving Verizon for Sprint.

I have been using the read-only version of tapatalk today and have installed all the apps except PDANet, which seems cool. Fedex guy left me something to sign today before I get my extended battery. It shouldn't be so bad with the Droid X as it only sticks out an extra millimeter literally and everyone with one seems to love them. I gotta admit it only took me eight hours to knock the first full charge down to 15% with intermittent use, after all these apps I've now installed, I think I'm going to be really glad I sprung for it.

All I need now is a good case, none of them are really without flaws for now it seems. Might decide to just head to the local best buy for a rocketfish case and holster instead of trying to get a Seido innocase.

[Dusty Chalk]

Just checking in, I have nothing to add. I enjoy my (Motorola) Droid. I use the maps capability more than anything, but occasionally text, head-case (tapatalk), and browse. Not a power user. Need to figure out the whole "taking a picture" thing -- I have some on there of Bobby and Luvbug that I'd like to share.

Oh, and I make phone calls on it, too. But not so much.

[Fing]

I bought an HTC Desire because I could get one cheaper on a contract than an Iphone + lots of people at work recommended it.

I immediately got hooked on the Mafia Live/Ninja Live/Pets Live/Vampires Live/Zombies Live turned-based multiplayer games.

The phone is light-years ahead of what I had before (a sony erricson camera phone) and I really like seeing what it can do.

Google Maps is great - but need WiFi really. 3G is too slow.

Installed Swype beta (you type by dragging your finger across the onscreen keyboard - much faster than tapping with 1 finger). Makes texting much less painless and even fun.

The native browser software is great, formatting and zooming web pages with just a double tap and very useable.

I installed a couple of emulators onto it - a Sega Megadrive (Gensoid) and a Commodore 64 (Frodo). Limited use - the interface isn't quite there for serious gaming. I got quite excited when I could download the Zork and Hitchhiker games by Infocom for the C64 but the requirement of those games to do lots of typing means I won't play them unless I have a few hours to kill and no internet web access. It'd need to be Ipad size and/or have a proper controller/joystick really. Perhaps better to stick with the games designed for this format.

Lots of free apps available on the Android market place - games and other things, usually with a rating.

Battery life stinks.

[skullguise]

Does the Droid X use Andoird 2.1? I've read that 2.2 is a nice boost up.....

I have a 1st Gen Droid, like it a lot too.

I'm also curious about tablets (non-phone) that are coming out with Android OS on them. Some of the Chinese imports do, but Archos is introducing a whole line of iPod Touch-like players to iPad-like tablets - max price $399 IIRC. Could be pretty fun.....

[n_maher]

No Froyo update for the X yet but it's pretty snappy without it, can't imagine what it'd be like given the performance gains seen on other devices.

As far as cases for the X go, it's already so big that I didn't want to add any bulk so I simply use a screen protector on it.

And Todd, I'm with you. I can't wait to see Android based tablets come to market.

[manaox2]

Droid X has 2.1 at the moment still, 2.2 OTA update is expected within the next two weeks.

So far, I absolutely love it. I've never had such an accurate easy to use touch screen. The multi-touch is great for browsing, swype is fast and more accurate then I even expected. Its not very laggy for me, even though I've been loading on the apps. Appbrain is a pretty darn great app for keeping apps up to date and seeing whats popular currently. All my contact profiles on the phone, google, and facebook are sync'd together making an extremely awesome contacts list with all the connectivity options with nice pictures and current statuses for each. In call tells you where phone your calling is registered and looks great. Google talk and voice are very very nice options, it handles my voicemail way better then verizon and I can still talk if I run out of minutes using my 3G. Tapatalk pro is awesome, combine that with the head-case news feed and its pretty slick. Battery life is pretty good for how much I play with it and I haven't even put in my extended battery yet. Froyo should bring about some really great things, I'm already pretty pumped with what I've been able to do.

The only down side so far is that I have to treat my phone like a computer by cleaning up after apps and killing unneeded processes from time to time, plus that it seems to have insane privacy issues here from connecting all these services into such a small OTG device packed with enough spy gadgets to satisfy Mr. Bond. So far, so good.

3G is fast enough for me, using FCC communications to check, I get 1.48Mb down and 0.75Mb up. I've definitely used over a Gb of data in the last two days. Like Nate, I only have a screen protector on it, I'm waiting for a well reviewed rubberized case and holster to come out still.

[cetoole]

HTC incredible with froyo here, love it except for battery life. Don't forget shazam, awesome app.

[justin]

im waiting to see the Droid X ship w/ froyo and then i might give it a go as my first smart phone. If not, I'll hold out until next year to see if iPhone hits verizon...and if it happens early in the year, consider waiting for the next iphone on verizon

[dBel84]

I have the EVO too, love it. Not sure how I functioned without it before as it just seems to streamline my life so much. I have a few work specific apps but then a few useful ones I have found. I never did download Tasker but that is one I need to look into. I use the advanced app killer a lot, color note is a yellow sticky app , I loaded doubletwist but tend not to use the phone for music at the moment, google goggles is a fun app, I kid myself that I play guitar and have gStrings which is a tuner app, also kid myself that I cycle and have iMapMyRide ( which is cool if you cycle ), quickoffice is good for most documents but not with spreadsheets, photoshop express as an image manipulator , ringdroid allows you to create your own ringtones from any mp3, I use skyfire as a browser..dB

[manaox2]

HTC incredible with froyo here, love it except for battery life. Don't forget shazam, awesome app.

I'll check it out, have been using soundhound as an alternative, but didn't like so much. I just found a nice app called real HDMI for Droid X users that allows you to connect your HDMI cable and use a display as a monitor for the phone. Should allow all those apps that don't do it by default (IE Blockbuster) to be displayed on the HDTV just fine. Setting up mint.com app right now to monitor my savings, I'm probably also going to get a copy of documents to go through the app store next month to try out.

[jinp6301]

You guys should check out an app called zumocast. Allows streaming of music/videos from your comp to your phone.

[Nebby]

Not sure if everyone already knows, but I figure it's worth posting: the android app store has a 24hr return policy so if you're not sure about a paid app, feel free to buy it and return it if it's not good.

Refund policy

You have 24 hours from the time of purchase (not download) to return an application purchased through Android Market for a full refund. You may only return a given application once; if you subsequently purchase the same app again, you may not return it a second time.

How to return an app:

From Market, visit the My Downloads page, and select the application you'd like to return.

Applications that are eligible for return are marked with a 'Uninstall & Refund' button. Please note that after the 24-hour return period has expired, all sales are final.

After 24 hours, selecting the "Uninstall" button will simply remove the application from your device. More about uninstalling purchased applications.

If you're unsatisfied with an application after 24 hours, we recommend contacting the developer directly. Learn more about refunds.

Returning apps - Android Market Help

[manaox2]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=quI2I8wLPdc&amp

[Dreadhead]

Not sure if everyone already knows, but I figure it's worth posting: the android app store has a 24hr return policy so if you're not sure about a paid app, feel free to buy it and return it if it's not good.

Returning apps - Android Market Help

Now it's 15 min...

[manaox2]

Now it's 15 min...

Yep, if your market was updated which it probably is now if its connected to data. Makes me wish I had put a freeze of the silent market update service on my X. However... I do have a backup on Titanium and a nice SBF file that'll work containing the old market on it should I need it. Evidentally, piracy is already huge on android since all you need is the small apk file to share. I believe Google was concerned people would pay for a game or tool, get all they needed out of it in 24 hours and return it.

[bhjazz]

I've got an original Droid, picked it up in March. I definitely like the OS, although after some code-level digging the audio processing leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, it looks very much like Win 3.1 "multimedia" calls. Hilarious. Oh well, jsut leaves room for improvement, I suppose.

I'm not at all fond of the caching scheme when attempting to watch even a two or three minute video online. I don't know why they can't cache the entire package of data. It stinks. If I can pick up wifi where I am, video works a lot better.

I dumped a few movies on it using Handbrake and they look great. It also plays most audio files: mp3, flac, wav. Oh, and I have a port of Quake3 running on it as well. Why it's ridiculously difficult to navigate without a mouse, I can still show it off.

Current apps: andLess (FLAC), Audalyzer, Scanner Radio, Winamp (for the Shoutcast streaming which works pretty much flawlessly. Take that, Android video team!)

Next year I may try a ROM. Dunno. I think creating an account on AppBrain would be smart. That way you could load a new ROM then run out and install all your favorite apps on top.

[manaox2]

I'm not surprised. Droid x media center audio playback sounds plain bad. The low fi stream from pandora sounds more acceptable even.

Tapatalk

[trevorlane]

I just picked up a X a few days ago, I'm liking the FM radio but I've already cluttered the thing with apps. It's getting more playtime than the iPhone, I just hope it's more than a FOTM

[n_maher]

I think once you try the Nav app, the maps app and a few other stock items you'll likely find the X (and most recent Android phones) to be much more than a FOTM.

[Tyll Hertsens]

I've had my Droid Incredible for about two weeks now and I'm in Love!

I've been a bit of a ludite when it comes to phones ... I just made calls on them.

When I lost my phone recently, I went down to the Verizon store and popped my cherry on the Droid.

Just. Fucking. Amazing.

I know, old news by now, but shit, it's the first time that convergence has seemed convenient as well. FM radio and GPS while on my walks; Pandora on WiFi in the garage while sawing wood; hell, at TamJam I was in the car and recieved a message where to meet folks, then hit the "navigate" button and spoke the address, sure as shit it told me where to go. Amazing.

iPhones don't live on Verizon, so I didn't go that direction, but I bought an iTouch. Personally, I find the Droid OS and UI significantly superior in terms of being intuitive. Wha? How can someone have come up with a UI slicker than Apple?

Has Apples compelling stance as the market leader in coolology now become a disadvantage as others use and improve on their example?

Sure as hell is a good time to be a gadget geek.

[n_maher]

Tyll,

For your walks download a free app call Runkeeper, it's pretty cool.

And you don't even have to hit navigate if you're really lazy. On the home screen just press and hold the search button and the voice recognition system should open up. Speak, "Navigate" followed by the address and it should take care of the rest. Also, here's to hoping the Incredible gets some of the more recent updates to the Android OS (it's one version behind right now, or my wife's is) which should offer some nice improvements to the UI and performance. One more thing, I agree, the iPhone OS is not superior in my experience to Android. It has some better points, but Android has just as many to counter if now more at this stage.

[Tyll Hertsens]

For your walks download a free app call Runkeeper, it's pretty cool.

Thanks, Nate, I'll check it out.