Android: General Chat

[mykeyb]

You have your point of view and I have mine.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one.

[CVByrne]

You do know there is a site dedicated to apps and games for windows, android and the jailbroken iphones which list them by catergory and everything.

Far easier than rapidshare.

Sounds good, could you pm me the link please. No paid apps in Ireland yet so only way to get them is off the internet. Thanks.

[darrenm]

You have your point of view and I have mine.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Perfect example of the Apple RDF I think. It reminds me of mass religion. When asked for, or presented with facts it just ends up with "This is my opinion, you have yours." to just kill the until then perfectly reasonable discussion.

[limpid]

If you don't have time to read it all, just read the third paragraph.

[Genie]

did anyone order their desire through mobiles.co.uk? im having problems actually getting my order sent to me correctly, they cocked it up and ive had to send it back and make another order.

I hope you went through Quidco for the easiest £50 you'll ever earn. Simply just clicking the link from Quidco to Mobiles.co.uk and you get £50 back. It really is that simple!!!

[mykeyb]

You have your point of view and I have mine.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Perfect example of the Apple RDF I think. It reminds me of mass religion. When asked for, or presented with facts it just ends up with "This is my opinion, you have yours." to just kill the until then perfectly reasonable discussion.

I am not going to change my opinion based on the fact I have actually used both systems, the other poster was obviously not going to either so not sure what was to be gained by continuing.

I could could google Market v App Store and post the first 10 links which will all give a pretty similar appraisal as mine would that add anything to the debate?

I could give you the list of my Top 10 most used Apps and then someone could tell me what the android alternative is if there is one, again not likely to add anything.

And the fan boy comment is a little absurd, because my opinion differs from yours doesnt make me a apple fan boy in the same way it doesnt make you an Android fan boy.

Since I have said I think that Desire, Evo & Nexus handsets are all technically better than the iphone I am not sure how my opinions are biased.

[mykeyb]

I haven't seen or used the iPhone app store so I'm intrigued as to how it works TBH. You haven't said how it's better there and I'm interested to know. The Android market mechanism of downloading and paying for apps seems very good to me and the presentation is great. I really like the way you can pay for apps and they stay on your downloads list linked to your account so if you get a new phone or wipe your own then you just reinstall.

If you have two or more Android handsets can they both be set up with the same google checkout account so you could install paid for apps on more than one handset.

Any app that you download stops linked to your account and if you try to download it again you are told that you have already paid for it (even if its free) so you do not pay again.

[TheDon]

You have your point of view and I have mine.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Perfect example of the Apple RDF I think. It reminds me of mass religion. When asked for, or presented with facts it just ends up with "This is my opinion, you have yours." to just kill the until then perfectly reasonable discussion.

I am not going to change my opinion based on the fact I have actually used both systems, the other poster was obviously not going to either so not sure what was to be gained by continuing.

I could could google Market v App Store and post the first 10 links which will all give a pretty similar appraisal as mine would that add anything to the debate?

I could give you the list of my Top 10 most used Apps and then someone could tell me what the android alternative is if there is one, again not likely to add anything.

And the fan boy comment is a little absurd, because my opinion differs from yours doesnt make me a apple fan boy in the same way it doesnt make you an Android fan boy.

Since I have said I think that Desire, Evo & Nexus handsets are all technically better than the iphone I am not sure how my opinions are biased.

I'd be perfectly willing to change my opinion if you actually gave me a reason why it's better.

You claimed the presentation and integration of the app store was far better than the android market, yet are incapable of providing examples of how this is true. That's all people are asking for, reasons why it's better, not wishy washy statements that mean absolutely nothing.

Everyone knows the app store has more and in some cases better apps, that comes from having a much bigger market share and being around for longer. In time the apps for both will be pretty equal.

[mykeyb]

You do know there is a site dedicated to apps and games for windows, android and the jailbroken iphones which list them by catergory and everything.

Far easier than rapidshare.

Sounds good, could you pm me the link please. No paid apps in Ireland yet so only way to get them is off the internet. Thanks.

Hope you got the PM

[CVByrne]

I did, many thanks. Bit frustrating that there is no paid apps yet on Android Market in Ireland. Google's European headquarters are here after all.

[Ingram85]

I know there arent that many but which games would most users say are the best (fun/production wise)?

[CVByrne]

Must have things for android.

Swype and Locale.

Games, all you need is snesoid, play old snes games.

[CVByrne]

X10 has been rooted. Photos of it and all. I.ll Prob get 2.2 at the end of summer, flash would be useful.

[darrenm]

X10 has been rooted. Photos of it and all. I.ll Prob get 2.2 at the end of summer, flash would be useful.

Awesome! Can't wait to see how they did it.

Be forewarned though - you'll only be able to put Froyo on it when someone makes a ROM for it. Rooting a device and getting a later ROM to work are very different things. Getting Eclair to work on the G1 took ages because the camera drivers were Donut only. HTC didn't release the drivers so someone had to spend months reverse engineering them. The same thing is going to happen with Froyo, there are ROMs out there but loads of stuff doesn't work.

Unless you're a low-level Android developer yourself you're at the mercy of the ROMs available and how much stuff on them actually works. When you put Froyo on your phone won't really be up to you unless you want to give up stuff like the camera, bluetooth, wifi etc.

[CVByrne]

I'm not that pressed with getting the updates super fast. It's just once people are used to making roms they will be fast enough in getting a rom out for 3.0. That's what I'm really looking forward to. 3.0 will be the real deal android os, iphone killer.

I'm more than happy with 1.6 right now. Flash aside I'm not too pressed about the other updates to the os.

The point us it's been rooted and that's great news because it's an excellent piece of hardware held back by it's software.

[PieFacE]

I got my Desire today.... and wow! What a handset! Had a Hero which i've just sold.. The Desire is so much better. Really neat piece of kit. Loving it!

Bring on 2.2. Athough, it's pretty perfect as it is. So fast.

And yeah, Apple sucks

[MMFy]

Just acquired an X10 this week. Where do I go from here?

[CVByrne]

Well first thing you should do is get swype. Well download barcode scanner from the market and then use it on the swype barcode posted a few pages back in this thread. I'd also get advanced task killer too. Locale is another must have app.

[Jas]

Well first thing you should do is get swype. Well download barcode scanner from the market and then use it on the swype barcode posted a few pages back in this thread. I'd also get advanced task killer too. Locale is another must have app.

What is locale? Typed it in on the market and loads of things came up.

[leviramsey]

WANT (at least when it comes out for Telus/Rogers 3G frequencies...)

ComputerWorld/BusinessWeek"]

It was surely only the purest coincidence that Verizon, Motorola and Google introduced the Droid X smartphone the day before Apple's iPhone 4 shipped. And certainly, the companies' ability to get actual shipping units into reviewers' hands before most of them could see Apple's latest had not a whiff of calculation. Perish the thought.

That aside, the Droid X is one nice phone. It comes with a 1GHz processor and 512MB of memory. It's (comparatively) big: 5 in. long, 2.6 in. wide and 0.4 in. thick, roughly a quarter inch wider and half an inch longer than an iPhone. If you're used to iPhones, you will notice the larger size -- especially the width.

Of the phone's 5-in. length, 4.25 in. is glass, and the glass covers the entire width, most of which is display, except for about a quarter inch of casing on either side. The display is a WVGA 480 x 854-pixel screen -- I found it to be very clear and sharp.

The speaker is above the glass (of course) and the small menu, home, back and search buttons are below, above the mic pinhole.

Non-glass surfaces are rubberized, with a very comfortable and distinctive feel. Volume controls are on the right edge at the top, camera shutter below. The left edge has a mini-USB jack and a mini-HDMI jack. The power switch is at the top; the bottom is clean. There's 8GB of storage on board, and the phone comes with a 16GB microSD card.

To accommodate the dual LED flash and camera -- 8 megapixels with 720p video capture -- there's a sculpted quarter-inch bulge behind the earpiece. That sounds worse than it is, and it actually makes the phone easier to find in a crowded pocket or purse.

If you like physical keypads, you'll mourn the Droid X's move to a soft keyboard only. But softkey fans will enjoy the inclusion of the Swype input software, which lets you type quite quickly indeed without having to lift your finger from the keyboard.

The phone ships with Android 2.1; an over-the-air update to 2.2 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is promised for "late summer" (which probably means Labor Day). And if you are into social networking, you'll welcome the inclusion of the Motoblur suite of social networking tools, which make it trivial to tweet or Facebook or whatever.

Setup is simple, especially if you stash your life with Google. The quality of the photos produced by the 8-megapixel camera is okay, although not up to that of a dedicated camera with a better sensor -- remember that there's more to life than megapixels and you won't be disappointed. Video quality was pretty good as well.

Motorola execs say that the 1540mAh battery affords an 8-hour talk time and 220-hour standby time, and that in real life the battery will easily last all day. My experience was somewhat less than that -- in six hours I ran through about 70% of the charge -- but I was running the screen more than a normal, non-compulsive user would.

And finally -- what about the phone itself? It's a good phone. Nice sound, solid network (at least here in New York City). It gets warm to the touch. Nothing alarming, but you'll notice it.

There was a glitch with some of the phones given out for review, including mine: Android Marketplace apps wouldn't download. At the time of this writing, Verizon said that Motorola and Google were tracking down the problem, but since these were pre-release units, this bug will no doubt be fixed by the time the units ship on July 15th.

When the Droid X ships, Verizon will sell it for $199.99 after a $100 rebate with a two-year new-customer contract. However, Verizon execs said anyone with a contract expiring in 2010 would be able to immediately upgrade. Unlimited data is $20/month; the mobile hotspot tethering service (yes, it has that too) is $5/month for 2GB; 5 cents per megabyte after that.

The bottom line

The inevitable question: Buy the iPhone 4, HTC Evo 4G or Motorola's Droid X?

I personally like the iPhone ecosystem, but there's no denying the appeal of Android. The choice between Sprint's Evo 4G or Verizon's Droid may well come down to the networks behind them. If you live in one of the 4G WiMAX-capable cities, it's hard to vote against that kind of speed. But speed isn't everything, and Verizon's excellent customer service reputation would count a lot toward making me part of the Droid army.