I think the Captivate is the best looking of the Galaxy S although the designs are all very similar. The Epic 4G looks like it'll be a HELL of a phone.

6/30/2010 6:15:47 PM

Battery life tests from Anandtech:

looks like the Nexus One is one of the best Android devices for 3G web browsing while the Droid Incredible is the best 3G talk time:


http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/13

[Edited on June 30, 2010 at 7:02 PM. Reason : ]

6/30/2010 7:02:35 PM

Quote :

"^That sucks, my sister just put in her preorder yesterday at that very store and didn't mention anything about preorders stopping."

damn. i thought about going by there last night too. and there doesn't seem to be any preorder information at verizon's website that i can see. if you can actually do it, would you get the phone shipped to you on the 15th, or would it be more likely to arrive a few days later?

6/30/2010 7:06:44 PM

They should've grabbed a Droid X for that comparison as it'll likely be at the top of those lists. And if they're gonna throw in the 3GS, they should've added the original Droid.

http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Motorola-DROID-X-MB810-Review-review-r_2466.html

Quote :

"The 1540mAh battery included with the Motorola DROID X is rated to provide up to 8 hours of talk time or 9.5 days of standby time on a full charge. During our testing, we were able to get up to an amazing 9 hours and 30 minutes of talk time on a full charge, which completely blows away the Motorola DROID at 7hr 30min talk time (1400mAh battery), and crushes the HTC Droid Incredible at a measly 5hr 30min talk time (1300mAh battery). Furthermore, the larger battery on the Motorola DROID X was able to provide it up to 30 hours of mixed usage on a full charge(which includes some talk, text, email, web, app usage, and standby), compared to just about 24 hours on the Motorola DROID, and 20 hours on the HTC Droid Incredible. Clearly, having a higher capacity battery on the Motorola DROID X is sure to come in handy."

lol @ the size difference


[Edited on June 30, 2010 at 7:09 PM. Reason : ]

6/30/2010 7:08:15 PM

Quote :

"damn. i thought about going by there last night too. and there doesn't seem to be any preorder information at verizon's website that i can see. if you can actually do it, would you get the phone shipped to you on the 15th, or would it be more likely to arrive a few days later?"

I have to pick mine up since I'm starting a new contract with Verizon. I don't know if it would arrive later or not. Maybe someone here preordered a phone from Verizon/Motorola and can let you know how their experience was.

^I wonder how it's going to be with the 1900mAh battery that they are going to be selling for it.

6/30/2010 8:36:50 PM

Quote :

"lol @ the size difference"

i saw an evo in best buy and thought, "damn, that's a big ass phone," and then remembered i'm trying to get a droid x...

6/30/2010 8:50:32 PM

I heard there are not going to be any pre orders.

6/30/2010 10:35:52 PM

^Any more preorders or any at all, because there definitely were preorders until yesterday.

6/30/2010 11:57:20 PM

I need some advice on voice dialer problems. I don't understand why, but my voice dialer on my Droid just plain sucks. It gets the right number on the first try maybe one out of every 5 times. I am speaking slowly and clearly into it, and there's almost always no background noise. Even the nicknames I've put in for my contacts don't respond. I used to have a Windows Mobile phone a long time ago, and I'd honestly love to be able to "train" the voice dialing contacts, as it almost never screwed up. Is this even possible in Android?

7/1/2010 12:17:29 AM

Quote :

"but if you use it a lot you can do a shortcut on your homescreen for navigate to a specific address."

how exactly? i can't figure it out

7/1/2010 12:33:27 AM

holding down the search button should be more versatile. if I say "route bunny ranch" it pops open nav "call bunny love" -dialing or "google dennis hof" and I get hot pix in skyfire.

7/1/2010 1:16:21 AM

The voice dialing on Android phones has always sucked for me, and I've had a G1 and currently have a Moment. Coming from a Blackberry, I was very disappointed. I don't think it's your phone.

7/1/2010 6:15:05 AM

I'll have to try the Voice Dialer... in 2 years of Android, I've never tried it. It's just way too easy to pull up contacts I want to call.... all of which seem easier to me than saying a command or the number.

7/1/2010 8:15:24 AM

^^^ works fine for me. if i say 'navigate to bunny ranch' it works fine. or 'call bob smith mobile' also works fine

7/1/2010 11:25:45 AM

Quote :

"^Any more preorders or any at all, because there definitely were preorders until yesterday."

must have been through resellers

7/1/2010 11:35:41 AM

I'd like to be able to hold a Droid X at some point before I decide 100% to buy one. I know it will be much, thinner than my current phone+case but my only concern is the length of the phone. I'm sure I'd get used to it pretty quick though.

7/1/2010 11:55:05 AM

I pre ordered the droid x

First smart phone ever, I'm pretty stoked.

7/1/2010 11:56:19 AM

^congrats. It will most likely be my first as well.

7/1/2010 12:02:30 PM

Quote :

"I'd like to be able to hold a Droid X at some point before I decide 100% to buy one. I know it will be much, thinner than my current phone+case but my only concern is the length of the phone. I'm sure I'd get used to it pretty quick though."

i was kind of worried about the length too after holding the htc evo since that thing took up a majority of the length of my hand, and i'd say i have relatively big hands. but i have seen videos of people using the droid x with one hand, so i don't think the length will negatively affect the way i'm able to use it. and i think the slimness will make up for it, although i'm pretty sure it might stand out a bit in your pocket when wearing jeans or something.

7/1/2010 12:45:26 PM

Quote :

"how exactly? i can't figure it out "

Do you use AnyCut? I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to do from that. If I were on 2.1 I'd try to figure it out to make sure, but you can find a lot of neat shortcuts in AnyCut.

7/1/2010 2:59:23 PM

^ cool program, but it looks like i'd have to write some custom code to do the 'navigate home' thing

7/1/2010 4:43:13 PM

Can't you just long press on the homescreen, choose shortcuts and directions/navigation?

7/1/2010 5:11:55 PM

that's what i was trying to say on page 50... it sounded like he wanted the voice command "navigate home" though... not sure AnyCut does voice commands.

[Edited on July 1, 2010 at 5:33 PM. Reason : .]

7/1/2010 5:32:40 PM

Quote :

"http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=121345 ... Good luck! PS: Seidio also sells protectors and really the glass screen can withstand a pretty good beating in the first place. The guy pulled the youtube video down since the report and I don't have time to find a mirror, but IIRC it held up better than you'd think. http://pocketnow.com/hardware-1/htc-evo-4g-tortured-with-scratch-test "

Thanks, Grandmaster. I think I'll get the Phantomskin for my next ones. It turns out I actually get 2 free Zagg skins from the SR deal instead of one.

Unfortunately, Sprint used USPS, so I had no idea when the phone would arrive (their tracking sucks). When it finally did update, today at 4pm, it said it was guaranteed for today at 3pm Either way, I won't have the Seidio Innocase Active Case I was going to order from Amazon in time, so I'll probably drop by a Sprint store or Worst Buy to pick up something "cheap." I'm going to try to hold off on other accessories until I try out the service and make sure it works at least as well as AT&T where I go--just want to keep it protected in the meantime either way. Also, if the Epic 4G comes out before the 30 days is up, I may want to swap

7/1/2010 5:35:07 PM

Quote :

"Can't you just long press on the homescreen, choose shortcuts and directions/navigation?"

Cool, thanks. Guess I need to poke around a little more.

7/1/2010 5:43:08 PM

Also if you have a bunch of addresses you go to regularly or just don't feel like entering it on your phone, create a map online and save it under My Maps. Then when you open google maps on the phone, choose layers-More layers-my maps and select the map name. Then you have a map of all of your locations and you can just tap on one, hit navigate and you're done

7/1/2010 5:50:42 PM

whoops

http://www.androidcentral.com/author-evo-versus-iphone-4-might-lose-job

Quote :

"Author of Evo versus iPhone 4 video might lose job at Best Buy Posted on Thursday, Jul 1, 2010 by Adam Sawyer If you’re an Android lover that frequents the internet, then chances are you’ve seen the side-splitting Evo vs iPhone 4 video that’s been circulating around the web the past couple days. It’s basically an uproarious confrontation of an Evo user trying to convince an iPhone-drone to switch over to Android, and what makes it so funny is the actual validity of the profane comments between the two. The Android community rejoiced in laugher, while others – mostly Apple users – didn’t find it so funny. Among that group of people who couldn’t find the humor inside it was the author’s employer – Best Buy. Originally asked to resign, he refused and was put on indefinite suspension awaiting a decision by Best Buy’s human resources department. Ouch. Since we don't take things quite so seriously, let's take another look at the video -- and its successor -- after the break. Standard "NSFW-Potty mouth" applies here."

7/1/2010 8:42:16 PM

Anycut doesn't do voice but maybe you could find either the voice part of navigation or create a custom shortcut that one touches you to a drive home

7/1/2010 9:07:16 PM

How the hell could BB fire a guy over that video? Makes no sense to me at all. I smell lawsuit if they don't play their cards right.

7/2/2010 1:40:37 PM

who knows. And looks like the Gingerbread info that was leaked may not be true

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-30-gingerbread-rumors-kinda-sorta-debunked-corrected

Quote :

"Android 3.0 Gingerbread rumors kinda sorta debunked, corrected Posted on Friday, Jul 2, 2010 by Phil Nickinson Remember those supposed Android 3.0 details that dropped earlier this week, courtesy of oft-accurate Russian Blogger Eldar Murtazin's Digestiv podcast, as translated by Unwired View's Staska? Well, a few things have happened since then. Start with Android's Dan Morrill taking a swipe at UV's original piece, saying on Twitter "I love it when people just make stuff up and report it as news." He later couched things a tad more, saying "In summary, please remember that rumors are not official announcements. ." Now we have Unwired View saying that it erred some in its translation of the Russian podcast, on top of Murtazin clarifying some of what he'd said, including that the supposed "minimum specs" for the next version of Android are actually recommended specs. We'll just say this about all that: Rumors are fun, and are a part of the game. But as Morrill reminds everybody, rumors aren't fact. Just because somebody heard something from somebody else doesn't make it true. But good on people for trying to make it right after the fact, we guess. Yes, Google's working on the next version of Android. And it likely will leave behind some of the lower-end hardware out there. And it likely will have a better UI. And it'll be a big deal, and we'll all cover it. In the meantime, a little patience wouldn't kill anybody."

7/2/2010 2:23:20 PM

interestingly, cyanogen was giving big kudos to google for the froyo code and how well it was running on the G1 which is way under-spec to some other android phones. I can't wait to get CM6 on the G1... he did point out that JIT was not going to be on the G1 though for memory issues.

7/2/2010 3:00:31 PM

well some of it was obviously made up, you could tell because of the split version suggestion. Google has already addressed the fact that they want all devices on the same platform at I/O in May. Yes some older phones won't get upgraded and will be stuck on 2.x, but the idea was that when the next version comes out all new phones would be on the same version.

7/2/2010 3:02:13 PM

7/2/2010 4:56:54 PM

good lord, 5 times in the iPhone thread was 4 more than enough.

7/2/2010 9:23:39 PM

Thoughts on the official Froyo release...

It's a good update on the N1 but don't expect a drastic improvement when you upgrade. The phone's touch screen finally seems to be responsive enough for me to accept. The dialer no longer requires you to slowly dial a number to have it register. Some of the apps seem to benefit (just a little) from the new JIT compiler. There's some ground to cover when comparing it to any iOS device but the Android experience seems improved.

Flash is obviously a battery killer but it's good to have the option. I've had 2 occasions where it has helped me thus far. It's not as choppy as you would think but yeah, there are times that it struggles to achieve a decent frame rate. It also serves as an ad-blocker on most pages when using the setting that allows you to enable flash on demand. Websites load a tad faster with the new JS rendering engine.

chrometophone is ok.. it's not as useful as the Google demo would leave you to believe, but it holds promise for what's capable on the device.

I'm posting via a laptop that's connected via the wireless tether AP option now whist listening to Pandora and watching the occasional youtube vid in 240p (obviously on 3g...2 bars). It's doing better than I expected.

7/2/2010 10:27:59 PM

DroidX needs to hurry up and come out - Will be my first smart phone.

7/3/2010 7:41:39 PM

just reached 40 hours of battery life on my Droid.

7/4/2010 1:58:31 AM

^^^

I just installed a compile of 2.1 on my G1 with it's rockin' 324Mhz processor. I'm not sure about the regular builds, but the openEclair is amazing from the stock build. You have to reboot it like 3 times to get all the caching and processor clocking setup, but dang it's quick. Side-by-side over wifi with a third gen iPod touch (624Mhz processor) it was blow-for-blow on loading sites. Freaking impressive.

Coming from stock 1.0 to 1.5 to now 2.1 it's a world of difference the caching functions make.

Waiting for a better 2.2 compile for the G1 - my first bout with it wasn't so smooth.

7/5/2010 4:39:39 AM

Cyanogen and his team are making great progress on cm6 which will absolutely be the best froyo build.

7/5/2010 9:42:42 PM

Kangorade and his team are making great progress on kr2 which will absolutely be the best froyo build.

7/5/2010 11:57:43 PM

Maybe if I suck some community modder's dick hard enough, his team's build will be best!!1

7/6/2010 7:20:40 AM

has anyone found a good way to sync facebook contacts in mass?

on the iphone there was an app called MyPhone+ which would allow you to sync your entire address book with facebook to pull pictures/phone numbers/etc...but I don't know of any such app on Android.

I know you can go into each contact and link them, but that would take me forever to do one by one.

7/6/2010 8:38:09 AM

i believe you meant to write en masse lol

7/6/2010 9:02:36 AM

I wonder why more people are not investing in extended batteries for these phones......I also wonder why the manufacturers are not shipping them with larger batteries. If more than half of your returns are for battery life complaints (am pretty sure they are) it would seem prudent to start shipping them with ext batteries until a software solution is found to extend battery life.

7/6/2010 9:12:49 AM

^^ yeah i thought about that after i posted it, didn't care enough to fix it. it's not like i'm in the soap box here

7/6/2010 10:07:46 AM

There aren't any settings in the HTC facebook app? The regular app has an option to sync with existing or all facebook contacts

^^ because most of them are idiots and expect a smartphone to get the battery life of a dumb phone.

[Edited on July 6, 2010 at 10:10 AM. Reason : ]

7/6/2010 10:09:32 AM

well, I don't expect to get the 5 day life of my Dare, but I would like to be able to, on a regular basis, make it easily through a day with moderate use without ever having to charge the phone from the time I am up in the morning until the time I am going to bed. I understand I can't have everything, and all the reasons I want to get my first smart phone are also the reasons the battery gets run down

However, initial reports on the Droid X are reporting really good battery life which is great. As I've said at least once before: I still want to see one in person since it would be much bigger in the x,y but maybe I can go check out an evo at best buy for a comparison unless someone knows of a droid x on display anywhere.

7/6/2010 10:23:57 AM

Motorola used to offer an OEM extended battery at time of launch for every Nextel handset (Nextels sucked for battery too) I am baffled they do not have an OEM one for the original droid yet. The only one I can find is made by Seido or something.

Or better yet just include both standard and fat batteries with the phones, I know batteries are expensive but so are returns.

7/6/2010 10:28:26 AM

^^ yup.

The Droid X has been posting fantastic times in testing. I was happy with the original Droid - easily made it through the day and then some.

The only androids I have heard battery life problems are either pre-2.1 update or the EVO - which have a faulty battery in the original ship units. Newer units are rumored to be posting 2-3x the battery life.

7/6/2010 10:43:32 AM

I'm doing pretty good on battery, avg 60% remaining at the end of a 17-18 hour day

7/6/2010 10:51:24 AM