My Questions/Issues with the Droid after 1 Month of Use

[stanwelks]

The Droid and Android OS are very impressive, however, after using it for a month, I have some questions/issues with it (not really expecting definitive answers) that I am just surprised by...

1.) Why not place the SD card in a location that does not require you to take out the battery? In all fairness, my BB Tour was the same, I just do not get it....

2.) Why can't it be configured to download Yahoo! email right out of the box? The iPhone does, so I would think they could replicate the same settings we have to enter to make it work. I am guessing they want to force you to use Gmail, though I am just not so sure how realistic this is for everyone...especially for the average person to reseach the settings on their own to make it work.

3.) Why no built in file explorer?

4.) Why is the experience between using Gtalk/Gchat on the Droid and a computer not seemless? Sometimes when logged into both, a message will come to one and not the other. Sometimes I do not receive messages for this reason. This is the only thing I miss about my Blackberry, BBM, though I understand it was only between mobile devices and not mobile devices and computers.

5.) Why so difficult to synch my iCal on a Mac? I spent hours trying to get it to synch and spent time on Google message boards and read lots of other posts from both Mac and Outlook users on PCs about the same issue. I eventually just started using Google Calendar.

Other then these, I love it.

[darreno1]

1. My guess? Safety! There are people that will pull the card without turning off the phone or ejecting it properly which can wipe the data. Having it under the battery makes that pretty much impossible (although they can still do that while mounted- but it will require a more deliberate action). The other thing is, there is really little need to pull the card. It mounts like in a regular card reader in the phone itself and it's got quite a bit of space so the need to swap is greatly reduced.


2.I agree with the downloading however it's just as easy to pick another client from the Market so I can forgive that somewhat.

3. Good question. Maybe they would prefer the average user to not have easy access to the underlying file structure. But again, it's just as easy to download one of the many available so I don't see this as that big of a deal.

4. Haven't used gtalk or chat yet.

5. Don't have a mac.

[Berzerker]

The Droid and Android OS are very impressive, however, after using it for a month, I have some questions/issues with it (not really expecting definitive answers) that I am just surprised by...

1.) Why not place the SD card in a location that does not require you to take out the battery? In all fairness, my BB Tour was the same, I just do not get it....

2.) Why can't it be configured to download Yahoo! email right out of the box? The iPhone does, so I would think they could replicate the same settings we have to enter to make it work. I am guessing they want to force you to use Gmail, though I am just not so sure how realistic this is for everyone...especially for the average person to reseach the settings on their own to make it work.

3.) Why no built in file explorer?

4.) Why is the experience between using Gtalk/Gchat on the Droid and a computer not seemless? Sometimes when logged into both, a message will come to one and not the other. Sometimes I do not receive messages for this reason. This is the only thing I miss about my Blackberry, BBM, though I understand it was only between mobile devices and not mobile devices and computers.

5.) Why so difficult to synch my iCal on a Mac? I spent hours trying to get it to synch and spent time on Google message boards and read lots of other posts from both Mac and Outlook users on PCs about the same issue. I eventually just started using Google Calendar.

Other then these, I love it.

1.) Added security so it's not extremely easy for the SDCard to be taken out I guess.

2.) Google goes with Gmail, different for the iPhone that doesn't have a dedicated email service (sans the introduction of MobileMe, but they made that process extremely streamlined to setup push and everything, so the same situation applies).

3.) Phone companies (and now Google) don't really expect you to navigate the file system...but there are many free apps to download that let you do that (the best of which, IMO, is ASTRO File Manager)

4.) My guess is they're still evolving the service to make it more streamlined. You might have better results as updates come in.

5.) It would most likely be the most beneficial to import and use all of your Calendars on Google Calendars. They make the process really streamlined, and it's a great place to keep all of the calendars without having to backup anything. Best of all, it will push live updates to your phone, and iCal can sync with Google Calendars, if I recall correctly.

Hope these suggestions help.

[stanwelks]

1.) Interestingly, the Droid does not mount on my Mac when plugged in. It does not show up at all.

2.) I did not even know anything about any other clients. I guess that is my point -- for them to be targeting the main stream population (I'm guessing that is what they want to do) I think it should just be easier, and, I do not think it is that much more for them to make thing like this as Apple would say "just work"

3.) I'd think they would want users to have acces to file structure, because that is something you can not do on iPhone, and I think one of the reasons to have a Droid is to be able to do things that you are limited with on the iPhone. Although I agree you can download an app, it just seems odd that it is not there right out of the box.

4.) It is strange and frustrating at times because I can not rely on it for getting messages.

5.) This problem also exists for Windows users with Outlook. I was reading about it on the Google forums.

[Droidnought]

1.) Interestingly, the Droid does not mount on my Mac when plugged in. It does not show up at all.

It doesn't mount automatically, but it's easy enough to do it manually.

- Plug a USB cable into the Droid and Unlock

- You will see the USB symbol in the notification bar - pull it down and it will say "USB connected. Select to copy files to/from your computer"

- Press it.

- A screen will pop up with two choices - "Mount' and "Don't Mount".

- Press "Mount" and it will show up on the desktop like any other drive. It also pops up Image Capture on my system, but I just close it out.

Now you can move files on and off the SD card at will.

Don't forget to Unmount it from the desktop before unplugging the cable. Also, it should remount the card in your Droid, but if it doesn't just cycle the power.

Wally

[Laurence5905]

1.) Interestingly, the Droid does not mount on my Mac when plugged in. It does not show up at all.

That's weird -- do you get the notification on the phone that a USB cable has been plugged in? Are you tapping on that notification and "mounting" the card to be used as external storage? And even after all that, the Mac still won't recognize it as an external USB drive?

2.) I did not even know anything about any other clients. I guess that is my point -- for them to be targeting the main stream population (I'm guessing that is what they want to do) I think it should just be easier, and, I do not think it is that much more for them to make thing like this as Apple would say "just work"

Yeah, it's Google -- of course they're going to have a preference for GMail. At least they don't lock-down the marketplace (like a certain other company does) when you write an app that competes with them. So if there is a Yahoo-mail client out there (which I haven't checked) you can just download it...

3.) I'd think they would want users to have acces to file structure, because that is something you can not do on iPhone, and I think one of the reasons to have a Droid is to be able to do things that you are limited with on the iPhone. Although I agree you can download an app, it just seems odd that it is not there right out of the box.

Yeah, I agree with you on this one -- there really should be a file-manager built in to the phone. But hey, at least there are some very good ones on the Marketplace. So, in the meantime, hopefully they'll suffice.

4.) It is strange and frustrating at times because I can not rely on it for getting messages.

Now that is weird to me... I use Goggle Talk all the time, and I've never had it fail to show up on both the phone and my PC at the same time. I'm wondering if the Mac-version of Google Talk has some issues? Or maybe their web-client (if you're using Google Talk on the Google website instead of a separate client...) But I, personally, have never had that type of error using the combination of the client running on my PC and the one on my Droid.

5.) This problem also exists for Windows users with Outlook. I was reading about it on the Google forums.

Agreed -- if you're not using Google Calendar, you're definitely going to have issues here... Again, it's (I'm sure) because Google wants you to use their stuff on their phone... As the apps get better and better, I'm certain someone, somewhere, will figure out a way to write an app that will take care of these issues. But, yeah, in the meantime it's frustrating if you're an iCal or Outlook user...

One complaint you left off your list, that I would add, is the Droid's lack of Bluetooth-activated voice-dialing. I know I've ranted about this before, but that's really a feature that all phones should have (and I thought it was one that all phones did have, 'till I bought my Droid...) I mean, heck, going all the way back to my Motorola v120 there was at least some sort of voice-dial feature using my Bluetooth headset. Ok sure, the v120's "voice dial" was crap and hardly ever worked right, but at least it was totally hands-free. Voice-dial got much better with my v710 and KRZR K1m -- never thought I'd be giving up any features when I upgraded from the KRZR K1m to the Droid almost two months ago. So I'd definitely add lack of Bluetooth-activated voice-dialing to this list.

But, like you, I'm lovin' my Droid, despite its few flaws.

[bllarkin]

2.) I did not even know anything about any other clients. I guess that is my point -- for them to be targeting the main stream population (I'm guessing that is what they want to do) I think it should just be easier, and, I do not think it is that much more for them to make thing like this as Apple would say "just work"

Yeah, it's Google -- of course they're going to have a preference for GMail. At least they don't lock-down the marketplace (like a certain other company does) when you write an app that competes with them. So if there is a Yahoo-mail client out there (which I haven't checked) you can just download it...

This is also largely a Yahoo issue. The iPhone can do Yahoo mail because Apple and Yahoo have a contract to do so. You can easily do Yahoo mail on your Droid, but you have to purchase Yahoo Mail Plus so you can do POP3 to do so.

[crspang]

Google and Yahoo are in competition with each other. If I were in control of Google the last thing I would do is try to prop up the competitor by offering free support for a product that Google provides also. Its obviously a business decision by Yahoo and Google not to provide "out of the box" support for competing services.

[stanwelks]

Although I understand that Google and Yahoo! are competitors, by Google not including the type of support necessary to make it work out of the box, I think they are just hurting the image of Android. Linux is a very powerful operating system and can be had for free, though how popular has it become with non-techy geeks?

Part of what makes iPhone so successful is the word of mouth of how easy everything is to setup and use. Anyone off the street can (and does) purchase iPhones. Now if Google is looking to compete with this same market and not just with tech geeks, how can they expect someone to be capable or have the patience to search for the settings to make their Yahoo email work? And, I think it is very foolish for Google to just disregard the fact that lots of people use Yahoo! mail and will not just switch to Gmail out of frustration of not being able to use Yahoo on their Droids. I switched to Google calendar because it is simply just a different workflow for me to maintain my calendar. I considered returning the Droid after spending about 5-hrs trying to get it to synch with my iCal before just trying Googe Calendar. Switching to another email provider is not as easy -- people become comfortable with their email accounts and do not want to risk losing emails during transitions, etc.

Google and Yahoo are in competition with each other. If I were in control of Google the last thing I would do is try to prop up the competitor by offering free support for a product that Google provides also. Its obviously a business decision by Yahoo and Google not to provide "out of the box" support for competing services.

[stanwelks]

Awesome! I was not aware of this. Thanks!!!

Google and Yahoo are in competition with each other. If I were in control of Google the last thing I would do is try to prop up the competitor by offering free support for a product that Google provides also. Its obviously a business decision by Yahoo and Google not to provide "out of the box" support for competing services.

1.) Interestingly, the Droid does not mount on my Mac when plugged in. It does not show up at all.

It doesn't mount automatically, but it's easy enough to do it manually.

- Plug a USB cable into the Droid and Unlock

- You will see the USB symbol in the notification bar - pull it down and it will say "USB connected. Select to copy files to/from your computer"

- Press it.

- A screen will pop up with two choices - "Mount' and "Don't Mount".

- Press "Mount" and it will show up on the desktop like any other drive. It also pops up Image Capture on my system, but I just close it out.

Now you can move files on and off the SD card at will.

Don't forget to Unmount it from the desktop before unplugging the cable. Also, it should remount the card in your Droid, but if it doesn't just cycle the power.

Wally