The "Got my D3"/ first impressions thread

[kanundrum]

I forgot to mention in my review.

Uninstall Lets Golf and Nova


Both combined are 250mb+

 

[islander90]

You can do this with the stock launcher as well. While in the app drawer there is an icon in the upper left hand corner, with it you can select grouping. I created a group that i named "My Apps" and put only the apps i want to show in it. Now when i open the app drawer it opens "My Apps" instead of all apps.

so the D3 blur app launcher has grouping (aka folders for the most part)?? that gets me a little excited haha dancedroid

 

[JesterMX6]

well after 2 days with the D3 i've switched back to my DX. i gave the d3 to my fiance (previously on an OG Droid) and will test drive the bionic before committing to the droid 3

Reasons for switching back?

mostly just decided i wanted to try the bionic first. 2 days is plenty for me to see what the phone has to offer. in the end i found there was nothing i really enjoyed about the D3 that i didn't have in my X besides the physical keyboard. My fiance saw a greater beneft from the switch, considering she was on a stock 550mhz OG Droid.

After trying the bionic, i may very well get another droid 3 if i don't get wow'd by the bionic. But until then i'll just enjoy my X.

 

[tcrews]

What are the options to remove that stuff? I'm coming from an OG D1, so I don't have experience with bloatware. Is rooting enough to uninstall specific bloatware, or is it more complicated than that?

Brandon

Right now there aren't any options to remove it. Root hasn't been achieved so until that happens.....you ignore it or "hide" it.

 

[Bear in NM]

And also, it reminded me of the time almost all the droid community ripped off asurion by "breaking" or "losing" there device when they found out they were sending out the droid 2 instead of the droid 1. Seeing they had a chance to get a free upgrade.

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

I didn't know this happened, but anyway the joke would be on them. That wasn't much of an upgrade and I bet a few of them were wishing they had the OG back.

Regarding bloatware: I understand a third-party launcher gets rid of it cosmetically, but what about any bloatware that actively and aggressively runs background processes?

What are the options to remove that stuff? I'm coming from an OG D1, so I don't have experience with bloatware. Is rooting enough to uninstall specific bloatware, or is it more complicated than that?

Brandon

Let me apologize for the off-topic here, but it might be a good place to get the word out, so to speak, as a lot of new users are viewing this thread.

Brandon, yes root access allows you to have full control of the operating system (with a proper file manager apk). You can delete specific aps, or just rename them with an extension so they no longer load. And this is IMPORTANT. Once root is achieved, do not go crazy deleting aps. If you must rename, or secondarily make copies of the files to your PC or other backup (both is best). You would also have programs like Titanium backup to freeze files, and make backups. These files may be needed to be in place for an upgrade from moto/vzw to take, and it is possible to delete wrong files, or apks that need other aps or functions to work.

So yes, root is needed to remove/rename the aps from the operating system, so they do not load at boot. Hiding them with LP or the stock ap drawer would only keep you from seeing them in the ap drawer.

Craig

 

[phonixzero]

Just got my Droid 3 today! Right as I was leaving my house from my lunch break, the guy pulled in. I showed him the letter I wrote in case I wasn't there and he said that it would have worked and that he would have left it.

Coming from the Incredible, I love it. Screen looks great (even outside) and the keyboard is fantastic. So far only problems with it is the lag after leaving the camera (I am over it already). Love the phone so far and the pentile problem seems to be blown out of proportion and the 512 ram seems to be doing the trick quite well. Once we have root this will be an amazing phone (the bloat does suck but its easily to ignore).

If anyone is wondering, there are 4 points of touch on the D3. I dont know if this is standard now but my Dinc only did 2. Tested with Multi Touch Visualizer.

Happy with the upgrade so far

Oh and it might just be because I am a masochist but, I am not completely hating Blur, do miss some Sense stuff but I can deal with it.

 

[mattbooty]

It's a feature of Launcher Pro. Download and install Launcher Pro from the Market, it will automatically become your default Home Screen/Launcher.

Set your home screens up the way you normally would for use. To hide apps from the drawer, on your home screen..

Menu/Preferences/General Settings/Hidden Apps

Select the apps you don't want to show and then click Save. Those apps are no longer visible in the App Drawer.

I don't see the VCast crap, VZNavigator, Mobile Hotspot, etc.... definitely makes the app drawer cleaner.

Awesome thanks! I was already using launcher pro, just didn't realize this feature existed... Much cleaner app drawer now!

 

[Opiemitsu]

Can you explain how to do that? That would be nice for keeping hte app drawer a little more streamlined.

It's a feature of Launcher Pro. Download and install Launcher Pro from the Market, it will automatically become your default Home Screen/Launcher.

Set your home screens up the way you normally would for use. To hide apps from the drawer, on your home screen..

Menu/Preferences/General Settings/Hidden Apps

Select the apps you don't want to show and then click Save. Those apps are no longer visible in the App Drawer.

I don't see the VCast crap, VZNavigator, Mobile Hotspot, etc.... definitely makes the app drawer cleaner.

You can do this with the stock launcher as well. While in the app drawer there is an icon in the upper left hand corner, with it you can select grouping. I created a group that i named "My Apps" and put only the apps i want to show in it. Now when i open the app drawer it opens "My Apps" instead of all apps.

OH! Thanks for that
I prefer Launcher Pro but figured I'd give "stock" a try. Guess I need to get in and play some more.

 

[dancingcrab]

Just got mine! Managed to unlock the SIM, which I'm happy about. It seems very fast, snappy, and looks great (both hardware and OS-wise).

For those interested, it doesn't bench that well - I've rebooted it a few times now, installed, uninstalled, and basically let stuff settle. I did four Quadrant full benchmarks in a row, and scored ~2100, ~2200, ~2600 and ~2500 in that order. Linpack reports an average of 44 MFLOPS single thread, 63 MFLOPS multi thread (which is the most surprising statistic to me).

BUUUUUTT, I don't care about those benches. The phone is awesome.

 

[lunacie]

Just got mine! Managed to unlock the SIM, which I'm happy about. It seems very fast, snappy, and looks great (both hardware and OS-wise).

What did you do for unlock? I need to be able to use a Rogers (canada) sim, I'm guessing it's a call to Verizon?

Tnx

JT

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

 

[dancingcrab]

Just got mine! Managed to unlock the SIM, which I'm happy about. It seems very fast, snappy, and looks great (both hardware and OS-wise).

What did you do for unlock? I need to be able to use a Rogers (canada) sim, I'm guessing it's a call to Verizon?

Tnx

JT

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

See here:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-3/158398-droid-3-sim-unlock-discussion.html

 

[crome1115]

i got my first look at the device today..veryimpressive i must say.. i love the new look. very sleek.. hope that front slider is an indication of what might be in store for the bionic now that its coming to verizon for sure...very nice phone this D3.. very smooth and very fast.. dual core. gotta love it...very cool new options with gb and new blur..i like it.. not due for an upgrade yet. but who knows. if bionic is as impressive and will be 4g.. might just have to add a line..lol..

 

[jmdale1984]

Got mine today... haven't had a whole lot of time to play with it yet.

Tried to pull Google News and Weather from my D2G using Appkik. Copied the .apk to the D3 and it starts to install, but then says "! Application not installed" and give no detail about why it fails. All the other apps I copied with Appkik installed just fine.

Installed the D1 text messaging app, because I like it better, and it worked great except that I got every text twice... lol. Maybe I'll try something else.

If anyone wants to take a swing at the News and Weather app... I'll be happy to email it out, just pm me.

 

[jmdale1984]

HAH! Motoblur has the official FB app locked out even worse than before... you can't even see the syncing options now. Why must they go the extra mile to remove our freedom?

 

[BleedingPurist]

HAH! Motoblur has the official FB app locked out even worse than before... you can't even see the syncing options now. Why must they go the extra mile to remove our freedom?

That isn't Motoblur. It's Google. Support for Facebook contact syncing was removed from Gingerbread and onward. There was a press release about it. Google it.

Yes, it sucks. I liked it for not having to go do the contact photos myself for everyone. Again though, it has nothing to do with Motorola or Motoblur.