Things that annoy me

[slinky]

Not sure if there are ways to do these things that are just nonobvious but... here they are, the items I'd like to get done, used to have down pat, but now left sorely wanting...

1) How do you just clear one alert item at a time? Rather than 'clear all' I just want to select an item to clear. I don't know of a way to do this - it's either clear them all or touch each one opening up whatever it is I touch, e.g. application that downloaded, calendar item, etc.

2) Search - Is there something that can just search the internal phone data? A real big problem is email. I have to use K-9 because the built in mail program is so atrocious (as most would agree.) How can I search my k-9 emails? How about other data such as notes? This is a big hole.

3) Outlook sync. AFAIK, there is no good reliable solution right now. Some are in progress, some are pretty good but none have worked for me. I need calendar, contacts, notes. That's a must. Would be nice if there were mail but that is usually an Exchange function. Not having the rest is inexcusable.

4) No way to dock the phone or have a button assigned to the phone without delays being caused. Yes I know I can use a home screen which will burn batteries just for this purpose (and I have so many nice folders already set up that would have to be redone.) A dock should have been standard in the Droid as HTC realized. A dedicated camera button? The current button reassign apps don't work well or consistently with the phone yet.

5) Settings issues. These are nuisances. The background light preference doesn't seem to want to stay permanently and keeps deleting itself every other day. Screebl isn't really for me and I wish there was a way of not having the light go off when the keyboard is open. The hold power key is a good shortcut to turn off ringer, phone but it would have been nice to include GPS, bluetooth too. There also should have been a better power setting like there is with rooted Droids - if I keep my power to the absolute lowest setting I will just get a day's use out of it.



Those are a few.

 

[RW-1]

1 - Hit that alert, if for example it was mail, then it takes you to your mail, etc.

2 - You could try Google Gesture search and modify settings just to do internals (I think).

3 - ? Have dedicated camera button, flaky though ))

4 - The Droid has average to above for what it does on batt life IMHO. Soon there will be extended slim batteries for it. Haven't seen my lighting pref's change on me, perhaps a reset?

 

[hookbill]

Well, all I can say is the Droid isn't for everybody. If you're that unhappy with it then maybe you should return it for another phone. I'm sure you've discovered these issues while you're on the 30 day trial period, correct?

 

[FunN4Lo]

I feel you pain. Most things in the OP my Win mobile phone did out off the box. But I don't want to return my Droid.

To be "the man" you have to "beat the man". Shouldn't the features of the latest and greatest phone of all time began with the status quo? See quote below

 

[slinky]

Well, all I can say is the Droid isn't for everybody. If you're that unhappy with it then maybe you should return it for another phone. I'm sure you've discovered these issues while you're on the 30 day trial period, correct?

I'll be nice... I don't know why every board has phone owners whose first response to any criticism is "maybe this device isn't for you."

 

[slinky]

1 - Hit that alert, if for example it was mail, then it takes you to your mail, etc.

2 - You could try Google Gesture search and modify settings just to do internals (I think).

3 - ? Have dedicated camera button, flaky though ))

4 - The Droid has average to above for what it does on batt life IMHO. Soon there will be extended slim batteries for it. Haven't seen my lighting pref's change on me, perhaps a reset?

1. I hate hitting each alert and having to open up each item. I got the alert - thank you Droid. Now can I turn you off? Can I just snooze one alert not all of them or none at all?

2. I don't think the Google search button searches all the apps internally. I saw some app that only searches a few items.

3 . LOL... yeah, definitely flaky. Not sure why this was necessary. How about having a focus point to choose and a button that works when the camera is enabled and otherwise something else that is useful.

4. Not sure about this. Perhaps. All I know is that my battery life is realy challenging. perhaps it's all those pixels. Power management would have been a good solution and Motorola seriously dropped the ball on this big time.

 

[hookbill]

OK, lets take a closer look at your issues.

1. I don't have a problem with clearing the alerts all at once. This village idiot can remember he has other alerts pending.

2. Have you tried just using the search that comes with the Droid? Try vocally searching, see if Droid can help you that way. I've never tried it for email but I've used it for contacts, works great.

3. There is a reliable solution Google Android sync | Sync Droid, Nexus One, and CLIQ with PC software like Outlook. It will cost you some money.

4. Should have came with a dock? Not possible, did you see the size of the box it comes in. j/k

5. I love screebl, don't know what your issue could possibly be with that.

6. I saw your post before you edited it. No hard feelings.:icon_ devil:

 

[slinky]

OK, lets take a closer look at your issues.

1. I don't have a problem with clearing the alerts all at once. This village idiot can remember he has other alerts pending.

2. Have you tried just using the search that comes with the Droid? Try vocally searching, see if Droid can help you that way. I've never tried it for email but I've used it for contacts, works great.

3. There is a reliable solution Google Android sync | Sync Droid, Nexus One, and CLIQ with PC software like Outlook. It will cost you some money.

4. Should have came with a dock? Not possible, did you see the size of the box it comes in. j/k

5. I love screebl, don't know what your issue could possibly be with that.

6. I saw your post before you edited it. No hard feelings.:icon_ devil:

1. I'm glad you can remember. I've got a REALLY busy calendar and I rely on my device to be able to do what my blackberry did for years.. and my brain just can't handle all that data like you can. Truth is I was surprised you couldn't just dismiss indvidual alerts. Perhaps this is next release. Annoying but I can live with it.

2. Ya - Search does not search the device such as notes, email, etc.

3. It's $50 and inexcusable that the Droid doesn't come with an Outlook solution like virtually every smartphone. But the bigger problem is that Companion Link doesn't work well for me, perhaps for others. I wasted numerous days trying to do contacts and it was hell. They are good people but trying to sync facebook too. I had numerous duplicates, mybackup pro wouldn't work (the conversion process may cause problems), and I ran out of days with trial. There is also the issue of their very smart way of doing reverse order of first and last names so your phonebook can be in alphabetical order. What you need to realize is taht other things have problems too - like voice dialing has to be backwards. It's not totally their fault. Google is obviously hoping to get rid of Outlook from consumers' vocabulary but I don't see that happening any time soon, especially when it works pretty well.

4. Dock - as in the phone docked in an area when browsing like Home++ does (but that removes the alert bar) and some other apps - and I think every HTC phone. The box and packaging for the Droid is the worst I have ever seen. You'd think some of the money saved could have gone into an Outlook conduit. LOL...

5. With other apps running it isn't really optimal. For example, the fact that the lock screen has to be disabled by someone who fortunately wrote an app is just one of several running services that I don't need to add another. I think the screebl author also said that the Droid won't see noticeable improvements in many ways. I put the lite version on mine and I wasn't sure if the conflicts were caused by it and another app. We'll see. The rest is what it is.

6. Yeah... just drove me crazy at another board (iPhone... and Palm Pre they are the WORST.) Then I realized no need to say it. My comments weren't ripping the Droid too badly. It's FAR more useful than my iPhone and I'm generally pretty happy with it. The keyboard sucks but is working better than I ever imagined after time. It takes some getting used to. I never use the on screen keyboard because I can't use it reliably and I like to see what I am typing too. The Pre guys... wow... but they have a reason to be insecure. Nice OS but Palm's continuous blunders will push them out of existence very shortly...

 

[RW-1]

I didnt say google search, I said Google Gesture search, in market.

If it comes down to something "you hate", then unfortunately, it would appear that no solution will appease you.

As to your receiving the "it isn't for you posts" is just a fact. Sure sounds like down the line you'll be posting "Well, I couldn't do this and that, and I don't want to settle for this or that solution, I'mn going to take it back and bad mouth moto / VZW and momma Android" ...

It's a device. NO device is perfect, but this one comes close, because it is open source, has had many improvements in a VERY short time, and it can only get better (unless you brick it somehow :icon_ devil.

One either takes an approach that allows for imperfection and either solutions or workarounds, or you just don't use it. But that is a user thing, not a device thing.

 

[slinky]

I have a perfect right to state my opinion that Motorola dropped the ball. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is that HTC will clean Motorola's clock because of the corner cutting, e.g. Outlook. Their misfortune was not having the Nexus One out or the G1 out quickly enough on Verizon. That's not a question of not being perfect - it's inexcusable. No other phone I have had in the last decade didn't provide a conduit with Outlook. Even the iPhone provides one out of the box. Somehow HTC got this to work. I'm not sure who is to blame here but until I hear different, Moto gets the wrath.

Regarding "hate" it means that a solution really should be there and I hope that (a) I didn't see something non-obvious, or (b) someone is working on a solution. For example, NOT having a dedicated phone button in some fashion was inane. Dumber than dumb. I've heard rationalizing that it's a computer first and a phone second (sold by a mobile phone company and not elsewhere.) Fortunately someone eventually came up with home screens but it should have been built in like HTC into the OS if not a hard button. It's a poor man's solution but at least it's there.

One has to choose between one device or another. If Steve Jobs would have let the hackers jailbreak the iPhone, I might have stayed. But his inane plan to control the universe forced me to leave. Android has a lot of promise although suffers some growing pains. I'm hoping there are solutions in the market like there were for the Palm Treo. Snappermail and some of the others are still miles better than the clients I've seen produced years later and that's sad. K-9 is remarkably great in many ways, missing a few important items I hope we'll see. Glad to support development and that should have been built in from the start.

 

[FunN4Lo]

Go slinky! These guys are as in the dark as Google or Verizon or who ever left all of this functionality out of the Droid. Outlook is currently THEE business management tool used 100 to 1 to anything else. I have no love for Microsoft either. But like it or not Droids OS can not continue to ignore simple Outlook functionality or people will go away. Then where is Droid when people vote with their dollars. Like slinky, I just want the basics that we have used for years to work. I personally don't care if it is Gcalendar, or Outlook, but what ever the solution is, it has to work with back with the Outlook most of the business world is operating on. To be "the man" you have to beat "the man"

 

[slinky]

I just had another colleague lose her mind trying to sync the Droid to Outlook. It's standard operating machinery. There are many people who don't care to send every bit of their existence to Google and let it reside on their cloud for years. In addition, having a sync to your computer that is accessible when offline is invaluable, which is what Outlook does. This was an absurd "oversight." Yes, it's annoying and something Motorola is going to have to address... and Google.