I miss my window's phone - critical things DROID is missing

[yoopermjm]

I too am satisfied with my droid. But I also wish it could do some things that it can't. I wish it had the Kindle reader on it. I wish it had the logos bible software on it. I wish the ereader app worked better. The first two of these are on the iphone. Still, I would not trade my droid for an iphone. I like a lot of what the droid does. But before you flame me for daring to comment that the droid is not perfect in every way, remember that makes YOU a fanboy, not me. I'm so satisfied that the droid is superior to the apple ghetto that I went with it even when I was out of contract and could have gone anywhere. I knew the droid didn't have the aforementioned apps and the iphone did. I love my droid. I also don't think it's perfect. Just because someone wishes there were apps available that are not there on his phone doesn't make him a troll or an idiot. He just wishes for more from his phone. So do I. So I contact the developers of the software I want and live without it for now, happy with what my phone WILL do.

I don't think we need to attack everyone who simply wishes there were other things the phone would do that it will not.

 

[minmongoblin]

"I also can't hook up my droid to either the Mac or PC, it shows it on the PC as a drive, but won't allow any transfers."

Ohhhhh man, this is Droid 101 stuff. When you're plugged up via USB, you're supposed to go to the notification bar, hit Mount USB, then it shows up in My Computer (Windows) as a removable disk.

 

[19thumper76]

If somebody tried to force me to go back to WinMo, I'd beat the snot out of them.

LOL at that.

IIRC, there is no free tethering option for Windows. PDANet is not free software. Internet sharing, at least from what I remember could not be achieved without hacking the phone - which puts that aspect on equal footing with the Droid. If gaining those of those characteristics of Windows Mobile is worth losing everything you're gaining using the Droid then you should return your phone immediately and get an Imagio,Omnia II, or TP2.

yes their are free tethering options for winmo phones at least for the omnia and vx6800, simple registry hacks ive done it to both of those phones with the omnia i even had wifi tethering, but u could not pay me to go back to a winmo phone. the only reason i got the omnia when it came out was bc verizon told me they would not be supporting the andriod os

 

[supahrob]

I was just trying to figure out which of these 3 things were "critical" lol
Tethering - ok, maybe - but as has been pointed out, it's not such a simple issue as "turn it on" ...there are legal issues and such that are rooted in VZW.

Flash - REALLY? Critical?
Video - Again... REALLY??? This is "critical" - I would assume a "critical" issue would be something you would check before you bought the phone... and if you found out later that you were wrong/misled/llied to, you would take the phone back and get one that suited your needs, because you HAD to have that feature... because it was, well, CRITICAL.

But you didn't. You STILL havn't. They are not critical (at least not to you).

Thanks for playing.

Take care,
Rob

 

[jsh1120]

Interesting and illustrative thread. I, too, am impatient with some of the features the Droid lacks, having also come from a WM platform. Trouble is, my set of complaints are completely different from those of the OP.

I could care less that I can't turn my Droid into an idiot box to watch American Idol. I seldom have the need to use my Droid as a modem and when I do, I can use PdaNet. I DO have to read and modify MS documents and for $20 Docs to Go does an excellent job, just as it did on my old WM phone. The absence of Flash support is mildly annoying, but it hardly impacts my use of the Droid for the business needs I have.

My biggest single complaint, believe it or not, is that I can't find a decent app to split a bill unequally among a half dozen diners.

My point is that complaining that the Droid doesn't match a GameBoy, a BB, an entertainment device, or a laptop computer entirely misses the point. Different users have different priorities and what are apparently dealbreakers for the OP are largely irrelevant to me.

Is it as business friendly as a BB device? Nope. Not yet. Are there better devices for "tethering" me to a social network or a TV program? Yup. Can I find the capital of Peru while talking to my friend who needs help winning $1 million on a quiz program? Guess not. When that particular need arises, I may think about another phone.

What I do appreciate is that the Android O/S and the Droid hardware design provide an excellent platform for a device I can use for a couple of years already and promises to give me that odd app that only I and a few others really care about. All of this running on a network that doesn't drop calls unpredictably when I'm trying to do business in the middle of a city or 20 miles from nowhere.

 

[Slighter]

Originally Posted by Sleeve
If somebody tried to force me to go back to WinMo, I'd beat the snot out of them.
I've got your back on that Sleeve. Also the only flash I found for WinMo was in skyfire and those results were marginal at best. Oh and for the original post, this should go quite well.

 

[thegipper]

Careful now, I think many in this thread are bordering on fanboys. Critiquing something doesn't mean you dislike it.

OP has a wishlist for his droid, don't we all? I also agree with the sentiment that a new device should be released and be able to adequately perform 99% of the basic function of every other similar device currently on the market.

But i love my droid, and don't forsee myself going back to windows. Windows just plain sucks compared to the droid. WM7 better be a homerun for MS or they are in trouble.

 

[MonkeyTime]

Again, most of this is comparing what he had with a platform that had been around for a number of revisions, and still has a lot left to be desired, to one that is just gaining momentum now.

I wouldn't knock the snot out of anyone that wanted me back on WinMo, I'd ask them what I could've done to them that they would be so mean to me! WinMo, while having a lot of the features I want and need in phone, was SLOW and CLUMSY. From early versions to some of the latest, I HATED the lag and having to restart my phone when actually using it for more than a phone.

I have had a wonderful experience with the Droid, not perfect, and not without problems. But a fraction of the problems I had trying to implement things on WinMo devices, whether phones, pda's or mini laptops.

Now that Android has some fire power behind it in both marketing and users, the changes seem to be coming at an obnoxious rate.

It was said earlier, but I'm still confused about this. If these were requirements of the phone you were choosing, why would you buy one that is still working on implementing these options? Even if you live in BF Egypt, you could have taken a loner until what you wanted was ordered and in. Just sayin.

 

[nuguy]

I really only miss a few things from win mobile, and they are all about business. As for an entertainment device the droid definitly does, and or will... But for business, well,... I hope it will...

1) PREDICTIVE DIALING: for real? I have to browse through over 300 contacts manually??? Seriously? And I have to know the first name of the person in order to do that?

-This is the epic fail currently to me - not enough to trade for wm but this one thing makes me think about it more than any other single item...

2) Calendar: I live and die by my calendar, and do most of my entries from my phone. I also need to keep my past appointments, and having them al the way back to 1994 is not somethin google is goin to let me do. So for now I am still using mail2web and waiting for a more unified solution between outlook, mail2web and the droid, currently passable, but hardly intuitive, much less ideal.

3) Organization: What is with. the stupid ap drawer? so if I download 60-70 apps (don't tell me you haven't) I need to know the name of it to find it? why not be establish folders in the drawer? You know games, utilities, media, mapping, social, junk etc.... I really want an ap like that. Bonus if I could sort by date so I could try the new ap I dl'd last night and forgot the name of...

4) General Office integration: I understand google and m$ think each other are ass monkeys and all, so why not get better integration with gogle docs or open office or somehing that we can open and edit and work for a living, so we can pay for our phone and it's plan...

5) cut, copy, paste: I sure hope this gets easier with time because as of now it is usually much easier to "remember" what you need and type it in.

No need to bash me, yes I was happy enough with wm, and palm before that... But I have been an early adopter and struggled along until I was happy along the way, no device or os is perfect!

I do think android is the wave of he future, so here I am testing the watter with both feet, I just didn't expect the undercurrent to be so strong...

 

[Donkey Hodie]

Very well put nuguy. Although I have a different set of "issues" than you do, I think probably everybody here would agree the Droid isn't perfect (yet). For me, at least, it's better than the currently available alternatives across a large enough number of things that are important to me and it's a long way better than winmo.

 

[supahrob]

Nuguy - now see, those are features that I can understand being "critical." Not all of them for all people, but I can imagine people actually NEEDING one or more of them. I think you're right, Android SHOULD have these features, and I hope it will soon. I don't need all of them, but they sure would be nice to have none the less.

My brother just got the NexusOne and has been having a love/hate relationship with it, based on features very similar to the ones you mentioned (or the LACK of those features).

I think on "entertainment" aspects, the phone is fine and only getting better. But on the "business side" I think the Google needs to step up pretty quick.

All that being said, although I am not a "Fanboy" - I do love my Droid. It aint perfect, but for me it is better than my old WinMo device.

Take care,
Rob

 

[Martin030908]

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/no...indows-mobile-7-pushed-2011-a.html#post139281
Rumors of a push back for WinMo 7. :icon_eek:

 

[thelion]

Legalgear, you do get that the Droid is 2 months old - right? How long has it taken to get WinMo even remotely right? iPhone?

No phone is perfect right off the bat. It just doesn't happen. Never has, never will. We will always want more. Such is the life of an early adopter. Tethering is coming. Flash is coming. More video will come.

If you aren't willing to wait go back to WinMo and keep waiting on those updates...

"It's new" is such a BS excuse for missing features. Sure, it's true, but no one cares WHY a feature isn't included. If they did, you could excuse all of the features WinMo is missing because no one at Microsoft has a clue what people want.

Quit making excuses and say "yeah, I wish it had that too." That's how you convince the devs to do it.

No phone is ever released with everything everyone wants. It does not happen. What smart phone has full flash on it? None. Who controls that Slingbox is not on the phone? Not Google. Not VZW. Developers. They can't put it on the phone before it is released. They have to develop it and that takes time. So on and so forth.

Therefore, it is a legitimate reason why it is missing some features. If it were missing the ability to get online, that would be different. But these are add-ons that are still not standard on devices. He needs to quit *****ing or go back to WinMo.

And, frankly, I am happy with my Droid. If they add more, great! As long as it does not slow my phone down I don't care. But I don't need anything else.

 

[pc747]

I know a dude who had a hero and he switched to the palm pre. He did it because he said it was the better phone. I scratched my head, but after talking to him; sprint in that area was poor as far as 3g coverage and he was stuck with sprint. So all the features on the hero he was unable to use, but the thing he did the most was texting and facebook. What was important to him was a phone with a keyboard. So the palm was the best phone....for him.
For the op a windows phone may accel in the features that are more important to him making it the better phone.
With that said: If you found another phone that you find is better get it and move on. If you have a question about if the droid have or will get the feature then ask, but dont come on the forum bashing the phone. I am not a fanboy so i dont care what you do or what you buy. And all the things you listed the droid does or will do. Between this forum and androidforums you can find the solution.

 

[rothfest]

... but these days you can't introduce a product and have it catch up...

I took years to get the iPhone where it is today, it sucked when it first came out... it is fine to "play catch up" in a few small areas.