new BB convert.. pending

[boomerbsg]

New to the android scene.. i picked up a Droid 1 for a good price. having played with some Incredible's, and Droid 2 (like that droid 2)... but still unsure how i like the whole touch screen thing.. which so far.. i hate lol.. but i'm giving it time.

I JUST rooted my phone via the walk through on this site, if i know me.. i will likely dabble in a custom rom eventually.

So far the Android is everything a gadget hound like me is looking for.. only problem is, i had to shut off just about every auto service the droid offers in order to maintain some semblance of battery life..

see i use my phone ALOT.. its always in my hand.. always.. from work related, to browsing the web.. glued.. with my blackberry and the seidio extended big battery..i could use my BB for a whole day and a half sometimes... or put under normal use.. go a few days without charging it..

i still have my Tour on hand, with its nice big battery just in case, but the big hump i'm trying to get over is the touch screen keyboard, its way more convenient than the slide out most of the time, but its just so darn clunky with my fat fingers..

I gotta admit.. had VZW got the Torch.. i may not be here right now..

that being said.. Hi All.. and cheers for the wealth of info in this forum.. (yes i'm a search first ask later kinda guy.. you probably wont hear much from me)

cheers

 

[Johnly]

I see no ? marks so welcome to the baddest OS a mobile phone gives....

 

[boomerbsg]

thanks.. im no stranger to linux myself, so android seems... fitting.. time will tell

 

[harrellj]

For the keyboard, especially since you're rooted, try out the Gingerbread keyboard. Much better than Froyo stock.

Yeah, yeah.. I'm on my phone. So?

 

[Johnly]

thanks.. im no stranger to linux myself, so android seems... fitting.. time will tell

TIME is key, if you give it that...you are informed....whatever you decide....

 

[christim]

There are a few things you can do to extend battery life, but my Droid 1 has never made it 2 days without a charge. I think it would if I left it on a desk and didn't touch it but I've never made it 24 hours doing that.

There is a power control widget you can drop on the desktop. That makes it easier to turn off wifi and gps when you aren't using those items. There also is an option to adjust the screen's brightness. Inside you seldom need it at full brightness.

Now that you are rooted you can use pick up Root Exployer in the market to edit the build.prop file. If you look in there one of the settings determine how often your phone pings out, looking for a wireless network. Some roms have this number already adjusted. I've seen a default setting as low as every 15 seconds. I always adjust mine to 90 seconds. This alone greatly extends my battery life. I get up at 5 and the phone still is running at 7pm.

However, if you watch a movie, play Angry Birds for a couple hours, etc...the battery goes down. GPS in the car with Google maps kills the phone in an about an hour too. So I have a car charger and also picked up a usb cord for charging at work too, if needed.

Lastly, due to being rooted you can pick up a kernel that allows for overclocking. The cpu in the phones comes underclocked at 550mhz but is rated for 600 mhz. Many owners have been running their phones at 1.1gz, twice the default stock speed, for close to a year now. Even if you only overclock to 800mhz one benefit of an adjustable clock speed is a tool like SetCPU will let you set up profiles. Phone in sleep mode? Run it at 250mhz. Phone is plugged into the charger? Run at a low range of 250 and a high range of 800. Phone in use? Run at a low of 600 and a high of 800. This means while the phone is in your pocket, not being used, it will use less juice than otherwise. Now, if you are on the phone all the time, all day long, this won't matter as much jn terms of battery life. If you only use it a hour or two a day and want it as charged as possible then this definitely will help.

Finally, there are extended batteries that can be picked up too. You have one for your bb. Makes sense it would last longer than a stock battery on a D1. They are thicker, so stick out a little on the backside of the phone, but they will also help your phone be available a little longer too.

Welcome to the forums, my D1 was my first smartphone, got it in Nov, 2009 and I am still loving the updates, new tools, updated apps, etc that seem to come out constantly. Sign up for the swype beta, for a cool keyboard over on the swype.com site. You can youtube search for Swype to see how it works. I can't live without it on my phone. I just checked, the beta is still open: Swype | Text Input for Screens