Droid Apps

I have a few minutes and wanted to tabulate the Android applications I have installed on my Droid.

The more I use the Droid, the more I appreciate the integration and utility it offers on a daily basis.  As an example, today a co-worker sent me an IM through Google Talk asking me to call him along with a phone number.  I touched the phone number, which cross referenced the phone number and it was the office phone for another co-worker.  So I knew where he was before he picked up the phone.

Applications I’m using on a regular basis

• Google Apps
  • Google Maps – are just awesome, and is the basis for navigation, Latitude, and other features
  • Latitude – very neat, people can track your location in real time.  The tracking is granular enough to show me walking through a town.
  • Google Talk – Google IM client
  • Google Mail – seamless integration on the Android; Contacts sync automatically
  • Google Calendar – automatic sync
  • Google Contacts – configurable sync, supports tags, can merge with ActiveSync contacts
• Find Starbucks - self explanatory
• twidroid for twitter - Twitter Android client
• Google Voice - VoIP phone calls and manage Google Voice account
• Periodic Table - yes, it's a periodic table for your Droid
• PdaNet free edition - tether your laptop for Internet access
• gTasks - beta - Google Task sync
• My Tracks - use Droid and GPS as a training tool – bike
• Tone Picker - MP3 ringtones - I have Star Trek and Star Wars alerts
• GDocs - Google Docs sync
• Barcode Scanner - scan bar codes (UPC) and look up product info and compare prices on web

Applications I’m testing or are just interesting

PaderSyncFTP - FTP sync tool - still testing

Key Ring Reward Card - scan reward cards

Applications I tested and uninstalled

SugarSync - sync files from desktop to phone.  Documents are read-only, and I have some minor issues with file formats (line wrapping, and tabs).

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The Motorola DROID Review Mix!

 

The Motorola DROID Review Mix! - iSmashPhone iPhone Blog

This is a summary of reviews from NYT, WSJ, Gizmodo, and Engadget with my comments on each topic.

Screen

The screen is the biggest and brightest I have experienced on a handheld.  Text and graphics pop from the screen, and the best feature is its automatic brightness adjustment based on ambient light.  The phone is easily visible at all times, even in direct sunlight.

Keyboard

I agree with other reviews – the keyboard is marginal, particularly for people (like me) with large hands and fingers.  I type with my thumb, and I miss the auto-correct I had with my WinMobile phones.  Auto capitalization does work with the keyboard.  I *do* like the keyboard layout which is optimized for e-mail and web use.  The ‘@’ sign, ‘/’, and most commonly used punctuation don’t require use of Shift or Fn.
I’m not too keen on the screen keyboard, but Motorola needs to enable auto-correct with the slide out keyboard.

Camera

It works, it’s 5 megapixels, it integrates with  software, and it supports applications such as barcode reader, which I like have found very useful.

Operating System

Android 2.0 is very impressive.  I have used Windows Mobile since the 2003 release in various form factors (flip phone, QWERTY no touch, touch screen with keyboard, touch screen only). 

 

The biggest feature I need to address is the full ActiveSync with Exchange/Outlook.  The base ActiveSync support works with e-mail, contacts, and calendar (Corporate Calendar on the Droid).  However, in my testing, e-mail and contact sync appear to work fine, but I’m debugging an authentication issue with Calendar and using Google’s Outlook Calendar Sync as a work around.  Also, Outlook/Exchange Tasks and Notes are not supported, which makes me sad. 

Android integration with Google is very, very good, but still not complete.  I would like to see full mobile support for all Google Apps.

 

 

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Droid Day 3

1. First full business day of use summary
2. Droid recharge issue (possibly operator error)
3. ActiveSync error with Corporate Calendar
4. USB Sync with Windows (tested Win7)

First full business day of use, I had a very light day of e-mail, text, and web use. 

Phone configuration – Bluetooth, mail sync (GMail and ActiveSync) enabled all day. 

Use – 5-6 phone calls, ~15 texts, Twitter post and review morning, lunch, and evening.  GMail checks real time, about 100 messages total.   The battery level 40% at 8PM.

Another odd observation is that the Droid turns on when you charge it.  I turned it off on the charger, but if the power is cycled (turned off and on), the phone turns itself on again. Not a big deal, but not expected behavior.

ActiveSync – works fine with e-mail and Contacts, and I’m getting an authentication error with Corporate Calendar.  Not sure how e-mail is working and Calendar sync is not, but I’ll look into it and see if I can enable logging to debug the issue.

USB Sync with Windows 7 is not well documented.  Connect the Droid to your computer with the USB cable, a USB icon is displayed on the status bar.  Pull down the status bar, select USB and select “USB connected”, then Mount the Droid SD card. 

You can transfer files manually, or use DoubleTwist (http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Home/Index.dt) to automate synch of media files.

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Droid Day 2

List of the Apps I added below.  I continue to be impressed with the integration of the Google Apps (GMail, Google Voice, and Maps.  I’m not so certain Navigation will put Garmin out of business, but it does a reasonable job.

The sluggish response issue I had on Day 1 may have been an anomaly.  I disabled automatic sync on the applications and disabled the GPS as well, but the battery life is probably going to be something I manage closely.  I would buy an extended life battery in a minute, and don’t care that the Droid would look like a humpback whale.

Droid Apps - update

• Action Complete – nice GTD app, but can’t sync with laptop or cloud.
• gDocs – Google Docs application – synch with Google Docs, supports folders, not sure how I will use, possibly to link to Tasks or shopping lists.
• gTasks – Google Tasks synch.  Works OK, but can’t synch with Outlook, so this is of limited utility to me.
• Maps – Google Maps, enabled Latitude.  Very interesting, but requires GPS to be enabled, so it drains battery.  Also some privacy issues, but very neat for the kids to keep up with us if we are out of town.
• MeeboIM – Meebo Droid client – it caused MSN to log out my laptop client because it’s not a ‘native’ Microsoft Messenger client.  Not a big deal.  I setup my MSN, Google accounts.  Supports AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, jabber, Mebo, MSN, MySpace (gak!), and Yahoo clients.
• Visual Voicemail – Verizon loads a default client, but will automatically upgrade, and for $2.99 a month, you can have your Verizon Wireless voicemail transcribed and available on your Droid.  I find it odd that I get this service for free from Vonage and Google Voice.  Hello, Verizon, anyone home?

Droid Manuals:
Droid User Guide – which I didn’t get in the unit I purchased on Friday!

Technorati Tags: Droid,apps,Google,manuals