First Impressions & Frustrations

[scubaguyjohn]

this device has real potential - after a few days, here are my observations and frsturations...if you have solutions, i'd love to hear them. I love the google maps (and GPS that isn't crippled!), voice search and multiple home pages...makes life simple...the web browsing is terrific and a much better experience than my bb curve. 

My email app would crash all the time when i first bought the device...the solution was to drastically reduce the number of saved messages on my server (like 20,000!)...this totally eliminated the email program crashes.

Here are some questions/frustrations:

1.  Call connection quality is not as good as my blackberry...I constantly find myself having to move closer to the window to stop the conversation from being intermittantly dropped.

2.  Access to using the device as a phone is cumbersome...it takes 4 steps:  press the top button, move the green dial to the right, touch the home key button (if you aren't already on the home screen), then hit the phone icon.  Why so many steps?  is there another solution.

3.  Constantly downloads the same email message if deleted upon receipt.  this is a bug...the solution is to wait a couple of hours before deleting a message.

4.  Sucks power like crazy and i've turned most things off...I'd be surprised if it will last a day without needing recharging with only moderate use and little web browsing.

5.  Ability to see whether you have new voice messages is nearly non existent - you have to search for a tiny icon that is barely visible at the top of the screeen.  Why can't the phone icon have a number representing the number of new messages  on it?

6.  No ability to see on the home page how many, if any, new email messages you have.   Often droid beeps that there are new messages and there aren't.

7.  I'd love to eliminate always having to unlock the device...pressing one button to turn it on should be enough, i shouldn't have to swirl the green lock to get to the home page when i already pressed a button that can't be pressed accidentally.  Is there a way to defeat this screen?

8.  Not being able to sync with outlook is a major problem for most business users. I don't want to give google my personal info...the writing is on the wall that google is strategically positioned to take over the digital world in the same way microsoft did in the last 20 years...while these are open systems today, they won't be 10 years from now as google tightens a proprietary noose.

9.  The phone LED alert light has to be the smallest light in the world...its very hard to see.

10. is there a way to get the phone to turn itself on and off based on a schedule?  this would help to save power...blackberry can do this and will still wake for alarms.

11.  I'd love to be able to program the keys as soft keys to bring up the phone dialer immediately as one example.

your feedback would be appreciated if you have ideas on how to solve problems....

[SSHGuru]

1.  Call connection quality is not as good as my blackberry...I constantly find myself having to move closer to the window to stop the conversation from being intermittantly dropped.

--- I have had two Droids and my old phone was the Blackberry Curve... my call quality blows the Blackberry away.  In this house I could barely use the blackberry to make calls and with the Droid I can make calls in most areas.

2.  Access to using the device as a phone is cumbersome...it takes 4 steps:  press the top button, move the green dial to the right, touch the home key button (if you aren't already on the home screen), then hit the phone icon.  Why so many steps?  is there another solution.

---  I have a phone icon on the home page I just hit.  No big deal to me.  I like the phone interface better than the blackberry.

3.  Constantly downloads the same email message if deleted upon receipt.  this is a bug...the solution is to wait a couple of hours before deleting a message.

--- This is a MAJOR bug and it drives me crazy.  I find that if you mark the messages read it won't do this but that's a giant pain in the **bleep** especially with spam.  They have to fix this.

4.  Sucks power like crazy and i've turned most things off...I'd be surprised if it will last a day without needing recharging with only moderate use and little web browsing.

--- I find that in an area like my house it does suck power incredibly fast.  However no one can get reception in this place.  I just bought a Verizon Network Extender to help out and IT can't find a lock... the harder the phone has to work to get data the faster your battery will drain.  A solution is to buy two docks (which kick **bleep**).  Keep it in the dock when your not using it and it will charge and be a clock etc...

5.  Ability to see whether you have new voice messages is nearly non existent - you have to search for a tiny icon that is barely visible at the top of the screeen.  Why can't the phone icon have a number representing the number of new messages  on it?

--- I don't have a problem with the little icon but I agree about the numbers.

6.  No ability to see on the home page how many, if any, new email messages you have.   Often droid beeps that there are new messages and there aren't.

--- I can't stand the beeps.  I had my blackberry on vibrate but on the Droid is will vibrate until you read the message which is stupid.

7.  I'd love to eliminate always having to unlock the device...pressing one button to turn it on should be enough, i shouldn't have to swirl the green lock to get to the home page when i already pressed a button that can't be pressed accidentally.  Is there a way to defeat this screen?

--- I think every touch screen phone has this issue.

8.  Not being able to sync with outlook is a major problem for most business users. I don't want to give google my personal info...the writing is on the wall that google is strategically positioned to take over the digital world in the same way microsoft did in the last 20 years...while these are open systems today, they won't be 10 years from now as google tightens a proprietary noose.

--- Same here - and using the calander sync between outlook and gmail to get the data over.  I would prefer full outlook integration.  If they can do it with exchange why not outlook.

9.  The phone LED alert light has to be the smallest light in the world...its very hard to see.

---  It's small but I like that... the blackberry's was so freakin big and bright that at night I had to face it away from me.

10. is there a way to get the phone to turn itself on and off based on a schedule?  this would help to save power...blackberry can do this and will still wake for alarms.

--- Set it to shut the screen off after 2 minutes.  Then one press on the top and you're back in business.  However if you are in a bad area once again it won't stop it from trying to get data.

11.  I'd love to be able to program the keys as soft keys to bring up the phone dialer immediately as one example.

---  Maybe there is an app for that... at least we have soft keys.