My take on Gingerbread

[4x4van]

After being a part of the early “soak” testing group for Gingerbread on the Droid X, here are some of my thoughts:

Google Maps - Many of us are having a problem with Google Maps.  While north & south are okay, the app has mixed up east and west: if I turn to face east, it thinks I’ve turned to the west, and vice versa.  A full factory wipe/reset, clearing the cache, and uninstalling/reinstalling Google Maps has not fixed the issue.  For an operating system from Google (Android), incompatibility with Google Maps is obviously not only ironic, but unacceptable as well.  This is a major bug/glitch.

Contacts – There are a few issues with contacts.  First, when adding a new contact, I am asked where to store that contact; Google or Backup Asst.  There should also be an option to store on phone only (more on this later).  There is also a checkbox to “Remember this Choice”.  Unfortunately, mine doesn’t remember, and I must choose every time.  Many others have reported the same thing.  Another bug/glitch.

Next, requiring us to store our contacts on an outside server (google or verizon’s backup **bleep**’{word filter avoidance}
) is unacceptable.  We should be given the option to save our contacts on the phone only.  I’m pretty sure that Froyo gave me the option to turn off Backup Asst.  That option is now gone in Gingerbread.  This is a major security issue that can and will drive many business users away from Verizon and Android.

Texting – When creating a new text message, please give us back the “+” symbol in the “To” field that brings up our entire contact list, allowing us to scroll through and easily choose multiple recipients.  With Gingerbread, I must type a letter, bringing up only those contacts whose name matches that letter, and choose only one at a time, then type a letter again…etc., etc.  What if I don’t remember their name (a business or infrequent contact)?  What if I want to send the text to 15 different people?  This item is the one that annoys me the most, as it takes a task that was quick and easy under Froyo (sending a text to multiple recipients), and makes it both difficult and time consuming under Gingerbread.  Taking away a feature (the “+”) is not an improvement.  Whoever made the decision to take that away should be fired and shot, not necessarily in that order.

Also under both Texting & Contacts is this:  Let’s say that I have a single contact with multiple phone numbers.  I give each of those numbers a “custom” tag, rather than using the standard “work, mobile, etc.” tags.  From the text app, that contact’s numbers all show up (in that annoying letter-designated list referred to above) as “custom”, not the tag that I actually put into that “custom” field.  So I have no way of knowing which phone number I want to send the text to.  Another bug/glitch.

Dockable Dialpad icon – The dockable dialpad icon should only be dependent on “it’s own” last use, not the last use of any other icon (the contact icon).  Better yet, it should always go to the dialpad.  If I want the contact list, there is an icon for that (or I can go to that once the dialpad is open).  But linking any icon’s action to a different icon’s last use is not only wrong, it is confusing and illogical.  It also wastes my time.

Browsing/Text handling – When browsing the internet, Gingerbread is inconsistent with text input boxes.  Often, if the user moves to a different spot in their text, it can be difficult or even impossible to move back to the end of the inputted text to continue.  This seems to be in some way tied to the new cut/copy/paste cursor tools that otherwise work well.  This problem is inconsistent, but when it occurs, it is a major bug/glitch, and can render any further text input nearly impossible.

I was very privileged to have been chosen to participate in the early “soak” and enjoyed the experience.  I was somewhat disappointed, however, that despite many of these issues being brought up by members of that “soak” team, the rollout of GB went on anyway; there was no change from the GB that we tested over the holiday weekend to the GB that everyone has now received.  Hopefully, Motorola is working on an update to address the known bugs & glitches sooner rather than later.