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Smart Phone not so SMART - No Hands Free Dialing

What a huge disappointment! The sales rep. told me the phone had easy connectivity, voice dialing, and bluetooth voice dial. NOT SO! This phone is actually illegal to use in the state of California while you are driving in the car. You CAN NOT place a call unless you pick up the phone. Once you get to voice dial you then have to go back to the phone to confirm the number/person you are calling by touching the screen. You CAN NOT voice dial with the blue tooth. The MOST useable feature of any phone is very absent in the droid. And what a pain to have to touch verify every single outgoing call. Will Motorola fix this issue any time soon or do I need to take this phone back... It is a ticket waiting to happen!

Comments

logicman

Whoa... I think you are the first one to report this. :smileywink:

AFguy

Im not even going to bother this time. :smileysad:

basspro

Gee, I haven't heard of that problem (wink, wink).

Seriously, if you have to have that feature, return the phone. This has been discussed in a million posts across the web, and Google still has not fixed it, although it is #1 on their priority list.

kenc3dan

Yup, the Devour has Bluetooth-initiated voice dialing and voice prompts as does the non-U.S. version of the Droid - the Milestone. So it's not the hardware and it's not the OS that are to blame. Motorola claims they cannot "unilaterally" control this issue and Google certainly allows the Nuance Voice Suite on Android for all sorts of other phones, although they are silent as to why this is absent on the Droid. Looks like Verizon has simply not licensed the Nuance voice dialing software for the Droid and Droid Incredible and instead has hoped that Google would bring it's built-in voice dialing software up to speed for use with Bluetooth. In any case Verizon is responsible as the party selling the phone to the public and owes us an explanation on why others around the world with the exact same hardware and OS enjoy the safety of Bluetooth-initiated voice dialing while we are left lacking. My old Motorola E815 from 5 years ago does this just fine but the Droid DOESN'T.

gt1234

Ultimately had to return the Droid, but had to go to Verizon Customer Service mgr. to get authorization. Voice dialing was impossible and working most of the time in my car, it was essential. Very dissapointed that Google and Verizon cannot get this corrected. Additionally, how can you unveil the INCREDIBLE with these shortcomings that almost every basic cell phone has?

Hands free dialing is must due to current laws and driver safety!

inspector99

No Voice dialing with Bluetooth, a sales killer. The store personnel had no clue. It should be illegal to sell a phone without voice dialing in California.

The Droid is going back to Costco. I got the money back I had spent for apps from Verizon, but the twenty hours I spent setting this thing up I will never get back. This thing has a tremendous potential but they forgot that it's a phone first and a PDA second.

My old phone works great. I might get an Apple iPod touch (shudder) to replace my Sony Clie which is slowly dying after six years. I am really bummed out with the whole issue of learning a new device only to have to replace it every two years. It's the time and information that's lost. There is too much emphasis on the hardware. I think the tech guys who review and recommend these things have a severe case of ADD and flitter like a butterfly to every new device while never learning the in and outs of anything. I found two other issues with the Droid in the short period that I had it. The slide out keyboard is really hard to use and I used the on screen virtual keyboard, definitely something I will be looking at in the future. The other thing was that the screen didn't lock in certain applications such as phone and MP3 player so you had to be really careful not to touch the screen and of course you would want to stick it in your pocket sometimes which wouldn't work.

kenc3dan

Returned my Droid before my thirty days were up. I so wanted to keep this phone but I have to be able to use it in the car. Looks like I won't be getting the Incredible either, nor the EVO 4G from those other guys. They all can't do what my old Motorola E815 does so well...

MAKE CALLS SAFELY!

I'm off to the Apple store to reconsider my provider and platform for the next 2 years.

logicman

Good luck. Hopefully the apps you need are on the list that has been approved by Steve Jobs.

lvpapa

I totally agree, this could be a great phone but with the HANDS FREE DAILING it is basically useless while driving

or doing other things. If you are doing anything (running, biking, work ) you have to stop pick up the phone to make

your call. I believe this is the first phone I ever purchased that was not hands free compatable. Also I feel that by me spending hundreds of dollars I should be getting the best. I have the JAWBONE ICON which is a excellent head set

but not albe to use it hand free this is also useless as the phone . If I would have known that this was not one of the

features I definetly would not have purchased this phone. Guess I can call myself **bleep** since I never realized it was

handsfree ready until my 30 days was up. The reason for that was due to me having issues downloading my Jawbone

on my work computer because of security firewalls. If I would have known, this phone would have gone back and I

would have gotten something more useful. Being this seems to be a major complaint of the people on this FORUM/

COMMUNITY and update to the phone should be coming out to make it HANDSFREE COMPATABLE.

A VERY DISAPPOINTED USER OF WHAT COULD BE ONE OF THE BEST PHONE AVAILABLE

supitsmike

AFguy wrote:
Im not even going to bother this time.

kenc3dan

Yeah, I just got back from the Apple store.

Wow, that thing is just so locked down, great for consumers I suppose.

I kept asking myself "Where is the file system on this thing?"

I'll keep my Motorola E815 and keep my fingers crossed.

joeh1975

As a bit of an intro, I've pre-ordered the Incredible and am doing the early out trick on a Fuze. My curiosity is whether my Jawbone 2 will allow me to answer an incoming call?

I've gotten to the point where I'll just pull off the road to make a call, handsfree or not. I'm selective about which calls I'll answer while driving. Just about been on the receiving end of well-intentioned, but cell phone-distracted drivers too many times.

Is constant contact such a good thing? Can a call wait a few minutes to ensure safety on the road? Will HTC/Verizon enable hands-free dialing soon? No, yes & yes.

MYHO respectfully submitted. Happy trails!

Joe H

scarshapedstar

It's really pretty ridiculous how people defend this glaring omission with "not every phone does everything". I mean... my 4-year-old Razr can do this. My 4-year-old, Alltel-crippled Razr. 90% of the people using Bluetooth do so in order to not kill themselves while driving, and the other 10% are people who just like to look busy and/or confuse everyone by walking around looking like they're having detailed conversations with themselves. I'd liken this to making a phone with a touchscreen that will only let you click, not drag, and then telling everyone who asks "Why can't I do something that's been possible on every computer since about 1992?" that they're an ignorant and impulsive buyer.

And it's not like bluetooth headsets don't have a button just for this! How freakin' hard can it be to make this work...?

Gunslngr21

supitsmike wrote:
AFguy wrote:
Im not even going to bother this time.

:smileyvery-happy: I love this thread

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