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Mororola / Verizon Droid released today

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#1 of 10 Posted Nov-6 6:19 PM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4682 Last 10:06 AM
To All [Msg # 129671.1 ]

The Motorola Droid on the Verizon network was released today. Not the craze that the iPhone generted, but brisk sales, apparently, according to this article. At the same time, it appears that Verizon is going to charge customers a fair bit to achieve the phone's potential on their network, according to this article.

The author whines about the the tethering options, seemingly complaining of the 5 GB cap on the so-called 'unlimited' data plan. Agreed, it is either unlimited, or it isn't. However, one would have to do a LOT of browsing, or else download a lot of files, to exceed 5 GB/mo. In any case, that is a Verizon issue, and has nothing to do with the phone.

I'm waiting for the GSM version to be available here in Canada. My present carrier, Bell, appears to be switching to GSM, and Rogers, another of the three major carriers in Canada, has been GSM all along. These two networks both seem to use the same implementation as European GMS, making the devices they offer true 'world phones.'

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

#2 of 10 Posted Nov-6 8:59 PM

From D.F. Yriart (Sysop) Posts 508 Last 12:46 PM
To Frank B. (Forum Janitor) [Msg # 129671.2 129671.1 ]

Frank,

>> The Motorola Droid on the Verizon network was released today. Not the craze that the iPhone generted, but brisk sales <<

Verizon actually released two Android phones today. The other one is the HTC Droid Eris, a close cousin of the Sprint Hero. Eris runs Android 1.5 with HTC's Sense UI, which is gorgeous and does a lot of what Android 2.0 does, as well as some things that Android 2.0 can't do.

If you can live with a soft keyboard, which I'm discovering is quite doable, you might find Eris enticing. Or a GSM Hero, I think they're available in Canada.

>> I'm waiting for the GSM version to be available here in Canada. <<

The GSM version of the Droid is called the Milestone. It supports true multi-touch, like the iPhone, something that the Droid does not. Droid Eris supports multi-touch too, built into Sense UI.

Doug Yriart
Linux Rocks!

#3 of 10 Posted Nov-6 9:36 PM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4682 Last 10:06 AM
To D.F. Yriart (Sysop) [Msg # 129671.3 129671.2 ]

Doug:

>
The GSM version of the Droid is called the Milestone. It supports true multi-touch, like the iPhone, something that the Droid does not.<

There is that, and I think I do want the keyboard. We'll see how much I actually use it. In addition the Droid / Milestone is a metal frame phone. Many of the others are not. More weight in a metal frame, but possibly better built as well.

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

#4 of 10 Posted Nov-7 3:23 AM

From D.F. Yriart (Sysop) Posts 508 Last 12:46 PM
To Frank B. (Forum Janitor) [Msg # 129671.4 129671.3 ]

Frank,

>> I think I do want the keyboard. We'll see how much I actually use it. <<

I got my G1 (with keyboard) days before the myTouch (without keyboard) became available. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to live without a physical keyboard. With hind sight, I could have done without the physical keyboard. The Android soft keyboard has improved with each release, and I have an even better third-party one that I paid $1.99 for.

I find that for instant messaging, searching and many tasks with shorter writing I use the soft keyboard. The soft keyboard is the only way to type holding the phone in portrait mode. That said, I like the physical keyboard for longer emails, writing blog posts, composing documents in Documents To Go, and when visiting the forums.

Yes, Documents To Go is from DataViz, the people who also make the app for Palm OS. They've done it very nicely for Android.

Doug Yriart
Linux Rocks!

#5 of 10 Posted Nov-7 10:09 AM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4682 Last 10:06 AM
To D.F. Yriart (Sysop) [Msg # 129671.5 129671.4 ]

Doug:

>Yes, Documents To Go is from DataViz, the people who also make the app for Palm OS. They've done it very nicely for Android.<

Good to know. On your advice, I bought that app for my Treo. I don't use it a lot, but it is basically the only way to get stuff I made in OO onto the Treo. Now, if there were a native OOo for Android, that would be even better....

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

#6 of 10 Posted Nov-7 12:19 PM

From D.F. Yriart (Sysop) Posts 508 Last 12:46 PM
To Frank B. (Forum Janitor) [Msg # 129671.6 129671.5 ]

Frank,

>> if there were a native OOo for Android, that would be even better.... <<

I don't begrudge DataViz the $19.95 I paid for Documents To Go for Android, it's a very well done product. It reads and saves the Office 2007 XML documents that more and more people send me, and it has a capability that the Palm OS version doesn't... editing PowerPoint presentations. Don't ask why anyone would want to edit a PowerPoint on a phone, it's nice to know one could if one had to.

Documents To Go also allows you to view PDF email attachments, a capability that isn't native to Android's general email client. It's weird that the Gmail client can view PDF attachments, but the general mail client can't.

It's clear that a lot of work went into Documents To Go for Android, which has more features and useful capabilities than the version for iPhone. <g>

Documents To Go 2.0 will be going up to $29.95 soon. I bought version 1.0, which could only do Word and Excel, and they gave me a free upgrade to 2.0. AFAIK, new 2.0 users can get it for the old price for a few more weeks.

Doug Yriart
Linux Rocks!

#7 of 10 Posted Nov-7 3:13 PM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4682 Last 10:06 AM
To D.F. Yriart (Sysop) [Msg # 129671.7 129671.6 ]

Doug:

>I don't begrudge DataViz the $19.95 I paid for Documents To Go for Android, it's a very well done product.<

Neither do I, not even for $29.95. However, I don't use DOC format, and it is an extra step for me to save it as DOC so that Documents To Go can read it on my Palm.

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

#8 of 10 Posted Nov-7 3:21 PM

From D.F. Yriart (Sysop) Posts 508 Last 12:46 PM
To Frank B. (Forum Janitor) [Msg # 129671.8 129671.7 ]

Frank,

>> I don't use DOC format, and it is an extra step for me to save it as DOC so that Documents To Go can read it on my Palm. <<

I wonder if Documents To Go can handle OOo docs on Android? Maybe I'll check it out.

Doug Yriart
Linux Rocks!

#9 of 10 Posted Nov-7 3:35 PM

From D.F. Yriart (Sysop) Posts 508 Last 12:46 PM
To Frank B. (Forum Janitor) [Msg # 129671.9 129671.8 ]

>> I wonder if Documents To Go can handle OOo docs on Android? Maybe I'll check it out. <<

That didn't take long... it can't. The GMail client can't even preview the document. Oh, well...

Doug Yriart
Linux Rocks!

#10 of 10 Posted Nov-7 8:06 PM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4682 Last 10:06 AM
To D.F. Yriart (Sysop) [Msg # 129671.10 129671.9 ]

Doug:

>The GMail client can't even preview the document. Oh, well...<

Yeah, isn't that sad? The open operating system can't even read open document files? Hopefull that is something that will be added to the Android Market sooner rather than later.

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

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Mororola / Verizon Droid released today

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