Droid silver linings

[indigo_rose99]

I hate it.  Hate the stupid piece of electronics.  All of the things I do frequently are harder or near impossible.  It has been one month, nine days.  I have not adjusted.  I have not accepted.  Hate. Hate. Hate.

Sadly, it turns out that the expensive insurance T is paying does not cover me stomping the stupid thing into tiny little pieces.

However, I love my husband. And seeing me trying not to smash the piece of electronics whose brother he loves...  It makes him unhappy.  He is suggesting that I go for another brand, like a Palm Pre or whatever comes out next...  *roll eyes*  Given the way iPhones seem to share many of the characteristics that I despise about this Droid2, I cannot imagine that any current piece of technology is going to do the things I want.  All current phone/PDA technology aims at doing activities I am uninterested in or actively turn off for security reasons.

So a sliver lining is a difficult thing to come up with.  But here is my list:

• Set -- Yep, it's a game. And I love the card version, so having one I can practice electronic is nice.
• Moon+Reader -- I found a book reader I do not hate. It scrolls.  I have not figured out how to dependably change the within-reader screen brightness or delete read books.
• FBReader -- Another book reader I do not hate.  I can change the screen brightness. However, it does not scroll.  And I still cannot delete books from within the reader.
• Connectivity -- Sometimes it allows me to move on with my life and not bother checking email because the green light is not blinking.  On the bad side, it delivers email (with a buzz or beep) at 3am.  *sigh*
• Sleep -- On the advice of an iPhone user, I went searching for sleep apps.  I found one that is an alarm clock that can be tailored to wake me before my alarm, when I'm already in the process of waking up.  Something about tracking my movement when I sleep?  This is actually pretty cool. And one of its features is putting my phone in airplane mode when I actually put it down to sleep.  So no more being woken up by those 3am spam emails...

*sigh*  That was as good as it gets.  The screen is too bright (yes, got an app for that, still too bright at lowest setting).  Copy/paste is very awkward and painful. There is no longer an easy transition between information on my calendar, to-do, email, memos and address book.  The battery runs down faster (yes, I have EVERYTHING turned off. Still runs out faster with reasonable or mild use than my slowly dying Palm Treo 680). 

My finger is not as precise as the stylus was on the Treo and the font is even SMALLER on the Droid 2.  Bought a stylus to use on the Droid2... When it works, it is as imprecise as my finger. 

Tried resizing the fonts to make things legible.... My font resizing efforts do not have any impact 70% of the time.  Of the 30% of the time it works, I can now read 3 words... move screen to read next 3 words... move screen to read next 3 words... Ugh.  Why doesn't anyone believe in word wrap?!  

Comments

[aurienne.livejournal.com]

I'm still not sure how switching to a system you hate (when you had a perfectly good one) = showing love?

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Well, first you have to understand a couple of things. Technology changes (laptops, phones) we do together. Sharing accessories is easier. Sharing a cell phone provider is financially wise.

T has wanted internet on his phone for several years. He did not hook up internet for his Treo 680 because he hated the browser. He started talking about wanting to change to a Motorola Droid about 1.5 years ago. He was not specific about which one. But we knew that we would have to change from our old (AT&T) provider to a new one (likely Verizon) when we changed. And when the change of provider happened, both of us would have to change phones, as the new provider would not support the Treo.

T was waiting for one of two things to happen:
(1) For him to find The Perfect Droid. The one he could not resist.
(2) For one of our phones to have a catastrophic mechanical failure.

The second one happened. His Treo's microphone broke. It would take calls, but the person on the other end could not hear him. He and I agreed that this counted as a catastrophic failure.

If he was going to buy a new set of phone hardware, he was going to get one approaching the one he had been talking about for months. And thus I had to go with him.

I could have gotten another phone offered by Verizon, but they all seem very much the same.

[mr-efficient.livejournal.com]

Well, you could always try the Windows 7 phones. Who knows? Maybe they're awesome.

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

*roll eyes* I'm not holding my breath on that one.

iPhone vs. Droid

[tiger-stripes.livejournal.com]

I've had two iPhones over a period of 3 years.

I had two Droids over a period of 6 months before I got another iPhone.

The iPhone works in a very similar manner that my Treo did. I just had to buy a todo app, but other than that, I've been happy with my iPhone and will never go to a Droid again.

Re: iPhone vs. Droid

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

I've talked to other iPhone users. When I point out the stuff that I want, they say that their iPhone cannot do it, either. They look confused and gently indicate that it does not bother them. Yeah, I'm picky, I know it. But if your iPhone does my list, I will be very VERY interested.

Does your iPhone:
* Allow the use of a stylus. I want precision in my screen touches. I am seriously tired of always selecting a character or two away from the spot I want.
* Allow entry of memos from my laptop that transfer easily to the PDA? And the memos should be very secure. No easy access from the internet. Serious encryption possible. Folders.
* Copy/paste text of short or long length is easily possible.
* Universal font increase to a size I can easily read. Automatic word-wrapping in browser, calendar and memos.
* Screen brightness turns down in all screens, all apps, to the point that my eyes do not ache if I am trying to read or play a game in the dark.
* Search PDA-wide. On the droid2, I can do a search within an app, or I can Google search. I cannot do a search that finds my word in the PDA (address book, calendar, memos), but not on the internet.
* Have on-board pda calendar that goes back more than 10 years. This means I do not have to be connected to the internet to see what I did on July 5 of 2006.
* Have calendar allowing entry of events that are in a different time zone from the one the PDA is currently set to.
* Have calendar allowing customizable repeating events (1st Thursday of every month, for example)
* Have battery life with my normal usage that can go at least 1.5 days. And that is with me playing games, reading books, and surfing the internet. I feel this is perfectly reasonable. My Palm Vx would go several weeks without being charged up.

I want more. But we can start there.

I'm tellin' ya. Without T in my life, I would still be without a cell phone, and happily using my Palm Vx. Perhaps the backup hardware, but still using it.

Re: iPhone vs. Droid

[mr-efficient.livejournal.com]

* Yes, you can get a stylus that works with the iPhone's touch screen. I've never tried one, but they exist.
* Sort of. Notes don't sync by default, but you can set them to sync with Outlook or Gmail. Or you could just use Evernote and store stuff "in the cloud," though that would be going over the Internets.
* Copy/paste is pretty painless.
* You can change the font size of e-mail. Other apps get to do pretty much what they want, though you can always zoom.
* Even at night, the iPhone is pretty damn bright.
* Yes, you can search PDA-wide.
* Wow. I have no idea.
* You can't easily enter events in different time zones. Not unless you want to do the math in your head.
* I don't think you can enter "1st Thursday of every month," either. It's easier to sync your calendar with Outlook and enter these sorts of appointments from there.
* I can usually go a couple of days without charging. iPhones generally have better battery life than Android phones.