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Anyone get the Moto Droid today?

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If this goes like most new phone launches, we'll see the following.

1) New phone is introduced. Technology review sites all over the world drool over it.
2) People wait in line to buy the phone, and rave about how awesome the phone is the moment they open the box.
3) Someone will find a major bug in the phone, and all of the affected users and fanboys from other phone manufactures will band together and rant about how much the phone sucks.
4) Manufacturer fixes the bug in the phone, which shuts up most of the ranters, but the people raving about the phone will have quieted down since they're already looking at some new shiny gadget to buy...
5) Manufactures drops the price of the phone in half, causing ordinary consumers (like myself) to buy the phone. This is when the manufacturer actually turns a profit on the phone.
6) Manufacturer previews a shiny new version of the phone with more memory, a faster processor, and better software. The cycle repeats.

I think that the Droid is at step 2 of the release cycle right now. Step 3 will be coming soon...
 
Zenmervolt said:
I was just about to post the same thing. When packing I thought it was great since the cable was easier to wrap up but finding a convenient outlet in the hotel room was a pain.

ZV
Click to expand...

I've heard a few complaints about the power cord so far, how does it connect to the brick part of the charger? Is it just a full size usb on one end and the micro on the other? or is it permanently attached to the brick end?

I always found the iPhone cord to short also and would just unplug the usb from the brick end, plug in a usb extension cable and then plug the charging end into that.
 
ultimatebob said:
If this goes like most new phone launches, we'll see the following.

1) New phone is introduced. Technology review sites all over the world drool over it.
2) People wait in line to buy the phone, and rave about how awesome the phone is the moment they open the box.
3) Someone will find a major bug in the phone, and all of the affected users and fanboys from other phone manufactures will band together and rant about how much the phone sucks.
4) Manufacturer fixes the bug in the phone, which shuts up most of the ranters, but the people raving about the phone will have quieted down since they're already looking at some new shiny gadget to buy...
5) Manufactures drops the price of the phone in half, causing ordinary consumers (like myself) to buy the phone. This is when the manufacturer actually turns a profit on the phone.
6) Manufacturer previews a shiny new version of the phone with more memory, a faster processor, and better software. The cycle repeats.

I think that the Droid is at step 2 of the release cycle right now. Step 3 will be coming soon...
Click to expand...

Since it's a smartphone:

2.5 Gnashing of the teeth about battery life. :biggrin:
 
lokiju said:
I've heard a few complaints about the power cord so far, how does it connect to the brick part of the charger? Is it just a full size usb on one end and the micro on the other? or is it permanently attached to the brick end?

I always found the iPhone cord to short also and would just unplug the usb from the brick end, plug in a usb extension cable and then plug the charging end into that.
Click to expand...

It's a standard full-size USB at the one end so a USB extension cable would work, but I'd prefer a 6' cable to begin with rather than farting around with a 3' cable and a 3' extension.

Still, it's a small issue and so far the phone does everything else quite well. My exchange synchs, call quality is great, mobile internet is solid, and the apps run smoothly.

ZV
 
the only weird thing i had this morning was that my phone froze. had to pull the battery out and restart. im thinking there might have been an issue with the lack of 3G in parts of my room and the weatherbug app that seems to need 3g to display. i have no clue if that was the reason, but the phone definitely froze up.
 
ultimatebob said:
If this goes like most new phone launches, we'll see the following.

1) New phone is introduced. Technology review sites all over the world drool over it.
2) People wait in line to buy the phone, and rave about how awesome the phone is the moment they open the box.
3) Someone will find a major bug in the phone, and all of the affected users and fanboys from other phone manufactures will band together and rant about how much the phone sucks.
4) Manufacturer fixes the bug in the phone, which shuts up most of the ranters, but the people raving about the phone will have quieted down since they're already looking at some new shiny gadget to buy...
5) Manufactures drops the price of the phone in half, causing ordinary consumers (like myself) to buy the phone. This is when the manufacturer actually turns a profit on the phone.
6) Manufacturer previews a shiny new version of the phone with more memory, a faster processor, and better software. The cycle repeats.

I think that the Droid is at step 2 of the release cycle right now. Step 3 will be coming soon...
Click to expand...

I think i'm waiting for either step 5 or 6 before I make the plunge.
 
maziwanka said:
the only weird thing i had this morning was that my phone froze. had to pull the battery out and restart. im thinking there might have been an issue with the lack of 3G in parts of my room and the weatherbug app that seems to need 3g to display. i have no clue if that was the reason, but the phone definitely froze up.
Click to expand...

I think the problem is that it's weatherbug. It's never been known for being quality software... as far as I can remember it's been associated with crapware.
 
postmortemIA said:
so does it come with Flash 10 out of box? I saw somewhere in specs " Flash 10 ready". what is the catch? also can you make your own Java app, convert them to Android's VM and run it?
Click to expand...

Android can be programmed in Java, but there's some Android-specific stuff (GUI, installer, etc.) that doesn't look too complicated if you've done Java before.
 
I just picked one up yesterday to replace my blackberry, and so far I'm SUPER impressed. It's very tactile and enjoyable to hold / use - aesthetics and so on are superb. The speech-to-text feature kicks ass - it has so far flawlessly translated my words into google searches, which is super convenient. I've used the gps/navigation tool, which was also very impressive.

So far so awesome! For my limited use so far, I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a smartphone on verizon.

I shudder to imagine the dark ages with my blackberry 8330.
 
I went on launch day and spent about 20 minutes with it. I really wanted to like this phone. However the keyboard, general feel, and the screen were all big turn offs. The screen is longer and thinner then the iphone (even with more pixels), making it harder to read websites in landscape. The phone feels bulky, the keyboard was the worst keyboard I've ever used on a phone, and the glass on the screen was simply horrid. That was the biggest turn off for me. With my 3GS I can just wipe the screen once on my shirt and it is clean. I tried to clean the crap off that phone and it is obvious they did not put any kind of anti-fingerprint coating on it. That alone unsold me.

I'm very bothered because I really want to get rid of my iphone (because I don't agree with apples app store politics). I mean I really want to. But I can't find a phone that comes close to the feel. It's like verizon and Motorola really half assed the phone.
 
sourceninja said:
I went on launch day and spent about 20 minutes with it. I really wanted to like this phone. However the keyboard, general feel, and the screen were all big turn offs. The screen is longer and thinner then the iphone (even with more pixels), making it harder to read websites in landscape. The phone feels bulky, the keyboard was the worst keyboard I've ever used on a phone, and the glass on the screen was simply horrid. That was the biggest turn off for me. With my 3GS I can just wipe the screen once on my shirt and it is clean. I tried to clean the crap off that phone and it is obvious they did not put any kind of anti-fingerprint coating on it. That alone unsold me.

I'm very bothered because I really want to get rid of my iphone (because I don't agree with apples app store politics). I mean I really want to. But I can't find a phone that comes close to the feel. It's like verizon and Motorola really half assed the phone.
Click to expand...

I have a screen protector on it and it seems to shed finger printers just fine... of course, for some reason I don't leave as many fingerprints behind as some people. My coworkers iPhone is disgusting... it's like he's eating french fries all the time and not wiping off his hands before using the iPhone.
 
sourceninja said:
I went on launch day and spent about 20 minutes with it. I really wanted to like this phone. However the keyboard, general feel, and the screen were all big turn offs. The screen is longer and thinner then the iphone (even with more pixels), making it harder to read websites in landscape. The phone feels bulky, the keyboard was the worst keyboard I've ever used on a phone, and the glass on the screen was simply horrid. That was the biggest turn off for me. With my 3GS I can just wipe the screen once on my shirt and it is clean. I tried to clean the crap off that phone and it is obvious they did not put any kind of anti-fingerprint coating on it. That alone unsold me.

I'm very bothered because I really want to get rid of my iphone (because I don't agree with apples app store politics). I mean I really want to. But I can't find a phone that comes close to the feel. It's like verizon and Motorola really half assed the phone.
Click to expand...

?
the glass is horrid?
breathe onto the glass, wipe in glass cleaning motions. easy.

the keyboard, imho, is decent. I've used worse, and I will always prefer a physical keyboard over any virtual keyboard. No matter how good, a virtual keyboard will hamper my ability to pound out emails or lengthy conversations. I adjusted to the Omnia but it was driving me nuts to type lengthily.
I'll still use the virtual keyboard for quick typing, as pulling out a keyboard to type a few words will actually be slower. And I can type fairly fast on the portrait virtual keyboard.
But if I'm typing something of length, I can make do just fine with the keyboard.

The increased resolution and quality of the screen make web browsing far better than on any other phone, regardless of screen orientation. Though a less-wide aspect ratio would have been nice, I cannot say I've had a single problem with landscape browsing, and the aspect ratio is great for viewing anything in portrait.
 
They went with the ratio they did because its a true 16:9 ratio.

I agree that I'd prefer it a little shorter and fatter. I don't have huge hands so if I'm holding the phone in portrait mode, one handed operation is occasionally annoying. Not that big a deal though - I think it makes it awesome for landscape web browsing, personally.
 
Directly from Verizon, a 1 year contract adds $70 to the phone price. If you can get a 3rd party vendor to sell it under a 1 year contract, expect a similar price increase.
 
So I'm part of a Verizon family plan, but am eligible to upgrade - the issue is the phone I'd like upgraded isn't the primary number. I called Wirefly to get in on the $130 deal and apparently the price only applies to the primary number - otherwise it's $270.

If I opted to upgrade the primary phone as well, then the price goes back to $130. I'd prefer to avoid that route - really wish Amazon had the phone in stock. I might just get it straight through Verizon and be done with it.
 
destrekor said:
?
the glass is horrid?
breathe onto the glass, wipe in glass cleaning motions. easy.

the keyboard, imho, is decent. I've used worse, and I will always prefer a physical keyboard over any virtual keyboard. No matter how good, a virtual keyboard will hamper my ability to pound out emails or lengthy conversations. I adjusted to the Omnia but it was driving me nuts to type lengthily.
I'll still use the virtual keyboard for quick typing, as pulling out a keyboard to type a few words will actually be slower. And I can type fairly fast on the portrait virtual keyboard.
But if I'm typing something of length, I can make do just fine with the keyboard.

The increased resolution and quality of the screen make web browsing far better than on any other phone, regardless of screen orientation. Though a less-wide aspect ratio would have been nice, I cannot say I've had a single problem with landscape browsing, and the aspect ratio is great for viewing anything in portrait.
Click to expand...


To each his own. I used my iPhone (which I hate, but it's the best I've found) side by side with the droid (really pissing off the verizon rep). My wife was with me (who refuses to get an iphone) and a few random people. The screen was the biggest complaint. It was hard to see in the mall compared to the iphone and had tons of finger prints on it. With the 3GS you get a coating on the phone that repels fingerprints (no need for a screen protector at all). You just wipe it once and everything is gone. The rep had to go get cleaning solution and a towl to get this thing clean, my tshirt just wouldn't cut it. I keep my iPhone 3GS in my pocket, I never clean the screen and it is always free of finger prints. My old 3G had glass similar to this. I was always cleaning it and it was always filthy.

That was the biggest draw back to me. The aspect ratio (I want a wider viewing area), the keyboard, and the glass. OS wise the phone was acceptably snappy (even after back-grounding a few apps). I didn't like the style of some of the apps (such as mail) but that was not a concern for me as I was sure I'd get used to that or find a replacement. Development wise I REALLY want a android phone. I love java development and I want to move back to linux (apple is really pissing me off as of late with their heavy handedness) so I want a phone I can develop for without OSX.

This is the first set of android phones on a real cell phone network. I was non stop talking to my friends and wife how I only had a few more days until no more iphone. Hopefully the next phone will address the problem. What I really want is a phone with droid internals (or better), a screen like a iphone 3gs, and the slickness of a HTC design. Get rid of that stupid directional pad on the right side, give it a real keyboard, and keep the removable storage and battery.

I have no problem paying a premium. Hell I was going to pay a disconnect fee to switch to verizon.
 
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