About to get the Verizon Droid.. anyone have it already??

I got a clear plastic case at the Verizon store for $14 with my discount, 20 for others

I've seen a few on ebay

 

How is your case?
I don't want a rubber one because those are hard to take out of your pocket.
I want something that will cover the screen and prevent and scratches or anything to the shell of the phone. I was thinking about getting a screen protector and then getting a case for the phone, but I want to find one that doesn't pop off or anything...

 

agreed. i'm diggin the palm pre as well. the webos is super easy to navigate around and syncs everything w/o having to do anything. apps will improve w/time. the store will come out of beta sometime soon within the next couple of months (forgot where i read that... sorry), so i'm sure the it'll explode... hopefully w/o excess tip calculators and solitaire games.

boo. lol. you know, palm's devices (the palm os ones... not windows mobile) devices were actually pretty sturdy. physically and functionally. it just looked really really dated. verizon is supposed to be getting the pre from what i understand.

i like alternatives as well. hence me getting the pre as opposed to the iphone or a bb.

adobe speaking out on not supporting the iphone for flash doesn't bode well for the iphone. well... you can make an app for certain things with flash.

 

Picked one up the other day because I had an upgrade and moved off my parents' family plan. The phone really is amazing. The screen resolution blows the iPhone away. The free navigation is great if you don't have a standalone nav system. I'm also getting FREE text messaging through google voice. That alone shaved $15 off my plan.

It has pros and cons compared to the iPhone, but it is definitely good enough to actually make the choice between the Droid and the iPhone more dependent on what the user is looking for specifically, rather than the iPhone just being the de facto best smart phone.

 

its sturdy, no complaints, its a clear plastic case that covers the bottom base and supports around the touchscreen, I had a similar one with my G1, but that one had a fold-able stand, and this one doesnt

OS, I've got to admit, I haven't given Palm Pre a chance to even play with it,. After going through the pains of troubleshooting Treo 600/650/700p and the crappy Centro, I really do hope they made a drastic change.

good to see u back posting again, u need to run bball some games with us!

 

What did you do to get free text messaging? The $15 plan for 5000 text isn't enough for me since I text alot, so we had to get unlimited for the family even though my parents don't even text. So that comes out to $30 for the family, $10 per person. Basically, its a ripoff.

 

You have to sign up for Google Voice and then load the app on your phone. Google Voice will completely integrate with your phone, if you choose to use it. However, you would have to get a new phone number through Google Voice, so that is a negative aspect of it. The other negative being that the fastest you can get the Google Voice app to automatically refresh is in 5 minute intervals, so you won't get your texts instantly through it. The way around this is to have Google Voice send you a copy of any texts you receive to your Gmail. Gmail will push all messages instantly through to the phone, and then you can actually just reply to the email and it will send it out to the sender's phone exactly like a text message.

I don't know if I did a good enough job of explaining that for you. It's a little complicated to get it all running, but after you do that you can fully integrate Google Voice as your default messaging client on the Droid. All messaging icons on my phone output a text message through Google Voice instead of the Droid's core messaging app now.

I'm getting 450 voice, unlimited data, unlimited text, and insurance on the phone all for about $70. That price was a huge reason I went with the droid. Paying $100 per month for a plan makes my stomach churn.

 

From all the tech blogs I've read it seems like the droid is quite underwhelming. The camera seems ok, the ability to multitask is ok (but a Jailbroken iPhone can multitask as well), and everything on it seems pretty much the same as the iPhone. It's great if you don't want to leave VZ for AT&T, but personally I'd rather stick with the iPhone (and I am a registered apple hater).

I think anyone who buys a new phone right now is gonna be screwed by next summer. WinMo 7, iPhone 4, and Sprint 4g. Right now is the WORST time to buy a phone, PC, Mac, or anything else technological...

 

Here are another couple of cool aspects I have found dealing with how the free Google navigation integrates with the Droid:

There is a voice search button on the Droid. You can click the voice search button and say "Navigate to 123 Main Street, Houston, Texas" and it will launch the navigation app. If you have an address programmed into one of the contacts in your phone, you can even say "Directions to [Contact's] house."

Another neat feature is that you can say a restaurant or store name into the voice search and it will bring up in the search results those locations that are closest to your current GPS-located location. Next to those results will be quick launch buttons to place a call or bring up directions/navigation to that establishment.

 

I disagree with you on all the underwhelming opinions, because these for the most part don't exist. Read all the major gadget blogs, phone blogs, tech review sites and the consensus is that Verizon and Motorola have a winner.

Unless you've actually used the phone, communicating via hearsay is worthless.

I've had all three iPhones and I actually switched from ATT to VZ as the service here in NYC abs. sucks. No regrets. The droid is an amazing device. That being said I signed only a one year with VZ to give me options next November when all the goodies drop.

WinMo 7; lol.

 

The Droid is certainly not an Iphone killer, but its a very good replacement. There would be no point in bailing out on your contract to get a phone that does nearly the same thing. Unless apple changes their business model, they will be losing a large market share in coming years.

I can tell you're not much of a tech junkie. Technology is always changing. There is never a "good" time to buy electronics. WinMo has never had a market share. Iphone 4? Sucker more people into buying the new Iphone. Sprint 4g? laughable. In 10 years, Sprints new 4G will put them so far behind ...much like Tmobiles 3G is years behind.

 

Does Tmobile's 3G network not bring their system current?

 

Hey thanks for the explanation, I got my number and have it downloaded and got the jist of it down however had a few questions/problems.

1) As of right now, do you have a texting plan or are you just going off of the Google Voice for text?

2) Is there a way that I can text using the Droid's Messaging System while using my Google Number rather than having to go into Google Voice and starting a text message from there.

3) When I receive a text, I get a text sent to the Droid's Messaging System along with the Google Voice Messaging System. Is there a way to stop this so I don't receive 2 texts everytime 1 person texts me? Keep in mind I rather use the Droid's Messaging System rather than the Google Voice System.

4) I have tested this out and the delay on how fast you would receive the text through Google Voice is not bad at all, probably a second or so, so you don't need to work through Gmail if you don't want to.

Thanks again.

 

I canceled my text plan when I went to the Droid. I used to have unlimited. Now I just pay by the text if I happen to get one sent to my old number. I have only been charged for 2 texts since I got the phone (a friend forgot to delete my old number and use my Google Voice number and sent 2 texts to me).

As far as I know, you can't use the Droid's messaging system (the green messaging icon) to output texts with your Google Voice number. However, I don't think it really matters because you have to open up the Droid's text messaging icon anyway if you wanted to send a text through there, so it's not like you are making any extra clicks by using Google Voice.

You can set the Droid to make Google Voice your default messaging client though. That makes it so that anywhere on the Droid that would usually use the Droid's text messaging app now links to Google Voice. An example would be going into your contacts and clicking on someone. The green text icon in your contact's profile would be replaced with a gray one for Google Voice.

If you need help setting this up, let me know.

You won't be able to use the Droid's messaging system, but you can stop this from happening. Go into your Google Voice account on your computer and click on the "Setting" link in the top right corner. Then click on the "Phones" tab. Then click on the "Edit" button under your listed number. There will be a checkbox that says "Receive SMS on this phone (mobile phones only)". Uncheck that box.

Having texts sent to the Droid's messaging client will count against your plan, so you'll want to uncheck that box if you want to get free texts.

Good deal. I'll have to look into this again. I'd prefer to just work through Google Voice exclusively instead of doing the Gmail thing, but I'd also rather get my texts as fast as possible after the sender sends them out. In my mind, the delay for texts was the only negative aspect to using Google Voice.

 

Droid users, Any recommendation on apps and what is rooting a phone or how?

 

astrid
barcode scanner
ebuddy
funny jokes
handcent sms
houston traffic
imusic
live football scores (does nba too)
movies
shazam
taskiller
tipcalc
useless facts
wapedia
weatherbug
where

 

Would like to hear more about this as well, Space Ghost.

 

Are there any Palm Pre users out there, could you please propose a suggestion here for me whether or not it's every dollars worth of this kinda device? I'm planning on getting myself one Palm Pre, but a bit hesitant on the move.

For now the cell I hold in use is Palm + windows os, which seems to me it doesn't fit into Palm style.

Any recommendation would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

I found a way to stream Sports Radio 610 on the Droid.


Step 1) Download Stream Furious App, open app after it is installed.

Step 2) Go to AOLradio.com to see the stations you want that they have (Click on the CBS radio on the list)

Step 3) Go to streamfinder.com on your Droid

Step 4) Find a station you want that is on the AOLRadio CBS Stations list. (KILT from Houston)

Step 5) Enter KILTAM in the "search by keyword" in the streamfinder website.

Step 6) Hit search, then click on the stream that says "Now playing Shoutcast" This will play it in your StreamFurious player and save it to the StreamFurious stations

Step 7) Repeat for as many stations as you want.

 

The chart falls short, though, in that it only lists features available with non-jailbroken iPhones. Jailbreak your phone and you can enable multitasking and the number of available apps jumps dramatically. Plus, does the Droid feature multi-touch?