webdevmatt

Overall, I still like the Droid a lot, but am not in love. The capabilities of the device and the peppiness of android 2.0 OS, coupled with the Verizon network has got me really close to love, but right now it’s just a hot chick with a really good personality, not quite the complete package.

The Good (Great for most users)

1. 1800 miles of east coast driving streaming audio with no interruption the whole way (even through the Lehigh valley). Thank you Verizon and Pandora.
2. Google navigation with traffic layer. Didn’t need the local radio stations to let me know when a slowdown was coming; green, blue, yellow and red with an occasional red circle with a line through it were all the cues needed to know when a slowdown was coming.
3. Games. This one is from my girlfriend, the complete package :). I know she appreciate the free game downloads from The Android Market

The Bad / Ugly (Business user related)

1. On more than one occasion, my exchange mail (Corporate Mail) account has "got behind". It would be 3 pm and my last message was received at 11am. In my business and for many of my clients, this would be unacceptable. I’m hoping this will work itself out. (The things I endure for my clients :))
2. Black Screen. In the 2+ weeks I’ve been using the Droid, I have had to pull the battery when the device has become unresponsive, just a black screen. This might have to do with some of the applications running, but there’s no real way for me to be sure. If you have any insight, please leave a comment.

If there’s anything you are looking to find out about the droid that you would like me to review, please leave a comment.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The past week I got back to exclusively using my Motion Slate Tablet for mobile computing. No more keyboard while I travel (I am handwriting this post, for conversion when I get home). After 11 years with only a laptop, or many at once, I finally have a desktop in the office and I am so happy.

Besides my impeccable tracking system for installed software, the key to both my migration to the desktop and the “2 device, one human” strategy is the use of offline folders. Using this technology over the past 9 years has provided me with confidence that my data is safe, and its integrity is solid. Even when synching up to four devices at one time, I could be confident that the most recent copy of a doc, and especially OneNote, was away at the end of my e-pen or an assorted keyboards.

The beauty about offline folders is that they can be managed by group policies on a domain or just used standalone for users that do not have a managed infrastructure. Weather you’re running a complex environment, right down to a single device with an external drive, offline folders can provide you with excellent mobility and file level synchronization for your Microsoft Devices. (Adam, what is the Penguin’s solution for this feature?)

If you would like to know more, let me know and the nature of your interest and I can write something up about it.

One sweet feature of the New Droid is in GPS; that’s right GPS for “free” (I paid $99 for my Droid). With GPS and Google together, you have a Maps Made In Heaven I mean Match Made In Heaven ;).

My first Google Maps and GPS combo app was introduced to me by good buddy @alex_howansky. We both share a love for tech and fitness so he turned me on to My Tracks. This application, on your Android powered device, will track your activity (Bike, Hike, Run, Walk, anything that has a trackJ). Turn on your GPS, fire up the app, click “Record Track” and whola, you, represented by a little triangle, will start moving around a Google map in one of two views you have come accustomed to on Google Maps (street view, satellite view).

So, we got a GPS that will track our motion. If we want, we can watch a little triangle move around a screen / the streets of your home or visiting town. Here are some more things that are also nice about My Tracks:

• Track time while you are moving and not moving (total time). That’s right it knows when you start and stop, and it keeps track of that for you.
• Track your distance, pace and speed
  • For both moving time and total time J
  • In real time and an average summary at the end of your run
  • Audio feedback, if requested on a configured interval eg. <robot voice>you have gone .9miles at 7minute 30second miles per hour</robot voice>
• Track and display your elevation
  • In real time and a summary of elevation max and min
  • Summary max and min grade in percent

Once you are finished with your track, you will push the stop track button and you are prompted to:

• Enter the name of your track
• Enter the type of activity you were tracking (running, walking, hiking, biking, etc.)
• Enter a description of the track (it was a nice day, it was flat, safe, etc.)

Once you are happy with all the pre and post run documentation, it’s time for the power of the Droid. Like most “things” you do on your Driod, you can share your track with just a couple swipes of your finger. There are many sharing options ranging from emailing the tech happy GPX or KML representation of your track to yourself or a favorite tracking site right down to old school sharing your map with your friends; like we used to with gmap-pedometer. If methods of sharing don’t work for you, how about uploading your track to Google Docs. When you hit this button, My Tracks will send the data to Google Docs, and it will be waiting for you in your Google Document repository as a new sheet (just like an excel spreadsheet) for you to tuck away or perform your own trending magic from day to day.

I have been running with my Droid for over a week and it is a pleasure. I’m still trying to find good accessory to hold the Droid while running so if there are any suggestions please post a comment so I can check it out. Happy Running and Droiding.

I’ve been using the new Verizon Droid for a week now and been asked to put down some thoughts, and I don’t want to disappoint. Furman this is for you.

To get some context, I have moved from a WinMo Samsung i760 which, over the past few months has been crashing on me about once a day (we had a good run i760, but it’s time to move on). This coupled with my inability to recommend devices solely on “what is being said” in cyberspace, I became a proud owner of a Moto Droid on the day of its release last Friday.

Now for the first week’s good bad and ugly report:

The Droid is pretty solid. Everything you hear and or might have read online are true. If you find this account of the Droid interesting please comment and let me know what else you want to know:

The Good

1. Voice quality and coverage is great.
   1. The phone’s speaker is great, and from what the recipients of the calls has said normal and speaker phone calls sound nearly identical.
   2. The mobile carrier is Verizon, can’t really say much more than that.
2. Email integration
   1. Google is perfect and cake to setup
   2. Exchange is very good and simple to set up
   3. *If you have other providers you would like me to check out, please leave a comment and I’ll check it out.
3. Network = Verizon, nothing else to say. I can stream my internet radio driving anywhere in my car (I will be driving over 1000 miles of east coast over the next couple weeks, I’ll report back on coverage)
4. GPS (more on this in another post, hint My Tracks kicks ass oh and so does Google Navigation K)
5. There is a very nice array of applications available on the Andriod Marketplace. Efficiency, practical, entertainment, games, … there’s a great selection and it’s only getting bigger and better
6. Audio and Video are great as long as the source is solid (lots of apps for good media)
7. Great web browser, very responsive and excellent rendering
8. Camera takes nice pictures. 5megapixles and dual led flash.
9. Sharing media is very easy, usually 1 or 2 clicks away without any hunting
   1. Facebook sharing
   2. Twitter
   3. Text Message
   4. Email
10. Notification management is unobtrusive and easily visible and accessible with the drag of finger.
    1. Nearly infinite abilities to customize notifications on individual applications and contacts
       1. Audio
       2. Vibrate
       3. Popup
11. Integration with Google Application
12. Can play wmv’s (that one’s for you Dixon Davis J)

The Bad

1. The Querty Keyboard is pretty poor, but the onscreen keyboard is as good as the iPhone / a good as an onscreen keyboard can be, with very good predictive text.
2. The marketplace doesn’t do a great job warning you if the app will work on your device. All apps are available for older versions of the Android operating system, but the market place does not discriminate, and leave it up to the developer to let you know if the app will work or not on the latest 2.0 OS
3. Occasional unresponsiveness of the touch screen when trying to get back to the home screen / out of an existing application
4. Unlocking the phone is done through a configuration of connecting the dots as opposed to a key code entry (if you have a dirty hand this can easily be seen by a trail on the screen)
5. No “email search” in exchange

The Ugly

1. The Bluetooth does not work with my car L(I have not checked it out with a Bluetooth headset)

    

In the first week of usage of this is a device I can recommend to my clients and friends. It has the “solidness” of network and function that my clients have come to expect and the cool factor that a lot of my friends are looking for. With just a few apps from the Marketplace, I am more informed from the media that I was once connected to, and for that I am thankful for the Droid. Everything from tech podcasts to online radio stations, they are always at my fingertips. If there is one drawback that I have with this device is that it doesn’t have a great keyboard that Blackberry users are accustomed to.

Leave a comment if you would like more detail on any of the features of functions of the Droid, I’ll do my best to give you the low down. Also, check out the Motorola site if you would like the lowdown on the device from those who made it J.