DROID Quirks - Ongoing

[silverx10]

So I've decided to start up a list of the quirks I've encountered one or more times on the DROID since I've had it (going on a week now). These are in no way, shape, or form, things that I loathe about the DROID so much as they are... well, things that could most definitely be improved upon with little to no upset on my end. Not necessarily looking for comments, but if you've encountered similar things, well then... sound off!

No particular order, just listing them as I recall.

1. Dead battery... for no reason? I work in a secure facility, so when I go inside, I have to leave the phone... well, OUTSIDE. I keep it in a well-insulated part of my car, but that doesn't mean much. It gets pretty cool outside, so could that be discharging the battery? If so, that's... unfortunate. Both the iPhone I had, as well as the LG VX8700 didn't have any issues here. Can't be the apps or services (i.e., GPS, WiFi, etc.), as I disable them before I go inside.

2. eBay tables: They keep growing and growing and growing... I posted something similar to this in another thread somewhere. When I go to eBay, and then check out the "Won" or other "My eBay" areas of the site, the tables grow. Without any real sign of stopping, really.

3. Schizophrenic vibrate functionality? Every phone I've ever had—period—has had a silent mode with optional vibrating functionality. Now, the DROID has a silent mode, which is slick, but if I use that, it won't show me the icon for the vibrate feature being turned on. And sure enough, if I go into the settings menu and check, it's not actually... checked. So I check it, and there's the icon. But if I toggle silent mode off, then back on, I once again have to manually go back into the settings and turn it on.

More to come as I encounter them.

Update: 11/28/09

4. Contacts with IM contact information specified in the contacts have no action assigned... When I click on someone's IM ID in their contact listing, nothing happens. At all. But I'm gonna go out on a ledge here and guess that if John Smith has an AIM ID of jsmithlolz, and I go to click the button, I'm supposed to have an appropriate application installed and configured to handle this type of action? If this is the case, it seems just a tad... unfinished to me. There should at least be a notification to the extent that, "No application has been installed to handle this application."

Update: 11/29/09

Issue number 1 has been solved: narrowed it down to operator error. When I was using the maps for the first time, it shut off while I wasn't actively navigating anywhere, so I set the screen timeout to never. I guess what was happening (and had I checked out the battery status monitor, I prolly could've gotten confirmation of this) was I was getting phone calls, and the screen stayed on until it died.

 

[New2u]

My question about your #1 is do you leave it on, in your car? if so, why?

and your #3 has been reported by me at least 3 times, i hate it, the only way you can get it to recognize the silent (vibrate) mode is by hitting silent within the menu > settings > sounds area.

 

[silverx10]

Guilty as charged with the first point, and it's out of sheer impatience. That, combined with the fact that I don't see what difference it makes WHERE the phone is sitting idle (as it'll sit around doing nothing at home just fine), though I guess the cooler temperatures can have something to do with it. But again, 's just odd that it's the one phone of six I've owned over the years to have a problem like that.

But yeah, the vibrate thing is just... bah. Don't get me wrong: I love how easy it is to set the phone to silent (when they could've made it far more difficult, or even just let you hit the volume down button a few times), but this is a function that even the lower-tier flip phones possess.

 

[New2u]

Well my thing on #1 was, why not just leave the phone off, unless that's what you are doing. It serves no point to be on, if at no point are you going to be using it for 8-10 hours. My friend has to do the same thing where she works, she works for a prison, so when the time comes she turns her phone off and goes inside. If your phone is dead from being turned off... just get a battery replacement.

 

[silverx10]

Sounds fair enough. Just got home a bit ago, and this time, the battery had only lost about 10% or so of the charge from being left on.

Definitely at a loss here.

 

[MarkB]

If you leave the phone on it's going to use the battery whether it's with you or left in your car. Cell phones don't only use battery power while you're in a call, they have to listen for incoming calls too and ping the cell towers to keep the connection established. A cell phone will also use more battery power when the connection isn't strong, since it ramps up the radio power in an attempt to keep the connection live. So... just turn off your phone if you're going to leave it unattended all day.

 

[CyberLaw]

But yeah, the vibrate thing is just... bah. Don't get me wrong: I love how easy it is to set the phone to silent (when they could've made it far more difficult, or even just let you hit the volume down button a few times), but this is a function that even the lower-tier flip phones possess.

The vibrate thing drove me crazy until I found this little app called Buzzlock. It's free, and basically allows you to hit a couple of buttons to lock vibrate on, no matter what other button you may hit on the outside of the phone. Might help with your vibrate problem.

Here's the QR code if you want to download it and try it out:

 

[Backnblack]

Sounds fair enough. Just got home a bit ago, and this time, the battery had only lost about 10% or so of the charge from being left on.

Definitely at a loss here.

At a loss for what? Not understanding that any electronic device uses power when on? If you have to leave the phone in your car, why not just plug it in?

 

[wildrage]

Sounds fair enough. Just got home a bit ago, and this time, the battery had only lost about 10% or so of the charge from being left on.

Definitely at a loss here.

At a loss for what? Not understanding that any electronic device uses power when on? If you have to leave the phone in your car, why not just plug it in?

The Droid is listed as having 270 hours of standby time. He is at a loss because it drains during the course of several hours. Seems like a valid point to me.

 

[MarkB]

A combination of a marginal signal requiring the phone to use more battery power and running apps checking for frequent updates will do that.

 

[darreno1]

The standby time on my Droid is generally very good. I've left it a whole day easily just sitting there and still had about 3/4 battery power left. From a full charge, it should be able to make it 8-10 hours easy. I do over 12 on most days with normal usage.

If it's in a cool place, it should be even better for the battery. I'd double check to be sure no tasks/services are running. And also check that no 3rd party apps are running.

How is the battery usage normally, when it's with you?

 

[Martin030908]

But yeah, the vibrate thing is just... bah. Don't get me wrong: I love how easy it is to set the phone to silent (when they could've made it far more difficult, or even just let you hit the volume down button a few times), but this is a function that even the lower-tier flip phones possess.

The vibrate thing drove me crazy until I found this little app called Buzzlock. It's free, and basically allows you to hit a couple of buttons to lock vibrate on, no matter what other button you may hit on the outside of the phone. Might help with your vibrate problem.

Here's the QR code if you want to download it and try it out:

How's this work?

 

[bspill]

My pet peeve is the touch tone sounds that work when you're dialing sometime and don't work other times.

 

[PowerPlayGraphix]

I haven't had any problems with changing mine to vibrate mode. All I do is turn the ringer volume down from the home screen until it gets to "vibrate only". Don't see what's so difficult about that.

 

[Martin030908]

I haven't had any problems with changing mine to vibrate mode. All I do is turn the ringer volume down from the home screen until it gets to "vibrate only". Don't see what's so difficult about that.

Noticed this too.... I use an APP called QUICK SETTINGS that gives me one touch access to toggle wi-fi, gps, bluetooth, network and ringer profiles. Didn't even notice the option for 'vibrate only'.

Some times we get too in depth and miss the obvious.