In a world of doesn't... droid ALSO DOESN'T

[jrod2183]

Let's keep this civil, I've already handed out infractions.

If this gets out of hand it will be :closed_2: and Vacation time might be handed out.

[Nervously looks around...afraid to comment]

haha :blink:

 

[zigzags559]

Saying I'm ignorant for not looking first, I 've spent a week looking for resolutions to what I've mentioned and have had no luck. If you know some of the answers, then post them.

A week is pretty much nothing with a phone that has so many capabilities. I have had this phone for a month and am still finding new stuff I didn't know it could do. I cant tell you how many times I /facepalm when I realize something I spent days trying to figure out was in fact far more simple that I was making it out to be. It may not be able to do what you are specifically looking for (I honestly have no idea), but for most of us the things the phone CAN do are why we love it.

I completely agree. I had my phone since the Droid got released back in November. I also find new things on a daily basis I can do to the phone. I am amazed the potential this phone has and excited what other cool things we can do to it. Especially with the new 2.1 update that we will be getting soon. I LOVE my DROID!!!:icon_ banana:

 

[chops]

i had 2 windows mobile phones and they didnt have a stylus the nextel smart phone and the moto q. First off it is advertising the droid may not do everything u need it to do right out of the box but either there is a app for it or it is being developed. I think google and motorola did a excellent job in devloping a phone that is giving competition to the iphone and making people switch from it to the droid. Now as far as flash goes how close is apple to getting flash for there phones......lets see they will not be getting it ever. Download another calendar app for god sakes there are tons on the marketplace

 

[Where'sMyCoffe?]

Some of the stuff you listed are LEGIT. Some of it is NAGGING.

OPEN SOURCE does not mean "WE WONT DO IT, YOU GO DO IT YOURSELF".

In the END you are in a DROID forum so 80% of the replies are going to be BIASED. The other 20% will be FAIR.

But like I said, some of what you listed is LEGIT, some... can QUIT...

 

[D Roid]

Hey brother, just because you say you're 'not being negative', doesn't mean it's true. You came in with an intent, everyone detected your connotation and had a modicum of fun at you're expense. You might be twelve and don't know how people work yet, but when you spit in a figurative lions den, you're not going to walk away with a warm and fuzzy. Spare us the 'childish innocent inquiry, i'm a victim and you all really let me down speech' because we're not at recess. You threw you're name out there for some good jokes, so what did you think was going to happen??

1. PDF GView has worked for me like a dream
2. The brother earlier was right, the Embedded pictures come up on gmail if you push show pics. The blue icon you're referring to is a lego and won't read flash.
3. Old school it online... GDocs takes a few minutes to update too, I see your concern.
4.Flash support 10.1 is not out for a few phones... 10.1 mobile isn't specific to droid or else it be 10.droid mobile... get an iphone, that might play you're online lectures.
5.your phone calls do merge. There is a little fork in the road type symbol that displays when you switch to the incoming caller... you push it, the previous caller is now merged.
6. Check out google calendar. It's very easy to merge your outlook calendar to your gmail calendar to your droid calendar.. two simple steps, email me if you need more info.
7. The USB cord isn't long enough, Amen.
8. it is what it is
9. I'll help you on this... it would be nice to sync with outlook but it's a google phone, not a microsoft phone... read CNET about their competition for 'platform of the world'. outlook to gmail, gmail to droid calendar. droid cal will auto sync with gmail calendar
10. so what??
11.download a widget for vibrate to make your phone vibrate. use a silent widget to make your phone silent... apples and oranges brother.
12.personal preference
13. speak louder
14. ask a media guy
15.100% correct. that'd be nice and it's enroute
16. Go to market, apps or games, all apps or games, top free in center BAM
17.so what?? open your keyboard and it will. If you didn't want to use a keyboard you should've gotten the nexus
18. tell moto to have them update the software or firmware, whatever it is. Mine works the same as my razor as my sony ericsson
19. a stylus is necessary on microsoft based phones bc of their tiny icons, "world's thinnest QWERTY slider does not mean extra hardware.
20. GDOC will create edit word excel templated docs, give it a try. It saves on the cloud and you can save it to your computer later.

Email if you need specifics.

 

[Where'sMyCoffe?]

Let's keep this civil, I've already handed out infractions.

If this gets out of hand it will be :closed_2: and Vacation time might be handed out.

And thats the word folks! *poses* Word...

 

[deputc26]

Valid points

Ok,

1. Doesn't display 95% of PDF attachments in default E-Mail (not G-Mail) program. [k-9 does]
   I have not had this problem but there are numerous apps that can address this, just takes a little effort.
2. Doesn't display many embedded pictures in G-Mail.
   When you click on them they don't display??? mine do.
3. Doesn't let you empty your G-Mail trash. It appears to work, but when I log into my G-Mail on PC, items are all still in trash.
   You have to sync it or wait for it to sync.
4. Doesn't have any flash support yet.
   True... of nearly all smartphones.
5. Doesn't allow incoming conference calling. If I am on the phone with someone, and someone else calls me on call waiting, I can't merge the two calls together to allow all three people to talk together on one call. Can do this for outgoing, just not incoming.
   I've never tried to make it do this but it would be cool, suggest it as a feature.
6. Doesn't have a calendar widgit that auto refreshes. (mine stays on one dat until I reboot the phone, which I don't feel like doing every day)
   I don't use a calendar, but I've no doubt that if one doesn't exist now there soon will be one.
7. Doesn't work with my bluetooth as nicely (clearly) as my Moto Razr did.
   Yep, Android's bluetooth support needs some work, this is true.
8. Doesn't support many MPEG video files. (need to convert to MP4)
   true-ish, but nothing that's not solvable.

Other-than-valid points...

1. Doesn't have a long enough USB cord.
   for real? this is a major complaint?
2. Doesn't have Mini USB socket like most previous Moto phones. (Droid has micro)
   Micro>mini, it also doesn't have hdmi or firwire.
3. Doesn't have an "out of the box" solution for syncing Microsoft Outlook items (contacts, calendar, notes, tasks) for users who are not in an exchange environment.
   Who needs it "out-of-the-box" take five minutes and make it work.
4. Doesn't have a way to clear Android Market search history.
   Do you really care about this? (grasps at straws)
5. Doesn't vibrate when using the silence feature on screen lock.
   Why does this matter? like at all?
6. Doesn't have easy global volume control.
   Yes it does, get "quick settings" from the market place for free.
7. Doesn't pick up sound very well while recording video.
   Mine does, perhaps you could upload a clip so we can see what you're dealing with. I was very impressed with the video, especially after modding Build.prop
8. Doesn't have stock multi touch features
   Coming soon to a driod near you.
9. Doesn't filter free apps / games on search in market
   Do you really care about this? (grasps at straws)
10. Doesn't switch home screen to landscape when rotated.
    mine didn't, so I got a ROM that did. I found it annoying and turned it off.
11. Doesn't have a stylus. (most cases not needed, but sometimes it would be great)
    This is 2010, nobody wants a stylus
12. Doesn't have an app to create / edit word or excel docs.
    There are numerous apps that do this, and really a phone is not the place to be authoring docs, but if you really want to you can.

Anyway, Like I said, I am trying really hard to be too negative, and I don't own the phone, I just wish the stuff I mention above was included "out of the box".

After coming to this forum constantly every minute for over a day now, I thought I would regsiter, and that this would be a good place to discuss the things I'm not too pleased about the droid, and see if I could get decent help. I see now that I'm wrong.

*translation* I started with a bad attitude and continue to have a bad attitude.

Look,
If you want help you start a thread that says "Help me do this" not a thread that says "Hey enthusiasts! I'm not an enthusiast!"

Either you're the spoiled offspring of an oil tycoon with unrealistic expectations, you're a troll, or you just don't think things out very well. If you go to any product oriented forum online and start a thread titled "your product is lame" you'll get the same response, frankly I'm impressed at how courteously you were addressed.

 

[wil318466]

You guys are way too hash on him. He has valid points.

Lets point out something very important : the Droid is very customizable, which means for people who are willing to look up the answers and install apps and make changes and mods, its great, because you can make it what you want.

But lets face reality : MOST people in the world do NOT want to spend hour after hour investigating and making changes to their phones. Most people don't want to program their VCRs (i know, an old example..).

Android OS, in general, needs some work before it'll be "great" to the masses right outside the box. We all know this because the reason most of us are here is because we thought "well, how do I change this...".

Now, MY Droid rocks. It has all kinds of stuff going on. I can do just about anything I want with it that I need, so I'm extremely happy. If someone gave it to me out the box and I couldn't make any changes, I'd be a bit dissapointed, to be honest.

Cut the guy a break. He makes some valid points, just because we can address most of the issues doesn't mean everyone else in the world can too.

Finally, he's right about the money part. You spend 200 bucks on a device and an extra 30 dollars a month for 2 years minimum, you really don't want to get nickel and dimed.

-Wil

 

[Matth3w]

You spend 200 bucks on a device and an extra 30 dollars a month for 2 years minimum, you really don't want to get nickel and dimed.

Such is life. They do that for a reason..because if they included everything you wanted right out of the box, the phone would be twice as expensive. So now you get the cheapest possible phone, and you can spend how much you want to get the phone where you want it...as opposed to EVERYONE having to pay twice as much and only 1% of those people actually caring about it having a stylus, D2Go stock, etc.

 

[karnaak]

What amazes me is that this dude only bought the phone a week and a half ago, and didn't do any research.

He could make his way here to ***** about the phone after making the purchase, but he couldn't make an informed decision about this product in the near 3-months since its street date?

OP I guess its a good thing that VZW gives you a 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee so that you can return the phone for a refund (less the restocking fee of course). I'm not quite sure how some people will spend hundreds (albeit only 200 with upgrade/new sub) of dollars on something without making sure its the right decision for them.

 

[swickdick]

I agree with you, for the price of the Droid these should be included. .for the most part anyway

 

[Where'sMyCoffe?]

He has some very valid points... but the odds that work against him include:

a) he happens to be on a DROID forum that has a lot of wanna-be elitist, and stans
b) he approached his points in a not so welcoming way

Things that will help him get some of his points across:

a) this forum actually has some very friendly, fair, fans that looks at things for what they are (20% of the members, all of the moderators it appears)

 

[ShowTime]

....

You're asking for a phone that's customized to do everything YOU need it to do, when a lot of end-users will have no need for the features you're interested in. If you want a company (or individual, for that matter) to custom-build you a phone I'm sure you could find someone willing to do it - for a price.

You bought a phone that is capable of being customized, and likely very close to the extent that you're looking for. You just need to put in the time or the money to make it happen.

Best response so far IMO. TrueFangz, reading through the responses, I think nearly every single one of your issues has had a response posted that alleviates it entirely. It just so happens that most of these fixes involve getting this app or that app. I realize it would have been convenient had the phone come "out of the box" with these apps or features, but it did not. The fact that you personally don't want to/aren't willing to go out and download and/or pay for them is not in any way the phone's problem, Google's problem, Android's problem, etc, etc, etc. They can't possibly make phones that will meet every need every user has "right out of the box". A lot of the stuff you mentioned, I don't need/want on my phone. There are items that did come on the phone I don't need/want and wish they didn't come on the phone out of the box. It is beyond unrealistic to expect to buy a cell phone, regardless of how hyped or advanced it may be, and have it come right out of the box doing everything you could possibly ever want a cell phone to do. The big draw of this phone is that it comes out of the box with the capability to anything you could want it to do. It is then up to you to go and pick and choose what you want it to do, and then get the apps to do it.

 

[jsh1120]

...

I know the market has tons of custom apps, but Paying the money for the phone, the accessories, the voice plan, the data plan, I don't find it necessary to have to pay money to install apps that the phone should have included in the first place.

I have found some free apps to cater to some of my needs, but not all of my needs. I think Google kinda left out the "corporate world" in their thoughts when writing the Android software, and developing the phone.

If anyone out there has found solutions or work arounds to any of the things I mentioned, please share.

You've been beaten up enough for the errors and (really, buddy) absurd items in your list. (A longer usb cord?) Instead, let me focus on your comments at the end of your post.

From your comments I suspect you and I agree about what should have been included in the phone for us. I, too, can cite some glaring weaknesses in the Droid as a business/corporate device. The difference is that I would much prefer that most of these items be met by adding applications to the phone rather than forcing every Droid owner to carry around applications they don't need.

The business market is, I'd argue, a critical segment and without some extensions and improvements, the Droid simply isn't a viable competitor for many businesses. But on the other hand, I don't want a phone that is overloaded with "social networking" features I have no use for. And I can guarantee you that looking at the sales numbers Motorola and Verizon would cram the phone full of those apps (that I'd have to put up with) before they would meet my particular needs.

The notion that all of my requirements "should have been included in the first place" is as silly and narrow as the notion that the Droid should have been designed to meet the requirements of the average teenager. It is meant to be a multifunctional device. That is the point!

But having said all that, I'd qualify the comments by noting that just as Google/Motorola/VZW shouldn't pack the phone full of the apps that I want, they should be careful not to make installation of those functions difficult or impossible. And off hand, I can think of several areas where the Droid is truly deficient from a business user's point of view.

() Integration with corporate email is, indeed, a PITA in some cases, especially for corporations and government agencies with significant security requirements. Although integration with Msoft Exchange is "possible," it is neither fully featured nor straightforward.

() Along the same line, the fact that one cannot password protect either the default "gmail" or "email" applications (or eliminate them) is a MAJOR security flaw that would prevent many Fortune 1000 corporations and government agencies from allowing the phone to be used.

() The absence of email encryption falls in the same category. Without such protection, many corporations will simply not allow their email to be used with a Droid.

 

[iPirate]

You guys want a bunch of bloat in the OS? seems silly. Id rather most things be apps on the market, then I have the option to install them or not.