Just got my Eris Droid and now I have a few questions... (Please!)

[chrisjett]

Hey All,

I got my Eris Droid last night. To be honest, I originally wanted an iPhone, (die-hard Mac user here), but Verizon does not have it yet. Since I was not willing to switch to AT&T, and not liking the Motorola Droid, I picked up the Eris as the best non-iPhone solution.

It's driving me mad.

I've taken a look around the forums and I have a few questions to pose since I could not find the answers...

1) Is there any way to disable the vibration/buzz that happens whenever you hit the Home, Menu, Back or Search buttons?

2) The startup time for my Eris seems to be excessively long. Maybe about 30-45 seconds. I'm used to my iPod Touch, (which has near everything other than a phone and camera), having an almost instantaneous startup.

3) Here's a question about security. Whenever I download a program, it gives me a list of personal items that the programmer/company/program wants to have access to. On my iTouch I have never seen these statements before whenever I've downloaded an app. How concerned do I need to be when downloading programs and granting access? The reason I ask this is that I have banking information on my Eris, personal contacts and I would like to find an app that can help me store passwords.

4) I've noticed that the programs seem to be developed by third party programmers and not by the actual company (for example: eBay, AIM, Best Buy, etc...). This might be the same concern as above, but when I am entering sensitive information such as passwords to enter my accounts, how concerned do I need to be that these are third party apps and that they might have access to my personal info?

5) Is there any way to access/see files stored on my SD card, or can I only access them from a computer link? The reason I ask this is that I am starting to make customized ringtones for myself and want to delete some that I already have put in the phone.

6) In the same vein and in addition to the above, I am a photographer and would like to set up separate folders to store images and video files on to my SD card. Once there, I am sure I would like to move images around and/or delete older pics from the phones interface rather than a computer connection.

I think I will stop now before I abuse your time. And speaking of time, instead of joining the family to celebrate the new year, I am fiddling with my Eris and trying to figure it all out.

Thank you in advance for any responses. You just might save my mental state as I am really trying to like this phone.

Chris

 

[Berzerker]

Hey All,

I got my Eris Droid last night. To be honest, I originally wanted an iPhone, (die-hard Mac user here), but Verizon does not have it yet. Since I was not willing to switch to AT&T, and not liking the Motorola Droid, I picked up the Eris as the best non-iPhone solution.

It's driving me mad.

I've taken a look around the forums and I have a few questions to pose since I could not find the answers...

1) Is there any way to disable the vibration/buzz that happens whenever you hit the Home, Menu, Back or Search buttons?

2) The startup time for my Eris seems to be excessively long. Maybe about 30-45 seconds. I'm used to my iPod Touch, (which has near everything other than a phone and camera), having an almost instantaneous startup.

3) Here's a question about security. Whenever I download a program, it gives me a list of personal items that the programmer/company/program wants to have access to. On my iTouch I have never seen these statements before whenever I've downloaded an app. How concerned do I need to be when downloading programs and granting access? The reason I ask this is that I have banking information on my Eris, personal contacts and I would like to find an app that can help me store passwords.

4) I've noticed that the programs seem to be developed by third party programmers and not by the actual company (for example: eBay, AIM, Best Buy, etc...). This might be the same concern as above, but when I am entering sensitive information such as passwords to enter my accounts, how concerned do I need to be that these are third party apps and that they might have access to my personal info?

5) Is there any way to access/see files stored on my SD card, or can I only access them from a computer link? The reason I ask this is that I am starting to make customized ringtones for myself and want to delete some that I already have put in the phone.

6) In the same vein and in addition to the above, I am a photographer and would like to set up separate folders to store images and video files on to my SD card. Once there, I am sure I would like to move images around and/or delete older pics from the phones interface rather than a computer connection.

I think I will stop now before I abuse your time. And speaking of time, instead of joining the family to celebrate the new year, I am fiddling with my Eris and trying to figure it all out.

Thank you in advance for any responses. You just might save my mental state as I am really trying to like this phone.

Chris

1.) Should be in Settings > Sound and Display Settings > Haptic Feedback.

2.) That's about how long it took my iPhone 3G to startup and my current Droid. Not very uncommon. I rarely turn mine phone off, so it doesn't really make a difference.

3.) You're never asked about that on your iPod Touch because of Apple's strict (and stupid) policies of not letting developers mess with any of the settings or features of the iPod Touch/iPhone. Android is completely customizable and open to all modifications by app developers, so they give you a warning of what the app actually wants from you in order to function the way the developer wants it to.

4.) If any of them are stealing information, they would be taken off the market, the popular ones (aka, eBuddy, Twidroid, etc.) are popular enough to have been noticed if they are stealing anyone's info. Also, I'm sure as time goes on and Android grows, you'll see companies developing apps for their own programs.

5.) You can download a file manager like ASTRO File Manager (free on the market).

6.) ASTRO allows you to copy/paste/move/delete files as well as create new directories. So it's a good deal all around.

Hope these answers help.

 

[chrisjett]

Berzerker,

Thank you very much. You did help me and help to ease my fears. The only thing I was unable to find is the 'Haptic Feedback' setting you described. I know how to get where you say it is listed, but I do not have an option for this. My wife has a Motorola Droid, which has some selections that my Eris does not have. That or maybe my software is out of date, which I doubt because I just got it on Wednesday. I'll keep looking in to it. Thank you again!

 

[Mattb]

There is no way to turn off the haptic feedback on the bottom keys. The setting you're looking at is for the keyboard.

 

[Short Pockets]

I can't seem to create a folder for my excel data files, manual tells me to create folder in the root, can't seem to do that?