Hey Sterd, I'm with you on this one. I would love to have a dedicated call and end button too. I bought the Droid for me and the Eris for my wife and I like everything about my Droid over the Eris EXCEPT the fact that to answer a call and end a call, you can do it by FEEL by clicking HARD buttons. When driving, this is VERY convenient versus the "unlock to answer" and having to look at it and follow the curve. It would be MUCH safer and more convenient if there were dedicated buttons, or at the very least, if the HOME button doubled as an answer/hangup button when the phone rang without having to unlock it. 99.9% of the time, there's no problem with the virtual interface but when driving, doing things by touch would be much safer and more convenient. Maybe have the Camera button serve as an answer/end button when the screen is locked. This way, you could very simply and safely answer the phone without looking at it. Heck I ran a red light the other day trying to answer a call from my wife because I couldn't trace the arc just right without looking at it. In the time it took me to have to look at it, trace it and move it up, the light I was approaching turned red and I ran it (with my mother-in-law in the car no less). Thankfully, no cops saw it but it was VERY annoying. Had I just been able to reach down and hit the camera button without taking my eyes off the road, I wouldn't have run it.
Guys, this is a 1.0 phone (even though it's Android 2.0, it's the 1.0 version of the Droid) and the phone it's self has flaws/preference issues that could have been done better. It's still an AWESOME phone and most of my issues could be fixed with software revisions (including this one if someone could make the camera button multifunctional) but some are improvements they could make on the next hardware revision. I love the phone to the point my wife says she's about to do an "intervention" but I'm still not so attached to it to admit it could still be better.
All you guys that are slamming sterdroids as a "newb" or "needs to stay away from it" need to step back and look at his request/problem a little more objectively (and others suggestions/problems/requests too) I've seen some questions on here that are just people not fully exploring their phones, some are overlooking the obvious options but MANY are legitimate suggestions that get slammed just because some of you guys don't want to admit that the Droid MIGHT not be PERFECT. The ONLY way this device will get to perfect is if WE as a community of users HONESTLY evaluate it and then make informed criticisms. If we do, we can pass these criticisms on to the development teams and MAYBE help the platform as a whole improve and thrive. Attacking others because they MIGHT not agree with you or blindly see the phone as perfect helps NOTHING.
Anyway, sterdroids, you're not alone. The most common complaint I've heard on the Droid (and the iPhone for that matter) IS the lack of a physical answer/hang-up button. Hopefully some of these guys insulting fanboyism hasn't turned you off on either the phone or the community. I've found that MOST of the forum is quite friendly and helpful. I'ts a fun time to be using the Droid and hopefully it will only get better.
