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android shortcomings

A little burp about Android OS updates...

Aside from Google, HTC and Motorola have been the best at updating their devices. Samsung has been the absolute worst. LG is new to the game so we have yet to see how they'll perform.
 
I used Palm and Blackberry(8 different units) devices for years, so a droid was not a great leap. However, I am greatly disappointed with a number of flaws in the device and/or the design. Now using 2nd unit with many of the same issues as the first unit.

Droid Areas of Concern:
- randomly dialed calls to contacts. If I did not have a bluetooth ear piece and the ability to think on my feet, it would be a complete disaster. Remedy: protective film lowers the frequency from multiple calls per day to a few per week.
- any direct dial contact on home screen will be called automatically (while unit on desk-not in pocket) without being touched. Good thing it goes to speaker automatically to give me opportunity to save face. Remedy: no direct dials on home screen.
- setting a calendar appointment always starts with a date in the past, weeks early at times. No remedy.
- Music player will play any pod cast on the device - any time without any action on my part. Remedy: do not have any music or pod casts.
- powering off while battery fully charged. Remedy: replace unit.
- ring volume resets to low randomly. Remedy: constantly check ring volume.

HUGE ANNOYANCE:
- contacts consolidate: Many contacts have the same term or title with separate phone #s and addresses. All like named contacts are now one large contact with multiple phone numbers. Example: John Smiths are now a single contact with numerous addresses and phones. Reduced the contact count from 4000 to 2600. Remedy: don't use droid.

Less serious and still annoying:
- opening contacts will always active voice dialing
- voice dialing cannot permanently be disabled.
- many unnecessary applications run and cannot be permanently stopped: Amazon shopping, voice search, MP3 service, news/weather, uploads, visual voice mail(fee for service), etc.
- requires daily power off/on cycle to run without freezing.
- keyboard contact point cannot be altered. Always picks letter to right of finger tip.
- home screen icon spacing limits # of icon to 16(?).
- protective film increases pressure required to activate item. Read above - is a must have to avoid random dialing.
- many apps require 2 or more unnecessary touches to start an action: contact search - must disable voice dialing then start keying text to search.

If any one has a solution to these issues, please provide them. To date the only appropriate solution is: flingbuy. Fling droid at a solid wall then buy a different kind of phone.
 
You mentioned in May you were giving up your Droid and going back to Blackberry.

Something changed your mind?

Depending on where you're coming from, I might move your post to the Droid troubleshooting section for you so you can have some of your issues addressed.
 
@Biking

What model and version do you have? Mine doesn't have many of the issues you encountered. For instance, my calendar always default to the current day.

The 16 icons for a home screen isn't enough? Don't you have multiple home screens on your phone?
 
lordofthereef said:
Just thought I would point out that I don;t believe the entirity of this space is actually available for app installation. I think there is actual specified amount of memory available on all phones. With the 16gb I am assuming you are thinking of the Nexus S. I can't speak for that, but another phone, the Incredible, has 8GB on board, however not all of that is actually available for application installation. I would guess the same holds true for the Nexus S, although someone else might know better and prove me wrong.
Click to expand...


You are correct, my phone has 16gb internal with 2gb reserved for app storage.
 
Tre Lawrence said:
Sweet heavens, Biking... freezing? What device do you have?
Click to expand...

He said he uses a droid. I assume this is the Original Droid, now also being coined D1, although the term "droid" seems to have become synonymous with Verizon's android devices for some.

FWIW, I have not really heard of anyone's Droid [insert model here] freezing at all, so it seems this person's issues might be somewhat unique.

As a side note, I had a BlackBerry pearl on TMO for a while that was just the slowest POS anyone has seen. From a fresh boot it would sometimes take it too long to actually physically ring before the call was missed. ome research showed that TMO models had this issue while VZW models did not. I say this only because I don't think it is necessarily fair to generalize about an OS, manufacturer, or provider, knowing you had issues with one specific product.
 
Biking said:
I used Palm and Blackberry(8 different units) devices for years, so a droid was not a great leap. However, I am greatly disappointed with a number of flaws in the device and/or the design. Now using 2nd unit with many of the same issues as the first unit.

Droid Areas of Concern:
- randomly dialed calls to contacts. If I did not have a bluetooth ear piece and the ability to think on my feet, it would be a complete disaster. Remedy: protective film lowers the frequency from multiple calls per day to a few per week.
- any direct dial contact on home screen will be called automatically (while unit on desk-not in pocket) without being touched. Good thing it goes to speaker automatically to give me opportunity to save face. Remedy: no direct dials on home screen.
- setting a calendar appointment always starts with a date in the past, weeks early at times. No remedy.
- Music player will play any pod cast on the device - any time without any action on my part. Remedy: do not have any music or pod casts.
- powering off while battery fully charged. Remedy: replace unit.
- ring volume resets to low randomly. Remedy: constantly check ring volume.

HUGE ANNOYANCE:
- contacts consolidate: Many contacts have the same term or title with separate phone #s and addresses. All like named contacts are now one large contact with multiple phone numbers. Example: John Smiths are now a single contact with numerous addresses and phones. Reduced the contact count from 4000 to 2600. Remedy: don't use droid.

Less serious and still annoying:
- opening contacts will always active voice dialing
- voice dialing cannot permanently be disabled.
- many unnecessary applications run and cannot be permanently stopped: Amazon shopping, voice search, MP3 service, news/weather, uploads, visual voice mail(fee for service), etc.
- requires daily power off/on cycle to run without freezing.
- keyboard contact point cannot be altered. Always picks letter to right of finger tip.
- home screen icon spacing limits # of icon to 16(?).
- protective film increases pressure required to activate item. Read above - is a must have to avoid random dialing.
- many apps require 2 or more unnecessary touches to start an action: contact search - must disable voice dialing then start keying text to search.

If any one has a solution to these issues, please provide them. To date the only appropriate solution is: flingbuy. Fling droid at a solid wall then buy a different kind of phone.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I've never heard of MOST of this! I don't know anyone who has had random dialing, spontaneous dialing, any difference in perceived 'pressure' (the screens operate by electrical signal change, not pressure!), and I can't even tell what you're getting at with the contact search thing! When I want to contact search, I usually just hit the google search widget on my homescreen, same as when I want to open an app not located on on a homescreen or look up a web page or virtually anything else I want on the phone.

I don't mean to be a jerk, but if I had a phone I hated this much, I can't imagine how I could be compelled to buy another one! I mean, I wouldn't carry a BB or iPhone again if you bought it for me and paid the service plan.
 
torquey said:
I don't mean to be a jerk, but if I had a phone I hated this much, I can't imagine how I could be compelled to buy another one! I mean, I wouldn't carry a BB or iPhone again if you bought it for me and paid the service plan.
Click to expand...

Wow, pretty strong feeling there. So long as the phone made calls I would take it off your hands, if I didn't have to pay a dime for it ;)
 
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