Droid X and Gingerbread

[k0smo86]

That's what I'm talking about!

I sure hope so man! Will be sweet.

Right now I just wish the Gingerbread keyboard was the correct size for the Droid X!

If anyone knows if this has been fixed yet, please shoot me a PM.

Thanks for the link rdillz!

It's fixed in the newest Apex ROM

 

[Deleted User]

Right now I just wish the Gingerbread keyboard was the correct size for the Droid X!

Do you mean you have the "squashed keyboard" issue where it's bizarrely small and impossible to type on?

Just curious because a lot of people are mistaking the fact that the Gingerbread keyboard has smaller keys, with the keyboard sizing problem.

 

[Kevmueller]

The Gingerbread keyboard is smaller, when I first put it on my phone I thought it was way too small to use and removed it. When I went to Apex 1.3 I gave it a try and I love it now. Even though the keys are smaller, I actually seem to type better with them, which makes no sense, but it works. I almost did not get the X because the lack of a physical keyboard, after trying the original keyboard I was happy, with the Gingerbread keyboard I would not want a physical keyboard again.

Also a key for when Verizon gives us a date that Gingerbread will be out:
Before the end of Winter = March 20th
Before the end of Spring = June 20th
Before the end of Summer = September 22nd (We all remember Froyo!!!!)
Before the end of Fall = December 20th

 

[Trooper]

It's fixed in the newest Apex ROM

I was talking about the smaller keys which is not fixed in ApeX. I'm running 1.3.

Do you mean you have the "squashed keyboard" issue where it's bizarrely small and impossible to type on?

Just curious because a lot of people are mistaking the fact that the Gingerbread keyboard has smaller keys, with the keyboard sizing problem.

Yep that's exactly what Im talking about. It was annoying so I'm using the black android kb with ApeX.

The Gingerbread keyboard is smaller, when I first put it on my phone I thought it was way too small to use and removed it. When I went to Apex 1.3 I gave it a try and I love it now. Even though the keys are smaller, I actually seem to type better with them, which makes no sense, but it works. I almost did not get the X because the lack of a physical keyboard, after trying the original keyboard I was happy, with the Gingerbread keyboard I would not want a physical keyboard again.

Also a key for when Verizon gives us a date that Gingerbread will be out:
Before the end of Winter = March 20th
Before the end of Spring = June 20th
Before the end of Summer = September 22nd (We all remember Froyo!!!!)
Before the end of Fall = December 20th

I too have removed it. I wish someone would fix it so that its matches the size of the stock DX kb.

 

[Deleted User]

It's not supposed to be the size of the stock DX keyboard. It will never be the size of the stock DX keyboard. It's substantially shorter because that's how it's built - those keys are designed to be shorter.

If you really mean you have the squished key issue, which was totally unusable and looked wrong (that is, it doesn't just look like a smaller keyboard, it actually looks like it's squished and distorted) I don't know. I am using ApeX 1.3 and have no problems.

 

[Trooper]

It's not supposed to be the size of the stock DX keyboard. It will never be the size of the stock DX keyboard. It's substantially shorter because that's how it's built - those keys are designed to be shorter.

If you really mean you have the squished key issue, which was totally unusable and looked wrong (that is, it doesn't just look like a smaller keyboard, it actually looks like it's squished and distorted) I don't know. I am using ApeX 1.3 and have no problems.

Thank you for being the first person to explain this to me. I've asked before on here and some other sites, but no one gave me a direct answer.

Guess I'm stuck with the default keyboard for now. Maybe I will try this again, but the smaller keys just don't work for me.

Cheers.

 

[Boxytheboxed]

Thank you for being the first person to explain this to me. I've asked before on here and some other sites, but no one gave me a direct answer.

Guess I'm stuck with the default keyboard for now. Maybe I will try this again, but the smaller keys just don't work for me.

Cheers.

The point is to have smaller keys so there is more separation between the keys. Look an an iphone (heresy, i know, but the keyboard is great and you will see that the key themselves are tiny. Your thumbs are only so big, so the theory is that if have tiny keys, the greater distance between keys makes them easier to press, and harder to hit the wrong key. On the old keyboard it was easy to hit the wrong key because the keys were larger. While the new KB requires you to be more accurate where you hit the screen, that can, at least in my case, make it harder to hit the wrong key.

 

[Deleted User]

Guess I'm stuck with the default keyboard for now. Maybe I will try this again, but the smaller keys just don't work for me.

You may want to give it a shot and make yourself use it for a couple days. It's a really, really great keyboard IMO.

That said, one of the best things about Android is you're not stuck with the stock keyboard, so if the DX multi-touch is better for you, I highly recommend sticking with it

 

[drhill]

Root actually gets you quite a bit. In fact with the progress that has been made on the X, Updating the kernel is about the "ONLY" thing you can't do. As Outlaw stated. I will stay on a rooted, tricked out 2.2 until 2.3 is rooted, deodexed, oc'd, and has a full sbf.

All you get to do is swap out the appliances and paint the walls in a rented kitchen. Sure it's nicer, a bit more functional, and makes you feel better. Sadly you don't own it, so you are stuck with the same layout and can't change the counters which is where you do most of your work on.


Might be a bad analogy, but our definitions of "quite a bit" are different in how much we actually own a device we spent a lot of money on.

 

[Kevmueller]

All you get to do is swap out the appliances and paint the walls in a rented kitchen. Sure it's nicer, a bit more functional, and makes you feel better. Sadly you don't own it, so you are stuck with the same layout and can't change the counters which is where you do most of your work on.


Might be a bad analogy, but our definitions of "quite a bit" are different in how much we actually own a device we spent a lot of money on.

I don't think you have a bad analogy, but you have to remember out of the box the Droid X is one of the best phones out on the market, if not the best. So it is not like they made us move in to a shack and we had to fix it up, we moved in to a really nice house with a really nice kitchen.

Rooting and adding a theme, painting the walls to the color we like helps give us the look we want.
Adding a ROM (and if you get the right one) is like getting the top of the line appliances.
Then being able to Overclock/UnderVolt makes the kitchen as functional as you can get it.

At the end of the day could the developers do more if the bootloader was not locked down, yes. I just guess the improvements I have made since I rooted my phone have been so great it does not bother me that much anymore.

I basically have a PC in my pocket that can last all day, do everything I want out of it and make great phone calls.

If/when we get Gingerbread it should make it even better, but I am more than happy with what I have and should be until at least July when I can upgrade again, but there will have to be something that can do more than the X out on the market and I am not sure there will be, I am not in a LTE market to start with.

 

[Deleted User]

All you get to do is swap out the appliances and paint the walls in a rented kitchen. Sure it's nicer, a bit more functional, and makes you feel better. Sadly you don't own it, so you are stuck with the same layout and can't change the counters which is where you do most of your work on.


Might be a bad analogy, but our definitions of "quite a bit" are different in how much we actually own a device we spent a lot of money on.

On the other hand, nobody was hid the fact that it was a rental. If you wanted to own a home, you should have shopped appropriately...

I don't like the locked bootloader, really, but it's a consumer device and nobody forced us to buy it.

 

[Outlaw71]

We had flash before froyo, I didn't notice any better battery life from it. Don't get me wrong, some of the little things from froyo were nice but it's not like any of these updates really improves your experience with the phone significantly. If and when we get gingerbread I am sure it will be nice but I am in no rush and I am not expecting much from it. My phone is running great as is.

"We had flash before froyo" is somewhat misleading. Eclair did not support flash. If you had the Skyfire browser, you were able to watch SOME flash video's. I had Skyfire when I was still on 2.1, I tried to open and watch our business website which is flash based... I was not able to get it to play.

I was able to access some flash content, but nothing like after 2.2 and full flash support came along. Now it doesn't matter what browser you're using, you can access flash sites.

Also, the max vsel value on eclair for the DX was 66. In froyo they bumped it down to 62. Therefore, it isn't a matter of whether or not you noticed an improvement (that's subjective), as a matter of physics the DX runs more efficiently on froyo than it did on eclair.

Now, all this foolishness aside... whether or not your found a difference between the two versions of Android is really all that matters in your Android experience. If the updates don't impress you, well then they don't impress you, simple as that. I was only stating that for my Android buck, the switch from eclair to froyo was worth every penny.

And I don't anticipate the switch to gingerbread will bring about as big a change in my device as that one did.

 

[drhill]

On the other hand, nobody was hid the fact that it was a rental. If you wanted to own a home, you should have shopped appropriately...

I don't like the locked bootloader, really, but it's a consumer device and nobody forced us to buy it.

Hardware wise there has been nothing on the market comparable for me. And there still isn't since the Nexus S is TMobile only with no sd card or led notification.

Motorola and Verizon should have treated this like the original Droid software wise, an open Google phone. At least the option to sign a waiver if I wanted to mess with my phone further would be nice.