Finally pulled the trigger and got a droid...

[mobilemedic20]

Loving it so far! What a huge relief after my aging Curve 8330... When I had to pull the battery on that thing 3 or 4 times yesterday (within 2 hours), I decided enough's enough, time for an upgrade. Got the Droid last night.

Really liking it so far, and have downloaded Hancent SMS, Beautiful Widgets, Weatherbug, Advanced App Killer Free (may upgrade to the pro so it works automatically), and a couple other things, but trying to keep it simple.

One question that I haven't been able to answer... I want the phone to EITHER ring OR vibrate, but not both. Currently, I can only get it to Ring AND Vibrate, or just vibrate. Is there a way to adjust this? It's not a dealbreaker, but it'd be nice. I'm using the Vibrate Beautiful Widget thing to switch to vibrate, which is handy.

Amazing how well this phone works for gmailers. It just clicks!

Any other app recommendations? I've been searching like crazy (Which is how I ended up with what I have) but it's hard to sift through all the posts. I've read that locale is supposed to be cool, but the reviews on market say it's buggy? Is that true? And it's $10 right?

Oh and one more question... I have another email account that's not Gmail (it is IMAP and POP3 compatible). But I can't figure out how to configure it to send messages. I.e., what SMTP server address to use? There's none provided by the provider of the e-mail address (my school).

 

[polar135]

Check this thread for some top 5 apps-

http://forum.androidcentral.com/android-apps/522-your-top-5-android-applications.html

 

[stefanl]

just a quick tip:

i would have any kind of 'task killer' installed. From what i have read, they do more harm than good. Sometimes they kill things that need to keep running and its actually uses more CPU than all your other low powered backround apps may. Android has a great internal task killer method.

Welcome to the family, you wont regret it. I was a longtime blackberry user and i havent looked back yet.

and when you get enough courage you should try the whole hacking thing. Its easy to learn and you can do amazing things. For instance, i have an awesome ROM (sholes 2.0.6) with live wallpapers, 5 screens, pinch and zoom, and all the goodies

good luck

 

[stefanl]

i WOULD NOT have a task killer. not would

 

[mobilemedic20]

i WOULD NOT have a task killer. not would

Thanks for the tips... Can others comment on this? I've had a number of people recommend the task killer for the purpose of preserving battery life. So even though there's a built in app killer, App Killer might help battery life, no?

 

[Hoagie5252]

Don't worry the android OS takes good care of itself unlike the bb OS.

 

[mobilemedic20]

Don't worry the android OS takes good care of itself unlike the bb OS.

With my past history of OS abuse, can you blame me for being paranoid?

 

[xliderider]

screebl is a good app, you can set the backlight to timeout for the shortest duration (15 seconds) to save your battery, unless you are holding the phone, then it will stay on. Good for when you are reading, playing a game that doesn't require a lot of touchscreen interaction, etc.

xScope and Dolphin are popular alternatives to the default browser.

 

[brdl04]

Great choice!

 

[Jared DiPane]

I used to use the task killer, and read some comments that the android OS does a killer job of managing all of this on its own. So I stopped use of it and let it control itself, and WOW it does a great job and performs just as well as when I was wasting my time in using it.

When the app runs in the background and the OS determines it doesnt need it, it will kill the process for you.

 

[mobilemedic20]

screebl is a good app, you can set the backlight to timeout for the shortest duration (15 seconds) to save your battery, unless you are holding the phone, then it will stay on. Good for when you are reading, playing a game that doesn't require a lot of touchscreen interaction, etc.

xScope and Dolphin are popular alternatives to the default browser.

This sounds useful, I'll check it out! Also anyone use Sound Manager? I'm thinking of trying that out for the vibrate issue.