Tips for a previous BB user?

[SOTK]

So, I've been BB smartphone user for a few years. Made the jump to Droid with the Fascinate this week. I like to tinker with my phones and love Apps so it was inevitable that I would eventually jump ship from BB. Don't get me wrong, I think there are some things BB still does very well, but for me, it was just becoming too boring.

I'm pretty happy with my experience thus far with the Fascinate. I do miss being able to customize my contact alerts (text messages in particular) and having trouble getting used to typing on this phone (I posted about this in a thread about the keyboard already).

What I am hoping to get in this thread is just a few tips from somebody who is coming from a BB. For example, is there an App or setting I'm missing for a Clock? I miss the charging/clock functionality with my BB. I like keeping my phone on my nightstand while sleeping. With my Storm 2, as soon as I plugged it in for charging, the clock came up and I could easily put it into "bedside mode" where it would dim the clock face. I could also set it up to turn the radio off. Anything like this for Droid?

With BB, you could back up your entire phone. Can you do this with the Droid? If so, what software?

At any rate, I'm sure there are others of you who have made the switch from a BB to a Droid. Thought we could maybe share tips to ease the transition a tad.

 

[xliderider]

I'm pretty happy with my experience thus far with the Fascinate. I do miss being able to customize my contact alerts (text messages in particular)

Try Handcent SMS from the Market. It is very customizable. Just go into your stock messaging app after you setup Handcent and disable the notifications (sound and notification bar), or you will get double notifications everytime you get a message.

and having trouble getting used to typing on this phone (I posted about this in a thread about the keyboard already).

Are you using the default keyboard, which is Swype? You can change to the Android keyboard by long pressing in a text entry field and choosing Input Method, Android keyboard.

What I am hoping to get in this thread is just a few tips from somebody who is coming from a BB. For example, is there an App or setting I'm missing for a Clock? I miss the charging/clock functionality with my BB. I like keeping my phone on my nightstand while sleeping. With my Storm 2, as soon as I plugged it in for charging, the clock came up and I could easily put it into "bedside mode" where it would dim the clock face. I could also set it up to turn the radio off. Anything like this for Droid?

Yes, use the Desk Cradle app included on the Fascinate.

With BB, you could back up your entire phone. Can you do this with the Droid? If so, what software?

The best ones require you to root your device. ATM, nothing like Desktop Manager available for Android.

At any rate, I'm sure there are others of you who have made the switch from a BB to a Droid. Thought we could maybe share tips to ease the transition a tad.

To setup your Device to automatically enter your voicemail password:

From Homescreen, press Menu, Settings, Call Settings, Voicemail, in the Voicemail number entry box, edit the field to *86,,XXXX#, where XXXX is your voicemail password. The commas are pauses. To call voicemail, long press on 1 in your dialer screen.

Responses in red above.

 

[SOTK]

Awesome, man. Thanks! I was wondering about voicemail password. Thanks much!

 

[cybermonkeyssf]

I had a BlackBerry Bold before getting the Droid.
Biggest thing is knowing the phones are different, and if at first you don't see a way to do something that could be done with a BB, hit the net, google and even here to find out how to do it.
Hope you enjoy the Fascinate, I know I am enjoying mine mucho bunches.

 

[oldAGE]

Hang in there... long time BB user now on week two and we are getting there. There are quirks and bugs that need to be fixed (like playing .wav files!!!) for us enterprise VoIP users but I have to admit I am liking this device.

One issue I have with the community at large is that "everything is fixed with an app..." Well, I am finding that is not the case either. Ralf at Timeriffic responded to my bug report with "well, it doesn't work perfectly on all devices..." Having been an IT professional for over 25 years, I find that a difficult pill to swallow. That is why I believe in robust native OS integration and functionality. If an HTC on 2.1 is that much different than a GalaxyS on 2.1, then the Android community will not gain any traction on Apple. We'll be no better than Microsoft and PCs.

So, welcome to what is promising to be a better world. Heck, I just said to my wife, "man, this phone is fast..." while I showed her how fast Weatherbug rendered an animated radar image while we were being blasted by a thunderstorm this morning.

AGE

 

[namebrandon]

Try using Google Voice (you can set it up and choose just to use voicemail, which is all I use). The voicemail feature is amazing, text messages/emails with caller ID info, plus transcribed voicemails.. it's great.

 

[nycdoc]

is there a way for the phone to flash or notify u if you have a message waiting

 

[skimore2020]

You can use an app called "NoLED". This will put a colored dot on your screen to let you know that you have some type of notification waiting. The LED is the only thing that I miss about my BB's.

 

[SOTK]

So, regarding email, i've noticed in google mail on my phone that the entirety of an email is not shown. For example, if I reply to an email sent to me and then get another reply, a part of my previous reply is caught off with dots (...). How do you see the rest of the email chain?

 

[tommucha]

Also a recent BB convert after using those devices for years. Gotta say I miss many things too like the single inbox for all my communications - chats, SMS, exchange email, gmail, etc. I gotta say it gets annoying when I have to switch from gmail to google talk (I miss BBM SO much!) to Touchdown to txt.

Great info about the pin# for voicemail, I was wondering how to get that put in!

 

[SOTK]

So, regarding email, i've noticed in google mail on my phone that the entirety of an email is not shown. For example, if I reply to an email sent to me and then get another reply, a part of my previous reply is caught off with dots (...). How do you see the rest of the email chain?

Never mind. I figured it out. In an email chain, there is a place within Google Mail where you can click on each recipient (including yourself), where you can see what that person has written throughout the email chain. A friend of mine explained to me that google mail is all about the "conversation" style. I guess google mail isn't compatible with other email clients which is why we get the "...". At any rate, I just wanted to be able to go back and read the previous parts of the "chain" and I figured it out.

 

[SOTK]

Also a recent BB convert after using those devices for years. Gotta say I miss many things too like the single inbox for all my communications - chats, SMS, exchange email, gmail, etc. I gotta say it gets annoying when I have to switch from gmail to google talk (I miss BBM SO much!) to Touchdown to txt.

Great info about the pin# for voicemail, I was wondering how to get that put in!

Welcome to the Droid from a fellow recent convert! How are things going? Figuring stuff out?

I never did the whole single inbox thing. I like things separated, but I do miss the integrated Twitter! Oh, well. So far, the things that I kind of miss are overshadowed by all the cool positives of the Android/Fascinate experience!

 

[CaptKotex]

Love this thread! Coming from a BB Curve. I have a question, how do i keep the phone backlight on when its charging? I like to know if i got a message by looking at it and not having to hit a button on the phone.

Thanks!

 

[SOTK]

Love this thread! Coming from a BB Curve. I have a question, how do i keep the phone backlight on when its charging? I like to know if i got a message by looking at it and not having to hit a button on the phone.

Thanks!

Settings>Applications>Development>Stay Awake

Hope you are enjoying your new phone and that your transition from BB to Droid is going okay. I'm almost two weeks in and it has gotten much better. I'm really starting to enjoy this new experience.

 

[CaptKotex]

Awesome! Thanks SOTK. I love this phone, almost runing out of memory lol. SF blows BB off the Earth.

Thanks again