Help an Iphone guy out

[jlinder]

I've had a few smartphones including a treo, a few blackberry's, a winmo phone I'd like to forget about and the iphone. I've really been impressed with the Droid reviews and the promise that android continues to show. I'm self employed (in sales) so I use my phone for business and personal use, but the business side is what's most important to me. The longer I've had my iphone the more things I realize it doesn't do but should. These are a few things I'd like to know if the Droid will handle well or if there's a good android app for:

• single inbox for mutliple email accounts
• single place for alerts including sms, email, vm, missed calls, ect
• ability to store and view pdf docs easily both from my pc and email
• easy transfer of photos into some sort of album from my pc
• home screen that shows the days calendar items and tasks
• good integration with google and google apps items (I would assume this is no problem)
• voicemail like my iphone (i know verizon has something similar, is this a native android feature?)

I guess the biggest dislike about my iphone is constantly switching between sms messages and the multiple email inboxes I have, one area where the blackberry whoops the iphone in my world.

I'm guessing that most google products work seamlessly with the droid? ie gmail, google calendar, reader, docs, voice.

Thanks for any input, and if any of you are former iphone users your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[jlinder]

Another ?

How stable is your Droid? I'm used to the occasional battery pull for my blackberry phones but I can only think of 1 time I had to reset my iPhone. How's the Driod?

 

[largeselection]

1) There is a single inbox for accounts that you add to it. It works well, but it is not push. So if you add a bunch of gmail accounts to it, you can have a combined box, but they won't push. (also I've had an issue where emails in that email app don't stay deleted or read)
2)the single place for alerts would be the notification pane that you drag down from the top. It will show you your sms, emails, vm, etc
3)PDF functions seem robust to me. I have an app where I can take a picture of a document and it will email a PDF of it.
4)I've transferred photos easily. You can transfer them to the SD card like any external HD.
5)You can have multiple screens that show different calendars/tasks ;-) You can get different widgets which will display calendar/tasks
6)great integration with google. gmail is great. You can mark things as read, star them, add labels, and it's two way sync so if you read something on your computer it will mark as read on the droid and vice versa
7)visual voice mail is an add on from verizon. You could also get youmail which will do the same thing and also has transcription. And then there's always google voice voicemail.

Your dislike about the iphone will remain a bit for the droid i'm afraid. One of my gripes too and something I miss about my tour. SMS is separate, gmail accounts are separate (if you want them to push), etc.

Droid is very stable. I'm actually running a 2.1 build and it's still super stable. If an app/widget/something force closes, it opens so quickly again that it doesn't bother me. Don't have to do any battery pulls. You can actually power the droid down and it accomplishes the same thing as pulling the battery in a BB. The droid does a MUCH better job of managing memory as well.

 

[nbobimchak]

The Pure Messenger Widget (look it up in the Market) is a widget that can combine all SMS and email accounts into one big widget. It's nice because it is always on your homescreen, but as a widget, it has some shortcomings. I believe it's available in anything from a 4x1 to a 4x4 widget size, though, so it's pretty customizable.

 

[largeselection]

does the pure messenger widget work for multiple gmail accounts? I had it on my droid for awhile, but it only supported one gmail account at the time.

 

[mclarryjr]

It is only one gmail account but could add other non gmail accounts and facebook. Pure calendar is a great widget for appointments with many skins and sizes.

Blackberry will have better email support but you will be happy with the doc to go on the droid much better (10xfaster) on the droid. I never had an iphone so I can't compare the droid to it.

 

[corydunbar]

• single inbox for mutliple email accounts
• single place for alerts including sms, email, vm, missed calls, ect
• ability to store and view pdf docs easily both from my pc and email
• easy transfer of photos into some sort of album from my pc
• home screen that shows the days calendar items and tasks
• good integration with google and google apps items (I would assume this is no problem)
• voicemail like my iphone (i know verizon has something similar, is this a native android feature?)

• single inbox for mutliple email accounts

As of right now, Gmail doesn't support this, so you'll have to jump accounts. fortunately, its only 3 screen taps.

• single place for alerts including sms, email, vm, missed calls, ect.

I haven't found anything that does this, it is a feature i greatly miss from my Blackberry Storm. Pure Messenger does something similar, but it is a widget not an actual location.

• ability to store and view pdf docs easily both from my pc and email

A great free app for PDF viewing is IcViewer for PDF, Word, PS

• easy transfer of photos into some sort of album from my pc

The new 2.1 Gallery with multi-touch is great at moving photos, so my preference is to just dump them in my picture folder that i created and move them around in there.

But if you want to be able to dump directly into albums, Create a Pictures folder on your SD card, then create another folder titled what you want your album to be.

• home screen that shows the days calendar items and tasks

Download the Smooth Calendar widget (FREE), or Pure Calendar ($1.99)

• good integration with google and google apps items (I would assume this is no problem)

Everything works together seemlessly, you have to do nothing. That is unless you're like me and when you transfered phones, your contacts weren't set up as mobile numbers. So you'll have to change them all. (Its faster using gmail from a computer than using your phone.

• voicemail like my iphone (i know verizon has something similar, is this a native android feature?)

Youmail Visual Voicemail is a great visual voicemail application that is web synced and you can set personal greetings for each caller. (highly recommend)

 

[largeselection]

I really wish there was an app that would have an all-in-one combined inbox like the BB. I tried the pure messenger widget again and it works like the email app in that you can have multiple gmails/emails but then you lose push. I just want to be able to see all of my emails/sms/missed calls/gchats/etc in one place. Hopefully someone will release something capable of this to replace the gmail/email apps. Kind of like handcent replaced my sms.