Support Group for those switching from WebOS (palm pre) to Nexus S 4g

[mr_moist#AC]

I switched on launch day to the Nexus S from an original Pre as well. I do miss the cards, Synergy, and the WebOS community, but I got tired of waiting on HP to get something to market. I also hated having to sit back while all the apps I wanted only made it to iOS and Android. It's an adjustment but I'm glad so far that I made it. Somehow I get the feeling that HP will ditch WebOS in a few years. They are trying to control it and put it on everything just like Apple does but they forget the fact that they're not Apple haha.

 

[dufusbrain]

i hear we can play FM radio on this new Nexus S, but didn't see an app for it. How do we hear FM radio?

What's a good Twitter app?

(obviously new to Android. Had day one Sprint Pre-, until day one Sprint Nexus S.)

 

[piaband]

I switched on launch day to the Nexus S from an original Pre as well. I do miss the cards, Synergy, and the WebOS community, but I got tired of waiting on HP to get something to market. I also hated having to sit back while all the apps I wanted only made it to iOS and Android. It's an adjustment but I'm glad so far that I made it. Somehow I get the feeling that HP will ditch WebOS in a few years. They are trying to control it and put it on everything just like Apple does but they forget the fact that they're not Apple haha.

Coming from another Pre minus user, I disagree 100% with your statement. They arent controlling it like Apple does. Apple actively works against what are called "jailbreakers." HP welcomes them with open arms, giving them the tools to fix any problems that arise. Also, they gave the leading development group a $10,000 HP server to host Preware. You think Apple will ever give Geohot a server? Think again.

I love webOS and I hope it succeeds. If it does, I will be quick to return to it.

I need some Android to hold me over while Hp reshuffles the deck though. I also cannot stand the uncertainty of ever getting a great device. With Android, I currently have 2 to 3 great devices on my carrier, with 3 more coming this summer (on my carrier). WebOS may never come to Sprint again.

 

[Telperion]

Seesmic and TweetDeck are popular Twitter clients, but there's 4 or 5 good and popular ones to choose from.

 

[piaband]

Just got the Nexus a few hours ago. I must say I am completely and utterly shocked by the bad/average reviews. This thing is amazing. It is fast, responsive, FUN, and everything seems to work just like it should for me. Ive checked out GPS, it thought i was in my back yard. WiFi works fine in my entire house. Screen is plenty bright.

I was all ready to send it back, but I think I'll be hanging onto this bad boy for a while.

I was afraid to lose "just type," but voice commands on the Nexus are like just type on steroids.

I'm in love.

 

[mlief]

Have had my Nexus S since Monday. So far it has lived up to my expectations, and overall delivers just a far more rich user expereince given the OS is so much more developed in terms of features. There are some mixed feelings however:

Pros

Beautiful screen
Solid hardware
Love voice commands
Love the fact that it has a full maps program with navigation (haven't used yet but still happy)
Love having option of swype
full feature camera with lots of settings
Tons of apps to choose from (for example NY Times app fully developed vs my webos one that was still in infancy/beta and relied on a connection at all times)

Cons

Miss being able to swipe away emails, etc - hate the email client. How do you file emails from the inbox to folders??? After two days I still haven't figured that out.

Calender just doesn't seem as functional as the one on WebOS but I have to play with it some more.

Seriously missing cards...such a better way to multitask and easy. Perhaps just need to get used to this widget thing....

Miss the WebOS notification system. Don't mind the drag down but not as big a fan, but this is minor and will get used to it

So overall, I'm sticking with the Nexus for now. Have 30days....and don't think I'd go back again because of all the features and depth of the OS itself that Android offers over WebOS. I don't see HP implementing so many of features (voice commands, etc) anytime soon.

 

[bbergmanvc]

First review/comments

I've had my Nexus S since Saturday, and am quite happy to shove a stake in the heart of the poor *hardware* that was the Pre. I love WebOS, even today (and even as an iOS developer and iPad user), so maybe if they create some decent hardware, I'll go back.

BTW, I credit Sprint with a lot of my shame and angst because they couldn't seem to get ANY decent new smartphones for the past two years. Evo was the only one until Saturday.

On the Pre, I will miss:
- physical keyboard, even as cramped as it was
- awesome, beautiful, talented camera
- great WebOS

I played with the Nexus S for almost the entire day Saturday and I ALMOST took it back. Not because it wasn't working, but because I made the mistake of looking at my wife's Epic 4G phone. ;-)

The Epic is a big beast of a phone, but it has a beautiful slider keyboard, and honestly, one of the nicest UI's of any phone I've seen. That TouchWiz 3.0 interface seems to be a love/hate thing with many Android users, but I found it just beautiful to use and view. For example, take your stock Nexus S "phone keypad" or "messaging app" and compare it with the Epic's equivalent -- the Epic is gorgeous. The display actually seems brighter and more crisp as well, even though it supposedly is the same exact technology (not a S-AMOLED+ either). The Epic screen is a big bigger in width, but not relevant.

Anyhow, after borrowing my wife's Epic all day, I was non-plussed with the stock Nexus S UI. Really, I thought about taking it back and getting an Echo. About the only thing that stopped me was that the Echo uses the same UI. So, like any good, dissatisfied user, I went to the forums. ;-)

I found my saving grace in an app called LauncherPro. I downloaded the free version (which just doesn't include the widgets) and it so improved my experience that I paid for the full version (about $3.50US) within an hour. The full version is worth it, since the widgets are beautiful (and similar to the built-in widgets that come with the Epic's UI). I now have seven windows, organized as follows (from L to R):

1: Facebook widget, taking up full screen. Love it! Perfect!
2: Top widget: news and weather
One row of "most read" apps (Kindle, Pulse, Break.com, Fandango)
Engadget widget
One row of music/deal apps (EverPaper, DealDrop, Pandora, SoundHound)
3: My "home" screen with the google voice search widget at top
One row of mobility apps (Clock, Voice Dial, Car Home**, Foursquare)
One row of dedicated call/text my wife and kids icons
One row of Angry Birds games ;-)
4: The power widget across the top
A set of folders for remote access apps, calculators, social media apps, etc
Stuff related to apps (ATK, Market, Downloads)
An empty row
5: A 3/4 size calendar widget from LauncherPro, and the stock Calendar icon to the right side of that
ColorNote below that, and Jorte below that (notes and to-do apps)
Bottom of this window is the Google Docs widget, expanded
6: People widget from LauncherPro (2x4) with "starred for Android" people shows in the quick dial
Bookmarks widget from LauncherPro
7: Photo frame widget of my family
Gallery icon to that side
Two empty rows below that for growth

Now, one of the cool things about LauncherPro is that the bottom ("dock") apps can be scrolled! I made my 10 wide (two screens of dock apps) and customized them all like this (L to R again):
Phone
RPN Calculator
Applications Grid
Go SMS Pro (replacing that plain vanilla messaging app)
Email for work
Email for home
Camera
Browser
Contacts
TextPlus

I chose the Froyo look to the doc, so it seems integrated and seamless. I left the window selector bar on the bottom so I know what window I'm in. I left the notification bar/widget alone, except to make ATK part of the bar (another must-have app to keep memory clean; think of it as how you throw away cards from the Pre days).

In general, I didn't think the messaging app was worth crap, but Go SMS Pro is beautiful. Get it. I swapped out the deault "network" live wall paper with the "Nightfall Live" wallpaper, which is gorgeous and soothing. I used the free one, but may actually buy the full version soon.

(BTW, did you Pre owners know that in the Android Market, you can RETURN any app you don't like for a full refund if you do it within 15 minutes of purchase? THAT is a beautiful thing, my friends...)

I've also configured LaunchPro to show all the windows, very much like Pre Cards, when double-tapping Home. Longpressing still gets to the Recent Apps menu. Longpressing Search brings up voice search, which I love. I used NoLED for notifications when the phone is quiescent.

The Car Home app is a full-on *facepalm* app! Why didn't someone think of this before? Awesome! I have it set so that as soon as I get in my truck, it automatically starts up, and then when I leave my truck for more than 45 seconds, it goes back to normal Android mode. I then customized it with other must-have apps like SoundHound, Pandora, GasBuddy and so on. PERFECT for driving now!

So, after the customizations above, I feel like I'm now at a point where I'm better than with the Pre, definitely better than the stock (plain vanilla Froyo) Nexus S, and even a tad more productive than with my wife's Epic 4G. I just wish I could get her phone keypad -- it's so much cleaner than the Nexus S.

And with all of the discussion of the NFC advances from GoogleIO this week (go to engadget.com and read up on it), the Nexus S is definitely "THE" phone to have right now! I can't wait to try out some of the NFC apps that are available now. A couple guys from work have the Nexus S (3G and 4G) and we are excited about swapping contacts, videos and web URL's. There will be great things coming from the NFC world this year.

Good job Samsung! Sprint has me for at least another year or so! ;-)

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[Kloneicle]

Just got the Nexus a few hours ago. I must say I am completely and utterly shocked by the bad/average reviews. This thing is amazing. It is fast, responsive, FUN, and everything seems to work just like it should for me. Ive checked out GPS, it thought i was in my back yard. WiFi works fine in my entire house. Screen is plenty bright.

I was all ready to send it back, but I think I'll be hanging onto this bad boy for a while.

I was afraid to lose "just type," but voice commands on the Nexus are like just type on steroids.

I'm in love.

I can aggree with this post 100%.

Cons;

The e-mail app on the pre is better by some ways. IE; On the webOS you could choose the e-mail your sending from easily. On android you have to click that account then hit compose. There's no way to change it on the fly.

The messaging app only allows 1 message to be sent at a time, theres no roll over to another message. (rumor has it it will be resolved with a update).

Facebook intergration, its just not there. It was removed in 2.3.4 on the Nexus S 4G, but not the Nexus One.

Multitasking is a joke on this, I had a game open and went to read a email and open up a internet webpage. When I went to go back in the game. It had closed and I needed to start over. There is nothing like webOS.

Apps, now I can count this as a con becuase believe it or not, two apps I used on the pre are BETTER then they are on android. InterfaceLift (aka BackDrops), and NewsRoom (same). They are both leaps nicer and better preforming then Android's version.

No alt messaging account integration. I find this lame that it doesn't have it. I have to go into aim to send a aim.

Thoe the e-mail app is faster, the action of viewing a html e-mail was better on the Palm Pre. Scrolling from Left to Right is difficult, and there appears to be no pinch and zoom in the e-mail app so far.

Android fails on copy and paste, its there but non-standardized. webOS has its mark above.

Wireless Charging Built In, android doesn't have a stock option for this, yeah powermat all you want. Nothing comes close to the Touchstone.

Swipe to Delete is by far more efficient then Tap/Hold and hope for delete.

Pros;

Speed, there is tons of it, everything is instant no delay. Everything is faster, even 3g browsing.

Apps, the pre had most of what I would use on a daily basis, but Android has more ie; TeamViewer, Logmein etc.

Voice to Text, this is unbeatable. The usefulness of a feature like this is beyond words one of the best selling points of android.

Swype, once you get used to it, it can be quite handy to use. I started with a virtual keyboard phone, then went to the Palm Pre. And now I'm back to virtual keyboard. They both are functional for me. But swype makes it so much easier to use.

Navigation, I would have to say hands down beats sprint nav, both in speed and functionalilty. Plus it has Landscape! I did find the "tts" speech to be lacking in quality thoe.

Market, currently there are tons of Patches available for the Palm Pre, this is great. However with something like Swype to be available in the Market it makes it handy for people to apply a patch to a app like the messaging app. Makes me wonder why android doesn't allow more messaging protocol's attached to the messaging.

Widgets, I never thought i'd like them, but they are really rubbing off on me. IE; I have a clock, a newsreader, weather, and a led toggle. Just makes sense. Like a windows desktop.

Thats it for right now, almost a week of usage (bought it on Friday). Overall I'm quite satisfied, and I will be hard-pressed to switch back to webOS just due to the lack of apps and voice features. If it had those two, I would do it without question. But at this point. Im happy.

 

[clindner]

I read in another thread someone talking about the WiFi going to sleep when the phone is turned off.

I was thinking that for the Pre, the WiFi is always on, even when powered off. If not, how does it get push email and notifications when turned off, via 3G?

Anyone know more about this? Seems strange to me that the WiFi would ever go off on a smartphone that is frequently receiving data...

 

[maryinredding]

You can set your wifi to never turn off in the wifi settings. Found that on one of threads here.

 

[maryinredding]

I have downloaded LauncerPro but I don't know how to use it. Can you help with this???

 

[s14tat]

With Launcher pro you will hit the capacitive menu button on your phone. You will go to preference instead of config. Preference will take you to the launcher pro config menu.

With Launcher Pro you can config which page your home screen is, how many homescreen you want, how many short cuts on at bottom dock. You can change the swipe animation as your swiping from screen to screen with transition affects ( its in the transition menu ) You can set the home page to rotate from landscape to portrait.

Just play around with it a little and you will be always find new stuff to adjust.

 

[twbrooklyn]

Still haven't pulled the trigger, my pre- is still holding on by a thread and I am hoping HP/Palm has something to annouce for June or else. I just bought my wife an Epic, was originally going to buy her a Nexus, but she needed a keyboard. I need to get up to speed asap on Android so I will be trolling for a while!

 

[Telperion]

Cons;

The messaging app only allows 1 message to be sent at a time, theres no roll over to another message. (rumor has it it will be resolved with a update).

Facebook intergration, its just not there. It was removed in 2.3.4 on the Nexus S 4G, but not the Nexus One.

No alt messaging account integration. I find this lame that it doesn't have it. I have to go into aim to send a aim.

Android fails on copy and paste, its there but non-standardized. webOS has its mark above.

As a recent Pre to Evo user, I can help you out with some of the Android quirks:

1. Stock messaging isn't very good, but GoSMS is excellent. More features, themes, and the ability to split messages by default. It also has folders, favorites, ability to back up your text messages, pop up notifications, etc. That's part of the greatness of Android; don't like the stock app? No problem, there are tons of good alternatives in the Market.

2. Facebook still syncs, but just not the pictures. If need-be, you can always use FB 1.5.2, there are .apk's floating around for it on the internet.

3. Tons of 3rd party messaging clients on Android, just hit up the Market for AIM and other messaging protocols (Trillian, for example).

4. Copy and paste is very easy, long press to display a cursor, then drag the handles to select a section of text. Once selected, tap to copy. In an editable text field, just double tap to select a word, then drag the handles to select a section, then tap to get a cut, copy, and paste menu. 2.3 (The Nexus S) has improved text select features, so it's quite standard, just an update over 2.2's method. Play around with it for practice, but you'll find it is easier, I much prefer it to WebOS after getting used to it.

I'm no salesman, I just recently had to go through this process of adjusting to Android so I can share my experience with adapting and how I did.

 

[dbtabasco]

Are you sure you are doing the copy and paste correctly. I think it is genius and works so much better than the pre... I miss the meta tap but hey I will get past that.

I have found some great apps that so far I love
- Widget locker - $1.99 allows you to add widgets and extra sliders to the lock screen.
- Has a widget for %battery (when not being charged)
- direct access to google goggles (cause I am playing with it all the time)
- Slider unlock for camera and TeslaLED for emergency lighting if needed.
- pandora widget on the lock screen ,

Go Launcher ex - free launcher, easier to organize (so far).

NoLED -

Handcent SMS - free SMS that allows you to split your txt messages if over 160 characters.

 

[gstein17]

Glad to find a new home

My Pre- finally went kaput with ghost taps and erratic behavior. I loved overclocking, homebrew, and the close-knit dev community. I hope to be lured back one day when hardware comes to Sprint. I will still follow WebOS developments on Twitter and now direct my browser to AC. Mine shipped today so I feel like a kid at Christmas waiting for my Santa; only mine's in a big brown truck.

Thank you for starting this thread.

Greg

 

[clindner]

Can anyone comment on the signal strength and data performance of their Nexus as compared to their Pre?

All of the people having problems with theirs has really got me spooked. I'm glad I waited I think. My Pre has never been great with signal, but I am in a really difficult spot at work, done in a low area, equally distant between three towers. On my Pre here at work, I usually only have 2-3 bars. If load goes up on the towers, it either starts jumping between towers, or the signal drops to zero.

When I first got the 3G Treo, they actually sent a Sprint technician out in a van full of equipment, and he explained the issue to me.

So, I'm wondering if I will be wasting my time by getting a Nexus, and not getting any service. Anyone have comparisions on signal strength?

 

[darealm]

Can anyone comment on the signal strength and data performance of their Nexus as compared to their Pre?

All of the people having problems with theirs has really got me spooked. I'm glad I waited I think. My Pre has never been great with signal, but I am in a really difficult spot at work, done in a low area, equally distant between three towers. On my Pre here at work, I usually only have 2-3 bars. If load goes up on the towers, it either starts jumping between towers, or the signal drops to zero.

When I first got the 3G Treo, they actually sent a Sprint technician out in a van full of equipment, and he explained the issue to me.

So, I'm wondering if I will be wasting my time by getting a Nexus, and not getting any service. Anyone have comparisions on signal strength?

Sprint has officially acknowledged the signal issues so I am patiently waiting for a fix. I have faith that the problems will be resolved soon. If u are ready to take the jump over to android / can no longer wait for new webOS devices (like me) I can't make a higher recommendation for the nexus...its simply an awesome device.

And you always have the option of returning within 30 days

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

 

[Pack4now]

got it yesterday. love the phone but did you guys have the "spirnt guy" copy over your contacts? i did and I got at least 2 contacts for each person and phone number? whats up with that and how can i clean that up. I now have somting like 640 contacts!

I went into to google contacts and cleaned it up...alot quicker then on phone, I just merged most of them. Worked like a charm...I was like you, had 630 contacts now down to 530.

 

[ramk13]

Still haven't pulled the trigger, my pre- is still holding on by a thread and I am hoping HP/Palm has something to annouce for June or else. I just bought my wife an Epic, was originally going to buy her a Nexus, but she needed a keyboard. I need to get up to speed asap on Android so I will be trolling for a while!

It's eerie how similar my post would have been. My Pre was holding on by a thread (iffy spacebar, broken power button, google maps problems) but I decided that I wasn't going to wait any longer. If HP had even announced that the Pre 3 was coming to Sprint then I may have waited to see, but we don't have that. I also asked my wife about getting the Nexus, but she wanted a keyboard so we went with the Epic for her.

I will say I don't regret the change. Android is just as customizable, the community is even larger and almost every app that's out there exists in some form for Android. As for the phone itself, it's very fast and responsive. Much more so than my 1 GHz overclocked 1.x Pre. I do miss cards, Dr Podder, and swipe to delete.