Photon Support Group For Palm webOS Users

[sjamie]

My Pre just took 5 mins and 15 seconds to fully boot which is normal for me. I did a cold boot.

 

[stu5797]

i had a pre for 2 years and I have never, ever had a 5 min boot. But who cares... Lets move on.
I miss my palm but I don't think I could go back without voice to text/email.

 

[turnerb]

I just figured out that to see todays date in the notification bar, you just need to pull down the notification bar and it will show you todays date. Its temporary, but at least it provides me a quick way to see the date.

One less thing to worry about.

 

[sjamie]

i had a pre for 2 years and I have never, ever had a 5 min boot. But who cares... Lets move on.
I miss my palm but I don't think I could go back without voice to text/email.

Are you referring to Sprint's service? There is a monthly charge for it, right? How does this feature work?

 

[sjamie]

I just figured out that to see todays date in the notification bar, you just need to pull down the notification bar and it will show you todays date. Its temporary, but at least it provides me a quick way to see the date.

One less thing to worry about.

Yes, or go to your lock screen.

 

[Puzzlegal]

I just figured out that to see todays date in the notification bar, you just need to pull down the notification bar and it will show you todays date. Its temporary, but at least it provides me a quick way to see the date.

One less thing to worry about.

I bought something called "date status bar" from modded logic. It puts the date in the status bar. There's a free version, but for 99? i got an app that doest request any permissions and supports the developer.

It looks very nice next to "battery circle".

 

[Puzzlegal]

(And if there's a way to de-authorize a wifi server, I can't figure it out. That's something I often did with the Pre. I might sometimes use wifi at an airport if there happened to be a good free offer, but if there wasn't, the phone data worked more smoothly if it wasn't trying to check wifi, so I would turn that off again. If anyone knows how to do this on the Photon, please let me know.)

i figured out how to do this. As with all things android, it took a huge number of clicks to get to the right place. It's buried in the phone settings, and you can't even open that set of options unless wifi is on. But it can be done.

 

[ram482]

Just picked up my Photon with dock this past week and I think, actually I know I like it but using HTC Hero for 2 years I am having some transition problems. Like this morning I picked up the phone opened up the home page and I touched something that activated the voice system. I was amazed at well it worked but I can't figure out how to re-activate it. I don't have the widget installed?? Help

Can anyone suggest an app that will put the notifications to sleep when I want to use dock or kick stand for an alarm.

 

[kmcochran]

I have a Sprint Pre- and have been reading the forums over here daily for the past few weeks. I'm still trying to decide between this phone and the Evo 3D. I think the 3D stuff would be fun for my kids, but I'm sure I would use it much except to show it to some friends. I live right between 2 cell phone towers, so reception at my house isn't that great. We've had Moto phones in the past, and feel that their radios are really good and tend to get better reception. My concern with the 3VO is that call quality would be worse than what I have now.

I also have some concerns over HTC support vs. Motorola support for the phones. HTC seems to be a bit more open, has more devs (and some from WebOS are now developing for Android) and some cooler widgets, and I think they may push out updates sooner than the other manufacturers. Motorola seems to have had a bad rap with their previous Blur, and they seem to roll out updates later (but that could be a carrier issue, I'm just not sure). Now with Google buying Motorola, I'm not sure if that will be a good thing or a bad thing. Anyone have any knowledge/experience on this?

Also, how is the GPS on this phone? Seems the 3VO has had some GPS locking issues. While I don't use the GPS a lot for turn-by-turn directions since I have a GPS unit for my car, I do like to browse what's nearby and get directions to that place. That works much better for me than my stand alone GPS unit.

I know I really just need to go try one out, but I don't feel comfortable enough yet to do that.

Oh, and so why did you all choose this phone over the Evo 3D?

Thanks!

 

[Puzzlegal]

Also, how is the GPS on this phone? Seems the 3VO has had some GPS locking issues. While I don't use the GPS a lot for turn-by-turn directions since I have a GPS unit for my car, I do like to browse what's nearby and get directions to that place. That works much better for me than my stand alone GPS unit.

I tried the turn-by-turn GPS yesterday, and other than being a power-hog, it worked great. (Next time I use it, I will bring a charger.) It locked onto its location much faster than my (old) stand-alone GPS unit does. The graphics were clear and the voice commands were well timed.

I liked the integration with the contact list, too. I just asked it to navigate from my house to a friend's house, and it did that, with a minimum of fuss.

Oh, and so why did you all choose this phone over the Evo 3D?

Thanks!

The 3D seemed gimmicky, and of no value to me. I was planning to travel to Germany (last week) and thought it would be handy to have a world phone (it was). People reported that this phone had better battery life than the Evo 3D. I find the battery life disappointing as compared to the Palm Pre- with the 2600 "fat" battery, but it seems to be okay as compared to other Android phones. I think it is at least as good as the Pre with the stock battery, although it's been a very long time since I used that.

Oh - it's compatible with the Pre's charging equipment, by the way. No, it can't use the cool inductive charging facility, and you do have to fuss with little cables. But the Pre's cable and power adapter are compatible, and the magnet on the touchstone holds the kickstand quite nicely, so I'm using that as a stand for my phone, both at work and on my bedside table. I might buy a dock, but for now, this is working nicely.

 

[mgiven]

I also came from the Pre- and also was debating Photon vs EVO 3D (and then deciding keeping it or exchange for SGSII in Sept).

Was a loyal Palm fan going back from the Treao 600 to Treo 650 to Treo 755P to Pre- and I should have jump ship long ago. The Photon is everything I hoped it would be and more. Can't think of very many thinga the Pre and WebOS had over it. The build quality is just night and day. This is a "REAL" phone and built solidly. I haven't been able to say that in awhile.

My one thought was at the end of the month I may think about exchanging and waiting a few weeks to take a look at the SGSII, but was still thinking the Motorola brand and build quality/reputation would still be stronger than Samsung. The news today about Google buying Motorola is a game changer and I'll probably stick with the Photon. I was already "all in" with Google/Android and now the Photon will be under the Google umbrella for hardware as well...updates should be quicker anyway.

 

[kmcochran]

Ok, I just watched some of the Flossy Carter videos on youtube and he just posted a video on the SPB Shell 3D that basically gives you "Sense" on your Photon and it looks really COOL!! Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F7IUuv2nJ8&feature=BFa&list=ULHODcXIB4eoo&index=19 Start the video at about 5:30 as he's just talking about how the Photon beats the Evo3D for the first 5 min.

Now it's an expensive app at $15, but it looks worth every penny, just as Flossy says.

I also noticed the calendar widget right at the beginning of the video (about the 7 min mark). It opens the calendar to today's date and shows all of your appointments. I've seen lots of complaints about the calendar on the Photon, so this may solved that problem.

After watching a couple of this guy's videos, I think I'm now totally sold on the Photon!

 

[milominderbinde]

...Photon disadvantages/Pre Advantages:
...* Pre alerts are a little more informative...
...* The extended life battery...
...* I can use Facebook on the Pre without worrying about Facebook automatically reporting my location...
...* I can set the Pre's calendar to open to this week...
...* "Just type"works beautifully for a large fraction of what I want to do...
...* I can find the options I want to set in the Pre. Want to authorize a new wifi server? touch the wifi symbol....

+ An advantage to the Photon today: It is now a Google phone with the inside track for upgrades.

+ See this under Lockscreen Notifications in the Palm webOS Homebrewer's Guide to Android:

Lockscreen Notifications

Apps like Executive Assistant let you see and respond to individual notifications from the lock screen. In addition Executive Assistant allows you to set repeating reminders for missed calls, emails, texts, calendar events, and more. You can set customized sounds, vibrations, and LEDs for each. (Executive Assistant-No ad version, Details)

+ Extended Batteries are coming from Seidio in the next month or so. It took a couple months for the Pre as well.

+ Facebook, I just added this to the Getting Started section on Applications:
• Facebook: Friendcaster (free, $5: no ads) expands options for Facebook notifications, events, contact & profile sync, photos, etc.

+ Calendar, I have spent a week researching them and it sounds like the calendar replacements from Jorte or Business Calendar do what you want. I have added this note to the Applicaitons section:
• Calendars: For extra features & Sync, try Jorte-free (Review), Business Calendar Free ($6 Full) (Review, Developer), or Smooth Calendar.

+ Just type - on the Pre you can slide out the keyboard and start typing. The Epic does that too because it has a slide-out keyboard. Without a slideout keyboard you have to touch somewhere to let the phone know you are typing. It brings up the search window and you can filter the results to: music, internet, contacts. Here is Just Type under the Getting Started section on Search and Voice Actions:

Tap

Search and start typing "ma" to find Mail, Maps, Mark, or Mary. Type "123 Main" to map the address or get directions. Say you want to listen to The Eagles. As you type it starts guessing what you want on your phone and Internet.

As you type Android starts predicting. Type more to narrow the search.​

+ WiFi Shortcut
- This is under Getting Started section on Setup:

Set Up Your Own Control Panel

...
You can set up a WiFi shortcut to let you quickly log into a new WiFi or exclude an old one. The Battery Use shortcut shows what is taking your battery. The Language shortcut lets you set up Keyboards. To put a shortcut on a homescreen, long-press an open spot, tap Shortcut and pick one.

 

[milominderbinde]

I just figured out that to see todays date in the notification bar, you just need to pull down the notification bar and it will show you todays date. Its temporary, but at least it provides me a quick way to see the date.

One less thing to worry about.

You can just tap the Notification bar to see the date. You don't need to drag it down. See the first tip in the Getting Started section on Notifications:

• Tap the Notification bar to see the date.
​

Are any of the other answers working for you on the Today Widget, etc.?

 

[Puzzlegal]

You can just tap the Notification bar to see the date. You don't need to drag it down. See the first tip in the Getting Started section on Notifications:

​

OR better yet, you can reproduce the Pre's date widget, and install "date status bar" from modded logic. It puts the date in the status bar, and it is very configurable. There's a free version, with ads on the set-up screen, where you will see them maybe once in the entire time you use it. You can also pay 99? for the ad-free version which requires no special permissions and supports the developer directly. It makes me happy.

It looks very nice next to "battery circle".​

 

[Puzzlegal]

Thanks! I will check this stuff out from home. Looks great, though.

 

[Puzzlegal]

+ An advantage to the Photon today: It is now a Google phone with the inside track for upgrades.

+ See this under Lockscreen Notifications in the Palm webOS Homebrewer's Guide to Android:

Lockscreen Notifications

Apps like Executive Assistant (free) let you see and respond to individual notifications from the lock screen. . .

The stock Photon lets you see and respond to individual notifications from the slide-down notification window. You can individually delete or respond to each one separately, or delete all of them in one fell swoop. It's not as clever as the Pre about knowing that you've looked at email (not through the notification) so that notification isn't needed any more -- I find myself deleting email notifications all day long -- but it's not too bad. Putting all the notifications on the lockscreen does look pretty, but I suppose it chews up more power, as well.

In addition Executive Assistant allows you to set repeating reminders for missed calls, emails, texts, calendar events, and more. You can set customized sounds, vibrations, and LEDs for each. (Executive Assistant-No ad version, Details)

Ack! I get more than enough notifications. I turned most of the dings and flashes off, but I'm pretty sure the Photon stock system lets you do pretty much all of this. It's really a rather nicely configured phone. I don't know why everyone gripes about motoblur, but I gather this is better than the standard motoblur phone.

+ Extended Batteries are coming from Seidio in the next month or so. It took a couple months for the Pre as well.

Probably. That certainly seems likely if the phone is popular. And I expect it will be popular.

+ Facebook, I just added this to the Getting Started section on Applications:
• Facebook: Friendcaster (free, $5: no ads) expands options for Facebook notifications, events, contact & profile sync, photos, etc.

Is there a functionality problem with the standard Facebook app? My issues with it are sort of tin-foil-hat. I just don't like telling Facebook where I am all day. Bad enough that Google and Sprint and the FBI and the NSA already have that info, at least none of them are likely to decide to publish it to my nosey neighbor or the local burglar or my vindictive ex. (not that I have a vindictive ex, but some people do.) Facebook has a bad track record of deciding to publish new info about its users without advance notice, or even to change the permissions on something you've already declined, and it skeeves me out that their app requires permission to check my location all day long.

+ Calendar, I have spent a week researching them and it sounds like the calendar replacements from Jorte or Business Calendar do what you want. I have added this note to the Applicaitons section:
• Calendars: For extra features & Sync, try Jorte-free (Review), Business Calendar Free ($6 Full) (Review, Developer), or Smooth Calendar.

Wow! Thanks for all your work. I will definitely look into these.

+ Just type - on the Pre you can slide out the keyboard and start typing. The Epic does that too because it has a slide-out keyboard. Without a slideout keyboard you have to touch somewhere to let the phone know you are typing. It brings up the search window and you can filter the results to: music, internet, contacts. Here is Just Type under the Getting Started section on Search and Voice Actions:

Tap

Search and start typing "ma" to find Mail, Maps, Mark, or Mary. Type "123 Main" to map the address or get directions. Say you want to listen to The Eagles. As you type it starts guessing what you want on your phone and Internet.

As you type Android starts predicting. Type more to narrow the search.

Is this supposed to be stock behavior? I have not found that to work, but maybe it's because some of my data is messed up. I just discovered today that my contact info for a friend lacked her name, for instance. It's possible I lost some stuff when I deleted "duplicate" entries that were generated between the Sprint contact conversion and Facebook and who know what else. I'll play around with it.

For what it's worth, I don't like having to find the little

to start typing, and am still really sad about not having a keyboard. If Sprint comes out with a good phone with a portrait sliding keyboard, or heck, maybe even a good phone with a portrait candy-bar keyboard, I am there. (although the $*&% phones are already too big, with the giant screens all the high-end phones are sporting these days.)

+ WiFi Shortcut
- This is under Getting Started section on Setup:

Set Up Your Own Control Panel

...
You can set up a WiFi shortcut to let you quickly log into a new WiFi or exclude an old one. The Battery Use shortcut shows what is taking your battery. The Language shortcut lets you set up Keyboards. To put a shortcut on a homescreen, long-press an open spot, tap Shortcut and pick one.

Yes, I've filled a whole home screen with icons for stuff like this. Icons that used to be neatly tucked into a little menu that was always a tap away. :shrug: It works, but it's not as elegant as the Pre. I am filling another home screen with shortcuts for contacts, since "just type" didn't seem to work for me. Maybe that's user error, and I can get it to work and don't need that screen. I know lots of folks like having a screen of contacts, and were frustrated that the Pre didn't really support that. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. I'll probably grow to like the screen of contact shortcuts.

Anyhow, thanks again. I will go play with calendars. And dream of a Pre 3 on Sprint. But seriously, it's not even obvious that Verizon or AT&T are getting that anytime soon. I've given up.

 

[milominderbinde]

Puzzlegal,

Have you installed Google Search and Voice Search from the market?

When you tap the Search key and start typing does your screen look like this:

Can you tap the blue Google logo to filer results? See Search and Voice Actions for more.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Thanks. That does work. It seems that the problem is mostly that my contacts have been messed up by the transition. So I'm not pulling up most of the contacts that I actually want to reach, although I am pulling up a lot of contacts that I don't often contact. ;-)

It will be a nuisance, but eventually I will get that fixed. Oddly, the woman whose name I carefully entered yesterday still doesn't come up when I type her first name. It does when I go into "GO contacts", but not when I use "just type". Any clue what the problem might be?

Also, the phone has an unfortunate tendency to prioritize cell numbers over all other numbers. Yet I rarely call a celll number if I have a home number for someone. I don't suppose there's any way to re-order that?

Hey, is there a way to add an automatic wikipedia search, along with the google search?

 

[Puzzlegal]

Like you, I love how it was easy to delete an email on the Pre right from the notification without even having to open it or read it.

I found a way typo do this in K9. Well, you do have to open K9, but if you have a bunch of email to delete this is a big improvement over what I'd been doing:

In any mailbox, even the unified one, swipe from left to right on any note. That will select that note (visibly) and allow you to select other notes the same way. It also pulls up a little menu bar at the bottom of the screen. After selecting all your messages, you can mark them as read or unread, star them, delete them, or kill the selection. (that is, unselect them all.)

Way faster than deleting each one! Woo hoo.