A few basic questions from a not-even-new-user

[froggersloth]

(This is the same as another of my posts; I moved it here as this seems like the correct place for it)
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First off, hello to all. Here's my story... I'm currently using (and loving, but not in a weird way ) a Palm Pre. Since it looks like WebOS won't be on any new hardware for about a year or so (my best guess, anyway...) I thought it might be an opportune time to get an Android device and learn more about it. So, I hope folks won't mind a few really basic questions that somehow have resisted my Googling.

1) Are apps device-restricted? That is, suppose I get, say, an Evo or a Galaxy S Pro, and a friend has a Droid or a Nexus One... Will any apps that one person has always be available for the other devices as well?

2) Are *all* Android devices capable of using external Bluetooth keyboards? Assuming, of course, that the device has a Bluetooth chipset...

3) Are there any really good graphing/scientific calculators out there? Something at about the level of a TI-89/HP 48,49,50?

4) Are there any really good SSH clients? By now you're probably thinking, quite correctly, that I might be a big ol' nerd.

5) Are there any solid, reliable Ampache clients? This is one place where my Pre really shines... there's a really excellent Ampache client, but I haven't had a chance to compare to something like Amdroid.

6) What are your thoughts on UIs applied by manufacturers, such as HTC Sense, Samsung TouchWiz, etc? They seem to take a lot of criticism, but that might just be because people talk more about dislikes than likes.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[userone#AC]

I feel I must apologize on advance here because I have no answers to your questions. However, since you pretty much completely described my situation here, I figured I would piggy-back on your post here. I am also coming from webos & figured I would use the downtime of no new hardware for awhile to learn android. My main question is the multitasking... is there any way to directly search between apps or do you have to to to the "Home" screen in order to do this?

I am currently on HTC Evo 4G with android 2.1. Any / all comments appreciated.

Glad to see I'm not the only noob coming from webos on here, frogger .

 

[takeshi]

Are apps device-restricted? That is, suppose I get, say, an Evo or a Galaxy S Pro, and a friend has a Droid or a Nexus One... Will any apps that one person has always be available for the other devices as well?

No, but the OS version and country you're in can restrict what apps are available to you.

Are there any really good graphing/scientific calculators out there? Something at about the level of a TI-89/HP 48,49,50?

There's at least one app out there. I use a TI-89 app. You can search the market via appbrain.com (and androlib.com and others).

What are your thoughts on UIs applied by manufacturers, such as HTC Sense, Samsung TouchWiz, etc? They seem to take a lot of criticism, but that might just be because people talk more about dislikes than likes.

Subjective call. If you're impatient and entitled like many Android users apparently are, you probably want to avoid them as they will add delays in getting OS updates since the OEM's have to adapt the source (once released).

My main question is the multitasking... is there any way to directly search between apps or do you have to to to the "Home" screen in order to do this?

I'm guessing you mean task switching as multitasking happens automatically. Longpressing on home brings up the most recently used apps. IIRC, there may be apps that provide other methods of task switching but I don't know of any off the top of my head.

 

[froggersloth]

Thanks for the reply, takeshi. That sort of information is very useful to those of me that are clueless.

One of the very appealing things about Android is its Linux base; this was also what originally drew me to WebOS. In fact, the Pre was essentially my first cell phone. I've had years of work in Linux/FreeBSD, so the underlying system was like home. It was all that other stuff that was a bother-- why ruin a perfectly good portable Linux box with all that silly telephone stuff? I'm hoping that there are ways to SSH into an Android device, as well as use it to SSH to servers for remote administration.

Again, thanks for the reply. I'm a lot more sure that I can switch for a while without ill effects.,

 

[Kyle Gibb]

Thanks for the reply, takeshi. That sort of information is very useful to those of me that are clueless.

One of the very appealing things about Android is its Linux base; this was also what originally drew me to WebOS. In fact, the Pre was essentially my first cell phone. I've had years of work in Linux/FreeBSD, so the underlying system was like home. It was all that other stuff that was a bother-- why ruin a perfectly good portable Linux box with all that silly telephone stuff? I'm hoping that there are ways to SSH into an Android device, as well as use it to SSH to servers for remote administration.

Again, thanks for the reply. I'm a lot more sure that I can switch for a while without ill effects.,

If there isn't, feel free to make an app that does it and throw it on the Market yourself. Google won't block it like Apple would

Google doesn't charge you anything to download the SDK and publish apps on the Market.