Considering Shift, Q's Before I jump

[wiggy1]

I am a Palm Pre early adopter and considering jumping over to the shift on my phone upgrade. Concerned about a couple things and wondering if those of you that have the Shift or are avid Android experts can help me out:

1) With my Pre I have one of the tethering apps from the home brew community. I use it about once or twice a month when I get in a jam and need a WIFI connection. Not much data used, but a capabilty I really like having on hand. I am wondering if the homebrew tethering apps for the Android allow for this limited tethering capability, or am I stuck with the Sprint Hotspot service?

2) Is the glass screen the Gorilla Glass? If not, how scratch resistant is it? I only read that the Hero was a really good glass screen, but not the Gorilla Glass either.

3) How is using Facebook on the Shift?

4) Are there any navigation progams where I can download the whole USA maps and have off-line turn-by-turn directions like the Sprint Navigation without having to be tied to the network? The pre had spotty navigation performance at best and always required a data connection to work. When I was talking on the phone it stopped working and in the mountains out of a Sprint service area I had no maps as well.

5) Does the shift do the speech to text for text messaging?

Thanks for sharing your experience and answering my questions.

 

[jscher2000]

5) Does the shift do the speech to text for text messaging?

With the onscreen virtual keyboard displayed, yes. Not sure if you can use it with the physical keyboard open. There's no obvious way to call it up.

 

[Dave Blake]

I am a Palm Pre early adopter and considering jumping over to the shift on my phone upgrade. Concerned about a couple things and wondering if those of you that have the Shift or are avid Android experts can help me out:

1) With my Pre I have one of the tethering apps from the home brew community. I use it about once or twice a month when I get in a jam and need a WIFI connection. Not much data used, but a capabilty I really like having on hand. I am wondering if the homebrew tethering apps for the Android allow for this limited tethering capability, or am I stuck with the Sprint Hotspot service?

2) Is the glass screen the Gorilla Glass? If not, how scratch resistant is it? I only read that the Hero was a really good glass screen, but not the Gorilla Glass either.

3) How is using Facebook on the Shift?

4) Are there any navigation progams where I can download the whole USA maps and have off-line turn-by-turn directions like the Sprint Navigation without having to be tied to the network? The pre had spotty navigation performance at best and always required a data connection to work. When I was talking on the phone it stopped working and in the mountains out of a Sprint service area I had no maps as well.

5) Does the shift do the speech to text for text messaging?

Thanks for sharing your experience and answering my questions.

1) There are multiple choices for this from easy non root PDA net but that is not WIFI its USB. You can temp root and use WIRI router all these apps are available for free from the Android Market. The Shift ROMS and hacks forum here at the AC has easy to fallow tutorials on rooting and temp root

2) It is not Gorilla glass but it is high temper glass along the same specs at gorilla glass. I have only had my Shift for barley a month so I have not had time to test this peace pf glass but on my OG EVO that has the same type of glass I had that device for more than 6 months and my wife has it now it is still scratch free.

3) Face book is great integrates well with contacts. Sense comes with a nice on screen widget called friend stream very nice.

4) I use Navegon very nice GPS program with downloadable maps its a little high priced but for me it is well worth it. I use navigation a lot

5) You can use the on board speech to text to dictate text messages I do this all the time when I am driving. Its surprisingly accurate IMHO

 

[buskE46]

Glass is really good on the shift, I don't use a protector, keep it in my pocket sometimes w/ change, totally scratch free at a little over a month.

speech to text works well enough, it's software though so it can always be improved.

I've been really happy with the shift, great battery time, screen looks great, physical keyboard works well and allows me to type pretty fast w/o discomfort/issues.

Also some great forums.

 

[YoungCorruption]

1)

4) I use Navegon very nice GPS program with downloadable maps its a little high priced but for me it is well worth it. I use navigation a lot

i looked into that app but it says its $60 is that correct or a glitch in the system?

 

[Dave Blake]

i looked into that app but it says its $60 is that correct or a glitch in the system?

WoW! That sounds high I think I paid like $35 when I got it. I might have gotten it on sale

 

[reed4richards]

I am a former Pre early adopter too that changed to the Shift. I wouldn't have done it except my hardware was breaking (my callers couldn't hear me!) and I wasn't about to wait another 6 months for HP to release the Palm3.

A general answer to your questions is that almost every app that I had with my Pre works better on the Evo Shift. There are a ton of additional features and the voice to text, email, search, dial, etc. is incredible. I'm using my keyboard less and less.

There are some things that I miss about the Pre that I didn't expect:
- touchstone. Maybe I'm lazy but I didn't think it would be a big deal to have to plug in my device instead of putting it on my touchstone, but it is kind of a big annoyance.
- keyboard. Maybe I just got used to the Pre's keyboard, but I find typing a bit hard on a landscape keyboard and easier on a portrait style keyboard.
- homebrews. I don't want to root the phone, but with the Pre, I could change how the date appears, the icon color of the battery and other stupid things like that. Without rooting, these stock features aren't available to change.
- does not sync contacts from LinkedIn to my addressbook. Now, if I want to see a business contact, I have to log into the App and find it. Another minor annoyance.
- multitaksing is possible, but not as smooth. I knew I'd miss this.

But what FAR outweigh these minor annoyances are these HUGE advantages that I was surprised to notice:
- battery life is about double or triple of what my Pre was
- performance is fantastic. I expect some lags between opening programs, but there is hardly any.
- seemless integration with everything that is google. I was never a big google guy, but how the search works with google maps and the turn by turn directions is very impressive. I've also noticed that google maps works better than the telenav that comes with Sprint.
- Apps, even to replace the "base" apps. Don't like the stock email? You can change it. Don't like the stock calendar? Change it. (I did both).

All that being said, I still miss my Pre, but to say that that phone was better than this one is a big stretch.

 

[jjeffcoat]

I am a Palm Pre early adopter and considering jumping over to the shift on my phone upgrade. Concerned about a couple things and wondering if those of you that have the Shift or are avid Android experts can help me out:

1) With my Pre I have one of the tethering apps from the home brew community. I use it about once or twice a month when I get in a jam and need a WIFI connection. Not much data used, but a capabilty I really like having on hand. I am wondering if the homebrew tethering apps for the Android allow for this limited tethering capability, or am I stuck with the Sprint Hotspot service?

Came from the Pre also. Agree for the most part with other former Pre users who post here.

USB tethering on the Shift is very easy without rooting. Here is the app I use:

EasyTether Lite - Android Application on the Android market

The free version blocks secure (https://) sites but it only costs a one-time price $10 for the paid version (which is substantially less than PDAnet). I don't miss wifi tethering at all - USB tethering on the shift is easy and reliable, it keeps the phone charged, and it doesn't get super hot like the Pre did using Mobile Hotspot & Freetether. When I did wifi tethering with my Pre, not only did the phone get hot as a firecracker, the battery would drain even when plugged in to the charging adaptor.

Jim

 

[goletaal]

Sorry to dig up the thread if you've already switched, but I can say that if you're right about the glass being the same on the Hero and the Shift, then it's fantastic. I had the Hero for a year before getting the shift last week. The Hero was in my pocket every day, no protector and the glass still looks flawless to this day.

Only thing that worries me on the shift is the camera lens being totally exposed. On the hero it was behind an extra piece of glass/plastic built into the battery cover. No problems yet, though.