Free Continuum on Amazon! I finally took the Android plunge.

[nathanb131]

So I took a leap of faith and bit on a free continuum from Amazon. Hope I won't regret it. The general trend of people's experience is negative and I'm hoping that's just a vocal minority. Based on the original reviews, I'm looking forward to the amoled screen and the ticker display seems like a great feature. I also like the idea of a more compact phone with the 480x800 screen. I don't mind squinting at text if it means the phone is more pocketable. Yeah I could have got the fascinate for $30 and I just saw the announcement that gingerbread is coming to it...but I still decided to get the hardware I wanted and hope the upgrade trickles down.

I'm new to android but not to smartphones. Have been waiting for Palm's...er...HPalm's WebOS to mature but my rude awakening in the desert of the BB app store made reaffirmed to me why I loved Palm in the first place. It's the apps and customize ability. I was rocking treo's/centros all through mid last year when work gave me a BB curve which initially impressed me by being sort of modern but soon disappointed me. Not a SINGLE acceptable checklist program on BB?! I thought if any platform had great nerdy apps it'd be BB. I was wrong and missed my Palm OS.

I guess I'm hoping it will get upgraded past 2.1 but I'm not sure I care. Can anyone tell me what I'd be missing if it never gets this 'gingerbread' stuff? If I love Andoid the way I hope I will I think a tablet may soon follow anyway.

I'm just excited for the apps. There's a few specific note-taking and task management apps I will install right away. That and hopefully it interacts with my gcal and gmail nicer than my bb. Otherwise, I'm not looking for anything mind blowing or processor intensive.

Just wanted to say hi on here and see if there was anyone who is actually happy with their Continuum and if they have any particular advice on how to make it the best it can be. I don't think I want to root it, but that new thread on stripping of Verizon's crap-wear is intriguing.

What exactly is the downside of 'rooting' anyway. If you do it and find you are over your head can you 'unroot' it back to factory settings? I'm not sure if I care much about warranty but I'm a little concerned about all those reported bugs and know I may need to send in a defective unit.

 

[lpt2569]

I was in your position a little over 2 months ago, I took the Android plunge with a Continuum. The Android OS and everything about being part of the Android world was exciting, right up my alley coming off a BB for the past 3 years. I was happy to find a smaller device (I'm not a big guy), and the screen is awesome. The ticker was interesting, but I was a little skeptical it would be anything worthwhile in the long run.

Turns out, in my case (I will not speak for others of course) that my skepticism was well placed. The ticker has died on my Continuuum numerous times, and has not worked at all for several days now. My wife got one as well, and she is already on her second device, (ticker stopped working on the first one) and the ticker is dead on the replacement unit as well. Most likely I will be replacing mine this weekend with something else (not sure what I want at this point). I'm actually leaning towards an iPhone, but I may try to wait and see what the HTC Incredible 2 is like. My wife actually wants the Samsung Fascinate, regardless of whether it gets updated or not. She said the screens on the Samsung devices are just too nice to let go so easily, and I tend to agree!

I wish you luck with your Continuum, I hope you do not experience the issues we have had in two short but frustrating months. I'm guessing most folks here will tell you to either Root or get rid of it. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Continuum will never get the 2.2 update.

 

[DroidXcon]

Dont be so dramatic, if the samsung transform got 2.2 continuum will get it, just needs to get past verizon and you're good

 

[lpt2569]

Dont be so dramatic, if the samsung transform got 2.2 continuum will get it, just needs to get past verizon and you're good

How am I being dramatic? It might get 2.2, who really knows for sure. There are plenty of instances in the past where devices in the technology world have been left behind and forgotten. The Continuum is not selling well, and has already shown to have major issues with one of it's major features/selling point - the ticker doesn't work. Without the ticker, it's a 3.4" screen with a black bar at the bottom. Pretty pointless. And I didn't get mine for free, I paid $199, and the same for my wife's. $400 ain't a drop in the bucket for us. So call me dramatic, I thought I was just stating my opinion.

 

[imnuts]

This is the first time I've heard of anyone's ticker not working. And it has been said multiple times that all SGS phones, which the Continuum is one of, are getting Froyo, so it will be getting updated, likely within a week or two of the Fascinate.

 

[lpt2569]

This is the first time I've heard of anyone's ticker not working. And it has been said multiple times that all SGS phones, which the Continuum is one of, are getting Froyo, so it will be getting updated, likely within a week or two of the Fascinate.

The more I've been searching, the more I read (on forums, etc.) that folks are having problems with the ticker, mainly the RSS feeds. There's a few threads on this forum about it, Phandroid, droidforums, Verizon's forums. I would love to see this device have the ticker issue resolved and eventually get the 2.2 update. I bought the phone because I like it, not so I could find reasons to trash it.

 

[nathanb131]

Thanks very much for the feedback. That is helpful. Though I'm curious. Were you or your wife trying to do anything fancy with the ticker with what it was displaying or did it simply stop working even when trying to perform at the factory default settings?

I know that the openness and customize-ability with Android means more glitchiness in general than with a more bottoned down system like iOS or the new WinMob. But to have wrinkles to iron out right out of the box? hmmm....

Like your wife, I really wanted the reportedly fabulous Samsung screen so it was down to Fascinate or Continuum (at this cheap price anyway). Based on several reviews there were a few aspects of the Continuum that fixed some known glitches on the Fascinate (like the gps). So I was under the impression that the Continuum was the more stable version of the first gen galaxy s phones on Verizon. This was actually as much of a deciding factor as the ticker display.

Was I wrong about this? That maybe the first released Fascinates were trouble but because there are so many they've been updated and are 'current' whereas the Continuum was left to rot on the vine?

My Continuum arrived today but I won't even open it til next week cuz I'm out of town (running my first marathon ). At this point a return would be easy. Though I'm still tempted to make a go of it since I want this phone to be what I hope it will be.

 

[lpt2569]

We didn't try anything fancy at all. We set up the ticker to show the preloaded feeds, Facebook and Twitter notifications. The feeds worked at first, then became intermittent, then disappeared. The Facebook and Twitter notifications have never worked, and I know we had everything set up correctly on the phone and on our Facebook and Twitter accounts to receive the notifications. I used to get them on my BB, no issues at all.

Since you have a week, you have time to consider what you want to do. I hesitate to tell you to return/exchange, only because it is a really cool little device, IF they (Samsung/Verizon) can get it to do what it's supposed to do. Unfortunately for me, I have zero patience, and I want a new device, like, yesterday! And I don't have the patience to wait for a possible fix for the ticker, so I will try my best to get something other than the Continuum. I'm pretty sure Samsung is not aware of the issue just yet, or if they are have not posted anything anywhere acknowledging the issue. So to me that means a fix is weeks, if not months away.

So now my wife and I are back to square one. Not sure if we want to get another Android device, or (GASP!!!) get iPhones. In less than 3 months with Android, I've fallen in love with how much fun it is, and all the customization available. I want a Fascinate so I can root it and have the device I've wanted all along since I started looking at phones back in the fall. But I have thousands of songs and dozens of TV Shows on iTunes, more than half of them with DRM. I am neck-deep in the Evil Apple Empire as far as my media files are concerned. There are many things enticing about the iPhone, in my case, not so much my wife.

Good luck with your decision on the Continuum, and good luck with the marathon!!

 

[lpt2569]

Sorry for being so longwinded...I'm a writer and have trouble with my internal editor at times!

 

[imnuts]

I have heard of the ticker not updating anymore, but I haven't heard of it not working at all. The ticker problem is likely due to SNS, the service Samsung has to update Facebook, Twitter, etc. I tried setting up SNS for Facebook on my Fascinate, and it had the same problem, works sometimes, not others, and is very unreliable. Not really sure if SNS gets fixed at all in 2.2, but I find it easier to use the actual Twitter/Facebook apps.

 

[lpt2569]

So I took the Continuum back to my local Verizon store, and showed them on their demo unit in the store how the RSS feeds just don't work at all. After a long discussion with the manager, and showing him firsthand on my phone, my wife's replacement phone, and the demo unit in the store how the ticker is a defective design for now...they actually allowed us to get new devices (not the Continuum). I would love to see the ticker issue resolved, both for those who still have the phone, and just out of my own curiosity.

 

[nathanb131]

Thanks again for the feedback. I will see if it works ok on mine. Though I'm not sure what I'd want it to feed. I was actually just looking forward to checking for missed sms or calls and weather on the ticker.

I don't do twitter (yet) and the type of feeds I subscribe to are too many to want one little ticker to show me one at a time. Though maybe there's a different use for feeds besides a rundown of stories from varies sites and blogs that I'm not familiar with.

The marathon went well. Really sore today but I proposed to my gf at the end of the run and she said yes. So the pain is def worth it. ;-)

 

[lpt2569]

Congrats! On the engagement and the marathon. I'm sure that put the phone stuff into perspective for ya.

 

[nathanb131]

Weather stats?

So I fired up the continuum last night. The ticker seems to work fine with rss feeds, though I haven't tried fiddling with new ones or anything.

Though I'm confused about the weatherbug part of the ticker. I was thinking it'd actually show information (hi-lo temp, for example)...as opposed to just a picture of the general conditions outside. I usually know if it's night or daytime and don't really need help with that...

So now I'm debating whether it's worth it to have the smaller screen or if it's way better to soft-type on a 4.3" monster. Meh, I'll probably keep it, if only because its very pocket-able and just looks different. But she seems to be working fine, haven't customized too much but am looking forward to it. All that Verizon garbage-ware is annoying and needs to be hidden if unable to uninstall.

But for now, not having a physical keyboard feels like riding a bike without holding the handlebars...just vaguely lean a little and hope she turns without crashing... Will definitely take some adjustment and I'm sure it's more that I'm just used to hard keys after 3 treos and a blackberry. I suppose to a long-time touch-screen typer, the analogy would be that the hard keyboard is like riding with training wheels...

If I had any faith in webOS as a widely developed-for platform I would probably prefer the Pre....

I hope I can figure out how to get it to show me something more than whether the sun is up or down and I'm hoping that it can be customized down the road.... If not, it's destined to become a waste of a good idea.

 

[lpt2569]

Our ticker worked for awhile, then died (on 3 devices), but hopefully you got a good one and it continues to work. I would suggest trying a couple of the preloaded RSS Feeds, to see what happens.

As far as I know, the weatherbug is what it is...you can't change anything about it, and it only refreshes manually, or when you first turn the phone on. You can change it to display your local weather, that's about it. I may be wrong about this, maybe someone else has looked into it more than I did.

The size is nice for sure, that's one of the reasons I got mine. And the keyboard you will get used to. I had a BB for years, and now can't imagine ever using a physical keyboard again on a phone. I actually prefer the Android Keyboard you can use over the Swype Keyboard (the default setting I believe).

It would be really cool if the Ticker could be customized, it would make for a really cool, slightly off-the-beaten-path Android device.