Goodbye Blackberry

[Verapakill]

Im brand new to the Android family as of today been a long long long time blackberry user but they just couldnt keep up with what everyone is doing so i finally made the switch to a bigger better phone that suits my needs more then the blackberry storm 2

 

[Stang68]

Congrats! You'll love Android.

 

[r-nice]

So how do you like the phone so far?

 

[beasleybiz]

I too made the switch today, well sort of. I still have my Tour and it is active on my main number, but I took advantage of my son's line being out of service while he is at his mom's this summer and put my X on his line to play and explore. That way I still have the security blanket of my Berry.
My first thoughts are that it is different, very different from what I am used to with Blackberry. I am definitely digging the MUCH better web browser, and more apps availability. E-mail is a little more awkward for me, and I will certainly miss my Blackberry Messenger, but overall I am thrilled by the X. I run my own computer business and VZW is the only real service option in our rural area (Big Blue=No 3G here) I have been using an iPod Touch with some great apps to use in my work and that gave me major iPhone fever. I have found viable replacements, and even some of the same apps in the Market so now I have the same productivity all the time instead of just on Wi-Fi. Some apps I have discovered are even better than what they provide for the Apple side. I think my favorite so far is print share premium. It allows me to print to my Wi-Fi/shared printers. The best I could do with that on the Touch was printing pictures which I couldn't even take since no camera on the Touch, and that kind of connectivity on my Tour, forget it, no Wi-Fi. I am still looking for a few good network scanners like iNet Pro, Network Ping, and Scany from the App Store to round out my new Android toolbox. I found one called NetTools but it does not seem to work like what I need.

Overall there is a bit of a learning curve for Android, but coming from a well rounded smart device user (Palm PDA, Blackberry, WinMo, Blackberry, iPod Touch) it is not that difficult. The Android Market needs some heavy polishing to catch up to the AppStore, but seems light years ahead of Blackberry's AppWorld. Things keep going the way they are I should be weened off my Blackberry by next weekend. lol

 

[Verapakill]

So how do you like the phone so far?

Well I havnt had enough time to play with it yet I received it right before work and we cant use our phones at work so tomorrow will be the true test

 

[Verapakill]

Beasleybiz - I know right where you are comming from the short time that i have been using it so far has been a learning curve, the Storm 2 being my first touch screen but the swype keyboard seems like it will be something that will be awesome once i get a handle of it. The phone deff is not as big as i was expecting its very managable. The one thing that i am worried about is the screen and if it will scratch easily or not, I keep my phone away from my keys in my pocket but every once in a while it ends up in the same pocket.

 

[ottscay]

I upgraded from a Storm (right, no "2"), and even I feel the missing BBM, all-inclusive push email. I did find that maildroid does a good job of getting non-gmail accounts pushed to me, although the UI doesn't hold a candle yet to the BB email UI. Still, crazy-better than the stock Android email app, so go for it IMO.

Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot to miss. I personally love the learning curve, as it ultimately = customization (and I'm used to learning new computing environments). I've already set up 5 of my 7 pages, including a nice Sense-ish home page, and know what is going on the other two.

I think I finally solved the battery issues I had tonight. I still wish widgets were fed via push-data rather than server checks, but that's not a combination that's available to us atm. Enjoy your new phone!

 

[Verapakill]

Yeah i do agree the BBM will be missed I actually used it a lot. The email is not really a big deal to me personally i didnt really check any important emails on there often enough to worry about it.

The learning curve will be fun I thought the same thing about going to a touch screen with my storm but i am using that 1 year later like its nothing and i know the DX will be the same. Ive got about 3 hours until i can really sit down and play with it so ill be back here to give it my best first immpressions

 

[beasleybiz]

Yeah i do agree the BBM will be missed I actually used it a lot. The email is not really a big deal to me personally i didnt really check any important emails on there often enough to worry about it.

The learning curve will be fun I thought the same thing about going to a touch screen with my storm but i am using that 1 year later like its nothing and i know the DX will be the same. Ive got about 3 hours until i can really sit down and play with it so ill be back here to give it my best first immpressions

It has definitely been fun learning. Stayed up WAY too late into the night exploring the Market and downloading Apps, just like I did when I got my Tour. Email is a big issue though, I plan to download and try MailDroid as ottscay suggested. I have 4 addresses that I have to monitor regularly for updating websites, and for my business. I just sent a test to one of my accounts from my PC and as expected as soon as it was sent my BB was alerting me. Droid didn't do as bad as I expected taking a few minutes longer to blink. It did not give me a sound alert though so I am going to have to dig into those settings.

 

[maildroiddev]

I upgraded from a Storm (right, no "2"), and even I feel the missing BBM, all-inclusive push email. I did find that maildroid does a good job of getting non-gmail accounts pushed to me, although the UI doesn't hold a candle yet to the BB email UI. Still, crazy-better than the stock Android email app, so go for it IMO.

Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot to miss. I personally love the learning curve, as it ultimately = customization (and I'm used to learning new computing environments). I've already set up 5 of my 7 pages, including a nice Sense-ish home page, and know what is going on the other two.

I think I finally solved the battery issues I had tonight. I still wish widgets were fed via push-data rather than server checks, but that's not a combination that's available to us atm. Enjoy your new phone!

I have some updates to the UI coming soon. I know it needs some work