Photon Support Group For Palm webOS Users

[milominderbinde]

Dosent Motorola have some kind of propritary soft keyboard app?,,,

Im torn between the Photon and the up coming XRPT2

Has anybody seen the laptop dock for the Photon?...

Motorola, Samsung, and HTC each have their own keyboard apps and they all are OK. Just not close to SwiftKey or Swype.

The Photon is way better.

The keyboard dock for the Photon is supposed to be the same as the Atrix, $199 at Best Buy.

 

[sjamie]

From what you've seen, how do you compare the Evo 3D to the Photon?

 

[mgiven]

WebOS user (for a few more day) and member of Pre-Central since 2005. Started with a Treo 600. I truly believe WebOS as an operating system is a better experience compared to the Android OS, but finally throwing in the towel and admitting that the hardware and app shortage in comparison tips the scales to jumping over to the Android collective

So I'm sitting on an upgrade and deciding whether to pre-order the Photon today or waiting on the SGS2 most likely within 30 days.

Hi all!

 

[Puzzlegal]

welcome aboard, mgiven. I'm in much the same spot, except that I am thinking about the Photon, the Nexus, and the XPRT (which is an older, slower phone with a worse screen, but it has a decent hardware keyboard.)

 

[ronald600]

WebOS user (for a few more day) and member of Pre-Central since 2005. Started with a Treo 600. I truly believe WebOS as an operating system is a better experience compared to the Android OS, but finally throwing in the towel and admitting that the hardware and app shortage in comparison tips the scales to jumping over to the Android collective

So I'm sitting on an upgrade and deciding whether to pre-order the Photon today or waiting on the SGS2 most likely within 30 days.

Hi all!

You may want to look at the Samsung Epic2 which is due out in August

 

[stu5797]

my name is stu5797 and I'm a pre-a-holic. I love everything about it except the internal hardware. I will miss it dearly. I am so scared to make this switch as I ordered the photon this afternoon. I am hoping it holds it value so if a webos phone comes to sprint I can get it. With that said I am going to try this out with an open mind and I am sure I will need help. Hope this new community can help me...
thanks

 

[RickNY]

But no physical keyboard. Probably a deal breaker for me.

I was Day One Pre user also, and back in March I finally gave up waiting and picked up an Evo Shift 4G -- because of the slide out keyboard.. The reality is now, I NEVER use the hardware keyboard.. Swiftkey is excellent and extremely accurate.. I think it was 1.99 when I purchased it..

The slide out keyboard on the Shift adds thickness to the phone, hence the reason why I ordered the Photon yesterday.. Believe what many have already said -- you end up enjoying the soft keyboard more -- because you actually type a LOT less (and you do not have to correct as much either)

 

[Puzzlegal]

Well, I think I will give it a try. If I like it, I will keep it. If I hate it, I will look into getting a frankenPre2.

 

[milominderbinde]

From what you've seen, how do you compare the Evo 3D to the Photon?

Boy Genius Report: Motorola PHOTON 4G review
"The Motorola PHOTON 4G is Motorola’s first real 4G handset, and it’s a winner. It easily trumps Sprint’s other flagship device for the summer, the HTC EVO 3D...."

WebOS user (for a few more day) and member of Pre-Central since 2005.

Here are resources just for you: Palm webOS Homebrewer's Guide to Android

welcome aboard, mgiven. I'm in much the same spot, except that I am thinking about the Photon, the Nexus, and the XPRT (which is an older, slower phone with a worse screen, but it has a decent hardware keyboard.)

Before you buy a Nexus S, see the Nexus S Facebook, LED, microSD, Email, Text, & Camera Workarounds. I have been working with the other Advisors to address many of the Nexus S issues including: No Notification LED, No microSD, Half the RAM, No Speed Dial, No Smart Dial, Limited Email Search, 160 Character Text Limit, No Camera Zoom, Limited Browser Zoom, Few Video Formats, No FM Radio, No Visual Voicemail, and several others.

The biggest thing is that if you like Facebook, the Nexus S is the only Android that actually blocks Facebook Notifications, profile and status updates, events, etc.

 

[milominderbinde]

Well, I think I will give it a try. If I like it, I will keep it. If I hate it, I will look into getting a frankenPre2.

I think you will like it.

I hated the Android onscreen keyboards until I got SwiftKey. Do the 30 free trial to see for yourself.

The Palm webOS Homebrewer's Guide to Android will walk you through settings and apps to make Android as webOS-like as possible. I just added links to a phone app replacement that lets you dial by initials such as BO for Barack Obama.

It had been there all along, I just never thought to look for a phone app replacement.

 

[stu5797]

can we use skype with the front facing camara?

 

[Puzzlegal]

Thanks, Milominderbinder. I am trying this mostly on your recommendation. (well, and I wanted to try some Android phone, of course.) I am very appreciative for all the help you've posted, it's very useful. For instance, I know I will want to try K9 and some of the third party keyboards. I'm most concerned about liking the email (and being able to type, of course) as that's what I do probably 70% of the time I'm on the Pre.

Hey, this is the wrong forum for it, but is there any way to get Evernotes to retain stuff on the gadget when you are off-line? Well, I guess I could ask about the implementation of Evernotes on the Photon, that would make it on-topic. I often use my gadget in places where I don't have a signal, like airplanes and train tunnels, and I'm still missing my Treo email program, Snappermail, which let me create gadget-only folders which could store a few selected emails indefinitely. I've tried to replace it with Evernote, but the "can't see that because you are offline" nearly completely defeats the functionality for me.

 

[stu5797]

is there a way to set text message ringtones per contact?

 

[4aks]

It'll take some getting used to, especially the lack of a real keyboard , I have to remember to turn it horizontally to get a usable size keys or I end up having many typos , webOS has much more polish on basic stuff , but once I figure out the customized setups, I'll be happy with android ... The car dock is nice ... At home, I miss the touchstone

 

[Puzzlegal]

It'll take some getting used to, especially the lack of a real keyboard , I have to remember to turn it horizontally to get a usable size keys or I end up having many typos , webOS has much more polish on basic stuff , but once I figure out the customized setups, I'll be happy with android ... The car dock is nice ... At home, I miss the touchstone

Yeah, im having accuracy problems with the keyboard, and ot defi.ktely slows me down comparwd to the pre. The suggested words aee motre annoying rhane helpful, as thats even slower. Really miss having a comma in the main set of leys. Alsp miss the auto correct tjat added apostrophes.

Wait, there are extra keys above, exxept they get overwritten with the annoying guessed words thing. That includes a comma. Maybe if i turn off guessing it will work better.

 

[mgiven]

I miss the WebOS auto-correction also. It added apostrophes and changed "u" to "you" on the fly. Also changed "4" to "for" on the fly. Keyboard had a dedicated .com key and a @ key and comma key.

Biggest change for me so far has been the notifications and the fact that they're so hidden. WebOS was seamless, but unobtrusive on the bottom of the screen with the ability to simply flick them away one-by-one. I'm so annoyed when I get one in now and can't just flick it away in a split second But getting used to it more and more. The pros still very much outweigh the cons.

 

[Puzzlegal]

How can I tell how charged/uncharged the battery is? I know there's some way to do it in stock, since I saw %s last night. But I can't find it now?

 

[mgiven]

How can I tell how charged/uncharged the battery is? I know there's some way to do it in stock, since I saw %s last night. But I can't find it now?

I downloaded the "battery status" app by Modded Logic as suggested in the battery tips thread. Works great and lots of options.

Brings up another topic. At first I was annoyed that these apps that we're using that we're patches in WebOS don't take over..Like the batter percentage doesn't change the default battery icon like on WebOS, but instead adds one to the top left where the status indicators are. Same for the weather bug one I installed last night. Playing with it for 24 hours I kinda like it now. Whenever I pull down my notifications I also see the weather and battery with the notifications in one screen and that's kind of nice.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Okay, I decided to try that. Right now it says "50%", which seems suspiciously round, but it's been charging for a while, so it's a reasonable number.

 

[freeridstylee]

Just got mine today coming for pre-. The two coolest things so far are google music and the fact that the kickstand will stick on the touchstone to give it a stand.

Biggest gripe at this point is the drop down menu. Swipe down, menu comes done. Cool. Swipe down again......NOTHING. Why don't you go back up menu?!@ Oh well I'll get used to using the buttons on the bottom. I would have preferred a portrait slider bc it's fast and easy. Definitely would not use a landscape slider, which is why I think most people who have Andriod phones don't like physical keyboards.