Prospective Droid purchaser

[IBall]

So I'm *itching* to leave my old Palm OS smartphone behind, and I'm seriously thinking about replacing it with the Droid. I've got a few questions about it though, that I'm looking to find out now before committing:

1. Is it true I can add an SD card to it to expand the memory, as well as for music and photos? Would it be Micro-SD?
2. Can the apps be stored on an SD card?
3. How much memory does it come with, on board?
4. For a while, I was looking into getting a blackberry. Like those, does this OS/Phone have "memory leak" issues?
4. Is it possible to safely overclock the processor? If so, can it be done on an app-by-app basis, or must it be global?
5. MUST I have a gmail account, or can I still have it poll the POP server for my current account?
7. Are you able to store and watch DVDs and movies on the SD Card? If so, are they easy to put on there?
8. How good is the PIM functionality?
9. How easy/intuitive is it to read ebooks?
10. Are there any good banking/checkbook style apps, for managing multiple bank accounts?
11. Are there any good apps (preferably encrypted) for storing PINs and passwords?
12. How good are the file managers? Is it easy to navigate through a tree and cherry pick what files you need to copy/move/delete. Is it also easy to manipulate the tree?
13. How well does Documents to Go function? Can you open/create/edit .docx, or just .doc files? How about power point, or spread sheets? Also, is this the only app that works with those formats, or are there alternatives to D2G?
14. Are Droid users able to stream radio stations over the internet for live listening? If so, are there restrictions as to what formats/file types are acceptable (MP3 or WMP for example), or can any format be enjoyed?
15. Podcasting- must this be done through iTunes, or can it be done OTA, and stored directly on the device/media card?
16. Can I make to-do lists that can be crossed off as I go? On a similar note: Reminders- how do they work for the Droid? Do they come with options to make them recurring (weekdays, monthly, etc) or are they restricted to one-time-only? If the latter, is there a good 3rd party app?
17. How are .zip files handled? Is 3rd party software needed to open an email attachment/app that's been compressed, or can the OS handle that by default?
18. A2DP-Can bluetooth headphones be used in conjuction with the Droid? If indeed they can be, does this device tend to be picky about which ones it will play nice with?
19. SD Card backup. Maybe it's just from using a buggy Palm OS, but I've got a 3rd party app that backups up the phone's memory to the SD Card every morning (and it's saved my bacon on numerous occasions). What kind of backups does the Droid offer, and can it/they be done on the SD Card?
20. Is it fairly easy to customize ringtones?
21. How well does it stream video, a la Youtube?

(Many thanks in advance).

 

[brandonscott]

So I'm *itching* to leave my old Palm OS smartphone behind, and I'm seriously thinking about replacing it with the Droid. I've got a few questions about it though, that I'm looking to find out now before committing:

1. Is it true I can add an SD card to it to expand the memory, as well as for music and photos? Would it be Micro-SD? Yes, micro-sd
2. Can the apps be stored on an SD card? No.
3. How much memory does it come with, on board? ~250mb
4. For a while, I was looking into getting a blackberry. Like those, does this OS/Phone have "memory leak" issues?Not as bad as BB but yes it gets slow over time
4. Is it possible to safely overclock the processor? If so, can it be done on an app-by-app basis, or must it be global? I don't think so
5. MUST I have a gmail account, or can I still have it poll the POP server for my current account? You need a gmail account, but you can add other email accounts also
7. Are you able to store and watch DVDs and movies on the SD Card? If so, are they easy to put on there? Yup, just mount the phone on the computer and drap-n-drop
8. How good is the PIM functionality? very good, it all syncs to various google services.
9. How easy/intuitive is it to read ebooks? I'm not sure, but I think there's a app in the market that does that
10. Are there any good banking/checkbook style apps, for managing multiple bank accounts? I don't know
11. Are there any good apps (preferably encrypted) for storing PINs and passwords? Yes there are a couple apps in the market
12. How good are the file managers? Is it easy to navigate through a tree and cherry pick what files you need to copy/move/delete. Is it also easy to manipulate the tree? Not one natively in the phone, you can download one and it does everything you meantion
13. How well does Documents to Go function? Can you open/create/edit .docx, or just .doc files? How about power point, or spread sheets? Also, is this the only app that works with those formats, or are there alternatives to D2G? I don't use DTG
14. Are Droid users able to stream radio stations over the internet for live listening? If so, are there restrictions as to what formats/file types are acceptable (MP3 or WMP for example), or can any format be enjoyed? I've only tried mp3 but that works very well.
15. Podcasting- must this be done through iTunes, or can it be done OTA, and stored directly on the device/media card?You can use an app, or just stream OTA
16. Can I make to-do lists that can be crossed off as I go? On a similar note: Reminders- how do they work for the Droid? Do they come with options to make them recurring (weekdays, monthly, etc) or are they restricted to one-time-only? If the latter, is there a good 3rd party app? I'm really not sure.
17. How are .zip files handled? Is 3rd party software needed to open an email attachment/app that's been compressed, or can the OS handle that by default? Again, not sure
18. A2DP-Can bluetooth headphones be used in conjuction with the Droid? If indeed they can be, does this device tend to be picky about which ones it will play nice with?
19. SD Card backup. Maybe it's just from using a buggy Palm OS, but I've got a 3rd party app that backups up the phone's memory to the SD Card every morning (and it's saved my bacon on numerous occasions). What kind of backups does the Droid offer, and can it/they be done on the SD Card? I use sprite backup, it works very welll.
20. Is it fairly easy to customize ringtones? Very easy, I use ringdroid
21. How well does it stream video, a la Youtube? very well, there's a built in youtube app.

(Many thanks in advance).

Hope this helps

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

2. Once someone figures out how to root the OS, it's easy to change the links and store apps on the SD card. Google is working on adding this to the stock os, no idea when.
13. DTG works well.
17. Several apps on the Market that handle zip, 7z, rar, and tgz files. Personally can recommend Androzip as a file manager that handles these.
18. I can say it works well with a Moto Rokr headset. Call quality is blah, but that's because it's a Moto Rokr headset

 

[IBall]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm encouraged to hear that at some (undetermined) point, apps will be stored on the SD card. As a follow up, is there an app/function allowing the phone to reset at a predetermined time, thus preventing the need to pull the battery? I'm assuming that is the solution to the "slow over time/memory leak" issue.....

 

[IBall]

Also, what's the most amount of memory supportable by the OS on a micro SD?

 

[IBall]

as far as the "drap-n-drop" goes, does that also apply to when you put MP3s on the phone? I only as as I currently have to remove the SD from my phone and insert it into an SD Drive to on my pc to add tunes to it.

 

[raremage]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm encouraged to hear that at some (undetermined) point, apps will be stored on the SD card. As a follow up, is there an app/function allowing the phone to reset at a predetermined time, thus preventing the need to pull the battery? I'm assuming that is the solution to the "slow over time/memory leak" issue.....

I've not had to pull the battery, and not had to reboot to free up resources. The system will slow a bit if you have many apps running, but there's a free app killer available on the marketplace. Simply install that, and every so often I hop in there and kill any apps that I've got running that don't need to be running. Takes about fifteen seconds at the most.

 

[largeselection]

I haven't had any really noticeable slow down yet. You can get advanced task manager and set it to kill non essential apps every 30 mins, 1 hour, etc.