UPDATE MAY 18TH New to Android....my first 24 hours w/ Nexus

[tonykilo943]

I should post this in introductions...but I have questions so here we go...

Been a BB guy for over 10 years.....the last year I've been wanting to switch but kept waiting.....finally pulled the trigger yesterday with trepidation...here is my first 24 hour experience.

Yesterday after buying the phone I also bought the standard gel case/holster combo....sure got rid of a bunch of gloss...plus I don't like phones in my pocket.

when I got it home the first thing I did was plug into the laptop....create ringtone files...and download my old ringtones from my my sd card on the BB....I do not have a problem with the noise levels w/ these ringtones..they are awesome and plenty loud.

Than I turned the wi-fi on....it works awesomely....from 40 feet away! I also do not have a wifi issue w/ my phone...

I proceeded to download some apps....angry birds of course....started reading the forums a little differently than I did before I bought the phone...wasn't research anymore, now it was learning....I noticed that some of the tips/tricks in the regular android forum don't work on this phone, different menus etc...presume that is because gingerbread is different...we need a tips/tricks thread for our phones also..hint hint.

Stayed up late playing with the phone, anxiously waiting for tomorrow so I could see how fast the battery would die.....see if I could use it as a hotspot....see if I would hate not getting my MS Exchange emails to my phone....etc.


Day 1 (Full Day)

First thing I noticed was that the alarm didn't go off....with my BB i could turn the phone off and it would turn itself on at alarm time and ring the alarm.... little help here would be nice!

Had 95% battery first thing in the morning and I checked it all the time as I showered and dressed etc....battery started draining immediately...of course being a newbie I checked what was causing it....couldn't see a culprit.

Drove to work...now it's been on 2 hours...was at 80% battery with only one phone call and several texts....worrying now.

Turned on the hot spot...worked awesome, used that for 1/2 hour....tried to figure out exchange settings but couldn't...also swiped to silence phone during a meeting..pretty cool. I had the screen set to turn off in 15 seconds, I will change that tomorrow, pretty irritating actually it shutting off while reading emails.

My Gmail account actually sent emails to my phone faster than to my desktop...that works flawlessly.

Made phone calls, talked 20 minutes total according to the phone. Texted quite a bit....read emails, sent emails....even opened tons of pictures in an email...wow the screen is huge compared to what I'm used to...and nicer to look at!

One irritating thing, just a setting thing I'm sure...when I get a text and cannot look at my phone it incessantly vibrates over and over and over using NoLed...I need to change that setting.

After a lunch meeting and some races w/ an Iphone to find something on Google ( i won )....I had 74% battery which was about 7 hours after turning the phone on ! wow! I am happy about that...

More texting, more phone calls etc....more internet..still no angry birds.

Now I'm home typing this....I presently have 51% battery and it has been on 13 hours!!! I had awesome signal all day 3G all day long.....my reception here at my house still sux, but it sucked w/ my blackberry, sucks w/ my daughters Epic and my Sons Touch 2.....candidate for the antenna you think???

tonight my chore is to download a free version of Touchdown...I hope there is a trial? I really want my work email to come to this phone and than it would be perfect!!

I love it, thanks to this forum I think I made an informed decision...other than getting used to the keyboard, I'm a happy camper...I've never backspaced more in my entire life.

do me a favor, any of this stuff above that you might be able to help with? Please feel free to chime in!

Thanks in advance....

 

[tonykilo943]

UPDATE
Touchdown works seamlessly!

 

[mlief]

Glad it's working - going to try it myself as I was a Palm Pre/WebOS user who has yet to decide on how to get work emails on my Nexus since the stock email app stinks so badly. So after the 30-day trial you plan on spending another $20 to have your exchange push email? I don't know about you, but as a former BB user (I was a WebOS user) doesn't that kind of irk you?

 

[theotherlinh]

Out of curiosity, did you consider waiting for the EVO 3D?

Nice write up, too. Not a BB user, but it's always interesting to hear how ppl transition

 

[theotherlinh]

Glad it's working - going to try it myself as I was a Palm Pre/WebOS user who has yet to decide on how to get work emails on my Nexus since the stock email app stinks so badly. So after the 30-day trial you plan on spending another $20 to have your exchange push email? I don't know about you, but as a former BB user (I was a WebOS user) doesn't that kind of irk you?

wait, what? $20 to have exchange push email? I get push exchange on my Pre fine, does android not support this?

 

[tonykilo943]

I will probably gladly pay it by then.....our IT department doesn't want anyone to push email....so I have no choice.....

I will probably do more research and try to figure it out...but $20 isn't really all that bad considering I'm in sales and it could make me far more than that so I don't have to be tethered to my desktop.

I tried to just check the email on the browser.....pain in the @ss.....

I like it....

 

[lembowski]

First thing I noticed was that the alarm didn't go off....with my BB i could turn the phone off and it would turn itself on at alarm time and ring the alarm.... little help here would be nice!.

This was the first thing I noticed when I switched over from my old blackberry to Android 2 years ago. I wish Android did that also, I just put my phone in Airplane mode when I go to bed.

 

[Lanny84]

I too just came over from the world of BB--1-week in and I have zero BBM withdrawal and am extremely happy with this phone. The typing took some time to get used to, and I prefer to type in landscape mode, but after 1-week I can say I'm pretty fast at typing. As a default, haptic feedback on the eyboard is turned off; you may want to turn it on (it may make typing a little easier).

Go to settings>Language & keyboard>Android Keyboard>(check "Vibrate on Keypress").

The keyboard is pretty good at fixing minor mistakes too...

 

[tonykilo943]

So the 2nd and 3rd day and I'm still learning and reacting...

Yesterday wasn't a great battery day....I had installed Touchdown for my exchange account for work...set it to push as the emails arrived....played angry birds.....plugged in charger into USB at around 4PM...probably didn't really need to but battery was at 43%...keep in mind that would have been 10 hours the phone had been on.

Got irritated by a couple of things yesterday.....really is a pain in the @ss to compose a text or email...replying is easy .....on blackberry you started typing contact name and they pop up...this phone couple extra steps....I think I need to create widgets on 1 of the home screens that automatically open a message or email already set to go with recipient popped in...anybody know how to do that?

2nd irritant was the "press 1 to answer this call"...one quick search on here fixed that.....

3rd irritant was the duplicating notifications because I'm using Handcent...fixed that also after a quick search here....

Typing issues of course.....I played w/ the voice recognition in the car today and replied to texts that way...it actually works really really well if you speak slowly and clearly....much safer and easier to use, I like that feature. I may try to send a long email with it and see if I still think so.

today was a better battery day...set the screen to lock after 2 minutes....instead of 15 seconds....tomorrow I am going to set it for even longer...trying to find that happy medium as I am accustomed to picking up the phone and having it ready to fly right away.....I hate the extra key strokes to just make a call to be honest....

Touchdown is now set to manually retrieve.....when I leave the office a couple of taps and its back to instant push.....don't need the notifications when I'm at my desk, why waste the battery.

Using wifi right now as my service at home is terrible....

Used hot spot today briefly to transfer files...

battery is now at 39% and the phone has been on for 15 hours and using wifi the last 3 hours.

I am learning a little more each day....this is fun!

Thanks for listening...

 

[KoukiFC3S]

You are getting really good battery life!

 

[kalex]

So the 2nd and 3rd day and I'm still learning and reacting...

Got irritated by a couple of things yesterday.....really is a pain in the @ss to compose a text or email...replying is easy .....on blackberry you started typing contact name and they pop up...this phone couple extra steps....I think I need to create widgets on 1 of the home screens that automatically open a message or email already set to go with recipient popped in...anybody know how to do that?

easy fix for that. actually few options. first one is when u are in your contact list, click on the picture icon next to the person's name. you will get a quick menu with phone, message, gmail icon. If u click on gmail it will prefill everything for u.
You can also click on contact name and then choose email or message option and it will open the appropriate app as well

You can also add a contact shortcut to one of your screens and then when u click on the shortcut u will get the quick menu as well

 

[AndroidOne]

Have you tried using search to bring the contact up? You can press the hourglass key (search) and start typing your contact's name, as soon as it shows, long press the contact photo and a ribbon will appear underneath with all the things you can do with the contact, by touching what you want, the message, email or dialer will open with the information already entered for you. You can do this via voice commands as well.

For typing, I don't like the Android keyboard very much, I use SwiftKey... has better key layout in my opinion and amazing prediction engine that will significantly cut down typing as you use it.

 

[cheeks1958]

One of the primary reasons I'm considering this phone is voice command.

I bought a Nexus S for my daughter to replace her Pre and I'm amazed at the voice command feature. Simply long press the magnifying glass key, wait for the voice input screen to come up, then say "Navigate to ____", "Call _____" "Send text to _____", "Deadwood, South Dakota wiki" (etc.) and boom goes the dynamite.

My voice command success rate is well over 90%. If I buy this phone I envision myself RARELY using the keyboard especially with text messages and calls.

 

[AndroidOne]

Voice commands are amazing, I also have good success specially since it learns your voice as you use it. Nonetheless, you will need the keyboard still. The good thing is there are many third party keyboards out on the market, you are sure to find one you like if you don't enjoy the stock one very much.

Is noteworthy to mention, the new Gingerbread stock keyboard is actually a good one, not like the original Android keyboard which left much to be desired. Still I prefer SwiftKey.

 

[tonykilo943]

perhaps I'm not using it as intended...

 

[clavodulce16]

call Sprint request an AIRAVE, is your own cell tower at home and is FREE

 

[cheeks1958]

Thanks for the tip on the Airave. Two questions:

1. How well does it really work?

2. When calling Sprint to I need to haggle to get it free or do they pretty much say "no problem"? If the former, any tips you might have on what to say?

TIA !

 

[kalex]

It works very well when it works. I had few issues where it looses its marbles and starts rebooting. Usually cold boot fixes the problem. But when it works, its pretty good

When you call them go straight to retentions as they are the only department that can give u new airave free of charge. Don't bother with regular customer service. If you are a new customer and still within 30 days it should be fairly easy for u to get it for free.

 

[mickie98]

When you speak to retentions explain clearly that you are having connection and call issues don't go at them suggesting that if they don't give you what you want etc yada yada. Tell them it is historically bad in your area.... the data phones especially Samsung's seem to need the extra boost. Retentions want to make you happy that's their job. The airave is a great device.

 

[tonykilo943]

UPDATE
May 19th

I set my screen to lock at 2 minutes.....I talked on the phone for 46 minutes total today, 45 text messages, 32 emails, surfed a bit to find something....set touchdown to instant push most of the day

Battery now at 29% and the phone has been up and running for 12.5 hours.
I'd say the battery is fine.....wouldn't you agree?