Testing MobileWrite

Not as good as Transcriber on WinMo, but perfectly usable, once l get a universal stylus

Android file system

I realize they're going for an iPhone-style walled garden experience to a certain extent, so the average user isn't supposed to be browsing the file system, but it's a PIA to find anything compared with Windows Mobile. "/sd" is simple enough, not as straight forward as "/Storage Card", but why are the majority of my files on the local phone storage located at "/emmc/" instead of something like "/My Documents" like on WinMo?

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Glitchy SD card access?

Could be something in the way the Mac handles USB mounts - I know I'm supposed to unmount the phone drive before disconnecting it from the computer, but after several days of disconnecting the phone frequently from my PC (Windows 7) with no consequences, the contents of the card disappeared on the third disconnect from my Mac.

Weird thing is that, while the drive was empty according to the file manager I installed on the phone as well as the default Photos and Music apps, the contents showed up fine in the Finder when I reconnected it. After backing up the stuff I wanted to the Mac, I tried multiple times to get the contents to show up on the phone itself. Finally I tried taking a picture and that did the trick - the new photo showed up along with all the old photos, as well as the music and videos as well.

So we're good now, but I'll be unmounting the phone from the Mac before disconnecting from now on.

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Android sales surpass iPhone

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/android-sales-surge-surpass-iphone-updated/2019?tag=nl.e539

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AudioManager widget

Discovered the AudioManager widget on the app store, which may help with another feature from WinMo that I'm missing on Android - a system-wide equalizer and audio booster.  The music volume when played via the headphone jack on the Incredible is way too low, even when set to max, and on WinMo I can just turn on audio boost, but with Android there don't seem to be any options for boosting or equalizing the audio.

TouchDown!

Installed the 30 day trial of TouchDown, an Exchange client for Android, works great.  It even supports that "set default action when deleting a message" feature I whined about in another post, so I guess that's a MS Exchange thing.

FroYo's due to come out some time next week, but I'll believe it when it happens.  In the meantime, I've got TouchDown to cover me, and if I don't have native Exchange support that works 30 days from now, I'm shelling out for the Pro version.

Improved Exchange support coming in FroYo?

It's rumoured that FroYo will include fixes for Droid's Exchange support - I hope so, because I can't currently connect to my company's Exchange server, and I feel like I'm flying blind. My WinMo phone has no problem connecting, and neither do any of my iPhone using friends (those with iOS4 even have support for multiple Exchange accounts, something WinMo has NEVER had)

Selecting email messages

Sigh... there's no "select all" option in either Google's Gmail or HTC's Mail app - if I want to mark a bunch of newsletters as "Read", I have to mark each one individually.  In WinMo, I just hit "Select All" and "Mark as Unread" and I'm done.

Bear in mind that this is not to say I want to go back to WinMo.  MS has seen to it that I won't be going back.  What I'm saying is that WinMo had a lot of common sense ideas and features that I'd like to see ported over to Android.

Reading email

When I read new email, I open my Inbox, with the new, unread email sorted to the top of the list.  I then open the oldest unread message, read it, and then either keep or delete it before moving on to the next unread message.  That way, I read the oldest emails before the newest ones, and I'm up on discussions in threads.  One of my pet peeves is when someone replies to the most recent email in a thread and asks questions that have already been answered further down in the thread, indicating they haven't read any of the older messages.

When you delete the message you're currently reading, it's annoying to have to go back to the Inbox each time and open the next unread message.  The default mail client in Windows Mobile has a setting that allows you to choose what happens when you delete the message you're currently reading - you can either open the previous (older) message, the next (newer) message, or go back to the Inbox.  I always set this to open the next newer message, and that saves a lot of time processing my mail.

Neither of the two mail apps bundled with the Incredible do this.  Google's Gmail app automatically returns you to the Inbox, so you have to manually open the next message to read it, but at least the Delete button is prominently displayed in the message view.  HTC's Mail app automatically goes to the previous older message in the list, which is the exact opposite direction I want to read, and it's two taps to delete a message.

There are many nice features about both apps, but for this particular behavior, WinMo is the winner.

Oh... two mail apps, I get it now

When you set up the Incredible, you're taken through a process where you set up an initial email account.  Afterwards, I opened up the app labeled "Mail" and set up more accounts, but was confused that I didn't see the initial account that I had set up.  But I was getting notifications for that account.

Turns out there are two mail apps included with the Incredible.  The first, the default "Gmail" app included with Android, was the one I was taken through during setup.  The second is HTC's "Mail" app.

Both apps have their strengths, which is unfortunate since I can't seem to pick which one I want to use - they each do things the other doesn't.  I'm going to experiment with setting up my accounts in both and using both to manage my mail.

Screenshots... w?

Granted, I've only spent about ten minutes searching the app store and Google, but the verdict seems to be clear: you can't take screenshots on the phone without rooting the device.  There's a workaround where you connect the phone to your PC via USB and then perform a series of complicated steps to take shots and save them to your PC.


What the #$%& is up with that?  It's a little annoying to write a blog about a phone without screenshots of the phone.  I'm not ready to root the phone quite yet (I've only had it two days!) and my USB cable is at work, so I appear to be screwed.


There are hundreds of screenshot apps for WinMo, which require no special action other than downloading and installing one, so I'd be set in less than a minute.  iPhone includes the ability to capture screenshots natively, which is really smart - helps users spread the knowledge.


Can't understand why Google made this all but impossible.  Boggles my mind.  Oh well.  No screenshots for now, I guess.

Initial thoughts after a couple days

I've had my Droid Incredible for a couple days and overall I'm very happy.  It's slick, it's light, and it's highly customizable, which is what I really want in a mobile device.

There are caveats of course, which I will be dwelling on more than the good stuff in this blog, since I'll be recording tips, tricks and workarounds here for quick reference.  The transition from Windows Mobile is a little tough - keep reaching for stuff that ain't there - but I'll get over that eventually.

So far, I am LOVING this phone!

FroYo coming?

Word on the street is Android 2.2 (nicknamed "Frozen Yogurt" or "FroYo") will be pushed to Verizon HTC Incredible phones between Friday, August 6 and Sunday, August 15.  We'll see.


Main thing I'm waiting on in this update is the ability to install programs to an SD card, which was one of the main reasons I was still hanging on to WinMo, which has had this for like 5 years or more.


http://www.intomobile.com/2010/07/27/android-2-2-hitting-droid-droid-x-droid-incredible-next-week/

Droid has landed

Droid has landed. After 10 years on Windows Mobile, my new HTC Incredible running Android 2.1 has arrived, and I am bidding an angry, regretful and yet satisfying "don't go away mad - just go away" to WinMo. It's been a great ride, but MS's marketing and tech cluelessness has destroyed an awesome platform, and Android is the closest thing left to that experience. RIP, Windows Mobile. You hardly knew ya.