Android!

[Nerf]

The HTC Incredible is a micro USB, I went to Fry's the other day to find an extra cable and when I asked where the USB cables where the little shit kept prodding for more info, so I told him I needed a micro USB cable.

Dude: Thats a phone item, it'll be in phones. That Way <--------.
Me: Sigh, alright, I'll bite.
Dude in phone section: Here you go, $25!
Me: Fuck you, its a $2 USB cable, I'm not paying $25, where are your normal USB cables at?
Dude in phone section: No man, this cable is made especially for your phone, you need this one.
Me: Do you not understand what the U in USB stands for? It's a goddamn international standard, now where are your USB cables?
Dude in phone section: Uh, computers maybe, but it won't be for a phone!

I still overpayed, but got the cable for like $6 instead of $25.  I fucking hate sales idiots. And the cable works great, because its a goddamn micro USB cable.

[Quinton]

Also in regards to the cable it might look like a special cable but a regular usb cable would still work. The cable that came with my Hero is a different shape but a regular mini-usb cable still plugs in and works the same. Don't know if they did the same with the EVO's micro though.

This drives me *crazy*.  HTC, for their older devices, uses an 11 pin connector that is backward compatible with the standard 5 pin mini-usb cable.  The extra pins have audio, serial debug, etc, which is nice.  However, for some ill-defined reason, they started shipping USB cables with their phones that are plain USB cables but *keyed* for the 11 pin connector, so they only work in HTC phones, sorta defeating the purpose of having a standard cable.  Plain USB A -> mini-USB B cables work in those phones, but the HTC cable will not work with other devices.  Obnoxious.

All the HTC devices with micro-usb are standard micro-usb (no room to wedge in any extra pins in that design).

[El Gallo]

Aside from the physical keyboard, is there a reason I should wait for the Droid 2 instead of buying the Droid X now?

[KallDrexx]

Aside from the physical keyboard, is there a reason I should wait for the Droid 2 instead of buying the Droid X now?

Depends if you want a fucking huge phone.  It's not everyone's cup of tea.  I would definitely go play with one (or look at a Evo demo unit) to get an idea of how big it is.  The Droid 2 is a normal touchscreen screen size (3.7").  I saw an evo the other day while waiting for a radio shack, and that thing is bigger than I thought.  Kind of gave me pause.

Also it's worth seeing if the battery life is decent, as I would imagine a screen that large would kill battery.

[Sky]

Dude in phone section: No man, this cable is made especially for your phone, you need this one.
Me: Do you not understand what the U in USB stands for? It's a goddamn international standard, now where are your USB cables?
Dude in phone section: Uh, computers maybe, but it won't be for a phone!

Once when I was a dishwasher, the guy who sliced up the chicken parts for the buffet was on an errand and running late. I told the owner I knew how to run a band saw and could slice up the parts. She looked down her nose at me, took on a snooty tone and said "Young man, this is a MEAT saw, not a BAND saw!" I shrugged and went back to the dishes and the dinner got served an hour late.

It was a band saw. Hell, I even replaced the blade on it once because the chicken chopper didn't have a clue about band...excuse me, meat saws. People get funny ideas in their heads when they don't think.

[Quinton]

Aside from the physical keyboard, is there a reason I should wait for the Droid 2 instead of buying the Droid X now?

Depends if you want a fucking huge phone.  It's not everyone's cup of tea.  I would definitely go play with one (or look at a Evo demo unit) to get an idea of how big it is.  The Droid 2 is a normal touchscreen screen size (3.7").  I saw an evo the other day while waiting for a radio shack, and that thing is bigger than I thought.  Kind of gave me pause.

Also it's worth seeing if the battery life is decent, as I would imagine a screen that large would kill battery.

The biggest power issue will be the backlight, and the additional illuminated surface area is not that much in the grand scheme of things.  Both devices are moving roughly the same number of pixels per frame (maybe identical? don't have the specs in front of me), which is what affects clock rate, memory bandwidth usage, and other power consuming factors.  I wouldn't be surprised if the screen power consumption was pretty similar between the two devices.

A larger screen is definitely friendlier for touch keyboards (bigger buttons!), but yeah, at some point (which will vary from person to person) you hit "too large for a phone".  The keyboard layout on droid 2 looks nicer than the original.  If they improved the feel a bit (haven't had a chance to try one) I'd be tempted.  I miss having a good physical keyboard.

[Quinton]

This is pretty awesome...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=710647

This is a live wallpaper of Mario playing randomly generated levels. Every once in a while, a level ends and a new one begins. There are three themes for levels: outside, underground and castle. They appear in that order.

[ffc]

http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-ota-42745.dc39ca1f.zip

I think this is the official Froyo build (FRF85B).  It's being pushed out to the N1.  Got it OTA yesterday.

In unrelated news, typing about:debug in the browser and then changing the UAString in browser settings to desktop lets me manipulate Picasa albums without being stuck in the crippled mobile mode.  And I can almost share GDocs with the UAString change but I'm getting a message that sharing isn't available at this time.  Now if I could edit in GDocs as well then this phone becomes my mobile laptop.

Fake edit: hey I can view flash videos not available on mobile sites while I'm in desktop mode.

[bhodi]

I'm running mario in the background. It's pretty awesome. Also surprisingly not as battery intensive as you'd guess. It's the first thing my new iphone 4 friends wish they had.

I also changed a bunch of config settings, installed quickdesk and I don't know what I did specifically but my battery seems tentatively back down to a reasonable level. I also installed the SDK to try and do debugging but it won't recognize my phone. haven't played with it enough, maybe the USB drivers require rebooting and I just haven't gotten around to it.

[Quinton]

http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-ota-42745.dc39ca1f.zip

I think this is the official Froyo build (FRF85B).  It's being pushed out to the N1.  Got it OTA yesterday.

That is indeed the official build.  Enjoy!

[Abagadro]

So apparently you can now read your Kindle books through an Android app.  I'd be curious to know how it is if anyone gives it a try.

[Segoris]

Installing that Mario Live wallpaper on a droid was annoying (had to install via the .apk file, qr code or using the market doesn't work for it) but well worth it in the end. Nice suggestion.

[Quinton]

So apparently you can now read your Kindle books through an Android app.  I'd be curious to know how it is if anyone gives it a try.

I tried it.  Works reasonable well.  I still massively prefer the kindle for reading, but if I'm stuck somewhere waiting and only have my phone, this is a nice alternative.

[Lantien]

Waiting for 2.2 OTA now... hoping everything's all set before I fly out of the US on Saturday.  If the battery improvements are as good as I hope they'll be, I may seriously consider using the phone as the music device for the trip...

[Quinton]

Waiting for 2.2 OTA now... hoping everything's all set before I fly out of the US on Saturday.  If the battery improvements are as good as I hope they'll be, I may seriously consider using the phone as the music device for the trip...

Even in 2.1, provided you park the device in airplane mode, wifi off, gps off, you should see 16-18 hours of mp3 playback (screen off).

[Draegan]

Quinton help me.

My Tmobile contract is up in October.  My G1 is oooooooold.

I was going to break my contract early and snag a Droid X.  Now I keep reading rumors of an uber gingerbread phone coming out in November.

If I let my contract run out I'll still be a month shy of that "rumored" date and I want to use the "new contract, save money on phone thing".

I'm paralyzed.


Help me :(

[Trippy]

Well if you wait till October I'm sure there will be a better Android phone a week or so later and a week or so after one, and so on. There have been > 40 Android phones released/will be released this year alone*.


* Yes most aren't available in the US but that's besides the point

[KallDrexx]

From all the released requirements for the awesome gingerbread UI, the Droid X will be more than suitable.  It's not going to be outdated for a long time, and the leak also states that handsets should get gingerbread around december.  Since the Droid original is getting Eclair this month, I highly doubt they will leave the X out of the next update.

[Segoris]

Why not just let your contract expire and go month to month while waiting on the new phone to release? It still gives the upgrade/new phone pricing when you renew your contract and get the new phone just as it would if you did it right at the end of your contract.

[Draegan]

Why not just let your contract expire and go month to month while waiting on the new phone to release? It still gives the upgrade/new phone pricing when you renew your contract and get the new phone just as it would if you did it right at the end of your contract.

Tmobile lets you do that?

[KallDrexx]

Why not just let your contract expire and go month to month while waiting on the new phone to release? It still gives the upgrade/new phone pricing when you renew your contract and get the new phone just as it would if you did it right at the end of your contract.

Tmobile lets you do that?

Yeah they let you do that, and you pay less for month to month than your contract price.

[Draegan]

I just want to know how much more awesomer this mystery phone is than the droid x

Oh well there really isn't any reason to wait 6 months since my G1 is starting to break down.

[Segoris]

In my experiences all cell companies in the US switch you to month to month service after the contract expires. I don't have direct experience with T-Mobile, and would suggest calling them or checking their forums, but it would be silly of them to not do that when everyone else does (and has done so for years, even back when I worked for Cingular back around 2002 I believe it was). I did google "t-mobile contract expires" and found some people confirming T-Mobile does go month to month, but still never hurts to call.

Fake Edit: I just saw Kal's post and didn't know T-Mobile lowered the monthly price when that happens, I haven't heard of anyone else doing that (I know Verizon didn't when I was month to month right before the first Droid came out).

[Trippy]

I just want to know how much more awesomer this mystery phone is than the droid x

Oh well there really isn't any reason to wait 6 months since my G1 is starting to break down.

The main awesomeness from what's been released so far on the spec is the 1280×760 resolution on screens 4" or larger. The other specs I've seen are min 1 GHz CPU and min 512 MB RAM but there are phones today that already meet that min spec.

[MuffinMan]

If I can't get 3.0 on my Hero at the end of this year I'm going to be pissed. Obsolete one year into a two year contract, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Draegan]

I just want to know how much more awesomer this mystery phone is than the droid x

Oh well there really isn't any reason to wait 6 months since my G1 is starting to break down.

The main awesomeness from what's been released so far on the spec is the 1280×760 resolution on screens 4" or larger. The other specs I've seen are min 1 GHz CPU and min 512 MB RAM but there are phones today that already meet that min spec.

The Droid X meats that spec but that resolution is amazing.  I've spent this long sucking with the G1 that I don't want to be sitting around with "grass is always greener" when that awesomeness rolls around.  I also don't want to wait that much longer.

*cry*

I need to do some soul searching.  I think that's sad considering it's only a phone.

[Quinton]

I would not freak out over unconfirmed rumors.  I also will not confirm or deny rumors (sorry!).

But yes, no matter when you buy a phone, within 3-6 months (at the outside) somebody will probably ship something cooler.  This is the world of consumer electronics.  I don't think I've ever bought a digital camera or A/V receiver or whatever without better or cheaper ones becoming available shortly thereafter.

That said, Droid X has quite nice hardware and I expect it'll have a good run.

The very first generation Android phones with 128-192MB ram and ~500MHz CPUs were a little underpowered for where the OS ended up.  The ~1GHz ~512MB stuff we're seeing ship this year should have more headroom for expansion.

[MuffinMan]

But yes, no matter when you buy a phone, within 3-6 months (at the outside) somebody will probably ship something cooler.

That's fine with me, I'm used to the world of electronics. I would love to have a Nexus One or EVO. But to not even get OS updates after a year of my phone coming out? I know the gingerbread requirements are still just rumors so we'll see how frothy I get later this year.

I've been looking to buy a laptop here lately. Hopefully in a year I can still get Windows 7 updates.  

[ffc]

I think my official out of contract N1 pricing on T-Mobile is ~$55/mo for unlimited data/nights/wknds/mobile to mobile, 500 anytime minutes, and 0 texts (I use gvoice for texts, which is in real time now instead of checking at intervals).  I called at&t and I think they had an even cheaper out of contract plan but I knew I couldn't get 3g with at&t so I passed.  Data only is also possible.  Either way buying the phone unlocked with the cheaper plans and no ETF made good sense.

I got a tiny OTA update to 2.2 today (FRF91), not sure what it did, but now there is a notice in GDocs when I access it on my phone's browser in desktop mode that GDocs isn't fully supported with my browser.  I almost cried but everything is working as before; I happily uploaded pictures of text to have it transcribed in GDocs, all from my phone.  I love this thing and will forever wonder how it isn't more popular.

Oh and I'm sure I'm late with this, but is the N1 name inspired by the Nexus-6 from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  I saw Blade Runner again and it clicked. 

[KallDrexx]

Fake Edit: I just saw Kal's post and didn't know T-Mobile lowered the monthly price when that happens, I haven't heard of anyone else doing that (I know Verizon didn't when I was month to month right before the first Droid came out).

As far as I know T-Mobile is the only carrier that does that, everyone else just has you go month to month with the same cost.

[TripleDES]

As for the new/updated UI with Gingerbread, I think that's almost a fact by now. The hardware baseline is pure speculation, tho. There's also a rumor going around that HTC's developing their own display, trying to cram 720p into a 4" LCD, to be built into their ostensibly upcoming Sabor device. I'm going to believe it when I see it (altho the iPhone4 display isn't that far off).

[Sky]

I don't think I've ever bought a digital camera or A/V receiver or whatever without better or cheaper ones becoming available shortly thereafter.

How many OS updates and apps have you installed on your camera and receiver? Kind of a different pony, especially when talking to a computer gaming crowd that's used to having hardware that's generally superior to Joe Q Public's factory-built stuff. Smartphones stopped being "phones" a while ago and are now low-end mobile computing.

720p is probably overkill for a 4" screen, imo. But it's good to see resolution being topped off so engineering can focus on other things. By the time I can afford one of these suckers, they're going to be pretty amazing (3 years).

[Quinton]

I don't think I've ever bought a digital camera or A/V receiver or whatever without better or cheaper ones becoming available shortly thereafter.

How many OS updates and apps have you installed on your camera and receiver? Kind of a different pony, especially when talking to a computer gaming crowd that's used to having hardware that's generally superior to Joe Q Public's factory-built stuff. Smartphones stopped being "phones" a while ago and are now low-end mobile computing.

Sure, but just like my desktop computer, the hardware keeps getting faster / better / cheaper.  I just upgraded my win32 machine to a new quadcore i7 something or other.  I'm sure next month I probably could have gotten a bit more for less, and before long there will be a better GPU available, etc.  The fact that I can buy a better GPU doesn't make my existing one obsolete.

Obviously people want OS and software updates and that's reasonable.  I was speaking more to the "oh I just bought an X a month ago and now there's Y with { more memory, faster cpu, brighter display, etc }" sort of complaints.

[Righ]

My dilemma is that I'll need a new phone very soon (once my ex-employer cuts off this awful AT&T service that I don't plan to stay with) and the Droid X isn't out yet and the Incredible is back-ordered until well after the Droid X launches. I'm tempted by the keyboard of the original Moto Droid and the fact that they're actually in stock at VZW, but will I regret getting one?

[MuffinMan]

I'd be wary of getting the original Moto Droid just in case the 1ghz requirement of Gingerbread rumor ends up being true.