[PLUG-TALK] Need phone advice

[Alex Young]

First off, I'm not an android user, so this partly just my experiences
as an iPhone user, and partly what I've learned from others who do use
android.

Stylus: google "capacitive stylus".  They work on capacitive screens
just fine.  That said, you almost surely will get better at it and
just use your fingers at some point.  The autocorrect stuff is really
good now if you try to trust it.

Bluetooth: it is slow. Designed that way. Use wifi to transfer files
if you can, it's MUCH faster.

Mail client: android has a great mail client called K9, you should
really give that a try.  It may require rooting your phone to find if
the app store you have is limited by the carrier.

Smartphones are fun and useful, you just have to get used to them.
Try to have fun, put it down when you're frustrated, try again later.

I'll probably get an android at some point, but I wanted the high res
screen so I'm stuck in apple land for now.  It's not all bad though,
as long as you root it.  I think that's the case on either platform.

I don't sign off this way usually, but yeah, I typed this on my iPhone.

-Alex


On Feb 27, 2011, at 4:55 PM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> wrote:

> On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 09:15:15 -0800 (PST)
> Paul Heinlein <heinlein at madboa.com> dijo:
>
>> On Sat, 19 Feb 2011, John Jason Jordan wrote:
>>
>>> I just ordered a new Atrix 4G from AT&T.
>>
>> I'm really interested to see the Atrix in action. If it lives up to
>> its reviews, it'll be my next phone.
>>
>> I'd love to hear your thoughts once you've used it for a couple days.
>
> I'm finding the touchscreen to be a nightmare. In the middle of typing
> a text message suddenly I'm someplace else and the text message is
> gone. I can't type for crap with the on-screen QWERTY keyboard, even
> sideways. The keys are just too small to hit accurately. And since it
> is heat-activated I can't use a stylus.
>
> I have the same problem scrolling down or from screen to screen. You
> need incredibly fine motor control in your fingers. Linger a couple
> milliseconds too long while scrolling and suddenly you've launched the
> app your finger was over when you paused. Ditto for pressing too hard.
> And if you swipe your finger too fast suddenly you've gone several
> pages. There is no "page down" button.
>
> I have used computers for ages, but the Android OS (Froyo) on this
> phone is driving me nuts. You can't exit from a program from within the
> program - no X in the corner or Close button. You have to use a task
> manager to kill the program. Icons for applications have letters under
> them telling you what the app is, although sometimes the word makes no
> sense - I'm still trying to figure out what "DLNA" is. But when the
> icon is not an application you are expected to know intuitively what
> the icon represents. I don't. And there are never balloon popups.
>
> Bluetooth file transfer from my laptop is   s  l  o  w . I transferred
> about 125 MB of MP3s last night and it took 1.5 hours. I had to go back
> to the AT&T store because at first Bluetooth file transfer wouldn't
> work at all. Turns out that I needed to install an app for that, which
> was not installed by default.
>
> So far I have uninstalled about half of the apps that the phone came
> with. If you're a Facebooker, Twitterer, MySpacer, and otherwise
> electronically social, or you think it is nice to have thousands of
> pictures and videos, you might enjoy some of the apps it came with.
> I'm not that popular, and I think I have taken maybe three or four
> hundred pictures in my entire lifetime.
>
> The wallpaper that AT&T thought I would find attractive was so hideous
> that I almost walked out without buying the phone. Worse, it interfered
> with the letters under the icons so I couldn't read anything. I tried
> to set it to "no wallpaper," but it turns out that is not an option on
> AT&T's version of Froyo. But you can use any picture, so I used the
> camera to take a picture of a sheet of paper. That is now my wallpaper.
> It looks much better.
>
> Ultimately I want to be able to pop into the Oxford English Dictionary
> at the PSU library, or check my bank accounts, or go to several other
> web addresses that I have bookmarked on my laptop. I haven't set up the
> bookmarks yet due to difficulties with typing. Ditto for typing e-mail
> addresses, like plug at pdxlinux.org. And you can't save your e-mail
> address in the e-mail client; everything uses the same Contacts list.
> Therefore, when I access Contacts to call a friend I have to scroll
> past all the e-mail addresses as well as the phone numbers. And there is
> only one e-mail client; you can't install a different one.
>
> If you haven't guessed by now I am feeling very frustrated. The AT&T
> store people tell me that in a couple weeks it will seem like second
> nature. We'll see.
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