Posted on 11/06/2009 11:51:39 PM PST by dennisw
You've had it. Maybe with AT&T. Maybe with Apple's crushing, dictatorial grip strangling the App Store. Whatever the reason, you're going to Android: Land of freedom, carriers not named AT&T, and the great Google. Here's what you need to know.
Android phones don't sync with your computer. That's because they don't have to: Your contacts, calendar and mail are all kept up in the great Googleyplex. Unfortunately, Google's Contacts manager, while it's gotten better, is kinda crappy, and all of your Contacts are beamed down to your phone from there.
So even after you get the actual contacts you wanna talk to exported to Google Contacts, one problem is that all of your Google contacts, like everybody you email, show up on your phone. What you have to do is either sort your contacts into different groups and tell the phone's Contacts app to show only the groups you only wanna see, or to only show you people with phone numbers. If you wanna sync your contacts, so you have a master copy on your computer and can manage them from there, that problem takes a bit of legwork—at least on Windows.
If you're on a Mac, it's easy to keep your Contacts synced—just tell Address Book to sync with Google. On Windows, you'll need a third-party app, like GO contact. That way, you can manage your contacts on your desktop, and have a local copy that's always synced up with what Google's got.
Calendars are easier: Google's got an app for that.
Exchange support varies from version to version: Android 2.0 has it, previous vanilla versions of Android don't, but carriers like Sprint and hardware makers like HTC have been rolling their own Exchange solution into Android. Check the box, in other words.
If your primary email account is Gmail, that's almost reason enough to go Android. Not only is Gmail pushed to your phone, the Gmail app is an absolutely perfect rendition of the Gmail experience for the small screen. Threaded conversations (hurray), full label support, starring, archiving and a true Gmail look-and-feel. It's even better in Android 2.0, which finally includes support for using multiple Google accounts with the Gmail app, and a few interface tweaks to make it easier to use.
For your non-Google accounts, there's a separate email app that's a pretty standard IMAP/POP mobile email app. Not amazing, not bad.
You might be switching to Android for political reasons, or just to get away from AT&T, but what's gonna make switching actually work is that all of the Google services are fantastic, and often, more powerful than their iPhone counterparts.
Google Talk is the non-Gmail killer app for me, and highlights just how badly the iPhone needs a native messaging app—it's like BlackBerry Messenger, but for Google. (Or mobile AIM, but less shitty.) Keep in mind, anyone signed in to Gmail on a desktop browser can be reached through Google Talk if they've authorized it, so you've probably got more "buddies" than you might realize.
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lol
I have had one for months. Only issues are battery life and headphones.
Also, one issue all these phones have, in certain data modes when 3g4g isn’t available, your phone doesn’t ring. Caller goes direct to voicemail when you are actively using the net when they call.
No one told me, I was missing a lot of phone calls.
Still haven’t had hardware nearly as good looking as the iPhone. Although the SE X10 is definitely in the running. Although I wish it were coming with stock Android. I don’t much care for any of the skins, plus they keep you from getting an OS update as they come available.
I “wanna” know what John Lichman is going to (”gonna”?) pay for in food stamps.
And, as the Sidekick users found out, if the “cloud” goes down, you’re hosed.
Cigarettes and beer?
Android isn’t cload based, just some of the applications are.
Each Android is embedded Linux, you can turn it into a web server or anything.
There is 0 risk from a hardware operating system of the thing being obsolete. There is more risk as far as 3g going obsolete.
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