Learning curves n such...

[myx_2000]

Hey all,
I just came from the Palm 700p. I tried the Storm for about a month last year and hated it. I had to have a physical keyboard. I was watching the G1 and was frustrated when V didn't get it. So, I have been impatiently waiting for V to bring the Pre (no desire to leave V for sprint). But, there has been so much rumors, smoke, and mirrors, that when Droid was officially announced, I decided that Palm could no longer have my money. I have been a palm user since the IIIx. They were just a little too "exclusive" this time. So, I grabbed the Droid as fast as I could get to the V store. Coming from the Treo... I have to say that all the reviews (asside from the comments about the camera (lame)) most were a little overly harsh. This thing is a monster. I love it (I am pretty sure).

Android seems to have captured the spirit what Palm did. Make it open and you will get lots of apps. Both well and poorly written, but they will come.

So to the point...
Android is new to me. I have been reading about it like crazy the past month or so. But book knowledge and experiential knowledge are 2 different things, and whats more, it is a new version of the operating system. meaning, some solutions do not necessarily solve things that happened in 1.5, or 1.6.

So, my questions (for now)
I do not understand why so many things seem to open up when I did not ask for them to be open. I can go into TasKiller and turn off everything and within a few minutes I have a nearly fill list of things which have turned on. Things like calendar, corporate calendar, My uploads, google partner set up, voice recorder, messaging. I have not started any of this. Is this stuff that is always going on and I just need to not worry about it, or is there something bigger going on? Edit - Now AK Notepad, bluetooth share, voice dialing, com.google.android., and camera. Why?

I exported all my palm contacts into a csv last night. I got into gmail and exported a fake contact to see how it was set up. I modded the palm sheet to fit the gmail and uploaded all my contacts. It all looks ok in Gmail, but I do not have any of this synced to my phone. I have stopped and restarted syncing, and all sorts of stuff, but it is still not happy. I say a thread to soft reset the phone, but Droid does not have red and green buttons, so I am not sure about how to do this.

Lastly, though I have the phone plugged into the computer, I can not see the phone/folder/whatever in "My Computer". The phone is recognized, it alerts me that I plugged it in. It says that it is a mass memory device. The Droid yells Droid, but there is nothing in My computer that would allow me to dump stuff into it.

Thoughts?

BTW, I am finding it funny that Chrome does not recognize gmail, Gmail or Droid in it's dictionary.

Also, I am more and more amazed at how good the soft keyboard is. I do not like the iphone soft keyboard, nor the storms, but this thing seems to be dead on. I am finding that I am using it more than the physical keyboard which is a real shocker for me.

[simms22]

to mount the computer to the phone , pull down the notification bar , press usb , press mount . thats it .
secondly , all those apps starting and stopping . some of them check into the phone . some are working , some start and stop . they really arent "running" . android does that on its own . the thing with android is it considers memory not being used as wasted memory . so it uses it . it knows when to stop using it and clears it on its own . that way when you need something , its there faster . its the difference of being linux related and not microsoft windows related(that uses a registry and has to costantly go back and read it) .

[hondamx525]

For the mass storage, try and pull down the notification bar at the top, and make sure you tap on it and have it enter mass storage mode.

Also, for the the processes, i wouldnt worry about it too much. Im sure alot of them running are just poling for new stuff, (like messages and stuff) and alot of programs indirectly use others. Its not gunna do too much to your battery or anything.

Soft reset just means reset, the button pushes were just a quick way to do it, but you can just power off the phone and power it back on, thats a soft reset.

Hope we can help!

[hondamx525]

haha you got me simms! alot of the same answers there lol.

[TheBlur]

So, my questions (for now)
I do not understand why so many things seem to open up when I did not ask for them to be open. I can go into TasKiller and turn off everything and within a few minutes I have a nearly fill list of things which have turned on. Things like calendar, corporate calendar, My uploads, google partner set up, voice recorder, messaging. I have not started any of this. Is this stuff that is always going on and I just need to not worry about it, or is there something bigger going on? Edit - Now AK Notepad, bluetooth share, voice dialing, com.google.android., and camera. Why?

I'm pretty sure these are all services that need to be running in order for those applications to work properly. Messaging - need to know when a new messagea rrives, AK Notepad also includes reminder, etc, etc ,etc.

Lastly, though I have the phone plugged into the computer, I can not see the phone/folder/whatever in "My Computer". The phone is recognized, it alerts me that I plugged it in. It says that it is a mass memory device. The Droid yells Droid, but there is nothing in My computer that would allow me to dump stuff into it.

I'm pretty sure that when you plug it in to the computer you still have to pull down the notification window and mount it.

[simms22]

haha you got me simms! alot of the same answers there lol.

yup , pretty much .
i like this op , he/she is one of the few these past couple days that realizes that there is a learning curve with android when coming from a different o/s .

[hondamx525]

right, instead of saying it sucks or something like many do haha.

[simms22]

right, instead of saying it sucks or something like many do haha.

absolutely !

[myx_2000]

Yup, I just saw another thread about the usb icon. I think I am trying to read too many forums. I signed up here because there seems to be an established group (not a new group of noobs). Yup, I do understand learning curves as I am always having to troubleshoot software in my job (video editor). So many things are sold that will magically do this and that (and it doesn't), So when it doesn't work, I have to somehow find a work around and make it go. But, I am still trying to find the walls here. Some programs have a nice set of prefs, others (sadly) have none. I like to tweak. This is why I think Android will be a nice fit.

I also figured out the contacts. I had all my contacts categorized in the Palm. I did not realize that you had to turn the categories on (make them visible). So, technically they were here, just... em... invisible.

I am working on finding a good rip rate and screen size for video right now. I am playing with Speed Racer because there is tons of movement, sound, and color. (I wanna see what this puppy is capable of). I just tried 768kbs 720x306 It is wide screen (16:9) The video was a tad squished (skinny folk turned fat), so I am trying the 720x430 setting.
On the palm I was limited to 320x180 which is really really really small. The droid for only being 4 inches is massive. I actually found myself turning my head when they were rounding this one curve in a race.

Thanks for your responses. I am still trekking along in Droidland. It is a different flow. I am trying to figure out how to organize myself. BTW, the navigation is scary good isn't it?

BTW, I can not seem to find a way to put a silent mode button on the screen, is this something I need to download from the app store, or is it somewhere I am not seeing?

[Derrick]

BTW, I can not seem to find a way to put a silent mode button on the screen, is this something I need to download from the app store, or is it somewhere I am not seeing?

Yea there are a couple apps for that.