Cell phone advice: Droid or Tour

[tker32]

I've been putting off getting a new cell phone for a while now, but ended up with a cracked screen this weekend, so I'm in the market for a new one now. I have it narrowed down to the Droid that comes out Friday, or the BB Tour.

I won't use it a ton for email, more phone calls and web browsing, which is pushing me more toward the Droid. However, I am a little leery of getting a 1st gen phone so early after its release.

Any thoughts/suggestions either way?

[lilzaphod]

Droid.

It's actually 2nd gen on the interface and software.

Blackberry products lack.

[cjhawks]

My bro fiddled with the Droid at a VZW store on Friday as he's in the same dilemma. He said while it is a little heavier, it is clearly the superior device.

The Verizon rep told him he had better be in line by 7 am if he wanted a shot at one since quantities are limited at first.

[IchBinKalt]

The Droid seems like a solid device. Since it's Android 2.0 I wouldn't be too worried, and Motorola is a respectable company as long as you're not getting the freebie phone. If you're going for more consumer use, I'd go Droid.

The Tour is a fantastic device but BlackBerry is a Business oriented company, and their web browser isn't that good.

[L. Wade Childress]

i love my tour, but am a little annoyed at RIM because the wifi/touchpad version is coming out shortly

[brantshawks]

Yep, good call. Careless people that break phones should definitely go and get a more expensive one.



:)

[lilzaphod]

i love my tour, but am a little annoyed at RIM because the wifi/touchpad version is coming out shortly

Lack of a touchpad with decent gestures kills any new phone with me.

Once you've gone iPhone, you'll never go back. Droid is the closest thing that I've seen to make me want to switch.

[tker32]

Yep, good call. Careless people that break phones should definitely go and get a more expensive one.



:)

Shouldn't you be off mailing in a season ticket renewal or something?

[lilzaphod]

Yep, good call. Careless people that break phones should definitely go and get a more expensive one.



:)

Shouldn't you be off mailing in a season ticket renewal or something?

Naw, that's what his wife isn't for.

[L. Wade Childress]

i text way too much for an iphone.

[lilzaphod]

i text way too much for an iphone.

You get used it, quickly. It's a hell of a lot more comfortable than a palm or a blackberry, IMO. Especially since you can landscape mode now and really stretch out the keys.

[newsbreaker]

Droid is going to be interesting. If it does everything they're selling it as doing, Apple is going to be in some trouble. They'll still have the idiot "cool" factor, but they'll suddenly be confronted with a comparable phone on a network that actually allows you to use the friggin phone.

[Jimmie Dimmick]

I messed with a Droid this weekend at the VZW store. Very impressive.

[lilzaphod]

Droid is going to be interesting. If it does everything they're selling it as doing, Apple is going to be in some trouble. They'll still have the idiot "cool" factor, but they'll suddenly be confronted with a comparable phone on a network that actually allows you to use the friggin phone.

You are targeting this the wrong way. Apple will not be in trouble. AT&T will be in trouble.

[newsbreaker]

Droid is going to be interesting. If it does everything they're selling it as doing, Apple is going to be in some trouble. They'll still have the idiot "cool" factor, but they'll suddenly be confronted with a comparable phone on a network that actually allows you to use the friggin phone.

You are targeting this the wrong way. Apple will not be in trouble. AT&T will be in trouble.

That's right. Does anyone *really* know how long Apple is stuck with AT&T?

[L. Wade Childress]

how is the processor in the iphone? ive messed around with my friends' iphones and it seems as though there is a terrible lag when switching between apps and stuff. maybe i am just old fashioned and used to blackberry's menu and keys but i love the interface on th tour that allows me to run multiple apps and toggle back and forth quickly. plus i love sprint.

[nikolausp]

Gettin' my Droid on Friday... can't wait.

[chafedHawk]

Droid is going to be interesting. If it does everything they're selling it as doing, Apple is going to be in some trouble. They'll still have the idiot "cool" factor, but they'll suddenly be confronted with a comparable phone on a network that actually allows you to use the friggin phone.

You are targeting this the wrong way. Apple will not be in trouble. AT&T will be in trouble.

That's right. Does anyone *really* know how long Apple is stuck with AT&T?

Only Apple knows, and they're not "stuck" with ATT, they chose exclusivity. It's up to Apple to open up to other carriers, not ATT.

I have to disagree a little bit with Zaph on the typing...that is definitely the iPhone's biggest drawback, even in landscape mode. The girl has a 3GS. Fantastic phone. She loves everything about it apart from the touch keyboard. Physical keyboards are much better.

The Droid looks freaking awesome though. Finally, an Android phone with great hardware. Thanks Nik for spamming my inbox with Droid info the last couple weeks.:p

[chafedHawk]

how is the processor in the iphone? ive messed around with my friends' iphones and it seems as though there is a terrible lag when switching between apps and stuff. maybe i am just old fashioned and used to blackberry's menu and keys but i love the interface on th tour that allows me to run multiple apps and toggle back and forth quickly. plus i love sprint.

The iPhone is fast, at least the 3GS version. Even though it doesn't multitask like the Pre, I haven't noticed any lag with the phone itself. Usually the bottleneck is the 3G connection.

I've never had a problem with ATT, fwiw, either with my own phone or the better half's iPhone. Seems to be a big gripe in Iowa though - coverage and service are rock solid in bigger cities. ATT is a lot more expensive than any other carrier for similar plans, to the tune of up to $1k over the course of a two year contract. That's a small fortune for phone service.

[The Incredible Hawk]

i still love my pre and everything about it.

[IchBinKalt]

i text way too much for an iphone.

Don't you mean TXT?

[PlannedSickDays]

i still love my pre and everything about it.

+1

[tker32]

The Droid is on its way. Had to order it through work, since I'm on their plan, so I won't get it until Tuesday. Thanks for the help guys.

[L. Wade Childress]

i actually dont use any text shorthand besides LOL which i rarely use when i am actually laughing out loud.

[cjhawks]

tker - my bro picked up the Droid this morning at VZW. He said its unbelievable. Good choice

[brantshawks]

I'll get mine after the 1st of the year.

[imissjoeyrange]

i still love my pre and everything about it.

+1

Everything but the battery life.

[nikolausp]

Thanks Nik for spamming my inbox with Droid info the last couple weeks.:p


LOL, just saw this... yw Chafed.

[The Incredible Hawk]

i still love my pre and everything about it.

+1

Everything but the battery life.

actually ever since i got my new battery i have never gotten below 20% battery life and i usually go 16-20 hours without charging and text and run apps all day.

[LakeBull]

I've got an Alias II and even that simple phone is overkill for what I really need from a phone. Glad you guys are going more high end and driving a nice revenue stream for the providers thus helping keep my cost down. Thanks! :)

There are some concerns about the availability of bandwidth. It will be interesting to see how much service degradation there is as bandwidth is increasingly oversold. Even G4 deployment is not expected to help that much.

[tker32]

First post from the Droid. So far so good. It will take some time to get used to it but so far I like it

[brantshawks]

First post from the Droid. So far so good. It will take some time to get used to it but so far I like it

You said the same thing about sex with men, if I remember correctly. If that's any indication, you'll be teaching classes on the Droid in no time.

[Edgecrusher7711]

I've been on the G1 since release. Android is a fantastic OS. However the biggest issue still isn't resolved with Droid. For some f'n reason they only allow 256 of internal memory for apps. You can get around this by running a custom rom (which Cyanogen's is awesome) and installing apps to the SD card. So you can at least install a bunch of apps. But devs are still constrained by the size limit and can't make larger apps. This is why there are no games on Android and tons on the IPhone. I have no freakin' clue why nobody has put 8GB min internal storage for Android yet.

That said I love the OS. I love the roms. But I'm holding off on upgrading my hw until someone ups the internal memory. Also T-Mobile blows and I'd love to get back on Verizon. So I was really hoping Droid would be the one. Oh well.

[Edgecrusher7711]

how is the processor in the iphone? ive messed around with my friends' iphones and it seems as though there is a terrible lag when switching between apps and stuff. maybe i am just old fashioned and used to blackberry's menu and keys but i love the interface on th tour that allows me to run multiple apps and toggle back and forth quickly. plus i love sprint.

The iPhone is fast, at least the 3GS version. Even though it doesn't multitask like the Pre, I haven't noticed any lag with the phone itself. Usually the bottleneck is the 3G connection.

I've never had a problem with ATT, fwiw, either with my own phone or the better half's iPhone. Seems to be a big gripe in Iowa though - coverage and service are rock solid in bigger cities. ATT is a lot more expensive than any other carrier for similar plans, to the tune of up to $1k over the course of a two year contract. That's a small fortune for phone service.

T-Mobile and At&t both have serious issues in Iowa. Makes sense as they're both on the same technology but it is annoying and is forcing me to eventually go back to Verizon.

[Pinehawk]

how is the processor in the iphone? ive messed around with my friends' iphones and it seems as though there is a terrible lag when switching between apps and stuff. maybe i am just old fashioned and used to blackberry's menu and keys but i love the interface on th tour that allows me to run multiple apps and toggle back and forth quickly. plus i love sprint.

The iPhone is fast, at least the 3GS version. Even though it doesn't multitask like the Pre, I haven't noticed any lag with the phone itself. Usually the bottleneck is the 3G connection.

I've never had a problem with ATT, fwiw, either with my own phone or the better half's iPhone. Seems to be a big gripe in Iowa though - coverage and service are rock solid in bigger cities. ATT is a lot more expensive than any other carrier for similar plans, to the tune of up to $1k over the course of a two year contract. That's a small fortune for phone service.

I don't think it's more expensive. Especially since you can roll over minutes. We just got the lowest minute plan, took it easy the first couple of months and at this point we've got more minutes than we would ever need. While paying the minimum.

[nikolausp]

Tethered internet to my laptop easy cheasy from my Droid last night. The laptop was surfing pretty fast off it too.... Speedtest had it at 144 kb/sec Down, 49 kb/sec Up.

[HawkLax6]

Anyone here try out the HTC Hero yet?

I am leaning towards getting it soon since my current phone is dying on me.

[blacklespaul]

I got my droid yesterday. It performs as expected, not perfect but reaching the point where it does all (and more) than I want and need. It is slightly heavier than my old bb curve, but I like my phones a little heavier. ;)

[ThePracticalPundit]

The Droid seems like a solid device. Since it's Android 2.0 I wouldn't be too worried, and Motorola is a respectable company as long as you're not getting the freebie phone. If you're going for more consumer use, I'd go Droid.

The Tour is a fantastic device but BlackBerry is a Business oriented company, and their web browser isn't that good.

Bolt browser (http://boltbrowser.com/home.html). Problem solved.

My brother has a Droid, and I played around with it a bit on Sunday. Nice. I'd get one if I didn't have a company-provided BB.

[lbchawkeye]

I got my droid yesterday. It performs as expected, not perfect but reaching the point where it does all (and more) than I want and need. It is slightly heavier than my old bb curve, but I like my phones a little heavier. ;)
I just got one this weekend. Haven't had much time to install apps/customize it yet though. So far so good though.

Any must-have apps anyone can recommend?

[brantshawks]

http://www.stoth.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9a20e_picture-102.png

[SL]

I got my droid yesterday. It performs as expected, not perfect but reaching the point where it does all (and more) than I want and need. It is slightly heavier than my old bb curve, but I like my phones a little heavier. ;)
I just got one this weekend. Haven't had much time to install apps/customize it yet though. So far so good though.

Any must-have apps anyone can recommend?

Might I suggest the Sexual Offender app?

[tker32]

I got my droid yesterday. It performs as expected, not perfect but reaching the point where it does all (and more) than I want and need. It is slightly heavier than my old bb curve, but I like my phones a little heavier. ;)
I just got one this weekend. Haven't had much time to install apps/customize it yet though. So far so good though.

Any must-have apps anyone can recommend?

My most used app is Advanced Task Killer Free. Helps free up resources, rather than letting them run behind the scenes and drain battery life. I've also installed Google Sky and ShapSavvy which are both pretty cool. Google Sky gives you star map based on the angle, direction, and location of your phone. ShopSavvy lets you use your camera to scan barcodes, then searches online to find prices of the same item.

[lbchawkeye]

I got my droid yesterday. It performs as expected, not perfect but reaching the point where it does all (and more) than I want and need. It is slightly heavier than my old bb curve, but I like my phones a little heavier. ;)
I just got one this weekend. Haven't had much time to install apps/customize it yet though. So far so good though.

Any must-have apps anyone can recommend?

Might I suggest the Sexual Offender app?
I can just text/call you to find out where your at... not going to pay extra for that info.

[Edgecrusher7711]

I got my droid yesterday. It performs as expected, not perfect but reaching the point where it does all (and more) than I want and need. It is slightly heavier than my old bb curve, but I like my phones a little heavier. ;)
I just got one this weekend. Haven't had much time to install apps/customize it yet though. So far so good though.

Any must-have apps anyone can recommend?

My most used app is Advanced Task Killer Free. Helps free up resources, rather than letting them run behind the scenes and drain battery life. I've also installed Google Sky and ShapSavvy which are both pretty cool. Google Sky gives you star map based on the angle, direction, and location of your phone. ShopSavvy lets you use your camera to scan barcodes, then searches online to find prices of the same item.

I have a G1 so some of these may not apply but my favs are....

Aldkio - Nice free ebook reader
Astro - Good File Manager
Barcode Scanner - Scan barcodes also scan app codes to auto download
Bartor - Send torrents to your pc
Flashlight - Turn your phone into a flashlight (amazing how often I use this)
GMote - Use your phone as a remote for music/movies on your pc
Google Voice
gTasks - Manage your Google Tasks
Handcent - My fav texting replacement
Last.fm
Listen - Podcast Manager
Movies - Movies Times, etc
Nesoid - Nintendo Emulator
Pandora
PF Voicemail - Visual Voicemail
Phonebook - Nice phonebook replacement
Power Manager - Tweak your power settings
Ringroid - Create Ringtones from your mp3s (trim songs, etc)
TuneWiki - Music Player, shows lyrics, etc
Ustream Broadcast - Watch UStream
Y! Fantasy Football - Just a wrapper to the site but nice to have 1 click away

[Santa Anna's Leg]

Listen - Podcast Manager


Do you do any of the ESPN podcats? I can not get to an RSS link for anything I'm interested on the Android browser. It keeps saying the ESPN Radio site has too many redirects to display.

[Edgecrusher7711]

Listen - Podcast Manager


Do you do any of the ESPN podcats? I can not get to an RSS link for anything I'm interested on the Android browser. It keeps saying the ESPN Radio site has too many redirects to display.

I have the Bill Simmons one. I just manually add the RSS feed link. I haven't tried any others.

[Santa Anna's Leg]

I have the Bill Simmons one. I just manually add the RSS feed link. I haven't tried any others.

You just found it on a web browser and transcribed it to Listen?

[Edgecrusher7711]

I have the Bill Simmons one. I just manually add the RSS feed link. I haven't tried any others.

You just found it on a web browser and transcribed it to Listen?

Yeah on the website there's usually a rss link or archive link that will get you there. I just go to that page and copy the url. (Here's the Simmons one....http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/feeds/itunes/podCast?id=2864045). I then login into gmail and send that as a text to my phone. Then copy and paste it in.

[Santa Anna's Leg]

Thanks edge.

[sobrien51]

Just downloaded Google Goggles which is pretty cool.

[Mrs. G]

Lack of a touchpad with decent gestures kills any new phone with me.


True.

[L. Wade Childress]

i got a new tour tonight because of a defective trackball. sound slike a common problem. tell me, what is so amaxing about the droid? i messed around with an htc phone and another phone with android OS and didnt get what all the hype was about.

[Edgecrusher7711]

i got a new tour tonight because of a defective trackball. sound slike a common problem. tell me, what is so amaxing about the droid? i messed around with an htc phone and another phone with android OS and didnt get what all the hype was about.

It goes down on you every time you turn it on. ;)

There's nothing "special" about the Droid. It's a good phone with a good OS on a good network. That right there narrows down the competition greatly. The biggest plus is it has fantastic contact management, search capabilities and great mapping tools. And do to Android being open source it is appearing on many devices on many networks. This is leading to a massive upgrade in support, applications, etc. Right now the hardware and OS aren't quite on par with the IPhone but you don't have to be on AT&T which makes it worth it right there. Also if you use any of the Google suite of web apps (GMail, docs, reader, calendar) and the biggest Google Voice it becomes a no-brainer. The Google Voice integration is perfect.

I personally run a custom version of the OS (another advantage of the open source) so I have the ability for free wireless tethering, OS updates before official roll out to carriers, better memory usage, apps on the SD card, etc.

[Tripper Harrison]

Two different guys called into the Wise Guys today. Both highly recommended adding the Shopsavvy thingy. Both claimed to have already paid for the phone with the savings. and one guy claims to have unlimited phone and data for $34 bucks a month. The hosts thought he meant $34 for data on top of his phone charge. Does anyone pay that cheap?