First Looks: The Verizon Motorola Droid

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Even with 2.0, the Droid is awesome. Once you are eligible, pull that trigger! :)

My rate plan is what is holding me back. They will let me do it now if I am willing to change my rate plan, but it means paying more than the old Alltel plan I have now.
 
The one good thing is there is plenty of chatter that this is in the works and if not imminent, pretty darn close.

From Phonearena yesterday:

So far the only Android 2.1 device on the market is the HTC Nexus One. As we have been hearing though, the Motorola DROID will be among the smartphones to get an update to the latest OS version (which sounds like a reasonable move indeed). AndroidSPIN informs that Verizon has now initiated the updating process by launching a 61.4MB OTA patch for Moto’s golden boy. According to the source, the patch won’t be installed on the device just yet as there is a second part of it coming, which will be needed to update the phone’s software. Have you guys gotten the patch? Are you looking forward to getting Android 2.1’s little improvements? Sound off in the comments below!

See: Android 2.1 for the DROID getting ready for prime time (Phone Arena News)
 
Well no OTA updates today, and Moto put a post on its twitter feed saying that there is no update today - and another saying that they cannot talk about when an update will come.

One would hope that when a CEO actually says "in a few days" that the update will be soon. Of course, who knows is Google is trying to keep 2.1 exclusive to the Nexus for a bit longer; as once the Droid has it, then the ONLY advantage of the Nexus over it is a faster processor.

Somehow though, I think the "soon" on 2.1 will be a lot "sooner" than a Dish Network "soon." :)
 
Even with 2.0, the Droid is awesome. Once you are eligible, pull that trigger! :)

Even with lower versions the other Android phones are pretty awesome as well. The only thing I am missing is the google voice guided app but I get the Sprint one with my plan anyways.
 
There is one thing that I really really like about this phone. The signal strength is way way better than and HTC phone I have ever had. I used to get 1 to 2 bars at my house, now I get full signal.
 
I think the call audio quality is really good too- and the speaker is very loud, which I like.

Did you get the multimedia dock? I keep my phone in that all the time. I love it. Actually ordered a second one for work. I don't use the car mount that much, but it is nice if you are using the navigation features. You should play with navigation on your commute. I think you'll be impressed.
 
There is one thing that I really really like about this phone. The signal strength is way way better than and HTC phone I have ever had. I used to get 1 to 2 bars at my house, now I get full signal.

Well you did change quite a few factors there. You changed phone brand and models and you changed over to Verizon. You probably have a Verizon tower closer to you than an Alltel one. As your Alltel phone probably had a PRL with Alltel SIDs a priority and VZW as secondary. And also you can never really go by the signal meter on your phone determine if a signal is better on one phone than the other. The manufacturer sets the ranges on the number of bars. Some phones have 4 some have 7, etc. Some manufacturers will set their range very high so it looks like their phone is always better. Reminds me of the days when people all with the same carrier would compare their "bars"...they were all different. Then you throw in the phones with 3G which sometimes will show the 3G signal strength over the voice/text signal strength at times. So as you can see, there are too many factors to compare by "bars".

If you want to compare, always go to the debug screen on the phone where it actual shows signal strength numbers on the screen, and in the 3G world, you have to compare two numbers as you have 2 signals coming into your phone. Then you have the other factor, signal quality too.
 
Well you did change quite a few factors there. You changed phone brand and models and you changed over to Verizon. You probably have a Verizon tower closer to you than an Alltel one. As your Alltel phone probably had a PRL with Alltel SIDs a priority and VZW as secondary. And also you can never really go by the signal meter on your phone determine if a signal is better on one phone than the other. The manufacturer sets the ranges on the number of bars. Some phones have 4 some have 7, etc. Some manufacturers will set their range very high so it looks like their phone is always better. Reminds me of the days when people all with the same carrier would compare their "bars"...they were all different. Then you throw in the phones with 3G which sometimes will show the 3G signal strength over the voice/text signal strength at times. So as you can see, there are too many factors to compare by "bars".

If you want to compare, always go to the debug screen on the phone where it actual shows signal strength numbers on the screen, and in the 3G world, you have to compare two numbers as you have 2 signals coming into your phone. Then you have the other factor, signal quality too.

The towers doesn't matter since the ones in my area for Alltel and Verizon are one in the same. Verizon wasn't here until they bought Alltel. I didn't know about the other stuff though, but the calls seem to sound better. I had a Motorola phone way back when I first started Alltel so maybe they work better where I am.
 
If you want ringtones and notification tones to show up in your list from your SD card you need to put them into their corresponding folders on the SD card. If your SD card doesn't have them, then just create them (which is what I had to do).
 
I found a Star Trek sounds and ringtones app (free) and set my notifications sound from the default "Droid" to Mr. Worf saying "Captain, Incoming Message." I love it!

Plus there is a great sound of the tricorder. So load the app, push the button and your droid is a tri-corder. Now all I need is a LCARS interface. ;) Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a software engineer. :D
 
I found a Star Trek sounds and ringtones app (free) and set my notifications sound from the default "Droid" to Mr. Worf saying "Captain, Incoming Message." I love it!

Plus there is a great sound of the tricorder. So load the app, push the button and your droid is a tri-corder. Now all I need is a LCARS interface. ;) Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a software engineer. :D

I found that one last week. I have the "Captain, Incoming Message" for my messages.

Do you have a Doctorate? If so, that was a great play on words there. :D
 
Is anyone having problems sometimes making phone calls? Mine will every now and then look like it is making a phone call but I hear nothing on my end, but the person on the other end can hear me talking. I have to reboot my phone before it works again
 
Is anyone having problems sometimes making phone calls? Mine will every now and then look like it is making a phone call but I hear nothing on my end, but the person on the other end can hear me talking. I have to reboot my phone before it works again

Nope. No problems.
 

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