New phone reactions, week 2

[rhu]

• The Thrive runs version 2.2 of Android ("Froyo"), but its CPU is apparently not sufficiently advanced to run the Flash Player. As an Adobe employee, I'm disappointed, and I wish that had been made clear before I bought the phone, but oh well. The real Fail here is that when I click on the link to the Android Market, it would be nice if it told me why I can't download it, instead of simply saying "The document cannot be found."
• It was remarkably easy and intuitive to set up my own ringtone. I just had to plug the phone into the computer's USB port, set the phone into "Mount SD card" mode, copy the mp3s that I had generated into the obviously correct folder (SD Card/media/audio, I think it was), and then those files showed up, using the mp3 header tag info, in the list of available ringtones. And I'm not being ironic when I say "remarkably easy and intuitive;" although I realize that for the typical customer it would not have been easy or intuitive, for me, having to find mysterious UI widgets would have been much more confusing.
• I still miss a true scrollbar. The Contacts view has one, and it's nice.
• Speaking of the Contacts view, I've now got a reason to go into my Google Contacts and clean it up. Very sad to delete entries for people who have passed out of my life (Ah, the days of doing copyright clearance negotiations for Zamir) or who have passed away. Also very frustrating that I can't organize contacts respecting family relationships, so I end up with three entries for most of my familied friends: Adam's cell and email, Eve's cell and email, and the Eden family landline and address. There oughta be a better way.
• I'm more and more regaining my proficiency with MessagEase. Yay!
• I wish there were a good way to integrate my work Outlook calendar with my Google Calendar so it'd be on my phone. The official Google software syncs everything only with my main calendar (boo; I want a segregated subcalendar) and with all the same properties (boo; I like getting desktop popup reminders but I don't want my phone chirping at me, too). So I've turned that back off.
• Thanks to my friend Pam for the recommendation, I've downloaded Shortyz for solving puzzles. Nice feature: It takes my NYT credentials and automatically downloads those puzzles daily, as well as the wide range of freely-available ones. Solving on an electronic device continues to me nowhere near as enjoyable as solving on paper, but it's a good way to kill time when other people are late for meetings.
• I miss ShadowPlan from the Palm days. It was an awesome to-do-list-cum-outliner. There must be a good equivalent for Android.
• Haven't used the data plan much yet, which is good. When I have wanted it, I've been able to turn it on without feeling guilty.

Comments

[gingicat]

iOS has the same problem with Google Calendar - I really want to load various subcalendars of our main calendar and it won't let me. *sigh* I suspect it's because Google wants to make us use Google Mobile.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

We use CalenGoo, a third-party app, for Google Calendar interaction. I'm not sure they have an Android version, but it maybe worth looking into.

[cazique.livejournal.com]

I have an iPhone and I can sync multiple Google Calendars just fine with CalDAV (I think). Does this not get you what you need?

[gingicat]

Ah, I was using just the iOS default calendar program. I shall look into that.

[cazique.livejournal.com]

try this: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=151674

[gingicat]

Thank you so much!

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

I haven't drunk the cloud kool-aid yet, and I'd just as soon have the calendar on my handheld device just sync with the calendar on my desktop device, and not go via google calendar. I don't suppose Android is capable of such?

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

I've got an HTC Evo and it had an Exchange Sync (using ActiveSync) so you *can* set up an Exchange Calendar on your phone. The calendar views can be combined into a single view or you can decide you want to view one or the other. When you create a new entry on the phone you can decide into which calendar to save it. I just don't know how much of this is HTC/Sense and how much is raw Froyo. YMMV.