Droid X first impressions

[JSD_NJ]

So I have spent about a day with my new Droid X, and I am liking most things and not liking some others. Perhaps some are just due to my ignorance.

Firstly, I am not a fan of haptic feedback, so I turned it off. However, its still present for the unlock screen and for selecting home screens. Annoying.

I cant seem to delete the camera widget and I think its big and intrusive. Is there a way to remove it?

Also, if I change the 'notifications' sound, it makes my text message sound the same. I want one sound for texts, and one for notifications, is that doable? I am also trying to have different volume settings for text message alerts and ringtones.

Finally, and what might be the most ******ED thing of all, is the text message sorting. WHY THE HELL ARE MY MOST RECENT INCOMING TEXTS not at the top of the list! This makes NO sense and might just be a deal breaker for me because I text a LOT for work, and this is my work phone. Anyone have any insight on this?

Now onto the good. Phone feels great, is quick and does most of what I expect of it. I was concerned with the ability to stream flash video content and have been more than pleasantly surprised. I had to share.

YouTube - Live streaming flash video ok Droid X

This is over 3g. Audio and video are PERFECT. Now if only I could sort out these other issues.

 

[mazer75]

I just got my Droid X too!

FYI, from what I've read the text message sorting problem is a Froyo bug on the DX. I suppose it will be fixed in the near future.

 

[Steven58]

Hi,

The DX is totally customizable. Yes, in settings you can get rid of whatever you want. In fact, my DX's screen looks nothing like stock. Get to know it your phone. Play with the settings. You can resize or delete your widgets. You can get new ones, etc. I'll enclose you a screenshot of my phone. It keeps evolving, especially after I put a new theme on it, a couple of days ago.

 

[SgtBaxter]

What are you using to apply themes?

 

[nj02vette]

I cant seem to delete the camera widget and I think its big and intrusive. Is there a way to remove it?

Press and long hold, drag it to the trash can, just the same as any other widget, nothing magical.

Also, if I change the 'notifications' sound, it makes my text message sound the same. I want one sound for texts, and one for notifications, is that doable? I am also trying to have different volume settings for text message alerts and ringtones.

To change different volume settings:
In Settings>Sound>Volume uncheck the "Use incoming call volume for notification"
To change different sounds:
Settings>Sound>Phone Ringtone to set the Phone sound
Settings>Sound>Notification Ringtone to set the Notification sound

Finally, and what might be the most ******ED thing of all, is the text message sorting. WHY THE HELL ARE MY MOST RECENT INCOMING TEXTS not at the top of the list! This makes NO sense and might just be a deal breaker for me because I text a LOT for work, and this is my work phone. Anyone have any insight on this?

The stock messaging app puts the latest text on the top of the list, catagorized by recipient. In other words, you send two messages to two different people, you'll see those two people at the top, not the latest two messages. I like the catagorization, and never bothered to look into it further to change to "traditional" old technology text messaging.
You could always download another app to do SMS messaging, there are many in the marketplace. Handcent seems quite popular.

Be advised, there is a small bug in the latest update that is reporting message time stamps wrong. You'll never see it in the stock app, but I believe Handcent uses the wrong value and reports it as such.

 

[JSD_NJ]

Press and long hold, drag it to the trash can, just the same as any other widget, nothing magical.


To change different volume settings:
In Settings>Sound>Volume uncheck the "Use incoming call volume for notification"
To change different sounds:
Settings>Sound>Phone Ringtone to set the Phone sound
Settings>Sound>Notification Ringtone to set the Notification sound


The stock messaging app puts the latest text on the top of the list, catagorized by recipient. In other words, you send two messages to two different people, you'll see those two people at the top, not the latest two messages. I like the catagorization, and never bothered to look into it further to change to "traditional" old technology text messaging.
You could always download another app to do SMS messaging, there are many in the marketplace. Handcent seems quite popular.

Be advised, there is a small bug in the latest update that is reporting message time stamps wrong. You'll never see it in the stock app, but I believe Handcent uses the wrong value and reports it as such.

Is the notification sound different from the text message sound? I noticed there is an option to change the 'notification' sound and there is also an option to change the 'text ringtone'

The message sorting is inexcusable. It puts the latest message you SEND at the top, but as soon as you get a response from that person, it puts it way back in the list where it came from and you have to hunt for it. It makes no sense.

 

[bigbadwulff]

My text messages come up with the last message at the bottom and it defaults to show that message.
I see no problem with that. Heck, I'd rather it only show the last message sent and not all of them.....after I've read them. Even after you delete them, the next time the person replies it shows all of them again.

Another thing you might want to be aware of: When you delete your text messages THEY ARE STILL ON YOUR PHONE! This is so it can bring back the messages like in the last sentence in the paragraph above.

To COMPLETELY delete them you have to go to CONTACTS in the app drawer, swipe the screen to the right(with your finger), hit the options button and select CLEAR.

Many people don't realize their text messages are still on their phone even after deleting them!!!

 

[JSD_NJ]

My text messages come up with the last message at the bottom and it defaults to show that message.
I see no problem with that. Heck, I'd rather it only show the last message sent and not all of them.....after I've read them. Even after you delete them, the next time the person replies it shows all of them again.

Another thing you might want to be aware of: When you delete your text messages THEY ARE STILL ON YOUR PHONE! This is so it can bring back the messages like in the last sentence in the paragraph above.

To COMPLETELY delete them you have to go to CONTACTS in the app drawer, swipe the screen to the right(with your finger), hit the options button and select CLEAR.

Many people don't realize their text messages are still on their phone even after deleting them!!!

Id like my newest text message to be at the top, like every other normal phone Ive ever owned. I cant even figure out how its arranging them. Ill send a message to a person and that conversation will show up on top, then Ill send another and their replies are in all sorts of odd order.

Also, I deleted a text and went into contacts and swiped but I see no option to delete anything further, but I also no longer see an instance of the message.

 

[ekyle]

I just scan for the blue dot when I get a new message or hit the notification icon at the top. It was annoying at first, but not really a big deal.

 

[nj02vette]

Id like my newest text message to be at the top, like every other normal phone Ive ever owned. I cant even figure out how its arranging them. Ill send a message to a person and that conversation will show up on top, then Ill send another and their replies are in all sorts of odd order.

Also, I deleted a text and went into contacts and swiped but I see no option to delete anything further, but I also no longer see an instance of the message.

This is just how Android handles messages. Similar to Gmail where you also see your replies in the email thread. It's grouped by conversation, not in the inbox/outbox order received. Which I much prefer.

Think about it, when viewing a conversation with another person, I'd rather see our whole conversation, rather than just snippets in the inbox an forget what was stated prior. Pulling up one person gives you the entire conversation history, which is much more valuable IMHO.

Give it a try. While different, I bet you'll end up liking it. But if not, then just download another SMS client. There's plenty of them.

If you didn't like the built in "paint" program in Windows, do you complain to MS about it or do you install anther one? Same thing here, and hardly worth stating things like "inexcusable". This ain't Apple. Android is completely customizable, so start customizing away.

And yes, notifications is used for anything that shows up in the notification bar, such as texts, emails, and other alerts.

 

[JSD_NJ]

This is just how Android handles messages. Similar to Gmail where you also see your replies in the email thread. It's grouped by conversation, not in the inbox/outbox order received. Which I much prefer.

Think about it, when viewing a conversation with another person, I'd rather see our whole conversation, rather than just snippets in the inbox an forget what was stated prior. Pulling up one person gives you the entire conversation history, which is much more valuable IMHO.

Give it a try. While different, I bet you'll end up liking it. But if not, then just download another SMS client. There's plenty of them.

If you didn't like the built in "paint" program in Windows, do you complain to MS about it or do you install anther one? Same thing here, and hardly worth stating things like "inexcusable". This ain't Apple. Android is completely customizable, so start customizing away.

And yes, notifications is used for anything that shows up in the notification bar, such as texts, emails, and other alerts.

Maybe we are misunderstanding eachother here. On my iPhone, and my BB I had before this, I can see the whole conversation. Its a threaded system. When I get a NEW message, it puts the whole conversation at the top of the list. This makes sense to me, rather than some weird order with no rhyme or reason.

 

[BCox]

Maybe we are misunderstanding eachother here. On my iPhone, and my BB I had before this, I can see the whole conversation. Its a threaded system. When I get a NEW message, it puts the whole conversation at the top of the list. This makes sense to me, rather than some weird order with no rhyme or reason.

You are referring, I hope, to the bug that sorts your text conversations by the time your last message was sent, not by the time a message was received. This is being fixed...

So yeah, answer to your question, its a drag, but its being fixed in an update at some point. For now, look for the blue dots, as suggested

 

[bigbadwulff]

Id like my newest text message to be at the top, like every other normal phone Ive ever owned. I cant even figure out how its arranging them. Ill send a message to a person and that conversation will show up on top, then Ill send another and their replies are in all sorts of odd order.

Also, I deleted a text and went into contacts and swiped but I see no option to delete anything further, but I also no longer see an instance of the message.

Oh, they're there. Believe me. Did you use CONTACTS in the app drawer? It makes a difference.

 

[JSD_NJ]

You are referring, I hope, to the bug that sorts your text conversations by the time your last message was sent, not by the time a message was received. This is being fixed...

So yeah, answer to your question, its a drag, but its being fixed in an update at some point. For now, look for the blue dots, as suggested

Yes, exactly.

I downloaded Handcent, and that seems to sort them the way Im used to.

 

[JSD_NJ]

Oh, they're there. Believe me. Did you use CONTACTS in the app drawer? It makes a difference.

I did, but I didnt see any info there.

 

[JSD_NJ]

Is there a way to turn off the stock text messaging app when using handcent so I dont get 2 notifications?

 

[Sketchr]

Hi,

The DX is totally customizable. Yes, in settings you can get rid of whatever you want. In fact, my DX's screen looks nothing like stock. Get to know it your phone. Play with the settings. You can resize or delete your widgets. You can get new ones, etc. I'll enclose you a screenshot of my phone. It keeps evolving, especially after I put a new theme on it, a couple of days ago.

Steve, what are you using for the time/weather display?

Been "using" my droid for the necessary, but haven't had time to customize or download many apps yet.

 

[Justintoxicated]

Steve, what are you using for the time/weather display?

Been "using" my droid for the necessary, but haven't had time to customize or download many apps yet.

Try Beautiful Widgets, they have the most customizable time/ weather.
I'd also suggest trying using ADW Launcher or Launcher Pro to manage your home screens. They run allot better than the stock blur one.

 

[Steven58]

Steve, what are you using for the time/weather display?

Been "using" my droid for the necessary, but haven't had time to customize or download many apps yet.

Beautiful Widgets Black Glass, center widget icon removed by new option in settings.

 

[mhrc4]

Props for a you tube video streaming some hockey. Unfortunately it was the Rangers, but hey, at least it was hockey.

For SMS, give Handcent a shot and for the notifications, give RingDroid a shot.

 

[JSD_NJ]

Thanks for the help. I try to seach before posting but sometimes its tough.

Is there a way to search the content of my email? When I search it just searches the sender.

 

[3Oclockslop]

Is there a way to turn off the stock text messaging app when using handcent so I dont get 2 notifications?

sure, just go into your apps and delete the standard messaging. No bubbles, no troubles!

 

[JSD_NJ]

sure, just go into your apps and delete the standard messaging. No bubbles, no troubles!

I just disabled the notifications for the stock app. Handcent doesnt allow me to select multiples though. Ugh.

 

[3Oclockslop]

I just disabled the notifications for the stock app. Handcent doesnt allow me to select multiples though. Ugh.

I guess my stock messaging still there....but its disabled completely as far as notifications go. I guess I don't know what you mean by "multiples"?

 

[JSD_NJ]

I guess my stock messaging still there....but its disabled completely as far as notifications go. I guess I don't know what you mean by "multiples"?

Basically if I have 20 conversations and I want to delete 10 of them, I have to hit menu, delete, for each one which takes forever.