Help Annoyances -- and how to fix?

[chuckswash]

Hi,

Newbie here. First android phone. Coming from long line of Treo Devices with WM, BBerry.

So far, I love the Moment. But I have a few issues.

The trackpad. I like that you can use it to move like a BBerry's trackpad/trackball and the Treo's dpad. However, is there a way to increase/decrease sensitivity like on the Blackberry? I would like it to move just a little bit faster.

Web Browser annoyances:
Okay, to start, I've used both the default browser and Dolphin. Both are pretty good actually. But one problem. While I can use my fingers to navigate, sometimes I would prefer to use the trackpad and trackpad-button to click on links. I have no problem doing that, but sometimes when I click a link with the trackpad, instead of just loading the new page in the same tab or window, it opens up a new tab or window, thereby using more memory and becoming slower, and this is really annoying. How can I set it to where, when I use the trackpad, it loads the link in the same window/tab. This occurs in both Dolphin/Default browser. This doesn't seem to happen when I use the physical keyboard or touch the screen to navigate. Any suggestions?

EDIT: The reason I care about this is, I find it easier to navigate, and I prefer only using one hand like on my treo for a lot of things.

Keyboard --
Okay, obviously there is going to be some adjustment coming from a Treo, but is it me or does this keyboard seemed designed really bad? The space bar is too small, and the layout just seems really badly designed. Are all slider-keyboards designed like this or is it just me?

Will I get used to it? Anybody coming from Treo Blackberry get adjusted to this form pretty well? I just don't see myself being as fast with this phsyical keyboard due to the layout. I hope I can get used to it, but the keys just seem really badly placed. I've been trying to practice, but believe it or not, I am lot faster on the on screen keyboard than the physical keyboard. Any experiences?

Opera Mini --
I've already searched and searched, and it seems like the general consensus is, Opera Mini for android isn't ready, and it doesn't work for the moment right now, in particular. Well, this is my one must have app. I know the browsers are capable that I have already, but I live for speed, and Opera Mini is the king of speed. I really want to use that on this phone. I've tried runnning it through Java manager, to no avail. Anybody have any success on getting opera mini running on this phone? Any suggestions to try?

Wifi toggle -- in the notification bar.
On WM, I liked that I could click on the wifi icon, and toggle it from the notification area. Anyway to do this on android. I know there is a widget, but I would prefer if my toggles were available to me, even when I am using an app. I hate having to go to the home screen to toggle GPS or Wifi. Any suggestions.

Voice to SMS ---
I know there are a few apps in the app market, but none that I have found seem to work on this phone. I would really like an app that I can speak and it converts to txt. Blackberry has an app called Vlingo, but is there anything comparable that will work on this phone?


Thanks for the help!

 

[nyall]

it opens up a new tab or window, thereby using more memory and becoming slower, and this is really annoying.

Is that true?
When a PC application uses more ram it can make things slower due to the virtual memory paging to/from the hard drive. I really doubt that android has swap enabled in the kernel.

 

[chuckswash]

Is that true?
When a PC application uses more ram it can make things slower due to the virtual memory paging to/from the hard drive. I really doubt that android has swap enabled in the kernel.

Well, I know what your saying since I have a lot of experience dealing with linux, but I really don't know about what android is doing under the hood.

What I do know is, when I click a link with the the trackpad, it opens up a new tab, say, in dolphin, or a new windows in the default browser. If I wanted to open a new tab, I would. This doesn't happen when I touch a link or use the physical keyboard. This is super annoying when I don't want to load a new tab or window, and it causes the browser to slow to a crawl. It is a kind of hard to articulate.

 

[IOWA]

You will get used to the keyboard, it works quite well for me and I have gorilla fingers!

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Agree on the keyboard - it's awesome.

The website pop-up thing most of the time is controlled by the website html code. Not sure if there's going to be an easy fix for that.

 

[latinmaxima]

I think a lot of your issues will be overcome simply by using the phone more. When we get the update to 2.1 we should have access to voice to text apps as I think 1.5 is limiting us right now. I have to agree that usually the website html is responsible for opening a new tab. Can you give an example I can try. the trackball isn't opening a seperate link for me on websites I use that normally don't? There is a wi-fi toggle app available on the market. You can place it on the desktop and your all set. Hope that helps some of your questions!

 

[Gizmodo]

The program I use to toggle, wifi, bluetooth, sound, light, etc., is called Quick Settings and it is available in the Market.

 

[sycor]

The program I use to toggle, wifi, bluetooth, sound, light, etc., is called Quick Settings and it is available in the Market.

I tried out quick settings and it killed my battery. I would go from 100 to 50 in like 30 minutes. Once I uninstalled it my battery went back to normal. I like the thought though. Now I use timeriffic and I made an anycut shortcut for wifi when I need to manually turn it on.