From Palm OS to Android (Droid)

[(G)]

Did you ever find that "degrees" sign? I'm not sure if this is a function of Better Keyboard, but when I hit the "?123" on the bottom left of the keyboard, and then the shift, the "degrees" symbol is in the middle of the 3rd row of letters, about where the "f" normally is (I say about, because the keys shift a little when you hit the "?123" key.

Wow, you're exactly right... thanks. Except it's "hit ?123" then hit ALT and there's the degrees sign, plus Yen, Pound, etc.

Now if someone could just figure out how to do a TAB!

Thanks again.

 

[GirLuvsDroid]

Thanks jonathankrall for the tip about Dr Shopper. I've been using OI Shopping, which I really like, primarily for the ability to change the font size. What I love about Dr Shopper is the ability to create a list online at zetriva.com, email it and load it into Dr Shopper. So much faster to type on a real keyboard.

A couple of questions about Dr Shopper:

1) If you create another list on the Zetriva webpage that has the same name as one you already have in the app on your phone, will the new list supplement or replace the list on your phone?
*Edit: I just tried an experiment and answered my own question -- it adds a new list with the same name, but different date/time. It doesn't look like there's an easy way to edit existing lists on the PC, so for editing it's back to the Droid keyboard -- unless someone else has figured out a way (she says hopefully)?


2) Is there any way to increase the font size of the lists in Dr Shopper? I explored all the settings I could find and didn't find a way to do this.

 

[aug2168]

I am not sure if this is where I need to post my question.
But any help is welcome.
I downloaded shockwave flash and firefox but i don't know how to file it so I can see the icon?
I have only had my droid eris 2 hours.
Please help

 

[jeffdlb]

Now if someone could just figure out how to do a TAB!

You say you have a Droid. This image clearly shows the TAB symbol on the A key: http://jkontherun.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/droid-keyboard-closeup.jpg

Are you saying that Alt+A does not generate a TAB on the Droid?

 

[GirLuvsDroid]

You say you have a Droid. This image clearly shows the TAB symbol on the A key: http://jkontherun.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/droid-keyboard-closeup.jpg

Are you saying that Alt+A does not generate a TAB on the Droid?

I've tried the Alt+A on the slide-out keyboard in a number of apps, and I haven't found one in which the combination works as a TAB yet. (And yes, I thought the same thing you did until I started trying it.)

If it's worked as a TAB for anyone else, I'd love to hear how it was made to work.

 

[GirLuvsDroid]

My beloved Treo 680 died last week, which is when I got my Droid. First, I must say that there are things about my Droid that just blow me away and I'm overall truly happy with my purchase. That said, in addition to some of the Palm functionality mentioned in this thread, I really really miss my Tapsmart Keylink (which is similar to pdaReach, but better for me and the way I used it). When I'm at my computer anyway, being able to use the computer keyboard to do all the typing in the Treo was a wonderful thing. I've looked and looked -- has anyone else seen a similar app for Android?

By the way, I've been using eReader for Android to read my already purchased .pdb eBooks and it works fine, although it doesn't have all of the functionality of eReader for Palm. I understand the Fictionwise/eReader.com folks are working to make it better, but it will do as it is for me for now (I like what I've seen of Aldika ereader a lot, but I don't want to have to convert hundreds of .pdb files to ePUB.)

 

[(G)]

Are you saying that Alt+A does not generate a TAB on the Droid?

Exactly what I'm saying. You hit ALT+A and it does nothing. You hit ALT and then A and it does nothing.

 

[(G)]

Contacts doesn't do birthdays,

I forgot to mention: Contacts doesn't do birthdays in the phone, however there IS a provision for it in your Google mail contacts, online. So if you enter a birthday there, it gets transferred to your phone's Contacts and shows up when you look at the contact info.

Weird, but better than nothing.

 

[lobug]

Take a look at Note Everything. It puts your memos into "folders" similar to the way Palm sorted them. It also has a "Notepad"-type of feature that lets you just scrawl handwriting or drawings on the screen and you can save those. I think it's just as good as Palm's.

Thanks, I just installed the free version and decided to use it instead of OI Notepad. It couldn't do sorting the Palm way, but at least it doesn't move every "accessed" note to the top of the list like OI, which screws up my mind map... : )

I hope that they'll stop invoking the search dialog when a key is pressed from the main screen through. They ought to start recording a new note instead.

I've found My Backup to be very good, and much like NVBackup. You set a schedule, and it automatically backs up your apps and your data (separate files), and will keep X previous days' backups on the card in case you need to restore.

Thanks, I've heard about it and should check it out later. But it doesn't backup the way NVBackup does AFAIK. There's a Backup for Root user but it doesn't do encryption nor scheduled backup at the moment.

I SORELY miss KeyCaps and have actually requested a similar app in the "Application Requests" forum here. I doubt anyone will see it, but, man, did I rely on that. And that would be SO handy on the Droid.

We can always hope.

Cheers.

 

[sgconsults]

thanks for sharing your insights on the move to Droid, how about the contacts -- was it easy to capture all your info in the old Palm OS Contacts to the Droid, and how similar are the contact apps

thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[chiefvelo]

Contacts Apps are currently very weak compared to Palm or BB. There are lots of new things that the phone will do but as a Contact manager it has limited features. Great device otherwise.

thanks for sharing your insights on the move to Droid, how about the contacts -- was it easy to capture all your info in the old Palm OS Contacts to the Droid, and how similar are the contact apps

thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[GirLuvsDroid]

I forgot to mention: Contacts doesn't do birthdays in the phone, however there IS a provision for it in your Google mail contacts, online. So if you enter a birthday there, it gets transferred to your phone's Contacts and shows up when you look at the contact info.

Weird, but better than nothing.

I was upset at first that I couldn't get the birthdays in my contacts to show in my calendar, but then I figured out that there's a way to add them in the Google calendar. Go to the "Settings" link at the top right, and then click the tab for "Calendars." Go to the section for "Other calendars" and click the link for "Browse interesting calendars" and then the link for "More." Click the link to subscribe to "Contacts birthdays and events." Go back to the settings for calendars and box to "Show In List" is checked. Now all of the birthdays you've added to your contacts will show in your calendar.

By the way, I just figured out that you can change the color each type of event displays in your calendar by clicking the color arrows next to where those types of calendar events are listed (on the left side of the Google calendar).

 

[GirLuvsDroid]

Contacts Apps are currently very weak compared to Palm or BB. There are lots of new things that the phone will do but as a Contact manager it has limited features. Great device otherwise.

I agree about the contacts apps and I find that I use Google contacts to add/edit the major portion of my contact information. For me, trying to find the contact I wanted in the Droid was way too cumbersome without a third-party app. I've been using a free app called aContacts for a better organization method on my Droid. It's not perfect, but it's better than going without it. I'd love to know if anyone else has found a better contacts app.

I had LOVED TAKEpHONE on my Treo, but when I tried aTAKEpHONE for Android, I was very disappointed (kokiangel also mentioned this).

 

[lobug]

thanks for sharing your insights on the move to Droid, how about the contacts -- was it easy to capture all your info in the old Palm OS Contacts to the Droid, and how similar are the contact apps

thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I synced Outlook with the Treo device, so all I did was to exported the contacts from Outlook into a CSV file, and imported them into google.com/contacts, and viola, the contacts are on the phone.

There are detailed instructions from Google on how to create the CSV and do the import.

But I'm not syncing the contacts right now. Still up in the air on which desktop sync solution to use/buy...

 

[dbpaddler]

tried aContacts and thought it was too laggy especially with the t9 dialing and going back and forth through logs, contacts, dialer and such. Can't believe Android doesn't have T9 dialing stock.

Haven't found anything to really improve on the contact manager. Miss my 4 user fields, and with 1300 contacts, trying to migrate separate user fields into notes is a royal pain. That and being able to "sync" (not copy) memos is bugging me. It's one thing to get the onto the moment, but being able to seamlessly sync back and forth is a bit of a bugger. I liked having different types of personal info in the four fields especially for work related issues. At least BB got that one right if you were migrating. Heck, winmob even screwed it up.

You'd just think in this day and age with Palm, Outlook, BB and the various contact managers like Pocket Informant, Agendus and such, that Google could've produced a good contact manager instead of caving to the lowest denominator and caring more about social integration.

I'm trying K9 now for email since it's annoying I can't even report spam.

Tasks would be nice. Moving appts to another day is annoying, and I actually use Exchange but don't want my personal tasks on there, and there isn't a way to mark tasks as private which is also bewildering, but I guess that's more on MS's side.

 

[(G)]

I hope that they'll stop invoking the search dialog when a key is pressed from the main screen through. They ought to start recording a new note instead.

Not sure I'm following this. When I tap the icon, I'm presented with my full list of folders (in essence, it's asking me which folder I want to put a new note into). So I tap on a folder, hit SETTINGS and tap on "new note" and I'm off.

There's a Backup for Root user but it doesn't do encryption nor scheduled backup at the moment.

Not sure I'm following this one either! My Backup does have a backup scheduler and a provision to keep "X" previous backups, just like NVBackup did. Mine backs up automatically every day at 1am and deletes backup #6. But I think you're right about no encryption.

 

[lobug]

Not sure I'm following this. When I tap the icon, I'm presented with my full list of folders (in essence, it's asking me which folder I want to put a new note into). So I tap on a folder, hit SETTINGS and tap on "new note" and I'm off.

Yes, but it would be even quicker if the app just begins to add a note when I start typing (I'm on a G1 so there's a hardware keyboard). Coming from Palm OS, everything on G1 seems a tad, or a few tads, slower, and doing everything requires one or few more steps.

Not sure I'm following this one either! My Backup does have a backup scheduler and a provision to keep "X" previous backups, just like NVBackup did. Mine backs up automatically every day at 1am and deletes backup #6. But I think you're right about no encryption.

Yes, besides, NVBackup does a full backup of your Palm's memory which can be used to restore the phone EXACTLY the same.

Cheers.

 

[snydez]

along with the ability to import Palm memos -- so the transition was speedy and flawless. Just unmark your private memos for the transfer, and then encrypt them when you open them in Note Everything.

Hi,
how you do the import export from Palm memos to Note Everything?
i normally sync my Palm memos to Outlook.

 

[lobug]

There are bunches of import options in Note Everything, including from Palm memos (never tried), Outlook memos (never tried), and OI Notepad (tried and worked).

Cheers.

 

[dbpaddler]

The real issue is that the memos don't 'sync'. It's one thing to get them there, but I don't believe there is a solution to continually sync back and forth.

 

[lobug]

AFAIK only Campanion's paid solution does memo sync at the moment.

 

[RyanB]

The second killer application I need is a group SMS text messenger. I'm flabberghasted that one does not exist for Android (or iPhone or Pre even!). WTF? How is this possible?

Contacts Groupu. It stores whatever your gmail contacts are, and allows you to contact them by whatever designation you've given them in Google Contacts, thus reaching a particular group en masse, via text or email. See here:

My girlfriend is very nosy. So it is important for me that when an SMS message comes in, my PalmOS only says "New Text Message". It doesn't say who it's from or what the contents are. I think Android fails in this department too right?

Handcent SMS. This is WAY better than ANYTHING my Treo 700p could do. It allows you to have the text popup on the screen, and turn the screen on or leave it off. It will also allow you to just have it notify, and not show the text anywhere outside the application itself. This also does group texting. See here:

(just in case you're not familiar, simply clicking on barcodes should take you to their respective pages).

 

[(G)]

There are bunches of import options in Note Everything, including from Palm memos (never tried),

I tried, and I'll vouch for the fact that it works great.

 

[lobug]

How do you read PDF...? I've tried BeamReader, it's good. It's not free ($5 before 28-Feb) and I'm thinking whether to purchase Documents To Go ($15 till 31-Jan) which not only reads PDF, but also Office docs; And not only read/view but also create/edit...

 

[RyanB]

I use Doc 2 Go for PDF files, and it works fairly well.