Love my Droid - Here are my complaints

[dschwa]

1 - The power button on top is a royal pain every time I fire up the phone. I should be able to tap the screen or something with one damned hand and not two.

2 - Exchange mail syncing and coming down but I can't read the mail. tells me the app is stopped then starts the app and does the same thing.

3 - I want an auto-answer mode so I don't have to swipe

4 - I sure hope there's a way somewhere to increase the home icon text font size

5 - apps without a quit button are truly dumb.

6 - Just remembered. If you give me a usb cable for charging then make it long enough to reach an outlet.

there are a few more gripes but I do love it so far.

 

[droidnewbie]

1 - The power button on top is a royal pain every time I fire up the phone. I should be able to tap the screen or something with one damned hand and not two.

2 - Exchange mail syncing and coming down but I can't read the mail. tells me the app is stopped then starts the app and does the same thing.

3 - I want an auto-answer mode so I don't have to swipe

4 - I sure hope there's a way somewhere to increase the home icon text font size

5 - apps without a quit button are truly dumb.

there are a few more gripes but I do love it so far.

Yeah I definitely agree with 1 and 5... the power button is annoying, and its a pain to not be able to quit apps, but i've just been using advanced task killer to shut everything

 

[Teufel Hunden]

1..
Maybe you should grow some bigger hands.
5..
I was thinking this is probably the app developers fault, but an extremely good point none the less.

 

[Droidood]

6 - Just remembered. If you give me a usb cable for charging then make it long enough to reach an outlet.

lol so true... I didn't expect motorola to skimp on the cable, but it's only about 2 feet long

 

[merrill77]

5 - apps without a quit button are truly dumb.

I guess I'm missing something. What do you need a quit button for? Why not just go to whatever app you want to use next? Or to home?

 

[ejl2010]

the reason is that open apps take up memory and will slowly drain the battery. shutting them down will prevent possible lag from developing

 

[dschwa]

I guess I'm missing something. What do you need a quit button for? Why not just go to whatever app you want to use next? Or to home?

Awesome app and I love my Pandora stations but all there is a pause play. I just wanted to kill it earlier but maybe you're right. I assume that android manages the apps and memory correctly and will kill whatever needs killing.

 

[ejl2010]

I just got my Droid today and had to charge it up for the first time. I unplugged it 3 hours ago and I wanted to know how you guys were fairing with battery life.

Maybe post duration and the the primary use during the charge (ie, watching videos, browsing youtube all day, etc)

I figured with general postings it might help people who think their battery isn't working properly.

Thanks guys and I'll post when I'm out of batteries!

 

[kabbie_mcfeely]

1 - The power button on top is a royal pain every time I fire up the phone. I should be able to tap the screen or something with one damned hand and not two.

2 - Exchange mail syncing and coming down but I can't read the mail. tells me the app is stopped then starts the app and does the same thing.

3 - I want an auto-answer mode so I don't have to swipe

4 - I sure hope there's a way somewhere to increase the home icon text font size

5 - apps without a quit button are truly dumb.

6 - Just remembered. If you give me a usb cable for charging then make it long enough to reach an outlet.

there are a few more gripes but I do love it so far.

1.I don't have an answer.

2. See #1

3. See #2

4. Some of the. "Home" apps have this ability. I don't know if they work on the Droid.

5. I have yet to see an Android app with a quit button. The phone will clear some space as you use more apps. It was desinged so you didn't have to "quit" the apps. This topic has been disscussed forever and is easly searched. You can find some helpfull ideas if you do a search.

6. USB cable over 3ft lose a lot of their power. I have tried many times to use cable longer than that and have had no luck. I advise you to purchase an after market USB charger for you're car and for plugging into the wall. Use the short one as a back up.

 

[ratchetjaw]

As far as app killer, i have had a Magic, G1 and Hero and have used app killer to free up memory. I have been drilling my Droid since 7am wide ass open and have yet to have to try and purposely kill an app. I am just letting Android OS kill it. I havent even put taskiller on it yet and i have the paid version. May need to later but all is good so far.Try just letting it work itself

 

[DaveInNYC]

I'm brand spankin' new to Android, but from what I have read, apps that are properly written will not use up any CPU (i.e. battery) while in the "background" unless they have a need to (e.g. Pandora). So in a sense (for most aps), it is not so much they are "running" in the background as it is that their state is saved so that when you run them again it picks up where you left off. Now of course this takes up memory, but Android will automatically "terminate" the background app if you need more memory.

IIRC, Google suggests that Android developers do NOT include a close button, as it is counter to the Android app model.

As an aside, I find the touch screen so sensitive that I LIKE having the power button to wake it up. But absolutely every reviewer I have read HATES the button, so my brain must just be wired oddly

 

[rawness]

As an aside, I find the touch screen so sensitive that I LIKE having the power button to wake it up. But absolutely every reviewer I have read HATES the button, so my brain must just be wired oddly

I'm with you on that one.

 

[ratchetjaw]

I'm brand spankin' new to Android, but from what I have read, apps that are properly written will not use up any CPU (i.e. battery) while in the "background" unless they have a need to (e.g. Pandora). So in a sense (for most aps), it is not so much they are "running" in the background as it is that their state is saved so that when you run them again it picks up where you left off. Now of course this takes up memory, but Android will automatically "terminate" the background app if you need more memory.

IIRC, Google suggests that Android developers do NOT include a close button, as it is counter to the Android app model.

As an aside, I find the touch screen so sensitive that I LIKE having the power button to wake it up. But absolutely every reviewer I have read HATES the button, so my brain must just be wired oddly

Yeah i like the button also. If it werent for the button then people would complain that with no hardware buttons on the bottom it would always turn on in the pocket. Much better the way it is

 

[Da_Coynul]

the reason is that open apps take up memory and will slowly drain the battery. shutting them down will prevent possible lag from developing

Here's the big picture: if you use a task killer after finishing up with each app, in the end you are just slowing yourself down. Why not leave your frequently used apps running to facilitate quick switching? Don't waste time killing tasks unnecessarily. Just kill them if your phone becomes sluggish, otherwise you will have joined the ranks of those millions of unitasking iPhone users out there

Da_Coynul

 

[DaveInNYC]

FWIW, have been looking over more of the developer docs, and am now even more sure that unless you have a specific reason for killing an app, just leave it be. There is a very specific lifecycle that prevents well-behaved apps from "running" if they are not visible to you.

 

[rawness]

Here's the big picture: if you use a task killer after finishing up with each app, in the end you are just slowing yourself down. Why not leave your frequently used apps running to facilitate quick switching? Don't waste time killing tasks unnecessarily. Just kill them if your phone becomes sluggish, otherwise you will have joined the ranks of those millions of unitasking iPhone users out there

Da_Coynul

When one of those apps has GPS active and you're not using it, it will drain your battery. Thus it's not killing tasks "unnecessarily" it's saving your battery.

 

[DaveInNYC]

When one of those apps has GPS active and you're not using it, it will drain your battery. Thus it's not killing tasks "unnecessarily" it's saving your battery.

Hmmm, if the app automatically enables/disables GPS when it is started/killed, I can see your point. But again, just about every app that uses GPS should not be accessing the GPS while it is not visible (unless it is some kind of service that you want alerting you when some location-specific event happens).

Now, having GPS enabled in general drains the battery, but generally that state is independent of any particular app that is running. For example, Google Maps and Where will use your cell tower location IF you do not have GPS enabled, but themselves do not control if GPS is enabled.

Now of course, I could be wrong if the app in question is "misbehaving". But looking at the app lifecycle, it would be a pretty Micky Mouse app that would do that.

 

[OctoMom]

I agree with every one of those except for #2 since that doesn't apply to me. None of them are too major for me though, just slightly annoying.

 

[rawness]

Hmmm, if the app automatically enables/disables GPS when it is started/killed, I can see your point. But again, just about every app that uses GPS should not be accessing the GPS while it is not visible (unless it is some kind of service that you want alerting you when some location-specific event happens).

Now, having GPS enabled in general drains the battery, but generally that state is independent of any particular app that is running. For example, Google Maps and Where will use your cell tower location IF you do not have GPS enabled, but themselves do not control if GPS is enabled.

Now of course, I could be wrong if the app in question is "misbehaving". But looking at the app lifecycle, it would be a pretty Micky Mouse app that would do that.

One app that is the commonly used browser. If you go to google.com and allow it to access your location, then GPS will be enabled. And it will not be disabled unless you kill the app.

 

[caitlion]

Awesome app and I love my Pandora stations but all there is a pause play. I just wanted to kill it earlier but maybe you're right. I assume that android manages the apps and memory correctly and will kill whatever needs killing.

pandora actually has an option to quit if you go to menu while you are in the app

 

[Da_Coynul]

When one of those apps has GPS active and you're not using it, it will drain your battery. Thus it's not killing tasks "unnecessarily" it's saving your battery.

Maybe that's why there's an option to "Exit Navigation" in the menu of the GPS app. A lot quicker than switching to a task killer if you ask me!

 

[holokaustos]

6. USB cable over 3ft lose a lot of their power. I have tried many times to use cable longer than that and have had no luck. I advise you to purchase an after market USB charger for you're car and for plugging into the wall. Use the short one as a back up.

That's not accurate.

Hi-speed USB cables can go up to a little over 16 feet, with low-speed ones going up to a little over 9 feet. Why would it be unreasonable to expect Motorola to include a USB cable that was at least 6 feet long, especially if they intended for it to serve the dual purpose of PC connectivity and wall charging?

There was no reason to include such a short cable. It was simply a case of poor planning.

 

[rjoudrey]

I have had many phones BB's, Bold, Tilt, N97, the Moto Droid is by far the best implementation, form factor I have had yet. It is a work of genius. Be patient it will get better.

 

[radikal]

i plan to just buy a longer charger, other than that, no gripes really, some apps do need quit buttons, not a droid issue, dev issue

 

[ocean1]

1,4,5 biggies for me to. My kids tell me what the damn thing says half the time Icons the size on an MnM is just stupid