General questions regarding android functionality

[roa78]

Hello all,

I have quite a few questions regarding the functionality of android. I'm a long time windows mobile user and there are a few features that I have grown accustomed to. With that being said - I'm trying to see if Android is worth jumping the ship for and see if it has the same or similar functionality that I've grown used to having.

So.... here are the questions:
1) Is there the ability to take/make a note while on a phone call? And is this naitive android or is the dependent upon the UI overlay by the manufacturer?

2) Can I record phone calls?

3) If I receive a meeting notice/invite via e-mail - will I be able to add that notice/invite to my calendar? (i.e. I'm checking my work e-mail and there's a meeting notice that I need to add to my calendar, will I be able to add that meeting to my phone or do I have to sync my phone with my computer in order to do that?)

3) If there's a phone number in an e-mail, will I be able to call that number directly from within the e-mail? (by way of tapping on the number and the phone application is initiated with the number already pasted and waiting for the user to hit call)

4) speaking of information management - if I dial a number from within an e-mail, will I be able to view the contents of the e-mail within the phone application while on a call? (this is a function that can be done in windows mobile 6.5.x...)

5) Can I send an MMS message without having to attach a file? (meaning - I have a LONG text message I need to compose - but due to the character restriction of messages - the message will be split up and count as either 2 or 3 messages. So as a way around that - I compose an MMS message with all of the text and the message gets counted as one message)

Now granted - I don't know how much of this is native windows mobile 6.5x functionality or how much was apart of HTC's customization ... I know that the MMS software was Arcsoft - so I don't know if there's a similar MMS composer for android or how well the native MMS composition works...

Lastly - how much of a learning curve is there for someone who's coming from a totally different platform (in this case Windows Mobile 6.5.x) to get acclimated to android? I'm considering getting the Samsung Galaxy S Ii (for at&t) as I've grown used to (and almost tired of) HTC based phones...

Thank you all for your input, suggestions, comments, etc. I do appreciate it.

 

[John Redcorn]

1. yes you just get out of the phone application, call stays active and you do whatever you want. there may be some that have some sort of note-taking thing built in to the dialer but I've never seen or found it.

2. yes on some phones, though I've never tried. there a couple recent threads on this in android lounge and android applications.

3. more than likely. Not sure what your setup is or will be. I use gmail/google calendar. I can't hookup to my work email with unauth devices but I've forwarded myself ms outlook meetings to gmail and it adds to my google cal just fine from the phone.

3 again. yes you can tap a phone # from gmail app or text message app and it will go to dialer. Never used the std android email so not sure there but I'd be really surprised if it didn't do that.


4. I don't quite understand what you mean, I've not used anything newer than winmo 6.1 though. You can get out of the dialer app in a call with the call still active and do anything you want though.

5. not sure here but a lot of people are using 3rd party sms/mms app replacements that can do a lot of special things. Go sms, chomp and handcent are the ones I've heard of. (I used go sms for a month after htc broke my stock sms app in an update)

Learning curve? Just sit down and look at everything in the settings menu and you'll learn quite a bit. Also try long pressing things on screen or long pressing the 4 buttons or pressing menu in certain places and you'll sometimes have more options to do things you didn't know were there.

edit: I don't know if I've ever heard of anyone liking what htc did to customize winmo but there are plenty that just love what they've put on top of android. They'll be worth a look if at&t gets a newer one soon.

 

[jerofld]

1) Yep. As the other poster said, you just got to hit home and load your note app. Your call will remain active and will be on display in your notification bar.

2) No different answer than the previous poster.

3) That depends on the mail app you're using, but yes, most UIs and mail apps have that capability.

3 part 2) Yes. All mail apps I've ever used can do that.

4) Yes, you just hit the back button.

5) I don't know if the S2 can do that or not. It's available on HTC phones only after rooting and doing the 5MB MMS mod.

As for the learning curve: There isn't much of a curve. Any moderate user of technology will have a pretty good grasp of how to use Android. More advanced features of Android are not hard to pick up and will come with time of using the phone.

 

[roa78]

1. yes you just get out of the phone application, call stays active and you do whatever you want. there may be some that have some sort of note-taking thing built in to the dialer but I've never seen or found it.

2. yes on some phones, though I've never tried. there a couple recent threads on this in android lounge and android applications.

3. more than likely. Not sure what your setup is or will be. I use gmail/google calendar. I can't hookup to my work email with unauth devices but I've forwarded myself ms outlook meetings to gmail and it adds to my google cal just fine from the phone.

3 again. yes you can tap a phone # from gmail app or text message app and it will go to dialer. Never used the std android email so not sure there but I'd be really surprised if it didn't do that.


4. I don't quite understand what you mean, I've not used anything newer than winmo 6.1 though. You can get out of the dialer app in a call with the call still active and do anything you want though.

5. not sure here but a lot of people are using 3rd party sms/mms app replacements that can do a lot of special things. Go sms, chomp and handcent are the ones I've heard of. (I used go sms for a month after htc broke my stock sms app in an update)

Learning curve? Just sit down and look at everything in the settings menu and you'll learn quite a bit. Also try long pressing things on screen or long pressing the 4 buttons or pressing menu in certain places and you'll sometimes have more options to do things you didn't know were there.

edit: I don't know if I've ever heard of anyone liking what htc did to customize winmo but there are plenty that just love what they've put on top of android. They'll be worth a look if at&t gets a newer one soon.

Thank you for the feedback! I'll be sure to search for the threads regarding call recording. Since my main e-mail accounts are gmail - it seems as though I'll be fine with adding calendar events to google calendar.

For #4 - in winmo 6.5 - if you have a meeting in your calendar and you tap a phone number contained within that meeting invite (or if you tap a number contained within an e-mail) - it will launch the phone dialer and after pressing the keypad button, a copy of the meeting (or a copy of the e-mail) is displayed on the upper portion of the screen (the dial pad being on the lower portion). It's helpful (but I know that I could back out and do whatever other tasks I need to do while the call is still active).

Thanks for the info on 3rd party SMS/MMS application replacements. those will be good starting points in terms of apps to use for SMS/MMS composition

 

[roa78]

1) Yep. As the other poster said, you just got to hit home and load your note app. Your call will remain active and will be on display in your notification bar.

2) No different answer than the previous poster.

3) That depends on the mail app you're using, but yes, most UIs and mail apps have that capability.

3 part 2) Yes. All mail apps I've ever used can do that.

4) Yes, you just hit the back button.

5) I don't know if the S2 can do that or not. It's available on HTC phones only after rooting and doing the 5MB MMS mod.

As for the learning curve: There isn't much of a curve. Any moderate user of technology will have a pretty good grasp of how to use Android. More advanced features of Android are not hard to pick up and will come with time of using the phone.

thank you for the reinforcements regarding the previous poster's responses

 

[novox77]

3) If I receive a meeting notice/invite via e-mail - will I be able to add that notice/invite to my calendar? (i.e. I'm checking my work e-mail and there's a meeting notice that I need to add to my calendar, will I be able to add that meeting to my phone or do I have to sync my phone with my computer in order to do that?)

To clarify on this point:

The Calendar app on your phone has the ability to sync with Google Calendar, since the Google calendar is on the cloud, not your home PC. The Calendar app can also automatically sync with a third party mail account, like a business exchange server. You can have multiple calendars all show on your phone calendar, and you can also specify which ones to show and which to hide.

The days of having to sync with a PC are over. You'll always have your data (mail and calendar events) no matter what android phone you switch to. Google even backs up your apps, so those get seamlessly transferred when you upgrade.

 

[roa78]

To clarify on this point:

The Calendar app on your phone has the ability to sync with Google Calendar, since the Google calendar is on the cloud, not your home PC. The Calendar app can also automatically sync with a third party mail account, like a business exchange server. You can have multiple calendars all show on your phone calendar, and you can also specify which ones to show and which to hide.

The days of having to sync with a PC are over. You'll always have your data (mail and calendar events) no matter what android phone you switch to. Google even backs up your apps, so those get seamlessly transferred when you upgrade.

hmmm - that's interesting... thank you for the clarification

 

[bioforce]

I don't know where your from, but in regards to recording phone calls, it may or may not be legal without the notification and/or permission of the person your talking too. (Why businesses have the "call may be recorded... " tagline). For the US, there is a nice guide here:

"Can We Tape?" (in depth for each state)
"Can We Tape?" (quick summary grid for all states)

 

[roa78]

I don't know where your from, but in regards to recording phone calls, it may or may not be legal without the notification and/or permission of the person your talking too. (Why businesses have the "call may be recorded... " tagline). For the US, there is a nice guide here:

"Can We Tape?" (in depth for each state)
"Can We Tape?" (quick summary grid for all states)

Thank you for the links regarding the legality behind call recording. It's not that I have used it for espionage or anything like that but I have used it several times while driving and needed to take a note or capture some information and I can't just stop and start typing. It has it's uses but I do acknowledge the privacy behind recording a call...