Is anyone else frustrated? Not just a rant

[Needsdecaf]

So, I'm getting frustrated with this phone, I have to say.

First, it was the battery issues. That seems to finally have resolved itself.

Then it was the incessant re-starting of the Sense UI, and the random re-booting of the phone. I chalked that up to the fact that I got an early phone, so I exchanged it.

With my new phone, the battery seems to be great. But there are still issues:

* Lag with switching to portrait, and lag on the portrait keyboard.

* Lag when switching screen to screen.

* HTC weather app is always unable to find weather for my location

* YouTube not working after the update.

* Having to clear cache and close apps in order to keep phone performance running smooth.

* 3G / signal issues....still.

I consider myself pretty patient, but I am growing weary, to be honest. Here's the problem: what else do I get?

This was a new contract (came from a work phone, no personal account) so I have my choice of where to go and what to get. I am beyond the 30 days, and on my second Eris, but I have a note on my account that I am dissatisfied so I should be able to walk or switch. And after I call tomorrow about the YouTube deal, I will be raising a HUGE stink, so I should be able to do whatever.

I don't want a blackberry, I want REAL internet.

I don't want a Droid. I will miss Sense UI, and I don't like the form factor or the keyboard.

I really like Verizon's coverage. I live in a good area, but my in-laws do not and I am there fairly often.

I don't want to be on AT&T's network. Their coverage, even in the NoVA / DC area has holes.

Just got my wife an iPod touch for Christmas, so I have all the apps I need when I am in WiFi (house, dad's house, in-law's house, family's house, etc.) and we already have an iPod classic, an iPod shuffle (gift) and an iPod nano. So don't need any more portable music players.

Do NOT want a WinMo phone. My friend is a software developer / programmer and he says STAY AWAY. I listen to him.
How much of this will go away with 2.0?

Thoughts?

 

[superchaos]

There is going to be issues with every smart phone. They require personalization and allow you to install apps YOU use. Every setup is different. If you use Windows at home and you know what the problems are, you find a workaround. Workarounds are still being discovered with android phones.
I would bet if you were to go to a VZ store and try a WinMo phone, you would like it because you will pretty much know your way around it.
Android phones are new and they are going to have to be tweaked to get them where you like it.

 

[Needsdecaf]

That's fine, but how do I tweak the phone to get the You Tube to work? Or the lag to stop?

I havr owned an Eris since 11/06 and have tweaked this phone a LOT and I am quite familiar with it.

 

[tispectrum]

Not to cast a black cloud over my head, but the only issue I have is the youtube one and I can live with that. No battery issues, signal issues, or any other kind of issues. I have a house in rural Ct., and I get a signal up there. So the conundrum is, why? Yesterday was my 1 month anniversary with the phone, and I'm throwing out the Eris box. Will my problems start now?

 

[superchaos]

I am not a big YouTuber and I have been using the keyboard in portrait mode unless I need to type a long chat or email at which point I can live with the extra 2-3 seconds for it to switch to landscape mode.

Not to be a smartass but..., the biggest tweak you can make is to go to Verizon and play around on different handsets and find one that fits YOUR needs. Don't listen to your friends as they have different needs than you do. Find what fits you.

My biggest complaint is that I cannot uninstall the YouTube app or any of the included apps. Someone will find a way just like someone found a way to install VZ Navigator on a phone for free. It will happen, it will just take time.

 

[ckochinsky125]

The only problem I am experiencing with the phone is sometimes youtube wont work so maybe you just got another bad phone. I'm sure 2.0 will fix a lot of the problems or bugs that most people are complaining about now. You will just have to wait and see.

 

[Needsdecaf]

Not to be a smartass but..., the biggest tweak you can make is to go to Verizon and play around on different handsets and find one that fits YOUR needs. Don't listen to your friends as they have different needs than you do. Find what fits you.

I appreciate this advice, it is one I often give.

My problem is that I HAVE! And really, there's nothing else that I want. What I want is what I have....but working. Well, I want the Droid & Eris "love child" but that won't be coming any time soon.

BB - Browser and multimedia is a mess.
WinMo phones - NO.
iPhone - apps cost too much, phone is expensive, AT&T sucks.

I'm not sure what to do......

P.S. Tried clearning the YouTube cache and going to 3G not WiFi, but I can only view videos in low def. And I really don't use YouTube that much, it's the principal of the matter.

 

[entelechy3]

I'm curious: is this your first touchscreen-only phone? My phone does have a brief lag when switching keyboard modes, but it's entirely within my acceptable limits. I just wonder if that's only because I lived with an iPhone 3G for almost two years (which was, at times, incredibly hesitant to switch out of landscape mode). Overall, I've been very pleased with they keyboard/accelerometer response. If yours is noticeably slower than others (say, slower than the verizon store's demo model), maybe that's just another thing you need to raise a stink about. Same with the 3G issues... are you the only one in your area having these issues? Granted, it seems unlikely that you'd have the same issues on two consecutive models of the phone, but stranger things have happened, I guess.

The youtube and other software issues annoy me as well, but my only advice is to be patient with them. Every experience I've had with recently-released smartphones is that there's a few months of just crap before they sort everything out. For the first two months, my 3G was a piece of garbage, after an update or two, I loved it (if not its network). When it first came out, the Storm was garbage, after updates... well, OK, bad example. But at least it worked after the updates!

I will admit that I'm a bit more nervous about the Eris with regard to this, only because we have to rely not only on the maker of the OS to fix issues, we then have to wait for HTC to fix any additional issues created by Sense... and the fact that we're getting updated to an entirely new version of the OS in a month or two makes me even more nervous... but I still have faith, I suppose.

What I do hope for, however, is some sort of app killing/monitoring function built natively into Android. Regardless of what many have said on this forum, letting Android "handle apps the way it was designed"--that is, just letting them run--results in VERY noticeable drops in performance when you don't think about it for a while, and you have many apps running. I'd prefer if the OS itself gave me the option to automatically kill certain apps once my system resources drop below a certain point, rather than have to rely on a third-party developer to write software for that purpose (and just pray that said developer was skilled enough that the very app he created allowing me to save system resources isn't draining those very resources itself). At least, as HTC is working on the Sense UI update for 2.X, it would be nice if they realize they're writing software for a phone with a slightly-dated processor, and perhaps build that functionality in themselves.

Anyway, don't know if this response helped at all, it's more rambling than actual information... good luck; I hope you find something that works for you!

 

[tarponbeach]

I appreciate this advice, it is one I often give.

My problem is that I HAVE! And really, there's nothing else that I want. What I want is what I have....but working. Well, I want the Droid & Eris "love child" but that won't be coming any time soon.

BB - Browser and multimedia is a mess.
WinMo phones - NO.
iPhone - apps cost too much, phone is expensive, AT&T sucks.

I'm not sure what to do......

P.S. Tried clearning the YouTube cache and going to 3G not WiFi, but I can only view videos in low def. And I really don't use YouTube that much, it's the principal of the matter.

In the same boat as you. I have not yet ported my number from AT&T (iPhone 3Gs), and I have three more weeks to decide on keeping the Eris.

I like the Eris, but have the same issues as you. I miss the iPhone's speed, but do not miss AT&T's crappy network at all. I may just take back the Eris, and hope that Verizon will release a Snapdragon Android device in the future.

 

[Needsdecaf]

I'm curious: is this your first touchscreen-only phone? My phone does have a brief lag when switching keyboard modes, but it's entirely within my acceptable limits. I just wonder if that's only because I lived with an iPhone 3G for almost two years (which was, at times, incredibly hesitant to switch out of landscape mode). Overall, I've been very pleased with they keyboard/accelerometer response. If yours is noticeably slower than others (say, slower than the verizon store's demo model), maybe that's just another thing you need to raise a stink about. Same with the 3G issues... are you the only one in your area having these issues? Granted, it seems unlikely that you'd have the same issues on two consecutive models of the phone, but stranger things have happened, I guess.

The youtube and other software issues annoy me as well, but my only advice is to be patient with them. Every experience I've had with recently-released smartphones is that there's a few months of just crap before they sort everything out. For the first two months, my 3G was a piece of garbage, after an update or two, I loved it (if not its network). When it first came out, the Storm was garbage, after updates... well, OK, bad example. But at least it worked after the updates!

I will admit that I'm a bit more nervous about the Eris with regard to this, only because we have to rely not only on the maker of the OS to fix issues, we then have to wait for HTC to fix any additional issues created by Sense... and the fact that we're getting updated to an entirely new version of the OS in a month or two makes me even more nervous... but I still have faith, I suppose.

What I do hope for, however, is some sort of app killing/monitoring function built natively into Android. Regardless of what many have said on this forum, letting Android "handle apps the way it was designed"--that is, just letting them run--results in VERY noticeable drops in performance when you don't think about it for a while, and you have many apps running. I'd prefer if the OS itself gave me the option to automatically kill certain apps once my system resources drop below a certain point, rather than have to rely on a third-party developer to write software for that purpose (and just pray that said developer was skilled enough that the very app he created allowing me to save system resources isn't draining those very resources itself). At least, as HTC is working on the Sense UI update for 2.X, it would be nice if they realize they're writing software for a phone with a slightly-dated processor, and perhaps build that functionality in themselves.

Anyway, don't know if this response helped at all, it's more rambling than actual information... good luck; I hope you find something that works for you!

Yes, my first touchscreen only phone, my first non-BB smart phone as well.

I am certainly willing to accept / admit that possibly I have high or unreal expectations. And also being unfamiliar with Android and smartphones in general may be jading me to a degree. So we shall see.

There are just more than a couple of things that frustrate me. .

 

[L0stS0ul]

do you only use the youtube app cause you can use the browser as well and it plays the youtube videos in the browser within the flash lite player. I can't say I've noticed any issues with youtube videos playing but I don't use it that often and usually it's in the browser. I don't remember the last time I fired up the youtube app.

have you tried downloading Spare Parts from the market? You can speed up drastically or turn off all together the animations on some of the things that are annoying you. One thing to try.

Unfortunately for right now killing apps to free up memory when the phone slows down is an issue. I think 2.0 does make this better but doesn't totally get rid of the need from playing with my friends droid.

 

[kraze0g]

earlier in the post someone mentioned that these things will get fixed and move along with updates as other smartphones were... but it seems like after the first update we went a little backward?

i love this phone, it feels good to carry but im constantly watching my battery go down. besides that, youtube.. c'mon now. worked fine before and after an UPDATE its a pain? i dont look for an immediate fix, i just look for some kind of words of reasoning from HTC and the guarentee that they are fixing this problem now, not later.

if i could only get over the looks of the moto droid i'd go with that phone, and im sincerely thinking about it since i have the holiday return policy til the 15th i believe? either way.. something better happen ;\

oh and if u want to fix your weather thing to be more accurate to where you are, if u turn GPS ON then it will immediately find where your at and give you the current location weather.

 

[tbaker]

I read today that HTC said that a hard reset should fix some of your issues, while the rest should be fixed when 2.x comes out.

 

[kraze0g]

I read today that HTC said that a hard reset should fix some of your issues, while the rest should be fixed when 2.x comes out.

where did you read this? and what problems are they referring to (battery? youtube? etc..etc...etc)

 

[entelechy3]

earlier in the post someone mentioned that these things will get fixed and move along with updates as other smartphones were... but it seems like after the first update we went a little backward?

Really? What's gone backward, except the YouTube functionality? Don't get me wrong, I'm with everybody else: that's something that needs to be fixed in short order out of principle if nothing else. But really, how big of a deal is that? Since the update, my phone no longer unlocks/dials randomly in my pocket, I seem to be getting better battery life (I admit this may be incidental), I notice less lag in the UI overall, the texting issues I was having have apparently disappeared... it certainly wasn't a perfect fix, but overall, it produced marked improvements in my phone.

I don't mean to be an apologist for the Eris here, and I hope HTC lives up to my expectations in terms of awareness/fixes for the bugs we're all talking about. Further, I've had my own (apparently unique) issues with my SD card freaking out, my touchscreen occasionally zoning out for 5-10 seconds at a time (very rarely, but still annoying). Overall, though, I'm still pretty happy with the phone.

Maybe I just kind of expected less than some of you coming in. Aside from the godawful network and the occasional inability to make/receive phone calls, I loved my iPhone. Annoying as Apple's iron-fisted control over the phone/OS is, I knew switching to an open-source OS running on 15+ phone models would present issues that simply don't pop up as often when you have a single OS running on three iterations of the same phone. So maybe my expectations are just lower than most, I don't know.

Regardless, from my experience with my Eris, I don't feel we moved backward with the last update.

 

[Needsdecaf]

I read today that HTC said that a hard reset should fix some of your issues, while the rest should be fixed when 2.x comes out.

What's a "hard reset"? Factory reset? Battery pull?

 

[DigiPimp]

Im still pretty undecided after having mine for a month. I had been using the iPhone original and then a 3g and I kind of miss it but I knew coming in that Android wouldnt be quite as good in a lot of ways, but great in some such as the google integration. Honestly if Apple had allowed better google integration and a google voice app I would never have tried this phone out.

For me I guess its just a waiting game to see what comes first a 2.0/2.1 update, end of my holiday return period, or a better android phone.

 

[RC Addict]

earlier in the post someone mentioned that these things will get fixed and move along with updates as other smartphones were... but it seems like after the first update we went a little backward?

We went thought the same thing with the Storm. A leaked OS (leaked so we could hammer it and give feedback on crackberry) would solve one problem but bring up two more. It is what it is, we are talking about little palm sized computers here--more so computers first and phones second.

We all know Google OS is the future. That is why we are all here. They are going to get it right. I am feeling that is why the Passion has been pushed back--they already have two Verizon phones out there with issues and sure don't need a third. A lesson not learned with the Storm 1 release.

Heck, let's go back to WinSloMo 5.0. It had huge issues. We waited almost eight months for 5.1 and it slowed the OS down even worse! 6.0 fixed a lot of issues but by that time we were done with Windows OS.

And the cycle begins again...

 

[aleis]

The day we can dual boot these phones will be like reaching Zion!
until then, this is the next thing smoking! (for the next month...more/less)
think about this, 2.1 was made to run on a G1 (first droid phone) effectively.
it has a 200mhz processor so u know it was clocked probably at 120!
anyways, point being its software. with snapdragon on the hd2 its been reported to have instances of lagging! maybe a bad example but i know once the software is ironed out this thing will sing!
and believe me, coming from winmo i KNOW htc.
they get better because, the community is VERY familiar with their phones.
thats why these things get rooted (chuckz07 im routing for u!!). believe me, when THIS phone gets rooted, pandoras box comes open.

 

[Needsdecaf]

The day we can dual boot these phones will be like reaching Zion!
until then, this is the next thing smoking! (for the next month...more/less)
think about this, 2.1 was made to run on a G1 (first droid phone) effectively.
it has a 200mhz processor so u know it was clocked probably at 120!
anyways, point being its software. with snapdragon on the hd2 its been reported to have instances of lagging! maybe a bad example but i know once the software is ironed out this thing will sing!
and believe me, coming from winmo i KNOW htc.
they get better because, the community is VERY familiar with their phones.
thats why these things get rooted (chuckz07 im routing for u!!). believe me, when THIS phone gets rooted, pandoras box comes open.

Despite multiple attempts to explain why rooting is SO much better, I still remain in the dark as to these huge benefits.

 

[aleis]

Despite multiple attempts to explain why rooting is SO much better, I still remain in the dark as to these huge benefits.

when we have root access (which if u access this your on another level altogether) you have the ability to load or remove each and every program. therefore making it more efficient by freeing up ram. or more memory to load more programs
which would not be a deal cause you have access to the SD card for loading apps (16gb is the max right? somebody say wrong..im thinking 32gb) also when htc makes a rom, it`ll get ripped almost immediately then we can load it. like the version of droid on the google phone, the nexus one, we could have that!
with the animated wallpaper!!
possibly get THE ANIMATED WEATHER LIKE ON THE HD2 WINDOWS PHONE!!
and that goes without saying google navigation.
but i think u get my point


EDIT:

also u get nanbackup (maybe saying this wrong) but the ability to backup your entire system including settings for each rom change u make!
the ability to run those "forbidden" apps in the market. the ones that say needs root to run
you can make your phone a wireless hotspot.
you can really get to the nuts and bolts if u desire to make it a perfectly running machine.

 

[alamoe]

The day we can dual boot these phones will be like reaching Zion!
until then, this is the next thing smoking! (for the next month...more/less)
think about this, 2.1 was made to run on a G1 (first droid phone) effectively.
it has a 200mhz processor so u know it was clocked probably at 120!
anyways, point being its software. with snapdragon on the hd2 its been reported to have instances of lagging! maybe a bad example but i know once the software is ironed out this thing will sing!
and believe me, coming from winmo i KNOW htc.
they get better because, the community is VERY familiar with their phones.
thats why these things get rooted (chuckz07 im routing for u!!). believe me, when THIS phone gets rooted, pandoras box comes open.

+1
As soon as its able to be done everyone should root/unlock/hack WHATEVER smartphone they get. IMO, its the only way you can unleash your phones full potential.

 

[Bswartz95]

I just want to move my apps to my sd card so the phone will function a little more efficiently. This Facebook app drives me crazy b/c you cannot clear the cache.

 

[RC Addict]

This Facebook app drives me crazy b/c you cannot clear the cache.

Speaking of FaceBook: I do not get updates on my app. Is there something I have wrong? I have my settings set to email me if I get something but blocked the email on my server. Would that keep the updates from coming to FB mobile?

 

[superchaos]

I just want to move my apps to my sd card so the phone will function a little more efficiently. This Facebook app drives me crazy b/c you cannot clear the cache.

You can actually use Welcome to Facebook | Facebook I think it is better than bloo. I actually uninstalled bloo and use the mobile version through the browser.