Android on Nexus One Always Online

[rodrigorajao]

Hello forum, first timer here.

I searched the forums but could not find the answer, so I'm asking now.

My Samsung Omnia was stolen so I'm looking for a smartphone replacement, which will probably be the Nexus One.

Since I never used an Android phone, I need to know if it's always connected to 3G or I can choose, Windows-Mobile-style, whether I'll connect to Edge, 3G, WiFi, or no data connection whatsoever.

This is important to me because I live in a country where unlimited 3G is outrageously expensive and per-MB pricing is the way to go. I'm also NOT a heavy user of mobile Internet, and the fact that everything Android is in the "cloud" could run up my bill.

tl;dr version

The 3 things I really need to know are:

1. Is Android always-connected, permanently sucking bandwidth, or can I turn off data connectivity at will?

2. If I can turn data connectivity off, will I still be able to use local apps, say Google Contacts or Calendar?

3. Can I sync it to my Windows 7 box via USB?

 

[Hegemony]

The 3 things I really need to know are:

1. Is Android always-connected, permanently sucking bandwidth, or can I turn off data connectivity at will?

2. If I can turn data connectivity off, will I still be able to use local apps, say Google Contacts or Calendar?

3. Can I sync it to my Windows 7 box via USB?

You can always turn airplane mode on, but if you want voice to continue working, get APNdroid from the market. It will allow you to disable data (and keep voice) by basically altering your APN info.

Local apps will still work without data, but won't sync unless you have some sort of data. But whatever is on the phone will work.

As for syncing, not sure what you mean. What do you want to sync? And do you mean sync as in plug it and and have stuff automatically happen? You can mount your phone as a USB drive and drag and drop whatever files you want. Music syncing can be accomplished in that way, or with DoubleTwist. Any clarification and maybe this can be refined a bit.

 

[rodrigorajao]

I mean sync stuff to my phone, say Outlook, or Google contacts, much like Active Sync does with Windows Mobile.

What I'm really trying to find out is how to get Andrioid online through a USB connection to my PC rather than OTA. I can do it with any Windows Mobile device.

 

[Rusty]

It doesn't sync with a desktop (although I would expect something is in the works somewhere) it syncs with Google's cloud.

Android doesn't go online via a USB connection, just get a wireless access point.

 

[MartinS]

Just don't set up APNs and then the phone cannot use mobile internet.

All other services can be done when connection established via Wi-Fi.

As for PC sync there's not much I know of. All Google stuff is through the cloud (again Wi-Fi when connected). I've never tried to do anything with outlook etc...

 

[nx1977]

Sadly some networks autodownload the APN's from the network or your SIM.

Just turn off background data, or use one of the data on/off widgets from the marketplace.

 

[Rusty]

APNdroid is all you need.