First Impressions and Questions Thread

[whatsitsname]

Ok this might sound silly but how on earth do you turn gmail notifications off? The setting is missing in the gmail settings. I usually have email notifications set to vibrate only.

Any ideas?

Email settings are access through "messaging". Not to be confused with " text messaging" which is an entirely different application.
If it is the default gmail app then it's listed under settings, click on your gmail account, label to notify, inbox.

 

[brushrop03]

Yeahhhh. It's definitely a lot more saturated and fuzzier on the Photon.

Have PhillyD playing on youtube HD (Wifi), and he is pretty red. Not only that but it's pretty pixelated and you can see less detail. They are paused at the exact same time.

Also on my black and white home screen wallpaper, you can definitely see a pretty good amount of red tinge on the Photon.

Wish I had my cam to take a pic/video

 

[Glod]

- Contacts don't link properly to their social network accounts (I haven't really looked how to do this yet, but on the EVO it was as easy as going into each contact and linking that contact with their social network account. Didn't see that type of option on the Photon).

crap, i didnt notice this issue until you brought this up,

its official, i still love my photon but blur has little weird issues like this that sense on the hero and evo didnt have.

 

[brushrop03]

crap, i didnt notice this issue until you brought this up,

its official, i still love my photon but blur has little weird issues like this that sense on the hero and evo didnt have.

Yeah i've been trying to get this to work too. Damn Motorola. Arghhhh!!

 

[twospirits]

I downloaded an app called MuteCamera and it indeed does mute the camera shutter sound but the pics taken aren't that great so I refunded. But that shows that it can be turned off, but no where on the settings is there a way to do so.

TS

 

[Godfather13]

Yes, definitely need the camera shutter sound off. Also, after taking pictures and going thru my gallery, I cant get them to display in landscape mode which is how I took them. They only display with the phone being held vertically and I dont see a setting to even rotate it. Any suggestions?

I also see that have of my contacts have linked with Facebook and half have not. Wonder why this is?

 

[brushrop03]

Yes, definitely need the camera shutter sound off. Also, after taking pictures and going thru my gallery, I cant get them to display in landscape mode which is how I took them. They only display with the phone being held vertically and I dont see a setting to even rotate it. Any suggestions?

I also see that have of my contacts have linked with Facebook and half have not. Wonder why this is?

Do you have your facebook account linked to your contacts? If so they are pulling all of your facebook friends into your contact list

 

[krlseidl]

The interface to my work email account is much better than the EVO. Fewer screen touches are needed to delete unwanted messages.

Connected the phone to my Slingbox this morning. The playback of the TV picture is so much clearer and faster than the EVO it is amazing.

 

[6minutes212]

Can anyone tell me how to turn off the ambient light sensor? I really dig the clock widget mode for bedside but those lights at the bottom (menu, home, back and search) being constantly on while trying to sleep irritates me. Anyone know how to do this?

 

[Whiskeypawz]

Evo Kickstand > Photon Kickstand. And the kickstand placement in relation to the charging port wasn't well thought out. Can't do both

Besides the screen with watching video it's a fine phone. But that's a deal breaker for me.

Actually you can do both! You can have the phone on either of it's sides & still use the kickstand. If you have your phone charging just turn it on it's right side so it leans on the flat part of the kickstand instead of the tip of the kickstand.

 

[Whiskeypawz]

I don't have an LED light notification when I miss a call. Is this somewhere in the settings? It flashes when I have a text but not for a missed call.

 

[burgertime]

Well I'm in Vegas working a show and I can already tell you that the Photon is kicking my Evo's ass. At other shows I would make it about 3 hours into a trade show checking email and facebook (the latter is a must for my job) and I would need to start recharging. I made it through the whole day yesterday with out needing a charge and talked to my brother and girlfriend a few times throughout the day. I'm still very much in love with the form factor...it just feels much better than an EVO.


As for everyone complaining about the video/image quality, I mean no offense by this at all but seems to me this is the usual case of, "they didn't advertise it with the phone but we're going to single it out as if they did". This was advertised and pushed as a business phone for Android. The EVO was pushed as a phone that did HD video through YouTube and was an entertainment phone, thus why the battery was so craptacular and the call quality/clarity and speaker phone were sub par. For the use that it was made it seems like a 9/10 or maybe a 8.5/10. Could the screen look a little better? Of course, but it wasn't designed to be a phone for entertainment...it just happens to have that bonus so I'm not going to complain or hold it against the phone.

 

[burgertime]

I don't have an LED light notification when I miss a call. Is this somewhere in the settings? It flashes when I have a text but not for a missed call.

I believe the LED is just solid green when you miss a call.

 

[drexappeal]

Well I'm in Vegas working a show and I can already tell you that the Photon is kicking my Evo's ass. At other shows I would make it about 3 hours into a trade show checking email and facebook (the latter is a must for my job) and I would need to start recharging. I made it through the whole day yesterday with out needing a charge and talked to my brother and girlfriend a few times throughout the day. I'm still very much in love with the form factor...it just feels much better than an EVO.

As for everyone complaining about the video/image quality, I mean no offense by this at all but seems to me this is the usual case of, "they didn't advertise it with the phone but we're going to single it out as if they did". This was advertised and pushed as a business phone for Android. The EVO was pushed as a phone that did HD video through YouTube and was an entertainment phone, thus why the battery was so craptacular and the call quality/clarity and speaker phone were sub par. For the use that it was made it seems like a 9/10 or maybe a 8.5/10. Could the screen look a little better? Of course, but it wasn't designed to be a phone for entertainment...it just happens to have that bonus so I'm not going to complain or hold it against the phone.

You were SO right about the form factor. I love it too! It's not really "smaller" than the EVO, but it feels SO much easier to hold.

I actually LOVE the Motorola camera compared to the EVO 4G camera. I took a pic of my shoe boxes when my room was completely pitch black dark and it came out clearer than the EVO 4G ever took pics at night:

 

[Whiskeypawz]

I believe the LED is just solid green when you miss a call.

I get no light at all.

 

[skep]

I do NOT own this phone yet, but I do see some familiar complaints from you guys. I've owned quite a few Motorola Android Phones (Droid 1 3x, Droid 2, and Droid X) and this all sounds like they just haven't fixed the problem, although there are fixes.

The battery information only showing each 10% seems to be standard on the Motorola's, I used BatterMinder and it did the job just fine on the phones I had

The Droid X had the same contacts issue getting them to sync properly with the Social Media networks (Facebook and MySpace). When I asked the sales reps at Verizon about this, they told me about an App that would easily fix this, I downloaded it and used it and they were correct, it worked great. But to be honest, I don't remember what the app was, it was almost a year ago now since I changed to the Samsung Epic and this phone didn't need it so I never bothered with it again.

Hope this information helps, and sorry I couldn't remember the name of the app. Just thought this may help you all, so that you know this isn't just a GLITCH or a problem isolated directly with the Photon, it is in fact a problem with Motorola in general.

 

[burgertime]

I get no light at all.

Weird, I get a blinking blue light for email, a solid blue light for text messages and a green light for missed calls. I've been playing around in the settings and can't find anything. You might try the app Blink-Flash which should allow you to customize the LED notifications.

 

[drexappeal]

I do NOT own this phone yet, but I do see some familiar complaints from you guys. I've owned quite a few Motorola Android Phones (Droid 1 3x, Droid 2, and Droid X) and this all sounds like they just haven't fixed the problem, although there are fixes.

The battery information only showing each 10% seems to be standard on the Motorola's, I used BatterMinder and it did the job just fine on the phones I had

The Droid X had the same contacts issue getting them to sync properly with the Social Media networks (Facebook and MySpace). When I asked the sales reps at Verizon about this, they told me about an App that would easily fix this, I downloaded it and used it and they were correct, it worked great. But to be honest, I don't remember what the app was, it was almost a year ago now since I changed to the Samsung Epic and this phone didn't need it so I never bothered with it again.

So, just to be sure I understand you, on your Droid phones, you used Batteryminder and it didn't change the increments to single percentage increments, it just kept the 10% increments, correct?

For the app that fixes the linking of contacts, I'm glad to know there's an app that fixes that. I'll continue to dig for that until someone finds it.

Since you had Droid phones, what was your solution for the camera shutter?

TIA
drex

 

[Godfather13]

For some reason, now the notification light is not lit when the phone is plugged into the charger. I still get the blinking light after missed calls etc though. Wonder why its not lighting up when plugged in???

 

[burgertime]

So, just to be sure I understand you, on your Droid phones, you used Batteryminder and it didn't change the increments to single percentage increments, it just kept the 10% increments, correct?

For the app that fixes the linking of contacts, I'm glad to know there's an app that fixes that. I'll continue to dig for that until someone finds it.

Since you had Droid phones, what was your solution for the camera shutter?

TIA
drex

I read in a forum to download the facebook app (uninstall and reinstall if you already have it) when it installs it should sync everything correctly for you.

 

[drexappeal]

I read in a forum to download the facebook app (uninstall and reinstall if you already have it) when it installs it should sync everything correctly for you.

Nice. Did it say anything about logging out of the Facebook account setup that I did on the initial setup?

 

[skep]

Burger, that was not the fix. It was a 2nd party application that synced your accounts together and I went in manually every once in a while and updated them.

drex, to be 100% honest, I don't remember if it showed the 10s or 1s, you might be right though. Now on my Epic 10 months later, I have been using the FlipClock BlackOut and it works amazing. I know on this phone, it shows % in 1's. Have you tried that app before? I love it to be honest. Weather, storage space, battery life, large clock. Awesome!

 

[Whiskeypawz]

Weird, I get a blinking blue light for email, a solid blue light for text messages and a green light for missed calls. I've been playing around in the settings and can't find anything. You might try the app Blink-Flash which should allow you to customize the LED notifications.

Ok I think I've figured out the problem. The LED light does blink green when I miss a call. I think it had already quit flashing ny the time I got back to my phone. So I'm thinking I need the ability to adjust how long the light flashes, not necessarily the frequency. I installed Blink-Flash but I couldn't find anywhere to adjust how long the light should blink.

 

[burgertime]

Nice. Did it say anything about logging out of the Facebook account setup that I did on the initial setup?

Not sure, it might not work. It's just something I saw on this forum...figured it was worth a shot.

Social Networking Problem

 

[burgertime]

Oh yes, I figured as much. Just thought I would throw it out there!

Burger, that was not the fix. It was a 2nd party application that synced your accounts together and I went in manually every once in a while and updated them.

drex, to be 100% honest, I don't remember if it showed the 10s or 1s, you might be right though. Now on my Epic 10 months later, I have been using the FlipClock BlackOut and it works amazing. I know on this phone, it shows % in 1's. Have you tried that app before? I love it to be honest. Weather, storage space, battery life, large clock. Awesome!