Some Hands-On Time With The Fascinate Today

[burningembers]

I'd assume its an ambient light sensor. My Droid Inc. has three. Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, and LED Notification.

 

[a62gtypek]

right... it wouldn't make sense to put an led next to a light sensor or a proximity sensor. thanks

 

[Baldycmw]

the epic is the only one with a notification light

 

[TheAlmightyDrew]

Firebird. Does the Fascinate have that hump on the bottom of the phone like the Vibrant and i9000 do? I hate the bump on the top of my Droid X, and can only imagine that one on the bottom will be even more annoying.

 

[ckochinsky125]

From the pics floating around the back looks flat

 

[Skratte]

Was just playing with the Fascinate at my local store. Slick, very, very slick. I had gone in to buy a DroidX, but after asking about the Fascinate, and the rep bringing one out, I ended up walking out with no new phone.
Too many choices

 

[Bearly]

How are you guys getting the VZW reps to admit to the EXISTENCE of the Fascinate? I had a woman tell me? "Fascinate? Never heard of it."

Full of sh*t, honey!

I said, "That's a nice NDA you have signed there, sweetheart." And I showed her an article about it and the Best Buy pre-order site.

VZW corporate is so stupid. Why not get the traffic that Best Buy would get? Admit to the damn phone (Best Buy did when I called, did not confirm when they would have a live model on the floor to play with) already.

 

[Skratte]

When I ask about the Fascinate, rep said they had just gotten it in today, and she walked over to the desk and picked it up and brought it back over to me. It looked to be just activated, nothing had been loaded from the marketplace yet.

 

[Darkhan]

The local VZW store in my area had it in, however said they could not show me at this time. LAME.

 

[Baldycmw]

I had to call verizon the other day and I asked about the phone and she said she never heard of it before. Too funny.

 

[FireBirdX]

Went back to the store and got to play around with the Fascinate some more today, but this time an activated phone.

So, I wanted to test the Google Search theory.

I fired up the Incredible on the display rack and went to the Marketplace, did a search for "Google Search" and the first app on the list it brought back on the list was the correct app/widget for Google Search.

I ran the same search on the Fascinate, and Google Search was completely absent from the search results. Nada. So I guess we can assume/conclude that we cannot install the Google Search on a non-rooted Fascinate via the marketplace.

The employee that was using the Fascinate also said he was pleasantly surprised at the battery life he's gotten with it the last 2 days.

 

[Bearly]

Went back to the store and got to play around with the Fascinate some more today, but this time an activated phone.

So, I wanted to test the Google Search theory.

I fired up the Incredible on the display rack and went to the Marketplace, did a search for "Google Search" and the first app on the list it brought back on the list was the correct app/widget for Google Search.

I ran the same search on the Fascinate, and Google Search was completely absent from the search results. Nada. So I guess we can assume/conclude that we cannot install the Google Search on a non-rooted Fascinate via the marketplace.

The employee that was using the Fascinate also said he was pleasantly surprised at the battery life he's gotten with it the last 2 days.

So, what if we enable third party apps? I mean, the "untrusted" sources or something that you have to enable in the Settings menu?

I bet someone can get the apk for the Google Search widget and users can just install it manually, no root required.

That's my guess.

 

[TheXFactor]

The employee that was using the Fascinate also said he was pleasantly surprised at the battery life he's gotten with it the last 2 days.

And that was exactly the response I got from a verizon rep right before I bought the Incredible.

 

[Don S]

Went back to the store and got to play around with the Fascinate some more today, but this time an activated phone.

So, I wanted to test the Google Search theory.

I fired up the Incredible on the display rack and went to the Marketplace, did a search for "Google Search" and the first app on the list it brought back on the list was the correct app/widget for Google Search.

I ran the same search on the Fascinate, and Google Search was completely absent from the search results. Nada. So I guess we can assume/conclude that we cannot install the Google Search on a non-rooted Fascinate via the marketplace.

....

Wow. This blows. Thanks for checking though.

So, what if we enable third party apps? I mean, the "untrusted" sources or something that you have to enable in the Settings menu?

I bet someone can get the apk for the Google Search widget and users can just install it manually, no root required.

That's my guess.

I hope this is true as well. Maybe we can get a kind sole to post the Google Search widget .apk file prior to the release ..

 

[EliC]

Got some of my own hands on time with one today. I really wanted to test GPS. I installed Google Maps, no problem. However the phone had a hard time getting a lock and finally got one that said it was within 60m, but was actually about a mile off. I was in a store, but the other phones I tried got a good location... Would like to see some serious investigation of this by those that have these units in hand and out in the wild (can get them outside of a vzw building).

Also, the VZ store employee told me that VZ Navigator would be free on these phones, no monthly charge. I suspect he is wrong, but don't know for sure.

 

[TheAlmightyDrew]

Google Maps is something that I actually barely use on my phone since I have a GPS in my car. The only thing I use Google Maps for is to search for a store nearby, so I can give them a call and ask a question or pull up their address and plug it into my GPS. I have never actually used the turn-by-turn navigation on the iPhone 3G or the Droid X that I have had.

 

[substring]

I have both VZ Navigator and Google Map on my BlackBerry. But I don't really use them that much because I am not a traveling saleswoman and I know my city very well.

Occasionally when I use them, I have found that Google Map has a hard time locating me when I am inside a building. So I prefer to use VZ Navigator. But still, these turn-by-turn navigation app are not 100% accurate. Since I know the city very well, I can adjust accordingly and not just blindly follow the direction.

After I get my Fascinate, I definitely will download Google Map and Google Earth, but I probably is not going to use it heavily.

My only concern is whether the GPS on the Fascinate is good enough and accurate enough to work with FourSquare or my friends will have a hard time finding me.

 

[ckochinsky125]

Got some of my own hands on time with one today. I really wanted to test GPS. I installed Google Maps, no problem. However the phone had a hard time getting a lock and finally got one that said it was within 60m, but was actually about a mile off. I was in a store, but the other phones I tried got a good location... Would like to see some serious investigation of this by those that have these units in hand and out in the wild (can get them outside of a vzw building).

Also, the VZ store employee told me that VZ Navigator would be free on these phones, no monthly charge. I suspect he is wrong, but don't know for sure.

I doubt it will be free it even says in the leaked documents that its available with subscription vzw isnt going to miss out on making money on one of their services