What have you learned new in 2.1?

[flu13]

For months, most of us have scoured this forum and know just about everything we can about tweaking and using our Moment.

Now, with Android 2.1, some of what we thought we knew is probably no longer relevant.

What is something you've learned that's different in 2.1? What's a new app that's available? What's an improved app? What do you like better or not as much?

 

[censlow]

So far for me 2.1 has not been the "OMG" it was worth the wait. But I have to say the best thing so far is my signal strength has improved a ton. Not sure why. Not sure what really changed with it. But in my home I was lucky to get 2-3 bars. Now its full and pretty much stays that way. Same thing at work. One thing for sure is I have to root. 2.1 added a ton of useless junk apps to my phone that have to go.

 

[marquisdee1018]

If you upgraded from 1.5, there is a big difference. But if you were running a leaked 2.1 version, like I was doing, I haven't really noticed much difference yet.

 

[Fonseca]

So far for me 2.1 has not been the "OMG" it was worth the wait. But I have to say the best thing so far is my signal strength has improved a ton. Not sure why. Not sure what really changed with it. But in my home I was lucky to get 2-3 bars. Now its full and pretty much stays that way. Same thing at work. One thing for sure is I have to root. 2.1 added a ton of useless junk apps to my phone that have to go.

I believe that is because 2.1 supports CDMA. They had to patch 1.5 to get it to work.

 

[flyjbaker]

My wife's phone is jacked by this update. It cannot hold onto an internet connection. And the wifi will not search so it will not connect thru wifi. Will be going to the Sprint store this afternoon. She has about had it with this phone. She really got a lemon. I was hoping 2.1 would bring back her spirits but it has failed because of this new issue. Meanwhile, my Moment works fine.

 

[pastafarian]

My wife's phone is jacked by this update. It cannot hold onto an internet connection. And the wifi will not search so it will not connect thru wifi. Will be going to the Sprint store this afternoon. She has about had it with this phone. She really got a lemon. I was hoping 2.1 would bring back her spirits but it has failed because of this new issue. Meanwhile, my Moment works fine.

Have you tried doing a full reset (clear memory)? Because of so many issues, it became the norm to do a hard reset or two after a rom update with winmo phones.

 

[Rhymhoont]

I have learned that my phone is 20

 

[mcdevin1973]

Im bummed that there is no flash. i know, I know...you all said that our chipset can't handle adobe's version of Flash. i was just hoping for some kind of flash that would allow me to access Sirius' online player but, alas, not to be....

 

[marquisdee1018]

I have learned that my phone is 20

 

[Necrotica]

I am thrilled that I will no longer be accidentally muting the phone or turning on the speakerphone with my cheek since those actions, along with unlocking the phone, are now done by swiping actions. It's slightly more inconvenient, but it's very worth it. I also love how the screen now turns off when on a call. It can be reactivated by pressing the End key without hanging up the call. Also, the Market is redesigned and shows screenshots!

For some reason, the Sprint-installed apps seem to be running in the background more often than they used to (Sprint Navigation, SprintTV, E-Mail, etc), but I use Automatic Task Killer and Advanced Task Killer to help with that.

Overall, having come from Android 1.5, I'm loving this new update!

 

[flu13]

Im bummed that there is no flash. i know, I know...you all said that our chipset can't handle adobe's version of Flash. i was just hoping for some kind of flash that would allow me to access Sirius' online player but, alas, not to be....

I read in the Android Applications forum that some of the new browsers will do some flash stuff, like Skyfire (which has thus far only crashed my phone) and the new Dolphin, and maybe xScope.

 

[9Nails]

My wife learned that the contact list behaiour has changed slightly. Before, she would look at a contact and hit the green button. It would then call the first phone on the viewed contacts lisy. Not so with 2.1! Now, the green button acts as a redial - calling the last person that you dialed. It ignores the contact that you might be viewing.

She had found this out the hard way.

 

[Zumaki]

I learned that Google has made great strides in voice recognition. Still waiting for the day when I can speak totally naturally though.

 

[flu13]

I'm definitely loving the voice search. I was going to download Gesture Search, but I figured what was the point when I have voice search. I wish it gave some sort of audible cue, though, as to when it was ready to listen, as there is sometimes a slight lag before it kicks on.

Ooooh. Just thought of this....is there a way to remap the Voice Control button to Voice Search?

 

[NemesisEnforcer]

If you upgraded from 1.5, there is a big difference. But if you were running a leaked 2.1 version, like I was doing, I haven't really noticed much difference yet.

hey if I'm still using leaked version of 2.1 and want to go and do the official one,do I need to go back to stock?Or I can just do the official one straight from leaked one?Thx!

 

[CriticalCritic]

Ooooh. Just thought of this....is there a way to remap the Voice Control button to Voice Search?

http://forum.sdx-developers.com/android-2-1-development/reassign-physical-keys/

Flash one of the two effective 2.1 recovery versions available on SDX to your phone using SWU updater. Then flash the zip file above to your phone through the recovery.

 

[flu13]

Bad. Ass.

Thanks, Crit.

 

[LaFlavor]

hey if I'm still using leaked version of 2.1 and want to go and do the official one,do I need to go back to stock?Or I can just do the official one straight from leaked one?Thx!

The official one wipes the phone completely, so you don't have to go back to stock.

 

[mrmojoz]

So far for me 2.1 has not been the "OMG" it was worth the wait.

I'll disagree with you there, so many little change and new applications for me. Even simple stuff like only having to press END to get to the un-lock screen instead of END - MENU is great. I feel like I have a brand new phone to play with.

 

[flu13]

But before, it was End-Menu and you were done. Now, it's End-Swipe, and the swipe seems to fail about a third of the time. I don't know that we gained much there.

 

[Johnny Cakes]

I learned what a complete piece of crap 1.5 was -- all of those frustrations simply because the programmers did a poor job. I had blamed my car (2006 technology) for the random Bluetooth connection ("paired but not connected"), but with 2.1 the connection is reliable and quick. Obviously the phone's fault from the beginning.

 

[Stoney62]

But before, it was End-Menu and you were done. Now, it's End-Swipe, and the swipe seems to fail about a third of the time. I don't know that we gained much there.

Use NO LOCK. Just the end button and you're done.

 

[cdavbar]

After reading the posts so far i have to agree with both sides.

At first there was a WOW factor, there is a lot of things im loving no that i have 2.1 But the hype isnt all it was cracked up to be. I want live wallpapers. without haveing to do forty steps of removinmg drivers installing this installing that recovering this and that.

I mean overall: Battery life is better, overall operation of phone is better. VOICE TO TEXT ROCKS!!!!!!!! There are a number of apps only avail to 2.1 wich we can now get which is also great. Im now able to have facebook, and a real twitter widget so my stuff flows flawlessly.

Overall though, if the htc hero were to have the optical sensor instead of the ball it has now, and a slide out keyboard, i would leave my moment in the dust when htcs 2.1 comes out.

Sprint, thank you for finally updating, but i believe we all feel like the kids on Christmas that only got 1 tonka truck and 6 pairs of tighty whiteys.

 

[pred1124]

its almost like a new phone, great. racking my head over on how to get the live wallpappers to work

 

[CriticalCritic]

I now have my phone almost exactly how I want it (still working on the home screen layouts).

-I have nuance removed and google voice search launching from the nuance key.
-I have my black notification bar with that redundant clock removed.
-I have a phone that picks up GPS location in about 3 seconds and does it accurately.
-I have fully integrated GPS Navigation that speaks clearly and has a detour option to get around heavy traffic.
-I have quick response screen-on from my phone when I receive a phone call. As well as a functioning proximity sensor.
-I have clean, clear, and effortless BT connections.
-I have my phone automatically turning on BT when I get in the car, automatically launching text-to-speech when I drive, and automatically killing my BT connection and TTS app when I get home.
-I have fast reaction time out of my phone now. No more horrible horrible lag. This is especially fantastic now when using Swype.
-I have free streaming music.
-I have a new badass T9 dialer.
-I have fully functioning and non-lagging live wallpaper.
-I have a couple 3D games that now work at an acceptable, if not decent, frame rate.
-And the biggest and most important thing- I still have data lockup and phone lockup and all the various radio lockups that make nearly every single thing listed above useless.

To summarize, my phone can now do all the things that I was promised it could do over 6 months ago... sometimes.