Verizon unwraps 4.3-inch, Flash-ready Motorola Droid X

[Doughboy]

Any apps or other suggestions to extend battery life?

juice defender

[naturalguy]

For the DX? Turn off wifi and GPS when you aren't using it, that'll help a lot. Turn data off completely overnight if you phone dies before your alarm needs to go off. Set your widget update interval to 30 minutes or longer (chances are you don't need a weather update every 5 minutes). Set your screen timeout to under 1 minute. Lower the brightness or set it to automatic.

I find the DX to have pretty decent battery life. I charge it overnight and I still have about 30% left when I get home from work (that's with moderate to frequent use). If I plug it in while at work it'll last all day no problem.

Turning down the screen brightness seemed to make the biggest difference for me. If I want to use it at full brightness I have "brightness" widget on my home screen where I can toggle it on high or low for when I really need it.

[dwcsoup22]

Just found out I had an upgrade because I am the primary line. Trying to decide between the Droid X and the Droid 2. How hard is it to get used to not having a keyboard and only using the touchscreen? I have an envy touch right now but I always use the physical keyboard.

[bogus83]

I really, really, REALLY wanted to wait for the Droid 2, specifically for the keyboard. I've tried typing on a 3.5" screen, it sucks.

Typing on the DX's 4.3" screen is a piece of cake. There's so much more room that I almost never typo. The only thing I miss is having some kind of scrollball or optical trackpad- it can be a pain in the ass when you're trying to move over just one letter or space and you have to tap it with the point of your finger.

Aside from that, the only reason I'd get a keyboard over a phone with a 4"+ screen is if I absolutely had to play games on it. PSX4Droid works great, but it's annoying using the controls directly on the screen. For stuff like the NES and SNES emulators a keyboard would be great. Unfortunately, the D2 has a 3.7" screen. And as much as I was waiting for a phone with a 1GHz processor and a keyboard, I've decided I'd rather have the larger screen.

Now... if Samsung ever decides to launch a Fascinate Pro (think: Sprint's Epic 4G) on Big Red, we'll be in business. I'm really hoping that by the time I can/need to upgrade again (next holiday season or later) 4"+Screens with dual core processors AND keyboards will be commonplace.

[Adamnn]

Droid post. Yeah bitches ha ha. Came early, good stuff. I'm sure I'll be posting for good app selections soon enough.

[timdull2]

Just found out I had an upgrade because I am the primary line. Trying to decide between the Droid X and the Droid 2. How hard is it to get used to not having a keyboard and only using the touchscreen? I have an envy touch right now but I always use the physical keyboard.

Coming from a guy with big hands, I can honestly type better on the onscreen keyboard than I can the slide-out one. That one is good for a few things, but I honestly use it about 5% of the time and that's it. My last phone was the LG Dare, which was much smaller than my Droid, but I got used to it so it's a piece of cake now.

To me, the advantage of Droid 2 over Droid X would be the keyboard for those who like that sort of thing. Otherwise, if you can hack the touchscreen one, the X would be the way to go in my book.

Another advantage of D2 is that it's supposed to be running "The Gingerbread Man" - the next Android (2.3? I dunno...) as opposed to the DX running Froyo (2.2). Other than that, it has a smaller camera, smaller screen, and is more like a moderately suped-up Droid and that's about it.

Supposedly the Droid2 is to go on sale online at V today, but I haven't checked that out for myself yet. (Just got in to work and came here first! lol) Froyo OTA update for Droid to happen August 12, and DX getting it in "early September". All I know is I keep checking for system updates like every 20 minutes and it ain't there yet!!!!

[Adamnn]

Supposedly the Droid2 is to go on sale online at V today, but I haven't checked that out for myself yet. (Just got in to work and came here first! lol) Froyo OTA update for Droid to happen August 12, and DX getting it in "early September". All I know is I keep checking for system updates like every 20 minutes and it ain't there yet!!!!

I'm wondering if the update will mess with anything like half of Apple's stuff does. I still refuse to be the first to update to certain things and let others be the guinea pigs for it. I accidentally left the update check to safari 5 on my work laptop and changed it. Thought "man these are some cool features" for the new stuff and everything was great... up until I tried to log into ********** online and it wasn't supported. Had to downgrade ha ha.

Also, the swipe feature is pretty cool once you get used to it. Definitely helps those with larger fingers that have issues typing.

[timdull2]

No idea what issues there will be with 2.2. If you search online for reviews, you'll get a lot of mixed ones. Keep in mind that many are from the "hack" version - the manual download/install and not from whatever V will be sending out. The 'hack' version has flaws which are supposed to be fixed when this is officially released. But just as with anything, I'd expect there to be some minor inconveniences that will take a bit to sort out.

[Adamnn]

Yeah. As long as I don't have issues running the apps that I would use daily then it probably wouldn't bother me. Not being able to access my work email would be REALLY irritating, although I'm sure it won't be anything that involved if there are bugs.





Also, unless I missed this on the other pages, anyone have any favorite apps? The minor things like the barcode scanner and flashlight have already come in handy, and I've only had it for 2 days.

[rukkus]

almost every app i use has been updated for 2.2 (froyo) for a month already.

[timdull2]

Also, unless I missed this on the other pages, anyone have any favorite apps? The minor things like the barcode scanner and flashlight have already come in handy, and I've only had it for 2 days.

I've got a good many apps, but try to keep it minimal so I don't have extraneous things to wade through. Here's my favorites:

Google Maps/Navigation - Just plain deep-fried battered awesome.
MyTracks - very handy when planning motorcycle outings and pretripping them.
Advanced Task Killer - a necessity
eBuddy - good IM app
Gdocs - Handy for taking notes at meetings, storing, sending to others.
Google Goggles - Fun to play with, haven't used it for anything serious yet.
Mini Info - Lets me know system status
Weatherbug - Nice widget, easy to use weather app.
Ringdroid - Make your own ringtones out of anything, what??? Yes!!!
Pandora - Customized internet radio app FTW

almost every app i use has been updated for 2.2 (froyo) for a month already.

Same. I've been getting update notifications a lot more frequently as of late.

[riseboi]

ordered the OEM extended battery/cover this morning. would have preferred for it to fit without a new cover but I carry the DX without a case most of time anyways.

some apps I like are:
chompSMS (handcent also but the last update made it run slow on my dx)
ATK
launcher pro plus
juicedefender
FB
Foursquare
beautiful widgets
slacker
astro
mulitcon
google voice
quicksettings
panoplanet live wallpaper
dialerone

[7percent]

I wish T-mobile had something like the Droid. Honestly, the Samsung Vibrant is alright, but feels too cheap. Any insider's here know when they are getting a new android phone?

[timdull2]

I wish T-mobile had something like the Droid. Honestly, the Samsung Vibrant is alright, but feels too cheap. Any insider's here know when they are getting a new android phone?

Tuesday.



















Nah, just kidding. I have no idea.

[7percent]

Tuesday.



















Nah, just kidding. I have no idea.

I just checked some forums and apparently T-mobile is getting a dual core snapdragon in a month or 2? The f-uck..

[Adamnn]

I was tired of waiting for t-mobile to get anything decent, so I just left and went with verizon. I even had a hook up with t-mobile but there just weren't any phones that I wanted. I could have gotten any phone at the 2 year contract price and still just went month to month. Almost gave in, but decided I didn't want to settle on my next phone and went with the droid x.

[timdull2]

So with the Droid X and this new Blockbuster app thing they are featuring, what's the deal with it? Is it a rent-a-movie app or how does it work? Could I do that with my original Droid? It might be handy to keep my daughter occupied in the backseat on trips. I have the cardock for it and an FM transmitter that works pretty good. Cheap mobile 'dvd' player, perhaps? I get tired of reloading clips of Yo Gabba Gabba and need something longer while I'm driving.

[naturalguy]

So with the Droid X and this new Blockbuster app thing they are featuring, what's the deal with it? Is it a rent-a-movie app or how does it work? Could I do that with my original Droid? It might be handy to keep my daughter occupied in the backseat on trips. I have the cardock for it and an FM transmitter that works pretty good. Cheap mobile 'dvd' player, perhaps? I get tired of reloading clips of Yo Gabba Gabba and need something longer while I'm driving.

You can rent or buy movies but it's expensive if you ask me. I haven't downloaded anything from it

[timdull2]

You can rent or buy movies but it's expensive if you ask me. I haven't downloaded anything from it

Hmmm.... Is there a way to rip a DVD and store it on these phones in a file format that would play? Kinda like reverse-engineering the BBuster app? lol

[naturalguy]

Hmmm.... Is there a way to rip a DVD and store it on these phones in a file format that would play? Kinda like reverse-engineering the BBuster app? lol

I am sure there is but I don't know how

[rukkus]

netflix is developing an app for android at the moment. i'd hold out for that instead of messing with blockbuster. bb is on the outs.