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Switching to Android – My Thoughts After a few Months

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I do love my Android phone. I love it more than I ever loved the iPhone, and here’s a quick post as to why.

I decided to definitely switch to the Android on the day that Apple changed their T&C’s to not allow any apps to be built in anything but their compilers. I thought that this was the end of the road for me and Apple. Even though I’m not an Apple developer, the mere fact that developers could not build one app and port it to many platforms just does not sit well with me. Thankfully that decision has now been reversed, but I don’t think I will be going back to the iPhone any time soon.

In a post back in 2008, I wrote about the things I use a mobile device for, and looking at that list almost 2 years later, it is still pretty much current. The main things I use on my Android are (in order):

  • Clock and Alarm Clock
  • Calendar
  • Twitter
  • Gmail
  • Gmail Contacts
  • ToDo List
  • Facebook
  • Photos (mainly for Twitpics)
  • Web browsing
  • Maps
  • Calculator

Plus the occasional phone call and text message.

I don’t use that many apps, and never really did on the iPhone either. However, there were a few apps that I found that I absolutely loved on the iPhone such as TripView, the Pzizz sleep app, and the Jamie Oliver cooking app, but all those are available on the iPod Touch so I have one of these and have the best of both worlds. I keep my music on the iPod with few apps, and have my Android be my main web connection device.

I also don’t do games on mobile devices, and did not on the iPhone. I just don’t really see the point in wasting my precious battery life on playing games. (And whilst I will rant about the Android’s battery life, it is better than the iPhone, and I can have two!).

The things that absolutely stand out for me on the Android as the things that I love are:

  • I have never ever had to plug it into my PC – EVER! I don’t need to put music on it, and I can not for the life of me think why I would want to look at Word or Excel documents on a mobile device (and I would use Dropbox anyway). With OTA updates, emailing or directly uploading pics, and the seameless Gmail integration, there is absolutely no need to plug this thing into a PC.
  • The Gmail integration is almost flawless. I can star messages, label them, see threaded messages (yes, I know you can do that on the iPhone now). My contacts and my multiple Gmail calendars sync without any issues, now that I have set up Gmail as my primary contacts store. I love the simple dialling system where you start typing in the person’s name to find their phone number.
  • I love Swype! It is so much easier and better than the tap tap tap of most other onscreen keyboards. Yes it does take a while to get used to it, but now even going back to the iPod touch is hard to type on. And, there is no way that we will ever see Swype on an iPhone so it’s another reason to avoid the iPhone.
  • I have my calendar appointments on my Home Screen! and I have Calendar Alarms and an Alarm clock that works really well. This was one of the biggest issues I had with the iPhone. I was forever missing appointments because it just beeped twice and that was it! The Android will keep beeping at me every few minutes until I acknowledge it.
  • I have my ToDo list on my Home Screen. I have a sync with the wonderful RememberTheMilk.com and all the ToDo’s due today are shown on my Home Screen.
  • The wireless hotspot feature on Froyo (Android Version 2.2) is really cool and I have actually used it a few times and it worked really well.
  • I love HTC Sense UI. I got my HTC Desire from Clove.co.uk so it is not overloaded with the Telstra crapware on top of Sense, and I think that people that are complaining about the bloatedness of Sense and the slowness of the device may be because of the Telstra issues. I don’t use their twitter client and I have not used many of their other social networking features (except having Facebook photos in the contacts list is quite nice). But I love the Home Screens (I turned off the active Home Screens on day 1, due to it sucking battery life), and the Sense system widgets just look lovely (even though you can get other widgets that do the same thing).
  • I love my widgets. With one tap I can turn off the 3G connection (try doing that on an iPhone without mods), or turn the Wifi on or the GPS and Bluetooth on or off – yes you can do these things on an iPhone if you delve down through about 20 screens to get there. The widgets are just so damn handy.

Other great features are:

  • The notifications panel – it works well
  • Multi tasking – of course!
  • The Task Killer app
  • The browser works really nicely (and similar features to the iPhone browser)
  • Google Maps of course!
  • The night clock and alarms

I could go on… However there are some things that I really don’t like so I do have to mention those too…

  • The click to dial a number feature from emails and text sucks as it built for US numbers and depending on how the number is entered, it just won’t work.
  • The complete inability to copy and paste from Gmail and texts – that is a true shocker! Yes I can “share” to the clipboard, but if I just want part of the message it is a real pain.
  • The battery life is dismal, but so is the iPhone’s (well 3G and 3GS anyway). The good thing is that I can swap the battery with a new one during the day if I need to. The other good thing is that if I turn off 3G then the battery lasts about double the time than with 3G turned on.
  • The lack of apps – I really really want a good AU weather app and TripView for Android. But now that the Market is available for Australian apps, they should come in time. Even Skype is now on Android.
  • The Facebook app is so bad it is laughable. There is no ability to see status updates by only those people in Lists, so I have to wade through all of the updates I don’t want to read to see the ones from family that I do want to read.

But for all the bad things, the good things really outweigh them, and I love this phone. Considering I tried 6 different phones last year (with the longest time spent on the iPhone), I have no desire (ha, pun intended) to switch yet… but maybe when the Desire HD comes out then I will think about it…

Swtiching to Android – Gmail Contacts

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This is my first post about switching to Android for my primary phone. Whilst there are things I love about the iPhone, I just HATE the way it works with Gmail and I want the Android phone specifically for it’s gmail integration. The first thing I have to do, however is import my contacts into Gmail… and so the fun begins.

Last Christmas (2008), whilst working on my Mum’s computer I accidentally deleted her whole Outlook contacts list – 400+ contacts. As she was moving to Gmail anyway we decided to rebuild the contacts list from old backups and import them into Gmail. Well long story short, it took me about 3 days and I ended up having to manually edit all of the 400 contacts to get them to appear correctly in Gmail.

When Gmail when out of Beta in 2009 I could not believe it – how could they take it out of Beta when the contacts support was sooo bad! But, here I am and now I have to use Gmail for Contacts. My Mum loves having all her contacts in Gmail now and I can see the benefit.

My contacts were a complete mess… I had:

  • 1300+ email addresses in Gmail, of which probably 200 are of any value.
  • A very old outlook file with contacts that are probably mostly irrelevant
  • 250 or so contacts from my phone that have shortcuts for names (generally only Initials or @twitter names) and the barest of minimum info like Mobile number only.
  • My Mum’s family contact list from her Gmail, which I would like to have the contacts from
  • My Gmail contacts are in a complete mess – some have names, some done.
  • Some people could be in all 3 lists, and some could be in just one… it’s a mess.
  • My phone also includes non people data such as bank accounts, ABN numbers etc – which I like to have handy in my phone at all times

A quick Google search on importing Contacts into Gmail says it’s easy – it’s just a few steps – export your CSV file from outlook, and Import into Gmail. But my past experience is that the fields just don’t match up.  But Reading posts about things not going well does not fill me with confidence, and I agree with that post. Google needs to provide the definitive CSV list that will import 100% of data 100% of time. Outlook does a perfectly acceptable job of importing contacts, so why cant Google.

I found a great post last year with a guide to the full Google Contacts CSV file and another post that reveals the trick to importing Gmail Addresses by switching to the Old Version of Google Contacts (which is what I had to do last year). Thankfully, however, Gmail has improved a bit and I will NOT recommend using the Old Version trick as there are just too many issues with it not labelling details correctly.  Gmail now has a great tool for finding Duplicate contacts, which really does help, but it is still not good enough!

(Note: I manually cleaned up all my contact lists in Excel but I think the Gmail duplicates would have done a great job of cleaning up my duplicates, but I wanted to do a really thorough clean-up).

So eventually I did get my 420 (yes, that’s all after the clean-up) contacts into Gmail. I had huuuge dramas getting them in there, and tried reading every post about the terrible “Oops. An unknown error occured while importing your contacts” message to no avail, as it seems that everyone’s issues were different. But here is a quick guide to getting it right, I hope:

  • Use the full CSV File – See my version of the full CSV file, including notes on which fields to use
  • Save as the DOS CSV file format
  • Delete Suggested Contacts*
  • Delete All Contacts*
  • Delete any commas in the CSV file*
  • Delete any reference to your email address in the CSV file*
  • Ensure there are no non-blank cells in the CSV file!

* Whilst I can’t vouch for the accuracy of these fixes, for me it was the non-blank cells issue. Here’s how I fixed it. Select all the cells in your spreadsheet, hit F5 then click on Special…, choose Blanks. This selects all blank cells in your worksheet. Colour those selected cells any colour. Now go through your sheet cell by cell looking for any white cells that have no text in them. Click on that cell and hit the delete key, deleting the contents of that cell. Repeat this process by re-selecting and re-colouring until you are 100% sure there are no non-blank cells.

Oh and I did delete all my contacts – all 1300 of them that were in Gmail originally, but I’m now not convinced that was necessary (and I forgot to take a backup, so it was an enforced cleanup of my contacts in a way).

So if this long winded post helps at least one other person save a few hours of frustration, then it will be worth it. But Google really really really need to get their act together. Surely they could have an error message that tells you which contact it failed on, why it failed, and then import the others. Without this fix Gmail contacts is still completely crap and not worth dealing with unless you really really have to (or really really want an Android).

Update: As @trib just very rightly pointed out, if all I wanted to do was switch my already super organised contacts over from the iPhone (or any other device) into Gmail, then there are a number of Google Sync tools that may help. These did not help me because my contacts were in such a mess.

Looking for a new Mobile Device

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I’m after a new Mobile Device and a new Mobile plan… notice I didn’t say I’m after a new Mobile Phone, because I actually don’t make that many phone calls. I currently have a Nokia 6110 purchased in October 2007. I usually find that I either want or need a new device after 1 year. This time I need one as the 6110 is showing it’s age and not behaving well.

The most things I use a mobile device for, in order of use, are:

  • Clock and Alarm Clock – I don’t wear a watch
  • Calendar – to sync with my Google Calendar
  • Contacts – Including Syncing to my O-Sync account
  • Twitter
  • SMS
  • Gmail whilst out and about
  • Voicemail
  • Phone
  • Calculator
  • Maps
  • General Internet
  • To Do List
  • Notes
I very rarely use my mobile device for:
  • Music
  • Photos / Video
  • MMS
  • Voice Recording (only because you can’t attach them to reminders)
  • Video calling
  • Games
  • Reading office documents
  • Internet downloads
The additional features I want on my mobile device that I don’t have currently are
  • WiFi
  • Better Camera
  • Larger Screen
  • Less slippery, glossy buttons
  • Unlimited Internet usage
  • Push Gmail
I am currently on a Vodafone $79 cap. I love Vodafone 90% of the time. Their My Vodafone website sux, their new business plans are terrible, and their timed internet connection is not so great, but their network, service and billing is generally great.
For $79 I get $550 worth of calls and 100 free text messages a month. The $550 value includes all calls, national and international text messages (great for twitter) and internet charged at $1 per 5 mins. The $1 per 5 mins is the only part of that package that sux, because I hate restricting the time I’m online for. Thankfully however, the new Vodafone Internet Cap Plans are available and I can get 400mb included in my $79 cap plan. I think 400mb should be ok.
I recently tried a Palm Treo Pro for two weeks courtesy of the excellent promotion from Palm called Trial a Treo (I wish all manufacturers did this, because I want to trial a Blackberry Bold, a HTC Touch Pro and an N96 – even if it was for a few days only). The Treo for me was a love / hate relationship. There were things I loved about it and things I absolutely hated and the qwerty keyboard was one of the things I hated. The Treo is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device – now some of the things that I love and hate about it may be related to WinMo and some may be related to the device, but as it’s the first WinMo device I’ve trialled for any length of time, I just don’t know which is which, but here are some other things to love / hate about the Treo:
Love
  • The size and feel of the device
  • The touch screen (but I’m still not convinced I could go for a full touch screen like the iPhone, Omnia, or Blackberry Storm)
Hate
  • The Alarm – who’s stupid idea was it to have an alarm that beeps 3 times then turns off! My God! How is that ever going to wake anyone up! Thankfully I downloaded G-Alarm which does the job.
  • The phone just turning off in the middle of about 1/3rd of my calls.
  • When holding the phone up to my ear my face opens up multiple apps whilst being on the phone – yes you can disable the touch screen whilst being on a call, but then you can’t use the speakerphone at all – WTF! who’s brilliant idea was that?
  • The connection manager – the first day I had the Treo it connected to the internet and stayed connected for 2.5hrs before I realised. That is $30 pff my plan, and it only downloaded 2kb in that time! It also connected on it’s own at least 3 other times, even though I had turned off all auto connections. And it’s just too much of a pain to go into the connection manager to turn off the internet connection.
  • The keyboard – keys are too small and too slippery. I did try the other WinMo input methods but they are very slow. I tried using it with fingernails and thumb pad and either way didn’t work too well. The keys are too slipery for fingernails and too small for thumbs.
  • Wifi – as soon as the screen goes into sleep mode the Wifi turns off – again WTF! – can have an active Wifi connection without using it for a max of 1min!

Ok the hate list is getting too long and the love list is a bit light on. But when I got my old 6110 back again after using the Treo, it just felt right, and was easy to use, and did all the things I wanted it to do. So I guess I shall have to stick with a Nokia. I think my bad experience with the treo has turned me off WinMo devices for now.

I had a quick play with the blackberry bold and even though the keyboard was really nice to use, the trackball would drive me crazy. After just a few minutes of using it, I could feel that my wrist was not happy at all – damned RSI that flares up occasionally.

So I think the device of choice will be the Nokia N85. It has all the standard Nokia features that I love, most of the new things I want in a device and it’s around the same size as my Nokia 6110 (just a bit thinner). I was lucky to be able to test one out for a few minutes in Dubai. The main issues with the N85 are the following:

  • Very plasticy keys – worse than the 6110 – the N95 8GB has very good keys
  • OLED screen is aparently not good in bright sunlight
  • Some reported issues on the forums about call drop outs etc

The N85 is available in stores now, but unfortunately not with Vodafone yet. It’s in the Vodafone catalogue as “Coming Soon” but they can’t tell me when “Soon” is. Hopefully it will be before Xmas but it does not look likely at this stage.

However, I can’t talk mobile devices without mentioning the Jeebus phone and why I don’t want one. It’s mainly to do with the touch screen input, I just don’t like touch screens as the only input method. I *may* think about it for the next device when it has all the features that it’s currently missing, but the new Nokia N97 has been announced this week and depending on the reviews of that in the wild, it will be something to think about as the next device. And knowing how long Nokia devices take to get to us her in Australia, in store, it will be another 12 months anyway. So I think the N85 will be a good phone to have for the next 12 months.

All my old phones get recycled. The 6110 is going to my neice who wants a navigator phone, and will probably want a new phone within a few months. My previous 2 phones went to my mum. It’s good to be able to re-use them like this.

So Vodafone, please, get your act together and get the N85 in store this week! Please!

New Phone

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I still haven’t bought a new phone – still using my old Nokia 6230 and charging it every other day (since I can’t see the point in even buying a new battery for it). I am just so bored with the new phones that are out at the moment – the 6280 is too big and I don’t like the slide – the N70 and N91 just don’t appeal. I tried the Vodafone branded 6234 today and the buttons are far too small to be comfortable – what I want is a phone with the same easy to use buttons as the 6230, has a good camera and uses the Symbian Operating System with a Series 60 interface. It looks like I may have to wait for the E50 towards the end of the year – or maybe swap over to the sony erricson… but after my disaster with the Motorola, I’m still not convinced about changing brands. Do you have an opinion or suggestion on the newest range of phones available?

O-Sync Mobile Phone Synchronisation

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O-Sync finally works and it is fantastic. O-Sync is a FREE service that lets you Sync all your Mobile Phone contacts to their server automatically over-the-air, as a backup. It uses SyncML technology that is built into most newer mobiles.
I first found this service reviewed on iMobile.com.au and thought it sounded good, but it never worked on my Nokia 6230 so I sent the support team a message back in November. They said there was a problem with some of the Nokia phones. Since then I had tried it on a Sony Erricson, my Motoral PEBL and a newer Nokia that should have worked – none of them worked. But to my surprise I received an email from O-Sync the other day asking me to try again as they had upgraded the service – it worked!!!! YEAH.

This is a great service and it’s free and you can’t ask for better support than I have received from them. I highly recommend it.

Mobile Phone Woes

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A bit of a rant about my mobile. I have a Nokia 6230 which I’ve had for over 1 year now. I’m desperate to get a new one because it’s now not the latest and greatest gadget – it’s been superseded by the 6230i and everyone has one. I don’t feel like I’m ahead of the pack now…

So, a few months ago, upon listening to Richard Giles talking to Ignacio, the chief designer at Motorola on the Gadget Lounge (Podcast Link here), I fell in love with the PEBL and immediately got onto Ebay and bought an import (I still haven’t found it in the stores here). I thought it would be the best phone ever – so beautiful and functional, and a bit feminine – not a blokes phone at all. I thought I could handle the reduced functionality from my 6230 because I don’t use a lot of the features like the MP3 player etc. Boy, was I wrong…

Unfortunately I think coming from a Nokia, you’re stuck with a Nokia, and similarly with other brands. Once you are used to an operating system of a phone I think you’re stuck with it – good or bad. I just could not get used to the Motorola and even though I absolutely loved the look and feel of the PEBL, the operating system is a dog!! So, after two weeks of using it, I put it back in it’s box and went back to my old 6230 – maybe I will try and sell it again on eBay.

Here is a few things I loved* and hated about the PEBL

Loved

  • The beautiful shape – it felt great to hold it
  • The touchy feely cover
  • The active flip – it flips open with the touch of one finger
  • The size and weight
  • The outside screen

Hated

  • Not polyphonic ring tones – I didn’t think that would bother me but they were very ordinary
  • The Screen Quality
  • Difficult to get to the calendar – I’m so used to it on the Nokia that I could not get used to it on the Motorola and the Calendar is my most used feature of my phone – I don’t keep a diary other than in my phone.
  • Predictive Text Input hard to use – one of those things that you would probably like if you were a Motorola user, but I was far too slow with it.
  • Really bad battery life – I really had to charge it every day becuase it had a habit of cutting off calls if the battery was low

I could go on for ages listing the bad stuff… but it was a lesson for me. I will not buy another phone now until I can see something that is really vastly improved from my 6230 – and I can’t even see that the new Nokia’s have anything that fantastic in them. Of course I would love a HTC Wizard but they are a bit bulky and a bit blokey – I still like to have a phone with a bit of a girly touch (I have a diamante J attached to my 6230 to give it a bit more of the feminine touch).

Anyway, I would love some feedback – do you have a phone that you can suggest as the perfect phone – great looks, great to hold and fantastic functionality? Please let me know… I don’t know how long I can hold out before I have to have another gadget fix…

* You may notice in my rantings that I either “Love” or “Hate” – there is usually no middle ground on things that I am passionate about… unless of course I just don’t care…