I expected some learning curve and a little bit of "What the..", "Stupid", "What were these people thinking" reactions. Just need to remind myself, think NOT how iPhone works here.
My requirement were simple:
1) able to sync my contacts automatically
2) able to sync my calendar entries from my Apple's iCal automatically to the Android phone and to my iPhone
3) use my regular apps such as: Chinese-English translation, Skype, etc...
4) new apps using a 3G SIM card - Maps, "locate me", emails, "help me find..."
5) texting, prediction typing
6) able to use bluetooth to download pics and videos taken from the phone
7) subscribe and listen to my podcasts
8) ringtones
This is a big list. So I will chunk it up to several blog posts.
Start with the simplest one: Ringtones. The default ones came with the phone suck with all caps! Why? There's no normal tones. All in some "alien" music to me. I need to create my own or download from somewhere, copy it to the external micro-SD card and then load them to the phone. Great no problem. I can pair my MBA w/ the Galaxy no problem. The real issue comes that the MBA cannot see any of the files stored on the micro-SD card via Bluetooth. I need to take the card out of the phone, put it to a regular size SD card adapter and then insert it to the SD card slot of my MBA. O... look at that.. Everything shows up! Dumb!!!! Yes, Bluetooth pairing. It's BLUE in your face and you still not getting anywhere. Tooth, it gives you a toothache trying to get files out.... If I were to send a file from my MBA to the Galaxy phone, it worked but still not able to see the files in the Bluetooth file browser. Figure that out.
Contact syncing.... Yes, works great if you put all your Contact information to the "Cloud". That is, Google's online Cantact that is part of your Gmail. I am sure I want to do that as my Contact info also contains other personal information. Once "released" to the Cloud, anyone can get to it. And I don't care what the company said. So in order for me to transfer all my contacts over, from my MBA I need to export all of them as Vcards. Then Bluetooth paired the phone, copy this Vcard file over to the phone and then import them to the phone's Contact. Worked fine except my customized types could not be used. Now I have phone numbers labeled like "Singapore phone", "China phone", etc... are all labeled as "Home". Needless to say, a bit "What the F^*()..." happened.
Calendar syncing... With iPhone, I can use the cord came w/ connecting to the phone and the computer. Via iTune. That's safe as my own personal info goes from my computer to the phone through this little white wire. With Google, it's the Cloud baby. I need to sync it via 3G connection or Wi-Fi access from the phone. I enter my info either from the Google Calendar online or create a CalDev connection from my iCal. Why I am paranoid about syncing to the Cloud? Because the information is out there and someone can get to it. You are trusting the other side to make sure your information is private. You give away your privacy for a little of convenient. I don't. I take the paranoid approach. For me to sync then? From the iCal, I need to create double-entries for each event I want to appear on my iPhone and Android. One for the computer itself or syncing and one for the CalDev for Google Calendar. This is the absolute free way. Of course, I can buy Missing Sync to sync. But, I need to worry about the compatible version between this Missing Sync software and the Android phone's firmware version. I am tied to other people's capability for my needs. Restrictive... No way.
Now, how do you suppose a normal person just want to use the phone and the computer calendar and contact with different platforms feels? I don't know.
Subscribe and listen to my podcasts are easy. I went to the Android's Market place and downloaded a program called BeyondPodcast. Worked like a charm. The only problem... yes... Need to get a website from the web-browser to get to a podcast link. Or you can just type in the entire podcast URL to subscribe. Too techie......
Translation app, I still cannot find one that was as easy as my iPhone one. The search from the Android Market gives back lots of "garbage". If I can't find what I want in less than 30 seconds, I have no patient for it. And I consider it to be a a BIG zero for me.
Let say, I had to do a lot of Googling to find what I need to do with "normal" operations of a phone. Time consuming..... So far, my impression is: I am wasting time to get myself up and running on this Android platform. I can do better with only two iPhones. One for travel SIMs and one for my roaming China mobile. But that's not good either as the new iPhone 4 and beyond will have smaller and smaller SiM card sizes. My local SIMs from different countries are regular sizes..... Hence I was looking at phone options for travel.
O yeah, one annoying thing about this Android phone OR can be a good thing was: after the battery was removed and reattached to the phone, the Gmail passwords for all my various accounts were gone! I had to re-enter every single one of them. Was a non-documented feature. I have to remember too many little gritty things about this phone so I can use it. I should get a degree with it.
To lock this phone, there is no delay settings from the Galaxy or any other Android phones! iPhone has its so I can stay online before it locks itself. Android does not have this feature. Read an article last night that I can purchase an App to do that for about 2.99. "What the f&%*^(...".
The really good thing for this Android phone is it renders Adobe Flash straight from the web browser. I can look at any website online unlike the iPhone. And also the Maps and its "locate" feature using GPS. So convenient to be able to locate where I was and then say "find me this and that". That was so good.... so plugged in.
Typing... yes. I could only switch between two keyboards. I couldn't do English, pinyin Chinese and handwriting Chinese. Annoying.... And the keyboard switching option so stupid and dumb. I had to think reverse. When the option said "ENG", this meant I was in Chinese keyboard mode. When it said "中文", it meant I was in English mode. Huh? The Swype keyboard was the only one that could do English prediction word that I was aware of. Really! The Swype supposed to be convenient to type. Basically you swipe from letter to letter, the software will predict the word for you giving you a selection. Great idea. I had to learn how to do strokes so I can use it. And the prediction never work for me no matter if I clicked on the correct letter to start! O yeah, that's the only typing software English prediction was provided. Huh? If there were another one that had, I failed to find it anywhere.
Basically is down to this: Can I put up w/ the Geekiness vs userbility factor? So far, I am leaning toward the not my phone scenario until I see what changes come with the new iCloud. This fruity company is not known to have good Internet-based technology. And security wise is pretty p0000r. If new fruity devices force me to put all my personal stuff on the Cloud for "Convenience", I am switching. I might have to end up writing something for myself to use. ...... Wind0w$ m0---bile phones, what's that?
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