On all of the android phones that I have used, I have been able to simply glance at the lock screen to see if I had any messages or alerts. Very nice. On my iPhone I have to unlock the screen to check for anything new. This was the main reason that I checked out jailbreaking a while back; the things that you could do with the lock screen were nice, but I decided that I would rather not be jailbroken so I went back to stock. Better use of the lock screen would make the iPhone more convenient.

For overall notifications I like the way that android handles things via the notification bar at the top of the screen instead of how they just popup on the iPhone and overwrite each other for things like calls, texts, etc.

These are a couple of the things that I would like to see improved in a future version of iOS but I won’t hold my breath.

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Shared entirely because I like the use of the term “Surrender Monkey.” 

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Posted via email from blindsquirrel’s posterous

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The good:

• The battery life is amazing
• The size and weight work out really well
• The screen is beautiful, sharp, and bright
• The on screen keyboard is way better than I better than I expected
• Apps written for the iPad look very nice

The other:

• No wireless sync, so you have to activate and occasionally connect to a computer.  This is why I said “mostly” above.  You still need a computer to activate.
• The screen is a magnet for finger prints. The good news is you only see them when the screen is off or dark.
• iBooks has set the standard for how to turn a page. Now go make that work for the built in calendar and contacts applications. All developers should implement this, I don’t want to hit a next button to turn a page again.
• No alarm. I know, I complained about this before, but it really makes no sense that this is not included with this thing. I know there are third party alarms available, but you have to have them running (which I do) but if that alarm app crashes for unknown reasons overnight you are going to be late for work. Trust me, I speak from experience on this one.
• I still want a customizable home screen so that I can display a clock with an alarm, the current weather, the forecast, and maybe a news feed or 2. Call it nightstand mode.  Is that so much to ask?

Overall I do enjoy using the iPad. As someone who has been in the IT field for almost 26 years I did not think this was going to work for me. But I was wrong and the iPad has worked out just fine. But, and here is the important part, I still ace access to another computer if i need to access a little heavier lifting, like Skype. Other than that I am full time iPad. I think my next move is the 3G model so I can stop using the Verizon mifi when away from wifi, but you can’t find one anywhere.

It’s funny, but giving my MacBook Pro to my wife was a huge upgrade from her older G4 PowerBook, so she was immediately happy with the additional performance. But guess what she reaches for when she wants to use a computer? Correct, the same thing my youngest daughter reaches for, my iPad. I think the wireless thin client – I mean, the wireless tablet – I mean, the wireless iPad, could push the whole “home server” market a little further, but the safer bet is probably that the iPad makes for an excellent thin client for cloud computer.

The part I don’t get is why I still need to dock at all. Why can’t I wirelessly sync with the main computer in the house? If I could do that I don’t think I would really need more. I can see a future where we just have the main computer (an iMac in this case) acting as a “server” and the rest would just be iPads as thin clients. Make it so that the iMac doesn’t need to have someone logged in to sync or access their data and it is all the better.

Access is the second issue. Why can’t I just use the content on that iMac without syncing? You already let me do this with the AppleTV so why not with the iPad? So close to making this work for everything that I need but those 2 items are kind of big for me.

Until then this remains what it is – a really nice iPod Touch with a beautiful screen and fantastic performance. We are so close here Apple, but I’m sure you already know that and are holding back these functions for some non-technical reason. And yes, I did post this with the WordPress app for the iPad, so I guess I do still occasionally create after all.

One more thing. Would it really kill you to include a simple alarm clock function? Sure I can get third party apps for that but they have to run in the foreground to work and I don’t want to have to do that. With the dock this thing is perfect for the nightstand but I want it to function as an alarm clock as well. Give me that and I won’t give you a hard time about the lack of calculator. ;p

I’ll set a few of the basics here in the beginning: I have an iPhone 3G (not 3Gs) with over 120 apps of which I probably use 15-20 or so often. I love the thing and use it probably 90% of the time and use my laptop the other 10%.

Right now I have 2 different phones in front of me; the iPhone 3G for personal use, and the Droid that I am testing for work. You definitely don’t have to love Apple or even like them a little, but without the iPhone I doubt we would have seen anything like the Droid for a long time. The Blackberry Curve would still be one of the sexiest phones out there, and that’s not saying much.

Google has really done a nice job with the Android 2.0 operating system. I never used any of the earlier versions, but the Droid comes with 2.0 and I am really impressed. If there is anything that I am not too impressed with when it comes to the Droid it is the hardware itself. Maybe I am just spoiled by (or really used to) the way the iPhone feels when you hold it, but the Droid it a little to square for my taste. I would like to see rounder edges, like the iPhone, but that it just me. I am also not a fan of the slide out keyboard, which is probably what most of you will end up liking the Droid for. I get spoiled by the on screen keyboard on the iPhone and the on screen Droid keyboard works just as well in my opinion. If anything, I found that I made more typos on the on screen Droid keyboard, but the Droid does a better job of suggesting words as you type. I am sure that I would get better with it as I spent more time with it. So Google operating system = excellent, Motorola hardware, stuck in the past.

As an iPhone user you never think that there is anything wrong with the screen – it is beautiful – until you put it next to the Droid. The screen on the Droid is higher resolution and the text is really smooth. Once you see the Droid you realize that Apple really needs to move to a better screen in their next gen phone. The Droid also had better sound to me than the iPhone. I have always felt that the built in speakers on the iPhone were weak and the Droid just basically solidified that for me. Neither are fantastic but the Droid sounds much better to me.

The Droid’s camera is 5MP and the iPhone 3G is something like 2MP I think. Since my 3G doesn’t have the autofocus capabilities of the newer 3Gs it is probably not a fair fight, but the camera on the Droid took decent pictures for me when I tried it out. They still don’t seem as nice as the ones from my cheap Canon camera, but they were not too bad. Oh, and the Droid’s camera has a flash as well, so you can take a picture in your pitch black walk in closet and have it turn out like it was taken during the middle of the day with the sun sining. Really impressive.

The Droid comes with a free navigation app that I used over the weekend. It worked fine. I even took a few wrong turns to see how it would react and the Droid recalculated the route quickly and talked me through the route with turn by turn spoken directions. Not as nice of an app as my Garmin but if I didn’t already have the Garmin I would not have a need for one after getting the Droid.

Unfortunately I will not be able to recommend the Droid for work as it does not fully support the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol to connect securely to our Exchange environment, but that was pretty much one of the only negatives that I could find. Remember, the Droid runs version 2.0 so I would expect that we will see some updates addressing the bugs pretty soon. I have heard 12/11 could be one such software update. Oh, and this thing has more ringtones than any other phone that I have used. It was also extremely easy to make any of my music a ringtone as well. Play the song and hit the button to make it your ringtone. Done.

But the strength of the iPhone is its ecosystem – the app store being a huge part of it. “There is an app for that.” Well, the iTunes App Store has over 100,000 apps now, but let’s be honest, how many are actually any good, or useful? For the consumer that is in to the social media thing, they care about a good phone with email, calendar, IM, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Well, a quick look through the Android Market place, which is just a button on the Droid interface, and I found free apps for everything that I just listed and way more. Even found a really nice barcode reader (Shopsavvy) that scanned barcodes and told me where to find the item the cheapest online or near where I was. Location based services is the future baby.

Google has really done a great job with the operating system and Verizon has always been a pretty strong network. I found that the Droid was really quick on the internet using the Verizon EVDO (3G) network and the Droid was able to take advantage of the WiFi in my house for testing as well. I found that the battery life was a little lower than I would like, but some of that may because I can’t put the stupid thing down and I just keep playing with it. Since I have no need for the slide out keyboard I would really like to see an Android 2.0 based device with just an on screen keyboard. That would allow the device to be a little thinner as well. Again, most of you will probably like the slide out keyboard, but the keys were too flat for me – the on screen worked just fine.

So would I recommend the Droid to my friends? Well, let’s look at it like this – the Droid is not an iPhone – I am not going to switch. But, if you have wanted something like an iPhone that has tons of applications, decent sound, WiFi, a beautiful screen, free turn by turn navigation, a real keyboard, is fast, and it runs on the Verizon network – do it. If not the Droid then whatever comes next running Android 2.x. So, yes, I would recommend it to my friends that want to stay with Verizon.

Google is really going to shake up the mobile market. Setting up this phone, since I use gmail, could not have been easier. This should have most of the mobile OS providers more than a little worried. How can a Microsoft or a Nokia sustain their internal development when Google provides something this strong as an open source OS? Does anyone other than Android, Apple, and Blackberry survive?

Additional thoughts:

• One thing I was not able to resolve with the Droid that seemed so simple was that I could not sort my Contacts by last name, first name.  They were always first last.  I prefer them sorted by last name. -1 for Droid.
• The Droid has a removable battery. +1 Droid.
• You can expand the storage on the Droid.  It comes with a 16GB SD memory card but I believe you can use a 32GB card.  +1 Droid.
• Did I even mention the Droid multitasks?  I think this one should get a plus rating but I am sure the tradeoff has to be battery life, so this one will depend on how you choose to use your Droid, but since you at least have the choice I am going to give the Droid +1 here.
• I didn’t even mention the Droid’s default notification sound that goes “Drooooooiiiiiiid.”  I bet it could get old after a while, but I never grew tired of it.  No points for the cool sound though, sorry.
• This one is pure personal preference, but the Blackberry has always had one thing that I wished the iPhone had and now I see that the Droid has it – I wish the iPhone had a LED display somewhere that told you that there was a notification.  The Droid and the Blackberries have a little light in the upper right hand corner that flashes when you have a notification.  Pretty nice when you don’t have your phone with you every second.  The blinking light tells you that you missed something.  I always wanted Apple to “borrow” that one from the Blackberry.  Nice to see that the Droid has taken care of that.

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