doubleTwist! Download the player onto your PC and the app onto your phone. The music player imports your music from iTunes and allows you to sync it to your phone. No hassle at all and it’s free.
Having an iPod Touch and an iPad I’m pretty familiar with iOS, and frankly you can have my Android when you pry it from my cold dead hands. I have yet to find something that iOS can do that my Android cannot. As far as apps, the Android Marketplace has over 100,000 apps and 80% of them are free. I’ve been able to find Android apps that are either the same as iOS apps or are a suitable replacement.
In terms of a provider, Verizon has better coverage, but on AT&T you can utilize voice and data at the same time. I personally would go with Verizon if I had to choose between the two.
There’s no reason to fear data problems on the Verizon network from sudden iPhone influx. Unlike AT&T, which got hit with the iPhone wave without any prior experience with heavy data-using smartphones on the network, Verizon already has millions of Android devices on the network.
That said, the big thing for me is: Do you want/need simultaneous voice and data? I find myself using data and voice at the same time fairly often - maybe 1 in 5 phone calls gives me a reason to use Maps or check email - and not being able to do that would be annoying.
Offsetting that is the desire for better coverage. I had Verizon phones for years before switching to AT&T for the iPhone, and the coverage was way better.
Regarding iPhone vs. Android vs. other… I have an iPhone. It’s a fabulous device. The “closed ecosystem” complaints may be valid, but bother me far less than the “fragmented ecosystem” problem of Android - there are multiple versions out there, meaning app makers must simultaneously support many versions of Android and many screen sizes. That’s annoying.
I’d been promising myself that I’d swap back to Verizon as soon as I could to get the better network, but non-simultaneity is enough of a problem that I’m waiting for the iPhone 5 to see what that’s like. I’m fortunate to have a legacy unlimited data contract on AT&T, so my best bet may be to stick with it.
You already have iPod Touches. That’s the best part of the iPhone, without the worst part of the iPhone (cost, contracts, spotty service).
This is what I have - an iPod touch and a prepaid cell phone that costs $16 per month, no contract. A small compromise since I don’t have constant internet availability, but with the Touch and WiFi it’s not a huge disadvantage.
With the minimal cost of a prepaid phone, you can at least try this combination for a few months at low cost to see if it works for you. If it does, great, if not then go get a iPhone or Droid.
Another vote for DoubleTwist. It’s great. At $4.99 I thought the price was a little steep, but it does exactly what it says. My wife now has her entire library of 642 songs and videos on her Incredible, less 6 songs that gave us DRM messages and wouldn’t copy over, but she’s looking into a resolution for those. The point is she no longer has to walk around with a second device for her music and can finally mothball her iPod Touch.
Another thing she loves about having her music on her Incredible, and what always annoyed her about the iPod, is she now has the option of listening to her music without headphones.
I have Verizon because it has the best coverage for my area. The screen on my old LG Chocolate sorta-dumb phone went out a few months ago and I decided to get with the 21st century and get a smart phone.
I didn’t want to spend much money in addition the the $30 internet plan you are going to have with any smart phone so I looked on line and saw that I could upgrade to the LG Ally Android for $50. But my wife says it’s better to talk to real people because they get incentives for sales.
So she called Verizon and when she was done we both had new LG Ally Androids for nothing, just the extra $30 plan. I think they are $300-400 phones.
I really like the screen resolution on the Ally and the keyboard has real buttons that make it easy to use. These are also the two features mentioned in reviews of the phone.
Update: I’ve had my Droid X for about two weeks now and am very pleased with it. Annoyed that there are several junk apps loaded on by Verizon that I cannot remove (some games and a Blockbuster app). I googled and found that apparently I’d have to roote the damn thing to get rid of them. Maybe if memory is a big pr
Rooting is easy. Download Super One Click, put the phone into debugging mode, connect to your computer, click “Root” and it’s done. Then download Uninstaller for Root from the market and get rid of that bloatware. I did it with my Galaxy S and it took about 30 seconds.
ETA: Do this at your own risk. I am not responsible for anything you do to your phone. You can check out XDA forums for specifics regarding your particular phone.
(reposting complete post, I hope…)Update: I’ve had my Droid X for about two weeks now and am very pleased with it. Annoyed that there are several junk apps loaded on by Verizon that I cannot remove (some games and a Blockbuster app). I googled and found that apparently I’d have to root the damn thing to get rid of them. Maybe if memory is a big problem (I see Cell Guy has posted some guidance on doing so) I’ll go for it. I need to check how much space those apps are using. There is some useful stuff like Ringdroid included, on the other hand I had to download the Bar Code Scanner app separately.
I even found a much better grocery shopping app, ToMarket, that pleased me far more than any other one out there. It has similar functionality to HandyShopper (if there are any former Palm users on the boards) and SplashShopper (which I used on the ipod) only much faster.
Typo Knig hasn’t had much of a chance to play with my Droid yet. We had popped into a store to look at them, and the display models were not behaving correctly; one was actually battery-dead and the other one I forget what was going on but it wasn’t acting right. So he wasn’t exactly eager to make the jump. So I ordered just one, for me, and have been learning how to use it and can help him through the learning curve (which was less steep than I’d feared).
BTW - if anyone didn’t know, Amazon has a new Android marketplace and they’re giving away a free app every day (that is normally paid). Some that have no interest for me, others that are pretty good e.g. Fruit Ninja. I was baffled by Talking Tomcat - can’t believe anyone would pay for that… it’s fun for about 10 minutes. Also, Amazon doesn’t have some apps that are available on the original Android Marketplace.
Plus if you buy something from Amazon, you can’t post a review on the Android page.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe It gives you greater flexibility for manipulating files and navigating things between the phone’s internal card and the SD card. After rooting I was able to modify things like sound files (to make the ring tone louder), etc.
One thing I want to do–if it becomes necessary because of memory space–is store apps on the SD card rather than the phone, and I think that becomes possible by way of routing, too.
When I look at the ‘manage applications’ setting, a number of the apps have the ability to be installed on the SD card already. Presumably some don’t, so rooting might be helpful there.
Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) has that ability built in. The only caveat is the application has to have that ability built in as well. If an app is able to be stored to the SD card it will automatically save to it when it is downloaded.
Mama Zappa, aside from getting rid of bloatware rooting the phone allows the user to install custom ROMs. I know that’s not a big deal to most people, but there is a subset of users who want the latest and greatest software before their providers send out updates. A good example of this is CyanogenMod, a custom made ROM based off of Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread). Rooting your phone also allows users to install themes and patches not available from the manufacturer.
Wondering why a blackberry–the Torch, perhaps–was not one of the options. While an Ipod Touch may make for a better “transition” phase, it also means a ton of overlapping between the two devices, that seems to make the Iphone questionable.
I have an Ipod classic and a BB Bold 9700. I love them; I desperately want buttons on my phone.
If you’re willing to root, you can run custom ROMs. I’m on Cognition now, which is a significant improvement over the stock ROM. Samsung and AT&T were very slow to release Android 2.2 on the Captivate, so I was able to get it way ahead of time too.
Rooting also allows some additional functionality for app backup and restore through Titanium Backup. There are some kernel tweaks that you can use if you’re rooted like BLN, which lights the bottom row of buttons when you have notifications (ala the Blackberry notification LED, but not as elegant) and the Voodoo performance tweaks. If you’re especially ambitious, you can even overclock the processor. I’m not brave enough to take that on, but it’s an option for rooted users.
Finally, rooting allows AT&T users to install the Amazon store. AT&T prohibits apps from any source other than the Android Market from being loaded. That means no downloading from a website and installing, no Amazon Market. If you root, you can go in and flip the flag to allow these apps. Cognition has it flipped by default. MZ is on Verizon so she doesn’t have to worry about crap like that, but it’s one of the main reasons I’m rooted.
First and foremost is the ability to use apps from alternate sources, as I mentioned. I think Cog is in beta for the Android 2.3 version, which I will pick up rather than waiting for Samsung and AT&T to get their act together.
Cognition makes a lot of little tweaks like removing the bloatware. The interface removes the Samsung customizations, which is cosmetic but nice. (Most Android sites seem to agree that all the interface tweaks from the manufacturers are steps backward, with the possible exception of the HTC modifications.) There are the Voodoo modifications and BLN. You can get those other places, but they require kernel modification. My understanding is that you can swap kernels without using a whole ROM, but I’m not that ambitious. Cog changes the way a long press on the power button works; the Cog version has a much longer list of options, including recovery mode. That’s what I can think of off the top of my head. My take is that it’s mostly risk free if you do it right (read: create a backup), and the upside is that you have an improved phone. The downside is that your apps will need to be reinstalled and configured. Make sure you have a nice lazy morning to do it.