April 2, 2010

I just realized that I have had the phone almost 30 days (I bought it March 6, 2010). It is a kind of point of no return. I am sticking with the phone and am liking it.

Google Synchronization Just Works

The synchronization with gmail contacts and Google Calendar works great and was the biggest reason I wanted the phone and it works great for me.

I have almost 400 contacts in my gmail contact list.

I am syncing with four calendars on Google, one work, one family, and two that are schedules for sports teams. The work and family calendars are needed, the sports calendars are for fun.

Text Messaging

I have been using Handcent for text messaging almost since I got the phone. It does exactly what I need it to do and has options for almost everything.

E-Mail

The default gmail account comes with push e-mail. I started using K9 Mail about two weeks ago and have push e-mail for my other e-mail accounts.

K9 allows you to set polling intervals for each account if you need/want to poll your e-mail servers instaed of using push.

Home Replacement Apps

Still using the default home application. The phone just seems to run better with it than with the available alternatives.

dxTop comes the closest (for me) to being suitable for everyday use.

Panda Home is the most interesting. With the six available slide out app trays it offers I had it configured for a single home screen (no scrolling to find something) and with shortcuts in trays that were just a tap from opening. It just seemed to slow down the phone a bit.

Virtual Keyboard

I have settled on SlideIt as my virtual keyboard. If you haven't checked out one of the newer keyboards where you 'type' by sliding your finger over the keys you should.

Bluetooth

This is not new technology. I just can't understand how even in Android there was not (and still isn't) a full fledged implementation of bluetooth features. Voice dialing with a bluetooth headset - doesn't work, last call redial by long pressing the headset button - doesn't work, and at times the phone's bluetooth just seems confused. I had to reset the phone because it would connect to my vehicles bluetooth enable radio but music played from the phone's speakers (and would not shut off during a call) while call functions went through the radio.

The phone and my radio had worked fine together for almost two weeks and then it went weird on me. Resetting the phone fixed the issues, but come on somebody fix the bluetooth issues with Android and don't make us wait for Android 3.xxx and have to buy a new phone to get the fixes!

I know that Motorola knows how to do bluetooth because it worked great on my Moto V551, which was three phones ago.

AT&T - Free Bloat

Quit loading the BS pay per month apps on your phones. Make them optional for those who want them. I pay more than reasonable monthly fees, give me some freedom to use the phone as I want without wasting space on stuff I don't. Put your apps for Android in the market, if they are good you'll be able to sell your services not only to AT&T customers, but to Android owners on other networks.

Search Widget

I read that AT&T wanted to give their customers choice and that is one of the reasons the backflip has yahoo search.

It isn't choice if I am locked in to a preset search provider. AT&T and Google - where's the widget that has a setting for the user's preferred search engine?

Conclusion

I like the phone, I am keeping the phone. Just like everyone else who bought a Backflip I want the little nagging stuff fixed (camera issues, bluetooth, sync issues). I want Android 2.1 yesterday. The Backflip is imperfect, just like every other cell phone I have ever owned.

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