The Glade 4.0

Any word on being able to use Google Voice over SIP (Gizmo5) yet? Would love a straight up VOIP option, but I imagine the mobile providers are clinging for all they're worth to their voice plans.

Heh my wife and I have 700 shared minutes a month on the plan we have, and barely use any of them... I haven't even looked into VOIP.

MINE!!! hehe /tease

I'll let you play with it though

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Holy shitsnacks!

Yeah that's what bugs me about voice plans - we hardly use ours either. We both have Google Voice numbers, and both route those to our cellphones. If we could just have a "phone" that had a data plan, and software to receive and place calls, we wouldn't need a voice plan at all. Good luck convincing AT&T or Verizon of the merits of that idea though. We're not "heavy" users of either voice or data plans; I'd rather simplify and have a single thing I'm under-utilizing instead of two plans.

Since I got my Droid and the requisite data plan, I have been beating it up. I don't like talking on the phone due to a history of helpdesk jobs. A ringing phone is something to loathe, fear, and, ultimately, ignore.

Not if its the old CTU phone ring tone! Then you feel like you're about to get some important intel to help Jack Bauer knee-cap a terrorist baby sitter who's smuggling nukes in her bra.

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The Dude abides.

gblocker.

Its awesome.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I recently got an android phone. I was debating between the Eris and the Motorola Droid. Ultimately, it can down to the one thing that I gotta have: Turn by Turn Google Maps Navigation (free drive-by-direction GPS... but includes street level view with your route highlighted a'la google maps). Only android OS version 2.0 or higher has this, and Motorola Droid is the only one that has it. However.... HTC has said the Eris will receive version 2.0 in the first quarter of this year. The Eris only cost me 30 dollars out of pocket, the droid would have cost 150.

I went with the Eris.

I am really digging it.

Another really great App is "Tunewiki." It interfaces with Shoutcast (a great, free, internet radio site) so you have a ton of music to listen to by genre. But, the even cooler thing about it: 1. It is a better MP3 manager than the default music player. 2. It will do a search for song lyrics for all of the songs being streamed AS WELL as your mp3 songs on your phone. On top of that, most songs that have lyrics also have the correct timing, so the line of lyrics will light up as the singer is singing it. (you can choose not to display lyrics as well)

The other app I use with great frequency is Mobile Banking, as it allows me to view my accounts even quicker than it would take to log in and load on their main website.


The other really nice thing I like about the droid is the google voice search and the google maps voice search. Say out loud, "local indian restaurants" and Blip, blip, blip, you are shown all of the indian restaurants around where your phone is currently located, with the closest being shown first (even cooler when integrated with turn by turn gps navigation). Want to do a google search without typing? Say aloud, "The Ranger's Glade" and bam. I have been pretty impressed with it's speech recognition, I thought for sure it wouldn't get "Satriani." But I was wrong.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

My G1 was able to download and use the version of Google Maps that has Google Navigation. It's pretty cool, though it burns through my battery like crazy.

Note: the G1 is running Android 1.6.

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Now if only they would get bluetooth voice dialing functionality added, I'd be all set.

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The Dude abides.

I'm still puzzled as to why it doesn't have it.

For the most part though, I've been pretty pleased with the device.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Another great App: "Settings Profile."

How would you like your phone to change it's configuration and settings based on a whole slew of conditional modifiers? Let's say that, when you're at work (specifically at the location of your workplace) you want your phone's ringer to be silent but still get notification sounds.... unless your spouse is calling, then it's ok to ring her through? You can do that.

Let's say that when you're at home (and only when you're at home), you want all sounds on unless it's when you're asleep. You can do that.

Let's say you're asleep at home but you do want to get notification sounds when it meets certain criteria (keywords, etc.). You can do that.


Tons of functionality and it can base your location off of gps, cell towers, and wifi networks you are connected to.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

That sounds a lot like Locale.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I was reading that Locale seems to keep turning people's WiFi on and off. I'm curious if they fixed that.

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The Dude abides.

Yeh. That's what I read in the comments on Locale as well.

If that gets fixed, I'll be more inclined to play with it

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Holy shitsnacks!

Locale was the first app I was looking at to do what I wanted it to do.

However, based on all the recent comments and reviews, it's apparently quite buggy in it's current state. I did not want to shell out 10 bucks for something that wasn't currently working.

Settings Profile does the same thing as Locale, but for less than one-third the cost. I am not sure about Locale, but SP also lets you have multiple profiles that overlap with each other as well as set multiple conditions to a single ruleset.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

I don't see Settings Profile on the market. Is that what's its really called?

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The Dude abides.

Got my plurals wrong. It's "Setting Profiles." There is a lite (free) version of it that allows you to create only one profile.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Went to the V store today. Trying to force them to let me upgrade both my phones early. I think I'd like a droid but I'm concerned that it is just too darn big. Does it fit well in a pocket? I am quite anti belt holster.

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

Advanced Task Killer Free - this is a must for maintaining battery life. Too many apps don't shut down when you go to the Home screen. This will let you do that.

I had a Moto Q awhile back and it would never kill apps and always crush the battery. Is it so bad on a Droid that this app is needed?

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

Advanced Task Killer isn't *necessary* but it is helpful. Its more for performance than battery life.

As for fitting in a pocket, I've not had any issues. Holsters are more douchey than bluetooths. :p

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Holy shitsnacks!

No issues putting it in the pocket. Fits just fine.

By the way, Setting Profiles broke for me on the last update. Some of my rules no longer work and its pissing me off.

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The Dude abides.

My wife and I basically threatened to pay to break our contract with Verizon if they didn't bump my upgrade schedule, they were more than willing to play ball once I dropped the iPhone bomb.

I have both Task Killer and Advanced Task Killer, I usually use Task Killer though.

As a bluetoothing holsterer, that ! button is calling me... =P

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko