[MamaBee]

May I join you in your android excitement? Mine is on the UPS truck as we speak. LOL! I am so excited...I did a ton of my housework yesterday so I can play today.

[garbagefairy1967]

Are you on twitter? There is a bunch of great gals that know alot about android, they have helped me tons! I'll add you and try to help point you in their direction! =]

[Chrisy]

That's a cool resource, garbage! Thanks.
Yes, I don't have my Android yet but I'm excited, MamaBee.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[GG1]

A little off topic but its nice to see so many people switching to the Android family.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[lssanjose]

A little off topic but its nice to see so many people switching to the Android family.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Agreed. Even if some decidedly go back to the platform they used before, at least they can make the critique based on the grounds they've used Android before.

[GG1]

Agreed. Even if some decidedly go back to the platform they used before, at least they can make the critique based on the grounds they've used Android before.

True. So many people criticize other platforms without even trying them out. Android must be doing something right though, so many people switching over or are considering it.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[lssanjose]

True. So many people criticize other platforms without even trying them out. Android must be doing something right though, so many people switching over or are considering it.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

It's good marketing - or shall I say, a dominant marketing presence (especially Verizon). The other half is, the product can sell itself.

[Wildo6882]

OP:

I was in the same boat when switching over to Android. I had to research and figure things out so I wouldn't be lost when I got mine. Don't get me wrong, I dove in head first, but it was good to have some knowledge up front. AndroidCentral is really good for info., and I've found some really good advice from a lot of people in there.

I've come to learn that I love Android, but I still love BlackBerry, too. The browsing experience is great on Android, and the customization is huge, but sometimes I want to go back to BB (which I may because I have a 9650, too) - I think this is because I'm a little on the OCD side. I like everything to look the same, and not everything on Android has the same user interface, plus the sound profiles on BB are AWESOME, and Android has only downloadable ones (that you need to pay for, most of the time) that come close, but still aren't quite the same. These are my main issues with it, but they aren't deal breakers.

I would suggest looking for an X on the cheap if you can, then look to flip it when the Bionic comes out. That will most likely be my next phone, too. Unless these new BBs blow me away when I see them up close and personal (assuming VZW gets them).

Let me know if you have any other questions, comments, complaints, issues about the BB --> Android switch.

Edit: if you want, I can be reached at [email protected]

[Xopher]

I made the switch last month (9630 to Samsung Mesmerize) and I love it. There is just so many things that you can configure, it was a little bit of a learning curve after four years of BB devices. I love having widgets to give a personal look to the screens. Some of the apps I ended up using to make my transition easier:

• noLED: The SGS doesn't have a notification LED, so I added noLED. I have it set to only show alerts for 30 minutes, and turned off at night (to help conserve battery). But, just like my BB, notifications are usually not sitting on my device for very long...
• Quick Profiles: So I can change sound profile settings quickly.
• Bedside: Adds bedside mode to Android. I have it set to turn off the screen after 10 minutes (save battery and not burn in the clock image). I just have to touch the screen and the clock reappears.
• CallTrack: I was using AddOnIs to log all of my phone calls to the calendar. CallTrack does the same thing.
• TalkNotes: One of the things I did on my BB was take notes during phone calls. The notes would automatically be added to the BB call log. TalkNotes lets me do the same thing.

I was a big BBM user. I miss all the BBM groups I belonged to, but I still chat with lots of my friends. Between Kik, LiveProfile, PingChat, GoogleTalk, AIM, WLM, YM and FB Chat, I'm still a social chatting junkie. Kik, LiveProfile, and PingChat have the S/D/R notifications, so they are all similar to BBM. And now I have Fring and Tango for video chatting!

[lssanjose]

How's that Tango working out, Xopher? Both people need it, I assume.

[Xopher]

Yup. Both people need Tango. It has better video quality than Fring (but Fring can video chat with Yahoo Messenger), at least that is my experience over wifi.

Of course, my Galaxy S (Mesmerize) doesn't have a front-facing camera, so I had to get one of these:

http://vainworks.com/

[lssanjose]

Nice!!!!!!

[ThaGeNeCySt]

Did they fix that Tango issue where it constantly ran in the background?

[Xopher]

Only thing I see is Tango running as a service after launching it. So, if someone contacts me, it will notify me. Other than that, it's not running as an application, and battery usage is 0%.

The only time I fire up Tango is when I know I am going to have a video conversation with someone. I keep a pretty good eye on running apps, services and such.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

Cool... when I first had it.. it refused to close... and my phone would heat up like mad. I guess i'll give Tango another shot

[Tre Lawrence]

No one uses ooVoo for video chat?

[lssanjose]

No one uses ooVoo for video chat?

I think when I last checked, it was mac/windows only. There's an Android client around? I'll definitely check it out. I remember a friend of mine saying it outdoes skype in someway. Something about its conferencing features in contrast against Skype.

[Tre Lawrence]

Yes, the Android client is pretty good. It can do Android to Android and Android to PC.

[Chrisy]

I spent 3 hours playing with a friends Droid X today. I'm sold. I love the way it's set up. Email was fast (I use gmail) and the screen and messaging are amazing. I don't see why BlackBerry only fans say that BlackBerry is the best for "communication." Oh, and the Droid outlasted my BlackBerry battery today!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[hootyhoo]

I spent 3 hours playing with a friends Droid X today. I'm sold. I love the way it's set up. Email was fast (I use gmail) and the screen and messaging are amazing. I don't see why BlackBerry only fans say that BlackBerry is the best for "communication." Oh, and the Droid outlasted my BlackBerry battery today!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I've had mine for a few days now and I'm liking it better and better. I think I'm getting the hang of customizing the widgets and screens. It makes the experience even better.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Tre Lawrence]

I think the term "best" sometimes means "most familiar option" a lot of times.

[lssanjose]

*sniff* these testimonials are all so beautiful....

[Chrisy]

I made the switch last month (9630 to Samsung Mesmerize) and I love it. There is just so many things that you can configure, it was a little bit of a learning curve after four years of BB devices. I love having widgets to give a personal look to the screens. Some of the apps I ended up using to make my transition easier:

• noLED: The SGS doesn't have a notification LED, so I added noLED. I have it set to only show alerts for 30 minutes, and turned off at night (to help conserve battery). But, just like my BB, notifications are usually not sitting on my device for very long...
• Quick Profiles: So I can change sound profile settings quickly.
• Bedside: Adds bedside mode to Android. I have it set to turn off the screen after 10 minutes (save battery and not burn in the clock image). I just have to touch the screen and the clock reappears.
• CallTrack: I was using AddOnIs to log all of my phone calls to the calendar. CallTrack does the same thing.
• TalkNotes: One of the things I did on my BB was take notes during phone calls. The notes would automatically be added to the BB call log. TalkNotes lets me do the same thing.

I was a big BBM user. I miss all the BBM groups I belonged to, but I still chat with lots of my friends. Between Kik, LiveProfile, PingChat, GoogleTalk, AIM, WLM, YM and FB Chat, I'm still a social chatting junkie. Kik, LiveProfile, and PingChat have the S/D/R notifications, so they are all similar to BBM. And now I have Fring and Tango for video chatting!

Thanks for this list. On AndroidCentral there is a thread with some BlackBerry/Android parallel apps that's also good. I have 15 apps on my BlackBerry that I'd like to have on my Android so it's helpful to know that for every BlackBerry app there is the same on Android.

Parallel apps for Droid and BlackBerry?



Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Xopher]

Yup... The "Xopher" on that thread is me...

[Tre Lawrence]

Yup... The "Xopher" on that thread is me...

Namesake is me as well...