[shimojunk]

I was quite content with my curve for 2+ years before it broke. No it wasn't the flashiest phone, wasn't speedy opening up the occasional web page if it could at all, google maps would give me an estimated location of where I was at and I would still be lost but always able to find where I was going, but I didn't want to upgrade my phone simply because it did everything I needed my phone to and it was configured exactly how I wanted it.

So the time has come where I have to either move to a Droid phone or to a Bold 9650. It's a very painful time in my life. A couple of things that I really liked about my BB were:

1. BB Smart Alarm Pro - especially the QUICK ALARM. I take a lot of naps and loved the fact I could quickly set alarm to wake me up in an hour or so with a few taps on the keypad. Also having multiple alarms for different days are nice since I like most people like to sleep in on the weekends.

2. Poynt app - hands down the best app for BB IMO

3. Quick profile changes - Like the fact that I could set my phone to only ring and get text messages when I was napping since as stated before I nap a lot.
Don't need facebook or emails interrupting my beauty sleep.

4. Facebook notifications came instantly to my BB.

Does the Droid have similar configurable features and/or are there apps that do similar things? Also, is there a widget or icon to directly access your mp3 player without drilling down a few levels to access it for the X and Incredible?

Thanks in advance

[kcmoberry]

well let me preface this by saying... android does come in many flavors. i will be speaking from an evo4g with htc's sense overlay perspective.

1. Yes. Tapping the big clock widget from sense.. launches access to your alarms and timers and stopwatch and deskclock functions. default alarms comes with 3 and you can add more. they each are highly configurable. if i wanted to build an alarm that went on at 2:30pm on monday and thursday. click click done. the timer is also very easy to use and can be made as short as 1 minute to 12 hours (and 59 minutes.. and 59 seconds if you want it that precise for whatever reason)

2. Poynt just recently released in the android market.

3. Overall, the rings/alerts are in need of improvement for customization, yes you can very quickly (via a widget on a home screen) go from silent/vibrate/normal for alerts. I havent found a way to seperate alerts easily for phone/text/email but there may be ways. hopefully someone else can answer that one.

4. I dont use facebook.. someone else will need to answer

yes there is pretty much every app you are used to on your bb available in some form or function on an android device.

note.. if you dont use gmail.. you'll probaly want to. best functionality in android comes with using gmail for push and sync and calenders in my non business orientated opinion.

[Shermanmanman]

1. BB Smart Alarm Pro - especially the QUICK ALARM. I take a lot of naps and loved the fact I could quickly set alarm to wake me up in an hour or so with a few taps on the keypad. Also having multiple alarms for different days are nice since I like most people like to sleep in on the weekends.
Yes. Its a standard alarm clock, like what you would see on any phone. There is a bit more configuration to it, but you can set quite a few alarms, and have them set to go off about any time you want. I checked the Market, and didn't find anything similar to BB.

2. Poynt app - hands down the best app for BB IMO
Its starting to roll out to the Market.

3. Quick profile changes - Like the fact that I could set my phone to only ring and get text messages when I was napping since as stated before I nap a lot.
Don't need facebook or emails interrupting my beauty sleep.
If you hold down the END (or lock) key on an android device, you can choose to silence the whole phone. In the options, you can choose to turn off notification ringtones, but this will also disable notifications for texts.

4. Facebook notifications came instantly to my BB.
So far, and its the biggest gripe of them all, but most notifications don't make it to your phone via text or as an email for FB. If you want to see what notifications you have, you have to open the app, then select notifications. Stuff like friend requests and new inbox messages will show.

Does the Droid have similar configurable features and/or are there apps that do similar things? Also, is there a widget or icon to directly access your mp3 player without drilling down a few levels to access it for the X and Incredible?
Yes. You have to dig on the market though. And yes, there is. I use it when I'm out bike riding, and it makes things a ton easier!

Hope this helps! I'm using a Tmobile G1 right now and this is all I can tell you from my side. Hopefully, someone with a newer phone (Droid X, Droid Inc, etc.) will come along!

[shimojunk]

thanks for the replies

I do use gmail but mainly for ordering stuff. I'm thinking about paying for yahoo mail Plus which I've read allows you to forward incoming mail to gmail and it should be near instantaneous.

Looks like I might be jumping to Droid soon!

[Shermanmanman]

thanks for the reply

I do use gmail but mainly for ordering stuff. I'm thinking about paying for yahoo mail Plus which I've read allows you to forward incoming mail to gmail and it should be near instantaneous

If you log onto your Gmail account, you can sync any email to it. I have yahoo, hotmail and my work email coming through GMail.

[kcmoberry]

actually I thought yahoo released an app recently that gave yahoo users push support.. ah they do.. here's a link.

Yahoo!� Mail for Android�

however as i was googling this I noted some comments about issues with the app so it seems it's not without problems yet. Maybe someone else using it can comment on a more up to date experience.

[avt123]

thanks for the replies

I do use gmail but mainly for ordering stuff. I'm thinking about paying for yahoo mail Plus which I've read allows you to forward incoming mail to gmail and it should be near instantaneous.

Looks like I might be jumping to Droid soon!

Yahoo also has their own app. I don't know how good it is so hopefully someone here an chime in. I only use Gmail and the integration is flawless.

[californiablackberry]

Don't need facebook or emails interrupting my beauty sleep.
4. Facebook notifications came instantly to my BB.

First off, LOL.
Facebook notification's come fast, if you have the e-mail notifications set to your GMail. Then later on, the FB application syncs and it shows up.

[NADA918]

I was quite content with my curve for 2+ years before it broke. No it wasn't the flashiest phone, wasn't speedy opening up the occasional web page if it could at all, google maps would give me an estimated location of where I was at and I would still be lost but always able to find where I was going, but I didn't want to upgrade my phone simply because it did everything I needed my phone to and it was configured exactly how I wanted it.

So the time has come where I have to either move to a Droid phone or to a Bold 9650. It's a very painful time in my life. A couple of things that I really liked about my BB were:

1. BB Smart Alarm Pro - especially the QUICK ALARM. I take a lot of naps and loved the fact I could quickly set alarm to wake me up in an hour or so with a few taps on the keypad. Also having multiple alarms for different days are nice since I like most people like to sleep in on the weekends.

2. Poynt app - hands down the best app for BB IMO

3. Quick profile changes - Like the fact that I could set my phone to only ring and get text messages when I was napping since as stated before I nap a lot.
Don't need facebook or emails interrupting my beauty sleep.

4. Facebook notifications came instantly to my BB.

Does the Droid have similar configurable features and/or are there apps that do similar things? Also, is there a widget or icon to directly access your mp3 player without drilling down a few levels to access it for the X and Incredible?

Thanks in advance

It always kind of makes me cringe to see everyone shelling out money on a 9650..

I have a curve, went to a tour, then got the bold on the boldgate..

Coming from a curve, the 9650 will probably seem amazing.. Something you have to realize though, is that it doesn't do anything differently or really better than the many year old curve does.. Screen is clearer, nicer camera.. Wifi is no different that 3g.. Slower than anything.. Browser still is terrible, all the trackpads are crooked. Keyboard is nice..

so I am having trouble finding the perks.. It looks flashy next to a curve, but is dated hardware/software.

I am not trying to sell anything, so I am just going to leave you with that.. I hate seeing people getting locked into a 2 yr contract with a phone that should have came out atleast 2 years ago.

If all you need is email.. cool, bb is for you..

If you want to get a little more of your moneys worth for the internet we all pay so dearly for, get something that you can actually use the browser for, have some apps that actually do something.

If am email is so vital that you need it instantly, it most likely would have been in form of a phone call anyways. People with hotmail or msn accounts get the email 10 mins later anyways.. So you are at the same if not worse of the other operating system options.

[CG68]

If you are eligible for an upgrade I would get an Android based phone. You have 30 days to play with it and decide whether or not it's what you want. If you don't like it you can always go back to Blackberry which you are already familiar with. Just my two cents.

[sookster54]

It always kind of makes me cringe to see everyone shelling out money on a 9650..

It's a bit aging but it has 512MB, it has a big chance of getting OS 6.

[NADA918]

It's a bit aging but it has 512MB, it has a big chance of getting OS 6.

This is true.. Not going to be enough after learning about how their newest phone built for that operating system was sluggish and cramped.

Kinda hard to believe how much more fluid these other systems run, and are much more capible with also having 512..

[xliderider]

The app Quick Profiles can allow you to set up profiles like on a Blackberry. I currently have these profiles setup on my Droid:

Normal - all notifications/alarms active.
Night - only phone ringer active
Vibe
Silent

[SuzisZoo]

It always kind of makes me cringe to see everyone shelling out money on a 9650..

I have a curve, went to a tour, then got the bold on the boldgate..

Coming from a curve, the 9650 will probably seem amazing.. Something you have to realize though, is that it doesn't do anything differently or really better than the many year old curve does.. Screen is clearer, nicer camera.. Wifi is no different that 3g.. Slower than anything.. Browser still is terrible, all the trackpads are crooked. Keyboard is nice..

so I am having trouble finding the perks.. It looks flashy next to a curve, but is dated hardware/software.

I am not trying to sell anything, so I am just going to leave you with that.. I hate seeing people getting locked into a 2 yr contract with a phone that should have came out atleast 2 years ago.

If all you need is email.. cool, bb is for you..

If you want to get a little more of your moneys worth for the internet we all pay so dearly for, get something that you can actually use the browser for, have some apps that actually do something.

If am email is so vital that you need it instantly, it most likely would have been in form of a phone call anyways. People with hotmail or msn accounts get the email 10 mins later anyways.. So you are at the same if not worse of the other operating system options.

Very well said. I went from a Pearl, to a Curve (that I actually kept for 2 years because I loved it so much), to a Tour. Had BlackBerry phones for over 4 years and always stuck up for them, loved them. Then I realized that I essentially had pretty much the same exact phone for those 4 years with different outsides. Nothing really changed. And from what I see with 6.0, nothing much is changing in the future either. I got a Droid Incredible last week and I honestly don't miss BlackBerry one bit. I thought it would be a big adjustment after being with BB for so long but the only adjustment is realizing how much I was missing.

I have always used Gmail and Google Calendar so the integration of the Google stuff with Android is a huge perk for me. The Facebook notification is better on BB, but like someone else said, I just set it up to get notified by Gmail if someone FB's me and I get the notification instantaneously.

It's a personal choice and there is a definitely a learning curve going from BB to Android, but for many of us it is worth it.

[NADA918]

Thank you Suzi!

[djcb]

Got my AT&T Captivate yesterday and Finally-- a phone I can write about. BB user for a long time, even went through the trouble of getting a Storm2 to work on AT&T (thanks to all in these forums for their help), what a pain in the *** it was, just to prove to my wife that her then new iPhone sucked compared to BB. But the truth will out, Droid Rocks and except for you die hard BB and Apple users will end up on top. Its just that great.
Anyone want to buy a slightly used unlocked Storm2 9550 with tons of apps and accessories? (~$175.00?)
[email protected]

[shimojunk]

I agree with Nada918 that the Bold is a lateral move rather than a "true" upgrade from my Curve. Upgrading to a Bold isn't going to improve my experience with email, BBM, which are the BB's strong points. I would however, be satisfied if the Bold performed smoothly with OS6 and had a better web browser.

Anyways, my coworker sold me his old beaten up Curve for $40 and it has OS 5.X hybrid loaded up on it. It runs pretty smoothly for the most part, minus being a memory hog. I'm good for right now and can wait until reports of OS6 on 9650 come out or the Droid 2/Fascinate come out.

Thanks for your replies