[Cosmic Rick]

Backstory: just got a fancy new droid (since my old phone died, and I wanted a sufficiently nerdy new phone). Been looking at Google voice for a while. Looks pretty sweet. Wannit!

3 Questions:

1) Anybody have it? Is it awesome? How's the voice lag and is the interface easy to deal with on smartphones? (OK, that's a few sub-questions, but whatever)

2) I just requested an invite from Google. Anybody know whether or not they're actually "aggressively" processing those requests? Or have they slowed down?

3) Anybody have an extra invite to toss to a poor [soon to be] unemployed chemical engineer?

[Shatakai]

I'm not sure how the invites work, but my mother's been intoxicated with this little feature for the past 2 weeks or so. I can tell you that it does indeed work, and the cool thing is that the more you use it the better it works. It is always analyzing your voice and trying to find consistency in your speech when you form words.

With that said, whenever you first get it I'd recommend that you not let anyone other than yourself use it for the first couple days.

[Cosmic Rick]

Wait, are you talking about the actual google voice service? Or just the google voice search (which is also awesome).

[Shatakai]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Rick

Wait, are you talking about the actual google voice service? Or just the google voice search (which is also awesome).

Oh, I must be thinking of just the search function. What does the Google Voice service offer?

[Cosmic Rick]

LINKY

Some pretty cool stuff... I only use one phone (until I get a job), so I'm not really getting the most powerful tool in the box, which is essentially routing calls to whichever number you want. I'm in it for the voicemail to transcription to SMS and the custom voicemail recordings for individual contacts... plus, it might be nice to get the whole free texting thing...

[xxAl Capwnagexx]

I have a google voice account, even though I haven't really used it because of stupid Apple.

They are actively processing the requests: I requested one and received it 2 weeks later.

But I envy you that you have the Droid. If you don't mind, I'm gonna ask you a million questions about it:

How is the web browser? I know it doesn't have multi-touch, but is it usable? Does it compare to the mobile safari, both in speed and usability?

Is the Android Marketplace useful? What are the best apps you've seen on there?

How much is your monthly bill going to set you back? Do you have the 5GB plan?

How is the voice search? Does it work well with the Google Maps Beta?

Is the software keyboard usable? I've been told the physical keyboard is horrible, have you gotten used to it?

Sorry for the million questions, I'm just debating on going from my crappy phone+ipod touch to just the droid.

[Cosmic Rick]

Web browser: Totally usable from what I've seen. Particularly good for youtube because of the gorgeous screen. It might be a little slower at bringing up the pages, but that's probably because of all the extra stuff I'm running on my phone compared to my friend's (the comparison) iPhone. I wish it had the magnifying glass thing that the archos 5 has for zooming, but with the increased res, magnification is mostly unnecessary... even browsing forums and such can be done in zoomed-out mode (if you have good eyes).

Android marketplace is as good as apple's as far as I can tell. 1/10th the apps, but also 1/th the clutter. Every good iphone app I've seen is available on the android system. I've got some organizational stuff for more icon/screen capability, sone music widgets, 5 streaming music services, a good SMS replacement, google voice (for whenever I can get myself an invite), some useful toggle switches, task killer, and that thing where your settings (volume, etc) change based on where you are (Locale I think).

Monthly bill is $90 with 450 minutes, unlimited text, and the "unlimited" data (5 gb soft cap, I think). I doubt I'll ever come close to going over it, since I'm usually connected to wifi.

Voice search is great. Apparently it'll adapt a bit the more I use it, but it tends to work well... particularly with the FREE turn by turn nav and maps that come with the phone. Thank you google!

I like all 3 keyboards. The widescreen virtual is probably the easiest to use (if you have experience with them). But I have no problem using the physical keyboard... I guess a lot of the reviewers had fat fingers. The buttons are pretty small and flat, though, so it'd be tough to text by feel. All 3 have been completely usable for me, though.

The music playing can be a little bit of a hassle if you're looking to replace your ipod, but I've been using it exclusively and I've gotten used to the quirks. It's definitely a sexy little machine if you've got the dough for a plan. It's the best phone out there for any nerd or geek (like myself). Period.

Lemme know if you want any more info/opinions.

[xxAl Capwnagexx]

Wow. Thanks for all of that. It really helped me out on deciding to get the phone.
The only questions I have left are about the music player:
One, my only headphones are the regular iPhone headphones. Do they work well with the phone? Can I use the clicker thing to change the songs, or download software to allow me to do so? What quirks does the music player have? Can I still listen to podcasts?

Furthermore, what would I use to add songs/videos to the phone? I have a PPC mac with ancient tiger. However, for college in a year I'll have a brand new mac if it isn't very good at first.

Also, will google voice allow me to not bother with a text plan? What about voice (i would be willing to change my phone number to my GV number if that meant not having to pay for voice).
Also, how much does the 5GB plan cost? That's the only cost I'm worried about, as I have my voice and text plans paid for.

Do you think I would be missing anything if I moved from a phone + iPod touch to solely the Droid? My iPod is mainly for web browsing and games: madden, FIFA, etc.


Thanks for all the answering, honestly just PM me if you ever need anything.

I do agree with the software keyboards. I text on them just as well as with a full keyboard that I have on my current phone (in fact, this is all being typed on an iPod touch).

[Miraj]

It turns out that I won't get google voice until another week, since I joined voice from an invite given by someone else, instead of google.

[Cosmic Rick]

Originally Posted by xxAl Capwnagexx

One, my only headphones are the regular iPhone headphones. Do they work well with the phone? Can I use the clicker thing to change the songs, or download software to allow me to do so? What quirks does the music player have? Can I still listen to podcasts?

That's a touch tougher to answer. It's a standard 3.5mm jack for headphones, so they should work. As for the clicker, I don't know. You're have to check through the apps store. I'm a set-to-shuffle-and-play kinda guy. I imagine there might be something for that, but you'd hve to browse the marketplace for something.

The music player isn't bad (especially if you get wikitunes or some such supplement). I think a lot of it is all the excess mem usage I've got going on, but it's a little slow getting through menus and entering commands. As for podcasts, I know google released an app for podcasts, but I'm sure it depends very much on the formatting and availability. I think the app is called "Listen by Google" or something to that effect.

Originally Posted by xxAl Capwnagexx

Furthermore, what would I use to add songs/videos to the phone? I have a PPC mac with ancient tiger. However, for college in a year I'll have a brand new mac if it isn't very good at first.

There's no syncing (one of the main media complaints of reviewers) software. But you can use a number of things for the same functionality. I just use the USB manager plugin in WinAmp, but I know there are things that are compatible with itunes for the droid (and other media players) out there. It's kind of a hassle, but it works clean enough once you get it set up. Plus, it takes a bit to rescan your music when you load stuff up to the SD card (at least the first time... haven't done an update yet).

Originally Posted by xxAl Capwnagexx

Also, will google voice allow me to not bother with a text plan? What about voice (i would be willing to change my phone number to my GV number if that meant not having to pay for voice).
Also, how much does the 5GB plan cost? That's the only cost I'm worried about, as I have my voice and text plans paid for.

If I've done my research right, I think you can get away with not getting a text plan as long as you give all your contacts your GV umber only. This might help answer more questions. Voice might be trickier, but again, I think you can pull it off. However, as I have no invite yet (fingers crossed) I obviously can't be sure of any of this. Data=$30, Voice = $30, Messaging=$20 (aka ridiculous on that last one).

Originally Posted by xxAl Capwnagexx

Do you think I would be missing anything if I moved from a phone + iPod touch to solely the Droid? My iPod is mainly for web browsing and games: madden, FIFA, etc.

The music player is definitely not as slick. The web browsing is about equal (but with a MUCH better screen). I haven't looked into games on android yet, but I'd bet that's an area of the apps market that apple's kicking android's ass in right now. And the whole interface isn't as accessible as the iphone. (but if you know how to use the internet, which apparently you do, you can figure everything out easily enough).

Those are the negatives. The positives are that android isn't trying to cock-block google voice like the iphone is. There's free (pretty good after a test tonight) turn-by-turn navigation and maps. The voice search (or voice-to-text SMS or voice to map directions) are pretty sweet. And I always feel good giving apple the finger for some reason, lol. Plus, google sky maps is - if useless - amazing.

Originally Posted by xxAl Capwnagexx

Thanks for all the answering, honestly just PM me if you ever need anything.

No problem. Just let me know if you have an extra invite lying around, lol. It's a seriously good phone. But it's a little techier and less mainstream than the iPhone, and thus a little more prone to giving you headaches. If you're ok with the tinkering and the occasional restart due to overtaxing the memory (if you're gonna app-whore like I am)... and if you want to get more out of GV, then get the droid. If you really want to maximize your music and games (probably, again, haven't checked them out), stick with what you've got.