Switch to Android

Well I bought the HTC Incredible a few weeks ago because I got sick of AT&T slow 3G in my area.

I got tired of wating for the 2.2 update so I manually updated my phone and there were some changes made that I am grateful for because I was about to chuck the phone out the window when I got it.

I am going to be paying more for phone service because I cannot move my wife to Verizon at least until they get the iPhone. Reason? iTunes. Yeah I know the one thing many people despise about the iPhone is actually almost the best thing for the average user. You go to one screen to manage your phone, photos, videos, music, etc, etc. Pretty easy.

When I made the switch I was thinking "I wonder if there is a desktop application to mange my phone". There are third party apps but a lot of them have issues with my phone. With 2.2 Verizon pushed out their media manager which is an "iTunes" like program where its one stop management for media on your phone.

But...

but...

No 64 bit version....Seriously what the heck?? I just wanted simplicity for me but also when the wife might make a switch to Android.

I like how I can do things in the "cloud" which I know Google wants people to do but central management as an option would be nice.

2.2 made some nice changes to the UI though, SMS messaging got a much needed toolbar to add attachments to messages (I could not figure out how to do this earlier until I did some Googling)

I am still figuring out how to manage music and podcasts. Currently I am using Google "Listen" had to figure out how to download files because I was spoiled on subscriptions via iTunes. There are subscriptions in Listen but I was not sure when I "qued" if it automatically downloaded the podcast. Got that figured out.

Plenty of things I like about Android but to be honest would scare away the iPhone crowd. I am running into apps in the app marketplace that have hardlocked my phone when they crashed. Weird free apps for screensavers that want my location services turned on?? I had a free app that locked my phone to the point I had to take the battery out.

Now I see with 2.2 they changed the comment section and made it clearer so I can steer away from the junk.

I do enjoy the more open feel of the Android though. I got a drive sharing app where I can turn it on and I can enter the address to my phone on my PC and download, upload, delete files from memory or the SD card.

Plenty of cool utilities I have found as well.

Over all I enjoy the phone and I think its a great competitor. Just hope Google learns a thing from Apple if they want to attract former iPhone users, you dont have to copy them just make the switch easier while still allowing the openess of the system. I think this is why surveys show the Android is popular with the younger male demographic.

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Comments

tiersten

tpatt100 wrote: »

No 64 bit version....Seriously what the heck??

Why do you need a 64 bit media manager? Your computer and OS is perfectly capable of running a 32 bit app.

tpatt100 wrote: »

I am still figuring out how to manage music and podcasts. Currently I am using Google "Listen" had to figure out how to download files because I was spoiled on subscriptions via iTunes. There are subscriptions in Listen but I was not sure when I "qued" if it automatically downloaded the podcast. Got that figured out.

DoubleTwist. It is a media player app on the phone itself and a iTunes style app on your computer that does the syncing.

tpatt100 wrote: »

Weird free apps for screensavers that want my location services turned on?? I had a free app that locked my phone to the point I had to take the battery out.

The strength of the Android Market is also its weakness. Google don't have the rigorous but opaque and sometimes dubious review process that Apple do for their App Store. This means that you can get malicious applications or just plain broken ones in the Market. It also means that there aren't too many restrictions on what type of app you can create though. Apple will refuse to let you put various types of app up for many reasons like it competes with an Apple app already etc...

The apps that want location services are either malicious or they're trying to do location based advertising.

tpatt100

The media manager would not install on my Win7 64bit machine. Is there a work around?

I saw Double Twist but I checked the forums earlier and plenty of issues with my model phone. I will check again

Mike-Mike

AT&T is solid in my area, I know that's not the case everywhere else though. I have a Blackberry Bold 9000. My ladyfriend has a Droid, and I like it a lot, I thought about leaving my beloved Blackberry for the Droid 2, but I'm not sure I can do it. I really want The Torch. But if I was to leave my lovely berry, it would be for an Android product

tiersten

tpatt100 wrote: »

The media manager would not install on my Win7 64bit machine. Is there a work around?

There shouldn't be anything which prevents a 32 bit app from installong a 64 bit system apart from drivers but the HTC Incredible doesn't need anything apart from the generic USB MSC driver and the Android one.

tpatt100 wrote: »

I saw Double Twist but I checked the forums earlier and plenty of issues with my model phone. I will check again

You can set DoubleTwist to always put the phone into USB MSC mode when you plug it in.

tpatt100

tiersten wrote: »

There shouldn't be anything which prevents a 32 bit app from installong a 64 bit system apart from drivers but the HTC Incredible doesn't need anything apart from the generic USB MSC driver and the Android one.

You can set DoubleTwist to always put the phone into USB MSC mode when you plug it in.

When I tried to install the program it just says "This version is not supported for 64 bit" and fails.

VCast media manager doesn't run under W7 64-bit - Verizon Wireless Community

I ended up purchasing iSync and will continue to use my iTunes directory so I can be uniform with my old iPhone which is now my MP3 player.

tiersten

tpatt100 wrote: »

When I tried to install the program it just says "This version is not supported for 64 bit" and fails.

VCast media manager doesn't run under W7 64-bit - Verizon Wireless Community

Verizon just make crap software it appears as there isn't any technical reason why it shouldn't work. The installer just refuses to install it if you're running a 64 bit OS.

tpatt100 wrote: »

I ended up purchasing iSync and will continue to use my iTunes directory so I can be uniform with my old iPhone which is now my MP3 player.

Just be aware that DRM protected iTunes tracks won't work so if you or your wife has any of those then they won't play.

tpatt100

Yeah I ran into the DRM issue but most of my music does not have DRM so this will be a suitable solution for now.