Moving from touchpro (wimo) to Evo... android questions

cpnichols · 2nd June 2010, 10:44 PM

Moving from touchpro (wimo) to Evo... android questions

So I have been on a touch pro for the last 2 years. Started with 6.1 and eventually put other roms on it, so moved to 6.5 and used mobile shell. Looking forward to the evo, and dumping wimo all together... but I have a few questions that maybe you guys can guide me. Even though I am REALLY tired of the buggy laggy wimo, it still has a few things I hope not to loose.

- Voice command... I know android can do voice search, but can I launch apps, call contacts, etc, with a voice command?
- syncing.... I know syncing is happening more on the cloud level now. And maybe I should embrace that. But I would still like to sync with m laptop. Personally I would love to dropkick outlook and just sync with thunderbird... is my best bet to sync with gmail on both sides, or is there a direct syncing that can be done between thunderbird and android.
- what if I zap my phone or something happens? Do I loose all my apps? I am used to downloading apps on the sd card or my computer and installing it there... the whole idea of an app store is a bit odd to me.
- I can tether now on my phone for free... will I still be able to on the Evo?

Now some Evo specific questions...
- So it seems like 4G is very similar to wifi... something like a long range wifi... hence the term wimax. Does turning on 4G drain your resources in the same way that leaving wifi on does?
- what is the actual range of wimax tower?
- my touch pro has a mini usb port... what sort port does the Evo have? Is it micro?

a5ehren · 3rd June 2010, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpnichols

So I have been on a touch pro for the last 2 years. Started with 6.1 and eventually put other roms on it, so moved to 6.5 and used mobile shell. Looking forward to the evo, and dumping wimo all together... but I have a few questions that maybe you guys can guide me. Even though I am REALLY tired of the buggy laggy wimo, it still has a few things I hope not to loose.

- Voice command... I know android can do voice search, but can I launch apps, call contacts, etc, with a voice command?
- syncing.... I know syncing is happening more on the cloud level now. And maybe I should embrace that. But I would still like to sync with m laptop. Personally I would love to dropkick outlook and just sync with thunderbird... is my best bet to sync with gmail on both sides, or is there a direct syncing that can be done between thunderbird and android.
- what if I zap my phone or something happens? Do I loose all my apps? I am used to downloading apps on the sd card or my computer and installing it there... the whole idea of an app store is a bit odd to me.
- I can tether now on my phone for free... will I still be able to on the Evo?

Now some Evo specific questions...
- So it seems like 4G is very similar to wifi... something like a long range wifi... hence the term wimax. Does turning on 4G drain your resources in the same way that leaving wifi on does?
- what is the actual range of wimax tower?
- my touch pro has a mini usb port... what sort port does the Evo have? Is it micro?

Voice command: Some things work, like "Call (contact)" or "Navigate to (place)", but I don't think you can do it for everything.

Syncing: You're really best off syncing everything with Gmail. There are ways to sync your Thunderbird contacts to your Gmail account as well.

App loss: You lose your local copy of the apps, but I believe that all purchases are tied to your Google account so you can get them back when you get your new phone.

Tethering: As far as I know, USB tethering doesn't work on current versions of Android without a separate app, and wifi tethering requires root and an app (or paying $30/mo to Sprint...).

4G & Battery: I don't know as I don't have an Evo. Reports have the battery life similar to any other smartphone, though.

4G range: As far as I know, Wimax has the same per-tower range as any other digital cell technology. You can check your local coverage at Sprint.com I believe.

USB: Evo uses Micro-USB, which will be the standard for all non-Apple smartphones going forward. You can read the Wikipedia article on micro-usb if you want to know more.

worthmr · 3rd June 2010, 12:50 PM

Voice Command?

As far as voice command goes, here is a nifty little app for android that does more voice command does... it will even read you text messages and emails.

vlingo is the name of the product.

vlingo.com

cpnichols · 3rd June 2010, 03:42 PM

thanks a lot for the info guys...

sc10000 · 9th June 2010, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a5ehren

Syncing: You're really best off syncing everything with Gmail. There are ways to sync your Thunderbird contacts to your Gmail account as well.

Syncing with the Google cloud, or any cloud for that matter, is never a good option, and certainly not the best. Privacy demands a desktop sync option with open source clients like Thunderbird. The Android OS is itself open source; we are not going to be forced to use proprietary clients like outlook.

They'd better get desktop syncing working soon.........or the evo is getting returned.

frifox · 9th June 2010, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpnichols

So I have been on a touch pro for the last 2 years...

I also was TP user since it came out, which btw is only 1.5 years and not 2

I'm sure you'll LOVE Evo if switching from TP. The only features you might miss are CorePlayer app that played pretty much ALL videos you throw at it (not more than 720p that is) and the ability to re-map software/hardware keys as you like, + the HW keyboard but Evo's keyboard in landscape is very good... other than that Evo will do pretty much everything you could on TP, tho you might need to root to USB/WiFi tether.