Life

Just downloaded google maps 4.0 from the android market and it has Multi-touch! Its about time. And I really like it. I can’t wait for Android 2.1 on my Droid! Hope it comes soon.

–Ben

Wow.  Utah does some cool stuff.  If you’re a Utahn, this may be interesting to see how your fellow people fare, statistically.  In all seriousness, it shows underlying data about neighborhood safety.

Personally, I’m impressed with Utah.gov.  It’s simple and quick to use and the Utah government seems to try to do a lot online, such that its a convenience to use for residents.

–Ben

Source:  Utah.gov, Utah Dept of Health, Utah Violence and Small Area Report

I just came across AutoCompleteMe.com and laughed.  I can’t believe the results.  Go view our declining intelligence and you tell me:  Is this an indicator of our decline?

–Ben

Source:  Consumerist.com, AutoCompleteMe.com

Just a quick note to those in the Google analytics world that I’ve helped get on the road – an average time on site of 00:00:00 means a bounce.  Google Analytics requires a second pageview on your website to calculate time spent on your website.  If there’s no second pageview, there’s no “time” spent on your site, even if they spent an hour looking at that one page?

So if your website is like mine, that has a good sprinkling of one 0ff content – like my various fixes under Helpdesk – you’re going to get dinged big for average time spent on site.

A bonus is that I hear that the 00:00:00 is only calculated for the average time on site and not on average time on a page.

–Ben

Good Reference:  Scott McAndrew

So, I just had a stupid problem today.  I thought there was only one calendar application for Droid.  Acutally, the calendar application is for google calendar.  The corporate calendar syncs with Exchange.

Luckily, if you want your exchange calendar to sync with google calendar and your calendar application, there is a way.  A way by google.  Download and install Google Calendar Sync.  It will allow one-way or two-way sync to your google calendar.  Could be very nifty.

Otherwise, you can stick with the corporate calendar app native to Droid.

–Ben

Resources:

Google Blog on Calendar Sync

Cell Phone Forums on Sync

Big problem for the Droid.  And I just got bit by it.  And there doesn’t appear to be a solution.

It appears that the Droid will just forget your corporate email settings (luckily, GMail remains OK).  So I was happily enjoying the weekend, and I thought it odd that I didn’t get any corporate emails – but didn’t give it much thought.  And then I climbed aboard the train for work Monday morning and *POOF*, all of my email settings were gone.  It was asking me to set up my IMAP account again.   Aaargh.  How did I do that?  How did I miss that?

It turns out its a major bug.  And people are in arms.  If I were to hazard a guess, the more emails accounts you sync, the worse off you are.

Check out some forums and you can see what I mean.

https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/18016?start=15&tstart=0

https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/22410

http://discuss.gdgt.com/motorola/droid/support/Email-accounts-disappearing/

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/tech-issues-bug-reports-suggestions/7356-losing-email-accounts-3.html

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=2858b6d72e2652bf&hl=en

Personally, if I were absolutely tied to my corporate email, I would have a different phone.  Its totally unacceptable.

Luckily for me, I sync one account and I know the settings.  Re-inputting the information is an annoyance, but not a deal killer – Yet.

Let me know if you have any luck fixing it.  Or if its broke for you.

–Ben

I was asking my buddy if he liked his Droid dock, as I’m starting to use mine for my alarm clock.  His comments weren’t exactly praising.   Here’s his bullet summary:

• Lighting is too bright in a dark room, even when dimmed
• You have to push the Droid on and then pull it off, its not just a “drop on” experience
• Pretty lame as a multi-media experience – you use the Droid speaker and there’s no audio out jack (other than the Droid itself)
• Can use the phone by sliding up the screen and exposing the keyboard.
• He was luke-warm as to recommending it to friends to buy

I just found this Youtube video which seems to echo my friend’s experience.  Thanks to AndriodCentral.com.

You can find the dock at Amazon.com.  It also appears that Amazon.com has a car mount for those turn by turn directions. (Just links, no referer id for me, etc)

–Ben

I wanted to make a custom alarm for my Droid, as I now use it as my alarm clock.  Unfortunately, its not as obvious as it would look.  Here’s what I did:

• Make a folder in the root called “alarms” (either by tethering your Droid to the computer or using Astro)
• Use RingDroid to cut up one of my audio files and put it as an alarm (or you can just place the audio file in the alarm folder)
• Now it is selectable on the alarm list

Hope this helps you as well.

–Ben