I've been DROIDED!

[Steven Marshall]

Ok I took the bait and bought a new verizon DROID....and I hate it. The nice radar feature that I had from Accuweather isnt available for the droid. Ive downloaded about 5 different radar apps for the DROID and Im not happy with any of them. Any suggestions? Anybody else running this critter? For what it cost, I was hoping for a lot better response. Its a phone designed to do many things....but it does none of them well...even making a phone call is a pain in the backside.

 

[Randall Cooper]

Get a Droid Eris. $100 cheaper and just as good as the Droid IMO, actually I think its a little better because its running Sense UI and is made by HTC. The only difference will be that the Droid is running Android 2.0(might have been updated recently to 2.1) and the Eris is running Android 1.5, BUT the leak for 2.1 has recently been released for the Eris. I manually installed it about a week and a half ago and it is awesome! I can get you a good clean link for the 2.1 leak and even tell you how to manually install it if you decide to go that route. Eris is basically the same as the HTC Hero from Sprint. I owned an Iphone before this, and in all honesty, I like the Eris alot better, especially since installing the 2.1 leak. I was going to get a Droid, but it looked too "blocky" for my tastes, so I started doing some researching for a good Verizon Wireless phone, and came across the Eris and realized I could get a good looking phone that does pretty much the exact same thing that Droid does for $100 less. I couldn't be happier with the decision I made. Just my $.02 though.

 

[Allan Jeffers]

I just use the free version of weather bug. I have not looked into anything more fancy. I have it since its easier to use at work then say my netbook.

 

[Scott Hammel]

I love my droid but agree that so far, the radar applications aren't too stellar. But that's more of an Android OS problem, not droid specific. I still think Radarscope will be ported sooner rather than later since Android is really gaining in popularity. Anyway, like mentioned above I've got my droid rooted and already upgraded to 2.1. I've found it runs really smooth. Also with the "alteration" I've been able to add free wifi tethering, pinch to zoom, and the ability to overclock the processor to make it really scream. Once you get into rooting and really opening up the device to its full capabilities, you will probably like it better. Alldroid, Droidmod, are both great websites for Droid tweaking...

 

[Kevin Crawmer]

I know that F5 is going to have a Droid app soon that looks to be amazing. It will have radar along with forecasting products. www.f5app.com There is a spot you can plug in your email address and they will email you when it is finished.

I have used radar now and imap a little for radar. Not the greatest. I will also use weatherunderground for radar as well. I'm looking forward for the f5 app....it should be the best weather app going when it launches.

 

[Steven Marshall]

Scott, you say bumping it up to the next version allows for free tethering??? OK you have my attention!

 

[Randall Cooper]

I might add in that the Eris does the free tethering too.

 

[D. Hayes]

I love my droid. Get the 2.1 custom roms on a rooted droid and you can pretty much do anything you want. WiFi/USB tether, overclock, custom themes, ad blocks, ect ect. Far as radar apps I love weatherbug elite which is considerable better than the free version IMO.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

The easiest way to tether is just to pay $23 for pdanet. Works for me on my Motorola Droid.

I've also not run into a problem where the phone was not responsive. It's always been VERY responsive, especially over my Windows mobile piece of junk I had previously.

 

[James Langford]

I'll second PDANet. I use it for my Palm Centro, and it works very well. It's especially useful over Bluetooth, as no wires are required.

 

[Jim Parsons]

3rd for PDANet...Works great and I am surprised how good my download speed is.

 

[Scott Hammel]

I know that F5 is going to have a Droid app soon that looks to be amazing. It will have radar along with forecasting products. www.f5app.com There is a spot you can plug in your email address and they will email you when it is finished.

I have used radar now and imap a little for radar. Not the greatest. I will also use weatherunderground for radar as well. I'm looking forward for the f5 app....it should be the best weather app going when it launches.

Wow, good find! That is excellent news regarding the F5 app! Hope it comes out sometime this season. I've also used radar now and imap and yeah, while neither are stellar, they both could be used for a quick radar peak if you were away from your laptop or something. iMap does give current dew points as well which can be handy...

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Ok I took the bait and bought a new verizon DROID....and I hate it. The nice radar feature that I had from Accuweather isnt available for the droid. Ive downloaded about 5 different radar apps for the DROID and Im not happy with any of them. Any suggestions? Anybody else running this critter? For what it cost, I was hoping for a lot better response. Its a phone designed to do many things....but it does none of them well...even making a phone call is a pain in the backside.

Good to see this PdaNet app coming (hopefully) soon, because I'm in the same boat you are as far as weather apps go, although I love this thing otherwise.

Right now, I'm not even using an app - turns out that using my subscription to Weathertap.com via the browser is faster than my Imap. You can use the regular (i.e. non-mobile) version just fine, as well as access satellite, etc. Only thing it doesn't show is warning boxes; the download ("Radar Lab HD") won't work on the Droid, unfortunately, due to the Droid not having Flash or client-side Java capability. But that's what a weather radio is for

I plan to have Weathertap and Google Maps on the ready on my little Droid while chasing without Craig or other laptop-ready partners, until this PdaNet thing comes out.

P.S. BE SURE to go to Menu->Settings->Wireless&Network Settings->Mobile Networks and click on Data Roaming. Can't speak for the charges it warns about when you turn this option on, but I didn't notice any on my last bill. Doing this is a MUST if you're going to be out on the plains with this device.

 

[B Jensen]

The Droid does render wunderground radar images well. I have bookmarked all of the links to go straight to the images (no web page) for my local site. You can set up the radar how you want to view it and then there is a button VIEW/SAVE THIS IMAGE just copy that link. Might be a pain for you guys that transverse several radars in a day, but it is an option. Would work better if I could find an app to organize my bookmarks better.

 

[D. Hayes]

PDANet is already out www.junefabrics.com