Smartphone Apps

[MR. evil]

Anyone have any luck syncing up to an Exchange server on their droid? I'm due for a new phone in September, and the droids look pretty awesome, but if there is no OWA support, it's a deal breaker for me.

No experience with the Driod, but we have iPhones in the office and they are all sync'd to our exchange server. Works great! I would imagine the Driod would work just as well.

 

[Greg]

Some people have issues and some don't. There seams to be a few more issues with Exchange Server 2003 than with 2007 or 2010.
Supposedly according to google and Motorola many issues will be fixed with the new operating system update to Android 2.2 (Froyo) due in the next month or two.

Either way nobody is reporting problems if you use the touchdown app from Nitrodesk. This seems to be the most trouble free method..

I'm going to wait for ver2.2 to link up my new Droid X to our company's server.

By the way the Droid X is awesome!!

Hmm. Weird thing is that Windows Mobile just uses OWA settings to get to Exchange which is basically Webmail for Exchange. I have to imagine that Android can do the same given the prevalence of Exchange. We'll find out in September when I'm due for a phone upgrade. Any recommendations (AT&T) for phones? HTC has a nice touch screen/slide out keyboard model which is what I would want.

 

[WJenness]

Bvibert,

Saw your post earlier in the thread about windshield / vent mounts...

I went with the verizon mount and put it here:

It fits really well, works for GPS usage / answering the phone... It's close enough that I can reach it with my left hand by reaching about 2" past the steering wheel.

My buddy has a similar mount in a similar location for his Blackberry Storm.

What he did (that I'm going to do as well) is he installed an additional power (cigarette) outlet BEHIND the fuses and knee bolster, and ran his charger down the A-Pillar and behind the fuse access panel, plugged it in, and zip tied it down. Hidden wire, clean install, and it always powers the phone.

What I'm going to do in addition to that is to run a 3.5mm headphone cable from the mount (has a nice clip on the back where you can plug it into the headphone jack on the phone) over into my glove box. I'm not sure how I'm going to route it over there yet so that it's hidden, but I'll find a way.

In my glove box, I have an iPod adapter from neocaraudio.com. It's pretty sweet, plugs into the CD changer port (previously unused) on the back of the factory radio, and then the iPod emulates a CD changer, allowing me to skip tracks with the steering wheel / Head Unit buttons, and it doesn't lock out the screen either, so I can find specific albums, playlists, etc... However, the bonus feature on this device is that it has an aux input (3.5mm), so I can plug my phone into that, and run Pandora or slacker on my phone into the radio.

The last piece of the puzzle is a Parrot Bluetooth Cellphone interface. I'm going to install that and pair it with my phone. It pipes the audio from the phone into the car stereo through the phone input and there's a mic that you mount at the top of the driver's a-pillar...

Additionally, I picked up one of the audi XM receivers on closeout last fall that I might hook up as well, giving me insane amounts of options and integration.

-w

 

[bvibert]

Nice looking mount, I like how the charger plug is integrated! They don't make a mount quite that nice for my phone, I'd have to run my own charger cable and plug it into the phone. I plan on doing something similar to what your friend did, though I may hard wire it instead. I did that with the power for my Sirius radio (which blocks the cigarette lighter in my car anyway).

I'm also doing something similar to what you're going to do for music, except I'm cheap (and poor) so I'm building the circuit to interface with the CD changer port on my radio instead of spending the $90+ to buy one. I don't have an iPod, so I don't need to worry about the steering wheel controls working with one (with my car's radio you can only get rudimentary controls anyway from what I understand). Once I get all that working then I'll probably dump Sirius to save some dough. Pandora works well for me, and if I drive through an area with poor coverage then I can switch to playing MP3s.

I'd love to do one of those bluetooth/radio interfaces, but I just can't justify that for the amount of calls I get in the car...

 

[mlctvt]

Slacker solves this by caching music to the memory in the phone. You can cache several stations or customer stations. No need for phone access to play music. I like this for uninterrupted music on my way to Vermont through the route 112 section of little or no cell phone service.

 

[bvibert]

Slacker solves this by caching music to the memory in the phone. You can cache several stations or customer stations. No need for phone access to play music. I like this for uninterrupted music on my way to Vermont through the route 112 section of little or no cell phone service.

Good to know, I'll have to check it out, thanks!

 

[Glenn]

I think Slacker caching is good for 7 days on the free version, then it's only available in the paid version.

 

[o3jeff]

I ended up getting this mount for the Jeep. Comes with suction cup and vent clip mounts and is pretty sturdy. They didn't have it specific for my phone but I ordered the one for the iPhone and it fits fine! Also it was cheaper last week with free shipping when I ordered mine.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031U1AT6/ref=oss_product

B, if you remember tomorrow morning you can take a peek at it to see if it fits what you are looking for.

 

[Glenn]

Here's a cool one I found for BalckBerry users: http://www.yesterberry.com/

It's not really an app, but a shortcut icon that takes you to that URL. The guy has set up a bunch of streaming TV stations and converted them so they'll stream live on your blackberry. It's pretty slick. He's got a bunch of different channels, sports, news, international ect. I was able to stream some cable news, and checked out Speed TV. I imagine this uses a good amount of data, so I'd stick to wifi for using it.

Can someone with a Driod or iPhone see if it works? If you hit the URL on your PC, you get a "incompatible" message. I'm thinking he may have it set up to work with the blackberry browser...but who knows, maybe it'll work with the other mobile devices.

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

PROCLIP.com has alot of mounting options..

 

[mlctvt]

Here's a cool one I found for BalckBerry users: http://www.yesterberry.com/

It's not really an app, but a shortcut icon that takes you to that URL. The guy has set up a bunch of streaming TV stations and converted them so they'll stream live on your blackberry. It's pretty slick. He's got a bunch of different channels, sports, news, international ect. I was able to stream some cable news, and checked out Speed TV. I imagine this uses a good amount of data, so I'd stick to wifi for using it.

Can someone with a Driod or iPhone see if it works? If you hit the URL on your PC, you get a "incompatible" message. I'm thinking he may have it set up to work with the blackberry browser...but who knows, maybe it'll work with the other mobile devices.

Hi Glenn- I have a Motorola Droid X. I can hit the site but I get an error message that this site was designed for Blackberry devices and you must have a RIM account.

 

[Glenn]

Thanks mlctvt! Guess it only works on the BlackBerry.

 

[wa-loaf]

There's an SAC app for the iPhone now. I've noticed it pushes out the notice slightly faster than the SAC tracker for firefox.

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

getting iphone thursday...

 

[snowmonster]

If any of you are finance types, I recommend The Book of Jargon app.

 

[Yesterberry]

Hi Glenn- I have a Motorola Droid X. I can hit the site but I get an error message that this site was designed for Blackberry devices and you must have a RIM account.

I (hopefully) just opened up Yesterberry to work on Android devices. Feel free to check it out and let me know how it works for you; from looking over the specs, most Android devices should be able to play all our content, both live and on-demand. Keep in mind that the layout will probably be very odd since it was intended for BlackBerry phones. I can adjust this if you care to send me some screenshots of how it looks on your Droid.

 

[dmc]

getting iphone thursday...

COOL!

My new favorite app is Star Walk.. It's sick..
http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk.html

 

[Glenn]

I (hopefully) just opened up Yesterberry to work on Android devices. Feel free to check it out and let me know how it works for you; from looking over the specs, most Android devices should be able to play all our content, both live and on-demand. Keep in mind that the layout will probably be very odd since it was intended for BlackBerry phones. I can adjust this if you care to send me some screenshots of how it looks on your Droid.

Cool! And welcome aboard!

 

[Greg]

Hmm. Weird thing is that Windows Mobile just uses OWA settings to get to Exchange which is basically Webmail for Exchange. I have to imagine that Android can do the same given the prevalence of Exchange. We'll find out in September when I'm due for a phone upgrade. Any recommendations (AT&T) for phones? HTC has a nice touch screen/slide out keyboard model which is what I would want.

Well, I upgraded to a Motorola Backflip yesterday for a whopping zero dollars. Pretty cool. I finally got all my Email accounts working and Corporate Sync works well with Exchange. At first I didn't like Motoblur, but it's actually a nice way to manage all Email, texts. Once I figured out how to get rid of everyone's Facebook updates clogging the home screen...

I'm in search of the absolute best radar app there is. I'm a big fan of Intellicast's pan and zoom on desktop computers so I'd like something similar. Suggestions?

 

[roark]

I'm in search of the absolute best radar app there is. I'm a big fan of Intellicast's pan and zoom on desktop computers so I'd like something similar. Suggestions?

Interested in this as well, so far I just have the weather channel's free app... but there's gotta be something better!