Why the Best Phone for 2016 is My Phone from 2010

The HTC Droid Incredible ADR 6300 (1st gen) has my vote for best phone of all time.

Yes, in today’s world there is an issue with certain things gobbling up the internal memory and a woefully problematic issue with the phone not being able to use the entire capacity of the internal memory for phone features (and only being able to use a TINY portion of said internal memory), but in 6 years I’ve learned to work around that.  For the trade-offs, it’s absolutely worth it.

And yes, the Incredible doesn’t have 4G LTE capability and maxes out at 3G, but I don’t care.  I just want something that fits in my pocket so I can make phone calls, take pictures, listen to music, and occasionally comparison shop by checking a price online while I’m at a store.  Sure it’s only running Android 2.3.4, but who cares?!  I don’t need Marshmallow to do any of the things mentioned above.

My tablet (LG GPad 8.3 VK810) and other devices (two rooted Galaxy S5’s) tethered to the tablet via Bluetooth take care of my higher speed data needs on the rare occasion I need a faster connection via mobile device, and when I’m traveling or on location for photo/video work, I’ve got those with me for the larger screen, faster data connection, updated Android OS, and more processing power.

But the biggest factor in my decision?  SIZE.

Size. Size. Size.

All currently available phones SUCK as far as size goes.  They’re just WAY too big!  They hurt my hand and just barely fit in my pocket.  At 4.5” x 2.25” the Droid Incredible is perfect.  If I need a larger screen for video, I’ve got my tablet.

Replaceable Battery

Before there were all these power banks so readily available now, you needed to actually swap out batteries, and the Incredible was king.  I have three high capacity batteries.  I can fly from Denver to Tokyo, watching videos the whole way, without worrying about running out of juice.  I’m more likely to use a power bank now, but it’s comforting to know I’ve got extra batteries that are VERY easy to swap out if I need them.  Not to mention my bedside charging dock also has a slot to charge an extra battery.

Expandable Storage

It’s true that the Incredible has issues in regard to internal memory, BUT it also supports micro SD cards.  My current Incredible has a 128 GB micro SD card.  And I’ve got extras for traveling with even more movies and music and photo/video storage.  I’ve got THOUSANDS of movies and lossless music files available (without streaming) at any given moment.

The Dedicated (and physical) Optical Cursor Pad

Why did mobile makers end this fantastic feature?!  My Droid has an optical cursor pad that allows you to move your cursor around the screen instead of trying to pin point your cursor location with your big, fat finger on a mobile screen while you YEARN to at least have cursor arrows always available (aggravating on even the largest of current devices).  Not only that, but it functions as a PHYSICAL button for camera, etc., and since it’s optical, it could have also functioned as a fingerprint reader if they’d have taken the next logical step.

Landscape Docking

The Incredible’s USB port is on the side.  That means the charging dock orients your phone in landscape.  It’s perfect for watching video while connected to power and using as a bedside clock.  Why did phones stop doing this?!

Beautiful and Responsive AMOLED Screen

Why are companies putting 4K screens in mobile devices?!  There is a massively diminishing return on pixel density and resolution for mobile devices, especially since the screen is the number one thing that gobbles up battery power.  The size and resolution of the Droid Incredible is a serious sweet spot that shouldn’t be ignored.

Not to mention, I’ve replaced the screen 4 times (I’m hard on phones).  It costs $10 to do so (cheaper than a screen protector on a lot of phones).  It’s an easy swap, and the screen has always been cheap and readily available via Amazon.

Camera

True, the phone only has an 8MP camera, but the results are actually quite good (though this phone was before phones had HDR, so I do really miss that), and I love that the phone is so tiny that people are less likely to notice you shooting like when you’re using one of today’s GIANT phones.  Plus, the Droid Inc. was the first phone to have a decent LED flash (though it still sucked, as do most LED flashes available on new phones), and one that could actually be TURNED ON to use as a flashlight!  There is also no front-facing camera for video calls, but that’s something I actually prefer.  If I want to make a video call, I’ll use my tablet.

 

So the Droid Incredible doesn’t have a SIM card or LTE, only has an 8MP camera, has some internal memory issues (that can be worked around), and is maxed out at Android 2.3.4.  But all these things considered, to me it’s still a better phone than anything offered today.  For a phone from half a decade ago, that’s pretty… Incredible and STILL the Droid that I am looking for (to my credit, I didn’t do either of those things until now).

 

The current contenders that just don’t cut it:

Sony Experia Z5c

The ONLY currently viable available-to-purchase-new phone where the size is right.  The camera is awesome.  It’s got (had) the best processor available (Snapdragon 810 octacore) until the Snapdragon 820 comes out with the new Flagships this week (S7, G5, etc.).  This is the phone I would have if I could, but I’m not willing to pony up $450 for a phone that might work using only LTE on Verizon’s CDMA network (it’s a GSM phone).  Again, this would be THE phone for me, but no US carrier sells it, so you have to buy it unlocked and outright, and the US warranty version has slower data speed than the euro version and no fingerprint reader.  I can buy the euro version via Amazon, but it’s a gamble.  Why does Sony always take it right to the line and then drop it?!

LG G5

The “modular” thing seems to me like a gimmick and defeats the purpose of having everything you need in/on your phone at all times by requiring you to insert modules.  Why not just carry around separate devices for all the things those modules cover?  How is it different? Plus, the phone is gigantic.

LG VK10

The camera is amazing.  The audio processor is amazing.  It’s beautiful.  But the phone is FREAKING gigantic.

Samsung S5, S6, S7

The S5 has been my main phone for a couple years.  The camera is pretty good (I actually shot a 4K video shoot with it… UNDER WATER FOR 8 HOURS!).  The hardware is actually pretty amazing.  However, the way Samsung and Verizon have absolutely crippled the phone is shameful.  Not a day goes by that I don’t scream “I HATE THIS PHONE!” But it’s not the phone’s fault, it’s the software.  I’ve got a second G5 that I rooted, and it’s fantastic.  But again… the phone is huge.

HTC One (M8, M9, M10)

Meh.  The camera in the M8 was supposed to be a game changer, but it’s really not all that (in fact, it’s quite bad).  I do love the stereo front facing speakers and how the phone looks.  And now in 2016 CFO Chialin Chang is promising, “We can confidently say that HTC will have a very, very compelling camera experience,” but I certainly don’t trust that statement, because it’s what they said about the sh*tty camera they put in the M8!  Also, it’s just too big!

OnePlusX

Not for Verizon.  Even on AT&T there were lot’s of problems with the bandwidth not being correct for the US market with earlier phones (1 and 2).  I’m just not willing to take the gamble.  Plus, its too damn big!

Nexus 6

Seems to be a pretty good phone, though I don’t like the “bump out” for the camera lens on the back.  But it’s gigantic.

iPhone

I hate Mac and it has no place in my work flow.  The end.  Well, maybe not the end.  To be fair, Mac has the prettiest hardware.  I actually like the form factor of the iPhone 5s.  And the iPhone 4 is probably my favorite mobile phone form factor of all time (I love the metal edge with the metal buttons and flip switch).  But with my work flow and being a control freak, I just can’t live in the Mac world.  I also hate how they obsolete (yes, I’m using “obsolete” as a verb) their own hardware every 10 seconds.  Seriously?  You can’t realistically run the current iOS (9) on their last gen phone?! Ridiculous.  And the iPhone 6 (and especially 6 plus) is… too big!

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Key Ring App for Android

Oh, man, I love this app!

I hate having all those freakin’ little pieces of plastic with UPC codes hanging from my keychain just so I can be sure to get the “fair” price (instead of ridiculously inflated ones) at my local retailers.

I know some places associate your phone number with your UPC code, but I don’t like the idea of the grocery store (or anyone else) having my personal number.  I’m sure they are selling it to lists all over the planet.

I’d been using a phony number (note my awesome pun) for these associations, but not everybody will take a phone number, and this app solution is better anyway.

I can’t believe no one thought to do this before, but the Key Ring app lets you scan in all those UPC codes and store them on your phone!  You just pull up the appropriate UPC and have the check-out person scan the image directly from your phone’s screen.

PERFECT.  No more overloaded key chains for me!

The process is simple.  Open the app and click “add card” and the app uses your camera to scan the UPC code from any card.  You can choose a retailer from a rather extensive list (Safeway, King Soopers, Blockbuster, PetSmart, etc.), but if the place you’re scanning isn’t on the list (like my local library), that’s OK.  Just add your own title.  You can even suggest it to the online database.

If you’re having trouble getting the UPC to load-in via your camera (like if you have an old, ratty, illegible UPC tag), you can manually enter the number via your keypad.

Key Ring even takes it a few steps further by allowing you to create an online account.  You can manage your information and they will send coupons directly to your phone for various retailers so you can have the check-out person scan the UPC for the coupon from your phone!

As I am paranoid about the privacy of my number (the reason for having this app in the first place), I am not using the online account option.  The app works perfectly (sans coupons) without creating an online account.

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Application Data Space Is Low

[update July 2011]  So I finally bit the bullet and clicked the "clear data" button for the Dialer application.  It was at an incredible 70MB, but I feared I would lose all kinds of contact information.  Turns out it has more to do with stored SMS and MMS, as all my messages were wiped after doing this (luckily I thought to run a data back up before doing this.  I guess HTC thinks it needs to store SMS/MMS data in the Dialer Application AS WELL as the SMS and MMS programs? WTF? Anyway, I haven't had any storage issues at all since doing this.  In fact, I reinstalled a bunch of apps I had deleted for space, including Netflix, and have experienced no issues whatsoever.  Just thought you might like to know.

[update June 2011]  This is getting effing ridiculous.  I have removed Facebook.  I have removed all SMS and MMS.  I have moved every application possible to the SD card.  I went into Apps and cleared all caches (and even some data from programs).  Still, I am not able to even listen to my voice mail (of which I only have ONE), because I get the message: "Unable to manage your messages because your storage is full.  Please delete content from other applications to make more space."

I have more than 6GB of free space on the phone.  If HTC/Google doesn't fix this sh*t soon, they are losing a customer (I assume many).

Topics covered:

• managing SMS and MMS
• application data space and application space

Ah, the dreaded HTC/Android “Application Data Space Is Low” error.

Hopefully the genius architect who coded HTC phones to only allow a miniscule amount of a phone’s memory to be used for app data has been fired, ‘cause this is a horrible over site.  You should at least be allowed to change this setting yourself (allocate an amount of memory to system vs. data).

I’ve got more than 5GB of free space on my phone’s memory, yet my Droid Incredible keeps screaming at me: “Application Data Space is Low!”

There are quite a few apps at which people often point fingers.  The two biggest culprits I’ve found in my searches were Facebook and News Rob (or other RSS/Feed readers that cache data locally).

Another thing I learned is don’t EVER sync the Facebook App to your phone for your contacts.  You don’t need (or want) every friend you have on Facebook synced to your device.  The HTC Facebook app that came with your phone does a great job of syncing faces to the numbers you have on your phone.  If you allow the app you downloaded from the market or Facebook to sync, it will store a lot of useless data on your device.

HTC Mail often gobbles up application memory as well.  Clear your stored mail!
Here’s a list of some of the top space gobblers on my device (this is just the space the actual app takes up –not necessarily its data):

• Dialer Storage: 62.57 MB (wtf?!)
• Contact Storage: 21.23MB
• Firefox: 17.71MB (this is way to much, I think I’m deleting the app)
• Google Earth: 15.06MB (I’ve never used this; I think I’m deleting it)
• Google Maps: 10.63MB

The next app (doubleTwist) is at 6.35MB and they get smaller from there –all under 7MB.
To find apps that are gobbling up too much data resource, go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applciations > Running (or All) and look for the culprit.

Some people have also had success just clearing the cache for various apps.  Don’t hit “Clear data” as that will clear user names and important data for the app.

Another thing that can help is where you store your apps.  I’ve got a 16GB SD Card in my phone, so I try to store as many “non-speed sensitive” apps as possible on the SD card instead of internal memory. Unfortunately your apps will start competing with the space for your media (songs and videos) when you do this.

THE FINAL SOLUTION (for me): The thing that I never really thought about (duh!) is that I’ve had my phone for going on a year, and I’ve never backed up my SMS or MMS.  That data can build up, so I assume it’s taking up a lot of space –especially with all those MMS photos.  Some of my conversation threads have over 1,000 messages (I’m looking at you Mikey B, Miguel, and E)!

Deleting text messages seems to be a long and laborious process unless you do a “select all” and just wipe everything.  You can also just delete certain threads (conversations with certain people) by long pressing the conversation and selecting “delete.”  Note that you can “lock” specific messages (under the message’s long-press menu) so that when you delete the entire conversation those messages won’t be deleted; just be sure you don’t tick “delete locked messages” when you’re deleting the thread.

To save future pain, you can set the number of messages your phone will keep.  Just be sure to back up your SMS/MMS often unless you’re not worried about archiving your messages.
Go into your message app.  Click the second icon at the bottom of the screen (it’s a text bubble with lines overlapping a text bubble with an icon).  Press menu.  Press settings.  Click “Delete old messages,” and set “Text message limit” and “Multimedia message limit” as you wish.  These settings are per conversation (not total).

ALSO: Scroll down to MMS settings and select Attachment Storage.  Change it to SD Card.
You can also change your voicemail attachment storage location from here (scroll down a little farther on the main message settings screen).

This whole shabang has brought me to the search for a good back up app.  There are some fun apps that backup SMS to Gmail, but none of these handle MMS, and I’d like a more robust back up app anyway (for apps, call logs, etc.), so I think I’ll be going with MyBackUp.  More on that in another post soon!
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How to Sync Music, Video, Podcasts, and Playlists to Your Android Device (doubleTwist)

Last time I did a post on this topic, doubleTwist wasn’t available for the Droid Incredible.  Not only that, things were in beta, and the program was lacking in many, many ways.

Well, like a pack of Virginia Slims, these guys have come a loooooong way, baby (eesh --did I just write that?!).

The guys over at MarkSpace sent me a copy of Missing Sync for Android, and at first I thought they had the solution to things, but then I realized they were falling short by ignoring the fact that Android playlists HAVE TO be .m3u –which Missing Sync doesn’t convert or correct (not to mention the program was laggy and I couldn’t get the photo sync didn’t work at all).  Not to mention that The MissingSync does its thing over BlueTooth or WiFi, and while that may sound convenient… it takes FOREVER.

So after a couple of months I returned to the issue, and all online information seemed to be pointing to doubleTwist.

The doubleTwist player itself isn’t good enough to get me to stop using iTunes (I’ll still use iTunes, and then open up doubleTwist when I want to sync my device), but they seem pretty damn close to having things where they should be.  I can’t imagine that in the next couple of revisions they won’t have me abandoning iTunes altogether.

Everything else seems to be spot-on.  Things are so intuitive and self-explanatory, that I don’t think I really need to explain how to use the software.  Just plug in your device and go! 

NOTE: “Refresh playlists from iTunes” is not ticked by default, so don’t forget to open your doubleTwist preferences and mark the box so that the program refreshes your playlists.

VIDEO: I am actually astounded by how well this works.  It’s not that the concept is mind-blowing, it’s just that it actually works!  So many products have claimed the ability to do this, but none I have used have worked this well

I have a bunch of .avi files from recorded TV shows that won’t play on my Droid.  Rather than convert them all manually, I can simply add them to a playlist in doubleTwist and select that playlist to sync with my phone.  doubleTwist does all the work, and the files are converted during the sync!  The quality is great and the size is appropriate (an hour long television show sans commercials, so approximately 44 minutes, is around 320-330MB).

Positives:

• Great handling of Music (which is astoundingly absent from the suite of tools available for Android)
  
• Great handling of Podcasts (allows settings for number of episode to keep/sync)
  
• Great handling of Video (auto-converts to device appropriate format!)
  
• Great handling of Playlists (auto-converts playlists to Android-friendly .m3u’s!)
  
• Great handling of Photos (bring photos in from device, or sync photos from computer to device)

Gripes:

• It’s pretty slo-o-o-ow.  Even clicking on column headers to reorganize how your songs are displayed, there is some serious lag.
  
  Each time you open the program, doubleTwist re-imports your playlists content.  It takes forever.  I guess there’s no getting around this, as it needs to check your iTunes library and playlists each time (and I’ve got quite a bit of media), but perhaps there is some code to be written that will allow the software to look for changes instead of repopulating everything each time you open the program –actually, after checking things out I think this is what’s happening, but there’s got to be some more efficient code?
  
• The only application linked to the photo section is Flickr.  Seriously?!  Does anyone REALLY use Flickr anymore?  Please update this with Picasa, guys.

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Plugging in Android Device Launches Verizon Ad… EVERY TIME (fix)

I don’t know why more fuss hasn’t been made about the fact that Verizon has loaded up devices updated to Froyo with adware.  I was excited when my Droid Incredible updated to Froyo, but now every time I plug my device into my laptop, I’m asked if I want to install Verizon’s crappy media software, AND I’m taken to the Verizon VCast website, where a lengthy advertisement plays.

EVERY TIME I PLUG IN THE DEVICE.

The fix is also surprisingly hidden, but here is how you turn off the Verizon ad pop-up when you plug in your Android device (disable VCast launch):

• Dial ##7764726
• Hit Call
• Type Password is 000000
• Hit Feature Settings
• Choose CD ROM
• Click Disable
• Hit menu, commit modifications (it will say no item changed)
• Back out to home

For some reason, when I try the above, my keyboard won’t work and thus I cannot enter the password.  So, I tried the following method that another kind soul suggested:

What I found with this is that when the dialog to install the software is up if you check windows device manager you will see another cd drive.  if you right click that drive for the properties you can disable it so on future usb connections the software will not try to load.  This way you do not have to disable auto start for everything on the PC. –MrElk, Verizon Wireless Droid Community Forums

The above method definitely worked, but realize that you need to enter your Windows Device Manager WHILE the pop-up dialogue is open (once you dismiss the dialogue, the drive disappears from the Device Manager).  After restarting my computer, the phone still opens the windows “auto play” dialogue (which I want), but does NOT activate the VCast pop up or spawn a browser window with the VCast ad.

I also found this extremely interesting:

BTW: I contacted VZW through this site, about the pop-up and they said there was no way to disable it; that it would cease if I downloaded the software.  I gave that a shot even though I wasn't going to use it. Of course, after its downloaded, it starts up when you plug the phone in!!! –Jeff1953, Verizon Wireless Droid Community Forums

Isn’t it awesome that Verizon is LYING to their customers (as if the adware wasn’t heinous enough).

Syncing Music and Playlists with Android 2.1

9-9-10 update: doubleTwist is the current king.  See end of this post for more info.

The bad news is that my new Droid Incredible doesn’t read .xml or .asx playlists, only .m3u.  So while it’s relatively easily to sync music to the device (Windows Media Player does it natively, iTunes requires a little program called iTunes Agent), getting playlists to sync is a bit trickier.

You can get Windows Media Player to save playlists as .m3u, but it really wants to save as .asx or .wpl, so it’s a pretty serious pain in the butt (you have to actually “save as” the playlist, and then you have the original .wpl AND the new .m3u in your library, and making sure you then delete the right one is a pain, blah, blah, blah…). [update: Unfortunately when Windows Media Player syncs with your device, it saves the playlist on your device as an .asx, so it’s no good for Android devices.  I found this out after a LOT of messing around with exporting my iTunes playlists to WMP via MusicBridge and then saving each .wpl list as an .m3u and then deleting the previous .wpl… only to have the files converted to (unusable) .asx files once WMP synced with my Droid.  There doesn’t seem to be any way around this.  Even changing the .asx playlist to an .m3u playlist on your device doesn’t matter –it will be re-created as an .asx file on your next WMP sync (the .m3u list on the device won’t be updated –a new .asx is created).  Annoying to say the least.]

There is a program called The Missing Sync that is just what it says, the missing sync software that SHOULD come with your Android device (what the hell Android/HTC?).  It supposedly syncs texts, contacts, photos, video, music, playlists, ringtones, call history, etc.  However, I’m not willing to drop $39.95 to try it out, especially when the Incredible isn’t specifically listed as a supported device on their website (the Moto Droid is the newest device listed). [update: The Incredible is supported, and my review of The Missing Sync is here.]

I used iTunes Agent for a couple of minutes, but then realized it will only sync music (not playlists).  iTunes Agent is a little program that sits in your tray constantly monitoring for iTunes.  It places a folder for your device in the iTunes playlists, and when you hook up your device it syncs all songs in that folder to your device.  However, like I said, there is NO support for playlists.  The author has been promising playlist support in version 2.0 for some years now, but considering how long he’s been promising this, I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

THIS IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION:  There is another program called iTunes Export by Eric Daugherty that does the trick for me.  Simply install the program and use the GUI version (unless you’re really into command lines) and then select your library location, select the playlist(s) you want to sync, set your output directory to the music directory on your device (SD card or phone memory), select “include UTF-8 BOM” (or it won’t work), select “copy iTunes Structure” (so files sync into folders that are identical to your music library, the “author – album” structure), and you’re golden!  Just remember to run iTunes Export after you’ve made any changes to your iTunes playlists.  It’s a bit of a pain having to run a separate program to get your playlists to sync after any changes you make in iTunes, but this is the best workaround I’ve found.

doubleTwist is another program getting some attention, but it’s Moto Droid support is only in Beta, and there doesn’t seem to be Incredible support yet (they do support the Palm Pre though, for those of you looking for the elusive link between iTunes and the Pre).

9-9-10 update: doubleTwist is the current king.  With recent updates, you simply install the desktop app, click “iTunes” to import playlists, and off you go!!!  It will also convert an video to the proper format for your phone.  Just drag any video file into the app and it’ll convert for you.   I’ll likely do a review soon.

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