Accessing the arbiter from a Droid
 

I am looking at getting a Motorola Droid from Verizon. One of the first things that I tried was to see if I could access the arbiter from the browser. Sad to say, but I kept getting a 'timed out' error. Is anyone using the Droid to access the atbiter?

Dear God, first Ipods, now something called a "Droid."

Works on iPhone

Looking to get one once my phone comes up for renewal in April.

I'm such a geek...

I'm looking at getting a Droid, too.

Droid? Or Android?

Droid is a specific phone that's made by Motorola, and it runs the Android operating system.

Ubergeek! :cool:

You say that like it's a bad thing. :)

Actually, I am looking at the Droid with the Android OS. What I have discovered over the last couple of days is that the arbiter is accessiable with the Droid. You just need to download the Dolphon browser which comes at the right price... FREE. :D

You might want to check out opera mini web browser as well at half the price of dolphin. :D Also Google is launching a new phone shortly that runs on android as well.

OK Geeks - Is any of this operated by sprint?
If not what do YOU say is the best Sprint available device for Arbiter, EMail, and dirty pictures:eek:) -(or not).

I have a 2 yr. old Sprint Palm which I don't like (too small screen).

I also have an ATT BB (from work) - it would be nice to sync the two phone books

Hugo...there comes a time as we age when we have to admit that a 46" screen is too small....... :D

Don't tell my wife that. We just put a 42" plasma TV in our bedroom!

Okay, to be clear on our terminology, there's the Droid, which is a specific phone made by Motorola and offered by Verizon.

Then there's Android, which is not a phone, but an operating system RUN by phones and made by Google. Different phones run the Android OS, such as the G1, the HTC Hero, and numerous others.

If you're a Sprint subscriber like I am, you have three major options: Palm Pre, HTC Hero or Blackberry.

Blackberry is currently the most prevalent smartphone for Sprint, but there aren't very many apps for them anymore. No one's developing. Plus, the browser kind of sucks.

The Palm Pre is gaining popularity, but is still seriously behind the iPhone in terms of development. However, my wife has one, and it works pretty well for her. We do not use Arbiter here, so I have no way to test it...

The HTC Hero is an Android OS-based phone. There's a LOT of buzz in the tech world about the Android, as it's the anti-Apple. It's more "open" to developers than Apple is. Apple currently requires any apps to get "approved" by Apple before you may install it onto the iPhone, which turns off a number of developers. Browsing should be (though I haven't thoroughly tested it) the best around, on par with the iPhone. Unlike the Blackberry and Palm Pre, it's an actual, tried-and-true browser. Engadget gave it its review here. Not a very positive review, but the review is geared more towards geeks.

When my phone comes up for renewal in April, I plan on getting the HTC Hero, unless there's another Android phone available for Sprint by that time.

If web browsing is important to you, go with an Android phone (even if on AT&Tingular, IMO). With an Android phone, you have a choice of several browsers and are not stuck with the one the manufacturer approves for you (e.g. Apple). The latest release of Android (2.1, which is on the just announced Google Nexus phone ... actually made by HTC, by the way) is supposed to be noticeably faster in web browsing than earlier releases. (IOW, make sure your Android phone can be updated to the latest release of Android when it is made available.)

It'd be nice if AT&T would come out with an Android phone. I know that Google is selling the Nexus One unlocked but I don't want to pay that much for one. I'll stick with my Blackberry 9000 for now, which loads both Arbiter and RefTown just fine. :)

Droid. I also looked at the HTC Droid lite (or whatever VZW actually calls it, I think it's the Hero for another carrier) and it didn't seem as nice/sturdy/useful/etc.

I really think I would like a Palm Pre. But being a Verizon user... VZW gets the Palm phones 6-9 months behind Sprint, and initially charges too much for them, so in no-time, Palm has quit making them for the next big thing they're making for Sprint and I'm left without a Palm OS smart phone. Has happened three times.

A while back I won a Palm Centro in a contest. But it turned out to be Sprint branded and Verizon wouldn't touch it, even when they started offering Centros. I ended up selling it on eBay.

That's odd, since Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA (which is why you can't put an iPhone on Sprint or Verizon).

VZ just says no.

However, my understanding is that each vendor has their own firmware that controls such things as phone menus and what bluetooth functionality works. VZW isn't going to allow a phone without their firmware to be used on their network and thinks that loading their firmware on the Sprint phone is just too much trouble for their field techs to learn to do, when they're "not getting any money", i.e. for the phone sale.

What they don't understand is that they're also not having to offset a subsidy/discount on the phone so they're actually getting my full monthly check... plus I would have had to buy and e-mail/data plan... yet more money.

So, I've just kept getting "free" or cheapest phones while waiting for "my" smartphone to show up.

Finally got it...
 

I finally got the Droid last night. What an awesome phone. I have only had it for 24 hours but would recommend this phone to everyone. Now to venture through all of the apps.

And like every other computer (which this phone is), it is probably already out of date. :rolleyes:

So my new Android-based phone arrived yesterday. Absolutely LOVING it. I could test Arbiter out if anyone has access to a test account that I can try.

My geek meter is pegged off the charts right now.

What brand/model did you get, NCASA Ump?

HTC Hero from Sprint

Sending this from my Android phone. The advantage of having an actual browser on the phone. What doesn't this do? :)

Pay the bill to send that message for you.

Actually, we're on autopay. Automatically bills our credit card, and our bank's bill pay handles that every month. All we have to do is review the bill for inconsistencies.

Boy, you talk about a load of ****. Does the phone make deposits to the bank to pay for itself?

If it did, I wouldn't be here. I'd be sitting on a beach, adding 20%.