I installed Android on my HD2 a couple weeks ago. Initially, I thought I would continue to use Windows Mobile 6.5 as my main OS, but just hop into Android once in a while for games and apps not available in WM.
You see, when I had my Touch Pro 2 a while back (about nine months ago), I also installed Android as a secondary OS. I played around with it a little bit, and at the time, wasn’t impressed. There was no tethering, no MS Office equivalent, and not that many apps - or none that I find particularly useful. My major disappointment with Android back then was that there’s app for Google Docs. There’s Google Voice, which was great, but Docs was what I used most. You’d think that would be the first set of apps Google would launch with the phone. It was even difficult to find a telnet application. I installed, I meh, and never went back … until now.
OK, APPS ARE COOL
A lot have changed since then. First, I was kinda tired of seeing the same set of apps being featured on the Marketplace for Windows Mobile. It sets in pretty quickly that development on that platform has stopped. Android, on the other hand, went from 1,000 apps to 100,000 apps in that span of time - pretty impressive. Most of them are free, being supported by revenue generated from ads. There’s still no Google Docs, but you get the next best thing - you can actually edit Docs on the web browser. For each WM app I’ve installed, there’s 20-30 equivalent Android apps to choose from. There are also 99,000 other apps you can’t find in WM’s Marketplace.
DOLPHIN BROWSER HD
The app that convinced me to abandon Windows Mobile was Dolphin Browser HD. It’s the closest thing to Firefox in mobile browser land. It’s just as fast as the default Android browser, but with additional features that you’re accustomed to with your desktop browser. Flash and Ajax works. Compared to Opera Mobile 10 on WM, Ajax is so much faster on Dolphin. You also get actual tabs in the header; a sidebar for bookmarks, browsing history, and favorites; and addons - yup, you read that right, addons. So far, there aren’t many, but what they have is pretty useful, especially for web developers. I’ve installed a bunch - Alexa Rank, Whois, Google PR, Screen Cut (screen cap), Speed Dial (ala Opera Mini), and Read It Later. How do they fit all that in a tiny cell phone screen? If you’re zoomed out, you can access the left sidebar by sliding to the right; sliding left would unveil addons; you can scroll horizontally to access hidden tabs in the header. It’s actually pretty intuitive and not cluttered (as you might think). Another nice feature is gesture navigation. You can create your own gestures to navigate the page, the tabs, or open up websites. It's a very handy and useful feature. Dolphin HD takes mobile browsing to a whole new level.
CUT-AND-PASTE
The other feature that convinced me to finally switch is copy-and-paste. Sure, Windows Mobile has it for a while, but its very clunky compared to the Android version.
I use the phone to update Wopular pretty often, so the web browser and copy-and-paste features are crucial.
BATTERY LIFE
There was only one issue holding me back - battery life sucks on HD2 Android ports. You’ll be lucky to get a couple hours of heavy usage. Fortunately, I followed a set of tweaks here and is able to last a full day without re-charging. Apparently, the sooner you boot into Android from Windows Mobile, the better your battery life. I installed Exceller’s Multiple Build Loader and set it to boot 3 secs after Windows Mobile is fully loaded. It helps to have Windows Mobile boot up asap too so I disabled Sense and took everything out of the Windows Startup folder except for the Exceller app. That’s mainly it for the HD2 Android port. It also helps to follow these general battery-saving guidelines for all Android devices (i.e. turn off wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, and Data until you need it).
REFERENCE:
Dolphin Browser HD
http://home.dolphin-browser.com/tunny/Home.htm
Save battery while running ANY Android build
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734886
(Only for HD2 Android Ports)
Exceller’s Multiple Build Loader
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=737001
(Use this to automatically load up your HD2 Android build from Windows Mobile)
Complete Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/25319/complete-guide-to-maximizing-your-a...
(Works for all Android devices)
