Several questions about the LG Voyager

Hi all,

I've got several questions about the LG Voyager that I was hoping some
of you could answer. Some background information first: I've been a
Verizon customer for several years so I'm familiar with a breadth of
phones. I'm a software engineer and currently have a Motorola Q9m. I
can't stand it, and I'm wanting to move away from the smartphone realm
and get back to a basic dumbphone. I synchronize all of my calendars
and email with Google so that I have access to it anywhere. I know
that the Voyager has an HTML browser, and also features mobile mail so
before you all start commenting about it, please read the rest of this
message (as I ask a few questions later on in this post). So, here's
what I've got...

- How effective is the normal numeric keypad for quick text messages?
One thing that I hate about the Q is that it has a full QWERTY
keyboard, so typing one handed isn't so well. Sometimes, you don't
need a full keyboard for messages and one of the things that I like
the most about the Voyager is that it features a numeric keypad and a
full sized keyboard. Do any of you have any experience texting with
the numeric pad? Do you make a lot of typos with it? Is the touch
screen pretty accurate or does it constantly keep you frustrated?

- I've tested a unit in a store and it seems as if scrolling through
menus was problematic - is this true?
Because it was a demo model, it could have been miscalibrated,
mishandled from so many people messing with it, or whatever.
Regardless, scrolling seemed to be a problem as I ended up actually
pressing options rather than scrolling. Is this a constant problem, or
are there ways to rectify this?

- Is scrolling along pages on the HTML browser easy?
How does the touch screen fair when using the HTML browser? Does it
respond well? Do you simply tap a link on the page to navigate? What
about filling out forms on web pages - does the touch screen QWERTY
keyboard appear or does it require you open the phone?

- As far as Mobile Mail is concerned, if I set it up to connect to my
Gmail account via IMAP will it notify me automatically when I have new
mail?
I don't want to have to manually login and check my mail - I'd like my
phone to detect when there are new messages and then notify me. Does
it vibrate? Does it show an icon on the main screen? Any and all
feedback on this issue is appreciated as email is one of the main
things I'm going to need.

- I plan to use Google Reader and Google Calendar via the browser. Any
thoughts on either of these?

- Does the phone lock the touch screen whenever you're talking on the
phone? I'd hate to be holding the phone between my ear and shoulder
and then have my cheek press a button.

- Lastly, what are your thoughts (pros AND cons) on any and all
features mentioned here or not. I really wanna get away from
smartphone territory, but calendar, email, and being able to use the
numeric keypad (when preferred) are key to me.

I know it's a long post, but thanks in advance for the responses!
Bobby

tm4jnk@yahoo.com wrote in news:8596c060-f445-40cb-bd6b-
7133ee2bc81e@n77g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

> I know it's a long post, but thanks in advance for the responses!
> Bobby
>

I played with it for nearly 40 minutes before they ran me off at Circuit
City, so that doesn't qualify me as any kind of expert. But, alas, this
thing has got iPhone-style WebTV browser device written all over it.

Gizmodo's comments like:

"When you work your way through the interface though, you see an
envelope icon indicating messaging. It would make sense to have that
icon represent both messaging and e-mail, but alas, it doesn't. The way
Verizon handles e-mail is still half-baked at this point, though my
guess this will improve over time. At the moment, it takes many clicks
to get to it, even after it's installed: Menu>Get It Now>Tools on the
Go>Mobile Email."

and

"Browser: iPhone lovers will tell you that the iPhone has the best
browser on any phone, and to date, I think they are right. While the
Voyager does its best to capture the styles of a page, it easily
misinterprets your finger gestures (are you scrolling or clicking?) and
its lack of speed is surprising given the bandwidth advantage of EV-DO
over EDGE. I was surprised to see such an advanced browser on an LG
phone, but alas, it's still no match for browsers from Apple, RIM or
Palm."

are very telling:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/lg-voyage...-from-verizon-
wireless-reviewed-verdict-ambitious-but-flawed-323847.php

http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/8405.html
might interest you, too.

You seem more interested in business applications than a web toy with
chick magnet possibilities.....this ain't it. IM isn't buried...email
is, one of the most important features of your Q.

I've had several PDAs, the last was a Dell X51v wifi Windoze Mobile 5
crashed on 8 times a day, just like the one at the Dell kiosk in the
mall. Syncing, always syncing problems. Parallel email databases,
calendar databases, picture databases, "Where IS that damned message?"

I'm using a much better solution.....use my main computer from anywhere
on any link through Remote Desktop. When I save an email to the Parts
Ordered folder, I know exactly where it will be...right there on the big
computer when I need it because THAT's where I put it, the ONLY place I
put it. When I make a copy of an outgoing email, it's ALREADY in the
COPY TO SELF folder on the main computer, by default. I type letters,
fax them, dump documents to my printer, anything I can do from my
desktop on the desk...right from the Linux tablet I'm addicted to
running free rdesktop over the sellphone data link or any open wifi it
attaches to without a sellphone company interference. When I want a
file off the main computer on the tablet far away, I email it to me! No
more kiddie crackers overworking my little FTP server trying to break
the locks and destroy the system. (Remote Desktop is NOT using the
standard port, which seems to keep the scanners away.)

Buy a bluetooth DUN enabled sellphone to tether to. I'm using a
MotoRokr Z6m, but from what I've seen of the Z6tv on Verizon I don't
think their kluged up Z6 will work. I couldn't even find the main menu
of it. If you don't need (or want) a pocket computer on a Sunday at the
beach, just carry the little sellphone, not a huge, fragile
Voyager/iPhone/clone you're stuck using to the
beach/theatre/concert/whorehouse because it's the sellphone.

If the BT tethered laptop is too big, as mine was, look into the Nokia
N800 or N810 Linux internet tablet the sellphone company DOESN'T get to
tinker with and delete features so they can SELL you something. It's a
full COMPUTER running a mobile version of Debian called Maemo a large
group of really great programmers has turned into something really neat
with LOTS of GNU FREEWARE, not pay-me-by-the-month to use, which I think
is the REAL agenda of the Iphone, Voyager and other no-software-install,
browser-app-based phones coming out of them.

Typing....that I know. Voyager has a thumb keyboard you cannot "type"
on. It isn't as bad as a smartphone made for tiny fingers, but it sucks
for typing all but the shortest of messages, PRECISELY what a sellphone
company selling SMS messages for $900,000/gigabyte would want in it.
They don't want you to email me for free....they want you to SMS me for
BIG PROFITS, 15c/156 bytes! What IS unfortunate, but "normal" for
Verizon, is to make sure you don't get cute and connect a BT REAL
keyboard up to the Voyager so you CAN really type on it. Again,
discourage emailing long messages and encourage sending SMS at big
profits with only a limited keyboard...corporate mentality.

But, before you make this mistake, I beg you to look into the Nokia
Linux tablets, real computers with real software and real storage
without sellphone company restrictive practices I hate. There's lots of
great videos on youtube. Just enter N800 into the search box. It's
the same computer as the N810, but without the slide out stupid same
thumb keyboard style Voyager has. There's Abiword, a full featured
Linux word processor...Gnumeric, a full featured massive
spreadsheet...HP 42C scientific virtual calculator...800 pixel wide REAL
display with FINE-resolution stylus (or finger) touchscreen that does
NOT require you to zoom in to make the webpage clickers far enough apart
so a finger-only low res touchscreen can click the right link. Using
the stylus, you can pick the ONE article from:
http://news.google.com/
without zooming at all on that little 4 1/4" screen and click the
correct link...from real webpages, not cluged up "optimized" ones.

As a software engineer, you'll appreciate a working Xterm with root
access to the Linux kernel, just like at the shop. There are LOTS of
software developer tools to make your own tablet apps or modify any of
the existing tablet apps available from the various teams on:
http://garage.maemo.org/
the home of our hackers making it SO addictive. Being a Debian box,
lots of existing Linux code recompiles over to Maemo with little
modification. The crazy Nokia teams have made the tablet do robots,
industrial controls, etc. Hey, it's Linux!

The hangout and forums are on:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/
Hell, today, Nokia made a deal with the devil! We're getting
Silverlight support from Micro$oft for maemo's browsers. We already
have Flash 9, javascript, etc. This might get JAVA support cranked up
we don't have. Silverlight does some cool stuff on my desktop browsers.

The user software is on http://www.maemo.org/ from both the company and
the hackers. There's an automatic application manager that installs at
a mouse click so the users don't have to know anything about Linux.
You'll find lots of non-user softwares in the garage. You cannot,
unlike Voyager/iPHone, turn the tablet into a brick. The whole system
is resident in memory, loaded like a real computer should at bootup. If
you destroy the OS or just screw up, there's a bootloader for free that
will completely restore it, albeit without all your installed software,
from the Nokia support site. It runs in Windows so more users can use
it. It downloads the latest version of the appropriate Maemo Linux OS
from Nokia and reloads over everything in the tablet, washing away all
sins and screwups and corrupt files....and you're back in business to
screw up again...(c; "Maybe we shouldn't have deleted that file.", is
not the kiss of death...

http://www.nseries.com/n800 or n810 is the Nokia site. About $220
from Buy.com or Amazon I saw earlier today for the 800. For typing, buy
the Nokia folding BT keyboard:
http://technorati.com/tag/Nokia+SU-8W
The Fn key has a little learning curve, but I typed this message on it
over my wifi from rdesktop on the N800 pretty fast with a little
practice. I also used rdesktop to boot up the webpages quoted above on
the WinXP box's Firefox, rather than switch back and forth on the
tablet's browser because I already had the proper links on the main
Firefox, making it easier. rdesktop to XP remote desktop runs it all
except, of course, video and audio for which it's way too slow....(c;

Talk to the guys in the tablet talk forum...great sources of
information. It's their fault I got mine......