Motorola Droid X: Accounts

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DroidX Front1We ask a lot more out of our smartphones anymore. It’s not enough to make phone calls, access the web, and receive text messages. We want them to be our communications hub. Android has become very adept at this, and will get even better with Froyo (2.2), but how does the Droid X stack up on this?

Supported Accounts

Out of the box, the Droid X supports a number of accounts:

Accounts

Social Networks like:

  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Twitter

E-mail like:

  • Corporate Sync (Exchange)
  • Email (POP3)
  • Google (multiple Gmail accounts)
  • Yahoo! Mail

Picture sites like:

  • Photobucket
  • Picasa

Additional options like:

  • Backup assistant(Verizon feature)
  • Skype Mobile
  • Visual Voice Mail (Verizon feature)

Exchange Support

I found the Exchange support works very well for me. I have heard of some folks having issues because of security settings on their company’s exchange server, but I have not had those issues. Also, it only supports syncing mail, calendar and contacts. No notes or to-do lists, but I have not use notes or tasks lists for a long time.

This can be taken care of with an add-on application, but I have not tested them much, and not for a while. There was quite a discussion of this on my Droid post last October. You may want to look at Touchdown or Moonrug.

Google has promised more robust Exchange support in Froyo (2.2). I hate to say “wait for the next release” but it is expected this year. You can check out the information on Androids Developer site.

As it stands, the exchange support handles all my needs. I also like that the exchange calendar is shown in a unified calendar view:

Cakendar

The exchange events are highlighted in blue, Gmail events in green. Each calendar you add is displayed in a different color. I did not see a way to change the color assignments, though.

Video and Pictures

YouTube is not listed in the Accounts section, but you can set up the gallery to upload to YouTube directly (large files will automatically wait for a Wi-Fi connection) and share anywhere you can e-mail. You can also upload pictures to your Picasa or Photobucket accounts, but unfortunately there is no direct Flickr support. To send to Flickr you need to e-mail it to your Flickr e-mail address (look this up on your Flickr account). I found this very disappointing. You can set a quick upload to an e-mail address (which I did to my Flickr photo address) but inexplicably this can not be set to send by your Gmail account. It is sent to your default e-mail account in the Email application.

Getting Social

After you setup your Facebook, Twitter, and (I assume) MySpace accounts, they are viewable through the social widget. I am not a big fan of this. I follow WAY too many people on Twitter, so it gets a little overwhelming. If you follow fewer people, this may not be an issue. I set the widget to only show Facebook status’ and I use Tweetcaster to follow twitter.

Conclusion

I think the Droid X handles accounts very well. For me, Flickr is a huge disappointment. HTC phones with the Sense UI work with Flickr (Droid Incredible, EVO). The work-around is OK, but not as seamless as I would prefer. The exchange support should satisfy a lot of people, but will not satisfy everyone. There are 3rd-party solutions out there thanks to the vibrant Android Market, but it will disappoint some to have to add software for what they hope is a basic function.

8 thoughts on “Motorola Droid X: Accounts”




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  2. Corporations are not going to use Android exchange support or not. Google collects a massive amount of information from Android users without their permission or knowledge. Thats their business model. Corporations don’t want this. It is a security and legal liability.

  3. derrickISONLINE

    Clearly Darwin has no idea what he’s talking about. I love it when people come to a forum and post misinformation.

    As an IT Manager for a federal defense contractor I can tell you that there are PLENTY of Android phones in the mix and all mobile devices are a security concern whether it be Android or Apple.

  4. derrickISONLINE

    PS: Bryan, what I really want to know is if that modified Exchange support now includes an inline corporate directory? I know they include it as a separate app (as they did with original Droid) but I want to start typing an address in my GAL and have it autocomplete by searching the GAL. Is that the case here?

  5. I am glad you are an IT manager derrickISONLINE , but you are misinformed as well.

    Our company is a large company in an industry that I would not like to mention publically. But we have 2 droids to testing only. So no not all companies have droids in the MIX

  6. Why does the first picture show two different facebook accounts?
    I have the same problem. -Ones for the Facebook for Android app and the others for syncing contacts. Is there any way around this? it just bugs me having two of the same account. In other words…is there any way to sync contacts from the facebook app? I have a droid razr 2.3.6 and Facebook for Android 1.9.2

  7. Not sure on your phone. The screen you are referencing in the review is for adding accounts. I only have the first FB setup, and it syncs with my contacts. I just verified that by checking some old FB friends I know I do not have in gmail. I have Android Version 2.3.4 on my Droid X and FB 1.9.0. Guess I need to go update that. 🙂

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