shawnw.orgfaith – technology – culture

1. A solid SMS client – I love the look of the SMS client but sometimes it takes forever to load (and occasionally crashes). The very nature of SMS requires speed (heck, the first S stands for short!) and the Droid SMS client misses the mark.
2. Gmail Tasks integration – Tasks isn’t a Labs feature anymore. It’s enabled by default in Gmail. So why isn’t it built into the Android Gmail client? Big fat zero on this one.
3. Google Apps calendar integration – not there yet. Instead, you have to share your Google Apps calendar with your Gmail account’s calendar to see your Google Apps calendar on the Droid. Weak.
4. A great music player – the built-in player barely has more than shuffle and repeat. It’s also ugly. I’ve seen three year old flip phones with better music players than the Droid.

This list makes it sound like I hate the Droid. Not at all. I’m very happy with it. The Gmail client, for the most part, is amazing, the browser is almost as good as a desktop browser, the actual phone software is responsive and easy to use, and the user interface is clean and easy to understand.

The four features I mention simply should have been better at launch. If you own a Droid, your list is probably different than mine (if so, be sure to share in the comments!). I’m also sure we’ll see fixes for these things with future updates.

Be sure to use the comments to ask questions, and to talk about what you like and what can be better about the Droid!