3 Problems w/droid - Any Ideas?

I pre-ordered my Droid and have had it since the day it was released. I like the phone a lot, but there are 3 pretty big issues with the phone's operating system.

1 - Contacts. I loaded my 250 plus business contacts from Outlook, and the phone insists on alphabetizing by first name, not by last name as most of the rest of the known universe operates. So far I haven't seen an update or app to correct this.

2 - Voice command to make a call. If I say "Call John Smith cell" on my old Windows Mobile PDA, it asked "Did you say call John Smith cell"?  I'd say "yes" and it would say "connecting" and connect. On the Droid, if I say "Call John Smith cell", it displays all of John Smith's numbers and forces me to select one by hand. HOW IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE HANDS FREE??!??!? Does anyone know if there are secret voice commands to get the Droid to call a person's certain number directly?

3 - Text Messages. Windows Mobile was smart enough to know that you could only send a text message to a cell phone. Apparently the Droid can't figure this out, so every time I send a text message to someone I have to make sure the text message phone number is for their cell and not their work or business number. Has anyone found an app or work around for this?

As a PDA, I really like the Droid. Unfortunately it seems as though HTC came up with this great, incredibly fast and powerful PDA, and then decided they'd better slap a phone on it, as though it was an after thought.

I'm REALLY hoping there will be software upgrades that will address these pretty obvious shortcomings.

Hi Droidman:

I know you responded to my first 2 questions in a prior post, but I'm looking for solutions.

I guess the next logical question is whether the phone's operating system/features are a subset of Google's Android OS or HTC's OS. If Google's, I would think they'd want to address the phone issues in a timely fashion if they want the Droid to be taken seriously as a business tool.

If the phone OS is HTC's responsibility, I'm guessing that they will indeed address the issues, either in updates for this phone or a new model. I'll keep looking for updates and apps that address the shortcomings.

There is one more frustrating issue in regard to text composition. Should you type in text and, upon proofing, have to go back to correct a word or letter, there's no easy way to move the cursor around, such as left/right/up/down arrows on a normal QWERTY keyboard. (Or if there is an efficient way to do it, I haven't found it either by experimentation or the user manual) Instead you're forced to use either the "joystick/enter button" or sliding your finger around the screen to drag the cursor. Unfortunately these methods are less than adequate, as more often than not you'll inadvertently cause "enter" to happen and be taken to the next menu window.

My whole point is that this PDA rocks as a PDA. Really fast, lots of power, killer apps and so far I haven't been able to crash it. However the communication tools are less than perfect. Again, I'd love to see HTC/Google address these issues to make this phone the monster it wants to be, as I really like this PDA.

Droidman: is there any way to contact Product Development at HTC and Google to discuss these issues, or do they just read all the forums for info?

Regards,
TechDr

Hi Again!

Just downloaded Vlingo from www.vlingo.com which solved my hands free voice dialing issues. I learned about them from HTC's Aria forum on their web site. Yes, I had to pay $9.99, but it works like a champ. It recognizes not only the command and name, but also such things as "cell", "home" and "work", plus it has a lot more features than the voice recognition program that comes with Windows Mobile. And, of course, you can use it for voice input for text. I'd definitely recommend it to fellow HTC Aria users.

Regarding the optical mouse: I must be using it wrong, as I continually hit "enter". Any tips you can pass along?

Now if I can just find an app to painlessly change the sort order in my contacts ....

Regards,
TechDr

Glad to hear it Techdr and thank you for the new knowledge!