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Review: Motorola Droid

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Menus Calls/Contacts Messaging  

This is where Android 2.0's features begin to stand out. Android supports multiple Gmail and Exchange accounts, SMS, MMS, IM and social networking. In other words, if you want to reach out to someone, Android offers pretty much any way to do so.

Supporting multiple Gmail and Exchange accounts is something that will most likely only be used by business users, but it is a welcome addition to the platform. Not only does it sync emails right away, but contacts and calendar information as well.

The new unified inbox means all your email accounts are lumped into one giant inbox. You can choose to employ different colored labels for your different email accounts, and this helps you sort them out visually in your inbox. This unified inbox supports both Exchange and POP/IMAP. Gmail works in the unified inbox, too, though it is restricted to IMAP and doesn't offer all the features that the separate Gmail application offers.

SMS and MMS conversations are threaded, but the basic functioning of the SMS/MMS app does not appear to be changed. From the message composition screen, pressing the menu key lets you insert smileys, manage threads and attach files.

Google Talk is supported out the box and works really well with Gmail contacts. If you want AIM, Windows Live or Yahoo IM, you're going to have to search the Android Market for them.

If you're interested in Twitter and MySpace support, you're going to have to reach out to the Android Market. Facebook, however, is baked into Android 2.0. Since it is naturally incorporated in to the contacts application, there is a fairly feature-rich application for the phone itself. You can choose to load a Facebook widget to the home screen, which lets you cycle through your friends Facebook status updates, and also can be used to launch the full application.

One thing I like about Android is that new SMS/MMS, IM and email messages don't interrupt what you're doing. If you're in the middle of something, nothing pops up on the screen and gets in your way. Instead, all the notifications are sent to the notification bar at the top of the screen. This includes Twitter updates from apps such as Twitroid. If you want to see all your recently received messages, simply pull down the notification bar and you'll see them all there.

 
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