Initial impressions of Epocrates on the Droid (Android)

I've been testing Epocrates Rx (beta) on the Motorola Droid (running the Google Android OS) and my initial impressions are very positive. The Droid is a powerful smartphone running a super-fast 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, so the device is much faster than most smartphones, including the HTC Touch Pro2 or the iPhone 3GS. When you're browsing the web, content-heavy pages load very quickly. Google Maps with the spoken "turn-by-turn" navigation is also a great feature found on the Motorola Droid.

You can expect to see several future blog posts here on MedicalSmartphones.com as I test Epocrates on the Droid. As I test the software on Android, I'll blog about what I discover.

Today, I noticed that when I tap certain buttons, I'm not always getting the visual feedback that tells me that I touched an on-screen button. Normally, you'd see buttons change colors or change appearances when you touch it. This is a minor bug. Given that the software is still beta, this is not a big deal and I'm sure they'll fix those minor bugs when they release the final version.


It was easy to find Epocrates on the Android Market. In case you haven't tried Epocrates yet, here are the instructions:

How to Install Epocrates to your Android

To download Epocrates Rx free software to your Android, follow these simple steps:

1. Locate the Android Market on your phone and tap on it to open the Market.
2. Tap on the Search icon (the magnifying glass) and search for Epocrates.
3. Select the application and tap to install the free app.
4. On the screen that displays what the application has access to, click the OK button.
5. The program will begin to install & you will see a download notification in the upper left corner.
6. When the download is complete the notification will turn green and you can now access the app by tapping the notification that it was successfully installed, or by going into your application menu on the phone.
7. When you open Epocrates, you will be asked to enter your username and password.
8. Accept the License Agreement.

I want to thank the folks at Epocrates for sending me this test device.