How the DROID made me smarter in less than two hours
I am a new smartphone owner. I admit, given the industry I am in (web, tech, software) it’s rather pathetic I was hobbling along with a dumbphone (an Alltel LG Scoop) but circumstances had led me down that path. Several years ago, when I began dating my husband Tim, there were indications marriage might be in my future and the iPhone was not yet available. I knew it was coming, and as a T-mobile customer, I had every indication of jumping ship, paying $200 to get out of my contract and plunking down $600 the minute I could get my hands on that iPhone in June (if I recall the launch month right.)
BACKGROUND MUSINGS ABOUT THE PICKLE I WAS IN
Then Tim showed up and ruined everything. LOL! (Just joking, Mr. Colvin!) As we discussed me moving and marrying, he was having a great deal of trouble on our calls from the oil leases in Kansas where he works all day (he owns an oil company.) He was with Cingular, and in a fit, broke up with them and went over to Alltel. So now I was in a pickle… I did not end up getting the iPhone after all, as depressing as that was for me. The person it was made for, did not get to share in the experience of having an Apple-designed phone.
I moved, T-mobile service did not work well in the rural area where we live, and so I got onto Tim’s Alltel plan (for not much money on a shared plan I have to admit) and thus began my complaining career as a dumbphone owner. I had internet access, but couldn’t even tweet. The phone itself was cool, but cost way too much money for what I had access to. Tim tried to help me out by gifting me with the next best thing to an iPhone, an iPod Touch, and life became a bit sweeter. If I had wi-fi available (in my house, at family’s houses, at the downtown office in KC, at Starbucks as a gold card member, etc.) I could be as “psuedo-smart” as my REAL smartphone friends were. Still… asking Zach to tweet something clever while we are out running around town was not as fun as I imagined it could be if I had access from anywhere. :-)
So then some things happened. A while back Verizon bought Alltel, in their plans to continue increasing coverage across the country. This was a great move for them, and a benefit to us, because Alltel out here in the country is truly the ONLY consistent game in town (though I had pockets of dropped calls en route to Kansas City, where coverage didn’t exist for a few minutes here and there.) Verizon also meant that I might someday get to own an iPhone if the rumors were true. (I don’t know that they are… one has to wonder now.) Then something both annoying and amazing happened: my dumbphone broke completely. On taking it to Alltel we found that it had gotten wet, though no one knows when that happened. We tried another battery but the phone seemed to be shorting out. I contacted my dear friend who works for Verizon in an undisclosed city and may (or may not) make me privy to some behind-the-scenes discussions. LOL!! He told me to wait a week because the Droids were coming out, and he thought I would like the Eris (as an iPhone/iPod lover.) So I did. It was a long week with little mobile phone access but it was so, so worth it!!!!
THE PART WHERE I FINALLY TALK ABOUT THE DROID
I showed up promptly at 8:00 at Verizon last Friday morning, and was out of the store by 8:30 with my new Motorola Droid. I cannot describe how nervous I was about this purchase. I was immensely scared I would HATE these phones because they wouldn’t compare to my iPod Touch. I am relieved to say, that though they don’t compare in some ways, the experience has not been a bad one. It’s kind of fun to hear my Droid make bleeps and gurgles when I get a new tweet, or holler out DROID! when I get a message. I got the Motorola so I would have the keyboard if I wanted to use it, but frankly have mostly used the phone closed with the touchscreen. There is a handy little text aid they have, where it puts up a line of words as you type and if one of them fits you can just hit it once and it pops the word into your message with a space after it so you can keep typing. That has been awesome and I use it all the time. Calls are clear, and I love the feel of the screen… it’s like this expensive Macintosh I am typing on right now - sort of “slick” - I don’t know how to describe it technically.
There are many, many, many comments being made about the Droid phones and about comparisons to the iPhone now. I will try to do a Twitterface page to stream this conversation in real time, and will also link to some blog posts here. If you experienced both, compared to all the other phones on the market, I honestly think most people should grab an iPhone or Droid touchscreen phone. I am sure the Blackberry market will continue to have a hold on corporate customers for a bit, but they will need to step it up to be a choice for individuals as these phones continue to make great strides in the OS and available apps for them (my layman’s opinion.)
MY TOP 10 OBSERVATIONS, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
1. I miss Tweetie desperately. Twidroid is no substitute for Tweetie. In reality, I am going to be making an app for Twitterface but don’t know when and so in the meantime, I must have a more Tweetie-like app for my Droid or keep the iPod charged up and continue using it mostly to tweet from.
2. Pics seem a little assy on the Droid. I don’t take a lot of pics, and may not have tried in the best conditions, so for me this is not a huge deal, but just saying. I will add that Twidroid, or the OS, or something makes it WAY easy to take a pic and post it to Twitter without having to register anywhere or do anything. It is a dreamy workflow I appreciate a lot.
3. I can’t wait to use the video. It’s nice to be able to have that available though using the camera has not been what I would call an easy user experience. It’s not obvious to me when I am taking pic vs. recording and so that aspect is more of a crapshoot right now - I do not know what I’m doing.
4. The Android “Market” (like Apple’s App store) is filled with juvenile comments from folks about the apps. I seem to notice this much more than when I am getting an app from the App store for my iPod Touch. They sort of seem to expect something for nothing, it appears. It’s strange.
5. Apps I have seen do not compare to ones in the App store. The graphics seem a little more boxy/rudimentary. If I had any money at all to develop Android apps I would change that - it just requires taste and pushing devs. The Tumblr and Facebook apps, for example, just don’t have the slick feeling that they do on my iPod.
6. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to save someone as a contact, really, even when they have contacted me. My Facebook contacts show up with a pic and everything, and now ostensibly I have their phone number, but can’t save them in my contacts. That is VERY frustrating. Also, there are no pre-loaded pics to choose from, so somehow one of my contacts has my picture on it, and another one has a plate of eaten pancakes from the first pic I took. Nice. I have to master contacts as that is the thing that will actually make the phone useful.
7. I finally will be able to see and use my freaking Google calendar, which I am not good about visiting, much to Lisa Qualls chagrin. Somehow it’s more appealing to mess with it on this phone.
8. Google Maps GPS ROCKS!!! Worth the price of admission (the phone cost) if you need directions on the fly. I cannot praise it enough. Now I may actually be able to go places in Kansas City (which I am not familiar with) with some confidence. Well, I’ve done it once so far. LOL!
9. This thing gets hot on the bottom like a laptop and seems to need charging. I will need to get a car charger also. Fortunately, it uses the little usb thing, so it can charge from a computer or in the wall AND the guy at the Verizon store told me that you don’t have to worry about running battery down and then charging - you just charge away when needed.
10. I want IN on the Android Market action. This thing is ripe for players. Imagine getting a foothold in the App store when there were not as many Apps??? That’s where we are now, folks. The Android platform will grow, it will be large, it is the first major competitor to the iPhone and it’s App store that we have seen. Two years from now, the market may be a whole lot more divided than it is today, and there may be an equal number of apps for both platforms (my prediction for 2012.)
HOW MY NEW DROID MADE ME SMARTER IN RECORD TIME
So, within two hours of having my Droid, I noticed something. I liked the little “DROID!” notifications. I LOVED the Google Maps turn-by-turn voice directions that I had to use within a few minutes of leaving the store (Motorola Droid comes with full-blown GPS for FREE on the phone - the Eris does not have that right now.) So, being the software-creating girl that I am, my little brain started smoking with ideas. I was thinking about my CalorieKing software, which I use when I am being rigorous about tracking what I eat, and how one of the issues with it is that I am very sketchy about using it. I will be real good, and use it for a few days, and track my exercise and food, then I drift off and get busy and forget or don’t take time. BUT… what if it were easier, for me, the user? What if it used voice? What if I could speak to it and it talked back, more like R2D2 than a web app where I have to do all the work?
Imagine this scenario, for a moment… I am driving and holding my phone:
Me (speaking): “CalorieKing, log food”
CK (speaking back): “Logging food for Monday. What did you have for breakfast?”
Me: “Coffee, coffeemate and egg & cheese taco.”
CK: “Logged. What did you have for lunch?”
Me: “Chick-fil-a Grilled Chicken Sandwich and Unsweet Tea”
CK: “Logged. Do you know what you’re having for dinner?”
Me: “No.”
CK: “You have consumed 30% calories from fat, 15% calories from protein and 54% calories from carbs today.”
Me: “Ok.”
CK: “Have you exercised today?”
Me: “No.”
CK: “Kristi, you last exercised Friday for 30 minutes. This is incompatible with your goal for (insert goal I had listed on the site here: weight loss, greater fitness, running a marathon, etc.) Will you exercise today?”
Me: “Yes.”
CK: “Please login after exercising to record your activity. Thank you.”
Now, I may have just gotten an old-school thrashing about not exercising for 3 days, but maybe I need this. Maybe I am someone who needs to train for a race, and I can input my goals on the site, and the system will remind me, wherever I am, of my goals. Maybe I need hand-holding because I’m trying to lose or gain weight, or eat a certain percentage of carbs, protein or fat, etc. This could be WAY, WAY cool and this is only one example of an idea that was generated from playing with this phone for a short period of time.
Which leads me to a point I want to make: stay abreast of technology, even if you feel you’re too old, not technical or whatever. Experiencing new things and exposing yourself to new ideas will set off brainsparks and stimulate your imagination, using more of your brain cells and making you smarter. That is my unsolicited advice!
AND NOW FOR THE DROID LINKS
ZDNET
In Smartphone Wars, Darwinism Triumphs Over Intelligent Design
TIME MAGAZINE
Motorola Droid Review: Droid is Verizon’s Best Phone
ROBERT SCOBLE
The Droid fails AS A PRODUCT when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone
CHRIS BROGAN
First Look- Droid Phone by Motorola
MOBILE CRUNCH
Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs. Motorola Droid
Do you have a Droid or don’t want to budge from the iPhone? Tell me what you think in the comments, and feel free to ask me questions about the Droid. This post was more autobiographical than technical, I realize.
