Most people find it strange that I don’t want an iPhone. I’ve been a Mac-snob since waaaay before it was cool to be a Mac-snob. I’m not looking for street cred, here, I’m just saying that it is a little unusual for me to not want something new that Apple puts out.
But I like having buttons, for one. And the longer the iPhone was out the less I was convinced I really liked the iPhone OS and the way apps are handled, etc etc. I also won’t switch carriers for it (I am happy with Sprint, thankyouverymuch). I was pretty happy in Blackberry-land, anyway, with my physical keyboard and less graphic-y interface.
Then I started hearing about Android phones. Interested, yes. But I remained sated with my Blackberry for the moment. Until the abuse I put my Blackberry through finally started catching up with me. And then I was at the Sprint store and they told me I was eligible for an upgrade… and I couldn’t quite justify getting another Blackberry. Sprint hasn’t updated their Blackberry line in a while and it seemed silly to get a new phone that isn’t brand-new-to-the-market.
Okay, that’s a ridiculous reason, I know. But I managed to talk myself in to the Samsung Moment, running Android (Sprint’s other option is the HTC Hero, which has no physical keyboard, so it wasn’t an option for me).
I know there are some mixed reviews out there about the phone — I read them all before I made my decision. But holy crap I love it. I think this might be how other people feel about their iPhones. I have my keyboard, I have some open-source software, I have all kinds of apps that do things that I didn’t even know that I needed done!
So far my top 5 favorite practical apps are:
- Google Voice — I can use my google voice account straight from my phone to send texts/make calls, etc.
- Advanced Task Killer — since Android allows you to run multiple apps at once, sometimes you can end up running 15 apps and then things can slow down. ATK allows you to quickly and easily quit all the running apps at once.
- Google Maps — on my BB, Google Maps was wonderful, but had one major drawback for me: No public transit option. The version I have now lets me look up how to get from point A to point B using all public transit lines and this is just so… appreciated.
- TWC — Yes, it’s a little bulky of an app. But it knows where I am and I have a widget on my home screen that always tells me what the weather is like outside. Because sometimes I am actually just too lazy to walk to the window.
- ShopSavvy — I can scan barcodes using my camera and it looks up the item and lets me compare prices on the web. I can save things to a wish list, and set up alerts to tell me when the price hits a certain point. As a sub point, the barcode scanning in general is awesome. When I find apps I like on my computer, there is a bar code on the screen I can scan and it’ll take me straight to the application in the app store.
And my top 5 favorite FUN apps are:
- Abduction! World Attack — this is the best game ever (Carolina, please back me up). You play a bouncing cow that is trying to save its friends from alien abduction. There are several modes, lots of characters and found abounds.
- Twidroid — Twitter app that means I have actually started using Twitter again! It has such great functionality, I would rather use my phone to interact with Twitter than the web interface or any desktop clients I have tried.
- Jewels — Basically a Bejeweled clone, except free. Now if I could only play Bejewled Blitz on my phone, I would never do anything again…
- Camera Zoom FX — The default camera is fine, but this one is better. It costs a couple bucks, but I think it’s worth it. Adds “FX” (unsurprisingly), and they all look pretty good. The camera on this phone is actually quite good, and this just makes it even more fun to play with.
- Google Sky Map — Like Google Maps except looking skyward. You can hold the phone up to the sky and it uses GPS to display a star map, including labeled constellations. You can search for stars/constellations and an arrow will guide you to show you which direction to look. It allows allows you to toggle “night view” which makes the screen/map easier to read in the dark without making your eyes unable to focus on the stars. It isn’t totally bug-free yet, but it is still awesome.
Runner up: SpecTrek — the only reason this isn’t on the list is that I haven’t *actually* used it yet. But if it works as well as everyone says it does, it’ll be up there real quick. Basically it is an “augmented reality” game where you hunt ghosts. The game finds you on GPS, shows you a map of where you are and where the ghosts are. You have to physically go to where the maps shows the ghost is and then use your camera as a ghost scanner. When you point it in the right direction, the ghost will show up on your screen and you can “capture” it. You can do varying lengths of game and varying play-area sizes. Sprint around a park for 15 minutes catching ghosts, or use it to liven up a multi-mile run over 45 minutes. Anyway, Carolina and I are going to play sometime soon and it will be awesome, I bet. I’ll report back.
Okay, I’m done for now. But if you see me running around the Point like a crazy person, or see me walking into poles because I’m busy tweeting, then you all know why.
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