My Droid, My Dream Come True

Image Source: http://www.productqas.com

I’ve been using my Blackberry 8830 since November 2007. I got it around the same time lots of my techie friends were getting their iPhones, but I refused to switch providers as my family has four lines and it was just too much to go through that kind of hassle. I’m sure you understand.

My Blackberry did everything I wanted it to. I was able to communicate through e-mail, Twitter and ultimately Facebook as well. But as time went by, browsing became an issue. The model I had did not have a built in camera and the multimedia functions of it were just not fulfilling my needs. So much so that when I was in my own home and other Wi-Fi environments, I got in the habit of using my iPod Touch to access all of my social networks and communication needs.

Then came the Droid.

This is an early holiday gift from my husband. (You’re welcome Chris. Now you don’t have to go shopping for me.) After reading and researching the Android Market and checking out the many features of the phone itself, I took a field trip to my provider’s store this past Sunday. Here are the initial features that sold me:

• 3G network
• camera (by the way it’s a 5 megapixels)
• video camera
• 3.7 inch touch screen
• pre-installed apps (like Facebook and YouTube)
• Wi-Fi capable

I turned off my Blackberry forever. It was funny. A few days later my 6-year old asked me if I missed it and I realized that for the last couple of years she’s known me to pretty much always have it with me. But the answer was easy. I didn’t miss it at all.

I walked out of the store, got in my car and just for fun used the Google Maps with Navigation over speakerphone to get home. The voice over the Droid gave me ACCURATE, turn-by-turn directions to get right to my driveway. Not that I won’t still use my Garmin GPS, but it’s nice to have an alternative.

One thing that the gentleman at the store explained to me is that I would no longer be able to use Microsoft Outlook to sync my Calendar and Contacts. Bummer. So, when I got inside, I fired up my computer and exported everything out of Outlook and imported everything into my Google Account. This is something I had planned to ultimately do anyway, I guess I just needed a reason. Check this out:

• Google Over the Air updates – no need for a wire to sync your phone – it happens over the air and automatically – Holy Cow!!
• Integrated Google and Facebook contacts – so someone calls me and I see their Facebook picture
• Rotate the Droid and the screen changes to landscape, rotate again it goes back to the portrait orientation
• Android Market

Image Source: http://www.dialaphone.co.uk

I’ve been downloading and using a few of the apps from the Android Market. There are about 10,000 apps there. I realize that for you iPhone users, there’s still no comparison, and I’m not writing about the Droid to bring it into the classroom, but because it’s such a great productivity tool for me. So here are the apps that I have downloaded and used so far with thanks to Damian Bariexca and Paula White:

• Twidroid – “twidroid is the industry-standard twitter client for android and among the most used twitter applications across all platforms. it’s available as a free and commercial pro version that supports all twitter features as well as functionality that is customized to the capabilities of android devices.”
• Flashlight – simple white screen allows you to see in dark places
• Mother TED – “Mother TED allows you to watch the latest TED videos based on Themes, Talks and Tags.”
• Where – “WHERE is a bundle of cool GPS apps all wrapped into one. Are you looking for the hottest restaurants, jonesing for your next coffee fix, or need a cheap fill-up? Maybe you want to know the local weather, traffic or headlines? Whatever you are after, WHERE has it.”

It’s not quite yet a week. I have so much to learn. I’ve been bookmarking some great resources and I plan on posting more on the Droid in the near future. If you have one and care to share your experiences or some apps that have been helpful, please do. If you are thinking about getting one,  don’t hesitate to ask me about mine.

[Via http://thumannresources.com]

Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty 'racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle'

 

There’s something peculiar about Verizon’s latest addition to its promotional Droid onslaught. Sure, we get the expected Mad Libs-esque hyperboles like "it rips through the web like a circular saw through a ripe banana," but other nods seem to indicate an acknowledgement that, well, it’s not the prettiest of flagship phone princesses. "Should [a phone be] be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?" (Wonder who that’s a reference to.) Listen Verizon, trading "hairdo for can do" is great and all, but why can’t we simply have both brains and beauty? Still, it’s nice to know the fighting words haven’t all but left the industry. See the ad for yourself after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Continue reading Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle’

Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle’

Ross Miller

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:08:00 GMT

Technorati Tags: Android,Verizon,Cellphone

[Via http://bryan646.wordpress.com]

just a Moment

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:

1. Google Voice — I can use my google voice account straight from my phone to send texts/make calls, etc.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Jewels — Basically a Bejeweled clone, except free.  Now if I could only play Bejewled Blitz on my phone, I would never do anything again…
4. 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.
5. 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.

[Via http://emilisha.wordpress.com]

Sense UI spotted with it's buddy 2.1

Alright HTC Hero owners: backup your handset, brew yourself a strong cup of coffee, and get ready to RTFM, because an unofficial Android 2.1 ROM — complete with Sense UI — is available for your handset. A few days back we reported that Android 2.1 was spotted running on the Hero, but now, courtesy of XDA-developers, the rumored build is on the intertubes for all to download. Come on, try it out, we know you’re curious; don’t forget to backup your data, and be sure to let us know how it goes in the comments.

Via:Gizmodo

[Via http://blackberryfoster.wordpress.com]

2009: The Year Of The Smartphone

This is the beginning of the end folks. Smartphones have been around for sometime but it seems like the iPhone lead the way into the main stream audience and now the smartphone industry has exploded. Back in 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone which captured the attention of the general public for the first time. So why is 2009 the year of the smartphone? Lets take a look at what is different today compared to years prior.

In 2007 we went into the holiday season with an iPhone for $299.99 and $399.99. If you recall that year the iPhone had neither a 3G signal nor apps. The Razr was still king of sales in the United States but the iPhone was received well. Along with AT&T’s pretty expensive data plans the smartphone universe was still just a figment of the mass markets imagination.

2008 comes along. In 2008 we saw the introduction of phones like the Instinct and the LG Dare but none of these phones had the impact nor the usability the iPhone brought to the table. All of 2008 basically belonged to Apple. Then in July Apple introduced the iPhone with a 3G radio for $199.99. This is where a spark was struck and it was time for smartphone makers to get serious if they were to compete with Apple. In October the first real competitor was born. Android, Google announced the G1 and in October the phone launched with quite a bit of enthusiasm. The iPhone was still locked to AT&T, no users lusting for a smartphone wanted the LG Dare or the Samsung Instinct, so the somewhat feature lacking G1 was the next best thing. It’s launch was a bit stunted by the United States smallest main stream carrier but the G1 took and Android was something that seemed promising. Still going through the holiday season of 2008 we had the iPhone 3G for $199.99 and the first Android phone for $179.99. Just when it seemed like Apple had completely removed everyone else from the game Palm had a little surprise hidden up their sleeve.

2009, the year of the smartphone. Now things are starting to get serious. Palm at CES 2009 announced their first iPhone competitor, the Palm Pre, and it held a lot of promise. So with no official release date from Palm, Google stepped up it’s game. In early 2009 the price of the G1 dropped and the MyTouch 3G was launched along with the release of Android 1.5. Though still slightly crippled by T-Mobile, the Android devices held their own. In mid may Palm announced the Pre release date and the phone had a heavy emphasis on the open source community and its seemless multitasking. The launch went as well as Palm could have expected, however the Pre was launched on a carrier that was bleeding subscribers for some time. The Pre brings promise and is expected to launch on Verizon in early 2010. There were some Blackberry launches later in the year which include the Bold 2 and the Blackberry Storm 2, but neither phone really has users excited because the OS has little to no change. Then HTC  put out their first fully customized version of Android showing just what is possible.

HTC changed the game for Android showing off what Android OS had potential to become. They added their Sense UI which allows for more robust widgets, more home screens, some UI changes throughout, and multitouch. The Hero launched on Sprint here in the United States. It was a quiet launch compared to the iPhone, the G1, and the Pre, but it was a notable launch.  There were some initial bugs when it came to sluggishness in the UI but a carrier firmware release quickly fixed these issues. The Hero to date was the most promising Android device in town. Outside of the Hero, Android was still on the rise.

Palm had their come back and now it was Motorola’s turn. Motorola then collapsing because the Razr just wasn’t doing it for people anymore and they hadn’t launched a phone that people were excited about in a long time. The rumors were flying that Motorola had something Android under their hat. Finally they announced the Motorola Cliq which showed some promise but also a bit of let down when the specifications seemed to be the same specs of the G1, the MyTouch, and the HTC Hero which is the ARM 11 clocked at 588 Mhz. At this point we had the Pre and the iPhone 3GS with the next Generation ARM Cortex A8 processors with the powerVR Chipsets, so the same old Android processor was beginning to look a little ancient. The Cliq also was going to be launched on T-Mobile which is starting to seem a bit Android crowded at the moment but either way it doesn’t hurt Google to have more Android on the market. Then Motorola blows up the blogosphere with their new Verizon device called the ‘Motorola Droid’ powered by Google’s brand new Android 2.0. This was the first mainstream smartphone on Verizon that people were really excited about. The first Blackberry Storm launch was big but slowly faded as people grew annoyed with the Surepress technology and bugginess of the phone.

There were few small launches here and there which includes the Samsung Behold 2, which has Android and samsungs Cube UI known as Touchwiz, The Droid Eris which is Verizon’s version of the HTC Hero, and the Samsung Moment on Sprint. Early in October Windows Mobile launched 6 devices on multiple carriers with their new iteration of Windows Mobile now dubbed, ‘Windows Phone’, which has Windows Mobile OS version 6.5. Not enough changes in this OS to get people excited. The HD2 looks promising but won’t be in the U.S. until sometime in early 2010. That brings us to now.

This holiday season things are different. Smartphones still have a small market share but the offerings are so good and so affordable it is hard to imagine peoeple who will actually be signing a new 2 year agreement for a feature phone. Let’s take a look at some of the offerings. In 2007 we had the iPhone for $299.99. In 2008 we had the iPhone 3G and the G1 at $199.99 and $179.99. These phones were only on AT&T and T-Mobile. In 2009 we have smartphones on every large carrier in the U.S.  Sprint is offering the HTC Hero for $99.99, Samsung Moment for $199.99, Palm Pixi for $99.99, Palm Pre for $149.99,  Touch Pro 2 for $349.99, and a range of Blackberries from $49.99 to $199.99. On T-Mobile you have the G1 for $129.99, the MyTouch for $149.99, the Motorola Cliq for $199.99, and the Samsung Behold 2 for $229.99. T-Mobile also has a handful of blackberry handsets ranging from $99.99 to $199.99. On AT&T you have the iPhone 3G for $99.99, 3GS for $199.99, Windows Phone for $199.99, and the many variations of the Blackberry ranging the same prices as Sprint and T-Mobile. On Verizon you have the Blackberry Storm 2 for $199.99, the Droid Eris for $99.99, the Motorola Droid for $199.99, another variation of the Windows Phone for $199.99, and the LG Chocolate Touch for $149.99.

The options available today are tremendous and the prices are constantly dropping. Sprint and T-Mobile have set some new low prices on data plans making it even more affordable month to month to own a smartphone.  So that begs the question. What is stopping you from purchasing a smartphone this year? Will smartphones outsell feature phones this holiday season? Feature phones are still selling well because with a feature phone you don’t need to pay for a data plan and so many of them are free, however during the holidays phones are gifts. Is there really anyone hoping to get a free feature phone for Christmas this year? We are starting to think this may be the first holiday season in history where phones called ‘Smart’ will out sell your old feature phones.

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

Seven days that were Never Odd Or Even

It’s been a brilliant week for Never Odd Or Even, our best ever in fact. If this last week was a person, I’d be on one knee proposing to it. I can scarely believe how we got away with it.

Rewind to last Saturday, and our Ask The Hoff app received nationwide coverage in The Telegraph’s magazine supplement. This gave the app’s sales and profile a much needed boost; sales increased five-fold and the app reach number 16 in the UK’s Lifestyle category.

Bolstered by this increase in visibility, we hit the social media jungle drums again and spread the good news through Twitter and Facebook. A BBC employee saw the news and passed it on to the Scott Mills show at BBC Radio 1, which has led to Ask The Hoff enjoying national radio coverage for the past three days. As a result the app has jumped to number two in the Lifestyle category and is currently the 45th most popular paid app in the UK. Unbelievable.

It’s not just Ask The Hoff that’s enjoyed publicity this week. On Thursday, our collaboration with award winning travel writer Donald Strachan, Instant Florence, received national exposure in The Times. Admittedly, Donald wrote the piece but that’s the benefit of working with a freelance travel writer! Instant Florence has also become a top 20 travel app in Ireland, which is brilliant to see.

On top of all of this, one other exciting announcement – we’re working with a local developer to bring Ask The Hoff to the Android platform, for what will be our first Android app. We can also reveal we’re due to start work on a second celebrity app next week, due to be submitted to Apple early next year.

Words barely describe how made up we are about all of this – wild gesticulation of the hands helps considerably. We can’t wait to get stuck into the challenges of 2010 and see what happens net.

[Via http://neverodd.wordpress.com]

Guides and Ideas for Current/Upcoming SmartPhones

Amazingly enough, Wired, which usually is poorly written (in my humble opinion), has a fantastic new article on guide for looking into Smartphones (Boy Genius Report was close but theirs doesnt talk about the carriers and plans at all). With everyone writing about phones, phones taking over Times Square, $3 mill iPhones and that, phones are apparently the hip thing this year (pssst if you live in Nashville and want Sprint email me). Anyway, point being with all the damn clutter and multiple operating systems, it is nice to have summaries, reviews and what not. Wired’s was impressive enough that I felt it deserved a nod.

FYI, i do work at Sprint now, and I do think the Droid logo on Times Square looks too much like Lord of the Rings.

Also, random note, but I get extremely irritable of people touting the Android has a shitty camera and shitty music player. Don’t get me wrong, it DOES, but that is what an App store is for. Anyone with Android just search music and see what i mean, there’s like 5 upgraded players (i recommend TuneWiki) on the damn thing.

So what’re my recommendations?

Smartphones:Basically, if you are looking for multi-media, internet browsing and email/calander sync, and have google, i recommend Android (Palm is also cool if you are on Sprint). If you need hardcore business email, exchange support Blackberry is still fantastic (although WinMo 6.5 is at least getting updates). Note that Android does support Microsoft Exchange, but honestly if you want the safe, secure thing Blackberry is still the best bet.

Verizon: Moto Droid, Blackberry Tour if you need heavy exchange/business use.

Sprint: HTC Hero or Moment (I finally got to try out a moment, fairly impressive). Palm Pixi for first time smartphone users. Blackberry Tour for Business users.

AT&T- iPhone. Blackberry Bold 2 looks nice so far.

T-Mobile: Anything but a Sidekick. MyTouch 3G is still sweet and Cyanogen makes it even better.

And once you get a smartphone the key is customizing it, and making sure it does what you want it to. I should have postings throughout this blog for tethering and adding nice tidbits for iPhone, Android, Palm WebOS and Blackberry, so feel free to browse, I’ll try and add links and updates here in a day or two, this was just a quick rant in a sleepless night.

[Via http://somegenius.wordpress.com]