Motorola Droid: I Haz It!

I admit that I’m the geeky type that likes all sorts of new gadgets.  But we were in a bit of a quandry here.  Our Sprint/Nextel phones were long in the tooth, and Sprint showed no interest in giving any loyalty deals.  I had almost settled on a Blackberry Curve, as I liked the keyboard, and there seemed to be a lot of Apps available.  But as I investigated the phones further, it occured to me that perhaps there may be something better out there.  And I found it!

I found a good mobile site online that let me compare phones and providers, and narrowed my choices of smartphones to what I needed and wanted in a phone.  I had considered going the prepaid route, but only Boost Mobile seemed attractive.  For $50/month, you could get an all-inclusive unlimited plan that included data.  But, the phones were lousy.  The best Boost could do was the Motorola Clutch, a keyboard-based phone that unfortunately has an archaic Nextel-resolution screen.  For another $10/month, you could hop up to a Blackberry Curve 8330, but that required an outlay of $249 up front.  Not a huge deal, but still…the 8330 is crippled in that the WiFi portion is disabled.  It’s not a deal killer, but it was one more strike against the Blackberry.

I kept going back to Verizon.  They seemed to have the best lineup of phones for my needs.  I looked at the various Blackberry phones.  I was dead set on a physical keyboard.  But I also wanted to get in on the Android-based phones.  For those who aren’t yet aware, the Android operating system is developed by Google and, with it being an open platform, anyone can design applications for it.  It is not a closed architecture like that of the iPhone.   And anyone who’s known me for awhile knows how I feel about the concept of “proprietary” anything.

Android-based phones are plentiful, but just about all of them had shortcomings.  One phone I liked was the Google Nexus One (made by HTC), but the only package deal was through AT&T, where the phone would still cost a cool $179.

Curiously, I started looking at the Motorola Droid.  I did not want a slide-out keyboard, and I’d read reviews that the keyboard on the Droid wasn’t among the best.  But once I looked at the Droid in person at a Verizon store, I was hooked.  The few apps I looked at were attractive indeed.  When I walked in, the phone was jacked into Google Maps, and I was looking at a satellite view of the store’s location.

I found a few other apps that were entertaining as well.  It had a “Car Home” that turned your phone into a navigation device, with turn-by-turn directions.  The browser worked well, although it took some getting used to.  And when I rotated the phone from vertical to horizontal, the screen followed (via its built-in accelerometer), and reoriented itself.  And as I’d learned from reading various reviews of the Android OS online, the whole system revolves around your Google account.  As I’m a heavy user of Google’s many applications, this was its most attractive asset.

Once I got back home, I started looking at the Droid and nothing else.  A few days later, a deal hit the mobile site I shopped at, and the Droid was now available for $19.99 (!) with a two-year contract.  Sold!  By the end of that week, the Droid was on hand, and I had officially joined the 21st Century!

The Droid has a few quirks, but overall, I’m highly pleased with its function.  It does tie in with Google quite extensively.  Log in to your Google account, and you’ll find your Gmail, calendar, contacts, and other items automatically synchronized to your phone.

It is a bit tedious to type on a phone keyboard when you’re so used to a Microsoft Natural keyboard at home, but it gets the job done.  One thing I found amazing was that while typing, there is a “suggestion bar” that shows you possible word matches as you are typing; you then tap on the proper word if it is listed; the amazing part was that it pulled up proper names and unusual words from my past e-mail.

As for the additional apps, it will take me many posts to outline those.  But for the record, I’ve arranged a good handful on my phone’s home screen, including bookmarks to three frequently visited websites, apps for Amazon, eBay, Paypal, Seesmic (for Twitter), Facebook, Google Voice, Google Maps, and ShopSavvy.

Now, ShopSavvy is a very interesting application.  So is Barcode Scanner.  Yes, the phone can scan barcodes!  (Many smartphones can.)  With both these apps, and also with the Amazon application, you can actually scan a physical, standard UPC barcode, and the applications will go online and give you a  list of online and local stores carrying the same item, often telling you if the item is in stock.  Barcode Scanner has other uses as well, but for me, ShopSavvy has provided better feedback from various sources.  Amazon’s only searches their site, but it is nice to grab an Amazon product description and user reviews if you are shopping for an item out in the stores.

Google Voice allows you to get a new phone number, assigned by Google, that will receive voice mail and SMS text messages.  With the Android phones, you can tightly integrate your Google Voice account to your wireless account.  For instance, you can call me on my Google Voice number, and it will forward to my phone (or any number of phones).  Voice mail is handled by Google Voice, no matter which number you dial.  With Google Voice being mainly internet-based, text messaging is actually free if you use your Google Voice number.  You can also use your Google Voice number as your outgoing phone number that shows up on the recipient’s caller ID; you can toggle this as you make a call.

And, to pester my dear readers more frequently, I’ve even installed a WordPress app that lets me post directly to Rudy’s Corner!  You have been warned.

Finally, about that pesky keyboard.  I will go on record saying that the current Droid slide-out keyboard is usable, but not the best in terms of tactile feedback.  It is rather flat, and sometimes a bit difficult to hit.  But, I have not used it that much.  It turns out that I’ve been using the touchscreen keyboards much more.  These keyboards (one vertical, one horizontal) have the suggestion bar, where the slide-out keyboard does not.  I’m finding I can type at a decent rate on the touchscreen, and for most purposes, it is working well enough for me.  When I need a physical keyboard, it’s there.  But since I find the touchscreen keyboard to work well enough, I need not worry about wearing out the keyboard slider.

There are many more applications and features I’ll cover in future installments, including some mini-reviews of apps I’ve downloaded.  Until then, I’ll say that it’s nice to be able to keep in touch in so many different ways.  With my current crazy schedule, I’ll often receive messages via e-mail or SMS that need immediate attention, and at least I’m able to send some kind of acknowledgement until I can get back to my desk.  And yes, the Droid makes good, old fashioned phone calls.  Those of you with my number, feel free to call!  Just do it on weekends, and after 9pm eastern time…I’m kinda cheap that way…