Smartphone Update

Lock 20
43 08.59 N 075 17.51 W

Time for a smartphone update. I really love my new Droid. The technology is amazing, learning is effortless, and most important using it is fun. The location aware weather and Google maps apps are extremely useful. Ironically, I find that the most difficult thing to do with this phone is to answer an incoming call.

The major downside is that typing on the keyboard is very frustrating. I have 3 choices: a vertical on screen keyboard, a horizontal one, and a physical QWERTY one. All 3 are frustrating. Nevertheless any of the 3 are easier than running all over town in search of a WiFi signal.

But wait, there's an app for that. I downloaded Swype. Swype provides a totally different way to use an online keyboard. How? It's hard to describe. Perhaps you've seen Swype in the news. Anyhow, after only a little practice with Swype, I find that it if very much superior and (most important) fun.

I'm hooked. With Swype, the physical keyboard on the Droid is useless baggage. In the future I'll be authoring more and more blogs on the Droid and fewer on the laptop.

By the way, do you see the irony? I love Swype because it lets me type on the phone much easier. I also love Easy Tether because when tethered I don't need to type on the phone at all. I think the real secret to commercial success is that we(I) value fun higher than practicality.

But the best app of all is called Easy Tether. That app lets me connect the Droid to the laptop as a broadband modem. That way, I can use the laptop and read my daily news articles on the big screen without having to find a WiFi signal. If the phone signal is really good, I can even watch streaming video. The other day, Libby and I watched some TV programs and a feature movie on the laptop using the Droid. We used 2GB of data that day. On some plans that's the monthly data limit, but our Verizon data plan is unlimited.

There are pitfalls. A while back we had dinner with John and Mari at their home. Mari compared my Droid with her Iphone. The next morning at 0500 my phone woke me up with a call. It was Mari's Iphone calling. I answered it but heard only background noise. I ignored it. In the next hour, between 5 and 6AM, Mari's phone called mine 5 more times! It turns out that Mari was sitting on her phone or had it in a handbag bumping against things. Having your phone call people on its own and thus bugging you could be very embarrassing.