The Dosquatch Says…

Call me weak.

I made it a whole weekend before I broke down and made the purchase.

The Moto Droid came out this past Friday. My VZW renew-every-two is up come February. I intended to wait, really I did, but the sales critter said I could cash in early for half credit, and IZ NEW TOY WANT WANT WANT! IZ MINE IZ MINE GIT UR OWNZ!

Sorry – had a moment there. It’s like this, I’ve carried some form of Palm Treo for the better part of a decade now. I know them, I like them, but the design is really, really showing its age. It’s time for an upgrade.

I’ve played with both a Palm Pre and an Apple iPhone. Both have good and bad points. The Pre has some personality quirks (par for Palm) and battery fit problems. The Apple has no changeable battery, no removable media, and totalitarian platform control. And both have exclusive deals with $other_provider.

The Droid is here, now, on my provider, and it is BEAST. Fast, responsive, fully integrated with the whole buffet of Google tools (including Google for Domains), GPS, WiFi, full complement of motion & direction sensors (most immediately demonstrable by the self-leveling nautical compass app available from the Google Market), WeatherBug, Pandora Radio, a real web browser, voice search, and on and on.

And, by happenstance, it shares the same charging architecture as my Kindle. WOO!

The only (minor) complaint I have so far is that the keyboard is a bit cumbersome for larger fingers, but I’m finding it easier to work with it as I go along.

I’d write a better review, but I’m busy playing with the phone instead. More later, y’all!

Navel Gazing, droid android market, droid, kindle

I’ve got this feeling, It’s so appealing…

I currently carry with me a Palm Treo 700p. I am a long-time Palm user. I am familiar with Palm, I like Palm… but the OS is seriously showing its age. My plan’s renewal benefit towards a phone upgrade kicks in February. I know that’s still out there a bit, but I’m already contemplating what my next phone will be.

The world is iPhone crazy, but I’m on Verizon, and it is not worth a provider change just for a phone. Exclusive deals are bad practice and anti-consumer. Fuck Apple and AT&T, they can keep their phone.

I’m also kind of interested in the Palm Pre, but again – exclusive deal, other provider. How the devil is it that Verizon is the biggest honking network but all the crappy bit players get the exclusive digs on the new product?

There have been rumors that either or both might come to Verizon in January… but today Moto has put out the new droid at VZW. I stopped and played. This thing rocks. Big, bright screen, fast and responsive live scrolling in Google Maps, good sound quality, good signal strength, real web browsing, speech-to-text voice searching in Google…

Holy Crap. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a new front runner for Next Phone.

Navel Gazing, Technology, droid android market, droid, iphone, palm, treo