Day one with my Droid
Well, I was a bit bored last night, and hadn't done anything with my tax return money, so I went down to the verizon store and picked up a Droid.
Its weird how Friday nights can do that to you. But here's what I was thinking:
1) I'm constantly toting some type of music player along with me.
2) When you're looking for something to do on a friday, facebook is very handy.
3) I'd really like to be able to access my personal email at work without using the corporate lan.
With the launch hoopla for the iPad, and the big news about the iPhone OS version 4, I'm pretty much sold on avoiding any future purchases from Apple.
So I had been waiting to see about the Nexus One (Google phone) on verizon. But its still not here, and I wasn't really sure if I liked the keyboard or not (Droid has a built in keyboard, Nexus One does not). Plus, I'm not sure how any amount of playing with it in the store will tell me which one will suit me better.
So, I got the droid with a "Snap On Gel Cover" which is damn cool and keeps the phone from sliding around as well, an extra home charger, a car charger, and some sort of screen protector.
The charger included with the phone is in two parts, the first part is a wall wart with a USB connector, the second part is a USB to "micro sd?" cable. The extra home charger verizon branded version is only one part, so you don't get the option of using it to connect to your computer.
I liked the idea of getting the home docking station, but it won't work if you've got any sort of cover on the phone, so I can't imagine its going to sell much.
Getting my music on the Droid turned out to be super easy. I hooked the phone up to the USB port on my computer, told the phone to let windows mess with its SD card, and the SD card shows up like a thumb drive. Copied my MP3s over (6.2GB) in about 50 minutes, with the phone charging off the computer and seemingly fully usable. Undo the connection, and the built-in music app automagically found the music, had a convenient shuffle all button, and away I went. It seems to sense when you take the cable out of the jack and start/stop the player appropriately. Nice. If the bluetooth can be paired with a car radio, I might replace the Miata's stereo to get that.
The facebook application for the Droid is lame in about 8 different ways. Most of the lame is because the default refresh rate is 1 hour. ONE HOUR. Why not send it via carrier pigeon? The lowest you can set it is 30 minutes! LAME.
My first app download was "ConnectBot". This lets you securely connect to a Unix machine and start a terminal session. After I remembered that I had a block on outside connections, I was finally able to read my mailbox, 1988 text style. Happy days. The text is extremely small, but very clear.
Its weird how Friday nights can do that to you. But here's what I was thinking:
1) I'm constantly toting some type of music player along with me.
2) When you're looking for something to do on a friday, facebook is very handy.
3) I'd really like to be able to access my personal email at work without using the corporate lan.
With the launch hoopla for the iPad, and the big news about the iPhone OS version 4, I'm pretty much sold on avoiding any future purchases from Apple.
So I had been waiting to see about the Nexus One (Google phone) on verizon. But its still not here, and I wasn't really sure if I liked the keyboard or not (Droid has a built in keyboard, Nexus One does not). Plus, I'm not sure how any amount of playing with it in the store will tell me which one will suit me better.
So, I got the droid with a "Snap On Gel Cover" which is damn cool and keeps the phone from sliding around as well, an extra home charger, a car charger, and some sort of screen protector.
The charger included with the phone is in two parts, the first part is a wall wart with a USB connector, the second part is a USB to "micro sd?" cable. The extra home charger verizon branded version is only one part, so you don't get the option of using it to connect to your computer.
I liked the idea of getting the home docking station, but it won't work if you've got any sort of cover on the phone, so I can't imagine its going to sell much.
Getting my music on the Droid turned out to be super easy. I hooked the phone up to the USB port on my computer, told the phone to let windows mess with its SD card, and the SD card shows up like a thumb drive. Copied my MP3s over (6.2GB) in about 50 minutes, with the phone charging off the computer and seemingly fully usable. Undo the connection, and the built-in music app automagically found the music, had a convenient shuffle all button, and away I went. It seems to sense when you take the cable out of the jack and start/stop the player appropriately. Nice. If the bluetooth can be paired with a car radio, I might replace the Miata's stereo to get that.
The facebook application for the Droid is lame in about 8 different ways. Most of the lame is because the default refresh rate is 1 hour. ONE HOUR. Why not send it via carrier pigeon? The lowest you can set it is 30 minutes! LAME.
My first app download was "ConnectBot". This lets you securely connect to a Unix machine and start a terminal session. After I remembered that I had a block on outside connections, I was finally able to read my mailbox, 1988 text style. Happy days. The text is extremely small, but very clear.