Posted on 28th December 2009 by michael montez in Technology: Droid
Motorola Droid, Product Review, SmartPhone, Technology
Well, as you can see from the post title, its been two weeks with my Droid. Over the week I experienced Christmas and family as well as a lot of driving to strange places.
Car Home
There is an application called CAR HOME on the Droid. This app is a handy little piece of software that puts all your common driving needs on the screen. Similar to a standalone GPS device. You can do a voice search, view your current route, and look up contacts. The apps was handy for getting me from my cousins house to my other cousins house and then to the bar. In addition, when I was at my cousins house I did a voice search for “ICE” and it found a few 7-11’s as well as a liquor store down the street and a Ralphs. Not bad. It’s a great time saver.
Google Listen
While I was driving from house to house, I needed some music. I am a big fan of podcast and have been using Google Listen in place of iTunes. One benefit of Google Listen, downloads the media via 3g (so far no size issues) and then adds it to the playlist. Most of the programs I listen to could be found just by searching from within the Google Listen app. There were a few that I had to copy the RSS URL and paste it into the app, but overall, it was a pretty painless experience. When I was leaving the house, I could add some podcast to the Listen playlist and let it run. My music is playing via the 3mm audio jack in my car stereo, but I can buy a new stereo with bluetooth and transfer the audio in that way. I’m ready to make the jump.
Other Applications I Love
You can fire your radio as soon as you sign up for Pandora. Same great program, all the music you love plus the new stuff. Last.FM, same same. Pick it up. Google Goggles is fun but I don’t find myself in strange areas to often (more of that next week). Google Voice has yet to disappoint me. It handles calls and SMS with out a flaw. If you can get an invite, I suggest you move your life over to it.
Finally…
I purchased the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger. More on that next week as I travel to Las Vegas via car and stay well off the strip with my friends. I am also going to try out a new (to me) application for organizing my media. So far, Songbird is great, but some have suggested DoubleTwist. So We’ll see who wins.
Posted on 21st December 2009 by michael montez in Technology: Droid
Motorola Droid, Product Review, SmartPhone, Technology
Alright, it’s been just short of a week and I still love the Droid. I have some suggestions, but otherwise, good stuff.
I went to a party Saturday night and I unsuccessfully took some night shots using the flash. I think it was user error regarding auto focus and the flash options. I’m not ready to hate the camera flash just yet. On the bright site, the Droid takes great photos during the day light hours. Here’s the shot I took today inside Best Buy (click the image to see the full 5 pixel glory).
Droid Photo During Day inside Best Buy
Now I would like to talk about the problems I’ve had. One problem really – getting media onto the device. Specifically music and podcast. I’m not going to deny the fact that iTunes, as flawed as it is, is the best media management software I’ve used. As of today, iTunes does not allow Android products to sync or manage media. So that leaves me with sub-par, non-Google, non-Motorola software applications and 3rd party plug-ins to attempt to manage my media.
If you have less than 16GB of stuff, you’re going to be fine. You can drop all your music and stuff onto you media card. However, I have about 100GB of music, videos, and photos – so I am required to manage my stuff. I found a decent solution – Songbird with the Folder Sync add-on. It’s alright, but it does not replace the thought and development that went into iTunes.
I hope that Google realizes that when the original iPod came out, it was using Music Match to organize the music, and it sucked. So what did Apple do, they built iTunes because they knew that if you can make the management of the media easy, it’s reflected in the product itself. It makes the product (iPod) seem easy to use. Google needs to take a few months and build their own media management software. Either based off the Songbird engine or a stand-alone product of their own for the Android system.
**UPDATE: I was using Songbird ver1.2. The new version, 1.4 was released and supports the Droid and other devices much like iTunes. It does not run in Win7 perfectly, but an update should be out soon. It’s much better then what I was using before.**
Posted on 18th December 2009 by michael montez in Technology: Droid
Michael Montez, Motorola Droid, SmartPhone, Technology
My Droid arrived on Monday. I had it sent to my office, but I was sick on Monday and Tuesday, so I didn’t get my hands on the device until Wednesday. Cracking open the Amazon box reviled the Droid packaging. Having been an Apple user (iPods mostly) I am used to elegant, well thought out packaging. Motorola did not put too much thought into the packaging. The box is thin and feels like cheap cardboard.
But I didn’t buy the phone for the packaging. The device itself is fantastic. It has a good weight in my hand. It’s a hair taller then the iPhone and the same width and height as the iPhone. Compared to my old phone (Sony Ericsson w350), the phone feels like a brick in my pocket. However, eliminating the iPod, phone, camera, and video camera from my bag is a huge benefit.
The screen on the Droid is bright, crisp and sharp. The audio on the phone is loud. The screen is responsive, but there is a learning curve coming from the iPod/iPhone interface. Software for the phone is fantastic. I have several gmail accounts. I put all of them into my phone and added my Facebook account. The phone pulled all my active contacts from all my gmail accounts and my Facebook account and created contacts for each person. I only had to move one or two phone numbers into the phone. That was a killer time saver and now I have all my contacts backed up in the Google cloud.
Having access to a slide out keyboard is awesome. Using the on-screen keyboard is fine, but I prefer to slide out the keyboard and type away. Also, the camera flash is a nice feature. I look forward to documenting this Christmas with just this one device.
I’ve spent that last two days just getting used to how the phone works and researching some apps. So far, this is one of the best smartphones I have played with. If you are in the market, and have never had a smartphone, I would suggest you start with the Droid or some other Android based phone (myTouch, Droid, etc.). If you have been using an iPhone for the past few years, you might want to stick with it.
I have yet to plug the phone into my computer and get some music on it. I will also be downloading some apps from the Android store. I’ll be posting my experiences with these in the coming days.
Posted on 17th December 2009 by michael montez in About Me
So it’s Christmas time and I’ve been watching a lot of holiday movies. So the question is, what’s your favorite, non-traditional, holiday movie? Here is my list for 2009:
- Bad Santa
- Die Hard
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Christmas Vacation
- Gremlins
Posted on 7th December 2009 by michael montez in Technology: Droid
Motorola Droid, Product Review, SmartPhone, Technology
Motorola Droid Press Photo
So I have decided to enter the world of Smartphones. I’m sure you are all familiar with the iPhone and BlackBerry product lines, but I am going with the newest player in town – The Motorola Droid (by Google). From a user experience perspective, I would like to take this opportunity to give you a day by day, feature by feature journey into this new platform. I will start with my expectations of this new device.
Today I ordered the device from amazon.com. I choose the 450 minute plan and basic data package. I opt’d to not select a messaging plan (more on that later). My monthly price will come to $69.98 + taxes. There will also be a one-time $35 activation fee (whatever Verizon). I am anticipating that this device will replace the following devices and monthly services:
- AT&T Cell Phone with Text Messaging – $55/month
- iPod Touch – no monthly fee
- Point-and-Shoot Camera – no monthly fee but it’s in my bag, taking up space
- Flip-Cam HD – no monthly fee, but another device
- OnStar Navigation – $28/month for Turn-by-Turn directions tied to my car
Out of the box, the phone comes with Turn-by-Turn navigation, mp3 player, video, camera with flash, multi-tasking OS, and high-definition screen. It also comes with a slide-out keyboard option along with the on-screen (soft) keyboard. In all, it’s a hair larger than the iPhone in width and height.
I have a Google Voice account so my voice mail and SMS/MMS will go directly to my inbox. I can also send SMS/MMS directly from the Google Voice web page. Therefore, I will not need a Text Messaging plan from Verizon Wireless.
My order has been placed and I show the phone will be delivered on Dec. 21st (wha!). Next post will be the un-boxing and initial thoughts on the feel and interface.
**UPDATE – my shipping expected arrival date was just changed to Dec. 15th**
