Jumping Ship

Adios AT&T. I've headed back to Verizon. Got my new phone today - a Motorola Droid X. And if I thought my iphone was a lot of smartphone to handle, I'm now officially in over my head. But I'm learning.

I did a lot of research to find out what phone I wanted next. I even surfed around on tech blogs, looking at the features of everything available out there. Phone comparison on tech blogs is like reading a giant pissing contest. This camera has more megapixels! That one links e-mails better! This one has more free medical apps! That one has a bigger screen! It was mind-boggling. I did learn what HDMI cable output means (my phone has it!), and that I'm not the only one jumping ship. Hopefully I can learn a fraction of what my phone is capable of before it gets stolen again. No more leaving phones on the paper towel dispenser in a public restroom, even if for only ten minutes.

I can finally text again! I had a temporary free Samsung with limited capabilities, and I do not understand how anyone on Earth texts without a keyboard. I did not send one legible text in five days, and each one I sent took ages longer than just picking up the phone to talk. My summer nanny Caitlin was highly amused by what I came up with - she taught me how to make spaces between the words (I resorted to the number 0 as a space marker). She told me I could get a program to help me text faster but it would take me two weeks to figure out how to use it efficiently, and I was hoping to get my Droid in before then. Thank goodness it arrived in the mail today.

I played with the camera today, which is light years beyond the iphone I had - lots of settings for motion, dark, and sunlight, as well as a flash and zoom. You can automatically change the color of your pic to black and white, red tones, green tones, sepia, negative, and lots of other hues before you even take the picture. This makes it worth the purchase alone, as the iphone had become my primary camera and it's limited capabilities were limiting me.

I was worried I would not know another soul who had the Droid, so I was delighted to learn that my techie food scientist brother and his wife have the Droid Incredible. They are busy at a food science conference in Chicago this week, trying to avoid parachuting Transformers on Michigan Avenue during filming of the third movie, but I'm looking forward to picking their brains next week on the best apps to get in Android Market.

Other cool features I've encountered in less than 24 hours: The cute robot that teaches you how to add and move apps. The simultaneous tone/vibration that occurs when you type in phone numbers. The dizzying speed with which the phone adds every singe friend you have in Facebook and contact in your gmail account to your contacts (yikes, I'm going to have to make a favorites folder quick). The cool robot default sound that occurs when you receive a text. I'm already hooked.

I'm mad that you have to pay an extra $2.99 per month (I haven't decided to do this yet) to get the easy access voicemail display features that came with the iphone. In order to access your messages, you have to dial up and enter a password. Old school.

Overall though, so far, I'm pleased. I think I've got every bit as much phone, and more, as I did with the iphone (and no more dropped calls!). I can't speak to the iphone 4, but it sure is getting a lot of bad press. I forgot to mention all the perks and discounts I get from going with my group's phone service provider. I'm going to be saving tons of money with my new Droid. So maybe the stolen iphone was a blessing in disguise, after all.