Chris The Mac Guy

Dec 16

My Post-iPhone/Android Experience…24+ hours and counting…

They say (and I have said this also) that once you go Mac, you never go back. Well I am an exception to the rule. My reason for switching away from the iPhone was not the device at all. I Loveeee the iPhone, always have, but the crappy AT&T network where I live was making the phone almost useless. Those who follow my tweets and are friends with me on FaceBook know what I’ve been going through and anyone on AT&T in East Alabama has felt my pain. About a month ago, it came to a head and I filed a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau. After having discussions with assistants to the executives at AT&T we came to an agreement to allow my family plan to be cancelled without incurring early termination fees.

So the switch happened yesterday (December 15, 2009). I was ready for it; I had been to the Verizon store in Gadsden (thanks to a twitter friend/new real-life friend Dustin Tanner for his help and patience with me—I went to the store about three separate times to mess with their phones to figure out what I wanted). I decided on the Motorola Droid. In my opinion, the Android platform is the biggest contender to the iPhone OS. Palm is dying–probably won’t be around in a couple more years. Windows mobile is right behind Palm. I cannot stand a BlackBerry and I am not a fan of smart phones running proprietary OSes.

So now for my review. The interface is very intuitive, I was able to easily figure out what the press and such to get things done…works very similar to the iPhone OS–that could have made it easier for me. The one thing I do miss is the pinch to zoom on webpages but I am catching myself trying to pinch less and less so I am learning.

The Android market is very good. 1000s of apps. Haven’t messed around with many of them yet but I have the essential apps like Facebook and a Twitter client. That my next thing is to dig into all the apps they have available.

One thing I really like is the ability to customize things to work the way you want them. Apple has this thing of knowing exactly what the user wants (and don’t get me wrong they get it right most of the time) and that’s the way it is going to work and you cannot change it whatsoever. I mean, look what hoops you have to jump through to put a custom ringtone on an iPhone..really??? That was one of the first things I did on the Droid was to create a directory on my phone and copy an MP3 and there ya go..custom ringtone!!

Android has it right on the customizing. I found an app that will do a popup notification when you get a text message (one thing I really liked with the iPhone)…this was missing in the native build of the OS.

What I like the most is the network. Go back to the reason I switched off AT&T and the iPhone. This smart phone is actually usable in terms of data. It just works. AT&T claims to have the fastest 3G network, but when I can get 500 to 1000 kbps down on my phone that is plenty fast for me. I have yet to have been to a place in East Alabama that does not have 3G coverage.

To sum it up, the iPhone is better in some respects, Android in others. So I call it a draw. They are both amazing devices and platforms.

So…is it a keeper??? I would say yes. I would take back my iPhone anyday. But for now (and until Verizon gets the iPhone) I can live with this for now.

Oct 26