After a wait of several months, I finally managed to upgrade my phone. When I was first considering this, back in March, I was dead set on a WebOS phone. I really did love the Palm OS and I heard great things about it. The problem is, HP has not done a great job on hardware. I’ve read several reports of the phones just not holding up.
When I checked to see what was available, there wasn’t much of a selection. The Motorola Flipside has been a good phone for Lon, but I’ve not been impressed with Android. And the other thing I wanted to avoid was the bloatware that AT&T installs. I really hate having a phone where I can’t delete unused stuff. It irritates me. I didn’t have $100 for a Veer or an iphone 4. And so, I now have an iphone 3gs. For $50, it’s a real bargain. I’ve found that most Apple hardware is good enough that you can run the low end stuff for a long time. And this phone does not feel low end to me. I don’t really like having to sync with iTunes (I use Lon’s computer, which still has XP installed.) But that’s a minor annoyance at this point. The phone has excellent call quality. The pictures I’ve taken have been pretty good, for a phone, and it’s remarkably easy to use. I thought I’d hate a touch screen but this works very well. I am really impressed with it. I’ve upgraded to Pandora One, since it’s so nice to listen to music on the long drive back and forth to work. And I’ve installed a few apps, but nothing like what I did back in the Palm days. I purchased Egretlist, Diacarta, and YouNeedABudget. I think there’s another knitting app that I want.
There’s a reason why smartphones are popular. It’s really nice to be connected anytime, anywhere. I was able to use Gmail to pull up an email my attorney needed, and could view all the attachments on my phone. I’ve used the built in map (Google) and the Mapquest app to get to where I’m going. I saved time yesterday finding the drop box for my ballot by mapping it out before driving there. It’s just an amazingly powerful tool.
I guess I’ve been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the cell phone era. I talk on the phone enough at work that I hate to talk on it when I’m off duty. I guess I just needed a phone that is a pleasure to use. Now, if I can just come up with a low end Mac to replace my aging laptop……
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