Android Anticipation

When I bought a new phone a year ago I opted not to get the nicer phone I was eyeing because I didn’t know if I was going to get frustrated with using a touch screen. So I went with the upgraded version of the phone I already had. See, I’m an impatient texter and an English major and the QWERTY keyboard that came with the phone I ended up choosing made it all easy. I’m that person who sends texts with apostrophes.

Right now, the new Motorola Droid is looking like a godsend. And not just to me. With Verizon’s profits considerably down and AT&T’s up, it was clear the company needed something to compete with the iPhone. It doesn’t hurt that Droid also has a QWERTY keyboard just in case I get frustrated with the touch screen. I was ecstatic when I first caught wind of Droid, because I’ve been seriously coveting my friend’s iPhone, but I was reluctant to leave Verizon just for a phone. Now, I don’t have to.

A lot of people probably saw the teaser commercials for droiddoes.com. With the launch date just over a week away the site now has actual information about the phone’s capabilities: such as a GPS using Google Maps.

But will the Droid actually deliver on its attacks on the iPhone? Will Droid actually be better?

I believe the hype has been so great that, at least initially, the release of Droid will help Verizon. It’s the months after that initial wave of buyers that will be the real test. Once people buy it and try it will they like it enough to keep it? Will it become a new phenomenon? After all when watching movies and television shows I often notice the iPhone is the phone of choice.

Will we begin to see Droid creeping into the media? Droid comes out Nov. 6. By Jan. 1, just after the holiday season, we’ll probably know.

Escaping dead zones

It has become apparent that a train ride is interminably boring. This isn’t news. What is news is that I carry a laptop that has no means of getting access to the Internet while on the train and a phone that is really nothing more than a standard cell phone. My interminably boring train rides turn into an hour and a half to two hours where I can do little more than read.

While on my computer typing some homework I noticed that there was some Internet access. The free public Internet was a complete dud. Little surprise there. However, someone was also using a MiFi device that was password protected. Even less surprise. Still, this incident made me realize just why MiFi devices were possibly necessary. I had never thought there was a need for it before, because I wondered, did people really need to be so continuously connected to the Internet?

Well the answer is yes. I needed to be connected to the Internet. Upon arriving at the station where I switch trains I usually have to wait. If I miss the 3:06 p.m. train, the next one doesn’t leave until 4:13 p.m. Short of going online or taking a nap there’s almost nothing that can entertain me for the hour until my train finally leaves.

The Mi-Fi wasn’t just created for people who constantly had to be connected, but for people who were stuck for so long in places where even if they had to connect for some reason, they couldn’t. Sometimes I can go half the day without a single e-mail and then I’ll receive four in an hour. Sometimes these are completely unimportant and can wait until I get home. Sometimes these e-mails are people asking me questions or answering my own. Sometimes these e-mails are reminding me that, yes, I still need to pay that bill and can do it right now online by accessing my checking account. And if I’m waiting an hour for my train to leave, you’d better believe I’m going to take the time to pay that bill.

Now I just have to decide if my need to access the Internet whenever I’m bored is worth paying anywhere up to $300 depending on the provider, if I have a contract and how much space I need.

I’ll get back to you after I research it on the Internet a bit more.

Phone dependence

As Sidekicks and iPhones and SmartPhones become more popular because of their ease of use, it becomes more apparent that when things go wrong with them, people are left in difficult positions.

Back in September, iPhone users actually overloaded AT&T’s network. The immense amount of data that iPhone users stream (music, videos, apps and e-mails) is, at times, more than AT&T can handle. this has led to spotty service. Calls are dropped or never go through and text messages are delayed, sometimes for hours.

Just a week ago T-Mobile committed a grave error in the eyes of mobile phone users: the company lost personal data on all the phones. Personal data is stored on an outside server and an error with Microsoft caused the loss. In addition, if Sidekick users let the phones shut off for any reason all that data would be permanently lost.

These issues shouldn’t be such a blow, after all they are just mobile phones, but the problems arising prove that people rely on mobile technology more than ever. Just two years ago it wouldn’t have affected so many people so drastically. When I got my first cell phone back in the ’90s I rarely used the device. Today, the phone number I’m mostly likely to give out is my cell, not my home. I know relatives who don’t even have landlines and only use their cell phones. Others always have their phones handy to check and send e-mails, read the newspaper and entertain themselves during downtime.

After T-Mobile lost all his personal information, one Facebook user summed it up best: “[They] just left us 2 pick up the pieces of our life.”