ratman.com

sundays will be the weekly letter post. i figure i will try to take a letter and exploit something that starts with it. ought to be able to go through the alphabet twice this way, right?

a:

android. or the moto droid phone is just the greatest thing. i have some apps on mine. i am pretty picky. but i do have a list of favorites so far…
barcode scanner
places directory
layar
where
shopsavvy
sportstap
google voice
goggles
facebook
listen
evernote
ourgroceries
twidroid
touchdown
life stories

my real world use of the phone is this. i have tried any number of ‘smart phones’. windowss devices. palm. and i even made an attempt at the blackberry, which was my favorite of them all. i have many friends that own iphones. i like them. really. but i already own a touch, so it seemed stupid to me to ditch it for an iphone. the touch does exactly what i want it to do.

the droid however, has exceeded all of my expectations. it makes calls (thanks verizon). it runs assp. it gets my mail, all of it. it has some pretty cool accessories. like the car mount. stick it on your dash, or throw it in the windshield. once you place the phone in it, it turns into one of the smartest gps machines on the planet. turn by turn, finding the destination with just the entry of where you want to go. get a power cord though. it does use some juice. or the moto dock. it’s more of a toy for me since i have the touch. but it does give me the time, date and weather at a glance. i have a photo frame at work that rotates pictures, so i don’t know that i will ever use it that way. but ya never know. it oes charge the phone while it’s in it so that is a good thing. i can also reach out and hit it for the feeds, twitter and facebook things that i need to do fairly easily.

the google voice part of this is another great thing. i make calls. not 100′s but enough. now, i let gv do the work instead of the regular vw network, and all seems to be great. i also like the sms part of that application.

have already made use of the scanner things to date. yes. they saved me money. and where got me to cheap gas today. 3 cents cheaper in the area that i was shopping today.

what i want is an app that reads emails and the like to me. i had one on the bb, and with the laws correctly changed to no longer allow texting or the like, it would be really beneficial. still haven’t found one. but i know one will show up soon…

my impression so far is that it is every bit the equal of the iphone. i admit quietly, that i miss a couple things on the bb, but it wasn’t that much of a loss.

well. that’s it for ‘a’ this time round. next sunday, the letter ‘b’.