Graves and Allen » Smart Phone

THE MOTOROLA DROID

jallenlaw — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:51:59 +0000

I have been playing with the Motorola Droid on the Verizon network for the last couple of months. My first reaction to the Droid was that it did not stack up to my iPhone. While nothing has changed that conclusion, I have developed some respect for the Droid as it has proven a very decent phone. I have not had any trouble with it; it has performed well for me and it has the advantage of using the Verizon network, which provides better coverage than a number of its competitors. You can learn more about the Droid and its features on the Motorola website at www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DROID-US-EN.alt or on Verizon’s site at http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/#/home.

The Droid is a slider style phone and has a physical keyboard. The physical keyboard is, perhaps, its weakest link. The keyboard has small level keys. They do not have raised ridges, such as RIM uses with some of the Blackberry models. I prefer the raised ridges as they make it easier to use. Raised ridges on a slider phone, however, could pose a problem as they would either require extra space making the phone cumbersome or interfere with the sliding process. In truth, I prefer the virtual keyboard option and rarely use the physical keyboard.

The Droid has a 5mp camera, complete with a flash unit. It takes very decent pictures. It also takes high quality movies. As with most smart phones, you can play movies and music on it. The Droid comes with 16GB of internal memory, but you can add more through the use of micro SD cards. The phone came with a 16GB micro SD card installed and supports up to 32GB micro SD cards.

The Droid uses the current iteration of Google’s Android operating system. I have worked with the Android system since shortly after it came out and I like it. It works smoothly and easily, bringing substantial power to the smart phone without burning up the battery. Like the iPhone’s OS, the Android system allows for the use of Apps or applications. In fact a number of Apps available on the iPhone also have Android versions. The variety of Apps for the Android system does not approach that available for the iPhone yet; but you can get a lot of usable Apps for the Android phones.

Coming Attractions

jallenlaw — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:39:55 +0000

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I have my hot little hands (OK, big hands) on three new smart phones/PDAs/Cameras/whatevers that look very impressive so far. I will report on each of them in more detail in the near future. The three I am playing with: Palm’s new Treo Pro (sleek, slim, light and running on Windows Mobile 6.1, unlocked GSM); the Blackberry Bold (for about a week the hottest Blackberry around, amazingly better visual presentation and a very nice physical thumb board, currently available from AT&T); and the very impressive (already my favorite Blackberry, the Storm (no physical keyboard, but multiple virtual keyboards, excellent graphics, and a touch screen you have to try to believe. It actually gives you a physical click response to a key press). Anyway, I will keep you posted on how they do as I test them in various situations and put them through their paces. tonalin cla gnc

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Palm Centro

jallenlaw — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:40:22 +0000

I have tried the Centro on the Verizon and the ATT networks. It works well on both, providing all the features we have come to know and enjoy on Palm devices in a smaller and more compact form. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes psp I replaced my Treo with a Centro and have not missed the Treo’s bulk. The Centro’s screen is not as large as the Treo’s and I can’t read the screen without my glasses; but I couldn’t read the Treo’s screen without my glasses either, even though it is a bit larger. That is a function of my own age and diminishing near vision and something that moste of us will have to live with as we go kicking and screaming into the next phases of our lives.

The Centro handles eMail fairly well (I prefer the Blackberry and the iPhone to the Centro for eMail, but it does give you a good basic eMail service that many will find satisfactory).

The only real knock I have on the Centro results from the diminutive size that I like so much about it. I have thick fingers and that poses a bit of an issue with the very tiny keyboard on the Centro. I have finally developed reasonable skill with it, by learning to use my fingernails to strike the keys. The shape of the keys is so curved that fingernails work better than trying to use a stylus or a pen. Waking the Dead film I do not type as fast on the keyboard as I can on others, such as the Blackberry or the older and larger Treos; but I still like it better than the Treo. It runs on the Palm OS and works pretty well as a phone on both the ATT and the Verizon systems. For those of you that travel internationally, Palm offers it for direct sale in an unlocked GSM version.

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Verizon and ATT have very favorable pricing for the Centro in conjunction with two-year contracts. Without the contract, you can get the Centro directly from Palm. The last time I checked, ATT offered the Centro for $69 with a two-year contract, Verizon offered the Centro for $99 with a two-year contract and Palm sells the unlocked GSM version for $299.

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If you do not want the features of Apple’s iPhone, but still want a solid phone/PDA combination, the Centro may prove a good choice for you. It does have the ability to store music, photographs, documents and other information; it also works with FileMaker mobile and a large number of other programs that developers have built for the Palm OS platform over the years.

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