Please tell me it's worth the cost to get a smartphone!

[Tuckervill]

I have the Motorola Droid, and it is very easy to see in the sunlight. That was not the case with my Blackberry. I really like it.

Karen

[sundial]

Tuck, I thought you had an iPhone.

I use my iPhone as my computer on the go when I travel. Guess that's why I am not in a hurry to get an iPad.

[Becky]

Has anyone tried a NexusOne? I'm intrigued....

[ny biker]

Okay, decision made and order has been placed. I should get the new phone around June 1 or so. I think it will be fun and useful.

In the meantime, I printed out the user manual and am reading it to familiarize myself with the phone's features. It's 206 pages long!! 206!!! And you don't even get to "how to make a phone call" until page 39!!!

Thanks everyone for your input!

[sundial]

Good grief! Are there any tutorial videos you can watch?

[ny biker]

It's a fast read, plenty of white space. Actually pretty well written for a tech user manual.

I printed it double sided, two pages per side to save on paper.

[ny biker]

Update -- the phone arrived last night and I activated it today! I still am figuring out how to do everything. But I know how to make a call, answer a call, and send a text message. And surf the web. And look up addresses in google maps. And take photos and upload them to facebook. So I'm already well on my way.

[7rider]

Do you have the same #?

[ny biker]

Do you have the same #?

Yes.

I need to get a good ringtone. The ones that come with the phone are boring. My old phone had a train ringtone that was awesome -- I miss it already.

I might download a ringtone from the Formula 1 website -- so I'll hear engines revving whenever anyone calls me.

[northstar]

I have a Palm Pixi, and I love it. I just made the switch to a smartphone and it makes things so convenient! GPS, email, my calendar, everything. It was quite inexpensive (as an upgrade through Sprint) and I'm trying to get my mom to get one.

[indysteel]

Until 2006, I didn't have a cell phone of any kind. Now I have the Blackberry Curve. I mostly use it for e-mail and calendaring. I got to the point two years ago that I was forgetting a lot of appointments because I was so busy all the time, not all of which I wanted on my work computer, so I opted for the Blackberry. I also didn't have and didn't want a home computer, so it filled in the blanks there, too. I really like being connected with work 24/7. My job isn't THAT intrusive as it is, so the fact that I'm always reachable isn't a big drawback for me. It's also helped me feel less anxious about being out of the office since I can still stay in touch. I really like having it when we travel. We can look up directions or restaurants or check the weather.

I can't answer for you whether it would be worth the extra cost. For me, it is.

[ny biker]

So, the new phone is already paying off.

I drove up to NY for the holiday weekend. Driving back to VA on Tuesday, I crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge only to find that 295 S -- the route to I-95 -- was completely closed. (Really, Delaware should change its motto to "The perpetual road work state.") And the detour to get to I-95S was poorly marked, well technically there were no signs at all. No problem, I have a Garmin Nuvi to keep me from getting lost. But I quickly realized the Garmin would put me on 95 right before the toll booth, and I refuse to pay that toll -- especially when they can't be bothered to properly sign such a major detour.

So I pulled over at a gas station, turned on the phone's internet connection (I keep it off when I'm not using it to conserve the battery) and fired up the google maps. It found my location, and I was able to scroll around and figure out how to get to Rt 4 south so I could bypass the toll and rejoin I-95 in Maryland. Score!!!

I also had fun taking photos of my sibling's dogs and uploading them to facebook over the weekend. I played with making videos, too.

For my next experiment, I will try out the Navigation app on some local trips to see how well it works.

I've also spent some time playing Teeter, which came with the phone. But I'd like to download one or two other games for those times when I'm stuck somewhere with time to kill. Can anyone recommend a droid app for crossword puzzles or scrabble? Or any other good games?

BTW, merely browsing through the available apps is pretty entertaining. Under the "lifestyle" category, you can find various bible and other religious apps. But the same category also includes multiple versions of the kama sutra and something called "Car Sex Positions."

[OakLeaf]

LOL - I call it "car sex" when people drive their cars drive side-by-side in adjacent lanes, blocking all the traffic behind them.

FWIW, my DH is just learning to use the "detour" function on his Garmin (he's been a Garmin user for a decade) and finds that it works really well. Still, the live traffic function on the phone doesn't cost you anything extra, while Garmin's traffic subscription is pretty steep I believe.

I just ordered a Droid Incredible. They're backordered for three weeks. It was the last straw on Wednesday when I had to go into town early before the club ride, and literally minutes after I left, everyone else posted to the forum that they weren't riding. - so after I'd done my errands, I waited around until just before the ride was supposed to start before I called DH and asked him to check the internet for me.

I'm not 100% convinced it's the phone for me - but I've got 30 days to return it if I don't like it. I reallyreallyreally don't like the idea of syncing everything through Google Calendars, even though I'm perfectly well aware that there's no privacy on the airwaves and never has been.

I did just read in the paper this morning that all the service providers will be using the same 4G protocol and frequency - so there's still that tantalizing fantasy of a Verizon iPhone in the future. Which is probably exactly how Apple strings people along, figuring the next best thing to people buying iPhones is keeping them from buying other smartphones...

[ny biker]

Just an update -- I'm soooooo glad I got this phone. I love being able to check google maps when I'm out on a ride, or check the weather radar map when I'm way out in Paeonian Springs and it looks like it's about to pour down rain.

I like the camera and camcorder. The photo quality is good and it's very easy to upload photos directly to facebook, picasa, or flickr, although the transfer is a bit slow and for photos above a certain size you need a wifi connection because it won't go over the 3g network.

Yesterday my car stereo died -- naturally these things happen at the start of a holiday weekend. I need music when I drive, so I just transferred a bunch of songs from my pc to the phone's sd card so I can play them in the car. Of course the sound quality won't be nearly as good as a real stereo, but it beats listening to the car engine for hours.

Also, I found a great word game that's kinda sorta like scrabble without the scrabble board. It's addictive.

I'm still playing with some of the voice-activated stuff. There's a voice search -- you say what you're looking for and you get a google page with whatever you just said. I tried the voice dialer but it didn't work well -- need to try that again. Also need to test the voice-to-text.

I do think it's hard to see the screen when you're outside in bright sun, but this is not nearly enough of a downside to make me regret getting the phone. It's such a great tool. I love this thing.

BTW I did download a Formula 1 engine for my ringtone. It's hilarious.

[OakLeaf]

Have you been able to play music in your car?

I can't do it with my brand new Droid Incredible and DH can't do it with his iPhone. He explained it to me just a little bit ago - the jack in a phone, unlike the jack in an iPod, is for a combined microphone/headphone, so it takes a different plug from the stereo cable that you can easily find in male-to-male. Cables are apparently available but kind of expensive. I suppose we could fabricate one pretty easily with parts from Radio Shack.

Loving the Incredible so far, after four days, but it's way too big to run with and borderline for cycling. I'm thinking I'll put my old phone on a pre-paid plan, if that's possible, for running - although it is nice having access to weather radar on the bike.