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So I am now the proud father of a Motorola Droid…

January 19, 2010, 12:27 AM

So I got my Droid today. I now have what I describe as the iPhone for people who don’t want an iPhone. This thing has the touch screen, it has Wi-Fi, it has downloadable apps and games, and it has a five-megapixel camera.

Yes, five megapixels. That’s right – my cell phone just out-megapixeled the late Big Mavica (which was four-megapixel). That’s obscene. My cell phone still slots below my real cameras, though. Duckie has six, and the Canon does ten. And take a look at a sample of its work:

Digging up the floor at Staunton Mall

You would think that I took this with a real camera. But it’s a cell phone.

Meanwhile, what you’re looking at there is the center court at Staunton Mall. I’m told that they’re putting in a new sewer line, and it apparently requires digging up the floor. That’s a pile of dirt inside the mall. Pretty serious, if you ask me. And for all that work, when it’s all said and done, the mall will look exactly the same, with the same crummy linoleum where a fountain used to be. When we first moved to the area in 1992, there was a modern-looking fountain in the center of the mall, in front of what was then Woolworth’s. Then with a bunch of renovations to the mall in 1997 (or so), the fountain was removed. They didn’t bother to put in tile where the fountain used to be, though. They just laid linoleum over the spot. I don’t know who they think they’re fooling. It even feels cheap when you walk on it.

Otherwise, though, I’m slowly but surely figuring out my Droid. I’ve got my bells back, and the Power Rangers chime is also on there again. And then having a phone with a decent speaker now, I need to figure out a new ringtone. I don’t believe I’m up to Rickrolling myself whenever I get a call, but this does require some thought. I’ve had “Sakura Saku” as my ringtone on two different phones in the past, so I think it’s time to retire that one. So we’ll see what I come up with, I suppose. I’ll skim my MP3s once I get back home tomorrow and put something on there.

Then I’ve also figured out how to change my background, and for that, I chose a photo of Metro Center station. I’ve had the Metro as my background for a long time, and so this is just a continuation of that trend. Then I still have to get my work Email configured to speak to my Droid. I think I’m the first one at work to have a Droid. I believe the most popular phone at the office is the iPhone, and it’s nice and all, but you have to have AT&T service (which I don’t want), and I believe Apple keeps too tight of control over the device. So now we must document how to hook up the work Email for this particular smartphone.

Then probably the coolest new tool is the barcode scanner. Now I can scan barcodes using the camera, and instantly go comp-shopping. I can see this being really handy around the office. If I need to reorder something, I could just go in, zap the bar code, and then place an order. Done and done.

And of course, this thing also has a real keyboard. Though interestingly enough, I’ve been finding myself using the on-screen keyboard more often thus far. But it’s there. Thus if I get fed up with the on-screen keyboard or what have you, I just slide out a real keyboard, with real keys. Pretty groovy.

This phone is still a bit of a challenge, but I think I’m going to tackle it in the end. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know about yet, and I need to play around with it a bit more, but I think this will be a winner. Now I just need some games for it. I like my Scrabble and my Tetris, but couldn’t find them on the new phone.

Web site: Review of the Droid

Song: The annual "No Pants Subway Ride"

Quote: And now the next challenge is to figure out how the Droid mashed up my old Google, phone, and Facebook contacts, and make it all into one powerhouse contact list (that I can edit online!).

Categories: Cell phone, Staunton Mall