DROID vs. iPhone

As everyone knows, the iPhone is an amazing device -- just not a great phone, which is due to unreliable service. That's the only reason I switched. And I was kind of worried about the experience I'd have with a Droid from Verizon. So instead of talking about the iPhone, I'm going to focus on my experience with the (motorola) droid -- in the context of being a former iPhone user.

Also, these are just impressions -- not scientific testing with a stop watch. But I think after over a decade in web dev, I can make observations about a device that are qualitatively valid, if not totally rigorous.

Looks

First, the device itself looks okay -- not beautiful like the iphone, but certainly not hideous. The are certainly better and worse-looking smart phones out there. And it's kind of heavy, most likely due to the hard keyboard that slides out.

Screen

Big, bright and sensitive (like me!). Seriously, it's just as nice, if not nicer than the iphone screen, which I thought was amazing.

OS

Android is really nice. It borrows a lot of the simplicity of the iphone, with some nice added features like a top status you can pull down for details on your alerts.

Email

It's great -- but I'm only using Gmail right now. In fact, the whole google suite (cal, docs, search) is pretty killer.

Browser

Great -- can't really tell the difference between its performance and the safari's. Oddly, it doesn't feel like Chrome (google's browser for computers).

Phone calls

No doubt, in my experience, Droid crushes the iphone. No dropped calls (yet) vs. 6 out of 10 calls dropped with iphone (for me).

Keyboard and Autocomplete

Honestly, the soft keyboards are similar. A couple nice things on droid include a .com and @ symbol on the default keyboard. There's also a hard keyboard -- but I'm not really using it. The soft one is fine -- and, the big news, the autocomplete is wonderful! Suggestions appear right above where you type -- not in the sentence like on iphone -- and the it's learning my vocabulary really fast.

Battery

iPhone wasn't great, and the Droid is just as poor, if not worse. Had a backup battery for the iphone, and now I have one for the Droid.

Apps

I was a huge apps user, and that's where my biggest fear was. It was unfounded. The android marketplace is great. Haven't missed one app.

Camera

Droid camera is ridiculously awesome. 5mp. Video. Flash. Really, really nice. I was amazed by how good the iphone camera was, and I'm blown away by the droid.

Music

I was bumming about having to have a separate ipod. Then I found an app called doubletwist that syncs a droid with itunes with absolutely no hassles.

Buttons

The Droid has added something I think is awesome: a back button right on the case. At first I wasn't sure I would use it, but it really comes in handy. Back has definitely become a standard move for users, and it makes total sense to have that on the phone.

So that's where I'm at in my assessment. More to come...

The nicest compliment I ever received, part two

Work can be hard, especially in a tough environment made tougher by a shitty economy. That's why this email from a colleague really meant a lot to me:

Graham,

Thanks for being someone who inspired me even when inspiration was hard to be found. You taught me that you can be enthusiastic and thoughtful about any project (no matter how small); that working with a good team can be the best part of your job; and that taking things too seriously means doom.

I hope that we can keep in touch. I hope you move on to bigger and better things. I hope you continue to be your awesome self.

I will miss you.

As you can tell from the note, I just resigned from my job. But I guess I did some good stuff along the way (including inspiring people to use the word doom more frequently).

Taking my Droid to Taschi Station

Okay, I was forced to switch from the iPhone to the Motorola Droid. Why? My wife is pregnant. The iPhone drops 60% of its calls. That combination is very, very bad.

Clearly AT&T/Apple have fucked up. Because while the iPhone is an amazing device, it sucks as a phone -- BECAUSE YOU CANT MAKE OR RECEIVE CALLS. Seriously. In my year with the iPhone, I can't describe how frequently calls drop. The worst part is where they drop most -- cities! When I'm in Colorado or Texas or Bumblefuck, the calls are great. In NYC, not so much.

So I switched devices and network. So far with Verizon, no dropped calls. Great. But what about the rest of the device? The UI? The keyboard? The apps? In the next few weeks I will give you my impressions. And you will take them, bitches.

Google tweaks home page -- and not for the better

Anyone else notice this? When you first load google.com, it looks like this:

But once you mouse over any area of the page, the other links appear after a short pause, and it looks like this:

Why would you need to move the cursor to see options? I actually thought it was a loading error, but it doesn't appear to be. Exactly how is this a benefit to the user? Sure, the initial state is slightly cleaner -- but at the expense of seeing important options, like when you are logged in or not.

Weird.

Amazon really responds

Loyal readers know I petitioned Amazon to revise the way in which users can begin the log in process on the home page. Well, they made changes! Not everything I suggested (of course), but a key switch of which words are links.

It used to look like this:

Now it looks like this:

Note how they've changed the link to log in from "personalized recommendations" to "Sign in." Makes more sense, huh?

See, the internet is democratic.

And the winner is...

Every year, my wife and I try to spend Halloween in Manhattan. Why? It's kind of like witnessing a modern Saturnalia. Who doesn't want that? And, as I've posted about before, Halloween means tons of chicks will make normally innocuous costumes as slutty as possible. We've all seen the slutty nurse, slutty girl-cop, slutty pirate wench, etc. But this year I saw the ultimate: a slutty Ghostbusters costume.

Think about that. Somebody--a genius, obviously--not only recognized the awesomeness of Ghostbusters, but also had the presence of mind to make a very slutty girl version of the costume. Totally awesome.

School

I remember being in school as a kid. It sucked. The teachers were lame and stupid, the textbooks were outdated, and the building was broken down like busted whore. Even cool history like the Pilgrims, Teddy Roosevelt and World War II were presented in a way that make me throw up in my own mouth. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Ever watch a Ken Burns documentary? WWII, baseball, jazz, national parks -- he has a whole bunch of them. And these documentaries are brilliant -- maybe even more interesting than their subject. Why not just throw away the ancient books and have kids watch these? Pay Ken Burns to make a ton of them about a range of subjects, and use his films as the foundation. Make him the head of history in America, and let him create a new way to teach about our past.