I finally got it. I got my Droid. I got it in a very round about sort of way. I wanted to find out the difference between the Eris and Droid and so while I was at Verizon paying the bill, I inquired about it with a salesman. Admittedly this was a mistake. Me in a shoe store or me in a cell phone store equals disaster. I have learned to stay away from shoe stores at all costs. However, I have yet to learn my lesson with cell phones. I am kinda like a cat. I walk in and instantly I want to touch all the beautiful shiny objects. So the salesman was ever so kind to check and see when I would be up for an upgrade. Not until November. I almost cried. I have been wanting a Droid since their arrival in October 2009. Upon seeing my non existent tears the poor salesman absolutely took pity on me and set about to be my knight in shining armor. Okay okay okay. I am a sucker and he saw it painted all over my forehead. He discovered that the hubs was up for an upgrade (I knew this) and set about to inform me that I could upgrade the hubs for him, get him the free Eris and get the Droid for myself (I didn’t know this). Of course I had to break the silence between the hubs and I and call him asking him if this was ok. He agreed but we later found out we both weren’t understanding each other. So I got the hubs set up and walked out with our new phones.
This is the Eris. Nice phone, it is an Android phone. The biggest thing is it is touch screen only. After having a touch screen only phone, Samsung Omnia, I was super hesitant about getting another one like that. This is the hubs first smartphone. He is a very simple person. His old phone was a simple flip with a 1.5 mp camera. Absolutely no frills or bells or whistles or anything with it. He seems to be enjoying this so far. He spent a good hour going through the free apps and has used some of the features.
This is my baby. Isn’t she gorgeous? I am in love with my phone. In a very bad sort of way. Seriously, little man went to touch my phone to hand to me and I about had a heart attack. In my defense I didn’t know he was going to hand it to me. But anywho I love her and her name is Betsy. I am still getting used to maneuvering the phone. Not that it is hard it just can do a whole hell of a lot of stuff lol. So the apps I have so far are:
The Associated Press app. I actually have this as a widget on one of my screens (you can flip through 3 screens). I can go through all the headlines and then read which ones I want to read. I can also switch from national to international if I want. Not a bad app so far.
Google Sky Maps. This one is fascinating and great if you have kids around. It shows you the stars and planets and how they are aligned in relation to your location. Move the phone around and the night sky moves with you. And it’s not jerky, a very smooth transition. It’s like having a window into outerspace. Very cool stuff.
Store Finder – I haven’t used it yet but I thought this might come in handy. The app has a long list of stores (Walmart, Target, 7Eleven, etc etc) and it will tell you where the nearest one is. I think I will like this for when we travel. When we had gone to Orlando for our Disney trip we only found Walmart by accident. I could have used this to locate any store that I felt like going into.
Facebook – while I am a Farmville junkie, this is a good way for me to keep up with my feed and see what’s going on. It’s sad but now I actually talk to everyone from my phone and only visit FB on the laptop when I need to do some farming.
Foursquare – I am now a foursquare addict. The basic premise is…you visit a local business, you go to foursquare on your phone and check in (say you are there). You get points for visiting and finding new businesses. I seriously love checking in and finding out where my friends are going. I see it as a way to find out about places that maybe I didn’t know about before. There has to be some caution with this though. It is every stalkers dream and if you have a routine each week about visiting this one specific gas station and then coffee house….some freak could figure it out and stalk you. I personally recommend that you don’t check in at every single place that you visit but places that you enjoy going to or new places that you found. But how you use it is really up to you.
Last.fm – I tried Pandora’s Radio app but it never worked for some odd reason. So I gave Last.fm a shot and love it. At work I tend to listen to alot of music but it’s a playlist I created online or what I have on the hard drive. This gives me my own personal radio station based on what I like….and it changes up the songs. I sometimes find new musicians that appeal to me. This one i won’t be getting rid of.
Yarn Shopper – I haven’t used this one yet. BUT. You put in your knit/crochet project and it will tell you how much yarn you need and how much it’s going to cost you. I haven’t had to buy any yarn here lately so I will have to tell you how that works out later on.
Fandango – I have a Regal Cinemas card, so I like to catch matinees at the theater. A bit more affordable then an evening movie and I get lots of freebies. Well this fandango app comes in handy. For some reason when I decide I want to see a movie, I decide when I am not online. It takes our computers awhile to boot up and I hate calling cause it takes forever to get through the automated call. This app is much easier, I can find out movie times in about a minute. LOVE IT!
Seesmic – I asked around about this one. I wanted a twitter app so that I could keep up with my tweeters while on the go. There are tons of free twitter apps on the droid system and I was overwhelmed. Most people came back with Seesmic so I gave it a try. I enjoy it thoroughly. It’s real easy to use, I mean REAL EASY!
The Weather Channel – I like being able to keep up with what is going on with the weather. The only thing I am not fond of is the inability to see what areas are affected by severe weather warnings. Last night we were under tornado watch and flood watch. If I go to the website I can see what is going on with counties and get up to date info on where funnel clouds are spotted. Unfortunatley the app tells you that you are under a warning but you cannot see any details about it. It would be nice if I could. I am not going to get rid of this one just yet though. I will keep an eye out for one that is more in depth in the mean time.
Steamy Window – everyone has to have that one stupid app that amuses them. Really, it’s a requirement. I swear I read it in my manual for the phone. So Steamy Window is my stupid app. Turn it on and it makes the screen look like it’s covered in steam. You rub your finger on it to clear it and you can see water beads and everything. And the really super cool thing is, you blow hard into the speaker and it creates more steam. It is awesome and I seriously can’t wait to show it off to people!
Ok so there ya go, that’s what I have on my phone. ALL of the apps listed above are free apps. I don’t want to spend extra money buying any. One thing I have to say is that I am not getting on the computer much at home. Don’t have to. Everything (except blogging and farmville) is easy to do from my phone. It’s kinda nice that way cause I can break up how I spend my time online.
Oh and….the eldest is happy. The hubs old ancient flip phone is now her phone. Yep, she has her first cell phone. We have strict rules about it and first offense for breaking any rule is she loses the phone for a year. No freaking joke people. I want her to understand the responsibility and I am very concerned about other people and her phone. Fortunatley she has no internet access. She has already declared she wants a smartphone but we have informed her that when California falls off and Key West has a blizzard (please mother nature don’t do that anytime soon) she can have one. After recent events with her possibly going to Wake Forest for a week and both the girls going to Univeristy North Carolina for Saturday classes…..it was time to give her her own line to keep in touch with us. I think she will be ok with it. She is a pretty good kid.
