It has been almost 3 years since I got my last cell phone, a Blackberry 8800. While it was nice, the UI was very sparse, and dare I say ugly. Ever since the Palm Pre was announced earlier this year, I have been itching to get one. Unfortunately, they are not available on my current provider. My wife, her parents, and I all share a family plan on the T-Mobile network which allows us to keep our cell phone charges way down so if I was going to get a new phone, it would have to be one that T-Mobile offered. When my wife's phone suddenly died 3 weeks ago, we started looking at new phones and finally settled on the new MyTouch phones from T-Mobile. My wife does not use 90% of the features on her phone because she finds it a bit challenging to figure out. To help solve this problem, we both decided to get the same phone, so that I would be able to help her out if she had any questions or issues.
Because we were already T-Mobile customers, we were able to pre-order the new MyTouch, but it would require waiting a few weeks for delivery. So, over the last 3 weeks, I have been researching the Android platform and the various applications available so that I would be ready to go when the phones arrived. I have become more and more excited about the new phones as I saw what they could do, and aesthetically they were a huge leap forward over my blackberry. Even better, I found an application from AppCelerator which allows me to use my web development skills to quickly create applications for the new phones. Some friends and I even came up with some cool ideas for an application which would tie into DotNetNuke (the application that my company produces).
The day is finally here. Last night 2 cell phones were delivered to the house and I have to say, so far I am very impressed. T-Mobile really did a great job on this phone in terms of really making your initial experience very positive. Below are a few photos I took as I unboxed the new phone.
I really love the case that the phone comes in. Perfect for traveling and keeping all my accessories available in one spot. Usually I just pack everything in my bags where the charger and everything else tends to get tangled up. Now I can keep them in one nice little package and I even have room for a few additional items as well,
So far I have installed a dozen or so apps (all of them free, but of very high quality) and I am really loving the experience. Finding applications in the marketplace from the phone could be a little better, but the installation process once you locate an app is pretty seamless.
One of the standouts for me has been an app called Locale. Have you ever been in a movie or even worse, Church, and had your phone accidentally go off? What if your phone knew where you were at and configured itself appropriately. When you walked into the theater, the phone could go into silent mode, unless someone important was calling – in which case the phone would vibrate. Even when I remember to mute my phone in the theater, I often forget to unmute it when I come out. I have missed more calls as a result. Locale solves this problem and much more. Locale marries maps, GPS, and custom rules which you define, to determine how to configure your phone based on your location or other predefined events which you configure. Locale even provides plug-ins so that beyond just changing phone configuration you can have your phone automatically take actions – like post to twitter when you arrive at your hotel on your next business trip. This is just the tip of the iceberg with this app.
All in all, I have to say this is one of the best phones I’ve purchased to this point. That is not to say that it is perfect, just that it seems to suit my purposes for now. I’m sure that in 2 years I’ll be looking for another shiny new toy and who knows maybe it will be another Android phone. If they keep up with the same pace of development as they have in the past year, then I can’t wait till it’s time for the next upgrade.