I realize this is a long piece, so I’ve included an audio version (created using text-to-speech software) so you can listen instead of reading. I recommend reading, though: better visuals. Download the Motorola Droid Review (Audio)

There are three things I hear about constantly when the Droid is being talked about. First, the boxy design with the gold accents; second, the keyboard; and third, the inevitable comparisons to the iPhone due in large part to Verizon’s “iDon’t” commercials. I’m sure that if Verizon had decided instead to compare this to a Windows Mobile phone or Blackberry then that’s where comparisons would start, before inevitably moving to the single most popular phone on the market now. (For the record, though, it’s not the most popular platform. That crown belongs to Symbian, which as of this writing still holds over 40% marketshare.) I’ll address these and more throughout the piece.

First Impressions

Looking at this phone on the net, I couldn’t help but wonder what on Earth Motorola’s chiefs were thinking about when their design team handed this to them and they OK’d it. The phone is boxy, the keyboard is flat with no space between the letters, it has gold accents reminiscent of a state of the art design from 1999, and it has this weird chin thing that I’m sure makes Jay Leno more than a bit jealous. It is only when you hold and use a live unit in your hands what you can really appreciate exactly how attractive and well designed this phone is.

When holding it for the first time I couldn’t help but notice how heavy the unit was. It has a metal body and just holding it simply exudes the confidence of a well built product. Size-wise, practically speaking, it’s about the same size as an 80GB iPod Classic (6th gen), a few millimeters narrower, a third of an inch taller, and an eighth of an inch thicker. (I figure more people have iPods than iPhones, and I didn’t have anything else immediately identifiable available to me, hence the comparison.)

(If you don’t know which is which, this shouldn’t matter to you.)

When you test out a live unit (don’t bother with dummy units if you’re actually considering this phone), you’ll notice right away how clear and sharp the screen is; I’m hard-pressed to think of a phone with one sharper. In fact, I did side to side comparisons with the Samsung Moment, the HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Rogue and in all those cases the screen was clearer. I’ve heard that comparisons to the iPhone 3GS yielded similar results, but not having done the comparison myself I can’t say. (If you can, then by all means please do.)

The User Interface and Experience

While looking at the screen, I also got a good look at the Android 2.0 interface. It felt pretty much like I was looking at a computer, not a phone. The gestures used to do things like add icons to the desktop or group icons in folders were pretty intuitive, and those that weren’t were assisted by feedback from the phone: if you put your finger somewhere long enough the phone would give a slight vibration, meaning something just happened. This was usually followed with a menu popping up on the screen.

As for comparisons in this area, if you’ve used the Blackberry or Windows Mobile operating systems then you’ll probably find this an improvement. If you’re used to the iPhone, then you’ll either love the customization–icon placements, background and home screen images, widgets, reminders–or hate the fact that icons aren’t all the exact same size, although they snap to a clean, sequential grid. This holds especially true for widgets which can make the desktop look pretty messy since there doesn’t seem to be a standard size. Very useful, but messy.

This actually brings up another point, and that is the much touted ability to multitask. Frankly, the only reason this is such a big deal is because the iPhone can’t. Otherwise it would be more a matter of how it was implemented, rather than whether it had it. Its implementation is pretty good, sort of like a desktop OS. I can get a list of all currently running apps and jump around back and forth between applications. If one is busy, I can jump to another while that one finishes. Or like now, I can be writing a blog post while I listen to music and get new email notifications. This ability alone allows me to use my phone like I want, instead of having to tailor my working methods around its limitations.

One last thing, the fact that it has three home screens (you can swipe between the three) allows you to organize information like you want. For example, I have one screen for one-touch access to my frequently called contacts; a page for time management, weather updates, search tools (by voice and typed), mapping tools (Where, Places Directory, Maps), and a couple of other widgets; and finally a page for apps I use often (browser, RSS and podcast tools, music and movie players). I wish there were more screens, though, or that I had the ability add more. HTC, with their SenseUI interface has this won hands down.

Applications

Because the operating system is built on Android, which is developed by Google, the software is tied in pretty tightly with the Google services, most notably Gmail and Google Maps. (FYI, you’ll need a Google account to get the most out of your phone.) In fact, the phone’s most talked about functionality is the included turn-by-turn directions app which all but makes your GPS obsolete on the roads. (I still haven’t used the phone while hiking so I can’t say how good it is in the woods. For now, hang on to that Garmin.)

In addition to the awesomeness of that tool, I should mention the voice search on the phone, which allows you to press a button, say what you’re searching for, and have the system find a class of businesses, locations for a specific business, a specific address on a map, related items on and off the web, phone numbers… frankly, just about anything I could look for. (In fact, the voice enabled search is integrated with the turn by turn directions feature.)

On top of that (and as I’ve mentioned before) there’s the Android Marketplace. This is where another of the direct comparisons to the iPhone is made. The iPhone currently has over 100,000 applications while the Android Market has a tenth that number. In my case, that number includes just about every application I’m interested in–word processing, blogging, banking, searching, social media, games–so I don’t feel like that number is all that bad, even if 3,000 of those apps are soundboards and fart apps. (OK, not nearly that many, but it seems that way.) In other words, despite the platform’s youth, you can still be pretty productive right off the bat. In fact, back on the subject of finding things, enhanced with tools like Where and Places Directory, I’m never at a loss to find what I want, where I want. The voice-to-text software has proven to be impeccably accurate. Your mileage may vary, however.

As for the app store itself, navigation could definitely be improved by doing little things, like mentioning how many results a particular search pulled up. On the bright side, for you cheapskates and penny pinchers out there, a good number of very useful apps are free. Many of these include a donation version, usually $.99, so if you like an app, consider paying for it.

What About Jailbreaking?

On the Android, like in just about every other smartphone operating systems, that’s not really an issue. Unlike with the iPhone, you can install any Android application you want on your phone, regardless of whether it comes from the marketplace or whether you download it to your microSD card from anywhere else. (You will have to set the option to allow applications to be installed from untrusted sources (ie, not from the marketplace) on, though.) The only fear of bricking you have is from installing a bad application from an “untrusted source”, not from the phone’s manufacturer deciding you’re not allowed to use your phone how you want. Freedom: no jailbreaking required.

The Keyboards: A Writer’s Perspective

The Motorola Droid includes two different keyboards, software and hardware. Given that writing is the very reason I got this phone, this functionality has been thoroughly tested.

For those of you who like on-screen keyboards, the default Android keyboard is available to you in both landscape and portrait format. If you’re used to typing at breakneck speeds with your iPhone keyboard then I got some bad news: while Android supports multi-touch, none of the Android apps do so by default. (I still haven’t heard a definitive answer as to why, although the rumor is that it involves Google and Motorola running into some legal issues with Apple.) For the avid keyboard user (me), the onscreen keyboard can get annoying at times, until you get used to it. The predictive text functionality is excellent because when you type a word, above the keyboard a list of possible words appears from whence you may choose one or continue to write your own. This is better than Apple’s functionality, which gives you a possible alternative, although that alternative is usually right, in large part because the multi-touch keyboard implementation on the iPhone results in fewer errors. In Android, a long press on a key will also allow you to enter alternative (non-English) characters.

The second choice, and for those who must have a hardware keyboard, the only choice is the included slideout keyboard.

As far as physical keyboards are concerned, this one is average. Not quite the quality of a Blackberry Tour, bur certainly better than some of the others out there, and less likely to cause “Blackberry thumb” than the Curve. The keys are almost entirely flat, with just enough of a rise for it to be noticed tactically, if not visually. Of course, if you’re going to make the world’s thinnest slideout QWERTY phone than the keys will probably be pretty flat.

A very strange decision in the keyboard design was the inclusion of a large 5-directional D-pad right next to the keyboard. Mind you, it has come in handy plenty of times (for example, when moving through multiple fields or scrolling to a specific spot in a long blog post), so I’m not about to knock the concept. Still, the same effect could have been accomplished using less space, leaving more room for the keys themselves, and making the keyboard a bit more centered. For example, when writing words which are very left-side heavy (e.g., dressed, warden, dreads), my left hand thumb has to squish over to compensate for the design. Despite this, and despite the proximity of the keys to each other, the error rate on the physical keyboard, even with my inexperienced, fat, squishy fingers, was pretty low and with a good typing speed.

Two big downers with the physical keyboard. First, the spell checker: I wish the same predictive text functionality available for the onscreen keyboard was available to the hardware keyboard. Seriously, no predictive text? It would be just as useful to have! Second, if you press Shift and Alt, you have access to all kinds odd symbols and letters, such as ß, ¥, €, £, ¡, and ¿. Too bad none of these are marked. Would be kind of useful if they were.

Frankly, this was the biggest issue for me in the keyboard department, and if someone could make a iPhone-like multi-touch keyboard for the Android but kept all of the Android’s predictive text and foreign character functionalities I’d more than gladly pay. (There’s an app called BetterKeyboard but after having tried I wasn’t too convinced it was really that much better than the standard Google keyboard. Others will disagree.) Still, all in all I think that what the Droid offers is pretty good.

On Contacts and Social Media

Much has been said about the Droid’s integration of Facebook into this phone. Mostly that involves bringing in your contacts and matching them with your Gmail contacts (the ones pulled in from your Gmail account; remember, too, that you can join and split contacts). This includes getting their profile picture, if they don’t already have one in Google, and you haven’t already associated one with them on the phone. In a way, the excitement is justifiable: the Facebook widget allows you to keep up with what your friends and family are doing and allows you to post from your home screen. Although frankly, that sounds creepy. You don’t need that much Facebook, no one does. It’s almost as creepy as that Google Locale which tracks you using Google Maps. Of course, this can come in handy if your phone gets stolen, but at what cost?

By the way, that shot on the right is correct: you have a choice between viewing a combined inbox with all your email accounts or an individual with one. Very nice, very useful.

One minor complaint I have, and this may just be ignorance, if you accidentally delete a Facebook contact from your phone, you don’t have to worry: the contact isn’t deleted from your Facebook account, just hidden from your phone. Problem is, I still haven’t found a way to unhide people, so as far as I know, once they’re gone, they’re gone. Sucks for me: I accidentally erased my wife’s Facebook contact page. Oops.

Camera

Speaking of which, the phone includes a 5MP camera for your point and shoot pleasure. Pictures and videos taken with the thing can be easily shared to Facebook, YouTube, and a number of other services.

Despite the camera’s 5MP image size, taking photos leaves a fair amount to be desired. Yes, it has flash, but I have a feeling vast software improves are needed (particularly when it comes to the time it takes from one shot to the next, or the lag after the click) before someone can totally rely on this camera without worry of missing a precious moment. If I have one major complaint with this phone, it is that.

Sample Shots:

Side Note: For the record, unless you’re about to start printing 8×10 pictures, there’s really no practical difference between 3MP and 5MP camera phone. There are a few other things which factor into quality, which is why your 4MP dedicated camera will still take better pics than this 5MP phone.

As for the video, I really haven’t used that very much, so I’ll refrain from mentioning anything about it other than “it’s there”.

On a related note, a major over the air (OTA) update is scheduled for December 11 which includes some camera changes as well as a ton of bug fixes. Just thought I would throw that out there.

FYI: There was a sooper seekrit silent update on November 15 which delivered some major improvements to the camera software. It still needs a bit of help, but it’s a hundred times better than what shipped.

Multimedia

Note: I own a Mac, so this is from a Mac owner’s point of view. Things are probably very different in Windows and Linux (and FreeBSD, and whatever else is out there). The software mentioned here is available for both Windows and Mac. I’m sure Linux and FreeBSD already have tools available for free, although off the top of my head I don’t know of any.

So here’s the big enchilada when it comes to iPhone comparisons. How well does this phone do with movies and music? The answer is that it depends on what you’re looking for.

The Droid is not part of a multimedia ecosystem like the iPhone; there’s really no iTunes equivalent for it on the desktop, though some software can get close. Therefore what you use is wide open. Whether this is a plus or minus is up to you.

On the phone itself, users have the ability to buy and download songs from the Amazon MP3 store directly. I haven’t seen any way yet to buy and download video, let alone rent it (streaming video apps like Tv.com and YouTube not withstanding). To upload music to or download it from your computer, you simply have to plug the computer in via a standard microUSB interface. It will mount as an external hard drive if you allow it to (the phone will as if you want to mount the SD card; otherwise it just recharges.

When plugged into the computer, you may have a media app which already detects the phone and allows you to start managing music and videos. If you like iTunes, then you will want to give doubleTwist a try since it looks and acts like iTunes, or if you’re willing to drop $40, MissingSync, which actually allows the device to be connect to iTunes directly, as well as adding a large number of other features. (Note that MissingSync, as of this writing, still doesn’t have support for Android 2.0, though the company says that’s forthcoming); also, support for any non-Apple devices is uni-directional, so you can download from iTunes, but not upload to it. If you buy music on your phone via Amazon you will need to upload it into iTunes manually by copying it directly from the SD card. (This is a limitation imposed by Apple through the magic of their legal department, not a technology related limitation.)

When in the phone, browsing media is a bit…anachronistic. The media browser has very limited functionality. Not a problem if you have a small or very well organized library, but a huge problem if your library is like mine, full of music you’ve lugged around from system to system for years.

If you’re into podcasts then that’s another issue for you to think about: you’ll have to download those directly onto your phone using an app downloaded from the app market, since doubleTwist doesn’t do podcasts (yet), MissingSync is missing, and I know of no other software that synchronizes podcasts in both the desktop and phone.

With all this said, I will confess that since I got this phone I haven’t really touched my iPod. After I downloaded the audiobooks and my favorite music from my computer using doubleTwist, and set up my podcasts in the CarCast app, I haven’t felt the need to touch the thing. I would still want it on a trip, though: why would I want to waste battery on multimedia when I could use a dedicated device? Of course, if I could only carry one, then the choice is clear.

Still, if you’re looking for a phone primarily for multimedia and entertainment and AT&T coverage is good in your area, and you don’t mind being attached to the iTunes ecosystem, then do yourself a favor and get yourself an iPhone instead.

Battery Time

It’s a smart phone. That’s all you need to know.

Because of all the services, the battery on this thing drains fast. (After a regular 12-18 hour day of average use the battery will be pretty low if not gone.) You’ll want to keep a charger handy, and if you plan on an especially long trip, it’s wise to also carry an extra (charged) battery. Sure, turning off all the services for this thing (network updates, WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, tactile feedback, etc.) will work wonders, but if you need a phone with super long battery life right now you may want to wait a few years before grabbing yourself a smart phone. Services take energy.

Onboard Storage

The phone ships with a 16GB microSD card. 32GB cards will be coming out soon, so anyone interested in more space can upgrade to one of those. I’ve found 16GB to be plenty for the moment, but only because I’ve limited what I put in there.

Call Sound Quality and a Bit Extra

Lest we forget this is a phone, you may be wondering about the quality of calls. It is great. Not one dropped call yet. Nuff said.

The Droid also has access to the Google Voice app, so I can not only receive calls on my Google Voice number, I can also make calls as that number. I’ve added the number to my calling circle to see whether calls made though that number to non Verizon Wireless and non calling circle numbers are treated as calls to the Google Voice number and don’t therefore go against my minutes. I’m not yet sure about that, but I’m crossing my fingers. Maybe someone can verify either way?

Note that this app was blocked by Apple and AT&T so iPhone folks are out of luck.

Conclusion

Someone recently asked me whether I would recommend this over the iPhone were they on the same network. I answered that it depended heavily on what you wanted from your phone.

If you’re looking for a phone primarily for media and entertainment, get an iPhone. The iTunes ecosystem is simply unmatched, despite the Android’s ultra sharp, ultra clear screen and ability to play more audio/video formats than the iPhone.

If you’re looking for a phone primarily for connectivity and communications, get a Droid. With Gmail plus Facebook, all your contacts are brought to one place, communications are merged, and you have access to all the Google functionality, including Google Voice, Docs, Reader, News, Picasa, Turn by turn navigation, etc.

For me, after having used the iPhone 3GS and the Droid, I’d be hard-pressed not to choose the Droid, primarily because writing is such a large part of what I do, and the Droid gives me both an onscreen and physical keyboard. Now, if I could just have voice to text… (I can record notes to myself via a widget, though, which is very useful when the muse strikes on the road.) Additionally, since the phone is centered around information, the search functionality integrated into the phone puts the entire internet a voice command away.

All in all, I’m really loving it. Easily the best phone I’ve owned, and arguably the best phone I’ve used. Of course, considering I just bought one, and understanding the psychology of purchases, I’m biased, so take this with a grain of salt.

Reviews

• CNet: The bottom line: Some minor design issues and multimedia quibbles aside, the Motorola Droid is the most powerful and fastest Google Android device to date. It fully embraces the openness of the Android platform and offers Verizon customers a smartphone that certainly rivals the other touch-screen devices on the market. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Laptop Magazine: The Droid from Motorola is not only a cut above the BlackBerry Storm2, but every other Android phone in terms of its rock-solid design and speed…The Droid is not for everyone. It will be too hefty for some, and its hardware keyboard is a bit cramped for rapid text entry. Nevertheless, the Motorola Droid is hip, powerful, and smart, making it our top smart phone pick for Verizon Wireless. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Engadget: So, is the DROID a good smartphone? Yes, the DROID is an excellent smartphone with many (if not all) of the features that a modern user would expect, and if you’re a Verizon customer, there probably isn’t a more action packed device on the network. That’s not to say the device doesn’t have its faults; the camera was unpleasant to use, the application selection feels thin in both quantity and quality (despite the claim of 10,000 options), and the phone has bits of basic, non-intuitive functionality that might chafe on some users after a while. But even still, it’s hard not to recommend the DROID to potential buyers eager to do more with their devices. It’s easily the best Android phone to date, and when you couple the revamped OS, Verizon’s killer network, and an industrial design straight from a gadget enthusiast’s fever-dream, it makes for a powerful concoction.
• Gizmodo: These things are true about Droid: The camera’s not great; the keyboard isn’t mindblowing; Android 2.0 lacks the polish and multimedia prowess to completely match the iPhone. What’s also true is that a killer design, Google’s services, Android’s exploding app ecosytem, powerful multitasking, a stunning screen and Verizon’s network still make it the second best phone you can buy right now, after the iPhone.
• Boy Genius Report: So, what’s the wrap up, you’re asking right? We absolutely love the Motorola DROID. It’s a perfect storm between awesome hardware, great software, and a great network. That’s not to say it’s for everyone. It isn’t the most consumer-friendly device off the bat and it’s going to take some time and a whole bunch of improvements before we think Android can totally compete in the consumer space like others can, but Android is getting there slowly and this device in general couldn’t be a better way to show it off. There’s obviously some compromises like a pretty flat QWERTY keyboard and a little heft from the inclusion of metal as a design element, but the pros easily outweigh any cons if you’re on Verizon. And even if you’re not, it’s the most compelling alternative to the iPhone we’ve ever used.
• Phandroid: [Editor's note: Yes, this one is biased towards Android. And?] The Motorola Droid screen is the ticket to an amazing experience on virtually every facet of this phone’s features. Whether you prefer a hardware keyboard or software keyboard, the Droid offers both in a compact frame that’s no bigger than the best full touchscreen phones out there. The addition of Google Navigation is mind blowing and large feature upgrades like improved camera options and consolidated contacts/communication take the Droid a step beyond other Androids out there. It isn’t a perfect phone, but it gets the important things right and has zero areas of total failure.
• PhoneDog: Do I recommend Droid? Yes. The usual caveats apply, and in this case I highly recommend you try the device’s physical keyboard out for yourself. My thumbs didn’t much care for it, but I’m sure some of you won’t take quite so much issue with the setup…Would I rather have Droid than any other device on the market? Not sure I can say that. Will iPhone users leave AT&T in droves for Droid? Some will, but likely more for Verizon’s network than Droid itself. Will BlackBerry users jump ship for Android on Verizon? Not if they like their BBerry’s keyboards, they won’t. But is Droid an excellent smartphone? Absolutely.
• Phone Arena: Verizon has definitely got itself a jewel in the form of the Motorola DROID and will most likely provide some much needed attention to the open platform…We found very few faults with the device…It may not be completely perfect, but it does place the emphasis of DROID in Android. 8.5 out of 10

And, of course, if you’re not interested in a bunch of very in-depth reviews, here’s some video:

Finally, here’s the hardware portion of Phandroid’s review. (There are a few more vids there covering the camera, the software, Verizon, etc. so you should go check it out if you want a very complete video review.)

[Edit] For those of you who want it, here’s a side-to-side with the iPhone 3GS from TechnoBuffalo (thanks to @Tyme for this):

My Thoughts
After having read and watched all of these reviews, this is what I get out of them:

• The phone is great in just about every way that matters for a smart phone. Some opinions differ in regards to the camera and Android itself, but most of that seems to be based on individual bias.
• The hardware keyboard is a disappointment mediocre.

OK, so I got a lot more than that, but for the sake of this post pretend that’s it.

The most important thing for me in a smartphone at this time is writing capability (ie, a keyboard). Why? I’m a writer, and I like to write on the go. I’m not planning to write novels, but scenes of novels, short stories and blog posts are definitely on the agenda. Additionally, I want something that I can browse the web, read my RSS feeds and news, connect with people, take and upload pictures (and hopefully videos) to Facebook, play music and watch videos with.

With all of this in mind, I’m strongly, strongly debating between the Droid and a Blackberry. (Of course, I’d be waiting for a Verizon BB with WiFi, preferably one with a Tour-style keyboard.)

• The Droid does everything I could want (things mentioned here and elsewhere), but from what I read here the keyboard is sub-par, so at best, it’s mediocre in that which matters to me most.
• The BB doesn’t do everything I’d want, especially in the areas of navigation and augmented reality, but the thing I want most–a keyboard–it does spectacularly. (Even with fat, squishy fingers, the Blackberry keyboards are nothing short of spectacular.)

And in case you’re wondering, yes, the keyboard is that important to me.

So here I am, still wondering whether the Droid will be worth it for me. Luckily, on my side I have time, so I think that despite my initial excitement I’ll be waiting until I see what Verizon has in the pipeline. I’ll write up my own impressions on the Droid when I test it, as well as a comparison with other phones available. Obviously, I won’t make any decisions until I check out the phone for myself.

P.S.
By the way, just as an FYI, if you’re on Verizon or are thinking about going with Verizon and are looking for a Blackberry, consider taking advantage of their buy-one/get-one offer on Blackberries, which is rumored to expire November 7th. There’s a good chance they’ll bring it back, but obviously, there are no promises here.

The last personal cell phone story on this blog was written over three years ago. We (the wife and I) still have those cell phones, believe it or not, something which is about to change. For the past few months–ever since we moved to Land O’Butter, Florida, really–I’ve been wanting itching a new cell phone, something with applications, with internet access, enough storage space to store my music, the ability to play movies, with access to my RSS feeds so I can read them while out walking, and most importantly, something I could use to write on the go. In other words, I needed a smartphone.

Editor’s Note: I know. This is a long article. 3900 words. That’s a lot. Maybe it should have been split into multiple small ones, but I left it this way because it’s how I read best. Also, I don’t like to click on “next page” very much. For comfort’s sake, here’s a Table of Contents:

• The Carrier
• The Phones: Pre-Requisites
• Palm Pre
• BlackBerry Tour 9630
• HTC Hero
• Samsung Moment
• Conclusion
• Postscript: Why Not an iPhone?

The Carrier

Before looking at phones, I had to find a carrier. AT&T, who I’m currently with, suffers from bad network quality around these parts, so it was time to switch. After looking around at all the carriers available to us which offered good service in our area, it turned out that I had two choices: Verizon, which gets spectacular coverage everywhere except the middle of the Everglades (by which I mean, not on the roads) and Sprint, which I keep wanting to call U.S. Sprint. (Was that the old name?)

For this piece, I decided to study all the available Sprint phone options, since it looked like that might end up being my carrier. (Family member works for Verizon and by using her discount both Verizon and Sprint match up pretty closely in features and price.) The plan I was looking at was a 1500 minute family plan which included unlimited 3G internet, unlimited texting and MMS, free mobile-to-mobile regardless the carrier (Verizon, AT&T, Boost–it’s all good), as well as a great sports and streaming video package. All this for about $165 (including insurance on the phones and taxes). Not a bad deal. Not a bad deal at all.

The Phones: Pre-Requisites

Sprint’s lineup of smartphones is possibly the best of any company out there right now, so narrowing down my choices wasn’t easy. Fun, but not easy. Before getting started, I made a list of what was important to me. Note that this is the criteria by which I judged all phones:

• Writing: I need something which will let me write relatively comfortably on the go. At the beginning of this search I didn’t have a preference as to whether the keyboard was physical or software, so long as it allowed me to type fairly quickly, fairly accurately. After my search, I’ve come to the conclusion that a physical keyboard is usually (although not always) better than an on-screen one.
• Internet: I need something with which I can access the Internet, specifically (and most importantly) something I can use to read my RSS items on the go (I like to read while walking) and something I can use to blog on the go, or at least write drafts while waiting in line at the store. Any other internet functions, such as YouTube and ESPN are great additions, but not by any means necessary.
• Reading: eBooks, PDF and Word documents. All musts.
• Music/Video: My iPod’s with me almost ALL the time. It’d be nice if I could carry my media without dedicating pocket space strictly to it. When I go walking or to the gym or on a plane, the last thing I want is to have to carry my iPod and my cell phone. If one device will suffice, why bother with two?
• Camera, preferably one that takes video: This is obvious. I like to take pictures in random places, and don’t always want to carry my Fujifilm s5100. Oh, and the Camera should have flash. Believe it or not, that was one of the big selling points with my current phone, mostly because using it as a flashlight has saved me more than once.
• GPS/Maps: One of the biggest reasons to have a cell phone these days is to have a map available to you at any time. Face it, it’s no fun getting lost somewhere you don’t want to be, and sometime a GPS can make the difference between getting home and spending the night on the side of the road in the middle of a town you don’t know. (By the way, I hate South Carolina. Thought I’d just, you know, drop that in there.)
• Applications: Smartphones are palm-top computers. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to expand a phones functionality by adding new, useful applications to it. While the iPhone is the king of apps, no doubt, they’re not the only game in town. Google’s Android has a thriving app community and from the looks of it, Palm is developing a homebrew club itself. Of course, Blackberry has access to a ton of applications, so it too offers a number of options. Whatever phone I pick should run on a platform on which there exists some type of active development community, even if it’s fledgling. (It wouldn’t be at all surprising if I decided to write a few apps for whatever platform I end up going with.)

So with all that in mind, I went on the hunt for phones. After much searching, I’ve been able to narrow things down to a few contenders. The following is a preliminary review on each of the phones I’m considering. One of these phones will be at my side sometime in November.

Here’s a list of pros, cons, and maybes on the Pre.

Pros:

• Physical keyboard standard (slideout) and home-brew digital keyboards.
• Great size: It’s smaller than an iPhone and considerably more comfortable in the hand.
• Because of its onboard memory (8GB) it can handle more apps being installed than either the Blackberry Tour or the HTC Hero, two of the other phones mentioned here.
• Browser runs off of WebKit, which is the same engine as the iPhone’s Safari. In other words, it’s a full browser.
• It has a flash camera of good quality.

Cons:

• Keyboard feels cramped. Even to my wife, who has dainty, little hands, it felt somewhat cramped. Not anything we couldn’t get used to, but still, not comfortable for us out of the gate. Luckily, there’s a homebrew app which allows users to install a software keyboard.
• Early reports indicate this is prone to breakage.
• Feels cheap, plasticky. A phone that is potentially this good should feel considerably better, sturdier.
• No Adobe Flash. Uses app for YouTube videos. Seeing as I rarely watch YouTube, you can file this app under “I” for “I don’t care.”

Maybes:

• On again/off again integration with iTunes. If you didn’t know, Apple and Palm have been having a bit of a fight over the Pre’s capability to integrate with iTunes using what’s tantamount to reverse engineering. It’s easy to argue on both sides’ behalves, but the only thing that matters to the consumer is this: It’s freaking annoying to have your phone sync one day then not sync the next.
• 8GB of integrated RAM, non-expandable. I would have filed this under a “Con”, but considering you can install more thatn 512MB’s-worth of applications–a limitation found in all other phones considered–this moves from “Con” to “Maybe. The fact that it’s 8GB, non-expandable makes it mostly a Con. Despite what the Sprint rep tried to convince me of, 8GB is nowhere near enough space for my media.

One thing I left out of this list is Palm’s new operating system, WebOS, which they debuted on the Pre. There’s a lot to love about WebOS, and if they can create more excitement about it they might have a winner on their palms.

Just for kicks, here’s a video from PreCentral.net. You can find a TON of these online, including comparisons with some of the phones mentioned here.

You can get the Palm Pre from Amazon for $99 with a 2-year contract. At the Sprint store the price is $149, including a $100 cash-back rebate, so you’re shelling out $249 at the store. The Palm Pre will be available for Verizon users sometime in early 2010. Who knows, maybe they’ll expand the memory, which should bring the cost inline with the iPhone.

I gotta tell you, WebOS seems like a very a well constructed OS. If you like it but only sort of like the Pre then maybe you should check out the WebOS-based Palm Pixi.

Here are the highlights, lowlights, and midlights:

Pros:

• The keyboard. It’s phenomenal. My Blackberry-loving friends were 100% on the money with this one. Although it seems small at first, the keyboard on the Tour (as well as other Blackberries I tried) was by far the most accurate and easy to use of any keyboard I tried, nearly-matched only by the keyboard on the Samsung Impression (more on that later). Even with my fat, squishy fingers, it was beautiful. This alone makes the phone worth considering, despite any other flaws. Seriously, I can’t say enough about how awesome this keyboard was. Guess that’s what happens when you have low-to-no expectations.
• 3.2MP camera with flash. Let me repeat that part, WITH FLASH. It seems manufacturers don’t find this to be a particularly important detail lately, for some reason.
• Storage is expandable to 16GB via MicroSD card.
• Trackball is extremely comfortable for use, which makes up for the lack of touch-screen capabilities.

Cons:

• No WiFi. This right here is by far, hands down, the phone’s biggest and most horrid flaw. As someone who would prefer to use WiFi while at home (Sprint allows this option) instead of using my minutes, this is almost a deal-killer. Seriously, if not for this there’s a pretty good chance I’d be telling you about my first days loving the Crackberry.
• No touch screen. Although the trackball makes up for this, a touchscreen would still have been nice.
• Applications can only run from onboard ROM (512MB). Limits larger apps, like games.
• No Adobe Flash

Maybes:

• The BlackberryOS. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, so I’ll just leave this detail here. The fact that it’s proprietary is a big negative for me, but its quality is great, so it evens out, sort of like fish sticks that are burnt on the outside but frozen on the inside. I don’t know anything about its development community, however, the software available for it, or any of that jazz.

Basically, the phone seems awesome, ESPECIALLY (and almost exclusively) because of the keyboard, and has just about everything I’d need, though not necessarily everything I’d want, with the elephant in the room being the missing WiFi, which is a deal-breaker. Probably. Maybe. Again a video, this time from WireFly.com:

By the way, I know the video talks about the Verizon version. Both the Sprint and Verizon version are pretty much the same, with very few differences. Speaking of which, you can get the Blackberry Tour (9630) from Amazon.com or $49.99 with a 2-year contract. Note that the link goes to the Verizon version.

Sense UI. Is. Beautiful. It’s quite possibly the most perfect smartphone interface I have ever seen. If HTC made this interface available to non-HTC Android phones, I would happily buy it in a second. Alas, HTC is a hardware company and the interface is one of their phone’s main selling features, so there’s no reason why they should sell the software, the same reason Apple doesn’t sell OS X for use with any Intel-based PC, even though it’s technically the same hardware.

Here are the goods, bads and in-betweens.:

Pros:

• Sense UI. Seriously, this alone is a reason to buy the phone. To quote @TeddFox, everthing from mail to the dialpad is awesome.” He wasn’t exaggerating. And for you iPhone folks, as an Apple guy myself, let me tell you, the iPhone has NOTHING on this. It is beauty insoftnate. (Yes, that’s a made up word.)
• Phone handles Adobe Flash, which means you’re not limited to YouTube for videos, but can also [Edit: IN THEORY*] watch Hulu and other video services, as well as be bugged by the billion ads Sports Illustrated puts up on its web page. (I won’t link to it in order to spare you the browser crash.) *After testing it again for a second, time, I found that some videos would load while others wouldn’t. Seems to be a hit-and-miss with video players.
• It’s Linux under the hood. That means a Linux file system. For anyone who knows their way around the Linux directory architecture, this is a big plus. The fact that it’s Android also means there’s a thriving development community.
• Storage is expandable to 16GB via MicroSD card.
• Phenomenal construction. This phone is thin but feels very sturdy. Not quite an iPhone, but not far from.
• 5MP camera. Beats just about anything out there.

Cons:

• Like the Blackberry, applications can only run from onboard memory. (512MB ROM.) Limits larger apps, like games. All media is stored on the SD card, however.
• Camera doesn’t have a flash. Sad to see when HTC goes to the trouble of packing in a 5MP camera on this thing.
• The trackball sticks out. A lot. I can see this thing accidentally clicking way too often, meaning the screen is turned on when it’s not in use and siphoning the battery when it shouldn’t.
• Digital keyboard only. Don’t get me wrong, the digital keyboard is pretty darn good, right up there with the iPhone’s and more spacious than the Pre’s physical keyboard. But in testing out phones I’ve come to realize how important this is to someone who plans to do a lot of writing in this thing. For me, this falls as a maybe since it’s not as good as the Blackberry’s keyboard, but better than the Pre’s, even though the Pre takes advantage, as all physical keyboards do, of tactile memory, and not needing to always look at your keyboard when typing. This is not the case with ANY software keyboard, not even the Blackberry Storm’s (not reviewed here). For most people this wouldn’t be a huge deal. For me, it’s a deal killer.
• Lag: (Added on Oct 17, 2009) The phone was responsive, for the most part, but there were times where the lag got in the way of usage. I can see this being an annoyance.

Here’s the short of it: If this phone had a halfway decent physical keyboard and a flash camera I would have bought it immediately, no questions asked. Want a video review? Check out this CNet review:

For the record, I didn’t find it sluggish at all, though the movie playback wasn’t as clean as I would have liked. (In this sense I’ve been spoiled by my iPod.)

As of this writing, you can only get the Hero from Sprint for $180 with a 2-year contract or from Best Buy for $599, no strings attached. You can also get the unlocked European version from Amazon.com.

Since I haven’t yet tried this phone, I can’t really give you a lists of pros and cons. I tried the Samsung Impression, which is likely pretty close to what can be expected from the Moment. at least insofar as the keyboard is concerned. From what I’ve read however, unlike the Moment, the Impression has a proprietary headset jack, not a 3.5mm, and that’s a very, very bad thing. If the Moment has that then it’s potentially a deal killer. Proprietary audio interfaces are a HUGE no-no.) The experience was a very pleasant one, and if it’s really the case that the Moment and the Impression are very physically similar then I might end up going with the Moment. My only real complaint with the Moment (and with all slide-out keyboard Samsung phones, for that matter) is the keyboard’s configuration, which I consider fairly uncomfortable. I actually type considerably faster and more accurately on the Blackberry Tour AND the Blackberry Curve (not reviewed here).

More information on this phone will be forthcoming, I think. Honestly, the best place to keep up with all of this, is via my Twitter account, though I will warn you, I tend to get very politicky there, and sometimes post very frequently, so if you’re not into that then do yourself a favor and avoid it.

Conclusion

As you can see, everyone of the phones has its ups and downs, and if one of these were chosen for me, then I’d probably be quite happy with it. My only real concern is regarding Sprint, mostly because a few years ago I heard nothing but complaints about them. This seems to have improved.

My chief complaint from all phones was this: not enough choice in writing applications. While Documents To Go is one option, I’d love to see an online editor become available, something like Google Docs or Zoho Writer. Online documentation formatting would be spectacular, as it would allow for some editing work to be done on the road, without having the hassle of uploading/downloading work directly to your computer. Of course, then there’s the issue of Blackberry Thumb, but still, this is something to consider.

I hope you found this somewhat useful. I’d like to thank @jdwangnet and @jdwangnetnews for all his (their?) help in gathering some of this information, particularly when it came to the Blackberry Tour.

So that’s it. If you want to chime in (and for this topic, I’d really, REALLY appreciate it), please do so. I’d love to see your thoughts and comments. Who knows, maybe your opinion will be the deciding factor in helping me determine which phone I’ll end up getting.

Postscript: Why Not an iPhone?

In four words, one acronym: AT&T.

When I first started researching new phones, my mind was pretty much made up: I wanted an iPhone. I’d used it before and loved it. I own a Mac (which I adore), have an iPod, and have been slowly brainwashing my family into the Cupertino Cult since I got the thing. (Really, it was my sister’s fault. She was the first Cupertino Cult member in our family.) Nevertheless, while there were recent moves by Apple which bothered me from a philosophical standpoint, it was AT&T, my current carrier, which all but made the decision on the matter for me.

When living in south Florida, having AT&T was great, but soon after we moved to Land O’Butter we noticed that things were no longer that great. In fact, they weren’t even all that good. Every day I have multiple dropped calls. Every day, I have problems connecting. Every day. Multiple times a day. This has made my phone somewhat unusable (and for anyone who has tried to call my cell phone, you know exactly how futile of an act that is these days).

So when I started comparing prices between AT&T and other companies, I knew immediately that this would be the end. No more AT&Tn and no chance of an iPhone. (To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: “Mr. Jobs: Tear down this partnership!”)

AT&T’s prices are quite high. Highest in the industry, in fact, right up there with Verizon’s (if I don’t count the discount I talked about). By and in large, this is for good reason: their coverage area is huge, even though their overloaded, underpowered network has gotten more than enough complaints. Yet while all my friends in South Florida with iPhones bragged about being able to use the 550 minute family plan for not much more than we currently spend for ours, I had to contend with the following realities:

Unlike in South Florida, the big company here is Verizon. As popular as they are, there’s not one dominant cell phone company in the area, and everyone I know uses all kinds of carriers: my wife’s friends use MetroPCS, our parents use Verizon, my siblings use T-Mobile and Sprint, and my friends use everything from Boost to AT&T. Most of the people I know who brag about being able to use AT&T’s 550 minute plan have the distinct advantage of either not talking on the phone much or knowing mostly people who also have AT&T, meaning they can more readily take advantage of the unlimited in-network mobile-to-mobile. Not so here.

After some thinking I realized that there was still one slim ray of hope: at 1400 minutes, AT&T offers a calling circle. The vast majority of all our calls are made to 10 people! Ironically, with a calling circle, we wouldn’t use more than 550 minutes anyway, and we’d have about 800 roll-over minutes a month. If we could have that feature at the 550 minute mark, we’d be within budget. But no, AT&T wouldn’t budge, and at the 1400 minute family plan level, in addition to a texting plan ($5/month for 200 messages) the costs shot up from the expected $150/month to $182, even after the discount we get through The Wife, who works for the county.

Sorry, but the iPhone isn’t worth THAT much to me.

After this, I searched around for other possibilities, starting with Verizon Wireless. After all, they really DO have the most coverage area in the nation, hands down. (Only once have I roamed when using a Verizon phone, and that was about 7 years ago while driving through Middle-o-Nowhere, North Carolina.) Alltel showed some promise (although they’re now Verizon, anyway), as did T-Mobile, but the later has some reception problems in this area, while the former just didn’t seem like a good fit for us. Then there were the budget carriers, such as Boost and MetroPCS, but considering the amount of travel we do, neither was really an option.

In the end, after searching, there were only two real options to us: Sprint or Verizon. While this article was based entirely on Sprint’s offerings, Verizon is closer to getting the nod, mostly because of costs (again, with the discount, which brings our total cost to around $145/month after taxes). The downside, of course, is that Sprint has a considerably more impressive smartphone selection. Maybe the next few months will change that, though. After all, it looks like Big Red is getting the HTC Hero. Considering The Wife fell in love with the Samsung Rogue, perhaps there is hope for Verizon after all.

See, what I’m about to show you can be done by just about everyone, but it will require some guidance, particularly from Google. Come to think of it, here are your requirements:

• Access to the Internet.
• A second computer, since the first SHOULD be off the Internet. In theory.
• A thumbdrive.
• HijackThis.You may also want to print this tutorial on HujackThis.
• A printout of the following websites. (If you have access to the web on a safe computer then you don’t have to pint these, though you may still want to.)
  1. A tutorial on looking for and clearing trojans: http://www.governmentsecurity.org/places_viruses_trojans_hide_startup
  2. A tutorial on MSConfig: http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig
  3. This tutorial you’re reading right now. This very one.
• Patience.

Note: This tutorial comes with no guarantees expressed or implied. If you screw up, you’re on your own. Sorry to be so blunt. I’m a Mac and Linux guy. I’m just putting this up because it might be helpful to some who read this. If what you read here scares you or you don’t have the patience, just pay someone to do what I’m about to describe.

Alright, here we go:

1. Disconnect your infected computer from the Internet if you can, if you have access to another system. If you can’t that’s fine, but you run a few risks. Sorry.
2. Go to another computer and download “HijackThis” to a USB stick. You’ll need this tool AND you need to do this from another computer in order not to run the risk of infecting your thumbdrive.
3. Start your computer in Safe Mode. Reboot then when the very first system screen comes up (whether it be the “Dell” or “HP” splash logos, or whether it be the motherboard running through a system check) start pressing F8 fast and repeatedly until you get the Safe Mode prompt, a text-only screen that should come up before “Windows” shows up.
4. When you’re finally logged into safe mode (it usually looks like crap because all the drivers that make everything look nice are turned off), go to Start > Run and in the window that appears type “msconfig” (without the quotation marks).
5. In the MSConfig you can tweak a lot of stuff, so you may want to read the tutorial on MSConfig you were supposed to have printed if you plan to mess around with it extensively. For now all you’re doing is going through the Startup tab and unchecking everything you don’t recognize. (You may still want to read the tutorial, just in case.) To be safe, though, you will want to search for information on everything you’re about to uncheck.
6. With Notepad, open C:\Autoexec.bat. This file should be empty. If it’s not, delete everything here. (Backup the file, just in case. Call it… “Autoexec.bak” or something.)
7. With Notepad, open C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. This file should also be empty unless you’ve put something in here. If it’s not, delete everything here, but back up the file just in case.
8. Read the tutorial you were supposed to print on trojans. Do everything in that tutorial.
9. Install and run the HijackThis tool. (For any questions, refer to the tutorial I asked you to print on HijackThis.) Post your results to a HijackThis forum. You can (and should) also research each result using a reputable search engine.

And that’s pretty much it. Yeah, I know, it sounds hard. It’s kind of annoying, that’s for sure. It’s why people charge $80 to do this. But if you have the time and are short of funds, then this is a great way to learn about the ins and outs of your computer. Good luck.

(Thanks go out to RoboNick for this info.)

(Click image for full size image.)

If you’re too lazy to click on the image, here’s what it says: “There are too many spelling or grammatical errors in ‘Core.docx’ to continue displaying them…”

How bad of a speller do you have to be to get THIS error message? Holy Zombies, this is embarrassing. I… I don’t know what to say. Makes me think I should quit right now, just chop up my fingers and call it quits on this whole writing thing.

Before all that however, excuse me while I write a letter of apology to Microsoft, Oxford and the spining corpse of Mirriam Webster.

To 99% of the population, the web is still a place. Something we go visit. Soon the web will become not only where we are, but who we are. In time we will realize how much of a societal shift the web will have caused. I think it’s fundamental the other 1% understand that. – Nils Geylen

Considering Nils is someone who I read regularly, I’m rather surprised it took Andrew Eglinton pointing it out for me to notice. (To be fair, I mostly read Nils’s blog via RSS.)

For years — almost a decade now — I’ve been using Linux almost exclusively at home. I’ve downloaded and installed countless distributions, and have lived with nothing but open sourced and free software, which has served my needs as well as any (Well, I will admit to the guilty pleasure that is the Opera browser. Not open sourced, but man, is it sleek!) And unlike most folks who download and install Linux, I’ve actually paid for open sourced software, paid for the operating systems, paid for support, and donated to the incredible work being done by people bringing all manner of modern functionality to GNU/Linux (including the marketing geniuses who figured out that “Linux” looks and sounds better than “GNU/Linux”) and the free software and open source movements.

The fact of the matter is that free and open sourced software has served me well for 95% of what I normally do. For most people, this would easily be 100%, since 95% of my work is made up of things like browsing the web, getting email, syncing with my MP3 players, viewing DVDs, streaming and recording music, using word processors and spreadsheets, and even doing a little programming. In fact, my productivity on Linux is higher than on Windows because I can tweak the system to work exactly as I want it, and to react to me when I want it to do so. Most people wouldn’t do two-thirds of what I do. They wouldn’t need to, nor would they have the patience to.

But it’s that other 5% that has truly become a hindrance.

See, much of the work I do is design oriented. I’m not talking about graphic design: I’m sure you can see by the look of this site that graphics aren’t exactly my forte. I’m talking about document design, since my documents are more often than not more complex than simply writing a bunch of text on a page, pasting a bunch of pictures, and printing it out. You can’t do that if the tools most people use aren’t available to you, and if they refuse to use your tools.

Another issue has been whether things “just work.” The fact is that on Linux, most stuff does. It really, really does! But that depends on whether you’re willing to give up something for it. Here’s what I mean:

If I’m using Windows, 9 times out of 10 things will “just work” because I wasn’t the one to touch the installation. I wasn’t the one to put the hardware together, to wrestle with the hardware drivers, to spend hours updating all the security patches, or to install all the extras. That last time out of 10, when I’m the one doing the work, installing Windows is pretty much a nightmare. (I may be wrong when it comes to Vista.) In other words, Windows doesn’t “just work”, despite what hardcore Microsoft fans will say. (Note that this does not include the Microsoft development tools, which are another matter entirely. If everything MS did was that effective, it would be dominant without needing to resort to monopolistic practices.) However, when things don’t “just work”, there is usually an easy enough installation route. For example, if I run into a page which requires Flash and I don’t have it installed, a little pop-up will ask me if I want to install it, regardless of whether I’m using Firefox or Explorer (or Opera, or Safari, et al). Click, install, restart the browser and I’m done.

If I’m using Linux, 9 times out of 10 things will “just work”. I mean truly “just work”: printers, scanners, cameras, USB thumb drives… the list goes on. Even with video and sound cards, things will usually “just work”, unless you want to get the high-end stuff going, then you’ll need to do some work. Sometimes this is relatively painless, as is the case with most nVidia video cards. Other times it’s like pulling teeth, like in the case of most ATI cards, or like some browser plugins. With web browsers, however, it’s not always that easy. Because of the diversity inherent in the Linux world — a world where you can pick up an operating system tailored for a brand new user, and where at the same time a more advanced user doesn’t have to acquiesce to it — installation of some software isn’t always guaranteed, nor is it simple. That, of course, depends on whether you can even find the software you need for your platform. Don’t get me wrong, equivalence is great, and if using, say, PDF creation software which does not require complex document security requirements doesn’t get in your way, then by all means, use it. But what happens when you need a certain software, or two, or three? You could, of course, start with virtualization services, such as Parallels or VMWare, which would run the OS you need in order to run the software you need. Or what about something like CodeWeavers Crossover, which will allow you to run some software natively on Linux? Again, for most scenarios this is fine, but then there’s that last 5% where virtualization isn’t really an option. In short, in the Linux world, when you have complicated, specific needs, things can get down-right complicated. You can always get it to do what you need, however, if you’re willing to get your hands a bit dirty.

But what if it isn’t that your needs are complicated? What if it’s just a matter of you trying to punch a nail in with a screwdriver? What if you’re using the wrong tool for the job? Isn’t getting your hands dirty then simply a waste of time?

Enter the Mac. I’ve wanted one for as long as I can remember, but have never been able to justify paying for what I believed was overpriced hardware. Now, I’m in a position to buy pretty much whatever system I want, within reason. Imagine my surprise when I spec’d out a Dell system (running Ubuntu) similar to a MacBook and found out that they cost about the same. I guess they’re not as overpriced as I’d once thought.

I need a system that won’t get in my way, which will allow me to work with the software I need, and that is aimed towards my particular field. Linux does this about 95% of the time. But I need this 100% of the time, and a Mac, I believe, will do that. (I’m not at all interested in using Windows: I use it every day at work and I have not intention of using it at home.) I need a system with a strong community, something both Linux and Mac have in common, so in case I do have questions I have somewhere to go for answers (and because I enjoy being a part of a community, I’d also help others out whenever I could). I also need a system which will allow me to split my time between the command line and the GUI, since I work fastest when I have access to and can control the system with both. Again, something both Linux and Mac have in common. And I need a system which will allow me to run the software I need, natively. Linux and Mac, in this case, don’t have this in common.

As you can probably tell from the tone of this piece, I’m not really dissatisfied with Linux. It has served me extremely well, and I will heartily recommend it to just about everyone. But for me, I need something more, which is why I’ve bought a Mac.

Now, will this be my long term solution? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows, I may wipe out Mac OS X from this thing in a year and use nothing but Ubuntu again. After all, Mac OS is beautiful and useful, but it doesn’t even come close to the Beryl/Emerald combo available for the GNOME interface. (Spaces is a piece of crap compared to Beryl/Emerald.) But I’m more interested in working than I am in playing, and if a Mac will let me do that, then that’s what I’ll chose.

I expect to get my Mac this Monday. I picked up a refurb MacBook from Apple.com for $1164.00 (including tax, with free shipping), so hopefully it’ll get here with at least almost all the parts. I’ll blog about my experiences with it.

As for Linux… well, that’s an interesting question. I’ve bought the MacBook to be a complete desktop/laptop replacement, so I now have two computers leaving my house. The first is my desktop, a small form factor PC I put together about 3 years ago. It’s currently running Fedora 8, but I’ll probably end up installing Freespire on it, since it’s going to my in-laws, who are in their late 60’s and early 70’s. The second is a Dell Inspiron 8000 I’ve had since 2001. It still runs well, though it is definitely showing its age. I’ve installed PuppyLinux on it, though I may install Antix instead. That one’s going to my own mother.

After all is said and done, this will be the first time in a decade I haven’t run Linux at home as my primary computing platform. Weird. Mind you, I’ll still be keeping up with the Linux world, just not as much. I expect, however, to still be using more than my fair share of open source software, and donating my fair share to these groups. But I what I expect to happen and what will happen may end up being two totally different things.

So let me ask, has anyone reading this used Linux and switched to Mac? What where your experiences? What did you like or hate? Did you switch back?

I’ve already started doing research on Macs, some of which you can read on 9Rules Notes (Should I Get a Mac?, and Recommended Mac Software). Wish me luck.

That, my friends, is 1GB of memory in 1987 and 1GB in 2007. (The smaller one is the 2007 version, by the way. You know, just in case you ever confuse the two and try to shove the big one in your camera.)

By that standard, in 2027 we’ll be carrying 1PB (petabyte) of info in our wallet. Or storage will become so small that all information we ever encounter throughout our lives — including pictures, papers, medical records, X-rays, movie rentals, etc. — will be stored in a chip implanted somewhere in our body. Never delete anything again! (Except for the movie rentals, which will delete themselves after a specified 24-hour period.)

Boy, Google’s gonna have a field day.

Of course, then there’s that whole “mark of the beast” thing the book of Revelations has been warning us about since 90 A.D. But we don’t believe in that, now, do we?

Do we?

I know, I know… probably has to do more with the extensions than with the browser.

Wait, did I just call my computer “her”? Wow. I guess the years of familiarity have finally given way to my granting anthropomorphic qualities to a laptop.

I got this laptop sometime around the sumer of 2000. I was working for a company called Array Services as a technical writer, and my father agreed to get me the laptop so I could work from home. Because of my status as his dependent at that time, he was able to deduct the price — all $2000 of it ($3000 after interest charges and tax) — from his taxes. (I, and the other 3 employees of the company, worked as independent contractors. It was a really small company: we worked out of a guy’s server-filled back room. With no air conditioning. Being in Florida, it goes without saying that summers sucked.) Before this, there had been a debate going on between us as to whether I should get a car or a laptop. He pointed out that with a car it didn’t matter what job I had: I could use it as a tool everywhere I went in order to make more money. I pointed out that in this day and age of ultra connectivity (pfft!), my having a laptop at home — actually, a newer computer, since our other one was slower than a turtle swimming in an ocean of molasses — would be an asset which would allow me to work from home, hence eliminating the need for a car, so long as I could still get someone to drive me to and from school.

He bought the argument and we went ahead and got the laptop. As it turns out we were both right: I ended up needing a car anyway, even though after moving on from Array Services I was able to get a couple more jobs working from home. Or rather, from the local Borders book store, which was the real reason I wanted the laptop in the first place: why work from a hot, tiny office covered in Sun Solaris and SGI O2/Irix servers when I could instead be sipping on a cup of java while surrounded by every reference book I would ever need?

As could be expected, I didn’t last in Array Services all that long. Not because of my immaturity, but because of 9/11. After the attacks happened, it wasn’t long before the company shut its doors and I was out of a job.

Throughout this time, Sutra, a Dell Inspiron 8000, was running either Windows ME or Red Hat Linux. This turned out to be a great move because it allowed me to learn more about Linux, to the point where I seriously considered getting my RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer). It also allowed me to test out other Linux distributions and software I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to try out. This again turned out to be an advantage, since it got me a job as a writer in a few other places which were of interest to me. Had it not been for Sutra, I don’t believe I would have had either of those experiences, nor the great experiences which came with them, like the time I was asked to review a robotics system which allowed you to use the your laptop as the robot’s brain (including, thought the use of cameras, its visual cortex), and which I trained to chase my cat. After that point I could always say, with a straight face, that I had an extra brain at the house, one which had a penchant for scaring my cat.

Now, for the record, Sutra wasn’t always her name. While I have always kept this computer primarily for writing, its name changed various times, in accordance with whatever had been going on in my life at the time. When I first named it, the computer was called Krishna, named the such after I decorated her with a sticker I got from one of the Hare Krishnas passing out literature at USF. At that time I wasn’t too familiar with eastern cultures, so when they handed me their book, which, from what I could gather, refuted everything Buddhist, all I could do was say “Uhm… OK,” and walk away. Still, I got a cool looking sticker from the deal.

As it turns out, naming her Krishna proved to be a really bad move. After naming her that, weird stuff started happening, like the hard drive being inexplicably wiped out for no reason, and the screen freezing, then over heating for, again, no reason. (I attributed the hard drive problems to this computer not liking the “ext3″ file system common in many Linux distributions, and the screen problems I later found out were related to a faulty video driver for this laptop model in the SuSE Linux 8.x series.) This was at this time I learned about the value of backups.

Someone once convinced me that this is what I got for naming my laptop after a “joker god”, so I renamed her Yoda. Never thought you’d ever hear Yoda referred to as a “she”, did you? Don’t worry: neither did I. At that time I hadn’t yet assigned a gender to my laptop.

Note: I have no idea where this guy got the idea that Krishna was a joker god, so if anyone reading this can tell me why he would say that, please go for it. Krishna didn’t seem much like a jokester in the Gita, but maybe I missed something.

Unlike Krishna, the incarnation of Yoda stuck around for a long time, much longer than any other name I would later put upon the system, most of which were functional, like “BizLaptop” and “Inspiron8000″ (oooh, real original there, Gnorby). During that entire time, Yoda ran on Linux, usually SuSE. A while before I got married the system was reborn as a Mandrake system, and in accordance with tradition, I renamed the system Naru, since I spent all my time at home watching Love Hina fansubs on it. (Is it just me, or does not having a television make single guys more prone to downloading anime from BitTorrent or P2P sites?)

After I got married, Naru became my wife’s system, since it was the only system in the house capable of running Windows. (I have another computer here, much more powerful, which Windows won’t run on for some reason.) To be honest, the only reason Naru became a Windows computer system again was because I was too cheap to buy something like VMware or CrossOver Office. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have touched the stuff. For a while the system actually ran Windows XP, instead of ME, but it seems that operating system’s requirements were a bit too high for this 192MB, 650MHz PIII laptop, reminding us all too often of the the turtle in the ocean of molasses from years past. I then returned the system to running its original copy of Windows ME, which The Wife used for only a short while before she decided she’d had enough: Windows ME was simply too painful to use.

Last month, The Wife and I finally decided to get ourselves a new Laptop. The computers in our house are aging, and while the desktop system still have a few years of prime time going for it, the Inspiron 8000 is on its proverbial last legs. After we got the new laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1501, we debated what we should do with this system which had been with me for so long. Should we donate it, or can we use it for anything else?

Being the sentimental pack rat that I am, I decided against giving it away just yet, since I figured this system could still be used for its original purpose: to write. I downloaded a few copies of Linux and once I found the one I liked most (thank God for LiveCD’s) I loaded it on the system. Time, it seems, is not one to leave anyone or anything behind. As I again got acquainted with the system, I discovered a few quirks, such as the intermittently working “i” key and the rather lose Synaptics touch pad. Still, the system was just as much a joy to use as the day I got it.

After installing Linux again, I considered returning this laptop to one of its previous incarnations — Krishna, Yoda, Naru — but decided I should name her something which made sense with where I am now. After some consideration, she war reborn as Sutra, which is defined as “a collection of aphorisms relating to some aspect of the conduct of life.” (Dictionary.com) Considering I’ll be using this laptop to write and work on my writing skills, I think that makes sense. Also in accordance with tradition, I decided to make the system’s background befitting the name, so it currently sports desktop wallpapers featuring sayings from the Diamond Sutra. You can find that background and others at ZenGuide.com.

As I write this it is about 6:20 PM EST on 17 February 2007. I am sitting in a dark room, facing an open window, and the cold air outside is cooling the rest of the house. The desk on which Sutra sits is directly in front of that window, in the bedroom of my apartment. Behind me is The Wife, who’s been napping for about an hour now, and, from the sounds of it, just now waking up.

And, of course, after too long a time — almost 3 years — Sutra is again under my fingers. It feels good to have her back.

(I wonder how to convince The Wife that I need one of these?)

From the info site:

Recently, a group of researchers involved in medical research for persons with spinal cord injury has decided to design and build a workstation which would most closely answer the needs of general computer users. The result is GRAViTONUS®, a revolutionary multifunctional computerized system, created to provide for optimum ergonomic conditions at work. It enhances users` comfort, improves their productivity and keeps them in good health.

The multifunctional GRAViTONUS® system allows moving the user in space freely. It comes with an on-board computer which constantly analyses positions of a body, measures local temperature and pressure on different body parts. The system adapts to the user depending on his or her psychophysical activity thus creating maximum comfort, anticipating his or her desires

1. GRAViTONUS® system constantly changes position of a user body to maintain comfort relation with regards to the EGF vector.
2. Matrox TripleHead capability with special displays attachment which allows to align them perfectly in a user’s best vision area in any body position give an outstanding presence effect.
3. A “memory” function which allows moving any display closer to the user’s eyes if necessary and returning it back to its initial position.
4. Special keyboard attachment which allows moving the keyboard freely in 3D and fixing it firmly in space as per the user’s wishes.
5. Dynamic exoskeleton for both hands.
6. Air conditioning as well as zone heating of the user’s body where it comes in contact with the platform.
7. Shadow and glare-free illumination of the working area.
8. 5.1 Sound system.
9. Subwoofer is integrated into seat back to add a sensation effect.

If you’ve ever read the book The First Immortal by James L. Halperin, you may remember that in the future, people are trying to ween themselves off devices like this by setting goals to spend only three or four hours per day in one. (I think in their case its a holographic device, but that’s beside the point.) Combine this thing with Second Life or World of Warcraft and a 3D monitor and we have a recipe for addiction. Good bye television, hello InterTubes. Seriously, with one of these and another universe to choose from, I can honestly see people never again leaving their house, or their living room, for that matter, should they decide to tack on a toilet and a shower head.

Now the question is whether things will be more like The Matrix or like Futurama’s I Dated a Robot episode.

My bet’s on neither: this chair will (sadly) never make it past the “research” part of R&D, at least not until companies start buying these once they realize they’re more comfortable than cubicles.

Business School Podcast for Free: America’s leading business schools — Wharton, Duke’s Fuqua School, Harvard — are all making courses available for download via iTunes. (If you expect me to tell you why this is good, you’re wasting your time. Go check it out now.)

The Perfect Mark: Ever wonder if anyone actually ever falls for those emails we all get promising to make you rich if you help out some Nigerian widow stash US$45-million in your bank account? Wonder no more: the answer is yes, and who they ensnare might surprise you. This New Yorker piece is an actual story about a guy who, in his greed and pride, fell victim to these scammers and ended up in jail for it. [Source: Black Marks on Wood Pulp. Also, reminds me of this previous Gnorb.NET piece on avoiding CraigsList scammers.]

Becoming Human: So, how did we get from where we were 4,000,000 years ago as simple, knuckle-dragging Australopithecines to the current state of Homo Sapiens? This very interesting Flash video shows you where we came from and how we got here.

Washington’s Farewell Address Translated into Modern English: In the course of human history, not many have had quite as strong an impact as General George Washington, the first President of the United States. His farewell address is agreed upon by historians to be one of the finest in all American politics, since it deals with issues we struggle with even unto this day. The problem is that since it is written in 1790’s English, most people today can’t really understand it, which is why xkcd undertook the task of translating the piece into modern English. One his commenters upped the ante, reposting a modern day translation of the American Declaration of Independence.

The Height of Hubris? Ever seen the movie Gattaca? In it, the main protagonist is a lowly, genetically inferior human trying to get to space. In the process, he begins transforming his body, one of the ways being limb-lengthening surgery. In this BetterHumans piece, Simon asks whether his personal desire for such a surgery (available from a reputable source for as low as US$20,000 in China) is hubris, or whether he really is justified in wanting to make himself taller. After all, “The majority of CEOs are over six foot, the taller US presidential candidate tends to win the election, and people earn more money, on average, with each extra inch of height.” Here, he outlines reasons for and against the surgery. A very interesting read, especially for those interested in Transhumanist topics and cosmetic surgery.

The Last Question: So, we’ve seen where humans came from and where we are. Now, where are we going? Sci-Fi legend Isaac Asimov tells a short, trillion-year tale of how this whole human experience might end, and maybe how it began. “The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five-dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way…”

Multi-Touch Monitors: This is seriously cool. In this video, Jeff Han and Phil Davidson demonstrate how a multi-touch driven computer screen will change the way we work and play.

Holy Crap! Is This Real?! And now, for something totally different.

Online Game: Dodge: Simple and Addictive: Does it get any better than that? It’s the kind of game that keeps you as entertained as a stoner watching a side-loaded washing machine. Whoooa…. hey, nachos!

Well, that does it for this week. You can check out the previous episodes in the Le Linkage category of Gnorb.NET.

Anyway, so we’re at the Dell website, putting together a candidate system when all of a sudden The Wife notices this:

I guess insurance companies aren’t the only ones high-tailing their coverage business out of the state. But hurricanes are the only reason Dell’s not offering this service to Floridians anymore. No, in fact, I think it’s time I confess a dirty little secret: Dell cancelled their accidental damage coverage in Florida because of me.

When I originally bought the Inspiron, I got it with a 3-year warranty, including accidental damage coverage. Over the span of those 3 years I made Dell regret ever selling me that coverage. So much so, in fact, that at one point one of the techs upgraded the sound system and hard drive on my system, plus gave me free decoration wrist pads just so I wouldn’t call him any more. Aside from annoying the tech, I apparently also annoyed Dell — as in “Michael Dell” — who I’m sure lost more money on me than on… well, anything. Ever. Enough, in fact, to offset the profits from the entire state of Florida, which is why the solution, however unpopular, was obvious: don’t offer coverage to the state.

Sorry ’bout that, Florida. My bad.

[Edit: Turns out that while Dell doesn't offer accidental coverage for computers bought in the Home and Home Office section of their site, computers bought in the small business category (and I presume all categories above that) still have accidental coverage available.]

Matt, an old friend of mine, has an ability to pick out social issues and put forth points so convincingly that there is little middle ground left to be in. You either agree with him or you don’t. More often than not, I get trapped into posting incredibly long replies to his posts — often longer than the posts themselves — and with his last post, it was no different. Basically, the post argues that we should de-emphasize government funded space exploration and instead take on more planetary issues, like child hunger. What follows is my response to his post. (I figure that if I spent a good chunk of time posting it there I might as well post it here, too.) If you’re interested in this issue, drop me a line here, or better yet, drop by Matt’s blog and share your thoughts.

This is a particularly interesting issue for me because of recent developments within the business community regarding space exploration.

On one hand, I am of the opinion that both space exploration and colonization are moral imperatives. These are missions which we as a people have a moral obligation to pursue and complete. With our level of advancement, it would be not only illogical but also deeply immoral to future generations for us not to continue on this pursuit. Contrary to your statement, space stations on the Moon and manned missions to Mars are not only reasonable, practical, and achievable, they are a mandate upon our generation from future generations.

Like you, however, I find that the weaponization of space, while understandable, is neither desirable nor logical at this time. Nevertheless, it seems as if human history is littered with examples of advancement through weaponization, and this may be no different.

That said, I also find that the current status of space exploration is deplorable at best. We are currently talking about going back to the moon like it is a much more monumental task than it was in 1969, when computers at NASA were much less powerful than the PC I’m currently using to type this message. There has been almost no advancement in the human space exploration program within the past 40 years, save for the pressure now being laid upon us by the Indians and the Chinese. The Russians are doing the right thing by transforming themselves into the first commercial space agency, and it is time that we do the same. The example of Burt Rutan and Richard Branson, where they’re basically laying in the groundwork for commercial space exploration should be followed. Whereas we’re currently spending billions for one flight at taxpayer costs, Americans can get 10 times the value for the dollar by letting the private sector do this. A profit motive will always bring out the genius of men to a greater good, if their profiting depends on the greater good. Nevertheless, NASA won’t see it this way, since it is usually hard to get people to understand a matter if their paycheck depends upon their not understanding it.

Regarding feeding starving children: this is a sticky subject for me. While I could understand that doing this would be a good thing, generally speaking, foreign aid of any sort weakens a population’s political will, thereby separating them from their government, thereby creating a status quo in which the government does not respond to their populace, since the populace doesn’t demand change. It was this demand for change that created the governments of today, transforming Europes monarchies into modern day democracies (starting with the US, then continuing on in France and South America). Yet, by taking that opportunity away from a people, we condemn them to a corrupt and lazy government. Unfortunately, countries which find themselves to be oil rich also tend to follow this pattern, where the government holds on to its power simply because of the level of money being poured into it. As harsh and evil as this may seem, the question is what’s in it for the American tax payer? After all, if he’s footing the bill for feeding a starving kid somewhere in Africa, where’s the return on investment?

Personally, I don’t believe there needs to be a return on investment, that life itself is to sacred to even look at such a thing. But while the person may believe that, the populace as a whole may not, since they may not agree as to which causes are worthy our tax money. So again I ask, where’s the ROI? After all, helping starving kids in the middle east hasn’t helped us much (except in Iran, oddly enough, where the younger generation would welcome relations with the US in a second, as would the younger generation here welcome relations with Iran in a second, if the elder generation wouldn’t keep getting in the way) and in both Asia and Africa, it has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Why should a government of one nation take care of the people of another? This should be left to individuals.

As a government, I support the investment of economic infrastructure in order to empower people (and not their governments), since this will lead to the rise in the power and clout of the individual, and it will also lead to better relation with that government — more trade means more economic opportunity, which leads to more unity among the countries’ populaces. As for humanitarian aid, I’m firm in the belief that private organizations should engage in this, and that governments should not worry about taking care but for their own people. (Even then, the help offered to people should be limited, based on their ability to build a future: an elderly man would need much more help than a 30-year old homeless man, since the younger of the two can still do something with his life, but I digress…)

In the end, Matt, while I do agree with both of your issues, the correlation between the two is a weak one. A stronger case can be made that we should be creating more economic opportunity in the space arena and allow federal agencies to benefit from private industry’s developments. That would not only make the government smaller (and more dependant on its people, instead of the other way around), it would also make the new technologies much more accessible to developing nations, thereby strengthening their own economic infrastructures and allowing them to take care of themselves (with maybe a little nudge in the right direction from investment and humanitarian programs.)

Humans must colonize planets in other solar systems traveling there using “Star Trek”-style propulsion or face extinction… “Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out…but once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe.”

As someone who believes that space exploration and extra-planetary colonization is not only our destiny, but a moral imperative, I’m glad to see that the world’s smartest man is taking a lead and lending his (robotic) voice to the chorus of those hoping to see the birth of a colony on the Moon, Mars, or the Asteroid Belt. Of course, the man is thinking much bigger than that, imploring the colonization of extra-Solar planets.