![\"i-32a21ce53cb04c17b2679965b953dd24-sm_shiny_phone.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/467\/files\/2012\/04\/i-32a21ce53cb04c17b2679965b953dd24-sm_shiny_phone.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLookit the shiny:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That’s a new Droid X smartphone, and it’s mine. I got it yesterday after discovering the existence of a slightly cheaper “data only” plan that is so secret only about 10% of Verizon Wireless employees know it exists. As my previous phone was a freebie LG flip phone from about three years ago that didn’t even have a camera, let alone any “apps,” this is a big step.<\/p>\n
I activated it late last night (early this morning, really), but haven’t done anything more than really basic set-up on it. I am not allowed to play with it until after I finish the revisions to Chapter 5 of the book-in-progress (also visible in the picture), but that doesn’t mean you all can’t use the comments to suggest essential can’t-miss gewgaws that I simply must<\/em> add to it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why this purchase now? My previous objections to getting a smartphone were twofold: 1) We got almost no reception in our house, so it would be pointless, and 2) even when I’m out somewhere with decent reception, I almost never used my existing cellphone, and paying for 400 minutes\/month when I used maybe 400 minutes in a year<\/em> seemed kind of ridiculous.<\/p>\n The reception objection was removed by spending a few weeks working at home while our basement was being refinished, and listening to the contractor get and make ten calls a day on his cell. In the basement. Clearly, the problem was not intrinsic to our house, but had something to do with our cheap phones. And the preliminary indications are that that was, in fact, the case– I have more bars here with the new phone than I ever got with the old.<\/p>\n The “data only” plan gets around the minutes problem, at least somewhat. It’s still more than I’d like to be paying, but I’ve hit enough situations in the last year or so where it would’ve been great to be able to access my email without needing to find a wireless hotspot and drag out the laptop that I think it’s worth it. Last year was probably an all-time record amount of travel for me, but as I’ve got at least one out-of-town trip lined up for each of the first four months of 2011, I suspect it may be a real increase in my average amount of travel.<\/p>\n I’m also hoping that the Google Calendar integration will help me become more organized, or at least less disorganized. I used to carry an old Palm PDA, but found it an enormous pain in the ass to enter anything into its calendar, and then couldn’t get it to synch with anything else. This ought to let me be a little more conscientious about keeping an updated calendar. I think. We’ll see.<\/p>\n Anyway, that’s my big new toy. feel free to use the comments to tell me about cool tricks I should learn to use on this, or to explain at length why I chose the wrong phone (somebody will do that whether I give permission or not, I know), or whatever. I have book revisions to get typed in before I can Lookit the shiny: That’s a new Droid X smartphone, and it’s mine. I got it yesterday after discovering the existence of a slightly cheaper “data only” plan that is so secret only about 10% of Verizon Wireless employees know it exists. As my previous phone was a freebie LG flip phone from about three years… Continue reading In Which I Join the Century of the Fruitbat<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-technology","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}play Angry Birds<\/s> start exploring the new phone’s functions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"