Android Reviewed

  I am a big fan of pocket gadgets.  I remember my first handheld gadget, the Palm Pilot Professional, and how amazed I was at the ability to have all this I consider crucial information accessible from a palm sized device.  The Palm Pilot line of devices I definitely utilized into great use when I was a bedside nurse having medical and nursing reference guides loaded into my Palm device.  This love for handheld devices slowly transitioned to Smartphone’s.  Who can resist the ability to consolidate a phone and a handheld minicomputer?  This leads me to a new column I am calling "Tech Talk" which will be the place for me to discuss gadgets I utilize in my personal and professional life.

Now with my review of the Android (Google Phone) platform…From a Smartphone perspective, I started with a Treo 600 and moved on to various Windows Mobile devices.  My carrier is T-Mobile and therefore wanted to stick with phones supported by my carrier.  One of my priority pre-requisite in selecting a Smartphone is Exchange support so that I can have access to my work information.  My Touch 3G, T-Mobile’s second Google phone definitely had my attention.  It was a tossup between getting a Blackberry or the My Touch 3G and the decision to go with the My Touch 3G is purely based on not wanting a phone that was for the most part a powerful email communicator.  I wanted something that I can have fun with outside of the work environment and the Android Market definitely has more applications that the Blackberry.

After having the My Touch 3G for several months now, I must say I am very much happy with my decision to go with this device.  It is definitely a very customizable device, just as it’s marketed and I love the ability to add widgets to the phones home screen.  One of the major upside of this phone that is crucial for me at least is the great integration with Google Voice and the newly released turn by turn GPS device utilizing Google maps with actual spoken street names.  Now don’t get me wrong, it is not yet an iPhone killer, but what we have now is definitely a strong competitor.  Of course only time can tell if developers will start building more apps for this platform, but with over 12,000 applications now in the Android Market (iPhone has over 100,000) there are some promising signs.  

Although I am a fan of this platform and will recommend it in a heartbeat, the caveat to understand with this phone is to realize it is not an iPhone.  I feel I am somewhat competent to comment on this considering my wife has an iPhone.  From a user interface perspective, the iPhone is by far more responsive compared to  the Android which  has a little bit of lag in its response time.  But with the right set of utility applications it is manageable.  

As a final thought, I feel there is a lot of promise for this platform.  Although let me reiterate, it is not yet an iPhone killer, but what we do have now is definitely a great iPhone alternative, especially if you are like me who is very happy with my carrier and does not want to transfer to another carrier such as AT&T who has had their share of bad press in terms of Customer Service and network reliability.

Comments are open, interested on your thoughts regarding this platform…