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Good-Bye Android, Hello iPhone


Today is the first day that my wife and I can replace our cell phones. I haven't been happy with my Droid 2 ever since I started using it a couple years ago. At the time, I was still toying with the idea of getting an iPhone, but the lower price of the Android was just too tempting. I also had a professional interest in owning an Android as opposed to an iOS phone: I knew that the organization where I work was eventually going to begin producing mobile applications, and when we did I would want to be able to test them on the Android platform. I already own two iOS devices (iPod Touch, iPad), so that operating system was pretty much covered, but nothing with the Android OS. The Droid 2 seemed comparable, so I chose it. But aside from not being an iPhone--something I pretty sure that I could have lived with--my Droid 2 has had some other problems. There are times when the screen is either too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. For example, I might tap the screen to select the name of the person I want to call, and it doesn't respond. Or, it could just be sitting on my desk and while I watch it will begin selecting icons on its own and launching apps without me doing anything at all. I don't know if this is the operating system, or the hardware, but certainly hasn't helped me forget about the iPhone. There was a time when I was resistant to owning an Apple mobile device, back when the first iPhone was still the biggest thing to hit the market. My wife was actually the one who got me interested in iPods when she bought her first shuffle. The idea of listening to podcasts and music on a portable device seemed really cool, so I began transferring MP3's onto my Palm ZIRE, the only portable device that I owned at the time. It did alright, and I was able to listen to podcasts in the car during my forty minute commutes to work each day. But, the ZIRE still didn't seem as handy as an iPod, so when I saved enough money I invested in my first iPod, Apple's iPod Classic. It quickly replaced my ZIRE as my MP3 player. The Zire was wifi-capable, but it couldn't handle anything more than mobile websites. Connecting to the Internet and surfing the web was becoming a much better experience as each round of mobile device was released. I considered different devices to replace my Zire, and finally went with the iPod Touch. It didn't take much for me to decide to replace my Zire with the Apple Touch. In fact, I think I decided this the first time I tried out an iPod Touch in Best Buy, and saw how webpages looked on it. The screen was small, but you weren't limited to just text and limited graphics. I knew that this was also an opportunity to learn another operating system, iOS. Up until then I had been locked into Windows machines or Palm. Years later, I ended up buying two more iPods (one was used at a garage sale and I ended up giving it to my niece) and then an iPad. I am planning on keeping my Droid 2, so that even though it won't have service I'll still be able to use its wifi to test any web application that we develop (we launched our first mobile version of a feature in late October). So, I'm not abandoning it, exactly.

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