Staying All Connected

In case you don’t visit my Facebook page, Lorna and I finally got “smartphones” a week ago. After much thought (and procrastinations), the final decision was based solely on money. The Samsung Galaxy S III is way way cheaper than the iPhone 4S. As in we got two phones, upgraded Lorna’s plan, added my phone, got two cases, two memory cards, and two screen protectors for less than half what the iPhone would have cost us without the accessories.

The biggest warning we got a while back was “There’s a big learning curve between Android and the iOS.”

So, is there? Granted, we’d not used an iPhone before other than to borrow my bro’s for a moment here and there. But we’ve had iPod Touches for years and years so we’re familiar with all that part of it. Back at the question: is there a learning curve? The answer? Um, no. It was what I thought it would be like.

Go to contacts, tap the contact, tap the wee little phone icon, and call them. Wow. Hard man, really hard.
To flip between the screens on the S3, the user must swipe their finger across the screen. Oh, wait, iPhone does that, too.
To move icons around the screens, the user must hold down the icon then drag it. You guessed it, iPhone does that, too. (but Android does it better because you can put an icon anywhere on the screen vs right after the previous one)

Perhaps the biggest learning experience has been how the music works. At first, I was NOT happy with that part. I wanted a smartphone for several reasons. I wanted one device instead of two or three. Music, phone, games/entertainment/productivity. Not all of my cool games on my iPod are available as Android but enough of them that I’m not in withdrawal (no Zombie Gunship, though!!). Phone, yeah, it does that. But music? It was annoying. It sorted differently than I wanted it to (alphabetical order? within an album? really?). I wanted to stomp my feet and demand they fix it. Instead, I left it alone and messed with everything else first. Then came back to the music when I was ready. And…it works. I figured out how to do a playlist, how to put it in the order I wanted. The sound (without headphones) is much clearer than on my 4th gen iPod Touch. The sound WITH headphones is phenomenal difference. Lorna loves it. She had my old old 2nd gen iPod Touch so her jump in clarity was wider.

The screen size difference between my Touch and the S3 is fantastic. There’s about the same amount of room for icons and the like, except it is all bigger. Everything is bigger. And more detailed. Not image detail, but fine points detailed. The ability to add tasks to the calendar. The ability to check off those tasks. Being able to switch between calendar views.

But perhaps the biggest difference between the iOS and the Android? Editing text. With my iPod Touch, if I wanted to edit a word, I had to delete the entire word. I couldn’t choose the middle of a word to add a space or delete a single letter. But I can now. That aspect alone has me now drooling over the idea of an Android tablet. I wouldn’t have to lug my laptop to do simple brainstorming while eating pizza at Blue Mountain. Or to the laundromat while doing editing or re-reading. Cut and paste is a little tricky on the Android but I think I got it figured out finally.

And the final thing is how well Lorna is doing with hers. She’s going through the large pdf user manual on her own, learning as she goes. She’s doing great. The only problems she’s had is how to set up stuff like email and all the “Sign up for this and that” stuff. But even then, once stuff is set up, it’s done. She has even figured out how to text!

– Do we like them? Yes.
– How is it as a phone? Lorna’s biggest problem with her cell phone was it would drop calls. She had the LG Rumor and she hated it. But now, even on the route and with just one itty bitty bar, she can call the house and I can hear her clearly. Some skipping but no dropping.
– Music? Getting better. I tried to import our playlists and they didn’t translate well. Starting over with that is no big deal, now that I understand the magic.
– Games? Lorna’s not into that although she’s already said she wants to get BeJeweled 2 for it. Some of my favorite games to play while waiting or whatever aren’t available in Android. No Zombie Gunship. No Solebon Solitaire. I haven’t found a card game yet that has that level of graphic clarity.
– What we love is one thing in our pockets. Just one. No cell phone AND mp3. One device. Loving it. Lorna didn’t think she’d care one way or the other but she’s enjoying it.

Below are some images of my iPod Touch (left) and my S3 (right). Click the image to see the larger version.

The game Train Conductor 2.

The game Zombie Highway (some major difference in the menu, not sure I like it)

The calendar

An app called iHandy Carpenter (we use this a lot)