Taken with the Motorola Droid
On Thursday I decided to finally make my foray into the world of smart phones. The reason for such a prolonged hesitation: lack of acceptable alternatives for the AT&T beholden iPhone. Apple’s iPhone is the gold standard of smart phones, much like many of Apple’s innovations in their respective markets. Circumstances, however, dictate that I stay with Verizon. Thus, I have adopted the Google Android driven Motorola Droid. All told, the first few days with the Droid have proven a rather pedestrian experience punctuated with brief moments of excitement.
Droid is not entirely without its own merits in the shadow of the Apple juggernaut. Most appealing is its vast Android Marketplace arsenal and its flawless ability to synchronize with Gmail accounts. The phone is quite adept at handling email in the cloud. Messages are stored temporarily and always available via Google’s web archive unless explicitly deleted. It provides all the functionality of an IMAP account (a form of email that stores messages on your computer and email server simultaneously) without the inherent storage space hassles.
Almost all smart phones and their less sophisticated cousins are suitably capable of email synchronization, but in today’s technological environment social media is king. Juggling emails in the cloud isn’t enough to sweep phones off the shelves. They must tweet, manage Facebook profiles, manipulate complex web pages, aggregate blog data, and track our geographical locations to within feet of where we stand–all on demand. In those areas, the Droid falls short of its competitors.
All future updates aside, I am considering the Droid the way it functions in my hand today. The first sign of trouble occurred when I discovered that the Droid Facebook app was incapable of tagging friend’s names in status updates. Even worse, were the equally substandard photo uploading functions for Facebook: the Android app actually downsized photos, reducing their quality to levels inferior to those uploaded via standard web browsers for years. Adding to that: the inability to tag photos, edit photos online, and clunky notification updates were all nuisances. Despite some of the blame falling on the shoulders of the app programmers, the Droid promises much and fails to effectively deliver in this area.
When it comes time to upload pictures to Facebook, the phone must be held horizontally, or pictures will end up sideways (rotating them before uploading doesn’t appear to make a difference). The Droid is often heralded for it’s remarkable 5 Mega-pixel twin-flash camera. After the first couple of uses, it’s clear that the camera is decidedly no slouch. Picture quality is absolutely stunning for a phone camera. Upon closer examination of several shots, however, the Droid camera introduces a slight but obvious level of pixelation when compared to my five-year-old Kodak digital camera.
Disappointment with Droid’s social media capabilities doesn’t stop with its Facebook app. The device ships without a proper Twitter application. Users are left searching the Android Marketplace for an acceptable app to publish and aggregate tweets. Several decent paid apps do exist, but out-of-the-box Twitter integration should not have been an oversight.
The bulk of my complaints with Droid are aimed squarely at its lack of social media prowess. It remains, nonetheless, a remarkably powerful marvel from the folks at Google and Motorola. The usability the Android interface is impeccable. Droid’s GPS location technology is near perfect for navigating roads (or at least par with the average TomTom). Thus, it plays well with cutting edge social apps such as Foursquare. When you factor in the slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a battery life that’s nothing short of revolutionary (also note that it’s a user-replaceable battery), you’ve actually got a pretty nice little smart phone.
The potential to easily building my own apps for the Android Marketplace have tempered my initial displeasure with the persistent social media shortcomings of Droid. In the end I’ve come to appreciate the device for what it is: a reasonable alternative to the iPhone on a decidedly better network. With Google’s support behind them, Android powered phones will only get better with time. After all, it is one of the fastest growing market segments in the mobile industry.
So there you have it: a pedestrian experience with the Motorola Droid. Yet, there’s still a lot potential in the Android platform. Perhaps with a little programming help from you and me, Android will come to dominate the market. Until next time, if you have stories about your own mobile smartphone, or tips to share from your own experience with an Android phone, feel free to share them for all the readers here!
