Motorola Droid

I bought my new Motorola Droid phone on Friday and haven't stopped playing with it since!  I would recommend this phone to just about everyone!  As anticipated as this launch was, I was one of the failures.   Got my phone at 9 a.m. and at 1 o'clock I was back there on my lunch break because the phone I had kept on restarting... probably about 10-15 times in the 4 hours that I owned it.  They swapped me a new one real quick and there's been no problems at all. 

iPhone killer?  Not exactly because they serve different needs.  I'll sum it up for you really quick.  This phone is fast.  Super fast.  3G webpage downloads come out crystal clear on the huge hi res screen.   If you surf and type a lot, this has a qwerty keyboard and directional pad, this is the phone you have to get.  If you value loading music and playing games more, you're gonna want the iPhone instead.  I carry my ipod classic for my songs and vids and always carry my Sony compact camera so I don't really care about a phone's camera quality.  That said, 5 mp with white balance adjustments for the Droid ain't bad.  The picture quality could come out a little crisper tho.   My friends were all way impressed at the web capabilities. 

The Droid is fully integrated with your Gmail, so your contacts automatically load from there.  Then you can also choose to merge that with your Facebook contacts to create one unifed contact list for the phone.  The contact list is sweet...   It's also integreated with Gchat and you can also download MSN Messenger and AIM applications.   There's also a Meebo application that I haven't tried yet.   

There are so many things you can do from the phone, but there are a few widgets and programs that you should add or adjust.  It's not exactly the easiest to figure out at first, but once you do, it's piece of cake.  The most important widget to add is the "power supply task bar."  Outside of checking gmail, facebook, and GPS, the power supply bar lets you easily turn on or off the satellite, wifi, bluetooth, and auto sync features.  This is important because you want to turn off your auto syncs when you are sleeping so that you don't drain your battery for no reason, unless of course you were expecting a specific important email to come through and wake you up.   It's the easiest way for me to turn on and turn off the bluetooth option when I get in my car, as there's no other dedicated shortcut to that. 

The GPS is as good as it gets.   You get all the standard GPS features, as well as the Google Maps satellite view.  If you zoom in, you can get the real street view with turn by turn navigation.   I voiced commanded it to search for "South Coast Plaza" and easily came up with the mall address for the navi.   If you use this, you'll want to buy the $30 car dock and also make sure to have a micro USB car charger.   When you put the phone in the dock, it automatically shifts to GPS mode.   Super user friendly.  It make take you a minute or two to set your destination, but after that, it's all cake. 

Battery life is decent, but if you surf a lot and talk on the phone a little, you'll want to charge every night.   The phone is heavy, but the whole body including slide out keyboard feels very secure.  Really, what you are holding is a mini computer.  The only thing I wish they would've changed was to make the keys on the keyboard a little more pebbled.  Other than that, this phone is the bomb.  My friends with their Palm Pre's, Blackberry Storms, and HTC Touch Pros were all jealous.  This phone is worth the hype.  Now to see what applications they'll develop for it over the next year...

I Question Church Marriages

I'm wondering what's wrong with my generation.  Has that much changed with the family structure from what my parents grew up with?  I think so.  Where our parents would've toughed it out, nowadays we take the shortcut, divorce first before completely trying reconciliation.   So many of my friends and co-workers seem to want to provide everything their child needs materially (the phattest stroller, the coolest halloween outfit, a private school education) but then don't know how to discipline and raise their child to be smart but humble.  This is not so much a church thing, more of an in general thing.  

As for church... Why do some of my friends, even married church friends look so unhappy?   Maybe they are happy, but from the looks of things, it seems as if 1/3 of them have a partner that's too selfish to compromise on the little things.  This is really disturbing because I'm seeing marriages that look dysfunctional... not just any couples, these are my friends or acquaintances that are church leaders. 

Usually in a marriage, one person seems to have more power and the other person is usually more of the helper.  Rarely is it even and that's acceptable because we each have our own strengths.  But in a church, a pastor is supposed to lead and if it looks like he can't even control his own wife (if we even have to use "control" to describe the situation, how bad is that?), how is everyone supposed to believe that he can lead a congregation? 

In certain types of marriages, husbands and wives must be able to play the part.  Think presidential.   If Reagan's or Obama's wife didn't look and act presidential, we wouldn't think as highly of them.  The same can be said for leaders in a church.  I know this doesn't apply to most of you since you're not leading something in a church, but it's just sad when I see that.  Imagine that everytime you went to a company function, your CEO's wife was getting smash wasted or all she did was talk about the newest jewels she got. 

One wife I know doesn't even attend the church that her husband pastors.  Another pastor's wife, blasts so much criticism that people can't even tell that she has the love of God in her.  This bugs me because I'm Christian.  Something just ain't right. 

1. What's changed (good and bad) about the family structure over the years? 
2. If you're employed in an industry where you will often be visible, how important is it for you to find a mate who will be able to "act the part" when next to you publicly?  Or should that not matter?  

The funny thing is, I really dislike his music... 

Sorry for the lack of blogging, it's been crazy.  A couple of weeks ago I went to DC and Baltimore, then last week I had to go to a La Roux concert, a fashion show, a wedding rehearsal, a wedding, and then this week I got stuck with Tegan & Sara tickets (I don't mind going tonight, I love them, but I also would've been happy if they sold) and Tuesday I'll be at Lakers' Opening Night.  Inbetween that, I almost ended up at U2 on the floor when my friend had an extra ticket (I sold my floor tickets), but I told him if he found someone else, that would be cool too, because who really wants to spend a whole day at a Rose Bowl after two days of wedding action?  Parking lot hell.  Did you go?  All this madness means pictures to come?  Maybe. 

Which Phone Should I Get? 

All these new phones, which one do I get?   My current debatables are:

iPhone 3GS

Sprint Touch Pro 2 (after Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade comes out, resistive touch screen)

Verizon Touch Pro 2 (after Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade comes out, resistive touch screen)

Verizon Motorola Droid/Sholes (barely thicker than iPhone, with slide out qwerty keyboard, capacitive screen) 

I'm on Verizon, haven't upgraded for 4 years, so I should have old contract $100 new every two credit (vs. the new cap at $50 for the new every two).  Sprint has unlimited phone and data for $70 a month.  iPhone is sleek, easy to use, but I'm not that keen on the network and battery life.  I also would prefer a full qwerty keyboard.  The Droid is supposed to be equipped with Android 2.0 and have a super cool recharger cradle that displays time, weather...

Things I don't care much about... camera (because I always carry my compact camera anyways), music (I have my ipod for that).  Mostly it will be for texting, emailing, calling, and web browsing. 

Which should I get?  Have you had good or bad experiences with your iPhones, HTC phones, or the first google G1 phone? 

Sidenote:  I recently picked up a the Sony TX1 Cybershot. 

My old camera was fritzin' so it was time to get a new one.  I'm lovin' it!  The touchscreen is easy to use, responsive, and the main plus... it is one of the best compacts out there for low light photography!  Important for me because of the concert pics I take.  I tested it this week and the picture quality, color, and clarity for concert shots were stunning (all pictures taken without flash).  It is not as fast at recording the pic as my old camera (as in, the delay is a little longer from shot to shot), but this camera allows me to take almost SLR quality indoor photos without carrying the hunking SLR body.  They changed the light sensors and it's made a world of difference.  And it also records videos in HD.