Double Fisting (a phone in each hand)

Life with a Droid and an iPhone

Tall vs Wide

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Picking up the Droid for the first time I was wowed by the huge screen. All those lovely pixels packed into the tallest mobile screen I have seen made me think I would absolutely love it over the iPhone screen, and I do for viewing web pages and pdfs. But for almost everything else the short stocky iPhone screen meets my needs much more effectively. Those extra few millimeters make typing much more accurate on the iPhone and gives me a feeling of comfort when typing as each key just has that bit more white space around it. My thumb can reach every object on the screen without changing my grip. And I don't find myself scanning the interface to look for options as everything is in a single plane of view (our eyes are optimized for horizontal viewing).

I know developers have not really started designing applications to take advantage of the extra vertical real estate so I am hoping that some new wonderful ideas are going to come from the extra space, but I have a feeling that this extra space is going to be a god send for Googles new purchase of AdMob, now the ads can be persistant through each free application and not get in the way of interaction (note: I hate seeing banner ads on my phone, so please use this space for interactive services and content provided by brands not just links). 

My new friend

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While Android is a little robot character he or she has a much more human personality than I would have expected, especially with the name DROID (insert  30 year old sound effect for a computer voice which is getting really annoying now). 

I have become oddly attached to the way my phone (I'm calling mine Higgins) always keeps me informed of everything he is doing, "installed successfully", "message sent", "weather is up to date", "something is ready for you". I know the iPhone just does stuff, and not adding extra layers of information which could get in the way is a good, usable solution. But I have actually started to become friends with my Droid because of these extra layers of information. The conversation we have by me using him and him always being a chatty little bloke makes me want to keep touching and trying out new things. 

This is a contrast to the iPhone, with it's purely about the apps. I basically only see the lock screen and the app launcher, so I haven't been able to make a connection with it as a core OS. But I love the apps on the iPhone so much more and they are the things which make me want to pick it up and play. 

I'd love to see even more human emotion in future versions of the platform. Just like I can change my animations from non, to some, to full, I want to be able to increase or decrease the amount of chit chat and add different personalities. This may be the thing once apps reach parity that keeps me using the Android platform. 

4 Modes, 2 Phones

With 2 phones every time I need to do something I have to make a decision which pocket to reach into. Here is how I have now worked out how to make the decision:

1

If I need something in an instant
If its the location of a restaurant or a google search to settle a debate I pull out my iPhone. The browser is much more spritely and maps gets my location way faster and more accurately (probably thanks to www.skyhookwireless.com technology)

2

If I want to know whats going on
A quick swipe and I have Facebook, foursquare, and twitter on my homescreens so I can stay up to date much faster than launching at least 3 apps on the iPhone. Also the notification bar lets me know all the updates inside the rest of the apps from SMS, to chat, to email so I use the Droid to keep up with friends and communication.

3

If I want to be entertained
Just the brand idea of going to my iTunes vs music makes me pull out my iPhone and the richness of the application design makes me feel like I am being entertained rather than using a Microsoft windows application on the Droid. Games on the iPhone are 400% better than the Droid. I have the paid version of Bejeweled on both phones, the speed and graphics on the iPhone give me that true play experience rather than feeling like I am clicking controls on the Droid.

4

If I want to consume information
The screen on the Droid as most people have said is fantastic being able to see full webpages in landscape is amazing. I now find myself finding stories on the iPhone then emailing myself the link to actually read on the Droid. I can't wait for the Kindle application to come out on the Droid as to me that will really feel like pages in a book rather than the flash card experience I have on the iPhone. Also I can now go to meetings with the PDF on my Droid and save a tree (as laptops always get in the way of a good meeting).

How to break into a Droid

After finding and misplacing a number of phones I now see the value of those extra steps to lock and unlock my phones. But the cool dot pattern has a little bit of an issue... you can see the pattern in the finger smudges most of the time. So if you want to have a play with your friends shiny new phone just angle it to the light and follow the path.

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Yes I am changing my pattern...

Flashing Lights

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via flickr.com

I never thought I would miss the flashing read light of death from my Blackberry "Oh no its flashing again, what's happened, and what do I need to do right now". But the simple change of using a green flashing light on the Droid makes me think "Ooo what nice thing is going on here that I want to get involved with". It has also stopped my incessant powering on of the iPhone screen to see what I missed while it was in my pocket.

Apple if you could make an e-Ink case which gave me all my notifications on the back that would be cool, thanks.

Android Developer Challenge - the best way to explore your Droid


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Getting access to all the applications in iTunes is an obvious +1 for the iPhone allowing you to browse on the big screen then play on the little one. The current app sites for the Droid are not staying up to date with the quantity of good/OK apps coming out for the Droid. But here are a few to try out.

http://www.androlib.com/
http://androinica.com/
http://www.androidapps.com/

However the best way to stay ahead of the crowd with the best tricked out Droid is to install the Android Developers Challenge application. You get one app at a time for you to play with. Then you rate it, it gets removed from you phone and a new one comes in. 

I have gone through about 30 apps so far and I have liked about 20% enough to install the full version (if it's available). The whole experience feels almost like a game in itself.

So pop open your Scanner application and shoot this:

chart?cht=qr&chs=230x230&chl=http%3A%2F%2Fmarket.android.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dpname%3Acom.google.android.challenge

Also if any application is "not your cup of tea" (nice humor in the interface Google) then just press the menu button and you will see a skip option.