This isn?t a problem with the Dinc2 post. This is more of a (late) huge pro-Dinc2/Android post.
I took my family on a trip to the Hershey Park/Dutch Wonderland this summer. In too many ways to count, the Dinc2 was useful for obvious and no so obvious reasons.
1) Booking the trip: I cut and pasted the hotel?s address and the amusement park addresses into Google Calendar which synced with my phone. The addresses were now clickable in my calendar so any time we traveled, I was able to call up and navigate to the addresses easily. I didn?t think this was such big deal but it turned out to be very useful.
2) Footprints: This is an app that I never thought I would use but it?s actually a lot of fun. You basically take a picture of a tourist site or other useful location. The app geotags the location as well as classifies it into a category. I found a shopping center on the first day of the trip that I had to get to each morning. After initially footprinting it, I just had to click on it to get there with the phones GPS. I started snapping one picture of Dutch Wonderland, Hershey Park, Amish country, etc. It?s a nice to way to get a sense of a location without being overwhelmed by 100?s of pictures.
3) Travel: I would guess this is true of any android phone. Google navigation with the Dinc?s GPS is a great experience. As I mentioned above, I found myself using the phone rather than my cars GPS every day of the trip. Google Maps also calls up images of places as you approach them. As I was visiting many attractions for the first time, this was indispensable. (Battery life was not an issue as I bought a car charger.).
4) Camera: Honestly, this is where the phone was not as useful as I thought it would be. Quick pictures with good sunlight came out well. Anything indoors, even using the phones various camera settings, never resulted in something that I could print.
5) Handcent: There were a few times at Hershey when my wife and I separated with the older and younger kids. We would text message each other pictures of what we were doing. The Dinc (using handcent) was more than capable. And my Dinc2 sunlight pictures were on a par with her iPhone 4?s.
6) Pulse: The earthquake that rocked the eastern seaboard hit us during the trip. Even though phone lines were occasionally impossible to get, data was never a problem. I subscribed to USA Today and the New York Times. I knew exactly what was going on during the quake.
7) General Reliability - Battery life and Camera: The Dinc2?s battery simply held up. This is the first WinMO/BB/Android phone that never left me worried when a trip lasted for more than 8 hours away from a plug. Even with light phone calling and general phone use, I never worried about getting into the red with the battery.
8) Video and Games for the kids: Here the Dinc really shown. Both to and from PA and while traveling between the hotel and attractions, the Dinc was invaluable. I loaded two Dora the Explorer CD?s worth of Video on to the SD card. My three year old was kept busy whenever we needed her to be. I also had other video for my older kids when they needed a break.
9) Sense scenes got my mind off the looking at the phone and being reminded of work.
10) When I did need to check emails and correct some excel spreadsheets, QuickOffice Pro was up to the task. It beat my wife?s iPhone app?s for editing and replying, thanks to its ability to save files to the SD card, work on them and then forward them on.
Anyway, I thought I?d post about this. You gotta love the phone.
I took my family on a trip to the Hershey Park/Dutch Wonderland this summer. In too many ways to count, the Dinc2 was useful for obvious and no so obvious reasons.
1) Booking the trip: I cut and pasted the hotel?s address and the amusement park addresses into Google Calendar which synced with my phone. The addresses were now clickable in my calendar so any time we traveled, I was able to call up and navigate to the addresses easily. I didn?t think this was such big deal but it turned out to be very useful.
2) Footprints: This is an app that I never thought I would use but it?s actually a lot of fun. You basically take a picture of a tourist site or other useful location. The app geotags the location as well as classifies it into a category. I found a shopping center on the first day of the trip that I had to get to each morning. After initially footprinting it, I just had to click on it to get there with the phones GPS. I started snapping one picture of Dutch Wonderland, Hershey Park, Amish country, etc. It?s a nice to way to get a sense of a location without being overwhelmed by 100?s of pictures.
3) Travel: I would guess this is true of any android phone. Google navigation with the Dinc?s GPS is a great experience. As I mentioned above, I found myself using the phone rather than my cars GPS every day of the trip. Google Maps also calls up images of places as you approach them. As I was visiting many attractions for the first time, this was indispensable. (Battery life was not an issue as I bought a car charger.).
4) Camera: Honestly, this is where the phone was not as useful as I thought it would be. Quick pictures with good sunlight came out well. Anything indoors, even using the phones various camera settings, never resulted in something that I could print.
5) Handcent: There were a few times at Hershey when my wife and I separated with the older and younger kids. We would text message each other pictures of what we were doing. The Dinc (using handcent) was more than capable. And my Dinc2 sunlight pictures were on a par with her iPhone 4?s.
6) Pulse: The earthquake that rocked the eastern seaboard hit us during the trip. Even though phone lines were occasionally impossible to get, data was never a problem. I subscribed to USA Today and the New York Times. I knew exactly what was going on during the quake.
7) General Reliability - Battery life and Camera: The Dinc2?s battery simply held up. This is the first WinMO/BB/Android phone that never left me worried when a trip lasted for more than 8 hours away from a plug. Even with light phone calling and general phone use, I never worried about getting into the red with the battery.
8) Video and Games for the kids: Here the Dinc really shown. Both to and from PA and while traveling between the hotel and attractions, the Dinc was invaluable. I loaded two Dora the Explorer CD?s worth of Video on to the SD card. My three year old was kept busy whenever we needed her to be. I also had other video for my older kids when they needed a break.
9) Sense scenes got my mind off the looking at the phone and being reminded of work.
10) When I did need to check emails and correct some excel spreadsheets, QuickOffice Pro was up to the task. It beat my wife?s iPhone app?s for editing and replying, thanks to its ability to save files to the SD card, work on them and then forward them on.
Anyway, I thought I?d post about this. You gotta love the phone.
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