I hated mobile phones. Sure, I've had one since about 1998 (the same year I got my first cable modem!), but it was always the cheapest, simplest one I could get. They were horrible devices that I considered a (barely) necessary evil.
Now, I'm a pretty tech-savvy guy. From 1992 through about 2006 I was a die-hard PC gamer. I built my own rigs, looked down haughtily at console players, competed in leagues, and even got sucked into the MMO thing (a couple years of my life I'll never get back). The rest of the time I was a web developer building sites and web applications.
The same year I moved into a management role, 2006, Apple released computers with Intel chips. I made the switch early that year and, much to my chagrin, became a bit of a fanboy. Not like those loons on TUAW, but definitely an enthusiast. Life and work was retiring my PC gaming hobby anyway, so I didn't mourn the loss of modern games much. All my favorites are from the DOS days anyway, and DOSBox does just fine on the Mac.
When Apple released the iPhone, I was sucked in... though not enough to spend $600. When the price dropped, however, I went for it. That original iPhone was the first phone I ever loved. When Apple opened up the App store, it got even better. Alas, that phone met with a, shall we say, mishap involving a porcelain excrement management system (and I kid you not, after I fished it out, the screen was still on and a message was displayed: "This accessory is not compatible with your iPhone.").
I upgraded to an iPhone 3G which I was happy with until fairly recently. Later, due to an AT&T error with my wife's upgrade to an iPhone 3GS, she ended up with a brand new iPhone with no contract, and I had 2 new years tacked onto mine. For that reason, and because I'm cheap, I'm still using that same 3G 30 months later, with another 6 months left on my contract.
Since then, other stuff has happened. I got promoted, I bought a house in the woods (and only 1 signal bar on a good day), got a dog, and a ton of huge changes happened at work related to online development. All of a sudden, I was on the list for the corporate standard Blackberry. After 6 months of fighting against that (and subversively getting my personal iPhone enabled in ActiveSync on the network), I finally got approval last week to get a new non-blackberry phone paid for totally by my office.
In fact, I'm being given my choice of pretty much any phone I want. I won't lie - I seriously considered the iPhone 4. But having read about Android improvements with interest for quite some time, and becoming ever more disgusted with Apple's policies, I decided its finally time. So here I am. I'm picking my new phone tomorrow and should have it in my hands in a week or so.
As to why I'm here specifically... having perused many sites looking for reviews and recommendations on the best Android phones, I found this site to have the best combination of reviews, general information, and strong community support. I think it may have been Cory's videos on rooting the Samsung that clinched it though.
Now, I'm a pretty tech-savvy guy. From 1992 through about 2006 I was a die-hard PC gamer. I built my own rigs, looked down haughtily at console players, competed in leagues, and even got sucked into the MMO thing (a couple years of my life I'll never get back). The rest of the time I was a web developer building sites and web applications.
The same year I moved into a management role, 2006, Apple released computers with Intel chips. I made the switch early that year and, much to my chagrin, became a bit of a fanboy. Not like those loons on TUAW, but definitely an enthusiast. Life and work was retiring my PC gaming hobby anyway, so I didn't mourn the loss of modern games much. All my favorites are from the DOS days anyway, and DOSBox does just fine on the Mac.
When Apple released the iPhone, I was sucked in... though not enough to spend $600. When the price dropped, however, I went for it. That original iPhone was the first phone I ever loved. When Apple opened up the App store, it got even better. Alas, that phone met with a, shall we say, mishap involving a porcelain excrement management system (and I kid you not, after I fished it out, the screen was still on and a message was displayed: "This accessory is not compatible with your iPhone.").
I upgraded to an iPhone 3G which I was happy with until fairly recently. Later, due to an AT&T error with my wife's upgrade to an iPhone 3GS, she ended up with a brand new iPhone with no contract, and I had 2 new years tacked onto mine. For that reason, and because I'm cheap, I'm still using that same 3G 30 months later, with another 6 months left on my contract.
Since then, other stuff has happened. I got promoted, I bought a house in the woods (and only 1 signal bar on a good day), got a dog, and a ton of huge changes happened at work related to online development. All of a sudden, I was on the list for the corporate standard Blackberry. After 6 months of fighting against that (and subversively getting my personal iPhone enabled in ActiveSync on the network), I finally got approval last week to get a new non-blackberry phone paid for totally by my office.
In fact, I'm being given my choice of pretty much any phone I want. I won't lie - I seriously considered the iPhone 4. But having read about Android improvements with interest for quite some time, and becoming ever more disgusted with Apple's policies, I decided its finally time. So here I am. I'm picking my new phone tomorrow and should have it in my hands in a week or so.
As to why I'm here specifically... having perused many sites looking for reviews and recommendations on the best Android phones, I found this site to have the best combination of reviews, general information, and strong community support. I think it may have been Cory's videos on rooting the Samsung that clinched it though.
. And I forgot to note the phones I'm considering.
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