The steady squeezing with respect to email access when away from the office finally built to a breaking point during last week’s business trip. Time to get some help and stop the pressure. Granted, I didn’t get an R2 unit, but I have been experimenting with a Motorola Droid phone over the last three days. The experience has been a bit eye-opening, in unexpected ways. For example: here’s the electronics-related to-do list I was packing as I headed into the Verizon store to shop smart phones (with the preconceived notion that I was looking for a Blackberry, not droids):
- Needed a “push” email solution for work communications (wi-fi alone was not good enough) Figure $50-$150 on upgrade to a Blackberry type device.
Someone ‘relieved’ me of my Jabra Bluetooth speaker phone. That’s a $60-$90 replacement.- Still want/need a GPS for the Jaguar. My lovely wife now refuses to surrender hers (good for her! a gadget she loves/uses!), so that’s about $200 give-or-take. I sure would like to give verbal instructions to the GPS, so that runs an additional $200 or so.
So, I was looking at $310-$640 in gadget upgrades, the clutter of multiple devices (sucks on the road) AND a $30/mo data plan for the Blackberry.
That lead me inexorably to the Droid. Instead of all that, I spent $200 on a Droid, and got: my phone; a built-in, in-car speaker phone; a mobile email device; a voice-recognition GPS device; and all THAT. So for the cost of the minimal GPS, I handled everything. Work pays the data plan; I’m good to go. The guy at the Verizon store removed the restraining bolt from my new best friend and we took off.
And just in time to spend most of the weekend out in the urban jungle, testing connectivity and usability.
With exchange students at our house for a whirlwind weekend tour, things got started early. Friday night, while the phone sat on my car’s console getting its first charge, I headed to the Rose Garden Arena to accompany the family and students to a WinterHawks game. Missed the first three inbound calls because I didn’t know how to answer the darn thing (swipe your finger to answer the call. Yeah, now I know). The Verizon store had set up my gmail and google calendar, but not a connection to Outlook Exchange at my employer. Remember, I needed Blackberry-like push service.
So, as I sat down at the game, I gmailed the IT manager asking how to set up the Outlook and could I do it myself? He emailed me three or four settings, and I gave it a whirl. Three minutes later, my Droid filled with Outlook Exchange messages and I successfully sent an outbound email to coworkers. All before the end of the first period. Not bad.
On Saturday, I played tour guide. That was my first chance to use the Droid in the Field. The GPS overlay on Google Maps was natural, informative and extremely useful. 
The one accessory that was a wise choice was the in-car windshield mount. For me, I got the mount with the magnet inside, which signals the Droid to go into CAR MODE as soon as the device gets cradled. Car Mode uses a different home screen – essentially a GPS with voice dialing and interactive voice recognition search. In fact, Smart Device Central said this in their blog:
“Speaking of Car Mode, the Droid is the first phone to come with Google Maps Navigation, which provides free, turn-by-turn, spoken driving directions. Car Mode is a simplified interface that gives you a few large icons to poke at in your car; Verizon will sell a car mount for the Droid, as well. The combination may make the Droid the best GPS phone on the market.”
And here’s what Lance Ulanoff had to say back in October 2009 about the Google Maps navigation in Android:
“I'm certain that the execs at TomTom, Garmin, and Magellan all sat up and took notice of the little e-bomb Google just dropped this morning. According to the Google blog, the free app (still in beta, by the way), has constantly updated maps, voice-driven commands and search, free traffic details, search for points of interest along route, 3D views, turn-by-turn direction—well, you get the idea. It has a lot of what you'll find in the best stand-alone GPS devices. Plus it's coupled with a big touch screen and something most GPS devices do not have: a keyboard.”
Yup, all the functionality of that $800 d0-everything Bluetooth-enabled Garmin you wish you had. The Droid can rotate to vertical or horizontal in Car Mode. Works just fine.
I especially liked being able to use voice recognition to say “find ice cream nearby” and have Google Maps give me all the ice cream shops in the vicinity. It works GREAT that way for gas stations, too.
The voice guided directions are extremely accurate and helpful. Instead of the typical “exit. right.” as I approached my freeway off ramp, the Droid would say something like “in 1000 feet, take exit 280, I-205, West Linn, Oregon City”. While the map feedback is very good indeed, I found the spoken navigation directions were detailed enough (without overkill) to drive by ear alone. Nice.
I also like being able to perform a normal Google Maps type search, then ask for Navigation Directions from my current location. Because it’s Google Maps underneath, you can turn on the traffic density display, and help choose your route based on freeway flow. Minimal use in Portland; HUGE benefit in Seattle and San Francisco!
Over the weekend, while at home, I tested the accuracy of the GPS positioning by zooming in as close as possible, then walking around the house. Darned thing could pretty much put the location cursor right inside the correct room of the house!
Away from the car, I repurposed an old Dell Pocket PC belt clip to hold the Droid. It fits nicely and is well padded. Done. Belt holsters have to be thought of as disposable anyway; I’m happy to give an obsolete one new life…
How’s it work as an MP3 Player? Let’s see. I loaded a couple albums worth of music onto the Droid, using Windows Media Player. A free book reader app and a handful of free-distribution books from Cory Doctorow for recreational reading, too. Last night my bed time reading was Cory’s “Little Brother” and jazz on the headphones. Simultaneously. My personal netbook runs Ubuntu Linux. I’m going to play with syncing music to the Droid from that environment. I’ll report more later.
I haven’t tried pairing it with a Bluetooth device yet. Later. My car stereo doesn’t have the Bluetooth factory option (damn!), so I can’t pair the phone to the car stereo. But, I did learn that a FM retransmitter was an effective way to wirelessly connect my MP3s to my car stereo. I’ll be looking into that as an option.
For work stuff; I have access to my cloud storage on google docs. I have access to my google voice account. I have a free app that lets me view Microsoft Office documents and PDFs on my device. I can go to webpages willy-nilly. The Droid mounts via USB cable to my PC; Windows recognizes it as a removable storage device. Drag and drop file transfers to your heart’s content.
“But Nolan!”
I hear you.
“It’s a phone!” you say. “What about call quality?”
Everyone on the other end says it’s hunky-dory. “Hear you very clearly, I can,” was one reply. The Built In speaker phone may be just a little too quiet for in-car use long term, though. People hear me fine, but I need a bit more volume to hear the other person clearly. That may just be a function of placement on the windshield. Experiments are in order.
“Why not an iPhone?” I’ve been asked. I wouldn’t mind an iPhone, to be honest, but the Verizon network meets my needs very well and it would cost me nearly a house payment to move the whole family. As long as the iPhone’s tethered to “the DeathStar” for service, it won’t be an option for me.
TomTom has a GPS app for the iPhone. $50. Google Maps? umm… free?
Ulanoff finishes his column on Google Maps Navigation with this: “the arrival of Google Maps Navigation deals a major blow to dedicated GPS device manufacturers and one of the biggest, craftiest wins of Google's decade-long existence.”
Given that I’ve just spent half of my weekend talking about how good at GPS my …. PHONE …. is, my behavior agrees with him even if my brain may not. I guess it’s a new era in human-cyborg relations. At least in my particular corner of the galaxy.
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