My new toy

Last updated on August 30th, 2019 at 07:33 am

Well I finally did it. After much investigation, I finally bought a SmartPhone. Initially, it seems like it would be an easy decision. I would just get an iPhone4. But then after realizing that I already have an iPad and an iPod Touch, it seem to me that an iPhone would be somewhat redundant. One of the key reason I bought the phone, was so that I could test the mobile learning content that I’ll be developing, so having a different platform will come in handy. I decided to get an Android phone – one of the key reasons was that I could easily purchase an unlock code for the Android, such that I could use it with pay-as-you-go cards when travelling. The challenge was which Android phone? There are so many different ones from which to choose. I opted for the Samsung Galaxy S from Rogers. I’d like to say that I had a great reason for this one over the others out there, but really the decision was more about how quickly and easily I could get the device. The guy in the store (Costco) had the Bell version of the Galaxy as his personal phone. He showed it to me and explained the benefits of the phone. At one point he even took a key to the screen to demonstrate that it didn’t scratch! He did, however, recommend the Rogers version over the Bell version – the guts of the phones were the same, but the Rogers version had a more durable outer shell. Now that I have the phone, I am finding that I like it, but it does require a bit of a learning curve. Since it is not an iPhone, it does many of the same things, but in a different way. For example, the onscreen keyboard is very similar to the iPhone, but with a lot less autocorrect – which I find I really like, the autocorrect on the iPhone is a little aggressive for me, often changing things that I typed correctly. Instead, the Android phone uses a technique call Swype for data input, involving dragging your finger across the keyboard and predicting what word you meant. I am finding it much quicker than the iPhone’s predictive typing. At the moment the concept is such a novelty to me that I love sending texts, so much so that after 1 week with the phone I have yet to make an actual voice call! Now that I have my new toy, I’ll be posting regularly on my experience and the various applications that I find useful. If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment.