DROID

O.K., I realize that it'sbeen well over a year since my last entry, but what better time to get back into the groove right?

So everyone please excuse me while I gush about the new love of my life, my brand new DROID. Take all my comments with a grain of salt since they come from a guy who has never owned a smart phone, iPod/mp3 player or GPS unit of any kind. So you may read this and think, "So what, my _____ can do that too?" But, like I said - I'm in love...

First of all, I use Gmail and iGoogle as my home page, calendar and contacts list anyway, so it was a great beginning when I turned on the phone, signed in, and all my contacts, e-mail and appointments showed up instantly. My wife also gave me access to her work calendar so, I can ditch my day planer (yes -I still use one of those).

The contact list integration is pretty cool with links to Facebook, blogs, email, and chat/text history. You can also use Google Navigation from contacts as well...

Google Navigation is a FREE turn by turn GPS and map application There area ton of apps and I could go on ad on about it, and people speculate that it will put Tom Tom out of business, who knows  But I'll sum up by saying  - WIN!  

There is an app store, and even though people say iPhone has more apps, how any language conversion apps, and stupid games/funny noise maker apps does a guy need?  There is a ton of cool useful stuff there and more and more first party apps are coming out all the time. I'm still waiting for the official Gecaching.com app though.

The hardware itself isn't as pretty as an iPhone, but it's not ugly. It feels nice and solid, the browser is fast, it has wi-fi, I love the keyboard and the screen is big and beautiful.

The major down side for me so far is that you have to use a clunky 3rd party app to get music on the DROID from  iTunes. I moved over 150 albums and 1400 of my songs show up as "unknown artist"...

So, there you go. Not an official review, but a hearty recommendation from a first time smart-phone guy.