“DROID” ….it is such a comforting sound!

Right now when I receive a text message or email my Motorola Droid says, “Droid,” and I find it humorous that while working in my internship office my boss always laughs because it sounds like some robotic voice off some outer space television program. In December, my mother approached me with the usual yearly question of “What would you like for Christmas?” I kind of rolled my eyes saying, “I don’t know. I guess a new phone would be nice.” At Christmas I sometimes have a hard time answering that question because I honestly do not know what I want when I already have so much to be thankful for right now.

Of course, my mother being the awesome mom she is goes to the closest Verizon Store where she happens to be traveling out of town to look into and research the new smart phones on the market. The Motorola Droid has literally just come out with all the Alien Google commercials that are surfing the channels daily on the television with the awareness marketing campaign. Perhaps this is supposedly the new latest and greatest of things for those who prefer open sourcing among all computer applications in the digital world which consistently appears to be the belief system of Google’s philosophy for technology’s availability to the world.

When I first got the Droid, it took me several days to learn how to use it especially in comparison to my Samsung where all I used it for was text messaging and calling people. The Droid did much more, and I must admit that I have come to grow very fond of its functionality. One obvious perk is the fact the phone contains GPS capabilities through Google Maps that according to the Popular Mechanics website caused TomTom and Garmin stocks to dive overnight once the phone hit the market. I have had tremendous success with the GPS when traveling even in some of the most obscure of places. While traveling to Sugar Mountain, North Carolina at the beginning of the semester for a ski trip, I encountered a large scale mountain traffic jam. I quickly used the Droid for an alternate route for avoid the catastrophic size accident. Just to give a comparison of how successful the alternate route was, the other carpool of friends arrived three to four hours later in their travel time to the same destination than the carpool I was driving. To say the least, I was happy with my new phone’s performance. PC Magazine claims that the Droid is indeed the best GPS phone on the market.

I myself have an application known as CardioTrainer, which I utilize during jogs around Auburn. It keeps track of my steps taken, the speed, calories, my location on campus, the speed, and so on. The application has a history that allows me to keep track of previous workouts as well. In addition to using the app, I bought a Rocketfish wireless headset that gives me the ability to listen to music while running in addition to answering telephone calls, even though most of the time I am too out of breath to do so. Nevertheless, it is nice to not have all those wires swinging everywhere while I am running as my previous headphones did with my IPOD. I also have another app known as MyTracks, which is a topographical application used for hiking, backpacking, and camping. Using GPS, it will inform you of your location in the mountains, including the elevation changes as if looking at an actual topographical map itself.

Sometimes I feel like there are so many applications and neat uses of the phone that I really not make enough time to play around with all of them. So I made some time in relation to this blog entry and assignment to find some new free apps that I thought might be useful in adding to my phone. I came across two that I just absolutely had to add to my phone and the practicality of my new technologically savvy lifestyle: KeyRing and GestureSearch. KeyRing is an Android app that puts your membership cards barcodes (like CVS or Kroger) into your Motorola Droid. Simply scan your various cards, including anything from gym memberships to drug store discount clubs. Key Ring will categorize them into a drop-down menu. GestureSearch allows an individual to search their phone by drawing letters on the screen of the phone. By doing so, the app works by identifying your on-screen gestures and using them to dig through your contacts, apps, bookmarks, and music. Smart phones are becoming more and more advanced. It will be interesting to see what the future brings in regards to more convenience, more function, and more tools these devices keep bringing into our everyday use.

The marketing campaigns have been interesting in comparison to its competition even more specifically with the IPhone. This following video is one of my favorite ones. Check it out. As I have realized with this blog entry and becoming a Droid fan, you may also begin to think that “Droid Does” whatever you truly intend for it to do.