DROID

I had no idea.

What was Donald Rumsfeld's famous line - "unknown unknowns?"

I mean, I knew about smartphones, but I wasn't a true smartphone owner, having been suckered into two miserable years with the terrible LG EnV Touch. Which itself was an upgrade from the Motorola RAZR. Well, kind of..

The EnVTouch wasn't a smart phone. It took a few months of trying to get the thing to perform before realizing it was less frustrating to simply not use many of the features. The web browser was not really a web browser, but something that acted like it. Every feature on the EnV Touch had these same characteristics: the look and feel of a smartphone app, but really nothing like it.

Everything on the LG was closed in - everything was proprietary. No native access to Facebook or Twitter, because the phone couldn't. It was pretending.

But how could I know until I had the real deal?

Well now I know. Holy shit do I know.

In only a few hours, my world looks different. That realtime stream on Facebook and my Twitter feed are suddenly with me now. I'm holding that future in my hand..the one I kept wanting the LG to give me.

And now I understand why companies are so motivated to go after smartphone users - the world is more interesting with this thing! Why bother printing directions on your computer when you're going to change your mind five times anyway?

Something else that strikes me: this phone is the first technology I've integrated this thoroughly in my life without understanding almost any of its underlying components.

And to think, in many regards, we're years behind in the US with respect to mobile tech, especially the infrastructure.

Anyway...

...I had wanted the iPhone. The DROID X wasn't even on my radar. In retrospect, isn't that odd? I was so enamored with Apple's products I couldn't even consider an alternative.

Until price became the barrier. An iPhone upgrade was $200, plus god-only-knows what they'll talk you into at the Verizon store.

The DROID, by comparison, was at a tiny, nondescript booth nestled in Costco. No frills. Fifty bucks to upgrade. And 100 free photo prints at Costco. Sold!

And now I don't care about the iPhone. I mean, it would be nice to have iTunes on the Android, but its not a dealbreaker. Sure, tell me about resolution differences or camera ephemera. For everyday snaps, it's a huge step above the EnV Touch. I'll never go back.