Things That Make My Life Easier

T-Mobile G1

No, it's not the "Google Phone." It's the first phone to run Google's Android operating system for phones. Google doesn't make phones, it makes software.

Although I've never been much of a person for "smart phones," I realized that I needed one. I don't like phones. I hate talking on them and I hate when they ring. They are the mother of all distractions, and when I'm talking on them, I feel anxious because there is so much else in my environment drawing me away from the phone conversation. However, I needed a personal organizer. I've had personal organizers in the past and I could never manage to keep them with me everywhere. I'd write things down in them and the minute I'd get home and sit them down I'd never see them again. I had a Palm PDA and I could rarely find it. But now, I am in the ritual of patting myself down every morning to ensure that I have each of four things before I walk out the door: my keys, my wallet, my badge, my phone. Now that phones and PDAs have merged, I'm able to keep up with my organizer without much cognitive distress.

So, why did I go with the G1 as opposed to the iPhone or the Blackberry Storm? Well, I'm a geek. No seriously, I research ad nauseum before I buy a gadget. I've come to hate Apple because of the fact that it's a closed platform and every product they make seems geared toward allowing them to more easily suck money out of you. Don't get me wrong, the iPhone itself is vastly superior to the G1 when it comes to the actual device, but Google's Android platform leaves endless possibilities for the future. With the iPhone off the table, I decided to look at the Blackberry Storm, which would be a natural since I already had Verizon and was still under contract for another 10 months. The Storm is a nice try by Blackberry to keep up in an area where they've begun to fall behind, but the interface still leaves a lot to be desired and the platform won't attract as many developers as Android and Apple. In lamen's terms, that means fewer cool apps to make it worthwhile.

The real benefit of Android is that my entire life is on Google, from this blog (yes, Blogger is Google) to my mail, reading lists, notes to myself (Google Docs). Basically, Google is a supplement to the deficiencies of my brain. It essentially is my memory. So, having something that I take with me everywhere that integrates so well into all of Google's other products is truly a godsend.

Lost train of thought...