As a Phone

First of all the Droid X is a cell phone, and it needs to be treated as such.  I found the voice quality to be VERY good.  I heard the other end very crisp and clear, most likely from the help of the noise cancellation microphone on top of the device.  The other end also said they heard me very well too.   The speaker phone can be very loud if the volume is turned up all the way, but you do start to get some cracking once it is up all the way.  The little hump where the camera is helps with the speakerphone volume by elevating the speaker just slightly off whatever you have the phone resting on.   The text messaging app was very iPhone-like having little bubbles for conversations which was a nice cosmetic touch.  For any of you who know the Android OS isn’t quite as visually appealing as the iPhone OS, but it is still very much as functional if not more so, but I’ll get more into that later on.

Data Rates

Verizon’s data speeds may not be quite as fast as AT&T’s, but you have much more 3G coverage than AT&T and I found myself constantly in 3G with almost no loss of connection whereas I was dropping connections at least 3 or 4 times a day with AT&T if even for a minute.  My downloads topped around 1500 kbps and uploads around 700 kbps which really isn’t bad at all, and is 100% acceptable for most internet browsing, standard quality video watching.

Apps

Let’s face it, the Droid X is a cell phone, but it’s almost a secondary computer.  Apps are extremely useful and transform what used to make calls and text messages into something completely different.  The Android market isn’t as big as the App Store for the iPhone, but basically any function you can find in the App Store you can find in the Android market.  I will say this, the Facebook App for the iPhone is MUCH better than it is for Android, but the contact-integration within Facebook and Android is amazing.  The Droid X comes pre-loaded with what they call the “Social Networking” App which I’ve read reviews and some people weren’t a fan and some people like it compared to the previous versions of Motorola software called Motoblur.  Personally I like it to some extent.  I like it as the widget (more on widgets later), but I don’t really use it as the actual app.  I use the app created by Facebook.  Also something to note, I didn’t test this but I did run into several other reviews about it, make sure you don’t sync your contacts with the official Facebook app AND the Motorola provided app as you will duplicate contacts, and if you’re like me that will cause huge problems.  The same thing goes with Twitter, but I use the official Twitter app exclusively, because it is an amazing app on it’s own.   Google Maps Navigation is AMAZING and there is no other way of describing it.  It has pin-point accuracy and provides a very nice view with free traffic updates, you simply can’t go wrong with free navigation.  I’ve used stock Android builds before and one thing I was really disappointed with was that I couldn’t move my Email messages to different folders, and there was no multiple message selecting.  I am very happy to report that Motorola’s version of the Email app takes care of this and you can select multiple messages and delete or move them to folders.  This was very important to me as I organize my Exchange mailbox by sender.  The music player app just works, there isn’t much more to say about it than that.  It’s not as pretty as the iPod app for the iPhone, but it works, and it works well.  I don’t want to get much into 3rd party apps, but there are a plethora of them, and most of the one’s I’ve tried have been built with quality.  There is one thing about Android that could be it’s best feature, but also it’s worst.  Android is a very open platform meaning you can chose to install anything that you want on to your device, but this also means that not everything is quality-controlled, one of my biggest gripes about the iPhone is this limitation that you can’t install what you want even if it isn’t “Apple-approved”.  This is awesome for Android that you can do this, but you have to be careful to make sure you know what you’re installing before you install it.  Say you wanted to install a 3rd party keyboard, you better know for sure that the company isn’t capturing your keystrokes.  Like I said it’s one of Android’s best and worst features.

Camera

The Droid X is fitted with an 8MP still photos shot and a 720p camcorder, that means you can actually take high definition video on your cell phone.  Cool huh?  I thought so too.  The camera takes some pretty nice shots as far as I’m concerned, no it’s not going to replace your super expensive DSLR, but it does do a pretty good job.  I have a few still shots and a few videos that I’ll post here.  Not really much more to say other than what I can show you.  I’ll show more about the actual interface in my video review.

Kitties Playing (Low Light with LED Light ON)

Random Shots outside (second video has noise cancellation on)

And Some Pictures (From Picasa)
http://picasaweb.google.com/andy.p.meyers/DroidXTest#

Now you have to bear with me, I am in no way a photographer so you’re not going to get amazing quality shots from me either way, hand me a $1000 camera and I wouldn’t know what to do with it honestly.  But these are coming from an average camera user.

Hardware

The obvious first thing you notice about this phone is that it is big, 4.3 inch LCD 480×854 resolution is pretty sweet.  I have big hands and I have no issue using it.  Someone with smaller hands might be a little different though.  For it’s size it feels amazingly light, though raw specs don’t say so it actually feels lighter than the iPhone to me, but I have a feeling it’s because of its weight distribution.  It has a slight hump on the top of the phone where the camera is which gives it a very nice hold.  It’s got 8 hardware buttons: the power button on the top, volume rocker (volume up/down) and camera button on the right, and on the front-bottom of the phone it has the Android buttons in order from left to right: menu, home, back, and search.  It has three input/output ports, a micro USB port for charging/transferring files, a mini HDMI port which I haven’t had the privilege to use yet (both on the left of the device), and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the device which actually doubles as a FM radio antenna with headphones plugged in, and this actually worked very well!  The phone has 3 microphones, the standard one on the bottom of the phone for talking and narrative mode for shooting videos, a mic on the top for noise cancellation (which worked very well for both call quality and eliminating wind noise in video), and one on the back for shooting video.  Two speakers the standard call speaker, and a speaker on the back for playing whatever you want/speaker phone.  The phone has a 1GHZ TI OMAP processor which I’ve actually found to be speedier than the 1GHZ Snapdragon found in a bunch of the HTC phones, and 512MB of RAM on board (which could help with that speediness).

Overall

I’m very happy with this phone, and I’m very happy with Verizon’s network.  It’s not perfect, nor is any phone.   Android in general is much less polished that iOS, but it’s functionality is there and above.  The battery life isn’t spectacular, but I wasn’t expecting it to be.  I have several widgets running and I still manage to squeeze out a full day which really isn’t that bad when I think about it.  They’re supposed to release an extended battery later this year, and I may consider getting that.  The overall fluidness and speed of the phone is pretty amazing, definitely no complaints there, and I can’t wait to see what Android 2.2 Froyo will bring to the mix considering it’s MUCH faster than 2.1.    Hopefully within the week I’ll be posting a video review that way you can actually see the phone in action.  I may throw some updates into the mix here and will definitely let you know via Facebook/Twitter if I do so!

Since I’m on the topic of Development both platforms have their advantages and disadvantages.  One of the things that I really don’t like about the iPhone development environment is that it’s limited to just Mac OS X (and on top of that Mac OS X 10.6).  For me that sucks, because, yes I do have a Mac, but it’s a few years old.   I can get a new Mac (would probably get a Mac Mini) but that’s $700 already and it’s low-end hardware even close to my existing Macbook.  Also it’s just preference, but I’m not a fan of Objective-C.  I would much have rather had to learn a language that I can use across multiple platforms such as C++ or Java.  That being said about Java (which is what Android development uses) the Objective-C compiled code is always going to run faster since it’s not needed to be compiled into machine code at run time.  I am a huge fan of the interface builder on the iOS development platform which makes creating the look and feel of your Apps very easy.

Anyways I may update this more later, but for now that’s my initial thoughts about Android and iOS.

First of all I still absolutely love the car.  I don’t regret buying it even the tiniest bit.  Which is quite an accomplishment because I almost always have a little regret after buying something…even lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.  For the price I got the car it’s definitely more than what I paid for which is always a good feeling.  Obviously if I had more money I probably would’ve upgraded it bit more, but like I said for what I’m paying I’m extremely happy with it.

Now that I’ve had a chance to actually play with the bluetooth system, it’s amazing.  It’s so easy to dial numbers, pick up, and hang up calls truly hands free.  The only slight downside is that you have to add each entry into the phone book, you can’t transfer the existing phone book.  It’s kind of like the non-power seats…it’s not really a huge issue since I don’t talk to many people on the phone so I added only a few entries.  The only gripe I have about the stereo system is the iPod interface.  It’s just a mini-jack (headphone) cord, so you can’t control which song you’re on from the actual head unit…it has to be controlled from the iPod or in my case my phone.  So I resorted to an old school method of using CDs which is okay because I have a 6-CD changer anyways.   Also I can fit about 100 songs per CD if burned correctly and the car reads them no problem!  The best thing about burning CDs as MP3s instead of a traditional CD is that you can actually see the track name on the head unit.  Also I’d rather be able to change the songs from the head unit since the steering wheel is equipped with the stereo controls.

As far as actually driving goes…still a really fun drive whether or not I’m trying to consume gas or see what it can do.  It handles amazingly and can dodge things on the road with ease (I’ve dodged a few potholes that I didn’t see until the last minute).  It has little low-end power but once you hit that mid-range it almost feel like a turbo kicks in without there actually being once there which is a pretty cool feeling in itself.

All in all I’m still overwhelmed with excitement for this car.  I’ve thought about a few minor/cheap upgrades such as a new shift knob to give it a slightly edgier look inside, but it’s not really necessary.

So as I’m sure most of you have heard probably from Facebook, I did finally get a new car! I got a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer ES Sport. I must say I absolutely LOVE the car so far. I’ve only had it for a few days, but it is definitely meeting and exceeding my expectations. As far as the actual car goes it’s got the sports package which included some cosmetic sportier looks on the outside including fog lamps, rear wing spoiler, chrome exhaust tip, and some other sexy looking features. I also decided to get the “Sun & Sound” Package which included a sunroof (pretty obviously) and a premium sound system which is really cool! It also included their “fast-key” system which I’m not quite sure why is part of the sun and sound package, but it’s really cool nonetheless. It basically is a keyless entry/ignition system and it unlocks the doors as long as key is within the vicinity of the car…I did notice that it does have to be VERY close so there really isn’t any issues with stealing etc. The keyless system also allows you to start the car without a key using the same concept as the unlocking doors. The one thing I did notice that the car didn’t do that would’ve been nice is if you leave the car running and leave to go into the convenience store or whatever with the keys in your pocket the engine doesn’t automatically kill itself. It’s not really any different than leaving any other car running and running into the store…someone can just as easily steal it, but it is nice because if they kill the engine they can’t start it up again. It would have been nice if the engine did kill itself.

Alright, lets talk about the actual drive now! First of all the car is a 5-speed manual and if you’re asking me why would I get a manual, the answer is simple, I just prefer to drive manuals over automatics. I have nothing against driving automatics just what I prefer. But the first time I got into the car the first thing you notice is that it’s actually pretty damn roomy for a smaller car. And I’m a pretty tall guy 6’4-6’5 and I thought I had more than enough room. The car started up beautifully and sounded pretty sexy while doing so. I changed my mirrors and moved my seat back (which weren’t power by the way, I thought it was strange but honestly I could care less since I’m really going to be the only one driving it, and adjusting it back to my level is easy just push it all the way back). I shifted the car into first and was on my way. The drive was amazing. The clutch was basically like butter but enough force back to allow for quick shifting and acceleration. I can’t say that I timed the 0-60 time by any means, but it did seem pretty quick for a 4-cylinder engine. I think Mitsubishi really did something amazing with their MIVEC design. Something that was pretty cool that I’ve never had before were the audio system’s controls on the steering wheel. Something minor, but definitely cool to have. The only criticism I have on that is when you’re using the “change channel” buttons it switches between the radio stations and not your presets. I have to look at the manual but that would be very nice. Considering I don’t want to go from 99 to 104 with every decimal between just to switch radio stations, or even worse on the satellite system switching between those where there could be 40 or 50 between the stations I want. Now lets talk fuel economy, since it seems what everyone is talking about these days. It varies greatly depending on what kind of driving you’re doing. If I’m driving aggressively it’s obviously going to be much lower that if I’m driving “normal”. But either way when I’m driving aggressively(without flooring the engine) I’m looking around 23-25 on the streets and about 31 if I’m driving normally. The really impressive mileage comes out on the highway. With normal non-stop and go traffic I was getting around 39 @ 70 MPH and even more impressive 42 @ 60 MPH without cruise control and the AC was on. So honestly the Lancer seems to be an all-in-one in my book. It’s got the really sporty feel and it can be used pretty powerfully though only at 148 HP, but can be used very economically if driven right. There are a few criticisms that I noticed but none of them are big enough to actually make an impact on me….the first being the power seats, the second being no lights in the fold down visor’s mirrors. And the last being “automatic” lights. The car actually has daylight running lights so the lights are technically automatic at night, but the taillights don’t automatically turn on. Slight annoyance but nothing to cry over. So in my book I would give the Lancer a 9/10 for what I’m looking for. Obviously some other things would have been nice such as the Ralliart trim with the turbo in it, but something that isn’t worth $10k extra.

Alright, finally lets talk about actually obtaining the car from the dealership. About a week before I actually bought the car I went in with my buddy John to look at what they have. Basically when I told them I wanted a Lancer ES Sport with a 5-Speed Manual Transmission they said they didn’t have anywhere because they were so hot. The reason the manuals were flying off the shelves and the automatics weren’t is because the Manuals qualified for the “cash for clunkers” program and the automatics didn’t by the order of 2 MPG or something like that. It was slightly annoying for me because that’s not why I wanted the manual at all. But this is where South Suburban Mitsubishi earned my business and my recommendations. They went above and beyond to find me exactly what I was looking for. It took them a while to find one and actually get it here, but I knew what I wanted and wasn’t going to back down simply because it was hard to find. But they did it, they eventually located one near Indianapolis and drove it on up here and did a dealer trade. It was actually a pretty amusing story of how they got it since none of the other dealers would trade them since they were so popular. Apparently the normal manager at the other store didn’t want to get rid of it, but they called on his day off and talked to a rookie manager and were able to get the car, and the normal manager was pretty pissed the next day when they found out the car wasn’t there anymore. Anyways it worked out for me and I was able to get exactly what I wanted. So they get it in on Wednesday night and they had to clean it up and everything which worked out for me because it gave me time to go to the DMV and get my Illinois driver’s license since I still had my Arizona one. So Friday rolls along and I go into work early so I can get my IL driver’s license that morning. I get out of work early and so does my mom and we head on over to the dealership. They were contacting the banks all afternoon trying to get us a good rate, but it wasn’t looking very good. My credit was completely shot. This was one of the reasons I REALLY wanted to be on the loan because I knew that it would really help build my credit back up. So we finally got an offer from the bank, but it was WAY higher that I was willing to pay and they went back to work. The GM of the dealership had to call in a favor to the bank and get us a lower rate. They were able to lower it significantly…I don’t know how much they actually lowered the rate or if they lowered the price of the actual car, but I got the payments down to a reasonable price in the neighborhood I was looking for. It was slightly more than I had originally anticipated, but it was okay. I could have gotten it lower if I wanted to take myself off the loan, but it was the very last option that I wanted. So I went with the price and I had actually planned for a bit more in my budget so it was all good. I would definitely recommend South Suburban Mitsubishi in Monee IL to anyone looking for a new car. They went above and beyond for me.

So anyways that concludes my first impressions on my new Lancer. I absolutely love the car and am looking forward to driving it everyday, though I’m not looking forward to paying for it. I hope you enjoyed reading about it!

Quick lesson for all of you who know nothing about computers: The PCI Bus is split into two sections a smaller section and a larger section. The smaller section is towards the front of the computer and the larger section is towards the back of the computer.

So anyways he grabs the PCI card and goes to put it in, only the two sections are inverted. Whoops. Manufacturing Fail. =)

I’m starting to look at different possibilities now that so much more has opened up to me. I’m pretty set on wanting to visit Italy while I’m in Europe so that may be my first destination. I’m not 100% sure where I would fly in to though…maybe fly into Rome and make my way north through the country. The other place I could fly into would be Milan, but then I’m missing a good portion of Italy by cutting a few hours of travel time. I’m also thinking about stopping in Germany to visit a friend that I met back in Arizona to catch up, not only to visit him, but I would like to visit Germany as well so it’s kind of a win-win situation.

Another interesting thing I found out today is how cheap airfare is from country to country. So this also got me excited because it opens up even more possibilities for myself. Obviously airfare varies quite a bit but just from a quick glance and only from one website without any real research I found a trip from Germany to Ireland to be only $120. So that could be another destination to add to my list. I gotta tell ya I’m getting pretty excited just from the research of this trip, and from watching my buddy at VirtualWayfarer.com‘s videos.

On a lower note, saving up the money for this trip is proving to be harder than I thought with my various different bills and my student loan payments have started this month. The student loan payments take up almost a quarter of my monthly pay and that’s without the other bills I have to pay. It doesn’t help that my car is in desperate need of repairs so trying to put money away while fixing my car isn’t easy. But nevertheless, I’m still managing it.

Anyways I just wanted to give a little update on my future plans. As always comments and criticisms are always welcome.

Some minor updates on my trip to Europe. I’m still hoping to do this next year but I may have to push it back a few months due to some issues with my car. It seems to be getting in worse shape every day and I’m still so conflicted in whether or not it’s worth fixing or to just get a new car. But I’m still going to strive for next year probably fall.

But as far as the actual trip is concerned a friend of mine directed to me the Eurail website which they have some really cool deals called “Regional Passes” which is basically rail travel within and between one or two countries. The price seems pretty reasonable at around $200-$300 for a two week period. And one of the regions that they have is Italy-Greece which could influence my decision on where I want to go. But I still have a ton of time to make that decision but at least now I have different ideas in my head which is always a good idea.

Anyways just a small update just wanted to try and keep myself going with writing my thoughts down about this trip seeing as how excited I am about it. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Personally I’ve never been out of the United States…ever. Not even to Mexico or Canada, so I’m really excited to start planning this trip. I know it’s WAY in advance considering I won’t be traveling until next year, but I think the more prepared I am for it, the less shock it will be a month before the trip. For now it’s pretty much getting mentally prepared of being on my own for a couple of weeks thousands of miles from home. My first concern for now is money which is probably the first thing anyone thinks about when taking a long trip anywhere. I’m not too worried about it as I plan to start saving now putting away $200 from each of my paychecks and I should have my goal of $4000 put away within 10 months. While I don’t plan on spending $4000 by any means I do want to have a surplus just in case. It’s always better to have more money than not enough. My plan with that is to have ~$2500-$3000 in my checking account as I will be primarily using a debit card not a credit card and leave the rest in my savings and let someone back stateside be able to transfer the money if need be. Not sure how much safer that is but it sounded good in my head.

My buddy Alex has written up a fantastic site that pretty much goes very in depth of what to expect, what to pack, and what to do in certain situations while traveling. The site is Ultimatepackinglist.com. I give major kudos to Alex on this one since I’m going to be basing most of my research from this site and the external resources it provides.

So why do I want to take this trip? Simple answer: because I never have. But that’s just the simple answer. As long as I can remember from social studies classes, history classes, and from the three years I took in French is that people are different. Learning about other people and cultures has always fascinated to me in some way shape or form. After all America only occupies ~5% of the world meaning there is so much to learn out there. You can only learn so much from textbooks and teachers. I honestly believe there is so much out in the world to discover and this trip I’m planning next year is just the beginning.

As far as where I want to go? I haven’t really decided on that yet. There are 4 main countries I would really like to visit in my lifetime. The United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, and Greece. Obviously those are just the ones I REALLY want to visit and of course I want to visit more but they are on the top of my list before I die. As far as this trip is concerned I would like to visit one of the four and possibly another (on the list or not, it doesn’t really matter just as long as I have a great time). So I would love to hear anybody’s experiences from anywhere in Europe to help make my own decision. Just as a guideline maybe I’ll pick something completly different. That’s the nice thing about starting to plan now…I have plenty of time to make the decision which I gotta say will probably not be easy.

Well thanks and I hope to hear from you all soon!
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