My upgrade from Blackberry to Android – Awesome!

Six weeks ago I made the change from a Blackberry phone to Android. I was excited to try the new technology but have to admit the first week I had “Blackberry withdrawal” while I was overwhelmed with the Android. I was a Blackberry user for almost 10 years!

Now many weeks later I can say it’s one of the best technology upgrades I’ve every made!

I’ve been holding out and waiting for a couple of years for an iPhone but I live in an area where AT&T service is not the best. So two years ago Blackberry was the only “Smart Phone” choice and I remember writing about how amazing the Gmail integration worked with the Blackberry, the Facebook and Twitter apps were great and I was able to sync all my Google contacts and calendar with my Blackberry.

So in summary my Blackberry was my phone, texting device, Gmail, Calendar, Contacts and Facebook. There was also weather and a few other apps but Internet access and apps was ok….  limited and frustrating at times.

Now with the new Android phone, I really don’t have a “phone that has Internet access” (Blackberry) I now have a “pocket computer that makes phone calls” (Android).

My first few days with the Android was filled with downloading different apps and realizing there is a memory limit with the hardware. My current version of Android stores all the apps and cache data on the phone rather than the add-on memory card. The phone came with an 8GB memory card to hold music, photos, video etc.. but it doesn’t hold the apps! I’m told by my provider that the Android update will be coming soon and then apps/cache/data can be stored on the external memory card.

Battery life was terrible at first and really frustrated me. After so many years of charging once a day and having nothing to worry about, now I found myself charging my phone in the middle of the day. I took the phone back to confirm there weren’t problems and they explained and I agree I now use the phone more like a computer. I was spending more time using the Android phone for checking email, Facebook and many new online applications. This explained why the battery was run down so quickly every day.

Once I got over the newness off the phone AND I found a great app called JuiceDefender, I was able to keep the battery charge almost all day. One of the problems with many Android apps is they check for updates every minute! So the phone is basically running in the background checking email, GPS, social networks, weather and many more every minute! Juice Defender allows you to change this so I now have my phone checking for updates every 30 minutes as I’m using my computer most of every day I get most of my updates there.

I’ve also replaced my iTouch with my new Android. I was able to either find a similar app or the Android version of the same apps I use on the iTouch. I was also happy to see the Android phone has WiFi so when I’m in a hot spot my phone uses the WiFi network and not my data plan.

I haven’t mentioned yet but I choose the HTC Desire for my phone. It’s a nice sleek phone with a great screen but the point of this article isn’t the phone, it’s the fact it’s an “Android” operating system on the phones. Google has done a great job offering a smart phone operating system that is used by ALL the major phone manufacturers. Off the top of my head you can get Android on HTC, Motorola, Samsung and others.

Because of the “open platform” of Android, it’s become the fastest growing smart phone “OS” and is now outselling the iPhone. Apple makes a great product and they continue to be the leader in the smart phone market BUT you can only get iPhone operating system on an iPhone and currently only at AT&T. 2011 is the year you’ll be able to get the iPhone on the Verizon network but will it be very popular or has the market swung over to the Andorid phones?

Have you made the change from Blackberry to Android? Do you think the iPhone being offered on more phone networks will help them maintain the lead or is it too late?

If you have a comment, leave it below!

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