19 Jan 11 [A] robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human

This is Wikipedia’s definition of an android. Well, a few years ago, Google’s search results for this term would have more or less looked like this. Times have changed. Today, most (tech-savvy) people associate this term primarily with the operating system. Finally, I have made the step from the Dark Side™ (iPhone) to the not-so-dark side. Not that I have been particularly dissatisfied with the iPhone, I really like it and it has served me well for the past two years, I just felt it was time for something new. What were the options? IPhone 4 would have been a save haven for sure. Blackberry? No way. Fine for business (I use one there) but not for trying the hardware to the edge. Symbian? Could be nice but I have not really considered it. Windows Phone? Well, I think that Microsoft and Windows have made huge steps in the past years, chasing the market where they have fallen behind. However, I do not think this OS really fits mobile devices. So for me it was Android. It has been in the market for a decent time now, the number of apps is overwhelming and I really like the quite-open concept (no need for a PC software to sync, direct access to the SD card, alternative markets, the ability to plug in alternative apps for core functions etc.)

The question was which phone to by. I fancied the Nexus S which is planned to be shipped to Germany in spring but my final choice was a not so high-end (and not so expensive) alternative, the Motorola Defy. It is a decent smartphone with all of the normal features but it has one asset rarely found in the market: Its case is IP67 protected which stands for dust tight and waterproof up (or rather down) to a depth of 1m for at least 30 minutes. I have had plain phones with similar features in the past (e.g. the Siemens ME45) but this is my first such smartphone.

The initial setup was straightforward: unpack it, charge it, insert SIM, power on and off you go. The phone came with a couple of apps preinstalled and the good integration of online services (like Google) made it very easy to fill the calendar, the contacts and such. Well, this is a solid basis but in the end, a smartphone is nothing without a handcrafted selection of fine apps, tailored to the needs of its owner. So I launched the Marketplace, selected my first apps and clicked “install”. As slick as the first part of the setup went, as disappointed I was at this moment. The status said “Starting download” and the progress bar stayed at…0%. I do not want to elaborate the entire story of troubleshooting but in brief, among it were the following steps: Troubleshot Wifi and 3G connections, activated Google Checkout account, started and restarted Google Talk, upgraded Marketplace and retried the apps’ installation. I even performed a factory reset (which was safe as all the data was synced with online services), all to no avail. The crucial hint came from a discussion in a Marketplace support forum: Finally, I logged into the Youtube App with my Google account and voilà, the downloads started automagically. No idea why (and why not in the first place), maybe I’ll find out in the future. I have to say that only my childlike curiosity made me to try for so long, this is certainly nothing Motorola/Google/Telekom can expect from their customers.

Apart from this incident, I have a really good impression so far. The phone runs fast and stable (wonder for how long) and it really has many, many options to modify. This makes it sometimes tricky to keep track but I asked for it. On the other hand, this gives me some flexibility the iPhone lacked (like disabling the vibrator for the alarm clock but keeping it on for phone calls). Let’s see what the first weeks with the new one will show.