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Post by billhammond on Nov 6, 2009 15:13:14 GMT -5
Motorola’s new smart phone, Droid, debuted today on the Verizon network. While many want to compare how it stacks up against the iPhone, does it really matter? After all, you can use the Droid only if you are a Verizon customer and the iPhone only if you’re with AT&T. The coolest gee-whiz feature of the Droid is its voice-prompted turn-by-turn GPS navigation, part of Google’s Android 2.0 operating system. Unlike the iPhone, the Droid can run multiple apps at the same time. So, for instance, you could cue up Internet radio and then work on other things while the music streams in the background. The Droid launched with 10,000 apps, about a tenth of what’s out for the iPhone. The Droid includes a 5-megapixel camera, and it has a slide-out keyboard for those who don’t care for the touch-screen interface. Like the iPhone, the Droid costs $200 with a two-year contract. The website Bill Shrink estimates that a Droid user on Verizon’s average plan will spend $2,839 for the two-year contract, the same as an iPhone user on the average AT&T plan. If that’s your measure, the Palm Pre on Sprint or the MyTouch on T-Mobile should be your choice, because they each cost $2,309 over two years, according to the website.
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Post by Supertramp78 on Nov 6, 2009 15:22:42 GMT -5
For $200 I can buy a Garmin or TomTom and get voice turn by turn navigation and map updates that don't require constant data downloads that I have to pay extra for. Not only could I do this, I already did. Cameron has one and Kelly and I share one. They are great and nobody should ever head off somewhere on the roads without one. But I can't see spending over $2,000 a year in data and access charges for that.
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Nov 6, 2009 16:07:41 GMT -5
In this economy, I need to find my way to work and then back home. I think I've got that memorized. I can't afford to go anywhere else.
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Post by knobtwister on Nov 6, 2009 16:21:23 GMT -5
For $200 I can buy a Garmin or TomTom and get voice turn by turn navigation and map updates that don't require constant data downloads that I have to pay extra for. Not only could I do this, I already did. Cameron has one and Kelly and I share one. They are great and nobody should ever head off somewhere on the roads without one. But I can't see spending over $2,000 a year in data and access charges for that. Can the either of these get updates on closed roads etc? Locally lot's of folks are GPSing their way up I-40 toward Tennessee without knowing the road is blocked for the next 3 months because of a serious rock slide. Nothing like a 40 mile deadend trip. Don Don |
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Post by Marshall on Nov 6, 2009 16:34:50 GMT -5
The $2k + figure is for 2 years.
I held off a long time waiting for the G-phone. But a year ago I gave up when nothing seemed to be coming and got an i-phone. It's a wonderful little device.
And a year later, the g-phone (Droid) still doesn't do anything appreciably more than I have on the i-phone.
And the whole idea behind the g-phone was it was and operating system (android) that would be portable to many phones and many manufacturers and many service providers. SO far that's a big fizzle in my book. Instead of leapfrogging the competition, it's scrambling to play catch-up
Besides, how much multi-tasking do I need on a phone while I'm driving my car, drinking coffee, and listening to the radio? Huh ? I've only got 2 hands and a knee to work with.
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Post by Supertramp78 on Nov 6, 2009 16:36:47 GMT -5
For $200 I can buy a Garmin or TomTom and get voice turn by turn navigation and map updates that don't require constant data downloads that I have to pay extra for. Not only could I do this, I already did. Cameron has one and Kelly and I share one. They are great and nobody should ever head off somewhere on the roads without one. But I can't see spending over $2,000 a year in data and access charges for that. Can the either of these get updates on closed roads etc? Locally lot's of folks are GPSing their way up I-40 toward Tennessee without knowing the road is blocked for the next 3 months because of a serious rock slide. Nothing like a 40 mile deadend trip. Don Don Both will but it requires a subscription service for traffic updates. Those monitor national traffic services and route you around accidents, traffic jams and road outages. Or if you know the road is blocked you can manually say "i don't want to use that road, figure some other way to get there". |
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Post by Fingerplucked on Nov 6, 2009 16:53:29 GMT -5
I bought the traffic updates accessory for my Magellan GPS. I love the GPS unit. The traffic update thing is a POS. It's slow, and no better, probably worse than the traffic updates you get on the radio.
I keep wondering why the thing doesn't work better. They're using satellites in the sky, and there are a bunch of Magellan GPS units on the ground. Can't they tell that all the other Magellan-equipped cars are moving 2 mph on a 55 mph road? Can't they tell me that I'm about to be as f#cked as all their other customers who weren't warned about the road?
Or if I get stuck in construction traffic on Tuesday, just like I did on Monday, why doesn't my GPS have some kind of button I can press to relay the info back to Magellan? Why can't I tell them to quit telling me that I should be on the POS road that won't be clear for months?
I use my GPS whenever I'm going somewhere unfamiliar. But those traffic update thingies have a long way to go.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,921 
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Post by Dub on Nov 6, 2009 16:53:37 GMT -5
I'm a Verizon customer and have been wondering how this phone would shape up. And I'm already a user of VZ Navigator, Verizon's destination guide. They've never charged me for updates even when I was just using VZ Navigator a few isolated days a year. And VZ Navigator knows about accidents and tie-ups on your route and takes you around them saving loads of time. VZ Navigator also lets you ask, verbally if you choose, where the nearest landmarks, restaurants, businesses, etc. are located and guides you there. I don't use VZ Navigator a lot but when I'm in unfamiliar and complex territory it's very nice to have. The Droid phone is based on Google's Android open-source operating system. Android is expected to dominate the mobile phone market in just a few years so it will be coming to a provider near you. - Dub |
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Post by Fingerplucked on Nov 6, 2009 16:59:57 GMT -5
The Droid phone is based on Google's Android open-source operating system. Android is expected to dominate the mobile phone market in just a few years so it will be coming to a provider near you. At $1400 a year, it can come as close as it wants to, I won't be buying. |
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Post by Supertramp78 on Nov 6, 2009 17:01:08 GMT -5
When Kelly and I went to California for my Nephew's wedding we took the TomTom. Before I left I loaded in the addresses of the hotel, airport, church, rehearsal dinner location and reception location. During the time we had off we used it to find local 7-Eleven stores to get Diet Cokes. One of the things I noticed was it would change the route it used based on the time of day. The routes are based on historical traffic patterns and in southern california, at 5:00 in the afternoon on a Friday, you pretty much know which roads to avoid. Well you would if you were a local or the TomTom. So in the afternoon go to point A we went one way but at rush hour coming back it went a different way. Also if you ask it to plan a route for teh future it asks when you will be driving. Again. the time of day you pick determines how it sends you. Oh, and it was never wrong as far as knowing where everything was. It got us to within eyeshot of everything we were looking for.
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Post by Fingerplucked on Nov 6, 2009 17:05:39 GMT -5
Sounds like a TomTom would've been the way to go.
Have you tried it around home? That's how I tested mine, because it's hard to determine what it's doing to you when you're in strange territory. But around home on my daily commute, I know which roads to avoid and where the shortcuts are. I wanted my Magellan to be at least as good as I am. But it just wants me to sit in traffic on major roads.
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