Android smartphone coming up

Or: A review of the Nokia N73

The history of my cell phones had its preliminary end in January 2007, almost three years ago, when I got my Nokia N73, a Symbian S60 based device. I was quite satisfied with it, and it was quite robust as well. I could sync contacts, calendar and tasks with Evolution via Bluetooth and SyncML by the help of OpenSync. I regularly used the e-mail client with IMAP/TLS and SMTP/TLS. The built-in browser did its job, despite its bugs. I bought a license for the LCG Jukebox app to be able to play Ogg Vorbis files. The cell’s camera was OK, though not very fast to launch; a quick sneaky snap was almost impossible. Features that I never tried were video calls or Push-To-Talk.

After a while I used it more and more extensively for internet access. It was my morning newspaper on the train during the week and at the breakfast table on the weekends. I had to cope with websites that didn’t provide a “microbrowser” friendly http://m.whatever.com/ version. I used a dedicated app to access timetables of the local public transport system. I used the non-GPS(!) based geolocation capabilities of Google Maps. I used the IM client Fring and bought a license for the Identi.ca/Twitter/Facebook/Google Reader client Gravity. Because of the browser’s bugs I installed Opera Mini. But I had severe memory problems, I couldn’t run no two of them at once—so quite the behavior of the Crapple diePhone. Also, there was always a different and minimalistic browser launching from a text or from Gravity. A cumbersome copy & paste of a URL into the “real” browser killed Gravity. I had to fav tweets or dents to look at URLs on the PC at a later time; I could thus hardly dare to retweet them from the cell.

As it was a branded device, there were apparently never any software updates available, although it definitely had its flaws. It took me 2½ years to finally notice that I should have faked its device ID so that I could’ve updated it as if it were unbranded. But after those three years I decided that it was just too late to mess around with it, as I thought it’s time for something that comes up to my needs.

Coming up: Android

I’d never buy something from Crapple, so it’s an Android what I’ll get. In contrary to the diePhone, this software base and app market by Google is open—it runs on Linux! As hardware incarnation I want to have the Motorola Milestone, a.k.a. Droid in the US. Originally I targeted at the HTC Hero, but the Milestone has some more appealing features like a hardware keyboard, larger LCD resolution and a more masculine style. In contrary to the Droid, its LCD has multi-touch. I’ll rather use it as PDA than as a phone. I’ll welcome “apps for everything”, especially those which work online, e.g. for social nets, newsfeeds, etc. It has Wi-Fi and GPS with Google Maps Navigation (Yes, also in Europe!). Contacts and calendar are automatically available via Google’s web apps and can be used from within Gnome Evolution without syncing. It has a plain 3.5 mm audio jack and a USB connector. This gadget will cost me more than €400, but at least it won’t be branded or tied to a long-lasting contract. Let’s see where its price is at in January.

Yeah, Google is a data leech. I know. But what should I do? Buy the you-know-what instead?

Btw, this will be my second Motorola device after my StarTAC 75 from 1998.