Last semester, as many of you know, I worked on a service design project for Motorola. Through the semester I was able to play with a Motorola Q, a fine little UMPC (or Ultra Mobile PC). I liked the Q, mostly... some of the parts felt a bit cheap and it ran a mobile version of Windows... so I had a few complaints, but overall, I liked it.
My professor, Shelley, has a Blackberry Pearl that she absolutely loves. She is a phone geek, with more than 20 years in the world of interaction design (before the name), so when she gives the rare bit of praise for a bit of technology... we listen.
Obviously, we all got dopey when we saw the iPhone presentations. You've seen them - who doesn't want one?
Finally there is the ultra cool Prada phone. In many ways it is much like the iPhone (hardware), but unlike the colourful iPhone icons, the Prada interface uses drastically simplified icons in black and white. I love the look of this phone. One of the Motorola guys had one, and I took a peek at it... it is worthy of love. Sadly, the $750+ price tag (not including the service and data plan) makes it impossible to ever take home.
After the semester ended I was left loving four phones, two (Moto Q / Prada) weren't available on Cingular, and the other two (Pearl and iPhone) involved a fair chunk of change and an upgrade in our service plan. Ow.
On the 4th, we found ourselves in an Apple store. As soon as I held the iPhone I knew how it worked. It was crazy. Everything made sense. I don't often buy into Apple fan-boy hype, and up until that point I had serious doubts about the iPhone living up to the hype, but now... now I can say that it does indeed deserve the praise.
Katie, being the kind soul that she is... tried to buy it for me then and there.
I held out.
That night I spent some time looking at reviews, and comparing plans and trying to determine how much of a difference it would make to get a Pearl (and the plan) or an iPhone (and the plan). In the end I figured that after the combined costs, the difference between the Pearl and the iPhone was about $50.
Today we went back to the Apple store...
and today we left with a little black box.
It is worth it.
5 comments:
ahahaha..... that is awesome.
you'll be the coolest guy on the block.
"cool"... i'm not so sure. i'm not the kind of guy who likes to show his toys to a group a strangers... i prefer to sit and geek out alone. That said, if you haven't played with one... you should... it is rather impressive. So far I have no complaints... and plenty to praise.
Speaking of phones... I know you were shopping around... You settle on one yet? Moto give you a discount? Maybe one of those open source treats... or an unlocked Ming?
Eheh, I know man, I was just playing around.
I tried it at the apple store and I definitely concur on the neatness and fluidity. It's the nicest phone I've used. The price tag is the only thing stopping me at this point.
Still deciding on a Moto phone, if I end up using the paltry discount I get. The Ming definitely seems enticing.
Otherwise, this phone looks interesting: http://www.openmoko.com/index.html
yes, the moko is awesome... But will it jive with any carrier you choose? If so, I'd love to play with it.
Dude, congrats on the purchase. How many hacks have you got planned for the new toy?
I still remember the old CSS 1 and 2 ditionaries on your iPod. Ahh, memories.
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