HeadHardHat Has A New Toy - Geekness Warning

HHH Gets His GEEK button pushed.

If you read my geocaching based posts or watch our GeoSnippits videos you will many times see me holding a BlackBerry Curve 8310 smartphone. I have used and abused that phone for over two years now. For me it was the center of my electronic life. Not only only could I use Geocache Navigator for some very accurate and real time geocaching but most of my Social Networking was used with it as well. Sure there were drawbacks like having to pull the battery out of the phone every few days otherwise it would lock up. That sort of thing. All in all it kept me electronically "connected" with the world. That was then this is now.

I have been watching the greener pastures of Iphones and Droids for quite a while now. Waiting for the opportunity to get just the right combination of camera, Internet, GPS and hyper-drive capabilities. Then with the sound of knocking rattling my brain I was able to get an HTC Incredible Android Smartphone. For Free to boot. My original contract had expired a while ago so I was able to get the phone on a special rate provided by a rather popular electronics store. Sweet!

This is where the geekiness goes into overdrive. I have been a geek since Pong. I have been there when Atari was king and an 8088 computer had a 10 Mhz turbo mode. I hooked up my stereo directly into my computer system before there was something known a sound card. Watched every advance in PC computer gaming since the original joystick. Spent up to $5000 on one once to have the ultimate gaming system. My daughter calls it our junk computer now. Anyhow I have not had my geek button pushed like with this new phone since the days back the gaming world was finding it's niche.

Seen above with a gel cover just like HHH's

This incredible Incredible gave me my first WOW factor right about the time I turned it on. I unlocked the screen with the swipe of my finger and it was like watching the opening of a stage play. It illuminated, immediately told me the time and weather and behind the partly cloudy sun a drape of background clouds parted reveling the actual wallpaper scene behind them. Wow.

Comparatively speaking, this phone is a rocket against the BlackBerry's old grey mare. The phone's build in features are amazing. 8 Gig of initial memory, 1Ghz processor, 8 Mp camera, oh and don't forget the hyper-drive.

Then there are the apps, TONS of apps, mountains of apps with a boat load that come already with the phone. Go to the Android or Google store and you have a choice of over 100,000 apps at your disposal. I spent three days going through just what I wanted to start with and all except two were FREE. I paid $4.00US for the two I purchased and yes they were games. With all the built in memory it is going to take me some time to fill up this puppy. Even when I do a 16 or 32 gig SD card will set things right. So cool.

WiFi is a life saver for me. I personally live in an area that has poor phone reception. It is in a low area and no matter what carrier I get a bar at best. So when I turned on my wireless WiFi functionality I now can stream video or download files in a flash by bypassing the phone connection and load things right off my router. That opened everything for me with using my phone.

Geocaching apps were definitely on my list as well. The second everyone heard that I now have an Android I was flooded with requests to do reviews on the available geocaching apps. I have C:Geo loaded already and all I can say is WOW. I will be doing a review on it and all the rest A.S.A.P., keep watch on my blog and most likely GeoSnippits videos as well.

So what can I say, I am so hooked on the Incredible. Right down to the Star Trek Tricorder app I am currently playing with to the amazing video quality to the ability to lock the front for a much needed lack of butt dialing. The one draw back that I do need to mention is that currently my carrier does not allow free tethering to my netbook. Not without a rather substantial fee. This is no longer a big deal due to all the things I can already do with my phone but it is my hope that down the line that tethering once again becomes a free service. Oh well you can't have everything.

If you are wondering if getting a smartphone is right for you all I can say is do your research for what is right for you. Be it a BlackBerry, Iphone or Droid. Know what you want and after you make your choice hold on to your potatoes because it is one heck of a fun geeky ride.

-HHH

* Hyper-drive not really included - yet.

GeoCache: I'm NOT Obsessed... Right?
http://headhardhat-geocache.blogspot.com/
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