GregHowley.com

Perhaps I gush a bit too much here about my new phone, but it's one of my favorite things about living in the future.

1. Uploading pics and movies - For years I've taken lots of pics with my cell phone. I've taken even more since Lia was born three and a half years ago. But I could never do much with them. When we were in Colorado, I'd sometimes mms the pictures to family who were half a country away, but mostly they'd just sit on my cell phone. Now, I can upload those pictures to Facebook or Lia's Wordpress site straight from the phone. And I can take videos and upload them directly to YouTube. Because of this, I take a lot more pictures and videos.
2. Games - Not long ago, my DS broke, and with it my heart. I loved portable gaming, and the ds is arguably the bestest handheld gaming device evar. Good thing I've got the Android phone. My first favorite games were games like Trap! and Air Control, which are both great games. But now I play Bongo Blast and Gem Miner: Dig Deeper. I haven't done much with the emulators recently, largely due to poor translation from touchscreen controls to the original platforms' native controls. But I'm always on the lookout for another good Android game.
3. Couch Surfing - Last night, Linda and I were watching an episode of The Event, and I used the IMDB app to look up a couple actors. Oh! That's where I know that guy from! The night before that, I was using the GameFAQs app to find a Joker trophy I'd missed in Batman: Arkham Asylum. And I frequently use the Flixster app to adjust my Netflix queue. I know that a lot of people use laptops for this sort of thing, but I keep my device in my pocket.
4. GTasks - I've always been one to carry around a whole bunch of little sticky notes for everything. I keep to-do lists, reminders, and phone numbers all over the place. Now that I've got GTasks on my Droid X, I can type the tasks into either my home PC, my work PC, or my phone, and I'll always have the list handy. I've got four to-do lists currently, and they show up color-coded and prioritized on my phone. I use them constantly.
5. Accessing my media server - We haven't had cable at my place in years. All the shows and movies we watch live on the media server upstairs. And I've recently daisy chained some routers and gotten a fairly complex home network going. I can't say that I understand how or why it works well - my understanding of home networking is lacking - but I love it. Now, after we've watched that episode of Fringe or House, I can pull out my phone and delete the file from the media server. Likewise, I can take a picture with my phone and move it into the photos section of the media server. Very nice. I love living in the future.
6. Internet Anywhere - Last night, when I got out of work, I was walking to my car and I started thinking: Hmm. I always hear people claiming that Batman could beat Superman in a fight. How the hell would that happen? So I sat down in my car, pulled out my phone, and googled it. It's just nice to be able to do that.
7. Watching movies - I haven't watched many movies from my phone. I watched two episodes of Chuck while I was in Sacramento recently on a business trip, and a couple TRS shorts. It's mainly just nice to be able to when I want.
8. Google Calendar - The GCal app is awesome. Now Linda and I can plan a schedule with a shared calendar. And I've got it in my phone! I'd always used my cheesy little cell phone calendar before to keep track of dates, but that was mainly because I always had the phone with me. Now, it's even better.
9. Viewing PDFs - It might not seem like much, but it's nice to always have the 4th Edition PHB and DMG on hand. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it.
10. GPS - We do have an actual GPS for the car, but Linda generally holds onto it. Having a GPS device in my pocket at all times is amazing. Last night, I tried to go to a new grocery store. I say "tried" because I thought I knew how to get there. But I didn't. I missed a turn. Enter the GPS. Oh! That's the turn I missed! Getting lost in downtown Hartford sucks. I got lost again on the way home. Love that thing.