Droid X - Loving It

 It was last month that I posted about getting my first smartphone, the Droid X and I couldn't be happier with my experience with this device so far.  I knew of many of the popular and most liked features of the phone that even the casual user enjoys.  But what has impressed me the most is the versatility of this phone, it is essentially a small computer in your pocket...and built to be easily used.

With the number of apps (applications) - and notably free apps - a person can essentially change everything this phone does to their liking... there are launcher apps where you can change how your phone looks and handles your applications on your desktop.  There are apps that can turn your phone into a plethora of other devices...a level, metal detector, compass, wifi/bluetooth analyzer and so, so much more.

Last night my daughter was laughing at me as I was using one of our Wii controllers (with gamepad) to play Super Nintendo on my phone...Yes, I was using a wireless Wii controller to play games on my phone...that, in itself is pretty cool, imo.  It may not be too cool for younger people, but I once owned a SNES system and now, for absolutely free, I can download and play essentially any and every SNES game I ever wanted and play it on a device that fits into my pocket ... and is a phone.  And futhermore, to set this all up was relatively easy, it is incredible.

Another neat app that I just got is FlashTV where live television can be streamed right to your device. Just like having satellite or cable tv, FlashTV has a ton of channels, most of which I will never watch, but does have CBS, ESPN, USA Network, CNN and tons more.  Streaming is possible without using wifi, but if you are able to get a wifi signal, the video was fantastic and with the large screen the X has looks awesome.

Web browsing is nice.  This phone has a 4.3 inch screen, the largest on the market right now (I do believe), so like viewing videos, surfing the internet is a lot nicer with this phone.  A person can see a lot more of the web page and zoom in easier with a large screen like X has.

Other simple apps that I have that are pretty cool and also just illustrate the potential for this device, is the weather radar (with animation), a scanner (sources are all internet streamed), gas mileage tracker (with nice graphs and stats) and tons of news, sports and information apps - pick the one you like.

Google has a couple of nifty apps namely Google Sky and Google Goggles.  With Google Sky, you can hold your phone up (at night) and the app determines your location and then the location of stars, planets and other celestial bodies in the sky.  So you can point out stars, planets and constellations.  Google Goggles is Google's attempt to have a visual search engine.  You are suppose to take a picture of landmarks, books or whatever and after Google Goggles scans the item it comes back with information and links about your item.  I have yet to try Goggles on a landmark but I have tried it with some brand name logos and scanned some barcodes in and Goggles has done a pretty good job so far.

The wallpapers for the Droid X can be "live" or static.  There are a ton of live wallpapers with varying degrees of complexity.  The (stock) Droid X has 7 "homescreens" where you can store your shortcuts for your apps but as you scroll through your homescreens the wallpaper scrolls as well.  Depending on your interest(s), odds are your could find a cool wallpaper for your phone.

I also bought the car dock for the phone...something at first, I wasn't too sure about.  I live in an area where having GPS navigation isn't really necessary so why would I want or need a car dock, I thought.  But it is nice to have while driving, even if not using the navigation.  I got an app that displays the compass, current conditions and speed and then has several "buttons" to quick launch any of the apps I designate, like Pandora.  Also, having the car dock makes it easy to record video (or take stills) of whatever is in front of your vehicle.

With this phone being extremely popular there are lots of message boards and forums, so it has been easy to find information about apps that might interest me and also get the latest buzz on the newest apps.

Of course there are people who have poo-poo's the Droid X and I would guess that many of these people are iPhone users and devoted Apple users.  The other criticism I have heard/read about from people is that the phone is too big.  To me that isn't even a complaint just a personal preference.  One of the reasons people are purchasing this phone is for its large screen size and once you pull up a HD quality YouTube video to show to these folks they seem to have fewer complaints about the size of the phone.  The phone fits in the front pocket of my pants and I have had no problems with it.

The Droid X has been awesome and I've really enjoyed this phone.  My next question is, with the way technology is advancing, that in two years how much more advanced these phone will become.  I know that after about a year, any phone I have had in the past has become outdated.  Two years ago I don't think anyone even knew what Droid phones were and it will be interesting to see how much more advanced they will become.