My new HTC Droid

Me and my DroidI’m loving my new HTC Droid on Verizon right now, although I’m worried about my motivation for buying it. I finally decided to get it because Chris Brogran got one.

Now, I’m not the kind of guy who buys stuff because some celebrity says so. In fact, I will often go out of my way to not buy something because a celebrity did. Ashton Kutcher is schlepping some new camera? I won’t buy it. Peyton Manning has a new MasterCard commercial? He’s one of my favorite players, but I’ll stick with my own credit card.

I realize Chris is not actually a celebrity (he’s what we call a “cewebrity”). But after reading Chris’ book Trust Agents, especially his chapter on “One of Us,” I decided I could trust him. Chris uses a cell phone all the time. If he decided he couldn’t live with AT&T’s crappy network anymore, and that the Droid was a pretty good deal, then maybe it was time I joined the 21st century and got rid of my old flip phone. (It wasn’t that old.)

Basically, I was torn in three directions: do I get the Droid and stay with Verizon (I’ve been with them for 8 years)? Do I wait to see if the iPhone becomes available to Verizon in Q3 2010? Or do I leave Verizon and go to AT&T just to get an iPhone and have to deal with a network that most of my Indianapolis friends detest?

Once I saw that Chris Brogan — One of Us — had made the switch, I knew which one to get.

So my wife and I took advantage of Verizon’s Buy One Get One offer on the Droid ERIS (which I think should be called the ERIK, but they didn’t ask me), as well as our upgrade credits and rebates, and got two of them for $24. Not a bad deal.

I’m still learning how to use it, but I’m starting to see all the cool stuff the Droid can do: Twidroid for Twitter, Evernote, Google Latitude with turn-by-turn directions, and — God help me! — Foursquare. (I am seriously digging FourSquare. It makes me want to get out more.)

I’m still fiercely clinging to my celebrity independence, and refuse to be swayed by someone’s popularity when I know they’re nothing more than a shill-for-hire, pimping out their name and reputation to the highest bidder.

But I’m also wondering if Chris will autograph my Droid the next time I see him.

PG
About the Author: Erik Deckers
Erik is the VP of Operations & Creative Services for Pro Blog Service. He has been blogging since 1998, and has been a published writer for more than 22 years. He has written humor newspaper columns, business articles, radio and stage plays, and is currently working on a novel. He helped write Twitter Marketing for Dummies, and is writing two other books on social media and networking. Erik frequently speaks on blogging and social media.

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View Comments to “My new HTC Droid”

  • [...] it syncs with Outlook and Blackberry. (For the record, I can also sync my personal email with my HTC Droid.) You keep your corporate identity and addresses, but you have the security and ease of use of [...]

  • [...] been using FourSquare a lot lately, especially after I got my new Droid phone a few weeks [...]

  • Erik Deckers says:

    Hey Bryan, thanks for the recommendation on Where. I got that one, and use it quite a bit. It was really useful on a recent road trip to my mom’s. I’ll have to look at PixelPipe and ActionComplete. May even try the TED app.

  • Mike Seidle says:

    Eric – Glad you like your phone. Here’s the apps you need to get asap. Twitteride. Better Twitter. Locale. Control your phone based on location, time of day, etc. Dolphin browser – vastly improved browser. Handcent SMS. Better texting. Much better. Sorry you got addicted to foursquare.
    Mike Seidle´s last blog ..My new HTC Droid My ComLuv Profile

  • Erik Deckers says:

    @Diane, I appreciate the vote of confidence. Thank you.

    @Bryan, I didn’t even know about Where, so thanks for the heads up. I love apps that do a lot of things, not just a couple of things that every other app can do.

    @Jon, you’re right that he did get a Motorola, but a Droid is mostly a Droid, especially when compared to an iPhone. It was his choice of a Droid over an iPhone that cemented it for me.

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  • Diane Brooks says:

    Nice, Erik! The Droid is on my wish list too. I have been debating between the iphone and Droid, but if you and Chris chose one, well, that is good enough for me! Merry Christmas!

  • Hey Erik,

    Great write-up on your decision making process. I haven’t read Trust Agents yet, but it’s on my short list of books to read next…and hey 2 phones for $24 is pretty tough to beat.

    I also got a new Droid recently (mine is the Motorola Droid instead of the ERIS, but all the apps are the same) and it’s definitely been awesome. I just wanted to recommend a couple apps in case you haven’t come across them yet.

    Pageonce Personal Assitant
    Keeps all your financial accounts in a really clean, easy to view app. I keep my credit card, checking account, and investments in here so I can check it on the go. Comes in handy if you’re thinking about making a purchase, but you want to make sure you’re not going too far over budget

    Where
    Great location based app that gives you full weather forecasts (which is what I mainly use it for), but tons of other stuff like gas prices, movie times, and even Tweets in your area. It complements Google Maps really well.

    Feedr
    If you read a lot of blogs, I love the interface of Feedr as a feed reader. I keep all the blogs that I want to regularly keep up with loaded in the app, and it updates automatically. This is a paid app ($.99 I think so not too bad) but it’s definitely one of my most used.

    A couple others to think about that I’ve really liked are ActionComplete (GTD style to-do lists) PixelPipe (comes in handy if you’re posting content to multiple social sites) and TED (for enlightening 20 minute presentations that you can listen to during a commute)

    Hope you enjoy the new phone!

  • Jon Speer says:

    Sorry, Erik, but I think Chris Brogan got the Motorola Droid: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/motorola-droid-my-take/.
    Cheers,
    j

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