In a response to a friend’s blog post and a play on his own title, I got a new toy too- the HTC Inspire 4G (aka Desire HD).  Yep, that means I’m back on contract to AT&T, but I don’t have a problem with that.  I am now Apple-free once again.  Well, I’ll likely still use the iphone as an ipod touch since I have it- I don’t think I could sell a 3G for very much.  Android is the way, at least for the next two years.  Why did I get it?  Well, I thought $20 was not too much to spend on a new phone.  No, a zero isn’t missing- $20 is all I paid.  The phone itself sells for $100 with a contract which is already a nice deal considering what you get in comparison to the iphone 4.  My Costco membership took care of the rest.  I had never looked before at their prices on mobile phones, but wow- they are cheap compared to standard prices even without this month’s special on the HTC.  The Motorola Atrix, a new phone like the Inspire 4G was selling for $80 less than standard.  Nice.

I haven’t played much with it yet, but it’s nice to be on an open system despite the malware scare last week.  Unfortunately, being on OS version 2.2.1 this phone has that very exploit so I will need to be a little careful until the 2.3 update is made available.  Hopefully they fixed whatever hole allowed the stuff to be uploaded to the marketplace in the first place.  Already I like much of what I tried in comparison to the iphone 3G (can’t compare with the 4 since I never tried it).  I did notice though a voicemail downgrade.  Apparently Android doesn’t do visual voicemail yet.  The iphone would have the messages listed and playable right from the phone rather than having to dial up a voicemail number and pressing 1, 2, or whatever to hear the messages, then 7, 9, or whatever to save or delete them.

Like the iphone 3GS and 4, and unlike my 3G, this has a GPS built in.  I should try it next time I’m on the road to see how it compares with the Tom-Tom.  The map application is much nicer too, being based off of Google Maps.  The app store is much faster too.  On the iphone, I would really have to use itunes to get apps since the store was really slow on the 3G, but the marketplace is really quick on this phone.  I wonder if there’s something that will tell me if an app has been temporarily updated/reduced in price like with AppShopper for iOS?  [checks]  Ah, it looks like I found one- AppBrain.  Will look.

The camera is better- has a flash like the iphone 4 (and the requisite flashlight app as well)- and it does 480p and 720p video as well.  Unlike iphone, it can use a memory card (comes with 8GB) and a changeable battery which is just as well since one of the downsides of this phone is the battery life, even without a dual core CPU like the Atrix.

Well, enough for now.  Time for a look at appbrain…

In addition to added work these past couple of weeks with new dealers to serve, I have also had the pleasure of a new toy.  Much as I espouse a dislike for a certain fruity computer brand, I now find myself in possession of one of their phones.  That’s right- I now have an iPhone.  Realistically, I knew I couldn’t afford a new Android-based phone, which would probably also require my switching providers as I am currently with at&t, and have been for the last several years- being THE iPhone provider they have not seen fit to add the better HTC Android phones to their lineup.  To make things clear, I couldn’t afford a new iPhone either, but when my nephew decided to jump on the iPhone 4 bandwagon he sold me his 3G for a nice discount.  I now have to pay $20 more per month (was paying for insurance on the other phone), but the difference between the two phones will make it worthwhile.  For the last few days I have been downloading several free apps, mostly games but also the Bible, a camera enhancement app, and a couple others.  I also made the mistake of installing Appminer, an app that finds discounted and temporarily free apps- what a time waster!  I have not tried all the games I installed yet, but as they are touchpad-controlled (and gravity-controlled in some cases- can’t forget the accelerometer!) games they are quite a different thing from normal computer or console games.  I couldn’t find any free versions of games I know, but with a different control scheme they wouldn’t be the same anyway.  Note I write free versions- I could pay $5 for Pac-man (are you kidding me??) and I noted a version of Dragon’s Lair, but cheapskate me is only getting free apps at this time.

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In any event, back to the dislike of Apple thing, at least they aren’t getting a dime of this purchase from me- no contract, no new iPhone, and at least for the moment, no 30% of app purchases.  I had to go to an at&t store to get everything switched properly- ended up waiting about a half-hour for someone as I picked a busy time.  Or are all times busy due to the iPhone 4?  In addition to the phone, the sales rep talked us into at least signing up for an install time for their U-Verse (internet and cable over fiber optic) service.  It seemed like a really nice service and I wouldn’t mind switching over from DirecTV, but I have been on Comcast internet for so long, since it was TCI internet, that I am unsure I would want to switch at this time, though for the start we would get much more for a little less than we are paying now for phone+satellite+internet, currently from three different companies so of course some of the savings comes from going at&t for everything. I am just worried at what will happen after six months.  They promise no installation charges and $200 back for signing up, DVRs capable of recording four standard-definition (or two HD) shows at once, networked receivers so anyone can view a recorded show off any receiver in the house, a complete package with all movie channels (something we can easily drop of course sometime down the road since we have been going sans movie channels for quite some time now), and full HD equipment ready for when we eventually need to replace our analog SD TVs.  Fortunately the appointment isn’t until the 31st, giving us plenty of time to consider whether we really want to make the switch.

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I will continue on the camp topic probably next post.

He writes an app that does next to nothing called “I am rich.”  I kid you not.  Someone wrote an app for the iPhone that just sits on the iPhone home screen.  If you run it, a picture of a glowing red gem displays on the screen.  That’s it.  This app was apparently made as a status symbol (hence the name) and costs the maximum allowable price at Apple’s app store: $999.99.  At least it did- Apple has since taken down the application, but not before eight people purchased it.  Yep, eight people with nothing better to do with their money.  Click the link for the full story.

Apple removes $1,000 featureless iPhone application