my new toy - day 1

I finally decided to join the technology age this weekend and get a smartphone.  The one I got was the Samsung Transform running android 2.1.  the sprint network doesn't support iPhone (not sure I would have gotten one anyway) and Blackberry doesn't have as cool of an app store.

For convenience I decided that I needed a phone with a real keypad.  I have no idea how people type quickly on the on-screen ones.  I try, and probably 1 out of 3 characters is wrong -- so even something as easy as 'hello' takes WAY to much time.  Now maybe I am using the keyboard wrong (I habitually try to use my fingernails which doesn't work), but still -- my fingers are much bigger than that keyboard.

What I have found so far is that a smart phone, not so much designed to be a phone.  There is no numeric speed dial which is driving me crazy.  You can go and add contacts to favorites, but that still means clicking on connections, click on favorites, click and hold on the person, click on call the person, then if you have multiple numbers for that contact - select which number.  Seriously??  calling from favorites takes 4 clicks at least??? 

I did find an app (Speed Dial Classic) that will let me use speed dial for numbers 0-9, so now all I need to do is click on the phone icon, then the number, then on the dial icon.... so now I am down to 3 clicks.  I tried with the keyboard, on there you have to shift to change into number mode, enter then number, then click on the search for 'dial number '. So not a huge improvement, but depending on how many people are my favorites vs. the numbers I call most often, it might be worth it.

I am still struggling a bit with the touch screen -- I keep calling people by accident, and then not being able to answer calls because of needing to use the slidy answer phone thing.  And I have noticed that cold hands do not work too well.

I do like having the email and RSS feeds to keep me entertained while I wait around for appointments... and the GPS came in really handy driving around with friends on Saturday night.

more updates later -- right now I am trying to figure out why my number of contacts keeps changing :(