Going mobile

My cellphone contract came up last month and I was finally eligible to get a free or discounted phone. The obvious choice from the outset was an Android phone, and Telus had two that looked like they would fit the bill. It came down to the HTC Desire and the Motorola Milestone (AKA Droid). I ended up getting the wonderful HTC Desire, my first smartphone, and I wanted to write about how it's changing the way I use the web and communicate. I know I'm late to the party, but who wants to pay $500 for a new phone without a contract when you can get it for $80 + your soul for the next 3 years?

With this phone, I am constantly connected to the internet. I can browse anything, anywhere on a whim. I have my Facebook and Twitter accounts linked through TweetDeck and it has almost completely replaced my need to log in to either of them on my computer. Google Latitude seems useful to me, but also a little scary at the same time. It's cool being able to see if my friends are at home, or at work, or out, but I don't always want people to know where I am. I will have to think about how I want to use it. One of the first apps I installed was an IM client. I already used Meebo, so it was my first choice. With it I can be on MSN and Facebook chat all day if I want. This is all very useful when you work a night shift job.

I have yet to see if the basic $50 data package with it's measly 500mb data limit will be enough to service my needs. The next plan up, 1gb is $65 so it is quite a bump. So far the speed has been pretty good, I'm glad Telus decided to switch to a GSM 3G network for their new phones. The signal isn't that great in some areas, but I expect this to improve over time. Pretty soon I might not even need a computer at all.