Technology

First of all, before I forget: happy Mother's Day, Mom! I'll call you later tonight.

There was no post here Thursday because I took a long drive from Atlanta to Decatur, Alabama - about the same length as last week's trip to Savannah, Georgia. Another meeting with another client, et cetera, et cetera, and next week I have another, somewhat shorter, trip to Augusta to make a marketing call on a former client out there.

The trips themselves have been uneventful, but I didn't get back home on Thursday until late and had no energy to blog. Friday was a sort of burn-out day after the drive and nothing got posted here, and by Saturday I had fallen out of the habit (funny how that happens) and didn't write anything.

But the trips themselves aren't what I wanted to write about. Instead, I want to talk about my new toys. A couple weeks ago, I finally splurged and bought myself a new iPod - a new, 3rd generation, state-of-the-art, 32-GB, Apple iPod Touch, to be precise. It looks and feels like an iPhone and has almost all the same functions, except, of course, the phone, as well as no camera. It's only a couple millimeters thick and weighs a mere 4 ounces, and yet it can not only store and play my music, but can also surf the web and retrieve and send my e-mail (provided that I'm in a wi-fi hot spot). With additional calendar and calculator functions, as well as the availability of all the iPhone's infamous apps, it's truly a pocket computer.

It arrived on my doorstep via UPS and I was disappointed to see that the box had no instruction manual. All that was in the box was the iPod itself, a pair of earphones, and a single cable. I had no idea of how to charge the battery, no idea how to load my music, no idea, basically, what I needed to do at all. But talk about intuitive - all I could do was plug one end on the cable into the iPod and the other into my computer, which I did, and the iPod automatically found the iTunes program on my computer, grabbed an update, loaded some music, and opened up a website for me with the basic operating instructions. For the record, the iPod recharges through the computer using the same cable that it uses to load music.

I've been a dedicated PC user all my life and enjoyed teasing Mac fans about their brand loyalty, but now that I've finally broke down and bought an Apple product, I have to admit, okay, I get it. The iPod touch is as elegant, intuitive and useful an electronic gadget as any I've ever purchased. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the shape of the earphones doesn't fit the shape of my ears very well and they keep falling out every time I move my head. Although I do take the iPod along with me on walks, I can't imagine the earphones staying in while jogging or exercising.

But it doesn't have a phone or a camera. I don't want an iPhone - which has those functions - because of my brand loyalty to Verizon, so instead, the week before last I finally broke down and replaced my old Motorola Razor with the HTC Droid Incredible. Although immodest in name, the phone boasts a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 8GB of internal storage, 748MB of ROM, an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, a 480 x 800 touchscreen, and the Android 2.1 operating system (okay, I'll admit I cut and pasted most of that from the technical specs). Like the iPod Touch, it's totally internet-capable but uses Verizon's 3G network, so I don't need to rely on finding a wi-fi hotspot. With all that computing power, though, it does go through the battery's power pretty quickly, definitely needing a re-charge every evening.

The Droid also arrived via overnight courier (Federal Express this time) but, despite ample documentation and manuals, was not nearly as intuitive to use as the iPod. It's been over a week, now, and I'm still on the learning curve as to what it can do and how to use it. And I'll also admit that I like the iPod's on-screen keyboard more as well as the overall feel of the Apple on-line experience, but that comparison aside, the Droid is awesome. There's virtually nothing I can't do with it, and technically it could replace my new iPod, although I still prefer the way the iPod does what it does over the way that the Droid does those things that the iPod does.

Having all my music in my pocket and access to my email has subtly changed my behavior. Free at last from having to constantly access desktop computers, even a laptop, to stay in touch with the world, I can roam freely and still be in communication. Technically, I believe I can even update this blog remotely, although I haven't tried that yet.

But the true utility of my new toys became apparent during last Thursday's drive to Alabama. Before I left work on Wednesday, a client called and asked me to set up a meeting among the EPA and an out-of-town expert assisting us on a project. I was able to do all of this while riding on the highway (someone else was driving) using both the phone and the email applications on the Droid. When we got stuck in traffic in Birmingham (there was some sort of fuel spill on the highway that had traffic backed up), I was able to use the Google Maps app on the Droid to find an alternate route through some back roads to avoid the bottleneck and get on down the road. And finally, on the way home, I was able to relax and let the time pass by plugging the iPod's earphones in and closing my eyes as I listened to a few podcasts (NPR's All Songs Considered) I had downloaded while on the road earlier in the day.

To an old man like me, who still remembers making frequent stops at pay phones while on business travel, all of this is, dare I say?, incredible.