Smart phones

Last September I finally jumped on the smart phone bandwagon. I figured having something which allowed me to do more than just phone someone or send texts could be useful. Besides, my old phone was getting really past its best and I had the feeling it was going to give up the ghost when I really needed it. Frankly, it was that old Noah would have found it dated!

I didn't want to get caught in the contract trap again. I really don't use my phone that much to justify the cost and it can work out cheaper buying a phone sim-free and going for a rolling one month contract instead.

I had been looking for a smart phone for about 6 months before I took the plunge. I was waiting to see how the market developed and how stable the firmware is. I knew I wanted a phone running android (I'm not a fan of Apple) with a capacitive screen. And I didn't want to pay more than £200 for the phone.

Eventually, I bought an Acer Liquid A1. This was on the back of a friend of mine getting one and me being mightily impressed, especially given the price tag. Low and behold, after 2 weeks of me having this, Spot went and got one too. (I know, most marrieds have matching jumpers or something!).

It's been really handy. I always have a phone, calender/diary, notepad, book, bible etc on me. The calender is synced with my and Spot's email accounts, so we both know where the other is (most of the time). We've been getting into the habit of using it, as I'll really need it up to date once the study/training begins.

While doing my NT Greek study, I even had a bible flash card app This was dead handy for learning the vocab.

So, after 8 months of use I was confused to have a memory low warning. Although I'd cleared my cashes and this solved the initial problem, there was only 20MB of phone memory left. Very strange as Spot's had about 115MBs left.

Couldn't for the life of me (or Spot or our techie friend) find a definitive solution. In the end, Spot had to do a system reset for me.

We think part of the problem may have been how the built-in browser was keeping searches etc, so I'm now using Dolphin HD, as this allows all bookmarks to be stored on the SD card of the phone and clears the cashes on exit. It's a pretty slick little browser, though I haven't tried really secure sites yet.

It's really sad, but I know wonder what I did without a smart phone. I just wonder how I'll be accessing technology on 5 or 10 years. Could be very interesting.