we now join the 21st century, already in progress

[cellio]

We have joined the ranks of the smartphone-enabled. We had been Verizon customers and the Droid Bionic looked tempting on specs, but we ended up going across the street to T-Mobile (it seems safe now that AT&T is unlikely to buy them), where they're selling an all-you-can-eat plan for less than Verizon's metered plans and the staff were very helpful besides. (By comparison, I was only able to use a dummy Bionic at Verizon and the sales guy didn't seem to understand my need to use the phone before deciding.)

We were both having trouble with the touch keyboard; I assume that's something you just have to learn to do. So we both chose the MyTouch Slide (4G), which also has a physical keyboard that we were both able to use easily. I'll try to transition more to the touch keyboard, but meanwhile I can still complete a Google search or type a text message or the like on the first try when I need to.

(In case you're wondering, Dani decided that if he really really wants the iPhone 5 when it eventually comes out, he can buy an unlocked one and switch over to it.)

So what apps are must-haves? (Android 2.3.)

Edit: How do y'all post to LJ from your phones? I downloaded both "Livejournal" and "LJ Beetle"; in both cases I could figure out how to compose a post just fine, but could not find anything like a "post" or "send" button. Once I've got a buffer to send, what then?

Comments

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Can't advise on apps. (I have a Blackberry, which is about 98% awesome, the 2% being due to the very few things it won't do, like Flash). But I'm glad to see you got a hard keyboard. Good luck to those who like their touchscreens, but having suffered Mad Digitizer Syndrome on my last *TWO* phones, a hard keyboard is now an absolute deal-breaker for me. As for LJ...well, I usually just post from home: I have yet to have an LJ post so urgent I have to post from the phone. I suppose I'd just call it up in the browser, no?

[cellio]

I'm more interested in reading and commenting than posting (the web interface does not work well on a small device), but being able to post the occasional "just took it" photo would be handy. (Don't know; I've never had a useful camera in my pocket before.)

Oh, and LJ is blocked at work, so the wait for the browser can be long. Granted, few things are that urgent, but if the app is there and I just don't know how to use it, I'd like to correct that knowledge gap. I don't yet know the idioms of smartphones, so for all I know "it's obvious" that the way you proceed is to tap three times quickly and swipe left, or something. :-)