Oooh! It's Purple!
(Last photo taken with Old Droid!)
(Last photo taken with Old Droid!)
Old Droid was just getting increasingly "buggy" and required fairly regular "Battery-Pulls" to re-boot after a freeze-up....
Simple things like taking pictures and uploading to FB were just getting frustratingly annoying - or annoyingly frustrating! (including the phone "completely forgetting" that it had *just* taken a picture). Many-many cuss-words were uttered and I finally decided "To Hell With It" and ordered a new phone, online, from Verizon Wireless...
Now I'm supposed to get an Employee Discount (b/c my company has some kind of "arrangement" with Verizon), and a "Customer Loyalty Discount" and a whole bunch of other Happy Horsesh*t...
The Droid RAZR 16G was "on special" and "My Price" was supposed to have been $69.99, right?
The other contender was the Samsung Galaxy Nexus - and it was cool. I mean, I saw it "up-close-and-personal" in the Verizon Store - but it didn't totally "Take my breath away" (plus, the GUI was just different-enough that there would have been a "learning curve!" :::GASP:::). The Galaxy Nexus was *not* as deeply discounted - so I opted for the RAZR. I also contemplated the RAZR MAXX - but pricing on that was outrageous. Screw it. Just go with the RAZR...
Okay, well, mini-rant here... Dear Verizon: DON'T tell me you're giving me a Super-Duper-Stupendous Deal unless you are prepared to deliver, k??? Apparently the "regular" price for the phone (as listed on their website) was $149.99... "On Sale" for $99.99 - but with my "Loyalty" discount, I get $30.00 off, so $69.99. Sounds good, right?
Well, THEN they add-in a $30.00 "Upgrade Fee" (thus negating the "Customer Loyalty" Discount!). I'm not sure WHAT happened to my "Employee Discount" but then, with taxes (on the Full-Bust-Out-Retail-Price of $599.99 - WTF?!!) (NOT clearly-stated on the website, I should note!), I ended up paying $149.49. Or exactly fifty cents LESS than the Advertised Price. Gimme a break!!!
Sorry - didn't mean to rant - but srsly, Verizon?! Don't bullsh*t me, okay? If the price is $150.00 - then just f**king say so!!!
Honestly, I don't mind that I paid $150.00 for a new Smart-Phone. I DO mind that you TELL me I'm gonna pay $69.99 to "lure me in" - but then charge me full-price anyway... I'm not stupid - I *hate* deceptive advertising practices...
And, had I not been SO fed-up with the old phone, I probably woulda pitched a b*tch and tried to get the "Final Price" a tad closer to the $69.99 "Advertised Price" (Which probably would have necessitated a trip to the Verizon-store - and I wasn't up for that).
To be fair... Prior to my upgrading my phone, I received an email from Verizon - promising me a "Totally Free" Accessory for my phone (Snap-on case, or Screen Protector). Well, the stuff for the OLD Droid wouldn't fit the NEW Droid, so I emailed them. Turned out that NEW Droid wasn't part of that "Totally Free" Accessory Offer, but they ARE honoring that and will allow me to pick a protective case for my new phone. So that is a "partial" offset to my pissed-offedness!
Annnnnnywaaaaaayyyy... End of Rant #1!
Sooooo.... Rant #2: I received my new phone a couple-days after ordering... I'd left a note on the door for Fed-Ex - with my signature - so FedEx would leave the package on my doorstep. Yay Fed-Ex, they DID!
So I excitedly opened up the package and read thru the set-up instructions.
Now I *did* have the presence of mind to download ALL of my personal files off of my old phone, to my PC (pictures, videos, music files, ringtones, yada-yada)... The only thing I couldn't find was my Contact List.
Now, I did know that First Generation Droid was *not* compatible with many of Verizon's "proprietary" apps (which, honestly, I kinda liked!) (and that's a Big Reason why iPhone was never "on the table" for me - too proprietary!). That included "Back-up Assistant" so there didn't appear to be an "Easy" way to transfer my contacts from my Old Droid, to the New...
I'm here to tell you: The Instructions provided by Verizon really-really-really sucked!
There was some sorta bullsh*t (directed from their website) where I needed to "Export" the contact list from OUTLOOK in csv format. That's all very well and good except that I DON'T HAVE an Outlook Account set-up. And when I tried to initiate the Export from my phone, it put it into vcf format (Outlook), and it included email addresses from about 400 years ago (and very few phone #'s, actually). Now, I know that Droid relies heavily on your Google email acct - but the people I EMAIL from gmail are definitely "different" from the people I "call" on a regular basis...
Well, long story short (Too Late!), I ended up setting-up a dummy Outlook acct on my PC (no email associated with it), and I keyed in all of my important contacts into Outlook. This, actually, was a good opportunity to do some "clean-up" since... Well, my mom is no longer with us, so I don't really need to keep her in my Contact List, right? Then I followed the instructions (from the Verizon site) to export the csv file, then I IMPORTED it into Google Mail, Contacts.
Well, SURPRISE!~ All of my original "Contacts" actually DID reside - with phone#'s intact! - in gmail's "Contacts." If you look on your GMAIL screen, there's actually a "drop-down" where it says "GMAIL" (directly under where it says "GOOGLE"), and THAT'S where your phone's "Contacts" reside - Duhhhh!
So, after I'd imported my new Contact List into Gmail (using their "Import" feature), I ended up with duplicate contacts - but, in the end, it was fairly easy to "clean-up" my contact list...
Anyway, it took me two days to get the Contacts squared-away, but when it was all said-and-done, it was fairly easy to "Activate" the phone, on my own. I *really* didn't want to go to the Verizon Store and "don my Blond Hat," to convince them to do it for me - although I'm sure they would have. But - given my experience with *my* company's I/T Dept, I was reasonably sure they'd find a way to f**k it up! (I definitely did NOT want the 400-yr.-old email contacts added to my phones contact list!!!)
And I am pretty "rabid" about NOT syncing ALL of my contacts (Facebook and multiple email accts). I maintain "multiple personalities" online and I *don't* want everything smushed together!
Now one thing that *did* freak-me-out when I first fired-up the phone (and synced my "Contacts" from gmail), the phone ALSO added all of my Facebook Contacts. No-No-No-No-Noooo!!! But I *did* figure out how to suppress the FB contacts from my "Phone Numbers" list...
Bottom Line: Setting up the phone really wasn't very intuitive - and the instructions from Verizon really sucked-eggs. Thankfully, I was able to figure it out...
I'm guessing that the Verizon Store would have (reluctantly) taken care of it (but I think they work on commission, so be prepared for push-back!). Nevertheless, if you're considering an upgrade, you're not entirely "on your own..."
Once I got the phone set-up, I have to say that - overall - I am pretty happy with it. The GUI is slightly different from the First Generation Droid, but not too difficult to figure out.
Features that I like:
- Once I got it hooked-up to our WiFi, I can actually play any music that's accessible on the network (i.e. stuff on my hard-drive on my laptop in the house).
- Picture Quality seems vastly superior to Old Droid. And uploads to FB happen almost instantaneously.
- 4G speed is definitely far-superior to 3G (although I worry about them over-subscribing and slow-downs in the future)
- Bluetooth uploads: I can take a picture with the phone and upload it to my hard-drive on my laptop via Bluetooth (a little slow - but less of a pain than plugging in the usb cable)
- So far, so good - no freeze-ups (but NO clue what I'm gonna do when/if that happens - the battery is NOT removable)
- Most of the apps I use, appear to have come pre-installed (Yay! But I *did* make a list before I shut-down the old phone)
- Some of the Verizon-specific apps are also pre-installed (not sure if I like that - we'll see). VZNavigator ($fee) is on the new phone, but I think I'll stick with Google Maps/Navigator (FREE!).
- I'm guessing (hoping) that the memory is expandable (looks like there's a mini-SD card slot)
- Can watch Netflix Movies on the new phone (that's actually pretty cool!)
Downside: I'm worried that the battery is NOT user-replacable... We'll have to see how that pans out. Right now, I am fully charging and discharging the battery, a few times...
Anyway - overall, I am pretty happy with the new phone. I hope I can say that 6-months from now!!!
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