Smart !

I've already mentioned quite a few of my gadgets on here.  Digital camera, talking pen, Flip video, air mouse....  But one of the gadgets that the Twitterati have been trying to persuade me to get for a while is one I've never wanted.  I've never wanted an iPhone.  Or any other Apple product, to be honest.  But the more I read about Android phones, the more I was sure that was what I wanted.  I spent time reading up about the different phones available and settled on HTC.  I was considering a Wildfire but then my lovely husband offered to buy me a Desire for my birthday.

It was delivered on Tuesday, and my mother pointed out that I shouldn't have it yet.  I know, I know, but you have to make sure it works!  Five days later, I am hooked.  I've set up my Gmail and downloaded Seesmic for effective tweeting.  I'm having a go with UltimateFaves Pro to have all my favourite apps on the homescreen and have found gReader to be able to access my Google Reader and a Delicious app to be able to bookmark sites when accessing the internet on the Desire.  Naturally I have also been finding some good games, in the process rediscovering my addiction to Othello.  The Android Karaoke app is great fun and will drive my husband crackers.

It's been very interesting to see the reaction of my daughters, currently aged 7 and 3, to the Desire, the first smartphone that they have had proper access to (my husband has an ancient HTC through work that they aren't allowed anywhere near).  The elder one can find her way around it very easily.  I took her photo with it earlier today, and she said that she wanted to put a different dress on the picture.  So we went into the App Market and quickly found and installed PicSay. Within minutes she had added to the photo a multi-coloured title, a speech bubble, some "stickers" of hair and funny glasses, and a green tint.  The little one is obsessed with Talking Tom, who we discovered thanks to this blog post from Dominic McGladdery.  She is always asking to "stroke the pussycat" and also knows how to give him some milk and make him scratch the screen.  It occurred to me that she is growing up in a world where it's perfectly normal to stroke a virtual cat to make it purr.  Technology that is normal for her would have been unimaginable for me at her age, in the early 70s.  A Changing Phase indeed.

It has also occurred to me that a smartphone is only as smart as the person operating it.  I know that I have a lot to learn before I am using the Desire to its full potential.  I'd love to hear about your experiences and recommendations.