Why I got an Android Phone

Posted by on May 26, 2012 in Blog | 2 Comments

Once upon a time I was young and smartphone-less. I was using my uncle’s old Motorola Razr, a replacement for a lost device (swallowed by a deep rain gutter), and I was holding out on this smartphone business. I didn’t want to just get an iPhone; in fact, I knew that I didn’t want an iPhone.

(What? Why the anti-iPhone sentiment? Let me explain via anecdote. My human factors professor, trying to make a point about ergonomics, asked, “Whose hand dimensions do you think the iPhone is designed for?” “Steve Job’s,” I said.)

In fact, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to jump on the smartphone bandwagon just yet. The only things I wanted from my phone are the ability to text and to make phone calls (in that order), and iPhone touch screen keyboards make me feel like a chicken, pecking away. It even accompanies your pecking with appropriate pecking sounds.

One day my HCI professor showed us a video demo of a new way to type on touch screens. You’d just swipe your finger from letter to letter, and voila! It knew exactly what you wanted. And that’s exactly what I wanted: a texting mindreader. After some Googling, I learned that this system was called Swype, and that it was available on Android phones near me. Not iPhones. Not Windows phones. Android phones.

Not long after, I got myself a Samsung Galaxy SII, and I have never looked back since.

2 Comments

  1. Constantin
    May 28, 2012

    For me swype constantly splits long words like “apartment” into two (“sport trent”?), especially when my finger is not perfectly dry (e.g. minor sweat when walking). After a few tries I give up and use the hardware qwerty… I don’t know if it’s the phone’s fault or swype just doesn’t work so well on older phones.

    • ironladyisfe
      May 31, 2012

      Hmmm, that’s interesting. I don’t have any trouble with mine, especially after I’ve added the word to the dictionary.

      Also – I get problems with the screen when my finger is tooo dry, then it gets hard to get it to stay on the screen without my skin jerking around, if you know what I mean.