Little android
Yesterday evening I went to my mobile provider and changed some parts of my current contract with them. Reason for this was that I wanted to pick up a new mobile phone, the HTC Magic featuring the operating system Google Android.
I took this step because I've tweaked and enhanced my previous phone up to the point where it cannot improve anymore. And I was really pushing it to the limits with a load of custom applications for my personal usage patterns (custom alarm/scheduler/note-taking/profile applications, completely customized main interface, etc.). But with my increased usage it also became more unstable, probably because of the large amount of data not because the custom applications. In the last few weeks I almost had to reboot it daily as it began to lock up when sending SMS.
Since I wanted to keep the possibilities of customisation and easy application development, Android mobile phones have already been on my radar for quite some time. Also the tight integration of enhanced management capabilities with the Google applications has been something which raised my interest. Yes there is the point of mistrust to Google because of its information-harvesting behaviour, but for now I'm willing to take it. But I'll stay careful.
Since yesterday evening I've been busy investigating applications and addons which get me back to at least the point of productivity where I've been with my old phone and I'm quite near now I think. The most difficult part has been (and is still, as I'm having a SIM card from the first generation with many limitations, eg. 8-char contact names) to transfer my contacts and other phone data to the new device.
Until now I'm quite happy but I'll still have to check back to the store for some advanced questions (regarding insurance and details of my contract) and maybe an exchange of my SIM card.