I decided to retire my HP iPAQ Personal Data Assistant (PDA) after installing Windows 7 on my notebook computer. The iPAQ had been with me, going almost everywhere since 2003 - a long time without an upgrade as far as a PDA is concerned. It took me a while to decide between an iPhone by Apple and a DROID by Motorola. The iPhone and AT&T network has been getting some pretty bad press lately about AT&T's ability to keep up with the traffic brought on by the popular iPhone. My daughter and son-in-law both have iPhones. They live in a large metropolitan area yet calls have been dropping fairly often lately. I ended up settling on a DROID by Motorola with carrier Verizon Wireless. Another deciding factor was because most of my immediate family is Verizon Wireless customers. This helps keep my chargeable minutes low.

Follow up:

Upgrading from an HP iPAQ to a Motorola DROID was a big shock! I knew having a phone combined with a PDA would be different, but the technology built into the DROID is phenomenal. It came with version 2.x of the Android Operating System (OS) developed by Google. Immediately after activation, the DROID wanted my Google Mail username and password. Upon providing it to the device, the DROID immediately downloaded all of my GMail contacts. Since I also have a Google Voice account, my next stop was the Android Market to look for a Google Voice application. It installed successfully and asked me a few preference-related questions. The DROID was then able to provide me communication with anyone very easily within a few minutes. No muss, no fuss!

Since receiving my DROID on the 22nd of this month, I have downloaded several applications to make life even more productive and easier. So far my only purchase was $1.50 for an application that allows me to listen to law enforcement and fire communications. I served as a jailer before graduating from high school and was promoted to emergency communications less than a year later, so this was a quick choice. The other applications installed have all been free.

The DROID connects to a 3G network for fast connectivity and Internet surfing. It can also connect to my Wi-Fi network. A speed test run on both connections separately revealed the 3G network was significantly faster than the Wi-Fi. Processing appears to be quite sufficient. According to Motorola specs, it has a Texas Instruments OMAP3430 Processor running up to 600 MHz. Pictures, wallpaper, and etc. displayed on the DROID are very sharp with it's 480 x 854 resolution and up to 16 million colors with 240 DPI. It comes equipped with a 5 Megapixel camera capable of video and still photos.

There are really too many features to cover here. I've hit the highlights for me. I think you can count on Apple and Motorola to leap-frog their iPhone and DROID products respectively for a while. The most recent product released will try to outperform the other.

Hats off to Motorla, Google, and Verizon for a superior product!! I would certainly recommend the Motorola DROID.

UPDATE 03.03.2010: Here's an interesting InfoWorld article - Where Android Beats the iPhone