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Now blogging over at Onemanmanyplans.com.au

It's been real, thanks Blogger! Hey thanks for checking out this page! After 10 years of posting here and over 600 posts, it's time to try something new at over possibly greener pastures. Which means you can now find me and all my random adventuring ways over at One Man Many Plans . 

Escaping a Wildfire through iPhone country

For longer than I or my bemused friends can remember, I had avoided the iPhone and anything associated with it.
It wasn't a hatred for Apple products or Steve Jobs, nor a desire to stand out from the apple crowd. Not in the slightest - after all I was a child who grew up in a house full of macs and who still rocks an iPod (brilliant little invention) on occasion. It was more because I was quite content slugging away with what I had and really didn't see or feel the need to upgrade no matter how many friends tried to prove that the iGeneration was the right was to do things...

What I had was a Samsung F480 - packed with apps I didn't use and no chance to add any that I would. It was a last minute decision as I'd been looking for a phone that 'cost me next to nothing' and it was a choice between it and a brick of some description. Sadly they were a lot like the two last trade ins on the lot - a choice between an early 90s Hyundai Excel and a worn Daewoo Lanos. The worst part is that I met a lot of people who choose the brick and zero who selected the Samsung.


This was what I got...

...this is how it handled.

It was a chance meeting with a Telstra rep while we were doing the breakfast show in store that lead to its upgrade - he passed over an HTC Wildfire and suggested I bury the F480. A fantastic idea I concurred as I waxed lyrical over Android and played Blackjack while doing some of my best work in the men's room. And a semi decent internet on my phone? It's like they turbocharged the Hyundai while removing the breaks as I went hog wild and surfed with mad abandon. (A little too hog wild at one stage however as data charges that weren't on a plan ripped me a massive hole in the back pocket to the tune of a small holiday payment)
Burnt by big data bills (the net on this thing was slowly than a soporific grandma on sherry) when my plan was up I vowed to not make that mistake again. Trouble is that there was still many months to go before I could rid myself of my expensive freebie.
The HTC Bushfi- er...Wildfire

So I persevered and blackjacked and avoided the net when I could, discovered that most of the inboard apps were quite useless and like a Datsun 260z that had seen better days, reliability was really becoming an issue. Emails were like throwing darts in the dark as you'd never know what you'd hit and download success was based on a spinning wheel and a blood sacrifice when the moon was full. Finally though, it was update day. My timing was spectacular too - a few months after the IPhone 4 was released but two weeks too early for the 4s. It didn't matter though, after HTCs spectacular effort of both pissing me off and costing me a packet I was more than happy to give its rival, the much hyped Apple IPhone 4 a spin...

...and realized that after a week of the emails and messages and app store an on board voice recording and decent Internet that's best mates with my wi-fi, I'd been using the equivalent of a Toyota HiAce while a Toyota f1 was parked right in front of me.

Having happily seen the light now, the iAlmigo has been a productive little beaver as I do all my banking, emailing, net troubleshooting, photo taking, music listening and fitness tracking on it. Oh yeah and games - my other phone addiction.

Oh and I've written this blog post on it while I've been cooking up a storm in the kitchen. From start to finish it was all pasted here through the Blogger free app. The htc would take a week to upload it while the f480 wouldn't know what to do with the wi-fi if I hit it with it.

I'm still far from a raving apple fan boy - I won't wait in line for the next one and by the time the IPhone 19 comes out I'll be ready for iPhone 5. But I will admit that sometimes you do need to take a look around and check out the alternatives - its no fun pointing out how fast you think your dinosaur is when everyone else has been racing around on the likes of Black Caviar for a while.

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