Is There Android In My Future?
So, Cellular South announced yesterday that it would be offering an unspecific Android handset by the end of the year, which didn’t surprise me since they’ve been running a “design an Android app” contest for the past few weeks. (Full disclosure: Cellular South recently became an advertiser with the JFP, so I follow them even more closely than I did a few weeks ago when they were just our main mobile carrier. Mostly, though, I like shiny things.)
Since I find my Blackberry dull and lifeless — which is true of pretty much any mobile phone I carry for more than six months — I’m stoked about this. I’ve been surfing on and off for days looking for clues as to which handset we (er…they) might be getting. (Whether or not “we” get one or not is gonna be up to upgrade pricing.)
My first inclination was to believe that the LG Spyder2 840 that Cellular South also recently pre-announced might be that Android handset, although I based that belief on (a.) the coincidence of its timing with the Android App contest, (b.) its similarity in appearance to the T-Mobile G1 and (c.) the use of the term “GSensor” in the features description, noting that the GSensor will offer an “excellent game and Web experience” and that sounds faintly, well, like the “Google” version of the accelerometer in the iPhone and others.
My subsequent surfing has not borne this theory out — it seems that no other mobile watchers I’ve found have tried to make that connection and there’s the suggestion that the LG 840 is an update of the LG 830, which was pulled somewhat early by carriers after lackluster reviews.
Also, GSensor seems to be a common name for an accelerometer, which makes so much sense that I probably should go ahead and edit that last paragraph and not tell anyone I thought it had something to do with the Google. I’d now revise my guess and assert that the “g” has something to do with “gravity.” Duh.
Google Creep
Yes, yes, yes…of course it concerns me that Google is trying to take over the world. But I can’t seem to help it — I keep using Google products. Me, the guy, for political reasons, who has stepped foot only twice in a Wal-Mart over the past eight years — once to return items bought by a project manager I was working with, and another time to buy a microwave pizza for my hotel room in Natchez, MS. That’s it. I understand they have great prices on tires, but I just got a pretty decent price from the guys at the locally-owned Texaco station down the street. (I suppose they have to get their gas from somewhere.)
And, yet, here I am posting documents and spreadsheets to Google Docs. Why? Because of the collaborative features; one of them is an outline for the book I’m working on that the editors back in the home office can check in on so that they can see the lack of progress I’m making toward my deadlines. (I’ve had two good days this weekend, however.) Another is a cash budget spreadsheet we’re using to follow the cash flow of our local film festival, so that the Festival Director, Coordinator, and board members can see what we plan to spend, what we’re spending and what we need to raise. That budget started as an Excel sheet that was mailed to me; in my Gmail account, there’s this handy little link that says “View in Google Spreadsheets.”
I’m weak. I clicked it.
So, yeah, taking over the world, etc. If they just put a dent in Microsoft, though, that would be a start. And I gotta say, the whole “free office applications” thing is mighty tempting to a small business owner…
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