I lost my iphone4  on Sunday.  I found myself in an AT&T store Monday morning getting, naturally, the iPHone 5.  I’ve been an iPhone user since they first came out.  In fact, I still have my original 4GB iphone and it still works, although the battery is pretty much shot.

But I gotta say, my first 4 hours with the 5 were not good.  The new connector at the bottom meant I needed to purchase 2 new adapters @ $30 apiece.  Then to make matters worse, I wouldn’t be able to charge the phone using the new power adapter and still leave the protective case on my phone.  Bottom line: in order to charge or sync the phone, I’d have to take it out of its case every time.  In the car, at work, and especially at home when docking with my alarm clock or Bose sound dock.  This is a huge problem for me and I was not looking forward to it.

I have friends at work with the Samsung Galaxy S III and they love it.  It’s cheaper, allows me to add storage (up to 64GB more) with a micro SD card, and it’s open source (Android).  I can definitely see why they are selling a TON of these phones.

So before I got too hooked, I went back to the store and swapped out my iPhone for a Galaxy S III. So far, so good.  Here are my pros and cons:

Pros:

• Open Source nature of Android.  I think separating the platform from the handset and open sourcing the platform as Google has done will be the superior model in the long run.  Apple will look like Microsoft over time clinging to a proprietary platform and any app I need will also be available in Android.  I also think innovation will be faster on an open platform.
• Cheaper – I saved $100.
• Upgradeable storage (up to 64GB)
• You can swap out the battery if it dies
• I still am grandfathered on my unlimited data plan (as long as I stay w AT&T)
• Bigger screen
• Camera is incredibly fast!!
• Much more customizable home screen.
• Swipe typing.
• Gestures!!  For instance, when texting someone – if you want to call him, just lift the phone up to your ear and it automatically dials the person you were texting.  This is cool and also a nice safety feature.
• Apps download from the Google Play store very quickly – at least 50% faster than Apple.

Cons:

• Switching costs (eg: when doing routine things like looking up the weather, it takes me longer to get that information).  These will subside over time but are a pain today.
• Doesn’t sync with iTunes.  I had to download EasyPhoneSync to get music from iTunes to my phone
• iTunes purchased songs don’t sync over.
• Overall lack of integration.  I use a mac, have an iPad too so switching to a non iPhone is a setback in terms of user experience.  I will counter this in that I also have a Google Nexus 7 tablet which I really like.
• I haven’t found a quick way to mute the phone other than slowly turning the sound all the way down to mute.  The iPhone has a toggle switch.

All in all, I think I’m better off leaving iPhone.  Of course, I can switch back within the next 10 days if I change my mind again.

Last week my wife and I had the privilege of test driving a Tesla Model S sedan in Austin.  Wow – what an amazing vehicle!  I’ll start by posting photos and then try to describe what it was like to drive.  This is the most impressive car I have ever driven.

My 3yo was excited about the free tatoos

Next up is this photo which has nothing to do with the Tesla but just annoyed me.  Where to start…

C’mon, Texas, don’t do this stuff! Just awful

Now here are the rest of the photos of the Model S.

C’mon, Texas, don’t do this stuff! Just awful.

If you got a lotta junk in your trunk you can use the Frunk :)

Incredible 17″ Touchscreen Display

My 3yo was excited about the free tatoos

For my next post, I’ll describe the interior and what the test drive was like.

I recently installed a Nest
thermostat.

The old thermostat was a ‘smart’ thermostat from CPS Energy’s EnergyGuard program- which lets you program temperature times throughout the day and also gives CPS a chance to cut back on energy usage – essentially shutting off your AC at peak usage times.

The idea is that we can avoid building another coal burning power plant if the peak energy usage can be better managed.

I support the idea 100%. It’s just that I found the user portal impossibly difficult to navigate. And the interface on the actual thermostat was even worse. I simply could not figure how to use either. After about a year I gave up and bought the Nest

.

It was designed by some ex Apple people and only takes 45 minutes or less to install. Once installed you connect it to your home wifi and then you can manage temps from the Nest or from their iPhone app.

It learns your habits over a three day period. After, if you want your kitchen to be, say, 72 degrees starting at 7 am it just happens. You can only twist the knob left or right – that’s it. So even morons like me can use it.

Of course it doesn’t allow CPS to manage my home usage but in terms of ease of use the nest is a thousand times easier than the EnergyGuard device.

Now I just need to touch up the wall with a bit of paint and it’s done.