It's been a while.

I know it's been a while since my last update, I've been thoroughly enjoying android and there isn't much I can say that's poor about it.

I've been intensely invested into mechanics, and therefore, I don't have much productive content to add here. I will say that I've taken a new job that's more technically oriented. Hopefully I can find new and interesting ways to do the same job that everyone else is doing, but faster.

I'm hoping that learning the systems involved in the new job, and all the contributing technologies will cause me to be able to modularize the information I learn and generate some new posts for everyone with some (hopefully) useful information.

There are some points about android where I think they can improve, however, they're actively upgrading the operating system so I don't have a lot of room to complain.

My main point of complaint is that, as a Motorola Milestone owner, I miss out on HTC's Sense home screen... I don't even have the option of buying it to use. Keep this in mind when comparing Android phones. Go check out your local cellular stores and compare a non-HTC Android phone, like the milestone, to an HTC phone, like the Hero, Legend, Desire... etc. Particularly note the unlock and home screens. also check out the media player and examine the differences.

I'm sure that if I rooted my phone, I could probably install a hacked version of sense, however, that's not what I'd prefer to do. All the features I would get from rooting my phone, I either already have, or don't really care to have (besides using hacked software, which is probably illegal anyways).

No matter what you do, I recommend you buy protection for your phone. It's become painfully clear to me how many people drop mobile devices; so protecting your phone, either with a hardshell or soft shell case, is necessary. I use the hardshell Otterbox case for my Milestone, however I know many phones have silicone skins that are also good at absorbing shocks. Choose what you're most comfortable with, because if the case drives you crazy, you're just going to eventually remove it, and then it will just be a costly lump of waste in a corner somewhere.

I wouldn't normally care too much about software versions, however, there are some devices still sporting very old versions of Android (eg, the HTC Hero, at least until recently)... where you'll only get Android 1.5 or 1.6. Normally I say, whatever works, go with that, however, I've had a chance to use an HTC Hero with droid 1.5, and I have to say, that the changes are significant. Do your best to ensure the version of android on the device you buy is at least 2.0 or 2.1 (Eclair); if you don't have at least version 2.0, pinch to zoom and other significant features, will not be available on your device until an upgrade is issued for it.

My last comment on the Milestone is that the network access is incredible. As far as broadband goes, it's meager at best, however, for a cellphone, the access speeds are incredible. The droid (aka Milestone) is using full HSPA on the network I'm attached to in my area. The speeds are so similar to the speed I expect from using the phone on wifi, that there's not a significant enough difference between the two to warrant switching over to the wifi for any reason almost ever. The only time I activate the wifi on my cell is to do updates to the apps on my device (where I'll be downloading several megabytes in a short period of time), and even that is merely to conserve 3G usage on my data plan, since my carrier charges per MB, and allots only so many MB per month for data access.

Android is fantastic; if you're looking for a new smartphone, droid is the way to go. with the thousands of apps in the market, you're sure to find something to suit your gaming, entertainment, and productivity needs... Additionally, the system is fast, with lots of integrated features; the base OS is so good, in fact, that I tend to use the defaults for many things, since it suits me just fine. You are capable of manipulating almost every facet of the device functionality, if you're so inclined.