EricStephenson4

This article was great. The visuals were stunning and I came away feeling very informed. Nice job.

Technology can be a hindrance and an enabler at the same time, You’re right that we aren’t meant to sit and stare at a shiny box all day every day. It really does come down to striking a balance. I’m in an industry where I’m on my feet and moving 50 hours a week so many times when I get home my natural inclination is to sit. Fortunately I have 2 boys aged 5 and 2 so I don’t just get to sit and do nothing. In the coming decades you may well be right that we have to strive to find a balance between modern life and getting up and doing things. It sounds like you are off to a good start. Good luck with the bike riding and right on with the quitting smoking, I know how hard that is to do.

I’ve found in landscape mode it feels like The Verge was made for the iPad. That’s my opinion. I previously had an Acer Iconia running Honeycomb/iCS. It looked fine there as well but I’m finding I prefer the different aspect ratio of the iPad.

Yes it’s an issue that we aren’t likely to solve any time soon. As long as carriers get paid to include certain apps or think they can generate revenue from including “services” we will be stuck in the middle. I for one wouldn’t what they loaded on if we could remove it from the device. Verizon is the worst about this and they’re my carrier. On my Rezoud I used a different launcher and set up a group that didn’t include any of this arbage so I don’t have to look at it at least. I would have rooted and removed it like I did on my Droid X but with the ICS update do any day now I decided not to bother.

If you want to try out the iPhone go for it. Spend the two week trial using it as your daily driver and see what you think. What phone to use is a very personal decision depending on your needs and wants. I upgraded on Verizon about 2 weeks ago and I went from a Droid X to a Rezound. I already have an iPod Touch and a new iPad so the iPhone didn’t appeal to me. The Rezound has been completely stable and the screen is unbelievable, and side by side the pictures it takes look as good as the ones from my wife’s 4’s. I put on a new launcher. I would recommend go to the Verizon store and play with each of the devices you might be interested in. The new Incredible is also due in any day and it has a 4 inch screen if the other devices are to big. Once you decide on a device take advantage of he return period if you need to and enjoy your new device..

I never got into Zinga games much at all. I played Words with Friends for a little while and that was about it. If anything FarmVille forced me to find out how to mute certain people on Facebook just so I didn’t have to see their requests and updates. There’s no arguing that Zynga has been a success and the need for their own data centers makes some sense in a control your own destiny sort of way.

iPod Shuffle
iPod Nano
iPod touch
2nd iPod touch to replace the one my 3 year old “cleaned” in a bucket of water
New iPad I got last Friday to replace an Android tablet that died. It’s awesome.

I am haven’t had any issues with phone Apps scaling and running well on a phone but, running phone Apps on a tablet can be hit or miss. Many times you’re presented with an awful UI anyway to much whitespace.

I really like most things about Android but I definitely have a couple of gripes. The battery life isn’t to bad for me on a 3g Droid X but since I switched to an LTE Rezound a couple of weeks ago it has become an issue. I bought an extended battery that makes the phone thicker but I have no worries about making it through a day, and a night out. The app selection is fairly good ios still has more and better games available. As far as Apps crashing I rarely ever have a problem. If you’re looking at phones I would say go for it, but if you want a tablet I would recommend an ipad. I have an Acer Iconia that just got ICS yesterday. It’s not a bad tablet experience but many times I’ve been envious of the awesome Apps and games avai