Am I going back to an iPhone??

More than likely I am.

I was an iPhone user for years, and switched to a Nexus 5 back in March (when I became a Ting customer). I really like the Nexus 5 and plenty of others things about Android, HOWEVER, I think I am going back to iPhone. This decision has been made easier now that I can go iPhone 5 on ting (wasn’t available when I became a customer).

My phone, more than anything is a tool for my job. And frankly, apps that I rely on for my business simply do not exist in the Android world, and ones that do, act and perform different on Android (in a bad way).

The Nexus 5 is a great phone and I love, love, love the screen size. But for usability (for me and my needs), I think I have to stick with iPhone.

I’ll continue to monitor the state of Android through my Nexus 7, which works perfectly for its use.

My Android conversion gripes

funny cartoon androidI’ve been officially running Android for a couple of months now, and while the transition has been mostly pain free, I still have 3 issues that leave me kind of missing my iPhone.

  1. There is no Android Twitter client that compares to Tweetbot. I’ve tried the official Twitter app, Tweetcaster, Plume, and Carbon so far. And because they are all lacking in some way, I find myself rarely using Twitter anymore, unless I’m on my iPad. I’ve heard some good things about Tweetings, but I’d have to shell out $3 just to try it, and I’m not willing to do that just yet. So still looking for a decent Twitter app.
  2. Music. I still to this very day don’t have any idea how to easily listen to my music on Android. Yup, I am coming from the iTunes/iPhone world, where all this worked very, very good. I guess Android doesn’t even have a built in music app, so you have to install one. But there’s tons of choices, and none them look amazing. And what’s the best way to get my music files on my phone?? It’s just too much of a pain in the ass. So for now, I’m relying on my Pandora subscription for music, but that doesn’t allow to to listen to specific songs. I’ll post back when I find out a solution. Or feel free to share what works for you.
  3. The last issue, which isn’t too big, but is annoying, is not having Airplay anymore. While I don’t have any way to listen to my music yet, I do listen to a lot of podcasts and I’ve settled on Pocket Casts and my podcast app of choice. While it’s not as good as Downcast was on the iPhone, it works pretty well. But I like to listen to podcasts while I work and I used to Airplay them to the receiver I have in my office. I miss that. For now, I’m just using a cheap bluetooth speaker, but I look forward to the day I can send the audio of my phone back through my sweet sound system.

So those are my 3 major gripes. Aside from that, I really love the phone, and I love my provider, Ting. If Apple ever releases a larger screen phone, and that phone becomes available on Ting, there is a strong chance I would go back (at least as my feelings about Android stand right now).

My Nexus 5 is on the way

I received the email last night from Google that my Nexus 5 has shipped. Oh my, I guess I’m really doing this now. I’ll be honest though, since Ting announced that the iPhone 5 can now be activated on their network, I had serious thoughts to cancel my Google order and instead order me a compatible Sprint iPhone. But I didn’t, and soon I will be rocking a 32GB red Nexus 5. I already have the sim card and a case for the Nexus anyways, so I’m going to give this Android phone thing an honest go. But what’s awesome is if I don’t care for it, it’s nice to know I can stay with Ting, and go back to the iPhone 5.

Good News! Ting will be supporting iPhone 5 soon.

I have two driving reasons for moving to an Android based phone, but the absolute main reason was that I am sick of paying $100+ a month for something I really to don’t use that much. That’s what attracted me to ting.com‘s pay for what you use model. Based on my past three months usage on Verizon, my bill at Ting will be about $40/month. That is significant savings! So I wanted to switch to Ting sooner than later. However at the time I ordered my Nexus 5, the only iPhones that could be activated with Ting were 4’s and 4S’s. There was no way I would go backwards. I would be content, for now, to keep an iPhone 5 and having the better rates of Ting.

Well, as my luck would have it, Ting has announced that compatible iPhone 5’s will be able to activate on their service starting March 11th 2014. Even though I shelled out the cash for the Nexus 5, I’m still happy about this news. It means if I hate the Android experience, I can get me a compatible iPhone 5 and go back to what I know and like AND get the cost savings of Ting service.

Why I ordered a red Nexus 5

When I made the decision that I was going to order an Android based phone, I knew right away that I would go with the Nexus 5. As someone who has no intentions of rooting or roming the phone, I wanted the best experience out of the box. I think the stock Android of the Nexus fits the bill. So when I started looking a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to see the third color option. I was kind of intrigued by the bright red one. If you know me, you would know that loud and flashy are not what I’m about. But for some reason that red one still drew me in. However at the time, while red was shown, it was out of stock and not available to order. At that time, and my usual need to order stuff on impulse, I almost pulled the trigger on a black Nexus 5. Somehow I managed to fight the urge and held off for a week. When I checked the store at the end of last week, the red ones were available to order again (with a 2 – 3 week ship time). Done! Right then and there I ordered me a red, 32GB Nexus 5.

If you’re still reading this, you know I haven’t given a specific reason yet. Well, here it is. The color of the phone does not matter to me at all. In fact I always have my phone in a case anyways. But I thought when the time comes to sell it, maybe, just maybe there might be little more demand for a red one as the market won’t be as saturated as it is with the white and black ones. And maybe it will sell faster or maybe I will get a few more dollars because of it. Who know, but that is the reason.

In preparation for my Nexus 5

According to the Google page, my Nexus 5 won’t ship for 2 – 3 weeks. That gives me time to do some serious research. Most importantly, I want a case and screen protector to be installed right when I get it. Yesterday, I spent way too much time looking for cases. Nothing really stood out as the number 1, most popular case for this device. After all the reading I did, I narrowed it down to the Spigen Neo Hybrid Case and the Cruzerlite Bugdroid Circuit Case. Both seem like decent cases and fit what I want in a case. Then I came across this video for the Cruzerlite case, and that sealed it for me. I ordered the Cruzerlite Bugdroid Circuit Case from Amazon last night. Now to start looking at screen protector options.