New phone

Some 2.5 years ago I've waited for about 10 hours in front of the store for the Apple iPhone 3G. This time I took a different approach, I just went to the store and got me a new one there. This time not the new Apple iPhone 4 but a different smartphone. I thought I'd try out the 'competition', so I bought a HTC Desire HD. This phone does not run on iOS (such as the Apple iPhone/iPod/iPad), but on Google Android, a somewhat more open operating system that that of Apple.

Last Thursday evening I went to the Vodafone store in Groningen and asked if the had the device in store. They did. Thus I started with the registration process and handing over the required paperwork (such as drivers license and bank card). I still was under the assumption that I could take the device straight home, but halfway though the procedure things started to take another approach. Because I wanted to keep me old T-Mobile number, the old cell provider had to approve the transfer. This would take one or two days, so Friday or Monday I would have my phone. Eventually it was Tuesday, but I thought that wasn't a big issue.

What surprised me is that the phone had no sim lock. Vodafone's policy is that all phones (including the new iPhone 4) are unlocked. So I could simply move my sim card from my old phone to the new one. Once I arrived at home I unboxed the device, hooked it up to a charger and inserted the sim card. Pushed the on button and completed all the steps of the setup-wizard. Email, calendar, contacts, Twitter, Facebook and so on... all was set up within 10 minutes. The device also links different accounts together. If you have the same person in your Gmail contacts and on Facebook and/or Twitter, you can see (if those accounts are linked together) for instance the latest tweet if that person calls you.

Another function is automatically updating my location to Google Latitude. On my site I now have a special page were you can see where I am (or more precise, where the phone is).

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