My first smart phone : Google Nexus One

I gave my old Nokia a Viking funeral last month as it had accompanied me in my journeys through three companies and survived countless of IT escalations. It was a very good run with my Nokia except that, by now, the buttons of the Konia has started failing and I really needed to punch the buttons hard to get an SMS out.

Not knowing very much about smart phones, the primary reason that I chose a Google Nexus One is that it's not an Apple iPhone. The second reason is that I liked the open Android development platform and the way it encourages continuous innovation and open competition between phone manufacturers.

I would'nt want to brag about the specifications of my phone but I just to highlight some of the uses I have put my phone towards.

Here is a snap-shot of my Nexus phone side by side with my other favourite toy, the iRex Technologies DR1000S e-reader.

The two pieces of gear demonstrates one of the current applications of the gadgets which I have which is to play a Dungeons & Dragon game without pen, paper and dice. My e-reader displays a PDF print-out of my character sheet of a 5th level Kalashtar Bard. The Nexus one ran an application called DicePro which allows to roll any of the polyhedral dice that's required by the game. So far, the experience has been fun as I have lightened my load for a game tremendously.

Other applications of my Google phone has been as follows :

a) I use Evernote to capture my ideas while I am travelling and ensure that these ideas get logged. This is crucial for non-fiction writers as an insight can strike me anytime and anywhere.

b) A new skill can be picked up via audio-books on my device to ensure that if I can't get a seat, I am always learning something new.

c) My compulsion to monitor my portfolio ( despite it's low turnover ) on the go is met with 3G and Yahoo finance.

d) I scan the barcode of books in MPH and Borders and determine the prices the books would sell on Amazon then decide to place my orders later when I get home or buy on the spot. Too bad I can't do this for household products.

e) Keep updated on my friends. Just sent out a request to look for a CRM solutions provider to my network of friends on Facebook.

f) Hopefully, when my wife is free to tape me on Qik, I will be uploading some lectures on my ideas on financial planning.

In summary, I'm not sure if I actually own a phone anymore these days. It's a powerful information machine which can sate my voracious appetite for more information whether its information on my portfolio or who some of my lady friends are dating.