I decided to join the smart phone bandwagon recently, and procured a Samsung Galaxy 551 powered by android. The reason is funny: I wanted to have GPS, and thought that having an android phone will allow me to have GPS, and more with the phone. The teething issues are now over, and have started to enjoy my phone.
First stumbling block I had to overcome, is the huge data charges that are incurred on the phone - data plans in India are still very costly. After calling up Vodafone Kolkata (My career), I got a plan which is Rs 499 per month for up to 10 GB of data usage.
Next shock is that Google still does not offer navigation yet at my location (Kolkata). So, although I can position myself accurately on the map, I still cannot get turn-by-turn driving directions. Currently I am evaluating other options and have downloaded Waze. Let's see how it performs.
There are paid applications available on the android market: but I would like to have a comfort level that it will be worth the money - before investing on it. The reason I am making this point - I tried to get a driving direction from MapMyIndia (Supposed to be the best map option in India) which I know (From my home to office) and found that it could not locate my office area at Sector V, Salt Lake. It could locate my home, and tried to take me from non-existent roads. I understand that mapping India is quite a big challenge with its maze of lanes and by-lanes. The point is that the technology is not mature yet: I can evangelize - but not really willing to pay yet for the immature technology. Will wait and watch how this shapes up.
Another location based application I am trying out is foursquare. I feel it is wonderful ... you need to get to a place, and you can search nearby places, with crowd sourced review. I am using it actively now - In Kolkata though, only a few places are marked, and that too, upscale places. I am marking simple places on the map, like the cigarette/tea shop next to my office. I saw that it is not possible to mark a place from the mobile device - you can mark it only from the web version. I feel it is a serious limitation to discover new places.
This is the first week I am using the device, and this blog was supposed to talk about the technologies I dream about. It turned out to be a beginners experience. I will continue to talk about the new applications I try from the android market, and will hope both the new users like me (As well as the application developers) make correct choices.
