After much, much, MUCH too much deliberation, I finally reached a decision – I was going to get the iPhone 4S. Why? Because I really love the iTunes interface, I’d still be able to access my Google mail/calendar/contacts, I’d have access to the best designed apps, and not insignificantly, it’s $100 cheaper than the 4G alternatives. (How crazy is it that the iPhone is now one of the cheaper phones on the market?)

The 16GB model (I’d love more storage space, but I’m too cheap to spring for it) retails for $200, and since it’s been two years since my last upgrade, I was eligible for a $100 discount. Logging on to the Verizon website, I saw that there was a $30 “loyalty discount” I was eligible for, too! Bonus! That would make the newest iPhone only $70 – that’s one sweet deal. Although I didn’t see the $100 discount listed on the site, I was assured by a customer service rep I’d be reimbursed for that after I bought the phone. I was ready to buy it, but with the delayed shipping dates online, I figured it would be faster to just go into a store to buy it.

But when I got to the store, the employee there casually informed me that I was only eligible for the $30 discount. NOT the $100 discount.

Apparently, Verizon’s “New Every Two” program had been done away with.

A year ago.

Oops.

Well, now I was at least convinced that not going with a $300 4G phone was the right choice; I had been operating under the assumption that it would really only cost $200 out of pocket, which I was willing to spend. But $270 for a phone? No thanks.

And the more I thought about it, $170 for an iPhone that I wasn’t super crazy about didn’t make much more sense either.

Then there’s the fact that, for reasons I can’t begin to understand or explain, the Droid that I’ve been using/bitching about for the past few months has all of a sudden started working much better. (It knew I was getting serious about replacing it, maybe?)  The battery life isn’t amazing, but it doesn’t drain nearly as fast as it was.  The apps still give me agita and the phone can be awfully slow at times, but it isn’t driving me to madness anymore, at least for the time being.

So I’m going to wait.  According to internet rumors (and when have THOSE ever been wrong?) the iPhone 5 will come out later this year, and it will run on 4G networks, and have an amazing camera, and be totally redesigned, and basically be the greatest thing to ever be invented.  Or maybe another phone will come out that will blow the iPhone away.  Whatever.  We’ll see what happens, but for now, I’ll play the waiting game…

Two weeks after I wrote about my mental anguish over getting the iPhone 4S, I still have not purchased a new cell phone, and my decision just got more complicated – and more urgent.  Yesterday, my phone died and refused to turn back on for ten minutes or so, even while plugged in to the charger.  On top of that, two new phones were announced, further fueling my indecision.

Announced first was the revamped and positively anemic Motorola RAZR.  This phone looks to be crazy skinny, and have some significant “wow factor” because of it.  It has all the usual bells and whistles of a modern smartphone, and it will run on the Verizon 4G network.  The biggest cons I can see with the phone are that it is running an older version of the Droid operating system, and that it is made by Motorola.  I know it has a generally positive reputation, but I hate my current Motorola phone so much that buying another one would be a tough pill to swallow.

Last night also saw the unveiling of the Galaxy Nexus (pictured above).  This phone is designed to run the new Droid Operating System, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich.  (Those Google guys must get their names based on what they’re serving for lunch at their kick-ass cafeteria that day… Thanks again for bringing Ben and I in for lunch that one time, Mehler!)  This is the phone that Steve was telling me about, and it is supposed to be the ultimate Google phone.  All initial reports that I’ve read have been incredibly positive.  It will run on 4G, though it hasn’t been announced if it will be available for Verizon users.  It’s main drawbacks are a lower-than-current-standard 5MP camera, and the fact that it *may* not have expandable memory.

Then there’s the ever-tempting iPhone 4S.  The lack of 4G support is a big con for me, but people love their iPhones, and the virtual assistant Siri apparently makes for some rather funny exchanges.

All things being equal, I think I’m currently leaning towards the Galaxy Nexus, though I of course have to wait to see if it will be available on Verizon.  I always carry around my point and shoot camera anyway (which has 12.1 MP, and I just don’t see myself counting on my phone to take all of my pictures — yet), and while expandable memory would be nice, if I have fast access to my music in the cloud, I think I could live with non-expandable memory.

Still, there is no slam dunk choice for a clear winner, and the clock is running out before my current phone makes it’s very last call.

I hate my cell phone.  Its the original Motorola Droid that came out two years ago, and it is the first smartphone I’ve ever had.  I loved it at first, and there are still features that I think are very cool: the seamless integration with my Google calendar and contacts, the easy to use GPS navigation, and the ability to use apps for a variety of random tasks like checking IMDb or writing blog posts.  (I am writing this on my Droid right now.)

But over the past two years, the phone has become painfully slow.  Yeah, it can be annoying when I want to post something to Facebook and it ends up taking 15 minutes (like what happened with my latest witty status update), but that’s the least of my problems; many times even the basic telephone functions refuse to work.  Seriously!  I mean, I want my phone to be able to handle lots of tasks, but at the very least it really should function as, you know, a freaking phone!

Then there’s the fact that no matter how little I use it, I have to charge my battery at least twice a day.

I often say, in bouts of frustration, that if my phone had a face, I would punch it.

But the good news is that I am due for an upgrade, so I was eagerly awaiting Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 5 yesterday, thinking that it was just about time for me to jump on that bandwagon.

Unfortunately, there was no announcement of an iPhone 5 yesterday – instead, Apple unveiled an iPhone 4s instead.  Its got plenty of bells and whistles, but the fact that it doesn’t run on 4G makes me nervous.  Sure, Apple is boasting that their download speeds rival that of phones on 4G networks, but the fact that it isn’t included in this model makes for an uncomfortably high level of built-in obsolescence.  Even if 4G isn’t quite ready for the mass market just yet, it seems likely that it will be the standard within the next two years.  Which means that if I get the iPhone 4s now, I’ll be stuck with an outdated phone for a long time.

So the way I see it, I have a few options:

• Get an iPhone 4s now, and either deal with it when a 4G model becomes available, or spend a small fortune and upgrade again
• Stick it out with my Droid, waiting for the phone of my dreams, but filling myself with murderous rage every time a call comes in that my phone won’t allow me to answer
• Upgrade to another phone now that is on the 4G network and state of the art, though of course that too will likely give me excessive agita by the time I’m ready to trade it in.

Steve has suggested that I wait and see what features the new Samsung Galaxy will have before deciding.  Any other thoughts/suggestions/recommendations?

P.S. My phone was fully charged when I started writing this post… it’s now nearly drained.

I know this isn’t what Fat Tuesday is really about, so forgive the pun.  But…

It is no secret that in the years since I ran the marathon, I haven’t exactly been keeping up with my physical fitness regimen.  I tried to keep myself in decent shape for the wedding, but after that, things definitely slipped.  I can blame moving and getting the house ready and spending all of my time with Eli, but I won’t – I just haven’t made exercise a priority.

But all that is going to change – this past weekend, Courtney and I got ourselves a treadmill.  It is scheduled to be delivered and installed in the mancave this weekend.

Now, I’m not looking to go to Samantha-levels of exercise or anything like that.  My goal out of the gate is to run three times a week. I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to find the time to do it, though it seems the most likely time will be for me to wake up even earlier than Eli and get the running in then.  Yikes.

I’m stating this all here, on the record, as further motivation for me to actually use the treadmill and not just let it collect dust.  If I hadn’t signed up for the marathon all of those years ago, I never would have kept up with the intense training.  I’m not looking to do anything that major now, but it would be nice to drop some of the excess pounds I have put on over the years.

So hear me now, internet – this will be my last fat Fat Tuesday!  (I hope…)

One of my resolutions for 2011 was to read a book for fun.  (Yeah, just one; I like to set the bar low with my resolutions, so worst case I can always do it on December 31 at the last minute.)

The most likely place for me to read is on my commute.  But lately I’ve found that heavy train reading leads to headaches, and who wants that?  So I’m thinking I may take a page (pun!) from Courtney and listen to a book instead.

I’ve heard good things about the Harry Potter audiobooks, so those are a strong possibility.  If I’m looking to commit to a series there’s also the books Dexter and True Blood are based on.  Or if I want to stick to a singular entity, The Social Network made me curious to read/hear The Accidental Billionaires.

I’m sure there are other good books out there a fella can listen to… any suggestions?

Well, should I?

I’m not *always* an early adopter.  I’ve so far managed to resist the temptation of the Verizon iPhone, believing it makes sense to wait until the 4G model.  But when it comes to Nintendo, I tend to like to get my gear early.  Mehler and I (mostly just me) camped out for 30 plus hours to get the Wii when it came out, and I even picked up the original DS back on its launch day.  I had pretty much assumed I would get the 3DS the day it came out, too, but I’m not totally sure anymore.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am definitely getting one, no question about it.  But the fact is that, as of right now, there is no must have game that will be available on day one.  And a lot of the cool features, like the eShop, will be coming via download in the weeks and months after launch.  So if I buy it right away, sure I can brag about having the new gadget, and I can play around with all of the software it comes with, but I imagine that could get old fairly fast.  I’m gonna want a GAME.

There’s a new Rabbids game coming, but even that isn’t confirmed for launch.  And naturally when the Ocarina of Time 3D or new Mario games come out, I’m gonna want to get my mitts on those right away.  But should I just wait for those games?  Odds are there won’t be a new version of the hardware that will come out with those games; Nintendo does update their handhelds (DS, DS, Lite, DSi), but they don’t do it as regularly as, say, Apple.  So if the hardware won’t change, maybe it does make sense to just buy it right away so I can have it ready when the good games are released.

What do YOU think?

Anyone know anything about snow throwers?  Not a snow blower, but at thrower.  Someone recommended them – they’re cheaper than blowers, and they run on electricity, which is nice.  They don’t appear to be super heavy duty, but any help in this winter of snowmageddons/snowpocalypses (snowpocalypsi?) would definitely be a plus.  This one has decent ratings on amazon.

As an aside, where are the kids who go around door to door shoveling?  I’ll sound old when I say this, but screw it: Back when I was a boy, I’d go around my neighborhood shoveling and making some decent scratch.  I’d gladly pay some enterprising youngsters to dig out my driveway, but I guess the kids today aren’t interested in backbreaking labor for a few measly dollars.  Oh well.

As everyone on Earth already knows, the long wait is finally almost over – the iPhone is finally coming to Verizon!

Now all of us loyal Verizon customers (people who enjoy using their cell phones to occasionally make and receive phone calls) can now at long last get the must-have gizmo phone.  Hooray!

So should I get one?

I admit that I’m tempted.  I like my Droid when it works, but that’s not all the time.  Just yesterday (the day after Verizon’s announcement, strangely) my phone, though on, decided to not receive any calls or notify me of new email/voicemails.  Not cool.  And the battery life on the thing is atrocious.  The phone is just over a year old, and I literally need to charge the battery twice a day.  No joke or exaggeration.  Two times a day.  That is just horrific.

But I’m hesitant about jumping on the iPhone bandwagon right now, for one main reason: Despite Verizon touting it’s new super fast 4G network, this phone will run on their 3G network.  So if I run out and buy this iPhone, in a few months there may very well be a newer model that will make mine seem like a dinosaur by comparison.  Granted, no matter what phone you get there is always a better model just around the corner, but this phone seems to come with EXTRA built in obsolescence at no charge.

So I guess I’ll pass.

For now…

Now you can have Yoda, Darth Vader, or C3PO (and in a few months, Han Solo too!) give you turn by turn directions on your TomTom GPS device.  I can no longer imagine getting directions from anyone but a Star Wars character.

I was debating getting a GPS a while back, but the point became moot when I got the Droid (the cell phone, not an actual droid), which conveniently has an app for that.  The pros of the Droid GPS? It doesn’t cost any extra, I carry it around with me at all times, and it is already preloaded with all of my contacts/addresses.

The con?

No Yoda option.

Clearly, I need me a TomTom.

Check out the videos from the recording sessions with Vader and Yoda:

Problem is, the Toyota keyless remote thing has a panic button on the back, that, if you sneeze near it, goes off.

Now, I get the point of the panic button – I assume it’s designed to help people being attacked or something and scare off bad guys.  But are there any kind of statistics out there on how many tragedies have been avoided thanks to panic buttons?  Or better yet, a ratio of tragedies averted to alarm going off for no reason?  My guess is that ratio would be approximately 1:18,745,324,618.

Give or take.