Introducing the Eris

"There are many like it, but this one is mine."

-The Rifleman's Creed

Yep, I got a Droid Eris.

Actually, I got it about a week ago and I've been so busy figuring it out (and working) that I've been neglecting the blog. Mea culpa.

So what do I think of it so far? It is awesome. I had been using a BlackBerry Pearl for the last 2ish years so to upgrade to a large touch-screen with a Linux-based OS is a very good change!

The screen is large, bright and clear. It's very responsive to the touch input and the keyboard, even in portrait mode, is still very usable even with my big fingers (I'm 6'4" and have 'big' hands for my size).

The only disappointment I've had so far with it is the Proxoid application doesn't work with my EeePC. The instructions say to use the Android 1.5 SDK to complete the connection, but all I could find was the 2.0 SDK so I'm not sure I'm doing it right and I haven't put any serious effort into solving it just yet.

While I'm on the topic of third-party apps, here's the list of apps I've installed so far (all free):

• Listen (podcast app, just starting to figure it out)
  
• Places Directory (Google's find local business app)
  
• My Tracks (for hiking/travelling)
  
• Google Sky Map (to show how cool the positioning is)
  
• Andoku (Sudoku)
  
• RemoteDroid (remotely control a PC's mouse & keyboard)
  
• Layar (augmented reality - very cool)
  
• Astro (file/task manager)
  
• Dolphin Browser (replacement web browser w/ touch gestures)
  
• Mobiqpons (coupon app)
  
• Android LightSaber (for battling my iPhone counterparts)
  
• Proxoid (proxy app that is supposed to let me use my phone's data plan to surf w/ my laptop)
  
• Qik (live video streaming from my phone to the web - also very cool!)
  
• TV.com (for when I'm bored of Sudoku)
  
• Ringdroid (haven't used it much, create custom ringtones)
  
• ScanLife (for reading those cool square bar codes)
  
• SlackerRadio (cuz slacker.com is awesome!)
  
• DigitalClock (turns the phone into a big digital clock)
  
• Yelp (it's ... yelp)
  
• Compass (for fun navigation)
  
• G-MoN (doing my part to map the WiFi world)
  
• Finance (because I like to pretend I know what's going on in the financial world)
  
• Network Widget (display's network info on the 'desktop')
  
• Google Voice (I don't even use the regular phone number any more)
  
• Network Discovery (a port-scanner on my phone!)
  
• LiveBible (not entirely happy with the navigation, but it's the best one I've found so far)
  
• NetCounter (for tracking my network usage)
  
• ConnectBot (MUST HAVE APP!!! - lets you SSH to remote hosts & provides a console to your phone!)
  
• DynDNS (so I can track my phone via IP)
  
• VLC Remote (control a running VLC instance on your desktop)
  
• MyIP (displays my network info)
  
• SilentMode OnOff (one touch silent mode)
  
• Where's My Droid (send a text to have your phone start ringing even if it's on silent)