Is this the Droid I’m looking for?

I got the Google/Verizon Droid yesterday on launch day and here’s my review. It’s clearly not adding anything to the dozens of other review posted, but I hope it helps my friends decide if it’s worth a bunch of money and a 2-year commitment. Also, I haven’t heard anyone make the very obvious Star Wars nod, so there you go.

Background: I’ve been a Blackberry user for 5 years through three models (two through work), the last was the Curve. I’m a big fan of the devices and focus most of my time reading emails and rarely responding. The web experience was frustrating and generally used only to settle bar bets. My last Curve had 2 years on the clock and was much worse for the wear – missing side panels, failing to answer calls or unlock – it was ready to be put down like Old Yeller.

Further background: In addition to the dying phone, I was in need of some Gadget Therapy (an adaptation of my wife’s “Retail Therapy”, although I suppose gadgets are a subset of retail… look – buying stuff is fun). I’m a big user of all Google products since they’re free and work really well for me. It seemed to make sense to get an Android phone rather than just keep installing Google software built for other devices. Also, I’m a big nerd – I’m sure that factors in this decision somewhere.

Initial impressions

I picked this up at Best Buy for one two reasons. 1) It’s across the street from my apartment and 2) They process the rebate instantly rather than charging you $300+tax, having you apply for a rebate from VZW, getting a debit card, then trying fruitlessly to spend the last few dollars on that stupid piece of plastic. This was the right decision, in spite of the 1.5 hours it took to get set up – I’m chalking that up to launch-day nonsense.

I keep all of my numbers and contacts current on Gmail, so getting my numbers ported just meant logging in with my Google account and waiting about 10 minutes. It picked up my mail immediately and started telling me about new messages from the alert bar at the top. Most of my time is spent opening my phone, checking the messages, sometimes responding, and deleting emails – so this alert bar is doing great things for me so far.

This sound dumb, but it looks really good. The screen resolution is amazing, the design graphics are not flashy but look good, and the animations are simple and fun. I’ve never had an iPhone, but the wife has one and the design was the thing I enjoyed the most about it. A bunch of user-generated themes are available which are fun although I’m going to stick with the default for a while. Also, the touchscreen gives a little buzz when you hit buttons, so while there’s no physical give, you get the vibrate to tell you that the buttons’ been hit. Small but helpful and cool.

The big downer is the keyboard. Right away, you’ll notice that slider keyboards that are East-West like the Droids are less comfortable than North-South keyboards (like Blackberry or the Palm Pre). It’s hard to reach the keys with your thumbs from further out than a narrower lengthwise approach. Also, the keys are flat and don’t give you much give like a Blackberry does. The experience makes typing less than awesome, although when doing so, I still prefer to have a physical keyboard rather than the virtual one on the screen, maybe just because I’m not use to it. If you’re huge typer (I’m not) this would be the thing I believe should give you the most pause.

The camera is better than my portable at this point, and the video is supposedly HD quality, which is cool, although I cant see myself using it.

Android

I’m a big fan of the OS for a few reasons. First, I like that there isn’t too much control over the apps available by Google – I think it’ll lead to more (and better) free apps. Second, the open-source nature of the OS makes me believe more eyes will help spot bugs, fix user interface issues, and add new features on a more rapid development cycle. I generally feel better when my device software is updated more frequently. I realize that’s not rational, but it makes me feel like there are good things on the way. Finally, it’s pretty robust – the apps are responsive, there’s no discernible hangs or delays, and no app failures yet. I’ve seen iPhones look like useless bricks after they have some mileage on them so I’ll be curious to see how this wears over time.

As I mentioned, I use Google stuff pretty heavily (mail, calendar, IM, especially) and I have a good feeling about how Google Voice + Android will evolve over time. I think at some point, it’ll remove VZW from having to sell me minutes and charge me absurd fees (See below) and I’m working to see if I can use the phone with just a data plan (~$40) vs. with a voice+txt plan (another $40+). I like having to read my Gmail in one place rather than on the Blackberry where I had to mark emails as read twice (on the bberry messaging app and the gmail app). I also enjoy having all of my contacts in sync.

EDIT: I failed to mention this initially, but the turn-by-turn directions from Google Nav which comes installed is as good if not better than standalone GPS systems. A huge benefit that largely gets overlooked.

Without going on for too long about it, you can tell in the mobile world that devices are taking second stage to Operating Systems, in the same way your laptop OS became more critical than the manufacturer, I suspect it’ll go the same way with mobile phones.

Verizon

Here’s a big bummer for me. I switched from T-Mobile with a year on the contract, so I paid the penalty for early withdrawal. But I figured last time I was a Verizon customer, I loved the coverage and (comparably) fewer dropped calls, although that was 2003. So far, in my apartment (which I believe has a cell tower on the roof) I get 0-1 bars of service in the apartment. No big deal, since I usually connect through the WiFi at home to make sure I have a solid signal. However…

Calls made WiFi connections on T-Mobile are not charged against your minutes (This privilege cost me $5/month). This makes perfect sense since it costs them next to nothing to route calls over the internets. Verizon allows me to call with WiFi connections, but charges them against my minutes? Really? Irritating

Also I’m a medium-heavy texter, so the SMS plans seem outrageous to me ($5 for 250, $10 for 500, $20 for unlimited) especially since they cost carriers literally next-to-nothing. Seriously? This is an inane amount of money. This alone may push me to change my main number to the Google Voice to avoid the SMS charges. I’m pretty cheap and I’m looking to get my monthly bill down as far as I can. Maybe I’m just mad because I committed to almost $100/month for 2 years. That could be it.

EDIT: My other gripe with Verizon is that free night calling goes from 9pm-6am. This coupled with the expensive per-minute plans means I’ll have to keep an eye on my voice usage which will drive me crazy, especially since most calls are made from home.

Conclusions

Good times – I think at the least it heralds an upcoming era of more interesting and useful phones. I’m not sure it’s an iPhone-killer since this is built a little more for dorks who like to constantly customize stuff, while the iPhone is more for the normal public who has better things to do with their time. I’m glad for my purchase but I can’t say it’s for everyone.

Hope is a dangerous thing, Andy: Coming up short in Detroit Sports

On Tuesday, I was four days into post-op convalescence for having my ACL repaired. Laid up on the couch, immobile, and in constant 6 on a scale of 10 pain with no real indication it was going to improve. I was in a bad mood. And it got worse.

Of course, this was when the Detroit Tigers decided to culminate a potentially dominant season by losing enough games to tie for the division with the Minnesota Twins. As you know, we lost in spectacular fashion over 12 innings. I was flipping out on the couch after watching the lack of run support, defensive gaffes, and leaving Rodney in for a million years. It quickly became worse than the knee pain. In fairness, the Twins outplayed us, but it was yet another game where a Detroit sports team comes close but just short.

This was best summarized by my friend Nirav’s email to me that night, subject line “I Hate Hope”:

I’m so physically and emotionally drained right now.  I don’t think I have the energy left for any more of my teams to be good but then lose in close games/playoffs.  I was thinking about it on my ride home and decided to make a list.  I think right now I’m jealous of those fans whose teams are simply mediocre year after year and don’t keeping getting their hopes up and shattering them like taking a sledgehammer to a glass window.  That was the nice thing about this past Michigan basketball season — unexpected success with no real sense of disappointment when we lost.  More of a just happy to be there kind of feeling.

2005 Pistons: Finals Game 7 loss by 7 points
2006 Pistons: Conf. finals loss to Miami
2007 Pistons: Conf. finals loss to Cleveland
2008 Pistons: Conf. finals loss to Boston

[2003 Tigers: nearly worst record of all time]

2006 Tigers: World Series loss
2009 Tigers: Game 163 loss in 12 innings

2006 Red Wings: President’s Trophy, then 1st round loss to an 8 seed
2007 Red Wings: tied for most points, conf. finals loss
2009 Red Wings: Finals Game 7 loss by 1 goal

2006 Michigan football: #1-#2 Ohio State game; Rose Bowl loss
2007 Michigan football: Appalachian State [preseason ranked #10]

[2008 Michigan football: 3-9 record, first losing record since 1967]

2009 Michigan football: last second wins (2); last second losses (1)

Michigan hockey: NCAA tournament every year, no title since 1998

(Note: Bracketed comments mine)

What becomes clear is that the last half decade of sports, we have some contenders but they rarely convert into real championships in recent history. To complete the view, the Wings won in 2008, 2002, and 1998, the Pistons won in 2004, 1990, and 1989, and Michigan football won in 1998. If we stretch, we can get back to 1984 for the World Series Tigers win, and before that, it’s a big drought. This list also mercifully omits the Lions 0-16 season in 2008.

The picture that emerges is one of high and dashed expectations. I’ve always joked that Michigan football is taking years off of my life, but the margins of victory are always slim and decided in the last few minutes. To say it’s straining relationships and stress levels across the country is a vast understatement. It’s tough to watch your teams get to the big stage, get your hopes up, and then fall short. It’s even tougher to watch that happen over and over, while your local economy dissolves and your friends/family go through the hardest possible times. Sports can help draw cities together and heal wounds deeper than you can imagine (see the 1968 Detroit riots and the role the Tigers played – captured beautifully in HBO’s “City on Fire”)

But here’s the thing: Detroit is not a city of losers. We have (Lions aside) a long history of solid sports championships and really dedicated sports fans (Lions included). What people don’t realize is that it’s really a football town that constantly hangs its head. If the Tigers winning the World Series in 1984 led to rioting, the Lions winning the Super Bowl would cause everyone’s brains to explode simultaneously. We are tough fans who expect a lot from our teams and each other, so disappointment is normal when you expect a lot.

Keep in mind, Michiganders, we are not Philadelphia, who before the Phillies won in 2008, hadn’t had a championship since the Sixers won in 1983. Now *that’s* a drought. We don’t have it so bad, sports-wise.

Google Reader as a networking tool

I’ve been thinking a lot about networking, largely because I’m trying to get to know more folks in a new industry and in a new geography. Becoming familiar with a totally new universe of companies, trends, people, brands, and media sources is quite a task in and of itself. 

Without belaboring the point, I agree with the old axiom “It’s not what you know, its who you know.” My friend Greg put it this way “Networking is what you do constantly when you don’t need it, so it’s there when you do.” Networking is clearly the best way to get a new job, source new business, learn more about pretty much anything, and I’m beginning to suspect it probably helps the love life. 

Okay, so we all agree it’s important to do, but what’s difficult is actually doing it. It takes a LOT of energy and time. I’ve been to a few industry networking events recently, and he experience reminded me of middle school dances. A lot of awkward glances and smiles, some forced chitchat, and lots of cookies. You have to force yourself into conversations, meet people with whom you have potentially nothing in common, and hold a conversation for 5 minutes. Even if you suck, you’ll get a business card out of it, which you then have to connect to your linkedin/doostang/etc acct and email them to make nice. 

If you do it right, it’s not disingenuine and helps you get to know more folks in the right places. But its certainly hard work. 

So I’m not going to tell you networking events, linkedin.com, or just plain coldcalling is not necessary, because it is. However, I found a good way to keep contacts warm once you’ve made them. I use Google Reader occasionally to keep up on a few different periodicals I like, especially industry specific blogs and other random things I’m interested in. 

Google Reader is great with keyboard shortcuts (much like most GOOG products) and my favorite one is “e” which quickly lets you email something interesting to someone you know. I use it 4-5 times a session and work a little harder to email people I haven’t talked to in a while. The critical part is to keep the forward relevant to the recipient and to add a note indicating as much to them.

It takes about 30 seconds and the effect is to keep yourself in the forebrain of people you’ve met and help you sell, forge partnerships, and get jobs. Hope it works for you as well as it’s worked for me.

Top brother combinations in major sports (Courtesy of Fess)

NBA:
Pau and Marc Gasol
Brook and Robin Lopez
Willie and Shandon Anderson
Bernard and Albert King
Horace and Harvey Grant
Jason and Jaren Collins
Dominique and Gerald Wilkins
Jon and Brent Barry

NFL:
Tiki and Ronde Barber
Champ and Boss Bailey
Peyton and Eli Manning
Peter and Michael Boulware
Koy and Ty Detmer
Andre and Kevin Dyson
Bill and Martin Gramatica
Matt and Tim Hasselbeck
Brock and Damon Huard
Qadry and Raghib Ismail
Josh and Luke McCown
Sterling and Shannon Sharpe
Michael and Marcus Vick

MLB:
Roberto and Sandy Alomar
Vince, Joe, and Dom Dimaggio (all played in same outfield one year)
Felipe, Matty, and Jesus Alou
JD, Stephen, and Tim Drew
Erick and Willy Aybar
George and Juan Bell
Aaron and Bret Boone
Jason and Jeremy Giambi
Brian and Marcus Giles
Jose and Ozzie Canseco
Livan and Orlando Hernandez
Cal Jr. and Billy Ripken
Al and Mark Leiter
Greg and Mike Maddux
Pedro and Ramon Martinez
Mel Jr and Todd Stottlemyre
Bengie, Jose, and Yadier Molina
BJ and Justin Upton
Jose and Javier Valentin
Phil and Joe Niekro
Jered and Jeff Weaver
Delmon and Dmitri Young
Jim and Gaylord Perry

Will Detroit recover like Pittsburgh did?

Interesting blog post on the question of the day: Will you be Detroit or Pittsburgh? 

The analogy has been made a bunch of times, notably by the New York Times in November. The analogy goes something like this: The steel industry is another heavy capital-intensive business with little room for change and only once they faced complete bankruptcy were they able to restructure and run profitably. 

This blog post describes how Pittsburgh moved from 10% to less than 1% of the workforce in the steel industry:

“Detroit should take a page out of Pittsburgh’s playbook. In the 1980s, the state used local universities to pour funds into technology research. What blossomed was a thriving entrepreneurial community. The largest industries? Computer software, biotechnology, education and health care, all of which have held up well of late.

To be sure, Pittsburgh reinvented itself during a run of prosperity. It didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen without a tremendous amount of federal, state and local support and vision. Skilled workers who couldn’t make a living in Pittsburgh moved elsewhere, to thriving cities like Phoenix and Vegas.”

All good things to do for any city and Ann Arbor is the most likely place for this to succeed. However, there is a big difference between the steel and auto industries: cars are not commodities. To make a car, you need many more skilled creative and technical workers to design, architect, and sell the cars. It’s a different industry and other than the big decline and the high capital required, it’s quite different. 

The big advantage that Detroit has is an abundance of these skilled technical workers who are now likely to work for a lot less money in a place with a pretty low cost of living already, laying fertile ground for Detroit to become the next cleantech hub. 

Some argue, like the WSJ that there isn’t any inherent need for an American auto industry, which is a fair criticism. However, if the auto industry goes down, the effects will be felt throughout the country and would prove disastrous for our economy largely. Which is not to say it’s okay to bail them out (I’m on the fence on this issue), but rather the consequences of failure are pretty drastic.

Sports guy on Matt Millen’s performance on NBC

So much like my feelings about Kanye West, I can’t stand The Sports Guy personally largely as an extension of my hatred for Boston sports generally and his inability to contain how cool he thinks he is. However, his writing is solid and occasionally writes something I enjoy as seen in this week’s column.

Preface: I was watching football last week and almost choked on snack foods when the NBC in-studio commentator was revealed to be Matt Millen for the day. I spazzed out and wrote a bunch of angry texts then proceeded to listen to him for some reason. This more or less captures my reaction. 

 

The Bernie Madoff Award for “Studio host who made you feel as if you were watching Bernie Madoff hosting ‘Mad Money’”
Like everyone else, I did a quintuple take upon seeing that NBC had trotted out failed Lions GM Matt Millen as one of its pregame studio guys. Like everyone else, I was confused about what NBC thought my reaction should be — should I be nodding intently as Millen broke down the Cards-Falcons game and saying, “That’s a great point, Guy Who Single-Handedly Murdered The Lions?” Like everyone else, I felt bad for Detroit fans, who had just put the 0-16 season behind them and probably looked forward to a pain-free playoffs … and suddenly, there was the John Wilkes Booth of their franchise staring at them in HD. Like everyone else, I remembered Millen was good enough on TV that it made you think, “So yeah, maybe that’s how he got hired.” Like everyone else, I wondered what kind of tranquilizer NBC had to give Keith Olbermann to keep him from making a snarky Millen joke. And …

 

(Wait, this deserves its own award.)

The Bird Who Crapped On My T-Shirt Right Before the 2004 Baseball Playoffs Award for “Best omen heading into a game”
… like everyone else who backed the Cards, I couldn’t have been happier when Millen picked the Falcons to win. He didn’t just pick them, either. He was adamant about it. I think I broke my personal record for “Fastest time calling in more money than I already had on one team.” I was like the Usain Bolt of gambling; I think I banged out another Cards bet in 9.85 seconds. Let’s add this to Playoff Manifesto 5.0 and make it the new No. 1 rule: Any time Matt Millen inexplicably appears on a studio show, picks a playoff team to win and seems confident about that pick, bet the house on the other team as fast as you humanly can.” And you thought Millen couldn’t bring joy to football fans.

 

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090109

The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep

Article from the Weekly Standard on the slow death of Detroit. My favorite excerpt:

But with millions of jobs on the line, including their own, the Detroit Three honchos went to Washington to endure the kabuki theater, first in their private jets, then in their sad little hybrids. All to get their slats kicked in by Congress (and who has been more profligate than they) in order to secure a bridge loan to withstand an economy wrecked by others who’d secured no-strings bailouts before them. The absurdist spectacle was best summed up by car aficionado Jay Leno: “People who are trillions of dollars in debt, yelling at people who are billions of dollars in debt.”

Looks like Jay Leno can be witty afterall. 

 

EDIT: Also this fun view into the long roots of the auto industry

Like many Detroiters (he lives in a posh suburb, where houses on his block have remained unsold for six years), he’s bracing for one or all of the Big Three going down. He predicts millions will be thrown out of work, right down to the diner owner in Utah who serves lunch to the people who produce the screws which are bought by the widget manufacturers who produce a component that goes into a seat of a Ford automobile. The diner owner thought he wasn’t in the auto business. “But he was,” says Vines. “He just didn’t know it.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/public/articles/000/000/015/945aynyk.asp?pg=1

The Lions: The final straw in the decline of Detroit (2008- Kwame, Bailout, Lions)

Okay, let me say something up front. I am not a blogger, but I have a blog. I am a Detroit fan born and raised in The D, but I don’t live in Detroit now. I’m a walking contradiction who shouldn’t be believed or have any credibility, but I have something to say and I don’t care who hears it.  

After the historic election of Barack Obama, I didn’t write an effusive note about how happy I was, even though it gave me hope that my children would live in an amazing country with leaders we can be proud of for a change. When the economy nosedived in the scariest way possible, I wasn’t that compelled to say anything publicly although it is tearing my hometown to the ground and putting friends and familiy out of work all over the world. But now that the Lions have gone 0-16, and have failed to win a game for the entire season, I think it’s time to speak. 

Detroit, this is the lowest moment in our history. This is worse than the next three worst moments, two of which occurred this year: the race riots in 1968, the Big Three automakers getting bailed out, and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick going to jail. 

Think about that – the worst moment until this year was the city erupting in hateful race-fueled riots ending in beatings, death, and uncontrolled fires. And now, after years of neglect, horrible leadership, economic decline at the hands of a slowing ancient industry, we’ve scored a hat trick. Kwame, Bailout, Lions. That’s what 2008 will be remembered for in the future – a terrible year for the country, but felt so much worse in Michigan.

Kwame – this goes beyond words – Detroit suffered under one of the worst mayors in history, running the city for his own personal purposes, holding down economic development, the education systems, and running a “machine” style council filled with cronies and supporters. He did nothing about police brutality, fathered children out of wedlock, and was the subject of FBI scrutiny for kickbacks. And his name was Coleman A. Young. And he left office in 1993. And we elected someone worse than him. WORSE. So much worse that we jailed him while he was in office, something which hasn’t happened to a sitting major American mayor as far as I can find. 

Bailout – The industry which had long supported our metropolis rode high after the war and excess drove the big three to become enormous, bloated dinosaurs trying to compete in a world in which they no longer belonged. Jobs declined, communities suffered, and blame was attached to the Unions. Guess what? The Big Three were quite cozy with the Unions and ran shitty companies with products no one wanted to buy (Pontiac Aztek? Really?) with no sense of innovation, connection to customers, or foresight (hybrids considered for production only after the Japanese found success – how did you not see this coming?) doesn’t help either. 

These are terrible companies in a mediocre industry with almost exclusively fixed costs. The general auto decline can only shoulder about 10% of the problems. For all of that, you grew into a massive presence tied entirely to one community and now are tipping over to be crushed under your own weight. It is the most irresponsible and shitty thing any one industry can do to a town. These are lives, families, and hopes all drowned in bad business. 

To be clear, government did little to try to manage this impending doom (we all saw it coming, let’s be honest). Blame would lay at the feet of the Mayor if he were not so inept, the governor if she weren’t so interested in being governor, and at the representatives/senators if they weren’t so cozily in bed with Big Auto [Debbie Dingell, wife of US-Rep John Dingell (Who owns $1m of GM stock) is an employee of General Motors].

We should have been diversifying the industries which fed our tax base, doing something real about building a creative economy, an IT base of innovation, or the absolutely most logical eventuality, a Green Engineering center to rival all others in the world (come on – we have the most engineers and technical workers per square mile. We should be building the majority of green cars, solar panels, and windmills)

And once the real catastrophy hit, the answer was to go to the government hat in hand and beg for help, perhaps during the period when it was least responsible to do so, and when the taxpayers could least afford to shoulder the burden. Embarassing. 

Our city had no real chance. 

Lions – But here is the representation of all of the worst parts of the city’s history. The Lions. The Detroit Lions. The team which some refer to as one of the most storied in NFL history, one of two teams guaranteed to play a game on Thanksgiving on a national stage. One of the Original Six of the NFL, if such a thing existed. 

They had one of the most explosive running backs in history and mismanaged him so badly, he chose to retire early, shy of NFL records he could have easily broken, and give back millions of dollars rather than play for the Detroit Lions organization. Think carefully about that. A player on track to be the greatest throws away everything because your boss is that shitty. How badly must he have been treated to quit before training camp and leave us in the lurch with no offense in 1998? 

They are a joke in 2008 – having not won a game all season. A feat not accomplished, ever. Last year the Patriots won all their games and were lauded as geniuses, and athletes for all ages. This makes our team the inverse of that. 

They have a terrible owner whose single biggest failure is the lack of performance management (if you do your job well, we’ll take care of you. If you don’t, we’ll find someone else). But its even worse than that. He’s from an automotive family where performance management, efficiency, strategy, or foresight are as foreign a language as Esperanto or Klingon. 

The Lions are bad for the same reasons the auto industry doesn’t run well in Detroit. Bad executives who fail to listen to critics, experts, and customers/fans and see the landscape for what it really is. 

And remember, this is in the salary cap era. The NFL has grown and been successful because for the most part, each team spends the same amount of money on players which gives an even playing field, parity of teams, and basically puts success at the price of hard work, good coaching, and smart players. Given the same resources as other teams, the Lions have failed to win a game for an entire season. 

So 2008 is undenyably the worst year yet for Detroit. There is much work to do and many ways to take advantage of the regional strengths to turn the economy around, but its hard to keep hope in a time filled with it. I just hope we can forget this year and make 2009 at least a one-win year and work towards rebuilding my town.

The New Tuna Rule

On the flight from home, I snagged the Exit row and sat next to a med student and Some White Guy. The med student broke out an exam practice test and got to work. This is a great start to the flight because it meant I didn’t have to talk to anyone. But then something ineffable (nod to “How I Met Your Mother” – solid new show in my lineup) happened. She broke out a can of tuna and a plastic fork to start digging in. Look, I’m all for health and whatnot, and I’ve definitely brought more than my share of food with me wherever I go, but tuna is a different story, because of The New Tuna Rule.

The New Tuna Rule is basically a rule I am inventing now, which just says that much like when smoking was legal in public places, it was polite to at least turn to people you were with and ask “do you mind if I smoke?”, The New Tuna Rule is that if you decide to break out a can of tuna, you have to ask everyone within 5 feet if its cool. No exceptions. Mandatory in confined spaces (e.g. airplanes)

She proceeded to wash this down with two Mountain Dews and pay for her snack pack out of a wad of cash which I’m guessing was at least $2000. These comprised strikes two and three and I began looking for another seat. The rest of the flight passed without event.

Gmail Contacts, Google Sync on Blackberry, and the Human Response

Okay, I got really excited by Google Sync for the Blackberry when they announced the new feature syncing not just your calendar with your device but also your contacts.

Happy day – I could now exist entirely on Google-Blackberry and they work well together (sort of). Except when I started using the app in my Blackberry, it started mangling my addresses.

I ended up finding a few fun things such as contacts duplicated 3-5 times, some contacts deleted, and my favorite, a contact’s address repeated 50-60 times in one entry. Other people also had this problem.

So now my contacts are all jacked up and the only way to deal with them is to go through every @!@$% contact (over 700 right now) and edit them to make sure they are all set. Also, editing contacts in the Gmail page is less than easy or fun to do. I’ve been looking into exporting everything to CSV, editing in Excel, and reimporting, but I think that still leaves all of my bad contacts intact.

Last complaint – Lots of my contacts are the same person but with two email addresses, however Gmail won’t let you have two different contacts with the same email address. This means you have to copy the email address and any other info, delete the second contact, and add the info to the first contact hoping you don’t lose it from the clipboard. A simple “combine contacts” feature would save a lot of hassle.

Come on, Gmail. You used to be so solid and made me want to get everyone onboard. Lets keep the innovation coming at a better pace than it has been.

Cute themes are a lot less important than contacts