Tactical Gearhead

Yes, I’d probably qualify as a geek, but without a pencil protector and nerdy glasses, I’d rather be classified as a gearhead.  Sounds much cooler!  So, what’s this gearhead phone of choice?  Where the majority of geeks use iPhones, I chose to go “Droid”.  There are approximately 50,000 iPhone apps; Droid’s (Android Market) offers only 12,000, so what’s the deal?

The biggest reason for going Droid was the physical keyboard.  I did not have any success with the touchscreen when texting.  Sure, I got my messages across, but not without continuous typing mistakes and I could not type fast without struggling.  The G1’s (physical) keyboard was flawless, but the battery life of the phone ended before I got home from work at the end of the day.  The Android Market was new and had more than enough free apps to download.  When the G2 came out, I gave the touchscreen another chance – same problem with the iPhone: could not type fast, and without typos; although the battery life on the G2 was excellent.

When Motorola came out with the Droid, claiming it ‘had it all’ in the commercials (including the physical keyboard), I ditched the G2 and switched carriers to have it.  Here is a collection of my experiences with this phone:

DROID

• When I first held it, I was impressed.  It has a nice solid, sturdy and heaviness to it.  I liked it, but was told some people did not.
• The screen is big with a 3.7″ display, which of course, makes for a larger phone (not such a plus).  When I had the phone clipped to my belt, a couple of co-workers asked if I had a mini laptop computer strapped to my belt.
• The Android Market is growing at a rapid rate, and there are plenty of apps to satisfy anyone who is app-crazy; however, it’s missing one app I’d really love to have and pay for that’s only made for iPhone and that’s Archer’s Mark .  So, I guess the Android Market has a long way to go if you’re looking for a specific application.
• The Droid is THE MOST RESPONSIVE PHONE I’ve ever used.  Ironically, the touchscreen is so responsive that I rarely use the physical keyboard.  How can this be?  The physical keyboard of the Droid is so flat that I make more typing mistakes with it than the virtual, very accurate touchscreen keyboard.  Unfricken-believable!  This has to be Droid’s best feature: the wonderfully responsive touchscreen!  See? I can’t say enough about it.
• The voice search feature is nice, it will do a Google search for anything you ’speak’ into the phone.  Don’t get this confused with voice dialing.  I spent a good few attempts before I figured out voice search and voice dialing are not one in the same.
• I’m a good one for dropping my phone.  Once in the Des Plaines River while duck hunting – the phone was fried.  Best get insurance for this phone, Verizon’s insurance is pricey at either $5.99 a month, or $7.99 a month, but there’s no need to hide how you damaged your phone.  The plan covers everything, even water damage.  The Asurian insurance plan had my replacement phone literally the next day, and I was able to keep the battery and SD card.  
• I love the multimedia docking  station.  It props the phone on a nice angle, and I use it as my alarm clock.  I even put away my alarm clock to use this instead.  The phone now sits on my nightstand, showing me the current weather, a slide show of my pictures, or plays my music collection (which I have none), but if you had one, it would be your bedside MP3 player!  It even has DVD quality playback!
• I like the 16GB pre-installed memory, with the option to add a 32GB card, however, for the life of me and other Android Market users, WHY can’t we store any apps on this memory card?
• The 5 megapixel built-in camera takes awesome pictures with fun color effects and many scene modes.
• Yes, I am confirming the operating system is the fastest I’ve ever experienced in an advanced phone.
• With Android and Google being integrated with my Google account, I am always automatically synced with my contacts, and calendar.
• As long as I can connect to wi-fi, I have a very fast internet connection.  The 3G connection is pretty fast also.
• Speech recognition is decent, nothing to brag about.
• Learn more about Droid’s other features.

I’m very happy with the Droid, and feel that the people at Motorola sat down and thought of every single aspect of what an advanced cell phone should be, and they barely skipped a beat with this one.  With only a  few minor flaws, it’s a gearhead’s nearly perfect cell phone!

Scottevest is holding a competition to try to become the #1 listing on Google for Travel Clothing and Travel Clothes.  I’ve previously reviewed their Undercover Parka here, and I can attest that it is a great piece of kit.  Let’s help them out and see if we can get them to show up as the #1 listing on Google for Travel Clothing and Travel Clothes!  Why am I doing this?  Because they asked, and I like helping people out.  Okay, so I wouldn’t mind winning either hahaha

-John

* SCOTTEVEST Travel Clothing

http://www.scottevest.com/

* SeV Travel Clothes
http://www.scottevest.com/travel

Wow, I can’t remember the last time I even wrote something on this blog.  I’ve been too busy doing YouTube reviews or working on my disaster preparedness series.  Hopefully, this year, I will rekindle my love for writing.  Anyhow, I would like to thank a big supporter of our blog, and her name is Jeanette.  She writes for the following blogs:

http://www.militaryboots.com/blog

http://tacticalpants.com/blog

http://gunholsters.com/blog

http://militarygear.com

http://hikingboots.com/blog

She often takes our reviews and posts them on her blogs with a brief synopsis.  Often times her synopsis is better than the review hahaha.  Anyhow, thanks Jeanette for reading our blog and for giving us shout-outs from time to time.  I thought I would return the favor.

If you spend a lot of time outdoors in the winter, you may have experienced that uncomfortable feeling of cold feet. Some cold weather activities like bow hunting, ice fishing, or snowmobiling don’t require exertion for generating body heat needed to keep the extremities warm. In these situations, we need to rely on the quality of our foot coverings to keep our toes warm.  Even while sitting for hours in my tree stand, my expensive hunting boots are warm, but my feet still get borderline uncomfortably cold.  It becomes a test of skills, a game of mind over matter, and thoughts of staying out longer or giving up begin to enter my mind.  I usually prevail, and can manage the cold, but it sure would have been a lot more enjoyable not having to think about how cold my feet were getting.

I just discovered the Arctic Shield Boot Insulators. I tested these on a recent ice fishing trip and I think I just found the cure for cold feet!  As a test, I had only one pair of the boot insulators on, while leaving the other with just my hunting boots on. I was on the lake for about 6 hours and my Arctic Shield foot was comfortable and warm all day. My other foot, with only my Women’s Alphaburly Sport Realtree HD 800g Hunting Boots.  The uninsulated foot was not ‘cold’, since temps were in the mid 20’s, but, they were noticeably cooler than the insulated foot.

A few things I noted:

• When I ordered these, I thought they looked huge.  When I received them, I was surprised how light and slim they folded into my day pack, and they are not the big boat anchors that I was expecting.
• They were hard to get on, I ordered a SMALL.  I learned that I wasn’t suppose to be wearing these with my big hunting boots that have too much insulation!  I was able to get them to fit, but it was tight against my Alpha Burly boots.  In any event, the results were still good.  No complication or heat loss with the fit.
• The boot insulators are recommended to be worn with lighter boots, or even hiking boots, which have little or  no insulation.  Boots with too much insulation would cause your feet to sweat and cool your feet.  The boot insulators work by insulating your already warm and dry feet.  In this case, I would probably put the boot insulators on after I got settled in, and not while walking to my hunting or ice fishing location.  ArcticShield garments do not use insulation, in the normal sense. They use a technology called RE-tain™ to keep you warm. RE-tain™ is a very thin piece of material that acts as a heat barrier and reflects up to 97 percent of your own body heat back to you. This technology allows garments to be very thin – not bulky like other cold-weather garments.
• The ArcticShield Boot Insulators are windproof, water-resistant and breathable.
• Adding chemical warming packs add more warmth in the inside of your boots and the boot insulators radiate that warm back to your toes and feet.

In summary, I highly recommend these boots for cold weather stationary activities.  Nothing will end or ruin your hunt or fishing trip quicker than cold and uncomfortable feet.  I wish that I’d found these sooner!  I am willing to bet that anyone that tries these would encourage their friends to try them, they’re that good!