Introduction: A Little Background on iPhone and Me

Going from an iPhone 4s to the Moto X:

I have had an iPhone for the last 5 years of my life- as soon as a new model was announced I always switched (upgraded) to the newest one. I absolutely adored my iphone, but not because I am an Apple fangirl- actually, I HATE APPLE. I always have. But realistically, they made the best smartphone for the normal person (read: NOT an engineer), and they did it first. But I never felt like iPhone was better than Android, especially as Android began to pick up speed. By that point I was just lazy. What I was in love with was having a smartphone, and with 2 things being equal (iPhone and any other phone running Android), why bother to change phones? Upgrading to the newest iPhone allowed me to keep all of my hundreds of apps and easily (though not always quickly- it always baffled me how absurdly long those transfers take!) transfer them to a new phone, all while getting the latest updates in technology. Until now.

I am not excited for the iPhone 5s, and certainly not the 5c, which is actually a dumbed down version of the 4s- and it comes in ugly neon colors. I guess they want to stand out. Well, they do...

iPhone 5c colors

Anyway, I never bothered to upgrade to the 5 (I most recently had a 4s) because I had managed to collect a few chargers at this point (after all of the upgrades!) and I did not want to be stuck with just one charger- I was used to having them in different places around the house (or having one designated for travel without worrying that I'd lose it on the trip, or even forget to pack it before leaving!). Since the 5 required an entirely new charger this was a huge drawback for me. Also, I like that pretty much anywhere you go you are bound to run into someone who also has an iPhone whose charger you can borrow. I appreciate that sense of universality, that everyone can share chargers. On the other hand, I've always been very picky about not wanting the same thing as what everyone else has- I prefer to be unique, even if it sometimes seems weird. So even though I liked sharing chargers, I hated that I had the SAME phone as everyone else, and it even looked the same, regardless of the case. (I got around this by having cases that displayed my unique personality, often pink, and displaying Stanford (my alma mater) pride). And I always made sure I had a round sticker to cover up the apple logo on the back, because I HATE APPLE. You probably want to know why but that will have to wait for another post.

To sum up, the iPhone 5 was not for me. It didn't even have anything cool about it that was new technologically- it was bigger, which most people seem to like (especially my mom and other moms, who appreciate the ease on the eyes), but I DON'T LIKE BIG PHONES!

In fact, when I switched from my Nokia to my very first iPhone (3g) I was hugely turned off by how big it was.

The Galaxy Note. They've made an even bigger one than this...

iPhone 3G

I had a Nokia similar to this before iPhone was invented...

I worried it wouldn't fit in my pockets, especially girl pockets, which tend to be tight. I have actually noticed over the last few years how pockets everywhere, in purses and backpacks, too, have gotten bigger to accommodate this. I still think back fondly of my adorably cute little Nokia, no bigger than the palm of my hand and a bright pink with shiny pink keys- everyone knew it was MY phone because it was SO PINK! (If you haven't caught on, pink is my favorite color.) So even though I eventually got used to the size of my iPhone, a BIGGER iPhone was NOT something I was interested in (Don't even get me started on the Galaxy Note). I figured I would wait for the iPhone 6 to come out, since it would have more exciting tech to make up for the fact that I'd have to have a bigger phone and go back to only 1 charger (although by then I expected more people to have 5's by then that sharing chargers would be slightly more feasible).

Alas, the (unofficial) announcement for the 5s was super disappointing! The only cool thing it has is fingerprint scanning- which is cool, yes, but otherwise this phone feels like it will be the same as my 4s! And sure, "iOS 7 will change everything:" the sales guy at ATT in Palo Alto let me see the beta of ios 7 on his phone and it looks AWFUL. The *icons look like drawings for a little kid, total cartoons, making the entire phone feel like a toy.

An example of the cartoonish iOS 7 icons

This guy wrote a really good article about all of the drama over the new look of the icons, and at one point he says:

"Does anyone honestly think that a normal person is going to walk into a store and choose an Android phone because the icons of iOS don’t seem cohesive enough?"

Well, maybe not the "cohesiveness" but yes, that's exactly what I did! The iPhone no longer feels like a technological marvel, it has stalled. Apple, iPhone: you have lost your edge. Even the ATT guy told me he was considering the Moto X after experiencing the iOS 7 Beta.

(*To be fair, those awful icons are also larger, which my mom will probably love).

Enter the Moto X. My boyfriend has been telling me about this phone for MONTHS. Of course, he tells me about a LOT of phones, constantly, and he loves to read all the latest RUMORS in tech, and especially about phones, so I never know when to really pay close attention to what he says. He's a hardware engineer in mobile chips, so I can't really hold it against him ;) And he IS my phone expert, which I love having available to me!

Well, he tells me that the phone will be customizable and my heart skips a beat, my desperate desire to be unique pounding at the door. Then he tells me one of the colors you can design it in is...PINK! Now I was listening! Then we watch a lot of youtube video reviews of the phone showing off what it looks like and what it can do- the COOLEST thing is the touchless control with Google Now. The phone is "always listening" (which probably scares some people but I am not the paranoid type) so that if you want to ask it a question or open an app or tell it to do something, but your hands are wet or dirty or the phone is far away or you are lazy, you don't have to pick it up, YOU JUST TALK TO IT! The key phrase is "OK, Google Now." Then you say whatever you want it do, i.e. "Ok, Google Now, remind me to pay rent tomorrow." THIS is EXCITING STUFF! It's better than Siri, and let me tell you, it works way better than Siri (and I was always a fan of Siri).

Color options for the back of the Moto X!

In the end, everything seemed to come together for me at just the right time. Moto X came out right when my upgrade (on my contract) came available. I have ATT and the custom designed Moto X's are ATT exclusive right now (so, I could have something unique that few others have!). My iPhone wifi died due to heat exposure (a known issue, apparently), but when I went to the "genius" bar to get a replacement (because I had Apple Care, otherwise I would have been totally screwed!) I had THE WORST experience- again, another post for another time, but I'll just say that it died AGAIN and I had to go back AGAIN the next day. Awful. So then I had a brand new iPhone but it felt so out of date, and the new 5s held no promise for me. Meanwhile, the pink was calling to me. I made the switch.

While my boyfriend has been using Android for many years now, my only experience was using it on my 7" tablet, the Galaxy Tab 2.0. I basically use it as a Kindle that also plays Netflix ;p I honestly rarely use it, though I do love it. So I had the bare minimum basics of using Android, such as how to use the "back" arrow, the home key, and the tabs for apps key, the three main keys at the bottom of most Android devices. But I still don't really know what I'm doing.

So I decided to write a blog about my transition in going from an iPhone to using Android, specifically on my Moto X. This is not a tech blog. I will try to be thorough but I probably won't use specs or fancy terms or talk about all the features available. The point of my blog is to share the point of view of an average user, though I certainly don't consider myself average in general ;) And I'm not trying to convince you that Android is better, or that you should switch, too. I am just sharing how this transition has been going for me. Here are some demographics, you can decide if my experiences will be of any use to you:

1) I am female. This means I care a lot about the pinkness of my phone, even if it might make me look ditzy and you don't care and think it is a dumb thing to care about. I don't worry about it because

2) I graduated from Stanford University (class of '05) and am the BIGGEST Stanford fan. Seriously. Also, I have my Master's from the University of Texas in Austin (UT).

3) I have lived in the Bay Area for about ten years, and in San Antonio and Austin, Texas otherwise (there were a few other locations in the US, briefly). After all these years I can confidently say that being in the Bay Area means you are probably more tech savvy than people in other parts of the country- if nothing else, you are certainly more aware of tech than other people tend to be. So, when I make observations in this blog of how I couldn't figure out how to do something, it is not because I think I am too dumb or ignorant to figure it out, it is because it shouldn't have to be that difficult, which is a user interface problem, not a user (me) problem!

4) I am mostly writing this blog for my friends and family who I probably convinced to switch to iPhone when I fell in love with it. They will probably be shocked to learn that I now use Android and will be curious to know what the differences are. I will chronicle those experiences here.

Let me know what you think!

-Marisa

PS- My Tia Sheri is awesome =D