Comments on HTC's "You" Ad Campaign

You may have seen these ads. They're filmed from the perspective of a person's phone. The last thing you see at night. The first thing you see in the morning. And everywhere in between. Every part of your life.

HTC was a nameless brand a year ago when I bought my G1 "Google" phone running Android. I'd never heard of them before. That only bothered me a little.

It took a while to really get an idea of what this phone could do. Things really opened up when I got a bluetooth for it. Here are some examples of what my phone allows me to do.

Cutting a text message to use it as the subject line of an email. Leaving gmail to open the camera, take several pictures, return to gmail- my unfinished draft still waiting for me- and attach the pictures. Take or make a call before or after hitting send- confident that the email will get through.

Searching and reading email while on the phone. Writing an email.

Sending and receiving text messages while on the phone.

Playing a strategy game while on a call.

Comcast goes down while I'm in the middle of a chat. Switch to my phone and not miss any of the conversation.

Start an email on my phone, save as a draft, and finish on my laptop. Or visa versa.

I have an app that automatically searches craigslist. I got my whitewater kayak, paddle, wetsuit, sprayskirt, and lifevest from five different sources and ended up spending less than $200 total. It took over a month though.

Someone sends me a text message with the time and place of a business appointment. Cut and paste it into my google calendar in a couple seconds.

The internet, of course. But not while talking on the phone. Moving between different browser windows without having to start over.

Instant, and I mean *even before it shows up on my laptop* email notifications.

The fact that my phone has a keyboard on it, which I type on fast enough to hold my own in chat, or write multi-page missives, is essential. I'd never settle for less.

Virtual observatory software using the phone's electronic levels, compass, and GPS. All I have to do is point the phone at some area of the sky- day or night, indoor or out- and it shows me what's there.

Being able to check the weather instantly. Traffic too- using free apps. I have three pages of desktop (with a quick search bar) and six pages of random things I've downloaded. About a hundred programs, only three of which I've paid for. Because the rest were free.

I had a complaint about how gmail worked, and they fixed it in the next update.

I bought an extra battery for it (for $5 straight from HK), which is ready for emergency use.

One thing I don't use it for is navigation. I have a dedicated GPS in my car.

And no Youtube either. Mobile resolution is unusable. Youtube is bad enough without having its quality reduced further.