I’ve recently had the most random urge to try out (and own) an android phone. There’s really no reason why. I love my iPhone and am completely happy with just about everything it does. It’s the best phone I’ve ever owned. I think part of the reason for the random urge is work. Customers come in and ask me what the differences are between android and iOS. I know the basic differences, and could regurgitate stuff read from sites like the verge, or engadget, but I don’t’ really actually know the differences. The same is true if they come in and have a problem with their android phone. I had to google how to factory reset one, because I couldn’t figure it out (although, it was in what I thought a strange place). I’m sort of clueless trying to do anything on them.

So the solution to this is to go out and buy an android phone. Easy I thought. I figured the internet would be crawling with $100 awesome android phones capable of running the latest and greatest android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS. Then reality struck. There are barely any phones that run ICS and they’re all stupidly expensive (at least $300).

Then I got caught up in this ‘google experience’ thing. Almost every phone that runs android has some sort of skin put on by the manufacturer. Samsung has TouchWiz (sadly, that’s what they really call it), HTC has Sense and Motorola has (or had) Blur. None of them give you what Google really want you to see. Of course the cheapest android phone running this mystical google experience (or stock android as they call it) was about $250 and came out in December 2010, some 16 months ago.

But then I had an idea.

I have an iPad with LTE through Verizon, which currently costs me $30 for 2GB of LTE data. Not a bad deal, but not exactly stellar. The Galaxy Nexus can function as a personal hotspot, giving you the ability to connect 5 devices and use LTE data. If I were to get a Galaxy Nexus, I’d get 4GB of data (double what I get now) for $10 more a month through Verizon, plus I’d get another phone number (which I guess could be good?). The only difference is I’d have to pay $100 for the phone itself. Plus I’d finally get to try out google’s flagship phone, which clearly holds its value if I decide to sell it. The only thing that’s unfortunate is the 2 year contract, but potentially if I were to sell this iPad, I wouldn’t have to spend the extra money on the 4G iPad 4.

Doing some math it equates to this:
Currently:
2GB of Data through Verizon = $30 per month
Potentially:
Galaxy Nexus with 4GB of Data = $40 per month

This makes sense, right?

I’ll admit I always thought the ‘Sent from my iPhone’ built-in signature is a bit cheesy, but this…

Yikes.

I’ve got a confession.

I’ve always wanted a smart watch. Always. I want to wear something on my wrist that I can glance at to see things that I’d regularly have to pull my phone from my pocket to see. I want it to look modern and semi-fashionable. I want it to be affordable. Most importantly, I want it to work with my iPhone.

Until today, I haven’t seen any ‘smart’ watches that meet this criteria. Pebble is different.

There’s two things holding me back from pledging (via Kickstarter) right now.

• No SMS support in iOS (the number one reason I look at my phone)

Which makes me wonder if iMessage support is baked in, and it’s just SMS that isn’t supported.

• It’s not shipping until September

As of right this second, they have over 5x their initial $100,000 goal. Hopefully this means the ability to ship sooner.

See their video here.