hedonistic materialism

so i got a new phone.

i upgraded from my old shitbrick:

the sony ericsson t715. it was a pretty decent phone, one that i was excited to get at the time. but now, at the end of 2 and 3/4 years with it, it was pretty much approaching the end of its life cycle. i guess all you truly need phones for are calling and texting, but calls on this thing were difficult to make out at times. texting was dead slow, tons of delays all around, even after deleting all my messages (and i do love my message logging).

also, i was starting to want something more out of my phone - a center for me to do anything i wanted/need, ever. jot down notes/ideas i have or list shit i have to do, or get directions, or simple stuff like copying down my work schedule.

so i got a new phone.

it has been dubbed the red river rhino. 

it is this:

the HTC Evo 3D.

my first choice was the samsung galaxy s ii, but this is damn good all the same. the 3D works better than i thought, and is pretty cool. about 85% of people i've shown it to are impressed right off the bat, though about 1 in 3 or 4 of them do get dizzy from it. still, i think it's pretty cool. it's a little thicker and heavier than many modern smartphones, but i don't really mind the weight - coming from a photographer using pentax's Limiteds, tiny but all-metal-and-glass lenses, i quite like the feel of something relatively small but hefty. it gives it a dense feeling of solidarity and quality. i like, i like.

and jesusshitballs it's fast. sometimes i feel like it's faster than my laptop/pc. and while part of it is because my old phone is so slow, i'm not alone. continuing with my potentially bullshitty statistics, about 1 in 5 people i've shown it to have commented on how fast it is. two of them were iphone 4 users ;D

and useability. just now, while being distracted from writing this, i read a review on an android game, used google goggles to read the QR code (the square blocks of whatthefuckery), which took me to android market and let me download it. under 30 seconds.

goddamn i love this thing. i think half of it is being in love with having an up-to-date smartphone on android, as opposed to being the htc evo 3d itself, but still. 

also, the camera. i'm surprised to see that the 3D output of this thing is actually quite great. it's every bit as 3D-ish as the sample photos, which is rare. and, the interesting bit. i have it with me everywhere. while my k-5 is more of a conscious decision to bring along, my phone is a no-brainer to come along. this means the everyday moments, my phone'll capture and my k-5 won't. and since i'm in a bit of a photographic lull, this is a double-edged sword. on the one hand, it lets me focus on just composition and light and moments and timing and forget about what's, in the end, unimportant - like sharpness or bokeh quality. on the other hand, it makes me wish my k-5 was smaller, even though it's the smallest-in-class dslr, as are the lenses (by a significant margin, too). or it makes me feel bad that i don't bring around everytime i go out. though, if i'm watching the movies, i guess i do have something of an excuse there.

<3redriverrhino.

TL;DR - i had nuggets for breakfast.