Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Fans Voices program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.
Well, it's been a pretty sweet six months since Verizon and Comblu took me out to Chicago for a weekend. I got all sorts of new stuff, both directly and indirectly through their promotion, and with my infinite 4G data plan set to expire tomorrow (
) it's time for my final analysis on everything they've provided me with.
First thing's first. Let's go over the list of technological swag I was given.
- Droid Maxx
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
- Fitbit Force
That's a pretty excellent list of things. Let's go a little bit in depth about each one.
Droid Maxx
Man, how much more can I say about it? It's excellent. It's my phone. I feel excellent about it. I can only write that so many times (not actually enough to meet the requested post frequency, but Verizon and Comblu have been great sports about that nevertheless). I'm addicted to swipe texting, I can play Gameboy Color games on it. It does Twitter and Facebook. It lets me use Homestar Runner music as my alarm in the morning. As someone raised on Windows and used to accessing any component of my computers I want, using Android feels like finally being freed from the cookie-cutter interface prison that is my old iPhone 4. I'm so pumped for this to be my phone from now on.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
Honestly, I haven't gotten into the tablet as much as I'd like to by now. It's essentially my phone, but bigger. I like to use it at night before I go to bed, and I've streamed a few hockey games on it (best of both worlds: waking up early to watch the Olympics without getting out of bed). Other than that, I haven't really incorporated it into my lifestyle yet, but I think it will make a good distraction while cooking or washing dishes in the kitchen or working out, all things I should do more of in my life.
Fitbit Force
This neat little gadget is pretty much a watch/pedometer and that's about it. Not being the kind of guy who has a watch, it was nice to start wearing it throughout the day. I also learned that I'm way more active than I thought, walking in the neighborhood of 6000-8000 steps a day. The app that works with it (on my phone, which links by Bluetooth because it is the future right now) collects all the data and reads out statistics, sets fitness goals for you, and ultimately looks like a really useful tool for the exercise-inclined. I'm a blogger though, and after a few months of wearing it, I got some kind of rash on my wrist and now I don't wear the Fitbit to see if that goes away. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There's more to this promotion than just the free stuff. It was an experience. I had a great weekend in Chicago (shout out to my friend Ali who was my de facto tour guide since I got in a day early). I saw the Bears complete a come-from-behind victory in the final seconds against the Vikings. For the first time since deciding to pursue a media career, I actually felt like it was going somewhere.
But above all else, I made some friends. As the only Pittsburgh representatives, I spent some time with the infamous Evil Shero from Pens Initiative (If you unfollowed him a year or two ago for flame wars, give him another chance. He's a pretty mellow guy these days). We shared drinks at the hotel bar with Will from Rams Herd (Bloguin bros wooo). In fact, the Rams had a such a strong contingent of bloggers that you shoiuld root for them just because their bloggers are so cool.
There are really too many cool people to list from the event, but the largest thanks go out to Brenda and Pam, the women who got us all organized and put together the whole experience. They're some of the nicest and most accommodating people out there and all of us bloggers who had such a great experience owe it to them.
So there you have it. My experience with these devices and technology, but more importantly, the experience I had with everyone involved. 10/10 would hang out again.
(Dear bloggers from the future: if you found this post because you were offered a similar ordeal from similar people and you are afraid it is a kidney-harvesting scam, it is not. You should totally do this, 100%)
