Now I’m like most 30-somethings out there who are both fathers, husbands and sole-providers and think practicality over bells and whistles. As a matter of fact as tech savvy as I am and as involved in social media as I’ve been over the years spearheading Vintage Limited into the web 2.0 era… I have to admit when it came to cell phones I’ve been a step behind. For the last few years I’ve been rocking the Motorola RAZR which to be honest was based on the necessity to have a phone that withstood the abuse of my kids toying with it and me dropping it. For more than a few years now my trusty RAZR has taken the abuse and kept on ticking making a suitable asset to my daily grind. No flash here, no web browser, no email, no VZ nav, not even an mp3 player and the only ringtone I’m getting on this thing are bad renditions of popular songs as midi keys.

Just about 3 weeks ago my trusty RAZR finally gave out. The lame battery gained a memory and now the phone could only operate for about 6 hours before beaping in my ear and eventually dying a slow and annoying low battery alerting death. After some deliberation and convincing I finally decided it was time to get with it. Since I’m online 12-16 hours of the day (most days) having the internet on my phone wasn’t really a selling point for me… Or so I thought. Yet there I was making a few trips to the Verizon retail store messing around with the latest phone options and doing my research online to see which one would suite my purposes for my business and of course hold up to the kids at home. What I ended up finding out about myself is my susceptibility to the hype. Here I was after years of never having a need for or even wanting access to all the bells and whistles of a new ‘smart phone’ and I was salivating over the awesome new iPhone rival… Of course I’m talking about the Droid! Now this is a cool phone! Blackberry would have been my first choice had I not stumbled over the launch of the new Droid phones… but shortly after finding that my already hefty monthly bill would be increased by yet another $30 for unlimited data package and an extra $5 for email my excitement was short lived. Going through my head trying to find ways as we all do to justify spending that extra $30 plus a month on features like email, mobile web to update my facebook and twitter pages… you know all the things you suddenly can’t live without… and I was having a hard time justifying the bloated bill when I have a wife and 3 kids to support.

After conceding to a standard phone option I stumbled onto what I thought was actually one of the coolest phones in the store! A sliding menu, touch screen phone, with killer qwerty keyboard that slides out from the back of the phone on demand and has enough space between the buttons to actually make typing an email on your phone practical… All included with one touch access to Facebook, Twitter, and mobile email. Of course this had to be too good to be true so imagine my shock when I found out that the phone I picked up, the Samsung Rogue, allowed me to have limited access to the internet and mobile email for 1/3 what the Droid and Blackberry offered ($9.99/mo for 25mb of net access versus the required $29.99 for unlimited data access on the other phones). To make things even sweeter my new every 2 contract was up so the phone was practically free! Naturally I jumped on the offer. A few hours later I was fighting for my phone that was in my wife’s hands who was suddenly as captivated by the ability to stream video and check her social media pages while simultaneously sitting at the dining room table preparing food for the kids. Now how cool is that!?

I found this review on Cnet of the Samsung Rogue. Have to admit I really wanted an iPhone and was almost convinced to switch to AT&T to get one… the lack of the qwerty keyboard was my hold up and also the service change to break my contract with Verizon. Droid was my next option and a killer phone! Still… for anyone like myself looking for something more practical and can’t quite justify the $30/mo ADDITIONAL fee’s added to your plan… This phone is just as cool, has all the same features (a few exceptions) but for 1/3 of the cost of ownership. That’s one phone that was easily justifiable to my inner-conscious and to my wallet as well. I definitely co-sign the Samsung Rogue as one cool phone and a new weapon in my arsenal of the daily grind.

I just wanted to extend a special congratulation to Vintage Limited artist Wordsmith. Earlier last week, his “Bridging the Gap” LP, which he cut with the legendary Chubb Rock, was named the fourth best music album of the year by a local artist.  Check out the review by Baltimore City Paper feature writer Bret McCabe.

http://www.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=19446