While I’ve been an iOS user for many years, I’ve always been very curious about Android. Indeed, the openness of the platform and all that that entails speaks to my inner geek. I first experimented with Android back in 2011 when Android 2.1 was all the rage because way back then, it was still possible to get phones like the T-Mobile G2 with physical keyboards and, as a serious texting and social media junkie, this appealed to me. Eventually I drifted back to iOS until a few years later when I traded in my iPhone for a Samsung Galaxy S III. The Galaxy served me well until Apple released Siri which I just had to have and so back to iOS I came.
Over the years, there’s been quite a bit of innovation happening in the Android accessibility space and while I do my best to keep up with it all, it’s hard to really understand it if I’m not using it. That said, iOS is working just fine for me, so it’s hard for me to justify the cost of a high-end Android device like Google’s Pixel even though it admittedly does look pretty darn cool. And so it came to pass that one day, while researching Motorola cable modems on Amazon Prime Now, I came across the Moto G4 Play which retails for around $149. um… a quick note to my more juvenile readers, this model is the letter G followed by the number 4 followed by the word play, not the “foreplay” you immediately thought of when your speech synthesizer read this to you :). Anyway, I realize that at this price point, this phone won’t be as capable as higher-end models, but for someone like me who is generally curious — wanting to see what’s out there — I thought this model might be a good place to start.
What I thought I’d do is write a series of articles chronicling my rediscovery of Android, so that others who might be thinking of giving it a try will have an idea of the types of things they might encounter. I’m not looking to convince anyone that Android’s better than iOS or vice versa. Also, as I write, keep in mind that I too am learning and discovering, so if you find I’m doing something wrong, or if I should be doing something a different way, please don’t hesitate to comment.
I’m excited to be rediscovering Android and hope you enjoy the journey with me.
you may also want to check out the RCA galileo pro tablet at walmart with physical keyboard for just $80 running android 6 and talkback installed it runs stock android. works great. my son has one and let me play with it and its great. it feels like a $1000 macbook pro when its in laptop mode connected to its physical keyboard. really really cool.
Wow, only $80? That’s super impressive, especially if it has a physical keyboard. Heck, just a plain bluetooth keyboard can cost that much depending on model. Curious, what kinds of things were you able to do with the tablet? Did you run into any difficulties with anything? I’ll definitely check next time I’m in Wal-Mart unless is that an online only thing? Thanks so much for commenting.
Steve, Flying Blind provided a heads up to your new series. I’m excited to read more and experiment more with my new Kindle Fire HD and antique S4.
Thanks so much for mentioning the series, I really appreciate it. I am planning to tag all the Android-related posts, so should probably figure out a way to make a link to just that specific tag. I’ve not done this before, but hear it’s “easily doable” with WordPress.