The Friday Five

I am in love. I am just loving my new Samsung Omnia 2 smartphone. The five features that have sent me to cloud nine:

1. It has a touch screen. Touch a button, touch a screen. Sleek. Even though there's a screen protector, I do find myself wiping my greasy prints off the screen. I like that shiny, out of the box look.

2. Typing on the virtual keyboard can be a challenge with my sausage fingers. I don't know how the young people can make their fingers fly over the tiny keyboards to text. The phone comes with a stylus which is a godsend when adding appointments to the calendar.

3. Since the phone can be synched with a computer (it didn't like synching with Vista 64, but works well on the laptop with XP), I can use my own sound files for ringtones. Plus downloading old television theme songs from TelevisionTunes.com I've been having a blast picking out tunes for family members. The best one is the one I picked for my dad. He's 90 and we've been dealing with some problems/health issues for my 91 year old ma. Dad's been calling a lot lately. His ringtone is Johnny Weissmeuller's Tarzan yell. Cracks me up when I hear it and is a great stress buster.

4. The phone has a large screen. For someone who just got new glasses with lenses manufactured by the same company that made the Hubbell telescope lenses, this is a huge plus. The better to see you, my dear.

5. The best feature of the phone is the Call Recognition. Press a button and a female automated voice prompts you to say a command. Like Call Home. The downside is the automated voice must have been trained to respond to a flat, midWestern accent. You know the one. The one all the television news anchors have. So the phone has a hard time interpreting my Boston accent. Call Home has me having a conversation with the phone.

"Did you say 'Call Glow'?

Glow? Ok, glow might be considered an eye rhyme with home.

No.

"Did you say 'Call Pizza'?

Pizza? What ah ya? That one doesn't even come close.

I try to speak slower. I've heard that complaint from those outside of Boston. Seems we talk too fast (though I think some just can't keep up (-; )

"Call one mississippi, two mississipi, three mississipi Home

The screen lights up with Dialing... and the home phone number.

Add a sixth feature. I just love to customize my brains out to make my phone unique. The picture on the lock screen is Mr. Morton, the XO, of the submarine Seaview from the television show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The XO keeps all areas running smoothly on the boat. Seemed a fitting mascot for the phone.

Do you have a phone or other gadget you love?