A Disappointing Christmas

Growing up, I always loved Christmas time. My grandparents would ask us for our Christmas lists, and I would start wondering which parts of the list they would get. While I understood the meaning of Christmas, I really enjoyed seeing the presents under the tree and which ones were mine. What do you expect? I was a kid. I found out years later that my grandpa would refuse to leave the store until all of the items on the list were purchased. I really wish that tidbit had been revealed a bit earlier. Oh well.

As an adult (or as close of an approximation as I am), I focus more on Christmas as a time to remember the significance and for family to gather together. The anticipation that formerly accompanied Christmas has found a new outlet.in looking forward to gadget releases, software releases, updates to software or hardware and various other geeky type of stuff. It was fully in evidence leading up to the release of what would become my phone. It was more recently apparent as I waited for the release of the operating system update for the phone.

The Incredible came out of the box with Android version 2.1, but soon thereafter, 2.2 became the latest version of the OS. Since upgrading the software on your own apparently voids the hardware warranty, I proceeded to wait as patiently as I could for the new release to be blessed by both HTC and Version before it arrived on my phone. "I'm a close approximation of an adult," I say to myself. "I can wait for it."

I should really have known better.

It became increasingly difficult to wait for the upgrade. Even though I knew that every day brought it closer to the date of the release, like Christmas, time seemed to slow down.

Finally, one morning, it was time: I got the notification on my phone that there was an update available. I immediately clicked to start the install. Then, I went to take a shower. The two events were completely unrelated other than the fact that chronologically they are together. Once I had completed the shower, I grabbed my phone and went to work.

Since then, I've been largely unimpressed, to be honest. I haven't noticed much of a change as far as the performance of the phone. Some of the widgets are prettier and the task switcher is a little bit improved so that there are more applications to switch between. However, most of the changes have almost been for the worse. Or at least the disappointing. The mobile WiFi hotspot feature is built in to 2.2. However, Verizon doesn't want to let you use it without paying an extra $30 per month. Verizon also added some applications, namely Skype Mobile and Verizon Navigator, that run on their own and can't be uninstalled. Skype runs on its own without any input from me. This is a bad thing. I have also recently discovered that Verizon has it set up that when you plug your phone in to your computer in hard drive mode (as opposed to charge only), they have an autorun set up to ask you to install their media management application. It also launches their website in your browser to affirm the virtues of their media management software.  All of this tends to make me a little bit upset. They're wanting to charge me for a feature of the operating system that they didn't create. They're filling my phone with bloatware that uses up resources that are at a premium on any mobile platform. They're ruining my OS upgrade. For shame, Verizon. For shame.

It's as though they've taken all the toys for me under the Christmas tree and replaced them with sweaters, socks and underwear.

And it's not even fun underwear.