Not quite a year ago I wrote about my newly acquired Motorola Droid and my general satisfaction with the device.  Over the intervening months I added applications and found the device more than capable.  As you are probably aware, earlier this month, Verizon began offering the Apple iPhone 4 and after a week or so I acquired one.  As I already have an Apple iPad the learning curve on the usage of the applications and the method operation was easily acquired and one of my motivations was that the two devices would operate similarly.  One of the first things that struck me was how much easier it is to operate the iPhone than the Droid.  I had been told about this by friends and family but as Verizon was the only option given where I live the potential benefit was lost on me.  All of my critical apps – like Poynt and The Kindle – were also available on the iPhone along with an increasing number of applications that were either not available for the Droid or I had not discovered them.  Almost daily I am encountering more apps that I like, mostly by seeing them online or in the magazines.  Some like the Walgreen’s app are more  a convenience and others like the SI Swim Suit Edition are an unexpected bonus.  One thing to bear in mind if you are upgrading from another Verizon device to the iPhone is that you will have to reset-up your voice mail  I was not told this by the salesperson at Verizon and only discovered it by accident – I had not received any voice mails. However after I setup the new voice mail account I found 4 waiting voice mails.   This is totally different than other upgrades over the years with Verizon so be forewarned. By the way, I had considered waiting and looking at the upcoming Droid Bionic but as the form factor is the same as the Droid X I decided to pass.  I had found the rather large size of the Droid X a little ungainly.

In this process, I also discovered that used cell phones have value and in my case almost as much as I paid for it a year ago.  The purchaser, Alltech Wholesale an eBay merchant, provided free shipping to their location in Carrollton, Texas and promptly credited the agreed amount to my PayPal account.  I was able to transfer the amount from PayPal to my checking account on the same day.  So if you have an unused cell phone laying around the house, you may want to check and see if it has value.  Certainly, if you are upgrading from one smart phone to another, check out the options here.