Back in 2010, when our main @VIAwesome Twitter account had only 3,750 followers, we called on the 9 mobile carriers who were operating in Vancouver at the time. We made THIS BLOG POST in which we joked that we were using an ancient 90's brick phone (which wasn't too far off from the truth), then we seriously pleaded the case for a telco to come to our rescue and help bring us into the world of smartphones. TELUS was the first to answer the call (pun intended), and we've enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership with them ever since. They're an awesome Vancouver-based company that not only delivers great products and services, with ultra-responsive customer service (have you seen them on Twitter?) and also does a ton of COMMUNITY GIVING to charities and non-profits ($44,000,000 worth in 2012). Their business is really in tune with what we do over here.
It's crazy how far we've come in the almost three years since they came on board as a Community Sponsor. We've increased our Twitter followers by almost 10 times (as I type this we have 32,197 Followers), we've placed as one of Vancouver's top 3 Twitter accounts 2 years running in the Georgia Straight's BEST OF, and TELUS has really helped us get here. And in that relatively short amount of time, the technology of the phones we use has also come a long way.
Pictured below are the phones I've used in the past 3 years with TELUS. Next to the Motorola Brick is the Motorola Backflip which is the first phone they connected us with, and which I used for about a year. I then went to the iPhone 4, which I also used for about a year until I discovered how incredible the Samsung Galaxy S3 was for Instagram (SUCH. VIVID. PHOTOS!). I dropped the S3 one day and the screen was totally destroyed, so I decided to give the new BlackBerry Z10 a chance, until I was offered the S4... which I jumped at.
The Brick, Motorola Backflip, iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy S3, BlackBerry Z10... and the Samsung Galaxy S4
The craziest thing in this timeline, to me, is that when I got my second smartphone (the iPhone 4) I thought that was it. I figured it was the best thing going and that I would stick with it for as long as I've stuck with using a Macbook. As a creative director, I've been toting around different variations of Apple laptops for almost 15 years now; it's just always been the platform that "we" use in the creative sector. When I initially made the switch from my iPhone to the Galaxy S3 my main concern was that I wasn't going to be able to sync my calendar from my laptop to my phone, and that the operating system would be weird. As it turned out the calendar synced seamlessly (go figure!), and I ended up liking the Android operating system as much as IOS, some of the features even moreso. And getting onto that S3 really was the catalyst that set up my "Aha!" moment when I realized that I'm fairly agnostic when it comes to the operating system on my phone. Apple is not the end-all-be-all; I even took the BlackBerry 10 OS for a good spin for the last couple of months with ease, and I enjoyed it.
But out of all the smartphones I've owned, so far this S4 is the best. I'm not into downloading tons of apps and running my phone nonstop, but there are a couple must-haves that my BlackBerry didn't have, and which I use multiple times a day. One is Instagram (my personal IG is @BobKronbauer if you care to follow) and the other is Hootsuite, pictured on my phone above. I actually hacked a glitchy, non-BlackBerry version of Instagram onto the Z10 because I really, really wanted to support a Canadian company. I was hoping to hold out until they built it for that OS but it didn't happen soon enough. And the screen on this S4. THE SCREEN. Whenever people ask me what I like about the Galaxy I ask them to open up Instagram on their phone, then I open it on mine and hold them side by side. A solemn "Whoa" accompanied by a widening of eyes is the usual response that this taste test gets.
And as a sort of less-consumer-guilt bonus, 100% of the packaging that it comes in is recyclable. 100% of it is made of post-consumer recycled paper AND is printed with soy-based inks. It's nice to know that the world's largest information technology company in 2012 (Apple was #2) cares enough to take small steps in reducing its footprint. Or maybe it's nice to know that the consumers who appreciate the brand care enough to make that something that the company cares about.
There might be a day when I go back to another operating system and another brand but, as I said, right now I think the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the best thing out there.
