Last month, we gave you the chance to win a Motorola Milestone 2 Android smartphone. All you had to do was tell us your tech milestone to be in with a chance, and you did in droves. There were epiphanies, epochal moments and gadget landmarks all over the shop, but somebody had to win. Read on through to find out who…
After much deliberation, we awarded the Motorola Milestone 2 to Rhys Davies, for his eloquent revelation on the convenience of GPS and online reviews:
“Location services on maps. I’d had a smart phone for a while but had always really considered it non essential. I checked Facebook on it, emails, the usual. One weekend we decided to go to the Bristol harbour festival. We were sat on the deck of a pub/bar boat towards the city centre end of the harbour. Evening was creeping in and in the midst of our alcohol fuelled haze we decided we probably ought to get something to eat before drinking more and watching the fireworks.
“My wife quipped ‘You’ve got that fancy phone, find us some food’, so laughing all the way I opened up maps, let it find my location and literally typed “food” into it. I expected it to either A) not work, or B) provide me with useless info. So imagine my surprise when all these markers appeared on the map listing various eateries.
“Fascinated by it, everyone then crowded round the phone and the poking and prodding began to see what type of restaurant each was. We then discovered we could directly read reviews from each entry as well and after much reading and poking of the screen several were decided on. We then found we could go through to the listed websites of each place and read the menu, saving us a fairly large trek to each one and then back to the one we wanted. So a little Greek place was chosen and then duly called from the phone number on the maps entry. Success, table booked for 45 minutes’ time! Just enough time for a celebratory pint.
I’ve gone through several smartphones since then and the ones since continue to do even more amazing things. But looking back this one event just blew me away. Being able to sit on a deck of a boat in the harbour, scan all the local listed restaurants, read their reviews, and their menus. And then be able to book a table, without ever having to leave my seat or pint. It truly cemented my smartphone as an “essential” rather than being just a fun accessory.”
Rhys, who works in IT, tell us he’s been through several smartphones recently, including a Google Nexus One and the Dell Streak, but just can’t resist the lure of a QWERTY keyboard. “I’m a real sucker for a physical keyboard. I find it so much easier to type on them, plus not losing a section of your screen to the keyboards fantastic,” he tell us.
Congratulations, Rhys, your Motorola Milestone 2 is on its way to you, and thanks again to EXPANSYS for the prize. To receive more information from EXPANSYS please click here.
Didn’t win this time? Not to worry: we’ve got a prize to give away every day until Christmas – see our Advent Calendar for details.
