Exploring a New Galaxy

Two months ago I took a “day-cation” from my phone and digital life. “Digital detox” allowed me to enjoy people and things in my real life, and it yielded the surprisingly positive outcome of feeling happier and more relaxed. Since my first time, I’ve been taking a break about twice a month, and it’s wonderful.

On a recent digital detox weekend at our house near Mount Rainier, Fedex attempted to deliver a package from Verizon and @TheOnlineMom. To my delight, it turned out to be the Galaxy Note 4 by Samsung — #TheNextBigThing!

Once we were back in Seattle, I zipped over to Fedex and unboxed it right on the counter! I immediately took a photo and texted it to my social media BFF, Reg Saddler @zaibatsu, and later posted it on Instagram.

I’m a long-time Apple devotee and sometimes feel lost when setting up non-Apple devices, but much to my surprise, the Galaxy Note 4 was easy to set up and begin using. After topping off the charge on the battery, I was excited to get started.

Adding email accounts and loading my favorite applications was a snap. And after authorizing the apps, it was ready to roll.

The first thing I did was try the 16 MP camera. I found it to capture images with a nice, warm color range. It features the standard control options you’d expect (exposure, white balance, ISO) as well as a higher resolution-than-iPhone front-facing camera.

The Galaxy Note 4 phone was easy to use and sync with my contacts, and as an e-reader, I found the display only slightly smaller, but much lighter than my Kindle Fire HD (6.2 oz. versus 10.1 oz.).

The volume and variety of apps available on the Android platform are plentiful and many are free. In a recent #vzwbuzz post-chat conversation with Monica Vila about photo and sharing apps, I mention:

• Instagram (sharing and editing)
• Snapseed (image editing)
• Tumblr (blogging platform)
• Flickr (sharing)

But there are now more than 1,000,000 apps in the Google Play store, so explore and you’ll find some useful and fun treasures.

Kahuna Dave, me and our kids at Alki Surf Shop

Our wonderful home on AirBNB

The past seven months have been busy. My husband, David Horsfall, and I opened a store, Alki Surf Shop, I’ve been working on graphic design projects from branding to long-narrative collateral and everything in between. And I began managing one of our homes on AirBNB. All the while I’ve maintained real-life and virtual relationships on social media.

I treasure time away from my devices, but it’s always great to come back to such great technology, including my iPhone and Galaxy Note 4.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was composited with 800px-Andromeda_Galaxy-creative-commons. Other images (c) Terri Nakamura