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Full Review of the T-Mobile G1 Android Device
palmsolo writes "Want to see the biggest and most in-depth review of the T-Mobile G1 Google Android device from a person who has been using it for a week? Check out over 260 photos and 5 videos of the device and just about every screen of the Google Android OS. Find out how well HTC, T-Mobile and Google did with this first-generation device." I played with one for a few minutes and found it a solid unit. It feels less polished than the iPhone, but the screen and keyboard are great. It'll be a real test of Open Source to see what happens with the iPhone App Store's closed system vs. Android's open one.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/16/android_kill_switch/
In all the ads/product reviews I've seen so far, none has mentioned that it's build on an open source framework.
Whereas people will of course be plucking the fruits of the (free) apps that will be developed, right now it's not a selling point that makes any impression with the 'normal' user.
I hope that, once released, there will be a place where all the apps will be collected (maybe accessible from within the phone), otherwise I don't think that people will -ever- know about the existence of such apps.
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
I can forgive HTC for allowing a "less polished" feel in return for not having to pay the enormous mark-up present on Apple's iPhone.
I eagerly anticipate the post in the near future of "Android hacked onto iPhone chassis".
Now that might make the iPhone worth the extorsionate price they're charging for it!
Im still slightly in the gray about the open-ness of the android platform. Everywhere I've looked has said that Android is open but the official website under "Will Android work on [insert phone here]" Only gives the SDK emulator rather than an HCL.
Can anyone shed some light on whether it will only run on specifically designed hardware or if it is "open" in the sense they lead me to believe.
I may have got the wrong end of the stick but I hope not, I have an LG Nyx I was looking forward to androiding...
I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was going blame you for it!
The G1 isn't available in Europe yet but even if it was it would probably be to expensive. They should make something cheap which more or less could just handle a call but still using the same OS for the masses to.
I like to have an open phone but I don't want to invest a fortune in a phone because I don't use it very much and I believe and mp3-player/pmp/DSLR/.. handle its things better.
Sure if it really IS a kick ass mp3/pmp player.
...that this "solid unit" needs more polishing?
Dan Grigsby looks at the Android G1 in 5 minutes from an iPhone developer's perspective.
Loren Feldman (1938media) throws in his own snarky-but-entertaining 2 cents.
A few people have put together a list of all the apps observed in Market to date.
I'm sure this will flood with even more over the next week when they open the developer portal. Oh yea, and I reverse engineered the iTunes remote control protocol and released an Android client GPL'ed: http://dacp.jsharkey.org/
Until Android is on other phones by other providers it's ostensibly just another phone.
Will change its crappy policies once the Android app store, and hell, even the blackberry app like store becomes more popular, and developers just stop making apps for the iphone because all the red tape and apples tendency to yank anything actually useful.
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
The G1 looks like it's so close to the general feature set of the Nokia internet tablets, plus the phone bits obviously. I'm wondering what the next stage of Nokia's 770, N800, N810 series will look like. They made a WiMax version of the N810 but I haven't seen any info about a new successor. The slide-out keyboard for the N810 seems to be a lot nicer than the G1's, and the general maemo development platform has been okay for me (especially since python is well-supported with fairly extensive maemo bindings).
If the G1 or its successor (G2?) supports Japanese input and output "out of the box" (but with English as the primary interface language) and has suitable J-E/E-J dictionary support, I'd be more interested. Haven't seen much info about that in the reviews or discussions of Android.
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From the article:
"When installing a new app, Android flags up which services - camera, network, GPS, etc. - it will use. That way, the user can judge whether the software is going to do what it claims it will, or something nefarious. It's useful, but it assumes a degree of understanding that many users just won't have."
Just what we need...the average cell phone user having to decide wheater or not something they are about to install is nefarious.
Get ready for automatic crank calls from a contact list worm.
Or better yet, a virus that will randomly take snapshots with the camera, and mail/text them to everyone in your contact list
Shameless plug alert: Game server control panel
Apple haters - quit bitching
Apple fanboys - quit bitching
Let me explain this in very simple economic terms. Right now lots of people produce widgets, but Apple has made a Super Widget. Well they are the only big production makers of the Super Widget at the moment so they get to control the field. This isn't monopoly, this is normal economics. Now, Android, OpenMoko, and so on are gearing up to also build Super Widgets. This means there will be competition in the Super Widget sector. Competition means that ALL of the Super Widget makers are going to have to work harder to make their Super Widget the Super Widget of choice. This benefits everyone. Even as an iPhone owner I am happy that these things are picking up steam because of this.
We don't have fast computers simply because science has made it so. We have fast computers on the shelves and in our homes because the people selling computers always need a way to edge ahead of the competitions sales. This is why AMD redid their whole naming for their processors because people assumed lower clock speed = slower.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
One disturbing thing is that apps can only live in the internal phone memory (I believe 192MB). The point out most apps are just a MB or two, but as you see more games and more polished apps with more graphics, that number increases quickly. Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone for example, is I think 32MB or so.
I imagine it's for speed of access, but should probably still be allowed...
On the plus side, I had read before you could only sync with one google calendar but am happy to see you can at least see other calendars in addition to your own. But I think the limitation is still there to be able to only hook into one gmail account at a time, which I don't think I could work with as I have multiple gmail accounts for different domains.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Without a doubt, people will compare the G1 to the iPhone and out of the box you honestly have to say the G1 wins over the original iPhone with wireless syncing capability, cut/copy/paste, games, a wireless music store, application store and 3rd party application support, integrated GPS, multiple client IM clients, and multi-tasking capability.
Unless I'm mistaken, all iPhones can run the 2.x software, so why would he compare it to the original iPhone's software? iPhone 2.x already includes MOST of those features, and I'm sure Apple's App Store is way ahead Google's right now.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Apple haters - quit bitching
Apple fanboys - quit bitching
I don't really see any bitching about the iPhone.
Apple haters like it because it's not from Apple.
Apple user like it because competition means better products from both companies.
I like it for many reasons, among them is that its more open platform may draw Apple to open up a little more as well (we've already seen the SDK discussion restrictions released, for example).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I looked through the tech specs on the thing and noticed one omission-it doesn't have just a normal "real" radio in it for getting free OTA broadcasts, AM/FM, which would be a nice addition as long as it is being touted as a smart phone capable of a lot of functions.
Severely restricted bluetooth, poor / absent MMS capability... Both blackmarks for me.
Since the G1 has the same limitations then, you must continue to be sad.
I still don't see why anyone would use MMS when they can email or post photos. I do find it odd the iPhone still has the same limited Bluetooth support, and that Android has matching limitations... I know it would hurt battery life but I really feel they should let the user choose here.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Grow a pair, stop thinking that your service provider should help you pay for your device, and buy a real hunk of technology.
So can I buy this phone and use it on the Sprint network? It doesn't look like Sprint is coming out with an Android phone until next year
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
2) can it receive phone calls? check
3) will it fit in my trouser pockets? check
That's pretty much all I need from a phone - if I didn't have one already, I might consider this
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
fer heck's sake... the screen slides UP to reveal the keyboard...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I played with one for a few minutes and found it a solid unit.
That's what your mom said.
Did the phone have any updates to the os/software when it was activated? One of the most interesting aspects of this phone is how Google/T-mobile will manage updating the device. Granted it's a 1.x device, and things should only get better from here. Isn't that what makes Android so cool?
www.itjerk.com
From TFA:
What applications do I hope to see?: There are a few of the items in my list above that could be down here in the applications area, but there are several other applications I would like to see on my G1 and these include:
* Bible application (also first)
His review is null because of that.
Seriously, someone should write something like Nuance Talks for Google Android, especially since the sole means of input is not through a touch screen. Having seen an iPhone, I was struck by two things: 1. It's a huge, ugly-feeling brick of a device. 2. There's only like one button. Either Nuance or Code Factory should port their mobile phone screen reader products to the android platform, or someone should get a group of tallented blind programmers (I don't consider myself tallented) together to write something. Yes, I'm blind, you insensitive clods!
You do not make sense, a phone that just makes calls doesn't need an OS as complex as this. This OS is needed ONLY for smart phones. You might as well ask for a ferrari to put their engines into mopeds. No moped needs a 800 horse power en... I WANT ONE!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"Because he's comparing the first generation of this phone to the first generation of that phone. That's not unreasonable, given that Android will see major upgrades quickly, just as the iPhone OS did."
Timing is everything, and everything moves quickly in the tech industry. The original iPhone without 3G is over a year old. That's old news. By the time Google has updated it's phone, Apple will have more updates too. Comparing what you can get now to a piece of technology that's a year old is dishonest and smacks of the old tactic where PC consumer mags that would always compare the latest PCs to older Macs and declaring that PCs won in head to head tests.
This is not properly comparing apples to apples (or as the case may be Apples to Androids). Compare what you can get now from Apple/AT&T with what you can get now from Google/T-mobile. I have no desire here to smack down google or be an Apple fanboi, I'm just saying for a smart review, you need proper comparisons.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Oddly enough that's the same checklist he uses for his sex toys. :)
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
That is one ugly POS !! Reminds me of a Hasbro Speek and Speel !! Kartoonish is THE WORD !!
This is the first time I notice this phone will have 1700/2100MHz 3G. This is the European/Asia version, which means T-Mo is deploying the Euro bands in the US, quite odd. It also means this phone will not get 3G if you roam on the AT&T network, or any Canadian networks.
Comparatively, the iPhone uses 850/1900/2100MHz which means it supports both NA and Euro/Asia 3G.
Yet another article that's full of shit.
Google, before this article was put online, announced they will keep control of their phone via their appstore.
Please, Slashdot, actually fact check blogs that are submitted as actual facts, stories, or articles. Makes /. feel more and more like digg or yahoo everyday.
--Toll_Free
Looks like what U expect from Java & HAVI widgets. It has those frequent lags, as it loads & precompiles blocks of the massive Java standards.
Google have already discussed this. The bluetooth stack simply wasn't ready in time, so they removed it. There will be full bluetooth support soon.
But without a timeframe, how do we know an Aple bluetooth update would not be out first? Just because Apple has not announced anything does not mean they might not ship sooner, since they are traditionally tight lipped...
Plus I was under the impression that was more the Bluetooth SDK, rather than baked in features. The flexibility of that SDK will then determine what can be done.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yeah, but you can write an MMS app for it without having to hack your phone and invalidate your warranty. In fact it is encouraged for Android as opposed to iPhone.
No, because MMS uses a low level cell network protocol the SDK does not allow you to access.
Otherwise we could also have an MMS app on the iPhone...
Erm, because most people CAN get MMS and CANNOT get email with photo attachments.
Unless you email to an MMS gateway. Why should every suffer with the limitations of MMS when so many people have phones with real email access now?
Now, aren't the drivers for Bluetooth open source
No. And it doesn't matter if the SDK support is not there (supposed to be coming soon, but so might an iPhone bluetooth SDK).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There are MMS apps for iPhone, just not ones that run officially (i.e. you need to jailbreak the iPhone)
That's because they have no SDK limit - the iPhone, and Android, both have SDK limits as to what you can write, if you want to distribute apps for the phones.
I'm sure Android will also have a Jailbreak equivalent to let you do some things you can't with the SDK, although there's less need of it with Android.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Android is open. If you want other Bluetooth profiles, you can add them yourself, or wait until somebody else does (it's an itch so it won't take long to get scratched). It's just Linux at the core, and the support for other profiles has been built on many other Linux systems, so this shouldn't be too hard.
I love Linux as much as the next guy, but I'm getting pretty damn tired of people thinking that because Linux is open, and Android is based on Linux, you'll be able to do what you want with that part.
The Open part of android is in the SDK, NOT the underlying Linux layer. Since you cannot get to Bluetooth with the SDK as it is now, you are done as far as Bluetooth enhancements are concerned, and very much need to see what the future SDK access to bluetooth provides for to say what you can do with it.
Unless you hack the Android phone in the same way the iPhone has also been hacked to extend the OS, you are not going to have custom bluetooth stacks no matter how many woolen sweaters you put on.
So yes you can do it, but consumers really cannot.
Android simply has different limits than the iPhone. It does not mean limits are not there. And I say this as someone very much interested in picking up Android programming in addition to the iPhone work I do already.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I know what you're saying. I'm looking for that info now. I saw the G1 display Japanese text right out the box, but i didn't find any option for Japanese input, or changing the input method, in any of the settings i looked through at the store.