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Google Nexus One Hands-On, Video, and Impressions
wkurzius writes "Engadget has gotten their hands on a Nexus One and have put their first impressions up for the world to see, including whether or not they think it's the 'be-all-end-all Android phone / iPhone eviscerator.' Their opinion? 'Not really.'"
Yeah, cause I totally didn't buy an unlocked Motorola Milestone and use it on my prepaid carrier which doesn't sell phones at all. Oh wait, yes I did.
Damn that Google, with their open source OS that runs on a huge variety of devices.
they fail anything that do not have a half-eaten fruit as a logo...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I think Android generally is buggy. My wife bought an HTC Magic yesterday. I emailed some image files to it for her to use as backgrounds but the mail client on the phone gave the files names like "null", "null-1" and so on. It hasn't crashed though.
But the SMS application has this over designed UI which drives us around the bend.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I'm sorry, but WHY for the love of Farley do Android phones always go to T-Mobile? Their 3G coverage is essentially non-existent, which defeats the purpose of a smartphone. I'd love to buy this phone, but if it's T-Mobile only, then there's no point because you'll only be able to use programs requiring the internet when you're on a wireless network (if it supports that).
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
It's also one more reason why I won't use Android, despite how good it is. I already use too many Google services. I don't need them to know even more about me than they already do.
What kinda weak FUD is this? It's a linux system on which you can gain root access with fair ease! You can packetsniff, block traffic, and swap out whatever bits of the OS you want. If the Big G were spying on you as such, you would not only know, you could do whatever you like about it.
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Cherish. Live. Dream.
I looked at T-Mobile's coverage about 6 months ago when I got a new phone. Their 3G covered a few square miles...TOTAL for the entire country. Unless you lived in just the right spot in a couple of cities, you wouldn't get 3G. I just checked their 3G coverage, and while it's infinitely better than it was 6 months ago, it still doesn't even come close to covering all major cities in the country, let alone if you go outside of a major city. They now cover the city I live in, yet the city just a few miles way (which is even bigger than mine) doesn't have any 3G coverage - seeing as how I'm a consultant and bounce back and forth between the cities a lot, that's crap that my phone will only work in one of those cities. With my iPhone I have 3G coverage even when I visit relatives out in the middle of nowhere in little towns with a population of under 1,000. I'd love to pay less and have an Android phone, but T-Mobile's network still has a long way to go to be competitive. That's the real reason their prices are so low - because they have to lower monthly payments to get people to use their substandard network (for 3G that is).
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
I suspect a good percentage of users are going to hate it. We have heard many comments on how people hate the Jobsian world of the single button device. How the lack of keyboard makes the phone useless. The phone has an advantage over the iPhone, in that for the same unsubsidized price one gets an unlokced phone, but that is more expensive that other phones.
I believe, and other people believed, that Google was going to do something interesting, not just copy the iPhone. Now we can see why Apple is no longer so buddy with Google.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Usability wise, Symbian also pretty much sucks.
Usability test: how to change a contact's Name and Surname.
Nokia S60: Open "phonebook", select the contact, select "edit", edit "Name" and "Surname" fields, select "end".
Android: Connect to the internet, sync your contacts with gmail, open gmail with your PC, select "contacts", download the contacts as a CSV file on your PC, edit it via openoffice.org, reupload the edited CSV file to gmail, sync your phone again, disconnect it from the internet.
Usability test: how to send to your PC some photos you've taken with your phone.
Nokia S60: Open "gallery" (with a dedicated button on many phones), all the photos in your phone will appear, with the latest photos first. Select the photos you need to send (1 keystroke if your phone has hardware buttons, 3 taps if it doesn't and you have to open the menu), select "send", select "bluetooth", select your PC (already selected if you've used it before).
Android: Open your desk's drawer, take out the usb cable, connect your phone to the PC, select "mass storage mode", turn to the PC, search the phone filesystem for the photos (they're intuitively located in a "100MEDIA" subfolder in a "DCIM" folder, and called "IMAG%04d.jpg" - you'll have to figure out what files contain the photos you need), copy them to the PC, safely remove the usb device from the PC, put the usb cable back in the drawer.
Usability test: how to listen to some random music from YourFavouriteArtist.
Nokia S60: Open "music" (again, with a dedicated button on many phones), select "artists", select "YourFavouriteArtist" (just pressing Y will usually do), select "all tracks" because you're not looking for a particular album, select the first track.
If later you want to change artist, press "back" (you're, well, back in "all tracks from YourFavouriteArtist"), press "back" (you're back to the artist list).
Android: Open "music" by selecting it from the applications menu. A fancy but unuseful cover flow display appears. Press the "three horizontal lines" glyph. Another menu appears. Press the "person with a microphone" glyph. The menu changes. Find YourFavouriteArtist by scrolling the whole list or pressing the "search" button and then tapping "Y", and select him. Press the "musical note glyph", then select the first track.
If later you want to change artist, DON'T press the "back" button (it would take you back to the "home screen" for some reason), you have to tap the "three horizontal lines" glyph.