Android Phones

[Goronmon]

Do you not like Verizon? :confused:Well, the $60 a month no contract plan for T-Mobile is a lot more appealing than the $80 Verizon plans for smartphones.

[Xerxes]

Tax is different by state it seems, since it has so far ranged from 0-43 (my tax is 41).

It's probably based off your billing address, not the shipping address, which is why you're still taxed shipping to Voodoo.

Makes the most since. I need to get a new out of state credit card. :p

[Xerxes]

It's done. I have 14 minutes to cancel, and I don't feel any buyer's remorse at all. Now I am tasked with finding a rooted G1 a home.

Mom gave me $200 towards this for Christmas.

[Scull]

"Q: Why 512MB for app storage only?
A: They store apps in the internal ROM and not on the SD card now, for piracy reasons, but they will offer an upgrade soon for installing apps on the SD card."

About time! At least for anyone running the vanilla android firmware.
About time indeed! This is the single biggest drawback to making Android truly competitive with the iPhone. If my apps could be stored and accessed from SD, a whole new world opens up.

[cppcrusader]

Well, I'm slightly annoyed with the news of Verizon getting the Nexus in the Spring which was contrary to everything I'd been hearing for the past month or so. I needed a smartphone right before Christmas anyway, so I'm not feeling too stung on getting my Droid.

[PathMaster]

I think I will wait for the Nexus over grabbing a Droid. Although the iPhone might hit this summer (http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/01/analyst-cdma-iphone-may-ship-on-verizon-in-summer-2010.ars). Although I would think Apple would be better off developing an LTE phone w/ VZ.

[Xerxes]

Isn't Spring like 2 months away? <shrug>

I really wish it was a slider but I'll just have to chalk up this thinness as a plus.

[PathMaster]

Very odd, the Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/nexus-one-review/)review contradicts the TechCrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/05/google-nexus-one-the-techcrunch-review/)review in several key parts:

Call Quality:
Engadget:
In terms of earpiece quality and volume, it's certainly on par with its contemporaries, providing a loud, reasonably clean talking experience, though it doesn't touch the Droid in terms of call clarity and evenness. The loudspeaker, on the other hand, seemed extremely tinny to our ears, making for a pretty unpleasant companion for conference calls, with the midrange cutting through in a way that could be painful at times.

TC:
The noise cancellation feature is particularly useful. The device has a second microphone on the back that monitors inbound noise and automatically cancels it out (anyone who’s used Bose noise cancellation headphones on a long flight will appreciate this). It does a great job of canceling out machinery and wind noise on the other end of the call. In my testing, call recipients noticed a substantial increase in call quality on this phone v. either the Droid of the iPhone. Look for other phones to quickly add this feature, it’s a must have.

Voice Features:
En:
Now included when the keyboard pops up is an option to use the company's text-to-speech engine, which will (attempt) to translate your words into onscreen text. Our experiments with the technology were marginally successful, but we don't see this being a big part of our communications game until the audio recognition gets a little more robust. It might work for an occasional SMS where use of the Queen's English isn't a priority.

TC:
Google’s Voice Keyboard is amazing. It goes way beyond the Voice Search application that was launched in 2009. Every text field in the device is now voice enabled. In most apps you can choose the microphone button and talk into the phone, which then converts your speech to text. I’ve found it to be around 90% accurate with no background noise (dropping to around 70% accuracy in a moving car). It’s easy to then go in and edit out errors. It’s a massive time-saving feature of the phone.

Engadget seems to dislike the phone in comparison to the Droid in the short time frame vs Techcrunch's love of the device, even over the Droid, after a long while with the device. Who is to believed? How are the other reviews siding?

Edit: Billshrink has their comparison up:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2gxfg5y.jpg

[Xerxes]

I can't wait.

[opsin]

For me the lack a keyboard is the thing that would make me pick the Droid. The faster CPU is nice, but they didn't seem to think it made much difference.

Edit: Oh, it does look way nicer though. I sort of like the utilitarian thing the Droid has going, but I'd rather have the sleeker device.

[Xerxes]

For me the lack a keyboard is the thing that would make me pick the Droid. The faster CPU is nice, but they didn't seem to think it made much difference.

Edit: Oh, it does look way nicer though. I sort of like the utilitarian thing the Droid has going, but I'd rather have the sleeker device.

I actually like the Droid cause of the keyboard. The update motorola claims is coming mean it should be cool.

[Crittias]

Did anyone catch how the Nexus One's Google Voice app integrates with existing Voice accounts?

[Xerxes]

Did anyone catch how the Nexus One's Google Voice app integrates with existing Voice accounts?

Where did you see that?

I have a voice account and still have no idea what for.

[Siraris]

I just ordered my Nexus One... unlocked. Over time, it's going to save me more money, so it's fine. I'm justifying, I know. Hopefully I can sell my Pre and then I'll be in good shape.

Re: Pathmasters comparison of the two reviews, as I said on the last page, the Engadget review is biased. The reviewer is a big iPhone fanboy, so take it with a grain of salt.

I know 2 people who have used the Nexus, and they LOVE it. I'll find out on Thursday!

Oh, and I have to say, anyone who is complaining about lack of physical keyboard: The Pre's keyboard has been a big disappointment to me. I also used the Droid's keyboard, and I found it really difficult to use since it's basically one big flat plane. I was playing around with the G1's on screen KB and I liked it a lot. If only Google added multi-touch support...

[Mike Kelehan]

I just got myself a Nexus One. Two of my friends work at Google, and brought their Nexii home with them over the holiday, so I played with them. I guess it's safe to post impressions now, without fear of costing them their jobs.

Screen is amazing. Speech to text is useless. Touchscreen keyboard is the best I've used. The whole thing is very fast.

Basically, between it and the Droid, the question is: do you want a keyboard, or do you want twice the clock speed? Since I'll be using this for 2 years, I'll take the one that can more comfortably run Android 3.0.

[Mike Kelehan]

Did anyone catch how the Nexus One's Google Voice app integrates with existing Voice accounts?

The whole thing integrates with your Google everything. I called a friend's, and my Gmail Chat picture came up on the screen.

[Crittias]

The whole thing integrates with your Google everything.Yes, but how? I have a Google Voice number, and a cell phone number. If someone calls my cell phone number, does the Google Voice client record a message for the cell, or forward it to my Voice number? I'm not sure where the integration actually occurs...

[Xerxes]

vlWOocHwcLo

Yes please. I mean I could go for an ad blocker though. Ads bog things down.

[Chaos Machine]

Yes, but how? I have a Google Voice number, and a cell phone number. If someone calls my cell phone number, does the Google Voice client record a message for the cell, or forward it to my Voice number? I'm not sure where the integration actually occurs...

they provide you with instructions on how to set up voicemail forwarding depending on your carrier, my g1 is currently set up like this. it took like 5 minutes to set up, pretty hassle free. Cant wait for my N1 to get here, unfortunately it didn't ship yet =(

[Xerxes]

they provide you with instructions on how to set up voicemail forwarding depending on your carrier, my g1 is currently set up like this. it took like 5 minutes to set up, pretty hassle free. Cant wait for my N1 to get here, unfortunately it didn't ship yet =(

Mines hasn't shipped either. Kind of annoyed. Hell, netflix got my movies out today.

(Yes, the Netflix turn over can be ridiculous. And slow when they want it to.)

[Banacek]

Mines hasn't shipped either. Kind of annoyed. Hell, netflix got my movies out today.

(Yes, the Netflix turn over can be ridiculous. And slow when they want it to.)

When I drop Netflix movies in the mail, I have new movies in my hand two days later. Hurray for living in LA :)

As for the Nexus, I still need a keyboard. Maybe in the next year we'll have something with a keyboard on T-Mobile that doesn't show it's age like the G1.

[Xerxes]

When I drop Netflix movies in the mail, I have new movies in my hand two days later. Hurray for living in LA :)

As for the Nexus, I still need a keyboard. Maybe in the next year we'll have something with a keyboard on T-Mobile that doesn't show it's age like the G1.

I'm betting sooner than that.

I think I dropped some movies off this morning and I'll have some tomorrow. :D

[Banacek]

I'm betting sooner than that.

I think I dropped some movies off this morning and I'll have some tomorrow. :D

I hope so. My G1 is looking slooooooowww next to a Droid. I can only imagine how slow it looks next to a Nexus One.

[Mike Kelehan]

Mine hasn't shipped... but I had it engraved with my name and e-mail. As I said, I've got friends with it, so I want it to be marked clearly, and with my e-mail on it, someone will have a way to contact me if I lose it.

[NoName]

Yes please. I mean I could go for an ad blocker though. Ads bog things down.

Sweet, I wonder if the G1 will be able to handle that. As far as the ads go, there's an ad block app you can get. It blocks certain domains from being accessed on your phone and works pretty well.

[Voodoo]

Just got notification of mine being shipped. It has an arrival of tomorrow by 3pm. WhooWhoo.

[Crittias]

Just got notification of mine being shipped. It has an arrival of tomorrow by 3pm. WhooWhoo.Please post lots and lots of impressions!

[Voodoo]

Please post lots and lots of impressions!

No problem. Been using the ITouchMyself 3G since July 09 and a 1st gen iPhone since July 08 so I'll have plenty to compare it with.

[Crittias]

No problem. Been using the ITouchMyself 3G since July 09 and a 1st gen iPhone since July 08 so I'll have plenty to compare it with.My biggest concern is moving from a Blackberry with a physical keyboard to a phone with a software keyboard. I think that transition might be challenging for me.

[Voodoo]

My biggest concern is moving from a Blackberry with a physical keyboard to a phone with a software keyboard. I think that transition might be challenging for me.

It is, especially so if you are a touch-typer. I went from having qwerty style physical keyboard phones to the iPhone and it messed with me for about a month. Not having to look at the keyboard when I typed was a big benefit of the physical keyboard phones I used. My favorite is the XT9 style...

Shadow's XT9 Physical Keyboard
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3904/shadow2k.jpg

[Siraris]

Just got notification of mine being shipped. It has an arrival of tomorrow by 3pm. WhooWhoo.

Mine too! We'll need to start a thread on Android hacking :)

I didn't get mine engraved because

1. I'm impatient.
2. If I want to sell it someday, I don't want someone to walk around with my custom phone.

Totally psyched!

[Crittias]

It is, especially so if you are a touch-typerI am a touch typist, but the little Blackberry keyboard still required some looking to make sure I was getting it right. I guess I can deal with a 1 month learning curve.

Another concern: I'll have to see how this phone works with our Exchange-based email. I work at an educational institution, so our Exchange server security isn't super-rigid, but I'm still concerned about it. I may have to touch base with my IT contacts at school and see what they know about Android usage on campus.

[Voodoo]

Another concern: I'll have to see how this phone works with our Exchange-based email. I work at an educational institution, so our Exchange server security isn't super-rigid, but I'm still concerned about it. I may have to touch base with my IT contacts at school and see what they know about Android usage on campus.

If you have an Exchange server that forces a mobile sync policy then the Android will not sync with it. I administrate an Exchange 2007 server here and have the option of allowing non-provisioned (out of policy) devices on. We've got a few people running around with iPhone (fake their policy) and Android.

What I mean by this is that if the server forces its mobile clients that connect to have a password, encrypt their attachments and force mobile wipe then this doesn't work for Android nor iPhone. The exchange server has the ability to not allow such devices to connect. The iPhone gets past this by responding back with a false claim (activesync response) that it can do it.

So, yes, check with the Exchange admins. :)

EDIT: I'm testing this right now on my own server to make sure what I have read is true about Android's ActiveSync client. I'm going to force mobile policy on my account and I'll report what happens. My ITouchMyself 3G is on Android 1.6 using the Work Mail app.

UPDATE: I just verified that my Android (v1.6 & HTC Work Email App) will NOT connect to the Exchange Server (2007) if I force mobile security policies and do not allow non-provisionable devices.

[Siraris]

Voodoo, do you know if you can sync all your Facebook contacts with Android like you can with the Pre? That was one of the great things about the Pre, that I can have all my numbers and whatnot without having to write them all down.

[Voodoo]

Voodoo, do you know if you can sync all your Facebook contacts with Android like you can with the Pre? That was one of the great things about the Pre, that I can have all my numbers and whatnot without having to write them all down.

As far as I am aware, with v2.0+ it unifies the contacts of Facebook, Exchange and gMail. It can also do multiple accounts of each. Someone that has a Droid can say for certain.

With my v1.6 I can not unify my contacts.

EDIT: I found this answer...

Unified contact list>: Android 2 adds a number of interesting features including a unified contact list. If you add accounts like Facebook, Email (Exchange or otherwise) and more, Android 2 will try to merge the contact information from the various services, based on the available data. This works like Palm's Synergy or MotoBlur.

[Adam Blue]

With 1.5 I can, but that might just be HTC.

[Voodoo]

With 1.5 I can, but that might just be HTC.

Which device? As far as I am aware only MotoBlur and Android 2.0+ can do that.

[Adam Blue]

Which device? As far as I am aware only MotoBlur and Android 2.0+ can do that.

HTC Hero on Sprint.

EDIT: Though, HTC has a number of widgets and apps exclusive to the Hero (maybe some other device). It pretty much makes it 2.0 which is why they're skipping ahead to 2.1 instead of giving us 1.6 earlier.

[Voodoo]

HTC Hero on Sprint.

EDIT: Though, HTC has a number of widgets and apps exclusive to the Hero (maybe some other device). It pretty much makes it 2.0 which is why they're skipping ahead to 2.1 instead of giving us 1.6 earlier.

Ah! Yes the Hero can do it as well via apps & widgets. Neat! :)

[Mike Kelehan]

Mine too! We'll need to start a thread on Android hacking :)

I didn't get mine engraved because

1. I'm impatient.
2. If I want to sell it someday, I don't want someone to walk around with my custom phone.

Totally psyched!

I ordered mine late last night, engraved with my name and email, and it still shipped this morning, and will come tomorrow by 3. If I lose it, this way it has a chance of finding its way back to me. Once I'm done with it, I can either get it buffed out, or have the new owner (who will almost certainly be a friend or relative) put a sticker over it.

[Xerxes]

Got notice mines is on the way. Overnight shipping my ass. :p

[johnperkins21]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to wait for the 4G capable phones to start rolling out? I think Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are all planning to roll out 4G on their networks this year. While I'm very interested in an Android phone, even if it doesn't support ActiveSync security yet (which is the main thing I'm waiting on), I wouldn't want to pick one up and have a new phone release in 6 months that can download at speeds 3 times faster than the current devices. Or am I just missing something?

[Siraris]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to wait for the 4G capable phones to start rolling out? I think Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are all planning to roll out 4G on their networks this year. While I'm very interested in an Android phone, even if it doesn't support ActiveSync security yet (which is the main thing I'm waiting on), I wouldn't want to pick one up and have a new phone release in 6 months that can download at speeds 3 times faster than the current devices. Or am I just missing something?

If 4G was a reality any time soon, then the Nexus One would support it. So far, there isn't a single phone that I know of that supports 4G. Here in Chicago, the only thing you can get is a USB modem.

Just to put it into perspective, AT&T won't be done with their upgrade to 7.2mbps 3G for quite some time.

[Mike Kelehan]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to wait for the 4G capable phones to start rolling out? I think Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are all planning to roll out 4G on their networks this year. While I'm very interested in an Android phone, even if it doesn't support ActiveSync security yet (which is the main thing I'm waiting on), I wouldn't want to pick one up and have a new phone release in 6 months that can download at speeds 3 times faster than the current devices. Or am I just missing something?

Right now, there are neither phones nor infrastructure for 4G. If you always look at the future of technology, you'll never buy anything. Why buy a Playstation 4? The Playstation 5 will be way better.

[Xerxes]

If 4G was a reality any time soon, then the Nexus One would support it. So far, there isn't a single phone that I know of that supports 4G. Here in Chicago, the only thing you can get is a USB modem.

Just to put it into perspective, AT&T won't be done with their upgrade to 7.2mbps 3G for quite some time.

Although TMO with it's limit network officially announced yesterday that it has boosted its entire 3G network to HSPA 7.2Mbps . And by the end of the year should be up to 21Mbps.

[Xerxes]

What media player do yall use. The default is lacking. Also do any of you have issues with playing pandora and then the default media player will come on too playing crap like your ringtone or other mps3 on the phone at the same time as pandora?

[Jackel]

I use TuneWiki. Nothing special about it. I like that it automatically fetches lyrics so that I can sing along and annoy my wife :p

[Scull]

What media player do yall use. The default is lacking. Also do any of you have issues with playing pandora and then the default media player will come on too playing crap like your ringtone or other mps3 on the phone at the same time as pandora?
Any more I use Pandora exclusively (I'm on a Droid). I have never had an issue with the default media player playing over the top of it. But I also don't have many audio or video files on mine. I haven't even bothered to find a better media player as I never use it. I'm sure I'll eventually have to look for one though.

[Xerxes]

Any more I use Pandora exclusively (I'm on a Droid). I have never had an issue with the default media player playing over the top of it. But I also don't have many audio or video files on mine. I haven't even bothered to find a better media player as I never use it. I'm sure I'll eventually have to look for one though.

Well my ipod just died on me. I'm hoping the nexus one provides me with a way of getting my tunes on through the car. That way I can look at about $100 or so of the phones cost as being a replacement for my dead ipod. :D

[Adam Blue]

Well my ipod just died on me. I'm hoping the nexus one provides me with a way of getting my tunes on through the car. That way I can look at about $100 or so of the phones cost as being a replacement for my dead ipod. :D

I actually use my Hero as my main MP3 player, and it works great. I either Bluetooth it through my car stereo, or just use aux. I got a 16GB microSD as well so I always have most of my music on me.

I think the stock media player is fine, but I'm a huge fan of actual buttons. Bluetooth allows me to use my stereo for basic controls.

And with the specs of the Nexus One, I'm sure you'll forget it's a phone when you're using it for music.

[Xerxes]

I actually use my Hero as my main MP3 player, and it works great. I either Bluetooth it through my car stereo, or just use aux. I got a 16GB microSD as well so I always have most of my music on me.

I think the stock media player is fine, but I'm a huge fan of actual buttons. Bluetooth allows me to use my stereo for basic controls.

And with the specs of the Nexus One, I'm sure you'll forget it's a phone when you're using it for music.

My car doesn't have anything fancy like bluetooth or aux.

[Bingley Joe]

I actually use my Hero as my main MP3 player, and it works great. I either Bluetooth it through my car stereo, or just use aux. I got a 16GB microSD as well so I always have most of my music on me.

I think the stock media player is fine, but I'm a huge fan of actual buttons. Bluetooth allows me to use my stereo for basic controls.

And with the specs of the Nexus One, I'm sure you'll forget it's a phone when you're using it for music.

My car doesn't have anything fancy like bluetooth or aux.


One of the biggest surprises of the N900 for me has been the fact that the FM transmitter function is actually something that I find myself using all the time. You just need to find an empty station somewhere on your radio, and bam -- instant streaming audio from the media player.

Such an elegant solution; I have no idea if the N1 has a similar feature, but damnit, it should!

[Adam Blue]

One of the biggest surprises of the N900 for me has been the fact that the FM transmitter function is actually something that I find myself using all the time. You just need to find an empty station somewhere on your radio, and bam -- instant streaming audio from the media player.

Such an elegant solution; I have no idea if the N1 has a similar feature, but damnit, it should!

Wow....I so would get an N900 if I had the money. That is my dream phone right there. I love you.

[Xerxes]

One of the biggest surprises of the N900 for me has been the fact that the FM transmitter function is actually something that I find myself using all the time. You just need to find an empty station somewhere on your radio, and bam -- instant streaming audio from the media player.

Such an elegant solution; I have no idea if the N1 has a similar feature, but damnit, it should!

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/01/07/ifixit-does-its-thing-with-the-nexus-one-802-11n-wifi-and-fm-transmitter-confirmed.html

Hopefully it's working or there's an app for that.

[Bingley Joe]

Wow....I so would get an N900 if I had the money. That is my dream phone right there. I love you.

Oh really, Adam? Why pretend? We know perfectly well what this is about. You want me to have an abortion! :p



In all seriousness though, it is a stunningly amazing device. There are a few quirky details that are going to be ironed out in the new firmware, but otherwise I'm beyond impressed with it.. you'd leave me very quickly once you had one in your hands


http://www.intomobile.com/2010/01/07/ifixit-does-its-thing-with-the-nexus-one-802-11n-wifi-and-fm-transmitter-confirmed.html

Hopefully it's working or there's an app for that.

Very cool. My understanding is that on the N900 all the FM stuff is handled by the same chip that handles Bluetooth, so maybe it's a similar setup on the N1. If that's the case someone should be able to make an FM radio [receiver] app for it as well

[PathMaster]

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/01/07/ifixit-does-its-thing-with-the-nexus-one-802-11n-wifi-and-fm-transmitter-confirmed.html

Hopefully it's working or there's an app for that.

Very cool feature. N1 just gets better.

[Xerxes]

Very cool feature. N1 just gets better.

Well when we find out how to get it working it will be cool. O_o

[Bingley Joe]

Not to go on about the N900 - because it's a bit OT in here - but since we're talking about awesome features the N1 better goddamn have, I just discovered something about it [N900] that completely warms the cockles of my nerdy little heart:

I was browsing around in the media player listening to some music I had loaded on there, when I noticed down in the bottom corner of the screen the words "Giganto.local", which is the network name of my server here at home.. WTF?

So I tapped it to see what it was doing down there, and suddenly I get a folder listing -- Movies, Pictures, Music.. Heading into Movies, I pick a title at random from the listing, and sure enough the little bastard just starts streaming it directly off the server!

Out of the box, with absolutely no prompting from me (and in an almost stupidly discreet way), it had discovered and connected to my UpnP DLNA media server. Totally frikkin sweet. If I wasn't just a bit too girthy to get up in that micro USB port, I would have made babies with it right then and there.

[Mike Kelehan]

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/01/07/ifixit-does-its-thing-with-the-nexus-one-802-11n-wifi-and-fm-transmitter-confirmed.html

Hopefully it's working or there's an app for that.

Very cool. I don't know why it's not available to us from the get-go, but I think we'll see this in 2.2. Along with multitouch.

[Voodoo]

Not to go on about the N900 - because it's a bit OT in here - but since we're talking about awesome features the N1 better goddamn have, I just discovered something about it that completely warms the cockles of my nerdy little heart:

I was browsing around in the media player listening to some music I had loaded on there, when I noticed down in the bottom corner of the screen the words "Giganto.local", which is the network name of my server here at home.. WTF?

So I tapped it to see what it was doing down there, and suddenly I get a folder listing -- Movies, Pictures, Music.. Heading into Movies, I pick a title at random from the listing, and sure enough the little bastard just starts streaming it directly off the server!

Out of the box, with absolutely no prompting from me (and in an almost stupidly discreet way), it had discovered and connected to my UpnP DLNA media server. Totally frikkin sweet. If I wasn't just a bit too girthy to get up in that micro USB port, I would have made babies with it right then and there.

For real?! Which app on the N1 were you using to do this?

[Xerxes]

For real?! Which app on the N1 were you using to do this?

I think he means the N900. :(
I assume it has to be cable? That's another thing, where's Slacker?

[Bingley Joe]

For real?! Which app on the N1 were you using to do this?

I know, right!? I was just using the built-in Media Player app.

I honestly couldn't believe it was doing something that incredibly clever (not to mention fuckingsweeeeet!) right out of the box. I literally did nothing to deserve this beyond having the server running on my LAN in the first place :)

If I can figure out how to get it to stream to the phone when I'm not in the house, I'll probably just explode from joy.


I think he means the N900. :(
I assume it has to be cable? That's another thing, where's Slacker?

Yeah, I'm talking about the N900 -- sorry to derail

But no, it's not cable. I have a media server sitting on my LAN that hosts all our movies, music, photos, etc., and shares them around the house to the XB360 and other computers and whatnot.

I was just amazed to discover the N900 decided all by itself that it might be nice if it was a part of the 'whatnot' ;)


Honestly, I'm sure this is something that could/will easily be accomplished on the N1, but having something like that just_work out of the box is all too rare these days, so I had to share

[PathMaster]

Powermat @ CES 2010 (http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/01/08/powermat-shows-us-their-2010-lineup-at-ces/):

For example, the iPhone case is now smooth and looks just like any other case; you can even get one that is slightly thicker but holds a charge itself and doubles your phone’s battery life. But the really big thing is Powermat batteries. As you’ll see in the pic of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 (BG is screaming at me to get him one), there is a Powermat battery inside. That means you can still use your OEM case, but the device can still charge wirelessly. Powermat is set to launch a slew of new wireless chargers and batteries in mid-2010, with camera/camcorder/DSLR support in the future.

Doubling your battery life and adding wireless charge capability while still keeping a slim body profile. Sounds like Smart Phone heaven.

[Siraris]

Nexus One powermat PLEASE. Double battery life? YUS!

[Siraris]

Android needs 2 things:

Better UI tools (a sexy UI a phone sells).

A way to close apps when you're done using them without downloading a separate app. Battery life is extremely important on a phone, and every time you leave an app open, especially one that checks for notifications, it's a drain on your battery. With a huge screen, and all sorts of powerful doodads, battery power is an issue. There needs to be some solution where you can "close" an ap for real, either under the menu, or by holding the back button for 3 seconds, or even one built into the home screen. It's inappropriate that I have to download a program to do it.

[Slack3r78]

A way to close apps when you're done using them without downloading a separate app. Battery life is extremely important on a phone, and every time you leave an app open, especially one that checks for notifications, it's a drain on your battery. With a huge screen, and all sorts of powerful doodads, battery power is an issue. There needs to be some solution where you can "close" an ap for real, either under the menu, or by holding the back button for 3 seconds, or even one built into the home screen. It's inappropriate that I have to download a program to do it.

The problem with task manager apps is that they tend to fuck with the OS's garbage collection routines and can actually slow the phone down on the whole.

With apps that have background notification/processing, the problem with killing them is that the system will automatically relaunch them as part of the notification process; the onus is essentially on application developers to make sure that their apps are well-behaved.

I do agree think that something somewhat akin to Windows' services.msc would be useful for centralized management of applications running as a background service, though. As things are now, you have to dig through an individual apps' settings to manage that, if the developer has exposed the setting at all.

[Xerxes]

My phone is super hot and it's charging while off. USB charging is fine but slow.

I think the charger included may be shit. I'm using the one for my bluetooth headset, still 80 something degrees.

[Mike Kelehan]

Android needs 2 things:

Better UI tools (a sexy UI a phone sells).

A way to close apps when you're done using them without downloading a separate app. Battery life is extremely important on a phone, and every time you leave an app open, especially one that checks for notifications, it's a drain on your battery. With a huge screen, and all sorts of powerful doodads, battery power is an issue. There needs to be some solution where you can "close" an ap for real, either under the menu, or by holding the back button for 3 seconds, or even one built into the home screen. It's inappropriate that I have to download a program to do it.

Settings > Applications > Running Services

[Siraris]

Settings > Applications > Running Services

I appreciate it, but that' still slow and clunky. It needs a way that if you're done with the app, you should just be able to close it, like how you can on the Pre. If you're going to have multi-tasking, you need proper management, not some buried option, especially with the importance of battery life. It shouldn't be that difficult to do, and I'm hoping that they address it soon.

By the by, the live wallpapers suck up battery, and aren't really worth it, especially with the gorgeous wallpapers that came with the phone. I don't know if the process runs even with the screen off, but I noticed when I shut them off my battery drain has reduced noticeably every hour.

[Voodoo]

Wifi and GPS will drain the battery fastest followed by frequency of email and other background account services excluding gmail sync.

[Xerxes]

I appreciate it, but that' still slow and clunky. It needs a way that if you're done with the app, you should just be able to close it, like how you can on the Pre. If you're going to have multi-tasking, you need proper management, not some buried option, especially with the importance of battery life. It shouldn't be that difficult to do, and I'm hoping that they address it soon.

By the by, the live wallpapers suck up battery, and aren't really worth it, especially with the gorgeous wallpapers that came with the phone. I don't know if the process runs even with the screen off, but I noticed when I shut them off my battery drain has reduced noticeably every hour.

What do you have the back light set to?

[Slack3r78]

I appreciate it, but that' still slow and clunky. It needs a way that if you're done with the app, you should just be able to close it, like how you can on the Pre. If you're going to have multi-tasking, you need proper management, not some buried option, especially with the importance of battery life. It shouldn't be that difficult to do, and I'm hoping that they address it soon.
I'm not saying this to be a dick, but you don't understand how Android handles garbage collection. Manually killing tasks decreases the responsiveness of the system. It will make your phone slower.

It also won't really help with battery life because apps that aren't active automatically get garbage collected by the system, and apps that are running actively are going to be registered as background services, and the system will automatically relaunch them if they're terminated.

This is why I said in my last post that managing services is useful, but attempting to micromanage applications is a total waste of your time.

[Voodoo]

What do you have the back light set to?

I didn't think the Nexus has a backlight, it is AMOLED. Also what Slacker said is correct. Applications in the background do not impact the battery life. Services that do frequent network communication definitely do. WIFI should also be turned off when you don't plan to use it, same with the GPS receiver.

[Xerxes]

I didn't think the Nexus has a backlight, it is AMOLED. Also what Slacker said is correct. Applications in the background do not impact the battery life. Services that do frequent network communication definitely do. WIFI should also be turned off when you don't plan to use it, same with the GPS receiver.

Opps. So I can run the screen brightness on high and it has as much impact as it being on zero? I have it on mid so far.

I don't seem to be having issues with the battery running down myself. A car charger would be nice for when I might need to use GPS/Navigate. And I would like something to protect this love screen.

And that car dock, will it get this fucking FM transmitter working? :eek:
Edit: I think I found an amp for that. False alarm. O_o

[Voodoo]

Opps. So I can run the screen brightness on high and it has as much impact as it being on zero? I have it on mid so far.

I don't seem to be having issues with the battery running down myself. A car charger would be nice for when I might need to use GPS/Navigate. And I would like something to protect this love screen.

And that car dock, will it get this fucking FM transmitter working? :eek:
Edit: I think I found an amp for that. O_o

Well, I'm not entirely positive but pretty sure there isn't a backlight. I know that AMOLEDs don't require backlight so perhaps this is the case. :)

Personally, I'm rather interested in those three gold contacts on the bottom of the Nexus.

Also, any suggestion on a case? I been carrying mine around in the sleeve because the warranty does not cover physical damage.

[Xerxes]

Personally, I'm rather interested in those three gold contacts on the bottom of the Nexus.

Also, any suggestion on a case? I been carrying mine around in the sleeve because the warranty does not cover physical damage.

Ditto on the contacts. I thought they had a car dock and cradle accessory ready to go so who knows.

Invisible shield or the other guys are taking to long with a screen.

[Zagrash]

As much as I'd really like to jump on a nexus 1, it's articles like THIS (http://gizmodo.com/5444173/nexus-one-enterprise-version-could-have-a-physical-keyboard-bigger-battery) that prevent me from doing so. I can't imagine that they won't put out something similar with a physical keyboard...at least I really hope they do, and soon!

[Xerxes]

They'll always come better devices. I have no doubt they'll be a device with the same specs and a keyboard in Fall '10. Nothing shown and or even rumored in quiet sometime though has even come close to the Droid. And hopefully my phone retains value if that day ever comes and I'm ready to jump ship.

So far though I'm quiet happy.

[Adam Blue]

A way to close apps when you're done using them without downloading a separate app.

Like others have said, do not keep a task manager running. Keep one though to kill any badly programmed apps, but other than that, this OS is made to have the apps continued to stay opened. Your device will be much faster, and also less load on the battery trying to re-open an app over and over.

I learned this first hand with the Hero. Three weeks with a task killer and this past week has been awesome without it. Camera comes up fast, maps, twitter, etc.

[Mike Kelehan]

As much as I'd really like to jump on a nexus 1, it's articles like THIS (http://gizmodo.com/5444173/nexus-one-enterprise-version-could-have-a-physical-keyboard-bigger-battery) that prevent me from doing so. I can't imagine that they won't put out something similar with a physical keyboard...at least I really hope they do, and soon!

I thought the same about a physical keyboard, but the voice commands and keyboard (with great automatic word-by-word error correction) have converted me. The bigger battery, though, I could go for. This beautiful screen eats batteries like none other.

[Xerxes]

Anybody else all itchy for a new 16gb sdhc?

[Voodoo]

Anybody else all itchy for a new 16gb sdhc?

The price increments still has the 16GB and 32GB as not priced quite right. 8GB's are priced correctly so I picked up one of those.

[Siraris]

I'm curious why it is that when I check the task manger, it always shows things like the MP3 store and Google Voice running. I've never opened either one of them, yet they always show up in there.

But I should let things run, like right now I checked Advanced Task Killer and it shows:

Google Maps, Voice Dialer, Voice Search, Clock, Gallery, Messaging, Mp3 Store, Settings, News and Weather all open. Is that okay? Which of these should I close?

I just checked my services, and it shows that the MP3 store has been running for 32 hours. WTF?

[Bingley Joe]

Invisible shield or the other guys are taking to long with a screen.

ZAGG is supposed to start shipping theirs tomorrow. Their screen protectors are amazing..

http://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/google-nexus-one-cases-screen-protectors-covers-skins-shields.php


I just checked my services, and it shows that the MP3 store has been running for 32 hours. WTF?

Well start buying up those MP3s, damnit!! You don't want those poor record labels to go uder, do you?!!?!? :p

[Adam Blue]

Google Maps, Voice Dialer, Voice Search, Clock, Gallery, Messaging, Mp3 Store, Settings, News and Weather all open. Is that okay? Which of these should I close?

I see no reason to close any of them. That's just how Android works. I keep a task killer only to open it when I suspect a problem, namely, a badly programmed app. Task Killer just drains battery and slows down the unit. It's just how Android works built from linux.

I wouldn't see them as opened, rather loaded in memory for quick access.

[Adam Blue]

Anybody else all itchy for a new 16gb sdhc?

I scratched. Though, I'd prefer a 32....but those are just damn pricey.

[Zagrash]

They'll always come better devices. I have no doubt they'll be a device with the same specs and a keyboard in Fall '10. Nothing shown and or even rumored in quiet sometime though has even come close to the Droid. And hopefully my phone retains value if that day ever comes and I'm ready to jump ship.

So far though I'm quiet happy.

I thought the same about a physical keyboard, but the voice commands and keyboard (with great automatic word-by-word error correction) have converted me. The bigger battery, though, I could go for. This beautiful screen eats batteries like none other.

you guys aren't making it any easier for me to talk myself out of spending $550 on a phone RIGHT after my honeymoon, you know =)

damnit...

[Xerxes]

The price increments still has the 16GB and 32GB as not priced quite right. 8GB's are priced correctly so I picked up one of those.

I scratched. Though, I'd prefer a 32....but those are just damn pricey.

Yes the 32GB would be golden; Like Voodoo said though, $18 bucks for a 8GB is just right. I actually just found one in my room. Then I started to think why? Once I get music piped through my car I might just listen to Pandora all the time. <shrug>

I was planning on picking up a Motorola T505 speakphone. Connects to phone through bluetooth, connects to radio through fm transmitter. I'd be wireless finally.

[Slack3r78]

same with the GPS receiver.
Not sure if it'll play out the same way with the Nexus One, but general consensus is that manually enabling/disabling the GPS shouldn't have any appreciable impact on battery life on the G1 as the GPS only actually uses power when in active use -- when the GPS icon shows up in the notification tray.

I'm curious why it is that when I check the task manger, it always shows things like the MP3 store and Google Voice running. I've never opened either one of them, yet they always show up in there.

But I should let things run, like right now I checked Advanced Task Killer and it shows:

Google Maps, Voice Dialer, Voice Search, Clock, Gallery, Messaging, Mp3 Store, Settings, News and Weather all open. Is that okay? Which of these should I close?

I just checked my services, and it shows that the MP3 store has been running for 32 hours. WTF?
There should be an app called Spare Parts included with the system that can provide battery usage statistics for any running apps.

Frankly, I wouldn't worry too much about it, and would only bother even checking if you notice particular drain after installing an app. Beyond that, well, the system is generally going to be smarter about managing it than you'll be.

It's just how Android works built from linux.
Well, sort of. The rest of your post is fairly accurate, but Android is essentially an OS of its own built in Java running on top of Linux; it's an OS on top of an OS. Applications running on top of the Android framework will pretty much never directly interact with the Linux underpinnings. Application garbage collection is handled by Android rather than Linux.

[Slack3r78]

I thought the same about a physical keyboard, but the voice commands and keyboard (with great automatic word-by-word error correction) have converted me. The bigger battery, though, I could go for. This beautiful screen eats batteries like none other.

I spend far too much time in noisy bars for voice commands to be an acceptable substitute for a keyboard, personally. :)

[Mike Kelehan]

I spend far too much time in noisy bars for voice commands to be an acceptable substitute for a keyboard, personally. :)

Sure, it's not too useful outside of the home/car, but the autocorrecting touch keyboard is still fantastic. Even if you type really fast, you may be surprised to see how little you need to go back and edit, if anything. I honestly like it better than hardware keyboards I've used on smaller devices, like the Droid and the 360 chatpad.

[Slack3r78]

Sure, it's not too useful outside of the home/car, but the autocorrecting touch keyboard is still fantastic. Even if you type really fast, you may be surprised to see how little you need to go back and edit, if anything. I honestly like it better than hardware keyboards I've used on smaller devices, like the Droid and the 360 chatpad.

Well, I've never been impressed with the Android on screen keyboard on my G1. Even with autocorrection, etc, I'm still far slower than with the flip out physical keyboard. Sending a full message with the OSK gets tedious for me.

Oh, and FWIW, I wasn't particularly impressed with the Droid's hardware keyboard. It's relatively poorly laid out.

[Mike Kelehan]

Well, I've never been impressed with the Android on screen keyboard on my G1. Even with autocorrection, etc, I'm still far slower than with the flip out physical keyboard. Sending a full message with the OSK gets tedious for me.

Oh, and FWIW, I wasn't particularly impressed with the Droid's hardware keyboard. It's relatively poorly laid out.

I guess you just get better at it when you get used to it. Since realized I don't have to be careful, I've just been flying with it. And yeah, I agree on the Droid keypad, but then, I can't say I've ever used a small keypad that I loved.

[Deadend]

Well, I've never been impressed with the Android on screen keyboard on my G1. Even with autocorrection, etc, I'm still far slower than with the flip out physical keyboard. Sending a full message with the OSK gets tedious for me.

Oh, and FWIW, I wasn't particularly impressed with the Droid's hardware keyboard. It's relatively poorly laid out.

I gotta agree fully, I am not interested in the Nexus One using the on-screen keyboard and I hated the Droid's board. I like my G1's form factor, but it's tech is a bit out of date.

[Slack3r78]

I guess you just get better at it when you get used to it. Since realized I don't have to be careful, I've just been flying with it. And yeah, I agree on the Droid keypad, but then, I can't say I've ever used a small keypad that I loved.

I gotta agree fully, I am not interested in the Nexus One using the on-screen keyboard and I hated the Droid's board. I like my G1's form factor, but it's tech is a bit out of date.

The big thing the G1 gets right where the Droid fails is the raised surface of the keypad. The nubbiness of the keys lets me type without really having to even look at the keypad at all; I can focus on the screen instead. The flatness of the Droid's keypad really loses that advantage over onscreen keyboards.

[PathMaster]

Any idea if wireless stores will be getting demo units?

[Siraris]

Well, I've never been impressed with the Android on screen keyboard on my G1. Even with autocorrection, etc, I'm still far slower than with the flip out physical keyboard. Sending a full message with the OSK gets tedious for me.

Oh, and FWIW, I wasn't particularly impressed with the Droid's hardware keyboard. It's relatively poorly laid out.

I can write much faster with the Nexus keyboard than the Pre's keyboard, and close to the speed I used to text on my Blackberry (and this is after a week of use). The keyboard is extremely large, especially in landscape, and the auto-correct and suggestion is almost flawless. On top of that, the voice to text feature works 98% of the time.

I stopped worrying about tasks, and am worrying more about services running now, because transmitting data is where the battery really starts to drain on these phones.

The biggest, and only culprit is this Amazon MP3 store. It literally opens on its own for no reason all the time, and it sits there trying to transmit; I have no clue what's opening it, because it's not me. I noticed that after I disabled Live Wallpapers and the Amazon service, my battery life drastically improved. From 8:30 this morning until now (5:30 PM), my battery dropped from 100% - 80%.

[Mike Kelehan]

I can write much faster with the Nexus keyboard than the Pre's keyboard, and close to the speed I used to text on my Blackberry (and this is after a week of use). The keyboard is extremely large, especially in landscape, and the auto-correct and suggestion is almost flawless. On top of that, the voice to text feature works 98% of the time.

I stopped worrying about tasks, and am worrying more about services running now, because transmitting data is where the battery really starts to drain on these phones.

The biggest, and only culprit is this Amazon MP3 store. It literally opens on its own for no reason all the time, and it sits there trying to transmit; I have no clue what's opening it, because it's not me. I noticed that after I disabled Live Wallpapers and the Amazon service, my battery life drastically improved. From 8:30 this morning until now (5:30 PM), my battery dropped from 100% - 80%.

I also disabled Live wallpapers, even though I really liked the default "inside the Nexus" one, and yes, it's dramatically improved the battery life. I never opened the Amazon MP3 store, and I think I'll delete it without opening it, based on what I've heard, here and elsewhere.

[Mike Kelehan]

Any idea if wireless stores will be getting demo units?

Since those wireless stores won't be selling the device, and they're much more interested in selling phones locked to their carrier, I don't think they will, no.

[Slack3r78]

I can write much faster with the Nexus keyboard than the Pre's keyboard
Well, keep in mind that the Pre has one of the worst physical keyboards of any device in recent memory. The Droid keyboard is meh; the Pre keyboard is flat out awful.

The biggest, and only culprit is this Amazon MP3 store. It literally opens on its own for no reason all the time, and it sits there trying to transmit; I have no clue what's opening it, because it's not me. I noticed that after I disabled Live Wallpapers and the Amazon service, my battery life drastically improved.
Well, see, that falls into the ill-behaving apps category. Best option is to get rid of the app in question if it's causing such major issues, but that's nothing a task manager would have solved.

[Voodoo]

Well, see, that falls into the ill-behaving apps category. Best option is to get rid of the app in question if it's causing such major issues, but that's nothing a task manager would have solved.

I have found no way to uninstall the Amazon MP3 app.

[Slack3r78]

I have found no way to uninstall the Amazon MP3 app.

Looks like it may be installed at system level. Between the differences between 1.6 and 2.1 and me running a rooted phone, not much direct advice I can offer here. If it's a widespread problem, I'm sure that somebody will find a work around or a software update should be issued in the near future, though.

[Mike Kelehan]

I have found no way to uninstall the Amazon MP3 app.

I think you can't, without using a file manager, so go into Applications, filter "All," and click it. Then delete all of its stored data. This will leave the app itself, but it'll kill the setup information, so it won't try to run without your asking.

[Crittias]

12.22.09 Rogue Android Smartphone app created (http://www.firsttechcu.com/home/security/fraud/security_fraud.html). Might be worth a read for Android users.

[Xerxes]

I'm in the camp of OSK isn't so bad. I've been texting a little on my new phone and it's not bad. And for driving texts, which is wrong on so many levels, I just voice which is easy on so many levels.

[OldeWolf]

I'm in the camp of OSK isn't so bad. I've been texting a little on my new phone and it's not bad. And for driving texts, which is wrong on so many levels, I just voice which is easy on so many levels.

I suddenly got the strong urge to justify buying the N1 just so I can see what it's like talking on a phone while driving for the first time in my life. :o :p

[johnperkins21]

I'm in the camp of OSK isn't so bad. I've been texting a little on my new phone and it's not bad. And for driving texts, which is wrong on so many levels, I just voice which is easy on so many levels.

It's cool if you're stopped at a stoplight or something. I do it all the time. But when my foot is on the gas, the phone gets put down.

[nixpayn]

a friend of mine just got an HTC Tytn II (windows mobile 6.1 phone) and installed a port of Android 2.1 on it..i guess theres an app thats a boot loader, so you boot to win mo, then run the app and it boots clean into android.

how awesome is that.

[Adam Blue]

a friend of mine just got an HTC Tytn II (windows mobile 6.1 phone) and installed a port of Android 2.1 on it..i guess theres an app thats a boot loader, so you boot to win mo, then run the app and it boots clean into android.

how awesome is that.

That is actually really cool. You can get those Tilts pretty cheap now. I'm tempted to get one and do this.

[Voodoo]

Don't know if it has been mentioned before BUT I just found a browser for my Nexus that allows pinch zoom in/out. It is called the Dolphin Browser and is available on the market. So far, it's great. :)

[Jackel]

Don't know if it has been mentioned before BUT I just found a browser for my Nexus that allows pinch zoom in/out. It is called the Dolphin Browser and is available on the market. So far, it's great. :)

I've been using the Dolphin browser on my Droid and I concur, it works great!

[Crittias]

Swipe to Start Voice Input on Android (http://smarterware.org/4690/swipe-to-start-voice-input-on-android). Apparently, to start Voice input, you can just swipe your finger across the entire keyboard...

[Mike Kelehan]

Swipe to Start Voice Input on Android (http://smarterware.org/4690/swipe-to-start-voice-input-on-android). Apparently, to start Google Voice, you can just swipe your finger across the entire keyboard...

Nice tip; I'll be doing that from now on. And speaking punctuation, too. I just wish it was smart enough to capitalize the word "I" when I speak something.

[Siraris]

Nice tip; I'll be doing that from now on. And speaking punctuation, too. I just wish it was smart enough to capitalize the word "I" when I speak something.

Do you really feel that's more efficient than just pressing the microphone button?

[Mike Kelehan]

Do you really feel that's more efficient than just pressing the microphone button?

Absolutely! One of the great things about being able to navigate the system through speech is that I can one-hand it without looking. This is perfect for the car.

[Xerxes]

Do you really feel that's more efficient than just pressing the microphone button?

Dude, trying to get my finger hit the tiny voice button takes a little more effort than a sloppy calculated swipe. Great tip. I might have to invest some time and watch the other nexus one vids.

[Siraris]

Absolutely! One of the great things about being able to navigate the system through speech is that I can one-hand it without looking. This is perfect for the car.

I meant do you feel swiping is more efficient than pressing the microphone button. I guess it's 6 of 1 half a dozen of another.

[PathMaster]

Sweet, my wait paid off! From BGR (http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/01/14/verizon-wireless-to-overhaul-its-phone-and-data-pricing-plans/), VZ to overhaul their plans:

We’ve got shots of the new family plans as well as comparisons to AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile! It looks like Verizon’s new unlimited voice plans will run $69.99/month individually, with an $89.99/month option that will include unlimited text messages as well. As far as family plans go, Verizon seems to be coming in at $119.99/month for the first two lines, and $49.99/line a month after that with unlimited text and data options as well.

[Xerxes]

I wonder if TMO and HTC are waiting to put the Bravo instore and with contracts the way they'd like. I think I posted about the Bravo (http://mobile.engadget.com/2010/01/13/3-sweden-says-its-getting-htc-bravo-in-march/)before hand. I probably wouldn't have minded a little more Sense UI. No trackball, but I can't say I've been using it like hotcakes. Do like the status blink though.

http://www.blogcdn.com/mobile.engadget.com/media/2010/01/htc-bravo-swedroid.jpg

[Mike Kelehan]

I meant do you feel swiping is more efficient than pressing the microphone button. I guess it's 6 of 1 half a dozen of another.

That's what I meant, too. The mic key is the same size as any other key. It's not a physical button; it's on the soft keyboard. You have to look at the screen to hit it.

[Disgustipated]

a friend of mine just got an HTC Tytn II (windows mobile 6.1 phone) and installed a port of Android 2.1 on it..i guess theres an app thats a boot loader, so you boot to win mo, then run the app and it boots clean into android.

how awesome is that.

Yeah but there's a ton of shit on it that doesn't work yet, maybe never, and it can be very buggy.

[Siraris]

I was hoping that people could post recommendations of apps for Android? There's so many, I can't possibly browse them all.

I definitely recommend Astrid (to keep track of tasks you need to get done), Alice (you put in artists and it notifies you when the artist has a concert near you), Flixter, Barcode Scanner, Shazam (for those who don't know, you hold up your phone to any song and it tells you all about it) and Twidroid.

[Mike Kelehan]

I was hoping that people could post recommendations of apps for Android? There's so many, I can't possibly browse them all.

I definitely recommend Astrid (to keep track of tasks you need to get done), Alice (you put in artists and it notifies you when the artist has a concert near you), Flixter, Barcode Scanner, Shazam (for those who don't know, you hold up your phone to any song and it tells you all about it) and Twidroid.

Aldiko - ebook reader that, in addition to reading epub files, downloads public domain books

Amazon.com - scan a barcode or take a picture of the item itself, and it pulls up the Amazon page

AutoRotate OnOff - a widget that turns off auto rotating with one touch and turns it back on with another touch; perfect for use while lying down

Documents To Go - for those of us who use this for bidness, it reads and edits Word and Excel files

Google Translate - translates between a ton of languages, and speaks the results in a few of them

Key Ring - scan reward cards, like Best Buy Reward Zone, and it stores them

Last.fm

Mystique - episodic 3D horror inventory-puzzle adventure, first one's free

PdaNet - tethering

Ringdroid - select a portion of an MP3 and it adds it to ringtones/notifications

StopWatch - stopwatch and countdown timer, runs in background

Trapster - alerts you of speed traps when you're near

TV.com - watch Price is Right and Craig Ferguson on your phone

Wifi Analyzer - shows which nearby signals are the most powerful and on which channels, so you can choose the best channel for your network (hint: it's never 5 or 6)


...yeah, I love this thing. My only complaint is the Gmail syncing issues over the last couple days.

[Xerxes]

this sounds awesome. although, i'd have to have it ready or i'd just use my phone number

Key Ring - scan reward cards, like Best Buy Reward Zone, and it stores them

[Siraris]

Thanks for those MK, great suggestions. I hope we see some more great apps with the increased penetration of Android

Last.fm is stupendous, but how do you close it? Does it stay running no matter what?

Ok, Last.fm is the best app ever. I'm in love. And it doesn't drain the battery like crazy! Pandora on my Pre would eat battery like crazy. I've listened to 5 or 6 songs now and my battery dropped maybe 2%. It's SO much better than Pandora, too. You've made my week Mike!

[Xerxes]

Listen - podcasts

gsDriod for Xbox Live - I can see whats going on without logging on

Dolphin Browser - multitouch, feature rich browser

PhoneFlicks - Manage my NetFlix account on the go

Save MMS - saves your attachments

Pandora - I started using it before those others so it knows my music taste better.

[Goronmon]

Alright. Does anyone know how to shut off an alarm after the notification has been closed? Had to literally power down my phone to get it to stop this morning.

[Siraris]

If you have an Android phone (or not) I highly recommend watching this video with Erick Tseng from Google. He talks about a lot of really interesting details, addresses the 3G issues, how the phone store will evolve, multi-touch etc.

I found the most incredible part of the interview that Google is sending out techs to debug the issues people are having with 3G in the field. That's mind boggling to me. Sure, a company like Comcast sends out a tech to your house if your cable is bad, but this is really unheard of if you ask me.

I also think people haven't really focused on the fact that the first product Google is selling directly from Google, is a phone. It should show how seriously Google takes Android and the cell phone business.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/19/the-engadget-show-005-googles-erick-tseng-ces-wrap-up-widi/

[Crittias]

In anticipation of my first Android phone, here are some of the apps I've been eyeballing. Feel free to chime in yea or nay on any of these:
barcode scanner
twidroid
a2b
dolphin browser
pandora/last.fm
ShopSavvy/Amazon
Key Ring
Locale
Power Manager (necessary?)
Toggle Settings (necessary?)
Taskiller (necessary?)
Astro (necessary?)

I'm getting a Cliq, which hasn't upgraded to 2.1 yet, so I'm not sure if any of the utility apps will be useful/necessary, either short-term or long-term.

I'm definitely excited to start playing around with the Android platform!

[Slack3r78]

Nix the Taskiller, the rest looks good.

[Crittias]

Nix the Taskiller, the rest looks good.I figured as much. Thanks!

[opsin]

I'm getting a Cliq, which hasn't upgraded to 2.1 yet, so I'm not sure if any of the utility apps will be useful/necessary, either short-term or long-term.


Yea, I'm running all those (Last.fm rather than Pandora, and I'm not running Key Ring, but otherwise, all of them) on that phone. Dolphin Browser I'm really glad someone recommended, it's got some really nice features over the default one. Add ScummVM, Wifi lock,The wifi widget keepassdroid and gDocs and that covers what sees the most use.

I don't know if you saw, but they announced they will be updating it to 2.1 before long, which I definitely look forward to.
A powermanager I might get round to trying, since anymore battery life I could get eke out would be great.

[Siraris]

I installed Dolphin 2.0 today, and I'd like to comment:

- The UI needs some major refinement. It's all over the place and really unintuitive (and not very pretty either).
- Tabbed browsing is also really confusing. You open a tab and then click on it and it disappears. There's this giant green x that just sits there to close the current tab you're in, which just doesn't feel like the best design choice.
- Multi-touch is there, but it screws up the pages (or the browser just doesn't render properly). Text will move all over the place, grow too large, break improperly.

But the core fundamentals are there. Tabbed browsing is there, and it works well (although it is a bit laggy when you open multiple tabs). You can select text, it picks up RSS feeds, you can find words on the page, and there's an interesting gesture system that I need to look into. It definitely needs some refinement, but it's getting there. I still am using the default browser for the time being.

[Zagrash]

I have a bit of a weird question/request...

do any of you play Parallel Kingdom? I know it's been mentioned in this thread before, but I don't know if anybody is actually playing it.

If you're not, would you mind installing it, putting in my referral code - zflfu - and playing through the tutorial (30-60 minutes tops)? If it's not your cup of tea, you can just uninstall it after that...if you enjoy it, obviously feel free to keep playing!

The reason I ask, is there's one resource in the game that costs actual money to get...By referring players to start playing the game, I get some of that resource as soon as the referred player finishes the tutorial, and that player gets a bonus of 1000 gold (which can be pretty helpful for upgrading your weapons early on in the game).

I'm currently working on building up enough resources to start a city, and anybody that uses my referral code would obviously be welcome to join! I'll be able to tell if you use my code because it should automatically add you to my Friends list.

If anybody wants to start a character, once you've signed on, go to the menu and select your profile. In the upper right corner of your profile there's a red arrow. Click on that arrow, and it should prompt you for a referral code. Again, my code is zflfu with all lower case letters.

Sorry for my shameless spamming about this silly game, but I've become somewhat addicted to the stupid thing =)

[Slack3r78]

Flashed my G1 with Manup's Eclair 2.1 firmware last night.

Color me highly impressed. I was expecting it to drag given how light the G1 is on RAM. In reality, it's about the fastest ROM I've ever had on this phone. Facebook integration stuff still seems to be a little wonky, but, at this point, it's my daily use ROM until Cyanogen starts making 2.1 releases.

[Siraris]

Flashed my G1 with Manup's Eclair 2.1 firmware last night.

Color me highly impressed. I was expecting it to drag given how light the G1 is on RAM. In reality, it's about the fastest ROM I've ever had on this phone. Facebook integration stuff still seems to be a little wonky, but, at this point, it's my daily use ROM until Cyanogen starts making 2.1 releases.

I know Cyanogen's hard at work on 2.1 He just released some packs to add mt to the default browser today, and said that it will be rolled up into his "upcomming" ROM.

I'm not sure if I'm going to root when it hits though. I'll probably wait a bit to see if it's stable. I paid a little too much for this phone to risk breaking it.

[opsin]

With Dolphin, just having the ability to show/hide the tab bar so navigating tabs is quicker is a huge help, though the swipe sideways between tabs (like home screens) is even quicker.
That and the gestures, which I'd like more control over, do let me get to half the things I want to get to quicker than pressing the menu button in, selection More and then finding whatever it was. A gesture for bringing up the bookmark panel, and one for home page is basically all I wanted, but makes a lot of navigation so much faster.
I'll concur though, it still needs improving. It seems like the announcement about Firefox hitting Android this month may have been a mixup and it was only the Nokia that was getting it, but I'll keep an eye out, for better tab browsing on Android is a must.

[Siraris]

With Dolphin, just having the ability to show/hide the tab bar so navigating tabs is quicker is a huge help, though the swipe sideways between tabs (like home screens) is even quicker.
That and the gestures, which I'd like more control over, do let me get to half the things I want to get to quicker than pressing the menu button in, selection More and then finding whatever it was. A gesture for bringing up the bookmark panel, and one for home page is basically all I wanted, but makes a lot of navigation so much faster.
I'll concur though, it still needs improving. It seems like the announcement about Firefox hitting Android this month may have been a mixup and it was only the Nokia that was getting it, but I'll keep an eye out, for better tab browsing on Android is a must.

I'm hoping they bring Chrome to Android ASAP.

[Goronmon]

I'm hoping they bring Chrome to Android ASAP.I don't see that happening anytime soon. The relationship between Android and Chrome is more two separate OS implementations than OS/application.

[Slack3r78]

I'm hoping they bring Chrome to Android ASAP.

Doubtful. The Android browser and Chrome are both Webkit based and use Google's V8 Javascript engine. They're about as similar as you can reasonably get between a desktop and mobile platform in all but name, as is.

[Crittias]

Alright, question: I have the Cliq, which currently runs Android 1.5. What do I need to do to set up my Exchange/OWA email from work?

EDIT: Never mind, got things working. After spending a few minutes with the phone (there's a bit of a learning curve, coming over from a Blackberry), this thing is SWEET!

[Xerxes]

OMG I look back and hate my blackberry years. More so than my Win Mo 6.1 years.

Do any of you guys use ProClips (ProClipUSA.com)? If you do, any opinoins?

[opsin]

Dolphin Broswer just got an update, I think today, which fairly radically changes it's UI - again, for the better it looks. Certainly makes a bit more sense with a little getting used to it again.

[Siraris]

Dolphin Broswer just got an update, I think today, which fairly radically changes it's UI - again, for the better it looks. Certainly makes a bit more sense with a little getting used to it again.

That's what my post was about above.

[Bingley Joe]

Early days yet for the project, but I though this was pretty nifty

yri4qOfP8T0

[opsin]

That's what my post was about above.

Oh, it's 2.0? That makes more sense! I thought I'd run updates on some Market stuffs before that and it hadn't come up. I'm so behind!

[Siraris]

Oh, it's 2.0? That makes more sense! I thought I'd run updates on some Market stuffs before that and it hadn't come up. I'm so behind!

Yep. I'm hoping that Google puts a version of Chrome on there. Even then, if I decide to hack Cyanogen's rom on my nexus, I have multi-touch, and everything else I want is already there.

[bone_matrix]

Alright, getting a Samsung Moment on Monday. Roommate already got one. I've only played with it a bit, so far I love it.

Any advice with Android though? I know not to use a task killer, but say, how would I get rid of Amazon mp3? I couldn't get rid of it on her phone.

[Mike Kelehan]

Alright, getting a Samsung Moment on Monday. Roommate already got one. I've only played with it a bit, so far I love it.

Any advice with Android though? I know not to use a task killer, but say, how would I get rid of Amazon mp3? I couldn't get rid of it on her phone.

You can't get rid of Amazon MP3 (without using a file manager or something), but if you never open it, or delete its local data if you DO open it, it'll never run on its own, and won't cause any trouble.

[Adam Blue]

This sounds awesome - An HD2 with Android:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/25/htc-supersonic-for-sprint-possibly-spotted-in-the-very-very-ugl/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/17/htc-supersonic-to-ring-in-wimax-on-sprint-android-style/

[Siraris]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/02/02-03-10weratherchannel.jpg

Just saw this at Engadget. I scanned the code from my monitor lol. Very cool!

[J Arcane]

I got a handle on one of the MyTouch 3Gs at a T-Mobile store while waiting for the incompetent staff to actually acknowledge my presence.

This didn't happen of course, but I was rather impressed with the phone. IT was just so damn quick, responsive, and the browser's fantastic compared to what I've been putting up with.

I'm currently going through the slow process of flashing my Tilt to WinMo 6.5, and then once I've done so I am going to gut Android 1.6 on there and see how it goes.

[J Arcane]

OK, so I have Android up and running now. there was a bit of a glitch at first with the screen off delay not working, but I turned that off.

What I'm wondering now is, how do I tell Android to just turn off the damn phone connection, so it'll stop trying to use it for a data connection that isn't there?

I've not yet got service for this thing, so I've just been using it as a wi-fi PDA, and that works great in WinMo because I can just push one button and turn off the cell antenna and Windows will act like it's not even there.

I can't seem to find the same option in Android 1.6. So I'm getting time outs and delays for things that should be plenty quick.

[Wraith]

I originally posted this in the DROID thread, but it probably belongs here.

---

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/02/moto-zeppelin-gizmodo-brazil.jpg

There's another Motorola Android phone on the way. The Zeppelin (http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/motorola-zeppelin-spotted-again-android-ness-confirmed/). No keyboard, lower resolution screen. Most certainly cheaper than the Droid. No US carrier(s) confirmed yet, but Engadget says T-Mobile may be interested.

*edit* Also the Devour (http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/Motorola_DEVOUR_US-EN), which does have a keyboard, but again a 320x480 display (same size as Zeppelin). Coming to Verizon in April. Engadget link (http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/motorola-devour-officially-coming-to-verizon-next-month/).

[Slack3r78]

What I'm wondering now is, how do I tell Android to just turn off the damn phone connection, so it'll stop trying to use it for a data connection that isn't there?
Install this: http://code.google.com/p/apndroid/

[J Arcane]

THanks for the app link, I'll give it a download. I did a little more digging, and discovered that yeah, the option isn't in 1.6 which is why I couldn't find it outside of a hidden debug console (dial *#*#INFO#*#* if you didn't know about it).

I also found out my wi-fi issues may've been software related. I've got a new rootfs.img installed now that's supposed to fix it and the GPS, I'm just waiting for the battery to charge back up before I boot back into Android. I discovered that when you boot into Android on this phone, it assumes that whatever the current charge level is must be full charge, which didn't seem like a good thing.

[J Arcane]

Well, I got it going about as good as it's gonna get. The Rootfs.img fixed the poor wifi, but unfortunately, Android Market still doesn't work, which means I can't do a whole lot with it. It also devours battery like crazy, and the USB charging doesn't seem to work right most of the time.

So not really any good for practical use, but it was fun to get a chance to play around with it more. I played with 1.0 way back at launch on the official emulator but at that time it was just another cell phone interface. Now they've got something a little more interesting, though there's still aspects of the interface that are a bit counter-intuitive or unclear.

But it's also made it all the more clear why I hate "app stores". The phone's got the full dev tools installed, so when I can find APKs I can still install apps that way, but otherwise I'm pretty much screwed without access to it.

But I digress. Overall, it's pretty damn sweet. I like the speed of it, the responsiveness. Even on my 5 year old phone I think it ran smoother than any of the WinMo ROMs I've tried so far. It doesn't feel as "power user" to me as WinMo6.1, but it's fucking worlds better than the joke that is 6.5.

I think I will probably make my proper phone a Nexus One.

[Siraris]

I have to just ask two things, that I know no one here can answer:

1. Why doesn't Google release prettier UI controls? Most apps look substantially worse than on iPhone.
2. Why have they totally dropped the ball on the market place? The fact that Gameloft is releasing games constantly on the Pre, and has completely abandoned Android, is not a good sign. They need to do a lot of work to completely revamp the experience. There's no reason that there aren't more/better apps and games for the device.

I love my Nexus, but there's two missing components right there that would catapult it past the iPhone.

[Slack3r78]

1. Why doesn't Google release prettier UI controls? Most apps look substantially worse than on iPhone.
The UI has gradually been getting more polish over time. Still needs work, but, by the same token, there are some really good looking apps where the developers have put in time to make it so -- my latest contender for prettiest Android app is Runstar.

2. Why have they totally dropped the ball on the market place? The fact that Gameloft is releasing games constantly on the Pre, and has completely abandoned Android, is not a good sign. They need to do a lot of work to completely revamp the experience. There's no reason that there aren't more/better apps and games for the device.
I uh... did you seriously just say that the Android market is a bomb and then hold up the motherfucking Palm Pre as a relative app panacea?

[J Arcane]

Android gaming seems largely pathetic, at least from what I've been able to find. I'll admit I have no access to the paid side of the Market currently, but what I see on the web when I'm looking around makes it looks like devs still haven't really caught on to the Android thing, which seems so very strange compared to all the press and praise and sales the devices themselves have been getting.

It's looking like if I do get an Android phone, my gaming's mostly going to be through emulation.

But then again, maybe that's the reason. Giving Apple slightly more credit than I usually do, maybe the reason for all those harsh restrictions basically barring things like emulators and code environments like Flash or Python, is because the developers don't want to have to compete with more sources of free games.

Could be political, in the end. The environment isn't controlled enough for the big boys, so they quietly boycott it despite it's sales, because Apple and Palm play the kind of blatant protectionism they want.

Or not. With what I've been reading about how well the Droid's been doing, and how on board T-Mobile's getting with Android, and even Apple getting on the bandwagon, I think sooner or later they're going to have to just suck it up or lose a hell of a lot of money to other devs who'll come in and fill the void.

[Mike Kelehan]

I have to just ask two things, that I know no one here can answer:

1. Why doesn't Google release prettier UI controls? Most apps look substantially worse than on iPhone.
2. Why have they totally dropped the ball on the market place? The fact that Gameloft is releasing games constantly on the Pre, and has completely abandoned Android, is not a good sign. They need to do a lot of work to completely revamp the experience. There's no reason that there aren't more/better apps and games for the device.

I love my Nexus, but there's two missing components right there that would catapult it past the iPhone.

1. I kind of like them. Everything's very clean and utilitarian.

2. Great question. Google needs to get its freaking act together on this one. Just setting up an open market is a fantastic step, but they need to be actively courting developers. Since all (?) Android devices are more powerful than a first gen iPhone, they should develop some great porting middleware, so developers can just dump their iPhone games on the Market quickly, and spend a day or two prettying them up for the higher resolution and speed of newer Android phones.

[J Arcane]

2 more things that I didn't know that probably don't help:

1. Even though it's a Linux kernal under the hood, apps apparently run in bloody Java, and many standard Linux libraries are missing. There's ways to get GCC apps and such onto it, but it sounds convoluted and I think may require root. Oh, and on top of that, it's non-standard Java which means even Java apps have to be ported.

2. It costs $25 to post to the Market. This may not sound like much, but when you're planning on posting something for free/OSS, it sort of seems counter-productive.

Both of these things at least explain in greater clarity why despite it's Linux roots, I see more support for Windows Mobile from the OSS community than I do for Android. With as long as it's been out now, you'd expect it to be pretty much a standard porting platform by now, but I think both of these probably hamper it.

[Slack3r78]

1. Even though it's a Linux kernal under the hood, apps apparently run in bloody Java, and many standard Linux libraries are missing. There's ways to get GCC apps and such onto it, but it sounds convoluted and I think may require root. Oh, and on top of that, it's non-standard Java which means even Java apps have to be ported.
Android is no more Linux than WebOS is Linux. It's an operating system implemented in Java on top of Linux. Linux is essentially used as an HAL, and, frankly, I think this is smarter than Nokia's approach with Maemo, which is essentially Linux with some phone stuff tacked on. If you dig a little bit deeper into Android's architecture, you'll find that it's designed largely with stability as it's largest priority; bare metal Linux apps are largely counterproductive to that end.

Re: Java -- it's essentially Java in syntax. The API itself isn't full blown Java because it doesn't need to be. Google also provides the NDK (http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.5_r1/index.html) for developers who need to run native C for performance reasons.

Again, I more or less agree with the approach Google took here because I feel that mobile != desktop and trying to shoehorn one into the other just leads to a mess in the end.

2. It costs $25 to post to the Market. This may not sound like much, but when you're planning on posting something for free/OSS, it sort of seems counter-productive.
It's a little bit annoying, but, from what I've seen, the community hasn't been hurt too badly by it. The fee is in place to help minimize people posting purely spam apps. In the case of Free/OSS projects the common approach has been for the developer to pay the $25 as a hobbyist, get a few people to donate towards it, or put up a "donate" paid version in addition to the free app for those that would like to help support the project. Options 1 and 3 seem to be the most popular.

Of course, since you can install arbitrary apks on Android, OSS developers don't have to pay any fees if they choose not to. This is why it's exceedingly common to see Google Code pages for Android apps with QR codes on their homepage which you can scan into the phone to go to the app's download link.

Both of these things at least explain in greater clarity why despite it's Linux roots, I see more support for Windows Mobile from the OSS community than I do for Android. With as long as it's been out now, you'd expect it to be pretty much a standard porting platform by now, but I think both of these probably hamper it.

I'm curious as to what you went looking for a port of, but couldn't find. I also find the "not getting OSS support" thing a little odd since most of the software I run on my phone is open source. I mean, even the dialer and contacts .apks on my phone are third party open source implementations. Relatively large projects like ScummVM have made their way over as well. Not arguing with you on this, just genuinely curious to hear what you think is missing.

[J Arcane]

I don't disagree with Google's approach, purpose built is usualy better than shoehorned, but it does complicate matters when it comes to porting over standard OSS stuff that's built with a Linux/UNIX frame of mind. It definitely does seem as if despite the hype, Android is really a unique OS that just happens to have some Linux in the core.

Arbitrary APKs are a good point though, I wasn't sure if that was a standard option or one that required rooting/dev tools/etc.

What I mean when I say I don't see a lot of OSS support is that a lot of existing OSS apps I use all the time don't seem to have been ported. In the emulation sphere, for instance, the only thing I found that I recognized from other OSes was Frodo, most of the emulators were original developments, many of them not free (in OSS terms and in cost). Roguelikes are all but non-existent as well, seemingly amounting to one console-only alpha port of nethack. And I know that, being a Google platform, Google Code is bound to be a bit more popular as a host, but I found it a bit strange that neither Freshmeat nor Sourceforge had hardly any active projects for Android.

It could be I'm looking in all the wrong places, but even looking on that online Market page, if you like games, it really does seem like Android is a dismal place to be a gamer right now unless you just go emulating everything.

[Siraris]

The UI has gradually been getting more polish over time. Still needs work, but, by the same token, there are some really good looking apps where the developers have put in time to make it so -- my latest contender for prettiest Android app is Runstar.

I'm sorry, the vast majority still need a lot of work. The best looking app on the phone is the Gallery app on 2.1. Take a look at apps on the iPhone from Tapbot as just one example. There are countless apps on the iPhone that scream polish, I don't get that from the Android marketplace. I'll give you the perfect example; Seesmic just released the ability to have multiple Twitter accounts. They just plopped a horizontal bar with your picture, name and an arrow, and that's it. I have 2 ideas that would have been much more attractive. I just feel like developers are taking the path of least resistance, and the professional developers are taking the path of no resistance, because they aren't even developing for the device.


I uh... did you seriously just say that the Android market is a bomb and then hold up the motherfucking Palm Pre as a relative app panacea?

Why not? What's wrong with the Palm store? They are doing their best to actively court developers. The Palm PDK is attracting developers left and right, there are tons of games flowing into the market every day, and they are actively focusing on cultivating that environment.

[Slack3r78]

I'm sorry, the vast majority still need a lot of work. The best looking app on the phone is the Gallery app on 2.1. Take a look at apps on the iPhone from Tapbot as just one example. There are countless apps on the iPhone that scream polish, I don't get that from the Android marketplace. I'll give you the perfect example; Seesmic just released the ability to have multiple Twitter accounts. They just plopped a horizontal bar with your picture, name and an arrow, and that's it. I have 2 ideas that would have been much more attractive. I just feel like developers are taking the path of least resistance, and the professional developers are taking the path of no resistance, because they aren't even developing for the device.
Well, Seesmic isn't the best twitter app available.

Also, I'd give a better answer, but I'm drunk as shit now. It'll have to wait.


Why not? What's wrong with the Palm store? They are doing their best to actively court developers. The Palm PDK is attracting developers left and right, there are tons of games flowing into the market every day, and they are actively focusing on cultivating that environment.[/QUOTE]
Less than 1k apps vs over 20k apps.

[Crittias]

Well, Seesmic isn't the best twitter app available.What's better?

[Slack3r78]

What's better?

Twidroid is still king, IMO.

So I downloaded Calorie Counter (http://fatsecret.com/connected/android) on a whim to look at, not really thinking anything of it, and wow, it's been a handy app. For someone whose mind is as oriented toward hard numbers as I am, it's kind of amazing how much easier it is to reign in my food intake when I have such an easy way to track it. Only been using it maybe a week but it's already had a pretty considerable impact on the way I eat.

Also, re: Palm. As I was trying to articulate in my inebriated state, Palm has taken a lot of flak for how they've largely failed to fill out the selection of apps in their store, I really don't know how you've missed all the criticism.

[NoName]

So I downloaded Calorie Counter (http://fatsecret.com/connected/android) on a whim to look at, not really thinking anything of it, and wow, it's been a handy app. For someone whose mind is as oriented toward hard numbers as I am, it's kind of amazing how much easier it is to reign in my food intake when I have such an easy way to track it. Only been using it maybe a week but it's already had a pretty considerable impact on the way I eat.

It's really fun being able to scan the bar code for virtually any food item and have all the nutrient info brought into your phone. :)

[Slack3r78]

It's really fun being able to scan the bar code for virtually any food item and have all the nutrient info brought into your phone. :)

Yup, same with being able to just select menu items at most chain restaurants and having it automatically add all the info to your daily list.

[Zagrash]

Yup, same with being able to just select menu items at most chain restaurants and having it automatically add all the info to your daily list.

I just downloaded this, because it seems like an awesome tool, but I have the feeling that if used to it's full intent, I'm not going to like the results =)

guess I'll have to spend more time in the weight loss thread. But from the few minutes I've been poking around in the app, it seems really solid, and I'm looking forward to using it more.

[J Arcane]

WTF is with all these phones that are stuck at Android 1.5?

I've been shopping about for a cheap Android phone, and I've found several that don't look too bad, the Droid Eris, the CLIQ, the Behold II, the Moment. All decent looking phones for the price I can get one at, but for one goddamn problem: Everyone of them is 1.5, with no confirmed plans for an upgrade, just rumor stacked on rumor. I'd like to avoid hacking the phone if I can, just because I'd like to keep whatever warranty I'm owed.

It's looking like if I want to run stock and still have at least 1.6, I'm better off getting a G1, despite it actually being more expensive on Amazon for weaker hardware than basically any other Android device out there.

[Voodoo]

2.0 and 2.1 are nice but there aren't any huge advantages over 1.6 if you aren't on an Exchange server. You can get the Google Navigator on the v1.6 OS. HTC seems to be the leader (with Motorola a close second) at the moment of all things Android so you'd be pretty safe to get one of those phones and expect future OS updates. The G1 you may have to update through community ROMs though as I have found little evidence that it will get the official 2.x update through the official channels.

I've got a Nexus (2.1) and a MyTouch 3G (1.6). I'm going to be selling the MyTouch 3G soon though, don't really need it anymore.

[Slack3r78]

2.0 and 2.1 are nice but there aren't any huge advantages over 1.6 if you aren't on an Exchange server.
Strongly disagree. 2.x is considerably faster than any 1.6 build that I've seen. There's also software compatibility. There are already a lot of apps starting to show up that will only work on 2.x+.

J, spend some time digging through the androidandme.com archives. There are a number of phones that have been confirmed as receiving 2.1 some time in the near future. I haven't been following closely enough to be able to tell you what they are offhand (outside of HTC SenseUI phones, which includes the Hero and MyTouch 3G), but there have been a number that have gotten stronger confirmation than simple rumor.

[Voodoo]

Strongly disagree. 2.x is considerably faster than any 1.6 build that I've seen. There's also software compatibility. There are already a lot of apps starting to show up that will only work on 2.x+.

I'm not aware of any phone that has gone from 1.6 to 2.x on official OS software yet. All present upgrades outside of the official line have been via community methods thereby not being of official grain and therefore does not show how those phones would truly be on that level of OS. Since they have been finely tuned by whomever cooked them, I can't say for certainty that a MyTouch 3G will run night/day better on 2.1 than on 1.6 when the official update comes out. It will definitely be an improvement but not on a level of OMGWTFBBQ.

[wyeast]

IIRC, generally, most phones have been "confirmed" (that is, reported by a manufacturer-related source) as planning to get 2.x by Q2. Some of the rumours are that some of the phones will be getting updates sooner.

[Voodoo]

IIRC, generally, most phones have been "confirmed" (that is, reported by a manufacturer-related source) as planning to get 2.x by Q2. Some of the rumours are that some of the phones will be getting updates sooner.

AFAIK, HTC and Motorola have plans to upgrade their lines to 2.x. The G1 is the only one of theirs that has been within any doubt speculation. I haven't seen any rumors from the other manufactures though.

[opsin]

AFAIK, HTC and Motorola have plans to upgrade their lines to 2.x.

Yea, all of the current Motorola phones, including the Cliq are confirmed (by Motorola) to be getting 2.1. Cliq ought to have it in March, as the Droid update is rolling out right now. I've seen them confirm it in several different places now.

[Slack3r78]

I'm not aware of any phone that has gone from 1.6 to 2.x on official OS software yet. All present upgrades outside of the official line have been via community methods thereby not being of official grain and therefore does not show how those phones would truly be on that level of OS.

Unofficial builds have almost universally been *slower* than final builds. I have run official and unofficial builds on a constant basis since the original launch of Android, and the 2.1 builds I've seen are consistently the fastest out there. Given that 2.1 is a major release with accompanying under the hood changes, including a new version of the Dalvik VM, this is really unsurprising.

Yes, there are optimized builds out there, but there are also bone stock AOSP builds that are considerably faster than 1.6, even with missing driver support in some areas. For that matter, I'm even comparing optimized 1.6 builds to AOSP 2.1 builds; 2.1 is still noticeably faster.

[Voodoo]

Unofficial builds have almost universally been *slower* than final builds. I have run official and unofficial builds on a constant basis since the original launch of Android, and the 2.1 builds I've seen are consistently the fastest out there. Given that 2.1 is a major release with accompanying under the hood changes, including a new version of the Dalvik VM, this is really unsurprising.

Yes, there are optimized builds out there, but there are also bone stock AOSP builds that are considerably faster than 1.6, even with missing driver support in some areas. For that matter, I'm even comparing optimized 1.6 builds to AOSP 2.1 builds; 2.1 is still noticeably faster.

You're killin' me here... I didn't say that it wasn't faster. I didn't say it wasn't noticeably faster. What I did say is that it won't take a phone presently on 1.6 and turn it into a second coming of Christ event when that phone is updated to 2.1. I said that in the final part of my post. OMGWTFBBQ = Second Coming of Christ event.

So, in summary, if you (J Arcane: to whom my message was intended) want a phone right now and want to get one right now I recommend any of the HTC (excluding the G1) or the line of Motorola phones based on release information. I can not recommend hardware from the other manufactures because they haven't said anything about 2.x updates to their equipment.

The purpose of my post is not to say that 1.6 = 2.x. I am simply saying that it isn't a mind blowing event on existing hardware though the noticeable improvements are present. He can be assured to get a MyTouch3G or a Cliq today and those phones will get their OS updates very soon.

A good comparison. There is a huge advantage of running iPhone OS v3.x versus iPhone OS v2.x and definitely versus v1.x. This type of stepping isn't as drastic between phones (not of different hardware) that have 1.6 and 2.x Android. For example, a MyTouch 3G on 1.6 versus a MyTouch 3G on 2.1 will have noticeable improvements but not at a level where someone should be turning away a 1.6 version today.

[Slack3r78]

You're killin' me here... I didn't say that it wasn't faster. I didn't say it wasn't noticeably faster.

[...]

A good comparison. There is a huge advantage of running iPhone OS v3.x versus iPhone OS v2.x and definitely versus v1.x. This type of stepping isn't as drastic between phones (not of different hardware) that have 1.6 and 2.x Android. For example, a MyTouch 3G on 1.6 versus a MyTouch 3G on 2.1 will have noticeable improvements but not at a level where someone should be turning away a 1.6 version today.

Well, J said that he wanted to make sure whatever he got would have 2.1 in the future, and your post started off saying:

2.0 and 2.1 are nice but there aren't any huge advantages over 1.6 if you aren't on an Exchange server.

Which is where my confusion came in. I was pointing out two way where the 1.6-->2.1 jump is a big deal, with the software compatibility side probably being the bigger deal. J said he's okay with waiting, he just wants to make sure that the update will actually be delivered. Just a case of us talking around each other.

[J Arcane]

I specifically called out 1.6 as a minimum largely for compatibility and familiarity. 1.6 is what I run on my Tilt, and I would be happy with at least that, but being stuck on 1.5 until some indeterminate amount of time that may never actually come.

Yes, at least the HTC and Motorola phones have rumors and vague promises of moving to 2.x soon, but the level of communication here doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. But I also know that these cell companies are terrible about living up to these promises when they'd rather sell you a new phone. Having read quite a bit of the HTC Kaiser/Tilt's history on that subject, I guess I'm not as keen to give them the menefit of the doubt.

Also, all the phones I mentioned either have no root/custom ROM support, or very little. Which means no alternate means to upgrade if the companies don't follow through. Hence why I was leaning to the G1, because there, I'm pretty much spoiled for choice when it comes to custom options. I'm just a little iffy on the low RAM, but it'll still be a major upgrade for me regardless.

Maybe I ought to just wait a month or so, and see how it plays out. If the prices stay where they are, and at least one of these phones gets a proper OS update, or at least CFW, then going for any one of them would certainly be the better option.

[Siraris]

Looks like the next version of Android is going to be hitting soon... there was a post on a Linux discussion site (LWN (http://lwn.net/Articles/373374/)) from one of the developers who said that they were putting the finishing touches on Froyo, and the next version will be called Gingerbread.

We maintain a set of patches on top of Linux, which we periodically rebase to the latest released Linux kernel. We've been doing this roughly every other kernel release since about 2.6.14. This week we're finalizing our move to 2.6.32 for the Android "Froyo" release, and we'll likely be on .33 or .34 for "Gingerbread".

How often are releases done usually? Eclair came out in October, so I'm guessing it could drop in March? They do about 3 releases a year, right?

[johnperkins21]

Looks like the next version of Android is going to be hitting soon... there was a post on a Linux discussion site (LWN (http://lwn.net/Articles/373374/)) from one of the developers who said that they were putting the finishing touches on Froyo, and the next version will be called Gingerbread.

Fingers crossed that this is the one with ActiveSync support. My current phone is just about dead, and I really want to be able to upgrade to an Android device.

[DylonCorp]

J, the best I advice I think anyone could give on making your choice about phones is to at least wait until next week, MWC, and see what looks good after that. I spaced it, ordered a Cliq, and am now kicking myself. I'm looking forward to the device, but I bet I'll see a Snapdragon device with a keyboard that I like better next week.

[wyeast]

That will always be the case. Phones come flying out so fast that the moment you buy one, it's already eclipsed by something else. At some point you just have to make a leap.

[johnperkins21]

J, the best I advice I think anyone could give on making your choice about phones is to at least wait until next week, MWC, and see what looks good after that. I spaced it, ordered a Cliq, and am now kicking myself. I'm looking forward to the device, but I bet I'll see a Snapdragon device with a keyboard that I like better next week.

Well I'm definitely waiting until the Nexus One hits Verizon. If there's no ActiveSync support by then, I'll probably just get another dumb phone and keep two devices (a phone and a Blackberry).

[Panthera]

Wake me up when Canada gets access to the Android Market.

[Slack3r78]

How often are releases done usually? Eclair came out in October, so I'm guessing it could drop in March? They do about 3 releases a year, right?
There's no real consistency to it. 1.0 --> Cupcake was over 6 months. Then Donut was maybe 3-4 months after that with Eclair maybe 2 months after that.

[Siraris]

I posted the following on the Google Android forums. I'm curious what you guys think. I'm really not tooting my own horn, but I think it's a great idea:

I have had my Nexus One for a few weeks now, and I love the device; easily the best phone I've ever had. The only real area that it is lacking (aside from my feeling that there needs to be some design improvements) is in the app arena. The marketplace is open, and that's great, but it's being utterly ignored by the third parties because they are unable to make money off of it. One of the reasons, to me, is because there's no way to really highlight the quality material out there, and it gets lost in the noise.

I had a thought, and I hope someone from Google sees this and either weighs in or takes it to heart.

Why not create an Authorized Developer Program (or heck, call it the Android Developer Program). Third party developers can sign up for this initiative, and are subject to approval and a set of design standards on their applications. The benefit of this would be reflected on the market, in a separate section, or a way to filter by ADP's. That way, you could have the free, open market that anyone can submit to, and the more closed, and regulated developer market that is focused on quality products.

On top of that, Google could launch a website to highlight the apps from these developers, giving the developers the ability to construct a page for their application to highlight its features (with screenshot's, descriptions, perhaps even a section to communicate with the developer and other users on bugs, issues or feature suggestions). There should be a comprehensive search function included, and perhaps a way to allow developers to advertise their applications on the front page, or around the site.

I feel like this would solve one of, if not the biggest issue plaguing Android today. On top of that, it would be novel and interactive, and allow developers more control over the entire process.

[J Arcane]

I don't know where you're getting your information but the information I've seen says Android development only continues to rise.

Palm has a few more of the big game developers on board, but that's because Palm is a single company that can throw money their way. While Android is a Google sponsored project, it's ultimately a shared effort like any other open source platform.

Give it time, and you will see more quality apps. I see no reason whatsoever to arbitrarily subdivide the market, when it's openness is pretty much it's greatest selling point.

[Voodoo]

I do agree that it is fairly difficult to find apps you are unaware of in the current Marketplace iteration. I have no doubt that this will be fixed though as it has been been improving very well over the past 8 months that I've been on Android.

[J Arcane]

I will admit that at times it's easier to find what you're looking for on Cyrket than it is in the on-device Market. But then, I could say the same thing for my Windows Mobile experience as well.

Particularly annoying is the various markets' habit of filtering your results for completely unspecified reasons, leaving one sort of baffled as to why a specific app you know should be there inexplicably won't show up on your phone. A good example of this is Pirates! for the WinMo, which doesn't show up for me in Marketplace, but runs fine on the phone, and I've run into the same thing with God knows how many free Android apps.

[Slack3r78]

Not going to happen. The Market definitely needs better organizational tools, but I really don't see how adding the overhead of an approval process would help at all on that front.

[Siraris]

Not going to happen. The Market definitely needs better organizational tools, but I really don't see how adding the overhead of an approval process would help at all on that front.

Because the approval process increases the quality of apps. The apps on Android seem to take the path of the least resistance as opposed to putting in the effort to have a really strong, full featured and attractive app.

[NoName]

Woot. My G1 now has the Nexus launcher as well as live wallpapers, and everything is running smoothly. I can live with no video playback for this. :D

[J Arcane]

Because the approval process increases the quality of apps. The apps on Android seem to take the path of the least resistance as opposed to putting in the effort to have a really strong, full featured and attractive app.
Because the approval process has done wonders in keeping all those farting phone apps and various other useless shovelware detritus off the iTunes store.

[Slack3r78]

Because the approval process increases the quality of apps. The apps on Android seem to take the path of the least resistance as opposed to putting in the effort to have a really strong, full featured and attractive app.

I don't know what world you're living in where the iTunes approval process has done much of anything besides make it more difficult to get applications out to end users. You're basically asking Google to kill one of their biggest advantages over the iTunes App Store. iPhone developers also complain about how difficult it is to get good apps noticed by users. It's an organizational problem, not something some byzantine approval system is going to fix.

And then you have the other end of the spectrum with Palm, who you keep promoting for some reason, when the relative dearth of WebOS apps is one of the most frequent complaints you'll find about the platform.

I mean, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, but the things you keep suggesting just don't jive with the reality of the market that I've been following at all.

[Siraris]

I don't know what world you're living in where the iTunes approval process has done much of anything besides make it more difficult to get applications out to end users. You're basically asking Google to kill one of their biggest advantages over the iTunes App Store. iPhone developers also complain about how difficult it is to get good apps noticed by users. It's an organizational problem, not something some byzantine approval system is going to fix.

And then you have the other end of the spectrum with Palm, who you keep promoting for some reason, when the relative dearth of WebOS apps is one of the most frequent complaints you'll find about the platform.

I mean, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, but the things you keep suggesting just don't jive with the reality of the market that I've been following at all.

I think you didn't read what I wrote.

First of all, where did I say that I was suggesting the iTunes approval process? I'm talking about a approval process, which in no way has to be on the same level as Apples.

Second of all, how am I killing the openness of the market place? Anyone can still submit applications without any approval if they wish, there are just added bonuses for people who submit to an approval process, and put more effort into their apps. I'm sure it's difficult for people to get noticed on the iTunes store, and yet it hasn't stopped billions of apps from being downloaded, and tens of thousands of them from being developed from all walks of life. Perhaps it's organizational, but wouldn't highlighting worthwhile third party apps from the plethora of utterly asinine apps that exist on the marketplace as is?

Thidly, I mentioned the Palm app store once, and I find that there are more noticeable third party apps, in particular games, than there are on Android. Android has had over 8 months more than Palm to get apps out there, and are doing everything to actively court developers and make their lives as easy as possible. I have searched the Marketplace extensively, as well as the web, for apps for Android, and I see the same apps over and over being suggested. Of those, I've downloaded, Shazam, Where, Yelp, Last.FM, Amazon, Alice, Astrid, Seesmic and Flixter. Shazam is great, Where is okay (I found the WebOS one to be better on my Pre), Last.fm is the only app I use regularly, but it could look and perform a lot better, Flixter is probably the best looking/performing app on there.

So Android has been out for over 2 years, and so far, the app selection is pretty poor if you ask me. There certainly are a lot of apps, but most of them are crap, don't work, aren't supported, aren't updated, or have no use. I haven't seen an influx of apps so far, and I haven't heard of much news about it either, so until I see a flow of support, I'm going to say that something needs to be done about the process.

It's funny, because I think what I'm suggesting is a great idea. It would keep the Android market just as open, but add the potential for better quality apps, more sales for developers, more interaction with the community.

Edit - I just did some research, and it seems CBS released some apps for the marketplace. I haven't downloaded yet, but when I searched for TV.com (one of the apps released) it showed up at the bottom of list of results (with unrelated apps showing above it). I had no clue it even existed. If CBS signed up with Google, submitted the app for a brief approval process, and it was highlighted on the marketplace, I probably would have found it much easier.

Hell, you could even let them submit the app, and then have Google approve it while it's still on the marketplace. Once it passes approval, it could move from the general marketplace, to being a highlighted item.

[Voodoo]

The app store could benefit most from better sorting methods.

[J Arcane]

The app store could benefit most from better sorting methods.
More categories would be good too, especially for games. The existing division for games is retarded.

[opsin]

Not just more categories, which it certainly needs, but some sort of intelligent sorting would be nice, so you could not only see most recent, but being able to tell easily the difference between an app that has 4 stars from two reviews and an app that has 4 stars from a thousand reviews. Frustrating not being able to tell how reliable the ratings between two apps are.

[Voodoo]

When I do a search for "twitter" it should allow for sorting by popularity and/or downloads. This would help a great deal. Also by ratings!

[Xerxes]

I would like some sort of compatibility indicator. Android is going to be like this forever I reckon with the constant updates. That's nice and all, but the apps should be color coded or something for the versions it'll work with. Just saying, I've run into a few that don't quiet work with 2.1.

[J Arcane]

I've been doing more research on possible phones within my price range (which is more or less free, or close to it) and coverage area, and it seemed like I was pretty much stuck with the Droid Eris.

I have some misgivings about the lack of hardware keyboard and the battery life, and the 3rd-party UI, but this video really went along way to soothing my concerns:
FKTDSfbcbBU

Frankly, that looks pretty damn badass. I have had mixed emotions about HTC's custom WinMo UIs, but that looks actually quite nice and alleviates my biggest problem with their other work: lack of customization.

I just wish I could get hands on with one and a copy of NESoid and see how the trackball/touch controls work out.

[Cupelix]

Ok, I've apparently fucked up my G1, I was trying to go back to a normal 1.6 build instead of Cyanogen, and now my home screen does nothing but crash. I then tried to get back into the Recovery menu, and my G1 screen just gives me a screen with a yellow exclamation next to a picture of my phone. Anyone know wtf that means?

This screen also locks the phone and I have to pull the battery to get back out :(

Ok, apparently this is the default android recovery screen, you can get to the standard (non cyanogen) recovery screen with some keypresses from here. Still doesn't explain why my home screen is crashing, which sucks.

[Siraris]

bOGmnnGpoqg

What do you guys think about this? Would you use it (I signed up to preview the app on their site). I would like to see Google implement features like this into the OS, but with more eye towards usability. I just worry about battery drain :\

[J Arcane]

Looks pretty slick, but maybe a little too slick, if you know what I mean. Doesn't do anything Sense UI doesn't, so not much use to me if I go with the Eris, but if you don't like the stock interface it could be handy.

[Siraris]

Looks pretty slick, but maybe a little too slick, if you know what I mean. Doesn't do anything Sense UI doesn't, so not much use to me if I go with the Eris, but if you don't like the stock interface it could be handy.

I don't know how functional it looks, but I like the pizazz and flashiness. I think if Google could implement something slightly more subtle and functional, I'd be a lot more interested.

Personally, I don't find Sense that attractive.

[Deimos]

What do you guys think about this? Would you use it (I signed up to preview the app on their site). I would like to see Google implement features like this into the OS, but with more eye towards usability. I just worry about battery drain :\

I just watched that video a few minutes ago. It looks pretty slick and I signed up for the preview too but like most home replacements I bet after a week or less I'll revert to stock (cyanogen stock that is).

I'm very anxious to see this murder my G1, both in terms of battery and sheer 3d-bling.

[muddi900]

I will vouch against the hardware keyboard on the Droid/milestone. The excess useless d-pad makes it harder to type.

[Slack3r78]

Biggest problem with the Droid's keyboard is that it's nearly totally flat and the keys can't be easily distinguished by feel.

[johnperkins21]

Ok, as soon as the HTC Desire hits Verizon, I think I'm in. Even if full ActiveSync support isn't in yet.

3J5dy7gfMwQ

[Dukefrukem]

Biggest problem with MY Droid's keyboard is that it's nearly totally flat and the keys can't be easily distinguished by feel.

Fixed for you. Mine isn't flat at all. :P

[Slack3r78]

Fixed for you. Mine isn't flat at all. :P

I don't own a Droid; I've used several. The keyboard is mediocre at best. It's not Palm Pre bad, but it's definitely not a good implementation.

[Siraris]

Fixed for you. Mine isn't flat at all. :P

The keyboard was one of the biggest turnoffs to me on the Droid. It's a flat plane, no contour whatsoever.

[J Arcane]

So in light of my attempt to purchase a "free" Droid Eris and the cost of the resulting deposit fees that Verizon wished to level at me, I've realized I may actually be better off going with my original plan, which was to buy a used/unlocked G1 on eBay.

I realize it's 1st gen technology, and I know about the limitations of the ROM meaning I'm stuck with 1.6 forever unless I root it, but I've seen the damn things go for about as much as the $125 Verizon wanted, and it'd mean being totally free of a contract. I could even just get a flat data plan like I originally intended.

[Banacek]

I will warn you that the G1 feels slow if you have used anything else, and the memory limitation is really annoying if you don't have app2sd installed.

[J Arcane]

I will warn you that the G1 feels slow if you have used anything else, and the memory limitation is really annoying if you don't have app2sd installed.
The only other things I've used are a PalmPilot, a Palm m105, an iPAQ, and my current Tilt.

Even in my Tilt's case, the speed improvement when I'm running Android is quite noticeable. There's just the small problem of it sucking down my battery like a cheap whore with a bottle of HRD, and then not charging properly from the USB.

[Banacek]

The only other things I've used are a PalmPilot, a Palm m105, an iPAQ, and my current Tilt.

Even in my Tilt's case, the speed improvement when I'm running Android is quite noticeable. There's just the small problem of it sucking down my battery like a cheap whore with a bottle of HRD, and then not charging properly from the USB.

Oh ok. I've been playing with my coworker's Droid, and then going back to my G1 it seems sluggish. But, I do love the phone, much more then my wife's iPhone.

[J Arcane]

Oh ok. I've been playing with my coworker's Droid, and then going back to my G1 it seems sluggish. But, I do love the phone, much more then my wife's iPhone.
If you decide to upgrade, I might be able to make you an offer. ;)

[Banacek]

If you decide to upgrade, I might be able to make you an offer. ;)

I just bought a car, so I'm going to be stuck with this phone for a long time :)

[J Arcane]

I just found a MyTouch 3G on sale local for like $150. Crossing my fingers.

[Banacek]

Nice, hope you like it.

[Dukefrukem]

The keyboard was one of the biggest turnoffs to me on the Droid. It's a flat plane, no contour whatsoever.

That was the point of my post. There's two different kind of keyboard on the droid. A flat one, and one where the keys are bubbled... like mine. :+)

[Siraris]

That was the point of my post. There's two different kind of keyboard on the droid. A flat one, and one where the keys are bubbled... like mine. :+)

How do you get the bubbled one?

[Banacek]

I need to figure out what is going on with my G1. It says that I'm low on space, but I have hardly any apps installed and I cleared the cache on every app. I have no idea what has taken up the space, because I haven't installed anything recently. I really need to get a fast sd card so I can move my apps over. I've just been putting it off.

[J Arcane]

So, if I get a G1, and put Cyanogen on it, or get one with Cyanogen already on it, what does that mean for me as far as apps go? Like, there's not any limitation as far as like, not having some of the official Google apps, or not being able to use the full market, or anything like that?

I've got a chance to get one real cheap, but it's got the mod on it already and I'm not sure about it.

[Slack3r78]

So, if I get a G1, and put Cyanogen on it, or get one with Cyanogen already on it, what does that mean for me as far as apps go? Like, there's not any limitation as far as like, not having some of the official Google apps, or not being able to use the full market, or anything like that?

I've got a chance to get one real cheap, but it's got the mod on it already and I'm not sure about it.

You can always flash it back to the official firmware.

You can run and buy the vast majority of apps on the market with rooted phones; there are some 'protected' apps that won't install, but, honestly, I haven't actually come across any yet.

At any rate, ROMs are essentially just operating system images -- you can move between them at will.

[J Arcane]

Woo! I finally got one! Black G1, not unlocked but don't care as I'm going T-Mobile anyway for the Even More Plus pack. $155 including shipping.

Little more than I wanted to spend, but I think it's worth it to not be on a contract.

[Dukefrukem]

How do you get the bubbled one?

I bought it on launch day.

They used two types of keyboards to build it. Whether or not you get the flat one or not is random.

Read about it here. (http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/30955-one-first-droids-released-different-keyboard.html)

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3977/flatf.jpg

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8584/raised.jpg

[J Arcane]

Balls.

Well, I got my G1. I went about seeking the methods whereby I could remove the former user's data and start from scratch.

I found what was supposed to be a shortcut method for doing so, but that didn't work. So I stupidly ran the factory reset instead.

Now guess what version of the phone I have. That's right! It's RC30. Which means the workaround doesn't work, so I can't register the phone or get into it at all, because I don't have a SIM card yet.

I was waiting until I got the proceeds from selling my old phone before I bothered to activate this one, so right now I'm sort of screwed. Shiny new phone, barely had it an hour, and I've gone and locked myself out of it.

Since I can't really afford to activate yet, I now have to track down someone with a T-mob SIM card I can borrow.

[J Arcane]

So, it looks like I can get around this if I downgrade to RC29 and root my phone.

The question is, what does this actually mean? I'm not going to lose access to anything if I do it am I? What about updates and such? And it's possible to revert back to my stock whatever right?

[NoName]

So, it looks like I can get around this if I downgrade to RC29 and root my phone.

The question is, what does this actually mean? I'm not going to lose access to anything if I do it am I? What about updates and such? And it's possible to revert back to my stock whatever right?

If you downgrade and root, you can put on any rom you wish (whether it's stock or one of the many improved roms you can find in the xda-developers form). You should also look into putting on a custom recovery image after you root (which will make it easier to install roms as well as allowing you to do a nand backup so you can always restore if something goes wrong).

[J Arcane]

So there's not any of the official features that won't be available to me or anything like that. Paid apps still work, Google's apps all work (provided they work on whatever version of Android of course), that kinda stuff.

I'm just really paranoid about this kind of thing. Still haven't hacked our PSP, and it was some time before I broke down and installed custom ROM support on the Tilt.

But it sounds like it's pretty much the best idea, and it means I don't have to deal with driving to my brother's in Redmond to get hands on a SIM card.

[J Arcane]

Motherfuck.

For some reason I can't get the damn G1 to load the new ROM from the SD card, probably because it's formatted wrong. But I don't have a card reader, just the two phones.

So I figure, I'll just go ahead and use the WinMo phone to do it, but first, I want to get it flashed back to stock ROMs, to get it ready for sale. Only somehow in the process, it broke fucking ActiveSync, so I can't get anything installed on the godforsaken thing.

[J Arcane]

Auuuuugh!

Every mother fucking guide, every fucking time, is missing this thing, or that thing, whether it's some file or some step that doesn't fucking work.

This is like bashing my head against a fucking brick wall.

[J Arcane]

Well, I give up. I've come to the ultimate conclusion that there simply is no work around for the SIM card check after a wipe. The tasks and tools required to accomplish the feat claimed to circumvent it simply don't exist. You essentially need the original firmware with the root console bug, AND a version of the firmware than already includes sqlite3, at the same time, which as far as I've been able to find from countless experiments, is a physical impossibility.

[Adam Blue]

You'll get it. Just keep looking. Although I gave up rooting my Hero. I have a version that can actually can be rooted but can pull up the boot screen.

Also, 2.1 leaked on Eris ported to Hero (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=593015). Official should be soon!

[J Arcane]

At the moment I'm running the RC29 stock firmware, the one with the root console bug, but I'm just going to use my brother's SIM card to activate it. He's even got a G1 with data, so his SIM will work perfectly for getting my phone registered, and once it's registered you can pull out the SIM and turn the phone off, and it works fine.

If I root it again, it'll be with one of those easy install, .APK based ones. Otherwise, I'll probably just update it to official 1.6 and call it a day, and wait for 2.1 like everyone else.

[Banacek]

At the moment I'm running the RC29 stock firmware, the one with the root console bug, but I'm just going to use my brother's SIM card to activate it. He's even got a G1 with data, so his SIM will work perfectly for getting my phone registered, and once it's registered you can pull out the SIM and turn the phone off, and it works fine.

If I root it again, it'll be with one of those easy install, .APK based ones. Otherwise, I'll probably just update it to official 1.6 and call it a day, and wait for 2.1 like everyone else.

With the G1, I would root it. The phone is so much better then the stock 1.6 you can upgrade to, and there is a slight chance that 2.0 might never make it to the G1. Wireless tethering and Navigation are really worth it, let alone the other benefits (including speed) you get from a custom ROM.

[J Arcane]

Success!

My brother gave me a SIM card he had as a spare from when he bought his G1, and that was enough to get around the SIM lock, and from there, some quick adb shell commands got me up and running and registered.

With the G1, I would root it. The phone is so much better then the stock 1.6 you can upgrade to, and there is a slight chance that 2.0 might never make it to the G1. Wireless tethering and Navigation are really worth it, let alone the other benefits (including speed) you get from a custom ROM.

Well, according to Android and Me anyway, every Android phone will be getting 2.1 in some form (http://androidandme.com/2010/02/news/all-u-s-android-phones-to-receive-android-2-1-but-some-will-require-a-wipe/), though some may be absent features.

Wireless tethering doesn't do me much good as I don't own a laptop and am unlikely to afford one any time soon, and Navigation would be nice, were it not for the fact that there's apparently no compatible GPS in my area.

Speed would be nice, as would the space savings afforded by Apps2SD, but I dunno.

I've always been leery of custom firmware and hacked hardware, past experience tends to lead me to not wanting to deal with the hassle involved. I wish I'd never hacked my Tilt, it's been mostly bug after bug and now I can't even get the official ROM to work right, I won't hack my PSP because not being able to play newer and PSN games sucks, and my experience with a Hackintosh was awash with frustrations anytime updating got involve.

And then there's the joy of relying on random illiterate Internet wankers for your only tech support. My experiences just trying to make sense of often conflicting information and instructions and missing or broken files while dealing with rooting this phone have been enough to make me just not want to deal with it ever again unless it's in some sort of more or less 1-button process.

EDIT: Of course, at the moment this is largely an academic discussion, because I've realized that despite my efforts in the last few days, I don't have the slightest fucking clue where to begin updating the phone either way. Can I even get official updates over WiFi?

[Siraris]

And then there's the joy of relying on random illiterate Internet wankers for your only tech support. My experiences just trying to make sense of often conflicting information and instructions and missing or broken files while dealing with rooting this phone have been enough to make me just not want to deal with it ever again unless it's in some sort of more or less 1-button process.

EDIT: Of course, at the moment this is largely an academic discussion, because I've realized that despite my efforts in the last few days, I don't have the slightest fucking clue where to begin updating the phone either way. Can I even get official updates over WiFi?

Did you goto xdadevelopers? They have pretty much every iota of information you'd need. The forums are fantastic.

[J Arcane]

Did you goto xdadevelopers? They have pretty much every iota of information you'd need. The forums are fantastic.
Of course. The first thing I did on both my phones was bookmark their respective XDA pages.

XDA is definitely one of the better sources of information, but that's not really saying much. The amount of inaccurate, outdated, poorly explained, poorly documented, unhelpful stuff there is mind blowing, and God forbid you should have a question. It's like Linux in the bad old days.

[J Arcane]

So, I just tried to download an APK, and the browser blocked the download because it claimed it "didn't support this type of file" or some nonsense.

Is this a standard restriction? Because if it is, that's reason enough to root right there.

[J Arcane]

Further adventures!

The aforementioned APK thing was just some kind of bug or something. Other APK's I've downloaded seem to work just fine, so that's cool and all.

However, it seems my quandry over rooting has resolved itself through yet another experiment. I attempted to install Cyanogen, following the instructions on the wiki to the letter.

The end result however, was an unusable phone. It boots up to the registration screen, but it's interminably slow, and regardless of action taken even if none at all, after about 30 secs the display goes black except for the status bar, which displays a cryptic notification icon of a SIM card with a gear next to it, and then locks up, before rebooting about 1 minute later and beginning this cycle again.

The only way out of it is to pull the battery out of the phone, and the only way to fix the problem was to restore the NANDroid backup that the wiki was so gracious to include as one of the steps in the installation process.

I had a similar experience with "TheOfficial Donut" custom ROM I'd tried before while trying to get around the SIM lock, only that one just rebooted constantly without any of the delays described above.

Of course, the flipside is I have no idea how to get the official update even. Does anyone know where to find the official updates for the G1? Preferably ones that don't involve wiping my damn phone again?

[J Arcane]

Sorry to continue flooding the thread. Some vigorous googling last night found me sources for the official OTA updates for the G1.

However, something I've been unable to discover is whether said updates will require a wipe. I have to avoid anything that requires re-registration, as without service my only option for registration is with the RC29 ROM, as it has the root console bug I need to be able to enable WiFi at reg time.

So are the updates actual updates, or are they just new ROMs? Also, will they replace my recovery image? That's one thing I would like to have at least, as Cyanogen's recovery mode is substantially more useful than the default one, and if it doesn't replace it I should be able to just restore my backup and I'll be fine.

[Zagrash]

For anybody that's interested, Swype is beta testing right now. You can register at beta.swype.com. Be sure to register with an e-mail address you can check on your phone, they send you a download link via e-mail. I've been messing around with it for a little while now, it's really pretty slick.

[Siraris]

For anybody that's interested, Swype is beta testing right now. You can register at beta.swype.com. Be sure to register with an e-mail address you can check on your phone, they send you a download link via e-mail. I've been messing around with it for a little while now, it's really pretty slick.

Some people on the XDA forums say that Swift is the best keyboard, better than Swype. Have you heard of it?

[J Arcane]

It works! I finally managed to successfully run an update. My initial attempts with the official updates refused to boot, and I knew that couldn't be right because it had official 1.6 when I got it.

It dawned on me that it may be a memory problem, more specifically, the SD card which had been giving me issues on my WinMo phone as it was but that I thought had just been OS bugs.

Plugged the G1 into my computer and mounted the SD card, and then ran a full FAT32 format, put the 1.5 update back on it, and it worked perfectly the first time, and also answered my question about whether it would wipe my registration (it didn't).

I now have a perfectly working 1.5 phone on the charge, and after a bit I'm going to run the updates to get 1.6. Then maybe in the distant future if I start running into issues or get bored I'll think about trying rooting again and doing Cyanogen.