Android!

[Engels]

Ya, one of my school's professors, a visiting professor from Egypt, bought 3 iPhones for his family, just to find out that they would not work in Egypt where he spends 4/5ths of the year. He also said that all his ITunes purchases in the US would not work abroad, since ITunes, it turns out, is region specific. I sent him a webpage on how to set up a proxy server connection and wished him luck.

[Torinak]

The USA gets screwed again :(

Hopefully google's going to do something with all that dark fiber and part of that spectrum they purchased...

Google was outbid by Verizon Wireless and didn't get any spectrum. The FCC has a full breakdown of the auction results (see the "View Auction Results" link on that page; link appears to be dynamic).

[nurtsi]

Now that you buggers have been using the phone for a while, any changes in opinion? Any annoying stuff that's come up with prolonged use?

I'm considering ordering the G1 dev model now since the iPhone still hasn't been unlocked.

[sidereal]

No, it's rock solid.

One interesting fact is that -- now that both the gphone and the iphone support open development -- the phones are converging.  The gphone had an app to hold your phone up to music and identify it about 10 minutes after the iphone did.  The gphone will have an on-screen keyboard shortly.  It's fairly quickly getting to the point where software is not differentiating at all and the only factors to base a decision on are the form factor (gphone has a real keyboard), the carrier, and the price.

[Hoax]

Do we have a top 10 apps thread for Android yet?  I don't have one because ATT can suck my dick and they want me to buy an iphone so bad...

I do have a roommate who will prob get one and a girl at work who wont install anything unless I tell her to.

[IainC]

Sony are reported to be making an Android phone for release early 2009.

[TripleDES]

Hope it won't be a cheap looking piece of shit like the G1. Then again, it is very well possible that the upcoming SE Android phone will be another rebranded HTC one like the Xperia. 

Well, as long it doesn't look like crap, I guess...

[schild]

Hope it won't be a cheap looking piece of shit like the G1. Then again, it is very well possible that the upcoming SE Android phone will be another rebranded HTC one like the Xperia. 

Well, as long it doesn't look like crap, I guess...

Have you used a G1 yet? It's quite study and I've come to not mind the shape, in fact I kinda like it. I dig the back.

[TripleDES]

I'm not saying the build quality is crappy, but the plastics used look cheap. While I hate the Blackberry form factor, this thing would sure make a nicer impression on someone than a G1.

GLOSSY! 

Actually, I hoped the G1 would be something along the lines of the HTC Diamond Pro in style... but it's not.

[schild]

I'm not saying the build quality is crappy, but the plastics used look cheap. While I hate the Blackberry form factor, this thing would sure make a nicer impression on someone than a G1.

GLOSSY! 

Actually, I hoped the G1 would be something along the lines of the HTC Diamond Pro in style... but it's not.

Tiny screen. >_<

[Teleku]

Hope it won't be a cheap looking piece of shit like the G1. Then again, it is very well possible that the upcoming SE Android phone will be another rebranded HTC one like the Xperia. 

Well, as long it doesn't look like crap, I guess...

Does it look worst in person or something?  All the pictures of it I see look make it look really high quality...

[TripleDES]

Look more or less the same. I guess expectations weren't met. Seeing how HTC's current self-branded phones look like and then the G1.

Plus, no real headphone jack. Vital feature for me    (well, their music player isn't the bomb either, but a suitable replacement can be expected).

[sidereal]

Plus, no real headphone jack. Vital feature for me 

http://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-g1-now-shipping-with-35mm-headphone-jack-20081120/

[TripleDES]

That's not a headphone jack, that's a shitty adapter, just like Sony Ericsson (used to) ship(s) with their phones. And I didn't have great experiences with these.

[Surlyboi]

 

[TripleDES]

Apparently there's a G2 from T-Mobile coming out soon. I hope all these silly tech sites aren't mistaking that silly chinese Dream G2 cheap phone for this thing (it doesn't come with a hardware keyboard nor a touchscreen one  ).

Rumor mill says it's the HTC HD but with Android instead of WM.

[Venkman]

So I just picked up iPhones for myself and the wife. But the thing I like about the gPhone is that my gut tells me this is the only real competition that could blunt the growth of the iPhone.

In a sense, I feel the iPhone is the pinnacle of the old way of doing things in the U.S. Mobile providers want to control the entire end to end user experience because they feel like that's the best way to make as much money as possible. And having used every PDA and most high end models since Sharp and Casio were duking it out before the Newton got all screwed up, I feel that Apple's entire self-consistent user experience from phone to iTunes to ecomm transactions is the best one there is. But it still about the many points of consumer moneygrabs engagement.

The Android though seems predicated on the belief that embedded ad sales is the future. They don't require all different forms of end-user monetization and therefore are both cheaper to rollout and easier to centrally control. I'm not sure I agree, as the form factor restricts in ways web pages don't, you're still dealing with carriers who have their own views of monetization, and there's other ad sales models are being questioned for their lack of actual revenue being generated. But they also push for crowd-sourced development, which can work. And it's certainly not the software on the iPhone is so fundamentally better because developers can charge money for it (so much of the early stuff was developers simply slapping a dollar amount to stuff they did for free on jailbreak phones/touches).

So I love the iPhone but will still be watching to see if the gPhone goes anywhere. I'm not opposed to early termination fees if there's a much better experience to jump onto.

[TripleDES]

And it's certainly not the software on the iPhone is so fundamentally better because developers can charge money for it (so much of the early stuff was developers simply slapping a dollar amount to stuff they did for free on jailbreak phones/touches).

 

[sigil]

Picked up one and am very satisfied with this. I like the back as well.
Feature list on the firmware update



multiple fixes to the Email client,  Video recording,  Faster browsing with  cut and paste from the browser.


I can do a quick must have list for apps, but most of it's been covered.

[sigil]

  Maybe it'll convince me to finally quit my job and hack on a (differently) fun project though.

Nobody is allowed to leave android until they allow programs to be closed without turning off the fucking phone. Drained a g1 in five hours with wifi and gps turned off, with power managment turned on. Although Twitdroid was going every 15 and I probably got about 60 SMS in that time and I took three pics.

[Quinton]

  Maybe it'll convince me to finally quit my job and hack on a (differently) fun project though.

Nobody is allowed to leave android until they allow programs to be closed without turning off the fucking phone. Drained a g1 in five hours with wifi and gps turned off, with power managment turned on. Although Twitdroid was going every 15 and I probably got about 60 SMS in that time and I took three pics.

It's in the works.  You *can* force a program to exit by uninstalling it right now, but I realize this is a big hammer.

Also, for the record, I don't have any involvement in the framework / java level stuff.

Was that every 15 minutes or 15 seconds?  15 seconds is harsh, especially if it hits the network.  15 minutes shouldn't be that horrible unless it's doing some massive data transfers every time it wakes up.

[nurtsi]

Well, I ended buying an iPhone instead of the G1 because the dev model apparently comes with a 200€(!) shipping and handling fee which makes it way more expensive. My only gripe so far is that the iPhone keyboard doesn't have pgup/pgdn which I need to scroll the log in irssi. Apparently the terminal software should have gestures for those (two-finger swipe), but it looks like they've been broken since the 2.0 firmware. ESC-p/n works, but is a bit of a pain (gesture + keypress) to enter.

Does the G1 keyboard have basic things like CTRL,ALT,ESC,PGUP/PGDN, and arrow keys in it? Those would make using terminal apps so much easier.

[Quinton]

Yeah, the shipping situation for the ADP1 is a bit crazy.  It's being looked into.

Keyboard photo: http://flickr.com/photos/broo2/2971712449/ (I just searched for g1 keyboard photos)

[Draegan]

What programs are you guys using?  I havn't saved and used many of the programs from the market other than solitaire.

I had 3 updates tonight, and I'm not sure if I downloaded them because the notifications are cleared.  Is there a way to track this?

[schild]

What programs are you guys using?  I havn't saved and used many of the programs from the market other than solitaire.

I am actually not using any! And I only play 1 game! Trap.

I still love my android and when I get into working on it, I'll probably use it a lot more. News on the for-pay store can't come soon enough. I know if I was developing something useful and cool, I'd wait.

[Quinton]

News on the for-pay store can't come soon enough. I know if I was developing something useful and cool, I'd wait.

Paid apps are deployed in the latest (RC33) release on G1.  I believe people will be able to buy paid apps this week:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/13/google-now-accepting-paid-apps-in-android-market/
Log in to your android market publishing account -- I believe the interface for setting everything up is live.

Also, for hard-keyboard-haters:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/17/htc-magic-is-official-bringing-android-to-vodafone-sans-keyboar/

[Draegan]

So I read somewhere that you can "root" (hack? Don't know what this means) your phone so you can have mutli touch screens and a browser that auto turns when you turn the phone.

Anyone know anything about this?

[schild]

Multitouch what?

http://i.gizmodo.com/5139087/multitouch-implemented-on-g1-android-unofficially

Fascinating.

[sigil]

paid apps are up.

ton of apps just got released, although nothing realy grabbing me right now

the dev phones can tether now though for a 9 buck ap on the market. loks like it anyway

[Venkman]

Finally. Couldn't come soon enough for G1 to eventually maybe become a serious end-user competitor. You've all by now I'm sure saw this article (most people don't use the app after day 1, there's not a huge difference between free and for-pay usage so go for-pay, etc).

I'm also trying to dig up this other article I saw a few weeks back that the AppStore accounted for something like 11-15% (why I'm trying to dig it up) of all mobile downloads in 2008. All mobile downloads, onto a device that at best represents 1-2% of all mobile handsets out there, and then only if you include the non-cell Touch.

Edit: Found it: Of the 8.5mil people who downloaded a mobile game in November 2008, 14% of them were on the iPhone. Additionally, 6 of the top 10 mobile devices used for downloads were smartphones, iPhone and BB Curve at the top.

[Le0]

This looks really interesting, plenty of my mates went crazy when the iPhone got released but I was more meh than ooohh!
But this androide stuff looks a lot more ooohhh to me, but of course in my old fucking Switzerland we don't even have a release date yet.

You guys have any clue? When is it released in Europe?

Also forgot to mention that T-Mobile does not do Switzerland, are we doomed ?

[IainC]

This looks really interesting, plenty of my mates went crazy when the iPhone got released but I was more meh than ooohh!
But this androide stuff looks a lot more ooohhh to me, but of course in my old fucking Switzerland we don't even have a release date yet.

You guys have any clue? When is it released in Europe?

Also forgot to mention that T-Mobile does not do Switzerland, are we doomed ?

T-Mobile.de are advertising it - clicky, tempted to get one myself as I'm shopping for a new phone at the moment.

[Broughden]

Ive been looking at it, but we dont have the 3G network in Louisville yet. So no real point in getting it.

[sigil]

Ive been looking at it, but we dont have the 3G network in Louisville yet. So no real point in getting it.

Given the critera you've expressed as mandatory, multiple day battery life for excursions and the like, I'd fully reccommend you giving thie g1 a miss.

[Draegan]

I really can't sort the market though to see what's free and what's paid for.  At least I havn't been updated to do so yet.