Android!

[Draegan]

Well now I have to buy it.

[IainC]

Well now I have to buy it.

It appears to be the very Hellgate: London of cell phones.

[schild]

Edit: Actually no, I'm not even responding to that. Don't be a tool.

[Krakrok]

Note to Android software developers — Would it be so hard to add a touchscreen keyboard, such as the iPhone has?

 

I won't even buy a phone without a real keyboard.

[schild]

Note to Android software developers — Would it be so hard to add a touchscreen keyboard, such as the iPhone has?

 

I won't even buy a phone without a real keyboard.

This.

[ashrik]

Well now I have to buy it.

It appears to be the very Hellgate: London of cell phones.

Well that's hurtful.

As for keypads, I've been holding out for well over 2 years for a sweet qwerty key pad. I think this may just be my future lover.

Schild, you've sold it better than any mere schill could. Is it the google love? Is it the D? Who knows

[schild]

Oh this keypad isn't the end all of cell phone keypads. I never said that. It's an HTC pad. If you don't know what you're getting into, go try it. I like HTC pads. But it's no Model M. Honestly though, I take what I can get when it comes to tech keyboards. I like the HTCs more than the blackberries but not as much as the new sidekick.

[Draegan]

The trackball thingy is awesome too.

[MrHat]

One of my big reasons for jumping out of T-Mobile was I found, at least in my office building (majority of my time), that I got zero signal.  So his inside buildings complaint is not completely unwarranted.

[schild]

One of my big reasons for jumping out of T-Mobile was I found, at least in my office building (majority of my time), that I got zero signal.  So his inside buildings complaint is not completely unwarranted.

Hence why I said that was possible with _any_ phone.

[Draegan]

I now own one.  I feel like a better person too.

[schild]

I now own one.  I feel like a better person too.

Oh oh, we should be friends. We can IM eachother from our phones. Did you notice that all the IM apps are different and can run at the same time and drop IMs onto the bar at the top when you get a new one? DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW AWESOME TEXT MESSAGING IS YET I HAVE UNLIMITED TEXTS LETS BE FRIENDS.

please

[Krakrok]

I like the HTCs more than the blackberries but not as much as the new sidekick.

How is the keyboard different from the Sidekick? From the pictures they look the same. The sidekick one is a solid piece of rubber and the buttons are under it. Does the G1 have separate buttons?

The trackball thing looks just like the Sidekick LX one too.

[Draegan]

I now own one.  I feel like a better person too.

Oh oh, we should be friends. We can IM eachother from our phones. Did you notice that all the IM apps are different and can run at the same time and drop IMs onto the bar at the top when you get a new one? DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW AWESOME TEXT MESSAGING IS YET I HAVE UNLIMITED TEXTS LETS BE FRIENDS.

please

I only use MSN these days, havn't used AIM in ages.

BUT I HAVE A BROWN G1 AND IT IS THE BEST.

I need a GPS button too and a new clock.

My battery is dead.

My first G1 was broken and I had to get a new one.

Can I be your friend?   

[schild]

I like the HTCs more than the blackberries but not as much as the new sidekick.

How is the keyboard different from the Sidekick? From the pictures they look the same. The sidekick one is a solid piece of rubber and the buttons are under it. Does the G1 have separate buttons?

The trackball thing looks just like the Sidekick LX one too.

Seperate buttons, but they're nearly flush with eachother to pack them all in.

[schild]

I now own one.  I feel like a better person too.

Oh oh, we should be friends. We can IM eachother from our phones. Did you notice that all the IM apps are different and can run at the same time and drop IMs onto the bar at the top when you get a new one? DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW AWESOME TEXT MESSAGING IS YET I HAVE UNLIMITED TEXTS LETS BE FRIENDS.

please

I only use MSN these days, havn't used AIM in ages.

BUT I HAVE A BROWN G1 AND IT IS THE BEST.

I need a GPS button too and a new clock.

My battery is dead.

My first G1 was broken and I had to get a new one.

Can I be your friend?   

Phones should have friend lists, man that'd be rad. Instead of a contact list, a desktop where it shows people who are online. How neat.

[Morfiend]

You guys are right, this phone is fucking billiant, the touch screen keyboard is really awesome. Shame we all have to use AT&T though.

So, did you get the 8gb or the 16gb? Black or White?

[schild]

You guys are right, this phone is fucking billiant, the touch screen keyboard is really awesome. Shame we all have to use AT&T though.

So, did you get the 8gb or the 16gb? Black or White?

I think you confused this thread for the artsy asshole effete snob turtleneck thread, which is further down.

[Viin]

Now I will sit quietly in the corner and wait for some enterprising lawsuit hunting hacker to build Android for the iPhone.

[Draegan]

i think i saw in the manuel if someone in your contacts is online there is a green light... so a friends list

[Engels]

i think i saw in the manuel

Leave Manuel alone.

[sidereal]

Got one.  Great phone.  Writing apps for Android is a breeze.  Conchords in the included music is winful. 

The battery life is absolutely fucking horrifying.  The only way to get a full day out of it is to disable half the features, notably WiFi, GPS, and (for real power-saving) use of the 3G network.  If you leave WiFi on you'll run your battery to 0 in a few hours, without actually doing anything.  Just letting it sit on a shelf.  Total garbage.  I had to install AnyCut to get a desktop shortcut to the network settings interface, since I have to toggle them 8 times a day.

Otherwise, stellar.

[schild]

Ah yes, battery life. I should've complained about that, but it won't ever really effect me because you can charge from fucking anything with a USB jack and I'm sitting at my own desk most of the time. My bad.

Yes, the battery life is a fucking problem. I'd suspect they release a better battery eventually though.

[stray]

The black is uglier than the white... but I'm not quite sold on that either.

I like the general idea though...but won't switch carriers.. look forward to more models.

[edit] Wait, what? Brown G1?

[sidereal]

It's bronze, not brown.  I have one.  It looks like a metallic black.

[stray]

Ah.


I guess on a sidenote, I wouldn't mind seeing more olive/metallic olive phones, as far as earthy colors go.

[KallDrexx]

Hrm, a friend showed me his and I tried it out for 2 minutes.  Loaded a web page and scrolling via touchscreen was extremely laggy and non-smooth (unlike my experience with an iphone, and no I don't own an iphone).  Then the battery warning came up and I handed it back to him.

wasn't impressed, but then again right now I'm happy with m non-data phone anyways.

[schild]

Hrm, a friend showed me his and I tried it out for 2 minutes.  Loaded a web page and scrolling via touchscreen was extremely laggy and non-smooth (unlike my experience with an iphone, and no I don't own an iphone).  Then the battery warning came up and I handed it back to him.

wasn't impressed, but then again right now I'm happy with m non-data phone anyways.

What webpage? I really haven't experienced that. As mentioned, battery is pretty poopy, but mine lasted all day today and I had the GPS on.

[Broughden]

Ah yes, battery life. I should've complained about that, but it won't ever really effect me because you can charge from fucking anything with a USB jack and I'm sitting at my own desk most of the time. My bad.

Yes, the battery life is a fucking problem. I'd suspect they release a better battery eventually though.

That just killed it for me. Bought my wife a Blackberry Curve a few weeks ago. Her Blackberry was 2 years old or so and the side scroll wheel was shot to hell.
Based on Schild's review i was going to run out and buy this G1 this week for me....but battery life that shitty? You have to disable half the features to get a full days use out of it?
My wife has unlimited broadband/WiFi and GPS and gets DAYS and DAYS of useage between charges on her Blackberry. Im always running around town and having to charge constantly would kill all joy for me.

[schild]

I figure I'm going to buy a charger dock for the car because I fucking hate hate hate hate leaving it sitting on it's back as I don't want to scuff it. The moment that happens, all my battery woes will float away. As such, I can say I'm not particularly worried. Like, at all.

[Viin]

To be fair, the iPhone has pretty crappy battery life too, with all the toys turned on. One of the things that pisses my off about mine, is that an app or something gets stuck and keeps running in the background sometimes - I can go from a full battery to almost dead in 6hrs, all the while the phone should have been 'sleeping' and has been sitting on my desk (not plugged in). Still haven't figured out what causes that, as 3G is normally off and it does it regardless of that setting. But not all the time!

[Broughden]

To be fair, the iPhone has pretty crappy battery life too, with all the toys turned on. One of the things that pisses my off about mine, is that an app or something gets stuck and keeps running in the background sometimes - I can go from a full battery to almost dead in 6hrs, all the while the phone should have been 'sleeping' and has been sitting on my desk (not plugged in). Still haven't figured out what causes that, as 3G is normally off and it does it regardless of that setting. But not all the time!

Okay. So the question is why can Blackbery run wifi and GPS for days and days with no problem and it seems neither Apple nor Google phones can?

I havent used either the Apple or Google phones, but as I mnetioned above my wife has the Blackberry Curve (her 3rd or 4th blackberry) and as far as she or I can tell GPS and wifi are running full time. She usually goes 2-3 days between charges. This is her primary business phone as well so she is doing LOTS of talk time.

[Viin]

Well it's not 3G, so that keeps battery life down a lot too. For wifi and GPS I would guess they aren't actually "on" unless called on by an app (ie: you need a data connection to pull a web page, then it might try to make a wifi connection - either that, or it's got some awesome wifi hardware that hardly uses anything juice, but I doubt that). With no 3G and sleeping wifi/gps it should last a long time. My iPhone will last 2 maybe 3 days if all that is off and some background app doesn't get stuck.

I assume the large touch screen probably also pulls more juice than the smaller non-touch screen the BBs have.

[Quinton]

Based on Schild's review i was going to run out and buy this G1 this week for me....but battery life that shitty? You have to disable half the features to get a full days use out of it?
My wife has unlimited broadband/WiFi and GPS and gets DAYS and DAYS of useage between charges on her Blackberry. Im always running around town and having to charge constantly would kill all joy for me.

It really depends on coverage and usage.  With the radio off, standby current is ~1.2mA which is about 960hours.  Radio on, ~4.5mA (decent coverage) which is about 250hours.  Of course sync and so on will cut into that.  With a dedicated gmail account (light email traffic, light IM traffic), sync on, signed into IM, I see 2-3 days standby with relatively light usage.

Beware some of the "mobile social network" apps that cleverly try to get a gps fix every N minutes, etc.  They are death.  If you have really heavy mail traffic, you might want to set up a dedicated account and only forward stuff that's interesting for mobile.

We're working to improve battery life in future software versions.

- Q

[Broughden]

Based on Schild's review i was going to run out and buy this G1 this week for me....but battery life that shitty? You have to disable half the features to get a full days use out of it?
My wife has unlimited broadband/WiFi and GPS and gets DAYS and DAYS of useage between charges on her Blackberry. Im always running around town and having to charge constantly would kill all joy for me.

It really depends on coverage and usage.  With the radio off, standby current is ~1.2mA which is about 960hours.  Radio on, ~4.5mA (decent coverage) which is about 250hours.  Of course sync and so on will cut into that.  With a dedicated gmail account (light email traffic, light IM traffic), sync on, signed into IM, I see 2-3 days standby with relatively light usage.

Beware some of the "mobile social network" apps that cleverly try to get a gps fix every N minutes, etc.  They are death.  If you have really heavy mail traffic, you might want to set up a dedicated account and only forward stuff that's interesting for mobile.

We're working to improve battery life in future software versions.

- Q

Okay 2-3 days is about average. Will have to see. But if it really is around 24 hours or so as others have mentioned in this thread......its useless as far as Im concerned.