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Posts Tagged ‘G1’

All four of us have now upgraded from the factory battery to an extended battery for our T-Mobile G1s. Fox claims he’s able to get about 3 days of battery life from his phone now even while running multiple apps and receiving regular notifications from each. Trust me, I don’t need to know about tweets at 3am, so I’m hoping to exceed his time without a charge. Here are some pictures of the phone with its original battery and then with the extended. My G1 is the bronze phone and there were no matching bronze back covers for the extended battery. To be honest, I don’t mind the 3-tone look. Enjoy.

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The Google Nexus One is by far the most appealing Android phone I’ve seen lately, however, it doesn’t have the most appealing price tag – $529 without a T-Mobile contract. And while I still enjoy my G1, its not going to last forever! I’ve dropped it more times than I can remember and what better excuse to get a new phone with the Snapdragon processor than a dead G1?

After finding out that two brand new Nexus One phones (because of course, Fox would need one too) would cost me over $1000, I’ve been on the lookout for other new Android phones coming on the market soon.

I keep coming across articles for the HTC Espresso (supposedly due to tentatively launch May 17) which all show off the awesome new UI. OK, I get it already! NEW UI. Whoop-de-da! I want to see the phone too! What are the specs? Might it have the new Snapdragon processor? If it doesn’t, I’d find it pretty difficult to still consider keeping it on my list of possible new phones.

The HTC Espresso, AKA the MyTouch Slide or MyTouch2 is also rumored to have a slide out QWERTY keyboard and also replace T-Mobile’s Sidekick. Finally, right? When I think Sidekick, I think of a brick-like phone that I’d give to my kid to play with as opposed to a real phone.

So until I see some pics or video of the actual phone, I’m putting this on on the back burner.

Soon before the G1 was released at the end of 2008, I had my eye on it – waiting for the day I could get my short stubby fingers on it. The day came and Shadowslayer, Fox, and I all bought one. I’ve given it plenty of thought now and after having it for more than 6 months, I have a fairly good idea of what I like and what I don’t like about the G1.

After the cupcake firmware update the first thing we all noticed was improved battery life – definite win. Features like video recording and the ability to view html in email were also added. I love the Google Maps and GPS features. Google’s Latitude seems like a great tool but I haven’t really been able to use it very much. A lot of the applications and features on the G1 are social and interactive, so your friends all have to join in to get the full experience. When you setup your gmail account, you can sync all your phone and email contacts. You can even choose to only view those contacts with phone numbers in your contact list or view them all. The touch screen is great. Its a good size for any tasks on the phone including watching videos. My favorite part about the screen is that unlike the new MyTouch, it isn’t your only option for typing – G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard under the screen – WIN. On top of all of that, the G1 has 1000′s of applications, many of which are free.

Overall there’s a lot of potential in the G1 and with so much good, its shortfalls are minor. Some people seem to think the slight angle at the bottom of the phone is awkward when typing on the keyboard – but to be honest, you won’t even notice it after a few days. At launch there was no support for editing Microsoft Documents. As of right now, you can download Documents to Go from the Market for $19.99 and gain the ability to view, edit, and save MS Word and Excel docs. I like the camera on the G1 but have found that picture quality indoors is poor unless you have near daylight conditions. There is no flash for the camera. The G1 also lacks a standard audio jack for headphones. The app market is full of free apps, but only a handful of them are nifty apps. I’ve been disappointed to see that most of the apps are purely for entertainment, like the seemingly endless list of soundboards. I’d like to see more apps like Documents to Go that are aimed at making this a true Smartphone – one that professionals can utilize as well instead of just casual users. I think given some more time, more useful apps will appear on the market.

Some apps I use:
10001 Cocktails
chompSMS
Digital Clock
Dream
FaceBook
Flashlight
Labyrinth Lite
MySpace
Phonalyzer
PureRSS
Ringdroid
SnapPhoto
Pac Man
The Weather Channel
Throttle Copter
Tip Calculator
Toggle Wifi
Twidroid
WoW Realm Status

You have to excuse my interest as of late in G1 apps. It is just so interesting to see what kinds of applications people will develop for an open platform. If you don’t know already, the G1 runs Android OS, the open platform for phones. Check out Spoof App. It allows you to place a call to any number you want and spoof the number that appears on the receiving phone’s caller ID. It even allows you to change the sound of your voice and allows for recording of the phone call.

There is definitely something to be said for Apple’s GUI hotness when everywhere you look, people want their non-Apple products to emulate Apple products. There are Mac OS skins for Windows, people install Mac OS on PCs, and now even the G1 isn’t safe from Apple’s super cool look-and-feel.

Just in case you’re curious, I like my G1 as it is.