December 03, 2008
G1
I picked up a G1 in San Francisco on Black Friday. It took about an hour or so for my account to be provisioned with the G1 data plan so I was walking around San Francisco attempting to activate the phone every few minutes.
It's not the prettiest device. but I'm okay with utilitarian as long as it brings enough function to the table it. Which shouldn't be a problem considering the feature set and availability of software for it through the marketplace.
Contacts:
I had been planning on getting the G1 for a few weeks. So in anticipation of getting it, I had already synchronized my address book from my macbook with one of my Google accounts. So all my contacts were pretty much ready to go by the time I got the G1.
Main complaint is the images from the contacts in my address book from my laptop did not get sent/uploaded to my Google contacts so now most contacts are faceless, unless they have made one for them self on their Google profile or you do it your self, via the phone or the Google contacts web page.
Any entry from the address book on my laptop that were just for a company and marked as such showed up as only a phone number on the phone, if you opened the contact you would see the company it was but it did not show as the contact name. To fix this I went to my Google account and put the company name in the name field where as in address book it showed that as the name, same with my blackberry curve as well. This is/was just a minor annoyance, by no means a show stopper.
Messaging/Email:
Kala was able to pick it up and start messaging in no time flat. Which says something. Kala did get a minor tutorial to use the blackberry for messaging in mid November but once she got it she was good, and she would have figured it out on her own in fairly short time I'm sure. But the G1 seems to be easier and a bit more elegant for texting/messaging. It keeps the text/mms conversations in threads by contact rather than a mass of messages in an inbox.
No push email unless its from a Google account. Many already use gmail or can opt to froward their regular email to a gmail account and have the Google account send as if it is the other account.
I'm still getting used to the keyboard. Kala liked it better than the blackberry keyboard. I still prefer the tactile feedback and definition of the keys on curve.
Alerts and Notifications:
This has to be one of the more disappointing areas. Yes you can use MP3s for rings which is great and something too many phones won't let you do. But near as I can tell there isn't an escalating ring option. My curve let me pick a ring and it would vibrate a couple times then start playing the ring and it would get louder as it rang and rang. This is awesome cause it means if its on my hip I can get to it before it bothers someone, if its left in another room I've got a chance of hearing it. The G1 has vibrate, ring, or ring and vibrate which doesn't seem to get louder nor just vibrate first.
The text/email notifications are pretty much the same story minus the mp3 thing. Again the blackberry would buzz/vibrate a couple times then make a sound, if it was close at hand I could prevent it from making its audible sound. G1 same options, vibrate or not when you get a message and make a sound or not when you get a message.
Usability:
No equivalent of a today screen that I have found so far that I had grown quite used to on my blackberry and my windows mobile device before that. Sorry the notifications pull down isn't any close to the same.
Desktop sync must be done with 3rd party apps and plug-ins. Which is a bit annoying and could be cumbersome, I would have liked to sync it directly with the address book so the contact photos came over.
Other:
Personally I don't like the idea of syncing my stuff to google and not having the option to sync to my own server/systems unless I grow my own apps and servers to do these things. The iPhone, blackberry, and windows mobile all have enterprise integration options, the G1 is still lacking this which could be one of the larger windfalls of the device.
Battery life is less than awesome it's even less than good it's ok/pathetic. My The G1 does not sip it's electrons as sparingly as the blackberry curve did. Hell I'm pretty sure the curve is still on in my car and it hasn't been charged since last Wednesday. Where I suspect the G1 would maybe make it two to four days if left alone.
Posted by Ben at December 03, 2008 09:16 AM
It's not the prettiest device. but I'm okay with utilitarian as long as it brings enough function to the table it. Which shouldn't be a problem considering the feature set and availability of software for it through the marketplace.
Contacts:
I had been planning on getting the G1 for a few weeks. So in anticipation of getting it, I had already synchronized my address book from my macbook with one of my Google accounts. So all my contacts were pretty much ready to go by the time I got the G1.
Main complaint is the images from the contacts in my address book from my laptop did not get sent/uploaded to my Google contacts so now most contacts are faceless, unless they have made one for them self on their Google profile or you do it your self, via the phone or the Google contacts web page.
Any entry from the address book on my laptop that were just for a company and marked as such showed up as only a phone number on the phone, if you opened the contact you would see the company it was but it did not show as the contact name. To fix this I went to my Google account and put the company name in the name field where as in address book it showed that as the name, same with my blackberry curve as well. This is/was just a minor annoyance, by no means a show stopper.
Messaging/Email:
Kala was able to pick it up and start messaging in no time flat. Which says something. Kala did get a minor tutorial to use the blackberry for messaging in mid November but once she got it she was good, and she would have figured it out on her own in fairly short time I'm sure. But the G1 seems to be easier and a bit more elegant for texting/messaging. It keeps the text/mms conversations in threads by contact rather than a mass of messages in an inbox.
No push email unless its from a Google account. Many already use gmail or can opt to froward their regular email to a gmail account and have the Google account send as if it is the other account.
I'm still getting used to the keyboard. Kala liked it better than the blackberry keyboard. I still prefer the tactile feedback and definition of the keys on curve.
Alerts and Notifications:
This has to be one of the more disappointing areas. Yes you can use MP3s for rings which is great and something too many phones won't let you do. But near as I can tell there isn't an escalating ring option. My curve let me pick a ring and it would vibrate a couple times then start playing the ring and it would get louder as it rang and rang. This is awesome cause it means if its on my hip I can get to it before it bothers someone, if its left in another room I've got a chance of hearing it. The G1 has vibrate, ring, or ring and vibrate which doesn't seem to get louder nor just vibrate first.
The text/email notifications are pretty much the same story minus the mp3 thing. Again the blackberry would buzz/vibrate a couple times then make a sound, if it was close at hand I could prevent it from making its audible sound. G1 same options, vibrate or not when you get a message and make a sound or not when you get a message.
Usability:
No equivalent of a today screen that I have found so far that I had grown quite used to on my blackberry and my windows mobile device before that. Sorry the notifications pull down isn't any close to the same.
Desktop sync must be done with 3rd party apps and plug-ins. Which is a bit annoying and could be cumbersome, I would have liked to sync it directly with the address book so the contact photos came over.
Other:
Personally I don't like the idea of syncing my stuff to google and not having the option to sync to my own server/systems unless I grow my own apps and servers to do these things. The iPhone, blackberry, and windows mobile all have enterprise integration options, the G1 is still lacking this which could be one of the larger windfalls of the device.
Battery life is less than awesome it's even less than good it's ok/pathetic. My The G1 does not sip it's electrons as sparingly as the blackberry curve did. Hell I'm pretty sure the curve is still on in my car and it hasn't been charged since last Wednesday. Where I suspect the G1 would maybe make it two to four days if left alone.
Posted by Ben at December 03, 2008 09:16 AM
Comments
Keep the commentary on the g1 coming. I've been anticipating the "Google Phone" for years and as soon as the G1 was announced I decided I would probably buy the 2nd gen one (G2?) ...
Posted by: dusty on December 3, 2008 02:58 PM"Kala was able to pick it up and start messaging in no time flat. Which says something."
You make me sound completely technologically inept!
"Kala did get a minor tutorial to use the blackberry for messaging in mid November but once she got it she was good"
Uh huh... I was also pretty inebriated by that point. Granted, I maintain most of my skills/coordination/capabilities under the influence, but gadgets are a completely different story.
:)
Posted by: Kala on December 5, 2008 11:16 PMIt was more a testiment to the usablity of the phone. By no means was I saying you were inept in anyway.
Posted by: ben on December 6, 2008 08:39 AMJust teasing, love.
Posted by: Kala on December 8, 2008 10:29 AMLook at him backpedal!
Posted by: Nathan on December 10, 2008 07:50 PMPost a comment