Remember this? How could we forget, it was only two years ago! Yet to some of us, the G1 is an ancient artifact. Maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but there seems to be a stigma attached to hardware –namely cellphones– of yesteryear. With so many Android phones in the market since the G1, do you look at this founding handset as old news?  To a lot of users, “old phones” still have some life in them.

Still Kickin’

You might’ve seen this little logo splashed around the internet. It is from CyanogenMod, a community built distribution of Android 2.2 which famously or infamously breathed new life into a rapidly aging G1. Suddenly that early upgrade itch has subsided…

“While this build is heavily optimized, it is also capable of pushing your G1 much harder. I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards, thermonuclear war, or the current economic crisis. Please do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this ROM before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.” -cyanogenmod.com

Most G1 owners I talked to however are happy without the rooted mods. They seem content for the time being with the abilities of their phones. The applications they use everyday still work just as well as they would on newer Android Phones. “When my contract is up, that’s when I will think about what phone I want to get next”, one of them said.

“The new features on 2.1 or 2.2 haven’t made me want to buy another phone yet,” another said.

Remember this one too? Yep the iPhone 3G is still swinging. With unlocking and jail-breaking common practices for the iPhone some of them feel they will get another iPhone, but not until they are eligible for upgrade or another device appeals to their personal needs. I asked one 3G owner did she want the iphone4. “I haven’t really paid that much attention to the new one. By the time I am ready to get another phone, iPhone5 will be out.”

Another Reason to Stay Put

“One possible reason for the significant increase in the length of mobile phone ownership is that more customers are delaying an upgrade purchase due to the general economic downturn, in which the expense of purchasing a new device could outweigh the added benefit of owning it.” – Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.

Also we might add that some aren’t that drastically different than the other. Owners of the original Droid do not feel the sudden pangs of child birth in sight of the Droid 2. Droid Incredible owners aren’t looking at Droid X owners green with envy and Motorola Backflip owners are not doing somersaults when they see a Motorola Cliq. So the added costs of early upgrades, as well as the cell phone service plans themselves, to some do not seem worth it.

What phone are you rocking right now? And why?

Filed in categories: Android related, Articles, iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Android, G1, iphone 3G, Modding

“Old Hardware” Still New originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 17, 2010 at 10:30 am.

I just received an email with news about the Android Market. If you’re not familiar with the Android Market, it’s the application store on Android G1 smartphones. Until now, all of the apps have been free. But now US and UK developers will be able to submit priced apps. These priced apps will start showing up for US users next week. 

Here’s the whole message that I received:

Hello,

I’m writing to let you know about a couple of updates to Android Market.

I’m pleased to announce that Android Market is now accepting priced
applications from US and UK developers.  Developers from these countries
can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to
upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps.
Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US
starting mid next week.  We will add end user support for additional
countries in the coming months.

We will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France,
and Spain to offer priced applications later this quarter.  By the end of
Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers in additional countries.
You can find more information about priced applications in Android Market
at http://market.android.com/support/

Google Checkout will serve as the payment and billing mechanism for
Android Market.  Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout
merchant account can easily sign up for one via the publisher website.

Furthermore, I would like to let you know that Android Market for free
applications will become available to users in Australia starting February
15th Pacific Time and in Singapore in the coming weeks.  You can now make
your applications available in these countries via the publisher website
at http://market.android.com/publish.

Finally, if you would like to receive development and marketing
information, please go to your profile page at
http://market.android.com/publish/editProfile and select the “Contact me
occasionally about development and Market opportunities” checkbox.

We look forward to seeing your applications on Android Market.

Eric Chu,
Android Market

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Android, G1, Gear Diary

Android Market Now Accepting Priced Apps originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 13, 2009 at 12:18 pm.

I’ve spent a whole week with the Android G1 smartphone and during the last seven days I have found many things to like about this phone, as well as several things that I don’t. I’ll go into those likes and dislikes as well as some info on the following features:

• Music, Video, Camera
• GPS / Maps
• Android Marketplace

Music on the Android

The G1′s built in music player isn’t super fancy as you can see below. But it does get the job done and is easy to use.

You can view music by artist, album, song and playlist. The main menu has large finger friendly buttons. I don’t have a screen shot, but you can also press the menu button and choose the search option. You’ll then be presented with a list of all the songs on the microSD card. You can then start typing words to have the list filter down to only the songs that contain those words.

The player supports album art and will display it in the artist’s album listing. Clicking the album will then show you all the songs included in it along with the duration for each song.

The now playing screen shows a larger album art picture along with the artist name, album name and song name. If you hold your finger down on any of the names, a search popup with give you the choice of searching for that title on Google or YouTube. Pressing the menu button will give you the option of setting the currently playing song as a ringtone.

Sound quality through the built in speaker is ok for sharing a tune with a friend, but the included earphones / microphone does a much better job. There is even a pause button and volume adjustment dial built into the microphone.

Video Player

Well, it’s not a true video player in that it can’t play different video formats, but it does play YouTube videos and that seems to be what a lot of people are only interested in these days anyway.

The interface has a scrolling horizontal thumbnail list of Featured videos and then options to see Most popular, Most Viewed, Top rated, Most recent and Most discussed videos in a vertical scrolling list.

Clicking a thumbnail will automatically rotate the display, load the video and begin playing it in full screen.

Tapping the screen will bring up basic playback controls.

Pressing the menu button will give you a few more options. The Favorite button will mark the video as a favorite… duh.

Details will show the video deets. Share will allow you to send the video link to someone through Google Mail or via third party apps like Twitroid.

Using the YouTube application over Wifi is great. But over my slow non-3G connection, not so much.

Camera

The G1 has a built in 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera. You can launch the camera application by clicking the camera icon in the application list, or you can press the shutter button on the side of the phone. The capture interface is just a viewfinder for the camera. There isn’t any other information displayed on the screen. Just like regular digital cameras, pressing the shutter button halfway, will focus the image. Pressing it all the way will snap the picture.

Images are stored on the MicroSD card. If you don’t have a card in the phone, you won’t be able to snap any pix.

To view your pictures, you can use the Pictures application. It shows thumbnails and can do slideshows.

Here are some sample pictures taken with the G1. Click the thumbnails to see the full size images. The camera actually does a pretty good job. It’s surprisingly good at macro shots. I like to use my phone to take snaps of book and magazine pages. Most phones do a horrible job, the G1 does great. If I could add a feature (other than higher resolution), it would be a flash.

GPS / Maps

The G1 has a built in GPS and is supposed to embed location data in photos taken with the phone. Maybe this feature isn’t implemented yet though, because I could not find longitude or latitude coordinates embedded in the EXIF image data. Looking at the image details on the G1 in the pictures application shows nothing as well… I’m not quite sure what the deal is…

The maps application works like Google Maps only on a much smaller scale.

You can obtain your current location by WiFi or GPS.

You’ll then be able to see where you are located on a map and route yourself to other addresses.

There’s even a satellite view.

Even though the G1 has a built in GPS, it does not have turn by turn features. I know, that makes me sad too…

You can input To and From address to get directions.

It’s up to you to follow the directions as it will not prompt you for each step along the way.

I suppose it’s good enough for a passenger to help you find your destination…

But I’d still rather have turn by turn directions any day…

Android Market

The App Store on the iPhone was a big hit, so we have the Android Market on the G1.

The interface is easy to navigate. There’s a scrolling horizontal list of featured apps (like in the YouTube app) and then lists for applications and games. Each main category is then broken down into even smaller categories. Of course, you can also search for apps based on keywords.

Programs can then be listed by popularity or date. When you see one you like, click on it to view the details and install it. As far as I have seen, all the apps are free right now. I’ve installed several games and applications and some of them are surprisingly good. The free Power Manager does help with the abysmal battery life of this phone. Not by a lot, but at least now I can get through a whole day 8-9hrs without needing to re-juice it.

Conclusion

After a week (really more like two weeks) with this phone, I think I’m in the same boat that I was in with the Blackberry Storm. I wanted to love the Blackberry and failed, and I wanted to love the Android G1 and haven’t succeeded either. I don’t hate this phone by any means, but as you all know, I’m picky when it comes to a phone. So here are the aspects that I like with the G1:

• Buttons in addition to the touch screen
• Nice display
• QWERTY keyboard
• Open platform for developers
• Android Market with lots of good free apps
• Good camera (especially the macro mode)

The things that keep me from loving the phone are:

• Pathetic battery life
• Less than stellar reception on the AT&T 850mhz non-3G network
• Non-standard stereo headphone jack
• Display does not turn on when an SMS message comes in. Audio alert only
• Utilitarian design

The first two items are my main problems with the G1 smartphone, but I have do have one more issue with it that is my own personal reason… One I can’t fault the phone for. I have come to the conclusion that I do not like slide out keyboards like the one used on the G1. I get quite a few text messages during the day, and I find that I get really annoyed when I get a message, slide open the keyboard, type a response, close the keyboard and then have to open it again a  minute later when I get another message. I guess that’s one of the reasons why I always go back to a phone like the Treo or Centro… There’s no sliding involved. I just pick it up, type and set it back down. I’m really looking forward to trying the new Palm Pre, but now I’m wondering if even it will get on my nerves after awhile.

So in closing, I think the G1 is a good first effort for the Android OS. I’ll eagerly await software updates as well as new hardware. I hope the platform flourishes so that it can give the iPhone a bit of competition. I just wonder if it has a chance though.  Time will tell I suppose…

Filed in categories: Wireless

Tagged: Android, G1, Smartphone

A Week with the Android G1 Smartphone – Day 5, 6 & 7 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 5, 2009 at 9:56 pm.

A few minutes ago, Judie asked me what my Gmail account name was so that she could add me to her Google Latitude setup. I figured I’d do the same for her so that we could stalk each other like all best friends do. So the idea is that you install an app on your mobile phone and then through iGoogle, you can see the whereabouts of your friends. Nifty huh? I decided to go install the app on my Android G1 (AKA google phone) and guess what? I got a coming soon message on the phone. I was pretty perplexed by this, so I went to the Google Latitude site where they have screen shots of what looks like a G1, but on the Supported Phones page, they have this message:

Google Latitude is available on the following mobile devices wherever Google Maps for mobile v3.0 and above is supported:
- Android-powered devices with Maps v3.0 and above. G1 users in the US will be receiving Maps v3.0 in a system update soon.

How is that for a nice kick in the pants?  I mean how can a Google endorsed device NOT run a Google app? Looks like Symbian S60 and Blackberry users have been shown the most love. Color me grumpy right now

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Android, G1, Gear Diary, Google Latitude

Google Latitude – No Joy For Android G1 Users Yet? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 5, 2009 at 10:58 am.

I’ve been using the Android G1 smartphone as my main device for several days now and during that time my main complaint has been the poor battery life. But the last two days have brought up another issue that could be a deal breaker for me.

This latest installment will cover:

• Making and receiving calls with the G1
• Instant messaging and email
• Accessing the web with the built in browser

Making and Receiving Calls with the G1

First and foremost, the Android G1 is a phone. It might be a smartphone that has all kinds of extra whiz bang features, but if you can’t make and receive phone calls with it, then it’s pretty much a useless device in my opinion.

The first bummer that I encountered was learning that the voice dialing feature that is included on regular T-mobile G1′s is not available on the dev phone. I’ve searched around in the Android Market, but haven’t found a replacement. Anyone know how to get voice dialing functionality on the dev phone? Is it a T-mobile only program?

Without that feature, you still have several ways that you can dial a number. By pressing the Green phone button, it will take you into phone application. Inside that app, there are four tabs. The app remembers which tab you were on last and will take you there again when you press the Green phone button.

The Dialer tab has a finger friendly keypad layout that you can use to dial individual numbers. After you’ve typed in the desired number, you have to press the Green phone button to make the call.

The Call Log tab shows you a list of recently dialed numbers. From this list, you can tap an entry to dial the number.

The Contacts tab gives you a scrollable list of all your contacts. If you have the keyboard open, you can type names to filter the list or you can press the menu button to show different subsets of your contacts.

The Favorites tab is like a speed dial list. To add someone to the list, you just tap the little star next to their name in their Contacts page. The weird thing is that the G1 will add numbers to your favorites list on its own too. To dial a number from this list, you have to highlight it and press the Green phone button or hold down your finger on one of the entries and choose the number to call. Not very speedy if you ask me…

When a call comes in to your phone, it will show a screen like you see above. If your contact has a picture associated with their entry, it will show the picture. Otherwise you will see the cute little android. During a call, you can press the Menu button to access features such as the speaker phone, mute, hold, etc.

If you happen to miss a call, your only indicator is the White and Red notification icon at top of the display. In the image above, you will see four icons on the Left side. The first one shows that the G1 is connected to a USB cable. The second one is from a Twitter application that I have installed. The third one is for a missing call and the fourth one is for a voice mail. You can get more info on these notifications by tapping and pulling down the top bar with your finger. Sort of like pulling down a window shade.

As far as actually initiating a phone call, I do wish there was a faster way because it takes several key presses. For example, if you want to call someone in your favorites list, you would have to do the following:

Double click the menu button to wake and unlock the phone.
Press the Green phone button to launch the phone application.
Tap the favorites tab if you’re not already in it.
Hold your finger on a favorite.
Tap the Call option.

There is a calling short cut that you can use if you remember the last number that you dialed and want to call it again. To do that, you wake up and unlock the phone (double click the menu button) and then double click the Green phone button. It will dial the last number you called.

I’m testing the Android G1 on AT&T’s 850Mhz frequency and have found the reception to be only slightly better than my first generation iPhone. What does that mean? It means that it’s nothing to celebrate over. Often when I’m using it in my basement office, I’ll see that it has no bars at all. Sending SMS messages will sometimes result in a network connection failure. I understand that it’s probably not fair to complain that a GSM phone won’t work in a basement, but most Nokia phones that I’ve tested work much better for me.

In more normal areas, the G1 performs better. There is one big problem that I’ve noticed though – I hear a very annoying buzzing noise in the earpiece during calls. The people on the other end of the call don’t hear it though. This keeps happening in different locations, so I don’t believe that it is related to interference from some other electronic device. Whatever is causing it, I don’t like it and it is causing me to regret my purchase…

Instant Messaging and Email

SMS junkies will be happy to know that the G1 does include a decent threaded SMS interface. There is nothing super special about it, but it seems to work well. I tested it by sending messages to people on Verizon and AT&T without any issues.

For actual live chatting, there’s a Google Talk client. Although I don’t use Gtalk that much, I do like the fact that if you use it on your phone, you don’t have to disconnect from from a client on your desktop. Messages will come to both places, which I like.

There are two email clients. One for non-GMail POP3 and IMAP accounts and then the GMail client.  I briefly tested the non-GMail account by setting up my .mac account which I don’t even really use, the client seemed to work as expected. Since I’m a GMail person these days, I have been focusing on that client.

The GMail client feels pretty much like what a mini GMail client would be expected to feel like. It shows the labels associated with messages, if there are attachments, starred, etc. Clicking on the subject line will allow you to view the message.

If there are multiple messages from the same person, you will see a stacked view. You can click on the top stack to show a list of all of messages. The one thing that you can’t do is to expand all the messages so that you can read them from start to finish.

The GMail client can handle attachments. I sent a few test messages with images and PDF files attached. When reading these mails, it will show the icons for the attached files and allow you to click on them to view them. HTML emails with embedded images also works well. You do have to click on a Show Pictures button at the top of the message for it to load any images.

The G1 autosyncs every 5 minutes in the background for new mail in your GMail account. It also autosync for changes to your google calendar and contacts, but as far as I can tell, it doesn’t do this as often. There isn’t a way except for disabling autosync to change how often this occurs. This is most likely one of the main reasons why the battery life on the G1 is so poor.

Accessing the web with the G1′s Built in Browser

Since I’m opting to use the G1 on AT&T’s network, I can’t enjoy 3G speeds. It’s not a big deal to me because I don’t have 3G coverage in my area anyway. After using the Blackberry Storm on EVDO, I’ve been a bit spoiled and have been finding EDGE speeds to be pretty sluggish. It’s nice that the Android G1 has Wifi.

Browsing can be done in either landscape or portrait orientation. Landscape is the most comfortable viewing mode though in my opinion because you can use your Right thumb on the scroll ball to scroll around on the page.

I’ll admit that I’m spoiled by the browser experience on the iPhone. Being able to zoom the text by using the finger spread gesture, or double tapping text to zoom in is a really easy and fast way to make the browsing quicker and more confortable on such a small screen. The browser on the G1 doesn’t have easy to use features like that.

That said, you can go into the settings and change the text size and there are onscreen zoom gadgets. There’s a + and – button that appears on the bottom edge of the display. To use them, you hold your finger on either button to zoom in or out. The problem is that it sometimes does not stop zooming as soon as you lift your finger, so you won’t always get the size you really want. There’s also a crosshairs button in the lower right corner that puts what looks like a  magnifier box on the display that you can move around with your finger. I played around with this feature a little, and found that it works erratically and isn’t very useful in my opinion.

Images aren’t resized to fit the display as you can see here. There is an option in the settings to format the page to fit the screen, but this only effects the text and not images.

You can have multiple open windows (think tabs) too.

At the time I’m writing this review, the built in browser doesn’t appear to support Flash. If I try going to Youtube.com with the browser, it won’t play videos. It won’t play videos on CNN.com either.

Overall browsing websites on the G1 is not an unpleasant experience. I don’t have any major complaints other than the lack of Flash support.

That’s all for this part of the series.  Check back soon for days 5 & 6, which will cover:

• Music, Video, Camera
• GPS
• Android Marketplace

Filed in categories: Wireless

Tagged: Android, G1, Smartphone

A Week with the Android G1 Smartphone – Day 3 & 4 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 29, 2009 at 5:23 pm.

I covered the Android G1′s hardware features in the first part of this series (link at the very end of this post). Now I want to tell you all about my first couple of days using the G1, including the following:

• Moving my calendar and contact info from my Mac to the fluffy Google cloud
• First impressions of the user interface
• Using the keyboard

The very first time that you install the battery, SIM card and turn on this phone, you are asked to sign in to your existing GMail account, or create a new one. If you’re not a T-mobile person, you’ll have to enter the settings for your carrier. I had to do that for AT&T. It’s pretty straight forward and only took a couple of minutes.

Contacts

The phone automatically sets up your GMail, Contacts and Calendar info. I just recently switched over to GMail for domains, but still had my Contacts and Calendar data on my Mac using Apple’s built in apps. I figured that this was as good a time as any to move even further into the cloud, so I read up on the best ways to export my info from the Mac to Google.

For Contacts, I used a little freebie app called A to G that Google suggests on their Contacts import page.  This is a one button application that takes your Address Book info from your Mac and exports it as a CSV (comma separated) file that GMail can import. It seemed to work pretty well, although not all of images associated with the contacts showed up. Some fields were also missing.

The coolest thing though is that the G1 is always automatically syncing your PIM data with Google. I can make a change on the web app and a minute or two later when I check the phone, it’s already updated, with no action on my part. This might explain why the battery life on this phone is so crappy,  but more about that later on.

The Contacts application is pretty basic. You can scroll through an alphabetic list with a finger flick.

As you scroll, you will see a box appear on the Right side of the screen. If you touch it and pull it up and down, it will let you scroll much faster by showing the letters of the alphabet – similar to the way high speed scrolling is on an iPod.

You can also filter the list by typing the part of the name. As you type, the list will get smaller and smaller as it matches only the contacts that have the letters in the name that you’ve typed.

The actual address card for a person will show all their phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses. If you click on the icon to the Right of each data type, it will let you do the action for that data type, like make call, email or see the address on a map. If you tap the little start in the top Right corner, it will add this person to your favorites list.

Calendar

Like contacts, I had all my data stored on my iMac in iCal. To import that data into Google Calendar, I had to export each of my individual calendars (Home, Work, etc) and then import them into Google.

Like most smartphone calendar apps, you can view your events by Day…

Week…

Month…

Or Agenda view. Like with contacts, adding new records can be done from the phone or the web.

The calendar options available to you are pretty typical and include the ability to set reminders and repeating events. If you go to the web, you have even more control over your events. You can have popup messages on your computer, emails sent to you or SMS messages sent to your phone.

The only feature missing from the calendar that I would like to see is a task / to do list manager.

First Impressions of the User Interface

The G1 has a large (3.2 inch) capacitive touchscreen like the iPhone and Blackberry Storm. That means that you have to use your bare finger to interact with it. This can sometimes make the user interface a little tricky to use with just one hand, but luckily you can control some aspects of the G1 by using the buttons and scroll ball.

To wake up the phone from standby, you can press any of the front buttons except for the scroll ball. This will wake up the phone, but you’ll then need to press the Menu button to unlock it. I have yet to find a way to disable the lock feature. As a result, I typically press the Menu button twice when I need to use the phone.

The Home screen shows an analog clock in the upper center, along with several frequently used application icons. The clock can’t me moved around on the screen and there isn’t a way to change it from analog to digital.

If you sweep your finger to the Right, you can use a handy Google search box.

Sweep back to Home and then to the Left and you’ll get a blank screen that you can fill with icons and other widgets. In the image above, I have 3 picture frame widgets of images that I’ve taken with the G1′s camera. You can add icons and widgets to the other 2 screens as well. As far as I can figure out, you only get these 3 screens. You can’t add more.

You can move the icons around by holding your finger on one for a few seconds until it vibrates. Then you can move it around.

You’ll notice the tab at the bottom of each screen. Flip it up with your finger and you’ll see all the applications installed on your G1.

The apps are listed in alphabetical order and can not be moved around. You can’t add widgets to this screen either. To launch an app, you just tap on it with your finger.

Navigating the screens feels similar to the iPhone. The touch screen is responsive (maybe not quite as responsive as an iPhone, but very close) and everything is pretty intuitive.

Using the Keyboard

The G1 has a 48 key backlit QWERTY keyboard. To use it, you rotate the phone into the landscape orientation and slide the screen forward.

The keys are hard and flat, but I didn’t find the keyboard difficult to type on. The only thing that sometimes gets in my way is the G1′s ‘chin’.

I have to wrap my Right index finger around it. The roller ball does come in handy though. You can use your Right thumb to scroll through webpages, emails, etc. You can then click it to select items or links.

I do wish that there was an onscreen touch keyboard in addition to the physical one. Especially in portrait mode. There are a lot of times when I don’t want to slide open the keyboard just to enter a couple of letters. I’m surprised that such a feature was left out.

One feature that hasn’t been left out is cut and paste. It isn’t very easy to use though. It appears to only work inside input fields. For example, if you’re entering an email, you can hold your finger down on the input field and it will turn orange.

Then a window will popup with several picks including Select all, cut, copy all and paste. Then you can paste it into another field. The gotcha here is that you can’t select individual words, letters or phrases. It’s all or nothing. For that fact, the copy and paste feature is pretty much useless…

Two Down, Five to Go

The first two days with the Android G1 smartphone have been pretty uneventful. I’ve mainly been getting aquainted with the interface, keyboard and overall feel of using this device. One thing that I noticed very quickly and am sure I’ll be talking about in much greater detail, is the really bad battery life. I’m lucky to make it though 8hrs of relatively little use, before needing to recharge… Anyway, I’ll be back in two days with some more info from my Android G1 adventures.

Days 3 & 4 will cover:

• Making and receiving calls with the G1
• Instant messaging and email
• Accessing the web with the built in browser

Filed in categories: Wireless

Tagged: Android, G1, Smartphone

A Week with the Android G1 Smartphone – Day 1 & 2 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 26, 2009 at 4:55 pm.

Once I had completed my week with the Blackberry Storm, I asked everyone for some advice on which phone they thought I should choose for my next review. After a few days, the overwhelming choice was the Android G1 Smartphone otherwise known as the Google phone. I’m going to try it out for the next 7 days and let you know my experiences.

The G1 was originally released by T-mobile and locked to their network. Since I’m an AT&T customer and we don’t even have T-mobile coverage in my area, I figured I’d have to wait until unlocked versions of this phone showed up on eBay before I’d be able to get my hands on one.

But now it’s even easier to get an unlocked G1… You just sign up as a developer at the Android Market. Don’t worry, you don’t have to prove that you can write a Hello World program in C++ or anything like that. You just login, sign-up, pay the $25 registration fee and presto, you’re a bona fide G1 developer.  Then you can immediately buy a totally unlocked G1 for $399, which is just what I did.

Day Zero – Hardware Tour

I haven’t included a picture of the box because it’s a totally unbranded, White box. Not exactly exciting…

Specifications

Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201A, 528 MHz
Operating System: Android
Memory: ROM: 256 MB, RAM: 92 MB
Dimensions: (LxWxT) 117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm (4.60 in x 2.16 in x 0.62 in)
Weight: 158 grams (5.60 ounces) with battery
Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution
Network:
HSPA/WCDMA: Europe: 2100 MHz, US:1700/2100 MHz
Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link (HSDPA) and 2 Mbps up-link (HSUPA) speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g
Camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Audio: Built-in microphone and speaker
Ring tone formats: AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MIDI, MP3, WMA, WMV
40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery 1150 mAh
Talk time: Up to 350 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 406 minutes for GSM
Standby time: Up to 402 hours for WCDMA, Up to 319 hours for GSM
Expansion Slot: microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

Package Contents

G1 Phone
Battery
USB Cable
AC Adapter (not shown)
Earbuds / microphone with earbud covers
Setup Guide

You might be wondering how the developer’s version of the G1 differs from the T-mobile consumer version. For one thing, it has a special bootloader that developers will appreciate. Me, I’m not a developer, so I care not. The obvious difference is the color. The dev phone is dark gray, while the T-mobile G1 is available in Black, White and Bronze. There are some software differences that I’ll get to later on in this series.

When you look at the G1, the words sexy, flashy, chic and cool probably do not pop in your head. This phone is about as far from sexy as a phone can be. It looks like it would be right at home in a soldier’s hand given the military-esqe design it seems to ooze.

The case is plastic, with a matte finish. The front has the 3.2 inch touchscreen display, with a panel of buttons below it.

There is a Menu button at the top, a roller ball in the center and two buttons on either side. The menu button will bring up a menu for whatever application / screen that you happen to be on. The roller ball is a slightly springy hard trackball like cursor mechanism. You can roll it continuously and also press it as a select. The buttons on either side of the roller ball are hard flat back lit buttons. Pressing all the buttons except the roller ball will wake up the phone when it is in standby.

The back of the dev phone has a wild design printed on it along with the little Android mascot. This back cover can be removed (takes some practice) to get to the battery and SIM slot. The cover is made of flexible plastic and feels like it has a very thin layer of grippy rubber on it.

Just to give you a idea of the size of the G1, here we have it next to the original iPhone. The G1 is a bit narrower…

But definitely thicker.

The G1 has an interesting shape. It has a ‘chin’ at the bottom edge. On the Left side there is a slightly raised one piece volume control button.

On the opposite side towards the ‘chin’ is a small camera launch / shutter button. This button is a little awkward to press and doesn’t have very good tactile feedback.

If you take a look at the bottom edge of the G1, you’ll see the microphone and the mini USB connector cover.

The cover is tethered to the phone by a short length of plastic. One annoying thing that I need to mention is that the G1 does not have an earphone jack. The included earphones / mic use the USB connector. Bleh! I hate it when devices don’t have standard ports.

The G1′s screen slides sideways to reveal a backlit QWERTY keyboard.

The sliding mechanism feels pretty robust. It slides open and closed with a strong click.

Click thumbnails to see full size images

The keys are hard plastic and have a matte finish that makes it easy to see the silkscreened letters in almost any light. Even though the keys are small and very flat, I haven’t had any problems typing as they have good tactile feedback.

The microSD slot is hidden in the bottom right corner of the ‘chin’. You have to slide the keyboard open in order to open the slot. Included with the phone is a 1GB card.

In hand, the Android G1 feels solid (like a tank). It doesn’t rattle when you shake it and passes the gadgeteer squeeze test if you don’t count the slight sliding of the screen. Holding the phone to make calls feels pretty comfortable.

You can slide the screen sideways to access the keyboard with one hand. But to type and access the other buttons with the keyboard exposed is pretty difficult. The G1 isn’t a good one-handed phone in that respect. In my opinion, some of the best one handed phones are the Palm Treos and the Centro.  I guess that’s why I continue to go back to them.

That’s it for the hardware tour. I’ll be back with my Day 1 and 2 impressions, which will include:

• Moving my calendar and contact info from my Mac to the fluffy Google cloud
• First impressions of the user interface
• Using the keyboard

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: Android, G1, Google, GSM

A Week with the Android G1 Smartphone originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 23, 2009 at 9:56 pm.