T-Mobile Android G1

[Fnaar]

Anyone else got one of these? Got mine 2 weeks ago, and very very happy with it.
Plus points:
Works seamlessly (so far) with Gmail, Google contacts and google docs (all of which I use a lot). Plus Google maps, Picasa and Youtube. All work more or less fine (see below for the 'less' bit)
The android apps site is good... plenty of free stuff to fill up your phone with, and some genuinely useful utilities... best of which (in a cycling vein) is My Tracks (again, a google app)... basically turns phone into an excellent GPS system... very good indeed. I've stuck it in my back jersey pockets on two rides, (one = 18 miles, one = 49 miles) and got very good maps from them, which you can save and view online, view in google earth etc).

Minus points:
Camera is a bit ropey (but good enough). Has no zoom or flash though.
Battery life poor.
Picasa... uploading pics taken in 'landscape' format turns them sideways on picasa web albums, and you can't rotate them from within that site. Can rotate first on phone, but still seems to do that.

Anyone else?

 

[Crackle]

Wasn't out when I bought mine, interesting to hear about the GPS. Presumably it's sending data via the network for the GPS so you need a data package do you?

 

[Dan B]

You can't buy it without a data package, at least not via the usual channels. I've had one more or less since they came out: the biggest pro for me is the hardware keyboard, but that's a geek requirement not a general-user one.

Echo battery life comments, though :-( I'm thinking of buying a second battery so I don't e.g. get left phoneless in Brighton at breakfast time having flattened the thing while GPS-tracing my FNRttC trip getting there

My favourite apps not already mentioned:
* K-9: if you have a non-gmail IMAP mail account it's about a zillion times better than the bundled mail client
* twidroid: twitter, yes
* Newton's Cradle: pointless but great for showing off the phone

 

[PrettyboyTim]

I was very tempted by one of these, but it it slightly clunky and I was put off rather by the lack of a headphone jack.

I'm very tempted to wait for the Palm Pre, which should be out Real Soon Now...

 

[Crackle]

I'm very tempted to wait for the Palm Pre, which should be out Real Soon Now...

Yes, I'm very interested in that. Always had Palms, got one now, so I want to see what direction they've headed in. So far the reviews don't really tell you much about the practicalities, just the whizz bang stuff.

 

[Dan B]

Adapter for 3.5mm headphones is ~£3 on ebay, though rather tediously I can't find one in any of the brick-and-mortar stores I've asked in. I agree that having a socket in the phone itself would be better

 

[Fnaar]

Mine came with a mini usb to headphone jack converter. Got mine with data package, but use wi fi while at home or work. Gps works well, I presume it uses data for actual maps and the rest is yer satellites. My 49 mile ride was in very remote country, and got good results with not much data usage.

 

[cheadle hulme]

Keyboard is best bit. Battery life the worst.

GPS with google maps is great when it works. Problem is, areas with good GPS coverage tend not to have great 3G coverage and vice versa. This means I often get an error message which forces me to reboot.

Has anybody updated the software on their G1? Mine updated itself once, but apart from that nothing. There must be loads of bugs in the android software that they've fixed.

 

[Fnaar]

Oh joy!
I've just found an app which puts bbc i-player on my android... it isn't a bbc app, but it works a treat over wi-fi Haven't tried it on 3G yet, but apparently it isn't so good on that (according to a blog). But over wi-fi it works very well indeed. Now I can watch telly on a tiny screen ...er... whenever I need to. Which isn't often...

 

[cheadle hulme]

Whats this app called then?

The phone works MUCH better since the last (cupcake) update. Have you had yours yet? I think they're rolling it out in batches.

 

[Fnaar]

Yurrrs, had the update about 2 weeks ago. The virtual keyboard is nice (better in landscape... my fingers are too fat in portrait mode) and the vid is a welcome addition (though sound is sh!te)... generally still very happy with the 'phone' (it isn't just a phone any more, I guess). The app is called beebPlayer, and I just noticed it today in the Market... works very well.

 

[magnatom]

Got myself a HTC magic with Android on it a few days back. (Phone vodafone, told them I was leaving unless they did a good deal etc!)

Wow! Now that's a cool phone with some excellent software!

My personal favorite is the Sky Map application. You hold your phone up to the sky and using it's compass, GPS and tilt sensors it can label what you are looking at. Cooool! B)

Very impressed with the keyboard. I would guess I make fewer mistakes on the touchscreen keyboard than I did on normal phone keyboards.

 

[fossyant]

Just got the HTC Magic (the new Voda G2) and it's really good - not tried everything out but I do like MyTracks - will get round to using that properly soon. The touch screen works really well - these 'hard' screens are so much better than the soft ones - I had a HTC MDA 2 for 18 months, but the screen needed re-callibrating all the time. This gadget is the business.

 

[fossyant]

Can you download BBCi player files to the device, or does it need to be streamed ?

 

[Fnaar]

Can you download BBCi player files to the device, or does it need to be streamed ?

(From your previous post)... My Tracks is ace... only difficulty is the battery life of the phone, but my 49 mile ride was fine.
The BeebPlayer one (it isn't an official BBC app) needs to be streamed, can't save them to SD card. Have only used it over WiFi.