I got my G1 yesterday

revenant

revenant

[H]F Squad Captain
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
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... it's smaller in person than it looks in movies.. uhm, er, pictures and youtube videos. ;)

some fast-n-crappy pix

P1010318.jpg

P1010320.jpg


the good:

* it took all of 45 seconds to be synced up and ready to roll after I turned it on (I had my contacts polished off in gmail tho)
* it's a very good size, about the same as the iphone just a little thicker
* great call quality for me and the other end
* 3G browsing is super fast, the browser is very nice also, snappy and easy to use.
* gmail and gchat work great, well integrated.
* the KB rocks, takes a little getting used to but I love it over a virt kb
* the gps works great, but drains the batt pretty fast, keeping it off unless I am using it
* the notification bar is awesome... stuff happens and it stays there until you are ready to pull it down and see what's up.. you don't have to wait for downloads to finish, you don't get interrupted when you're in the middle of something by another event. very cool stuff

the bad:

* the dialer is very "meh" and it doesn't make use of the accelerometer (which is in the phone) so like when you're checking VM you need to pull the dialer up after you move the phone away from your head..
* the SD card just sometimes is unreadable and needs to be re-inserted. which is kind of annoying. I am guessing a firmware fix for this will happen as others are reporting this also
* needs a virt kb so you don't have to pop into landscape mode every time you need to type in anything (this is coming via the marketplace)
* no easy way to make the phone go into silent mode quickly.. EDIT: doh.. figured this out, just use the side button to turn the vol all the way down. *doink*
* the screen gets smudged easily.. it's not as easy to clean as the iphone's glass screen, but it does polish up nicely with a cotton shirt. ;)
* the build quality feels a little more flimsy than I had expected, but after having a 2G iphone for several months, that's a tough act to follow.. the more I use the G1 the less I think about that now..

(edit: I guess I am comparing this to the iphone a lot, but that's what I was using last)

well, that's kind of it for now.. no deal breakers here.. it's a really nice device. browsing and chatting and emailing is so damn easy... the touch screen is great.. android is very polished and easy to use.. it seems to behave more like a PC OS than a any previous smart/pda phone OSes I have used before.. the music player works well, nothing fancy, but it good and the audio quality on my Shure earbuds is very nice..

Anyways, I need to play with it more.. I was so zonked last night I didn't spend as much time with it as I had hoped.. Oh, one more thing, the marketplace is very sparse atm, I guess they cleaned it up for launch, so a lot of the apps were removed, but are coming back...
 
cool phone, price wise it should be a great competitor.
 
here's a pic I took with it... from the deck here on the tip of richardson bay

G1_pic1.jpg


not too bad.. these are pretty much ideal lighting conditions tho.. still a little fuzzy when you look at the full scale original..
 
Does it have an QUICK START voice memo function?
How about "meeting mode" extended voice recording?

The rest I've seen sounds great, so those are THE most important to me now.

Oh yeah... I haven't seen info for a full length video (movie) player?
 
omg, sick phone. i really want it. (people are asking 450 and im to lazy to go to the store) do you have "sexier" pictures of it? thanks
 
ciggwin said:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x88/Crappage/MOAR.jpg

pics plz...
Click to expand...

lolz.. ok, let me take some..

as for the other questions, you can make a shortcut right on the desktop to any app or function with the app "any cut".. not sure about meeting mode.. I will have to check that out..

been playing with ShopSavvy.. omfg, scan any bar code with the camera and it instantly searches for the product on e-tailors and local shops.. crazy!

no video player yet... GAH! well, there is one but it was alpha and they took it off the market place.. my guess is the next version of it will re-emerge very soon.
 
Dude... please go to your local strip club and take some better pics! ;)

OK - you say you can make a shortcut, but there's no "stock" voice memo function?
If not, I assume that "meeting mode" might be an option in a good voice app if (when) it comes out.

AFA video - I have a Sandisk mp3 / video player & had to use their "media converter" to distill video.
Was that how the video player would work on this thing?

BTW - I found a bunch of Q&A's here:
http://androidcommunity.com/forums/...-g1-what-do-you-want-to-know-1721/index3.html
 
yeah, I am no photographer... but here are a couple more

G1-5.jpg

G1-2.jpg

G1-3.jpg


one of how a gchat convo looks like

G1-4.jpg


I don't think there's a voice recorder on it by default, but that will come on the market place.. it's a minimalistic kind of stripped down device, a little, out of the box with the assumption that developers will create all the missing apps it needs, and more.. it's still in it's infancy really..

for the video player, I dunno about how the Sansa video ripper converts the videos for that device.. I hear the G1 player plays mp4s great, but there are some tips to optimize videos for it here: http://forums.tmonews.com/index.php?topic=3261.0

moar pix here: http://forums.tmonews.com/index.php?topic=3840.0
 
I thought that at first, but it feels pretty solid to me now... one thing I didn't like about the iphone was that is was kind of slippery in my hands sometimes and the G1 is very much not slippery in the hand.. the back shell casing has a rubbery kind of coating.. it's pretty nice for handling with one hand and not worrying about a slip.. it's for sure not as sleek as the metal iphone, but oh well..

one thing to add to the cons: the photo viewer is kind of slow.. I have 1000+ pictures on my SD card and man it chugs through them slowly... I think it might be generating thumbnails though, because I know that itunes formats photos before they make it on the iphone, making them smaller in size and easier for the phone to handle.. my guess is the same is going on here, but the phone is doing all the image formatting. ugh. Android will need a media manager badly me thinks..


edit: oh, the clock is this one... the weather forecasting is terrible, but it's a nice looking clock.
 
I played around with my buddies G1 today.

It's good stuff, I love the screen, very nice camera.
I saw this badass app called that scans barcodes lol.

Pretty good stuff. Considering it was just released and there's so many apps out ith as great potential.
 
I'm a T-Mo customer and my wife and I are evaluating plans/phones since our contract is up soon.

Does the G1 _require_ a data contract? Can I get it and just use a regular plan? Does the G1 have wifi (thus negating the need for 3G)?

What was the purchasing experience like?
 
svet-am said:
I'm a T-Mo customer and my wife and I are evaluating plans/phones since our contract is up soon.

Does the G1 _require_ a data contract? Can I get it and just use a regular plan? Does the G1 have wifi (thus negating the need for 3G)?

What was the purchasing experience like?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure you have to get the data plan for it.
 
the app that scans bar codes is called "shop savvy" and it's ridiculously cool.. I've been scanning everything in my house. :p

As for the data plan issue, it does require a data plan. You need that to sign into gmail the first time which activates the phone.. afterward you can use wifi, but I think the phone would be very limited without a data plan.. anyways, here's some more discussion on that.. as for the purchasing experience, I pre-ordered the phone on the first day I could, Sept 23rd. it was actually tough to get the site to stop timing out on me because it was so slammed with orders.. but all in all, pretty easy.. I hear stores got a lot of the units, so you can still likely get one at a store dep on your area. I would call ahead. good luck!

as for day two with the G1... OMFG.. I love it. I have great signal in places I never had signal before.. in the datacenter primarily.. I used the phone all day, on phone conferences in the car, my Voyager 510 headset worked flawlessly with it... I took tons of calls, I made tons of calls.. I used the GPS to find a job site I was having trouble remembering how to get to... I g-chatted people, I emailed people.. it's pretty darn nice...

some little things, the phone makes no noise letting you know it hung up while on your BT headset.. again, the screen gets smudged really easily and doesn't clean as easy as the iphone's glass screen surface.. doh! huntinug through the contacts can be a bit tedious because you can't quick move to a name letter, so you have to scroll.. but you can make shortcuts to contacts and drop those on the desktop.. I don't want my desktop full of contact shortcuts so I am hoping they make it easier to pan through the contacts..

and... the battery life.. ugh! that's got to be my biggest complaint now.. I charged it fully last night, buy noon today (after a lot of calls and BT headset use) it was down to 22%.. I recharged to 70% and went into the colo... after a couple of hours of more messaging, calls, and some wifi use it was back down to 25%.. gah. well, I am going to do some more cycling of the battery before I fret too much..

edit:
FYI, for those who were wondering, gmail and gchat fall under the unlimited data plan unbrella, so they are not considered "text" messages.. AIM, Yahoo, Windows LM, and "text" (obviously) count as "text" messages.. I got the 400 message with unlimited data plan as I use gchat a lot and pretty much only text my wife and a couple friends... so I should come in well below 400.. but we'll see.. this thing is a chatty device. ;)


DOUBLE EDIT: the video player is on the marketplace now!! and it plays all of my iphone videos perfectly. whew!! /me fills 16gb msd card with mp4 files now. ;)
 
revenant said:
one thing to add to the cons: the photo viewer is kind of slow.. I have 1000+ pictures on my SD card and man it chugs through them slowly... I think it might be generating thumbnails though, because I know that itunes formats photos before they make it on the iphone, making them smaller in size and easier for the phone to handle.. my guess is the same is going on here, but the phone is doing all the image formatting. ugh. Android will need a media manager badly me thinks..
Click to expand...

The iPhone/iPod touch actually create two copies of the pics you sync, one 660KB-ish copy for viewing on the phone, and another thumbnail-sized file for the phone's navigation (so it doesn't bog down like that)... I'm not sure if it'll retain the original file-size copy as well if you tell it to do so in iTunes (like you could with older iPods, for the purpose of TV viewing, file dumping, etc.), haven't tried it.

There's actually bug with the iPod touch 2gen (and the iPhone 3G I think?) right now that won't save files off e-mails or Safari properly, or actually, it won't flag them properly... So when you re-open those photos using their photo navigator it opens the thumbnail file and it obviously looks hella blurry. If you sync those blurry looking pics to the computer (or if you just navigate to the photo folder on the computer), the full-res pics are still there tho.

Clearly a bug, wish they'd fix it already, grr. Sorry for the hijack.

Does the G1 try loading the photos at full res off the bat when you're viewing 'em btw? My cheap Sony Ericsson phone just loads a blurry preview first then cleans it up (like some digital cameras, or a browser), never felt it go sluggish when goin thru a lot of photos. Then again, they're 2mp pics.
 
I'm sure, being an open platform, there's gotta be a way around the limitation on the other IM clients no? I hate it when your IMs are counted as part as of your text message total when you're paying for a data plan, seems ludicrous. Downloading a separate multi-IM client which just goes thru the 3G/WiFi would probably just resolve that though, no?

But hey, at 'least it comes with a multi-IM client, even if it's to T-mobile's benefit...

Apple still hasn't fixed their IM/push notification mess AFAIK. If they just made their own lightweight IM client and made one exception to enable just that app to run in the background, it'd probably be a lot less hassle than the push system they're trying to implement where the app closes and it's up to the app provider to keep you logged on their servers (which doesn't even seem very secure). :rolleyes:

Is the video player free btw, or what's it cost? I imagine Google will be one of the central app providers for Android down the line, and I suppose they wouldn't charge for any of it... I'm wondering what the other apps are going for though.
 
the video player is free... I haven't seen anything which isn't free as of now.. but I guess at some point some apps will cost $.. like the M$ office suite app and other big stuff. some games also I would guess.. anyways..

the photo viewer shows thumbnails of the photos and apparently had to generate all of them itself but now it's pretty fast and works well.. it seems to load the thumbnails on the main preview screen, then go to the real pic when you select one.. my pics looked sharper on the iphone, but this is pretty damn good.. plus I am sure it will only get better with later firmwares..

Gmail and Gchat work awesome.. so nicely integrated.. I hear the AIM client sucks though.. slow and uses text messages, so if you don't have the unlimited text deal, get ready for a bill. ;)

Anyways.. it's so new right now, but also very functional and I have yet to be hindered by anything really.. all the stuff I don't like should be fixed with firmware updates and other tweaks once we get a winterboard or customize equiv rolling for the device. :)
 
I like Android, but i dont like the G1 phone, its a nice phone yes, but i prefer my Tilt and ATT. Just cant wait till android is completely made to the Tilt specs, and everything works! I have android on my tilt right now, but its a slow, buggy version and i dont think the phone works.
 
You can get Android on a phone besides the G1? I'm guessing my Palm Centro won't fit the bill, eh? :)

Oh, and I agree withJuggafat, that alarm clock is very, very cool, but enough about that, back to the G1, lol
 
That Linux Guy said:
You can get Android on a phone besides the G1? I'm guessing my Palm Centro won't fit the bill, eh? :)

Oh, and I agree withJuggafat, that alarm clock is very, very cool, but enough about that, back to the G1, lol
Click to expand...

Yea theres a project going on right now for WinMo devices, specifically the Kaiser/Tilt

Right here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=396782, and i dont think the Palm Centro meets the min specs of Android, Sorry :(
 
I miss the iphone's smooth glass screen topping.. but I am getting used to the G1.. I ordered one of these kits: http://www.screenpatronus.com/ to drop on the screen. I never use these, but the G1's screen gets smudged easily and it's kind of hard to clean all the way, so I hear these are pretty nice.. I hope so because as I said I don't like these normally..

day 3: I still like it a lot.. but because it's so new there's not much to do with it modding wise.. I went nuts with my iphone modding the UI.. that was fun, but that won't be happening for a while on the G1 I reckon.. oh well! I have never had a real kb on a small device like this so it's a real treat use that.. I filled most of my 16gb msd card with videos, music, and photos so I have been goofing around with the multimedia capabilities of the device today... the music and video players are pretty rudimentary, but they get the job done, and so I am not complaining too much on that..

one very good thing about the G1 is signal strength and call quality.. I get great 3G signal at home, at the office, at the colo, all over SF driving in my car, down the 280 in the sticks, all over Sunnyvale and San Jose... in Marin.. and the call quality is probably the best I have experienced with any cell phone.. which is great. I still think with all of the other gadgetry, a cell phone should be a great phone first and foremost, and this one is.

edit: here's a good tips list for anyone wondering about this stuff
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1449188
 
So I am using the video player a bit now.. it's really pretty rudimentary, but it gets the job done.. the video playback is fairly good.. but not as smooth as the iphone and I can see the difference between 65k colors on the G1 and 16mil on the iphone.. some more rough transitions between colors like when you look at skies and other wide open surfaces where the color fades gently.. not too big of a deal... the video quality is extremely good aside from that, movies look awesome on the screen, nice colors and contrast, good blacks. the playback motion is also very smooth and the audio is great; the external speaker is actually really good also.. I can prop it on my desk in a business card holder and just let it play without headphones. kinda cool. So it's not quite as good as the iphone, but pretty damn close.

I am hoping later revisions of the video player will add suport for avi, divx, xvid, etc... basically be more flexible with encoding methods for video and audio.. with an open platform this should be no problem... anyways.

my movies are currently ripped with PQ DVD to iphone with (Nvidia PureVideo) H.264 video codec and AC3 audio @ a rate of about 500kbps @ 30fps.. the player seems to have trouble with movies larger than about 575mb though.. I get a blank screen and no audio.. prolly a bug.
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
I like Android, but i dont like the G1 phone, its a nice phone yes, but i prefer my Tilt and ATT. Just cant wait till android is completely made to the Tilt specs, and everything works! I have android on my tilt right now, but its a slow, buggy version and i dont think the phone works.
Click to expand...

who says they will even distribute an android platform for other phones? you seem to be getting confused here.

no one will do that, why u ask, its because they want you to buy phones from the companies, and the voice plan, they wont distribute something they can sell and make millions on.

good try though
 
iGrooCk said:
who says they will even distribute an android platform for other phones? you seem to be getting confused here.

no one will do that, why u ask, its because they want you to buy phones from the companies, and the voice plan, they wont distribute something they can sell and make millions on.

good try though
Click to expand...

It's an open source OS, sure they're not gonna package it in a neat download for you to get and install with two clicks, and coders out there may not be able to get it to run on all cell phones... But there'll definitely be a huge amount of people modding it so it works on other cell phones besides the G1 and any other phone officially released with Android built-in.

Swapping firmwares on phones is nothing new, this is a lil' more advanced obviously, but it's far from impossible. Just like Windows Mobile running on the iPhone, heh...
 
Motorola already announced they are working on Android phones. Android is gonna be on lots of different models.
 
Impulse said:
It's an open source OS, sure they're not gonna package it in a neat download for you to get and install with two clicks, and coders out there may not be able to get it to run on all cell phones... But there'll definitely be a huge amount of people modding it so it works on other cell phones besides the G1 and any other phone officially released with Android built-in.

Swapping firmwares on phones is nothing new, this is a lil' more advanced obviously, but it's far from impossible. Just like Windows Mobile running on the iPhone, heh...
Click to expand...

Exactly, please do your research iGrooCk, before you decide to say something to someone who knows what their talking about, and yes they did publicly release the source code for Android a week ago so itll be on the tilt that much faster.
 
^^ I got mine when my wife worked for Sharper Image at a significant discount. the weather forecasting sucks large ass, but the clock looks really pretty so I tolerate it. ;)

still liking the G1. I can't wait for the UI mods to start rolling. I love that shit.. modding the UI and making it all custom and slick looking. with the open platform the sky's the limit I reckon. I bet will see total makeovers to the UI. anyways.. I have been training the battery this weekend, draining it out to about 10% by playing movies, then charging it up and leaving it on the charger for a good hour or two after it's full.. the battery life is getting much better. whew.

I guess there's a bug fix (OTA) update which is being transmitted via wireless to phones at random.. this brings the baseband firmware from RC19 to RC28.

Here's the list of issues it addresses:

* Wrong field is focused when keyboard is openend in Messaging application: Now when the keyboard is opened, the focus will default to the compose (text entry) field.
* Cannot associate with WiFi access point using shared WEP key: Should now be able to associate to access points with a shared WEP key.
* Google Contacts/Calendar Sync (endless loop).
* USB storage: Now a USB notification will appear in the notifications area when connected via USB. Users must select to use USB Storage if desired.
* Email notification doesn't disappear when the Email has been read (POP/IMAP Email client).
* New Email notifications not received (POP/IMAP Email client).
* Browser does not launch YouTube video when Settings > Enable Javascript is unchecked.
* WiFi & Bluetooth occasionally disconnect while charging.
* Support silencing of Email notifications (POP/IMAP Email client)
* Amazon MP3 fix for files with underscores (_) in the filenames


edit: I guess there's a new NEW bug fix... this brings the baseband firmware up to RC29.. I am still on RC19 not having gotten the first update yet even.. gah! it's funny we're still on release candidate baseband firmwares. details here:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/28/mystery-rc29-update-hits-t-mobiles-g1/


also here are some places you can download non marketplace apps:

http://www.android-freeware.org/
http://www.freeandroidsoft.com/
http://modmygphone.com/apps/
 
i know its an open source app, but i was refering to his specific phone. if someone makes the program to run without any issues on this specific phone then great
 
Looks similar to the Remote app for iPhone 3G/iPod touch... Very slick, shame I despise iTunes itself. :p I've been using my cell phone (a cheap W580i Sony Ericsson) as a Bluetooth remote though and it works rather well... The phone has built in profiles for it and Sony provides an app to build/tweak those profiles, works nicely w/foobar. :D
 
I am getting better and better run times with my battery every time I charge it up... I am falling into a good groove with the G1.. feeling very comfortable using it.. using the browser to look shit up when I am standing in line at the coffee shop.. sending a random chat to someone... checking my email, checking the market place... some good apps are starting to show up there.. anyways.. I was having the slightest feeling of early adopters remorse over the weekend, but it has passed.. I guess what triggered it was when I played with the iphone, the one I spent hours and hours customizing every part of the visual appeal on, only to hand it over to the wife.. anyways, I missed it a bit after not having used it for a while.. but it's all good. once the G1 picks up even more steam I am sure I will have fewer and fewer "episodes" like that. lol
 
Is it true you can scan bar codes and compare it online? A friend of mine told me it had the feature to scan a barcode and compare prices among the online vendors, which is a totally nifty feature.
 
Cool Vibrations said:
Is it true you can scan bar codes and compare it online? A friend of mine told me it had the feature to scan a barcode and compare prices among the online vendors, which is a totally nifty feature.
Click to expand...
Yup, my friend has this phone, she showed me how to do it. It even allows you to look up places to purchase and gives directions :D.
 
How do you 'scan' barcodes? By taking a picture of the barcode with the camera? That's pretty neat, revenant mentioned it before but I wasn't sure how it worked. I'm surprised that isn't getting hyped up more, it's one of those gee whiz features that you'd think the average non-techie buyer would find really helpful...
 
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