Is this the next Android Phone?

  The boys at Engadget have just posted about this new Android-based phone.

The Agora (AU$299; US$192) and Agora Pro (AU$399; US$256) are available for pre-order as we speak, though neither one is scheduled to ship out until the end of January. As for specs, the Agora packs a 2.5-inch touchscreen (320 x 240), 3G networking, a backlit QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD card slot; the Pro adds in GPS, 2-megapixel camera and WiFi. So, with unsubsidized prices this low, are you willing to take a chance?

I have never heard of this company before but it is apparently a well-known, reputable company.  If this really comes to market (sheesh!  I’m so jaded!) it will be a welcome addition.  Looks like a pretty darn good deal to me!

It’s actually nice to see that the next potential (there’s that untrusting side of me again!) Android phone could be in a Blackberry-esk design. At this price point though, it makes you wonder why the G1 from Google was so expensive!

Source: Engadget

My first impression of the Android

I had a chance to put my hands on the world’s first Android-powered handset - T-Mobile G1.

I must admit I had little expectations, as it is the first version of the product and I was always taught that when it comes to technology - version 1.0 never really works.

Though I didn’t have too much time to play around with it, I have to admit that it exceeded my expectations.

Here’s my thoughts about the first Android phone:

Sticking with some good ideas:

You don’t always need to invent the wheel to be successful, and indeed, the design of this phone combines few good elements that can be found in other handheld devices: trackball (BlackBerry anyone?), full sliding QWERTY keyboard (always better than those virtual ones), and the four classic hardware buttons: home, send, end, and back (combined with one additional ‘menu’ button).

Classy.

The OS tries to follow the touch experience that exists in all the new phones. It is designed in a finger friendly way and does a good job at it even though not always consistent.

The home screen is an interesting combination of a launcher (like iPhone’s shortcuts) with summary panels (like Windows Mobile’s informative today screen) - all, with the capabilities to define multiple pages.

It seems like Google learned from other’s experience: the iPhone misses some summary information in the home screen, and on the other hand - WinMo users always add launchers to their ‘today’ screen. Google combined the two and did it well.

Other than that, there are many things that reminded me of the iPhone: especially the way that the menus are scrolling using finger gestures. I can’t blame Google for doing so, as this is now becoming an industry standard. However, even though the screen technology is the same as the iPhone - the Android does not have the same smoothness. [Read more]

White pages in your caller ID

Here is another application I found today for my Android Phone that I find a must have. It’s called Caller ID from White Page and here is a video that shows how it works.

The application can be downloaded free at Android Market Place.

My Android Fav Applications

Do you remember what I said a few days ago about needing to get use to the Android G1, well, I have been playing for around 3 days already with this phone and part of the problems that I had at the beginning have disappeared thanks -like I predicted- to applications developed for this new platform.

One of my first problems was that I was used to just to hold a key in my old phone to dial a number. In a T-Mobile G1, without installing anything to do this was virtually impossible.  But… installing an application from the Android Market Place called AnyCut you can create shortcuts to virtually anything, including a phone number. In this way all you have to do to dial a number is unlock the screen and click in the shortcut for that number.

Another of my favorite applications is ShopSavy. I went this weekend to an Outlet store where supposedly price are lower than in other stores. Found a portable speakers for iPod and decided to test ShopSavy. Scanned the barcode using the camera phone and guess what? The price in the store was $12.99 and ShopSavy found a few pages online selling it for $6.99! I tested it also on a PSP game and the program found the best price online and also using the GPS integrated in the phone it looked for best prices in local stores around my current location! So definitely ShopSavy is my new best friend.

Living in South Florida weather is something really important for me and more now that we still are in hurricane season. iMap has all I need, current weather conditions, detailed and extended weather forecasts and radar views . The radar animation feature is just amazing. It takes a few minutes to get it working when I’m on 3G but when I’m connected via WiFi it takes just a few seconds.

In a note apart, I got 3G connectivity at work, that’s 10 miles away from my house. At home I have 3G if I’m not inside of the house. When I went “hunting for 3G” like I said in my previous post, I was actually shopping around and every time I checked the 3G connectivity I was inside of a store and I was not getting any 3G signal. So it seems to me that in an area of 2 miles (probably less) around my house there is 3G connectivity but not strong enough when you are inside of a building. Using a program called iNetwork Test (Web Test in here) I tested the download speed and it was around 874 kbps, which is not bad according to what others with this phone are getting.

T-Mobile 3G Coverage

Something that you should be aware when your buy your T-Mobile G1 is that even when they said that they have 3G in your area what they really mean is that you are probably have it soon. To prove it I have prepared 3 pictures.

And the above picture is what you get.

Pictures say more than 1000 words. I have to add that I drove Yesterday around 2 miles in all directions from my house in a 3G hunting expedition and no 3G in anywhere.

I got the G1, First Impressions

Definitely, the ugliest thing I have seen in my whole life. You need sometime to get use to it, specially if you are going to use if just as a phone. To place a call you need to tap the screen at least 3 times and you have to look into the screen to do it so definitely this is not something that you want to do while you are driving. I’m probably too use to just hold pressed a key to dial a predefined number.  Making a call using your voice is a “fantasy” included in that phone. At least for me. My Windows Mobile Phone was a lot better in this point.

Using the phone as a GPS navigation system in your car is far away… yet. You can get directions but nothing that you can use while driving. Again, my Windows Mobile Device performs better thanks to 3rd party software. But having a GPS I doubt that we are not going to see these applications ported to Android.

I could not find anyway to install applications unless they are included in the Market Place. And there are applications out there like Opera for Android that I wanted to test. I stayed away from the iPhone because I did not like the whole concept of a close market but so far I have not seen anything different on this T-Mobile phone.

A lot of potential so I’ll keep it but I would say that this product was put prematurely into the market.

Update: I was able to install some applications out of the Android Market. Seems to me that to install the Apk has to be created using the latest Android SDK. I still investigating the issue.

Motorola Bets on Android

Motorola has always been one of my favorite mobile phone vendors so I have felt somewhat bereft as the company has slowly fallen pray to it’s own hesitancy and miss-steps. There was a time when Moto made high status phones. I remember when the Star-Tac was the phone to own. Then the RAZR came and changed the game. It was such a monster hit that the company decided they could just keep making slight variations on the phone forever…as the industry rushed past them.

The Q line are solid phones, but there is no doubt the shift in the industry towards smartphones and away from chic feature phones left Motorola high and dry. A new direction was badly needed, but over the last year Moto has just produced more RAZR and ROKR retreads. Music and Camera phones won’t save the once proud company.

Therefore I was overjoyed to read some time ago that Motorola was moving wholeheartedly into the Googlephone camp. More information is now surfacing, like this tidbit found in Business Week…

[Read more]

T-Mobile G1 Photos

Back dating this post to sync with the 25 Minute video we did last week.

Read on for more photos…

[Read more]

T-Mobile G1 review - Engadget

Engadget has published the most complete review about the T-Mobile G1 that I have read.

The G1 isn’t going to blow anyone’s mind right out of the gate. Looking only at the hardware, there’s nothing here that’s particularly impressive, yet nothing that’s particularly bad (though the GPS needs some work). It’s a fine, solidly designed device that has enough style to please most users — but it won’t win a ton of beauty pageants. Think of it this way: if it were running Windows Mobile, it’d be a footnote in HTC’s history.

Well, after reading this review I have to rethink a little bit the whole idea of buying one. There is not any doubt in my mind that Android will be a tough competition for Windows Mobile and for the iPhone. Android has the energy of a teenager while Windows Mobile has not been changed a lot in the last 2 years. At least I do not see there the adventure that I see in the Android any more. If you think about, Windows Mobile still alive because programmers of many other companies are creating amazing applications that compete well again iPhone. But the OS by itself still almost the same since WM5. The problem is that Google/T-Mobile did a huge mistake by picking this HTC design to start the battle against Microsoft and Apple. That together with the few things that I read in this review has made me to reevaluate my plans about buying one. Let’s see what happens in the next few weeks.

 

T-Mobile G1 review - Engadget

To be or not to be

I’m sitting here looking to a friend of mine writing an article about why he is not getting the T-Mobile G1. I have not read what he is writing but probably I can guess part of what he is going to say in this article. One thing is for sure, that beast is ugly. And this is not something that only we, end users have noticed. Here is an ex employee from Google that also said the same:

The reason many people see the G1 as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS! It’s a design unchanged for a while (it’s now available in Zune-brown along with white and black).

I still looking for a reason of why they made such marketing mistake putting a complete new Operating System, I should add… a long waited one, in such ugly phone and I can’t find a logical explanation.

But anyway… I still tempted to buy one (the white one to make it more appealing). Why? Because even when the phone is what we already know the software in that phone is very promising. And the company behind that software is also a company which always has been a synonym of simplicity combined with elegancy.

There are many applications that are going to be released in the next few months for Android that will let everybody breathless. Do not believe me? Check this videos.

10 Things you probably know by now about the Android

First Android is here! It’s HTC G1!

After watching many videos, reading all the technical blogs and even think about it for a while - here’s couple of things I came up with regarding the Android’s first phone:

5 things I like about HTC G1:

1. It’s Open!

Well, think about the great things the XDA-Developers are doing and now double it up with the possibilities that the Android will bring. No doubt - things are going to get spicy here in the mobile arena.

2. The Google way

As much as I like the Microsoft tools, there are areas in which Google brings simplicity into a higher level: Google Analytics is an example of a great reports dashboard that brings exactly what is expected of it. There are bunch of other useful tools from Google which I find innovative not in their looks but more around functionality.

3. Multi-Task Mobile OS

While Windows Mobile users may find it obvious, other phones don’t have this capabilities; Palm, Rim, iPhone are all running one application at a time.

4. Integration to Google’s Services

Many of us are using different services from Google, in this respect, Google’s Android will enjoy some advantage over his competitors.

5. Hey, it’s just version 1.0 isn’t it?

There are a lot of bad things to say about the Android and HTC Dream, but hey, let’s wait a couple of months and see how it evolves.

5 things I Don’t like about HTC G1 (And the Android):

1. It’s Open…

Well, think of all the problems you may encounter with so many different versions of the OS on top of so many different devices. Not to mention different UI concepts each developer can make, causing the average user a lot of frustration.

Users need clear concepts, seamless look and feel, and consistency. Open source (in this respect) means more troubles for the end users.

2. The Google way

Most of Google’s services are designed for Internet use. As much as I see the benefits of it - I still prefer having all my documents stored and maintained locally. A good example for that is that I no longer write my Mobile Spoon blog from the Blogger interface, instead I’m using Microsoft’s Live Writer which is SOOOOO MUCH BETTER. I would like my phone to be completely functional offline. Can the Android do that?

3. No easy integration with Outlook

From what I’m reading there’s no easy way to integrate with outlook (both over the air and via desktop syncing). Even if it can be solved using 3rd party applications - for me this is not just a disadvantage, it’s a big no-no.

4. Look and feel

You have to be kidding me: After releasing state of the art devices such as the Diamond and the Touch HD - this is the best thing HTC could come up with? Is it a Microsoft scheme?

The Android user interface looks better than the device itself, but still, no big news around here as well.

It all looks a bit too 80’s, don’t you think?

5. Too little, too late?

What will be the positioning of the Android? Did Google think about it?

- Windows Mobile is the powerful platform

- BlackBerry is the perfect tool for business men

- iPhone is shiny and appealing

- Palm is the current looser

What will the Android be?

This is a dream, the HTC DREAM

HTC Dream Spy Shots and Android has an App Store?

Everyone is all excited about Android in hopes that it will provide an Apple-like experience without having to buy Apple. I don’t like Apple personally, but the iPhone is a well done device. I am not one of those that are super excited about Android, but I do look forward to other competitors forcing Windows Mobile into innovation. This week there has been a nice amount of Android news…

• Spy Shots of the HTC Dream have surfaced, nice ones.
• FCC info on the HTC Dream
• Android to have an Application Store

read on for more info…

[Read more]

Android Shedding Features

As the deadline for a working Android phone rushes towards us and the HTC Dream is apparently all ready to take up the hardware duties, the actual OS from Google is facing the realities of a competitive and time sensitive market. Not EVERYTHING in the marketing Powerpoint may be able to crammed into the actual release.

In order to rollout the release on time, Google has announced that certain previously promised features will need to be removed from the initial version, namely formal Bluetooth implementation, and Google Talk, Google’s instant messaging software.

Google said that despite being taken out of the API, the first Android phones will still have essential support for Bluetooth hands-free devices. Since the companies building the actual hardware, such as HTC, won’t have access to the API for Bluetooth in the OS, apparently that functionality will have to be added completely by Google independent of any hardware. Google has stated the Bluetooth functionality will be added to a later release.

Asked about the Bluetooth removal, Android engineer Nick Pelly wrote the following:

The reason is that we plain ran out of time. The Android Bluetooth API was pretty far along, but needs some clean-up before we can commit to it for the SDK. Keep in mind that putting it in the 1.0 SDK would have locked us into that API for years to come.

The concerns about Google Talk apparently had to due with security issues which could not be adequately addressed before release. According to sources, these concerns included such heavyweights as the exposure of private information on the Web and the lack of security technologies to prevent the widescale spread of a virus via Google Talk.

The removals are effective as of the new .9 Beta release, and will carry over into the 1.0 release.

(Source – PC Magazine)

Did I but Dream a Dream?

The Boy Geniuses are reporting on some video which has surfaced on YouTube that claims to be the HTC Dream running Android, in awfully blurred but reasonably identifiable smartphonealicious action. Nothing even remotely like confirmation is out there but it looks consistent with rumors, and the Android functionality seems legit compared to what we have seen before. Auto-rotating screen, Sidekick style QWERTY, pretty good touch-screen…check, check, check. It seems awfully large to me, but who knows.

Take a look for yourself and see…is this just a YouTube pipe dream or Apple’s worst nightmare?