October 22, 2008
T-mobile G1 first thoughts
I played with the T-mobile G1 phone today. Of course, it's hard to beat the iPhone's ease of use and intuitive UI but the G1 is definitely the next best thing. Set up and configuration are a breeze. The user interface takes a few more clicks to get to menus, settings, etc. than the iPhone but after a few tries become second nature. The trackball is a great add on as it allows one to use the phone entirely with one hand (whereas I always find myself requiring both hands to quickly navigate the iPhone).
Transferring contacts is a hassle. I first had to export from Outlook and import into Gmail. Then the G1 automatically syncs over the air to Gmail. The export/import isn't perfect as every contact that I entered on my old phone synced properly back to Outlook but these show up with no contact name in the G1. This will be an ongoing hassle as I am still hooked on outlook as my contact manager/email client. Time will tell if the heavy hand of Google will make me change.
The extras are also not as slick as the iPhone. For example, the ringtones are all extremely lame and the one area that is not intuitive is how to use a song as a ringtone or how to import your own handmade or externally purchased ringtones.
Setting up email was also extremely easy. Two accounts set up in less than a minute. The keyboard is a little small like all phones but I suppose a bit of practice will make me an expert. The download store is a page out of Apple but then again pretty obvious thing to implement. The store is not very full but that will come. Downloaded the usual fare -- Shazam, Tunewiki, some camera apps, etc.
The other disappointing area (and an often neglected one) is the power/USB connector. For a phone that touts openness, it is amazing that they would still choose a proprietary connector. Why couldn't they just choose a standard USB connector and perhaps not even ship with cables. Last thing I need is another set of power supply/connector cables. The Blackberry has them beat on that.
Posted by raza at 7:53 AM | Mobile | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 15, 2008
Becoming an Apple hater
I've never been an Apple hater. Admittedly, I don't own many of their products but there are a few around. However, their latest move of rejecting iPhone applications because they duplicate features of Apple softarehas moved me a bit towards the Apple hater camp.
It is the height of arrogance for them to think that no one can create an feature better than they can. This move is so low that it actually made me right something in my blog.
Posted by raza at 10:47 PM | Mobile | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
