G1 problems so far ...

[bearbear]

had my G1 for a week and i'm missing my 3G iPhone

1. installed anycut and i placed a shortcut on the home screen to change the display font setting, small is my favourite but it always went back to medium which is the default setting, and i hate to change that 10 times a day.

2. battery can only last 1 day max

3. in contacts, favorite tab would display names that weren't supposed to be there and they would disappear later

4. no msn, im+ is about to expire and i'm not paying them $20 & meebo only showing email address on my contact list instead of friends' names

5. wouldn't display pdf files

6. most of the softwares in android market are useless (for now)

7. on home page, if you type a word in the "search box", it'd bring you to google search page and you'd have to retype the subject you wanted to seach, that's so stupid.

8. awkward to use right thumb to reach the spacebar on keyboard (hope i'll get used to it)

9. exported outlook contacts to csv file & gmail imported the file and wow......what a fxxking mess ......

to be continued ....

[scishock]

There's no enterprise security support for WiFi. I mean.. come on, seriously? Lets not have support for WiFi networks that most universities and corporations use. My freaken palm tx from 3 years ago support enterprise security for crying out loud.

[tonton]

scrolling down the screen and stuff is choppy. not as smooth as the iPhone.

[tonton]

had my G1 for a week and i'm missing my 3G iPhone

7. on home page, if you type a word in the "search box", it'd bring you to google search page and you'd have to retype the subject you wanted to seach, that's so stupid.

8. awkward to use right thumb to reach the spacebar on keyboard (hope i'll get used to it)

to be continued ....

I have to disagree with u on these two.

1, If u search for something on the homepage it takes u to google and searches for u. U dont have to search twice. U just have to wait for the results to load.

2, Everybody I know uses their right thumb to hit spacebar. What do you want to use? your big toe?? or ur middle finger? because that would be awkward

[xeudoxus]

I have to disagree with u on these two.

1, If u search for something on the homepage it takes u to google and searches for u. U dont have to search twice. U just have to wait for the results to load.

2, Everybody I know uses their right thumb to hit spacebar. What do you want to use? your big toe?? or ur middle finger? because that would be awkward

1) I disagree, I have the same problem where you have to repeat the search. It happened in all revisions so far for me. Also I can hit search on the homepage, it loads google then hit search again from the homepage again and it will work.

2) I also use the right thumb for space but I don't think it is in the right spot/ long enough. (Use to Dash keyboard)

3) NO EMOTICONS!!!! :mad: I am use to the sym key having emoticons in it for txt's (use to my Dash)

4) Not able to add contacts from a number that came from a txt msgs.

5) txt messaging app crashes more than any other app on my g1.

Thats it for now

[krnboy503]

most of the problems can be fixed with an update.
give it some time.

[ghoonk]

1) I disagree, I have the same problem where you have to repeat the search. It happened in all revisions so far for me. Also I can hit search on the homepage, it loads google then hit search again from the homepage again and it will work.

2) I also use the right thumb for space but I don't think it is in the right spot/ long enough. (Use to Dash keyboard)

3) NO EMOTICONS!!!! :mad: I am use to the sym key having emoticons in it for txt's (use to my Dash)

4) Not able to add contacts from a number that came from a txt msgs.

5) txt messaging app crashes more than any other app on my g1.

Thats it for now

1. Not sure why your phone is doing that, but when I enter keyword for a search and hit Enter, Google loads up the results page for me just fine

2. I use my left thumb for space, so I do find it inconvenient but not annoying enough to be an actual problem.

3. No emos in SMS messages, but they work fine on GTalk. Not critical for me, so I don't see it as a problem on my end

4. I get text messages that contain numbers and I can select them via the contextual

5. Yes, that is annoying, that the system is not able to intelligently identify phone numbers, email address. I really miss that feature coming from a Series60 phone...

My gripes:

1. battery life could be better. That said, because this phone just begs to be used, I find myself using it a lot more than my Nokia, so I guess that's a tradeoff.

2. Not able to create personal/custom POIs in Maps application and be able to share them. I know this is possible in Google Maps for Series 60, so why can't they do the same for Android?

[Fare]

2. battery can only last 1 day max

Does anyone really expect more out of a smartphone?


"dammit! why can't laptop's charge run for weeks on end on a watch battery?!?!?"

[ghoonk]

It's especially killer on battery life when you're busy browsing the web over wifi or 3G. And I have my google apps sync at all times too :P

[jmejiaa]

most of the problems can be fixed with an update.
give it some time.


So can copy and paste on the iphone.

[bearbear]

UPDATED TO RC 30 JUST NOW

1. installed anycut and i placed a shortcut on the home screen to change the display font setting, small is my favourite but it always went back to medium which is the default setting, and i hate to change that 10 times a day. - PROBLEM STILL HERE

2. battery can only last 1 day max - WILL SEE

3. in contacts, favorite tab would display names that weren't supposed to be there and they would disappear later - PROBLEM STILL HERE

4. no msn, im+ is about to expire and i'm not paying them $20 & meebo only showing email address on my contact list instead of friends' names - NOT RELATED TO RC30 BUT STILL A PROBLEM

5. wouldn't display pdf files - WILL SEE

6. most of the softwares in android market are useless (for now) - ONLY ANYCUT IS WORTH DOWNLOADING

7. on home page, if you type a word in the "search box", it'd bring you to google search page and you'd have to retype the subject you wanted to seach, that's so stupid. - FIXED YAYYYYYYYYY

8. awkward to use right thumb to reach the spacebar on keyboard (hope i'll get used to it) - USING LEFT THUMB INSTEAD

9. exported outlook contacts - BEEN THERE DONE THAT AND DON'T WANNA EVER DO IT AGAIN.

[Gateau Noel]

yes the import from outlook contacts to google was almost a disaster, the information didnt translate perfeclty, i had to make adjustments in my new google contacts,

[bearbear]

1. installed anycut and i placed a shortcut on the home screen to change the display font setting, small is my favourite but it always went back to medium which is the default setting, and i hate to change that 10 times a day. - PROBLEM STILL HERE

3. in contacts, favorite tab would display names that weren't supposed to be there and they would disappear later - PROBLEM STILL HERE

5. wouldn't display pdf files - PROBLEM STILL HERE

[ghoonk]

how is not being able to view or open PDF files be a problem when it was never a feature of the phone to begin with?

As for software on Market being useless, that's not entirely true either, because that's your opinion and not an actual problem. Many other G1 users have found useful software, though I would concur that there really isn't a killer app that would compel people to buy the G1 just to use that.

[bearbear]

oh it wasn't ??? i thought it's a standard feature for all modern phones (s60, wm or iPhone), i've never used any phones without this feature....... o well.......my bad then.

[Keith]

3. in contacts, favorite tab would display names that weren't supposed to be there and they would disappear later - PROBLEM STILL HERE

This is actually an intended feature and won't go away. Recently contacted people will appear at the bottom of the favoriates list, afer the starred contacts.

[ghoonk]

Windows mobile and series 60 by default do not offer the ability to view PDF files natively, and rely on 3rd party developers such as adobe to develop the viewers. Another example is quickoffice on the s60 devices that allow users to view MS office documents - it's not an app created by nokia oor the symbian foundation.

I guess it's a matter of time before someone comes up with a PDF viewer, but I do agree that this is a feature I found useful on my n800, e61, and e51

[ghoonk]

Windows mobile and series 60 by default do not offer the ability to view PDF files natively, and rely on 3rd party developers such as adobe to develop the viewers. Another example is quickoffice on the s60 devices that allow users to view MS office documents - it's not an app created by nokia oor the symbian foundation.

I guess it's a matter of time before someone comes up with a PDF viewer, but I do agree that this is a feature I found useful on my n800, e61, and e51

[bearbear]

This is actually an intended feature and won't go away. Recently contacted people will appear at the bottom of the favoriates list, afer the starred contacts.

that means my favourites list will be just as long as my contatcts list eventually ? WTF again ?????????????

[bearbear]

Windows mobile and series 60 by default do not offer the ability to view PDF files natively, and rely on 3rd party developers such as adobe to develop the viewers. Another example is quickoffice on the s60 devices that allow users to view MS office documents - it's not an app created by nokia oor the symbian foundation.

I guess it's a matter of time before someone comes up with a PDF viewer, but I do agree that this is a feature I found useful on my n800, e61, and e51

Thanks. :D

[Krak]

its looking like the phone has a wide variety of problems, and alot of people say wait it out and things will get fixed, which is prolly true, but.... its a huge problem when your paying monthly fee's, and signed into a 2 year contract to hafta sit there and suffer for things that shoulda been done right from the start...
________
Free Themes (http://themesfree.org)

[ghoonk]

that means my favourites list will be just as long as my contatcts list eventually ? WTF again ?????????????


I suspect that the list you speak of are the Starred Contacts, along with Recently Contacted, which gives you an option to add them to your Favourites list. I'm not sure what logic the application is using, but I might find some time over the weekend to look into it.

[bearbear]

yes starred = favourites

[bearbear]

RC30

1. installed anycut and i placed a shortcut on the home screen to change the display font setting, small is my favourite but it always went back to medium which is the default setting, and i hate to change that 10 times a day. - PROBLEM STILL HERE AND WHEN IS RC 40 COMING OUT ?????

2. battery can only last 1 day max - PROBLEM STILL HERE AND I HOPE THE THING CAN USE AAA BATTERIES


3. in contacts, favorite tab would display names that weren't supposed to be there and they would disappear later - PROBLEM STILL HERE AND THEY DIDN'T DISAPPER ANYMORE WHICH MEANS HAVING A FXXXING LONG FAVOURITES (STARRED) LIST

4. no msn, im+ is about to expire and i'm not paying them $20 & meebo only showing email address on my contact list instead of friends' names - MEEBO IS STILL SHOWING EMAIL ADDRESSES ONLY, NO NICKNAME, WON'T REMEMBER LOGIN ID / PASSWORD, LOGS OFF AUTOMATICALLY, NEVER KNOW IF U'RE ONLINE OR OFFLINE.........


5. wouldn't display pdf files - PROBLEM STILL HERE


6. most of the softwares in android market are useless - ONLY ANY CUT IS WORTH DOWNLOADING, IT DEFINITELY NEEDS SOME SERIOUS QUALITY CONTROL ON APPS BEING OFFERED.

[ghoonk]

Just sell the damn phone already!

Jeezus, the only real problem you listed is (1)

(2) I'm easily getting 1 day with moderate use. It's not as long lasting as a Nokia, but I use it a lot more than my Nokia and the online experience beats a Nokia (even the N800 Internet Tablet) hands-down. If you think that your battery is defective, get T-Mo to replace it. Or did you buy it off the grey market? If so, then you took a risk, so suck it up -- no one put a gun to your head and made you buy it.

(3) That's how it's supposed to work. People you have recently contacted get listed below your Starred Contacts, so you can see who you contact and can add them to your Favourites list. Think of your address book as a superset of the Favourites -- I have over 1500 contacts, and I really only contact around 100 in a year, so Favourites allows me to scroll though the list of people I contact frequently, and 'starring' them simply keeps them on the list even if I don't contact them for awhile, or if I want to keep them at the top of the list.

(4) You're not using this on a T-Mo network, right? If you bought your phone from T-Mo and are on their G1 plan, chances are you wouldn't be complaining about this.

(5) Was never a feature in the first place. Stop complaining about a feature that you FEEL it should have. You don't buy a Ferrari, then complain that it's ****e off-road and it should have a lift kit, tall tires, foglights, etc.

(6) 3rd party apps are a fucntion of demand and supply. Android Market is simply a platform that Google hosts for developers to get on board and meet perceived demand with their apps (supply). Google doesn't own 3rd party developers, so clearly, if there's an app that you really want, either

a. comission a developer to develop it for you (and you can bring it to market commercially if you think it's that useful, and let the people decide), or

b. wait for someone to come up with it (assuming someone else out there thinks it's a good idea and invests some time in putting an app together

As for quality control on apps being developed, nothing's perfect. You want something better? Switch to the iPhone, where you get to be Steve Job's b**ch, and he gets to tell you what you can or cannot install on your iPhone. Jailbreak it so you can run apps that are not offered via iTunes? Sure, there's only a chance that your iPhone will be bricked on the next firmware release. If you're into the sort of lifestyle of jailbreaking an iPhone, installing your apps, then having to un-jailbreak it so you can update the next release, or wait for the next jailbroken firmware, that's fine, so play in the Apple sandbox.

If you don't like your G1, just sell the damn thing and go buy an iPhone or something. Coming into the forum and shouting (i.e. posting in caps) doesn't lend you any credibility or respect.

What do you expect Google to do? Buy 3rd party developers? Tell them what to do? Offer you a bigger battery? If you regret having the G1, get rid of it and find something that makes you happier. Clearly, the G1 isn't for you.

[Krak]

new phone or not, it should have all basic functional programs and options that just about every single phone including phones under it have had for quite some time...espically with as hard as tmobile is pushing this phone theres no excuse for that...
________
Drifter (http://www.dodge-wiki.com/wiki/Chrysler_Drifter)

[ghoonk]

Define your opinion of 'basic functionality' against what is advertised against the phone, please.

[bearbear]

not sure how many phones you've had in the past and i think i've had more than enough phones to make my points.

(2) I'm easily getting 1 day with moderate use. It's not as long lasting as a Nokia, but I use it a lot more than my Nokia and the online experience beats a Nokia (even the N800 Internet Tablet) hands-down. If you think that your battery is defective, get T-Mo to replace it. Or did you buy it off the grey market? If so, then you took a risk, so suck it up -- no one put a gun to your head and made you buy it.

if it's even as long lasting as it claims, i wouldn't be bitching here but it's not even close when you're actually using it.

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


(3) That's how it's supposed to work. People you have recently contacted get listed below your Starred Contacts, so you can see who you contact and can add them to your Favourites list. Think of your address book as a superset of the Favourites -- I have over 1500 contacts, and I really only contact around 100 in a year, so Favourites allows me to scroll though the list of people I contact frequently, and 'starring' them simply keeps them on the list even if I don't contact them for awhile, or if I want to keep them at the top of the list.

people i have recently contacted get listed on call log already....if the G1 must list them on favourites, fine but at least we should have an option to remove them i think.

(4) You're not using this on a T-Mo network, right? If you bought your phone from T-Mo and are on their G1 plan, chances are you wouldn't be complaining about this.

do you use meebo? can you see the nicknames ?

(5) Was never a feature in the first place. Stop complaining about a feature that you FEEL it should have. You don't buy a Ferrari, then complain that it's ****e off-road and it should have a lift kit, tall tires, foglights, etc.

webiste didn't say the G1 comes with unwanted contacts auto store function either...do you really read everything on htc website and actually believe all the info they listed ? maybe they forgot to list ? haha....take it easy...

(6) 3rd party apps are a fucntion of demand and supply. Android Market is simply a platform that Google hosts for developers to get on board and meet perceived demand with their apps (supply). Google doesn't own 3rd party developers, so clearly, if there's an app that you really want, either

a. comission a developer to develop it for you (and you can bring it to market commercially if you think it's that useful, and let the people decide), or

b. wait for someone to come up with it (assuming someone else out there thinks it's a good idea and invests some time in putting an app together

i bought apps when i had my iPhone or 10+ windows mobile phones....but i couldn't find anything at all that i'd spend a dime on at the android market.

get an iPhone or even a entry level WM phone and test them for 2 wks and let me know your thoughts....i'm not expecting the G1 to be either of them but at least do what a modern pda phone should do.....i didn't expect the G1 can fly but no outlook sync ? come on.......

As for quality control on apps being developed, nothing's perfect. You want something better? Switch to the iPhone, where you get to be Steve Job's b**ch, and he gets to tell you what you can or cannot install on your iPhone. Jailbreak it so you can run apps that are not offered via iTunes? Sure, there's only a chance that your iPhone will be bricked on the next firmware release. If you're into the sort of lifestyle of jailbreaking an iPhone, installing your apps, then having to un-jailbreak it so you can update the next release, or wait for the next jailbroken firmware, that's fine, so play in the Apple sandbox.

been there done that, and i think iPhone app store is doing really well and again, if you havent' tried it, i can't tell you how much better it is compared to android market and i've never jailbreak my iPhone.

If you don't like your G1, just sell the damn thing and go buy an iPhone or something. Coming into the forum and shouting (i.e. posting in caps) doesn't lend you any credibility or respect.

i'm not here to make friends, i'm just telling others how i dislike the G1, you got a problem with that ? simply ignore my thread then :p

What do you expect Google to do? Buy 3rd party developers? Tell them what to do? Offer you a bigger battery? If you regret having the G1, get rid of it and find something that makes you happier. Clearly, the G1 isn't for you.

exactly (at least for now)

[ghoonk]

Okay, here's my experience with handheld platforms:

Original Apple Newton MessagePad (OMP/MP100)
Messagepad 130
MessagePad 2000
MessagePad 2100
PalmPilot
Palm III
Palm IIIe
Palm IIIx
Palm V
Treo 270
Philips Nino (Windows CE)
iPAQ 3950 (PocketPC)
iPAQ 3970 (PocketPC)
Psion (EPOC)
HTC Touch (Windows Mobile)
various versions of Nokia's Series60 - Nokia 7650, E61, E70, E51, E50
Nokia Series 90 devices (Nokia 9300, 9500 and E90 communicators)
Nokia's Series 80 devices (Nokia 7700)
Nokia's Maemo Internet Tablet Platform (Nokia N800)
Sony Ericsson's UIQ (P800, P900, P990i)
Sony Ericsson K750i, K800i, and a lot of Series 40 Nokias.


Battery life -- honestly, these a pretty much theoretical stats, assuming that the network is consistent and coverage/signal strength is good. In an area where you frequently switch between 2G and 3G networks, battery life takes a huge pounding. I'm work in the telco business and that's an unfortunate truth. I've yet to see a mainstream handset manufacturer that actually lives up to their claims on battery life, and usually take 30% off in real-world conditions.

Favourites : Fair enough, users should get the option to remove them from the list. I concede that point, but let's keep in mind that things can only get better, and if enough people provide constructive and objective feedback (as opposed to rants).

Ultimately, it all boils down to simple resourcing and demands. If most people in the world are asking for Feature A and few are asking for the ability to remove Unstarred names from Contacts, then it's clear where they will be focusing their resources on.

Meebo and IM : I'm just as cheesed off as you are that the WLM and YM clients only work over mobile data on T-Mo's network, but there's nothing I can do about it since I got that spec off the T-Mo G1 site, and if that app is tied in to T-Mo, it's a failed risk I took buying it off the grey market for use on a non-T-Mo network. WLM and YM work fine on WiFi networks, so I guess there's some consolation there.

Android Market & Apps : The phone and supporting network services have been out for what, 1 month? Give it time. Apple's iTunes App Store too time to build up as well, and honestly, it's a larger market. App developers who build good apps aren't in it for charity, they're in it for financial returns (more often than not). If you were an application developer and had 200 hours to develop an app, would you choose to develop and sell it to the larger installed user base of iPhone users or the new and upcoming user base of G1 users? It all boils down to a business decision, plain and simple.

Meebo isn't working the way I want it to, i.e. not able to display contact nicknames and displaying email address instead. Fring does this on S60 devices as well, as does Pidgin on the Maemo platform, although Pidgin does allow me to manually change the nickname locally. I see this 'feature' as application-dependent, rather than OS-dependent. This being Google's OS, it's not surprising that GoogleTalk IM works fine regardless of the nature of the connection.

Other platforms : Personally, I've stayed away from the iPhone and WinMo devices for quite a number of years. Time and time again, I wander back to try a WinMo device (HTCs) or the iPhone and find myself frustrated after using it for just hours, even minutes in some cases. I went with the G1 over the iPhone because of the latter's ability to multitask and for a physical keyboard. The iPhone's virtual keypad simply does not work for me, but you won't find me going around flaming it for being rubbish. It simply does not work for me, but if it works for someone else, good for them, it's not my place to tell them what should or should not work for them based on my personal opinion. I also went with the G1 because most of the apps on the iTunes App Store did not appeal to me. Nothing's all that great on the Android Store, so that makes it equally as bad in my book, but the G1 is still 2 up over the iPhone in my book for the physical keyboard and the multitasking capabilities. I also prefer the way notifications come up on the G1/Android, as opposed to how it works on the iPhone, so it boils down to a matter of preference. As such, I'd argue that the iPhone appears to be a device more suited to your needs than mine, so why would you want to get a G1 and get all aggravated about what it can't do, rather than head back into the happy world of the iPhone (which you've agreed)

On a side note, I sense a lot of aggression from you -- if this really the way to behave? "You got a problem with that?" -- is that really how civillied people behave? Let's have a constructive debate here -- it was never personal from my end, and never will be, so some civility would be appreciated, or at least called for here. You don't have to be a friend to be civil to someone.

If my response was somewhat stronger in my earlier post, it was because of your original response in caps. If I've taken that wrongly, I do apologize :)

[bearbear]

fair enough and i'm happy to see another phone lover, i apologize for using caps in my earlier posts.:D

i've also used a numbered of different phones and my expectations for phones are somewhat higher than others.

i played with my friend's G1 for 10min and i loved it

os speed (faster than my htc touch pro, about the same as the iPhone)
browsing speed 3G (fastest by far and that's what attracted me most)
picture loading speed (acceptable)
wifi connection (about the same as the other 2)
trackball
qwerty keyboard
big screen (iphone better)
ok voice call quality & signal strength
camera (better than nothing)

my first impression of the phone was simply awesome (also had HTC Touch Pro & 3G iPhone) and then nightmaire began...

no outlook sync, all of my previous/current phones sync'd with outlook and for the G1, i had to export everything to gmail / gcalender and that was such a pain...

poor battery, we have excellent 3G here and i spent about 20min browsing the web everyday during my journey to work and by the time i arrived,20% gone already......that's totally acceptable for a phone i just charged 10 hrs overnight. (iPhone nor Touch Pro had this problem)

keyboard keys are hard to press compared to Touch Pro but of coz still better than nothing and i guess it takes time to get used to so i'm not complaining.

msn/wlm - this is really something G1 needs to do better ....... iPhone can't multitask so i use beejive (better than nothing), Touch Pro's msn is simply awesome and i only use msn/wlm (no YM or AIM) and it's really pissing me off there isnt' a decent msn for the G1 even before it's launched, i could live with IM+ but it's 20 dollars...no thanks.

games - i don't download games for my WM phones but i did with my iPhone, the Pool or Texas holdem are so good that i spent so much time playing...i think i spent over 50bux downloading apps / games from app store and i think it's worth it.

android store vs app store - apps are no comparison and you've explained why...but even the comments, i've never seen so many negative comments for almost every app and i'm not blaming the reviewers because most of the app really sucked.........something is not right and needs to be looked into...i see all the happy comments from app store for iPhone and that really means something and i loved browsing what's new there....i think the last app i bought from app store was toy camera, you need to try it, it's sooooooo good.

there's no app store for wm phones but all the spb products or utility apps were so great that i dun mind paying 10 or even 20 bux for them and use them happily

anyway, i hope google ppl are reading this and willing to help me keep my phone or i'll let it go & get the SE X1.:)

[ghoonk]

I hear you on all counts. It would be good if:

1. battery life could be improved by another 20%. That said, having used the HTC Touch, I used to get around 1 day of use out of that device if I was online most of the time. Leaving MSN Messenger running in the background alone would reduce battery life to 8 hours at best. On hindsight, my Newton MP2100 used to get a day of use from retrieving emails, and that was a device back in 1997, with a grayscale screen running off NiMH batteries.

2. Being in a corporate environment and using my Nokia E51 with the Mail for Exchange client over my 3G , I got a day and a half of battery life, but I was regularly on my mail. Having an Exchange client in the office gave me better turnaround on my work, but not having one has improved my after-hours life - I can deal with issues the next day. More of a factor of how i run my life rather than the device itself, but I concur that an Exchange client would be really useful. That said, since the G1 was designed/ targeted at consumers themselves and not Enterprise users, I can understand (though not necessarily appreciate not having) the omission of an Exchange client.

3. Keyboard can be better, I agree, but it sure beats the iPhone's virtual keyboard (however intelligent it might be) and I am NOT getting near another iPhone -- I'm likely to hurl it into the nearest wall. :P

4. No comment on games since I stopped playing them -- kills my battery life way too quickly. Used to love Insaniquarium on the PocketPCs though ;)

On the matter of the iPhone, I am also peeved at how it all ties in to my specific iTunes installation on my notebook. I bought my wife an iPod Touch and an Acer Aspire One, and just last month, I spent a couple of hours searching for an app that would get her music off the iPod Touch onto the new subnotebook, then having to resync that same music back into the iPod Touch. Her notebook just died on her again, and she had to take it to the shop for a fresh Windows install, so you can imagine how annoyed i am now about having to redo that all over again. With the G1, it's just a folder on my device, as it would be on a USB thumbdrive. No iTunes BS to deal with, just copy and paste music to and from the device, or just use Windows Media Player to sync the music over. So easy, no hassle.

Try the X1, but don't get your hopes up. I've tried a demo set (I work in telecommunications) and was disappointed.

[Frank613]

Like any new smartphone that comes out thier are many bugs and kinks that have to get worked out give it some time and most problems will be fixed. It would be lovely for a new smartphone to come out and be perfect ,no kinks or bugs, but really wake up and smell the coffee its not going to happen....................

[ghoonk]

I just think it's unrealistic to expect any device to be excellent at everything. If anything, the G1 is excellent at extending key Google services such as Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Gears (working with Remember The Milk for offline Task management - we sure could do with an Android app for this), calendar and contacts onto a mobile platform, and while the hardware offers potential for many other functions.

Take for example, buying a Lamborghini Gallardo. it's good at some things -- being fast in a straight line, or on a circuit, but to expect it to be good off-road, autocross and still have cupholders with anti-spill capabilities, best GPS navigation system in the world, etc etc, one may find some features to be mutually exclusive.

As it were, just the current suite of apps alone encourages so much interaction in the course of a day (I've got YouTube, mail, messaging and the browser to catch up on videos, news, friends, etc) that battery life is perceived to be pretty bad. Imagine having more interesting apps -- what would THAT do to battery life? I'd use it so much in the day that it would need a Mr Fusion powerplant to power it for a day of use :D

[Krak]

Define your opinion of 'basic functionality' against what is advertised against the phone, please.


Things that other phones have, that work almost flawlessly, or at least to a degree where you can use it, Now the storage problem..i can see that not being fixed by launch, although it should have been.. but when you got aim apps, and message notification messing up even after launch.. yet its one of the promoted features of the phone, which those features are on just about every phone these days even cheap ones, and aim itself has been around for 11 years now... its not like its some brand new concept... theres several things on this phone that could have and should have been recognized and fixed before launch... Its one of the problems thats holding me back from buying the phone...The storage problem, The battery, (even though i think they should have beta'd this phone way more and fixed those) i can understand...

And no one can say that its not a pushed feature of the phone, or you should wait for a 3rd party, its clearly not only a listed feature of the phone, but its also a listed part of the data plan, its a major factor you hafta think of when purchasing which txting portion of that data plan you want...

im just sayin..theres some unexcusable things wrong with this phone, and theres some that are understandable..Im not bashing android as a whole, i know what its capable of and i know what its gonna grow into, but them launching the phone when they did, with the problem it has... is gonna turn alot of people away... if they dont fix the simple stuff soon, i might just end up going and looking at the bb storm even though i really want a g1 and android
________
Ford Eifel History (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Ford_Eifel)

[ghoonk]

You're not being specific here. Personally, I don't care for storage on card. I have that on my N800 and it's just a PITA when the card crashes, or when the device crashes while the swap file is in use. I've lost countless files that way, and have had enough.

AIM and other IM services other than GoogleTalk is related to the G1 being a T-Mo device. If you're not on T-Mo, then tough. I'm not, so I have to suck it up, knowing that this feature was a T-Mo special, not an Android issue. As much as I do use WLM extensively, I've switched to Gtalk, and frankly, the way I use WLM, my battery life wouldn't last half a day. Plus, WLM doesn't allow for logins from multiple IPs, and it's annoying to say the least when I keep getting logged out when my home systems log me back in. Gtalk, on the other hand, allows logging in from multiple IPs, something that works for me.

On notifications, I'm getting them fine. How is yours not working? If this is about alarms not going off, there's been extensive discussion about this and no one has been able to consistently recreate the problem, and it could be caused by a 3rd party app for all we know.

I feel your frustration, but if you look at things historically, all first gen devices have had their share of issues:

1. Apple MessagePad (OMP) - remember handwriting recognition? Remember the abysmal battery lifes?

2. PalmPilot - remember how you dreaded turning on the PP, only to be greeted by the Palm logo? That means your device just hard resetted itself. Not funny when you're on the go, and all your data just disappeared. This was still a problem in the III, IIIe, IIIx, V and Treo 270.

3. Casio E10 running Windows CE 1.0 - Don't even get me started here. That, my friend, was a complete POS. And at USD399 then, it wasn't funny.

4. Nokia 7650, first gen Symbian60 device - WTF, crippled BT? I even had a 7200, and while that looked good, it creaked like an old door, and whenever I typed in 'Starbucks' with T9 on, it would reboot. Oh joy.

[ghoonk]

Oh, and I've tried the Storm as well (I work for a telco). Don't get me started. *shakes head*

Of all the BBs I've tried, the Bold gets my vote, but the battery life is as good as my G1's. I'd suggest you try a Storm before making the switch. It's not as intuitive as I'd hoped, yet with the G1, I practically mastered it in under 24 hours.

I've tried the HTC Touch Pro, and it's appalling that after all these years, the UI still wastes so much of the precious real estate. WinMo is still stylus-based, as is the new Symbian 60 v5 (used on the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music phone, and will be used on the N97 as well). Good if you like stylii, but after using the G1, I'm not going back to using a stylus, thank you very much :)

As for the iPhone, I would have bought one, but

a. I hate managing my music and videos using iTunes.
b. I can only sync with ONE computer. 3rd party software will solve that problem? WHY WHY WHY? *slaps forehead*
c. no cut and paste
d. the virtual keyboard is a PITA to use. Intelligent yes, but I could never get it to work the way I wanted it to work. I have big thumbs. And I hate virtual keyboards for entering lots of text. If they introduce a VK on the G1, I can use it for short messages, but at least i have the option of using the physical keyboard for more verbose input.
e. Apple decides what apps go into the iTunes App Store. Don't like Safari? Tough, suck it up and move on.

I don't LOVE my G1, but it works the way I need a smartphone to work. Many people assume that it *should* do this and that, even though nothing's been promised. They take a gamble, and they lose, then they blame Google, HTC, FCC, and everyone but themselves. You're not like that, but I have seen many people here who complain about the absence of PDF support, Exchange support, MS Office document support, Flash support, etc.

[bearbear]

ghoonk, mind sharing your experience with x1, touch pro, HD & asus p565 ?
sold the G1, back to the iPhone :)

[ghoonk]

Sure. Note that these are my opinions, and do not reflect that of my employer :)

The X1 is a sleek piece of kit. Lovely to look at, weighs perfectly in hand. The screen has a nice tilt angle, but people who complain that the G1's keyboard is too flush should look elsewhere. If anything, my idea of a really good keyboard on such a device would be what I used to have on the HP LX620. I could touch-type on that one, and nothing since, not even the Psion 3c. The Panels are a nice touch, though I still think that they are nothing more than a distraction from what is truly not designed to be one of the worst OS UIs in the history of handheld computing, i.e WinMo. I feel the same way about TouchFlo 3D. It's all fine and fun on the surface and most people won't notice it for simple lookups, but once you have to enter data, it pretty much takes you back to WinMo, for better or for worse. This is where I stress once again that WinMo's design as a stylus-based UI becomes clear. It's clearly not designed for finger-selection or navigation (having a resistive touchscreen doesn't help), so this works ideally for people who are comfortable using their fingernail, or a stylus of some kind. This is really what differentiates WinMo (even with TouchFlo 3D) from the iPhone and G1.

I won't go further than that, since many of you have already experienced WinMo -- some people love it, others hate it. Most people love WinMo and Palm for the variety of 3rd party software available, but to me, many PIM apps are nothing more than band-aids for what is fundamentally flawed to begin with. I subscribe to the belief that many 'modern' and 'evolved' smartphone operating systems suffer from trying too hard and becoming what a smartphone OS should be - light, sleek, simple.

Screen
The screen of the Touch Pro pretty much feels similar in size to that on the X1. Note that this is an impression since I do not have both devices on me not to do an actual comparison, nor can I honestly be bothered to look up specifications online. Remember how people looked at the iPhone's big screen and gushed about what a breath of fresh air it was to have such real estate? The G1's screen looks generous compared to the X1's and Touch Pro's. The HD, on the other hand, is one big-ass piece of kit. Imagine the original HTC Touch. Now imagine it 20% bigger. That's pretty much what the HD is - big, bright, vivid, and one power-hungry mother of a ****.

Keyboard
The X1 and Touch Pro have keyboards that are pretty flush with the body, giving it the same feel as the G1's, for better or for worse. However, both suffer from the screen not sliding up far enough, such that the top row of keys are unnatural to press for people with large hands and fat fingers like mine.

Pocketability
The X1 and the Touch Pro are pretty close in size and fit a pocket comfortably, being smaller than the G1. The HD, on the other hand, is just BIG. It's like walking around with an archos 500 in your pocket, just thinner and lighter. Fine for some, but it's just too big for my taste. None of these, G1 and iPhone included, are phones that I would put in my back pocket, due to the fragility of the screens.

Battery Life
I'd go as far as to say that on 2G, the X1 and Touch Pro devices seem to offer better battery life compared to the G1 where standby time is concerned. However, with 3G data usage, battery life is significantly compromised, to the point where it's really not that much better than the G1. I just got off the phone from a call lasting 1 hour and 19 minutes on my G1, and battery life dropped from 100% to 82%. I'd say that's not too shabby, considering that the G1 has been under heavy crititism for having poor battery life. The HD seems to offer significantly better battery life over the others, probably due to the massive battery that it uses.

Video playback
Here's the cincher: WMP prefers WMV and seems to play back AVI fine. DivX requires a 3rd party application, and seems to take a bigger toll on battery life. Some people argue that WinMo has hardware acceleration. I'm not technical nor can I be arsed to go online and read up now, but I'd say this: DesignDawg was right. The iPhone's UI is quick, and followed closely by the G1. WinMo devices still seem laggy and if they are already enjoying the benefits of hardware acceleration, I'd blame the OS for being pig-heavy.

I'm off to get some dinner now, but if there are any areas that you guys want me to share my impressions on, just post it up and I'll do my best to reply.

On a final note, I'd like to say that I prefer the Touch Pro over the Xperia. Don't know why, but the Xperia just feels too narrow. The HD isn't even on my 'gotta-have' list, simply for being too damn big for me. I still prefer the G1 at the moment, though I just saw how someone post something about the G1 not working for him because it doesn't support one-handed input, and how it doesn't have proper video playback.

*facepalm*

To everyone who's complaining about:

1. no Flash
2. no support for Exchange
3. no support for MS Office / OpenOffice document read/edit
4. no virtual keyboard
5. no video playback except for MP4 files

I say this: For ****'s sake, the G1's been out, what, 6 weeks? Give it some time, damn it! As for (5), I have the same problem with the iPhone/iPod Touch/ iPod -- DivX won't play. SO WHAT? As if the G1 was designed to be a proper media player anyway.

*shakes head*

[juice]

7. on home page, if you type a word in the "search box", it'd bring you to google search page and you'd have to retype the subject you wanted to seach, that's so stupid.

Yeah, that is pretty stupid.


8. awkward to use right thumb to reach the spacebar on keyboard (hope i'll get used to it)

wtf? :confused:
Usually both thumbs rest on the spacebar. At least with a fullsized keyboard. Even still, the keyboard is small enough so it shouldn't be awkward...and you can use your left thumb you know. Unless it's been amputated.

[ghoonk]

Sorry guys, but I just entered a keyword into the Search widget and the browser opened up, and returned Google search results.

I've just done the test, sorry that my K800i camera isn't very good, but you can see me tap on the search widget on the Home screen, enter some text, and you can see the browser open up, and it loads up Google results of the keyword ("Scotty Cameron")

YouTube - No error in G1 search box to browser search results

Sorry about the quality though. The K800i camera isn't very good :P