Video: Android walkthrough on T-Mobile G1
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Sep 23rd 2008 11:33AM
posted Sep 23rd 2008 11:33AM
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Copy and paste.
Any chance I can 'long press' and delete the entire user interface? Talk about fugly and dated.
Who needs Copy and Paste when the user interface nightmare is such a nightmare. Android
desperately needs some UI guidelines.
- Nothing is standardized. Not even the basics like contact list and
calendar.
- Multiple clicks to work the simplest of apps?
- Icons in a launch bar and on your desktop? why? Keep it simple and
pick a place for them.
- Some of those apps honestly look like crap. The music player alone
makes me feel like I'm in 1992.
- It has YouTube but no stand alone video player for movies or
podcast? oh yeah who cares since it only has 1GB of built in memory.
It's cool that its open source but come on Google at least show that
you care and put some thought into how people will actually have to
use the thing.
The difference between a nerd and a hipster.
"Nothing is standardized. Not even the basics like contact list and
calendar. "
are you kidding? its all synced to google which is telling you that its going to all be well formatted xml and vcards ect.
"the music player is ugly"
.... does it play music? does it make it easy to find what you want to play and search... yes? well then so what.
"podcast? oh yeah who cares since it only has 1GB of built in memory."
so add a 16GiG memory card!
"Icons in a launch bar and on your desktop? why? Keep it simple and
pick a place for them. "
Are you kidding? It works just like a computer, you can set up your most used stuff elegantly organized on the desktop, but you've got the Start Menu handy with a list of everything installed on your device. iPhone, Palm, and Blackberry all take the approach of throwing every single program on your phone into a big grid, forcing you to scroll through everything you have every time you launch something. I'd much prefer to take the stuff I use every day and put it front and center on the desktop, while still retaining quick access to everything else for when I do need it.
Copy and paste you say?
sure thats the phrase you want to use mr iphone fan?
@Andrew
You can customize Android - don't like the music player? There's probably already another one developed..or will be. That's the great thing about open source..if you don't like the way it is by default, you can change it.
@Andrew: "Any chance I can 'long press' and delete the entire user interface? Talk about fugly and dated."
Actually, yes. Android gives every element in the OS the ability to be superseded by another application you install. You can replace the music player, contacts, phone, even the general UI. Your list of ways in which it is different from the iPhone, while somewhat comprehensive, doesn't exactly read like a list of "flaws" to me. You don't like creating shortcuts, but would rather flip through a list of the dozens of apps on your device? That's cool. Some of us do. If you don't wanna use it, don't use it. If you think you can do better, go grab the Android SDK and get cracking! The beauty of an open-source device like this is that you could change everything and anything about it, and Google (or T-Mobile) will never pull down your app for improving their device. Isn't that neat?
In true, open-source form, "Put up or shut up."
If you decide to go the "put up" route, may I recommend "Hello, Android" from the Pragmatic Press. It is quite comprehensive and written at a very approachable level. Plus it is written around the use of Eclipse, which is virtually identical between mac, windows, and Linux versions.
For an "avid" cyclist, you'd think he can afford a better bike than one with entry-level Shimano Sora gruppo. I guess Google just don't pay lead product managers as well as they used to.
"You can customize Android - don't like the music player? There's probably already another one developed..or will be. That's the great thing about open source..if you don't like the way it is by default, you can change it."
can you say Amarok!!! Wow! That alone would make me fall in love with this thing all over again!! That compass street view thing rox my sox!!
One other quick note... If they could port that palm video/space invader game...WIN
It could certainly use some ergonomics refactoring, but I don't think the interface is too bad. The primary problem I see that cuts across pretty much the whole system is the lack of software optimization. The whole interface is "choppy" and "laggy" - with a long delay to respond to your input. This problem is noticeable worse in the web browser. Check out the first Engadget video where the guy has an iPhone next to the G1, and zooms and pans around a webpage in each. The iPhone browser is much more fluid and smooth during panning and especially trying to zoom into small text columns to read.
I really hope Android succeeds over the long term, but it just isn't ready to go yet. They should have held this back another 3-4 months and worked on optimizing the platform. The iPhone was certainly not perfect at launch, and I don't think anyone is expecting that, but for all the initial bugs and crashes of the iPhone OS, at least it was optimized for performance and didn't show this screen lag and input problems.
So you sync through the web, which is accessible on any system, any OS, anywhere.
so no the 32gb sd cards supported?
Yeah, I really wish someone would release a phone that supported 16 or more gigs of music. then I could just chuck my ipod.
Also, syncing with itunes would help.
@ Grammar Freak
Ever heard of the iphone? 16gb. Music player & video integrated. You've already sold your soul to Apple from your iPod reference, go worship with the rest of the iJesus fanatics.
And STILL no "Get it first" active on the site !
Full contact, email, calendar integration between PC and phone is ridiculously awesome. I see GoogleTalk becoming a lot more popular now too.
"Full contact, email, calendar integration between PC and phone is ridiculously awesome."
Um, haven't smart phones (and even some non-smart phones) been doing this for years???
I guess Outlook sync can do it, but that requires more software and has to be on your home PC. This is contacts ANYWHERE.
window live messenger contacts do this with no extra software. I have my live contacts on my phone, anywhere I log into wlm, at work, on my pc in the contacts folder (vista) etc. So its not really new. You don't need outlook.
Still, I am liking android. But I'm staying with windows mobile until its more mature. I dont really get the winmo hate. I'm new (4 weeks about) to winmo, but i love it. I have so many apps and have it configured exactly as i want it. And it freezes very rarely, and is east to reset without data loss. It only has frozen when I was doing nerdy stuff. It replaces a laptop for almost everything id use a laptop on the go for. I'm sure Android will do that too though.
Yeah, except its useless to about anyone that works in business. Its integration between google and the phone, not phone and your PC. No one personally I know uses gmail soley for their day to day activities, let anyone any business. Having to import and export contacts just sucks.
Ah I see. I gave up on hotmail and live long ago when they refused to offer forwarding of mail to other accounts and stripped much of the email content on mail coming from gmail senders. Seemed childish. A last ditch effort to keep people with them forced me out even faster. I will just live with Google now until they become evil, and I'm constantly reformatting my PC and re-flashing my phone to find a faster WinMo setup.. so an Outlook sync is just not practical for me, nor WinMo i guess. To each their own
Actually you can sync everything on a WinMo phone over the air. You just need an exchange server and a data plan (And there are free exchange servers such as mail2web).
@ Greg
You seem to be forgetting their google apps for enterprise. Now how slick of an end-to-end solution is that for your company? Google handles all your work email, calendaring, IM, etc.
Now issue each employee a G1 and they all have instant access to all of works programs. Hmm ... who needs to sync to their PC?
Just a thought.
I'm currently an iPhone user but have been quite eager about google's android (more from a dev. perspective though, as I'm a Java program by nature ;) )
I don't use hotmail either. Or live mail. I use gmail. (which winmo works well with, I get my emails direct to my phone all the time).
However, I use windows live messenger (create a passport linked to gmail to let you use gmail with wlm) to talk to my best friends and family, and being able to im them on the go is great. If they update their contact details, I get the new info on my phone. I use outlook and vista contacts (vista contacts is synced by wlm, but you dont HAVE to use wlm) to sync to my phone. Try xda forums for ways to make a hard reset winmo phone get the settings you want automatically. Windows mobile device centre seems very easy and fast to me, and practical. But as you say, to each their own. I'm a very happy winmo customer.
@kinezo
good point, I forgot about google enterprise solutions and yeah the integration would be nice. However, I still think the G1 needs a desktop sync application as the majority of the world and especially business operates on exchange/outlook with some unix mail servers mixed in. I just think lacking this feature is a major hindrance on the phone becoming popular and definitely stopping me from picking it up. I love the idea of open source and being able to develop for it easily (being a developer myself), but at the end of the day it still needs a solid core of functionality.
However, if there was a desktop application that could sync your PC (outlook) to google, that might not be so bad.
@DssTrainer @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:01PM
"I will just live with Google now until they become evil."
Don't worry, that won't be too long. All the evil corporate execs from MS will just go to Google if that is where the money will be.
@Jiggs. Which winmo phone do you have, and what do you mean by "hard reset winmo phone to get the settings you want automatically"??
Usually when you install a fresh upgrade... either a custom rom or the one from your carrier (like a WinMo 6.1 upgrade), the phone is at its pristine install status. But its one of those quirks where some things still don't work right. So even tho it is a fresh install, it is usually best to do another Hard reset. Obviously this shouldn't matter, but its one of those phenomenons that seems to work.
Ugly hardware. Ugly software. Disappointing. Wow.
Not that we expected software greatness from Google (originator of the Eternal Beta), but I had some hopes.
Is Google going the route of Microsoft by overreaching? Seems so.
wow. youre an idiot.
when has google ever focused on making software look pretty. who gives a rats ass if it looks good if the os is broken, locked down, and lacks features. i would take ugly and functional any day of the week. plus its google, people are going to be making skins for it left and right.
@ riggs:
I second that
Eye of the beholder my friend.
"youre an idiot." - Riggs
Case closed.
are you crazy? it does every thing it needs to do and more. android is amazing and just keeps stepping up the game i wonder if anyone will be able to catch them in features any time soon. i have no problem with the design and THANK GOD for a keyboard and copy/paste too bad apple cant even figure out the basics. but ya know as for the looks im not looking for a fashion accessory or something pretty to hang on my hip, I'm looking for a nice piece of hardware that i can actually make do what i want without having to hack it or hope the company wont pull useful apps from the store 2 months from now....
How's that dated, locked iPhone working out for you?
Welcome to the next generation of OS's that acutally work and aren't locked down by some overbearing, megalomaniac CEO.
Considering that the prettiness was last on their agenda for this release, I think you are just complimenting the product. The software works smoothly, they already have a lot of free apps ready to go for the launch, and the platform is open source.
If you want pretty, you are better off spending your money (or justifying it) with the iphone, but if you want a phone to work the way you want it, you might want to get over the bubbly mac interface.
I think the interface is perfect for a first release, but it's all bells and whistles until regular users get their hands on it. I'll wait for more personal reviews before I add more laurels.
Wow, we must be all idiots for having an opinion...
"Wow, we must be all idiots for having an opinion..." - Curnsie
This is the Engadget comments section. Opinions are perfectly fine, as long as they don't 1) criticize anything from Microsoft, 2) praise anything from Apple, 3) criticize anything from Apple competitors.
If you add "I hate Apple, but..." to any of the above, you might be OK, depending on the mood of the Redmond Horde.
Look at the comment rankings and tell me I'm wrong.
I agree with Quix. No reason to make it ugly - which it seems to be.
Free games and Apps without Jailbreaking
Flash Players!
You Pron, You Tube, Flash Games (Oh wait there is not D-Pad)
maybe you could try the BIG MFing KEYBOARD instead
how about some pricing?
phone: ?179, i think?
data: 25/35
voice: ??? standard tmo voice plans, or what? can this compete with my sero plan?
Does not seem like anything special yet, iPhone still has the lead.
Love the iPhone-esque Demo videos...
iPhone-esque? Is it because it's a camera zoomed in on the screen with some touchscreen action?
I really need a smite key on my keyboard so I can smack some sense into you.
C'mon, black backround + human hand....
...and that first guy with the hand gestures and scripted dialog...
I would roll over and die if I was not dead allready...
black backround and human hand...
are you claiming apple invented that?
are you high?
Anyone else concerned about the fact that you MUST have a gmail account, and it will be associated with all of your activity?
Seems like this is a great way for Google to learn everything about you.
its ok, they allready know what kind of mobile Pron we all like...
they already know all they need to know about you!
Yup -- having to sign up -w- Google is a show-stopper. Having to sign a contract with any cell carrier is bad enough...
And, not being able to sync with one's data on one's own PC is also a show-stopper.
Surely not in the spirit of "open" or "non-proprietary".
Here's to hoping 3rd parties will quickly remedy these serious shortcomings.
Microsoft and Yahoo will be supported (somehow) he said it the live video stream on tmob official site.
Why should I be anymore disturbed by having to sign up with Google, than having to have an iTunes account with Apple to have an iPhone?
It's no worse than having to use iTunes for everything and registering an Apple account.
That is like being concerned T-Mo knows everything about your because they have your phone number.
Welcome to life.
Why does anyone think being required to sign up for a free account is a "show stopper"? Who cares? You dont HAVE to use it.
You don't have to use Googles Apps, they're just provided to give you a complete out-of-the-box solution. The whole point of Android is that you can change every last aspect of the phone. You need to think out of the closed box that is WiMo and OSX; this is the ultimate customizable phone. As Android becomes more common, there will undoubtedly be a number of alternate applications that will allow you to manage your contacts, calendars, etc however you please. Specifically, I would expect to see some Exchange based replacements in the not too distant future.
actually no Im not concerned at all. Gmail is by far the best mail out there and is used by so many people. And if you really don't like using Gmail, then dont. thats the beauty of open source
I can't believe nobody noticed that:
- There was NO MENTION of Enkin, or "Live Mode" on the maps app.... or even as a 3rd party app.
I don't think they finished that yet, it looks it isn't exactly a very easy app to program, esp if they still only have basically 2 people on the team.
Looking at the video it seem their way of snycing is with gmail. That is why you need the account. Seems like a pretty good idea given you can now access your contacts/calendar etc all around the world.
well, does this thing have gps?
a compass?
an accelerometer?
ten again, it did do that google street view turning thingy...
GPS yes, compass no (don't need it with a GPS), accelerometer yes.
Just seems like such a geek phone. All done by developers. Google hire some designers! Very ugly and uncool.
Disappointed...
The IPhone is just in a different league. And I am not an Apple fan boy.
Would that be the league of "we spent alot of money trying to make it pretty but forgot about all of the function"?
yup that would be the one
""mike @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:06PM
Would that be the league of "we spent alot of money trying to make it pretty but forgot about all of the function"?""
Obviously you've never used an iphone.. the apple haters just have no credibility when they take swipes like this that are complete nonsense.
I have hopes for Google and android but the proof will be in the performance. I guarantee there will be things that you or I would term as basic that won't work on this phone out of the box. And guess what, how a device and it's software looks MATTERS to the typical user.
Competition can only be good for consumers so I hope they continue to move forward but If THIS is the final solution, Android will soon go the way of Palm. But it is a good start and if they continue to improve from an interoperability and aesthetic perspective they can definitely catch and pass Apple. But based on what I've seen, they aren't close yet.
fanboy - you've obviously never used any other smart phone if you're seriously trying to suggest the IPhone doesn't seriously lack basic functionality - no copy&paste, no media messaging, and no keyboard - the IPhone is a toy in the smart phone world, it isn't designed for serious professional use. There's nothing wrong with this, it is intended for Joe Six-Pack consumer where shine and style are what matters most.
Android certainly looks better than I was expecting.. Software seems pretty well thought out too, and with all the open source it should grow up into a pretty solid platform.
But, theres always one thing holding this back from the "ideal world" picture they always paint, data cost.
iPhone is king in this department because data is unlimited & included in the (very) expensive contract, but still, its there & its unlimited. if apple lowered there contract costs it would certainly become a brilliant tool.. but for me & many others £35/month (over 18months) for poor text/call allowances & £200 for the device for casual use is just greed gone mad.
and it seems G1 is the same kinda price (well, £20 less, big deal).. open source (owns iphone), but paying £1.50 per mb (i havent checked this number, but thats generally what companys charge) on a phone which has full internet access / youtube / downloads etc is just a money eating machine..... dont get me wrong, you can pay extra for unlimited data on most tarriffs..... but still, not the ideal world there trying to paint.
The phone requires a data plan and both data plans available have unlimited data here Stateside. I dunno how it'll be there. :(
It's $25 for the Unlimited Data/Some Text and $35 for Unlimited Data/Unlimited Text.
How will you update google android on a Phone without no software.
I guess via USB it'll be id'd as a Mass storage device. Probably just drop a .bin in a firmware folder and on a reboot it'll install or something like that.
over the air? via wlan? Don't need sync app for that ...
I just ordered mine from the upgrade section on the my-t-mobile site.
I can't wait!
How about call quality?? There are times when I need that with great voice quality and noise canceling especially when on subway or Metro North. All the other features seem great, but unless it also does great voice when you absolutely have to talk to a client when on the go, forget it.
no game what so ever? why cant they work with linux? why have to be this new java variation? want people to REWRITE everything? totally EVIL style?
also any OFFLINE mode for those ONLINE apps? otherwise good luck doing anything when you dont have signal.
Jesus christ, people weren't this whiny when the iPhone first came out.
The online apps are still there, they just update over the web once you reconnect to whatever cell service you have. They're not running off the web.
they're not being whiny, they're getting defensive
Can someone build something like this and take the damn cellular part out of it?
I don't need a cell...work pays for my Blackberry.
iPod Touch lacks a camera.
hi, I'm an active cyclist...
I must admit I expected more from this platform....
This is frikkin fantastic!....real time syncing with my gmail account would be great since that is my primary account....but this also means that a data connection is needed at almost all times to use these goodies....hmmm
Wow that long click on links menu is what the iPhone/iTouch needs
If Verizon can get off their butts and roll out an Android phone before next October, I will consider staying with them instead of going to an iPhone.
I am digging it. At first I was hesitant but it has some really cool features (Come on compass mode is sweet).
DO WANT.
out with the netbook, in with the android.
Didn't show the actual phone feature not even once during the demo? May be its forgotten that people use this to also make calls??? Not a big fan of HTC hardware (the paint on my HTC Wing started to peel off in less than a year!). I am not an Apple freak too. But, I have to say that iPhone is fine device when you compare other products currently in market. No doubt about it.
Oh stop whining, the thing about this phone is that you will be able to customize everything on it. It's totally open.
Yeah even if it performs like shit & has dodgy hardware, as long as its open, thats all that matters. Just like the OpenMoko.
Ohhhh, too soon??
First Post!
-------
sent from my IPhone
I know that Android is huge, and believe me, I'm excited. But isn't it strange that Engadget doesn't even have one post about the fact that CS4 is launching live right now? http://www.adobe.com/special/cs4event/?trackingid=DNJLZ
it's not strange at all. we're you not around when engadget didn't cover chrome? they are not a software blog, they are a gadget blog. do you run your cs4 on a gadget?
1. Looks good, but give it a year to cook some more (More Apps, software updates, more phone designs). My iphone is great but I always like competition. I waited a year for the iphone and I'm happy I did. Android needs to mature.
2. You need an account for the iphone to purchase free apps too. So having to have an account for gmail isnt a big deal. I know there are those worried about privacy but if you want to experience google products alot of them require an account with them. Plus, who doesnt have an account under the age of 25? Its got to be a low number.
3. Work on the sync part, Google has gears which could sync to gmail and docs. Not hard, probably brewing as we speak.
4. Lets clean some stuff up, make it look cooler. Dont make it look like the iphone, but the GUI could be way better aesthetically. Customizable, skins. Something, its looking a little Blackberrish/Winmobish with a splash of iphone. Also stick to KISS (keep it simple stupid). Dont go all fancy on me and now I cant figure out to access something.
Hope it works with my Google Apps account
It will.
.....I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS.....THESE UNITS ARE GETTING .....TO DAM ****SMALL****..............GIVE ME MY HP 6945, AND BLACKBERRY BOLD.....ANY DAY.....
L
If you sync everything through the phone/web, then how are you supposed to get stuff like music, videos, etc from the phone to your computer & visa versa if there is no desktop app??
drag & drop, perhaps? i've also used silly little 3rd party apps to tell itunes to sync playlists with memory cards in phones.
Drag and drop will work for sure through usb or SDcard from what I heard, but I think you are asking about an automatic sync for music/videos? I don't know, didn't hear anything about that. Probably some third party app will do it (there has to be some kind of application out there that already does it for usb & SDcards).
The calendar/contacts seems to be higher priority for most people though, given there isn't exactly a "drag & drop" alternative for that, so at least that is handled.