HELP! Need to get G1 Working or Dieter Will Kill Me!

[Rene Ritchie]

I don't use voice dailing. It works sometimes on the g1 but its never worked for me on my treo.

It's better if I say "call" first. Just the name confuses he heck out of it!

 

[Rene Ritchie]

virtual keyboard coming in January!

Bah! I needs it now!

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Isn't there some shady russian mp3 site??

So giving money to illegal download sites is somehow better than just stealing them outright?! LOL!

Amazon needs to get its international act together. And the record labels need to get with it, or get out of the way. They're the slum lords in the upcoming digitopia.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Your battery life is certainly better than mine was!

Eh, it was down to 75% after 2 hours this morning of moderate use. 50% at lunch time just doing email on 2G! I'm guessing firmware needs mega-tweakage.

Street view might not work in canada, I don't know. I don't have street view in my tiny town, but you can search for something in a big US city and play with it that way.

D'oh! Shoulda thoughta that!

Bookmarks: not that I know of.

That's a major-league oversight from the company that used to provide browser sync across platform

mobileme: just because it's webkit doesn't mean it will work like safari. It's just a rendering engine.

Sorry, meant Apple was likely miss-indentifying the browser, thinking it was Safari, and throwing up the intercept page. MobileMe should work like any other WebApp if I could get to it...

screenshots: no app yet.

Bah! I've been spoiled!

....but I recommend you just take pictures.

Will do!

Less "eh" and more twang? Voice Dialing worked great for me every time. I think you can even hold down the send button to activate it.

As per earlier reply, better if I say "call" first.

Thanks!

 

[Casey Chan]

I've always found Google Contacts to be the weak link, the chink in the Gmail armor of goodness, and Android is quickly re-affirming that belief. Unlike Exchange and MobileMe, where I have very complete listings for all my baseline contacts, the Gmail contacts are polluted by addresses I guess Google chose to remember but without encapsulating information (i.e. tons of No Names to scroll through). To top it off, many contacts are missing numbers, or don't have properly identified numbers, making it almost impossible to use Contacts as a way to, well, contact people.

Is there a better Contacts app available, third party maybe? Or some way to "clean" Google's truth store?

(To make matters worse, iSync in now throwing up all over itself adding and removing contact info, and it looks like I'll have to waste a bunch of time hand preening my master list. Google -- Beta is bad enough, fix this pre-Alpha!)

Since you very likely have your Address Book Contacts on your Mac all tidy because of the iPhone...

I used the app A to G to export my contacts on Address Book as a CSV onto Gmail.

Fairly clean, really easy, and completely mindless!

heres the link:

A to G The easy way to get your Mac OS X address book into Gmail

 

[Dieter Bohn]

Since you very likely have your Address Book Contacts on your Mac all tidy because of the iPhone...

I used the app A to G to export my contacts on Address Book as a CSV onto Gmail.

Fairly clean, really easy, and completely mindless!

heres the link:

A to G The easy way to get your Mac OS X address book into Gmail

Any particular advantage over just using the address book sync feature?

 

[Rene Ritchie]

My mistake was not deleting *all* my Gmail contacts first. gContacts is basically promiscuous and just sucks up anyone you are in, er, contact with, creating all sorts of fragmentary data.

So far, I think a clean gContacts, then sync or import Address Book, would work?

Thanks Androidikas!

 

[shutterrelease]

Hey

Please post your thoughts on the overall comfort of the phone during use.

 

[Osnaz]

3rd author!
What plan do you have? And does the android use WAP or 3G? Prollyy a dumb question...
So can you get all the apps and stuff here in Canada? Or is it region limited like the App Store? And how much did that cost you unlocked and all?!?!

 

[Dieter Bohn]

Watching your video now -- great stuff!

Did you know that like with the iPhone, you can hold your finger down an an icon to move it? So you can slide up the app list and then hold your finger down on an icon to move it to the home screen.

Also try holding your finger down on it on a blank part of the home screen for another pop up menu -- it's a lot like right-clicking on a desktop.

 

[BriDroid]

I really like the finger-friendly interface of the G1. Coming from using an iPhone and the stylus-world of WM and Palm, it's nice having both the touch interface where I can swipe and tap, then a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for typing duties. The G1 has a great build quality - it won't win a smartphone beauty pageant, but it's solid and well-built.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Please post your thoughts on the overall comfort of the phone during use.

It feels like a candy bar feature phone when closed, only wicked thick (probably because I'm used to the iPhone, which Steve starves).

I keep my phone in my front jean pocket and I often don't notice the iPhone (I sometimes think I've forgotten it and have to check!) but the G1... she I a feel!

In the hand it's nice, heavy and solid feeling.

Open, however, I do find the chin a bit annoying, and since I type with alternating fingers and don't "roll" like Crackberry Kevin, it's a tad wide for me.

Anyone have any tricks for doing that better? Anyone care to defend the "chin"? Ahem.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

3rd author!
What plan do you have? And does the android use WAP or 3G? Prollyy a dumb question...
So can you get all the apps and stuff here in Canada? Or is it region limited like the App Store? And how much did that cost you unlocked and all?!?!

I'm on Rogers in Canada, and while I have 3G, the G1 only recognizes T-Mobile's funny frequencies, so I'm stuck on EDGE.

I could get the Apps, but no Amazon MP3 since I don't have a US credit card.

I didn't buy the phone, it's Dieter's, so now I'm also a collector of famous gadget celebrity's gear!

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Watching your video now -- great stuff!

Did you know that like with the iPhone, you can hold your finger down an an icon to move it? So you can slide up the app list and then hold your finger down on an icon to move it to the home screen.

Also try holding your finger down on it on a blank part of the home screen for another pop up menu -- it's a lot like right-clicking on a desktop.

I managed to add Gmail to the home screen (which has wicked parallax scrolling, BTW! Go oldschool platformers!) And also trashed it, but again -- like much of Android, it was weird in that while the default apps stacked horizontally, when I added apps, they stacked vertically?

 

[Rene Ritchie]

I really like the finger-friendly interface of the G1. Coming from using an iPhone and the stylus-world of WM and Palm, it's nice having both the touch interface where I can swipe and tap, then a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for typing duties. The G1 has a great build quality - it won't win a smartphone beauty pageant, but it's solid and well-built.

I'm finding the build a bit creaky to be honest. Each piece is awesome in its own right, but when they come together, it's creaky (maybe the hinge? Maybe the fit?)

So far, like Kevin last year, I'm finding the options more confusing than liberating, but maybe there's some way to know which to use when? Any rules of thumb? (no pun intended!)

 

[Dr. Tyrell]

Re: HELP!

Interesting to watch someone dive head first into a Version 1.0 and try to get it to do things it ain't designed to do yet. For me, the joy is in focusing on what does work and watching it grow. There is so much potential that it is only a matter of time before Android becomes a major player.

Here's my take on a few of Rene's many questions. The basic web browser is great but the bookmarks are undeveloped. All we get for now is a disorganized list. Safari and Firefox benchmarks can be imported with MyBookmarks but pare them down first to keep the list a reasonable length.

Maps work best for me when I turn off "Use wireless networks" (under "Security & location") and rely on the GPS. I consistently get within 20 feet of my location on the map. The main flaw in Maps is that the screen does not center until you reach a border.

The only creaking I have noticed is the rear cover; a couple of small pieces of electrical tape on the inside at the offending spots fixed that. There is a little play in the screen as would be expected.

Having come from a Treo, I find the G1's keyboard and screen luxurious. Deploying the keyboard when entering text is an added step but that is the price for having a large screen. As noted, a virtual keyboard is in the works.

Hope that's a little help.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Thanks! I'll give the bookmarks a try. 90% of my bookmarks are actually RSS feeds (don't tell Dieter! He thinks I've "grown up" and started using a real client like Net News Wire!) MobileSafari parses those out to a legacy .Mac WebApp, so I'm realizing the bookmarks probably aren't a big deal.

However, if anyone could recommend a killer RSS reader for the 'Droid, would be grand!

 

[Dr. Tyrell]

Re: RSS reader

However, if anyone could recommend a killer RSS reader for the 'Droid, would be grand!

Many people use the web version of Google Reader which is pretty good. Otherwise, there are the OI News Reader and RSS Reader in the Market. More to follow, I'm sure.

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Do we actually have to help out to enter contest?

Or can we just post anything like:
Does anyone know if the G1 can be unlocked and used on Att?

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Do we actually have to help out to enter contest?

I don't believe so, but it would be mighty neighborly to help.

Does anyone know if the G1 can be unlocked and used on Att?

I'm using it unlocked on Rogers! (EDGE only though, no 3G off T-Mo)