opinion poll and 2 newbie questions

[akdakd1814]

If you would like to weigh in - anyone have a reason why I should get the Eris INSTEAD of of waiting for Verizon to have the N1 (aside from the obvious current lack of a release date)

Here are the two newbie questions from someone who has never been a smart phone user.

In a review on the N1 PCWorld listed as a con the fact that the N1 limited the amount of space you could use to download apps to 190mb. A)Is this typical and B) is it something I would notice and care about? I don't have a good sense of storage space with regards to apps. The statement made me wonder about other phones and how they allocate app space

Second question - I know there are some strong opinions out there on how necessary Multi Touch is or isn't on a phone. What I am wondering is if it can be added after a phone has already been released. Is it something that can come out with a later software/firmware upgrade?

 

[doogald]

Please note that much of this is my opinion...

In a review on the N1 PCWorld listed as a con the fact that the N1 limited the amount of space you could use to download apps to 190mb. A)Is this typical and B) is it something I would notice and care about? I don't have a good sense of storage space with regards to apps. The statement made me wonder about other phones and how they allocate app space

All Android phones have this same issue, and the Eris has less RAM for app storage than the Nexus One. However, there are rumors that Google is working on a future upgrade to Android which will allow running apps from external storage cards (both the Eris and the N1 come with a microSD card which stores multiple GBs of data). I'd think that the Nexus One, being newer, with a faster processor and more RAM, is more "future-proof" (i.e., more likely to receive future OS upgrades) than the Eris does - but that is just my opinion.

Second question - I know there are some strong opinions out there on how necessary Multi Touch is or isn't on a phone. What I am wondering is if it can be added after a phone has already been released. Is it something that can come out with a later software/firmware upgrade?

The Nexus One has already added multi-touch to the browser, maps (and, I believe, the photo albums app) since the initial release. The Eris came with multi-touch enabled for the browser and albums. Clearly, the hardware supports it.

Just be aware that (based on the current Nexus One) it is likely that Verizon will not "have" the Nexus One - the Nexus One will be sold by Google with
options to buy unsubsidized, to add to an existing Verizon contract or month-to-month service, or subsidized, with a limited number of service options (i.e., not much choice in minutes, no option for a family plan, etc.) if you get it subsidized.

The Nexus One is promised for "Spring 2010", so it could come anytime from late March to mid June, and rumor is that Verizon will have other Android handsets soon in addition to the Droid and the Eris. If you can wait to make a choice, now is probably a great time to patient.

 

[mrfarinhight]

Just to let you know, to get a better sense of memory taken up by apps, each app is normally around 1mb. There are some that take up much more, and some that take up much less. So if each app was 1mb, you could have 190 apps on your phone. Thats alot!