Re: [MLUG] Google's New Phone

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Thanks for the info, Christian.  Right now I'm a little disappointed with 
the speed of development of these phones.  I have an old Treo 600 -- about 
5 years old now -- and my wife has a brand new Instinct.  The Instinct 
looks better, but when it comes to most of my uses for the phone, I stilll 
prefer the old Treo 600.  I might just stick with the old system for a 
little longer (or go to Treo 700p or somesuch).  We can't get the Instinct 
to sync with the calendar (it uses MS Outlook), its contact list doesn't 
display company names and the GPS doesn't seem to work at all.  They try 
to make Instinct look like an iPhone, but it is not in that league -- 
nowhere near.

I guess I'm greedy, but I just want to have it all:  WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, 
unlocked, Linux inside, open source.  I want it to look like iPhone with 
nice graphics and multitouch.  I prefer to have a keypad, and its nice to 
be able to connect an external mini keyboard.  I want good cellular 
reception and I want it to automatically switch to WiFi phone when I'm at 
home.  I want replaceable batteries, a nice camera, video recording 
functionality.  I want it to play radio too!  And serve a cold drink when 
I snap my fingers.  ;-)

Anyway, I'm probably crazy, but the truth is, all that stuff (except for 
cold drink service and maybe radio) can be done in one device and it isn't 
happening because its hard to work it all out.  It's like the technology 
is all out there but it will take years to put it into one beautiful 
package.  Competition will eventually work its magic.

Mike


On Thu, 25 Sep 2008, Christian M. Cepel wrote:

> I really want one.  It has a swappable battery and that's one thing I
> hate about the Apple devices...but some things really concern me:
>
> 1. you can't tether it.
>
> 2. they don't specify if it's connectible to your PC via USB like most
> smart phones (let alone charge from USB).
>
> 3. There's no Headphone jack.. what the heck?   Why have a smartphone
> with storage and MP3 capability if you don't have a headphone jack...
> and apparently it doesn't sync with bluetooth headsets.
>
> 4. The camera doesn't natively do video (but people can write apps to do it)
>
> 5. No Exchange support
>
> 6. People have said that there are no gestures (multi-point), but I've
> seen video demo where they do multi-point... what's the deal.
>
> 7. What's the situation with memory.  Who in their right mind would put
> 1gb when MicroSD cards are so cheap and I think currently up to 4gb.
> I've seen that it has a 'memory slot' but nowhere can I find what
> form-factor/protocol that slot is.  Some things I've seen suggest that
> it's not swappable but something you pay $50 more to have them put 8gb
> in, so if you envision having a little wallet of 8gb cards with your
> music collection on them, forget it.   That really irritates me about
> the Iphone and now about this phone.
>
> 8.  It seems they are lying about the price.   $179 if you're already a
> TMobile customer who's 2-year contract is ending if you extend another 2
> years.  $300 for everyone else (+$50 for the mem) and a 2 year service
> agreement.
>
> 9. T-Mobile.. 80 Cities compared to nearly 300 with Cingular/ATT.  They
> claim that after 90 days you can switch sims and use your own G3
> Provider... however... you're stuck in your contract for another 1..75
> years.  Also they don't mention that the G3 network frequencies that
> T-Mobile operate on are different than those of ATT.
>
> 10. no support for Apple/Itunes DRM.
>
> 11. Android doesn't want to pay royalties so no Flash (and similar).
>
> 12. Swappable batteries, but as of yet, nobody has said what the
> batteries cost.
>
> Mike Miller wrote:
>> It runs the Android OS, based on Linux, so I guess it belongs on this
>> list...
>>
>> Here it is:
>>
>> David Pogue: "A First Look at Google's New Phone"
>> http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/a-first-look-at-googles-new-phone/
>>
>> Related stuff...
>>
>> NY Times has a new blog called "bits":
>> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/
>>
>> NY Times also updated their tech pages:
>> http://www.nytimes.com/technology/
>>
>> There are several articles on those pages about the new Google phone.
>>
>> Mike
>>
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