Google Android catch-all

Edwin wrote:

$60 for the unlimited text. The lowest (200 txts) is $5 I think.

More than that for the 3G.

Minimum $70 for voice + data, with an additional charge for texts. So 450 min + unlimited data + 200 texts = $75/month.

Or if you are on a family plan. It's $9.99 for the voice line, $29.99 for the 3g data and $5 for 200 texts = $45.

I went without the texts as it costs $0.20 per text without a plan. I'm not going to send/receive more then 25 text a month so it's a better plan for me.

You'd better not ever make me mad, Elliott, or I'll find your mobile number, and get a bunch of buddies with unlimited texting to spam you with an SMS flood!

(Of course, any decent wireless provider will wipe out the charges with one complaint from you and a glance at the messaging history to corroborate your claim, but still, you'll at least be annoyed at the hassle! Ha-HA! Never mess with me! )

I'm very well trained at the calling of ATT and complaining for goodies. I currently have 2400 rollover minutes due to complaint calls.

Elliottx wrote:

I'm very well trained at the calling of ATT and complaining for goodies. I currently have 2400 rollover minutes due to complaint calls.

So are you the one that wrote that 2600 article a few issues back?

Bah. You may have foiled my plan this time, Mr. X, but next time you won't be so lucky.

Elliottx wrote:

Or if you are on a family plan. It's $9.99 for the voice line, $29.99 for the 3g data and $5 for 200 texts = $45.

I went without the texts as it costs $0.20 per text without a plan. I'm not going to send/receive more then 25 text a month so it's a better plan for me.

Sadly, work's automated monitoring system likes to notify me via text message, so that may end up being necessary.

My toddler doesn't get a phone, so the cheapest family plan I can use is the $130 for 2 phones one. Better, but not great, and I'll still have to pay for messages.

It sounds like the T-Mobile Android has a $25/month data + 400 messages option. That puts me around $95 for two phones, one with a data + messages plan. Not sure how it interacts with the family thing, or whether AT&T can pull off something cheaper, but I'm not sure I want to pay an extra $400/year to get an iPhone over an Android phone.

You know, if someone ports nmap, dsniff, kismet, wireshark, etc. to the Android platform, that HTC Dream will be one fun little wifi device.

I know it already happened for devices like the Nokia 810.

Does anyone know if I can swing this over to verizon?
Or alltell as that's what I'm on (for now)?

Probably not, since Verizon and Alltell are CDMA, not GSM (which AT&T, T-Mobile, and the whole rest of the damn world are).

HTC has taken a number of their GSM phones and released CDMA versions later, so that could well happen with the Dream.

So all the news about iPhone issues are points for the Android.

Also, I guess microSD is fine. It would be finer if you could get a 16 gig card, which I've read are coming - then a 16 gig Android would (probably) be less than a 16 gig iPhone.

*Legion* wrote:

Probably not, since Verizon and Alltell are CDMA, not GSM (which AT&T, T-Mobile, and the whole rest of the damn world are).

HTC has taken a number of their GSM phones and released CDMA versions later, so that could well happen with the Dream.

Wow, I will never get a damn break. Freaking family plans!!!!!

Also remember that in a year or two, if you want a 32 or 64MB Android, if microSD is capable of going that far, you should be able to just add a new memory card. If you want more storage on an iPhone, you're SOL -- and you'll probably be stuck with extending your contract another two years if you buy new hardware.

Malor wrote:

Also remember that in a year or two, if you want a 32 or 64MB Android, if microSD is capable of going that far, you should be able to just add a new memory card. If you want more storage on an iPhone, you're SOL -- and you'll probably be stuck with extending your contract another two years if you buy new hardware.

I have thought of that, and it is a point in the Android's favor - except that these things will be obsolete in two years anyway, so it's not too big of an advantage.

Well, I dunno. It's possible you may want new features in two years, but you also may be unexcited about whatever they're doing at the time. Having the option to expand means that you won't be forced to upgrade just to get more storage. It doesn't STOP you from upgrading, but it may allow you to delay, possibly quite awhile, and the longer you wait to upgrade, the more phone you get per dollar spent.

True. I take the approach lately that cellphones and laptops are things I spend thousands of hours on, so $200 for a phone upgrade every two years is okay in light of the use I get out of it.

Pre-order for the HTC G1 starts today. I'm still tempted, but I'm wary of buying one without reviews.

http://www.htc.com/www/product/g1/ov...

Mossberg got an early one. Of course.

Sounds pretty good, overall. I don't care too much about multimedia features, and I really just want gmail/google calendar/maps in my pocket. Gtalk's a nice bonus.

Looks absolutely un-sexy. It's a complete un-iPhone... which could probably be an actual selling point for some.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

Looks absolutely un-sexy. It's a complete un-iPhone... which could probably be an actual selling point for some.

I think it looks good, without looking like a dentist's tool.

Lack of any type of sync kinda blows.. but one assumes that gets patched in pretty quickly.

The table is kind of misleading.

Storage is 1 GB standard but expandable to 8 GB and desktop sync is all done wireless. So while it doesn't do desktop sync like normal it does it wirelessly.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/f...

Edwin wrote:

The table is kind of misleading.

Storage is 1 GB standard but expandable to 8 GB and desktop sync is all done wireless. So while it doesn't do desktop sync like normal it does it wirelessly.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/f...

Yes.. but you have to get all that data into your gmail/google accounts.. which I didnt really want to do.. I'd never have my contacts up in the cloud.. to much sensitive info in there.

I'm interested in knowing if the phone is locked or not (and if so, I imagine the unlock's not far behind). I want to slap my AT&T SIM card into one of these, I don't want T-Mobile.

TheGameguru wrote:

Lack of any type of sync kinda blows.. but one assumes that gets patched in pretty quickly.

See, this is actually a plus for me. I moved all my email/calendar/contacts into the google cloud a while back. I don't want yet another data source to keep in synch, and I've never had synch software that wasn't a pain. It would be a big problem if I needed to get work data into it as well, but I don't care about that anymore.

It's not entirely clear to me whether the 1GB/month before rate throttling thing is a "we reserve the right to do this if our network's getting tanked" thing or an actual hard restriction. Otherwise, Edwin's pro/con roundup looks pretty accurate to me. The lack of automatic screen flipping sucks. Otherwise, I don't care much about the negatives - I don't think I'm likely to use it as a media player, and I only have the one google account.

I'm leaning towards picking one up.

Tethering and unlocking are a go.

When asked about what T-Mobile's reaction would be to users creating tethering or unlocking apps for the phone, he was surprisingly even-keeled, noting that while the company didn't encourage the practice, they wouldn't lock down the OS or update the software to break those applications. Our impression was that as long as their use was relegated to a small percentage of owners, T-Mobile likely wouldn't take action, though he did voice concerns over tethering apps and their effect on the network, with a clearly guarded eye to letting users have free reign. More interestingly, buyers would be able to have access to a "contract free" G1 (with a price point of $399), and could unlock the device with T-Mobile's blessing after 90 days. Brodman also said that the company's policy of unlocking phones for customers in good standing wouldn't change for this phone.
ChrisGwinn wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Lack of any type of sync kinda blows.. but one assumes that gets patched in pretty quickly.

See, this is actually a plus for me. I moved all my email/calendar/contacts into the google cloud a while back. I don't want yet another data source to keep in synch, and I've never had synch software that wasn't a pain. It would be a big problem if I needed to get work data into it as well, but I don't care about that anymore.

It's not entirely clear to me whether the 1GB/month before rate throttling thing is a "we reserve the right to do this if our network's getting tanked" thing or an actual hard restriction. Otherwise, Edwin's pro/con roundup looks pretty accurate to me. The lack of automatic screen flipping sucks. Otherwise, I don't care much about the negatives - I don't think I'm likely to use it as a media player, and I only have the one google account.

I'm leaning towards picking one up.

I'm with you. I got my iPhone doing syncing with GMail for my email, contacts, and calendar with www.nuevasync.com but many users have sensitive information like GG does so that is a no go with them. I'm sure there will be a app in the store to take care of it since most of the phone is completely open.

The cap is 1 GB of data per month then they throttle you to 50 kbps. Details are in the link.

Edwin wrote:

More interestingly, buyers would be able to have access to a "contract free" G1 (with a price point of $399), and could unlock the device with T-Mobile's blessing after 90 days.

So I'd have to buy the phone at $399 and have T-Mobile service for 3 months before being able to unlock? I wish HTC was selling these directly as they do many of their other phones, but they aren't yet.

I've seen and read enough to not pick up an iphone right now (as I had planned). I'm not sure if this particular release will be the one I get, but I definitely like the features. Until then, I'll keep lugging around my beat-up Treo 650

Here is what I gathered.

Pros:
*No DRM on music store.
*Lots of interesting and useful Apps
*GMaps compass
*Price
*keyboard
*Background apps as a big plus
*Marketplace for apps is optional. Direct downloading from the developers is do-able.
*push Gmail
*Google Talk presence
*Tethering
*T-Mobile will unlock the phone for you after 90 days if you are in good standings.

Cons:
*No multitouch.
*No auto screen switching like iPhone even though there is a built in accelerometer.
*No video recording.
*No headphone jack! It's usb. :angry:
*Browser isn't as good as iPhone Safari yet.
*you can only use one Google account with the phone
*No video other than YouTube
*Only wireless syncing.
*Stuck on T-Mobile for now.
*1GB cap on 3G. WTF
*8 GB size limit

http://snipr.com/3t3su
http://snipr.com/3t3u4
http://gizmodo.com/5053612/t+mobile-...

edit:

IMAGE(http://gizmodo.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/09/g1specs.jpg)

Gizmodo has a good piece up on how f'ed the phone is.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/f...
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/f...