Google Android catch-all

When they come out with an Android phone that works on AT&T and has an earphone jack, FM radio, an SD slot, and good sound quality, I'll drop the iPhone in a heartbeat. I love the integration of the iPhone, but I'll trade that away happily for more control over my hardware.

The Last.fm app for the phone is pretty sweet. I can't say I recommend it on the EDGE here (I've only got 2-3 bars in my apartment though, so YMMV), but it works excellently on wifi. And, background streaming, which is awesome.

Malor wrote:

When they come out with an Android phone that works on AT&T and has an earphone jack, FM radio, an SD slot, and good sound quality, I'll drop the iPhone in a heartbeat. I love the integration of the iPhone, but I'll trade that away happily for more control over my hardware.

Word, Son.

Outside of a contract, is there any compelling reason for AT&T over T-Mobile? I'm really happy with T-Mobile's network so far (And even the EDGE network is pretty good.)

Outside of that, I'm pretty sure Legion has his running on AT&T.

Also: I wholeheartedly agree about the headphone jack. It's not a deal-breaker for me, but an actual headphone jack would be awesome.

Really, I think the phone is still very much an early-adopter phone. I think the threshold will be when Cupcake hits. Plus, stereo bluetooth will rock.

Kannon wrote:

Also: I wholeheartedly agree about the headphone jack. It's not a deal-breaker for me, but an actual headphone jack would be awesome.

Yeah, HTC is kind of stupid this way. I have the Touch Pro (their WinMo phone) and it also uses USB for everything. It comes with mini USB headphones and a USB adapter for plugging in your own headphones.

Kannon wrote:

Outside of a contract, is there any compelling reason for AT&T over T-Mobile?

T-Mobile can't match AT&T's wide coverage. Especially 3G coverage, which doesn't do jack for me as the G1 isn't compatible with AT&T's 3G network, but it's there.

That said, I'll probably end up on T-Mobile eventually. Cheaper, and AT&T apparently has no plans to get a G1 model of their own.

Does anyone have a recommendation on a decent screen protector? The protector it came with seemed to decrease the sensitivity of the touch screen too much, especially towards the edges, so I removed it.

PyromanFO wrote:

Right but it's still a seperate app. You have to go two different places to upgrade apps vs. install/manage them.

Not anymore - the latest Android system update adds app updating to the Market app.

And it works so much better than aTrackDog.

Think I'm finally jumping on the Android boat. I was holding out for the Palm Pre since I'm already a sprint customer, but I just figured out they're going to force you into one of their "Everything" plans that range from $70-$100 and add a bunch of crap I don't need. I also stumbled into the fact my firm provides silly deals for just about every carrier BUT sprint. I can get a G1 for $45 + no activation fee + 12% off my monthly bill. The Pre looks sleek and all, but I don't think I can pass up a deal like that.

After looking around some of the android sites it looks like while the G1 is a bit thin in the multimedia department it can pass as a gym/commute mp3/podcast player. I hate the fact I'll need a usb->3.5mm converter but at least I can add my own storage where with the Pre I'd be stuck with 7.5GB.

I know the G2 has debuted and looks slick, but I need the keyboard, it's an absolute dealbreaker for me.

absurddoctor wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation on a decent screen protector? The protector it came with seemed to decrease the sensitivity of the touch screen too much, especially towards the edges, so I removed it.

I absolutely endorse Zagg/Invisible Shield products. I have em on everything -- phones, DSs, Nokia 800, GPS etc. They do offer a product for G1.

Alright, Tmobile was nice enough to overnight my G1 so I had it up and running this morning. All in all I'm really really pleased, having Gtalk running persistently is great and I really get along well with the keyboard. I have freakishly long thumbs so the chin is no obstacle for me :o.

Odd thing is I can't see any paid apps, among them DoggCatcher which I was really looking forward to for podcasts. Out of the box the phone is still at RC30 and I'm not sure what planets have to align for the RC33 update to happen. For now I'm using a free podcast app which is a little quirky, but I'll get by. I thought the mini-usb adapter was going to be a PITA, but the one included in the box works really well with my Shures since they use their own extension. It's only been a day and 1/2 a commute, but I think it's safe to say I'll be able to hock my zune and give this media player duties once my 8gb card and armband come in the mail :D.

I loved my G1 and the persistent connection to the cloud. I didn't like that 40% of calls to me were dropped.

So I'm on Sprint using a Touch Pro.

Has anybody else been having problems with the GPS on the G1?

I feel the phone is more accurate with my GPS turned off. I'm wondering if I have a defective phone.

Heh, went from enraged to in love with this phone yesterday. Apparently my phone shipped with RC30 so I couldn't see any of the new and paid apps (the ones I bought this phone to use). After doing the update manually myself, paid apps just would not download. They'd queue up then just sit there. I spent all morning queueing and re-queueing and rebooting my phone trying to get it to work but to no avail. Finally everything pushed through and I couldn't be happier.

DoggCatcher: Awesome
Hello IM: Lightyears ahead of the stock IM client

Only gripe left is that the music player includes EVERYTHING on the SD card. So it picks up my podcasts and throws them in with my music. It's rare that I'm not using a playlist to listen to music, but still I wish there was a way to make the music player just "listen" to the Music directory and nothing else.

I've been trying out an app called BuddyMob, which is sorta like a Digsby for Android: IM, Twitter, and a friend GPS map/proximity detector. It's in beta and still under heavy development, but it is a pretty neat work-in-progress.

Ha, nice that they include a screen protector that scratches just as easily as the screen itself. Oh well, yet another accessory ordered.

In less than a week:
DoggCatcher: $10
Hello IM: $10
iarmband strap for gym: $10
8gb miniSD: $30
seidio screen guard: $10

Secret Asian Man wrote:

Has anybody else been having problems with the GPS on the G1?

I feel the phone is more accurate with my GPS turned off. I'm wondering if I have a defective phone.

The GPS on mine is a little weak, so you usually have to be outside for it to work well.

Turn off the assisted GPS completely, all it does it screw with the real (and much more accurate) GPS. Once you've got assisted GPS turned off and are only using real GPS, it's incredibly accurate. I've parked at a friend's apartment complex before, zoomed in on myself in Google Maps, and my blue dot was perfectly between the two white lines for the parking space I was in.

Google released their Google Finance app for android yesterday on the marketplace. Also, for those who haven't done so yet, download Google's Scoreboard app (make sure it's google's not a 3rd party), you can set it up to track your favorite teams and it'll throw reminders in the shade when a game starts, when the score changes, etc, etc. Really slick app.

Using the videos from this thread as a starting off point, I have:

* rooted ("jailbroken", to steal iPhone parlance) my G1

* installed a modified firmware based on the "Cupcake" firmware that's still being rolled out to non-modified G1s (this modified version keeps root access, among other things)

* Installed the connection tethering apps (must have a rooted phone to run these, and they're WONDERFUL)

* Modified the phone to use the SD card instead of internal memory for storing apps (no discernible change in performance, but now the storage space available to apps is the 700MB ext2 partition on my SD card instead of 70MB of internal phone memory)

* Installed Debian Linux chroot userspace into that ext2 partition (takes less than 100MB). Can load the Debian environment from the Terminal Emulator app, and install and run Debian command-line apps (and even X desktop environments via VNC server and the Android VNC viewer, but I don't think I'll bother with that. I'm just happy to have toys like nmap on my phone!)

I think I finally have everything I wanted from this phone: touchscreen, full physical keyboard, Linux userspace environment, more app storage space, and tethering!.

*Legion* wrote:

* Installed the connection tethering apps (must have a rooted phone to run these, and they're WONDERFUL)
* Installed Debian Linux chroot userspace into that ext2 partition (takes less than 100MB). Can load the Debian environment from the Terminal Emulator app, and install and run Debian command-line apps (and even X desktop environments via VNC server and the Android VNC viewer, but I don't think I'll bother with that. I'm just happy to have toys like nmap on my phone!)

Can you post how to do those? either here or my thread? I want to tether to my mac, but thankfully have a windows partition in case I have to use that

As a neato aside I got approval to work on an Android version of some software for a currently unannounced phone. Exciting! For me, anyway. That's the second cool device to hit my desk this year.

Matokin wrote:

Can you post how to do those? either here or my thread? I want to tether to my mac, but thankfully have a windows partition in case I have to use that

Tethering is easy. Once you've got a rooted phone, you can install Wifi Tether for Root and aNetShare, just download and install them as you would any other non-Market application. Try 'em both and see which you like best. (There's also an app called tether Blu for tethering either 3G/EDGE (or wifi) over Bluetooth instead of wifi, but it's $7. The other ones share your 3G/EDGE over wifi to your PC and they're free)

As for Debian, I'm writing that up in a big honkin' article. It was more involved than pretty much the whole rooting process and everything else combined, partly because there was so much old (pre-Cupcake) information out there, and a lot of the info that was up-to-date assumed you had certain things in place already. I had to piece it together from multiple sources, but I tracked my step-by-step progress in a notes file so that I can write it up properly in an article.

Around last Christmas I received an HTC Dream phone. This is the same device T-mobile markets as the G1, only it is not affiliated with T-mobile and is thus unlocked. (I was able to su to root out of the box.) I have been using it on AT&T ever since. On the downside, I don't get 3G. However, it is a significant step up from the phone-only device which came free with my contract. Even without 3G, it still does wi-fi.

Suffice to say, it's neat. I can ssh home from anywhere!

*Legion* wrote:
Matokin wrote:

Can you post how to do those? either here or my thread? I want to tether to my mac, but thankfully have a windows partition in case I have to use that

Tethering is easy. Once you've got a rooted phone, you can install Wifi Tether for Root and aNetShare, just download and install them as you would any other non-Market application. Try 'em both and see which you like best. (There's also an app called tether Blu for tethering either 3G/EDGE (or wifi) over Bluetooth instead of wifi, but it's $7. The other ones share your 3G/EDGE over wifi to your PC and they're free)

As for Debian, I'm writing that up in a big honkin' article. It was more involved than pretty much the whole rooting process and everything else combined, partly because there was so much old (pre-Cupcake) information out there, and a lot of the info that was up-to-date assumed you had certain things in place already. I had to piece it together from multiple sources, but I tracked my step-by-step progress in a notes file so that I can write it up properly in an article.

Holycrapawesome. You've gotta post it here once you get it set up. That's definitely something I'm going to do. (Hey, does Kismet work on it?)

As soon as I get it all perfect, I will.

Has anyone seen a app for recording phone conversations? I could use one.

SpoofApp claims to support this, along with other stuff like caller ID spoofing.

Livo Recorder appears to be a more straightforward call recorder.

I started to use aNetShare, and it works like a dream, makes the phone really warm if you also have it plugged into usb-if you dont then your battery will only last about an hour or 2. I used it at my girls place this weekend since she doesnt use a router.