Full disclosure: I’m good friends with the founders of Android. Google bought the company several years ago. That team created the open source and full software stack that is leading to a number of Android powered phones & devices.
The first Android powered device is the HTC G1 that T-mobile will ship next week.
My Android friends gave me a G1 last Thursday.
My thoughts after a few days of use:
-The software is quite stable, not only for a v1 release but in general. My G1 hasn’t crashed on me once. I wish I could say the samething about my 3g iphone (which I also love but locks up from time to time)
-Android sw is fast. Really fast. the UI is signficantly faster than the iphone UI
-You can run apps in the background on the G1. Not true with iphone. iphone in some ways thinks of applications like MacOS System 6. Remember Multitasker :)
-The keyboard on the G1 isn’t the best. In some ways the iphone keyboard is better or at least to me. The problem I have with the iphone keyboard isn’t the touchscreen. It’s the periodic delays with the keyboard. No delay with Android. Did I mention its faster
-I haven’t tested the camera on the Android but I like that there is a dedicated button on the side to trigger the camera.
-The G1 has a removable battery. Need a say more
-Connect it to your Mac/PC with a USB cable and it just shows up as a USB drive. Drag and drop mp3 and other stuff like photos to the device and it just works. WIth iphone, everything has to go thru iTunes. that works for some but not for me.
-Android/G1 supports the Amazon MP3 store which is so awesome. Buying music is easy and flexible for the first time on a phone.
-Integration with gmail, gcal and gcontacts works really well. I’m trying out a test to keep a parallel life in google and exchange for now.
-I wish I could sync Outlook with Android
-i like the browser UI on the iphone better than Android.
-the headphone jack on the G1 bums me out. Must use their headphones or find another set that has a miniUSB connector instead of a standard headphone jack connector.
-It’s bigger, longer, thicker and heavier than the iphone. Some dont’ like the look. I acctually like the size. I love the flip out the screen.
-The Android App store works just like the iphone app store. very fast & simple. There are already a bunch of familiar apps like Shazam. There is a great app that Rich Miner showed me where you take a picture of a bar code on an item. It looks up the item online and returns all sorts of useful info. And there is pacman. And Google isn’t going to block any apps that may compete with their business. Smart.
For a version 1 release, this thing is amazing.
Congrats Andy and Rich. Well done!
I look foward to my road ahead with Android.