Jan 20, 2009 | blog
It’s surprising that something as portable as the T-Mobile G1 and powerful a platform as Android can be so useful. Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but I’ve been using my G1 as a mobile internet device more and more often.
The biggest issue as many will point out is power, and the G1 is worse at power consumption and management than any other device. On the other hand, the abilities simply outweigh the power disadvantages that it has. Besides, keeping a charger (AC, USB, and auto) at hand eliminates that issue for the most part… minimizes it really.
Since jumping from the Windows Mobile camp to Android, I’ve noticed that my phone is fun & easy to use again. It’s more powerful, simply because I use it for everything rather than explain how useful it can be as I did with Windows Mobile. The software is fun too – many more new ideas and attempts to do different things than the staid, boring software selection that WinMo had when I last looked (it’s changing I know).
Anyway, just wanted to drop a note about how much I’ve come to depend on the G1, much more than my MDA that stayed by my side for 3 years. Even though I believed that to be a powerful, useful device, Windows Mobile can’t hold a candle to Android (or the iPhone) at this time. The phone is fun again.
😉
Jan 19, 2009 | blog
Well, I finally got around to moving my FeedBurner account to my Google account. Not sure if I did something wrong, or if I just need to wait a few days. It seems that I can’t see any items in my feed now, as I monitor it in Google Reader.
Has anyone else done this and found the same issue? I know I’ve probably missed something somewhere. I’ve got the “MyBrand†personal domain settings enabled, and updated the DNS CNAME records for my domain last night as directly by the MyBrand settings page on FeedBurner.
So far, it’s no go, but I wonder if the CNAME is pointing to the right URL. In the email I got after the FeedBurner –> Google migration was done, it showed a different URL for the feed. Namely, http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Rickmahncom – which is different than the rickmahn.feedproxy.ghs.google.com that is listed on the MyBrand page.
Suggestions welcome, but I’ll probably be testing different settings this evening. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause.
Dec 26, 2008 | blog
Ok, I’m getting antsy for a few good apps that I need or would like on my G1 Android phone. I’m betting we’ll see some interesting new apps hit the Android Market in January when Google adds the ability to charge for an application. I’d also like to make a few suggestions for some applications that I really need to have soon for productivity purposes.
Office Apps
The need for real word processing and spreadsheet applications is no joke. An app that supports Word, Excel, and a couple extra file formats would be appreciated. This is an application that I’d pay for. Make it decent, include PowerPoint support as well – it needs to be a quality app. Ability to save/load from SD is a necessity btw.
Adobe – Flash & PDF
’nuff said.
Video
A camcorder app would be awesome, but even better would be to see a QIK client released. Is this too much to ask?
Onscreen Keyboard (psst Google, you listening?)
There are a couple apps that already include an onscreen keyboard, so why can’t the OS? Alls you have to do is draw some buttons and feed the button presses through the existing keyboard driver – come on, it’s not that hard. I’m surprised at all the existing Windows Mobile onscreen keyboard vendors – this is an easy market to jump into here.
Navigation Software
Here’s another good opportunity for some enterprising company. Don’t get me wrong, Google Maps with GPS and 3G kicks ass, but when you’re out of data range – and when you really do need some navigation assistance – it really starts to show its deficiencies. A good navigation software package like TomTom or Garmin’s would be quite nifty – and with the size of microSD cards on the market, not too hard to load up maps for offline roadtrip fun.
So these are some of the things that I would like to see. There are tons more – do you have some suggestions?
Photo credit: disrupsean
Oct 15, 2008 | blog
With the knowledge that I’ll be moving to the T-Mobile G1 in the near future, I started thinking about my contact list. Yeah, the one I have in Outlook that I sync to my current Windows Mobile phone. But wait, there’s no sync client for Android phones.
However, in the case of the T-Mobile G1, it will sync it’s contact list with my Gmail Contacts over the 3G connection. Ok, I can live with that – it actually works out better in the end. More on that later. With that realization, I started thinking about how best to edit and update all those contacts I have in Gmail.
For a long time I had looked for some kind of utility to sync from Outlook to Gmail Contacts. I was hopeful when early last year Google themselves released a Outlook to Gmail Calendar sync tool. Alas there was no contact sync utility, just some API extensions to make it possible.
Since I’ve been playing evaluating Thunderbird as a replacement for Outlook on and off for a year or so, it occurred to me that there may be a way to sync Gmail items to Thunderbird via Add-Ons. Sure enough, they exist. With a Gmail Contact Add-On and a Gmail Calendar Add-On, I’m able to edit and update these times fast and easy via a great offline client.
The great part of all this is that because the G1 automatically syncs Gmail, Contacts and Calendar – all my PIM data will now effortlessly be in sync from PC to Web to Mobile. No matter where I go to send an email, make a call, or view my schedule, it will always be in sync.
Do you know of any interesting Google or Gmail related Add-Ons for Thunderbird that would make it even better? Let us know what you find that works!
Now to just wait for the G1 to be delivered…
Oct 13, 2008 | blog
Looks like Christmas is in October for me this year. I’ll be looking for the new T-Mobile G1 to show up around the 10th of November according to the order information. Yeah, I couldn’t help joining over 1.5 million other new Android fans and preordered the phone last night.
I’ve been waiting for some time for the right phone to come along, and this may be it. For sure, it’s a whole new ballgame instead of Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Nokia S60, iPhone, or Palm.
Let’s see… Google Maps integration, GPS, Push Gmail, Google & YouTube integration, 3G on T-Mobile (so I don’t have to change carriers), the Android Market, and integration with Amazon MP3 store. Too cool.
I’ll post on the device as I get it and share what I learn about it. Happy to have an exciting 3G smartphone on T-Mobile for a change. I’ve made my darn T-Mobile MDA last nearly 3 years!
Photo credit: T-Mobile
It’s surprising that something as portable as the T-Mobile G1 and powerful a platform as Android can be so useful. Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but I’ve been using my G1 as a mobile internet device more and more often.
