Got my G1 Android.
I have just got the G1 Google Phone and its great.
Apple doesn't have anything on this guy, except perhaps the iTunes.
My say that I have loving this. I am using it to replace a blackberry and I could not have made a better choice. I have always wanted an iphone, but I need to use this for work and the lack of a keyboard was too pedestrian. Plus I have tmobile for my wife's phone and I wanted to go with the cheap 2nd line option that they offer. So to get a smart phone and be with tmobile, that meant the G1 or another BB.
Well, the G1 was the better choice. Wow is this thing cool. Features that I like.
1. TouchScreen.
2. 3G/Edge Connectivity (beats my old BB)
3. 802.11 Nice to use a hotspot for better speeds.
4. Keyboard
5. Mp3 Player
6. Video Player (you tube built in)
7. Its a Linux box.
8. USB connectivity to my PC
9. SD Card for expandable storage
10. Extensive Google apps (Maps, Gmail, Gtalk, YouTube again)
11. App Store with lots of free apps.
12. GPS
13. Accelerometer
The thing that makes this phone a cut above is of course the open source nature of its OS. There will be other phones using this "Android" OS in the coming years, so I would expect that it will gain market share accordingly as there are more carriers and hardware vendors using them.
When you get the phone, they make you sign up for a gmail account. Luckily I already had one, so I just punched in the username and password and away it went. I brought up my Gmail, Gtalk contacts, etc. Maps found my L attitude friends and everything. The web browsing experience was also so superior to what I had with my BB. The touch screen makes all the difference in the world.
So after I get online and test out the phone's features its time to hit the "App Market". There are a ton of clever homemade apps here along with a few professional apps. On the pro side is a free PacMan from Namaco which is about as authentic as you can get. From google they have a gps tracker program which just made my Garmin obsolete, and a map editor that uploads everything to "my maps" in google. Just awesome.
Well, as you might expect I went download happy on day one and one of the items on the agenda was a "exchange" compatible app for my work email. I installed one and I get mail, calender and contact info from my company server.
In the fun department, I have a light-saber app which makes sounds based on the accelerometer. I am waiting for my 4yr old boy to shake the heck out of the phone. A terminal emulator was a welcomed app. I don't have root (yet), but it was cool to run "top" to see what was eating my my battery. With heavy use I have been putting this battery to its limit. I can see that it won't be like my BB where I could go several days without a charge.
Other notable apps were a visual voice mail app, the opera browser, and several utility apps (system monitor stuff, including one that mimics a tricorder).
So far very happy. I expect to hear more about Android phones in the future.
