Someone posted a note on Twitter about the Sidekick fiasco. Apparently the servers that lost data weren't Microsoft servers. They were actually Oracle, Sun, and Linux servers that were at a Verizon data center. Microsoft bought Danger last year, and when they had issues, they spent time and resources to recover the data. And T-mobile, and possibly Microsoft, is giving customers some credit for the hassles.
I had a Sidekick for awhile, and my son has one as well. I thought it was a great device when I had it, with an easy to use keyboard, and some nice features. I'm not sure how they've changed since the Sidekick III, but now that I've had an Android phone, and an iPhone, I think it's way behind the features in those devices.
I suppose some people will spin this as Microsoft not necessarily having the expertise to run these servers, but that's silly. Microsoft bought Danger, who presumably had the talent to administer these. They were at the data center they've been hosted at for some time, which also likely has talent there to help out.
What was amazing is that Microsoft didn't try to spin the PR on this and say this was an Oracle or Sun issue. They left it alone, letting plenty of people blame MS software and use this as an example of why Microsoft software is poorly written.
But was it MS software?
This report says that Microsoft may have been attempting to move the service, and that's certainly possible. Maybe they were to blame and didn't want to raise that issue.
I don't know that a root cause will ever be reached, but I can definitely see T-Mobile moving the Sidekick brand to an Android phone. It's a better OS, it saves them $$, and they consolidate some of their own support.
This does show that the cloud is an issue. I have my devices sync with Google on the cloud for various things, but it keeps copies locally. Something everyone needs to do with cloud services.
This is a great write-up that shows what is important in a phone. It's how you interact with it, not the features, not the specs, it's how you use it.
I tend to agree with that. With both the G1 and the iPhone, the interaction with the device for the most part, has not been on the phone. It's been twitter, web, reading, music, and the smoothness of those two devices is unbeatable.
I hope that more phone manufacturers realize this and they start to build up their networks of apps. The app store with Apple, and integration with a PC to allow me to manage things either on the PC or the phone, it's unbeatable. If I could have read books from Barnes and Noble or Amazon on my G1, I might not have moved to an iPhone, but I couldn't and that mattered.
I'm not sure how big a deal it is for everyone else, but I see more and more people doing things on their phones that aren't involving making calls.
People building SQL Server apps, especially BI apps ought to consider these markets and look to build small applications that ensure a smooth interaction with customers. As much as I like browser apps onthe desktop, they don't work on a cell phone, even one with as large a screen as the iPhone of G1.
I still love my G1, and I got a pleasant surprise recently. I was out at dinner with my wife, and we needed to look something up. So we decided to race, her with her Blackberry Curve (and Verizon), me with my Tmobile G1. The kids were excited, and so I turned it on and saw a note about an update. I clicked "OK", not really thinking about it since I get these messages all the time from apps I have installed on there. Just as my finger was pressing the screen, I read "Android" in the message and couldn't stop myself.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I hate OS updates, especially when I'm trying to do something else. So I sat there, waiting about 10 minutes while it downloaded the update and then restarted my phone. It applied the update as well, so the restart was about 5 minutes more. There were some cool images on the phone as it applied the updates, so at least there was something to look at.
The update finished, I popped a browser, looked up my item (losing horribly in the race) and went on with my evening. The next day, I was riding in the car with Kendall next to me, and I got a message from someone. Normally when I respond, I pop open the keyboard and type my response. This time, I clicked the screen to highlight the text box and was about to open the keyboard when a virtual keyboard popped on screen.
That was cool. I'd never seen it, and with Kendall leaning on my arm, I didn't have to move. I one thumbed a message out, making a few mistakes, but not many, and sent it. All without opening the phone. Since then there are a few times when I've used the virtual keyboard, since it's easy to do, works well, and provides feedback about which item you've pressed. It's not quit as quick as the physical keyboard, but it works well one handed and I don't have to open the screen.
The other interesting thing I noticed was during a phone call. Where I live the voice mail system never connects automatically. When I call, it assumes I need to leave a message and I have to his ***, then enter my phone number and password. However the interaction between the ***, the message to enter a phone number, and then the message for the password, is slow. You can't jump the gun and you have to wait. However when I wait, my phone always goes dark and I have to hit the menu button to bring the virtual dialpad back up to make the entries (or open the device).
This time, I hit *** and then listened for the system. When it responded I was set to hit "Menu", but all of a sudden noticed a padlock icon on the screen with a "double tap to unlock" message on it. A quick double tap and I was entering info again. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a much easier, and simpler way to handle this, and it really made me appreciate the OS.
Little things like that are why I really like Android and this phone. I'm not sure I'd always want to be stuck with the virtual keyboard, but it's nice to have that option.
Well it didn't take long. On a conference call a couple weeks ago, trying to juggle the phone, the laptop, and grabbing a cup of coffee, the phone slipped out of my hand and hit the hardwood floor. I ended up with a crack in the screen, but it hasn't affected the phone operation. It looks bad, but it's not raised (you can't feel it), and the touch screen seems to work fine.
However, the screen protector wasn't doing a great job, getting fogged, picking up scratches, and more. At times it was hard to read the screen and things blurred or were somewhat illegible from the screen protector. I've had devices with no protection and that doesn't work well.
When I bought the G1, I grabbed a case and a screen protector from eBay, at the same time as I bought the phone. I applied the protector right away, accidentally bending it, but with some plastic covers, that was easily covered and it wasn't an issue.
It's been about 3 months, and that screen protector has gotten quite scratched. I was going to just buy another one, but then I noticed something. The screen protector on my iTouch, from Zagg, has held up well. The kids are constantly using that thing in the car, but the screen is still highly visible and looks unscratched, unlike the Google screen.
Over the week I was debating about what to do, Zagg sent me a mailing. They must realize that they're not in the high volume business, selling screen protectors and earbuds. You're not likely to buy something every week, or even every month, so sending a mailing too often just gets annoying. Once a quarter, however, isn't too bad, and in this case there was a 30% off coupon.
I checked, and sure enough they had a G1 screen protector (and a larger back, side protector) and ordered one. With the 30% off, I added a Zune cover for my son and I was still ahead on terms of cost.
The screen protector lists for $14.95, which is similar for the iPhone and other devices. It's an investment I highly recommend for your devices. In fact, I'm going to order one for my daughter's Nintendo DS as well.
I’ve had a number of cell phones in my life, probably more than many people. Typically I’ve just grabbed a low end phone that serves as a phone and does a good job there. However as I’ve traveled more over the last few years, and have a need to be connected, I’ve been looking for a more advanced phone.
A year and a half ago I got a T-Mobile Dash, which runs Windows Mobile. I ran through 3 of those in about a year, having issues with their durability, and eventually moved to a Sidekick 3. Then earlier this year that phone started to die and I settled on a T-Mobile G1, the new phone made with Google’s Android OS. Since then I’ve been thrilled with it and decided to do a comparison based on my experiences. Especially after a little exchange with Buck Woody.
All of the phones I’m looking at here are made by HTC, and while I think the Dash was less durable than the others, the others were well made and worked fine.
My first impression of the Dash, which I got with Windows Mobile 6, was that it was a huge step up from my previous phones. It had a full QWERTY keyboard, and was relatively small. It is a little wide, and had all the familiar Windows type features. Overall I was thrilled and was quickly up and running with this phone, browsing the web and viewing attachments. The ability to read Word/Excel documents was nice, but it didn’t happen a lot for me. They seemed to render well when I viewed them, but this wasn’t something that was critical.
Windows, however, wasn’t as stable as I’d like. If I switched tasks, it seemed that anything I put in the background didn’t run as well. There were more crashes than I’d like, and it was relatively slow to render things on the web. I had this OS freeze numerous times over the 9-12 months that I used it, and I don’t think I stressed it a lot. SQLServerCentral, ESPN’s mobile site, Twitter, Slashdot, Google, Joel on Software, these were my main sites.
The browser was a POS as well. So many pages didn’t render well, and it was hard to scroll around using the interface on the Dash. I’m not sure that’s as much a Windows Mobile issue as the Dash layout (no trackball), but I wasn’t thrilled with it. Email worked well, which was nice for me. I used POP and IMAP and things seemed to work well.
Adding ringtones and downloads wasn’t something I did much, but there was no central way to add applications to the phone. It was cumbersome and I was a little worried about random add-ins since there wasn’t a central source.
The radio, however, didn’t seem to work well. Granted I’m comparing this device 6-9 months ago to the other ones, but it seemed to have less hold on the signal. Again, not sure if this is a Windows Mobile issue or hardware, but I noticed that the signal across my other phones, a RAZR, a Nokia, the Sidekick, all was about the same.
I liked this OS pretty well at first. It has tight integration with the T-Mobile network, but it flaked quickly for me. The device has a full keyboard underneath a rotate/flip out screen. There are multiple buttons that control various aspects of the OS.
Email worked well for POP, but I couldn’t get IMAP to work on this OS. Text messaging was fine with the standard inbox/outbox format, but browsing the web was very slow. Even on an Edge connection, and when compared to the G1 in the same places.
Ringtones, and other downloads worked well, and were easy to find.
Navigation wasn’t great. The trackball makes it hard at times to ensure that the OS receives a left v an up. I know that’s the hardware more than the OS, but they’re tightly integrated here.
It’s easy to jump back to the home screen and quickly choose a new area. The OS didn’t multitask, but it did allow me to quickly move between items. It also was limited in that I couldn’t easily add items or shortcuts to the screen. Learning keyboard shortcuts, however, was invaluable.
The one thing here was the stability of the OS. In 7-8 months of using this device it never locked up on me. Updates came down smoothly and occasionally asked for a reboot, but it never locked up. There were network issues in that I lost my contacts sometimes. I’m not sure this was OS or network since a reboot sometimes would bring them back. Sometimes I had to wait, but that was the biggest hassle.
The G1, running Google’s Android, has been my favorite phone to date in my life. At first I wasn’t thrilled with the form factor, but I’ve come to enjoy it.
However the OS is just solid. I haven’t had any crashes of the OS. Updates do come down periodically, and they’ll reboot the phone (I accept them first), but when I go over 6 applications, it just closes something. I have had Twitroid crash a few times. But it easily starts right up.
The touchscreen is great, and it’s very handy for scrolling around web pages. This is supposed to be the same technology as the iPhone, and it’s worked great for me. I touch the screen and can move it around with my finger, and zoom in/out buttons appear at the bottom, allowing me to change the size of the screen.
The integration with a marketplace is great. I can easily see reviews, download items, and they just install. It’s the smoothest process I’ve seen.
I get a little multitasking, or it appears that way to me. I can easily move from an email to a Tweet to a web page, and those apps keep running in the background.
One annoyance is that my applications run 6 at a time, and while I can easily switch between them, or start a 7th), I can’t control which one closes. That’s a hassle, especially when I’d like to shut down Twitroid at times.
Notifications are handled well in the upper bar. They appear, I can easily clear them, view them, etc. Adding/removing items from the main screens is easy. Integration between apps and the OS is consistent and works smoother than on any phone OS I’ve seen.
Durability was an issue with the Dash. One break was my fault, but in another the phone dropping from my car seat to the floorboards and the screen cracked. Another one was me leaning against the sink, and not hard IMHO, but another screen cracked. The Sidekick withstood numerous drops and always seemed to work, but the trackball was dying, not accepting clicks and so it became impractical to use.
The G1 is clearly the best phone I’ve ever owner. It runs smoothly, has the best radio and reception, handles data and voice smoothly, and even integrates multiple apps, and the data in them, better than even my desktop.
If you get the chance to use it, I think you might agree. I’d still like to use an iPhone for a month or two and then decide, but for now I’m sticking with my G1.
Last night I was at the store with Delaney after karate and he mentioned that we needed to go pick up snowboards from the shop. I'd forgotten Thur afternoon to get them and wanted to remind myself to go Fri.
I had my TMobile G1 with me, but also my iTouch. I decided to enter the appointment there since I sometimes have that with me and nothing else. So I typed in an appointment on the iTouch. We got home and I plugged it into my desktop to sync it up. That's all I did.
This morning I woke up and checked for my appointment. It appeared:
5 places, 1 entry, one plug in to sync my iTouch.
Very cool!
I’ve got a Sidekick 3 right now that works OK for me, lets me check some basic email, get texts, etc., but it’s not a great phone. It could be, but the issues I have with IMAP as well as the flaky connections make it one that I don’t want to keep.
My wife has a Blackberry Curve she loves, but I’ve never been a Blackberry person. They just don’t resonate with me. She was going to get me an iPhone for Christmas, but I don’t need two phones and I have 5 months left on my contract. We debated the iPhone v Blackberry a bit and she really likes her “real” keyboard as opposed to the virtual one. I have an iTouch and the keyboard works OK for me. I’ve used to enter data on screen, and can’t complain. It’s slower than the Sidekick, but not by a lot and I think I’d be quicker if I used it more.
So I was resigned to wait until this summer to switch to ATT and get an iPhone when I saw an Android-based for T-Mobile. It’s about $175 with a contract extension and that’s not a bad price. I looked at some reviews and it seemed to work as well as an iPhone for a number of reviews and it’s an interesting device.
The G1, as the phone is known, has a screen that flips up, but it slides sideways and up to reveal the keyboard. I picked up a non-working version, so I couldn’t try the touch screen, but I did get to play with the keyboard.
One of the complaints was that the right side (shown here with the 5 buttons) is higher than the keyboard. I tried typing a bit and that didn’t bother me, but what did bother me is that they lower edge, below the ALT key, space bar, etc. is raised and that bugged my thumbs as I was typing. Granted I spent just a couple minutes, but it did bother me.
So I’m not sure. Right now I think the iPhone is still a superior phone for me, for what I need. Email, phone service, browsing when I’m traveling, etc. So I’m still thinking to switch in the summer, but I would like to get to a T-Mobile store and try a real G1 to see how it works.
