Google Phone

[akosnitzky]

Google phone to cost $179, debut Oct. 22

The first cell phone running Google Inc.'s mobile software looks something like Apple Inc.'s iPhone and has a large touch screen, but it also packs a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google's e-mail and mapping programs.

The data plan for the phone will cost $25 per month on top of the calling service, at the low end of the range for data plans at U.S. wireless carriers. And at $179, the G1 is $20 less than the least expensive iPhone in the U.S.

[test54]

not bad and a pretty good price. the OS seems pretty basic though, need to see more apps. Also the look reminds me a little of WM which is unfortunate. I will go to Tmo and toy with it a bit but can't imagine switching from BB or iPhone to it.

[akosnitzky]

It does look interesting as everyone is trying to tap into the holiday market, whether it be the Bold, Storm or this device.

[test54]

I did see rumors of 32GB iphone as well, but i doubt that till spring. I'm most interested in the Storm. Saw the all GSM model spec sheet was leaked.

[test54]

"If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less." - Tmobile in response to the threat of apps coming that could use excessive bandwidth. That could be a deal breaker for some customers and some developers.

[teamcrn]

Probably trying to avoid what happend to ATT and the Iphone since there will be no data compression.

[muck]

the dream is down right ugly.. cant wait to see what other manufacturers bring out. exciting times

[test54]

yeah its not good looking. I read Sprint might have an android phone in time for the holidays.

[akosnitzky]

Here is a review.
Hands-on impressions: T-Mobile's G1, the first Google phone : Ben Patterson : Yahoo! Tech

[akosnitzky]

Do you think it will do well in sales?

[teamcrn]

They changed the Cap to 10GB. I am ordering 2 as soon as employees are allowed. It will take the place of my curve, for how long i dont know. I think the Dream looks sexy and gives me what an Iphone Lacks a full keyboard and what a blackberry lacks a Robust media and sync (Contacts and calendar Sync with google web apps right out of the box) experence. This is not a business phone and it makes that specific in the web based training we went thru as Rep's. It might evolve into one with applications for exchange being made but right now its a Consumer phone ment for people age 19-32.

They are expecting to sell 400,000 of these units in the 4th Quarter alone.

[complexx]

Oh, 1 GB to 10 GB, it's a darned good thing too.

[complexx]

It's not shaping up to be more than a vanilla phone. It would take quite an advertising campaign to convince anyone to change providers for that. Maybe it's only selling point is that video GPS sort of thing it has which is useless (and very dangerous) if your driving a vehicle.

[teamcrn]

The Operating system is whats going to make the phone. It runs smooth and is 2wice as quick as my curve and iphones i have used. The ability to sync out the box is a very big deal. Complexx more people are willing to switch for less devices or for even price. This phone is just the start for tmobile. They have a very good line up of new phones dropping in the 4th quarter. The data plan will be 35 bucks unlimited (20 for data + 15 unlimited text) 25 bucks limited ( 20 for data + 5 400 text). Android will be a good platform.

[test54]

twice as quick? most of the videos I have seen its not faster than either and in the browser area its no where near as fast as safari. It does not have multi touch which is why you have to do those "long touches" to bring up menus. I think its a first step but its not the one to buy, wait for a better device to run the OS. just my opinions.

[dwood721]

Looks really long

[akosnitzky]

I heard this morning that they tripled production and is sold out already.

[rachamphetamine]

Originally Posted by akosnitzky

I heard this morning that they tripled production and is sold out already.

True, people who order now will be waiting until sometime after November 10th to get theirs.

[test54]

I just want to see it in person and test it out a bit.

[juniorcruz]

My wife pre-ordered the phone as soon as it was available for pre-order, the main thing I see liking about this phone is the full querty keyboard, which is a must for me. I can't stand typing on a touch screen keyboard because it takes longer to type an email/sms.

[teamcrn]

Syncing to all google apps is a big advantage over the iphone and blackbery. Emails/calendar/ google docs/ all synced and at your finger tips with out any extra software or work around's.

[blakeatl]

Phone is ugly. I wouldn't jump on this version just yet.

[juniorcruz]

yeah but if some people can afford to buy phones all the time, I give them props for trying out the first one to come out.

[test54]

Originally Posted by teamcrn

Syncing to all google apps is a big advantage over the iphone and blackbery. Emails/calendar/ google docs/ all synced and at your finger tips with out any extra software or work around's.

only if you use google apps. i did when they first came out but found that they didn't do everything I needed.

[teamcrn]

Originally Posted by test54

only if you use google apps. i did when they first came out but found that they didn't do everything I needed.

Well of course its a google phone! at least they built in a solution thats free and works pretty well. We got our live demo last night so i will get to play with it all day today

[akosnitzky]

Several reviews today on this product.
G1 from Google/Android/T-Mobile: first reviews are in | Computerworld Blogs

[BBIS]

My brother works at T-Mobile and ordered us all The G1 Android phone and employees can get it within this week, Mine is arriving tomorrow(friday) Im sooo exited!

Ill post my review on it here

[teamcrn]

Mine is in Mass and should be at my house monday i cant wait!!

[blakeatl]

Originally Posted by teamcrn

Mine is in Mass and should be at my house monday i cant wait!!

Keep us informed whether you like it or not.

[BBIS]

I got mine today! I have been on it for the past 6 hours. I love it to death! It is super speedy, I can open 8 websites at once, I even was able to look at the front of my house in seconds with the street viewer. I downloaded tons of apps all free, like pacman, and even one that uses the camera, and you scan items from a store and then it looks it up online and tells you the price of that item at other stores. Over the past 6 hours, I am very impressed with my new little phone. It does take alot of time getting used to typing on it.

Good luck and have fun with yours if you have one or are getting one!

[blakeatl]

Originally Posted by BBIS

I got mine today! I have been on it for the past 6 hours. I love it to death! It is super speedy, I can open 8 websites at once, I even was able to look at the front of my house in seconds with the street viewer. I downloaded tons of apps all free, like pacman, and even one that uses the camera, and you scan items from a store and then it looks it up online and tells you the price of that item at other stores. Over the past 6 hours, I am very impressed with my new little phone. It does take alot of time getting used to typing on it.

Good luck and have fun with yours if you have one or are getting one!

Sounds very interesting.

[rygel411]

Yeah mine is coming either tonight or tomorrow, Im starting to get jealous theres so many people that got it before me but thats the way it goes sometimes. Im just glad its coming to my door so I wont have to stand in line for it

[ndub33]

I had a chance to play with one a couple of days ago. The display is incredibly sharp and the touchscreen interface is very resposnsive. The lack inability to support Outlook e-mail is a show stopper for me, though.

As with the iPhone, I saw some cool functionality, but not enough to sway me from Blackberry.

[wabbit]

cool phone, web brower is to par with iphone, navigation gets a little getting used too, over all its a nice phone. oh and phone quality (voice convo) is also good. sturdy case, and even tho the screen moves, the phone feels solid.

not to shabby for a first run on googles os. (wow googles talking the world over!)

[rygel411]

Well I just figured Id add my 2 cents to it. I got my phone on the 22nd and its simply the best phone Ive had, some of my friends have the iphone 3g and my wife has an ipod touch, the g1 imo is the best browser avalible on a phone, Im in chicago which is a 3g area and it is extremely fast. The touchscreen is very responsive and looks beautiful, the html email is incredible of course. I browse the web all the time so the fact that you can open up multiple windows with NO slow-down of the internet or the device is a huge plus. The keyboard I admit takes some getting used to(dont know if its the chin or the fact that I was so used to typing on the 8800) but its fine for me now. The phone btw looks very different in person; I cant stress this enough. You see some pics online and it looks like a brick but in person it looks and feels like a regular phone to me. The app market is very cool and my fav so far is an app called shazzam which records music that you hear to tell you the artist and title. Last night I was driving home flippin radio stations and I heard this song on the radio that I liked but didnt know the name of it. The song was in its last 15 seconds Id say but I decided to whip the phone out and turn the app on. I put the phone in front of the radio(10 seconds left to go in the song) and the phone listens and sure enough it knows the song(keven rudolph feat lil wayne), it then provides a youtube link to the song as well as a download link from the amazon store; amazing stuff! I could go on and on but in closing Ill just say Im very pleased with this phone. I still love my bb8800 and still keep it on to use its password keeper app but Im glad I got the g1. And reading up on the t-mobile forums and the android websites there might a developer thats gonna upload a plug-in on monday to the app market that enables flash! I hope this mini-review helps for those who are undecided about this device or just wanted a little info.


Pros: Everything I mentioned above

Cons: *GPS companies are waiting until the app market isnt free(after new years) to release 'the real' gps programs, i.e. Garmin(maybe theyll go with handango for now?)
*Ringer is a little quiet in the pocket
*Terrible carrying case(more like a carrying pouch, lol)
*No flash support but as I said that could change on monday.

[akosnitzky]

Originally Posted by ndub33

I had a chance to play with one a couple of days ago. The display is incredibly sharp and the touchscreen interface is very resposnsive. The lack inability to support Outlook e-mail is a show stopper for me, though.

As with the iPhone, I saw some cool functionality, but not enough to sway me from Blackberry.

It does not support Outlook??? I don't understand

[nm1k0]

There is no desktop client for it. Everything is over the air synced with google.

[ndub33]

Originally Posted by akosnitzky

It does not support Outlook??? I don't understand

As I understand it, right now, the G1 doesn't do corporate e-mail (via Outlook). Basically, G1 owners will have to wait for some sharp developer to come up with an app and make it availible on the open platform. I'm guessing that this is a Google vs. Microsoft rivalry deal.