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Quick thoughts on the Xoom

I got my first taste of Honeycomb this past weekend via the Xoom … or should I say the Motorola Xoom with Google.  Powered by Android 3.0 on the Verizon Wireless Network.  Let’s come back to that mess.

As I am sure you know the Xoom is being considered the first tablet competitor to the iPad and launched a few weeks ago.  I was fortunate to get a loaner via the office and used it extensively over the weekend.  I got myself setup with Google and Exchange accounts and my data synced right over.  I was immediately live with the device and was able to connect quite easily and well on Verizon’s network as well as work and home wifi.

The core Google apps and services are rock solid.  Maps is gorgeous, fast and powerful.  GPS acquired quickly enough and I was able to zoom around 3D and streetview modes which look awesome on the large screen.  YouTube worked great and I spent a good bit of Saturday morning watching some videos which all looked and sounded clear.  Apps outside the core Google suite were something of a mixed bag.  Accuweather failed completely, but WeatheBug worked well.  CNN and USAToday have tablet optimized apps, but frankly I don’t spend any time on their sites regularly so aside from checking the apps out for a few minutes I didn’t find them all that interesting.  They worked fine and look polished … CNN offers and audio counterpart to the reading if you like as well as video snippets.

The browser and email were where I spent most of my time and these are clearly the workhorse apps for any connected device.  Both the Gmail and Email (Exchange) app work very well.   The browser worked well too though can offer mixed results.  While it loads tabs in the background quickly and renders pages nicely there were things I really missed from the iPad.  For starters, while my bookmarkets synced over, I could not get any of them to work.  My work around for this was to use the Share intent native to Android and push links via Seesmic (phone version which is less than stable) or out to mail.  I also found a handy app which lets you setup quite a few more options for sharing.  I could not get any extensions to load and the Chome web store states clearly that it does not support the browser.  I also found myself forced to the mobile view of sites quite often even though I went in thinking this was a desktop-like browser.

The Xoom is more narrow than the iPad and accommodates portrait mode pretty well.  The weight of the device is less balanced though and it felt heavy in the hand more than the iPad which is larger.  When reading through Google Reader I would rotate over to portrait mode and found the bottom edge (now on the left) was a bit too rough on my hand.  This made it less comfortable to hold than I’d like.  The upper edge of the device has a slight curve to it which makes it less sharp.

The Xoom is the first Verizon device I’ve used in well over a decade.  I’ve always imagined that the network was better, but have found myself drawn to GSM based units and so I’ve largely ignored VZ.  While on the commute, I discovered that in fact VZ doesn’t really offer the best coverage.  There was plenty of 1x (the CDMA equivalent of EDGE) and even a lack of coverage on the track in Grand Central where AT&T has always provided a signal.  Additionally the network in it’s current 3G state is (subjectively) slower than what I’m used to seeing with load times.  I didn’t do any real tests …

The whole time I was using the Xoom, I left my iPad sitting idle.  This was a good test to see whether Honeycomb and the Xoom could replace my current usage.  In general, it’s close.  There’s a lot to like here, though there are definitely some rough edges and even some bugs.  Occasionally when installing an app via Market (which only loads in landscape) another application would randomly open instead of installing the new one.  There’s no flash support at the moment, and while that’s not been an issue with my iPad usage for the most part, it failed to load a few YouTube embeds and made using Zoodles (a cool kids app) impossible since it requires Flash for the games.

I have a feeling this platform is going to mature very quickly and that by the summer the range of devices will make this a very interesting choice.  Sure the iPad 2 is here now as well, but it’s good to have options and Android really is a power user OS.  I’m personally very curious now about the smaller form (7-9″) factors and whether something like that might actually fit nicely into my mobile lifestyle.

 

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Nokia the OEM

I’ve been tracking all the Nokia news the past days and while it’s impossible to argue that change was required, it seems that Nokia has actually folded considerably more than we’d all expected.  In exchange for access to Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia is essentially closing up shop outside of manufacturing and some bits of maps.  Near term Symbian will be supported, but that has a pretty clear path to death.

If you read the open letter, everything is spelled out in plain English. My thoughts in italics …

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader. (symbian and meego are done)

• Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies. (Nokia gets a say for some features, probably driven by hardware opportunities)

• Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products. (Nokia earns the right to co-marketing and will probably have some devices featured as core Windows Phone products in direct MS marketing)

• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services. (Bing and you’re done, just like Nokia’s ad business)

• Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience. (Fortunately for MS, Nokia paid Billions for Navteq and we’ll put that to good use in our core products)

• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low. (Nokia will help MS get operator billing in place for Windows Phone which will potentially help global reach for MS.  Probably does nothing for the US Smartphone market opp)

• Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach. (QT is dead.  An excellent acquisition for Nokia)

• Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives. (More MS for Nokia owners running Windows Phone)

• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience. (Ovi is dead)

The best post that sums this up described the transition as a coup and frankly that’s not too far off. Microsoft has a new leader in place at Nokia who owns a massive amount of stock and naturally wants things to work out … for Microsoft.    Microsoft gets a new hero manufacturer to abuse.  If Nokia enables Windows Phone sales he wins – on both sides of the equation. Nokia as a company and brand has some major issues to resolve.

The real issues facing Nokia are remain the same. They still need to attract developers and require some major assistance still in the US, the largest smartphone market. Microsoft has barely made a dent and it seems their sales are in the channel rather than end user. Windows Phone is a fresh start in a race that’s been active for years. Android while more competitive for Nokia as an OEM would have been an easy option for developers to work with given the stratospheric growth and sales of Android products over the past two years.   Windows Phone is certainly nice, but that’s all it is.  There are no standout applications yet even though the growth has been reasonable.  Time will tell, but I’m not feeling this at all.

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Starbucks Card Payments for Android

The Starbucks mobile application introduced mobile payments via a “present and pay” mechanism last month.  Essentially the phone (iphone only) serves as a proxy for your card and Starbucks updated POS scanners can read a QR code from your device to debit your account.  This is certainly handy though as discovered recently also pretty hackable via some social engineering.  As there is no password for the QR, it’s possible to snag a screenshot and use that on any other device.  I see this as a low priority issue for Starbucks as you should have a password on your device anyway … but I digress.

This morning TalkAndroid reported on a new Android Widget app which offers Present and Pay to Android users.  I just downloaded it and immediatly noticed that there’s a PIN option for the QR code.  This is awesome on two counts.  First, a developer has enabled starbucks mobile payment system for Android – ahead of Starbucks and secondly they’ve fixed the security issue in the process.  Rock on!

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Content Shifting

I’ve had this post from Fred Wilson bookmarked since this morning and I’m finally getting back around to formalizing a few thoughts.  First the notion of content shifting is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.  As someone who works on multiple devices (sometimes concurrently) keeping things (and myself actually) in sync is not so simple.  Beyond just the basics, the actual content consuption bits from my digital adventures are really the parts I’m interested in connecting as I move between locations and contexts.

While I don’t have everything sorted just yet, one thing I’ve been really keen on lately is Pinboard.  I discovered Pinboard during the del.icio.us is closing chaos and am really pleased I did because it is an incredibly powerful, yet also very simple tool.  It’s not perfect in replacing delicious sharing for me, but it’s making up for things with some new features considerably.  The best thing Pinboard does is capture all my shared links from Twitter, Google Reader, and Instapaper in addition to backing up my delicious bookmarks and of course saving any new ones.  This auto-collection process makes it dead simple for me to manage my reading and really has been awesome for making sure I know where all my links have gone.  I can call stuff up or save more from within Chrome via extension, on iPhone with Delibar or bookmarklet and on Android with PinDroid.  This is far more around my collection rather than consumption of content, though one additional feature Pindroid and instapaper manage is what’s been read vs unread.  I can’t say I use that much as I’m just happy to have a simple point of capture, but it’s worth noting …

On the media consumption side of things, Netflix is really the only service I’ve seen that enables stopping and resuming between devices on your account and this has been great for my family and our small army of iDevices.

I’ve yet to find a good music solution for resume … Rdio comes close with the browser player, but as best as I can tell, you can’t pick an album or playlist up where you left it.  Pandora definitely doesn’t work that way at all …

Kindle is pretty bulletproof for books and something I love, but there’s still a lot of room to improve across other content types.

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Good idea, poor execution Sprint

image

I just caught this ad in the latest Wired and since I’m the proud owner of a new Nexus S I was intrigued by the highlighted apps. The problem was when I went to get them …

Instead of using the standard QR code which works with the android barcode reader, Sprint decided to use scanlife which means I need to download an app before I can even respond to what I’d being suggested.  The mention to download scanlife is quite small and noted via an asterisk … lame.

Let’s keep it simple … unless you really don’t want consumers involved.

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Bridging digital with physical

c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.

This is a very cool concept from IDEO Boston. I love the return of physicality to music as it’s something I definitely miss as well. Seeing the use of RFID has me thinking that it will be possible for an idea like this to happen pretty realistically as well. The current c60 Concept is just that … but with phones and NFC quite a bit could be possible beyond this initial view.

Starting next week, a mainstream (one you want) device will be in market with NFC, the Google Nexus S. As Engadget handily pointed out, there are three types of communication possible with the chip: Send, Receive and Exchange. Exchange is really where things could get interesting.

The table shown in the video is really just a proxy for the computer and represents the place where we share together. Through NFC, an enterprising developer could enable all my music cards through the current media player.

Imagine if the current iPad iTunes layout allowed for more of a tap and share between friends. Hey check this out and you could listen and see the liner notes as we hung out. I know the Apple Remote, GoogleTV, Boxee etc all allow some level of control over Wifi, but there’s no way to easily do this with another person without relinquishing control or first syncing your devices. NFC could provide that simple gestural authorization … because we are close and actually together.

A fair bit has to evolve for the physical to be properly extended here. I would love to see the return of liner notes (not just lame PDFs) but interactive documents we could review while listening and even pass to a friend when listening together. Music is inherently social, yet most of it seems to happen through portable players with headphones now.

This may still be a bit half-baked, but there’s definitely something here …

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Google Maps with Navigation

This past weekend presented my first opportunity to try Google’s navigation service which is built on top of Google Maps in Android.  As with most things in Android directions (walk, drive and transit) are well contextualized within many places.  This contextual awareness is definitely a key strength of Android as a platform …

Anyway, I was looking for a piece of AV gear and decided to try my nearest Best Buy which I found via Google Maps and then took the opportunity to use navigation to get there.  I’ve got GPS in the car already, but figured a live test would be good … and as my GPS in the car has maps that are 5 years old, I thought I might have better luck.

Navigation started right away and the audible directions were clear if not a bit robotic…. to be expected.  When it seemed like I was there yet with no sign of the store, I thought something might be wrong.  I tried my iPhone’s Google Maps which also reported (to be expected) the same information and eventually had to fall on my manly pride and ask for directions.  The address info on the map was completely wrong and while GPS steered me properly, there was no way to find the destination.

I eventually found the store, waited patiently and discovered they did not have what I wanted.  Time could have easily have been saved using Google Shopper, or perhaps even the actual phone. (the horror!)

On the way home, I again used the phone to navigate even though I knew how to go … this time however the route plotted was a bit different than the way out and I lost connectivity a few times (AT&T) and as a result the navigation became confused.  It wasn’t until my connection was restored that my navigation was again able to be used properly.

Two key lessons …

  1. Phones are fickle as GPS devices (still) required a live data connection even for plotted routed.
  2. Navigation systems are only as good as the data on the map.

I’d still recommend Google Navigation … It looks beautiful and the audible prompts are easy to follow.  It’s an amazing free addition …

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Having fun with Android

For the past few days, I have been playing with an HTC Nexus One running 2.2.1 of the Android OS (or Froyo).  It’s quite polished, extremely fluid and really fast.  Its also far from perfect, but very close.

After so much time with the iPhone, Nokia and Blackberry Android is a really refreshing change. Like most things it takes a bit of getting used to but it’s far from hard and quite consumer friendly.

The multitasking is awesome and as far as I can tell is actually multitasking unlike iOS. Pages load in the background, apps download in queue and its very smooth.

The thing I like the most is how contextual things are … and his how well considered this is with regard to the multitasking.   You first get a glimpse of how this works with the slick notifications system. As you respond to incoming messages you simply slide back to where you were. In maps, you can go between shopping, latitude, buzz and navigation in rapid succession. A simple back tap can go back to the prior app or screen within an app. These sheets are similar to how the blackberry manages things from the inbox but Android does it everywhere. 

My main issues are the lack of system memory and battery life. I’m very interested in what 2.3 (Gingerbread) can bring and really want to try an even higher resolution screen.

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Why Google TV?

I get it. I’ve been living the converged life for years. GoogleTV looks like a simpler version of boxee and seems to have a less than considered UI compared to AppleTV. It has search of course, but how are you typing that in? What about web addresses? Hunt and peck typing is a giant pain from 10 feet away.

Our house is completely wired. We have a media server for video – accessible from any screen. We have multiple HD DVR boxes which are centrally located and can be selected from any of our universal remotes. An AppleTV is also centrally located and is used for streaming music and the occasional movie rental. On rare occasions I flip over to boxee to steam a TED video but that’s rare.

My wife and kids use the media server and the DVR. If we rent a movie I usually take care of it and there has been limited if any interest in online content. There’s no perspective that anything is missing and no real interest in finding more. We are satisfied. I doubt we are the only household like this …

For supplementary online content the primary option is the iPad. It’s always around and available. GoogleTV like quite a few other solutions is solving a problem people don’t have. I’m sure we will all benefit from more targeted TV ads if that sales process works and is cost effective, but the reach is going to be quite limited for a while … Probably a long while too. Apps and widgets for TV are all still trying to be sold… people are not buying new TVs, adding set top boxes or lining up to get them.

Am I missing some secret sauce here?

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Maybe T-Mobile wasn’t sleeping this whole time

Walking to the train tonight it suddenly hit me how awesome T-Mobile’s network announcement (Full HSPA+) was today.  It’s unclear how long they knew the Nexus One was coming, but clearly they knew enough and had enough lead time to pump out the upgrades for launch day.  Doing so takes the network issue  largely off the table.  By partnering with Google, they were able to ride the wave into what will hopefully be the start to how consumers consider their mobile purchase.  AT&T … not quite so fast.

Google has confirmed that Nexus One, and all subsequent Google phones sold via the company’s online store, will be available unlocked for use on every participating carrier. If a particular Google-branded phone is not on a particular carrier, then that’s only because that phone doesn’t have the proper radio to support its network. In addition to being unlocked, the phones will also have bundled plan options where the pricing and details are up to the carrier.

By offering a lineup of phones that is essentially carrier-independent (with the radio compatibility caveat), Google has separated the two previously interlocked parts of the phone/plan-buying experience—phone selection and carrier selection—and has done so in a way that threatens one of the most important enablers of carrier lock-in.

In short, what Google announced today wasn’t just the Nexus One, but the world’s first carrier-independent smartphone store; the Google store is now the only smartphone store in the world where, for every phone on offer, you first pick which phone you want, and then you pick a network and a plan on that network. So you can comparison shop among networks based purely on plan price and network quality, because you already have your phone picked out. via Ars Technica

I’m intrigued by the Nexus One, but not buying anytime soon. I definitely like where Android is going and have a good deal of respect for what Google is trying to do. I’m just not compelled enough to pick up a second mobile bill (@ $80/mo+tax) especially since while the G phones run on GSM, it’s another network band meaning sadly I still do need to consider where I want my 3G.

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What about the Google Phone is Going to matter?

Take a peek on Techmeme and you might think the only story in tech news is the upcoming and likely release of a Google Phone.  I’m sure it will be decent enough but am starting to question the logic a bit given the rumor that the Nexus One as it seems to be called will be sold as an open device, yet on T-Mobile.

I’m definitely a fan of open.  I absolutely prefer that my mobile devices not have restrictions based on operator business development initiatives and instead offer all that the hardware and OS can deliver.  I just don’t see how this device is going to really make that much of a difference for the mainstream consumer – or for T-Mobile.  According to the FCC leak the supported bands will be global and specifically TMO’s (1700) in the US.

If T-Mobile sells and supports the device it will really be a T-Mobile device.  Even if you buy it elsewhere you will need to run it on T-Mobile (again in the US) to actually take advantage of the 3G services and why would you buy an advanced smartphone otherwise?

I would love to be a fly on the way at Verizon Wireless right now.  They just spent gobs of cash launching the Droid which is strongly co-branded Google and has little to no Verizon anywhere.  Maybe they jumped the gun on going for Droid so quickly when big G had this cooking (to compete) all along …

I’m wondering whether Google might be looking to upend the subsidy market by  taking on the cost directly in exchange for all the lovely data they track … assuming a Google phone is like the G1 in that you must have a Google Account for it to work.  I tend to agree with Ewan that this really is going to be a price play.  It’s unlikely that this will be the phone for me, and I do wonder who an open Android device is for just now … Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

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A day late and a dollar short?

With all the noise yesterday about Android 2.0 and Google’s new free navigation service, this release just feels a bit … Meh.

Navigation market leader, Telmap, has used its unique navigation technology and NAVTEQ’s superior global map data, to bring a comprehensive mobile search, mapping and navigation solution for the iPhone, thus enabling mass adoption of mobile navigation. via Realwire

Since Nokia owns Navteq is does also immediately bring back my first thought on Ovi Maps…. How much longer can Nokia even consider charging for navigation services? nbsp;The PND category took a huge hit yesterday … Garmin alone lost 1.2 Billion off their market cap.

Once again the rules have changed. Will Nokia continue to play the same hand?


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If Nokia is about being Open why is data initially set to off?

After a lively debate on twitter tonight I’ve decided to reorganize my thoughts into post. My discussion with @chansearrington has really gotten me thinking about what Nokia’s perspective is on data usage and frankly why I think it’s wrong for today’s consumer marketplace.  Let me caveat this by first stating that I am considering only the higher end products … $500 and above which for Nokia is actually quite a few devices.

Let’s first consider a few things.  The iphone changed it all.  By forcing an unlimited data package into the purchase the iPhone lowered the bar to trial of basic data services and led the way to the applications marketplace which is clearly a runaway success.  The G1 followed and also included an unlimited data plan and now the PalmPre has arrived and comes with an unlimited data plan. 

Of course all three of these leading smartphones is offered through operator subsidy and that certainly makes things a bit easier as the data pipe is ready when you turn your phone on.  While Nokia sells gobs of phones through carriers none including the pending N97 flagship have mandatory unlimited plans.  I realize that outside he US, unlimited is a relatively new concept but again reflecting on the change the iPhone has brought the smartphone consumer has changed as well.  People now expect a data “tax” or an associated bill along with their usage of the phone.  There’s no way around that frankly as it’s the only way to get value from a workhorse like a smartphone.  If you don’t need or want that you’ve probably purchased the phone because you think it looks nice … now move along!

Chase argued that :

@atmasphere I’m sorry, bud. but you’re wrong. the more high end a user the aware they are of wifi and less likely to purchase a data plan

and did actually follow that up with:

@atmasphere on the flip side, higher income users with high income devices do tend to have data connections (think origin. black berry user)

Awareness of wifi and it’s value to your data experience does not mean you don’t want to have easy and open access to cellular data.  In my case (and yes I am on the extreme side) I use cellular data as much as possible unless I know my indoor coverage is going to limit my access to 3G.  I might use both more frequently if Nokia offered a smarter connection switching technique, but that’s yet another topic!

The key piece to the puzzle for me is how Nokia actually configures the software for you.  Presumably because the old way you would buy data was in an incremental manner, the device tends to ask each time you want to connect.  You not only have to confirm your intent to go online, but you have to choose your connection type.  Some people like this … I try not to think of the number if times I have agreed to go online. 

My suggestion is that the higher end Nokia devices (and I’m using $500 as the benchmark for high end) be set to just connect automatically to the internet through whatever operator sim is in your device.  Perhaps a single confirmation the very first time you go online and then never again would satisfy the legal department has caused this consumer frustration.  I’m willing to bet that the consumer purchasing a device in this price range is well aware and has the desire to go online frequently to consumer content. 

The N97 is loaded to the gills will ways to go online.  Apps, widgets, email, the store etc … imagine confirming your desire across each of them.  Why?  Just go online.  If I recall how my iphone works correctly (it’s been ages since I used it), I set a wifi point and then when in range (based on the scanning interval) it switches over.  there’s no prompt – in fact I have to go find wifi.  Cellular is the default.

In my view, everyone wins in this equation.  The consumer gets what they want – access to “stuff.”  The manufacturer gets happier more educated consumers using more of their devices … and I would be willing to bet more likely to purchase a next one.  The operator gets usage and a nice bill to share.  With the right plan structure it’s fair.  We just want to be able to access online content in a reasonable way for a reasonable price.

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Where are the updates to the S60 Browser?

Every day I read about new services and ways to use the Android and iPhone webkit browsers, yet there’s been no change to make some of these tools work well with the s60 software.  I can’t even open a new tab without a silly bookmark hack, and it seems there’s been little to no change in the S60 browser for a very long time.

By now, I would expect (and I don’t even think it’s that big a deal really) to be able to launch a new tab from within the browser yet there is NO way to do this.  It should be a menu item!  Once you have a few tabs open there is also NO tab management system – they can only be displayed in the order in which they’ve been opened.

I originally blogged about this in the fall of 2007.  Since that time, we’ve seen a number of new devices, a revised OS and yet the browser is still the exact same thing.  I’m sure someone will correct me that the actual version number (undetectable to users) has changed, but there is nothing new here.  I asked about this feature at Nokia World and did not see it in the N97 prototype shared with us over dinner either unfortunately.

My initial hack involves using a start page that forces new windows to spawn (like m.twitter.com) though today I use a homescreen shortcut to a bookmark of about:blank.  If you drop to either your multimedia menu or the homescreen and use that, it will force a new windows to open.

If you are going to talk about the full internet in a pocketable mobile computer, we should also recognize that it’s quite likely you’ll be multitasking across several web sites at once and need a simple (and standard!) way to open a new tab.  Why is the Nokia Internet Tablet the only device that does this?

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T-Mobile G1 is an almost …

T-Mobile G1

I’ve been playing with the T-Mobile G1for a few days now and I’d say it’s definitely a mixed bag. The form factor is interesting and the screen is gorgeous. As noted last week, the initial user experience is hands down the ultimate experience I’ve seen yet on any platform. With a simple login to Google, you have access to all your data – awesome! Actually using the G1 though afterwards is considerably less awesome…

The first thing I noticed using the G1 is that you have to constantly use both the touch screen and the hardware keys. There’s no way to do it all from one or the other and that’s both frustrating and confusing. There’s NO text entry in portrait mode which means this is a two-hander in almost every use case and something I hate. No easy way to tap back a tweet, sms or any form of text. You can dial in portrait mode, but there’s no T9 mapped to the keys – or a virtual keyboard. I know this is coming in Cupcake, but this is a huge miss.

Typing on the keyboard takes getting used to like on all devices. Because of the hump on the right side, I actually find typing to be less comfortable than on other devices because I’m always moving my hand to get comfortable and this is slowing me down – way too much.

The trackball is both a strength and a weakness. Cruising through a web page or a list it’s great, but when you are actually trying to click on a small link it’s way too sensitive. I’ve honestly not looked to see if this can be adjusted yet, but imagine your mouse is operating at hyper-speed on a tiny screen and you ‘ll get the idea of what it can be like to use.

In general the UI is nice to look at but harder to use than you’d expect. There are a lot of ways to access things from the on-screen buttons to the menu key as well as the back and home buttons and unfortunately you need to know when to invoke what option. The only truly simple thing is that the green button calls up your dialer and the red key turns the screen off.

The Camera is pretty average. No flash, 3MP = poor indoor shooting. The shutter is mushy and I found the lag to be considerable. Typical for a phone actually though even the iPhone’s on-screen button snaps faster than this. Neither can compare to a several year old Nokia NSeries though …

The browser is very solid. Much faster on wifi than anything else – which brings up a related point on TMO here. The coverage in NYC is pretty good though not stellar but you lose ALL signal on the train platform’s at Grand Central and there’s little to no signal on Metro North making any T-Mobile device useless for the commute. Anyway the browser is as good as the iPhone in my book. There’s no flash support, but you can easily manage multiple tabs and moving between them is quite nice given the tile management system in Android. There’s no sync for bookmarks though so you’ll be adding what you want as you go here which is a definite hole that should be filled.

Playing with the Market / App Store (whatever the actual name is) has been pretty positive and I’ve seen how well integrated people are able to write applications. The store itself is nowhere as simple as the iPhone store, but certainly not hard to figure out and there’s a nice diversity of applications in each category. I can’t speak to the quality of things in general but the apps I’ve tried are all quite good. So far, I’ve tried and am using Accuweather (killer GPS integration), Truphone, Bonsai Blast, Compare Everywhere, Connect 4 and Tic Tac Toe (for Hannah who’s 5), fBook, Last.fm, My Maps Editor, PixelPipe, Pac-Man, Shazam, TuneWiki, and Twitdroid

I love how the notification system coordinates throughout the system! New apps installed, emails, tweets, sms messages … all come through the menu bar and you are able to switch modes to engage with the latest info that’s poured in. I cannot state how powerful this concept is enough. Looks like Palm is actually doing something similar in WebOS for the Pre though on the bottom… should be interesting to compare in a few months.

All of the potential power within the G1 is rendered useless within a few short hours of light use by it’s absolute crap battery. T-Mobile and Google should be ashamed for releasing such a power hog! I found that just be leaving email and Twitdroid on, the phone was dead by around 3pm – taken off power at 7 am when I left for work. In that time, I did some light browsing over cellular and perhaps 30 minutes of wi-fi use at the office. That’s awfully quick and I’m guessing I could actually kill the battery before lunch with heavy (more normal for me) use.

The G1 is a solid first effort but I would not recommend it to anyone other than a mobile geek looking to explore. I think the average person would have a lot to get used to which is certainly true of most devices, but the mass market simplicity you should expect to find today is just not there yet … and of course the battery issue.

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What we can learn from Android – looking at YOU Nokia!

I’ve been playing with the Android G1 phone for about 24 hours and while I’ll have some thoughts to share on it in general soon, there’s one striking thing I thought was worth mentioning right away. The Android G1 has without a doubt the most straight forward and simple initial user experience of any device I’ve used.

When the G1 powers up you are prompted to either create or login to your Google Account. Signing in with my creds then began the sync process which brought my Contacts and Calendar down, and also configured my email and IM accounts for use. WOW! One account with so many benefits. I’ve been told it should have also signed me in through the web services so the mobile google services I use would also be connected though that did not happen for me. Perhaps due to my trying to use things before the sync had completed…

Apple still has a very desktop centric view of the iPhone and the reliance of iTunes is a core strength. The sync works very well though configuration requires a bit of effort /tweaking through iTunes. This bit of effort is actually a lot more than the G1 requires as you’ve been long since configured your Google stuff … assuming of course you use Google services and that’s really who the device is targeted.

On the Nokia side, you don’t actually benefit from any PC side configuration though some things can sync through the PC or Ovi Suites. No accounts are configured unless you choose to sync to an exchange account through PC Suite. Without getting into the complexities there, I would not advise fully syncing to your exchange server in PC Suite. I only sync the Notes there as that apparently was not important enough to be considered a part of Mail For Exchange. I digress …

Nokia handsets are largely PC independent, meaning you can and in most cases need to do it all on the handset. As Nokia looks to rely on services for growth and revenue, enhancing the consumer experience needs to become a core strength. Take a look at what’s currently connected to my Nokia Account:

Nokia Account Configuration

There are 9 things listed including applications, web services, and communication preferences. Instead of enabling the experience however, I have to actually log in to each bit separately when I use them. My browser does not even necessarily remember me even though it’s configured to save login details. This sucks. I know the Nokia Account system is new, but there’s such a massive opportunity for change here. Looking at the experience on the G1, there is so much to borrow from. I hope we see changes like this in the N97 and other devices this year, but the S60 system does not feel as smooth as some of the newer systems like Android.

Why can’t I just upload to Ovi out of the box without having to change anything after logging in on first power up? My email could be configured automatically as well if Nokia Email connected to the Nokia Account system and I can’t see why it won’t either. IM, Maps, Ovi.mobi etc etc. All this stuff could just work because you’ve already logged in!

I saw no mention of how things work on the Palm Pre, but given their desire to link external accounts to the core applications it would make a lot of sense to enable people to quickly authorize on the web and pass that through something like a Palm account.

Google has really pushed things forward with their account configuration and it’s something everyone developing mobile devices and services can learn from. Using anything else after having this experience will just highlight the old way of thinking — when consumers were made to work for it instead of encouraged by having pre-enabled services. Just consider how the iPhone’s unlimited data package contributed to usage and think about what pre-connected services would do to the usage figures. Retention of course will still be up to the service provider to put forth something of considerable value.

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Android netbooks on their way? Not so fast …

asus-android-screen

A team at VentureBeat was able to get Android running on an Asus EEEPC 1000H netbook, which is certainly a cool hack.

I’m not sure this is something I would personally want in the current state other than as a proof of concept. Though once things are perhaps more optimized for a larger touch screen it might be cool on a MID.

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Hands On with the G1

I spent some time with the G1 over the weekend and am still a bit underwhelmed. Overall the OS seems very polished compared and compared to my experimental install on the Nokia N810 it’s night and day. Still my view is that Android is far more designed for the power user rather than the mainstream mobile consumer. The user experience will definitely take some getting used to and finding the right way to navigate through screens is something you have to learn rather than simply intuit. T-Mobile has only added myFavs to the OS leaving it to appear otherwise native which is definitely refreshing

The hardware is quite nice. I found the G1 much smaller than I expected actually from the initial photos. It was very comfortable in-hand and the keyboard did not seem too hard to get used to using. I spent less than 15 minutes with the device so this is really a very casual perspective. The screen was very bright and in general the system looks beautiful. There’s a slickness that’s hard to get a feel for without some hands on experience. The manner in which the screen slides out is very slick as well. The arm inside articulates around so the screen pseudo-rotates rather than simply sliding up. When it’s open there’s a very nice click as it settles into position.

I’ve heard one rather interesting detail as well which is that TMO will only have a small window of exclusivity with Android which is pretty disappointing considering how long they waited on 3G. My money’s definitely on other carrier or open Android devices over the G1. I’d expect to see quite a few new Android mobile devices around CES and in market around the same time if not right after.

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Feeling underwhelmed by the G1

I’m days behind on feeds and discussion, but I definitely saw some news on the Google G1 phone and find it pretty disappointing. I know it’s absolutely a first generation product and there are certainly nice features in the UI that I’ve seen, but what’s been left out is pretty poor.

Sure the Google phone is naturally connected to the G-Suite. I get it. I like the google apps… But, why can’t I sync the phone from my PC or from Exchange? No really why? Google contacts suck, period. It’s a sorely lacking piece of the Gmail puzzle and Google has yet to show any additional updates (SYNC TO MY DESKTOP??) or integration with Jaiku (social stream) or Grand Central which I find seriously disappointing. What’s the vision here?

No video playback by default? Are you kidding? I have to download a 3rd party application from the store to get this going … nice. I’ve had video playback and recording I might also mention on every NSeries device I’ve owned and that goes back years now. Was video recording left out because it was viewed as an acceptable decision if Apple had already done the same thing?

No 3.5mm audio jack? This is a consumer device right? It’s not designed for enterprise integration (no sync outside G) so why do we have such a limited media playback experience as well?

These things are all table stakes at this point.

The UI details are definitely cool. I love the window shade system for notifications, but it’s unclear what happens when you get a slew of messages at once. In the example video I saw today, you receive and email and then have a very simple reply option via any contact channel you share. You only see it working with a single message but it’s pretty uncommon to see one email at a time. The browser features look strong, but geeky. No way my wife or dad would figure out the longer press options without assistance.

I’ve yet to get any hands-on time and would like to as the platform remains very interesting regardless of these gen one issues. I know there are other devices in development and we’ll probably see most of this wiped away relatively quickly.