by Frank McPherson, author of How To Do Everything With Windows Mobile

 
Now that I am using the T-Mobile G1, I realize that this blog has the potential of changing from a Pocket PC/Windows Mobile specific blog to a blog all about the G1. I am not sure what to do about that, but my thinking is that if there are any readers left here, this audience would be more interested about my G1 experiences than those who read my general blog.

By far the most frustrating thing about the G1 for me has been the battery life. It cannot get through a day on one charge, even if I am not using the phone very extensively. There may be many reasons for this, but one thing different between Android and Windows Mobile is that Messaging in Windows Mobile only downloads a few kilobytes of email unless you configure it to do otherwise, whereas Gmail downloads everything except pictures. I also notice the synchronization symbol on the status bar a lot, so it may be that sync doesn't time out quickly enough if there are communication issues. Hopefully there are some optimizations that Google can make to Android to get it longer battery life, otherwise this device is not going to sell very well.

Not all of the device's capabilities and functions are obvious, nor documented. For example, how do you quickly mute the phone? I found you have to press and hold the End (red) button then tap Sound Off.

The Marketplace is a cool application, but it needs an easy way to show new applications that are available to download. I think a simple Added In The Last 7 Days menu option would be sufficient. They could send an email or text message (free of course) to indicate new apps, but the point is that I shouldn't have to wade through a list of items to find something new. Right now there aren't many applications, but we all hope that will change soon, right?

Speaking of cool applications, Android is in need of what I would consider some key applications:

• A twitter client. Yes SMS works and the web page works, but none are like Tinytwitter or Twirl


• A Facebook client. Facebook is cool on the iPhone, it should be cool on Android. I know that there have been articles suggesting that for some reason Facebook won't come until the Cubs win the Series. Whatever!


• A podcatcher. I really want an easy to use application that can subscribe to podcasts and can automatically connect to Wi-Fi networks and download the podcasts in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. I've tried to make BeyondPod do this on my Tytnn II and it won't work for me. Unfortunately, the iPod and Zune require a physical connection to a PC to download podcasts.


• A to-do application, though I do have a workaround for this using Gmail and Anycut that will write more about in another post.


• A notetaking application. Here I am hoping that Evernote will come out with an Android app has they have done for iPhone and Windows Mobile, though I really want it to be better so that it stores notes locally.

Speaking of third party applications, the two I am using the most at the moment are Locale and AnyCut. Locale is a profile application for Android that is capable of taking certain actions when it detects you are in a certain location. I've been using the cell tower form that is not as accurate as GPS, but it seems to be good enough. The one problem is that it doesn't seem to consisently detect that I am at home. A few things that I would improve with Locale is to provide users with an option to turn notifications on or off. It's nice to see that it knows I am in a locale the first time it happens, but repeatedly showing afterwards is annoying. It also a nice ability to send a message to Twitter when you are in a location, but that can only be the same message. Locale needs to be smart enough to realize that if I have been in the same location for a period of time it doesn't need to send the same message to Twitter. Here again they could provide some options, like allow user to specify to only send one message when you enter a location per day. Another thing I notice is that for some reason Locale changes the sound settings, I have noticed this because I am using it to set the phone to vibrate when I am at my work location. Finally, I would like Locale to be able to do more things, maybe it could be the podcatcher that I am looking for.

Finally, we come to the Google applications, which I think is most frustrating for users because they had high expectations for Google. In a nutshell, the Google apps are littered with little problems that show a lack of paying attention to detail. One big example: there isn't an easy way to delete large amounts of email. I really, really, like the web-based Gmail because in two clicks, click Unread to select all unread items, then click Delete, I can delete all the messages I am not interested in reading or saving. This approach is very fast and easy, and there is no reason it isn't on Android. Just put all the Select options at the top of the screen, and then give me a one click button to Delete on the top screen. I shouldn't have to press and hold or press menu to delete mail messages. For that matter, how about providing all of the keyboard shortcuts I can use on my desktop on the G1, after all you seem to expect me to be using the keyboard all the time!

The Calendar application has similar deficiencies, and it is obvious to me that not much thought is put into using Calendar as a serious way for tracking appointments for business. There is no way to view the day view in 30 minute increments, and there is no setting that allows the user to specify the default duration for a meeting. Most of my appointments are scheduled in 30 minute increments and there is no simple way for me to set them that way. While the web desktop version of Calendar allows me to request other people to participate in an appointment, there is no similar option in Android.

The main message to Google here is that users are expecting that they have ALL the application functionality on Android as they have on the full web. Making decisions for users on what they will or will not use is the Microsoft way for mobile computing, and would best not be repeated by Android. The appeal for me to Android is the power behind flexibility and tight integration with Google applications, to which much to my shock I have become more dependent.

Labels: 2008, android

posted by Frank at 9:11 AM

4 Comments:

I've been using G1 for a week now and my experience so far is that the battery life appears to be better than on my Windows Mobile devices. It went for several days on a single charge, but I have it set to do a manual sync and no GPS tracking.

In your post you mention that you tried BeyondPod and it did not work for you. What was the reason?

By  StefanK, at 7:21 AM  

I am using automatic sync though I don't have the GPS on, so clearly the synchronization is a contributor to the battery life problem.

As for BeyondPod, the key thing I was trying to do was get it to automatically start Wi-Fi and download podcasts using the scheduler software. For whatever reason I could never get it to wake up and download.

Manual updating works fine, just the automatic was a problem.

By  Frank, at 7:59 AM  

My experience with G1 so far is similar to yours - the productivity apps are very, very basic. I think in contrast to Apple who seems to be guarding their core applications, Google will be relying on outside developers to fill in the gaps in theirs. One thing that I really like on G1 is the trackball. While the screen and apps are very "finger friendly", I still find myself using the trackball quite a bit - mostly because it does let you see the entire screen when selecting.

It is probably a mood point for you now that you use the G1,
but I have seen the "no wake up" problem and it has to do with a device registry setting that specifies the time allowed to launch scheduled tasks while in standby. The key is under

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\Timeouts

If you set both: "BattResumingSuspendTimeout" and "ACResumingSuspendTimeout" to something like 60 the wake up should work fine.

By  StefanK, at 8:45 AM  

Like you, I am really liking the track ball. I need to blog about that.. the good with the bad. I can see why the Blackberry folks like there devices with the little track ball, it is very handy. The new Samsung Epix has something different a small glide pad that is actually an optical mouse. I guess you see a mouse cursor on the small screen. Not sure how good that is, but I am intrigued to try it. The Epix is sold by AT&T in the U.S. so i might make a point of stopping by one of their stores to try it.

Thanks for the tip on BeyondPod. It's not moot as I carry two devices, one for work (Windows Mobile Tytnn II) and the G1, and I am trying BeyondPod on the Tytnn II. So I'll give your tip a try.

By  Frank, at 11:47 AM  

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