Google's Android might eventually make me a cellphone user
9:09 AM Fri, Oct 17, 2008 | Permalink
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The phone is called HTC G1, the Google mobile operating system is Android. But it all ends up being called Google Android. Lifehacker does a software review (A Hands-on First Look at Google Android), Gizmodo the hardware review (T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone Review), and T-Mobile offers an Emulator you can play with to get a feel for it. David Pogue of the Times does the overview: A Look at Google's First Phone. Sniffing comparisons to the iPhone in these reviews elude me, but I've never been tempted by one. I'm such a proponent of open source that Apple's proprietary everything has been a must to avoid. I don't own a cell phone -- which astonishes people who assume I'm a tricked-out geek -- but later generations of this one might convert me: A keyboard, browser and lots of familiar Google apps might tip the balance, when there are more network choices than T-Mobile and a robust collection of Android add-ons. T-Mobile customers can get a T-Mobile G1 starting at $179.99, plus taxes and fees (pricing subject to upgrade eligibility criteria: two-year agreement required). Order yours before October 21, 2008, and it will be delivered as early as November 10, 2008.* Or you can buy one without a plan on eBay for $585. Go figger. 5 CommentsLeave a comment |
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I have to say, I am surprised that you don't have one. I don't think I know a tech geek who doesn't have a cell phone. I, too, am waiting for future generations of the G1 or other phones with the Android OS. My contract with Verizon Wireless ends next summer and I will be seriously re-thinking my cell carrier and what I get for a phone.
I'm actually surprised you don't have an iPhone. I won't get one of those because of the lack of real buttons and a real keyboard. If Apple made it a slider phone with a keyboard, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
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I don't really like talking on the phone. I joke that I don't want people to find me, but I consider all ringing phones interruptions. It's nice to be out of range.
Sometimes though -- in the car when I'm lost, or when I'm in the grocery store wondering if we need peanut butter -- it would be handy to have a cell phone and a maps app.
My husband has a cell phone, and we're together a lot, so it's not as though friends and family can't find us on the road.
But it would be nice to blog from anywhere without having to haul a laptop around and find free wifi.
But I'm really not looking for another monthly bill, so it will be interesting to see if this actually happens.
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Do you know if the popular free mobile app LifeInPocket will support Android?
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Just to correct a wee discrepancy: the Apple OS *is* open source and it's a variant on Apple's desktop OS X that's running in the iPhone.
It's not at all clear why anyone would want a physical keyboard but maybe people kept using Morse code tappers even after radio came out. There's no sniffing in this as the phone just isn't that sophisticated.
I don't have an iPhone, by the way. It could be entertaining to have that much compute power in my pocket but, thus far, I'd have to manufacture a need for it and nothing worth the money has occurred to me.
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For me, a cellphone is freedom as it releases me from any concern about the land line and, more often than not, I don't even answer the land line as it's almost always spam, best hope is that it's McCain calling to tell me Obama was raised by space aliens. No spam on cell lines so that's another huge plus.
On balance, carrying that annoying device with you everywhere you go is kind of like an electronic wart and what's worse is they multiply. I have one cell for my own use, another one for work, and I can't find my way around Rhode Island without a GPS so my life is one continual bath of high-frequency radiation.
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