G1 Thread

[Ellz]

Well thought i'd start this up for anyone with one, i think that could only be me and fargo.

But it'll give others an idea of all the free app's on the G1 that I've used and found helpful or just tack.

Firstly I've got the weather channel which is really handy give you an hourly, 36 hours and 10 day forcast. You can choose from pretty much any town I've come across at the moment. Its also got map features which really bog down if your on 3g but if on wireless its pretty good, you can add layers to your map e.g. current cloud cover, wind speed etc etc etc.

Next is Power Manager, this basically has pre-set settings depending on your current Battery life (these are all changeable by the user of course). So when you plugged in everything is switched on, when on full Battery a few things stay on, then half Battery screen times out quicker all BT,wireless etc turns off etc etc. Really handy as its well know that the G1 has a poor Battery life.

Net counter is also very good keeps an eye on how much you've used over a set time so you can make sure you dont go over your limit.

ShopSavvy is probably one of the best app's ive got so far. If your out shopping for Dvd's CD's books games etc you can simple pick up the item scan the barcode and Shopsavvy searches the internet for the item, showing you all the results, it also shows you any local shops that have the item in stock and at what price. Very very trick little app.

Nru is a bit of a show off app but is good for when your in a place you dont know, it searches for bars,pub, theatres, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, stations, music venues, you get the idea. Then shows you on a compass how far and in which direction this is all live so when you turn around the items turn with you to show you which direction to go, when you lift the phone up in front of you it changes the display to show as it you where walking towards it again it changes direction if you move to keep you on the right track. If you click on any of the places it has brought up it takes you to a webpage with all there information so you can then book a table, ticket whatever you want.

that'll do for the moment i'll add somemore later

[Fargo]

il shall be joining in once i receive my phone..

[Ellz]

il shall be joining in once i receive my phone..

coolio there a few apps that really improve the phones performance looking at a slightly bigger Battery as well they do a 1600mAh one which is the same size which should give a couple more hours of use.

[reganlives]

whats a G1?

[Fargo]

G1 is the Google phone made by HTC,, has VERY similar hardware specs to the HTC touch HD.

Ellz, have you not got unlimited date on your tarriff, therfore the net usage app is pointless., coming from the Iphone tariff i have unlimited data.

[Steviewevie]

Not sure if this is a bit off-topic to what you originally intended, Ellz, but what do you think are the good points and the bad points about the G1 in general ?

[Ellz]

Fargo I dont think any of the unlimited data are actually unlimited they all have a fair usage policy, the web and walk from t mobile is 1gig which now i've use the phone for about a month i dont think normal users would go over but i've got the web and walk plus which has a 3 gig limit which i think anyone would find difficult to max out.

Deffo the worst part about the phone is the Battery it last for a day if you use it regularly but if your careful and have the power manager set to pretty strick and only use 3g when nessesary you could get longer out of it. there are also larger batteries coming out there is a massive 2250mAh one but it bulks to phone out to about a inch thick, i might get one though for the weekends im away racing and wont have much time to charge it.

The build quality isnt great, its not going to fall apart but its just not as sleek and smooth as others out there.

But to be honest i forgive it for all the up sides, I dont see any other phone able to do things that this cant, and with some of the apps that have come out for it this has so much to give.

Its not crashed on me at all yet and i've had so much stuff running at once. the android system is the heart of the phone and would be pretty crap without it, all apps are free at the moment and the 3g is pretty quick. Cant fault it so far apart from the Battery really.

[Fargo]

yes indeed there is fair usage on everything nowdays lol.

the G2 looks a sleeker design..

[Ellz]

Well installed one of these last night

http://www.zagg.com/

Blooming took about 2 hours trying to get all the bit on properly really really fiddle doing the full body case. But its not on and hopefully the phone is protected for its life.

It says to leave 2-3 days before all imperfections are out, but already i can tell that the screen isnt as sensitive but i will leave for the 2-3 days before i make a full conclusion, and before anyone asks no im not going to test it with my keys LoL

[DJ Wozza]

What operating system does this phone use ? I have an HTC Touch Pro or HTC Touch HD next on

my list for my summer upgrade, and wondered how this compares ?

[Steviewevie]

What operating system does this phone use ?

It uses Google's Android platform, which I believe runs on top of a Linux kernel.

[Ellz]

What operating system does this phone use ?

It uses Google's Android platform, which I believe runs on top of a Linux kernel.

I believe that is correct.

Wozza if you look into android you will see what all the fuss is about, its open source and they are incoraging people to come and design there own app's there are many forums helping people out and the community is growing pretty nicely. Most of the app's ive downloaded have had over 250,000 downloads, i dont believe there counters go above that (well i havent seen any with over that yet). Yup just looking as is goes from 50,000 - 250,000 then >250,000.

When the next devices roll out and more and more people get android there are so many things that people can do on them, im just annoyed none of my mates have got them, but 1 has got an upgrade soon so he'll be going G1 or G2 if its out in time :D

[aido]

All you ever wanted to know about the Android OS is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android

And in case you were wondering here's the equivalent Iphone detail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_OS

Embedded Linux is making inroads into many realtime devices nowadays :)

And so as not to leave anyone out here's the Symbian info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS

OpenMoko was the first phone to really push it's opensource underpinnings but the thing looked *******!

[Ellz]

Aido did you see this ?

Flash running on the G1, if you look at the comments it looks like the markadoherty is a adobe employee of some sort.

[aido]

Hadn't seen it yet mate but was reading something yesterday (way too much time on my hands at the min) saying that Adobe reckon they're working on it with apple now:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/02/ip...sh_a_challenge/

Not sure though if they're going for a fully blown Flash experience though?

I do fancy a look at one of these Android phones though, going to see what comes out in the next gen and have a nosey at some, I love gadgets and not really bothered what brand they are :)

I was quite impressed the other day, I'd previously tried an xvid with a port of Videolan to the Iphone and it's awful, like maybe 2 frames a second decoding, but then tried mplayer which is another media player for *nix systems and that is fantastic!

If there's not already a port of that keep your eye out as that could come in useful as you can then watch full blown media without having to transcode it first :)

[aido]

Actually looks like ports of VideoLAN and mplayer are already in development mate so you'll be sorted for watching vids :)

..:: Edit ::..

Just seen they've already got mplayer working in the Android emulator so it's not too far off:

http://mplayer4iphone.blogspot.com/2009/01...d-emulator.html

[Ellz]

Yep on the youtube comment he said that they have got it working on the Iphone but need apple to sign off on it, probable working up a price for customers to pay for it Lol.

Im not to fussed about watch films on mine at the moment, i dont think im confident enough to do some of the stuff you do as well, you far higher up the geek chain that me hehehe. I would have thought you'd love the android system, the only thing is it might take up to much of your time with hacking it and making new app's and add ons lol

[aido]

Oi I'm no geek It's why I drink more to balance it out, yin and yang and all that :D Saying that though seeing as I had a few pints on Sunday at the meet and felt hammered I need to get back in practice when I'm back to normal!

I reckon they've probably not used the official SDK for it which is why they're struggling to get apple to sign it off, they'd be pretty limited if they go the official route as I don't think it would plug into Safari as official apple apps are sandboxed and so can only see their own folder structure.

Stuff for the jailbroken phones can get around it, got apps to let me download stuff and save it on the phone so I can use it later, one of the alternative app stores uses that method :)

Mate phones are easy, the way I see it is even if you break something they've got fallbacks like DFU on the Iphone so I just tinker and if I mess it up start again :D

Have to admit I've popped a couple of vids on the phone for those moments you share with the lads in the pub if you know what I mean

[Ellz]

Have to admit I've popped a couple of vids on the phone for those moments you share with the lads in the pub if you know what I mean

Dirty boy

[Fargo]

What operating system does this phone use ? I have an HTC Touch Pro or HTC Touch HD next on

my list for my summer upgrade, and wondered how this compares ?

have a look here you can pick two phones to compare hardware specs, have a compare of the HD and PRO against the G1,, then for your ammusement compare against the Iphone...

ellz,, yeh saw that protecter, pretty impressive, meant to tell you about it..

[Ellz]

ellz,, yeh saw that protecter, pretty impressive, meant to tell you about it..

Its a pain in the botty to fit but im pretty happy with it so far

[swfcdan]

:P :D

Edited February 5, 2009 by DJ Wozza
removed off topic comments

[Ellz]

I probably should have named this the Android thread as its more about android than the actual G1 but oh well as the G1 is the only one out with it at the moment i suppose its similar.

Edited February 5, 2009 by DJ Wozza
removed off topic comments

[DJ Wozza]

Lets stay firmly on topic guys :)

[Ellz]

Lets stay firmly on topic guys :)

I said let keep it on topic as well no need to edit that ;)

Ok heres another cool app I downloaded.

Even though the UK one is a little pointless, its called world traffic cam's. Basically you can view a number of traffic camera around the world, in the UK they have a limited amount in london probably about 150 ish camera's. But you can see images which update every so often, UK ones are 300 seconds, but the ones i've looked at the USA update every second so you get basically live feed, and in the US they've got thousands, the idea is to allow you to plan a route by looking at the traffic live, but the UK needs to really update every 5 - 10 seconds at the max not every 5 mins.

I think its almost a little scary this app, good know what we'll be able to look at next, every CCTV camera ? never know.