In a previous article, I posted that I was sold on an Android 2.0 device knowing that Adobe AIR was coming to the platform.  In full disclosure, I was also sold by my brief experiences with them.  Well, now that I’ve sold my G1′s I picked up a Nexus and have put it through the ringer.

While I had complained, many times, about there being a lack of a physical keyboard I’ve moved on.  It’s still a drawback, but with practice I’ve gained the ability to be decent with the keyboard on the iPod touch. I’m hoping I can do the same here, however it’s no where near as efficient as the physical keyboard on the G1.

Now that I got the “OMG I have one” and the “I know I said I’d never” out of the way, I will focus on the amazingness which is this phone.  Rocking a 1ghz processor, 512mb of ram and a 5mp camera is just the start of the awesomeness.  While the phone runs as smooth as one would imagine, with those specs, the Nexus continues to shine with Android 2.1 under the hood.  I’d probably say it’s the smoothest phone I’ve used in a long time, which was really the selling point.  While I don’t play a lot of tasking games, I’m able to notice a huge difference in the performance through the simplest of tasks.  I could picture being able to throw anything I desired at it and being laughed at.

With bing screen comes big resolution.  Aside from having a larger screen and the higher resolution, the colors are right where I’d imagine with an AMOLED screen. Since AMOLED also saves power, it means I should be seeing slightly better battery life on the phone, though I’m not sure I’ll notice it.  The one fall back, with many touchscreen devices, is that finger prints show like it’s the new style.  I’ve noticed that, unlike the G1, they don’t really interfere with the content on the screen. I wish I could take a picture to show the difference.

The touch screen, while not my favorite interface, seems a lot more responsive then that of the G1. This could be a change in the firmware or because the hit areas are a bit larger on a larger screen.  In comparing it to the iPod Touch, I would go as far to say that it behaves a little better.. but not much.

The next big difference I noticed was that the camera is just beautiful.  Below is a video taken from the phone, however still pictures are just as nice. Packing a built in flash really improves the versatility of the phone, a flaw most of my other phone cameras had. While I don’t snap pictures with the phone’s camera, that often, it’s nice to know I can without worrying about the quality of the pictures.  For me, really, it’s about stability, and I can’t hold phones for shit when trying to take a picture.

Along with 2.1, there’s a lot of minor user interface changes.  The first thing you notice, after turning on the device, the launcher has changed it’s look significantly.  It is a lot more appealing and doesn’t require you to slide your finger across the screen to open it.  The next big change comes in the gallery, the gallery is a lot fancier and has more sharing options.. including integration with Picasa, which is huge in my book. Other UI changes come in subtle changes throughout the OS, things like 5 home screens (instead of the original 3 on Android 1.5) as well as tweaks to the virtual keyboard.

Despite reading about all of the changes in the past, I think they are all something you need to experience to appreciate.  I hadn’t been sold on one until I had it in my hand and could compare it to the other devices in my arsenal.  At first, I thought Google’s idea was ingenious, sell phones through an online store front killing the middle man in the process.. However, taking away the ability to experience the phone really can hurt the phone buying experience.

Visiting http://buzz.google.com from my G1 shows a table of compatible devices (and operating systems). When looking at the list, the first reaction is YAY Android gets all the functions.  Second glance, and you realize Android 2.0+ gets all the functions. Furthermore, there is no mention of pre-2.0 devices. This leaves me with the assumption that the support will only come with Google maps and not through the browser.

The issue as I see it, is that Google is segregating the OS instead of building an app for use on all android devices. As a G1 owner, fan-boy, it might come off like I am screaming UNFAIR.. However, my G1 is well past its life expectancy, so I can cope. The greater issue is that devices are still being produced, and developed on earlier versions of the OS.  for instance, the Sony x10, releases next month on 1.6. A long with a handful of other devices, the Sony will arrive to the market behind the times and possibly missing support of future Google Services.

First I want to say the application is amazing, a lot better than I thought it was going to be.  Initially, I expected the application to be a dressed up Google maps with a 3D interface.  Actually, the navigation seems to be really thought out and well implemented. Unlike other navigation systems, the directions are really straight forward (Pioneer units like telling me to take u-turns) and as accurate as any standalone I’ve used in the past.

The highlight, to me, was the text to speech through Google’s TTS application.  Most basic GPS unit’s don’t have this as a full feature, rather they tell you to “turn left in 1 mile” instead Google’s Navigation tells you to “Turn Left on to Colonial.”  I was eager to see if the feature would include speaking street names and when it did, I was ecstatic.  The one issue I noticed was that sometimes, with longer street names, it would cut off the name of the street pronouncing “Warwick Shore Xing” as “Shore Xing.”  Because I knew where I was, I was able to decipher the directions.. However, I don’t know how it would come into play in an area I was unfamiliar with..

I’m so impressed by it, I almost want to say it’s one of the finer navigation systems I’ve used so far.  The fact that it picked up the road I live on is enough to make me say this.

One thing I was concerned about, was how well Navigation would perform on a 1.6 (Cyanogen 4.2.3.1) device.  It really out performed any expectations I had for it, loading in and out was relatively quick, as well the routes seem to generate faster than my Pioneer head unit.  While there were a couple glitches, overall, the application is just as smooth as anything else on my phone.

The directions come from XDA-Developers (of course).  Here are the 3 files you need.

And here are some pictures!

Over the last several days there has been thousands of blog posts and articles about Apple pulling Google Voice apps off the market. After the FCC involved itself, the opinions only grew in number and often claimed the “I told you AT&T (or Apple) was eVil!” The thing is that everyone loves to be rooting for the winning team, even when the battle isn’t over.

What happened:
Google has this service named Google Voice, formerly Grand Central, which allows someone to have a single number route to many phones. For simplicity’s sake let’s just call it a forwarding service, which provides you a number for free, for life. For many smart phone users there is a mobile application which allows the user to use the data service on their smart phone to manage the account. These applications for the iPhone were pulled and future project indefinitely rejected by Apple. Apple made this move in one swoop, without explanation.

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