- My first Android Experience
Here I will begin recollecting my experiences with the first Android phone (T-Mobile G1). This will span several posts and thoroughly cover the following aspects of my Android experience:
- Hardware. My experience with the phone itself.
- Software. What kind of programs I’ve found; how they’ve worked out for me, etc.
- Programming. I wrote several applications for Android. Here I will recount the process, and the ups and downs of programming for android
- Other tidbits of Android life.
Hardware (Including setup)
My android experience began when Google announced it was selling developers editions of its phones. I was one of those eager beavers who lined up to buy the first ADP (Android Developer Phones). After getting my hands on the phone I was eager to test it out. It looked sleek enough coming out of the package; my only qualm was the fact that the film protecting the screen already had more bubbles than the average sparkling soda.
After the initial stage of observing how shiny it was, I actually tried to boot the thing up. It went well until I came to the “sign into Google” screen (see below).
I was running this phone off of my AT&T sim card without a data plan. Oops. I was SOL. In order to use the phone I had to track down a friend with a Sim card that had a data plan (ironically she was using it in an Iphone), and use that to log into Google. After this inconvenience, things went relatively smoothly. I am running it off of a cheap plan that has no texting / internet acess, so I’m not getting the full “android experience”, but I live on a college campus with decent wireless coverage, so the wifi suffices for my needs.
As for commentary on the actual hardware, I like it. I think the G1 is a good carrier of the android platform. It has modern style, fits into your pocket quite conveniently, and feels like a phone. I am a big fan of the slide out keyboard, because Apple’s virtual keyboard wasn’t cutting it for me; my fingers are too big (some would say that’s a plus).
Next post: Talk abut software
