That’s my written immitation of the classic sound of a bomb dropping to earth, but turning out to be a dud.
That’s how I feel about the Android Market since paid apps became available. Other than one I bought (which is borderline worth it), and a host of pretty good free apps, the paid apps selection seems to be nothing more than dozens of tip calculators and fart noise apps.
Where are the good apps? Besides Telenav… If I drove more, I’d lay down some coin for Telenav.
That’s it though.
I forgot this in my last post.
On maps, I wish the map would orient itself to the direction you are facing (or driving) and have a compass icon integrated. It stinks when you are driving south, the marker moves down the screen. So when you have to make a right turn, you have to think of the map upside down (or hold the phone upside down).
UPDATED 12/30/09: Since this review, the developer hasn’t updated the app once. I had uninstalled it a while back in favor of a more robust Documents to Go. I had hoped QuickOffice would update the app to work with Office 2007 and PowerPoint. Glad I didn’t hold my breath. Sad I wasted $8 bucks.
Since there is a 24 hour return policy, I went ahead and downloaded QuickOffice for $7.99.
It’s worth the money IMO just to be able to save .doc, .xls, and .txt files from GMail to the SD card, which it does. I have a few e-mails in my inbox with attachments, which I kept in hopes of saving to the SD card someday. Now I can.
Pros:
Cons:
It appears from the description on their site that Office 2007 support, PowerPoint, and file editing are coming at some point.
Worth the money? Yeah I guess. I’ll keep it. I’ll only regret it if someone comes out with something better for less.
I wish I knew how to take a screenshot. So you’ll just have to take my word for it.
So far, nothing looks worth buying. I have my eye on QuickOffice, but I wrote to them and have not confirmed if it allows you to save .doc and .xls files from GMail to the SD card. They are clear that you can’t edit for now (just view), which I can live with. But I’m not paying a dime if you can’t save from e-mail to the SD card.
Why bore my vast audience with posts like this? Well because I don’t have a vast audience and because I like to use some blog posts to keep notes and refer back to them for reference. Maybe someone will notice. Maybe one of my three monthly unique visitors subtracting the two who accidentally stumble across it is a bigwig over at Google.
There are some pretty annoying bugs on the G1. Showstoppers, no. But they bug me.
Otherwise I love it. Don’t get me wrong, I think those things are relatively minor in my grand scheme of rating the phone on the whole.
This brings me to why I resent the message boards so much. Hence the peanut gallery comments above. I should have known this kind of dynamic would exist since I post to sports message boards. Well maybe not since I didn’t think there would be hardcore “fans” of the phone. On the boards, you are either a hater, or a lover and nothing in between. Nothing annoys me more than response from the lovers who say “then get a iPhone if you don’t like the G1” or “you should have expected this with a first generation phone” whenever anyone posts the tiniest complaint or concern. With the “lovers’” attitudes, you’d think the phone is perfect and in no need for any improvements whatsoever. See more about this in my Tech Fanboys, Workarounds, and Lay Users post.
Here’s an update to yesterday’s post on my G1/Google Wishlist.
I got the RC33 update about a half hour after posting. Yea me!
AND, buh dum dum. Gmail’s contact manager now lets you merge duplicate contacts! ’bout time!!!
Thanks Google. Now please get to work on the rest of my list. Thanks.
Now that I have the phone for 3 months, here is my updated wish list for both the phone and other Google products I use (or want to use) on the phone. Funny how I broke the RC33 update news to the G1 world at large, yet I’m still waiting for my RC33 update. How cruel is that?
Anyway, here are some things I wish my G1 could do. I’ll categorize these as no-brainers and seem like they are doable and ones that might not be doable (just my own non-technical opinion).
Here are other items I wish for, which I don’t know if they are doable or not.
Come on Google, get these done!
No I didn’t get a chance to enjoy any minute of fame. But I’ll gladly brag that I broke news that the T-Mobile G1 aka Google phone put out an update–RC33.
I had noticed that my wife’s phone was getting an update last night. Could it be the long awaited “cupcake” I asked myself. After firing it up afterwards, there was nothing different to write home about.
So I posted to the t-mobile forum. Barely legible since I was posting from the phone. The forum acts up when posting from the phone.
I guess the whole cupcake rumor/no rumor thing has everyone skeptical, because readers demanded a screen shot. After about 5 attempts at a non-blurry shot, I posted this:
http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/soreco/3249188324/
Here is where I broke the news:
http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=87&thread.id=30842
See some people REFUSE to believe it, even after I posted a screen shot.
Here a Google related blog didn’t believe it at first:
http://www.googleandblog.com/rc33-update-for-t-mobile-g1-android-phone-users-why-no-31-or-32/
This post will be a long one. Some time has passed since my last review. Here is what I have installed and how I rate them. These are apps in the Android Market, not the ones that come preprogrammed on the G1. Assume what’s not installed either 1) a duplicate of one I have installed, 2) terrible and has been uninstalled, or 3) doesn’t interest me.
AK Notepad
Simple note taker. Something like this should be included. Don’t like that it doesn’t have a “traditional” save or save as.
AndFTP
Simple FTP client. I really haven’t used it much. Or have a great need for it. If there was a html/text editor on the market, I guess I can use it to edit my websites. I kicked the tires on it, and it seems to work fine.
Any Cut
Used to create shortcuts. Pretty cool app and easy to use. For example I created a desktop icon/shortcut to call my house. And another one to open the browser straight to google reader. I like simple conveniences. This helps make conveniences conveniently.
aTrackDog
Love this app. It tracks all installed apps on the phone, and searches the market to see if there are updated versions. If there is an update, it links right to the new version to install. Before this, it was a pain in the neck to search each app one by one.
BistroMath
Tip calculator. Does what it’s supposed to do.
Bookmarker
A little clunky UI, bit it helps manage bookmarks. Another feature that should be built in, but oh well. It helps overcome the phone’s shortcoming.
Chess
Played a few times. What can I say, it’s chess.
Countdown Alarm
Pretty self explanatory. No more burnt Ellios pizzas for me!
Free Dictionary Org
Another no brainier. I used it once. And only once. Worked though. So I like it.
G-Notepad
Simple txt editor. One one problem though. It won’t save. Perhaps it’s a bug. I’ll hold on to it for a while to see if the bug is ever fixed. Or until someone comes out with one that works. I like saving txt files over what AK Notepad has to offer. Only if it works…
Gmote
Turns your phone into a remote for the media on your computer. Lousy UI. I’m holding on to this until they either polish it up or something better comes out. It’s also a PITA that the phone has to be connected to the same wireless network as the computer. ‘Cause most of the time I don’t know what each is connected to.
GPS Tracker
This is pretty sick. Sick as in good sick. When GPS is activated on the phone, you can track my every move!
http://mattsoreco.com/where/
Here I Am
This is pretty cool too. Same idea as GPS tracker, only you can e-mail or text the coordinates to anyone. That opens up a Google map with your location. I guess it can come in handy if you are lost in God knows where and you need to explain where you are to someone.
imeem
Copied and pasted from my last app update: Streaming music based on favorites. I like it so far, I just need to play with it more and add more favorites.
I guess the downfall is the UI, or else I’d use it much more. Also, you can only skip 6 songs in a given time, so that’s a drawback.
Last.fm
Another streaming music app based on favorites. Picks up where imeem leaves off in terms of UI and unlimited skipping of songs. Only thing, it has some critical bugs to work out. It doesn’t play in the background (unless the app is open). That’s pretty stupid. It also hasn’t been saving any of the songs I “loved,” costing me 2 hours of my life on the weekend. It they work these things out, I’ll be ditching imeem for this.
OI File Manager
Simple file manager. Chalk it up to another feature that should have come with the phone. At lease all of these apps are free for now.
Picasa
Pretty cool add on that lets you sent to Picasa straight from the picture viewer.
PicSay
Lets you add captions and other cool things to pictures. I’ll probably never use it. I guess I want to be cool, so I’ll leave it on.
Pictorial
I actually just uninstalled this one since it appears Picasa mobile web version now lets you view all pics. There used to be a 50 or so pic limit per album. It was good while it lasted. It lets you interact with your Picasa albums.
QSearch
I guess the novelty wore off since my last post. A basic on screen keyboard which allows you to save milliseconds of life and time by enabling you to do Google searches without having to open the keypad.
Quickpedia
Basically wikipedia reformatted for the screensize. I realize how much I don’t use wikipedia since I used this once just to check it out. Good if you use wikipedia though.
Quote Pro
Stock quotes. Nice interface. I can see how much my 401k isn’t worth anymore.
Ringdroid
Haven’t used and probably never will. I’m happy with the funky default ringtone. Another app to make me look cool I guss.
Save MMS
Lets you save text message attachments. Another app that should come standard. Pretty useful given the phone’s lack of ability.
Scoreboard
“Live” sports scoreboard, which allows you to track your favorite teams (nfl, mlb, nhl, nba, et al). It’s also supposed to send you an alert whenever there is a score change during one of your favorite teams’ games. For some reason, for me it’s always late and I don’t get the alerts. I’ll hold for bug updates as this has potential.
Scrambled Net
Cool game.
Shazam
Identifies music playing (on the radio for instance), then lets you tag it, buy it, and/or look up artist. I’ve actually used it, so it’s not just to make me look cool!
ShopSavvy
Lets you scan a barcode of a product, then gives you comparitive pricing in the area. Good for an unsavvy shopper like myself. I haven’t needed it yet though.
Solitaire
Just your basic solitaire games.
Stopwatch
Yes, I’ve used this several times to see how fast I can tap start then stop. I don’t know how much faster you can get than 00:00.1!
System Monitor
I hate that memory numbers this shows doesn’t match up with what the default phone dialog shows. It might be on my soon to kill list.
Text Easy
Never used, but can come in handy for texting multiple contacts. I don’t text much, if you can’t tell.
The Weather Channel
Easier than looking out the window or opening the door to see what it’s doing outside.
Toggle Settings
Eliminates the PITA of having to navigate through settings to do basic things like turn on/off wifi, gps, ringer modes, ets. You can manage all of that stuff on one simple screen.
Video Player
Haven’t used, but it might be ok I guess.
Voice Recorder
I should probably use this more to capture thoughts. Simple to use, save, and send.
Yellowbook
I know where everything is already. Probably good if I ever traveled more.
I need a break now.
Lately I’ve been perusing message boards and blogs on the G1 phone. There is a tremendous debate among users as to their satisfaction levels. This, along with my own dissatisfaction with Microsoft Vista, led me to do some thinking. I think it might be impossible for companies with complicated products to produce products that will satisfy every one of their customers.
Take for example Vista. I hate it. Why? Because XP was easy to navigate and find files, folders, programs, etc. So why mess with it? I think, and I might be wrong, that Microsoft modeled Vista and produced it with a heavy slant towards users who want a {buzzword alert} rich multimedia experience. I think the casual user, like me, was left out. And my frustrations are some very basic things, like folder structure. Suddenly I had to click 3 times where it used to take me one click.
Now take the G1. I’m a Google addict. I use almost every one of their products and services. So going with the G1 was a no brainer. In my opinion, Is the G1 perfect? No. But it met my basic expectations.
This brings me to the message boards and blogs. It seems G1 users are divided into pretty distinct camps that range from the extremely technical to the very casual. You have Android fans that don’t mind using the phone with a beta mindset to more casual users who demand a finished product.
Who’s right and who’s wrong? Can Google/HTC/Tmobile produce something to satisfy everyone? Consider the phone is being judged by the following:
1) Phone service
2) Text messaging
3) E-mail client
4) Web Browser
5) MP3 Player
6) Camera
7) Everything else from GPS maps to games, the list is endless.
I do take exception to a few notions. The phone is/was marketed to the general public, so the notion that customers should put up with bugs/annoyances to me is an unreasonable response to complaints. Also, a LOT of advice on both the G1 and Vista require technical modifications. This does not suit a less technically savvy user or those who don’t have the time or desire to tinker.
How does a company take all of these considerations and produce a product that’ll be widely accepted? Do they just aim for the middle?