Nexus One Google Phone

This new device, the Courier from Microsoft seems like a real awesome idea. Hands down this would crush the iPad which is completely worthless in my opinion and a lot of other peoples.

Here is my response after I watched their product movie and then saw a video on the Courier:

Once again MS makes something that appears to be something I can actually use. I could imagine a lot of productive uses for this (thing school). I am sure that the iPad does some of this, but it’s not featured. Apple features looking at pictures, checking email, and browsing the web. This thing has a pen, so it matches what I do now. I go in to discovery meetings with a book (just happens to be my Journal), and I pull out a pen and I start taking notes. That’s how I do it. Do you know how awkward it is to use a keyboard for that? I don’t care how small and light it is. Plus since the iPad does not have a full sized keyboard, you have to hunt-n-peck to type (in the video they show hands typing ion an advanced form of hunt-n-peck where multiple fingers are used, but he’s not typing typing.

I’m not trying to hate on Apple… but I guess I am, because I hate they way the talk.

Apple is worthless to me. In their video they talk about it being the best way to check email (?!), the best way to surf the web (!?!!?), the best way to watch movies (!!????!?). The best way to look at your photos (maybe). Let me decide the best way for me to browse the web (I like opera), and watch movies (Cinemark is cool), and look at photo’s (I like to sit in a circle with family and pass actually smelly photographs around – old school I know but that’s what I like). If your product is real, you don’t have to tell me what’s best, just tell me how it works. I can decide if it’s best for me. And dude said the reason it’s the best way to browse the web is because, “it just feels right… to hold the internet in your hands” What did they drug him up with?! I can’t imagine the small fraction of humans who have openly expressed “I wish I could just hold the internet in my hands.”

They say because you can hold the device at any orientation, that you don’t have to change to adapt to the device, it adapts to you… so instead of me having to stand on my head, the device flips the screen. Thanks apple! Truth is adapting to a person means more than screen orientation. For instance how does the hunt-n-peck keyboard adapt to me? Where’s my stylus? I don’t look at pictures all day? So then, who’s going to have to do the adapting?

Finally, this opening quote (an attempt to be deep) is just plain stupid:

“when something exceeds your ability to understand how it works, it sort of becomes magical…”

That crap is historically a lie. When humans don’t understand things, they figure it out. Now, when mindless dotes don’t understand, they call it magic. And are then ridiculed by more advanced civilizations. I imagine that Apple will let out a nice belly laugh every time one of these are sold, “HA! They think it’s magical!!”

Is it me, or does he look crazy – like he’s holding a huge cell phone and saying, look at my huge cell phone! It’s awesome!

Big, Ugly Bezel
Have you seen the bezel on this thing?! It’s huge! I know you don’t want to accidentally input a command when your thumb is holding it, but come on.

No Multitasking
This is a backbreaker. If this is supposed to be a replacement for netbooks, how can it possibly not have multitasking? Are you saying I can’t listen to Pandora while writing a document? I can’t have my Twitter app open at the same time as my browser? I can’t have AIM open at the same time as my email? Are you kidding me? This alone guarantees that I will not buy this product.

No Cameras
No front facing camera is one thing. But no back facing camera either? Why the hell not? I can’t imagine what the downside was for including at least one camera. Could this thing not handle video iChat?

Touch Keyboard
So much for Apple revolutionizing tablet inputs; this is the same big, ugly touchscreen keyboard we’ve seen on other tablets, and unless you’re lying on the couch with your knees propping it up, it’ll be awkward to use.

No HDMI Out
Want to watch those nice HD videos you downloaded from iTunes on your TV? Too damned bad! If you were truly loyal, you’d just buy an AppleTV already.

The Name iPad
Get ready for Maxi pad jokes, and lots of ‘em!

Check out the rest of the article here

This is a little of topic from the Nexus One, but Apple revealed the new iPad today. To me it’s kind of stupid. I would never use it. It would be a complete waste of money. The name also sounds like some kind of feminine product. I don’t like the name iPad at all. That being said, the masses will eat the Apple iPad up. People will be flocking to the stores to buy them as soon as they are available just because its Apple.

Movies have been showing things like the iPad for years and it seems like a natural progression for computers. I’ve been sick of real keyboards for years. So even though I’m not really into the new Apple iPad, it’s a tad interesting. We will have to wait and see what happens with it. I’d rather see something like this in a desktop form.

So is the iPad just a big iPhone? To me it looks that way. For it to be really useful it would need to be the full OSX operating system. I don’t want a device like this only to be stuck in a small word of apps from the app store. I don’t care if there are thousands of apps there, I want to be able to run programs just like on a traditional system.

Well call me crazy, but I saw a product placement for the Google Nexus One phone in the latest Heroes episode this evening. Noah’s girlfriend/sidekick was shot and leaning against a tree when she pulled out her trusty Nexus One and navigated the android Gui to make a call. It wasn’t super obvious, but to those who are familiar with the phone it wasn’t hard to spot.

Heroes makes it a point to show us iPhones and Nissan SUVs. I don’t mind the product placement that much, but sometimes is super obvious and the shot is too long fixed on whatever product made its way into the show. This product placement of the Google Nexus One was kind of annoying. We didn’t need a close-up of a cell phone screen in the night time lighting. We just needed to see that the character pulled out a phone and dialed it. No need to show the screen on a camera mounted to the best of tripods. But then if we didn’t get that shot, NBC would have lost out on some serious cash.

The Google Nexus One has confused many people with the lack of multi-touch in the OS. We know that Android is capable of multi-touch functionality, so why isn’t it there? Regardless of the answer to that question  the open nature of the Android ope rating system allowed a hacker to enable multitouch capabilities on Google’s Nexus One phone.

Cyanogen, a  hacker in the Android community, released a modified version of the Android 2.1 OS that enables multitouch features for the Nexus One phone. The hack enables multitouch in the native Web browser only, but Cyanogen said he would be adding this functionality to other apps soon as well.

It’s not exactly clear why the Google Nexus One does not feature multitouch capabilities.  Some believe it’s because of Apple and patents to the technology. No one seems to actually have an answer.

In comparison to the Apple iPhone, the Nexus One is noticeably missing multitouch features such as pinch-to-zoom in the Web browser or Maps and for the software keyboard. However, the multitouch hack for the Nexus one enables pinch-to-zoom in the browser and paves the way for gesture use in other apps as well.

The software hack to enable multitouch on the Nexus One can be downloaded from here, and install instructions are here. Before you start, Cyanogen warns that you will lose your bookmarks and browser settings, so it would be a good idea to back up first. As a little reminder, hacking your phone might result in voiding your warranty.

Check out this article showing some touchscreen testing results for the Google Nexus One phone and other smart phones. Be sure to read the comments after the article as the author seems to be getting some flack from readers. I personally think that these reviews are busted and that the reviewers don’t want to see the magical iPhone lose to any other phone no matter what, even if it means skewing results.

Read the full article testing Google Nexus One vs iPhone Touchscreen

Google Maps Navigation is an internet-connected GPS navigation system with voice guidance. It is part of Google Maps for mobile and is available for phones with Android 1.6 and higher.

Google Maps Navigation uses your phone’s internet connection to give you the latest maps and business data. But that’s not all that’s different about Google’s approach to GPS navigation. Watch the below video to learn more.

Google is working with Apple on putting its free navigation service inside the iPhone’s Maps program. Meanwhile, vendors of dedicated personal navigation devices (PND) are torn between running scared and switching their devices to Android 2.0 that has Google Maps Navigation built-in.

Google stunned the tech world Wednesday by announcing Google Maps Navigation, an Internet-connected GPS navigation system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps on Android 2.0 devices. Shares of Garmin and TomTom fell around 20 percent following the news. Motorola’s Droid, due next Friday, is the first Android 2.0 device to offer a beta version of Google Maps Navigation as the killer feature. When asked about iPhone version, a Google spokesperson told AppleInsider Wednesday that it’s up to Apple:

Apple is a close partner. Millions of users experience Google Maps on the iPhone. We will continue to work with Apple to bring innovation, including Latitude and Navigation, to users but you’ll have to speak to Apple about availability.

Navigation software and maps with PND vendors don’t come cheap.

Google Maps manager Michael Silinski told Pocketlint that the iPhone 3GS has the needed graphics power to run Google Maps Navigation, at least theoretically. PND vendors could also “go Google.”

The arrival of Google Maps Navigation caught most vendors of personal navigation devices on the wrong foot. Even though PNDs have better hardware, a longer-lasting battery, and a stronger GPS circuitry, their software sucks and maps don’t come cheap.

In fact, users are required to purchase maps and map updates separately or pay monthly usage fees. Although Google Maps Navigation won’t kill PNDs, some PND vendors are considering switching to Android 2.0 so they too could offer Google’s free cloud-based navigation technology.

Cnet noted that most PND vendors view Google as a threat to their subscription-based business model. Users typically pay between $5 and $10 in monthly subscription fees to use navigation on mobile phones. Google’s free offering, noted Forbes, is a threat.

Read the rest of this article about Google Maps Navigation

According to reports only 20,000 Google Nexus One phones were sold in its first week of sales, according to sales estimates from market research firm Flurry. In comparison to its Android sibling the numbers are 12 times lower than for the Motorola Droid and 80 times lower than for the iPhone 3GS.

The Nexus One didn’t benefit from such a strong marketing push like the Motorola Droid (estimated $100 million), despite Google’s phone featuring so-far unique Android features. This has reflected in poor first week sales for the Nexus One.

Google’s Nexus One phone may have been one of the most anticipated devices of the last few weeks. But since the smartphone’s launch last Tuesday, it has left a string of unhappy customers in its wake.

Nexus One has been plagued by consumer complaints including spotty 3G connectivity, a high early termination fee, poor customer support from Google and problems with the touchscreen.

“There are some aspects of the experience that Google didn’t think through as carefully as they should have,” says Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “This has implications for the store they have launched and their future ambitions for it. Google, clearly, has a lot of work ahead of it.”

Google introduced the Nexus One as the first device to be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The Nexus One, which runs Android 2.1, has been designed by HTC and works with T-Mobile’s network in the United States. But contrary to initial speculation, the device isn’t free or unlocked. It will retail for $180 with a 2-year contract with T-Mobile. An unlocked version is also available for $530 — a price similar to most other smartphones — and that version will work on other GSM phone networks worldwide as well as AT&T in the United States, although with some limitations.

Hardware

For the sake of this review, we won’t look at the Nexus One hardware in great detail. Suffice to say, the 1GHz Snapdragon processor makes the phone extremely fast and the 3.7 inch AMOLED screen simply looks gorgeous. While it isn’t much bigger than the iPhone’s screen, the difference in resolution (800×400) is quite noticeable. We didn’t get a chance to formally test the phone’s battery life, but unless we made extensive use of the GPS, it easily got through a day’s use without needing a recharge.

The phone’s five megapixel camera works just as advertised – though the camera app isn’t the prettiest app on the phone. Picture quality was generally on par with pictures from the iPhone 3GS, though the built-in LED flash gives the phone an important additional feature that Apple doesn’t currently offer.

Read the rest of this article at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/nexus_one_and_android_21_the_rww_review.php

The Nexus One. In the modern climate of hyped (and over-hyped) smartphone launches, Google’s official entry into the phone-sales game has excelled in a department where many find difficulty: generating legitimate excitement. Of course, long before the name Nexus One or the recent bounty of pictures and details existed, the very concept of a “Google Phone” had been ingrained in the public conscience, predating even the Open Handset Alliance and Android itself; the company dabbled in the concept of direct sales through its offering of the Android Dev Phones 1 and 2 (alias Ion), but this time, it’s a public retail ordeal, not a couple of one-off developer specials. The genuine-article Google Phone is finally here — for better or worse.

The device, a Snapdragon-powered, HTC-built phone looks — on paper, at least — like the ultimate Android handset, combining a newly tweaked and tightened user interface with killer industrial design. A sleek, streamlined phone that can easily go toe-to-toe with the iPhone 3GSs, Pres, and Droids of the world, powered by the latest version of Android (2.1 “Flan,” if you’re counting), and hand-retooled by Google. But is it all it’s cracked up to be? Can the Nexus One possibly live up to the hype ascribed to it? And more importantly, is the appearance of the phone the death knell for the OHA and a sign of the coming Android autocracy? In our exclusive review of the Nexus One, we’ll answer all those pressing questions and more… so read on for the full scoop!

Read  the rest of this Nexus One Google Phone review from Engadget at http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/nexus-one-review/

The Nexus One is an over-hyped Android phone. But that doesn’t stop it from being the best Android phone. It is, for two reasons: Hardware and software.

Despite the buzz, it’s not revolutionary, certainly not because of the way it’s being sold—unlocked for $530 or subsidized, with a T-Mobile contract for $180. Sure, Google created its own web store that breaks the act of purchasing the device away from choosing a carrier—it’ll soon even be sold by Google for use on the Verizon network. But people have been doing this for years by buying unlocked GSM phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson and hooking them on to any GSM provider. It’s just not the giant step forward that everyone was expecting.

Read the rest of this nexus one google phone review at http://gizmodo.com/5443835/nexus-one-review

Soon after Google began selling the Nexus One message boards and support forums were flooded with issues. People were experiencing distribution and technical problems. Google may have to begin real phone customer service in order to keep up with support issues for their new venture.

People were confused about T-Mobiles upgrade  policies for existing customers which is reported to make it very difficult for a current customer to get the $179 subsidized price of the Nexus One. People are using the support forums for every possible complaint or question about the new Nexus One phone.

The way Google has handled support for its free services in the past is with support forums. This is going to be insufficient for this new market. Phone customers want help from real live phone interaction. They want answers and fixes to their problems quickly.

Either Google or T-Mobile are going to have to get with the program.

Check out a teardown/rip apart of the Nexus One at iFixit.com

The term Nexus is a link or way of connecting different things together as one; its also can mean the centre of something You may recognize the word Nexus before in a well known Ridley Scott film. So the first significant mobile event of the new decade: the launch of Google’s initial Android phone – the eagerly awaited Nexus One – pieces together almost all that is great and good in the mobile device world. This is undoubtedly a superb piece of engineering.

In terms of design, the Google Nexus One is very sleek and fits nicely into the palm of your hand or your pocket without weighing you down. Weight just 130g, the Google mobile phone is slimmer, narrower and lighter than the Apple iPhone and the Motorola Milestone.

The Google Nexus One mobile phone, nicely fits the bill for what you would expect from a 2010 smartphone. Not least is the fantastic 3.7 inch widescreen, AMOLED screen, delivering 720×480 pixels resolution. Arguably crisper and clearer than any other display on the market, it delivers touchscreen responsiveness definitely in the ballpark of the iPhone and, moreover, it is fast.

The combination of Android 2.1 sitting above a Snapdragon CPU clocked at 1GHz with 512Mb RAM and ROM really does enable you to zap through opening up applications and then moving between them, even on EDGE, where 3G is unavailable.

Its multimedia credentials, are quietly competent rather than superb – such as a 5 megapixel camera that comes with autofocus with a LED built in flash and its 32GB memory card capacity. A really innovative feature on the Nexus One is a app that has been named Google Goggles this applocation tries to recognize what is in a photo. At the moment Google Goggles is able to recognize contact information, artwork, wine, logos, place and books and Google is working on this app so it will evetually be able to recognise a few more.

A lively little feature that has certainly captured the blogosphere’s attention is what are called “live wallpapers”, already featured on Motorola’s Droid. The Google Nexus One has a choice of 10 such animated images that can evolve throughout the day. Other more useful features and functions on the Google Nexus One include, a proximity sensor – this will avoid you accidently pressing buttons when the phone is up against your ear and a highly effective speakerphone.

Where the Google Nexus One mobile phone really standsout, is in what could be called its charisma – if it could walk into a crowded room, heads would most definitely turn. The Google Nexus One comes in a substance that is Teflon coated and has been classed as being as soft and rubbery.

For the time being, the Google Nexus One is in pole position for 2010. We will have to wait and see what Samsung’s new Bada operating system will have to offer later in the year. So 2010 looks set to be, if not exactly a space odyssey, then a fun filled journey though all that is faster, snappier and wow-ier in the mobile device world.

About the Author:
Learn more about the new Nexus One and compare the best Google Nexus One Deals as well as read our other mobile phone reviews at Which Mobile Phone Contract.

Check out this site featuring some Nexus One google phone unboxing images and videos
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/21/nexus-one-unboxing-video/

It’s here the Nexus One Google Phone has made it. You can buy it directly from google at this location: http://www.google.com/phone

Why is the Nexus One so cool?

The Nexus One google phone is so cool because it’s from Google. Let’s face it. Google is awesome. They make really useful tools and make them well.  It’s really an interesting thing for them to be going into the hardware business. It makes a lot of sense though. This new phone is really going to change the game. iPhone has ruled for a while now and it’s my opinion that they need to just give it up. The iPhone is cool.. But it stinks in a lot of ways. I won’t go into detail right now though.

Lets focus on the Nexus One phone a little.

Finally we have a great phone with a great operating system and we don’t have to be tied to one carrier.  Right now you can get a contract with T-mobile and pay $179 for the Nexus One with a 2 year contract. If you want to buy the phone and use it on a different carrier it will cost you $529. In the Spring of 2010 Verizon will be supporting the Nexus One along with its already carried Droid which also runs the Android operating system from Google. The phone is also rumored to support other carriers.

One thing the Nexus One and other non iPhones have against them is the iTunes store which is pretty simple to use and has just about everything on it. I’m in the near future we will be seeing something very similar to it on the Google Nexus One phone.