Chaosplay

G1 is a great phone. The best feature about this phone is Android, an open source development platform. There are some really cool apps out there. And these apps make this phone so cool. I am still playing with various apps but so far following are my favorite:

• Shazam, recognizes any recorded music and provide a  link to purchase it from Amazon.com
• Compare Everything, let you scan UPC code of a product and then it finds the cheapest price online and locally. I know I will be using the a lot.
• CallerID, pulls up white page information if you don’t have that number stored in your phone.
• CardioTrainer, lets you keep log of your actual running route using GPS data.
• Bartender, well you tell it what you got and it tells you what you can make.

I also like phone part. Its simple. Contacts are stored online, this way switching between different Android phones should be a breeze.

Camera is really bad, don’t expect to take even semi-good pics with this camera. Also there is about 3 second delay when you press shutter button and when actuall photo is taken.

Now the worst part, the battery life. I got this phone yesterday and I had to charge it 3 times in 24 hour period. Of course, its a brand new phone with a lot of features, so I am playing with it a lot more too. But it still seems ridiculous. Some online forums recommend shutting off everything and only using Edge network. I am not sure if that really a solution since the whole appeal of this phone was 24/7 connected life, at least for me.

Also I read somewhere, battery will take sometime before it get calibrated. Once battery is calibrated then it should last much longer. Well I will wait a week and see if there is any improvement.

3G network speed in Arlington TX is about 390 Kbit/second and Edge is about 80 Kbit/second.

Well I was going to return this phone because of its battery life issues but its other features are just too good. I think I will have to invest in car charger and hope that T-Mobile or Google will release an update to fix battery life.