Nexus One switchers?

[kdarling]

Off topic to the thread, but in regard to CDMA devices not being able to do voice and data simultaneously, why can't a possible solution to that be to incorporate two different CDMA radios into a device? One for voice, and the other for data?

I think that's pretty much what the SVDO (simultaneous 1X voice and EVDO) standard approved last year is about. No network modification is needed, but a handset with two radios is. Haven't heard of one though.

Another, easier method, is to use VoIP over the same 3G channel as data. I've done it with Skype on a WinMo phone, and was able to talk and surf at the same time. Heck, I talked and had Pandora in the background at the same time. Even incoming Skype call notifications were instantaneous... unless I was streaming video.

Btw, the current advantage to Verizon/Sprint of keeping voice and data on separate carriers, is that a cell overloaded with data users does not affect the voice users. This is one reason why CDMA users don't get dropped in the same situation where UMTS users would. This problem is going away as ATT adds cells and backhaul, though.

Personally, I like being able to do both. LTE will have the capability of voice+data.

 

[ViViDboarder]

I think that's pretty much what the SVDO (simultaneous 1X voice and EVDO) standard approved last year is about. No network modification is needed, but a handset with two radios is. Haven't heard of one though.

Another, easier method, is to use VoIP over the same 3G channel as data. I've done it with Skype on a WinMo phone, and was able to talk and surf at the same time. Heck, I talked and had Pandora in the background at the same time. Even incoming Skype call notifications were instantaneous... unless I was streaming video.

Btw, the current advantage to Verizon/Sprint of keeping voice and data on separate carriers, is that a cell overloaded with data users does not affect the voice users. This is one reason why CDMA users don't get dropped in the same situation where UMTS users would. This problem is going away as ATT adds cells and backhaul, though.

Personally, I like being able to do both. LTE will have the capability of voice+data.

I like the VOIP idea. I don't often use voice and data at once but it's definitely nice in a pinch.

I'll have to take a look at some good SIP clients and such for Android.

Edit: Well that was quick... There's an app for that http://sipdroid.org/ Looks like it integrates right into the native contacts too.

 

[JustLeft]

Just took the plunge to an N1

Same story as many have already stated. Day 1 2G owner, 3G, and 3GS. Been getting bored with the Apple interface and restrictions that they place on what you can/can not do. Some things I have been looking for:

1. Folders. I have my phone filled with applications. It is very difficult to navigate through 11 pages of apps, let alone pages 12+ which are not visible. Searching by app name doesn't always work. For instance, Plants vs Zombies does not appear when you search for plants. You must type pvz. If I download an app and it goes to page 12+ and the developer gave it an odd name, it is difficult to find it.

2. Multitasking. While push messages work, they are not consistent. Further, some apps send alerts in the middle of the night. They don't offer the ability to suppress them. Also, you are at the mercy of the developer. If they go under, their server disappears and the app is useless. Also, how useful is a GPS app that must terminate when a phone call comes in? Set up my wife with Navigon and the Tom Tom cradle for a trip she recently made. She hated it. When a call came in, she lost navigation. Often this was at the worst possible time.

3. Try before you buy. While this is a function of the google store and not the N1, this is big. I have wasted a lot of money on apps that once downloaded, were clearly a waste of the investment.

4. No restrictions on content. Enough said.

5. App integration with Calendar. Each program you use must have it's own calendar since it can't update the native calendar. I know there are workarounds, I just want one calendar. Google calendar will be it.

6. Locales. I want the settings on my phone to change based on my location. Not possible on the iphone. Even changing based on time would be acceptable, again not possible on iphone.

7. Reducing the number of taps, swipes, etc... to do simple things. Palm does it best, Android is 2nd, and the iphone is the worst.

8. Battery life. My 3GS stinks. Full charge this morning, made one phone call, checked email, looked at 1 web site - went from 100% to less than 20%. Been in to apple store, they say it is normal. Meanwhile my wife has my old 3G and it runs circles around my 3GS in battery life. Cost of extra battery is $25 for the N1.

9. Notifications and the blinking light. Miss a call on the iphone, you never notice til you turn the phone on. Get two notifications, you only see the last one.

I realize that the google app store is not currently equivalent to the Apple app store. Many people in this thread also bring that point up AND were original 2G owners. While the point is valid, it is an oxymoron. You bought the 2G when there was no app store. When the 2G was released Jobs was pushing web apps.

I know I am going to be giving up some things, at this point I think the cost benefit swings in favor of the N1. If it doesn't work, I will ebay it. Three members of my family have iphones and we have two macs in our household. We like Apple. Right now though, the iphone is old - if they come out with something that addresses the issues I have above, then I will get the new iphone. Til then it's the N1.

 

[dgree03]

Same story as many have already stated. Day 1 2G owner, 3G, and 3GS. Been getting bored with the Apple interface and restrictions that they place on what you can/can not do. Some things I have been looking for:

1. Folders. I have my phone filled with applications. It is very difficult to navigate through 11 pages of apps, let alone pages 12+ which are not visible. Searching by app name doesn't always work. For instance, Plants vs Zombies does not appear when you search for plants. You must type pvz. If I download an app and it goes to page 12+ and the developer gave it an odd name, it is difficult to find it.

2. Multitasking. While push messages work, they are not consistent. Further, some apps send alerts in the middle of the night. They don't offer the ability to suppress them. Also, you are at the mercy of the developer. If they go under, their server disappears and the app is useless. Also, how useful is a GPS app that must terminate when a phone call comes in? Set up my wife with Navigon and the Tom Tom cradle for a trip she recently made. She hated it. When a call came in, she lost navigation. Often this was at the worst possible time.

3. Try before you buy. While this is a function of the google store and not the N1, this is big. I have wasted a lot of money on apps that once downloaded, were clearly a waste of the investment.

4. No restrictions on content. Enough said.

5. App integration with Calendar. Each program you use must have it's own calendar since it can't update the native calendar. I know there are workarounds, I just want one calendar. Google calendar will be it.

6. Locales. I want the settings on my phone to change based on my location. Not possible on the iphone. Even changing based on time would be acceptable, again not possible on iphone.

7. Reducing the number of taps, swipes, etc... to do simple things. Palm does it best, Android is 2nd, and the iphone is the worst.

8. Battery life. My 3GS stinks. Full charge this morning, made one phone call, checked email, looked at 1 web site - went from 100% to less than 20%. Been in to apple store, they say it is normal. Meanwhile my wife has my old 3G and it runs circles around my 3GS in battery life. Cost of extra battery is $25 for the N1.

9. Notifications and the blinking light. Miss a call on the iphone, you never notice til you turn the phone on. Get two notifications, you only see the last one.

I realize that the google app store is not currently equivalent to the Apple app store. Many people in this thread also bring that point up AND were original 2G owners. While the point is valid, it is an oxymoron. You bought the 2G when there was no app store. When the 2G was released Jobs was pushing web apps.

I know I am going to be giving up some things, at this point I think the cost benefit swings in favor of the N1. If it doesn't work, I will ebay it. Three members of my family have iphones and we have two macs in our household. We like Apple. Right now though, the iphone is old - if they come out with something that addresses the issues I have above, then I will get the new iphone. Til then it's the N1.

I agree with everything you said! I too went from 3GS to Bold to Nexus one Jan 6th! It just soars passed the iphone in terms of function and ease. Like you notification and multitasking is a huge deal for me.. and Nexus handles its better than any phone i have ever used(BB is a very close second)

 

[Dan14]

So it's safe to say the Nexus wins, case closed. Let's all go for a drink

 

[ViViDboarder]

So it's safe to say the Nexus wins, case closed. Let's all go for a drink

You're buying!

 

[Vandam500]

Well here are my impressions on the Nexus One after I switched from the iPhone 3GS (Jailbroken):

Pros

-Screen is absolutely amazing. It looks so much better then the iPhones screen, this is no contest. Colors are vibrant and text is extremely easy to read.

-Hardware wise it is no contest in comparison to my 3GS. 3.7" AMOLED, 1GHZ Snapdragon processor, 512MB Ram, 5 Megapixel camera with LED Flash, Trackball (lights up colors for notifications). The overall feel of the phone is excellent and feels like you do have a expensive device in your hands (really nice quality).

-Customization is absouletely mind blowing. I have widgets on every screen, pictures of my loved ones, shortcuts,folders,directions and so many more that each screen looks different and very informative too (RSS Apps,Facebook Widget,FML Widget ,etc)

-The notification system is darn right awesome!. I am literally in love with how it works and how fluid it all is. I can see so all my notifications from literally any app and best of all it doesn't interrupt you or is annoying (contrary to Push Notifications). The live wallpapers make the phone that much more beautiful and the hundreds of ones available to download make me even more happier.

-Multitasking is very efficient because the Android OS handles the backgrounded apps very nicely and don't see a impact on my battery life.

-The camera and LED flash are very good. Awesome how you can share your pictures to other services (Facebook,twitter,etc) straight from the gallery (pictures app) and all the options you have before taking the picture (negative,black and white,etc).

-The trackball is very useful for notifying you at a glance that you have something pending (missed call,new email/sms,etc) and its nice to navigate with at times (a break from swiping so much).

-Apps are able to use any part of the OS and hardware making them that much more better!.

Cons

-Touchscreen not as responsive as the 3GS but it is not bad at all.
-No dedicated camera button
-The bottom 4 capacitive buttons are not 100% accurate. This is solved by tapping a little above them and they work every time like that.Hopefully they can solve this in a software update,if not whatever.
-While the music player gets the job done, it doesn't look as nice as the iPod found in the iPhone
-The quality of the apps (mostly games) are not as good as the iPhone's.

All in all I am extremely happy with my Nexus One. It truly is a huge step ahead of the iPhone 3GS and if any of you are scared of switching don't be. This is a amazing device and is well worth the money.

 

[The General]

I believe that R.Perez was talking about trying to attach an image from online sources in the Gallery app (Picasa Web Albums, Google buzz, Dropbox e.t.c) and not pictures he was emailed. UPDATE: I just successfully attached and sent a picture which was stored on Picasa web albums and sent it in an email. Very odd.

yeah, i guess i misread his post. either way, you guys are apparently not understanding my problem. i get an email with an image attached, try to view the image, and the email client crashes. i'm not talking about attaching an image to an email and sending it, im talking about opening one that i received.

one of you should try that, it may have just been my phone... but it did crash before and after i installed cyanogenmod.

I do admit that scrolling between screens could be smoother but it doesn't kill the deivce for me. As for the parallax scrolling, I can't say that it puts me off in any way.

no, i like the idea of parallax scrolling, it just doesnt work the way theyve implemented it. its clunky. the background needs to have a more attached feel to the icons. when the icons move, the background should move too. there should never be a time when the icons move and the background doesnt or the background move when the icons dont.

this kind of thing happens for a split second but it's enough to give me an idea of how clunky everything else on the phone is going to be. if they cant get the home screen scrolling right, what makes me think they'll get much else right?

Wasn't the scroll line markers that appear on the side of the screen enough of a clue where you were on the screen? The main app screen does feature rubber banding and both the contacts and menu items have an edge marker which moves as you scroll to indicate where you were on the screen. Pictures below.
http://chazclout.co.uk/a/DSC00066.JPG[IMG] [IMG]http://chazclout.co.uk/a/DSC00067.JPG[IMG][/QUOTE]

i dont look at those, i look at the scrolling content. i knew those were there but i never use them on my iphone and i never use them on my computer and i never use them on the nexus one.

[quote="ChazUK, post: 9489455"]It's starting to sound like you got the Nexus One but expected an iPhone. If rearranging icons is a big issue to you then I can imagine it is annoying. If the people behind Android did start to implement a lot of your complaints, then we'd have nothing more than an iPhone clone.[/QUOTE]

no, i got a nexus one thinking it would be a good phone. rearranging icons on the iphone isn't "the iphone way" its how rearranging icons [I]should be.[/I] apple probably realized that it would be impossible to rearrange icons on a full home page without moving one off the page and then back on after carefully playing a tile puzzle game, changed it so that the icons would automatically switch back and forth and left it at that.

thats how design works. thats how rearranging icons should be. again, it's not "the iphone way", it's just how it should be. it's undesigned.

if people behind android started to implement a lot of my complaints, they'd have a real winner. it seems like they tried to make an OS that was good but not at all like iphone OS when they needed to ignore iphone os completely and just come up with a good OS.

had they done that, there would have been more similarities between the two.

[quote="ChazUK, post: 9489455"]Yep, all 30,000 of them are a joke....... :p[/QUOTE]

yep. cut out all the soundboards, ringtones, applications with ads, "pretty girl" apps, awful themes and apps that you have to be rooted or have a custom ROM to use, and you'd be left with a few ugly apps that have way better iphone counterparts.

i mean, really ... compare android to iphone for these apps and tell me the iphone ones aren't better:

foursquare
gowalla
facebook
pandora
not a specific app, but twitter clients (seesmic and twidroid are a joke compared to tweetie)
doodle jump
aim
google maps
meebo IM
fandango
google earth
loopt
photoshop.com mobile
qik
midomi soundhound
shazam
speedtest.net speedtest app
built-in music player

the list goes on, man

[quote="JustLeft, post: 9491302"]Same story as many have already stated. Day 1 2G owner, 3G, and 3GS. Been getting bored with the Apple interface and restrictions that they place on what you can/can not do. Some things I have been looking for:

1. Folders. I have my phone filled with applications. It is very difficult to navigate through 11 pages of apps, let alone pages 12+ which are not visible. Searching by app name doesn't always work. For instance, Plants vs Zombies does not appear when you search for plants. You must type pvz. If I download an app and it goes to page 12+ and the developer gave it an odd name, it is difficult to find it.[/QUOTE]

good luck finding that many usable apps in the android market. you wont even need folders.

[quote="JustLeft, post: 9491302"]3. Try before you buy. While this is a function of the google store and not the N1, this is big. I have wasted a lot of money on apps that once downloaded, were clearly a waste of the investment.[/QUOTE]

yeah, this was pretty cool. i got one app for like $0.99 and it just crashed constantly, i was able to "uninstall + refund" right from my phone. i guess that feature makes up for all the apps in the market sucking.

[quote="JustLeft, post: 9491302"]4. No restrictions on content. Enough said.[/QUOTE]

other than the fact that there are no good apps, you are correct, there are no restrictions.

oh wait, t-mobile got them to remove the tethering apps from the market. aw :( so much for no restrictions.

[quote="JustLeft, post: 9491302"]6. Locales. I want the settings on my phone to change based on my location. Not possible on the iphone. Even changing based on time would be acceptable, again not possible on iphone.[/QUOTE]

i have a silent switch on my phone. i just flip it when i want the ringer to not go off. saves battery, money and time. also it's more reliable. :)

[quote="JustLeft, post: 9491302"]7. Reducing the number of taps, swipes, etc... to do simple things. Palm does it best, Android is 2nd, and the iphone is the worst.[/QUOTE]

examples?

[quote="JustLeft, post: 9491302"]9. Notifications and the blinking light. Miss a call on the iphone, you never notice til you turn the phone on. Get two notifications, you only see the last one.[/QUOTE]

yeah, this was pretty sweet too. i had something called trackball status or something that let me choose what color i wanted the trackball to light up for what kind of notification. too bad you have to be on a custom ROM for it to work... i though android supported open development. aw :( oh wait thats just a buzz word from the moto droid ads. doesn't really mean anything. ;)

[quote="JustLeft, post: 9491302"]I realize that the google app store is not currently equivalent to the Apple app store. Many people in this thread also bring that point up AND were original 2G owners. While the point is valid, it is an oxymoron. You bought the 2G when there was no app store. When the 2G was released Jobs was pushing web apps.[/QUOTE]

look, when i had my 2G iphone jailbroken, i had more useful, useable and better looking apps that are in the android market. the games i had like lights out were ten times better than any of the games in the android market. sure, you had to jailbreak to get them, but you have to root your n1 to do anything cool as well.

 

[chris975d]

Well here are my impressions on the Nexus One after I switched from the iPhone 3GS (Jailbroken):

Pros

-Screen is absolutely amazing. It looks so much better then the iPhones screen, this is no contest. Colors are vibrant and text is extremely easy to read.

-Hardware wise it is no contest in comparison to my 3GS. 3.7" AMOLED, 1GHZ Snapdragon processor, 512MB Ram, 5 Megapixel camera with LED Flash, Trackball (lights up colors for notifications). The overall feel of the phone is excellent and feels like you do have a expensive device in your hands (really nice quality).

-Customization is absouletely mind blowing. I have widgets on every screen, pictures of my loved ones, shortcuts,folders,directions and so many more that each screen looks different and very informative too (RSS Apps,Facebook Widget,FML Widget ,etc)

-The notification system is darn right awesome!. I am literally in love with how it works and how fluid it all is. I can see so all my notifications from literally any app and best of all it doesn't interrupt you or is annoying (contrary to Push Notifications). The live wallpapers make the phone that much more beautiful and the hundreds of ones available to download make me even more happier.

-Multitasking is very efficient because the Android OS handles the backgrounded apps very nicely and don't see a impact on my battery life.

-The camera and LED flash are very good. Awesome how you can share your pictures to other services (Facebook,twitter,etc) straight from the gallery (pictures app) and all the options you have before taking the picture (negative,black and white,etc).

-The trackball is very useful for notifying you at a glance that you have something pending (missed call,new email/sms,etc) and its nice to navigate with at times (a break from swiping so much).

-Apps are able to use any part of the OS and hardware making them that much more better!.

Cons

-Touchscreen not as responsive as the 3GS but it is not bad at all.
-No dedicated camera button
-The bottom 4 capacitive buttons are not 100% accurate. This is solved by tapping a little above them and they work every time like that.Hopefully they can solve this in a software update,if not whatever.
-While the music player gets the job done, it doesn't look as nice as the iPod found in the iPhone
-The quality of the apps (mostly games) are not as good as the iPhone's.

All in all I am extremely happy with my Nexus One. It truly is a huge step ahead of the iPhone 3GS and if any of you are scared of switching don't be. This is a amazing device and is well worth the money.

I've had my AT&T Nexus One for 2 full days now, and overall I feel almost exactly as you. I'm coming from a 3GS, and the speed of this device is incredible. To me, it's as big of a noticeable difference in speed as it was for me going from the 3G to the 3GS (and that was a HUGE difference).

My positives list is almost identical to yours (the hardware just seems such high quality when in the hand), with the addition of the additional speed in the browser I'm getting with the N1 versus my 3GS. It loads web pages much faster, and somehow has faster overall download speeds than my 3GS. I'm thinking more and more that the 3GS has an inferior 3G radio in it. I noticed back when I went to a Blackberry Bold 9700 for a few months that the BB had much better internet speeds, downloaded apps/attachments/youtube videos much faster than my 3GS, and never a dropped call or internet time out trying to connect to the web (I've had two 3GS's over the past 8 months, both averaging the same connection speeds). I didn't really think much of it at the time, thinking it might be some type of data compression the Blackberry was using. But, since using the N1, I'm really thinking more along the lines that the 3G radio in the 3GS's might truly be inferior to others. With the N1 over the past 2 days, my slowest Speedtest.net download speed has been 2300 kbps, and the slowest upload has been 700kbps, with the highest upload being 1291 kbps. On the 3GS (taking the SIM straight out of the N1 and testing in the exact same areas) the fastest download speed has been 1784kbps, and the fastest upload speed has been 300kbps. I know the 3GS is purposely hardware limited by Apple on the upload side, but the overall download and upload speed difference is really remarkable. Not to mention the Ping rates, which is probably more of the reason the N1 seems to connect to the 'net and be pulling down a page before Safari is even connected on the 3GS. N1 is averaging a sub-150ms ping, while the fastest I've ever had on either of my 3GS's is 300ms, with most tests going over 850ms. The difference in data speeds on these 2 devices on the same network, in the exact same locations is very shocking to me.

My negatives list would be similar to yours as well, with the subtraction of the responsiveness of the touch screen. I have no problems with the screen itself, in fact, mine seems even more sensitive than my 3GS. The pinch to zoom feature executes identically to my 3GS, and I have no problems with keyboard sensitivity (I do use "Better Keyboard", so this might attribute to that). I have noticed that the touch sensitive buttons do take a "higher" touch to activate than you would initially think.
-Another negative I'd add is that cut, copy and paste isn't implemented fully throughout the OS, and where it is, it isn't as polished and easy to use as the iPhone OS's. For example, you can't CCP anywhere in email, which is a real irritation.
-Again, as Vandam stated, the apps aren't as polished as iPhones, but other than 3d games, almost any app on iPhone has a comparable app on Android. By the time high end hardware(fast gpus and cpus) becomes the norm on Android, I'd expect the apps to start rivaling iPhone's in overall "polish".

Overall, in my opinion, the N1 is a great alternative to the 3GS, especially if you have a 3GS that can't be jailbroken, or you just don't want to attempt a jailbreak. For now, I'm impressed enough with it to use it exclusively for the next couple of weeks to see if it can truly knock the 3GS out of my favorite phone spot. So far, it's doing that pretty well, but the little negatives I mention above (especially the cut, copy and paste one) might be a little too much to overcome. But boy is it a nice looking and feeling device! That large, sharp screen with very little of that (what now appears to be HUGE) black iPhone screen border just looks elegant. Every one of my iPhone using employees that have seen my N1 love the look of it, a few stating that it makes the iPhone look outdated in comparison.

 

[bozzykid]

i mean, really ... compare android to iphone for these apps and tell me the iphone ones aren't better:

foursquare
gowalla
facebook
pandora
not a specific app, but twitter clients (seesmic and twidroid are a joke compared to tweetie)
doodle jump
aim
google maps
meebo IM
fandango
google earth
loopt
photoshop.com mobile
qik
midomi soundhound
shazam
speedtest.net speedtest app
built-in music player

Google Maps and Google Earth are a joke compared to the Android versions. As for the builtin music player, its a given the iPhone one is better. But frankly, I never actually look at my screen when I am playing music on my phone, so I have never really understood that argument. I'm not sure why I would even care about most of those others apps. Twidroid works pretty good from what I can tell. Plus, unlike the iPhone it integrates with the Gallery app which the iPhone can't support.

 

[JustLeft]

The General -I get it - you don't like the N1 or Android. It didn't work for you and I can respect that. Sending it back was the right thing to do in your case.

My son has been using a G1 since it came out and he loves the Android OS. A coworker has had an N1 since they were released on T Mobile in January. He also loves his with one exception - something you didn't mention. He told me that the current version of Android will not allow you to use the full 512MB of storage. This limits the amount of apps that can be loaded.

I have downloaded over 500 apps - I know I am crazy! I have found that few of the apps on the iphone rival the quality of the apps that I had on Windows mobile or the Palm. If I could have gotten refunds for a number of the apps, I would have taken advantage of it.

On the number of taps to get somewhere - the screen holds 11 pages of apps. If I want to get at a program that is on the 11th page, i need to do 10 swipes. If I am going to do a search for the program I need to go to the home page, back swipe, then 1 tap for each letter of the progam name that I need, then select the program with a final tap. If I could create folders I could accomplish the same thing in 2 or 3 taps.

While you like the way the iphone rearranges icons, I hate it. I have 16 programs on every page. At times my phone registers a swipe as a move the icon I happened to touch to the next page. This then cascades though all my pages, screwing everything up.

Once I get my phone I will post some comparisons of the keystrokes. I am keeping my 3GS, so this will be no issue.

 

[chris975d]

yeah, i guess i misread his post. either way, you guys are apparently not understanding my problem. i get an email with an image attached, try to view the image, and the email client crashes. i'm not talking about attaching an image to an email and sending it, im talking about opening one that i received.


yep. cut out all the soundboards, ringtones, applications with ads, "pretty girl" apps, awful themes and apps that you have to be rooted or have a custom ROM to use, and you'd be left with a few ugly apps that have way better iphone counterparts.

i mean, really ... compare android to iphone for these apps and tell me the iphone ones aren't better:

foursquare
gowalla
facebook
pandora
not a specific app, but twitter clients (seesmic and twidroid are a joke compared to tweetie)
doodle jump
aim
google maps
meebo IM
fandango
google earth
loopt
photoshop.com mobile
qik
midomi soundhound
shazam
speedtest.net speedtest app
built-in music player

The more I read your posts regarding the N1, the more I think you may have honestly had a bad unit (that's one thing that I seem to be seeing the more reviews I read...dramatically varying quality among shipped units), or either you just wanted to hate the N1 before opening the box (and I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt here that you didn't). I've not had a single hiccup with received email attachments yet.

As far as the apps that you say to compare between the two platforms...I haven't used them all yet, but I will rate the ones in that list that I have used extensively..

Pandora-I use this all the time, and have it on both phones. I see no real difference in the look or feel from iPhone to N1, other than with the N1, you can actually leave the app and still listen to music.

Google maps/google earth-these appear to be almost identical between the two platforms in visual quality, and the N1 obviously has the voice navigation feature, which isn't present on the iPhone, and is a great free navigation program. Does anyone really think that Google is going to let what software they offer to Apple be better than that on their own phone?

Photoshop mobile-the program is generally the same on both, however the iPhone app does have a few more image manipulation tools on it. Here I like the iPhone version slightly better.

Shazam- I see no difference at all in these two. Heck, the Blackberry version offers the same functionality. Not much way to mess this up..just have a button to press to "Tag Now", and let the software do it's thing.

Meebo IM- I love the iPhone version of this program, and is in my opinion the best IM app out there (free OR paid). I don't know of an Android version of this, other than the web interface that you can use through the browser.

Speedtest.net app- I see no difference WHATSOEVER in this app at all. Looks nearly identical. A big dial with a "Begin Test" button above it. How different can this be?

Doodle Jump- Love this game, and have it on both devices. I see no difference at all, other than the fact that in the two days that I've had it on the N1, I've already beat my all-time highest score on the iPhone version (and I played that one all the time).

twitter apps- I have Seesmic on the N1, and always used Tweetie 2 on the 3GS. Yes, they don't look the same, and honestly Tweetie 2 looks a bit better aesthetically, but I don't see a huge difference in functionality yet.

music player-since all of my music collection is in iTunes, the iPhone iPod interface is still better than the N1's, and of course is leaps and bounds better looking aesthetically. But, since my 3GS has never had the greatest battery life anyway, and I don't like using my iPhone as a music player (I hate a touch screen interface for mp3 playing), I always have my iPod Nano in my pocket with my music on it. That's what I have always used for music anyway, as I think the clickwheel interface is better for music navigation. Especially all the locations I listen to music...work, in the gym, jogging. So the difference in on phone music players is irrelevant to me.

 

[JustLeft]

Please continue to post your comparisons. You and Vandam come across as level headed, impartial, and objective. If you find any standout programs for the N1, please relay the information.

The more I read your posts regarding the N1, the more I think you may have honestly had a bad unit (that's one thing that I seem to be seeing the more reviews I read...dramatically varying quality among shipped units), or either you just wanted to hate the N1 before opening the box (and I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt here that you didn't). I've not had a single hiccup with received email attachments yet...

 

[ajohnson253]

It almost seems as if, this N1 has to really be tested by the people who are interested in it. I am very interested but it looks like everyone has mixed opinions on it or some people just are iPhone fanboys. I am still waiting on getting rid of my 3gs nobody has yet to hit me up on craigslist about. 500 for a mint 3gs 32GB isn't bad is it?

 

[NorrisKillsKids]

Can the bad capacitive buttons on the bottom be fixed in a software update?

 

[ajohnson253]

Can the bad capacitive buttons on the bottom be fixed in a software update?

I think that's a hardware issue honestly. It seems like it, I don't see how a software update would fix that.

 

[NorrisKillsKids]

That kinda sucks...then again I don't know how big of a deal or nuisance it is since I can't try one without shelling out 600 bucks.

 

[chris975d]

Can the bad capacitive buttons on the bottom be fixed in a software update?

I'm not going to say that the capacitive buttons are "bad", they work just fine, every time, if you "aim" your press maybe a millimeter above what looks to be where the "center" of the button would be. It's more of just getting used to where to touch to activate the button more than it is "bad buttons". The active area is just closer to the edge of the screen than you would initially think. Once you get adjusted to it, they aren't a problem anymore. It's no different than adjusting to the touch keyboard of the iPhone when you initially got it. Everyone complained about it until they got the feel for it. The Verizon Droid that I have (just a play around device that I got to initially try out the Android platform) is exactly the same way.

 

[NorrisKillsKids]

I'm not going to say that the capacitive buttons are "bad", they work just fine, every time, if you "aim" your press maybe a millimeter above what looks to be where the "center" of the button would be. It's more of just getting used to where to touch to activate the button more than it is "bad buttons". The active area is just closer to the edge of the screen than you would initially think. Once you get adjusted to it, they aren't a problem anymore. It's no different than adjusting to the touch keyboard of the iPhone when you initially got it. Everyone complained about it until they got the feel for it. The Verizon Droid that I have (just a play around device that I got to initially try out the Android platform) is exactly the same way.

What if you pushed the button with your finger print and not the absolute tip or anything, does that always work if you hit actual symbol and not the edge or anything?

The typing is another thing I'm always worried about a tiny bit, I type like a beast on the ipod/iphone, but I heard it's a but harder on the Nexus...bah I wish I could try it.

 

[chris975d]

What if you pushed the button with your finger print and not the absolute tip or anything, does that always work if you hit actual symbol and not the edge or anything?

The typing is another thing I'm always worried about a tiny bit, I type like a beast on the ipod/iphone, but I heard it's a but harder on the Nexus...bah I wish I could try it.

In my experience with the N1 (and my Droid), yes, as long as part of your finger touches the active area, the "button" works fine. Again, from what I've been reading online it seems as if there might be varying quality issues among N1 handsets. Some of the reviews of the N1's touchscreens are polar opposites...reviews say it is great, while others say they had many problems with it...this seems to me to point a quality control issues in manufacturing (or either people are just trashing it because it's not Apple).

One thing I will state that I've noticed with both the N1 AND the Droid is that since the screen takes up so much of the front of the device, and there is very, very little black, "bezel" area surrounding the screen (compared to say the iPhone), when you wrap your hand around it to hold it, some areas of your palm or other fingers are very likely to overhang the very tiny bezel and actually rest on the active area of the screen. This of course triggers the screen as a "touch" (and you're not even aware of it), and can throw off the the screen when you actually are trying to touch it in another area (on screen buttons for example). Once you become aware of this, and adjust the way you hold it, your problems with the screen will likely disappear. The screen is actually VERY sensitive in my experience, and it only takes like a millimeter or two of the "meat" of your palm to overhang the edge and throw it all screwy. I wonder if the people who have problems with it are doing this and aren't aware?

 

[Vandam500]

Please continue to post your comparisons. You and Vandam come across as level headed, impartial, and objective. If you find any standout programs for the N1, please relay the information.

Thank you. I will continue to post my experiences and thoughts it.

 

[chris975d]

Thank you. I will continue to post my experiences and thoughts it.

Same here. I'll continue to post my results with it if you guys are interested in hearing them. I don't want to be one of those posters who intrusively throws my opinions onto the board/into posts, and then gets pissed when everyone doesn't agree with them. I'm as impartial as anyone. I love Apple, and have mostly their gear (MB Air, had a unibody MBP, now have a white unibody MB, all the iPhones, tons of iPods), but I have issues with some of the things with the iPhone. If something else does what I want better than the iPhone does, I'm darn sure going to use that instead, and trying to find this out about the N1 is why I have it now and am using it. If it ends up not meeting what I want it to do, I'll tell you. But so far, for what I need, it's very promising.

And you guys feel free to post any questions that you have, and I'll try to answer them.

Just noticed your location Vandam...you're about 20-25 miles or so from me. Small world...

 

[lankox]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

I too appreciate the unbiased reviews and hope to read more impressions and comparisons. What happens when you receive multiple emails. Anyway of knowing how many you have?

 

[chris975d]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

I too appreciate the unbiased reviews and hope to read more impressions and comparisons. What happens when you receive multiple emails. Anyway of knowing how many you have?

When a new email comes in (I have 3 different email accts set up on mine), the "new email" icon pops up in the upper left corner. And if you're looking at the screen when it does it, the name of the acct scrolls in the status bar at the top. Then you can slide down the notification shade and see all your notifications, like "3 new gmail emails, 2 yahoo, 1 me.Com", and click on any of those notifications to go to those emails, or slide the shade back up and go to them later. All without exiting the program you're in. Very nice system.

 

[Vandam500]

When a new email comes in (I have 3 different email accts set up on mine), the "new email" icon pops up in the upper left corner. And if you're looking at the screen when it does it, the name of the acct scrolls in the status bar at the top. Then you can slide down the notification shade and see all your notifications, like "3 new gmail emails, 2 yahoo, 1 me.Com", and click on any of those notifications to go to those emails, or slide the shade back up and go to them later. All without exiting the program you're in. Very nice system.

Yep, smooth as butter