May 06, 2009 01:45 AM
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(Updated May 06, 2009 01:52 AM)
What is your expectation from your cell phone? Lets name a few.calls, SMS, Camera, Bluetooth, WiFi, Edge, GPRS, FM Radio, MP3 Ringtone.rataratarata .( this is the way the sellers rattle out features of their"Chinese" phones in Gafar Market!). A big list when you think about the features. A small list when you check against what you actually use more often! And so when someone mentions the iPhone - the mind wanders upon those "feature" words and revels at the thought of UIs and classy build qualities.
But of course! The iPhone is the "Package". You get it all! Along with the smiles from the happy Apple sales guy. But then, the iPhone is a package . a box . inside which certain things/features exist and certain other features may come to appear from those "Apple Guys". The choice however is not yours to make. The only choice you can make is to either buy another iPhone or keep waiting for the "Apple Guys" to sweeten the package.
Enter G1. Okay . Android they said was your new Genie in the cell phone. Some agreed, some did not. The iPhone lovers club trashed the G1 as a piece of no competition!Others said it was ok. but the market needs to mature. Some others really like it! I loved it . but not initially!
When I laid my hands on the G1 my mind as usual wandered on those"feature" words. And I must say I was a bit disappointed. It seemed to have all the functions . but somewhere . inside . where? I had to hunt around with the help of the excellent capacitative touch screen! And slowly I managed to find the stuff I usually use my cell phone for. It was a learning curve all right!
And then . there were the grudges. Cannot record video . no onscreen keyboard(Cupcake is still not out!) . a slippery trackball . squeaky at the joints . etc .etc. I was wondering what was all that talk about! Many basic things needed sorting out .many "taken for granted" features were difficult to access/missing! How could this package be the Genie in the cellphone?
The Android market had some answers . a multitude of apps made by all sorts of creatures. Corporates, Individuals, Artists, Satanists, Sci-Fi Buffs. list is endless. Oh Boy! People were having fun here. I wanted to be a part of this merrymaking.but how?
So I downloaded Eclipse, Java, Android SDK and Emulator. And installed it all with the help of some nice reviews on this subject. After tinkering for an hour . voila . my first Android app said "hello world".nothing much in terms of achievement . but a hell of a lot to change anyone's perspective! Suddenly the phone was alive! It could do things as you wanted it to(some hackers have also managed to "root" it . meaning. sort of do all the bad things with it!). Coming back to the iPhone comparison .this phone gave you a lot of resources PLUS choice! Now "you" have the reins and "you" can make the choices!
The G1 symbolizes the allure of endless and overwhelming options. Geeks love it.They revel at being able to use digital devices as tools to do all kinds of naughty things! But what about the "common man"? I'd say . stay away. He would probably just stare at the blank screen and wonder how he made this buying decision. Leave the G1 to the "experts". You need to know JAVA, Eclipse and Android SDK to really use this device to its potential.Otherwise you are stuck with a white elephant!
Okay so how about the phone? Well .keyboard is great, Trackball slippery, touch screen awesome, camera ok .photographers nightmare really.and lets see .what else .Ah yes! The screen slide mechanism .I guess they made it look more geeky than necessary! But point taken . it does look cool when you snap out the keyboard! The build quality is good . UI responsiveness. a tad slow . slower if you start using it as a regular desktop and open too many apps(you’ll be very tempted to use it like that .believe me!)
Is it value for money . definitely . but provided you are willing to explore it(or keep searching the Android market everyday for new Apps). The maps, wifi and the GPS make this a formidable package. It has all the right hooks to hang all your scraps of information. And it does all this and still offers you more in terms of how you can program it!
All in all a revolution . something Symbian is yet to achieve . and the iPhone has to emulate to survive in the long run. The G1 is the dark horse .there is a mystery behind the suave exterior!
For all this joy you have to shell out around 24K in INR and200$(with a contract) in US.
