JC - Technology and Stuff

Well, I knew it was coming after I read all the reviews. I’ve always been a lover of Blackberry phones. I have owned four different models over the years until I switched to my T-Mobile G1 as an early adopter. But the Blackberry Storm looked different.

The concept behind the Storm is that it is a touchscreen version of a great phone, trying to play catch up with the iPhones and G1s of the world. But in my opinion (and it seems in the opinion of others) it was rushed to market too soon. The great thing about a Blackberry is that they just work and deliver email to you flawlessly. The unfortunate thing about the Storm is that the guys at RIM (or whoever makes their software) forgot that every Blackberry user also expects for the Storm to just work too. The problem is not the capabilities of the phone, the problem is in the UI. It’s just badly conceived and obviously put together in a hurry. Verizon needed to respond to AT&T and T-Mobile and rushed the Storm to market. A big mistake. It seems that returns of the phone are as high as 50% in some areas.

So if you’re thinking of getting a new phone for the new year, do what I did. Take the plunge and buy yourself a T-Mobile G1. You won’t be disappointed. I love my G1 and it’s flexibility and applications. I miss my corporate email push a little - but not a lot to be honest (and I know I’ll get that back very soon). Everything else that I got on my Blackberry I still get - POP email, calendar (even syncs to Outlook via Google), contacts; and SO much more besides (just read some of my other blog posts that talk to G1 features).

You can read the full article on Engadget here that speaks to some of the problems of the Verizon Blackberry Storm.

I decided it was time to update my list of favorite T-Mobile G1 applications as I’ve now been using my G1 phone for a couple of months. My previous list is here.

People stop me now and again to ask what I like about my phone and what makes it different from other phones. I usually only have to show them two applications:

• ShopSavvy - scans barcodes using the G1 camera and looks them up on its internal database to give best prices and shopping availability
• Bubble - turns your phone into a three way bubble or spirit level. Simple, elegant, and very useful!

Of course apart from that the phone does all the usual phone, text and email stuff. One application that I seem to use all the time though is Twidroid - a Twitter application. This just works and keeps me updated with all the latest tweets from friends.

In my last post I said I used College Football Live. I have now replaced that application with a new one released by Google - Scoreboard. This application keeps you updated on a whole range of different sports scores and if you’re interested you can read some more about it here and here. The second article lists a few easter eggs!

Lastly I want to add one useful system application to the list. Power Manager shows you every status you want on a single screen and you can tweak the settings to suit you.

So, if you’re looking for something useful to load, I’ve given you a start…

Ok, a few days have passed and it’s another chance to write some more updates on the T-Mobile G1 usage experience.

I’ve now been using my phone for 5 days and I think I’m finally getting into the groove with it. Bottom line - I like it and am glad I took the opportunity to buy one. So with that said, here’s a few more experiences, observations, hints and tips:

Battery - Yes, as I’ve mentioned before, I think the battery life is definitely the weakest part of the phone. I am used to a Blackberry Curve that would typically last me 2 to 3 days between recharges. Mind you, I didn’t spend my time on the Blackberry surfing the web, playing music, watching YouTube, or locating myself on GPS. Actually, I still don’t do a lot of that on my T-Mobile G1 phone either now that the initial ‘try it and see’ period has passed and I’m using it as a normal everyday part of my lifestyle. I’ve learned to set it almost to how my Blackberry was set up. Bluetooth is only turned on when I get in the car, GPS is only turned on when I need it and WiFi is off by default as I have 3G for most things. Actually at home I do need to turn WiFi on if I want to surf the net as in my apartment I get a very flaky 3G signal. With sensible battery management I seem to get about 24 hours or so of life out of it (well at least 18 with the phone recharging while I’m asleep) so it’s not as bad as it could have been.

Yahoo! Mail - I mentioned last time that I was having trouble with my Yahoo! email. The good news is that I have now resolved the problem. It seems that the advice given by my phone was not so good. My Yahoo! email account is one of these ‘plus’ accounts and so the T-Mobile G1 suggested that I would need to set up my pop and smtp servers manually. That’s what I had done before. This time around I decided to delete my Yahoo! account on my phone and reinstall it. I did this and let it use the default settings. Lo and behold, it all works fine. It syncs, receives emails and does all that it’s now supposed to do - automatically. Just another learning experience.

Adaptability - The one thing that I’m really impressed about the T-Mobile G1 phone is its adaptability. I have made the home screen (well 3 of them actually) my own; one touch access to those things I need, logically grouped how I want them. I even took the advice of another blogger and downloaded ‘Any Cut’ from the Android Market. I then created my own customized shortcut that would send a text to my wife with a single touch. That icon sits on my home screen and I know it will be used a lot over the coming months. I think it’s important if you use your phone as a PDA that it reflects your personality. The T-Mobile G1 does not disappoint in this.

Ring Modes - One thing I liked about my Blackberry was that I could create ‘profiles’ for when I was in the office, at home, wherever and these profiles controlled the way my phone would behave. For example every morning I switched my Blackberry over to ‘work’ profile and from then on it only vibrated at me, never ringing out loud. When I got home, I switched it over to ‘phone only’ and then all I got was the phone notifications, no beeps for SMS, etc. This system has been part of my life for the past several years. The T-Mobile G1 doesn’t work in this fashion I am sad to say. Vibrate is controlled via the ringer volume control. It goes from loud to silent, with the last but one setting indicating vibrate. Not quite what I had in mind. Couple that with the fact that I don’t / can’t wear my T-Mobile G1 on my waist (when I am at work or out and about) like I did with my Blackberry and I feel weird. I’m sure over the next couple of weeks I’ll find a workable solution to all this, but at present I don’t know what to do with my phone; leave it on my desk, put it in my pocket? I don’t know. I went to a meeting this morning with my phone in my pocket and of course it rang halfway through the meeting. I just had to let it ring. Something my Blackberry handled much better. Of course, I could have remembered to put it on vibrate first, but I’m not used to having to keep resetting my ringer volume during the day depending upon where I am.

Dialing and Talking - Using a touchscreen phone for talking on the phone is still a bit of a weird experience for me. I’m used to a keypad of some description and even that disappears on the T-Mobile G1 when you’re actually on a call. At first I panicked and opened my phone up to expose the keyboard so I could delete voicemails and respond to menu prompts. Thankfully I discovered there’s a pull up tab on the bottom of the screen that appears when you’re on a call. Pulling up the tab gives you your numeric keypad back and all works fine. I still don’t like the way the phone goes dark however. If your call is longer than your screen timeout setting (actually I’ve discovered it goes dark after about 10 seconds) then you first have to wake the screen up by hitting the menu key, and then pull up the tab. A lot to remember when all you want to do is ‘press 5 to speak to a Customer Representative’! Still, I guess this is just one more usability process change I need to go through.

Orientation Flip - One of the features least known about is the ability to flip images and webpages from portrait to landscape (and vice versa) WITHOUT opening up the keyboard. In both the pictures and browser applications there is a ‘menu’ option to flip the orientation of the screen. This is really useful and exists contrary to information written by reviewers! (As you can see by comparing the screenshot at the top of this post with the one below. They are both the same, just ‘flipped’ around - and no keyboard!).

Reference Manual - One last link that I must publish is to the T-Mobile G1 Reference Manual. This is a really good resource and is hidden away on the T-Mobile website. READ IT!!

All in all like I said, I love this phone. It’s just quite a big change from my Blackberry and I guess you forget what that experience was like when you first switched to it from a ‘normal’ phone. My wife also now has a T-Mobile G1 as she got T-Mobile G1 envy immediately. She is loving it, and the changes for her from her previous phone are greater than mine. We are now officially a two T-Mobile G1 phone family.

I promise not to blog about the phone again for a week or so and will write about some other topics over the next couple of days.

For those that are interested, previous reviews and impressions appear here and here.

I’ve had my T-Mobile G1 now for a whole 2.5 days and so it’s time to write a little more about it. Firstly I want to come back to a couple of things I wrote in my last post.

GPS - GPS  functions perfectly. I discovered the reason for location being a little off and that’s only when you are either indoors, or when the GPS is turned off. Under ‘Security & Location’ in the ‘Settings’ menu there are options for ‘Use Wireless Networks’ and ‘Enable GPS Satellites’. By default these are both turned on. What that means is that if you are inside somewhere and decide to use the Maps application and hit the ‘My Location’ option then the phone will end up using the WiFi method for locating you. That means triangulation from signals and other methods. Consequently your location will be reported slightly wrongly. However if you are outside or have a good signal from somewhere inside then GPS will work fine. I have found that even sometimes inside buildings I can get a GPS lock - but not always. So this clears up any confusion over the GPS functionality written about by a few reviewers.

Battery - This is one area that certainly is very different from my Blackberry experience. Battery life lasts about a day depending on what you do. So be prepared. It is possible if you do a lot of browsing, GPS use, or game playing that your battery may not last the day. Be advised! Just a little lifestyle adjustment to make. The battery does recharge very quickly however and it can also be recharged from your PC by just plugging in the mini-USB cable.

Browser - Overall I’m very pleased with the browser. It is responsive, displays everything just as it should and generally is a delight to use. SO much better than my Blackberry! A couple of things to note though are that a) the browser always opens to your last loaded page and not a ‘home’ page. This can be a little annoying from time to time; and b) page navigation is a little tricky at times when you’re in ‘zoom out’ mode and trying to find exactly the part of the web page you are looking for. The reason for this is that you have to keep your finger on the screen as you move around the page but sometimes it’s hard to see where you are cos your finger’s in the way, and so you let go and lo and behold you get the part of the page where your finger was! Just another little usage thing to get used to.

Keyboard - I love the fact that it’s a real keyboard and there are dedicated keys for ‘.’ and ‘@’, which is really useful in email address typing. On the downside I find that sometimes I cannot see the ‘extended’ keys when the backlighting is on in a dark room. I have to guess a little as to which key they belong to. I think this is primarily because they’re red. As I said, it’s fine in normal light, just a little difficult in dark light. The main keys of course are fine and easy to read in any light. Some reviewers have said they don’t like the feel of the keyboard or that the ‘nub’ of the phone gets in the way. I haven’t found this to be true at all. The phone works well for my typing methods so I guess that’s a personal thing, not a genuine problem.

Email Syncing - First of all everything Google is fine - 100%. Let’s get that out of the way. However my Yahoo! syncing is not so perfect. I find that for some reason my connection to Yahoo! email doesn’t work all of the time and I get ‘connection error’ messages from time to time. I haven’t managed to find a pattern here, although I think it may only be happening when I am connected to data services via a WiFi network and not when it’s 3G. I’ll have to investigate more on that. Like I said, it’s mostly fine, just a little annoying from time to time. But the biggest disappointment for me has to be that I have no access to my corporate email. I have tried to set it up in many different ways but all to no avail. Next week at the office I will try and talk to the IT Help Desk and see if there’s anything I can do to make it work. But for now - no go.

Android Marketplace - So far I’ve only tried a few of the applications but my general experience has been good. My favorite app is ‘Ringdroid’, an application that allows you to make ringtones from snippets of any song you have in your library. Now that is brilliant! ‘Pacman’ is also pretty addictive of course and I’ve tried out ‘ShopSavvy’ the bar code reader program. This program works well at reading barcodes, just don’t expect it to tell you where to buy cheap groceries as it’s aimed at ‘luxury’ items like TVs, big software, etc. But it does what it does very well.

Other Comments - Now I’ve had the phone for a couple of days it’s starting to feel more natural for everything. I have to say it’s a big usability change from the Blackberry. Not unpleasant, just a big change. I’ve managed to set up my ringtones how I like them - something that is not explained in the user manual by the way - and that’s made a big difference. On the topic of the user manual, it’s pretty basic. It covers all the applications of the phone, but you’ll have to figure out the ‘options’ yourself.

So, that’s about it for today. I’ll write some more thoughts later in the week.

By now everyone has seen all the pictures, read the early reviews and probably are totally confused as to whether to buy a T-Mobile G1 with Google phone. In this article I will try and give you my unbiased view of the product. As always, I must point out that T-Mobile is my employer, but I am a consumer, just like anyone else.

Most everyone has tried to compare the T-Mobile G1 with the Apple iPhone. That is their choice, but I think is a mistake. The two products, although having a lot of similar features, are very different devices. One is a closed and proprietary device and the other is an open and evolving platform for the future. It is on that basis that I am writing about the T-Mobile G1 phone.

So first things first. Unboxing the device was not a wow experience. I wasn’t expecting a wow experience however. I was expecting a phone and a phone is what I unboxed. I have been using mobile phones since the mid 1980’s (and at that time the word ‘mobile’ was debatable!) and quite simply I could not live without one now. I have also been a Blackberry user since 2004 and so now I must have email too. I also spend my life on the Internet and so a phone with a great Internet browser was also something that I really wanted. I am not a big music listener, nor YouTube watcher, but I do text a fair bit too. It is on this premise that am writing about the T-Mobile G1 phone. It is a phone I bought (with my own money at full retail price by the way) because I wanted to use it. For no other reason (except of course to spread the T-Mobile love to others!).

So as I was saying, I unboxed it and assembled all the pieces and followed the instructions on how to put in my SIM and battery, etc. I pressed the ‘on’ button and waited while it went through its startup. This was a pleasingly short process (less than 1 minute) compared to the 5 minute plus affair of my Blackberry Curve. Good start. The phone asked me to enter my Google account details which I did and very soon afterward I was up and running. Simple.

The fun started at this point as I really had no idea what I was doing. The T-Mobile G1 is not a regular phone at all, it has all these bells and whistles and looks just like a computer desktop when it’s started up. I hacked my way around for a while figuring most things out, but at some point I will have to really read the owner’s manual in some detail. An example of why is as follows: This morning my wife had left me a voicemail at some time. Of course my phone notified me and I simply pressed the notification and it dialled my voicemail for me  - clever. I then listened to the voicemail and got the normal response of ‘press 7 to delete this message’. I looked down at my screen but there was no ‘7′ to press, my display just showed I was on the phone to my voicemail! I’m sure I could have probably just hit the ‘dialer’ button and then a numeric pad would have appeared, but in the heat of the moment I wasn’t thinking. All the phones I’d ever used before always had the numeric pad available at all times. I panicked and opened the keyboard and pressed the ‘7′ on that. Thankfully that did the trick and deleted my voicemail. Little things that I will have to relearn in order to get the best experience from my new mega-phone!

Anyway back to the plot. I went through all the standard apps and pressed all the buttons and was suitably impressed. The phone did everything it claimed to do - and did it well. Gmail is a breeze. The calendar works well. I even managed to set up my Yahoo! email account too. The only thing I am missing is my T-Mobile corporate email. Hmm. There’s something wrong here. I’m in a quandary. I don’t know whether to just go without that email (which after years of a Blackberry might be a little difficult), to set up my T-Mobile email as a POP account, or to wait and pray that Exchange synchronization comes quickly. I’ll probably make a decision over the weekend. Of course it also means I don’t get my calendar appointments (at work) any more either. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet either (Update: I managed to sync my Appointments from Outlook straight to my Google calendar via a clever piece of software - Google Calendar Sync -, so now I actually do have my work appointments on my T-Mobile G1).

Several reviewers have complained about the GPS and its lack of accuracy. I have to say that so far I too have had mixed results with this. GPS positioning functions but so far every time it has identified me as being about two to three blocks from where I actually am (Update:- Actually I discovered that this is due to the fact that the G1 is locating me via WiFi and Cell Towers and NOT GPS. I have not to date managed to get a GPS lock). Both times I have been inside though so I’ll try and make a point of trying this again over the weekend from outside somewhere. That aside, the maps and all associated functions work really well. It’s just like being on the Internet version of Google Maps.

I love the implementation of the T-Mobile G1 keyboard. The hinge is strong and feels good when you open it up. Sending emails and text messages ‘just works’ and is actually a better experience than on my Blackberry Curve. The fact that I get HTML enabled emails too is wonderful. Now I can choose to see an email just the same as if I was on my PC, something that the Blackberry Curve also struggled with. I’ve not opened up any attachments yet - something else I will test out over the weekend.

The big question for me was the browser. Would the T-Mobile G1 browser experience be what I expected? In a word - yes!! Every site I went to displayed flawlessly. I tried to edit documents and spreadsheets in Zoho but that didn’t work - I didn’t really expect it would - I just wanted to see. Maybe that’ll be something I’ll be able to do soon when Google Chrome is officially on the T-Mobile G1. As advertised there’s no Flash or PDF support, but I’m sure that’ll come along soon too. The important thing to remember here is that nearly every regular website you want to go to is now available in full color, zoomable, and wonderfully presented ON A PHONE!!! What do you want for your money? With the T-Mobile G1 it’s so easy to forget that at the end of the day you are just using a phone. I keep forgetting this and expect it to back up my hard drives, browse my networks, make my lunch, etc. No, this is just a phone on steroids, not a PC or PC replacement. But the line is getting very blurry.

So, these are the first impressions. I’ll write more over the weekend.

Tonight I got my new T-Mobile G1 with Google phone. I have to say it’s just brilliant!! I don’t care about no stinkin iPhone - I got myself a real competitor from a real cellphone company!!

Tomorrow I’ll post some pictures and write some more detailed information about it. But until then you’ll just have to take my word for it. Oh you jealous people out there who haven’t got one yet!!

Later…

At last! The T-Mobile employee phones portal had a new addition today - the T-Mobile G1 phone. No advertising, no fanfare, it was just there. I suspect that’s because everyone has been eagerly awaiting the phone and if it was announced like that then the systems would explode with all the rush (metaphorically speaking). So, I got my order in quick - just one choice at the present - the bronze colored version. No news on a delivery date either, but it looks like somewhere before November 10th according to some small print I read. Now the countdown begins. I can’t wait

Two minutes! That’s how long it took me to correct a problem I had on my home PC this morning. And I wasn’t even at home when I fixed it. Let me explain…

It seems that now I have my fast cable internet installed, my Yahoo! Messenger at home refuses to give up its connection like it used to. What I mean by that is usually I have Messenger loaded at home and then I come to the office and then reopen it on my desktop. What this normally does is close down my Messenger at home (well, takes it offline anyway) and I then carry on using it at work until I get home again in the evening where I reverse the process. Sounds easy. And it’s been working fine like this for a few years now.
But this morning after I got to work and connected to Messenger it decided to go offline by itself after a few minutes telling me it was online on another computer! Well, not to be outdone, I got it back online on my work PC again and carried on. Yet again a few minutes later the same thing happened and so the tussle continued for an hour or so. Hmmm, what to do?

Then I remembered I have Mesh and Home Server, both of which allow remote access to your PC. That is they are both supposed to. I found out there’s a little clause in the Windows Home Server documentation that says it doesn’t support a remote desktop connection to a PC that’s running Vista Home of any flavor. And yes, of course my PC, likes millions of others, is running Vista Home Premium and so I can’t remote desktop to it. Still, that leaves the ever trusty Mesh which I’ve blogged and blogged about before. This little application never ceases to amaze me. I simply navigated to mesh.com, hit the ‘connect to my PC’ button and lo and behold I got a login prompt for my home PC right on my screen at work. Magic. One password and one click later and I had my desktop in front of me and I was controlling my home PC from the office, just as if I was sat in front of it. I quickly opened up my Yahoo! Messenger and closed it down and then logged off my home PC. I re-opened Messenger on my office desktop and there we go, sweetness and light had been restored. No more interruptions!

This is exactly what modern day computing should be about. Doing simple clever things. Just a few years ago I read all these pitches to buy remote-PC (or some such program) and all these applications cost like $20 a month. Mesh is FREE!!!

Well it finally seems like my home PC network setup is coming together. Now that I have fast internet installed, and after some small adjustments to everything, I am fairly happy with what I have. I still need to get backups properly organized via Home Server; I currently do partial backups via that and other backups via a backup program that runs every day for me. My T-Mobile home phone is still performing flawlessly and now that they have introduced Discounted International Calling there really is no need for anything else.

…and so should yours be.

Mathematicians tell us that most ‘normal’ distributions fall under a bell shaped curve. That is to say if you drew a bell (see diagram opposite) with quantity along the y axis and ‘whatever’ on the x axis, then the area under the curve at distinct points would be equal to certain pre-defined percentages. Put another way, most of us would exhibit a certain behavior a certain percentage of the time. Nearly every possible population set for any given set of circumstances results in a curve of this nature. That’s both reassuring and disappointing at the same time. Reassuring because there’s some predictability to it and it’s nice to know where the boundaries are, but disappointing in that we as human beings are at the end of the day so predictable after all.

Anyway I digress. I wanted to write a little today about careers (or my observations about careers, since I claim to be no expert in the matter). If my career was a bell shaped curve then I guess I’m over the hump. In fact I could apply some simple mathematics to work out exactly where I am, but that’s not the point. I only need to know that I’m over the hump. Maybe that means I’m ‘over the hill’ too, but that’s another totally unrelated topic! The hump of the bell curve is a good way to look at our careers. At first we are struggling for success (and wealth, and happinees, etc.), but as time goes on hopefully we improve and we start climbing that hill of the bell curve. New heights bring new challenges - normally in the form of stress. I am a firm believer in the theory that the higher in the bell curve you are (also factor in direction and gradient), the more stress you are also under. Wow! That really explains my late 30’s and early 40’s.

I don’t think most people undestand bell curves (or really care) and therefore don’t understand that in the end it all has to even out. Many people keep trying to climb and climb, thinking that by the time they are nearing retirement they will be at the top (but how stressed will they be? - I’m thinking 60 year old CEOs here). So let’s think about it for a moment. If the area under the curve represents a big part of your life and you use it all up at work then you’re not going to have any of it left by the time you retire. One day you’ll be at the top of the curve and then very next day you’ll be at the bottom. I would hazard a guess this is the quick route to the next world (think heart attack or stroke). Life needs to be a balance. Bell curves work for a reason.

So, I’m on the down slope of my career bell curve. I need to work out the exact angle and area I have left so I can do a good job in managing it. I think I’ll plot it out so I can calculate it.

In the chart above the black line represents the ‘ideal’ career bell curve (the red line maps my career path to date) and is mapped with age in years along the x axis and percentage of career capability / effort / investment along the y axis. Of course you could be an early or late bloomer and the curve could be skewed either way, but for my example I am assuming a standard bell curve. Either way you have to understand that there is only so much area available under the curve and this area eats into the rest of your life. If the area is too large you have no life outside of work!! Consider that when the line is at 80%, you only have 20% of your life quality left to give outside of a work environment.

My early career was steep and precipitous. Then it plateaued out for a few years. Then it took a brief  downturn. Then it went skywards for several years. Then it plateaued out again. Now it’s taking a natural downturn. Not because I’m unemployed or anything (I actually have a very good job), but because I need to keep that balance - for my own health and well being. I don’t need the stress anymore. I have interests and committments outside of work. I have a life. I have other bell shaped curves I want to embrace. My mum used to say that you can’t burn the candle at both ends (well actually I don’t think she did, but it’s the sort of thing that mums say). What that means is that you can’t fit in more than a day’s stuff in 24 hours. If you try and do then something will suffer. Put it another way. If you spend all your energy and stress on work, then your social life is going to suffer. Or your marriage. You know where I’m going. There is only a finite area under the bell curve. Use it wisely!

Well gosh I’ve rambled on for a few paragraphs without seemingly having any purpose. But I do. I have real purpose. By starting that journey down the other side of my career bell curve I have freed up time in my mind and for my body. I am now paying attention to things I let wander over the last few years. My health is benefitting (let’s not even talk about what my blood pressure used to be), my weight is coming down, my diet is improving, and my mind has more opportunity to imagine the future. Heck I even have more time to devote to a better relationship with my wife and children. It’s all in the bell curve.

I hope I’ve given you a little food for thought in this post and maybe you’ll try and map your career path to this chart. No matter what age you currently are, try and keep to the black line. You’ll live a lot longer and have a much happier and more fulfilling life.

Today was the day the T-Mobile G1 phone was finally announced. There have been hundreds of posts already written about this new phone all over the Internet but I just have to add a little one of my own. I am SO eagerly awaiting MY chance to get one of these. I wish I was privy to a pre-release model but I am just a lowly employee who will wait his turn like everybody else. I’m sure it’ll be another 5 weeks or so before I have mine and it is activated. Until then all I can do is dream.

The best picture gallery I have found is here at Engadget.

Of course the day at T-Mobile was full of the announcement. Internal emails and websites are awash with the new iPhone contender. And so they should be. This is the biggest thing to happen in the cellphone market since the original launch of that alternative device! I am confident the G1 is going to be HUGE. And this is only a first generation, first model. In another year’s time the world will know it’s here to stay, and this phone / platform combination was first available on T-Mobile.

So, that’s my take. I promise I’ll stop writing about this phone now until I’ve nearly got one. In the meantime, here’s a final list of its features and a link to the official T-Mobile G1 website:

Touch screen

• Instant access to key information with the touch of a finger
• Just tap the screen and go

Real Web browsing capabilities

• Quick and easy access to the Internet one click away
• View more pages and rich Web content on your phone

3MP camera

• Capture key moments in high-quality fashion wherever you are
• Never worry about blurry photos with auto focus built right in

Customizable home screen

• Just drag and drop any of your favorite applications, photos, or folders onto your home screen for quick access to what you use all the time

QWERTY keyboard

• The built-in familiar layout lets you type messages easily without scrolling for the letter you want
• Hinged screen slides open to reveal keypad and closes to prevent accidental dialing

Easy access to Google applications

• One-touch access to Google applications: Maps (including satellite, traffic, and street views), Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, IM/text/e-mail
• All the ways you need to connect while you’re on the go

Music player

• With the 1GB memory card, you’ll never be without your favorite tunes

One-click Google Search

• Quick and easy access to the Internet in one click

Video playback

• Watch your favorite videos, even YouTube, anywhere

3G network and Wi-Fi access

• High-speed 3G network connection for surfing the Web or downloading information quickly and effortlessly
• Seamlessly transition to open Wi-Fi networks to surf the Web or download information quickly

Android Market

• One-touch access to Android Market
• Customize and personalize your device to fit your life with a variety of software applications like games, social networking, and on-the-go shopping
• Download the applications wirelessly with just a couple short clicks