If you guys have not already, the stock ticker and battery manager apps in the market are pretty sweet.

what other apps are you guys fans of?

11/21/2008 9:36:56 AM

havent really played with too many, but the pro football live, college football live, compare anywhere, slide puzzle and zombie, run are my favorites so far.

zombie run is just silly stupid but it's fun to play with on dog walks.

11/21/2008 10:52:37 AM

I need to d/load zombie, run. I read the description and it left me scratching my head.

weather channel
pac man
amazed
college football
flashlight (this has been more helpful that I ever imagined)
stock ticker (love it)
light racer
lunar phases
picsay
power management

11/21/2008 11:44:25 AM

oh yeah, weather channel app is crucial.

it's changed my morning routine.

wake up, check weather channel app from bed, mentally choose clothes, hop in shower

11/21/2008 11:48:43 AM

i'm addicted to the hold 'em game. i wish they'd make an app that displayed your upcoming calendar appointments in the home screen

i also recently found out about Google/Gmail contacts, and how the G1 syncs phone contacts withthem. it's pretty cool

my biggest gripes about this phone are:
1) having to manually unlock the phone (even with no security pattern) every time it goes to sleep after 10 seconds.
2) In the Dialer, if you start typing in a number, it doesn't search through the contacts by the letters on the buttons you've pressed. I really hate having to slide open the keyboard to start typing the name of the contact I want to call
3) Can't view songs in the music player by Genre

Other than that, I love it. Lots of neat applications, great sound/call quality, very fluid interface.

[Edited on November 24, 2008 at 10:49 PM. Reason : ]

11/24/2008 10:43:15 PM

^ good points, but:

1 - you know you can adjust the time before it goes idle right?
2 - why not go to "contacts" rather than start typing. It takes like one hard flick of the thumb to get to the bottom of your list... and if you just tap and hold while scrolling it stops. I find that much easier than typing in a number.
3 - by genre... yeah I guess that would be cool. Cant argue that, but I dont use by genre very much on my computer so imagine I would less on my phone.\

There is one app that you can enter memos/notes and it displays a reminder on your home screen if you set a timer for that particular note. I have not messed around with googles calendar, does it not have reminders?

11/26/2008 11:10:35 AM

Quote :

"why not go to "contacts" rather than start typing. It takes like one hard flick of the thumb to get to the bottom of your list... and if you just tap and hold while scrolling it stops. I find that much easier than typing in a number."

If I want to call someone real quick, i'd much rather just start typing their name with the on-screen keypad rather than searching through my contact lists, which if greater than 100 or so can be quite cumbersome.

Quote :

"There is one app that you can enter memos/notes and it displays a reminder on your home screen if you set a timer for that particular note. I have not messed around with googles calendar, does it not have reminders?"

Again, maybe another preference thing, but I'd prefer having a quick outlook of what I have to do over the next couple of days without having to go into the calendar and checking

Overall still very pleased with this phone, I really love the keyboard and I'm glad I didn't go the iphone route. I can type so much faster with it than with than on-screen one

[Edited on November 26, 2008 at 10:01 PM. Reason : ]

11/26/2008 10:00:06 PM

anyone else having a problem with streetview only displaying a black screen?


irritating :\

11/26/2008 11:02:58 PM

Mine works, the only issue I have is that it's really sensitive when trying to get a GPS fix on my current location. I have to "move around" quite a bit before it finds me.

11/27/2008 11:16:01 AM

Anyone tried to stream vide or music on it?

11/28/2008 11:06:55 AM

youtube seems to work pretty well on it. i havent tried anything else yet

11/30/2008 12:42:17 PM

I know it is possible to stream Sirius using Orb, though I have not done it yet.

12/1/2008 3:43:27 PM

What about the quality of Orb using your home media? Too bad it doesn't have a headphone jack. I have Android running on my HTC Mogul now as a back up os. Doing that increased my nerd level a few thousand experience points.

12/1/2008 4:05:30 PM

^ haha... yes, yes it did. I'm pretty sure the G1 comes with a headphone adapter now.

12/1/2008 4:25:01 PM

anyone know of a way you can force sms/mms texts to cache to the sd card?

when you hit like 700 texts it laggs up the entire phone until you delete the threads.

i'm assuming that's the issue

but if you try and delete a thread with over 500 or so messages, it usually crashes the messaging app, and you have to force close.

that's kinda lame that the rest of the apps drag ass if you have too many texts

12/2/2008 10:51:52 AM

I think you have a texting problem.

12/2/2008 11:08:57 AM

i agree sir.

the true indication is that i have this issue a few times a week.

12/2/2008 11:19:05 AM

lol, boss was complaining about how many minutes/texts somebody else used last month on his company phone (couple hundred texts).. he seemed amazed i used 3000 texts last month

12/2/2008 11:23:28 AM

dude, if you avg. 100 texts a day I dont see how you even "work"... holy scnikeys.

I avg like one a week, haha

12/2/2008 5:29:47 PM

yeah i got the messaging 200 plan with AT&T, i doubt i'll use half of that a month

12/2/2008 9:32:03 PM

the gps/gmaps tried to lead me through a road that no longer exists yesterday and i was late for a work meeting. what used to be a RR crossing is now hedged up and the road split into two dead ends.

but when i was explaining myself it ended up in a 20 minute show and tell session for the phone

12/3/2008 10:35:40 AM

What'd everyone think?

12/3/2008 10:41:57 AM

they were pretty fascinated

but more than one of them just started using cell phones as a whole recently, so i think the reaction was a bit skewed

12/3/2008 11:13:03 AM

woot

now supporting shazam

12/4/2008 4:35:59 PM

wait so these DO have a headphone jack now?

12/4/2008 5:48:43 PM

Cube Runner someone needs to write. Maybe I'll go for it this weekend.

12/5/2008 2:37:14 AM

^^ they have always had a headphone jack, you just need an adapter for it. The adapter I have heard comes with the phone now (it did not initially).

what is cube runner?

12/5/2008 10:45:38 AM

A super addicting iphone game. Would be pretty easy to do on the G1 I think. I think they need gesture zooming in the browser too.

12/5/2008 12:53:02 PM

Unlocked G1 without carrier restrictions.

http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2008/12/the_most_open_a.html

12/8/2008 1:26:36 PM

^ I bought mine new unlocked on ebay, i paid 325 for it

12/9/2008 7:54:46 AM

I give up, bought a G1 and Tmobile plan today and paid out the ass to get out of my sprint contract. Was goin to pay $159 for Iphone but that was way too high.

12/21/2008 3:14:02 AM

^ sweet man, still loving this phone....

12/22/2008 10:51:51 AM

Yeah apparently Flash is in the cupcake update coming out at the end of January. Maybe in Lieu of working I'll try and build Cube Runner while I'm at my parents.

12/22/2008 2:47:34 PM

Shit what carrier sends the G1? Mine was overnighted and still isn't here. It's frustrating as fuck. I have no backup phone at the moment.

12/23/2008 1:50:54 PM

Pretty fucking cool. If someone fixes the browser zzoom and they get 3G it'll be unstoppable. The trackball is way more useful than id of thought.

12/24/2008 11:10:26 PM

triplepostliekwut

12/24/2008 11:11:52 PM

^^^UPS, mine was supposed to come overnight put the order didnt get processed and shipped until the next day so it took more like 2 business days. I've had my G1 for about a week now and I love it.

12/27/2008 5:33:41 PM

How are these phones holding up? I want one...is it a better idea to hold out until the next gen phone is released?

1/30/2009 3:25:15 PM

the first day i got mine in late october i dropped it and kicked it ~30 feet across the floor of a bar and it got stepped on

i was sure it was doomed, but held strong

countless drops later, it still swings great,no screen scratches, etc

i need to buy a case, but haven't yet.

as for operation holding up, i wish there was a way to port the browser cache and text/email data to the expansion card instead of onboard, but i guess i just need to clear them out more often.

I've filled the onboard with browser data a few times, and same with the texts, but the phone gets noticeably laggy at that point

1/30/2009 3:44:17 PM

Still using it, I think it's great. Make sure you download the Advanced Battery manager, among other things.

1/30/2009 6:11:21 PM

Anybody have the developer phone?

1/31/2009 1:13:40 PM

you guys d/load the RC33 update? Thoughts?

what is this jesusfreak rc33 update that is different... I was reading something about a radio update also. I need to research more obviously but thought I would feel you guys out in the process.

I did d.load rc33 and it seems to be a very solid update.

from androidcommunity:

Originally Posted by pixelDesK View Post
Can someone educate me what is JF RC33? Is it different from the official RC33 update from TMobile? What about this radio update thing? Is it important to have radio update or not? Sorry for being so naive but I'm kind of new to all these. Thanks!
Basically it's like this-- Google keeps updating the firmware (containing the Android operating system and various applications) with new bugfixes and features. From time to time, they give it to T-Mobile who gives it to you via an OTA ("over the air") update.

The thing about the official firmware updates that come through is that they keep certain functions and features of your phone "off limits"-- they allow 3rd-party applications to run, for example, but only within "sandboxed" (ie, safe & secure) areas of the phone. But if you think about it-- the G1 is basically a mini-laptop with a built-in phone that can run all kinds of applications. The problem is that the firmware limits you to running only certain types of applications that are restricted by Google/T-Mobile.

So while Android is very powerful and allows developers to create all kinds of cool applications, the G1 won't let you run just any kind of program. (see below for examples of this)

T-Mobile's Android limits you for a few reasons-- security (they don't want you to run an application that can do any damage to data or other applications, or steal your information, or mess with their network, etc.), stability (limiting the functionality of phones means less likely things will go wrong), and support (keeping the phone fully "open" means poorly written 3rd party programs could go nuts, which could lead to more headaches to their support line).

Enter the custom firmware. Thanks to a flaw in the security of firmware release RC29, the G1 user is able to give themselves "root" access to the phone, which allows one to bypass all the built-in restrictions. One of the restrictions is the inability to install a new non-official firmware. Once the root exploit was discovered, it allowed anyone to re-flash their firmware with a custom version....

Any explanation of the official firmware vs. JF's version should probably mention the idea of "signed keys" -- the official firmware is designed to only allow itself to be replaced by another firmware that has been digitally "signed" with a key that is recognized to be from T-Mobile. In other words, your T-Mobile firmware was designed to update *only* T-Mobile firmware, and any attempt to update from T-Mobile firmware to another firmware, say one that didn't have all the restrictions the official one did, would fail. The root exploit in RC29 allowed this to be circumvented, so that you could install ANY firmware you want. JFv1.41-rc33, which you can think of as "RC33 Plus" because of its extra features, is such a replacement that is not officially from T-Mobile.

So JFv1.41-RC33 is basically the RC33 version PLUS a lot of extra stuff that ordinarily is not included in RC33. For one thing, a root shell is provided which allows you to add, delete, or modify files to do such things as add a unique theme to your phone, to "tether" your computer to your phone (and share your g3 wireless internet to say, a laptop), to remove unwanted applications (like that useless Amazon mp3), to run applications off your sdcard (which has significantly more room) instead of your phone's built-in storage, to turn on hidden functions like auto-rotate in the browser, to add new features like two-finger zooming in the browser, etc. etc. Basically you have full control over the phone.

The JF1.41 firmware also allows you to load and run 3rd party applications via the Android market that further enhance your phone in ways not intended/permitted by the regular system. You may have seen such applications in the market that say they "require root". Such programs may let you do things like toggle hidden settings or shut down other running applications to free up memory.

In fact, once you have root, you don't have to run Android on your phone. You can even run entire alternate operating systems such as debian linux. Having root is really the key to doing anything you want with your phone, so for technical geeks, this is a big deal- it's like having the ability to open the hood of your car so you can mess with the engine.

A JFv1.41 "recovery image" is also included with the firmware. JF's recovery image has to do with the "emergency mode" you can run by holding down the power and House key when you first start up. The custom version adds new features like being able to back up your entire phone (including applications, settings, and data) to your sdcard. So that's kind of a useful plus too.

As for the radio update-- this is an update to the radio part of the phone. The update may help with reception issues for some users- it may also have something to do with reducing battery consumption... who knows. The radio update is normally built-into the stock T-mobile rc33 firmware and is activated once when you update to RC33. Jesus Freke decided to break off the radio update into a separate file from the regular JFv1.41-RC33 firmware. Apparently, he did this so that if he decided to re-update the firmware, it wouldn't waste the time re-updating the radio every time. (Updating the radio is a one-time process. But maybe he was tweaking his firmware and needed to update several times until he made sure it was right. So he broke off the update to the radio so that he didn't have to keep re-updating that part, which takes some time).

Anyway, hope this is somewhat clear.

[Edited on February 11, 2009 at 1:18 PM. Reason : found my answer, thought I would share.]

2/11/2009 1:08:39 PM

Got the RC33 update yesterday. I'm guessing these updates are pushed out by Google, since I'm not a T-Mobile user.

I'm very interested in the tethering capability of this JF-RC33 (even though I only get EDGE )

2/11/2009 6:52:35 PM

I really like the voice search, it works awesome until I try to show it to someone I can't wait till we get the virtual keyboard, I built the cupcake branch and tried it out it's pretty sweet.

2/11/2009 11:05:33 PM

^ agreed, voice search works awesome. Last night I did a little "pour house Raleigh NC"... boom, there is a map and phone #... hold the # for a sec and I'm on the phone with homie letting me know what time Dr. Dog is coming on.

I Love this phone/laptop.

2/12/2009 11:31:05 AM

RC33 update has been useful. I gotta try out the other updates though. Like voice search very much.

2/15/2009 12:20:54 AM

anyone use Latitude?

I think it'd be ok but i have not a single friend who uses it

2/18/2009 9:32:45 AM

^ haha, yeah.. I have not done it yet. Does it leave your GPS on all the time, or just when you pull up the maps?

2/18/2009 11:53:24 AM

not sure

i've only seen it indicate gps tracking when in maps

just used the maps/gps to go to a new place for lunch, with latitude enabled

not sure i really like the fact that when you're watching your dot move on the map it has your avatar moving along your route too

but i guess if i had other people used it'd be different and i wouldnt have to have my own self buddied

it's kinda weird though

i guess it'd have to do some other times too, so when your buddies updated you

but i noticed that it said mine hadn't updated in a few hours when i first loaded the maps, so i assume it'll just ping the server your location on some periodic frequency

[Edited on February 18, 2009 at 1:17 PM. Reason : ]

2/18/2009 1:16:26 PM

yeah, I'm sure you are right. Did not realize it left your pic up as you were traveling. I do use my GPS a good bit and would prefer it just show the small dot. I may mess with it soon, though I'm going to agree with you again that it is silly since it will just be me on there.

2/18/2009 3:35:00 PM