New Phone - T-Mobile G1 with Google

I've had one form of Blackberry or another for the past 6 to 7 years or so. Recently I decided to make a change to what I call the next generation of phones. This generation must have real-time e-mail, a realistic web browsing experience, and simple to use, touchscreen controls. The huge seller out there is, of course, the iPhone. Being locked into my T-Mobile contract, that wasn't really an option, especially since AT&T is the sole vendor for the iPhone and due to a serious disagreement I had with them a couple of years ago, I will never do business with them again.

When I heard the G1 was coming out, I was very interested. It's based on the Android platform, a mobile device OS made by Google. I decided to try it out and it arrived yesterday.

I'll write more about it in the coming days, but suffice it to say I'm very impressed with the OS and the phone in general. A lot of peeople on Internet forums complain about the weight, size, and the keyboard, but I found all of these to be not only acceptable, but preferable. I watched many videos of the device in use on the Internet and it looked a lot bigger than it does in person -- it is only a bit larger than my Blackberry Curve. The one SERIOUS complaint I have is the battery life. With moderate web browsing and e-mail, the phone lasts a good 6 hours, maybe. My Blackberry could make it to bedtime with about 10-20% to spare. News that relief may come in the form of software updates is encouraging.

The Google Apps integration is great. I use the reader, docs, gmail, and search with no problem, although the read-only docs is a bummer. That should be fixed in an update, too. Another key feature is 3G. I have found the coverage in the Sacramento area to be excellent and even works way out in the suburbs, i.e. Elk Grove.

The Android Market for applications is growing like crazy everyday and I've tried a few out. My three favorite so far are:

Any Cut - Let's you place certain types of shortcuts on the desktop above and beyond the one's the OS restricts you, too. It's not a very sexy app, but so far has been the most crucial.

TuneWiki - Shown in the pics. It's a music player that has a lot of nice features and displays the lyrics as the song plays.

Compare Everywhere - This is one of those applications that makes you feel like you're living in the future. Very, very cool. Just hold the camera up to a barcode on a product and the phone vibrates when finished scanning it. It then goes out on the Internet and price compares with online and brick and mortar stores. Hit the map button and it will use the GPS to identify where you are and the closest stores that have that product.

I have only had the phone one day so I'll post more as I go along.