Dave’s Tech Blog
A Third Eye on Technology

There is probably a small number of you out there who have seen a little bit about the Google phone on the web.  You probably won’t see TV commercials for it for a little while, because they want supplies to last for a particular demographic who this phone is being targeted towards:  the geek (specifically, software developers).  I’ve been drooling over this phone and stressing out over the fact that I don’t qualify for the $179 price tag that new T-Mobile users are going to be able to take advantage of.  I, on the other hand, would have to shell out $300 for the phone.  And as much as I would love to have this phone in my hands on October 22nd, I won’t feel down about the fact that it’s not going to happen for me.  And probably won’t happen for another year (which is when my current T-Mobile upgrade contract expires and will allow me to take advantage of a contract discount offer).

So why will I not feel so sad about the fact that I won’t soon be playing with the wicked GPS enabled software, the 3 mega-pixel camera, the open-source Android Linux operating system, the Wi-Fi network capabilities and all that other jazz?  Because something better is right around the corner, and the phone I currently have (a Motorola K1 KRZR) suits my needs quite nicely for now.  I can browse the web with it, send and receive e-mail, look up directions with Google Maps, and a few other neat things.  Though it’s all through a tiny screen using slow typing T9 to enter web addresses that aren’t in any dictionary… you know how much of a pain in the ass that is?  Still, it gets me by and is still classy looking (anything shiny is classy to me).

Speaking of Motorola, I’ve learned that they are currently headhunting for 350 new employees to focus exclusively on developing Android Linux capable phones.  LG and Samsung have made similar announcements of intentions to have Android phones on the market by Q3 of next year, which means we’re going to have a ape shit throwing storm of competition that will result in insane price drops.  Remember when Motorola came out with their first RAZR which debuted at $300, and less than a year later it was considered one of the cheapest pieces of crap for sale on eBay?  I don’t think the G1 will suffer than kind of rapid obsolescence, but it will certainly be outpaced with newer phones that run faster.  Hence, I can’t wait to see what the G2 will have in store (hopefully with an actual USB port and not that proprietary HTC ExtUSB crap).

It’s hard to say just how long I’ve been waiting for this phone to come out.  Scheduled to be on sale just in time for the holidays (can’t we agree that Halloween is twice as fun as Christmas?), this phone is dead set on absolutely killing the iPhone.  I mean, just look at it!  It’s got a freaking keyboard (read: “Tactile Response” you iPhone suckers)!!  What’s even better is that IT RUNS ANDROID LINUX!  An open-source cell phone?  Get outta here!!  And it’s only going to cost $179?  You may proceed to salivate.

Now I could try and write up a bunch of original content describing all of the super cool features this phone will carry with it right out of the box, but other websites have already done this.  Why waste my time?  So for starts, check out this Gizmodo article: Android’s 10 most exciting apps.  With this being an open-source platform, there is no telling how many more cool FREE applications will be developed after the phone hits shelves.  You can pre-order it right now at T-Mobile.com.

There will be a few minor drawbacks about this device.  For starts, it’s vendor locked with T-Mobile.  And at the moment, not all of T-Mobile’s coverage areas provide 3G Internet speeds (3G coverage maps are available on T-Mobile’s website so you can check and see for yourself).  They are also planing on limiting your download speeds after you’ve sucked up a whole gigabyte of data per month (do you really need to download a whole gigabyte of data while you’re away from your computer?).  This will likely change in the future as more users join T-Mobile and provide them with the extra funds needed to expand their networks and relax bandwidth limitations. (Update: T-mobile has killed the bandwidth limit).

Any further complaints you see about it on the net are likely being generated by jealous iPhone customers who are stuck on an expensive contract with AT&T (this much seems obvious).  But if you’re willing to spend time arm wrestling with AT&T, there is a way to cancel your contract without paying the Early Termination Fee.  You can watch an informative video about doing this here.