Exceptional mapping

The GPS chip works exceptionally well with Google Maps, finding my location easily. Strangely, GPS is disabled by default and the G1 uses cell phone triangulation out-of-the-box. We figure this is to save battery life, and perhaps because not every user is interested in using GPS mapping. (We'll explain more about how Android apps are using the GPS chip in a bit.)

While Bluetooth support is great for swapping files with your PC, the G1 does not support AD2P - so no stereo Bluetooth for your MP3s. We had great success using the built-in Wi-Fi at home, at Starbucks and at an airport over a public hotspot, flying along (ahem) on the built-in browser and downloading MP3 files from the Amazon store - which you can only do over Wi-Fi, not over the carrier service.

The built-in camera, like the one in the iPhone, is passable - it doesn't let you set white balance or aperture priority, it's just a point-and-click. Images looked okay - grainy and washed out, but we weren't expecting Canon quality. It was great to take a series of photos and save them on my 2GB Kingston microSD card for an entire week of photo-happy snapshots, knowing they are all saved on my mobile device. As you can guess, using up the 256MB of internal storage might take you a single day.

So what about Android?

So the G1 is a great hardware device, but what about the operating system? Glad you asked: it's absolutely amazing. In some ways, the G1's standard hardware features pale in comparison to the Android software.

Google has outdone themselves: the browser runs fast, there's an easy-to-find search field, contact manager, and a scheduler. None of these tools are going to revolutionise the smartphone industry, and my one major complaint about the G1 is that they don't actually support a true multitouch device.

Sure, in Gmail, you can flick up and down with your finger, and in the browser you can flick around the screen like it's a piece of paper. I like how, on the main home screen in Android, you can flick to the left and right to see more of your screen. To drop apps onto those areas of the screen, you click menu, find the one you want, click with your finger and hold down, then drag it to the home screen.

Fine. But the G1 doesn't actually support gestures where you can point fingers together or apart to zoom in, tap the screen, or perform other basic iPhone-like manoeuvres. We're not sure if this is due to patent restrictions or because the touchscreen doesn't support them. We'd put the multitouch controls somewhere between the HTC Touch Pro (very limited) and the iPhone (very useful). This makes the built-in apps a little less compelling, because they are more static and standard.

We do like the Android Market idea, although the iPhone app store has a much better selection. We downloaded Pac Man, a task switcher, a program for reading barcodes (using the built-in camera), and one that just shows a blob on the screen - a sort of Tamagotchi for mobile users. None of these tools are outstanding, but Google promises that developers will just go nuts with cool applets, so we'll see.

We did like the MP3 download utility, which uses Amazon. The songs downloaded quickly over Wi-Fi and played at an acceptable bit rate (but, again, do not compare to the iPhone or iPod). There is a YouTube app that worked flawlessly.

Conclusion

There's more to say about the G1. In the future, we'd imagine developers will really tap into the power of GPS for location-aware services (say, finding a bus that is near your current location). T-Mobile and others have planned some accessories that include carrying pouches and extra headsets.