Everything you want to know about the Google Phone
but don't know where to ask!



This review was compiled from a thread I started at SECentral.

Check out also my reviews at http://secentral.net/forum/index.php?topic=16824.0 and for general tips and tips for aunties and uncles i am really enjoying the htc magic
so i am going to do a series of blurbs
on what i really liked about it
so here goes part 1:
what makes you choose a particular phone?

1. approaching this at the simpliest level
i would say looks
- we will never shell out good money for something we dont like
or cant bear to look at it every day
- in the looks department, i daresay htc magic is a beauty
less bulky than htc dream
and more curvy than htc hero

2. form factor is important
and the htc magic is slim, light
and feels very good in your hands

3. magic has a large, big screen
bright and very sharp
really easy on the eyes

4. battery life is decent
the cupcake upgrade of the original android os
addresses most of the shortcomings
in particular, adequate phone memory

5. the phone is pretty loud
in fact i have to turn down the media volume
every time i use gps
as my wife would complain that it is too loud

so on the external view of the htc magic,
i will give it a 5 out of a 5
- dont take my word for it
go to your local telcos and take it for a test run

part 2: the core of the google phone

1. most phones use the symbian/java os
palm and windows mobile has some degree of success
but only apple and google is rewritting the phone os from scratch

2. while the iphone offers a great phony experience
it is quite bewildering falling in line with iphone's close system
- no removeable batteries, no memory card, only one hard button

3. the android os works on the best of existing phone features
without reinventing the wheel
- removeable batteries, sd cards (so essential to keep files on the go),
hard buttons and everything else you have come to expect from a highend phone

4. the most outstanding thing about the android os is that it is free
any manufacturer can pick it up,
customed it like htc hero did with the ui sense
and sell it without paying a cent in royalties
- expect the gphone to drop in price when other manufacturers come into the market

5. the free and open system encourages many developers to write apps for android
at this time, the android market is pretty mature, with a good number of apps
such a pity that apple is able to sell paid apps to everyone from day 1
but gphone paid apps are available to only a few countries.
thankfully, many developers have the good sense of selling their apps directly

6. the first android release aka g1 was stable, able and pretty amazing now the 1.5v aka cupcake is released
the android os addresses all the shortcomings (eg limited phone memory)
and is overtaking iphone in many areas - eg gps, number of screens, mass sms etc


part 3: the basics

there is no surprises with the google phone
it looks like a normal phone
works like a normal phone
and is a normal phone


it took me months to get used to the iphone
especially in pre 2.01 firmware days
where it takes a whole morning to sync
and hangs every time you want to download an app
- without a removal battery,
you have to painstakingly reboot everything
and no way to bring your data with you
without a memory card

i got into the google phone right out of my iphone experience
thought that it will be hard to get into android stuff
but i know it was too big for me to keep away
- well, within 24 hours, i was not only at home with the g1
but have kind of mastered it

1. so what do you buy a phone for?
silly question - to make phone calls.
on the gphone, you can do everything you want in making a call
including handsfree call.
you can add photos as well
and if you have a google account
all your contacts will be autmatically added.

as good and capable as the built-in contacts and dailer is
i would like to recommend contact blast
[url=http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=contacts+blast]http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=contacts+blast[/url]
that will allow you to group contacts very easily
display all contacts with their photos
and send an email or sms to everyone in that group

2. next, you will want to do what every singaporean does with his phone - sms
again, the built-in messager does a more than capable job at this
and allows you to add pictures, audio etc as mms
something that the g1 or iphone was not able to do until recently

still, you may want to use the free chompSMS
[url=http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=chompsms]http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=chompsms[/url] [url=http://forums.chompsms.com/]http://forums.chompsms.com/[/url]
if not for anything else
but to see the photos of people you sms to
and those who sms to you
very cool

3. others:
a. when you miss a call or sms
the bright button flickers beautifully to remind you
and you get a nice notification list from the top menu bar
b. the battery is removeable
battery life is not great, but not too shabby either
easy to recharge by mains or through usb
c. you can keep up to 8gig of stuff on the micro sd card
no need to remove it - just stick it with the usb connector to your pc
mount the phone as a hard disk
and start uploading your stuff
d. you dont have to keep the phone on your ear
when you are calling someone
it will vibrate when the call is answered.

i had the htc magic for almost a month
there was no need for me to take the battery out to reboot
nor to take the sd card out to upload stuff
that's how reliable it is!

the gphone is a great phone
easy to use if all you need are the basics
but there is more good stuff


part 4a: the goodies - apps your phone comes with

the google phone comes with some many apps
that i have to do this review in parts
- so without any more ado, here goes...


1. calendar
this is very useful
as you can record all your appointments, birthdays etc
and get it to alert you a week, 2 days or whatever in advance


i would recommend you download a free calendar widget
[url=http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=calendar+widget]http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=calendar+widget[/url]
so you can see whatever is coming
everytime you turn on your phone

2. alarm clock
this is very capable as you can select an alarm
and get it to ring on certain days of the week,
with yourown sounds, of course
eg i set an alarm for tues-fri at 11am for my office devotion

3. documents to go
lets you read the doc and xls files on the go
- i recommend quick office
[url=http://www.quickoffice.com/quickoffice_android/]http://www.quickoffice.com/quickoffice_android/[/url]
as it can read ppt as well

4. pdf viewer
this is excellent for carrying church directories around
as it comes with a search feature as well
- there is no such function with the iphone
and the pdf readers available cant even search within a pdf file

5. calculator
i dont use a calculator much
but this one is as good as any


here's part 4b: the goodies - apps your phone comes with
moving away from basic essentials
we take a look at the internet offerings


6. gmail
this is the first app you install
after booting up a gphone
not bad, in fact imho
gmail is the best free email available

7. emails
here you can setup as many accounts as you wish
most of them fairly quickly
except for yahoo mail
- you have to open the web browser
goto y'mail
and bookmark it

8. web browser
works pretty well
and with wifi or 3.5g
it is quite speedy as well

9. youtube
really good app
but i recommend youtube downloader
http://www.siriusapplications.com/ytd/
where you can not only view, but download it for future replays

10. maps
as you can see from the video above
since we are dealing with google phones and google maps
maps with the gphone is unmatched by any other phones


part 4a: the fun stuff - apps your phone comes with
as we are beginning to see
the google phone is really a multi-splendoured phone
capable of lots of good stuff
today we look at the fun stuff

11. camera
htc magic comes with a 3.2 mp camera
with autofocus, it is more than capable
and a delight to use

i recommend snap photo pro
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.ap.SnapPhoto_Pro
as it adds lots of features including anti-shake and multiple shots

12. video cam
works best outdoors
takes movies with sound
ok deal

13. music
mp3 player
not as polished as the iphone
but does the job
i recommend rockon player
http://www.cyrket.com/package/org.abrantes.rockonlite
you can download the free edition on the android market
but if you go to their website
you can download the full version free
http://abrantix.org/rockon-roadmap.php
imho better than ipod
as it searches and download all your album covers
and if you dont like any
you can always change it

14. picture and video viewer
gets the job done
video viewer ok
but gallery is slow in displaying the thumbnails for photos
i recommend gallery slider which view photos like the iphone
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.lbd.GalleryGliderLite


15. the only thing missing is a radio
i recommend droidlive
http://www.droidlive.com/
works really well


ok, here's my favorite part
part 5b: the fun stuff - games on your google phone

htc comes out with only one miserable game for the gphone - teeter
this was first released on the htc diamond
and in fact, is a pretty nice game

still, you can have your fix of all the free games you want
just go to the android market and download to your heart's content
the only thing to limit you is the phone internal memory
so beware - dont fill up with junk

free games come in three flavours
- best: full games by devoted developers
- ok: ad sponsored games
- better than nothing: lite or crippled games

here is my list of 10 best games

1. beat the joker slots
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.awesomeandroidapps.slots
really nice slot game; nothing comes close


2. ds game pack
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.dseffects.GamesPack
a collection of 9 free games: Monkey Jump, Babel, Anagrams, Blocked Car,
Kick Ups, Jewels Mania, Super Dog, Poker Mania and Monster Cups


3. vexed free
http://www.cyrket.com/package/net.vgart.vexedfree
really very well done


4. yz
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.android.devolio
best yathzee game anywhere

5. hearts
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.bytesequencing.hearts_ads
plays one mean game

6. golf solitaire
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.golfsolitairefree
if you think you have enough of solitaires,
this one puts a new twist into it

7. gw parachute
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.android.gw
a really good reproduction of the nintendo g&w

8. hyperspace lite
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.psychotron.hyperspaceLITE
excellent monkey-ball type game

9. light racer
http://www.cyrket.com/package/net.rbgrn.lightracer
the only playable tron game i have found

10 game of life
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.android.life
plays like the original
check the link above - dont download the wrong one


part 6: the extras
making a great phone even better

for me, the best part with an exciting os like the android
is to push it to its limits
here are some extras that will make a great phone even better
more fun, exciting and nicer experience
- here are 10 starters to point the way...

1. desktop
the original 3-screen desktop does the job
but i recommend open gesture (now in beta 1.2)
wait for it to come out or volunteer to be a beta tester at
http://www.hollowire.com/2009/06/23/introducing-open-gesture/

i am now using open gesture as my default desktop
and uses appsdesktop to view and categorize all my apps
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.lefutura.appsdesktopfullcupcake
you can but this directly from the developer at
http://www.lefutura.com

2. better sms
chompsms displays all sent/received photos
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.p1.chompsms

3. group contacts, bulk sms/emails etc
contact blast does all of these and more
http://www.cyrket.com/package/droidmatic.android.contactsblastlite

4. better camera
snap photo adds multi shots, anti shake etc to a good built-in camera
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.ap.SnapPhoto_Pro

5. better youtube
why watch youtube when you can d/l and repeat with youtube downloader
http://www.siriusapplications.com/ytd/

6. dont restrict your music to mp3
get clear, streaming radio on your phone with droidlive
http://www.droidlive.com/

7. do you need turn by turn gps?
nav4all does a good job - anywhere in this world
http://www.cyrket.com/package/gmb.APP

8. great free dictionaries, thesarus etc
colordict
http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=color+dict

9. bible, bible dictionary and commentary
bible - http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.acrodesign.acrobiblelite
matthew henry commentary - http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.cadreworks.bible_le
bible dictionary - http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.socialnmobile.dictdata.easton1897

10. ??? (you decide)

i could go on and on
but it's time to end this series of blurbs
be sure to click on the links to learn more
part 7: tips on your gphone
making your experience better

here are several things that will help you
enjoy your gphone better

1. if gmail is your mail email account.
take a moment to tidy it up before you sync with the gphone.
if it is not your main account,
you may want to consider opening a new account so as not to mess things up.

2. save battery, data costs, delays
go to email accounts settings
and turn off auto updating of emails
- you have to do this for every account

3. on your contacts
make sure you check 'phone contacts only'
or else you may have to wade through tons of names

4. when assigning photographs to contacts
just load the photos you want to use on the phone
this will make your task easier and faster
- after you have done this, copy the rest of your photos over

5. even though the phone memory can take in up to 200 apps
be careful not to instal every app in sight
and also unistal it if you dont want it any more

6. if you find it hard to find your apps
invest in appsdesktop
where you can view and categorize every installed apps
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.lefutura.appsdesktopfullcupcake

7. as the gphone keeps all the open apps alive
use close everything to periodically refresh memory
especially if things kind of slows down
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.jamesots.android.closeeverything

i could go on and on
but it's time to end this series of blurbs
be sure to click on the links to learn more