Verizon and the Galaxy Nexus - Two Worthwhile Upgrades

Being the Android fanboy that I am, I had my eyes on the latest "pure Android" device, the Galaxy Nexus, ever since it was launched a few months ago.   The device comes pre-loaded with the latest and greatest Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) version of Android, with lots of new bells and whistles and a much improved user interface.   But alas, it was only available on Verizon and I had been a dedicated (and mostly satisfied) T-Mobile customer for the past 7 years.  In addition to that I felt that this trend towards larger and larger handset screens was not to my liking, and so when I saw that the Galaxy Nexus was sporting a 4.65-inch screen I figured I really didn't want to deal with anything that bulky.  So, given these two issues I decided I would just stand pat for awhile and see how things were going to play out.  And as it turned out, Google did start rolling out ICS to existing Nexus S users such as myself, and since the Nexus S is no slouch of a device I figured I would just hold onto it for awhile and wait for the ICS update.  And sure enough, back in December I was able to download and install ICS without a hitch, so I thought I was golden.

Well, I quickly found out that ICS on the Nexus S had a couple of major issues, notably excessive battery drain and a general sluggishness with most applications.  In fact, shortly after Google started deploying ICS to Nexus S owners they abruptly halted the deployment, probably because everyone was having similar problems to mine.  It was around this time that I also started losing my patience with T-Mobile, as there were just too many places I was going that had little to no reception, and even in the places where there was reception it was often the case that all I could get was 2G....WTF, that just doesn't cut it in today's world.

I waited and waited for Google to address the ICS issues, but no dice.  And then I heard about this great deal that Amazon had for the Galaxy Nexus, just $99!  So, I immediately jumped on the deal, had my phone in a couple of days (with number ported) and I was in business.  And boy, I can't believe I didn't switch to Verizon sooner.  I'm getting spectacular 4G coverage in most places....check out this speedtest report which I ran near my office:

ICS on the Galaxy Nexus doesn't seem to have any of the battery issues I experienced with the Nexus S either.  I consider myself to be a pretty heavy smartphone user, but despite that I am able to go nearly a full day with the device off of a single charge; noticeably better than my Nexus S even before the ICS upgrade.  And the dual-core processor in the Galaxy is so damn fast....it's night and day compared to any other phone I've used in terms of the speediness of apps.  This, along with Verizon's great coverage and speedy 4G network have me in smartphone heaven at the moment.  Do I still think the phone is too big?  Yeah, it would be perfect if the screen was closer to 4-inches even...but I'll overlook this given all of the phone's other advantages.

Oh, but now it's time to play with my new "retina display" iPad...so stay tuned!

T-Mobile G1 - No UMA!

After my last post regarding Android and the G1, it occurred to me that T-Mobile and/or HTC decided not to include support for UMA on the device.  That's a real bummer, as I am finding UMA to be a great feature on my Blackberry 8320.  Quick simply, UMA allows one to make mobile calls and related data access (e.g. text messaging) using Wi-Fi, and also allows one to seamslessly roam between GSM/GPRS networks and Wi-Fi, particularly handy in cases where cellular coverage may be spotty.  T-Mobile is the only US-based carrier that supports it, and they've made it available on several of their newer devices.  In my particular case, I use the UMA feature quite extensively whenever I travel overseas.  While in my hotel room or overseas office I simply disable access to the local mobile network and use Wi-Fi exclusively.  This means I can make mobile calls back home without incurring any roaming charges since T-Mobile doesn't appear to have the ability or desire to trace calls by IP address.  And this also means all of my text messages and Blackberry email do not incur any data roaming charges either.  I've also read on Blackberryforums that some users are claiming that T-Mobile doesn't even log some of the UMA calls, so those users aren't even being charged for the minutes against their account.  So...I'm wondering if the UMA ommission from the G1 was a major oversight on T-Mobile's part, or maybe a purposeful ommission given the folks like me that leverage it in order to save on their monthly charges.

I am Intrigued by Android

I've been a die hard Blackberry user for nearly 10 years now, sans the week or so I played around with a T-Mobile Dash last year. I currently use the Blackberry 8320, which is the best Blackberry device I've used to date. My friends and family always ask me why I don't use the iPhone since they know my penchant for gadgets and figured I'd always have the latest hot thing. There are actually a few reasons why I haven't jumped on the iPhone bandwagon yet:

1. Push email if vitally important to me, and my corporate email address is not MS Exchange based.
2. I need the ability to get push email for all of my email accounts
3. The Blackberry allows you to create server-based filters, so that I determine which emails to be sent to the device and which ones I can just read later when I'm on my laptop.
4. Ability to type easily - nothing beats the tactile feel of a real keyboard.
5. Cost - Right now I pay $79 a month for 1000 minutes, unlimited email, data and SMS, and T-Mobile Hotspot.  The equivalent set of services if I were to move to an iPhone would probably cost me an additional $50 a month with AT&T

As everybody knows by now, earlier this week T-Mobile and Google announced the new Android G1 device which will be available in late October.  I read several of the reviews, and I have to say that I'm quite intrigued by Android and this could be the platform that finally gets me off Blackberry once and for all.  With built-in push email support for Gmail accounts this will address most of my email requirements.  The G1 also has a full keyboard, and the monthly cost would actually be lower than what I'm paying right now for the equivalent set of services.  Plus, I am hopful that Android will really take off as a development platform and that we'll see a ton of cool 3rd-party apps developed for it.  To be honest I'm getting really tired of Apple's heavy handedness these past few years, and we're seeing that once again with their App Store.  I mean come on, not allowing an app to run in the background?  If that is such a big concern to Apple then their stinkin' OS should be smart enough to lower thread priority and/or swap the app out if it becomes too resource intensive.  

The G1 may not be the sexiest beast out there, but it's the first of what I hope to be many new Android-based devices to come.

My Quickie Review of the T-Mobile Dash

I recently decided to give the T-Mobile Dash a trial run, as I've been a devoted Blackberry users for the past 8 years but have been dying to try one of the new Windows Mobile devices. Prior to the Dash I was using a Blackberry 8700, a device which had worked really well for me and which I have no major issues with. Most of my feedback on the Dash is based on comparisons with my trusty 8700.

To make a long story short, I ended up returning the Dash after one week, as I found it to be severely limiting in certain key areas, despite some of the great features of Windows Mobile. Some of the highlights/lowlights were:

• The unit itself was very, very nice, and its form factor (from a phone perspective) was far better than any Blackberry I've ever used that had a full keyboard. Nice rubberized back and sides, and rounded edges at all the right places. Although I never dropped the device, it felt very sturdy and could probably survive a fair amount of abuse.
• The screen was crisp and very bright, and was even viewable under direct sunlight. However, it's still not quite as bright as the 8700's screen.
• The plethora of available Windows Mobile software is staggering, especially when compared to the Blackberry Lots of great utilities and programs written by individuals as well as ISV's. I installed the Skype beta for WM Smartphone and it worked quite well while connected to a T-Mobile Hotspot. And the Slingplayer for WM is perhaps the single coolest application I've seen for a WM device. Practically speaking, though, I wonder how much I'd really use it on a day-to-day basis versus just as a way to show off to my friends :-)
• The built-in wi-fi generally worked well, both when connected to my home network as well as when I used T-Mobile HotSpot. I did encounter a strange problem, though, in that every once in awhle the wi-fi just stopped working as I was browsing around sites. I played around with some of the wi-fi power mode settings, and found out that if I switched the power mode from "auto" to "best performance" that the problem went away. Looks like this might be some type of WM bug
• The built-in IE browser does a much better job of rendering standard web pages than the Blackberry, and over wi-fi does this fairly quickly as well.
• Setting up email access via POP (I'm not able to setup direct push) was fairly straightforward, although T-Mobile makes this a bit confusing too. You can setup POP accounts through WM one by one, but T-Mobile also makes available something they call "My Email" which is a way to centrally manage all your POP accounts through its web-based portal. They say nothing about why you would do this vs. settting up individual POP accounts, and so it left me scratching my head a bit. One advantage of using the My Email service is that when new messages arrive at your POP account that this will automatically trigger a background SMS message to your WM device, and then your device will use this trigger to download the actual message. In theory I suppose this makes My Email a quasi-push type technology, but having setup email both ways I couldn't really tell if this method utlimately delivered messages to me any faster than setting up the POP account to automatically retrieve messages every 15 mins (the shortest frequency allowed by WM).
• I ran into a strange problem midway through the week. WM has a "messaging" screen which lists all of your messaging accounts - SMS, MMS, POP, etc. For some inexplicable reason WM deleted all but one of my accounts from this screen, making email and messaging totally unusable. The messaging accounts were still active, though. I could see myself receiving new SMS messages, but I has absolutely no way to view any of them because of this problem. When I contacted T-Mobile technical support the only thing they could suggest was to wipe my device clean and start fresh again with the factory defaults. Later, when I returned the device, the salesperson who sold it to me said that he's heard of other users also experiencing this problem. This is a major bug that needs to be fixed!
• I found no way to selectively filter messages based on subject, sender, etc. With my 8700 I could logon to the T-Mobile site and apply filtering rules for each POP email account, but no similar function seems to exist when using WM and the Dash.
• I fully expected the Dash to provide much better handling and UI for basic PIM stuff - messaging, calendar, contacts, etc. However, I did not find this to be true at all. Calendar views were extremely limited and inferior to what BB provides (which I also consider to be mediocre), contact management was also a disappointment, and messaging lacked some very basic functions such as the ability to select multiple messages for a delete operation.
• Profile management in WM just plain sucks. Though they allow you to modify any of the existing profiles, they do not allow you to create your own. I use the "phone only" profile on my 8700 quite a bit, but no such equivalent exists on the Dash. The other thing that annoys me is that the alarm sound for the built-in alarm clock is not independent but is tied to the currently active profile. So, if you happen to be using the "silent" profile you'll never hear the alarm go off.
• Bluetooth seems to work fairly well, and I was succefully able to pair the Dash with a couple of different BT headsets as well as with my car. For the latter, however, it would not send signal strenght information to the car, which my 8700 could do and which I found to be quite handy since I could quickly view the car's on-screen display to check signal strength vs. having to look at the device.
• The Dash seemed to lose EDGE connectivity periodically, and the only way I seemed to be able to get it back was to power off/power on the unit. This behavior is similar to problems I had a couple of years back with my old BB 7100T.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the Dash and decided to return it. Unless you really need to use a lot of 3rd-party apps or some of its other features (e.g. built-in camera with the worst UI known to mankind) you're better off sticking with your Blackberry.