Globalize Networks blog

Google's Nexus One Android Phone

I finally decided to dump my trusty BlackBerry Curve, which I have had for two years, and upgrade to a Nexus One Android phone from Google.  I received the phone on 2/16/10 and have been using it for 10 days at the time of this post.  I stuck with my carrier T-mobile, which is actually the number two carrier in the Bay Area according to Consumer Reports.  In spite of the poor perception that many people have of T-mobile, I generally find good voice coverage.  I thought about getting an iPhone, but the AT&T network is just too spotty.  Calls to colleagues who use AT&T are often dropped or poor quality.  Anyway, here are my initial impressions:

PROs

• The Screen – Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, 800 x 480 resolution, 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio!  This screen is simply amazing.  Crisp and beautiful.
• Web Browsing – The pinch to zoom feature is excellent.  This is my first experience with a 3g phone and it is vastly superior.
• GPS – The GPS navigation features are so good that Tom Tom’s stock took a tumble.  Navigation mode has turn by turn voice instructions, large buttons, great voice search, etc.
• Voice input – I am really impressed by how good the voice recognition is (for short phrases).  You can say things like “Call Gretchen” or “Navigate to Whole Foods” and it will pull up that contact’s number or show the directions to that place.  I understand that the audio is uploaded to Google for processing, but that doesn’t explain why the same feature on my BlackBerry worked so much worse.  Voice recognition  even works well to input one sentence at a time when composing messages.
• Media – The wired headset that comes with the phone has a three-button-controller to play/pause music, answer and hang up calls, and move forward and back in the track list.  My only gripe is that I often leave the headset attached and the play button is always active, so I accidentally start playing songs quite often.  However, once a playlist has been selected, it is nice to be able to start listening to music without having to unlock the phone and open the media player.  My friend John told me about a great tool to sync media with many types of smartphones called DoubleTwist.  It is like a good stripped down iTunes, they even have Amazon MP3 store integration like the Nexus one itself.
• Google Apps Integration - Our company uses Google Apps and the Nexus One has as good an integration with that Google service as one would expect.   You can even start a draft e-mail on the phone and finish it on your computer.  It was trivial to sync my contacts and calendar.  The only problem I had was with the Android Apps store.  I needed to set up a separate gmail account to use Google checkout.

CONs

• NO PHYSICAL KEYBOARD – I always looked with envy upon those iPhone users with their slick multi-touch interface and giant screen (by smartphone standards).  But I would console myself by saying that I liked my physical keyboard and mature, stable BB platform.  Well I was really right about the keyboard.  In portrait mode, with my fat fingers, the Nexus keyboard is nearly unusable.  The landscape mode is better and I am actually getting better at using it, but there is definitely a learning curve to get used to.  I can’t compose mail nearly as easily as I used to on my BB.  The dictation feature is good and I want to explore it more, but it’s not always convenient to be speaking a message aloud.  That said, the voice search is a saving grace, so I won’t toss the phone out yet.
• Flakiness - Andoid 2.1 on the Nexus One is simply not a mature platform.  The buttons don’t always respond properly.  They are often either over-sensitive and launch commands you didn’t want, or under-sensitive and require several taps.  I feel that I have to type slightly above the keys when using the keyboard.  The 3G cuts in and out at random even when I am not moving around.  Overall, it’s a slightly clunky experience to use the phone.  These are all things I expect to get smoothed out as updates come along and are typical of immature platforms.
• Visual Voicemail – This is really a T-mobile app, but it is pretty weak.  It doesn’t work on WiFi and it doesn’t offer transcriptions like Google Voice does.  Until I can port my number to Google Voice I guess I am stuck with this.
• Can’t edit Google Docs Documents – This seems silly to me because you can edit Google Docs Spreadsheets on the phone (via a web app) but not documents.  Maybe this shouldn’t matter to me given my problems with the keyboard, but it does.  We use Google Docs quite a bit and it just doesn’t make sense that Google hasn’t delivered this yet.  There are forum posts going back over a year with people screaming for this feature.

Overall, I really love the phone.  Just having such a rich web experience in the palm of your hand is outstanding.  Over the next few weeks I will talk about the Apps that I am exploring.

Tell me what you think.  Is anyone else interested in the Android platform?

Apple iPad

Apple has announced a new device called the iPad. I understand that it will be something like an iPod touch, but with a 10″ screen. You might have heard of it. This might be Apple’s way of entering the netbook market which it has avoided thus far. Or it might be a good e-Reader to compete with the Kindle (maybe). However, I like to look forward to it as a thin client to a virtual desktop. Citrix has announced an iPad app to access virtual desktops running under XenApp or XenDesktop. This is interesting, but the fact is that iPhone already has native VPN support and there are several Remote Desktop Client iPhone apps out there now. So no offense Citrix, but who cares? In the short term, we can just leave the user’s physical desktop/laptop running in their office and connect to it remotely from anywhere the iPad has a signal.

To be fair, virtual desktops have been hindered in my mind by the lack of a compelling thin client. With it’s decent screen size and coherent Apple multi-touch interface, a VPN/RDP solution for the iPad may be the thin client I have been waiting for. This solution might even prove to be a workable alternative to a laptop. Offline use during flights, etc. will be an issue, but more airlines are adding WiFi to help keep us connected to the internet at all times. Certain senior executives seem to like having the newest, lightest laptops available. So dump the laptop, get an iPad, and keep a desktop running somewhere else. Who knows, there might even be budget to build a XenDesktop server at some point.

Notion Ink Android Tablet

However, another alternative is using an Android tablet. Android phones also have both VPN and RDP clients available. I am particularly interested in this new Pixel Qi technology which is a full color “transflective” LCD that claims to be competitive to e-ink in bright light. A company called Notion Ink will be producing an Android tablet with a Pixel Qi screen that should be available this summer. Android OS may lack the coherence of Apple’s mobile offerings, but that Pixel Qi screen would be compelling if it works as advertised. The Notion Ink device might be a better Kindle-killer than the iPad.

I am not normally a gadget person, but I am probably going to buy both an iPad and a Notion Ink tablet when they come out. I have put up with my heavy laptop bag for on-site visits for too long. I should take a cue from those discerning senior executives who I provide services for.

What do you think? I appreciate the opportunity to learn from your comments.