Countdown, 26 Days: Hassle and Holdout
As I fiddle with the G1, I become more enamored of it. And I come to realize that most of what I’m focused on that could be better is just that, tweaks and incremental improvements. For example, I keep reaching for my stylus, because I was raised on a Palm, but the capactive screen has its own benefits. And some of the minors hassles have alternatives; for example, clicking down on the little thumbwheel generally ends up with the thumbwheel turning in the process, which means you end up clicking on the wrong thing — however, you can easily use the thumbwheel for precise maneuvering, and then click on the Enter key to select. Clearly there will be a touchscreen keyboard for quick entry — just ‘cause it isn’t there yet doesn’t matter. The immiment Android OS upgrade seems to touch on some other stuff that bugs me, like calendar and email sync’ing. We’ll see.
One thing that isn’t going to change on the G1 is the hassle of typing with your right hand “over” the “bent” end. This, I’m trying to figure out if I’m OK with. It does get uncomfortable at times.
Mostly, therefore, I’m focused on stuff that needs to be better — the only potential deal-killers for me at this moment are battery life, and the absence of tethering, doc creation/editing, and external bluetooth.
1. Battery Life: Supposedly the new OS addresses this, but I’m not sure how much software is going to help. I don’t know if this thing would go 24 hours on a charge with fairly regular usage.
2. Tethering: Supposedly there’s a fix, which I have yet to try. But still, while I look forward to apps to take on various needs, tethering doesn’t seem like it should rely on a hack.
3. Doc Creation: DataViz is coming out with its Excel/Doc/etc. for Android (and iPhone), which will likely cost about 50 bucks. That sounds fine by me. Still, Google gave us the Word-maimer (if not -killer) Google Docs, so when is that coming to Android?
4. External Keyboard: DataViz’s sales are going to be somewhat limited if we’re all editing our docs on little sub-chicklet keys, so I assume external bluetooth keyboard will eventually work with the G1. Question is when. Seems weird that my way-weaker-than-Android Symbian phone could handle such a thing two and a half years ago. So much for progress.
