Shuttle skimping on the hardware

It's been a while since I looked at anything Shuttle did. I briefly got excited when I saw they had a nice petite Atom-dual-core micro-PC system. Unfortunately my excitation died when I noticed they had completely skimped on the graphics and omitted an e-SATA connector. Come on guys, if this had X4500 and an e-SATA port it would be a killer system, as is it is a looking like an overpriced shiny toy. If I really want a low-power server I can do much better - and if I want high power small form factor Intel has a mini-ITX board that has way better specs taking regular dual and quad-core parts. Sigh.

Life begins at 141, RIP Twitter!

As part of my day job I get to brainstorm on how to brain storm about making our website "go viral", and participating in spreading the word about it on all the various "social networking" websites. Naturally "Twitter" is often a part of the daily conversation but I have to say so far I just don't get it and as the raucous noise of tweets and twits rises to a cacophony I'm more and more convinced that Twitter is getting close to jumping the shark, if it hasn't already and reading this Alternet article did nothing to diminish that feeling. So as just another blogger it costs me nothing to stick my neck out and make a big prediction - Twitter is the Emperor with no clothes on, it has no merit beyond its 6 million users (and how many of those are active we have no idea) which is a tiny fraction of any dozens of other web properties.

Lets get this straight, Twitter's 140 characters limit was copied directly from text messaging limits, but text messaging is popular inspite of its technology imposed limitations, and because it was the cheapest and only alternative to expensive per minute fees for making a phone call. Now Twitter seems to sing the praise of this limit like it was some wonderful feature, meanwhile corporate America is scratching its head and trying to figure out get around the limitation to share URLs, advertising and other verbose messages. Lets face it, Twitter is just a glorified blogging service for the short of words, and a pain in the ass constriction for the rest of us that we're better off without.

There, I've said it.

'Nuff said... but you notice it took more than 140 characters!

Google Latitude info hints at Android system update "soon"

UPDATE: I discovered today that T-Mobile had already started rolling out the new G1 firmware - without any announcement that is - but people had already noticed it arriving on their phones and posting on the T-Mobile forum. T-Mobile moderators then confirmed the push and gave some details, which include the Latitude feature in Google Maps. Hopefully I'll get my update sooner rather than later - last time I think it took about two to three weeks!

After following a TechCrunch link to the new Google Latitude "track your friends" feature (that seems to be the kind of bad news Loopt isn't going to want just now) I tried to send my phone an SMS to get this on my Android powered T-Mobile G1 . Unfortunately, and somewhat expectedly, it just took me to a mobile web page on the Android browser that said "Coming soon". Obviously something like this is an ideal app for the Android platform and G1 with its integral GPS - having on the G1 is a no-brainer.

Going back to Google I then followed a "Find out more" link that took me to a Google help page which in no uncertain terms states:

Google Latitude is available on the following mobile devices wherever Google Maps for mobile v3.0 and above is supported:

- Android-powered devices with Maps v3.0 and above. G1 users in the US will be receiving Maps v3.0 in a system update soon.
- Most color BlackBerry devices
- Most Windows Mobile 5.0 and above devices. Note: Some Windows Mobile devices don't support cell-ID location detection.
- Most Symbian S60 devices

Now I know there was a huge rumor storm and fuss about "Cupcake", the supposed new Android release that would be made available to G1 users in January - but never arrived and then was dismissed by Google and T-Mobile as "not happening". However this seems like the first official word that really there will be system update soon... I guess there might be the option to update just the Maps app, but it definitely says "System Update" and not Maps update.

However if prior experience is anything to go on I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for it...

Google Contacts why doth thee suck so badly?

It has to be said the #1 worst part of using Google for all my PIM (Personal Information Management) needs is their contacts functionality. Right from the web UI to the lack of attributes to the lack of integration with external source (like Outlook) it is just the weakest, even substandard part of their PIM offering. When I got my G1 Android based phone I finally had to abandon Outlook which I'd been hanging onto for its contacts/addressbook functionality. Hands down Outlook has the best address book I've used and that's why I reluctantly hung onto it.

Migrating my 200+ contacts to Google was painful and lost a lot of meta-information that I had to dump into "notes" for each contact, perhaps in the hope that one day Google will support things like anniversaries, birthdays, and relationships between contacts. And now I've migrated to Google contacts the worst part is that to maintain it I have to deal with the crappy web interface they have tacked onto Google Mail, so tacked on that its kind of an afterthought, not only difficult to use but also just plain ugly. In fact its so bad that I actually tend to do this stuff from my phone if possible - at least it is easy to find there! Yes, yes, I know all this stuff is free so I shouldn't complain but really since Yahoo and Microsoft managed to do so much better why should Google be happy with coming a distant third? And lets not forget that there really is no such thing as a free lunch - Google actually provides all this for a reason and that's to establish brand loyalty and keep users on its web site, using its apps and seeing its customers adverts.

Given that Google is trying to push into the social networking world with its OpenSocial API you'd think that by now they would have created some kick-ass addressbook-on-steroids that left Facebook and others in the dust. If you think about it my interaction with email, chat, groups and other apps that are inherently social apps should begin and revolve around my contacts - not be some lackluster add-on feature that time (apparently) forgot. Lets just say I'm still waiting for something kick-ass in this department but not holding my breath. Maybe in 2009 Google? Are you listening? Please? Pretty please? Thanks!!!

G1 Episode 3

I just returned from a few days in the United Kingdom where I can report my G1 worked just fine using a UK T-Mobile Pay-as-you-Go SIM but most importantly it required no unlock code. I was pretty happy about that because my unlock code ordered on the Saturday before I left did not show up until 10 days later, just as I returned. It would also seem that since the T-Mobile UK SIM never triggered a request for the unlock password I don't yet have a way to enter it.

I'm also happy to report that T-Mobile UK no longer charges for SIMs - you just have to purchase a minimum of GBP 10.00 of minutes (about $15 right now) - its a good deal for travellers. They also come with 5 days of free web browsing which I didn't discover until after I'd added another 5 to my plan for GBP 2.50. The big problem with Pay-as-you-Go SIMs is that the credits expire after 6-months so if you do not use them the go away and the SIM is deactivated so you'll also lose the phone number. The only away to avoid this is to make a call with the SIM but doing so will probably eat up your minutes as most plans have an upfront or minimum per-day fee.

Finally I was also able to use 3G networking in the UK although it was not as fast as in the Bay Area where I get 800kbps on a regular basis, instead it came in at more like 200kbps down and 25k up - but given that T-Mobile doesn't offer EDGE in the UK it was a lot better than GPRS speeds. I did get the impression that my G1 was eating up more battery than at home even with 3G off, but I couldn't be sure.

G1 Episode 2.5 - SNAFU

What, you may ask, happened to episode 2? Well I was in the process of writing up my reflections on a week of T-Mobile G1 ownership but didn't finished before my G1 started experiencing loss of web browser connectivity. I first noticed it this morning but figured it was something to do with me being in the middle of the San Francisco Bay which is a little odd because I had plenty of bars of signal and to all intents and purposes email seemed to be working just fine. I was very busy at work today so didn't have time to play with my phone but on the way home noticed the same problem again - all I would get was a hung browser followed by a "cannot connect with server" message.

After a couple of turn-off, turn-on cycles, some experimentation with WiFi connectivity I eventually decided it must have been something I installed on the phone that did this (which should really be impossible since 3rd party apps are all Java and supposedly can't trash the phone). So reluctantly decided to do a factory reset - if anything it would prove that I could really recover all my email and contacts easily. Fingers crossed.

So I did it... I was surprised how little resistance it put up in the way of warnings - one warning and then I had to put in my visual "join-the-dots" password. After that it took just a few seconds and it was all over, my phone was back to out of the box state.

Unfortunately this did not cure my problem. Although emails started showing up on the phone pretty quickly as it resynchronized with my online account pulling up the browser had no effect, I was still getting the failed to connect error. So I decided to dial 611 and called T-Mobile support. Even though it was 9:45pm Pacific time I was soon talking to a real person and I noticed I had been connected straight to Blackberry and PDA support which hopefully meant I'd skipped up a few levels on the food chain. I was quickly able to relay the nature of the problem and indicate that I'd done a factory rest at which point I was told this was a "known problem" and that "a lot" of pre-purchase users were experiencing this issue. Hmmmmph!

So I asked about the various firmware updates that were available and if I could get one sooner since I was having problems. No such luck, the support person said they were unable to control distrubtion of the updates. I then asked if my lack of web browsing connection might mean I would not get the update - no answer, but a good question she admitted. She then had me check my phone's data connection configuration (APN) and it was the correct one. Since I had already done a factory reset there was nothing else she could suggest for me to try other than wait for their engineers to try and fix the problem.

As it happens about a half hour after I got off the phone with T-Mobile while I was checking to see if my contacts had be synced yet (they hadn't) I discovered the web browser connection was working again. Hmmm - coincidence or did I get a secret helping hand from T-Mobile after I was off the phone?

Oh well, now I have to go off and recustomize the phone all over again which is mostly re-downloading a whole bunch of apps from the market. Grrrrr.

UPDATED: I found out from the T-Mobile G1 forum that this is indeed a known problem - so known that they should have been able to tell me on the phone that it was caused by my account being misconfigured with a trail 7-day only data plan that just expired. I guess while I was on the phone they fixed that without telling me. There is also some discussion that this could be caused by using an existing SIM instead of a new one. As far as I can tell I didn't get a new SIM with my phone so it wasn't my fault.

G1 Episode I - The Android Attack Begins

Well I did it, I finally cemented my status as a Google fanboy by dropping $179 to pre-order a brand spanking new Android powered "G1" phone. It took a while to fight through the T-Mobile website issues - it seems they either completely screwed up launching the pre-ordering web pages or were suffering from horrendous website overload. Either way by 12:30p, several hours after the press-release event in New York was over I was finally able to go all the way through the ordering process and make the commitment. But that was after a couple of hours of trying - it took so long that I almost changed my mind at the last minute having learned there is a decent list of "obnoxious flaws" in the product.

I have to say that the lack of stereo bluetooth audio (A2DP) strikes me as seriously obnoxious. I have taken to using my existing 3 year old Windows Mobile phone (also by HTC) in my car with my Motorola bluetooth handsfree speaker phone, it plays tunes nicely and satisfies the California handsfree requirement. But now without stereo audio my G1 will be a pretty poor mono-audio player. I'd have to get a second FM transmitter or radio with an audio in jack (not possible in one of my cars that has a Bose factory radio I can't really replace). But I've tried to rationalize that A2DP must be in the hardware and a future software upgrade must surely support it especially given that Amazon is now the music store of choice for the G1 - anything that hampers the phone being a great music player has to be fixed.

Other obnoxious flaws bother me less lie lack of a video player other than YouTube at the moment (I'm going to assume you can play embedded video on a web page though) because I seldom do anything with video on my phone now and expect that there will be decent 3rd party apps later.

The lack of a standard headphone jack requiring a USB adapter which is not even supplied is a pain but I hardly, if ever use plugin headphones with my phone now - but given the lack of stereo bluetooth audio this becomes more important - I'll need that output to connect to an FM transmitter in my car. Then again my current WinMo phone has a non-standard 2.5mm jack that requires an adapter for most headphones so its not really a step backward - but they really could have done better. My guess is headphone jacks eat up a lot of internal space and cause issues with dirt and RF intrusion.

Lack of multi-touch is surprising but I've lived without multi-touch all my life and I'm sure I can continue to do so. Lack of an on-screen keyboard seems surprising - I don't much like them and have big fingers that usually require me to use a stylus with my WinMo device but sometimes its handy to have as a fall back. I don't much care for the iPhone on-screen keyboard BTW - the letters are still too small for me so perhaps there wasn't much chance I would have been happy with one anyway. Since this device has a real keyboard which I very much desire in a smartphone I think I'll be pretty much happy with input methods.

Locking to T-Mobile I wont care too much about until I need to go to Europe which I do at least once a year - I haven't seen any information about whether the phone supports the world GSM frequencies, given who makes it I'd be very surprised if it didn't although I know its probably not going to be compatible with most other 3G service frequencies. My experience is that T-Mobile is very good about unlocking phones for its current customers and since they are imposing a $200 contract break fee (how long can that last legally?) I would really hope that the G1 will be no exception. If not I'll be unhappy and have to bust out my WinMo phone - kind of defeats the point though... I wonder what AT&T iPhone customers do anyway - do they just suck it up and pay those usuary international roaming fees?

Being able to tether the G1 to my laptop would be nice - I can do it with my WinMo phone right now but again on reflection almost never actually do it. Part of the idea with a phone like the G1 is that its web and online experience is so good that you don't actually need to use a laptop 99% of the time unless it is for work. In which case your employer should be busting out a WWAN card for you to use. In the last year I've found this to be true and do much of my email reading and sending from my current phone - that should be much, much easier from the G1 especially as I've become far more Google-centric with use of calendaring and such in the last year.

I also realize that the lack of tethering has enabled T-Mobile to offer that $25 "unlimited" (I've read elsewhere its not actually unlimited - after 1GB of transfer in a month they reserve the right to dial down your bandwidth) data plan which is only $5 more than I pay right now. And that data is much faster than my current Edge service so it will be far more useful to me. Given that the $25 a month plan includes 400 text messages it will actually save me money since my current plan doesn't include any and costs me $.20 a pop - so 400 would cost a fortune. I couldn't really see me getting through more than 400 messages given the G1's enhanced email and chat facilities. The whole point is email more text less...

Lack of multiple Google account support as I do have a number of Google hosted domains each with its own Google account. But 95% of what I do now goes to a single Google account and I have webmail available for the others - there is after all the Google online web access too. Basically Google doesn't have a very compelling story for accessing multiple accounts anywhere, let alone on the phone - you still have to log out and in again and often times it doesn't get that right. I'm expecting when they do find a decent solution it will come to the G1.

If T-Mobile drags its heals over getting software updates to the G1 I'll be very upset, it took them a long time to release the widely available firmware updates for my WinMo phone. Eventually they declined to release the WinMo 6.0 upgrade for it, presumably to encourage people to upgrade to the virtually identical replacement phone they had for it. However I can't believe that Google would let them get away with that - lets hope the upgrades are relatively painless!

One final thing I really, really want to see is caching of maps with the mapping/GPS application. I travel out of cell reception pretty frequently and T-Mobiles network is pretty sparse anyway. So if all that GPS and mapping goodness is useless without a network connection it will be a serious drag. I experience this with Google Maps on my WinMo phone and it is the one thing that starts me thinking about buying a dedicated GPS - something I shouldn't need to do. With the amount of storage you can add to a G1 via a memory card you should be able to pre-load or pre-cache huge amounts of map data and then travel all over. I know that's not how Google Maps is designed to work but it is a must have for making the G1 an extremely useful utility that actually saves you money by not buying other devices. With Google's traffic and search facilities it will always be far and away more powerful than simple GPS - while you have the network connection that is!

Overall pretty much everything can be fixed in software so I really hope it happens. If I was to make my top 3 must have software upgrades for the first firmware rev it would be:

1. A2DP stereo bluetooth
2. Map and POI caching for Google Maps
3. Multi-account support

Mostly for me the "G1" is not about being a fanboy - its more of a technical investigation and I'll also use it as a development platform for apps. If it turns out to suck I will either wait for the next device which I guess will be the "G2" or end up selling it or moving onto some other platform such as a Symbian Linux tablet or the next big WinMo device (the latest HTC sliders are real sweet but way to expensive if purchased unlocked - and T-Mobile just doesn't get the cream of the crop, they always go to AT&T). Lets hope Google and T-Mobile got it right though, and they will continue to improve the device after the launch just as Apple and other have always done.

UPDATE: Apparently after howls of protest across the inter-webs T-Mobile has relented on their 1GB per month cap and promised to come out with a revised usage policy based on fuzzy "don't harm the network or other people's use of it" criteria.