Several of my friends in the US have the iPhone. They are huge fans and rave about its applications and user interface via a touch screen. I have messed around with it a little bit and while I like it a lot, I am not quite as blown away by the interface as my friends are.
Frankly, I need a keyboard. I can’t stand texting using a number keypad for text messages and I don’t really trust a touch pad to be able to stand up to the rigors of my typing. I’ve got big sausages for thumbs and the keyboard on my Sidekick LX works like a dream. (It also has a built-in MP3 player and the memory is only limited by how much can be stored on a standard Flash card- currently that’s up to 8 gigs.) I’ve often told my iPhone-loving friends that if Apple’s uber-product had a robust slide-out keyboard for texting, e-mails and note-taking, I’d jump on board in a heartbeat.
I guess that Google has heard my prayers!
Today I finally read some of the specs on the new G1 phone, and, lo-and-behold! It has a touch screen and a slide-out keyboard! Sure, some of the features are a bit wonky, and, as this article suggests, some of them point towards “unrealized potential.” This is great for me, because the fact that Google’s platform software, Android, is free and open-source, means that tons of cool features will be made and cell phone manufactures will be lining up to use it. This phone is just the first step on the road to some very cool innovation that will come very son.
Since I’m in China, the wireless networks pretty much suck, so any tricked-out phone that I bring over will be limited to calls and texting and -MAYBE- some internet browsing. (Danger’s web browser doesn’t work on China Mobile’s network, so I have been internet-less with my Sidekick so far.) Forget e-mails; even Blackberries are touch-and-go here. China’s wireless networks just aren’t as robust as ours in the States and they probably wont be for another 18-24 months, so lots of mobile features that we take for granted in the US are wonders to the Chinese. You should see the eyes light up when I show locals the integrated IM & MySpace features on the Sidekick! But with the Wifi capabilities of the G1, and since I live in a big city like Beijing that has plenty of hotspots, I’d be all set.
I’ll have to wait until I visit home sometime next year before I can check this puppy out for myself, but from what I’ve seen so far, this -or its next version- looks like it will be my upgrade of choice.
