New year!
HTC Dev Phone1, first time Android experience!
The device felt loose, just like it would fall apart if I shake it. Why would I? Of-course the accelerometer exists, but then 500 $ should make it tough?
Although its late, in Jan 2011, I got an Android phone hands-on to try out for some prototyping. Being a iPhone user since the first gen, i found many contrasts, mostly being on the design and interface side. I had my brief stint of Android with Shreekant on his Galaxy, the interaction felt wonderful and intuitive.
I got the device last week, it was an Android Dev Phone 1 (HTC G1) with Android 1.6 pre-installed. First experience was sloppy, slow, fragmented and far from slick.
After a day of usage without Googling I found myself unable to change the pre-set Google ID (the phone was being used by someone else earlier). The interface locks you down into a loop undiscovered, just as if maybe the singularity had arrived.
Then I actually figured out that the phone actually had a real QWERTY keyboard, the device was emotionless, the keys are closely spaced and won’t provide as much tactile feedback as they would with the old good Nokia communicator or a HTC Touch Pro. I had to roll down my thumb for some keys to make it actually work, but then the on-screen keyboard on the iPhone was much better. Those false positives weren’t expected from HTC, cheap show!
Though I am yet to upgrade to the lastest Android release. So the above post is anachronic, if you weren’t interested in my first experiences :-)
I am prototyping, Take Me There, App for Blinds. More updates soon. The hopes with Android are much more than just the interface. I know the 2.3 is much sweeter! and hail NotionInk Adam.