Android and Me » g1

First impressions: T-Mobile G1 (three years later)

Chuck Falzone — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:30:01 +0000

Exactly three years ago, those who pre-ordered began receiving their T-Mobile G1′s, the little phone that started it all. I was lucky enough to be in that group. After spending several hours with the bronze-colored geegaw on October 20, 2008, I wrote up my breathless, geeked-out thoughts for my personal blog. It’s cute, I was excited about things like “a nice MySpace client.” For nostalgia’s sake, here are my first impressions of the good ol’ G1:

So I just lost the last several hours to playing around with my new Google phone (officially the T-Mobile G1, but I have a hard time not calling it the Google phone).

The UPS man about gave me a heart attack, leaving it sitting on the front porch, no signature needed apparently. I checked UPS tracking at work and saw DELIVERED, rushed home to get it on my lunch break.

I had to get the data plan set up on the right phone line so called in to T-Mobile on the way back to work…learned that the plan will not actually be in effect til the phone’s launch date, this Wednesday. I used this to convince myself it’d just be a brick til then, which allowed me to focus on work the rest of the day. But I powered it up when I got home: lo and behold, I was able to associate it with my gmail acct, make calls, even send and receive email. But nothing from the browser, maps, etc.

Then I switched on wifi– and everything worked.

The author, still giddy in November '08

My early report: it’s really great. As I said, it had me sucked in all night. It is truly a tiny little computer. I don’t have iPhone experience to compare it to, but the browser is functional, email really nice, and maps as cool as you expect. Downloaded a bunch of apps from the market (all free at this point), and while not all are great, some are really cool:

ShopSavvy, which lets you scan a barcode with the phone’s camera and then finds prices for the same item at online retailers
Bonsai Blast, an addicting little game
TuneWiki, a social music player
A nice MySpace client (hope Facebook is coming)
Locale, which automatically changes phone settings (e.g. ringer volume) based on your location (via GPS)

The keyboard is plenty roomy and I’m able to thumb around pretty easily and accurately.

I set up a shortcut to BeTwittered for use as a Twitter client. As it was designed to live in an iGoogle gadget, it works really well on the little mobile screen. It’ll be nice to have one that alerts me to incoming tweets, though. ‘Course I could set that up through SMS but this way I don’t have to use up my monthly allotment on them (I cheaped out and went with the 400/month plan instead of the unlimited messaging plan).

Quibbles:

The phone knows my email address; it’s registered to my gmail account; why can’t there be an easy, one button way to insert that address when an online form calls for it? Maybe there is and I haven’t found it (I, of course, have eschewed the manual so far).
It took me a while to find the Nice app for Google Reader. When I accessed it via my iGoogle page, it was all kinds of messed up. When I accessed it via the Google home page, it’s great. Not a big deal, as I can just bookmark it now, but still– why does it vary in the first place?

So, uhm, that’s my short little post on my first thoughts on the G1. Undoubtedly, more will follow.

Ah, those were heady times. The G1 ended up serving me well until I moved on to a Nexus One and I passed it on to a friend who is, no joke, still happily using it.

Whether you had one or not, what are your fond memories of the big-chinned little guy?

CyanogenMod brings Android 2.1 to G1 and myTouch 3G

Taylor Wimberly — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:22:16 +0000

If you have a hacked G1 or myTouch 3G, take note. Many developers have released custom ROMs based off Android 2.1 for the HTC Dream and Magic for awhile now, but most were not fully working. Devs had been waiting on updated hardware drivers which supported the Android 2.1 kernel and those were finally released earlier this month.

After several weeks of a lot of hard work, the team behind CyanogenMod is close to releasing a public beta of their latest ROM – version CM 5.0.7 Ds. The new ROM is finally using Android 2.1 and includes many of the enhancements found in the CyanogenMod for Nexus One.

As of this writing there are still a few bugs to work out, but look for a beta release tomorrow night.

Android 2.1 will fit onto the myTouch 3G (HTC Magic) with no problems, but it will not fit on the G1 (HTC Dream) without some modifications (damn those pesky storage limitations). G1 users must install the infamous DangerSPL which re-partitions the NAND flash inside the device. If you have never flashed the DangerSPL, the guys on the CyanogenMod forum are putting up a how-to guide.

First time hackers might just want to wait a few weeks and see what Google reveals at I/O on May 19-20. For all we know, Android 2.2 could magically appear for some first gen phones.

Our friend @kmobs is back with another video giving a quick walk through of the new test ROM on a G1. It looks like one of our shirts found its way to his desk.

For the latest on this CyanogenMod, visit the official site or follow @cyanogen on Twitter.

T-Mobile rolling out minor update to G1

Taylor Wimberly — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:58:07 +0000

TmoNews has posted a leaked memo that states G1 owners will begin receiving a minor over-the-air (OTA) update this week. The update (build number DMD64) focuses on improving call performance and does not include any additional fixes. These updates are normally rolled out on a staged schedule, so it could be a week before it hits everyone’s device.

Details of the update include:

This software update improves customers’ call performance only and does not include any additional feature enhancements.
The Android 1.6 DMD64 OTA will be sent to G1 customers only and will not be sent to customers using other Android devices at this time.

Leaked memo from TmoNews.

Select G1 users get special treat from T-Mobile

Taylor Wimberly — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:51:22 +0000

Some G1 owners might have felt ignored by T-Mobile as they wait to hear the fate of a possible Android 2.1 update.

TmoNews is reporting that T-Mobile has just launched a new software trail program for G1 customers called “Voice Plus Beta”. T-Mobile chose G1 users to test the new service because they “tend to be at the forefront of new developments in technology and have been loyal T-Mobile customers with an affinity for testing new mobile products and applications.”

T-Mobile Voice Plus Beta offers the following features:

Call Divert: Carve out a little peace and quiet by sending selected numbers straight to voicemail without ringing your phone.
Call Defer: Let callers know you’re busy and schedule a convenient time for you to call them back. Send them a text message that acknowledges their call and that you will respond at a later time.
Visual Voicemail: Easily manage your voicemail! View a list of who left a voicemail, with the time of the message and its length. Choose which to listen to now and which to review later.
City ID: Get more information about the calls you receive. The city and state information of incoming calls is displayed.

Any G1 users can sign up to participate, but the beta program is based on a first come, first serve basis. Head over to the official T-Mobile forums for additional details.

Requirements to participate in the T-Mobile Voice Plus Beta:

The download will be made available to the select number of T-Mobile G1 customers who reply with an email to voiceplusbeta@t-mobile.com. Be among the first to respond to secure your chance to participate in this beta.

Your e-mail MUST include:

Email subject line: Voice Plus Beta
IMEI Number – Your IMEI can be found in your phone’s Status menu (Menu > Settings > About phone > Status), from the dialer: *#06#, or on the sticker under your battery.
Your T-Mobile telephone number, with area code

I gave my G1 away which prevents me from signing up, so let me know how the service performs if you get accepted to test it out.

Android 2.1 update moved up from Q2 to Q1

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:05:13 +0000

Have you been counting down the days till your carrier rolls out Android 2.1 to your device?

The vast majority of Android owners don’t even know what OTA stands for (over the air), but if you read this blog you know what is in store. Android 2.1 will bring the millions of current Android phone owners full multitouch, Adobe Flash 10.1 support, full Buzz support, multi-accounts (and oh so much more).

There was a lot of finger pointing confusion over which devices would receive Android 2.1, but most of the carriers and handset makers came clean and announced their support. It looks like all Android phones in the United States will be getting Android 2.1, except maybe the G1 which hangs in the balance (doesn’t look good).

We reported back at CTIA (before the Droid or Android 2.0 was announced) that other phones would not receive an update to Android 2.0 till Q2 2010. Some people called us crazy at first, but that is the timeline most carriers have given when announcing their support.

The first signs of an actual update came when Sprint revealed they were testing the Android 2.1 update and were making great progress. Sprint stuck with their 1H 2010 schedule, but hinted at an early release by saying they were making great progress and might deliver well within that time frame.

Now new reports are piling on the rumor that an Android 2.1 upgrade might be available earlier than we expected it.

BGR claims the T-Mobile CLIQ will get Android 2.1 in March, Engadget reported the HTC Hero will get Android 2.1 with the new Sense UI in mid-march, and the Verizon Droid could see the update within the next week.

We want to thank all the carriers for keeping us up to date and we will be including the best estimates for upgrade dates in our pending phones database.

The only question left is, “What happens to the T-Mobile G1?” Does it still deserve an upgrade or is it time to put the phone to rest?

T-Mobile lowers pricing on Android phones

Taylor Wimberly — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:37:34 +0000

TmoNews is reporting that T-Mobile will drop the retail pricing of most of their Android lineup starting tomorrow. The HTC G1 drops $20 in price, the Motorola CLIQ gets $50 cheaper, and the Samsung Behold II gets slashed a whopping $70. This news comes just moments after Google revealed they would lower the price of the Nexus One by $100 for eligible T-Mobile customers.

The new price points should be:

Motorola Cliq $149.99 2 year contract. No MIR
Samsung Behold 2 $149.99 2 year contract, No MIR
T-Mobile G1 $99.99 2 year contract, No MIR
MyTouch 3G $149.99 2 year contract, No MIR
Fender Limited Edition Mytouch $179.99 2 year contract, no MIR. $449.99 full invoice price

T-Mobile is scheduled to launch the limited edition Fender myTouch 3G on January 20th and the lower prices could hint at another future high-end phone launch. Our sources still seem to think Motorola is a good candidate to launch the next flagship device for T-Mobile retail stores.

HTC Hero 2.1 ROM leaked to HTC phones

Taylor Wimberly — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:28:58 +0000

Do you have an extra Android phone laying around want want to play with the latest HTC Sense UI for Android 2.1? The Eclair version of Sense UI that was spotted a few days ago has been leaked and already ported to all most the HTC Android phones. If you are daring and don’t mind having a phone that crashes and is missing features, you can find the Hero 2.1 ROM for the Dream, Magic, and Hero phones thanks to XDA AllDroid.org.

Bonus: Here is the obligatory techno video of the hacked ROM.

Android 2.0 coming to T-Mobile

Taylor Wimberly — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:58:50 +0000

We all know Android 2.0 is coming on November 6, 2009 when Verizon launches the Motorola Droid.

Millions of T-Mobile customers are left wondering, “What about us?!” Well, you can stop your worries because we contacted T-Mobile USA and got the following response.

T-Mobile is coordinating with Google to deliver Android 2.0. We will let you know when we have more details to share.

I’m glad to hear that Android 2.0 is coming, but surely T-Mobile can’t be happy with the special treatment Verizon is getting. I tried to find out if Verizon has an exclusive time period for the release of Android 2.0, but T-Mobile would not comment on that.

What about the Cliq?

We also asked about the Motorola Cliq which has begun shipping online and will be available in stores November 3, 2009. The Cliq features a custom version of Android dubbed Motoblur, which is based on Android 1.5. T-Mobile’s other two Android phones have already been updated to Android 1.6, so we were curious about their upgrade strategy for the Cliq.

The CLIQ ships with Android 1.5 software. We have no announcements at this time regarding new Android software updates. For more information about future updates to CLIQ and MOTOBLUR, it would be best to contact Motorola PR

I have yet to get an official response from Motorola PR, but I did some digging of my own. According to an inside source from Motorola, it appears Motoblur will be receiving an update based on Android 2.0 (and skip Android 1.6).

What about the G1?

There is still no clear cut answer regarding Android 2.0 on the G1. I have explained the limited internal storage issue of the G1 and we still don’t know if it will receive the update. It is entirely possible that Google will find a way to make it work. They just have a lot of obstacles in their way.

I’ve been monitoring the Twitter accounts for several Android engineers and check out what Jean-Baptiste Queru had to say about Android 2.0 fitting on the G1 and ADP1 (technically same hardware, aka HTC Dream).

I'll let you guys guess what this means.

Conclusion

Android 2.0 will be coming to T-Mobile phones, but the time frame could vary greatly depending on which device you own.

myTouch 3G: Google experience phone. No space limitations. Should receive the update as soon as Google makes it available to T-Mobile.
G1: Google experience phone. Space Limitations. Very complex issue.
Cliq: Custom Motorola version of Android. Waiting on Motorola to update Motoblur to Android 2.0
Behold II: No official information yet. I would not be surprised if it shipped with Android 1.5 based on what we have seen with other Samsung phones.

I had recently begun to believe that the carrier was responsible for when updates were released. However, based on recent information it looks like Google holds the key for their Google experience phones. This means that if Android 2.0 is significantly delayed on the G1 and myTouch 3G, you should blame Google and not T-Mobile. When it comes to custom versions of Android like Motorola’s Motoblur or HTC’s Sense UI, the handset maker is responsible for the updates.

Hopefully we will not have to wait much longer. Android 2.0 is finished, but Google controls which phones get it first. Right now, their top priority is to make sure the Verizon Droid is a huge success. Early adopters of Android and the G1 will have to sit tight and keep their fingers crossed.

G1 owners could miss out on Android 2.0

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:27 +0000

Remember those rumors that the G1 might not be able to receive future updates? I’m the guy who caused all that mess.

Thankfully, I was wrong and T-Mobile rolled out Android 1.6 to the G1. Google was able to optimize their code and squeeze the update into the limited space of the G1.

Unfortunately, the problematic storage issues of the G1 remain (and they are not going away). I know I’m going to take some more heat for this, but I want to make sure our readers are informed and fully understand the matter at hand.

The numbers don’t lie

I will try and keep this short and simple. If you are interested in the back story you can find my original posts here and here.

G1 system partition: 69120K
T-Mobile Android 1.5: 68780k
T-Mobile Android 1.6: 68800k

The G1 has about 70 MB available for the operating system to be installed. Android 1.5 used 99.5% of that space and Android 1.6 was no different.

Emulator Android 1.6: 61216k
T-Mobile Android 1.6: 68800k
Emulator Android 2.0: 70964k
T-Mobile Android 2.0: ???

Above you can see the difference between the vanilla Android size and the T-Mobile Android size. The vanilla Android that you can get from the SDK and run with the emulator does not include the Google apps, T-Mobile apps, or all the ringtones and notification sizes.

Android 2.0 running in the emulator already goes over the G1 system partition limit. The T-Mobile version will likely be 7-8 MB larger. For those of you who are curious, the myTouch 3G (and most other Android phones) feature a 90 MB system partition and will have no problem with Android 2.0.

What happens next

T-Mobile is committed to supporting the G1 with future software updates. They told us so when we posted our last story on this issue.

We plan to continue working with Google to introduce future software updates to the T-Mobile G1. Reports to the contrary are inaccurate. -T-Mobile USA

With that being said, there are still huge obstacles ahead for T-Mobile. Check out this old quote from an Android engineer.

“Where the situation is really tricky is that the system partition on the US G1 was already filled to the brim with cupcake, and we were routinely flirting with build sizes that were a few dozen kB under the limit (or several MB over…), which means that even small changes to the core platform could very easily push the system size over the limit and staying under the limit took some effort”. -Jean-Baptiste Queru

As the Android operating system continues to evolve, the code base will continue to grow. The G1′s days are limited because its storage space is already maxed out.

Will Google find a way to make Android 2.0 fit on the G1? I honestly don’t know. I hope I’m wrong again, but there is no denying that Google and T-Mobile have some major hurdles in front of them to make this work.

A special note to the hackers

Yes, I know you can hack the G1 and load whatever the heck you want on it. Chances are you will be running Android 2.0 sometime next week. I know it is possible to change the partition sizes by loading a new SPL, but there is no way in hell it is extremely unlikely that T-Mobile will attempt this over the air. Flashing a new SPL also presents new problems because it erases all data on the device (which is a big no-no when it comes to everyday customers).

Donuts, roadmaps, and Android 2.0

Taylor Wimberly — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:01:21 +0000

For several months we heard the chant, “Where’s my cupcake?”. Rumors and leaks were rampant as everyone tried to guess the official release date of the Android 1.5 build. After many delays, T-Mobile finally rolled out the update and the complainers took a break to enjoy their dessert.

The next treat on the Android menu is Donut, which was recently demonstrated at Google I/O. New features include a system wide search, multilingual text-to-speech, and gesture input controls.

If you missed the presentation video, here is Romain Guy showing off the Donut build (starts about 3:30).

Multiple sites have been referring to Donut as Android 2.0, but that is not the case. A few of the Android engineers have made this point clear:

“Just to set the record straight, there are currently no official version numbers for future versions of Android, so let’s please not call anything “2.0″ as nobody knows what that refers to.” – Jean-Baptiste Queru

“First of all there is no such thing as Android 2.0. Donut is Donut, that’s all. Then we never said Donut would not be supported on ADP1 or G1.” – Romain Guy

“We don’t know what android 2.0 will be. We are doing all our work by pastry and someone on the marketing side makes up the version number later” – Mike Lockwood

So while Donut will be released this year, Android 2.0 is quite a few more pastries away in the future. If you are wondering when Android 2.0 will drop, there is no answer in site. Keep an eye on the official Android roadmap, but it hasn’t been updated since early 2009.

G1 Lifecycle

While we are on the subject of updates, let’s discuss the lifespan of the T-Mobile G1. The phone should receive the Donut update, but there are concerns if it will be compatible with later Android builds. The problem should be no surprise to heavy Android users – the G1 is limited by its small internal memory.

Already, we have seen this space issue become a problem for G1 owners trying to load Magic and Hero builds of Android. Some roms require a new SPL, secondary program loader, which repartitions the internal storage to free up more space. Other builds require that some data is loaded onto your SD card to make up for the limited space. Either way, the phone must be hacked which doesn’t fly for an official T-Mobile update.

This point is again explained by more Android engineers:

“If the data doesn’t fit on /data, no amount of backup/restore will make it fit. It just doesn’t fit. An upgrade can require to wipe /data, which is not acceptable on the G1″ – Jean-Baptiste Queru

“Also I think the chance that we deliver an OTA update to existing devices that repartitions the flash storage as part of the update is… very small.” – Dianne Hackborn

With these physical limitations in place, the days of the G1 could be numbered. HTC has addressed this issue in new phones by upping the internal memory, but where does that leave all the early adopters? All we can do is wait and see what happens.