Voice Search for google

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/35423


Hopefully this comes to the G1 phone soon, it's a cool application that allows you to search on ur cell phone simply using your voice.

You can also do the same on the telephone by calling

1-800-GOOG-411

I just used it to find pizza places around my area, it's pretty cool!

Ring DROID

So enough about the problems with the phone, let's start checking out the cool apps that makes this phone cool in the first place

Ring droid

an app that helps you cut mp3's into your very own ringtones. The app features a cool interface that detects the soudn waves of the music file. Basically there are two "tabs" that you can pull around (basically each tab adjusts where the ringtone starts and where it ends)

After you find your perfect ringtone, you simply save it and it is saved to your ringtones library right away. How cool is that?

I used windows media player to rip my CD's, so it saved the music file into WMA file....what I did was downloaded a audio converter called "Switch" file converter to convert into mp3. Since Ringdroid seems to only recognize mp3 files and not WMA files.

I'm trying to find a decent video player as well, more on that soon!

and when is my leather case and screen protectors coming? it's almost Christmas!!
Also, I never got my replacement battery from t-mobile after they sent that dented one...

getting used to phone

So it turns out that it was my fault...The phone just eats up batteries....well...at least I got a new phone...and a new battery...(I had originally scratched and dented the back cover of my first phone)

Though I can't get used to the idea of a phone that dies at 8pm after an overnight charge. I mean that's not even a single day!

Hopefully they will come out with new battery (at least i can change batteries, unlike the iPhone which you can't open the back cover) or come out with a software update that will make the battery last longer.

On the brighter side, I'm getting used to the keyboard, and it is just as good as my old one. But the fact that I have to slide it out everytime to type something, it makes you wish for a virtual keyboard (that should be coming out soon).
I never liked the idea of a virtual keyboard, but now I am getting used to it. Using my friend iPod touch, it's actually intuitive. It actually does work especially if it's just short messages you're typing out.

I also love the iphone like capacitative touchscreen that the G1 has. I used only like the ones where you had to "press" on the screen. Now I like sliding and swiping my finger across the glass screen.

It makes me want to buy an ipod touch for Christmas.

Well, I ordered a leather case from krussell, a 3.55mm audio adapter and some screen protectors. They should be coming in from UPS on Thursday. Can't wait! I don't like the pouch the G1 comes in.
http://www.g1depot.com/krusell-hector-leather-case/4A185A4371.htm

At $30 dollars for the case, it's a little pricy...but I consider it like buy a good wallet. The leather should last well, hopefully...so it's an early Christmas present to me...haha....

I was forced to buy 3 screen protectors for 6 bucks each cuz they only came in a 3 pack. As for the audio adapter, i think i could have picked one up at radio shack. but it was 6 bucks online, so it's ok...hope it works so I can plug my music into my car tape adapter. And ask my friend to borrow his ipod touch so i can upload mp3's into my G1

On black Friday i also bought a $15 dollar 4 GB flashcard for the G1, it was a good deal!

maybe i'm just not used to a phone that needs to be charged everyday

so i'm looking at two G1 phones, one has a great battery life while the other is draining a little faster

The difference? One has a sim card and is using the cell radio while the other is not (and has no sim card)

So my conclusion is that the cell radio eats up "that' much battery? Since I do remember that my G1 phone had great battery life "before" it activated (since I got it a week before the plan actually started)

So maybe it wasn't a defective phone afterall but just that I'm not used to cellphones that last only a day. I hear the iPhone has the same problem since we are asking the phone to do quite a lot of things


problem and solutions

didn't have touch screen unlock - solved (with cool unlock application)
couldn't get on android market- solved with rc30 update
no 3.55mm audio adapter-solved (with a usb aftermarket adapter)
lousy sound from the headphones-solved (with aftermarket headphones)
no led flashlight- solved (with flashlight application)

awful battery life - YET TO BE SOLVED


another gripe is that the "new" phone didn't have as great a keyboard as my first one...the tactile feedback is good, but the keys are so flush with the keyboard it seems hard to press...though it's just psychological since the clicking feedback is still the same. So i get used to it...I tried my best already...no use complaining since I really don't use the keyboard "that" much...

I still kinda wish i went with the 1 year contract instead of 2 year...i can't imagine living with this phone for 2 years

So I get the New Phone

So I talk to John my T-mobile rep on the phone and he tells me that the store should be "by law" required to give me an exchange under the 14 day "buyer's remorse" law that's in New York State. The people in the store say that they need to "check it out" for 2 days to make sure it's defective before they give me a new phone.

I know it's just stalling time since they don't want to give me a new phone. So I ask John to call the store directly but John says that there's nothing he can do since it's "store policy"

Anyways, I go to the store today and they say that if I've got my box and everything...they can give me a new one today. I left my box at home...so after choir practice ending at 4:12 pm...I race back to Queens from Chinatown (half hour drive) and get my box (realizing that the USB cable was still in my office). So I race to my office (15 min drive) and grab the USB cable. There's a lot of traffic and by the time I get back to chinatown it's 6pm.

I give him my box and my contract and he goes into some separate room and comes back and hands me my same box with the supposed "new" phone. I check the box and all of my old usb cable and everything was in there. I thought I was supposed to get everything new. What was the point of me racing back to Queens!? Why didn't he just give me the new phone (since I had the phone) why did he ask me to bring everything if he was just going to hand it back to me!? I was so mad...it was a 2 hour drive for nothing. Anyways...I don't yell at him as I should have...and told myself that as long as the phone worked...I didn't care. But now I think, if it didn't come from a sealed box, how do I know that this too is not a refurbished phone? whatevers....we'll see in these 2 days how the battery life goes.

I still have my "replacement" phone from T-mobile with the sticky keyboard but working battery. So I can place them side by side to compare the two. I just hope that I don't have to go back to the store since the store people were pretty rude to me though all I wanted was a new working phone.

Plan of Action

Honestly, I hate going into stores and complaining. It's a stressful experience since no one really wants to help you after they made the sale. At the time of sale, they'll promise you anything, afterwards it's more like "do I know you?"

So I plan on calling my sales guy who sold me the G1 over the phone first to ask him if I can have an exchange if I bring everything in. I want to have as less time spent in the store arguing as possible, that way I also won't be intimidated by the 3 other sales people looking at me giving me reasons why I can't exchange my phone.

So I should take care of this over the phone and simply go to the store and exchange....
sound easy? definitely not

julie my T-mobile representative

So..i chat with Julie my G1 support rep, and she is almost the nicest person ever. Though nice doesn't cut it when all i want is for my phone to work! She was about to send me yet another replacement phone (that makes 3 phones) when I said that I was still under the 14 day return period.

So instead she suggest that I take everything (box, usb cable, sim card) back to the T-mobile store and ask for an exchange for a new one. She said that I should be able to exchange under the 14 days "no questions asked" (yeah right!)

That sounds good to me, since I really don't want another "refurbished" phone. After my 14 days, it can be refurbished but not before...

So I guess that's what I'll do...of course, it's easier said than done. I'm sure the T-mobile store people will make up all sorts of regulations and rules to not give me a new phone.

Julie also said that she will call me on Tuesday just in case the store didn't give me a new phone

it finally came

so the "replacement phone" finally came...

It came in a brown UPS box. Nothing but the barebones Phone

Problems I see already

1. some of the keys are stuck (i can't really press the "I" button on the keyboard

2. there's small scratches on the inside back side

3. This little metal piece is not aligned like it was with my original phone

I'm calling T-mobile up to definitely complain. I paid for a "new" phone and they send me a used one to replace the defective one.

audio adapter 3.5mm

So as everyone knows, I don't know how google left this out, but there is no standard headphone jack in the G1.

you have to get one of these adapters...

while I wait for my replacement phone, I'm trying to ask them to send one to me for free for my troubles...but they say they can't do that...instead they send me
another replacement battery!

(the first one i got from them was "dented")
so now I have 3 batteries and one non working phone...

so i guess i wait

so i guess i'll just wait for the "new" phone

hopefully it'll work despite it being "refurbished" and hopefully there's that slim chance i'll get a new phone

Refurbished phone!?

So next day, I call T-mobile up and ask for a replacement phone. I tell them to please throw in a free back cover since I've taken it off so many times, it's become warped and dented. They say they don't even have back covers in stock to give out.

ok, fine, I'll buy a back cover for $20 on-line. Then they tell me that there's a good chance my replacement phone is "refurbished" Did I pay $220 for a refurbished phone? what!!?

I'm starting to get really mad at the fact that I should have known getting things when they first come out is a mistake...though it is fun to see technology as it unfolds....

The T-mobile cs support are extremely nice. It's like I don't even want to yell at them, but c'mon...a refurbished phone when I paid for a new working (not defective) phone.

Dented replacement battery

(This article is being written a week after it has ocurred and not at the time that they happen)

So a few days later I call up T-mobile telling them about the power level problems. They say they will send me a new battery, so ok, I'm happy...hopefully this will fix the problem

Battery comes by UPS next day, but it's dented! Definitely a refurbished model...I put it in the phone anyway...problems still persist...I literally watch the battery meter go down....



the "replacement" dented, refurbished and scratched battery they sent (u can't see it, but look closer u see small dent marks and black tape covering it)

G1 phone experience

PROS

nice comfortable soft plastic back
amazing touch screen (responsive and bright)
amazing app store (download an app for almost anything u need)


CONS

keys are flush with the keyboard (have to type with tip of finger)
Battery Life is horrible (mere hours)
the right side of the phone when it's open interferes with typing




All in all, I'm so happy that I've gotten this phone!