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G1 takes on iPhone

G1 takes on iPhone

There’s a phone that’s creating competition for Apple’s iPhone: the G1. The touch-screen device, which is supported by T-Mobile’s network, features a full QWERTY keyboard, 3G support, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, e-mail, more downloadable applications than the iPhone and access to Amazon’s Mp3 store, YouTube and applications

However, both the G1 and the iPhone lack support for Flash content online and the G1 lacks a standard headphone jack. It does have a jack for proprietary headphones manufactured by HTC, according to the specifications for each phone.

Paul Carrier, Youngstown State University tech desk employee and computer technology sophomore, uses an iPhone and has seen the G1.

“I think it’s right on the heels of the iPhone, but not quite there,” Carrier said.

“No flash video is annoying. A lot of people ask ‘why don’t they just do it?’ What they don’t understand is that it’s a technical issue,” Carrier said. Running Flash requires extra hardware and memory that can’t be incorporated in the small phone. None of the phone’s memory can be spared for anything else.

Sun Microsystems is working on a mobile version of flash that is slated to be available in 2010.

G1 does have multimedia messaging, which the iPhone didn’t originally have. It will soon, however, with the free update for iPhones.

The T-Mobile G1 is manufactured by HTC and is similar in appearance to the company’s other smart phones, such as the T-Mobile Wing and the Sprint Mogul. The G1 measures 4.6 inches tall by 2.1 inches wide by 0.6 inches deep and it weighs 5.6 ounces.

Some people may consider the G1 to be less attractive than the iPhone because it is larger and not as sleek in appearance, but the G1 offers some functionality the original iPhone and the current iPhone 3G doesn’t have: copy-and-paste capabilities, multimedia messaging, a better camera and Google Street View.

Carrier said one of the big things about the G1 is that its software is open source, which is an advantage and a disadvantage. Open source software has core coding that’s viewable and able to be edited by anyone. Still, the problem with open source software is that there may not be support available or there might be more software bug issues.

Carrier said he doesn’t appreciate the G1’s appearance. “It looks nice but it’s not as aesthetically pleasing as the iPhone or the BlackBerry Storm.”

The G1 has a soft-touch finish on the back that provides a nice rubber-like texture. Part of the G1’s larger size is the full QWERTY keyboard hidden beneath the touch screen.

“I think the physical QWERTY keyboard is a step up over the iPhone; that is one of the things I miss, but it’s a bad thing and a good thing,” Carrier said. The tactile keyboard makes texting easier, but it adds bulk.

“It is hard to text message on the iPhone if you’re not looking. With the iPhone you have to look at the buttons, you can’t feel them,” he said.

The touch screen measures 3.2 inches diagonally and has a 320 x 480 resolution. The screen only responds to the touch of a finger, and not other objects, like a fingernail, a stylus, or a gloved finger, just like the iPhone and the BlackBerry Storm.

When the phone is slid open, the screen orientation automatically switches from portrait to landscape mode and navigation can be accomplished through a quick flick, or a slow drag.

[Thanks: http://www.thejambar.com]

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