T-Mobile’s G1, the First Google Android Phone

Today T-Mobile announced the long awaited G1 phone. The first one using Google’s Android platform. I’m actually really excited about this because as a lowly T-Mobile customer, I feel that I have missed out on all the cool phones, especially the iPhone. For once, it’s nice to have my company be the big dogs everyone is talking about.

So right around 9:00 this morning, I get the news that the phone is $179 for existing customers. Not a bad price but I just did spend a few dollars on a new Blackberry Curve just 6 months ago. After the site being down all morning, I finally got in and checked out to see this $179 price for myself. Only it wasn’t $179. For me, I was lucky enough to get a price of $299. Not exactly what I had in mind. T-Mobile has a upgrade policy where you get the best rate after you are 22 months or more into your current contract. With me being only 6 months in, I am not a good enough customer. T-Mobile would rather me wait 22 months rather than get a 2 new phones in that span. Seems weird to me but what do I know?

But regardless of my troubles, I am still excited about this phone. It has a very open platform that will allow for users to improve things as they see fit. iPhone frowns upon that with the exception of the App Store. Also, rather than see this as a phone, they see it at an internet experience. Andy Rubin of T-Mobile said today that “This will transform how and where people can use the internet. Thanks and I hope you enjoy it!” I think this is cool because with the iPhone, there is a movement to move the internet outside of just the desktops and laptops to allow internet access anywhere you are.

Also, the G1 will have copy and paste, something will more than likely make iPhone users very jealous. Also, in place of iTunes, the G1 will use Amazon’s music service which offers 89 cent songs so that is nice too. One of the coolest features is the tie in with the Google Maps especially with the street view. You can stand on a street that is in Street View and as you look around, the screen will show where you are facing using it’s internal compass and GPS. Pretty cool indeed. And of course it has all the bells and whistles that we expect from Google with Gmail, Gtalk, Gmaps and the rest of their suite of cool. Oh and it’s going to work on T-Mobile’s new 3G netwok. Wish my new Curve did that.

Overall as I’ve already said, I am excited about this phone and how it takes the mobile phone another step forward. Google and T-Mobile have teamed up to deliver what I think is a step in a great direction. I really like the sound of this quote from the announcement today, “It’s completely open… no one says ‘you can’t do that’.” That’s a big step from the rules of Apple’s SDK.

So basically we’ll see if this is the phone that is the Apple killer. I don’t think it will be but it will be a solid #2 for a while. After that, who know? I’d like to know what you think about it so leave you comments below.

Thanks Apple for Upgrading my iPod Touch to Bricked

Well yesterday Steve Jobs walked out with his black turtleneck and jeans and announced semi-big changes in the iPod line. He announced that iTunes was upgraded to version 8. A lot of new features and some bells and whistles. Along with that, he announced the upgrade of the iPod Touch firmware to version 2.1.

So me being me, I had to have both right then and there. So I open up iTunes and click the Check for Upgrade link and begin the upgrade process. It runs through its usual process and then it got to some section with Quicktime and it stalled. I gave it about 20 more minutes before I shut it down. The Cancel button didn’t work so I had to shut it down via the Task Manager.

Since it had hung so long, I decided to check to see what version of iTunes I actually had at that point. I opened it up and checked: 7.7. But right after doing that, iTunes asked if I wanted to update my iPod’s firmware. Since that was part of my master plan, I said yes. It got mostly through then I got an error message saying that the upgrade could not be completed. I clicked okay and then was told that my iPod Touch was in Restore Mode and was asked if I wanted to restore it. I declined and unplugged my iPod Touch from the computer. I couldn’t go anything with it. It was stuck in restore mode.

I began thinking that I did update it with iTunes 7 instead of 8. So I decided to retry my update to iTunes 8 and this time I was successful. I tried to restore my iPod once again and was told that an unknown error occured. Not good. I now had a $400 paper weight. I tried the restore a couple of more times and was shut down each time. I read some of the support docs that Apple had and tried some things. The last thing I read was to try to restore using a different computer. So I did. And it worked.

Then I went to my regular computer and restored from the backup that was done prior to the bricking my iPod Touch. That took FOREVER but worked. Then I tried the update once again and once again, I bricked it. Thanks Apple.

Today I finally got it all working and upgraded to 2.1 but had to use 2 computers to do it and that just isn’t feasible. I don’t know if I created a weird situation with my upgrade freeze but if you run into this situation, just know that you need to restore to factory settings on a different computer, restore from backup on your computer, and then use that different computer to do the update.

Too much work for an upgrade. So if Apple sees this at all, I might have found a bug in the system that you missed.

Upgrading My Ipod Touch from 1.1.3 to 2.0

So as I’ve talked about before, I have an iPod Touch that I have had since November of last year I think. I love that thing. One of the best toys that I have ever bought. Of course right as I took it out of the box, I did the old 1.1.1 jailbreak and have been jailbroken ever since. I’m currently on version 1.1.3 as I never found a use for upgrading to 1.1.4. Well that was until today.

Today I finally bit the bullet and am going through the upgrade to 2.0 with a stop at 1.1.4 as I’m reading is necessary. I did a backup of my iPod earlier today through iTunes. Not too sure as to what that actually backs up.

I have no problem going “legit” with my iPod Touch. All along I wanted the installer and the apps that come with it as well as the ability to have email on it. I had those via jailbreaking it but now with 2.0, I really don’t feel that I need to jailbreak it anymore. I’ll still investigate what a jailbroken 2.0 iPod can do and maybe I’ll do that too.

Here’s the timeline:

9:30pm – I begin the upgrade to 1.1.4. I have already downloaded the file so it’s pretty fast.
9:36pm – It’s done and I’m happy that I still have my music on there. My home screen is weird because there is only 8 icons on there.
9:38pm – About to start the 2.0 upgrade. Again, I have already downloaded the file and all I have to do is run it.
9:44pm – Uh oh, An unknown error occured (6). Wonder what that means. It’s having me do a restore. I think I read about this a couple of days ago.
9:47pm – Wish I could have stopped it from trying to download the 1.1.4 update. Oh well. I guess I have an extra 5 minutes.
9:51pm – Apparently I should have restored it to 1.1.4 first before going to 2.0 I’ve read. Oh well, maybe others who read this won’t follow my errors.
9:52pm – Restore is going down.
9:58pm – Just was asked about the 2.0 Software Update in big iTunes window. Didn’t see that the last time. Also restoring the backup I did earlier today.
10:00pm – Restore complete now loading back up. Get asked about 2.0 again. Music’s gone.
10:04pm – Going to try the 2.0 update again. While this is going on, anyone subscribed to MobileMe on an iPod yet?
10:11pm – GRR Unknown Error #6 again. I’m stuck in a perpetual screw up/restore loop. At least it knows not to download the 1.1.4 file again.
10:20pm – It just finished its restore and this time my home screen looks a lot cleaner. I still think that I won’t restore from the backup I did this morning.
10:22pm – Didn’t restore from old backup this time. Started fresh. Syncing photos from my computer.
10:26pm – Third time’s the charm right?
10:35pm – I think it did work this time. It’s restarting my iPod. I’m being asked to set it up again or restore it.
10:37pm – It’s even syncing the Twitterific app I downloaded on Thursday for fun. Cool.
10:45pm – Got work email setup with Exchange. Pretty easy. Time to play with App Store.

Overall, this wasn’t a hugely painful process. Sure I had to redo a couple of things a couple of times but I’m happy that I’m legit now with it. I don’t know if I will go back to the pre 2.0 days but if I do, I’ll use this link here from iPod Touch Hacks. They seem to know what they are talking about.

If you have any experiences with upgrading to 2.0 on your iPod Touch, I would love to hear them or share more about what I did.

iPhone Regardless of Carrier

That’s a nice title. Imagine if you could get an iPhone regardless of what carrier you have. Now I know that not all phones are available to all carriers but not all phones have the popularity of the iPhone. Personally I would love to have one and have considered it in the past if you keep up with my blog. At the time, I decided to instead get the iPod Touch and keep my T-Mobile Dash.

I’m now re-thinking that decision. I know that with T-Mobile, I’d have to jailbreak any iPhone but that isn’t an issue with me. I’ve jailbroken my iPod Touch and feel pretty comfortable doing that with the iPhone. But I have T-Mobile and it’s relatively easy for me. What about the people out there who have Verizon, Sprint, Alltel, etc? What do they do?

There are two sides to this discussion. On one side you have the demand from all the consumers like myself. But on the other hand, you have Apple not wanting to over-saturate the market in iPhones. I do think it would be a good idea for Apple to allow the iPhone to be used under more carriers than just AT&T. If T-Mobile had the iPhone, I’d buy it today. People are locked into contracts with other carriers and that makes it difficult to make the switch. Had Apple opened up the iPhones when they were released, I think they would have made more sales. Now people are waiting out their contracts to go with AT&T but their existing providers are giving deals to keep people from buying iPhones.

But what if Apple decided to open up the iPhones? Do you think that everyone would have one with its high pricetag? I don’t know but I do think that more people would have them. Motorola’s RAZR crashed the party a few years ago and I saw a lot of RAZR’s on the streets and in the hands of friends. I don’t think that hurt Motorola but I do think that they were the beneficiaries of the latest gadget and rode the wave as long as they could. Now Apple is on that wave and doesn’t appear to be giving it up anytime soon.

Just like Apple did with the iPod to MP3 players, I feel that the iPhone can do the the cell phone market. I guess that only time will tell but I will say that I am waiting until mid-June for the 3G iPhones to come out and then I’ll seriously think about getting one to replace my Dash.

What do you think?

iPod Touch versus iPhone – Part Three

Back in October, I wrote this article discussing the iPod Touch versus the iPhone. Well I did in fact purchase a 16GB iPod about a month ago and overall, I have to say that I like it. There are some things that I’m not in love with but the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

The pros about it are basically the same as they always have been with a few additions. I have always liked the iPod line and the Touch is no exception. I really enjoy the Safari browser on it and the ease that web pages display on it. In my last post, I have written that I wasn’t looking forward to that too much but I was wrong. It blows away anything my Dash can do. I also really like that iTunes is nice enough to transfer any songs that I purchase from my iPod to iTunes. For some reason, I was thinking that was going to be a huge pain.

For the cons, I have a few. The most glaring is that on my home computer (64 bit) cannot find my new iPod correctly because Apple won’t allow it. I’m totally fine with that but I’m not fine with the fact that my 2 older iPods work perfectly on it. Apparently someone at Apple decided to take a crap on the new iPod and anyone who uses Windows 64 bit OS’s. That’s what I can’t get. I even submitted an email to Apple on their site about a week ago but still no answer. Oh well. Just sucks that I can’t use my iPod on my home computer. I also just attempted to upgrade my iTunes to 7.6 and was told that the installer requires that I use Vista 64-bit rather than XP 64-bit. Kinda funny since every version up until now has worked.

I also do not like the fact that I had to jailbreak the iPod to get it to add extra programs. That’s something I should be able to do anytime. I’m pretty sure on Macs that you are allowed to add new programs whenever you want. I should be able to do that on my pocket Mac/iPod.

Just yesterday, Apple announced that it was adding 5 new programs to the iPod Touch. Mail and Google Maps are the only two that concern me too much (Notes, Weather, and Stocks are the other 3). I was excited about this only to learn that for being such a good customer, I get the fun of spending $20 for those. Thanks Apple. Even if I wanted them, I can’t because iTunes won’t work on my computer. But above that, someone will offer them for free in a week I’m sure. so I’ll wait until then

Overall, I give my iPod Touch a 7/10. It still is an excellent music player but if Apple is going to tease me with extra features, I’m going to expect them.