My thoughts on the Nexus One

On Monday January 11th I ordered a Nexus One as I am doing Android apps and need a device to test on. The next day this hot little device was in my hand.

As I opened the box I was a little surprised. I was getting memories of opening my iPhone and Microsoft. A little strange feeling came over me. That feeling soon went away once I saw the device for the first time. I quickly popped my SIM card from my iPhone, put it and the battery into the Nexus One and fired it up.

A very cool startup screen greeted me and I started to feel like a kid a Christmas :). After it booted up (which was pretty fast btw), my first impression was, 'wow, this is pretty cool'. Then I started to try and use it. After some initial confusion (this is my first time using an Android based device), I started to get the hang of it. Within minutes I had my gmail setup, contacts synced and all.

The Fluff
Ok, after I got it all setup, I wanted to see what this device has to offer right out of the box. The Live Wallpapers adds a level of personalization that I really like. Even the non-live wallpapers are very cool and I like that it shows on my home screen. The Gallery app is really cool as well, has some nice effects and works well.

The Business
What I am considering the business end of this device is the normal-use applications. I really really love the gmail integration. I use gmail more than anything and having an app that acts like the web version is a HUGE plus in my book. The phone app is a bit lacking in my book. I don't like that I cannot see my voicemails and choose visually which one I want to interact with. Email and texting gets a huge boost by the Voice-to-Text integration. Now, for the record, the device doesn't do the translation, a cloud service does, but still, its huge. Another huge plus is the voice searching, both on the web and maps application. Case in point. The other day I had to track down my daughters lunch box she left on the school bus. So I opened the Maps application, brought up the voice search, spoke the address, then touched the ballon, and then selected Navigate To. Now this brought up the Google Navigation app up and calculated the route... Within 1 minute I found the location and had a route to it. In my book, that is huge. Another great feature is the Notifications Panel. This is a panel that will hold all notifications and the user can slide it down and go straight to that item or clear the list. I love that. Another feature I find very very useful is the 'Back Button'. This along with the fact that Android can run multiple applications makes the user experience very good.

The not so good...
Ok, now after all the stuff the Nexus One via Android does very well, it has a few things it does not do so well. First up is copy-paste. While it does have it, it is not easy to use compared to the iPhone's implementation of copy-paste. The next is Application memory storage capacity. It has 512mb of space of apps... really?? are you kidding me? After all the default apps are installed, a user is left with between 100 - 200mb of space for third party applications. I am not 100% sure if the Droid has this issue or not, but this is one area Android needs to be changed so it can run apps off the SD memory card, or the manufacturers need to up this internal memory. Another sticking point is the applications available. I am not talking about the quantity of apps, I am speaking to the quality. Case in point. Facebook. The Facebook app for Android is far less capable than its iPhone counter part. Where I could use my iPhone to do all my Facebook stuff, I simply cannot on my N1 because the app cannot do it. Come one people, this is unacceptable. My last pet peeve is no native multi-touch.. I understand why its not there, and I know the capability is there, so its not a big issue, but still an issue.

Conclusion
All in all, I own both an iPhone and the Nexus. I have had my iPhone for over a year now and it has grown in that time. I have only had the Nexus for a week now and I am very impressed. I could almost drop my iPhone for good, but not yet.

There are more good things about the N1 that I have not spoken about because I am going to do more detailed posts on those items.

2010

2010 is my year.. my year to get my diabetes where I want, and get to where I want to be as a developer... hi 2010, nice to meet you.


I have now had diabetes for 10 years.. and it still suck as much today as it did 10 years ago. The difference is I am 10 years older and my body just isn't what it used to be. So I started today, making managing my diabetes and my body the way I should be. 


As far as my 'professional' career, this is my year to do and get where I want. I realized I have 10 years of development experience doing many different things. My main focus is going to be mobile development on both the iPhone & Android platforms. I will also be doing more contract work as honestly, that's where the 'real' money is these days. The main thing that  has kept me from doing more contract work has been my diabetes.... however, I have realized that if I get my body into good shape and have a good diet, my diabetes will not require so much of my time.. 


this blog will be both about my personal and professional path this year and beyond... Again, welcome 2010, lets get rolling!