Google Phone

Finally got my G-Phone via T-Mobile. Nice device, but larger and heavier than my old Nokia. Can't have everything I guess, or, should I say, in order to have everything (on the phone), one must accept a size increase. Now I have email, IM, Internet, music, photos and probably a zillion other features I haven't tried or don't need... yet..

Otherwise, the phone works well. Only Edge in SLC, but the 3G switches in quickly when in SoCal. I have GMail, plus a configured client to get my .mac (MobileMe) email. Internet works fine, but is so small ( as expected)... I'm too old for small, I guess. Need to scroll around (via touch or scroll wheel) to see everything. Some odd ways to get a new URL, haven't figured out the smoothest methods of feature use. Sort of fumbling around with things. The keyboard is a nice feature, but keys still too small for my (not large but untrained) fingers. The lit keyboard dims too quickly when typing an email in a dark area. Possibly adjustable...

The GUI is fine, more app icons pop up easily. Best is having my Calendar available. The phone is fully configurable for synch Google apps such as Calendar and Gmail.

Some hassle getting the phone to initialize with the network. Took some hours before things started working. Can't use anything on the phone until this network synch happens. Replaced the micro SD card (this was a thrill, difficult to get PC to see the new card and format it). I downloaded lots of docs on the phone, but there are still many, many questions about how to do things. Thankfully T-Mobile has a forum for the G-phone, and lots of good info there.

I connect to the phone mostly with my Mac. I'm able to create folders on the SD card for music, phones, tones, etc. Music works fine, not as slick as iTunes, but not bad. Haven't done tones, yet. Gotta have Thelonious Monk for a ring tone!

So I'm still early into this. I really need a Text app (the one I downloaded won't browse for files... worthless). I need some simple text files available with tech info in case I'm traveling and something comes up.

Eventually I guess I'll get everything integrated. But it will take a while. In the meantime, I'm popular with the 20-something programmers at work.