Ray's Curious Things

Recently my G-1 phone updated itself to the new android 1.6 operating system. This updated was pretty cool. It added a lot of polish to the otherwise already cool phone however the need to download update after update for all of my apps got monotonous pretty quickly. To add insult to injury, some of the Updates to the new “Donut” version of android were themselves broken requiring yet another set of updates to fix. I think I was able to use all of my apps within 2 days with success.

Then I hear that Verizon is getting a new droid phone that has a bigger screen 3.7″, is thinner and still has a pop out keyboard! This monster looks better, and has a better processor and more memory and worse it runs Android 2.0 (Eclair). Now nobody has said my cheesy G-1 is going to even work with 2.0 and because of network differences I cannot use the new motorola verizon droid! Oh sure, tmobile has the cliq and at least that phone fixes the audio jack problem! but still! I want a cooler looking, thinner, larger screen, pop out keyboard, 5 mega pixel cam, super processor, maxi-phone!

I also want a two year upgrade that makes it cheap enough to even consider.

Ray

The following list appears in no particular order. I have used the G1 phone for a while now and these are applications that I keep on my phone.

1 – Cachemate – geocaching fun!
2 – Robodefense – Waiting at the car repair center? Why not play a simple game? This one is addictive.
3 – LukLuk – when used with headphones, this application let’s you watch a variety of movies and television programming as well as media stored on your memory card!
4 – Open Home – purely a personlization tool, this app allows you to make the phone look, well, they way you want it to!
5 – Weatherbug – warns you when threatening weather is near and will display a radar map of your area. I like this one a lot!
6 -Snapphoto – much better than the default camera application. Handy for spontaneous moments.
7 – LastFM – I love music and lastfm will help you find artists you never thought about before that you will like!
8 – Bank of America – their app is polished and very functional! Online banking on the go. I like this one too.

In keeping with the theme of my previous review, today I will go over a paid application for the G1 for Geocachers. Cachemate is a solid application that adds some features to those offered by Geobeagle and goes beyond it with navigation aid and a more accurate pointer in my opinion. The application work differently that geobeagle and the more time you spend with the various menus created by the menu button or the long press context menus the better you will understand it.The best feature that GeoBeagle does not have is the map navigation. Pulling up a cache from a GPX file provides you will all the cache info you could want but what makes it really shine is the map navigation.

From the selected cache one of the menu options is mapping. this shows where you are and where the cache is along with a nice map of the roads. This can save you a lot of turning around as I have found out. By KNOWING which roads to turn right and left on and a visible depiction of your travel, cacheing with a partner allows them to actually tell you what road to turn on and which way to turn there. This is a great time and gas saving feature that allows you to get more caches in less time. Dont worry, for you pointer purists, the large green arrow is much better at pointing the way to the cache accurately and consistently than the current beta form of GeoBeagle.

There is a price to pay for this polished program. The application is $10.00. It is well worth the investment if you intend to use your G1 for Geocaching. That being said, it will not take the place of a good Garmin unit. It works consistently well side by side with an eTrex Legend Hcx but there were points where buildings and trees caused more trouble for the G1 with Cachemate than it did for the Garmin unit. Still, based upon my little experience with the Cachemate program, I could go out and find my caches without a Garmin unit easily. My Legend does not allow me to log finds, take geopics, or make field notes of any detail. It also does not let me go online and find more caches in the area that I am standing and load them up immediately for another quick find if I have more time.

I give Cachemate a solid five stars in its current state. Since the developer is still adding functionality to it, I suspect it will remain one of the best geocaching apps out there for a long time to come. Thanks for the caches guys!

The G1 has a plethora of settings menus and screens. Digging into them takes precious time. This application will save you some time and make things easier to access. I installed this application and started working with it. Let’s walk through the toggles.

The following on/off toggles are present on toggle screen 1

first toggle screen

Airplane mode, Auto sync, Bluetooth, Fast Bright(if you have any trouble reading the screen, this helps!), GPS, Screen never timeout, Silent Mode, Wifi connection.

The following on/off toggles are on toggle screen 2

2nd toggle screen

2g/3g wireless network settings, Screen brightness, Ringer mode settings, screen timeout settings, volume controls.

After playing with this for a while, I will never remove it. Why dig through menu trees when you can just click Toggle settings?

It has a feature that allows you to put it in the notification bar at the top of the screen. By doing this, I always know where it is to activate it and find my critical settings like GPS and WiFi. I knew where to find them already but why waste time fooling around with getting to the menus? Go right to the item you want and make the changes you need now. I give this application a full 5 stars. It is free and I feel like it is needed for quicker management of your phones systems.

Great work guys,

Ray

Geobeagle is a geocaching app for the G1 phone. If you do not know what geocaching is, consider it a high tech scavenger hunt using GPS coordinates or visit www.geocaching.com for more information. As a sometimes Geocacher, I have a nice Garmin unit that I use regularly but with Geobeagle I now have the ability to just check online for the area I am standing in and see if there are any caches nearby that I might want to go get. The program is not hard to use but the process isn’t intuitive so you need to follow the directions.

The application is free from the marketplace. Once installed on your G1, you can start the application. The first screen is a set of links to Geocaching sites. I use Geocaching.com which is the primary link. Choosing that link will take you to a list of caches in the immediate area around you. Select a cache link from the list and the specific cache page comes up. Down the page a bit is a map showing the location of the cache and below that map is a list of links. Choose the Google Maps link and a pop up window asks what you want to open the link up with. Choose Geobeagle. At this point a radar screen will come up showing a green dot that is the cache and which way it is from you based on the direction you are pointing. Distance shows in metric or english units, which is up to you. Once you get close you will have to start hunting the cache in the normal fashion, digging in the bushes, whatever, and the radar screen has buttons for bringing the map up again, for viewing the web page so you can check out the hint and other information, and for logging the cache as found or not found.

All of this works fairly well but appears to be battery intensive so get a car charger if you do not have one. Logging finds requires that you be a premium member of Geocaching.com. It is a small price to pay per year and worth every penny. You will also need to make sure you have the free Radar application installed on your G1 for Geobeagle to work. Some problems with Geobeagle and the G1’s speed in general, make this a perfectly good secondary Caching tool but perhaps not your primary tool. One, if you are out of coverage for the 3g network or not in a WiFi area you cannot use this application. Two, I was unable to find a way to filter out my previous finds and those caches I have no intention of going after. The application is free so I am not complaining about this, just being clear for those who might want to avoid buying a GPS unit.

In conclusion, Geobeagle is a great application for urban caching within network coverage areas and is perfect for a quick cache at lunch or while out running an errand. It works as well as my Garmin unit in determining location and provides the ability to actually log the cache while you are there instead of after returning home to get on your computer. I give this application a 4 out of 5 stars for being free and working well on the new cupcake version of Android. Logging finds while onsite is a nice perk for those who want to be the First To Find.

Requirements – Android OS Phone(G1) with internet plan, Free Radar Application, Free Geobeagle Application, and some time to have fun.

Note-Do not experiment with this out in the field. Learn to use it before you leave the house. Your experience will be much more enjoyable.

Ray

First I want to say that putting your sim card in and mounting the battery and going through your initial boot sequence is not a big deal. If you are leary about doing things like this for yourself, just follow the directions. They are good directions. First impressions include “This is a large phone!” “What an easy to use touch screen!” “I love this keyboard!” “Why is the bottom angled like this?” “1GB SD card? You are kidding right?”.

This is a large phone – It is. If you are used to some tiny flip phone this thing will be a monster. I had a reasonably sized Motorola W490 prior to this and it was fairly chunky. This phone is about the same thickness and close to 25% bigger in footprint. Needless to say, I ordered a new belt clip carrier for it.

What an easy to use touch screen – It is really easy and once you get used to the motions, you will be swiping long and short scrolls to your hearts content. I was able to get into my phones various settings easily and learned how to turn on and off the WiFi and GPS systems.  The Touchscreen is the jewel here though and it works like a charm!

I love this keyboard – and I do. The slide out keyboard is a nice qwerty layout that works well with my big thumbs. I can tell when I have pressed a button and there is enough separation of the keys to help me avoid most mistakes. Shifting is a little annoying but they did fix it so that pressing the button once and then the letter shifts that next letter key only. This works well for me.

Why is the bottom angled like this?? – Anyone got a clue, because I still have not figured that out.

1GB SD card? You are kidding right? – I promptly removed the standard card and dropped in a 4GB microSD card I had laying around. I have an 8GB card on the way that is fast. This should help a lot with my video loads and storing my music.

I will start using the G1 phone and learning the available applications. I will post again tomorrow on several uses I have made of the phone.

Oh, FYI – the newest android operating system for the phone updates automatically after the phone has been powered up for a day or more with the sim card installed. The newest version adds the on screen keyboard and a small group of changes to make the phone more user friendly. Some of these changes may break existing applications or make them superfluous.

Ray

I have a new look and a new desire to share. I have decided to spotlight things I am talking about up in the header with pictures. Today I can tell you that I will be getting a new G1 from Tmobile and begin to learn to use it. I will post about this as it happens. I will review apps and the phone’s functions and features as I learn to use them. If anyone would like to make suggestions for applications that are really ‘must have’ then please leave a comment. I will answer the most obvious question first. “Why didn’t you get an Iphone?”

Listen, I have a problem with Apple. They didn’t put their phone online with Tmobile. It really is that simple. I prefer Tmobile because I have always gotten great service, decent value, and friendly english speaking customer reps. Whenever I had a problem they did their level best to fix it. During the Hurricane Ike fiasco in Houston, they gave us a break on texting because the phones themselves were not able to connect. Texting worked however so they gave us a break on a service we rarely used at any other time. It seems minor but they could have hammered us for the per message charges and they didn’t. To top it all off their network has always worked extremely well for me. Why would I want to change services? The IPhone was the only thing that had that kind of drawing power and when I mentioned it to T Mobile, they cut me a sweet deal on a new G1 to keep me. They WANT my business and I like dealing with companies that feel that way about me. You should too.

Stay tuned for the first impressions!

Ray

I might be able to get it to work but I REFUSE to ever upgrade the software ever again! I hope that this install works forever and works correctly. We will see.