It’s been 10 days, and I’m still very happy with my new Nexus One phone.
Sunset on the Nexus One
I was just trying out location-based apps on my Nexus One and my fake iPhone for my group project in the Mobile Media and Communications class. Using the two smartphones at once, I decided that I definitely like the Nexus One better. Granted, it’s not fair to compare it to a first-generation iPhone, but the Nexus One is so much faster. And I normally don’t care about things like changing the wallpaper on a phone, but the live wallpaper, customizable home screens and other features on the Nexus One make it a more fun user experience. I’ll admit it — I enjoy watching my live wallpaper – grass in front of a blue sky – change throughout the day.
Other Week Two results:
Phone service. My phone coverage is good and similar to the coverage I had with my old phone. I barely get a signal in the UW Comm building, but that was a problem with my old phone, so I think it’s just a bad spot for T-Mobile coverage. Also, it’s not the most comfortable phone to talk on, but I don’t anticipate doing much of that anyway. (Most of my communication is done over Gmail, text and Gchat.)
Space. After receiving a message that my original 4GB SD card was full, I ordered a 16GB micro SD card. I’ll probably put 8 to 10 GB of music on the new card and leave the rest of the space for videos and photos.
Music. After I complained about not being able to use iTunes with the phone, my friend Brad recommended I use the open-source program Songbird, which can import your iTunes library and playlists, to transfer music to the Nexus One. It takes a couple steps to set it up, but you can use Songbird to sync a playlist or library with a variety of phones. I plan to sync playlists once I have the 16GB card.
Photos. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the five-megapixel camera.
Videos. YouTube videos play beautifully when I’m connected to wifi – as they should. When using the network, the videos load quickly, but the resolution can be poor depending on the connection. Flash Player doesn’t yet work on the Nexus One. Adobe says it will be available for Android in the first half of 2010. I hope it comes soon. I want to be able to watch Vimeo and Hulu videos on the Nexus One.
Apps. I’ve finally gotten to play with apps I’ve been curious about. As a result, I’m now the mayor of Fuel Coffee on FourSquare. I’m also trying out ShopSavvy and other apps I learned about from the Android Network Awards.
Although I’ve found most of the apps I want, some are still missing from the Android Market. I am eagerly awaiting:
- Tweetdeck
- Scrabble
- New York Times
- WordPress
- CNN
- Tumblr
Contacts. I was annoyed that all the phone numbers stored on my sim card didn’t automatically transfer over to the new phone. But, on the other hand, I now really like using Google contacts. Fortunately, all my numbers were stored in my T-Mobile account online, so I’ve been manually entering the numbers into my Google contacts in Gmail, which syncs automatically in the cloud. When I click on a contact’s name on the phone, I have the option of calling, texting, IMing (on Google Talk) and emailing him, as well as viewing his Facebook profile.
Maps/Navigate. If I click on a contact’s address, it takes me to Google Maps and gives me directions to his home. From there, I can use Street View to see the destination or click Navigate, which will use GPS to give me driving directions. The Navigate feature works well, but the voice is annoyingly robotic.
I prefer TomTom’s soothing British accent.
Search. Speaking of syncing in the cloud, I was searching for a business on the phone and the recently viewed items included businesses I had searched for on my laptop. This will come in handy.
(Also, if anyone wants to buy an unlocked Samsung Gravity 2, let me know.)
digital media studies 
Nice review of the Nexus One!
Considering that most of your communication is over “Gmail, text and Gchat,” I’m sure an Android phone is a good fit!
I like the Songbird plug. I think Apple has a huge advantage over every other operating system with iTunes so I am always curious about how people (especially iTunes users) patch the entertainment.
Haha. Yep. Just as someone who uses tons of Mac software would prefer an iPhone for the syncing capabilities, I prefer Google’s cloud and Android.
With my fake iPhone, I had one large playlist (appropriately titled “iPhone”) that contained the music I wanted on the phone. Because 8GB isn’t very much space, I just synced the iPhone with that ever-changing playlist. So I’ll be doing something similar in Songbird. But it’d definitely be easier if I could just use iTunes.
It is very interesting to read Ziwen’s post and then yours. You love your Nexus one but he lists 5 drawbacks to own this gadget. I also heard about the complaints about the Nexus one. Most complaint is in its inconvenient customer service. People complain online but get little and slow feedback. Google sells its first phone online without the support of physical stores or carriers. I don’t think that there are only 15,000 applications will kill Nexus one. The major problem now seems lying on the bad support and customer services on it. Hope Google can deliver better consumer services and user experience.
I just read his post and left a comment. I’ve heard complaints about the Google customer service too. Luckily, I haven’t had to deal with it yet (though I’ll certainly blog about it when I do). On the other hand, I really hate calling customer service lines and sitting on hold. I much prefer to find my answer in a support forum or through email, so maybe I won’t be quite as angry as others.
Amy,
thanks for the post updating us on your Nexus One!
I, too, am always curious to hear how other mobile devices address the music factor, so I’d love to check out this “songbird” in action!
I was wondering the other day what would happen if I bought an Amazon MP3 on my iPhone – have you tried this yet on your Nexus? Is Songbird a marketplace too?
I still think the Zune should become a phone too and then we could be sharing music with people and use the social marketplace together… but then again, I haven’t met many others w/a Zune (which is why I got it – for sharing music – esp since Apple is so damn stingy w/their music rights).
I’d love to hear about your cust svc experience!!!
thanks again for this 🙂