0xfeedface Tech musings and rants

I updated my Nexus One to the official Froyo FRF85B release a few days ago. I love the improvements Google and others have made to Android. One of my favorite features is WiFi tether. I have a mobile WiFi hotspot where ever I go. Everything is very noticeably faster on Froyo. I'm really impressed at how everything comes together in a unified manner.

I frequently bike to work. On my way, I listen to Pandora to make the twenty-mile journey bearable. I noticed that when I bike parallel and nearly underneath power lines, all data services die. My phone still shows full 3G bars, but all data synchronization stops. Pandora stops playing, email stops syncing, etc. I bike underneath power lines for around six of the twenty miles, a pretty significant portion to be without data services.

This problem didn't occur on Eclair. I tested on both Eclair and Froyo using both a bluetooth headset and regular 3.5mm headphones. No issue on Eclair with either headset, but it was an issue on Froyo with both headsets. My guess is that the Froyo radio is much more sensitive to interference than Eclair.

I contacted Google's Nexus One tech support. They've escalated the issue to the engineering department. I'll let you guys know what happens. Here is a thread I created on the Nexus One support forums about the issue.

I own a rooted MyTouch 3G and a Nexus One. I promised myself that I would keep my Nexus One unrooted. Well, I broke that promise last week and I couldn't be happier. It runs so much faster now--and it already was plenty fast. Tethering is awesome on it. I can listen to Pandora while tethering at work, developing at normal pace. I was lucky to keep my IRC connections alive while running a SQL query at work with my MyTouch 3G. I'm plenty happy now that it's rooted.

Verizon's CDMA Nexus One is supposed to be released on 23 Mar 2010. HTC has been sued by Apple for twenty patent infringements. I wonder if this lawsuit will affect the release and future sale of the Nexus One. We all know that this lawsuit is not about HTC, but it's about the exhilarating OS and framework by Google that's poised to outsell and pass Apple this year: Android.

The following is an excerpt of what I said in a Buzz conversation a friend and I are having about Windows Mobile 7:

I just saw a few WinMo 7 pics and I think what I saw was really, extremely ugly. Granted, when I switched from iPhone to Android, I thought Android's interface was a bit on the ugly side and I love Android's UI now. Maybe I'll have to wait till my diehard Microsoft fanboi coworkers update their phones to WinMo 7 to really judge it. After having had my Nexus One for a few days, though, I gotta say that Android has now surpassed iPhone OS's capabilities and now delivers a better OS and framework. Given that Microsoft has been behind the game for over a year now, Microsoft is going to have to work hard to bring their OS up to speed with Android's.
You did point out that Microsoft has a major marketshare in smartphones and I agree with that. However, Android's growth has been climbing; soon Android sales will outperform iPhone sales--growth trends have been pointing this way for six months now. With a larger userbase, Google will ramp up its even now rapid development of Android. With the Nexus One being directly supported by Google, Google will roll out OTA updates with new Android versions fast to its proud Nexus One userbase. Android will eventually win the war unless either Microsoft or Apple open their technologies like Google has done with Android.
Openness is key here. Being able to switch carriers--and even phones--while all your data, apps, etc. all come over painlessly and automagically is where Android wins. Besides, the Nexus One will probably come to AT&T 3G either later this year or early next.
Overall, WinMo 7 might be a decent start for Microsoft to re-enter into the smartphone wars, but Android is where it's at. I predict that a good percentage of WinMo users will switch to Android this year, even with Microsoft now trying to hit mobile technologies harder. I'm curious, too, if WinMo 7 integrates with the Zune marketplace and what the average Zune marketplace user thinks about DRM and vendor-lockin.
I haven't held a WinMo 7 device, yet, but expect to soon. My somewhat-biased opinion might change given time. ;)

Note: Android growth table available here (opens in new window).

I just received my Nexus One today. After a sleepless night of excitement and nervousness, having the Nexus One in my hand feels reassuring about how well technology is progressing. The Nexus One is a big improvement over my last two Android phones (first the G1 then the MyTouch 3G).

The Nexus One feels sturdy. I love that it doesn't have the chins the previous Android phones I've owned had. The chin, in fact, can be detrimental to the phone: my MyTouch 3G started chipping on the top chin. I dislike where the lock/power button is. Being a right-handed user, the lock button is hard to get to.

The phone's processor, the Snapdragon, is faster than I had anticipated. With the MyTouch 3G, I couldn't even send a text while using Pandora (my most used application). Grooveshark on the MyTouch 3G seemed impossible to run and hogged the CPU even worse than Pandora. However, this isn't a problem in the slightest with the Nexus One. I can run Grooveshark and multitask just fine. I have yet to use Google Maps while using Pandora or Grooveshark.

Overall, this is the best phone I have ever laid eyes on, let alone owned. Over the past two years, I've owned five phones (LG EnV, iPhone 3G, G1, MyTouch 3G, and Nexus One) and this one passes all previous phones up by miles. I'm excited to see what this phone can do and push it to the limits. I have yet to fully explore it.

I've hit my first goal of the year. I paid off my car today. I'm waiting for the new title to come in the mail. I'm way freaking stoked. My car is now officially mine. I can use it and abuse it as I please. Now to save for two weeks to get the Nexus One as a celebration present. I recently watched a video that Phil did on his YouTube channel called Like Totally Awesome about the Nexus One and I am so freaking excited. I might start doing Android development once I get it. Looks like Android 2.1 not only is a serious competitor to iPhone OS, but it might have surpassed it in features and functionality.