Jesse Ross | jesseross.com

I got my G1 on Tuesday, and two days in, I already love it. It’s largely eliminated my need to carry my iPod touch with me everywhere. Sure, there are problems, and I’m constantly comparing it to the aforementioned gadget, but most of the issues I find with it (with the notable exception of multi-touch) look to be resolvable with software.

My biggest issue so far is that it’s really, really easy to get lost. The screen transitions so readily apparent in the iPhone are truly useful, giving you a sense of flow and sequencing that make the system feel much more physical and navigable. I don’t know what degree of difficulty there would be in trying to get something similar implemented in Android, but it should definitely be doable now that the system has been open sourced. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that very feature built into Android version 2.0.

I also find myself not very keen on all the buttons on the chin of the device. The iPhone shows us you can get away with just two physical buttons (Home and Power/Lock/Sleep), and taking a cue from that design would have been nice. I have to admit, the scrollball is a nice input mechanism, but I would have preferred that be the only addition above the two buttons of the iPhone. The Menu button is a constant source of consternation for new users, as everyone I’ve let play with my phone gets totally confused when they try to figure out how to input a URL in the browser. One could argue it’s a case of having been trained by Apple’s devices, but I think there is an obvious disconnect between the locus of attention (the address bar) and the physical button at the other end of the device you have to click on to interact with it. Again, it’s resolvable in software, but only if developers eschew the Menu button.

Speaking of the address bar, a non-physical keyboard would be handy at times… I find myself missing it, but that feels more like a UI convention I’ve become accustomed to with my iPod, than an actual limitation of the device.

Enough complaints, though… what’s good? The Google apps integration is seriously top notch. My email always hits my phone first, before it hits either my desktop or my iPod email client, and IM and search are really well done. The Market is good, comparable to the App Store, and will only get better as we get more apps (someone build a better Wikipedia browser than what’s up there now and I will be forever in your debt… oh, and I could use a PDF reader while you’re at it…). The fact that it has removable storage means I can make this device grow with my disk usage, and SD cards will only get cheaper and higher capacity.

Overall, it’s a solid device, and I’m happy with the fact that it’s open source and that it has a much more open development and distribution model than the iPhone. Of course, you have to do development in Java instead of Objective-C, and you don’t have the benefit of Xcode or Interface Builder, so whether that development is even worth doing is another question.

The only thought that I have left after playing with this device for two days is…

How does not having a non-carrier based Android device affect Google’s potential developer base… and when are we going to see the iPod touch equivalent of the G1?

I’m glad to see that John Gruber picked up on this:

In the same way that Apple took Mac OS X and Cocoa and shrunk them to serve as a handheld device OS, I think Google could take Android and grow it to serve as a PC OS.

I’ve been having similar thoughts lately, and I won’t be surprised if, when Android is fully open sourced later this year, we begin to see the system become the OS of choice on netbooks and eventually generic PC laptops and desktops. It will, as Gruber also points out, be a nice alternative desktop environment to Gnome and KDE, even though I have some alternative desktop environment allegiances of my own.

Since I decided to get a G1, I’ve been really getting into Android development. All forays into new programming languages necessitate good reference materials, and I’ve been attached to The Busy Coder’s Guide to Android Development by Mark Murphy. The book is really well written, with lots of good examples and source code, and in the few email chats I’ve had with him, Mark seems to be a really great guy who knows his stuff.

One other thing I like about this book, and Mark’s company, CommonsWare, is the business model behind the book. In addition to a regular dead-tree version, they publish PDF and Kindle versions, free of DRM. These versions are available via their “Warescription”, which, for $35 per year, gives you access to all of the updates to the book (as well as any other books they release) throughout the year. They also offer a bug-bounty program, which allows you to extend your subscription for 6 months for every bug you find.

If you’re looking to get into Android development, definitely check out this book. I highly recommend it.

And lo, The Great Googley One said unto me, “I bring to you a phone, a phone powered by open source, which you will still pay through the nose for, because the telecom companies are greedy, greedy bastards, but nevertheless, a phone that will let you easily add new applications, and share those applications with the world, in a share-y, share-y, love-y, love-y, socialist-y sort of way, and it will not be an iPhone, but it will at least provide a decent alternative, and it will not force you to switch to Ma Bell.”

And thus, I bought said phone, and I will patiently wait until October 22nd, when it appears at my door, as if delivered from the loving hands of The Great Google itself. And in my waiting, I will learn the SDK and develop applications. And it will be good.