What I’m looking forward to in Android

Cricket finally came out with an Android phone that works on their network last week. It was on pre order and of course I had to buy one. It’s in the mail as I type this and there are a few things that I’m looking forward to in Android. I feel in a good mood so why not share them with all of you.

Google Voice:

Google Voice is a service that Google offers to allow you to have one number for life, that will work with all your phones. It gives you a lot of control over your phone that you normally would not have such as call blocking. There is a good online interface to the service which is kind of necessary if you don’t have an iPhone or an Android phone. The problem I have right now using Google Voice with my Razor is that it’s hard to call using my Google Voice number cause if I want to call out I have to call my voice number and type in the number that I want to call. That’s a pain in the but.

Google Voice on Android asks you when you try to make a call what number you want to use to call out. So if you want to use your voice number you tell it to use that number or if you want to use the number your carrier gave you, you can use that too. You can also set it up so that it doesn’t ask you and it always calls out using your voice number. If you are interested in learning more about Google Voice or making a Google Voice account go here.

Gmail:

Gmail is my primary e-mail service and Android has a mail app and a Gmail app that has the same feel that I’m use to on my desktop. I use the mail app on my iPod Touch right now (running iOS 4.0.2) and its ok it does what I wanted which is to be able to have my e-mail in my pocket. I just think that it’s going to be nice to have a UI that is a little bit more familiar to me. Now I know there is a Gmail optimized for the iPhone if I go to Gmail in safari but that’s not what I wanted, it doesn’t cache the e-mail to the phone so I can view it offline.

Widgets:

There are some apps on iOS that don’t seem like they should be apps they seem like something that should just be sitting on your home screen waiting for you to look at information that it needs to tell you. Apps like weather shouldn’t be apps they should be widgets and Android has widgets. It’s a lot faster to just look at a widget then it is to open an app and wait for it to load.

3G:

For me this is going to be my first Smart Phone on my Razor right now I have mobile internet but it’s really wasted cause unless I really need to look something up I wait till I find WIFI and use my iPod Touch to looks stuff up or send a Tweet. Every day I wish that I could just get 3G on my iPod Touch cause it would make it more useful when I’m out of the house but with this new Android phone I’m getting I’ll have internet were ever I get a signal with Cricket, making things like evernote a little more useful and a real browser so surfing the internet won’t be as bad as it is now.

All your phonez belong to us:

My Phone should be here tomorrow and I just can’t wait I know this phone isn’t the best Android phone on the market but it’s one that I can afford the plane for it. I do feel like these things are what sold me to get this Android phone over the Blackberry that Cricket sells.

Technorati Tags: Google,Android,iOS,iPod Touch,Cricket,3G,Gmail,Widgets,Google Voice,Smart Phone

 

Do Evil?

Google has been running off of their slogan “Do no Evil” since the company was founded. After people found out that Google and Verizon were having talks about neutrality and what came out from it people started turning their backs on Google thinking they had done evil finally. For people that have no idea what I’m talking about, Google was having talks with Verizon about net neutrality and how to solve it. Google and Verizon supposable decided that the land lines like DSL and FIOS would not have any kind of traffic shaping at all but wireless would be allowed to priorities there traffic. Basically what they’re saying if you’re watching a streaming video online form your FIOS or DSL line Verizon can’t just slow that down to speed up peoples VOIP calls. But on a cell phone if you are watching a streaming video they could slow that down to so that maybe people can load a web app faster.

Because of that people have though that Google has sold out the open internet and that just is not true and if anything I think something happen during those talks that we have not herd. What makes me think this is a paragraph that of a blog post Google posted called Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal on the Google blog which says “MYTH: This proposal would eliminate network neutrality over wireless. FACT: It’s true that Google previously has advocated for certain openness safeguards to be applied in a similar fashion to what would be applied to wireline services. However, in the spirit of compromise, we have agreed to a proposal that allows this market to remain free from regulation for now, while Congress keeps a watchful eye.” The whole part about spirit of compromise makes me think that Verizon may have threatened Google somehow causing them to just let wireless go. I for one have a crazy conspiracy but about what could have happen. Verizon could be in talks right now with Apple to start selling iPhones on Verizon and so during the net neutrality talks Verizon could have said ok about the wirelines but the wireless stuff no and Google pushed and pushed and Verizon said we will pull Android phones off Verizon and sell iPhones instead. Now that’s just all theory and who knows what happen during their talks but I really do feel that Verizon did something to make Google allow that in the deal.

So is Google evil should we be exporting all our information out of Google, boycott there services, and run to the hills? No I don’t think so; I think that somehow some way Google was forced to agree to this wireless part of the deal. They probably felt that it was better to agree on this and then fight to get it changed latter on instead of the whole thing just falling apart on them. Google still is not evil and its safe to return to your normal lives.

 

Technorati Tags: Google,net neutrality,Verizon,Deal,FCC,Android