Ryan Block » Google

A day with the T-Mobile G1

Ryan Block — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:15:44 +0000

Okay, I’m way late in getting my hands on a T-Mobile G1 (the crew in NY got to check it out eons ago), but I did get to spend a day with one all to myself, and by popular Twitter demand, here are some (very) brief impressions.

Hardware

A lot smaller than I thought it’d be. Looks great in person.
Solid feeling, smooth, springy hinge; the device’s matte soft-touch finish is quite nice; entire back panel lifts off to replace the battery/SIM.
No 3.5mm headphone jack is freaking annoying, and possibly the likeliest dealbreaker. It’s just unacceptable at this point. T-Mobile only makes this worse by not bundling an ExtUSB -> 3.5mm adapter, and HTC adds insult to injury by placing one of those annoying attached rubber covers on the USB port, too.
Keyboard lacks definition (read: the keys are a little too flush), but it’s still very tactile, and (obviously) way easier to type on than an iPhone. The Leno chin doesn’t get in my way, although some who’ve used it certainly feel otherwise.
Screen looks great, extremely responsive capacitive touch. It doesn’t feel plasticy or cheap at all.
3G reception is great in SF. Was getting 550Kbps+ speeds. (By comparison, my iPhone 3G usually does 650Kbps here.)
MicroSDHC is hot. Worked great with an 8GB card. You should be able to buy a G1 + a 16GB card for less than a 16GB iPhone.

Software

Everything is a lot snappier than I expected. Animations and transitions weren’t as fleshed out as I might have liked, but nothing lagged. After Android and iPhone, it’s impossible not to see Windows Mobile and even S60 as doggish.
Setup is a freaking breeze, the default apps are solid. I did notice one oddity, though: even though the phone knows your Google ID, if you visit a Google app through the browser (like Reader) it doesn’t automatically log you in. Huh?
Browser is pretty unexciting. It’s definitely second only to mobile Safari, but isn’t really anywhere near. The view modes, re-flowing, and general usability is weak all around. Look for alternatives once the Marketplace launches, because I’m just not feeling this browser.
Maps app is great; compass mode (where street view moves with your real world motion) is out of this world. There’s nothing out there like it right now.
Didn’t download too much from Marketplace, but what I did get was pretty impressive. It should be, though, considering that right now the only apps available are the ones that won Google’s dev challenge.
Lack of multi-touch is annoying, but it doesn’t really ruin any experiences. I’ll miss it, but I’ll live. (Hey, you have to make sacrifices on the iPhone, too!)

If you want more, I highly suggest my man Paul’s writeup on E, he really digs in. As for me, I’m definitely, definitely excited about the G1. With a few key apps (which I’ll soon write about / unofficially request the dev community build), this could be the device that lures me from the iPhone 3G. Don’t expect everyone to be swayed, though, the G1 is certainly skewed towards the nerds right now, and doesn’t have much to compete with the iPhone’s copious sex appeal.

Oh, and big ups to my pal who hooked me up with the handset — you know who you are!

T-Mobile G1 / Android bits you may not have caught

Ryan Block — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:19:20 +0000

Just a few bits on today’s monumental T-Mobile G1 / Android / HTC Googlephone / funnererest handset evar announcement that may have gone under the radar.

T-Mobile claims G1s will be SIM-locked (no surprise). But hey, the software platform is completely open source; I can’t wait to see how they think they’ll protect against that.
T-Mobile claims you can’t use the device as a tethered data modem. But again, the whole OS — networking stack, app layer, radio interfaces, etc. — is open. Try and stop us.
Since T-Mobile’s US 3G network is 1700MHz-based, and the device only supports 1700 and 2100MHz bands, that means there could be it’s unlikely that future G1 versions would support 1900MHz (which is what AT&T’s 3G network requires). So we can probably count out an unlocked import unit for the time being.
HTC claims better 3G talk time compared to the iPhone 3G: 350 minutes 3G talk time (vs. 300 minutes). 2G talk time is apparently much worse though, 406 minutes to the iPhone’s supposed 600.
It supports microSDHC — meaning you’re not capped at 4GB of storage. When 16 and 32GB cards show up, you can drop those in and keep growing your device, whereas your iPhone will stay static.
They didn’t include a 3.5mm headphone jack — they’re using HTC’s combo USB / audio jack (ExtUSB), which requires an adapter. Bunk.
Sync is done all over the air, and through Google services. It’s still unclear how many of these services you can elect not to use (i.e. can one have a contact list that ISN’T synced to their Gmail account?).
We knew that the device has a capacitive touchscreen (like the iPhone), but not how they solved the problem of copy/paste, which has plagued Apple. Turns out they half-assed it, or so I understand. Seems that you can only copy/paste data in fields. If you’re on a web page, for example, you can’t select a string of text in a paragraph. The search continues for someone to commit to chasing down the fat-finger-touchscreen copy/paste unicorn.
Although its browser runs on Webkit and some of the Chrome code base, they’re not officially dubbing it Chrome, or Chrome Mobile, or anything like that. Head Android Andy Rubin said it’s fair to think of it as “Chrome light,” though — just don’t call it that. Yet.

Google Chrome already represents more than 10% of gdgt’s traffic!

Ryan Block — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:38:07 +0000

Damn, if our numbers are anything to go by (and I’m not saying they are), the adoption rate of Google’s Chrome among the geek-set has been absolutely astonishing. Tomorrow will mark gdgt‘s first week (in super soft launch mode, anyway), and about a week and a half for Chrome — and Google already represents more than ten percent of the thousands of views we’ve gotten.

Kind of reminds me back in 2004 when Calacanis wrote a totally breathless post about Firefox and Engadget, wondering if its 20% slice would become the norm in a couple of years (it clearly has). If gdgt’s first audiences are anything like the same super-early vanguard that Engadget’s audience was in 2004, it stands to reason that Google’s going to absolutely dominate the browser market in the near future. Of course, I’m also really curious to see some larger data sets on this!

Update: At the request of reader Leo, I’ve segmented browser stats by just Windows. They’re not all that different! (In fact, proportionally, Chrome performs a little better.) Here’s the top five Windows browsers for gdgt in week one:

Firefox / Windows: 57.91%
Internet Explorer / Windows: 21.21%
Chrome / Windows: 17.79%
Opera / Windows: 1.83%
Safari / Windows: 0.83%

Page one!

Ryan Block — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:31:19 +0000

Excuse me for a moment of self indulgence here, but I noticed my search referrers were going up for my first name — and as it turns out, I’ve gone from page two to page one (number ten, to be exact) for “ryan.” Okay, I know it’s nothing compared to Veronica, who claims the number one spot for her name, but watch your back, Ryan Adams, because number nine is only a matter of time now.

Schmidt stonewalls reporter that flew cross-country for interview

Ryan Block — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:01:06 +0000

It’s not too often I directly relate to CNET reporters (they’re often doing different things in different ways than us), but I totally feel for Elinor Mills — the way Eric Schmidt treated her as a member of the press is pretty weak. But worse, I’d say, is that his PR / handlers didn’t make it completely clear ahead of time that this wasn’t a general interview, and that she was expected to stick to only one topic — that day’s announcement, which happened to be the excruciatingly dry news about Google Health. (Typically when I get high level executive interviews anything similar to that I just turn them down. Really, what’s the point?) I don’t know if I’ve ever been stonewalled that bad though, that’s rough — very poor form having her fly all the way out for ten minutes of nothing, Google. I don’t know about anyone else, but I want to see a redux — and from Mountain View or SF, next time.

Android using Java VM for apps — whatever!

Ryan Block — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:36:57 +0000

I can’t be the only one who’s disappointed with Android using Java as its application layer environment, can I? I’d heard in advance they were doing this but kind of didn’t want to believe it. Sure, props to their team for deconstructing and redeveloping Java in a pared-down, supposedly extremely efficient environment they’re calling the “Dalvik Virtual Machine”, but Java as a technology is no less clunky and annoying today than it was before Android was announced. (You know what they say about lipstick and pigs…) And while it’s great Android’s got a lot more optimized frameworks than your average Java-capable device, a mobile multitasking Java VM app environment is never going to run as well as something coded native to the core OS; this is already visible in the video demo where some of the swipes, taps, and touch gestures present a far chunkier, less visually satisfying experience than the bar that’s been set by the iPhone / iPod touch. Yeah, I know, the software is early, but Google’s offering up $10m for developers to start working on Android apps, and before we get too entrenched in even MORE phones running Java I’m nominating the first significant Android app work be done on the redevelopment of a new, proper application layer.

Strange, wonderful stuff from a completely crazy day

Ryan Block — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:45:30 +0000

What a bizarre day. Among other things…

Veronica’s show finally launched! I love it. The coming episodes are pure gold.
I got to interview #3 on my “most wanted” list — look for that on Engadget soon.
Google announces its long-awaited mobile platform. For the second time this year I’m genuinely stoked about the mobile space.
- (Side note on Android, in 2004 before Google acquired the eponymous startup founded by Danger founder Andy Rubin, Peter and I brainstormed for weeks on a feature called “The Googlephone”, where we romanticized about what would happen if Google did a SideKick-like cellphone. Not even kidding. Bummer we never got it out the door.)
Dick Parsons, the CEO of my parent company’s parent company’s parent company — Time Warner — is apparently out.
Screenwriters go on strike, and I want in on that action. I write for a screen, don’t I?
Oh yeah, V and I were on TWiT again. (Here’s us recording from our office.)

Google ranks being restored; fun with algos

Ryan Block — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:21:18 +0000

Last week’s Google ranking smackdown hit a lot of high profile sites (Engadget included). Was it just been an unfortunate fluke, or did it spring a bunch of these publications (Engadget included) into action, encouraging them to take a closer look at how Google perceives their sites? I’m not entirely sure which, but it looks like the lot of the sites hit by the drop are starting to see their ranks restored in part or in full.

Frankly, I found the whole thing pretty surprising. Not only because Engadget and Weblogs, Inc. haven’t made any changes in last few months (or years!) that Google would find substantive enough prompt that kind of severe reaction, but also because there was zero warning before the hit. Engadget has always been a good Google partner (it was the first ever publication to get RSS AdSense, for example), and I guess maybe I expected a warning message in Webmaster tools or some kind of guidance, being that we had no clear way of attributing anything to our sudden drop in rank. I know a lot of people blamed the rank drop to network linking, but Jason, who isn’t even with us anymore, said it best: all the links and cross-pollination on Engadget / Weblogs, Inc. sites are intended to highlight other great content and create a positive reader experience. It’s not now, nor has it ever been, about linkfarming or SEO. (Of course, that doesn’t necessarily make the many cross-network links necessary, and we’re always looking at ways we can make for a better reading experience and be better search engine citizens.)

Well, whatever changes Google made, they’re apparently in the process of unmaking — or is at least getting some of the innocent bystanders on the road to recovery. Engadget, Joystiq, Fortune, Washington Post, and many of the other sites named in the algo “Jihad” are in the process of having their Google rank restored to pre-smackdown positions (others, however, are not) The lesson was learned, though: don’t take your search rank for granted — not even the pub that broke Watergate is immune from Google’s scrutiny. And even though we haven’t made any substantive changes to our sites before or after G’s algo shift, there’s no doubt that now is as good a time as any to take a long, hard look at cutting some of the link-fat on our sites.

Background:
Andy Beard – Digg Favorites Slapped By Google (and followup / reactions here)
TechCrunch – Google Declares Jihad On Blog Link Farms
Scoble – Google Page Rank is dead and has been for quite some time (Yo Robert, you didn’t hear me getting huffy, now did you? I knew this would work itself out fine.)