Morgan Jones on 5 Nov 2009 12:09:55 -0800


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Re: [PLUG] Android?


What is the battery life like?  I'm particularly interested to hear  
how it does with IMAP (non-gmail) email client running and collecting  
mail all day.  My Nokia E61i would last about a day with imap idle  
collecting my 300-400 messages/day.  I imagine most smart phones are  
similar but I understand Blackberry's technology allows for 3-4 days  
battery life which is pretty impressive.

Are the third party builds realistically usable everyday?  That is:  
I'm very technical but once it's set up I *really* don't have the time  
or energy to tweak and manage it.  Is it set and forget once it's set  
up?

Thanks again for all the insight.

-morgan



On Nov 5, 2009, at 3:02 PM, Richard Freeman wrote:

> Morgan Jones wrote:
>> I'm in the market for a 3G TMobile phone, I mostly want email, google
>> maps, tethering and light web browsing.  Nice apps would be icing bug
>> not strictly that important.
>
> Email is going to be fine on android - a great gmail client, and  
> lots of
> pop/imap/exchange options (many exchange options cost money, but I  
> think
> some are free - don't use them personally).
>
> Google Maps - you're not going to do better anywhere else obviously...
>
> Tethering - that almost certainly won't be supported on any stock
> android build.  However, it is almost standard on every 3rd-party one
> (cyanogenmod/etc).  Most have usb and wi-fi based options (granted the
> wi-fi is in ad-hoc mode - some people have laptops with a windows  
> policy
> setting that gets tricky in that case).  It probably is going to be
> banned by your provider's service agreement, although if you're just
> downloading a few emails nobody is going to care.  Just don't go
> downloading any torrents or anything like that over 3G or you'll  
> almost
> certainly get a disconnect, nasty-gram, or major throttling.
>
> Web browsing - android's default browser is based on webkit and works
> rather well.  There are a bunch of alternatives, including one by  
> Opera.
>  I just stick with the default.  Only issue I've seen is that
> multiple-window support is a bit weak - when you switch windows it  
> seems
> like it does a full reload.
>
>>
>> Would anyone  be able to venture a brief comparison with a modern
>> Blackberry?  I'm tentatively holding out for the rumored upcoming 3G
>> TMobile Blackberry but would consider a MyTouch.
>>
>
> Can't help too much there - never actually used a blackberry  
> firsthand.
>  However, having seen them I can comment a little on the form-factor.
>
> The G1 is a LOT bigger than a blackberry when the keyboard is  
> extended -
> no question about that.  On the other hand, the keyboard is almost
> certainly going to be easier to use.  I wouldn't want to type an essay
> on it, but it works well enough for quick emails.  Plus, you can use  
> an
> on-screen keyboard if you need to just type in a few characters.
>
> The MyTouch is supposed to be a lot nicer than the G1, but I'm not  
> sure
> I could part with the keyboard personally.  That is a matter of taste.
> I certainly wouldn't mind the hardware upgrades though.
>
> You should be able to use an android-based phone at any T-Mobile  
> store -
> they had them to play with at the end of last year when they were a  
> lot
> more rare than they are now.  If you're really brave you can download
> the sdk and try out the emulator.  You'll get zero feel for the
> form-factor, but you should be able to install a working image and see
> how the OS behaves.
>
> I'm sure if you run into somebody at a PLUG meeting they'd be happy to
> let you drool on their phone as well.
>
> Just the fact that I can build my own firmware if needed and tweak
> things makes android the right phone OS for me.  If you have enough SD
> storage you can easily run debian on it (note that most window  
> managers
> are not going to be well-suited to a phone form factor, and I believe
> that debian just runs chrooted in user space - you're not going to  
> run a
> stock debian system including kernel, init, etc).  I'm half-tempted to
> get gentoo running on my phone sometime, but I'll have to settle for
> distcc or pre-built binaries I think.  :)
> ___________________________________________________________________________
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