First Post

This is the first post in my new blog, created to keep seperate any ramblings I may come up with about my phone, away from my other blogs.

Google T Mobile HTC G1 Phone

It's made by HTC, they call it the Dream, distributed solely by T-Mobile (and locked to their network), model name is G1 due to it's integration with google.



And I wanted one, but there were a few problems.
1) I have a contract with '3' and it still has around 11 months to run, and there is no way I'm ditching a network with as good a coverage as '3' and paying for 11 months of use I'm not using.
2) The G1 is only available on T-Mobile and is locked to their network.
3) The battery has the staying power of an anaemic flaccid monk.
4) M data plan with '3' has a 1gb per month limit.

The benefits to me of having this phone are:
1) a decent live email interface through gmail (all my mail is filtered through gmail).
2) a decent auto-sync of google calendar (I was using goosync on nokia before, which works but isn't pretty).
3) google maps with GPS and streetview (I am on-location most days and it's somewhere I've never been before, gps mapping and streetview are just so damn easy, a big step up from google maps on nokia and don't even get me started on nokia maps. and my GPS is too bulky for a non-car job (which most are)).
4) custom software apps, I like making my phone into a do-everything tool.
5) touch screen (sweeeeet) and a qwerty keyboard (had bad experiences with on-screen keyboards).

Solutions
1st stop, twitter, I found a friend who had one and asked him a few specific questions to clear-up it's capabilities and limitations.

2nd stop was a t-mobile shop on the high-street to get my hands on a phone and ask the nerd (helpful shop assistant) more questions and generlaly mess iwth it and see how it felt in the hands.

3rd stop was ebay, where I got one for £150, used but boxed and excellent condition (they will be cheaper in the future especially when everyone starts upgrading to the next model, at the time of writing that was a good fair price). Beware of shopping for them on ebay, there is a company in the far east churning out replicas, they look the same but lack features such as gps, 3g and even no bloody keyboard, tempting but don't do it, for 50% more you can get the real deal.

now what to do when you get it, firstly you need to have it factory fresh, this means it's either new or the previous owner has done a factory reset before sending it out, this wipes everything and allows you to start from afresh with your google account information, put that in and your email, calendar, etc etc are all set up and raring to go, but first, unlocking.

Unlocking: The phone comes locked to t-mobile, to unlock it you need the imei, it'll be on the original box with the barcodes etc and is on the phone under the battery, take this number to an online unlocker, I used unlock-googlephone.com cost about $25 USD and I had my code in about 30 minutes along with instructions. If your phone has been factory reset and you can get the imei code from the box or under the battery you don't need a t-mobile sim card.

Setting up for your network: I use '3' in the uk, below are my settings for the phone, do a google search for APN for your network and your country to find the settings you need.

Menu button > Settings > Wireless Controls > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names > Menu Button > New APN

Name - 3
Apn - three.co.uk
proxy - not set
port - not set
Username - not set
Password - not set
Server - not set
MMSC - mms.um.three.co.uk:10021/mmsc
MMS proxy - mms.three.co.uk
MMS port - 8799
MCC - 234
MNC - 20
APN type - not set

Thats it, you are up and running, but I did a little more.....

Accessories: Case, I like my phone in a case on my belt, it's safe, protected and easy-to-hand, and in a case that secures well to my belt, not just a clip and not threaded loops.
I bought one of THESE on ebay (if this listing has expired then either search for "Horizontal Leather phone case for T mobile G1 HTC Dream", the sellers name is "caseandpouch", don't let the price fool you, these are well made cases made from soft leather with a secure clip and loop and magnetic colsure, slim, safe and secure, I had one for my nokia (different obviously but clearly the same manufacturer) and it's still in great condition after 18 months of hard use.

Batteries, there are three ways of dealing with the battery issue,
1) your phone should last a day of morerate use so you just need to charge it at night.
2) buy a high capacity battery, this comes with a new read case as it's much bigger physically and you'll need a different case, but the battery ought to last more than twice as long, so thats like 2-3 days.
3) buy more batteries, this will be my approach,
I'm after a desktop cradle which comes with 1 battery and has a charging bay for it as well as the phone at the same time, and a couple of additional batteries too, this will give me 4 days of power (I use the cheap chinese 'pattern' batteries in my cameras and they are 99% of the time fine, similar working life etc so expect the same here).
I'll also be getting a car charger to top-up when away in a car, and the mains charger will go in the bag when I'm away too.
The charger(s) plugs into the USB port on the bottom of the phone so you can charge it from a laptop, power monkey, etc etc. just get 5 volts dc into it and you're away.

APPS:
Apps are downloaded (primarily) via the 'android market' on your phone.
They come in two 'flavours', a widget is something that sits on the desktop of th ephone providing information or some such, an app is just software, regular software.

NetCounter keeps a log of the data transferred to and form your phone via WiFi and Cell, this is handy to watch for ending up over your data limit, 1gb per month in my case.

Opera Mini nicer than the browser already on it.

twidgit lite for those who twitter.

Lock 2.0 a nice lock screen, very iphone, looks nice.

Locale amazingly free, I've set mine up so that when the battery is critically low it shuts things down and reduces screen brightness etc to conserve the last bit of power, also everything is quieter when I'm at home, which it knows by my gps location, and no matter where I am certain peoples texts and calls will still make a noise. you can set loads of stuff like that, love it to bits.

BatteryLife sits on the main screen and keeps me aware of the battery state moer clearly than the little thing at the top of the screen, and you can customise when it turns from green to amber to red (or whatever colours you want).

Get Me Home (London) a route planner for london public transport, as mentioned earlier I'm on-location every day, usually in London, this finds me routes.

TubeStatus takes the information from the TFL website about london underground tube line status (open, closed, delays, suspended etc).

SMS unread count widget sits on the desktop as a link to sms messages and when you have some unread it displays the number, simple and handy.

gmail icon widget as above but for your gmail (though it takes it's info directly from gmail which I usually access from pop via thunderbird so I have 40,000 odd unread messages according to it, not sure how to get around that easily).

Sticky Memo Widget Lite I am always making notes to myself, rubbish memory, this is a handy place to have them, right there on the desktop, post-it style.

WeatherBug I like to be up to date with the weather as well as being able to predict it, after trying a few I'm using weatherbug as I like the more details when you click it as well as the desktop display information and layout.


So far I'm really liking the phone. It does what I want and it's lasting a day of use. oh, and it makes phone calls really well too ;-)