Program for g1 phone

Some include ShopSavvy, a program that turns your phone into a barcode scanner able to read UPC codes and deliver instant price comparisons and PedNav, a location-aware application that helps you find nearby public transit options and walking routes. Amazon many not have as big of a library of content to choose from compared to iTunes, yet. That means anything you download to you G1 you can play on your iPod, Zune, or transfer to your PC — no hassles. That was a big deal for people considering buying and upgrading to the second generation iPhone.

Here is a look at how G1 and the iPhone compare to one another. Google wrote Android using open-source software, which means any programmer has access to the source code that makes Android tick and can write software that runs on any mobile phone using Android. Google has also created the Android Market, a Web site from which G1 users will be able to download an ever-expanding number of programs to their phone.

ShopSavvy, for example, lets G1 users scan bar codes on products at stores with the camera on their phones and do instant price comparisons with online merchants and nearby stores. Another software program, Ecorio, allows users to record the steps they take throughout their day to calculate their carbon footprint. Page, who like Google co-founder and technology president Sergey Brin, arrived at the event wearing roller blades, added that, although the Internet still is not as robust on a mobile phone as it is on a PC, the G1 is an attempt to deliver a useful version of the mobile Web, particularly because people are more likely to be carrying their cell phone than their laptop, particularly when doing things like rollerblading.

Brodman pointed out that the U. When the keyboard is being used, the screen's orientation changes from vertical to horizontal. The G1 can open files created using Word, Excel and other Microsoft programs, with the exception of Exchange. Apple fans will not be able to play their iTunes music files on the G1. Instead, T-Mobile is offering its own music service through Amazon Music.

Although the G1 does work with older T-Mobile networks, the device is designed to work best when connected to T-Mobile's 3G network. We successfully set up our review unit with both our Gmail and Yahoo accounts simply by entering our log-in ID and password. Gmail contacts seamlessly transferred to the G1 and mobile email delivery was sometimes faster than on our PC, but attachments took a while to download.

Bad news for business users, though. Sadly, there will be no Microsoft Exchange Server support at launch, so no synchronisation with your Outlook email, calendar, contacts and so forth. We think this is a pretty glaring omission. You can keep IM chats in the background while working in other applications, which you can't do on the iPhone. The G1 also offers threaded text messaging and yes, multimedia messaging.

The advantage of the T-Mobile G1 is that contacts, calendar and Gmail are updated over the air, so you don't have to synch up with your computer every day. Aside from the email attachment viewer, Google Docs is supported for view only, but we couldn't access a shared Google spreadsheet. Again, the T-Mobile G1 might not be the best choice for corporate users given that you can't really edit Office documents.

We're sure as the Android Market expands more productivity applications will become available. GPS is also available, and unsurprisingly, Google Maps is preloaded on the device with standard map, satellite and traffic views. While Apple had the unenviable task of incorporating a full-blown iPod-like music player into the iPhone, the T-Mobile G1 has been made as more of a mobile phone than a music player.

That said, the music player on the G1 is robust for what it is, and will satisfy most casual listeners. Songs are organised by Artists, Albums, Songs, and Playlists, as you'd expect. You get the typical music player functions like shuffle, repeat and the ability to create playlists on the fly. And even though there's no CoverFlow, you can still view album art in a list format. We especially like that you can instantly convert any song to a ringtone directly from the music player.

But the most disappointing thing about the music player is hardware related: the G1 doesn't have stereo Bluetooth, and the lack of a 3. YouTube clips took quite a while to load via 3G, and quality wasn't the greatest.

Though images and audio were synchronised, it was blurry -- but then again we were watching low-res versions since we were on T-Mobile's network instead of on Wi-Fi. The 3. Worse, there are no camera settings, such as white balance, effects and shooting modes. And taking pictures was a challenge. You have to have a steady hand to get a clear shot, as the slightest movement will result in a blurry image. We took about ten or 12 pictures before we could get a satisfactory shot, and by the end, we were frustrated.

Picture quality was mediocre -- objects on the outside had sharp definition but they got soft in the middle. The images also had a yellowish hue. Call quality was good and we enjoyed good sound with minimal background noise, though audio was blown out when we set volume to the highest level.

Unfortunately, the speakerphone wasn't as pristine. On our end, the voices sounded tinny and garbled at times; meanwhile, our callers said that we sounded far away.

We were impressed by the snappy responsiveness during our testing period, and were happy not to experience any system freezes or crashes. The T-Mobile G1 has a rated talk time of 5 hours and up to five days of standby time.

On an average day of using the phone, Web, GPS and multimedia applications, we noticed that the battery life dropped anywhere from 40 to 50 percent.

Despite our complaints, we did come away impressed with the Google Android operating system. There's huge potential for the G1 and any Android devices that follow to become powerful minicomputers as developers create more applications for the open platform. But still, the G1 doesn't quite offer the mass appeal and ease of use as the iPhone, so it won't be a good fit for someone making the jump from a regular mobile to their first smartphone.

Power business users also might want to hold off until more corporate support and productivity applications are added. We'd say the T-Mobile G1 is best-suited for early adopters and gadget hounds who love tinkering around and modding their devices.

Bonnie Cha. Nicole Lee. Editor's note, Sept. Could look better; lack of 3. While we're not in love with the design and would have liked some additional features, the real beauty of the T-Mobile G1 is the Google Android platform, as it has the potential to make smartphones more personal and powerful.

That said, it's not quite there yet, so for now, the G1 is best suited for early adopters and gadget hounds, rather than consumers and business users.