Posts Tagged T-Mobile G1
Arabic on Android – Take 2
Posted by saif in Uncategorized on 31/12/2009
I see that a lot of the visitors to my blog are interested in Arabic on Android and most of them go to my previous post entitled, rightfully, Arabic on Android.
So to follow-up I’ve been doing some search. I found a mod (KB7SQIs Magic Mod w/arabic v2.7.2) that is based on Sapphire HTC Arabic Etisalat 2.56.494.7. I’ve installed it on my G1 and happy to report that the Arabic support is pretty good, even though it is based on Android 1.5. Arabic text on the browser is displayed properly and is displayed well everywhere else. I’ve attached some photos of the mod in action.
If you want to learn more about this mod and all of the other available mods, go to AndroidSPIN and look under AndroidSPIN DB directly under the big Android.
Upcoming Android Phones I Like
Posted by saif in Uncategorized on 01/11/2009
This is a short post.
I am looking for an upgrade for my T-Mobile G1 (aka HTC Dream) phone. I like it but like any 1st generation models they have their drawbacks. I haven’t found a phone with an actual physical keyboard. I also want to keep the G1 as a testing phone, you know try the stuff I cannot do with a phone I actually use to receive calls on.
Previously I’ve talked about the HTC Hero, which seems like a very nice phone but without a physical keyboard, and I have read about it being a bit underpowered. Now, however, there are two amazingly good-looking phones that I can’t wait to check out. First Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. It has a big screen (800 x 400 pixels), 8 mp camera, and a rumoured 1 Ghz processor. The release date is rumoured to be Nov 3rd.
Another impressive Android phone that was making headlines lately is the Verizon Droid, made by Motorla. This phone has some impressive specs, including a big screen (854 x 480 pixels), 5 mp camera, and a physical keyboard. What makes this phone ‘extra’ amazing is that the phone is just a hair thicker than the iPhone 3GS with the physical keyboard. It also includes the new Android 2.0 OS with a turn-by-turn Google maps/navigation. It is around $599 and $199 with a two year contract (in the US). The ‘rest-of-the-world’ release of the Droid is called the Motorola Milestone and will set you back around $700.
Any other Android phones you think are worth mentioning here?
Android News. 50+ Android Phones expected in near future
Posted by saif in Uncategorized on 21/10/2009
It is amazing that just about a year ago we had the first Android phone; the HTC Dream (aka T-Mobile G1), a phone I own. Now there seems to be a much larger selection of phones to choose from. I am looking forward for the Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X3.
Arabic on Android
Posted by saif in Uncategorized on 15/07/2009
A thing that bothers me with the T-Mobile’s G1, aka HTC Dream, is the lack of Arabic support. I thought it wouldn’t be a problem considering the fact that I’ve been using Arabic for a very long time on computers with several different Linux distributions. Furthermore, rumors came out that the Android OS update 1.5 (Cupcake) will have built-in support for Arabic including localization. This, unfortunately, did not happen. However, this is Android after all, and as is the tradition with Linux, “if it is not available, build it. If you can’t build it, wait for someone else to and use that.. ” or so it goes.
There is a good effort regarding getting Arabic to work Android. This is not completely easy though. First, you should have your phone rooted (another link to get root). Afterwards, you need to install fonts that allow you to see Arabic, this was harder before, but thanks to Aman Alshurafa, you are able to install the fonts using the regular “copy to your memory card, rename to update.zip, restart phone holding down home+power, press ALT-s to install update.zip”. This does not really give you total Arabic support but it is a step forward. I should mention that Ahmed Essam was the first to write the Arabic reshaper class, and Amr Gawish updated it and wrote the first Arabic SMS reader.
After this start, many other Arabic programs started to show up on Android. Abdullah Bahitham made Arabic soft keyboard for Android 1.5 (Cupcake). He also made an Arabic Notepad. There are several other programs that you could find in the Android market.
Thank you everyone for the effort you put in so that the rest of us can actually use Android and enjoy it.
NOTE: There is a related post called Arabic on Android – Take 2 that is relevant.
Home vs Home
Posted by saif in Uncategorized on 29/06/2009
I use several phones and devices all the time. However, when I change from one to another I feel a bit slow until I have “retrained” myself with the interactivity aspect of the device; where to press, how to call .. etc. I have not really paid much attention to this until recently. I was switching between my Nokia E71 and T-Mobile G1 and noticed a major difference between the two. The important difference I saw was the “Home” button. On the G1 and many other new phones, i.e. iPhone, the home button usually takes the user to the home screen, the place where your clock, calender, and to-dos are located. However, on the E71 the Home button actually takes you to the menu. The Blackberry Curve uses a button with small dots (the Blackberry logo) on it to do the same thing the home button on the Nokia E71 does, which is better than using a home icon to get you to the menu. I believe that Nokia’s use of the home button in this instance is less usable than that of the Blackberry approach and others.
Thinking of it further, the buttons on the different devices are meant for different purposes. The home button on the G1 (and similarly the iPhone) is there to get the user to the home screen from anywhere inside the phone’s menu, regardless of how deep the user is. The menu button, on the other hand, is to take the user from the home screen, or anywhere else, to the menu. Buttons on the G1 and Blackberry do what they should without any vagueness. The E71′s home button, however, is a bit more vague. It would allow the user to get to the home screen when within the sub-screens, but when on the home screen it takes the user to the menu screen, which is confusing.
I am attaching photos of the phones mentioned so that you can compare it yourselves.
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- Nokia E71
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- T-Mobile G1
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- Blackberry Curve
T-Mobile G1 Phone vs. Nokia E71
Posted by saif in Uncategorized on 02/12/2008
There are many things about Nokia phones I like. Moving from one Nokia device to another is always seamless and requires minimal effort. You just need to learn it once and you are set. Nokia builds very good phones, there are expanding into the entertainment with the Nokia N series and the corporate with the E series. My parents for instance have no problem changing phones as long as they do not have to relearn using it.
I was so happy when the G1 phone from T-Mobile was released. The G1 is a milestone for open source; it runs Android, which is a mobile OS sponsored by The Open Handset Alliance, which includes Google, Motorola, LG, Sprint, Samsung, Texas Instruments, and others. There are tons of reviews for the G1 and they are mixed. However, this is not a “review” of the G1 per se. What I want to do is describe the difference in user experience between the G1 and E71 in regards to the device as a phone.
I’ve been using the G1 for about a month now. I got it from the UK with T-Mobile UK. I am really enjoying it and except for the fact that it doesn’t have support for Arabic (yet). I unlocked my G1 and am currently using it in the UAE with Etisalat. In the UK, I usually use it with T-Mobile UK. I did not install any software from outside the Android market.
Several things I want to point while using the G1:
- When you look-up a contact, you cannot send that contact to another contact or a phone number easily. I view this as a limitation. In any Nokia phone, a user is able to choose a contact and send it to another contact or number as a “business card” through sms, mms, bluetooth, or email.
- A user needs to move between the touch screen and the physical buttons quite frequently and for trivial uses; to go back to a previous screen for instance or to edit a contact. To edit a contact a user clicks on the touch screen to get to the contact and then have to press the menu button to reach “edit”.
- I still have to figure out how to silence the ringer when I receive a call. In a Nokia phone, you just press the “end” button once to silence it, and twice to reject the call.
EDIT: found out that you press the volume control to silence the ringer, which is quite weird.
- After a while of it being on, the performance goes down: scrolling is not as smooth as when you first turn it on and the frequency of phone calls the does not go through goes up. It is important to point out that in the past, Nokia phones I used had the same problem, but it decreased significantly with the E71.
- Battery life is average at best, even with most of the unnecessary things turned off. I always have my bluetooth turned on (in hidden mode) because I have it paired with my car and I’m in my car most of the time.
- Talking about bluetooth, the G1 has yet to fail connecting to my car where is was frequent with the E71 and other Nokia Phones (E90 and 6500 Classic). However, it refuses to send or recieve anything from other phones, especially contact information.
When reading this, keep in mind that the G1 has a firmware of 1.0 whereas the Nokia E71 OS (S60) is quite mature. I am sure that there will be great software and updates for the G1 to come.