Apparently Not!!
Monday, November 24, 2008
G1 Camera
I cannot comment on the Camera hardware yet. But the camera feature on the phone is once again very disappointing. There is a noticeable lag between when you click the small button on the side, and when it actually makes that click sound. And most of the pics i took were shaky, mostly because of this lag. It is not at all pleasant to know that the device you plonked down big money for has a steep learning curve even for features which could have been easier to use.
Once again: Fail.
Posting to this blog from the phone, or even editing existing posts is not convenient at all!! This evidently does not make good use of the key board.
Also there is no [obvious? ] way to select text or some thing on the screen. It is very irritating because some how due to the keyboard and so many hardware keys, I expected it to be a small computer. But all these idiosyncrasies make it a bit irritating. Wish Google and HTC had spent some more time polishing the OS and OS+Device interaction.
Browsing woes.
Just try reading a Dilbert comic strip with two rows of 8 boxes.. and you'll realize that the zoom feature is just a joke [ that too buried deep inside a menu]
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Maps feature sucks. Big time.
1. There is no cache [ or so it seems]. So every time you need a map, it has to get it afresh.
2. It can print directions, but not dictate them.
3. It is not at all convenient to zoom in or out of the map, the whole interface seems so clunky.
don't want to spoil my week end mood, so ill defer this list for later.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Its still supposed to be a usable phone!!
Lately I've been experiencing a noticeable and annoying delay when the home button is pressed, or the green phone button is pressed. Despite all the other features, it is still supposed to work reliably as a phone.
It is almost impossible to use the device as a phone without actually looking at the screen.
To some extent this can be avoided by using the keyboard to type numbers, and get used to the difference in layout.
It is very inconvenient to turn on the speaker phone without looking at the phone.
What would be better is if it were set up such that the first action is to toggle the speaker. there really is no point in always having a switch calls button, even when you do not have more than one call active.
I just bought HAL!!
of late the phone has been pretty cranky to say the least.
1. the dialer doesn't launch [ especially after a browsing session ]
2. even when it does, nothing but a small flicker happens when a phone number or contact is selected. I had to restart the phone [by pressing the red phone button for a while until ..... a menu appers!!!! you select the option to power off
the current screen disappears completely very very gradually., and then pressing it again ]
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
waiting is not a good ui gesture.
eg: volume control, it is much more intuitive to have something that moves, and preferably has a linear correspondence to the thing that is being controlled
so static buttons that have to be held in a position are not helpful.
it is much more intuitive and convenient to move something to change something else like volume. so a slider or a wheel would be a much better control than two static buttons that one has to keep holding until the desired volume level is reached.
Same thing goes for the long click for a context menu idiom.
Labels: android, gripes, UI, usability
My review of the Android T-Mobile G1.
1. purchasing experience: pathetic. not easy to know where the devices were available,
2. support: very good, they sales person was very helpful at the topanga store
3. unpacking experience: pathetic : The box smelt like some petroleum product.
usability etc: not really great.
1. the speaker is on the other side of the screen, so when watching a video, the sound is a bit muffled
2. when new apps are installed from the market, they show up in the same space as the default apps, which makes it difficult to locate the default apps.
3. i expected the top status bar icons to be clickable/ responsive, but they are not.
i clicked the battery icon to get more info.. but no dice, that info is availalbe only in the phone status page.
4. the icons are very small any way may be some zooming like the OSX Dock would be nice.
5. the screen doesn't re orient based on how the phone is held, the phone can be held either with the buttons to your right or bottom.
6. the browser window screen is pathetic, all the windows are white with an X on them, it is not clear which window is selected.
Labels: android, G1, google, HTC, review, T-mobile
Monday, February 02, 2004
