Nexus One

2010-02-28T13:46:27Z

So I bought the new http://www.google.com/phone, the Nexus One at 365.21GBP. Deep breath.

I’m still on the last couple of months of my T-mobile G1’s 18 month contract. Nonetheless, I’ve sent my G1 to my sister in Germany and hopefully she will get some use out of it.

I plan to end my contract with T-mobile and go on some PAYG plan, hopefully with Vodafone. I bet you ending my T-mobile contract and porting my number will be an ordeal.

Talk about ordeals… the device took 16days to arrive, because Google’s fulfillment house in Indiana accidentally routed the N1 to Hong Kong. Google’s “Android support” customer services is absolutely abysmal. I contacted them three times via Google checkout to tell them they have screwed up the package routing. I basically only got through to them via an old University friend who now works at Google. Shame.

So the Nexus One(N1)! What do I think about it? It feels like a great upgrade over the G1. The 1Ghz Snapdragon amazed me awhile back on the Toshiba TG01, so at last I have it! However the battery performance seems on par with the G1. Sigh.

Despite a looming Nexus One update I though I’d rather be in control and hence I unlocked my Nexus One and “voided my warranty”. I think it’s a bit poor that I’ve voided my warrany because I want different software on it. I don’t “void the warranty” if I put Linux on my Thinkpad, now do I?

Cyanogen’s beta4 N1 mod is pretty wild. The USB tethering feature is a must for me and it works far better than Android 3G wifi tethering. Just turn it on, and ifconfig -a shows usb0. dhclient usb0 and you’re surfing on 3G. Why do operators make it so hard?!

Since I’m into HTML5, I’m greatly enjoying using http://gmail.com and Calendar in the browser. It works amazingly well. I’m going to try avoid using the native Gmail client, though the native’s 4 day background syncs are hard to beat.

I’m a little worried about the quality of the 3G connection. The 3G scare stories don’t help, though tbh I think the connection is the same as the G1. It’s just that since the phone is so much faster, the failings of UK mobile connectivity are even more clear to see.

You can upgrade your phone, but can you upgrade your connectivity? Well since my phone is unlocked I’ll have to do some mobile speed testing again.

UPDATE: Checkout http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/technology/companies/13google.html

I also heard Google is giving out N1s at developer meets. Ah great, they know how to satify paying customers.

UPDATE: I’ve been lumped with a 60GBP DHL bill for taxes. OMG.

Scan with your mobile

2009-08-23T17:04:20Z

Whilst passing through Waterloo station, I usually buy some fresh fruit juice from the Marks&Spencers (M&S) store. This time I noticed my bottle had some sort of 2d barcode on it.

I spent a few uncomfortable minutes trying and trying again to scan the code with the “Barcode Scanner” application on my Android G1. Didn’t work.

Later I found out that this a Data Matrix code and not a QR code. ARGH!

Unsurprisingly ‘Data Matrix’ support is ‘alpha’ quality according to the ZXing library powering the Barcode application on the UK T-mobile Android G1.

WAP is CRAP

In the small print it says WAP enabled mobiles only. Eh? Have I gone back in time 8 years? To add insult to injury there is a link to the T&Cs: http://www.mands.mobi/ftg worryingly using a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DotMobi address!

http://www.mands.mobi reveals some suspects to this crime: Incentivated

Welcome to Your M&S
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Site built using Incentivated's WAPsite Publisher

OMG. How piss poor M&S.

2d codes suck too

Regular barcodes are OK in my book, because they have a human readable 13 digit fall back (036000291452) running along the bottom. I remember when ‘Checkout dollies’ (as we call them in the South West), typed in that that number in case the barcode failed to read.

Where is the fall back to 2d codes??

As a 2d-code fallback I suggest clearly printing a short (hopefully meaningful) URL e.g. m&s.co.uk/oj (12 characters) and markup your content in HTML5.

dabase

Nexus One

Scan with your mobile

WAP is CRAP

2d codes suck too