The first of the android phones looms close, and what is there to show for it. We have an operating system with a lot of potential, open to developers ( sadly in Java ), and with ability to replace almost any application. And what does the HTC-Dream, er sorry, TMobile G1 have to say for itself?
- Proprietary ports, no 3.5mm headphone jack
- No A2DP for bluetooth ( Stereo bluetooth headset support )
- No MS outlook/Desktop sync
- 1 GB memory card ( note, the Sony Ericsson W900 avail 2005/2006 had a 2GB card )
- Virtually no truly custom apps, in the sense that HTC could have taken advantage of replacing some primary apps with amazing stuff
The advantage is the freedom of platform. As a software developer ( who dislikes Java ) i really appreciate the ability to write daemons, and apps that could replace my contacts/sms apps. I keep mentioning the Java issue. My reason for this is as that i am currently an iPhone developer, and altho i dislike the proprietary platform, the performance is amazing. The reason is not the hardware, since they're about the same. Java is the killer. iPhone development happens primarily in C++ or Objective-C (yuck). Both of those are on hardware, low resource languages. When i saw the android demo of a bouncing ball at 40fps ( which he was boasting about ), i laughed. With a full 3D scene, some 3D physics ( including sphere/trimesh collisions ), and about 3000 triangles, we're getting 30fps on the iPhone. 40fps for a 2D sprite is disgusting. I'd have been ashamed, to even admit i was only getting 40fps.
This all said, i'm still debating whether or not to get the G1, or if i should wait for Samsung, LG or Motorola to release their android models, and get an iPhone now? The G1 is only coming to my ( Netherlands ) shores in Q1 2009 ( along with Germany, Czech Repl, and Austria ), so it's a while to wait. Luckily US consumers get it this month ( 22 Oct ) and it's slated for launch in November in UK.
It's a really tough choice, because the iPhone is an amazing piece of hardware. Again i am very against proprietary formats, but the iPhone is really what they claim, and even though its closed, its the best phone around by a long shot.
Whatever happens, i'll have some interesting news on both iPhone and Android Games soon ;)
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