I've just started tinkering with developing for the Android. The whole iPhone development experience (Step 1: Buy a Mac) just wasn't appealing, so I've mostly sat out that market explosion. We did do an iPhone theme for our products using iUI, and luckily, it works pretty much unmodified on the G1 and looks great (and never required Mac ownership, just an iPhone for testing). But, I feel like I can actually be involved and do useful work on Android, without having to drop a few grand just to get a development environment to tinker with.

It's also the perfect phone for a Linux-y developer or sysadmin. Great ssh client, great browser, multi-tasking, good little keypad which I can type dramatically faster on than the iPhone, and as a developer you can access just about everything on the phone, even in apps that aren't approved by Google or T-Mobile. Being able to download a random .apk and install it, without permission or jailbreaking, is a beautiful thing.

A used MacBook is all you need to do iPhone dev and is much cheaper than a few grand.

Nonetheless, I am also not a fan of Apple's control freakishness. I am not willing to invest in development of a product that Apple can disallow at a whim. Nor am I fond of Apple's willingness to use software patents to discourage competition. So Android it is.

iUI/Phonegap are great for cross-platform development and I believe Google's long-term vision to be much more ambitious and interesting than Apple's.

Agreed. The Mac expenditure is just the beginning of my hesitation to jump on board the iPhone development bandwagon. With Android, I know I can make my applications available regardless of whether Apple thinks they are worthy of the store. And that one tiny bit of certainty is worth a huge amount to me.

I'm also much more fond of open platforms, but I didn't want to get all "Linux rules, Apple drools" as I reckon it's a personal choice rather than an objective business imperative.

I've got one and I love it. With a real headphone jack and Flash support, it would be the perfect phone IMHO.

I have one as well, and after seeing how powerful and flexible Android is to both users and developers, I'm in love.

Probably the best app I've found is called Locale, and it just proves how much you really can do with the phone/OS. I've set up a set of series of situations, some triggered by my location, others by time or incoming contacts, and each situation allows me to specify a set of configuration changes that take place when triggered. For an example of what's possible:

- When it detects that I'm near work, it sets my ringtone to something less obnoxious, and turns off notification sounds.

- When I step foot on campus for classes, it silences my phone and turns on the WiFi for internet access.

- When it's night time (between 11pm and 8am), it silences the phone so I'm not disturbed while sleeping.

- If my wife calls, it ignores all of the above settings and rings at a moderate volume, because it's probably important.

- If my mother calls, and I'm not at home, it sends her straight to my voicemail.

I have a feeling it'll be a cold day in hell before Apple lets iPhone apps have that much control over the phone, but my G1 could do it all from day one, including background tasks and cut/paste...

I checked out the Locale site, this quote is an awesome introduction to a product:

"In March 2005, Judge Robert Restaino jailed 46 people when a mobile phone rang in his New York courtroom and no one would admit responsibility. So we invented Locale. Problem solved."

Amusingly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Restaino

"By indiscriminately committing into custody 46 defendants, [Restaino] deprived them of their liberty without due process, exhibited insensitivity, indifference and a callousness so reproachable that his continued presence on the Bench cannot be tolerated."

This is awesome. I've been looking for something similar, I wrote about this last year: http://arvindn.livejournal.com/89794.html

Luckily I have a G1. I'm installing Locale right now.

I've heard complaints about the poor battery life on the G1. How is that working for you?

I think there's a bit of a quality control issue, or perhaps early batteries had problems. I have two G1s...a standard issue that arrived on release day, and a developer edition that I just got a few weeks ago. The former doesn't last a whole day of moderate usage with 3G enabled (but lasts about 1.5 days of moderate usage with 3G disabled). The latter easily lasts all day with 3G enabled. I charge every night, and I've never found it to give out by the end of day on days when I remember to charge it (and when I have forgotten to charge it, I've been pleased by how fast it'll charge up).

I have no complaints at all about battery life on the newer phone. The older one was disappointing, and I was afraid I was stuck with something that would never really be great.

Someone else suggested a "break in" period, but my older phone never got better after extensive use. The new phone was good from day one.

Depends on the usage. If you're using WiFi it won't last more than 3 hours or so (not kidding!) Playing music is also battery intensive. If you're not doing either of those, it lasts a whole day, but you'll definitely have to plug it in every night. Which I find acceptable.

It will last a 6-8 hours of fairly heavy surfing (no video, 1 or 2 podcasts) on the cell data network, or a full day of normal use/non-use. I usually leave wifi and GPS off, and haven't really had any problems w/battery life.

I was a little concerned when I first got my G1 but after I settled down with my usage, I get about 3-4 days of usage off of a single charge.

I've installed power manager, tweaked the brightness settings, turned off wifi and GPS though.

Truth to tell, those complaints are mostly valid. However, you can always bring the second (third, fourth, etc.) battery with you.

Battery life on the G1 is terrible. I have to bring my charger with me, if I plan on using it quite a bit that day. I hear that its the way the Android OS interfaces with the device thats the primary reason behind this. If they sorted out the battery life and added what was mentioned above, it would almost be the perfect first gen device.

Sucked at first, but now I got 3-4 days without charge. Just takes time to break in, I feel like.

You should remeber that these numbers are only the selling numbers of the US. I think the numbers from Europe will easily add up 1 Million additional phones. And with the HTC Magic (already played with it :)) coming to Europe in the next days in much more countries and further releases in the coming weeks there will soon be a much higher install base...

I want one but the price for a current T-mobile customer is just over the top.

I was a current T-Mobile customer, and I was still able to get two of the phones for the standard $179/each by renewing my contract. If you don't want to deal with contracts, you should expect to pay much more for your phones anyways...

On the site they give a price of $359 with a contract renewal, $399 without. Were you at the end of the contract when you renewed?

No, I was only about a year in from the last point at which I had renewed in order to pick up the MyFaves plan. However, I am on a family plan for my wife and I, but I can't imagine that changes much. Just try going to your local T-Mobile rep and asking about the G1, and see what they say.

I'll try that, thanks.