1) JIT Compiler (2x-5x speed increase)
2) Dedicated phone and browser buttons on the home screens
3) USB Tethering and Wifi Hotspot
4) Flash 10.1 capable (when downloaded from the marketplace)
5) Marketplace upgrade allows comments to be ranked as “helpful, unhelpful, spam”
6) Copy and paste in Gmail
7) Apps 2 SDcard
8 ) Auto upgrades/Multiple upgrades in the marketplace
9) Bluetooth Voice Dialing
10) New camera buttons allowing you to set options quicker
11) Faster down/up speeds over wifi (I’m seeing 3G increases too. Used to get 200-300kb down, now pushing 800-900kb in same exact area)
12) New “Car Home” Layout
13) Google Talk and Messaging are now white background with black text (reversed)
14) Forward and Back buttons in Gmail
15) Calendar App uses small blue dots instead of large green bars in month view.
16) Call log now combines multiple calls to a contact instead of listing each one numerous times.
17) Colored trackball notifications appear possible, but app specific? (link)

I’m sure I’m missing a few things, so feel free to reply.

As of right now, Gmail gives us 7445 mb of storage. Who is using the most?!

I’m currently using 1306 mb (17%).

A month ago Stacie and I both got Nexus Ones to replace our old phones. We had Motorla W490s before (standard flip phones that were a couple years old). I had broken my outer LCD (though I actually fixed it with some parts off Ebay), but I was ready to enter the smartphone era. And I had to bring the wife along with me.

Hardware

The phone itself is far from flashy. It’s not as unique as the Droid, or as instantly recognizable as the iPhone…but it’s feels great in your hand. It has nice curves that make it a joy to hold.

By far my favorite feature is the 3.7″ AMOLED screen. At 800×470 pixels, it’s very high res, and looks beautiful. Right under the screen are four dedicated buttons that help you move around the OS and access different features. Below that is a little trackball. It’s great for selecting links on webpages with lots of links, instead of having to zoom in so your finger can actually press it. The trackball can also be pressed, so for example it can be used to take pictures. It also flashes to notify you that you have a notification.

Some of my other favorites about the hardware would be the 1ghz processor. Not only is the phone super snappy, but it should handle future updates to Android with little problem. It has a dedicated noise cancelling mic, and the 5 megapixel camera takes pretty darned good pictures (with an LED flash if you’re really in the dark).

Android OS

This is my first experience with Android, and I love it. The Nexus One is currently the only phone running Android 2.1. First, there are 5 main home screens. You can CUSTOMIZE these screens to your hearts content. By default there are some standard apps you’ll probably use a lot, like the browser and gmail, but this is old news on smarthphones. A long press on any home screen gives you the options that really make Android stand out.

Shortcuts – These can be things like a bookmark to a favorite website, a specific contact, a playlist, or even a specific phone number (super speed dial!). I have a shortcut that takes me directly to my different Pandora stations. The cool part being that these can exist on your home screens, and minimize the amount of searching and tapping needed.

Widgets – These are by far my favorite software innovation, and what I think really sets Android apart from its competitors. Widgets are like mini-applications that “run” on your home screens. For example, I have a search bar right on my main screen, a calendar, a settings bar, a facebook box that provides updates and the ability to update my status, and a music control bar that lets me pause/play and skip songs. But this is all without leaving the home screens.

(No, this isn’t my phone!)

Of course you can’t fit all your apps on the home screen, so there is a button at the bottom that pulls up all your installed apps.

Another cool feature is the notification bar. At the top of the screen is a skinny bar that contains useful information on the right like time, battery, signal, etc. But on the left it displays icons when you have different notifications. If you receive an email, text, chat, it shows up on the left. If you have the music player running it has a little play button. Then you just “grab” it and pull it down. If you’ve got an email, you can click it, and it will take you right there. It’s a super quick way to get the information you want.

Comparison to the iPhone

Talk of whether or not the Nexus One is an “iphone killer” began the minute it was announced, so comparisons between the two are inevitable. The comparison though is both a hardware and software issue.

First, I don’t have an iPhone, and my time playing on one is limited, but I think the only advantage the iPhone has over the Nexus One is the library of apps available. Due to the popularity of the iPhone, and the head start on Android, it has a lot more apps available. But with Android phones available on T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon (and soon to be ATT), the adoption rate of Android phones is about to explode. Will Apple have a new iPhone out eventually, and potentially on various carriers? Yes, but I think the competition only started to get serious very recently with the Droid.

But apps aside, I think the Nexus One is a better phone in all aspects. Hardware wise, this shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s newer, and it’s better. The screen has twice the resolution and the processor is twice as fast. Out of the box, the internal storage is only 4gb, but it’s expandable up to 32gb (when available). This option saves the consumer money if they don’t need it, and gives them the option if they do. The battery is user replaceable, the camera is better, and the screen is bigger.

Software wise (sheer number of apps aside), I think the Android OS is head over heels better than what the iPhone offers. The customization of the home screens is awesome, and the ability to run multiple apps is also cool. I can stream Pandora, run a jogging tracker app, and browse the internet all at once (though browsing the internet while I jog would be tough). Multi-tasking is yet another area that Android outperforms the iPhone.

Of course, if there is some must have app on the iPhone that doesn’t have a comparable alternative on Android, then all the advantages of an Android phone might not matter to you.

Conclusion

After using my Nexus One for a month, I can never go back to an old style phone. I think in both hardware and software it excels. If there is any area I think it could do better, it would be the pricing. It’s actually comparable to other smartphones bought out of contract, but if you’re looking to renew your contract and get nice subsidized pricing, you might want to look elsewhere. Right now it’s only offered subsidized with a specific plan (which can be changed later as far as I know), but that would have forced us out of our grandfathered phone and data plans. Again, that might not matter depending on your situation, but for us, buying the phones outright made sense.

For anyone looking for an Android phone, I can’t recommend them enough. The Nexus One is coming to every carrier in the next year based on different announcements, so if you don’t want to switch to T-Mobile to get one, you just need to wait.

Looks like there were some website problems for the last day or so, but all seems to be fixed. I’ve migrated to WordPress 2.1 with Andrew, but most of the changes are just things that will make my life easier.

My favorite improvement is the autosave feature. Now when I write a post it will automatically save it for me while I write it, like gmail does. The only major problem is that my picture posting plugin is now broken, so I’ll have to find an alternative. Until then don’t expect very many pictures. You can however expect a new story.

I was bored here in my student teaching seminar, and I was very curious looking at the gmail storage calculator. It increases at an unbelievably slow rate, out to the 6th or 7th decimal place. I wanted to figure out just how much it is really increasing.

I did a simple experiment. I measured how long it took for the counter to increase .0001 megabytes, which was 26 seconds. I then found the number of seconds required for 1 megabyte: 260,000. Translated into hours, that is 72.2 hours. Into days that is almost 3 exactly. That’s right, storage is increasing at the startling rate of 1 mb per 3 days. That seems super wimpy. I then found the percent increase over an entire year and it came out to a 5% increase, which is a little more respectable sounding.

I’m a nerdy math teacher now, so I do dorky math problems for fun! Any problems with my experiment Denise? I’m making the assumption that the rate of increase is perfectly constant, which it may not be. The number of subscribers also must factor into Google’s equation at some point. I do think it’s interesting that it comes out to a 5% per year increase…sounds like a company policy. Maybe that boils down to Joe Blow installing a new terabyte blah blah blah server every month. I’ll let Angelo tackle that one.

That’s right, I have 50 gmail invites. EVERYONE of you should get one, because it’s totally awesome. There’s no reason not to get one. You can even forward your old mail to gmail. You can store 1 GIGABYTE worth of email totally for free. You have to try it. Post a comment and gmail is yours! Get in before all the good emails are taken.

Yes yes! I have 6 more Gmail invitations. If you would like a Gmail email, send me an email!

Now I would like to address two topic “requests.”

MAC Cosmetic’s new spring colors: I think they’re great. But it’s not Spring. What are we supposed to do with them…pretend? My pretty lime green eye shadow doesn’t go with my Christmas outfit!

America’s love affair with knitted ponchos: I believe this is a complete fabrication. The guys that sell the ponchos at the US/Mexican border have completed flooded the market. No one really wears them, but when you’re stuck in traffic for 2 hours you have nothing else to do but buy one. No one even wants one, they just want to see if they can get it cheaper than their friend did. haha

So I saw an article about this deal probably six months ago. This is a totally legit deal and tons of people have gotten a free iPod for doing this. It’s simple:

1) Complete one "offer."
2) Get 5 friends to complete one "offer" each.
3) Get a free iPod.

I started this about a week ago, but I waited to post until I thought it was legit. I successfully completed my one "offer" and now I just need to refer five other people. The offer I completed was a piece of cake. It’s called "Real Rhapsody," and all I had to do was sign-up for it, then call and cancel, and a week later I received credit for it. To make it even easier for you, I’ve got the cancellation number right here. So here’s what to do.

1) Go sign up for a free iPod and use this link to refer me.
2) Find the Real Rhaposdy sign-up (or another if you think there is an easier one) and complete the offer. Most are just free trials which you can sign-up for and cancel. Most require a credit card.
3) If you do the Real Rhapsody one, then call 1-866-834-5509 from 9am – 9pm EST Mon-Fri, or 10:30am – 8pm EST Sat-Sun and cancel.

And that’s all. Then wait about a week and you should receive an email notifying you that your offer was completed. The email was actually marked as spam by my gmail, so watch for it. Then you just have to get 5 people to sign up and YOU get a free iPod! If you’re gonna try it post a comment. It’s super easy!!