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How ridiculously easy to use is the G1? For example, how many clicks does it take to capture a photo and email it to a friend? On my iPhone I count 6 clicks t

by wensing 18y ago

How ridiculously easy to use is the G1? For example, how many clicks does it take to capture a photo and email it to a friend? On my iPhone I count 6 clicks to get into the "To:" field in the email, and then 1 more click to Send. And where is the G1's "display" appeal? As O'Reilly once said (when thinking about ringtones), people will pay more for display than consumption. For many (me not included?), the Apple logo on your phone is a personal exhibition of good taste. What does the G1 do for a person in this regard?

jcl 18y ago
It depends on how you have the phone set up and how well you know it. The obvious way: - One tap to open the menu of applications - One tap to open the camera application - One press of the camera button - One tap to choose to share the picture - One tap to choose gMail (vs. messaging) At this point you are in the To field, but you need to slide open the keyboard to type the address in. So it is essentially the same "number of interactions" as the iPhone. If you're a power user or curious, you might have figured out that you can also launch the camera application directly by pressing the camera button, which collapses the first two steps to one. ...Which highlights one of the strengths and weaknesses of the Android platform. While the iPhone has just a few inputs (the screen and main button being the obvious ones), the G1 has many (screen, five main buttons, trackball, the keyboard, and the keyboard slide). This gives the G1 more (and potentially faster) ways to do things, but it also means that the user may not always be able to guess which input is required to accomplish their goals. The G1 apps are pretty good about telling the user when they need to do something out-of-the-ordinary -- the camera app, for example, points out the camera button on the casing -- but third-party applications may not be as careful, or they may neglect to handle all possible inputs in an Android-consistent manner. I think it's a difference of philosophy, much like the difference between Apple's preference of a one-button mouse versus the preference of multiple-button mice on other platforms. One button is easier for users to learn and developers to implement consistently, but more buttons let you do more stuff.

by wensing 18y ago

jcl 18y ago

It depends on how you have the phone set up and how well you know it. The obvious way: - One tap to open the menu of applications - One tap to open the camera application - One press of the camera button - One tap to choose to share the picture - One tap to choose gMail (vs. messaging) At this point you are in the To field, but you need to slide open the keyboard to type the address in. So it is essentially the same "number of interactions" as the iPhone. If you're a power user or curious, you might have figured out that you can also launch the camera application directly by pressing the camera button, which collapses the first two steps to one. ...Which highlights one of the strengths and weaknesses of the Android platform. While the iPhone has just a few inputs (the screen and main button being the obvious ones), the G1 has many (screen, five main buttons, trackball, the keyboard, and the keyboard slide). This gives the G1 more (and potentially faster) ways to do things, but it also means that the user may not always be able to guess which input is required to accomplish their goals. The G1 apps are pretty good about telling the user when they need to do something out-of-the-ordinary -- the camera app, for example, points out the camera button on the casing -- but third-party applications may not be as careful, or they may neglect to handle all possible inputs in an Android-consistent manner. I think it's a difference of philosophy, much like the difference between Apple's preference of a one-button mouse versus the preference of multiple-button mice on other platforms. One button is easier for users to learn and developers to implement consistently, but more buttons let you do more stuff.