I just Ordered my Nexus One (AT&T) :D

[Drillbit]

Trouble in paradise: I have noticed a little problem. Every once in a while, I have a hard time hitting the right key on the screen. I guess another way to look at it is the phone responds differently from keyboard input. For example, when I was dialing and trying to hit the number "4" and the phone responded with "*" instead. It still is a much better experience than iPhone overall, no regrets.

Yes, you're reporting the touch bug. Unfortunately the Nexus One ain't perfect, particularly for a first try on the phone. This problem has been observed and reported by others too.

I have not encountered the bug yet myself, although I don't feel the Nexus One isn't as accurate as the iPod Touch on touchscreen touch.

[Drillbit]

I too am interested to hear about the trackball. I thought that was a bit of an odd choice, as most premium phones with similar devices are moving to optical 'trackballs.' I would imagine that cleaning the trackball will become a tiresome activity as it is with BlackBerries.

As for construction, It seems odd you feel the Nexus is so much more solid than a Droid. The Droid is a pretty solid brick of metal. Isn't the Nexus One, primarily plastic? It IS one piece though.

QF, I'm confused by the mounting/unmounting SD card thing. I can see why perhaps one would actually have to 'select' the card so it's visible on the computer; but what does that have to do with charging? The whole device has to be manually 'recognized' in addition to the memory card to even start charging via USB? That seems VERY strange.

I often felt that it was the Droid that felt more solid because it was made of metal. Initially, the Nexus One felt light, until I placed the battery in.

A good part of the Nexus One is actually metal. There is a frame that surrounds the screen and trackball. Initially it looks and feels like plastic, but its really aluminum. If you look at the back, the metal band appears to divide the phone into two. The upper part is the battery cover, and the lower part is another plastic shell. This plastic has a very smooth satin touch and seems resistant to oil prints. The whole phone feels very smooth to the hand.

Between the Droid Eris and the Nexus One, the Nexus One exposes more metal. This is interesting to note since the Incredible and the Desire uses more of the Droid Eris design.

The Droid has a somewhat crappy design for a battery cover. Not here on the Nexus One.

You can charge the phone immediately the moment its connected to the USB. Mounting is applied to get the SD card recognized for file to file transfers but not needed for charging.

The Nexus One maybe the last HTC phone to have the round trackball. It's the same trackball they started using on the HTC Hero. The one on the HTC Dream and Magic is actually bigger and has a better feel than the later one that appeared on the Hero. Newer HTC phones will now use an optical pad starting with the Desire, Incredible, and Legend. For some reason I never encountered the problems on trackballs on any of the Android phones that I did with the Blackberry, and I guess the reason is, you use the trackball a lot more on the Blackberry than on the Android.

The trackball has a special feature that it can glow with different colors. There are apps that lets you customize the trackball glow to different stimuli, like one for email, a different color for SMS, another color for voice calls.

My primary concern for wear and tear on the Nexus One is the overuse of the Start Button on the top to wake the phone. There are apps that can reduce its usage by using the trackball to wake the phone. Alarm Clock, which comes with the phone, Keyguard and Lockbot - the latter my favorite - are apps you can get on the Market.

[Hawflake]

If you got a * for a 4, something is seriously wrong. I suspecy you may have had your thumb curled under your pointing finger and the side of the thumb hi the "*" before you hit the 4. The screen takes avery light touch and if you aren't precise...

I'm getting pretty used to it now.

A few calls tonight. So far call quality is excellent.

You may be right on that, it's always the side keys that screw up. I will pay attention next time and see what happens.

I have not encountered the bug yet myself, although I don't feel the Nexus One isn't as accurate as the iPod Touch on touchscreen touch.

I have come to the same conclusion myself, after having been an iPhone user. But the box showing multiple suggestions based on what you are typing, a big help!

[bbconvert]

Me too I'm psyched!

Heck of an upgrade from my 8330! What's even cooler is I hear it will soon support flash 10.1! Can't wait to watch hulu on the John

[Hawflake]

I did a quick search on this topic and much to my surprise, there is not a thread on it.


1 Touch the text field or other portion of the screen that contains the text to select.
2 Use the trackball to move the cursor to the beginning or end of the text to select.
You can also touch in the text field to move the cursor in text.
3 Press & hold the trackball, or touch & hold the text field. A menu opens with options for cutting, copying, and performing other tasks with the text field.
4 Touch Select text. Or touch Select all to select all the text in the text field.
5 Roll the trackball to select the text you want.
6 Press & hold the trackball again (or touch & hold the text field) to open a menu you can use to cut or copy your selection, select all the text, or stop selecting text.

Is this ^^^ the only way to cut and paste? My lord, I hope there is an easier way someone has figured out or an update is on the way. I am ashamed to say, I can't even execute this "simple" manuver. Apparently it only works in a window you can type in, i.e. no luck on incoming emails and webpages.

[questionfear]

Drillbit may have more to say than me on this, but that is one way to do it. Some of the programs (like in Browser) have a "select text" setting.

On the Droid you can also hold down ALT and whatever you'd like to select and it highlights as you swipe, then auto copies the items to the clipboard. Holding down the alt key while scrolling with the D-Pad in a text field works too.

There's probably a similar move with non-keyboard devices, I just don;t know it.

[Hook]

Yes, the browser does have a select text setting. The trackball method seems to work fine in documents. In fact, that is the one really great use of the trackball I have discovered... a way to easily move the cursor through text.

I'm sure there are methods I haven't discovered yet. Hopefully Drillbit will know some of those.

[Hook]

At the end of a long day of messing around with my Nexus One, I have to say, I'm very pleased. It is as nearly perfect (for me) device as I have ever had, rivaling my TX.

I've added the following apps:

Free:
Astro (File Manager)
eReader
Evernote
Bank of America Mobile Banking

Paid:
Docs-To-Go (on sale for $10)
Splash ID (and SpalshID desktop, syncs wirelessly even though I didn't fall for letting it install Bonjour and Apple Update-- WTF?!?)
Sprite Backup
Teksoft Blueinput (Yup, my Apple BT Keyboard now works with the Nexus One )
CompanionLink USB Sync (the Android App is free but requires the Desktop software. Syncs Calendar, Contacts, Notes and To-Dos via USB to Outlook).

I basically have what I need and suspect everything else will be handled by free apps of which there are gazillions.

The browser is amazing.
The music program is excellent.

And I'm getting pretty good at the onscreen keyboards, but now I also have my Apple BT keyboard working.

There are things I'm still getting used to --yes, the Nexus One's digitizer is a little fussy, but it's fine-- but I am so happy with my new hand held, I can't even tell you.

For me, Android is a great fit and the Nexus One is a stellar handheld. And guess what... it's still a PDA. No social networking here, Folks.

[questionfear]

WHoo HOOO

I am so so glad you are happy with your N1/Hookette 2!

[raptor13]

Glad you like your new phone Hook. I pretty much agree with you other than the phone reception issues I am having. That said, I switched it to 2G for a day and the reception seemed much better. Not sure if it was just a coincidence or if that makes sense to anyone that switching would help? I might experiment switching back and forth to see if it consistently makes a difference or not. I am hoping the reception is good enough because I really want to keep this device! I love the OS much better than the iPhone.