beds

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 21
Ran: 2.25km (The GPS definitely needs a little fixing. I think I really only did 1.9-2.0km, but yeah.)

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Update: It figures that the day that I finally get around to posting this, it suddenly starts working again. Whether or not Optus or Google actually fixed it or my phone just corrected itself I do not know. Either way, awesome.

The other day I talked however vaguely about my new phone, the Samsung Galaxy S. This is my first time dealing with Optus in well over five years, and my first time using an Android phone. While I love it, there has been an issue which as it turns out, is not just me.

The major issue is that applications downloaded from the Android Market, don’t download. When selected, the item sits on “Starting Download” forever, but never actually starts. Being a smart phone, applications are relied on to personalize and extend it’s uses. It’s what makes the phone amazing. So, being unable to get any is quite a drawback.

Apparently a majority of people who use a Samsung Galaxy S (and even a few other Android-powered phones), and are with Optus are having this problem too. Going to Optus, I was informed that it was because “The Android Market is down.” which makes sense, except for one thing.

The but.

Optus is blaming Google for the problem, saying that the Android Market (the place one downloads applications from) isn’t working. This may be true, except that when I use a wireless Internet connection I can download applications. This indicates more of an Optus problem than a Google problem. Perhaps Optus 3G is having trouble connecting to the market, but that makes it as much an Optus problem as a Google problem, and as such Optus should try to work it out and fix the problem, rather than blaming someone else.

I don’t even know who’s right, but being unable to just download applications whenever and wherever I want, seriously bothers me.

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Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 19
Sit-ups: 22
Walked: 1.98km (not accurate; my new phone seems to have a little trouble with GPS. It’s more than likely to be slightly less than this.)

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I’ve had this phone for three days now, which I believe is long enough to have a decent opinion of the device. I will unfortunately be unable to help myself and compare it to the iPhone a lot, as it was my smart phone of choice for the past two years. However, being that nearly everyone reading this will be familiar with that particular device, it’s a good starting point.

The Samsung Galaxy S actually looks a lot like an iPhone physically; similar shape, big home button on the bottom, all that jazz. It’s a bit bigger though, and takes more advantage of the space with a bigger screen. The phone itself is surprisingly lighter than the iPhone despite it’s size, which is quite pleasant.
Of course, battery life seems to be the same; it lasts about a full day before I need to charge it. Unlike the iPhone though, it has a removable battery, so down the track I should be able to buy a spare so when I’m out for a long period I can simply swap them and keep on going¹.

Android is every bit as good as I’d heard it was. Neat presentation, widgets on the home screens, applications running in the background, the list goes on. I could of course go into great detail about each feature on the phone, but there are plenty of other blogs and websites that have done that.
This isn’t to say that it’s perfect, as I have been having problems. Whether they’re Google’s fault or the fault of Optus is yet to be discovered, but I’ll be dedicating another post to that discussion.

Applications are something that I absolutely loved about the iPhone; older phones you were always stuck with what you were given, where as with smart phones you can download programs that do almost anything you want. I’ve found a few apps in the Android Market that I used on the iPhone (including Twitter and Foursquare), and have promptly installed them, only to find they’re designed differently and actually better than their Apple counterparts. This would probably be because of the additional buttons and screen space present on the phone itself.
I’m not sure if it’s because it’s new to me, but I definitely find the Android version of apps, including the Twitter app, better than the iPhone versions. I would include comparison photos of two apps side by side, but I still don’t know how to screenshot on the Galaxy S. Sorry about that.

Something I really should not be excited about.

The one thing I’m sure is interchangeable among all Android phones is how you can manage your contacts. Despite it being common among Androids, I still find it amazing. Where most phones usually let you save information to either the SIM card or the phone itself, phones that run android (since they’re a product of Google) let you save your contacts to you Gmail account. This is awesome because that means I could edit and save new people to my Gmail contacts and they will sync with my phone. If I lost my phone or got a new number, or upgraded to a better Android phone, I wouldn’t have to go through and add all my contacts one by one (Like I had to do going from iPhone to Galaxy S), I’d just have to log in to my Google account and BAM! There are all my numbers, just as I remember them.
This sort of synchronisation alone makes this phone all levels of awesome. I am such a nerd.

I know I haven’t covered everything you probably wanted to read, but

You can fix that. If this post bugged you because it was too vague, or didn’t mention something specific; tell me below and I’ll answer it to the best of my ability.

1. Like a Duracell Bunny?

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