Srcasm

So you’ve got your Android Phone (your G1 for now) and you are showing it off to all of your friends and all of a sudden someone with an iPhone walks up and starts showing off their on-screen keyboard.  Does that make you depressed?  I hope not because your phone rocks anyway!  But seriously, below are a few applications that give you an on-screen keyboard for your G1 pre-Google releasing the ability for OSKs to be integrated system-wide.

• For SMS
  • ChompSMS - This application is one of the best designed apps I’ve used on the G1.  It offers a clean SMS interface (almost identical to the iPhone app), takes over for the integrated app and offers large-font support for ease of reading.  One downside is it does not currently flip to landscape mode.  But still, definitely worth a look.
  • SoftKey/A7 SMS - While I love Chomp, A7 was first and so it needs a place on the list.  Many people have complained about A7 not working properly although when it was first released it worked fine for me.  The keyboard is awkward to type on and when I used it, it was landscape only.  This kind of defeated the purpose of the OSK for me.
• For the Web
  • QSearch - This app can be hard to find on the web, a search in the Android market can bring you to it.  It’s a cleanly designed app that enables an OSK that can launch Maps, YouTube, Google, Amazon, a dictionary search and allows a URL to be entered.  These are all helpful while trying to use the G1 with the keyboard closed.  The problem is, these have to be launched from within QSearch, not the normal browser or applications.  For frequent searching, it should be in the G1 owners must-have toolkit.
  • Steel for Android - I’ve wrote about Steel on my blog before.  It’s a replacement to the built-in web browser and it’s fantastic.  It’s fast, supports landscape and portrait mode and now supports tabbed browsing.  In addition, searching from the address bar and adding bookmarks right from there makes Steel look more like a mobile version of Chrome.  Very nice.
• For the Phone
  • SpellDial - SpellDial can be a replacement to the current dialer/contact application.  It allows dialing and locating of names through a T9 input method.  Simply tap the key that corresponds to the name once and you’re off to the races.  If you have a large number of contacts on your G1, SpellDial can be a lifesaver.

I don’t know about all of you but I’ve been a Blackberry, full QWERTY fan for a long time.  Over the last four or five years, I’ve been through 8700s, 8100s, 8800 series and even the older 7290s on the Blackberry platform and I loved them all…  Then I got hold of the TMobile G1 with Android.  I found another phone that not only fit the bill but the OS took the cake as it was simple, expandable and open source (all three of which, I love).

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I had to share this with all of you G1 lovers out there. Steel is a new browser being put out by Kolbysoft.com and it is probably one of the slickest mobile browsers I have seen.  For starters, here are a few of the great features that Steel offers to G1 users:

• Full screen support - This includes getting rid of the notification bar, hiding the address bar and the navigational buttons while browsing the web.
• On-screen keyboard - The on-screen keyboard included in Steel is quick, multi directional and offers a “vibrate on touch” feature to let you know that you’ve hit a key.  Sure, it’s not as great as the iPhone keyboard yet, but it’s a fantastic start.
• Landscape/Portrait mode - By turning the screen sideways, the browser seamlessly flips the web site from portrait to landscape and back again.  This can allow for a much larger viewing area as well as an easier read.
• Changable Agents - Trying to browse an iPhone only website and it just won’t let you?  Now you can choose the agent that is sent to the web.  Switch between Android, a deaktop browser and iPhone.

These are just some of the great features that Steel currently offers and it’s only at version 0.0.5 as I write this.  Only great things can come of this application.  Go ahead and search the Market for “Steel” and you’ll be up and running in no time.  Happy browsing!

I know I sound like a broken record recently but I wanted to share yet another story about how customer service should work and does work with TMobile.

When I signed up for my account, I asked to have my Rohm and Haas corporate discount added.  I wasn’t sure it actually got done during the sign up process so I went online in search of the answer.

I looked at their My T-Moble site (which can be a bit confusing at times) and couldn’t locate the information.  I then went on and attempted to send them an email.  To my surprise, the site offered Live Chat with a rep.  I wish this would have popped up before I wrote them an email but that’s okay.

After a quick chat with the online representative, they gave me the number to the Personal Corporate Discount Migrations Department (their number is 877-453-8824 in case you were wondering).  There were no menu options and I got right through to Elizabeth H.  Within 10 minutes (most of which was spent talking about TMobile’s terms and conditions) she had added the discount, refunded my activation fees and credited me a $5 good-faith credit since I had to call in to have it added!

I know, $5 isn’t much but it’s the attention to detail and helpful nature of all the staff I’ve talked to that will keep me coming back for more.

P.S. - As a side note, I’m still loving the G1.  It’s handy, fast and just works.  Thanks Google, HTC and TMobile.  I would however liked to have waiting till Nov 19th where they are now offering free companion flight tickets to new sign ups.  It’s a neat promotion.

It’s not very often that I become envious of my friends with iPhones.  I mean, sure it’s slick, has the Apple name on it and works really well but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be (no pun intended for you cracked LCD users).  For me, the full, Qwerty, real keyboard was important.

In my line of work I send a lot of emails.  I also text quite a bit.  When it comes to writing paragraphs of information or a blog entry, a real keyboard helps me to both type faster and more accurately.  With the onscreen keyboard of the iPhone, I would need to constantly look at it to make sure my fingers are where they’re supposed to be.

Today however, I’m excited for those iPhone friends/fiends that are now using the Google Voice Search for the iPhone.  From what I’ve seen and heard the interface is simple to use, works really well and the best part — The voice recognition is done on the phone so it’s much faster than most traditional voice recognition products (TellMe and Vlingo come to mind).

Fret not my Google Android friends, I have two things to let you know:

1. Since Google Android is made by Google, I’m sure that the G1 and Android will have integrated voice search in the near future.  It only makes sense to add this and an onscreen keyboard to the device (please?).
2. You can search with your voice for certain things by using a tool like TellMe.  Call 800-555-TELL and you can say any number of things that you’d like (including movie times, weather and directions).  It’s kind of cool — Just not as cool as an integrated G1 app.  Go figure.

One can only hope that Google will come to their senses and start rolling out software for the Android OS when they do others.  I mean, it is their baby!