Weekends are always good for visiting with friends, but this weekend was quite interesting. I've been posting about my G1 on PalmAddicts and I've been mentioning it on Twitter, Facebook, etc... so this was the first time most of my friends had seen me since I got my G1, so you can expect that most of them wanted t see it... the funnier part was seeing how long before they asked about it.
So I've been using the G1 for almost a week, for me the controls are starting to become second nature. I'm still not fully up to speed with the trackball, but the interesting part was watching my friends that use Blackberries, in particular Pearls and Curves that have their own track ball. Those friends all found the ball pretty easy to navigate with, they did comment that they seemed to think that it was a little to sensitive. They also seemed a little 'scared' of touching the screen... I think it is more of a habit part, I know for me when I use my wife's Pearl, I'm constantly trying to touch the screen since that is what I'm used to ever since I got my first Treo.
The other common comment was that they all preferred the keyboard from their Blackberries. They didn't like the 'flatness' of the G1 keyboard. This was a similar feeling I had when I first started typing on the G1. But I think like any keyboard you adapt. I wonder what Motorola's Android keyboard will look like...
The funnier keyboard experience was watching a friend who had decent length nails. I noticed that on her Blackberry she tended to use her nails to do the typing but because of how the G1 rests in the hand, you tend to us the flats of the fingers. Her husband is a Sidekick user and she said it was the same problem she had with that keyboard.
The one part that all the Blackberry users commented was that they really wished that Blackberry would come out with a touch screen (this was after they finally touched the screen). Staying with RIM for a touchscreen I think has something to do with the same reason I was hesitant to move from Palm... once you are use to a device and how all the functions work it is hard to change. It is one thing to go from a candybar phone to a smartphone, but from one smartphone to another... One last comment on the Blackberry end... when I mentioned to most of them (especially the Verizon Wireless subscribers) that the Blackberry Storm was coming out and that it would be a touch screen first comment was 'wow, really? when is it coming out?' (for those who want to know, looks like Nov 14th is the current leak date). But the more interesting part was when I mentioned that it wouldn't have a keyboard... then they all changed their minds. They couldn't figure out what the purpose of a messaging device was without a physical keyboard. The main reason they couldn't see switching to an iPhone was the lack of a keyboard (again I remind you these were heavy Blackberry users who say they message/email a lot)
So one final point on the keyboard topic, rumors are that a virtual keyboard will be released for the G1 in the 'near' future... okay, my first thought was why the hell would you want that... but now after a week of use... there are number of times it would be nice to quickly type in a name or password one handed without having to open the slide out keyboard... especially for quick web searching too.
And with all the talk that Palm is now finally on track to release their Linux-based Palm OS and ALP coming to smartphones soon... well sorry guys you all took to long, I've got a Linux-based Android phone now and it will take some convincing for me to trust the current release time for the new Palm OS. Besides that for being a new platform, I'm surprised at how stable it is.... I just hope I haven't spoken to soon.