It seems like so long ago that the iPhone hit the market with a bang and it’s still considered by many to be the best cell phone you can get. Over the last year or two, many speculated about various concept phones and if any of them would be an “iPhone killer”, including me. One of those hopefuls was Google’s promise of a Google phone, which people quickly dubbed the “Gphone”. A few months after Apple brought us the second generation iPhone, T-Mobile announced the release of their Android-running G1 and people started to get excited about owning one.
I’ve seen a lot of other phones come out that seem to follow the iPhone’s lead in many of their features, but none have swayed me from my opinion that the iPhone is far superior. The only one that comes close so far is the HTC T-Mobile G1, so when I had a chance to compare the two side by side, I jumped on it. I played with the G1 for hours, taking pictures along the way before creating a comparison video and finally putting together my conclusions.
First, the technical comparison
(image from Wired)
(Note that the G1 also plays video)
One of the things I think the G1 really could have used is a multi-touch screen, but I guess I’m just spoiled by my iPhone. There have been rumors, but nothing solid yet. A standard headphone jack would be nice, too. You can always listen with USB headphones, but that limits your options. One area the G1 technically surpassed the iPhone was the built in camera. Delivering 3.2 mega pixels, it offers a much better picture than the iPhone’s 2.0 mega pixel camera.
Getting hands on
Part 1:
Part 2:
The videos above cover most of what I’ve played with, but here’s some of what I found that’s worth noting:
- The iPhone offers a sliding software lock and optional password protection, while the G1 employs the old method of hitting any button and then hit “Menu” to unlock the phone, but it also offers another cool option where you store a gesture pattern like a happy face or a cursive G and you repeat that gesture to unlock the phone.
- Both phones allow for multiple pages to display icons for key features and applications. The G1 sets itself apart here, though, allowing its owner to also display search boxes and widgets like the big clock we keep seeing in G1 photos. Better still, these can all be moved anywhere. The iPhone makes you stack your icons neatly, gravitating to the top left of the screen, but G1 is a wild child, letting you throw those suckers wherever you want. Rebel. To accommodate all this freedom, G1 tucks most of its icons in a little slide-out panel, so you can hide the stuff you use rarely and keep your key items on the main screens.
- Both platforms offer Google Maps. My iPhone has Google Earth. I’m not sure if the G1 offers Google Earth, but it includes Street View and Compass Mode, which is very cool. Just watch the video to see what I mean.
- Oddly, the Google Search app on the G1 didn’t work nearly as well as on my iPhone.
- It doesn’t appear that I can create picture folders in the g1 like I can in the iPhone, but that may just require more testing.
- Setting up email was incredibly easy on the g1. The iPhone requres me to go to the phone’s settings area to add or remove an email account which is a little annoying.
- Both phones offer easy access to a wealth of third-party applications, both paid, and free. They’re both, hands down, vastly better than the alternatives I’d become used to with Windows Mobile phones.
- Adding music with the g1 is as easy as dropping MP3s from my computer into the phone’s shared storage, but the sound quality pales compared to the iPhone. The iPhone’s music play back is loud and clear, while the G1’s is a bit muffled and tinny.
- G1’s roller ball can easily switch away from the text box in focus on accident if bumped, but is very handy in Street View. The integrated keyboard is tiny, but useful. My main problem here is that I have to physically slide it out every time I need to type something, which can be hard one-handed, unlike the iPhone, where the software keyboard just appears as needed. The mix of a hardware keyboard and an optional software keyboard that could be accessed with a quick tap would be a great improvement.
The time has come to finally launch the New Media Super Contest!
The New Media Super Contest has 72 prizes from over 50 sponsors worth over $4,200! Take a look at the prize and sponsor list below.
Premium Sponsors
While we link out to all sponsors as a way of thanking them for adding to our prize pool, we also wanted to thank the premium sponsors, who went the extra mile to add larger prizes to the contest.
Pinky Arcade
The 5 member team at Pinky Arcade contacted us early on to ask if we’d like to have a 160GB Sony PS3 to give away in the contest. If you are a gamer, you would notice that this system isn’t released yet and it’s going to be the latest model for the widely popular, PS3. No strangers to giving away tons of free prizes, Pinky Arcade has already given away huge gift cards, consoles, and mp3 players. All these given away for simply playing some free games on the site.
BadEvan’s Gay Blog
Evan also joined up as a sponsor early on, not only by helping promote via Twitter, and other “new media”, but also by throwing in around $1,500 in advertising, reviews, and cash.
EcoPower and EcoVista
The other day, the sales team at EcoPower sent me an exciting email. They had heard about the contest and wanted to sponsor it with some unexpected, but cool, prizes. Their EcoPower and EcoVista products help you save fuel in your automobile and electricity in your home or office. The products are pretty inexpensive, too, so they offered up three of each!
How to enter
There are a lot of ways to enter. If you do any of the following, you get entries into the drawing. Even though we have over 70 prizes already, making it easy for everyone to win, your odds of nabbing the Platinum prizes increase with each entry you earn. Most of the ways mentioned below are very easy and take very little time, so try a few or all of them and good luck! Entries must be earned before January 1, 2009 to be eligible.
- Tweet the contest at Twitter.com (must include “#joetech”) (5 entries/once per day)
- Tweet “@joetech I hope I win” at Twitter.com (5 entries/once per day)
- Follow joetech on Twitter.com (10 entries) (all current followers already entered)
- Blog about the contest (must include the pre-formmated contest html, unedited, with working links and images) (100 entries)
- Stumble the contest at StumbleUpon.com(10 entries)
- Comment on the contest post (1 entry)
- Subscribe to JoeTech.com via email (existing subscribers will be entered automatically) (20 entries)
- Subscribe to sponsors via email (20 entries each/participating sponsors only)
- Email me (joe@joetech.com) a blog post title or other detail proving you visited a sponsor’s site. (Subject must include “NMSC ENTRY” and you should include the url of the sponsor site.) (10 entries/once per day)
Badges, Buttons, Banners, and HTML
This contest is about spreading the word about new media and by new media. That said, it’s important for you to have the tools to help you promote it. It’ll earn you more entries, too. Below are some blocks of HTML to make it very easy for you to post about the contest or add a badge or button to your site or blog. Please note that it is important for the images to come from JoeTech.com (as they do in the codes below) so they will automatically update with new prize total information.
How to sponsor
Although the contest is already under way, we’ll accept sponsors and prizes until the very end. Currently we’re looking for more cash and electronics like laptops, iPods, etc., but feel free to be creative. Remember to think big. The better your prize, the more attention you’ll get in the contest. Premium sponsors will receive special mentions in contest posts, in addition to all the name recognition and traffic the contest will bring naturally.
To sponsor, just email joe@joetech.com with the subject “NEW MEDIA SUPER CONTEST”. Each prize should be worth at least $10 U.S. Include the details about the prize or prizes you are offering, the U.S. dollar value of each prize, your site or company name and the URL to link to. All sponsors will be added to the list as seen above and updates will be posted on every Thursday.
This morning, I received an email about a new site. I’m familiar with Digg, Mixx, and all the sites like them, so when I was asked to review FlameUp.com, I figured the least I could do is go look.
Getting started
I headed over and signed up last week. The signup was pretty simple, but even before signing up, I found what I feared - an incredibly negative atmosphere - but that means something is working. FlameUp is a Digg-like site, but instead of submitting entertaing, inspirational, or shocking articles, users submit rants about whatever gets them all heated up. If other users agree with that rant, they “flame up” the rant. If they disagree, “cooling down” the rant is the action taken. The dynamic of the site can be a little intimidating, which may explain the large number of users who are afraid to identify themselves by more than an anonymous moniker. Remembering that these rants are largely opinion, I chose to rant about something fairly mild. It’s a week later, and I’ve found my rant on the receiving end of four equally mild responses and one stupid one.
Longevity?
One thing I always ask myself before I invest any real time using a site is how long that site will be around. This one I’m not sure about, but I can tell you that I’ve only seen this tried once before and that site was horrible. FlameUp.com has, at the very least, put forth the time and effort and brought a site that not only looks good, but is (mostly) intuitive. That said…
A little feedback
One bug I noticed is that the Privacy Settings page doesn’t save my settings. That’s a Q/A oversight, I guess, but being unfamiliar with the site, I submitted my settings twice before I realized that it was the site that wasn’t saving them correctly.
One thing I didn’t like is that I the ability to browse categories was not obvious to me right away, as it should be. I think they should be prominently displayed, like they are on Digg. What if I just want to read rants about Politics. I really REALLY don’t, but you get my point.
I’ve bookmarked the site and I’ll check back again later, but I try to see the cup half full, so I probably won’t be a regular.
It’s time for the biggest contest I’ve ever had on JoeTech.com. Sponsors in the “Joe Tech New Media Super Contest” will enjoy a ton of new RSS and email subscribers, site traffic, product/blog/website buzz and brand name recognition. I will be working very hard to promote the contest and in turn, the sponsors.
Here’s a few sponsorship ideas:
- CASH ($10 or more) - Think BIG
- Text link ad on your blog/site for a month.
- Text link ad on your blog/site for a year.
- Banner/125/button ad on your blog/site for a month.
- Banner/125/button ad on your blog/site for a year.
- A free review on your blog
- A free copy/license of your software
- Gift cards to Best Buy/Amazon/etc.
- Entrecard Credits (1,000 or more) - Think BIG
- Any product you would like to purchase - Think electronics (ipod, macbook, headphones, XBox, etc)
- Anything else of real value you want to offer.
The bigger the prize, the higher you get on the sponsorship list. I will start the contest in a couple weeks or so. More sponsors can join in after that, but it’s best to get in early. A big thanks goes to our first sponsor, AFrogToKiss.net. I’ve just announced this thing, and so far we have $500 in sponsorship already (this number will be updated in the image on the right).
I’m also going to be putting in more cash than I’ve ever given out in a contest before, and I’ll up the ante if I reach some goals by the contest deadline, January 1, 2009, so keep watching.
To sponsor or for more details before the contest is announced, email joe@joetech.com with the subject “New Media Super Contest”. Please include the prize you would like to offer and it’s value in US dollars.
Oh yes… It happens all the time. You’re on your IM, MySpace, FaceBook, etc., when one of your friends sends you a message in a panic. The warning is of impending doom for your hard drive if you don’t act now.
If someone by the name of Ashley Marc James wants to add you to their list dont accept it. Its a virus. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds them you will get it too. It is a hard drive killer and a very horrible virus. Please pass this on to everyone on your list. We need to find out who is using this account. Right click on the group name of your friends’ list and click: Send
That’s today’s message. Actually, that’s last December’s message, only it’s on FaceBook this time. It’s going pretty quickly, too. I checked my email to find two messages from friends on FB and by time I logged in to read them, a third had come through.
How does this happen?
This type of thing is only really a threat when people panic and forward it on. It begins as a message one person posts and a bunch of people believe. Each time it is forwarded, 10 or more people believe it and it spirals out of control. The people sending the warning blindly on to all of their unsuspecting friends become the virus, themselves. Maybe the Matrix was onto something.
What can you do?
Nothing. Well, nothing is a start. By not forwarding the warning, you’ve already decreased its impact on the internet. Go a step further. Reply and let them know it’s a hoax. Feel free to point to this article. I certainly wouldn’t mind all that buzz coming my way.
By the way, I wrote this to educate, not offend. If you’ve sent the warning to someone and feel offended, please don’t. Just consider it a reminder to not take everything on the web at face value.
Joe on the November 18th, 2008 
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