[G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] aliencurv:
Hi there,

I've recently switched to a white G1, and i really do enjoy the design. I came from the Kaiser with a custom lite Windows 6.1 & SPB Mobile Shell.

The UI learning curve and customization of Android to meet the Windows features have taken a few days. Some of the large difference I recognize between the OS, Available Apps and Hardware are:

Calendaring:

- Windows mobile will sync with practically anything with ActiveSync (including gmail if you use an external app)

- Android's Outlook sync requires direct access to Exchange. Absolutely no sysadmin is going to leave that access available outside of a VPN. So the sync feature is entirely useless.

- Android doesn't sync with outlook's local mail store (Requires exchange)

- Windows mobile's SPB Shell has a beautiful and responsible calendar view with integrated weather.

- Android's calendar view is very primitive, undetailed, and difficult to navigate under pressure.

- To sync my calendar from outlook, I use Google Calendar Sync. I keep getting duplicate entries in both calendars.

Hardware:

- Windows detects ambient light and will not turn on the keyboard backlight in daylight.

- Android always turns on keyboard backlight. Kills Battery, and difficult to see letters in daytime with white keyboard.

- Windows battery lasts ~2 days with mild usage (weather downloads every hour, lots of txting, screen dimmed, bluetooth, average talk usage, task man to kill all processes)

- Android battery lasts ~10 hours with similar mild usage (always killing background processes)

- No arrow keys on keyboard

Questions:

- When GPS is enabled in "My Location", is it always on? Or only when an app requests GPS activity?

- Do I save battery by having GPS disabled?

- Is there a place to specify the sync times for Gmail, Calendar & Contacts? Or does it sync when ever it feels like it?

- Is there a way to disable the keyboard backlight on the G1? I can't see the characters on the white keys in the daylight.

- Is there a better calendar viewing App/Widget then the "agenda widget"?

- HTC Sync Contacts works. Some contacts are sorted "Last, First" on the Android, I don't want commas. I can't find a place to change the contact name display format?

- Is there another way to control the speed of the trackball when moving the cursor when editing text? It takes sooo long to move the cursor around in large documents.

Your responses will be appreciated. I'm hoping to begin enjoying this new platform. I've done a lot of C++ and C# development on Mobile devices; when I get time I will start coding on Android (But I dislike the hippy eclipse IDE).

It would be nice to see the Android become a more business focused device. It's a neat little hacker box, but lacks practical business use features: Calendaring, Contact Management, Sync Support.

I will read a bit about the ADB. I'm curious if there is file system read/write support or App DB Storage access. I'd write a propery Calendar/Contact sync app in a heart beat. I'm just discouraged from setting up a dev environment until I have time. I know working with the hippy IDE's will stress me out lol.

Oh yah, I have the white rogers g1 in canada. I started to "root" it last night, and decided not too as I was downloading the files. I'll probably never root it... I just want this thing to match the functionality of my mobile device.