Author: Sam Herren

A few weeks ago, the editor-in-chief of AndroidGuys elected me to test and review a brand new Q1 headset.  First, because I am his favorite writer (yeah right) and secondly because I have the Motorola Droid that has version 2.0 and above, I suspect that’s the real reason.

In any event, while I was excited about reviewing the unit, I have to confess that I do not use BT headsets very often – only when driving.  But this one is a beaut.  From the moment I received the package I could tell that BlueAnt put some nice design elements into it.  To me, it looks a lot like a Jawbone minus the external rough texture.  Out of the box it had enough charge to last half the day since I determined to put it through its paces.  And it is by far, the easiest BT device I have ever had the pleasure to pair. One thing I noticed is the lack of volume, which to me is never a good thing.  I feel like I can always turn something down if it is too loud but too soft is bad and it has almost no bass, so callers sound very tinny and thin.  And since it’s not in stereo the “not loud enough” problem is compounded by hearing ambient noises in your free ear which drowns out the Q1 even more.

However, the speech recognition is near pitch perfect as it recognized most of my commands in a convertible barreling down the interstate and all of them indoors or in my wife’s car.  So anything from to quiet to normal, you should be in good shape in using this headset.

The best feature is that a corresponding Android application can be downloaded out of the Market but other than the Android compatibility the application is nice but lacking in features.  It reads aloud new text messages that come in but that’s about it.  No Gmail, e-mail, contacts, or anything else will be read.  The main use for the app is to control the Settings and for Voice Control.  I could see this app being fairly intuitive and powerful in the near future but right now it’s pretty bare bones but still impressive for Android.

The Good:

• Great looking headset and well designed
• Nice modular charger with rigid USB cable
• Speech recognition is top drawer and of course it has a complimentary Android app

The Bad:

• Very low volume even at the highest level
• Android app is not feature rich….yet.

Okay, so I have been sitting on the sidelines hearing about all the buzz to the lead up to the T-Mobile banded Nexus One and now it looks as if those of us on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon will get a little Nexus love very soon.  While I am not psyched about it being a touch screen only device, the killer app that may be swaying me is Swype.  I have been using this nifty keyboard app on my Droid for two weeks and am amazed at how accurate and easy it is.  In fact, I rarely even use the HW keyboard, not that I used it that much before. Further, I think the Motorola Roi tablet would be a great companion to the Droid on Verizon.

But I digress.  The Nexus One specs have almost become legend because of the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.  Its WVGA AMOLED display makes my beloved Droid seem like an outdated Startac by comparison, and only after three months no less!  As my Android Guys compadres know, I am usually the first to jump on the technology bandwagon and gleefully pay the “geek” tax that comes with buying the latest-and-greatest both financially and emotionally; but the Nexus One just doesn’t seem to have the pop that the Droid had.  Now I know, most out there think the Droid is an ugly, flat black piece of geekery that only us pocket protected IT guys use but I really like the sleek clean lines and its sharp angles.  Not to mention the hardware keyboard, warts and all.

I am not interested in live wallpapers, Google Earth, or anything else that steals power away from the 1Ghz processor.  I just want it to be fast and virtually indestructible as witnessed in Google’s own manufacturing videos.   So for me, I guess I may have just talked myself into the Nexus One.  I have already been feeling my Droid slowing down the longer I have it and for some reason it has been losing its icons when I slide the screen up to expose the keyboard.  If the Android 2.1 update does not fix this problem it may be going half way out the door anyway.

What do you think?  Am I the only one who is  jonesing for the N1 when it hits the Big Three carriers?

So I have several G1’s, a myTouch 3G, two Motorola Droid’s, and just one Archos 5 Internet Tablet.  While, certainly no expert, I have been using Android the week the G1 was released and was following it before it was a Google acquisition and the only device that I have chosen to not keep is the Archos 5 Internet Tablet.

Let’s begin.  The A5 IT debuted with Android 1.5 and has just gotten a critical update to 1.6 that added global search, widgets, and other system updates but mobile phones are marching their way towards Android 2.1.  Even though, I enjoyed the novelty of the A5’s ARM Cortex 800 MHz processor and 800×480 4.8 inch screen I could not get over not having Google applications like Gmail, Contacts, Voice, Maps, Market and the almighty sync feature for my Google ID.  And don’t even get me started on Archos’ AppsLib.

So even when I tried to use the native e-mail application I had to either manually enter my contacts or load them via USB from my PC, not a good solution when you have as many as 1,600 contacts or more.  And even though the A5 has GPS it doesn’t have Google Maps so you are forced to use the maps application that has flaky GPS connectivity and dubious directions at best.

Archos is rumored to deliver the new A7 Internet Tablet soon and Camangi released their WebStation to minimal fanfare and even worse reviews.  Can non-Google survive in the wake of Nexus One’s, Droid’s, and Hero’s?  I don’t think so.  Without Google apps and sync ability, the plain Android OS is just like any other OS.  Is it open, is it still Android, can dev’s write for it?  Yes, yes, and yes.  Is it useful for everyday consumers without Google apps/sync?  Not really.

When we pick up and use Android phones, rooted or not, we are accustomed to the fact that we can just enter our Google usernames and passwords and get all of our critical data back.  I flirted with a TouchPro 2 recently and without Google sync it was not useful.  Ditto for non-Google Android.

Is this just my opinion or do you think vanilla Android will survive or is it just a hobbyist’s dream platform?