Mike Wilks' Blog

I ordered a Nexus One during the announcement event and I’ve had it a couple of days now. I got it to replace my iPhone 3G (not S) which is looking slightly long in the tooth now. Initial thoughts:

Positives

• It is blazing fast compared to the iPhone 3G.
• The screen is much crisper and colours pop more.
• The gMail client is infinitely better than the mail on the iPhone.
• No more 10Mb download limit on podcasts over 3G !
• Voip over 3G with Sipdroid and localphone.com is a killer app. That said SipDroid doesn’t seem to like localphone direct so I need to configure pbxes.org which will hopefully give better results.

Negatives

• I really miss 1Password – hopefully there is an Android version before too long.
• Multi-touch is not there on the standard apps. Not a huge thing but muscle memory keeps trying to do it.
• Bookmark sync with safari is going to take some getting used to not having. That said Crossmarks mobile site as a replacement is working pretty well so far.

I’m currently on the O2 Simplicity for iPhone tariff so I thought I better tell them I no longer had an iPhone. In theory the normal Simplicity tariff has more minutes and texts than the iPhone one but in reality I never get anywhere near using them.  Calling O2 just led to confusion. Once I got across what I wanted to do they initially told me that I should move to Simplicity 20 – but only if I was sure I wasn’t going back to iPhone. Eventually after he struggled with the system for 5 minutes while I was on hold he advised me to leave it as is. If there’s any come back about me being on the wrong tariff I might need to request they listen to the tape!

The phone is unlocked so I guess I need to look through the Sim only deals out there. O2 is not a great signal where I live but does seem to be properly unlimited data (at least they have never complained). I spend at least as much time away from home as at home so I can just about live with 3 bars of 2G at home. Vodafone is a much better 2G signal (in fact we can see the 2G only tower) but has a pathetic 500Mb limit as does Orange. That said at least I could just about get a 3G signal on Orange at home. I really do not understand how they are allowed to advertise 500Mb as unlimited. 3 and T-Mobile are complete non-starters as there is no signal at home. Decisions decisions, my Vodafone 3G data contract is up in a couple of months just to complicate things, the Mifi I use in theory means I need less phone data when I travel.

More updates as I live with the phone a bit longer.

I’m confused.

In the O2 terms and conditions for the iPhone it says that you cannot do “continuous streaming” on their network. The question is what do they mean by continuous. Can I watch CNET TV videos on 3G, after all they are of a discrete length if you watch the recorded versions. Is this allowed?

O2 effectively banned BBC iPlayer from being used over their network and this also plays programmes of discrete length so I’m guessing they don’t like any video or audio downloaded over the air. This is pretty sad when you consider that the iPhone is all about the multimedia experience. There are a number of sites which have created iPhone specific versions with audio and video. It would seem in O2′s mind they are for use on your own wifi network. Now good as my iPhone screen is I’d rather watch video on my PC than iPhone if I happen to be home.

I appreciate that O2 need to protect their network but I do wonder whether they could be a bit more upfront about this term. I’d be amazed if your average iPhone user even knows where to look for the Ts&Cs let alone knows the contents. Incidently they also disallow the use of VoIP which smacks of good old fashioned protectionism.

It is only a matter of time before the whole net neutrality debate comes to mobile phones too. The recent Comcast limits in the US have really raised the profile of the whole debate. ISPs in the UK are pretty good about making their caps visible too. O2 used to have one (200MB I believe) but dropped it in favour of “fair use”. It will be interesting to see whether there is any pressure on them in the future to be more transparent over the actual amount of data that can be transferred and to be neutral about what kind of data it is.