Monday, November 03, 2008

G1 Wish List

Improvements in G1 software that I would like to see:

1. A word processor that did not require an internet connection to use. Supposedly this is coming via Google Docs+Google gears.

2. Software for tethering. Ideally this would let you connect the phone to the internet via EDGE or 3G and connect one or more computers to the phone via WiFi, making the phone, in effect, its own WiFi router.

3. The ability of the Browser to save HTML documents to the SD card and read documents from the SD card.

4. Software to connect a Bluetooth keyboard to the G1. At present the main hardware limitation in using the phone to replace a laptop is the keyboard. With an external keyboard and the additional software described above, it would be tempting on some trips to simply leave the laptop at home.

5. A better file browser. I currently have two, both downloaded for free from the Marketplace, but they are both pretty bare bones.

6. An ftp application, similar to Fetch.

In addition, I would like to know whether leaving an application running when the phone is shut off--i.e. the red button has been pushed, the screen is dark--uses any power. More generally, I would like to know if ordinary applications, such as games, use power when they are not actually being used but are loaded. If the answer is yes, there should be an application that lets you shut down other applications. Currently some apps provide the option of quitting, others do not.

That will do for tonight—by tomorrow night I may have more items for my wish list.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm curious -- what sort of FTPing (or SFTPing) would you do from a phone? We'd have fun porting Fetch to Android or the iPhone, but I'm not sure exactly what people would want from it.

Thanks,

Jim Matthews
Fetch Softworks

David Friedman said...

Jim asks why I would want Fetch on my G1.

I have a webpage. I could easily imagine a situation where I had to update something on it, for instance information on a class web page, perhaps fixing a broken link or announcing a change in the syllabus. If I didn't have access to a computer with internet connection, I could download the file to my phone, fix it, upload.

Jadagul said...

There is now a tethering application out for Android. Apparently it's a bit of a pain to use, but might be useful.