This is not your practice blog

More about what's happening here

Hello. In yesterday's post I described what I was doing and tried to establish a fair, level tone, and I'd like to thank most commenters for noticing that and following suit. As I said then, I'm recording observations about what happens as I try out a Nexus One instead of my usual iPhone 3GS for 3 months, a nice solid block of time. I'm not declaring one phone to be better than the other. I think they're both amazing, and I'm having fun playing with a great new technology toy. And I'm not trying to evaluate phone features for anybody but me. This is all about my own experiences and preferences.

Yes, I work for Google, although not on Android. No, Google didn't ask me to do this -- I thought it up myself. In fact, I really should say that everything I write her represents my own opinion, not Google's. No, I haven't already decided what I'm going to do after the 3 months are up. If I had to decide today ... well, I'm glad I don't have to decide today.

Thanks for reading. I'll have more tips & stuff tomorrow.

Nexus One info for iPhone users

I've been a happy iPhone user since the day the first one went on sale. About 4 weeks ago, I got a Nexus One from my employer (UPDATE: to be clear, I work for Google), and it seemed pretty cool, so I decided to try it out as my actual, one-and-only cell phone. To make this a fair test, I decided to stop using my beloved iPhone for 3 months and use only the Nexus One.

If you're an iPhone user trying out a Nexus One, here are some tips to get you started.

• You can simply move the SIM from iPhone to the N1. However, you won't get 3G on AT&T, only Edge. This hasn't been a big deal for me. And my iPhone data plan seems to work fine for the N1. 
• I miss the iPhone's silence/ring switch, but you can silence the phone by swiping the volume control on the lock screen. If the phone is already on, hold down the Volume Down button to (silently) silence.
• If you use Gmail or Google Calendar, you'll love the native apps for those products. Finally, they get out of browser jail.
• Voice input is not just a toy: it really works and I rely on it. By speaking clearly (but not necessarily slowly), I usually get 100% accuracy, even if there's background noise, which I think is the noise-canceling mic at work.
• The Android Market (where you buy apps) has a 24-hour money back policy. So you can try any app for a day, then return it if you don't want to keep it.
• You can double-tap to enlarge in the browser, but you can't pinch or spread. There's another browser (imagine that) in the Market called Dolphin that implements gestures, including pinch and spread. I just started trying it out.
• There's a built-in app that tells you how much of the battery is being used by which apps and features. This is invaluable. 
• Quickest and most flattering comparison vs. iPhone: put an iPhone and an N1 side by side and compare the screens. The N1 just pops.
• You can't scroll to the top by touching the top of the screen, but as a reasonable workaround, a flick or two usually scrolls all the way up; there's less friction in scrolling than on the iPhone.
• Instead of AT&T's visual voicemail, sign up for Google Voice and configure it to handle your voicemail. You'll get visual voicemail plus text transcripts that are remarkably good. And you can even send voicemails to your email or listen to them via a web UI.
• You'll re-learn to type, just as you did when you got the iPhone. Best N1 keyboard feature is the list of several autocomplete choices. I now type faster than I do on the iPhone (which is pretty fast).
• You can't use the web while you're on a phone call, but you can run apps in the background. This makes chat apps like Google Talk actually usable and is good for music apps like Pandora.

I'll have more to write as this experiment continues.