Voice Search

So the G1 got a system update today.

“Mardi Gras.” → mardi gras

I suppose it's obvious. But then, the best things so often are.

“... ♫ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? ♪” → supercalifragilistic expialidocious

It can be a little tricky to use, mind. You don't speak into the phone like you do for a conversation;

“... 物の哀れ。” → illinois

you just speak at the phone, as though it were on speakerphone.

“GameFAQs.” → gamecocks

Which I suppose it actually is.

“Monomorphism.” → monomorphism

It's also a shiny new toy; I have little doubt that thousands of G1 owners are

“Epimorphism.” → ectomorphs

hammering Google's server with random phrases and fragments,

“In a galaxy far far away.” → in a galaxy far far away

bits of half-remembered poetry or song lyrics,

“While the evening is spread out against the sky —” → biodiesel industries houston skyline

or just random words.

“Unsophisticated.” → concert tickets

I suppose it's good practice for their recognition systems,

“Anechoic chamber.” → minnesota chamber

but given that people are just going to be playing around,

[very high-pitched] “Yay!” → yahoo

they're likely to pick up a fair amount of deliberate noise.

“Da da da, da dat-da-da da-dat-da-da da-dat-da da dat-da!” → joseph sylvester ga

(In every sense of the word.)

[random yawning] → where in the middle

[whistled tone] → phone

[snap of the fingers] → No matches found

Snow

out
(of the apartment)

It is snowing.

In Houston.

What the hell.

In the quarter-century I've lived here (or what I can remember of it) we've had snow, like, three times, and never this early in the year: the earliest in recorded history, I think, was Christmas Eve.

---

Also, the G1 really can't handle taking a picture of the night sky (in a doubtless vain attempt to catch an image of falling snowflakes):

Apparently it refuses to store an image until it has something it will call an image. This is probably what you want in most cases -- e.g., if your finger is over the lens -- but yeah.

Here's the closest I could come to capturing some, under a nearby houselight:

It rather looks like sparklers.

Some of the kids in this complex (sorry, no photographs) were trying to gather enough snow to build a snowman; but that deteriorated into a snowball fight. (Which is possibly rarer than snowmen here, so all the better!)

It is delightfully cold. I can't feel my fingers, and can barely type.

— excuse me. I feel a sudden urge to make hot cocoa.

The G1

So you've probably at least heard of the G1, possibly by its more common epithet "the Google phone". And, well, it is what it is; it's a phone-sized computer with a phone attached, and now I can play Zork anywhere, at any time. At least until I get a phone call, or need to make one.

The G1 is the first modern phone that I've owned: my last phone was a Motorola RAZR, whose UI was painful for anything but making calls by dialing the number. I've never texted much (see previous post); honestly I got the G1 mostly for a) mobile access to maps, b) mobile access to the Internet, and c) geek cred. (Yes, technically b subsumes a.) So far, in the month or so that I've had it, I've used it just enough not to be sure whether or not the additional $25 charge for the data plan is actually worth it. (I'll give it a full year and see.)

The touch-screen itself is consistent, but kind of irritating at times: the mechanism it uses apparently is heat-sensitive as well as touch-sensitive, since tapping it with a fingernail or stylus yields no reaction. (Although I just ran a DS stylus under hot water for a minute or so and tried that, and still got no reaction; this demonstrates nothing, since the stylus probably wasn't up to body temperature, but.) For all that, it is generally responsive when you actually want it to be. It's single-touch, not multi-touch like the iPhone, but I don't feel the lack.

The third-party applications currently available are a mixed lot. Too many are painfully unprofessional and unpolished. Worse, many of them request completely inappropriate things: ZXing, a barcode scanner application (listed simply as "Barcode Scanner" on Android Market), requests read and write access to one's contact list, as well as full internet access. Why does a barcode scanner need these things? (Answer: it doesn't, and I'll cover what's up with ZXing in detail in my next post.) However, there is still the occasional gem, such as Twisty (alluded to above), a Java implementation of the Z-machine, or ShopSavvy, a program that — given a barcode in the camera view — looks online for the best prices for that product near your current location.

The camera isn't, to my admittedly unprofessional eye, of very good quality: everything seems to be consistently reddish, and somewhat grainy, at least as displayed in the full-screen preview. (It's possible that actual pictures turn out better; I haven't done any serious testing on it.)

All in all, it's definitely an improvement over my old RAZR; as an early adopter of Android, I suppose I can't ask more than that of it yet. On a scale of 1 to 1, I give it a tentative 1.