Nexus One Archive

When I was a teenager, my friends and I would have video game battles where we would head down to the local pizzeria and drop many quarters into the new game to see who was best. Most times the games could only handle one or two players at a time so we would team up to eventually crown a team champion.

I learned this weekend that there’s a new team game hitting the scene which allows owners of Android-powered mobile devices to connect them in a Voltron/Constructicons fashion. Blinkendroid is an Android app that you can install on an Android phone and then connect with other devices to create large installations of the Blinkendroid.

This past weekend, attendees of Androidcamp Stuttgart were able to connect 51 devices together to create a huge Blinkendroid installation. You can see the results in the video below. If you want to get your closest 52 Android users together to beat the Stuttgart group,  here’s the app to install on your device.
Continue reading “Blinkendroid Record Up To 51 Devices” »

Several years ago I was with a friend at a steakhouse in Berlin and right outside our window were a few huge billboards promoting the Motorola Razr phone. Our discussion that evening seemed to focus mostly on mobile and where the market was headed. It’s amazing how quickly technology has advanced over the past two years. This morning we took a look at the Google Nexus One supersmartphone. Those Razr billboards promoted both Motorola and the Razr device. I was unable to find any information on the Nexus One ordering site that provided information about the phone’s manufacturer (which is HTC).

After posting the Nexus One story, I wrote “facebook phone” on my story ideas pad. This afternoon blogger Robert Scoble also mentioned the idea of a Facebook phone and that some sort of phone with an Android operating system was a possibility.

Back to the Facebook phone in a minute. Are the days of manufacturer-branded phones numbered? What I mean is that in the near future we will buy branded phones. For example, instead of a Nokia 9100A, will we buy the Bing phone (which is manufactured by Nokia). When I walk around Times Square, there are many billboards for HTC and their phones. Does anyone actually care who manufacturers the phone anymore? Does the average consumer select a phone because it’s a Motorola or a Samsung? Or do they select a phone based on the features, software, apps, etc. that are available and most importantly, the device cost. It’s the same reason why I believe Intel is wasting money buying bloggers for their Insiders campaign.

Continue reading “Is The Facebook Phone Next?” »

Two days ago Google launched their own phone — an HTC-manufactured device with Google sticker) — named the Nexus One. The device is apparently is the hottest thing going today. One tech blogger who, only a few weeks ago, said the Motorola Droid was the most awesomest phone is now googling about the Nexus One’s superphone super-awesomeness.

The Nexus One phone is currently available in the U.S. for $179 with a new T-Mobile contract (Verizon coming later this year) or $529 unlocked and ready to work anywhere. Of course anywhere really isn’t anywhere – it doesn’t work with Sprint and with AT&T you only get the 56k baud EDGE speed.

All of that aside, the phone and the live demo looked pretty sweet. Much sweeter than the Samsung Ace I am using from the last decade. I’m hoping to upgrade to something more modern at some point this year.

You can read the professional reviews of the phone on a variety of tech blogs. As a deal hunter, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the deal hunters think of the phone. Deal hunters are more like regular people than tech bloggers are (in terms of looks and finances) so it might give us a clue as to how the phone will do beyond the early adopter purchases. Remember too that many people are locked into iPhone 3Gs contracts and won’t be busting out of them to move over to a Nexus One.

Continue reading “What Do Deal Hunters Think About the Nexus One?” »