Physical Attributes

The tapered two-tone design with fingerprint resistant coating on the back makes the Nexus One a pleasure to hold and use. It is significantly lighter than the iPhone 3Gs and also feels smaller in your hand.

The resolution of the device is stellar – beats the iPhone 3GS and other similarly priced devices out the park. The only other device that can even claim to come close is the HTC HD, but its a distant second.

The screen is a fingerprint magnet – do yourself a favor and order a clear scratch resistant cover for it.

In bright sun light you will need to increase the brightness otherwise face squinting. Haptic feedback makes using the touch-screen only device a bit more intuitive but it still doesn’t match the authority that you get from a hardware keyed device.

Nothing else of significance to report here.

OS

I’m not going to discuss iPhone vs. Android here…just my impressions of Android as compared to other Android devices.

There is one thing to say about this … which summarizes my impression of the device: SPEED; compared to the HTC Hero its miles, miles, miles ahead.

The 1GHz SD processor makes launching applications a complete no brainer; instantaneous responses to commands and I have yet to face an instant where I pressed an icon and then had to wait long enough to press it again (thinking I might have missed it the first time). Even hefty applications (like GPS navigation software) load quickly and exit equally as quickly. Rumors afloat that with Froyo and the improvements in the runtime, things are only going to get faster and that’s a welcome change for me.

Applications are getting better – but still are lacking that overall fit & finish that we are so spoiled with when it comes to the Apple store. However, the different variety of applications and the open nature of the Android Marketplace makes for a nice change. You are more likely to find that oddball application on Android than on the Apple Store (for example, there is a Biryani Finder app, which will locate the nearest Indian restaurant selling biryani); but at the same time you are going to have to sift through a lot of “spam” applications (applications that do nothing other than add useless ring tones and wallpapers, or are simply a shortcut icon to a website).

However, if you are used to the quality of the apps on the apple store; the android marketplace still needs to catch up, and its doing so at a frantic pace.

The Nexus One was always a developer’s machine – which means that Google have not left many locks on the device. Rooting it opens up all kinds of wonderful options.

The little gimmicky things (animated wallpapers and the cube effect of the apps menu) are a nice touch, but for me, they don’t add much value other than to give the processor something to do when idling.

As a phone

One thing you can say about the Nexus One – its got excellent fidelity when it comes to voice calling. Listeners commented on the clarity of my voice and I ended up not “yelling” at my phone just so the other person could hear me. This makes for a happy Burhan and that’s a Good Thing.

The earpiece was also fine – nothing much to report here. Speakerphone works as expected; it won’t match a SE or even the iPhone when playing music, but that’s why you have an iPod, right?

As a gaming device

Can’t match the iPhone in this department – but this is not a reflection on the hardware, just that currently there aren’t that many apps available to take advantage of the hardware acceleration and meaty processor.

As an Internet device

The screen resolution means that text is sharp even at smaller fonts. For quick browsing the device works great and multi touch on the browser makes zooming in and selecting items a breeze, it is only bested by the iphone when it comes to rendering speed. You will not be disappointed.

Hope this helps people – if you want something specific, let me know.

Of course, this is all a publicity stunt for DHL, but a good one!

For those who are not keeping up with Intel’s naming schemes — monteniva is the next generation mobile chipset offering quad core computing for laptops.

Via Engadget

It used to be that installation was the biggest hurdle with Linux — not so anymore. Installation couldn’t be simpler; you answer a few questions, click next, choose the disk partitions and anaconda (the Fedora installer) takes care of the rest; including setting up the bootloader to correctly boot into Vista.  There is even a screen by screen presentation that shows you the exact steps you need to take to get it installed.

Fedora 9 Includes:

• Firefox 3.5
• KDE 4
• GNOME 2.22
• Openoffice 2.4 (although recently Openoffice 3.0 beta was released with support for Office 2007 formats)
• The ext4 file system

To be fair, most of the above is also part of Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” but the reason I switched to Fedora is because their new NetworkManager application has added experimental support for GSM modems.  Previously you had to use third party workarounds that were vendor specific (ie, only works with Huwaei devices) or provides little or no support. I can also confirm that it works with the USB modems that are being distributed by both Zain and Wataniya.

So now I’m car shopping — and considering the new 2008 Altima. Any suggestions? I need something with plenty of room, and plenty of vroom as well.

I originally considered getting a used Denali; but my good friend Slim Shady convinced me to get a new car instead of an old truck. Opinions, suggestions “hey I have wasta at _______” welcome in the comments.

Proving that they were serious; the Ministry of Interior issued 150 violations on the first day of the law coming into effect.

So watch out, stay safe, and buckle up.