Photo from Gizmodo

You may remember a while back I debated getting an iPhone vs G1 and despite my constant tweeting to that point about getting an iPhone I ended up with an HTC Magic.

To clarify, the the T-Mobile G1 in the States is the HTC Dream in Canada, and the T-Mobile myTouch 3G (which was expected to be called the ‘G2′) is the HTC Magic in Canada. Both run on Android 1.5 (Cupcake) in Canada.

It’s no secret that I’ve had some second-thoughts about my decision to go Android. My HTC Magic is tragically under-powered, and still quite buggy, not to mention the fact that neither Rogers nor HTC has released an OS upgrade (Android 1.6 Donut) to the Canadian version of the phone, which has been out and available for quite a few months now.

Leading up to the release of these “Google-phones” in Canada, I had been desperate to get my hands on an iPhone, so why did I finally decide to go with the Magic? I think it has a lot to do with my tendency to be an early-adopter. When it comes down to it I love having something new that not many people have. Add to that the fact that I’m a Google fanboy, and despite the fact that at the time Android was still in its infancy and only starting to get its legs, it had an allure to me. But for the first few months I was seriously regretting my decision.

I’ve griped recently on Twitter about dropping my phone in a cup of beer and all the problems I’m having with it since (random shutdowns, acccelerometer doesn’t work, SD card not always recognized), but regardless it’s still doing most of what I need it to do.

So despite the fact that the iPhone is probably the easiest phone in the world to use, and the fact that the number of high-quality apps available for the iPhone far exceeds that for Android, I still no longer regret my decision.

Here’s where I get into the “why”.

If you haven’t noticed, there have been a lot of Android phones coming out recently (in Canada, we’re still a little behind most when it comes to release dates). There’s the original Android phone, the G1, then came then HTC Magic, then follow that up with the HTC Hero with the custom Sense UI, a few others which don’t quite interest me as much, then there’s the Motorola Droid (pictured above) (Milestone on Telus in Canada). This baby runs the same processor as the iPhone 3GS, has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard (although according to some it’s not that great of a physical keyboard), and it runs Android 2.0 (Eclair).

According to almost everyone, this is the closest any Android handset has come to being an “iPhone killer”. It’s fast, it’s slick and it’s got lots of great features such as being the first handset to have Google Maps Navigation, a GPS turn-by-turn navigation system, FOR FREE.

The Android community is growing. In fact it’s exploding. Perhaps not literally as I’m picturing in my mind, but in terms of the number and quality of developers creating apps for Android, and the number of handsets. You might be thinking about those other smartphone OSes such as Windows Mobile, Blackberry OS and Symbian (Nokia), but in terms of growth I do believe that Android is outpacing all of them (especially WinMo). But don’t take my word for it, google it. In fact some handset makers are even ditching WinMo in favour of Android. TAKE THAT MICROSOFT!

But I think that’s what excites me most about Android. I can look forward to dozens of beautiful (and some not-so-beautiful) handsets from multiple handset makers on multiple networks (yes I know the iPhone is on all three major Canadian networks now) and not be tied in any way shape or form to the Apple empire.

Now, there’s no question in my mind (although my wife might disagree) that I need a new phone. With the Milestone coming to Telus in early 2010, I’ll either be looking at getting access to an unlocked Milestone, or figure out if it’s economically worthwhile to buy myself out of my Rogers contract and switch to Telus.

I’m not trying to convince you that Android is better than an iPhone. People have become quite attached to their iPhones over the years, and I’m not attempting to convert any iPhone lovers. I’m not really trying to convert anyone, but if you’re thinking of making the switch to a smartphone, don’t just automatically think the iPhone is the way to go. Android, quite simply, is the best alternative to an iPhone and seems like the safest bet at this point to challenge the iPhone as the top smartphone in the world.

If you’re following me on Twitter you might know that I’m extremely excited about upgrading my cell phone in a couple of months to the iPhone. I currently have an army of gadgets I carry around with me most places I go: my dumb-phone (Sony Ericsson S500i unlocked on Rogers GSM), my work cell phone (BlackBerry 8830 World Edition) and my MP3 player (16GB iPod Touch 1st Gen). Recently, however, Rogers brought the G1 (an HTC Dream running the Google Android Mobile OS) to Canada and this has made me rethink the iPhone. Continue Reading…

I’ve been using Gmail for years and foresee using it for years to come. I’ve just recently become obsessed with getting my Gmail contacts up to date with correct email addresses, phone numbers and addresses. I know people still use actual address books, but they’re bulky, usually left at home, and harder to update. Plus, for those of us with smartphones, Google Sync handles the task of getting your Gmail contacts into your smartphone and syncing them back and forth when changes are made. Google Contacts is now even its own stand-alone page instead of having to be accessed through Gmail.

There are a few things however that Google seems to be missing the boat on when it comes to their contacts, and judging from their competitions address books, they are glaring omissions. You can add your own custom fields for the options below, however custom fields do not sync to your mobile device.

1. Birthdays and Anniversaries – Google Contacts does not have a native field for these important dates. This would be especially handy if it created its own “Birthdays & Anniversaries” calendar in Google Calendar.
2. Websites – The masters of the internet omitted a section for personal and/or work website. Considering this is an option in basically every smartphone’s address book, it seems only logical to have a native field for this.
3. Photo – The option to add a photo to each contact (or grab the photo a person has already added themselves if they’re using Gmail) is great but it is not exported nor synced to your smartphone. This would be especially handy on an iPhone or Blackberry as the photo is displayed to identify a caller.

I found another blog post by Joseph Scott here that brings up similar points. Let’s hope Google hears our cries and gets these features under development. I hope one day Google releases an Outlook type application with Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and Gmail Tasks integrated. That would be heavenly because as great as it is to create Application shortcuts for each using Google Chrome, it would still be nice to keep them all in one desktop app.

As a side note, I attempted using Outlook’s “Home Page” feature to make Outlook open the Google applications instead of the built-in ones, but it just wasn’t the same.

The latest animated video from College Humor is hilarious:

I love College Humor.