OK – I’ve now had almost 2 weeks with my Android powered phone, and several years with Windows Mobile.

It is no secret that I’m convinced Windows Mobile is badly broken and in need of a major overhaul, but how well does it do when up against Android?

I’ll be comparing the newest (and only) Android phone, with the newest Windows Mobile device; the Sprint Touch Pro.

Let me start with the basics – Look and feel/usability

Windows Mobile is not very well adapted for touch use, especially if it involves the bog standard OS as delivered by Microsoft.

Companies like HTC and Samsung have invested millions in developing their own shells for Windows Mobile that help make things a little better. However, at the end of the day however, it’s still not enough.

Even with the most recent touch interfaces (HTC TouchFlo 3D),  as soon as you leave the warm and cozy touch enabled shell, you are back in the non-touch enabled WinMo apps. There are also some silly interface flaws; in the newest phones from HTC, you’ll find a touch sensitive scroll wheel, but you won’t be able to use the wheel in most apps (without some manual hacking). For most applications in Windows Mobile, you will still need to use a stylus to control things.

Android on the other hand has touch/gesture based controls built into every app; from the music player to the email client, everything responds very well, and is even on par with the de-facto touch standard on phones; the iPhone. The Android interface is not perfect; every now and then you still run into some inconsistencies in the controls, but for a first generation phone, it’s close to perfect.

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And if you’ve already purchased your Android/G1 phone you probably won’t be happy with it.  Starting tomorrow, October 29, the G1 phone will be available at WalMart stores for $30 less than T-Mobile is charging at their own stores.

Seriously, this reeks of the Apple iPhone fiasco where they cut the price significantly shortly after release and backpedaled into giving lots of customers credits at the iTunes store to make up for the perceived slight.  perhaps the real question here is what, if anything, T-Mobile is going to do about it for the earliest adopters.  I’m betting nothing, but who knows.

There is no easy way of saying it; the battery life of the T-Mobile G1 is beyond horrible. A full G1 is down to just 15% battery life by noon.

This is clearly unacceptable, but T-Mobile does not have a solution as of now. Their customer support staff have been handed a list of points to discuss with the customer, including insane suggestions like staying away from low rated marketplace applications and turning 3G and wireless syncing off.

The final solution they suggested was to check out the local Circuit City to see if they happen to have any batteries that fit the phone because T-Mobile currently does not have any accessories in stock for the new phone.

The only remaining solution is to return the phone for a full refund, which I’m sure a lot of people will end up having to do.

When I confronted the support rep with the battery life times posted on T-Mobile.com, he blamed HTC. Great way to take responsibility for a problem.

Wow Motorola. You’ve really outdone yourself this time. 2 weeks ago, the folks at Motorola announced the AURA handset.

This limited edition super luxury phone will retail for $2000 and is supposed to feature the best quality parts ever found in a Motorola handset. But I can’t help feel they got their inspiration from the 6 year old Motorola V70 (on the left above).

I mean, Really, c’mon Motorola, is this the best you can do? At the end of the day it’s just another Motorola with a crappy interface, a bog standard 2MP camera and just 2GB storage.

Sorry for the messy post, but I’ve just opened the box of my new Sprint Touch Pro (the CDMA version of the HTC Touch Pro/ATT Fuze), and decided to post a couple of photos of the device next to my old Sprint Mogul.

Initial impressions are that this is the best CDMA Windows Mobile phone to date.

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Now that there is finally a phone on the market running Google’s Android OS – the T-Mobile G1 – the question seems to be when other carriers will make a similar move.  And the answer from Sprint is not any time soon.

Apparently the folks over at Sprint have declared the Android OS isn’t “good enough to put the Sprint brand on.”  They might be right.  The OS probably isn’t perfect in its first release.  But for the CEO of the company to come out and state that the OS is simply not ready yet is a pretty aggressive move.

Sprint is planning on supporting the Android OS “at some time in the future” so no need to give up all hope, but I would guess the horizon is pretty far out at this point.

For folks looking at the Amazon Kindle but a bit put off by the $360 price tag, there is a coupon that can knock an extra $50 off the price: OPRAHWINFREY.

I like the device.  A lot.  I’m tempted to finally get one instead of lusting after my wife’s but I’ve also heard rumors of a next gen model so I might hold out for that.  Still, the $50 off deal is a pretty nice savings on a great eBook device.

OK, so T-mobile suddenly went from zero to hero with their 3G network. I’m amazed at how stable their 3G coverage has been in my area, and how far the 3G coverage reaches. They have several 3G phones in their lineup, but not a single modem card.

To make matters worse, none of the major wireless manufacturers have even announced a 3G 1700 (AWS) modem card or USB adapter either.

I’m hoping someone has a tethering app really soon, or I’ll be stuck using Sprint for my wireless broadband service.

This is a nice surprise for G1 users – T-Mobile has included unlimited hotspot access to the phone, and made the process even easier by adding a nifty little hotspot locator app in the Android marketplace. 

The locator uses GPS to find the closest hotspot location, which can then instantly be mapped in Google maps.

This phone just keeps getting better!

I was lucky enough to get my pre-ordered T-Mobile G1 in the mail yesterday. It’s now been 24 hours since I put my Blackberry Curve down, and used the G1 for my daily routine.

I’m happy to say that it has been a near perfect experience. The start was a little rocky as T-Mobile apparently forgot to correctly provision my account, but after a 2 minute call I was good to go.

Here is my experience with the G1 up till now:

The great:

The Interface, the hardware, the Gmail push client, the browser

The good:

The Android marketplace, Google maps, the music app

The bad:

GPS coverage, rubber flap covering the USB port, no standard headphone jack, battery life

I’ll only go into the last item; battery life is a big problem. I started the day at 6:45am with a 100% battery, and by 2pm I was down to 20%. That could be a big problem, especially if you are used to 3-4 days from your Blackberry.

I’ll go into the device in some more depth in the coming days, but so far it is safe to say that the device is a real beauty, and that the Android OS is quite stunning. All I REALLY want now is a T-mobile compatible USB HSDPA modem!