Setting up the Google Android dev phone

1. Remove the rear cover - people with long nails will find it easy - others will struggle a bit.

2. Insert battery and a GSM sim card.





3. Press and hold the red power button.

4. Android logo appears on the screen..!




5. Welcome message will appear.

6. In the next step it will ask you to create/login into your google account to import contacts etc. This is a compulsary step - little bit annoying.

7. The above step requries internet connectivity. If the SIM which you inserted has GPRS enabled already, you are at luck. Press the menu button - click on APN settings. Remove all the apn settings which are already present and add the settings of your provider.

Airtel Settings :-

APN address:airtelgprs.com
Port : 8080 (for Mobile Office)

MCC code for AirTel GSM is 404 for all states.

MNC Codes :
10 Delhi
31 Kolkata
96 Haryana
95 Kerala
94 Tamilnadu
97 Uttar Pradesh (West)
92 Mumbai
98 Gujarat
90 Maharashtra
93 Madhya Pradesh
45 Karnataka
49 Andhra Pradesh
02 Punjab
40 Chennai
03 Himachai Pradesh

Rest all entries should be blank.

9. Once gprs connectivity is established, enter the google username/pasoword - it takes a few minutes to import stuff from google servers. After that the dektop appears on the phone, and you are all set to go..!

Gphone reached me..!

On 16th June, 5 days after I ordered, the Google phone arrived at my house in Kannur. Very impressed with the speed of delivery.

Phone and accessories were packed in a simple white cardboard box. Very simple. Doesn't have Google/HTC logos everywhere (unlike the Iphone and other counterparts). Phone itself looked very simple - doesn't have that Iphone's glamour and finish. Beauty lies in simplicity - http://google.com - can't give a better example for that..!

Awaiting the Google Phone ...

Ordered Google Android dev phone G1 on 11th July afternoon. By evening same day, got an email from Google saying that my phone has been shipped. The email contained a reference number. UPS.com was the shipping agency. They provide a way for tracking our package, with the reference number provided.

http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/track

It was very exciting to get up everyday morning and see how much closer my phone is to me :)

How to buy Google Phone in India?

1. To obtain a developer phone, we need to buy the Android developer license first. This costs 25 USD. http://market.android.com/publish/buyDeveloperPhone

2. Once you have a dev-license you can order a dev phone from the Android Market

3. G1 costs 399 USD.

i. If you want to get it shipped to India directly, you can provide your India address. It will be shipped to India, but you will have to pay $571 including shipping charges and import duties.

ii. If you have an acquaintance of your traveling from US to India, you can provide his US address, and have him carry it to India for you. This will save more than 150 USD.

4. If you are shipping to India, it takes less than a week for delivery. I live in a small town in Kerala, and I got the phone delivered in 5 days.

Android and Me

I am a programmer developing web applications. I was madly interested in electronics during school days, then got carried away by the charm of programming, when the little me saw a few lines of Basic, controlling such a complex electronic device (the computer). Even after getting into programming, craze for electronics never left me. The combined interest motivated me into embedded programming where software talked to hardware directly.

Nowadays I do Web 2.0 application development for a living - code which doesn't even come near any hardware. Even though I enjoy writing web based software which reaches people all around the globe through the magical web, the electronics enthusiast inside me was craving for programming that involved controlling and using some hardware devices.

So when I started hearing about mobile applications, I was excited. Got into Iphone, but soon got disgusted by the extreme proprietary style of Apple. An open minded developer who comes from the GNU/Linux world cannot cope up with Apple & Iphone. Tried other mobiles as well with J2ME. But they all lacked an open environment and community participation which I was used to.

When the Open Handset Alliance was formed and Google came up with Android - open source Linux based OS for mobile computing devices - I couldn't ask for anything more. I used to follow news related to Android very closely. Was waiting for Google & HTC to launch their phones in India. 3G Networks became available in India during this time period. Came to know about Google's Dev Phone G1 - fully unlocked version of the Google phone for developers. Couldn't wait any longer. Even though import duties + shipping charges were very high, went ahead and ordered the dev phone.

Google dev phone G1 - costs $399. Including shipping and import duties $571.

Visit http://android.brightstarcorp.com/ for full details about the phone.