i just switched from curve to g1, and it’s been 100% positive. there is a skype app (iSkoot) for the G1, but it uses the regular voice network to send audio to their servers and then forward to skype, so it doesn’t help with your minutes (i signed up for tmobile@home to take care of my minutes issue). i wouldn’t be surprised to see a true voip application at some point but it’s not here yet.

sms browsing is great, for voicemail you just get a notification and have to call your voicemail to listen.

gmail address book integration is perfect, you can select which subset of your contacts you want to sync, if you like, and if someone uses a google talk, their presence is noted in the contact list.

i’m not totally familiar with the iphone beyond the basic apps, but the UI on the G1 is not idiot proof or standardized across apps, it can take a few tries to figure something out, but the upside is you get the flexibility to do things how you want, rather than how steve jobs wants you to do them.

i agree with rcoder, i’m looking forward to an asus netbook/umpc running android. but i am also anticipating android evolving and integrating other google features, like gtalk voice, and possibly even some of googles recent acquisitions like grand central, and jaiku.

the real highlight of the g1, to me, though is the background running location aware games and apps. there are two games in particular, one called zombie run where you have to escape zombies as they appear, and another by joyity (forgot the name) that is a multiplayer game where each player is both an assassin and a target and must kill their target before being killed. i’m sure once non-free apps come to the market, we’ll see much more…

My last BlackBerry was a Curve, and I found it to be a *great* device for email and calling, but kind of miserable when it came to web browsing and 3rd-party apps. Obviously, RIM is all too aware that Apple is seriously cutting into their marketshare, so I expect things to get better, but there’s no likely upgrade path from the current generation of hardware to whatever shiny future they hope to realize.

The “context switching” comment was mostly just a reflection on the relative design quality of the current crop of Android apps vs. those on the iPhone. It’s a question of the maturity and size of the application ecosystem for each platform, but I’m cautiously optimistic about the potential for Android apps in the future.

VoIP would be a definite win, but one that (thankfully) neither Google nor T-Mobile have indicated they’ll block if a third-party solution comes along, which lies in stark contrast to the Apple/AT&T position. There’s actually already a Skype application, but my understanding is that it still makes calls over the normal GSM network — you just pay SkypeOut rates instead of the carrier’s for long distance and international calling.

One big usability win that the G1 shares with the BlackBerry is that voicemail, SMS, email, Twitter replies, etc., all end up in the same flexible notification area on screen. The sliding “alert” widget on the G1 is a really nice, unobtrusive way to deal with all the system events, and keeps you from having to switch back and forth between different apps just to see if anything has been updated.

As expected, the Google integration is top-notch. Contacts and calendar events are transparently synchronized with the Google-hosted versions in near-real-time, and you never have to worry about forgetting to copy a phone number off of your phone in case you have to use it in some other context later.

I’ve been weighing it against the Blackberry Curve, which would be less expensive, and permits wifi calling. So your Blackberry comparisons are helpful.

Can you explain what you mean by “more context-switching”?

I’m hopeful that a wifi calling (or Skype voice) app will be forthcoming soon. In which case, I could get a really low-minute calling plan, and save some bucks that way.

Can you browse voice messages and SMS messages conveniently? Pretty happy with that?

Also, how is the address book integration with Gmail address book? I think that’s likely to be the most significant feature to me, on a day-by-day basis. (Apart from calendar integration, which I’m sure is pretty straightforward.)

Could be that mix of a netbook and smart phone.

,Michael Martin
http://www.googleandblog.com/