Sci-Tech

Sleek and Sexy

Md Shamim -ul-alam

This new year got the trio -- the Motorola Droid , the Palm Pre and Apple's iPhone 3GS a new company as search engine giant Google made its entry into cell phone space with its 'super phone' -- Google Nexus One .

Built by HTC, much hype was centered on it as Google was not unveiling even snaps of it before official launching on January 6, 2010, though gadgetholics got tidbits of it through internet. If you facebook or twitter or blog, you will find groups, posts and pages created pretty long ago before the launch . This sleek smart phone is thinner than the iPhone (wow….size zero ?), as only has 11.5 mm depth weighing some 130 grams . It's described as "No thicker than a number 2 pencil, no heavier than a Swiss army knife." It packs a Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon chip, has a super high-resolution OLED touchscreen, no keyboard, and two mics. The mic on the back of the phone helps eliminate background noise. It also features a 5 mega pixels camera, GPS, digital compass, accelerometer, light and proximity sensor. You have High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) plus Wi-Fi , EDGE facility to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity for web-surfing and file-sharing . This super phone embodies a new cut of open source Android operating system- Android 2.0.1 . The Nexus One overhauled the home screen interface adding several 3D user interface features and gallery apps , thereby pulling off to create a jaw- dropping effect .

As a troubleshooter to texting-while-driving problem , you have Around Voice , a voice recognition app ,believed to be the showstopper for Google .It accepts voice dictation for any text field you want web search, SMS text messaging, Twitter, e-mail . Being fast , it uses the server to recognize the voice, not phone. You also have Google Voice app pre-loaded on every U.S. Nexus One.

Hmm….just one moment before you sign your soul up to Google phone , as in many aspects , it doesn't live up to the expectations ascribed to . First comes the absence of multi-touch facility, thanks to Apple's patent on pinch-to-zoom gestures. This is going to hold you back if you want to pinch to zoom in Google Maps like you do on your iPhone , or to play 3D games on a touchscreen .

Another drawback hits Google as there were rumors that Nexus One phones incorporated VoIP ; that means it's time to say good-bye to traditional cellular voice networks and start making all phone calls over data networks instead . This would offer no limits on minutes and you are free to make calls when and where you want. But, this turned out to be false.

The Nexus One's software superiority will be short-lived as the new Android software will appear on the Motorola Droid and any other Android phones with the hardware plus voice recognition features.

If you were hoping to jam in style, then the Nexus One disappoints as it overhauled Android interface but failed to groom music player app offering old wine in a new bottle .

One last thing…Google's super phone is available on T-Mobile for $179.00, unlocked only for $ 529.00. Waiting to find one in Bangladesh…

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