T-Mobile G1 is now working
The black T-Mobile G1 Android phone arrived but try as I might I could not get it to work out of the box. You must sign in to your existing GMail account before you can do ANYTHING with the phone and I got repeated communications errors. A quick trip to the local T-Mobile store and replacement SIM card later and the G1 activated and is working like a champ. The initial GMail sync was lightning fast and I am finding 3 – 4 bars of 3G strength everywhere so far. I have tested sending an email and making a call (sorry Kevin) and so far so good. For those doubters who claimed fake that the G1 had shown up here’s a couple of quick and dirty photos allaying those false claims. 
BTW the reps at T-Mobile told me the white model will not be available until November.
Great Job, I knew it wasn’t fake, I think they were just kidding. So you have 3G in H-town. Now if you could just drive around the outskirts of Houston and map the signal strength on a Google Map and post it here that would be nice. Perhaps you could place a red ring of death around the city where the coverage drops to 1 bar (just kidding, I know Houston is a gigantic city). Looking forward to further review and keep up the good work.
I’m leaning toward getting one but I have enough trouble with only two bars for data at my home in Pearland. Don’t need another slooooooow data device to gripe about!!
Got mine today too, and just in the process of setting it up. So far I am not liking the keyboard. The “button bar” at the right side/bottom seems to get in the way based on how I am holding it to type. I probably need to figure out a new way to type as it is not working like my Tytnn.
how do you find the lack of pdf viewer and exchange sync? it’s driving me crazy! i cannot work on it. all my backup files are pdf. even google docs are for viewing, not editing. that was strange
If it was 1996 that would come in second place (just behind the HP200LX) for it’s design. Yuck.
My unboxing: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/unboxing-the-htc-dreamt-mobile-g1/
So if you you don’t have a Gmail account the phone is useless?
John in Norway, you can create a GMail account as part of the activation if you don’t have one. Yes, you must have one to use the phone.
Its raining so T-Mobile handed out vouchers. I have a pic at http://gadgetmerc.blogspot.com/
I must admit I haven’t been paying much attention to this phone because, like the iphone, it doesn’t appear to fit my needs (I haven’t even seen an iphone in real life yet) but is the G1 dependant on the internet for usage? Is it a cloudphone?
My Nokia E90 is used most as a podcast/music player, camera and video recorder, and mobile writing tool. Phone and internet use comes a long way behind.
WARNING: Android devices are NOT open
With the free source code you can design your own Android version, but you will never get it on your precious T-Mobile G1. Because you cannot change it’s ROM, Google’s Rich Miner told me. So if you want to run your own fork of the Android operating system on a cell phone, you have to get a rare developer device or become a handset producer like Motorola or HTC. That sucks! Also: The marvellous G1 is locked to T-Mobile’s network in the US and doesn’t work with German SIM cards.
My take: It won’t take long until we see a flourishing jailbreak and unlock scene, as we already know it from the iPhone. The Android system is not really open before I can bake my own kernel for the device and use it on every network.
WARNING: Android devices are NOT open
http://www.goebel.net/technews/2008/10/warning-android-devices-are-not-open.html