Locking phones to particular 3G networks has much less to do with hardware manufacturers than it does with service providers. There\’s also the issue of radiation which would be generated by multiple transmitters. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon all operate on different 3G networks. Every phone in the marketplace from every manufacturer supports exactly one 3G network so it\’s unclear why Google would get hammered for what is clearly an industry-wide practice.

I\’m too waiting to see if my current provider (which happened to be AT&T) offers a Nexus One analog with 3G support. Yes, I found EDGE acceptable with Android Dev Phone 1, but prefer to complement such a great phone as Nexus One with a fast network too.

Regarding additional radiation issued by phones with multiple 3G frequencies support, I have heard that Sony Xperia Android phone is going to support 3G frequencies of several providers. I guess it\’s more about business and politic than about technical problems.

Going back to EDGE is not a desirable option — even if it is \”as good as\” your iPhone experience.

So 10 paragraphs about your crappy AT&T contract and not being able to use a nexus one, then 2 paragraphs explaining your weak attempt at attention grabbing headlines?

I\’m not usually this critical of articles, but this was a complete waste of time.

Looking forward to something more useful like your previous HTML5 and android articles.

Dan

Uh, no you can\’t. There\’s lots of Mac users who would love to have this but sadly Apple\’s position is (quoting from memory) \”users should always use the latest version available.\”

first, thanks for your comments regarding the HTML5 and Android articles — I am glad you found them of value.

Regarding your comments about this article: I am actually quite happy with my \”crappy\” AT&T contract and wish I could get 3G Android support on that network. T-Mobile is lousy in my area of Northern New Jersey, for voice, let alone high speed internet service.

The bigger issue here is that an \”unlocked phone\” is not what it once was, now that 3G is an offering worth having. In the days prior to 3G data and all that comes with it, switching from one mediocre (GPRS,EDGE) data provider to another was just fine. An unlocked (T-Mobile 3G phone) is not worth the investment… and I cannot update any of my other Android phones to 2.x yet — that is frustrating for early adopters.

My point about iTunes is that when Apple releases code, it is available to all iPhone devices. Of course code for features like a compass will not work on an early 4Gig iphone device, but the basic OS upgrade will run there. Will that change one day, yeah probably.

And @caletronics: I am talking about rolling back iPhone software revs, not Mac OS revs. And of course, every software provider will tell you that they want you on the latest version of their code. That\’s my point exactly, I want to get there with my paper-weight Android phones.

Thanks for your feedback.

Frank

AND it works with my google voice. Even gives me the choice as to which number to call from.

So far I rather like the device. Started playing with the SDK and LOVE the look/sound/feel of the Mystique game. 3-D first person view on it. pretty cool!

I do see the issue with it switching from edge/3g and back during use. That bugs me. Battery life is adequate, but not if you have bluetooth and gprs on all day.

Overall a solid device that has great potential. More research needed for me to give great glowing praise.

Thanks for your feedback on your experience with AT&T. I never said it didn\’t or wouldn\’t work with AT&T, just that it was not an option for me, without the 3G option. The bigger issue being that unlocked \”ain\’t what it used to be\” when the device doesn\’t support your carrier\’s data network at the desired level. I\’ve just gotten used to 3G and would prefer to not down-grade, particularly at the $500+ price tag.

Battery life is another challenge for the latest handsets. The best battery life for a very capable device I have seen (relatively speaking) is for EDGE based blackberry devices. Adding bluetooth, GPS, 3G to a sexy color display is a real challenge on the battery.

Thankfully most devices give you the option of an extra battery in your backpack to swap out. I had an iPhone for less than a week (early model). Within a day or two, I ran the battery down from my normal usage, which is pretty heavy. It was so low I had to plug it in just to check a phone number. I had switched from a treo where I always had an extra battery (or two) in my bag and thought nothing of changing it as needed. After my 1 week experiment with iphone I switched to a BB Curve with good success.

I did admit there have been some issue with the device not \”making its mind up\” given the choice between 3G and EDGE, fortunately, there was a patch released and automatically made available on my phone this morning. When seems to go to your concern about not being able to get software updates standardized across carriers. I am on AT&T, a \”non-supported\” network for the Nexus One and still received the update when it was released. Seems like that must be standardized for such and event to happen.

So I am now on Android 2.1. I\’ll play with it and see what benefits may be there.

Looks like you may be in luck tho:
\”Documents for what appears to be a new Nexus One model that\’s compatible with AT&T\’s 3G frequencies just popped up on the FCC\’s Web site.\”

Now if they are including CDMA, Verizon folks will be happier too.

Thanks for the update about the patch being sent to your device and also about the info re: AT&T\’s 3G option. I may be facing my real moment of truth…cannot I separate myself from the physical keyboard on the blackberry :)

And yes, hitting CDMA would give them great exposure — though I wonder how Motorola would feel about that!