Nexus One Car Dock [Mini Review]

by | Apr 23, 2010 | Android, Gadgets

The Nexus One Car Dock is well constructed and sturdy. It communicates with your phone via Bluetooth.

It works ok, but there is one show-stopper in my book. NO LINE LEVEL AUDIO OUT port. If you want to connect it to your car stereo and listen to audio, you have two options:

  1. Bluetooth (which most cars don’t have yet… plus wouldn’t be able to pair with a headset for calls)
  2. The headphone jack (1/8″ Mini) on top of phone.

That means, when you get in your vehicle, you must cradle the phone then plug in your cable to the top of the phone, adjust the volume up (since it’s not line level). To get out of car, unplug the headphone cable, and uncradle the phone. I know, I know… this is not a “problem” experienced in developing countries. But COME ON Google… for $55 I should be able to drop the phone in the cradle, turn on my car stereo and drive.

Worth noting; when charging, the phone gets pretty warm. Not so hot you can’t hold it, but much warmer than my iPhone ever got.

More to come… these are just my initial thoughts.

Nexus One (Android) Gripes

by | Apr 19, 2010 | Android

Email Icons Don’t Show Unread Email Count
Unlike the iPhone, my Nexus One does not show the number of unread messages on the mailbox icon.

Screen Sensor Misalignment
About once a week, I have to restart my Nexus One because the screen sensor is misaligned. (Pressing an “R” yields a “D”, for example.)

Battery Life Sucks
The screen (which is very nice) sucks a ton of battery juice. With moderate use, I have to charge it twice a day.

Battery Gets Pretty Warm
When charging, the batter gets pretty warm. Not a huge deal, but I never experienced that with my iPhone.

No Hard Switch for Silent (on the N1)
Without a physical switch for “silent” (like the iPhone) you must set each app to “mute.” Example… say you’re bored silly during a presentation and whip out your phone to play a quick game. The ringer is set to mute, the media volume is set to mute, but the game you launch ignores all that… it happily starts singing all its startup sounds. BUSTED.