But there are probably no cases of auto-correction where Android will make word substitutions for correct words, not just the ones you've mentioned.

The case of "im" is clear-cut because there's no such word. It's just doing a lookup in a dictionary, and while I've seen many instances of being able to add custom words, I don't know of any dictionary that allows you to remove existing words without hacking on the back end.

He just wants to manually prioritize the suggestions.

Matt: If you just type "il" and press space, it'll autocomplete to "I'll". Also, "id" autocompletes to "I'd" for me. Maybe it's a 2.1 difference?

I've also not seen a dictionary with that type of manual adjustment. From a modification/hacking perspective, it would be a lot easier to remove the words you don't want to use.

Are there implementations that will automatically prioritize based on manual corrections? That would be a neat feature.

The Blackberry certainly allows you to enter your own autocorrections. It doesn't have any suggestions, but it should be relatively trivial to combine the two systems.

Precisely, and that was exactly what I was thinking about. I meant to mention that when I had a Blackberry I was very happy that it had this capability.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't have this kind of functionality.

Thanks for the "il" tip, Bitt. I'll have to remember that. Unfortunately "id" doesn't correct for me. It's possible that it's a difference between the virtual and physical keyboards. There are other differences too.

Patents? That'd be my guess.

Not exactly what you describe, but my Moto Z6c will remember the last word used and offer that first.
For example, "of" and "me" use the same number keys.
It seems to always offer me the one that I don't want to use.

It would certainly be nice to have more manual control over the dictionary.

All this talk of predictive text reminds me of this Armstrong and Miller sketch.

We can't have that one without also throwing in their mobile phone naming sketch .

Every predictive text system I've ever used has preferred "can't" to "cant".

What if it were a Scottish dictionary?

You know what else is a big fail?

I ordered my Nexus One on 9th Jan. Instead of London UK, somehow DHL have managed to send it to Uganda.

My shipping address is exactly right on the Google Order (says UNITED KINGDOM on it). I sent them messages through Google Checkout straight after I got tracking information to the wrong country, before DHL had even picked up the package and still no reply. Sent messages to DHL Customer Service at the same time too, but they couldn't stop the package either.

Now its apparently going through customs clearance in Kampala when DHL are telling me that it will be turned around and redelivered to the correct address in the next week.

Don't need this hassle.

That's strange. Mine was on my doorstep about 24 hours after I ordered it. I guess DHL is retarded.

Not bad for customer relations

Though it still doesn't address the current T-Mobile customers who have no way to get the subsidized phone.

What are you talking about? That is the subsidized cost. They subsidize it more if you're a new customer, but it's still like $300 off the unlocked price.

If you are a customer and have no existing contract, why aren't you eligible for the fully subsidized price by signing a new contract? In my experience, such a customer is eligible for the same perks as a new customer since they're pretty much in the same boat, except for the existing phone number. There's nothing holding you back from canceling and porting your number elsewhere.

Some people have been doing an end-run around this issue by joining with a new customer account and then canceling the new phone number while porting/transferring the old one. It's a little more time on the phone, but you get the phone at the price it should be for new contracts.

I wasn't aware that was the case. I was under the impression that this was in reference to T-Mobile customers with current contracts or ones who didn't want to sign a new contract.

I'm not positive either, it's just what I've gleaned from all the stories. If the reporters/bloggers weren't being clear enough to indicate that people want the low price without a contract, then that's definitely a communication issue. I've understood that this was a big deal precisely because of what I mentioned though.

IMO, if you don't have and don't want a contract then you shouldn't be able to get the phone at the lower contract price. Sure, you're an existing customer so perhaps you may be entitled to some other loyalty discount, but you shouldn't be able to get the phone without a contract, thereby making it a much better deal than for new customers.

From everything I've heard, if you are a T-Mobile customer who has become out of contract (say, had your phone for two years), you still have no way to get the subsidized price by signing up for a new contract, like you would with any other phone on the network.

I thought this sounded highly unlikely, but I have been contradicted by several people on some Android forums.

Thanks for setting it straight. It's as I've heard as well. Kind of bullshit policy that can obviously be gotten around, but it doesn't make sense to me why you'd put customers through that PITA.

Anyway, after reading the reviews on the Nexus One and seeing how its sales are being handled, I don't think the phone is going anywhere anyway. Not likely a good buy for someone that wants future support as I think this one is going to be abandonware sooner rather than later. A stepping stone for Google and just another weekly release for HTC. And that's actually the problem I have with HTC. They've yet to make anything of long-term quality. The more nameless and indentity-stripped phones they release, the weaker I see them as a brand. They should get their retail shit together or just fall into the background and get back into solely dong OEM and ODM work devoid of the HTC name.

That's just the thing though. You order the phone through Google, and T-Mobile apparently has little to do with the sales process. It seems there's not really anything that users in this position can do.

I explained above how you can get around it.

Except every Nokia I have ever owned...I wish they would put the apostrophe in for me, rather than me have to type 'can' then an apostrophe, and then a 't'

Surprise, the Nexus One Camera sucks - comparison against iPhone 3GS with Nikon D200 serving as benchmark. To be fair, Google may be able to fix or at least improve some of the issues in software.

Some? The only problems with the phone were white balance problems and poor ISO selection. Both of those things are completely software controlled, unless the hardware in the N1 only has one ISO setting available, which seems unlikely.

I said "some" because it's possible Google has already tried to address these issues in the current software releases. I don't think Google saw the phone for the first time at their press release.

They really need to get their act together as far as software strategy and advertising goes. Throwing money at a problem blindly isn't going to cut it in this industry, so they very much need to make sure they hone/polish their wares a lot more than they're used to. I'm not sure if the company ethos can change quickly enough to make a difference in the next year though.

The camera comparison I'd really like to see is up-close stuff. With my iPhone, I've often wanted to take a quick picture of a receipt to send somebody for reimbursement or something, but the iPhone's camera (at least in my 3G) cannot take a legible picture of a standard restaurant receipt. Given that the Android phones have support for reading QR codes and barcodes, I have to assume they've gotten this right, or at least significantly better than my iPhone.

As to high-ISO, color balance, and other things from this test, Bitt's right. Those are totally under software control, and it's quite often that consumer digital cameras (which do nothing other than take photos) get these things wrong. It's unsurprising that the Nexus One does no better.

Now, what would be really interesting would be hacking up a Nexus One uber-photo app that writes out DNG raw files. That's probably not even all that hard to do. Hmm....

UPDATE: but the performance looks pretty poor

To get decent close-up pictures with an iPhone you'll need a 3gs model or a hack-ish attachment lens for the older models.

I don't recall a consumer digicam that produces results as bad as those from the camera on the N1.

Whether the issues can be fixed in software or not, which I did say they likely could, it's a testament to the fundamental development and release philosophies of Google versus Apple and others.

The deficiencies in the camera and photo app are obvious and more could have been done to remedy the issue prior to release.

I'm still waiting to see a real Google phone, because frankly, the Nexus 1 is really just an HTC. A decently spec'd phone, but it's just not a tight and well integrated software/hardware package like people were speculating long ago.

Android to me, just currently seems very half-assed. I really want to see some stronger competition for the iPhone because unless Apple feels itself being squeezed it's not going to do as much as it possibly can to improve the iPhone. Which in turn means we can end up in the same state the industry was in a little while ago, with a boat-load of half-assed products.

The initial iPhone and 3G had the same camera, with a fixed focus lens. The G1, Nexus One, iPhone 3GS, Droid and Pre all have auto focus and macro capable lenses, allowing for shots like a closeup of a receipt.