Thanks for the input. I finally got a chance to play around with a buddy’s G1 the other day and I must say that android looks really promising. The barcode scanner is cool, too. Also, it had slipped my mind that you could set any of your emails up as a Google account, so that you could still use those emails through the phone.

Google and Apple will continue to sharpen one another. Thanks for the great response!

Jack

I know I’m a bit late to answer. I recently purchased a G1 and I have to say that I really like it. I think the fact that I handle loads of everyday things using my Google Account though. Calendar, email, documents, contacts. Google even offers a voicemail system.

Setting up email on the G1 was extremely simple. I was able to use the GMail app and once I setup my email account, everything else was done. It automatically pulled in my contact list from my Google Business Mail account and I was set. The next step was to export my BlackBerry Pearl contact list to the Address Book app on my Mac, and then from there (with a tiny application that exports the Address Book as a CSV) I was able to import THAT contact list into my Google Mail account. Pretty handy.

Also, there is an alternative email application available that comes bundled with Android. It allows you to setup a third-party email account like you would on any other smartphone. Of course, Google cleverly makes this application far less appealing than they do their GMail application because they want users to signup for their services instead.

Competing with the iPhone is a huge endeavor but for me, I think Android and the G1 do it well. The new 3.0 software for the iPhone will definitely up the ante as well, but watch out for the “Cupcake” software update for Android. It will add video recording as well as some other awesome features.