• Can't wait for the T-Mobile G1? Play with a virtual one

    Greg Kumparak

    Greg Kumparak is the Mobile Editor at Techcrunch. Greg has been writing for the TechCrunch network since May of 2008. Greg was born just outside of San Jose, and now lives in the East Bay of California. → Learn More

    Saturday, October 4th, 2008

    So you’ve pre-ordered your G1, and now you don’t know what to do with yourself? You could install the Android SDK and get to know the platform itself a bit better – but you’d have to tape a little paper G1 cutout around the emulator window to really give it that special feel. Cell Phone Signal found a better different solution. It’s not a fully functional demonstration by any stretch of the imagination, but T-Mobile has thrown together a browser-based G1 emulator and put it online for the sake of antsy tinkerers everywhere.

    I’m all for giving people a taste of a product before its release, but I’m not quite sure why T-Mobile thought releasing this was a good idea. A good chunk of the screens warn that “This screen is not fully functional”, while others lack the notice yet still don’t work properly. There was at least a time or two where it wouldn’t respond to input, requiring me to lock/unlock the device. For anybody still on the fence as to whether or not the G1 is for them, would a limited and somewhat busted emulation really sway their minds in a positive way? If anything, I imagine it’d scare them away.

    Check it out for yourself here. Make sure you click that “Emulator” link, otherwise you’ll just be spinning around a 3d model.

    blog comments powered by Disqus