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Hi from Australia

Hi I have just found the forum and have been reading through it finding lots of useful info. I am looking at changing phones. I currently have a blackberry bold which is a great phone but I am after something more multimedia based and I think I have decided on the G1/Dream. I am still on a contract with my bold so I will probably buy a phone outright and then cancel my blackberry data plan and get a normal data plan attached. I am hoping that one of the Optus (the only provider at the moment) shops around here has a dummy one that I can at least hold and feel.
 
How is the mp3 player on these? Can you listen with headphones and charge the phone at the same time. I use the mp3 when I go for long rides on my motorbike, I have a cigarette socket on my bike so I would like to be able to listen with the headphones plugged in and charge it at the same time. This is what I do with my bold.

I have use an HTC adapter that allows power charging with the mini-usb and a 3mm round phono style connect ... you can plug that type earphones in, i even have a small battery powered speaker that has a 3mm jack and lets me turn my G1 into a mini boom-box ... playing my mp3's and charging and surfing etc.
 
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I have use an HTC adapter that allows power charging with the mini-usb and a 3mm round phono style connect ... you can plug that type earphones in, i even have a small battery powered speaker that has a 3mm jack and lets me turn my G1 into a mini boom-box ... playing my mp3's and charging and surfing etc.


So there is an adaptor that allows listening and charging?

I dont suppose you have a picture of it?
 
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How is the mp3 player on these? Can you listen with headphones and charge the phone at the same time. I use the mp3 when I go for long rides on my motorbike, I have a cigarette socket on my bike so I would like to be able to listen with the headphones plugged in and charge it at the same time. This is what I do with my bold.
There are 2 different adapters available at Android Community Store - Accessories for Android smartphones. You can charge, listen to headphones and sync all at once.
 
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Thanks heaps for that you just made my day. I went to the Optus shop today and had a bit of a play with the phone. It felt great. I think I am definetley going to get one.

That's the spirit, your experience with the G1 will get better and better once you have it in your pocket. The amount of times I have had to take it out of my pocket, check the web for something and put it back has proven to me that it is beneficial to my lifestyle.
 
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Yup, you will be glad you bought it. The amount of applications there are, you can find where you parked your car/bike, scan shopping barcodes, voice navigation, listen to music in any file format (or soon anyway), view stock market, almost everything. Much better than the iphone.

I bought mine from Optus on a 12 month plan.
I haven't been able to root it yet, but you can still do 99% of things with it locked down.
All Optus' data plans come with atleast 500MB or over, also the phone is not SIM locked so you can always put another SIM card in it.
 
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Thanks heaps for that you just made my day. I went to the Optus shop today and had a bit of a play with the phone. It felt great. I think I am definetley going to get one.

Just thought I would post pics of my Adapter Farm ... and Mini BoomBox Speaker.
 

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Yup, you will be glad you bought it. The amount of applications there are, you can find where you parked your car/bike, scan shopping barcodes, voice navigation, listen to music in any file format (or soon anyway), view stock market, almost everything. Much better than the iphone.

I bought mine from Optus on a 12 month plan.
I haven't been able to root it yet, but you can still do 99% of things with it locked down.
All Optus' data plans come with atleast 500MB or over, also the phone is not SIM locked so you can always put another SIM card in it.


Hi Graham thanks for your reply. I have a couple of questions for you. I am still on a contract with my BB so at the moment I am working out what I am going to do. I have 2 options. Payout my whole contract and get a new one with the dream. Pay out my BB data part and add a non BB data plan and buy the dream outright. I think it might be cheaper to pay out my whole contract but that depends on what plan I would need to go on with the dream.

I read that Google apps are unmetered on the optus plan (I wonder if this is only if you get a specific dream data package) does this mean that to check emails, calender and do searches it doesnt count towards your data usage? If so what else doesnt contribute to your usage? What data amount are you on? Is it sufficient? I dont make that many calls but will probably do a fair bit of internet stuff. The $59 cap would be more than enough to cover my calls and texts but I dont know about the 500mb. I think the 1.5gb would be good but that would cost me $158.95 a month on a 12 month contract. I wish you could mix and match and say have the $59 for calls and then be able to choose a data plan that suits. I really dont want to pay $158.95 a month. My BB is only costing me $108.95 a month and that is with a $79 cap ($550 of calls) and unlimited data. I want the monthly payment to be about the same as I currently pay.

Sorry for waffling on so much.
 
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OK so I just rang Optus and I would be able to get a $59 cap and then add a data plan to it which would be $20.00 for an extra GB give 1.5gb data. More to think about now.

Yup you can do something like this which is why I only went on a starter 500MB plan for $59 per month - although handset repayments are slightly cheaper if you start out on their next plan up, by only a few dollars though if I remember right.

As for unmetered data, I have no idea I have not heard anything about that, but apps and email doesn't use that much bandwidth anyway so I don't worry about it.
Most of the bandwidth would go towards web-browsing and maps, which I am positive Optus will never unmeter that.

The most useful application I run on my phone is NetMeter (free from market) - it's a lightweight program that runs in the background and can be accessed from the Notifications bar. This program will monitor bandwidth for all your connections (3G, WiFi, etc), so every day or so I check it to see how much bandwidth I have accumilated for the day. Very useful for Aussie data users with our crap bandwidth costs.

Also market apps and everything can be done over WiFi when you're at home, and the G1 will toggle between the 3G and WiFi depending on where you are - so you don't have to manually switch between your connections.
 
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