Unboxing Google’s Android Developer Phone 1
At last the day came and Google’s Android Developer Phone 1 arrived. I had been waiting for it like kid waits for Christmas day for presents. I had been following the Fedex shipment ever since I got the tracking number. I should say it was weird experience all the way. First, the tracking number provided two shipment details, so I was asked to pick one of them. Surprisingly, one shipment was a past order which had been delivered already last month. It has never happened to me earlier. So, today when I went to pick up my parcel from doorman, I found that it contained wrong apartment number on it. Nope, it wasn’t shipper issue, probably earlier doorman did it by mistake but it was another weird sign, I should say.:)
So, like anxious child, I started unwrapping the package. It seemed light compared to other phone packages I have received. As I opened it, it was rather plain packaging, a white box with no writing or advertisement on it. Suddenly, my thought went to Iphone and it’s packaging.
After that brief moment of thought, I proceeded to open the box.
The first thing that caught my eye was the Notice Card, as to how to setup Android Dev Phone 1. The Step 1 in that notice, totally took me by surprise. It said that I would need a data plan from GSM service provider. I was really shocked to read that. Why on earth is that a requirement? Especially dev phone 1 is equipped with wifi. I scrambled to google and found web page titled “FAQ: Unlocking/Activating a G1 or ADP1 Without A Sim Card”. I was relieved to find it and started to move ahead with my unboxing.
One thing I noticed, there was no manual or quick start guide as mentioned in the notice card. So, again I had to scramble to google and I found T-mobile G1 Guide. I didn’t want to proceed without the guide, as I didn’t want to take risk in damaging the phone by trying to pull up wrong tab for inserting battery. It was quite experience in opening the cover to insert battery. I was able to successfully insert the battery and I pressed the power button to start the phone. The phone took some time to boot up and then I got the screen with message as shown below.
I decided to follow the steps described in “ FAQ: Unlocking/Activating a G1 or ADP1 Without A Sim Card”. Please follow the instructions at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damages caused by following the steps describe in the article , in this post and in this blog. The link for setting up usb connection is wrong. The correct link is here. Please note, you will need Android sdk installed successfully before proceeding with the instructions to setup usb connection.After successfully setting up the usb connection proceed with the steps described in the “ FAQ: Unlocking/Activating a G1 or ADP1 Without A Sim Card”.
After successfully following instructions, I was able to setup wireless settings to connect to my home wireless network.
Then I proceeded to activate dev phone 1 by using my gmail id.
Overall, it was interesting experience. I would like to suggest that following links should be kept handy before activating your dev phone 1.
Hopefully, it helps new developers and makes their experience worthwhile.
