Did you miss your chance to buy a home or car dock before Google stopped selling them (along with the Nexus One)? Well, fret not, anxious reader, because HTC is now selling those N1 accessories via their online store, and the selection also includes: a travel charger, car charger with microUSB connection kit (for hooking up multiple devices), silicone and metallic cases in five colors, a black TPU case, a holster, USB cables, and headphones.
The docks and a few other items are on back order, set to ship on 08/18. Click here to order.
NASA recently carried out an operation named “NexusOne PhoneSat” which sent a Nexus One into the stratosphere. The goal of the experiment was to test the phone’s resilience to G-forces for the purpose of creating smaller satellites. The cellphone was strapped at the back of a rocket and sent 28,000 feet into the stratosphere; the crude Myth-buster way. The N1s shot a video of the complete journey going up to 28,000 feet in the sky. This experiment team included two Google employees in addition to some people from NASA.
Thomas Atchison, chairman of the Mavericks Foundation which launched the rocket said,
The purpose of flying the Nexus One is to find a low-cost satellite solution. The radio, processing power, sensors and cameras in smartphones potentially have the same capability as those in satellites. The idea is to drive down satellite cost by using off-the-shelf products and components. Today’s satellites are the size of Greyhound buses, but I believe they are going to get smaller and more frequently deployed. This is a first-step effort.
NASA actually sent two phones into the stratosphere. However, one of them crash-landed on the way back. The maximum speed attained by the safe phone was 2.4Â Mach, which stands at about 1,800 MPH. The return speed of the rocket was measured accurately using the phone’s accelerometer. NASA will conduct more research on this.
See this video for a view of a space ride on a Nexus One.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have teamed up to explore the options for real-time language translation in Afghanistan.
Three systems are under testing as part of the TRANSTAC project, and one of those happens to utilize a Nexus One for the real-time translation of English to Pashto and Pashto to English. Check out NIST’s video on bridging the language gap below:
We all knew this was coming when last week Google announced they would be receiving their last shipments of the Nexus for sale on Google.com/phone, it just happened so fast. Last time this came up, I was sure to mention that the device will still be available through a few other outlets, and it looks like those are your only options now. Vodafone will still carry the device in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. Devs, you can also still grab the device from market.Android.com as well. As for the rest of us, this is it guys. It’s truly sad to see the device go, but it’s for the best. There will be others, and they will be great. I promise.
Its been over  6 months since the Nexus One leaped onto the scene and in Android time, that’s almost an eternity and yet, I find myself more content  with this phone than I have any other I’ve owned. In the last 6 months great Android phones like the Motorold Droid X, the various versions of the Galaxy S series as well as Sprint’s HTC Evo have all launched with mass hysteria from the community and great reviews from the critics and yet, here I am, totally still in love with the best Android device on the market, the Nexus One and here is why I think so.
Custom Interfaces
While HTC Sense was revolutionary back when the Hero  launched and Android 1.5 was king, I think we have all learned that in the end, these interfaces maybe more hassle than their actually worth. From added stress on the hardware to updates that come few and far between, Custom interfaces seem to be the biggest cause of fragmentation outside of hardware limitation. With  the release of 2.2 (and the supposed UI upgrades in 3.0) Android has lost the need for custom interfaces, it looks and works well as a  plain old vanilla OS and needs not HTC, Motorola or Samsung to “pretty” things up. Sure appearance is a matter of opinion but the added lag and delay in updates is reason enough to stick with the Nexus One and its straight from Google OS.
Hardware
Out of all the latest Android handsets released in the US, I’ve yet to find one with the looks and build quality of the Nexus One. The Droid X comes close but its still doesn’t feel as expensive as holding the Nexus One and it is only bested by the Iphone 4. Samsung’s  Vibrant for T-mobile, while I appreciate for being light, feels like a cheap toy or at best a $50 feature phone. When I hold my Nexus One in comparison to the newest breed of Android phones, the others just pale in comparison and when I drop the big bucks on a phone, one of things I look for is longevity and durability and the Nexus One has held true  for me. In a world where the competition (iPhone) is made of fancy glass materials, Samsung and HTC have got to step up their game, the Vibrant and the Incredible, feel incredibly cheap and feel totally uninspired, whereas the Nexus One shines in the hardware department.
Carrier Freedom
Though I have no intention of leaving T-Mobile anytime soon (especially with the release of their speedy HSPA+ network in Cincinnati) but having the option to switch to my local carrier Cincinnati Bell (uses the same 3G bands as T-Mobile) without jumping through hoops to unlock my phone is pretty amazing. Freedom of Carrier input is also very handy when it comes to upgrades to the Android OS. Since Google released the phone they supply the updates and the latest revisions of Android are built directly for the Nexus One. In the carrier model, we wait for Google to bake the OS, the OEM to make it work on their device and then the carrier to approve it and roll it out to its users. None of this is a short process, just go ask Sprint’s Hero user base who waited months for an update to 2.1 while getting completely skipped on 1.6. It actually saddens me that Google did not succeed with the Google Web Store  and  that I’m going to one day have to give up the freedoms and luxuries I have with the Nexus One.
On top of all these reasons, I mostly just really have never fell out of love with the Nexus One. Its everything I wanted in a device and its seems to be of a dying breed of great high powered stock OS devices. Â Their is nothing about the Iphone 4, the Moto Droid X, the Droid Incredible or the Evo that make me wanna lose what I have with the Nexus One which is great hardware that runs software coming directly from the Source.
