My six reasons for considering the Cliq

AndroidGuys is a solid site.

Amid the hue and cry of today’s Motorola Android news, they’ve made a post saying “We want to hear what you think of the Motorola Cliq and MOTOBLUR.”

Well, I’ll tell you what attracts me to the Cliq in order of importance:

1.) Glass Screen–the G1′s screen is just too sticky. Glass has just enough friction to feel good, and it totally enhances the touch experience, not to mention adds stability to the entire unit.
2.) Boosted RAM–even though it’s only a minor bump, it’s totally something that will make a noticeable difference in day to day use.
3.) Solid Chassis– This is the only thing I consistently favor about the iPhone, and if this is anywhere in that neighborhood, the Cliq will have improved on all my biggest complaints about the G1.
4.) 3.5mm headphone jack–Self explanatory: I use the MP3 player, DroidLive, Listen, and now Pandora and I DESPISE the usb headset. I will dedicate a rant to this in the near future.
5.) Keyboard–it may not be as powerful as the HTCHero*, but it’s the second ‘droid phone on T-Mobile with a keyboard.
6.) Exclusive UI—Not that I particularly have a need for social networking 24 hours a day, but I am interested in the UI design since it’s been compared to HTC’s Rosie/SenseUI, which I totally dig.

Naturally, I want to handle it before I decide to buy it…but it’s beginning to look like this is what I’ll be picking up in the fall.

It’s not a phone to die for by any stretch, but it certainly would be an improvement over the G1, aside from the move from a trackball to a D-pad, which would only take a matter of time to get used to.

Live Streaming TV hits Android

Today, a $9.95 streaming TV app hit the Android Market that has seriously blown me away.

SPB TV 1.0 has got a whole bunch of channels (the press release today says 100+ in 20+ languages,) an awesome interface, an integrated programming guide, picture-in-picture and the ability to set calendar reminders for upcoming shows.

Screenshot from SPB TV

I don’t generally seek out live streams of anything. Like I’ve said in prior posts, I listen to Web radio and stuff (the DroidLive ShoutCast client is great, by the way) but I’m much more a fan of on-demand streaming.

However, SPB TV has really grabbed me. It’s that slick.

The app has been around already on Windows Mobile 6 and Symbian S60 3rd ed. On those platforms, however, the app is much larger and slightly more expensive: 5MB and $14.95…the Android app is only .6MB and $9.95. Either it’s missing some of the functionality of the other platforms, or we’ve got ourselves a fantastic little app here. (We’ve also gotten it before iPhone…but that’s not so surprising, right?)

I’m actually going to go watch it a bit more, and I’ll update this post with further assessments. Right now I’m giving this a tentative “buy” rating even though i’m not totally sure I’ll ever actually use it.

I may just be enamored that it looks so good and actually kind of works.