For the most part, I'm not a real big gadget guy. If a gadget is just undeniably cool, sure, I'll lust after it, but I'm not prone to impulsive gadget spending sprees. I'm more likely than not to save up my cash for a PC board and a soldering iron and build something myself (or even more realistically these days, buy something actually useful like yet another package of diapers for my youngest son).
Generally, though, I'm only motivated to pick up a gadget that's going to be a time-saver in some shape or fashion. That's why I was excited about the PlasticLogic reader (and the recent e-Ink advances), and that's why I'm going to end up buying it when it becomes available in October.
This goes beyond the nostalgia I've acquired for the phone since I started covering it last August. I just like the way the thing is engineered, and despite the problems I've had with Google recently, I just can't quit them. I took a look at the demonstration video they put out after the press conference this morning, and while everything was just about how I expected it to be, I couldn't imagine having a more perfect phone.
Automatic synchronization with the database of contacts and email I've worked to build for the last six years? You can't beat that. The incredibly low price point? You can't get a much cheaper phone unless you decided to get the old soapbox phone the reserve for folks who need a phone "just for emergencies." The fact that this thing is built to run the Web and has a great promise of a thriving app store? I'm almost salivating at the prospect of having the closest equivalent to a constantly networked PC in my pocket I've seen yet.
But like your typical PC platform, the G1 promises to have a programming environment that the industrious coder can write for, a much more affordable price-point than it's trendier alterntive, a wide array of applications that vary from free to almost enterprise-level, and while it may not be the prettiest thing you've ever seen, it gets the job done.
A lot of this rests on promise, I know, and there's still a bit we've yet to see. On this, though, I trust Google. They never promised an iPhone killer. When I first talked to my "deep throat" contact at Google regarding the gPhone, the direct quote I lifted from the conversation and posted was that "the thought process behind it's functionality is less about beating the iPhone and more about beating the $100 Laptop."