Google Phone's Appetizing App Menu Is Functional, Too

With Google’s G1 smartphone making this week’s big tech splash, Katherine Boehret, in the Wall Street Journal, takes a look at some of the applications on offer, finding them “useful, entertaining, and mostly straightforward.” Of those she tested from the Android Market, “the G1's apps are more utilitarian than most apps I've tested for Apple's iPhone—and not quite as visually pleasing.”

With the G1’s memory forcing customers to delete apps to add more once they’ve reached the 70-megabyte limit, Boehret found enough to create such dilemmas. WiFi Toggle puts a switch on the desktop to avoid fiddling with settings; the classic Pac-Man can be played by tilting the phone, using fingers, or the trackball; and Ecorio helps travelers track, and modify, their carbon footprint. (More Google stories.)