Things Android Had Before The iPhone

I got into a little debate with somebody in Digg who said that Android is consistently 12 months behind the iPhone.  So, here is a list of the things that came in an Android handset first:
  • Google Voice
  • A physical keyboard
  • The ability to load my own personal apps
  • Vorbis support
  • A camera with an auto-focus good enough to read bar codes
  • Video recording
  • Development tools that support refactoring
  • Bluetooth stereo audio
  • A replaceable battery
  • A compass
  • Augmented reality applications
  • A standard mini-usb port
  • Expandable memory
  • Multi Media Messaging (MMS)
  • Background Applications
  • Copy and Paste
I've heard complaints that the G1 has poor battery life, but I haven't noticed.  Perhaps that's because I don't use any applications that use the GPS in the background such as a location aware to-do list or a bread-crumb tracking application.  I assume that this is one reason iPhone doesn't support background applications.  Another may be that it would be too expensive to develop proper garbage collection and application pausing that allows the foreground-most application remain responsive when other applications are clamouring for resources.

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