Yesterday, the T-Mobile blog CellPhone Signal published a list of new features it claimed would be in the G2, the second HTC-built phone built for the T-Mobile network running Google’s Android platform. The most outrageous claim however, was the supposed date of the device’s release: January 26, 2009.

Would T-Mobile really risk enraging the million or so people who bought the G1 just a few months after its release by launching an updated version? No, says the blog Boy Genius Report, which has a separate tip containing some of the same G2 information, but a later launch date: April 2009.

Read more: venturebeat.com 

Labels: Android, Google Phone, phone

Google’s mobile phone OS “Android,” will soon be updated with several new features as a part of a major roadmap update. One of those features will include support for a video recording mode that will also let users share the content. The update, code-named “Cupcake,” has many speculating what that video sharing feature will actually look like. Some have suggested the possibility of being able to upload videos from the phone directly to YouTube. Now that’s something we would like to see!

One of the only drawbacks to Apple’s widly popular iPhone is its lack of support for video recording. Of course, you can jailbreak your iPhone, a process that removes the restrictions put in place by Apple, and then install your preferred video recording application on your newly free device. However, the regular “Joes” of the world who are purchasing the phone don’t necessarily know how to do this or care to learn. If the “other” big smartphone offered video recording support, that would be a great selling point. (Then they would just need some apps.)

Read more: readwriteweb.com 

Labels: Android, Google Phone, phone, video, youtube

Open Handset Alliance, the consortium that is supporting the Google developed Android operating system, has some new fans.

Fourteen new members that comprise both telecom service providers and handset makers among others have decided to join the Alliance in a sign that the newly introduced platform may be gaining momentum.

The new entrants include ARM, Asustek, Garmin, Huawei Technologies, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Vodafone.

So far only T-Mobile has introduced an Android device, the G1 from HTC, in North America. Meanwhile, Motorola has said it will launch handsets based on Android OS next year.

Read more: wired.com 

Labels: Android, mobile, Sony

The T-Mobile G1 with Google powered by Android was unveiled this morning in New York with a list price of $179 -- undercutting Apple's iPhone -- and confirming many of the rumors that had been floating around about the device over the past few week.

But it was a surprise guest appearance by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who skated onto the stage wearing rollerblades, that drew the most enthusiastic response from the crowd and cameras.

“I’m a bit of a geek and I really like tinkering with things,” Brin said, pulling one of the black flip phones out of his pocket (also available in white and brown). The two, perhaps taking a cue from the legendary in-person marketing prowess of Apple's Steve jobs, hyped one of the most appealing assets of the G1: the completely open source Android platform, which allows third party developers to create applications.

Read more: wired.com 

Labels: Android, Dream, HTC, mobile, phone

Chicago (IL) – The wait for Google’s first Android smartphone, the HTC Dream, is almost over. The usually well-informed Wall Street Journal reports that T-Mobile will be announcing the device next week, while European developers are pretty certain that they have seen the device already – at a Google developer event held at London’s Wembley stadium earlier today.

Relieving news for all those who hardly can sit still in anticipation of Google’s first phone: The HTC Dream, the pilot model for what is expected to become a big family of Google Android devices, is apparently ready and will be announced by T-Mobile on September 23. It appears that the device will go on sale sometime in October. There is no information on a possible price of the HTC Dream.

Read more: tgdaily.com 

Labels: Android, London, phone

Google ( NSDQ: GOOG) shared its plans today for how it will distribute applications mobile phones running its Android operating system, and it sounds startlingly similar to Apple's ( NSDQ: AAPL) App store. Google wrote today on the Android developer blog that it will be called Android Market, "an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered devices."

Of course, the marketplace is designed to solve a critical problem that developers face?getting in front of the consumer. It will work like this: Google will make the content available on an open service hosted by Google, and create a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube. To get your content in the market, developers will have to follow three steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe content, then publish it.

Full article: washingtonpost.com 

Labels: Android, apps, market, store

It's been a big week for the Android phone platform. Most important, the Federal Communications Commission gave the all clear to the first Android-powered handset, which will be built by High Tech Computer and is currently expected to be called the Dream. Additionally, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) released an updated version of its SDK.

This version of the SDK, version 0.9, Google says, is very close to what the final SDK will look like. While this is all good news for anyone who has yet to buy an iPhone and sign up for a lengthy AT&T contract, it also means that more security researchers, if they haven't already started, will begin hammering away for any existing security-related vulnerabilities. It's what they do, and in the long run, their work improves the quality of software.

Full story: informationweek.com 

Labels: Android, SDK, security

The only thing holding back the launch of the first Android-powered phone, the HTC Dream, was approval from the Federal Communications Commission. That approval has now come through, and T-Mobile can launch the phone. The filing asks for a November 10 release date, but (as Matt Marshall at VentureBeat points out) T-Mobile could launch it earlier.

This means that Android will be on track to debut before the holiday shopping season. The device is expected to have a touch screen, WiFi, a “jogball” (like on a Blackberry), a full Web browser based on the same WebKit as Safari on the iPhone, and Google apps like Gmail, Maps, and YouTube. It should be fab.

Read more: techcrunch.com 

Labels: Android, FCC, HTC, phone

According to the Wall Street Journal (which charges $90 per year to access full articles), Google’s Android plans aren’t moving quite as fast as the company had hoped.

Android chief Andy Rubin told the Wall Street Journal, “This is where the pain happens. We are very, very close.”

The slowdown appears to be a result of copious reams of red tape from carriers coupled with constant changes to the Android platform frustrating developers.

Read more: crunchgear.com 

Labels: Android, developers, mobile, phone, platform, Software

For about 10 minutes

Google I/O The second loudest cheer was for the opening of Google App Engine. The loudest was for a compass built into an unnamed mobile handset running Android.

This morning, during an extended keynote speech at Google's I/O developer conference in San Francisco, Android engineering director Steve Horowitz demonstrated the fledging mobile OS on a mystery handset with a Synaptics touch screen, showing off several applications for the first time. Among these was a version of Street View that moves through Google's virtual world in response to the physical movements of the phone itself.

"With a flick of the finger, you can navigate around," Horowitz said, as he used the device's touch screen to wander through Street View. But then he switched to "compass-mode," tapping into the device's built-in compass and accelerometer. He could spin through those virtual streets simply by spinning his phone. "This is one of my favorite new features on Street View," he said, as applause erupted from several hundred developers. "The device can actually track my movements."

Full story: theregister.co.uk 

Labels: Android, apps, mobile, phone

Verizon Wireless said Wednesday it would join an open-source software group that rivals Google's mighty Android coalition—yet another reason 2008 will go down in history as a critical moment in the evolution of how we use mobile phones.

Verizon became the first U.S. wireless carrier to join what's called the LiMo Foundation, a group of companies pushing to create an open Linux-based operating system for wireless products. The now 40-member group also includes phonemakers Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

The LiMo software will be on phones sold at Verizon stores starting next year, an executive for the carrier told The Associated Press. Verizon also will continue to sell phones running other operating systems found on several of the carrier's smart phones.

Full article: chicagotribune.com 

Labels: Android, LiMo, Verizon, wireless

Web + search + LBS = success?

Google is aiming to make an impact in the mobile sector by focusing on web-based applications, super-fast search and location based services (LBS).

The online search giant has been ramping up its mobile applications for some time and unveiled its own mobile operating system, Android, last year.

London is now the main base for Google's mobile application development - with an 80-strong team – but the company also has centres in Bangalore, Beijing, Tokyo, Waterloo in Canada and Silicon Valley.

Speaking in London, Google's engineering site director, Ann Mai Chang, said: "We're focusing the majority of our development on web based applications. One of the winning formulas is really a phone with a full web browser."

Full article: silicon.com 

Labels: Android, LBS, mobile

Opera Mini already available for most other mobile devices

Opera sure is making a name for its browsing tech away from the PC – it has now announced a version of Opera Mini for the Google-backed Android mobile OS.

We clocked the first Android prototype devices in use at this year’s Mobile World Congress two months ago.

The move is yet another phase in broadening the appeal of Opera away from its traditional desktop-territory, where it loses out to big shots Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Full article: techradar.com 

Labels: Android, mobile, opera, phone

Google's Android developer kit for mobile phones has been successfully installed on several hardware devices, a step toward turning it into a genuine mobile-phone platform.

The Android Software Developer Kit (SDK), first released in November, has been developed by Google and others as part of the Open Handset Alliance with the goal of spurring innovation in the mobile space. The platform, based on the Linux 2.6 kernel, will comprise an operating system, middleware stack, customisable user interface and applications.

Google released the preview version of Android without support for actual hardware - instead, developers were given a software emulator based on Qemu. However, running the software on actual hardware can give developers a more accurate idea of how their applications will run.

Read more: techworld.com 

Labels: Android, Google Phone, Gphone, hardware, mobile, phone

SMobile Systems says it has developed the first mobile security solution for handsets based on the Android SDK of the Open Handset Alliance. Called “Security Shield”, the software includes antivirus, anti-spam and firewall applications.

SMobile plans on adapting the “remainder” of their applications to the Android platform “in the coming weeks and months”.

Read more: tgdaily.com 

Labels: Android, package, security

When you think Google, you probably think search engine, and, with Google trying to move into the wireless industry, it may be a bit confusing as to what Google’s doing with itself. Let’s not forget one thing: the core of Google’s business is advertising. With that in mind, it would make sense why Google would want to redefine TV.

The company is currently researching methods to get Google in, on, or under your TV, and it has little or nothing to do with the Google TV ads being tested under EchoStar.

Yet Google’s not denying anything either. Vincent Dureua, Google’s TV technology boss, couldn’t state the company’s goal for the medium any more clearly: "We are confident we are going to revive the television advertising industry by bringing new advertising to it."

Read more: blorge.com 

Labels: advertisements, advertising, Android, TV

The Open Handset Alliance, headed by Google, announced that it has released a developers' toolkit (SDK) for Android. And, to provide further incentive, the Android Developer Challenge was announced, which will hand out $10 million to the winning Android developers.

If it were up to Google, Inc., there would be an Android powering every handset in the world, and the search engine juggernaut is willing to put $10 million on the line to make it happen in what is dubbed the Android Developer Challenge. To that end, the Open Handset Alliance announced that it has released a developers' toolkit (SDK) for Android, the new mobile operating system, so coders could begin developing software for Android-powered phones of the future. And, to provide further incentive, the Android Developer Challenge was announced, which will hand out $10 million to the winning Android developers.

Full article: newsfactor.com 

Labels: Android, developers, Google Phone, Gphone, mobile, phone, prize

Google has just announced its much anticipated mobile phone OS named Android and its Open Handset Alliance. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.

Google rocked the mobile phone industry just hours ago when it announced the true face of its mobile phone efforts. The operating system, named Android has been kept under tight wraps by Google, but DailyTech caught wind of it weeks ago.

Android OS, available in the second half of 2008, aims to provide a operating system, user interface and a broad array of mobile applications. The OS is expected to directly compete with the market leading Symbian OS and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile "Photon", scheduled for release in 2008.

Full article: dailytech.com 

Labels: Android, Google Phone, mobile, OS, Symbian