Two smartphone giants - iPhone and Nexus One - got a software update yesterday.

Apple released iPhone OS 3.1.3 for iPhone and iPod touch that improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS, resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instantes and fixes some other bugs. Google added multitouch (pinch-to-zoom), on-board Google Goggles and new version of Google Maps to the Nexus One. 

The first live shots of computer hardware manufacturer Gigabyte’s first Android handset have surfaced.

The device features Android 1.6, 2.8 inch QVGA display, Eurpoean GSM/EDGE support, 528MHz Qualcomm processor, 192MB RAM/512MB ROM, microSDHC memory card slot, 2.0 megapixel camera with autofocus, 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi radio, Bluetooth, and GPS.

It will initially ship in Russia for 9000 rubles or $300 between February and March with no details on an international release at this time.

On 21 January 2010, Nokia announced that it is to make turn-by-turn navigation free with its Ovi Maps offering. The research firm Canalys claims the move is a logical one for Nokia to take, especially in light of the recent launch of Google’s free navigation solution.

However, alanysts predict Nokia’s announcement will not be welcomed though by all its mobile operator partners.

Google’s new Nexus One smart phone serves as a showcase for the latest version of the Android operating system and will allow the company to gather critical user data for developing new software, according to iSuppli.

"With a plethora of smart phones based on the Android operating system already on the market, questions have arisen as to why Google would begin selling its own phone equipped with the operating system," said Tina Teng, iSuppli senior analyst for wireless communications.

At the special Android press conference in Mountain View, Google officially confirmed the company’s first phone – the Nexus One.

This HTC-branded device is running Android 2.1 and comes with 3.7" AMOLED 480x800 WVGA display, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, 512MB flash onboard memory and 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB), 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash and geo tagging, stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, compass, GPS, accelerometer and light and proximity sensor.

Nexus One is initially available from the new Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA.

Confirmed device specifications for the forthcoming Motorola Opus One iDEN Adnroid smart device have surfaced after videos of the device first surfaced on YouTube last week.

The device features a 3.1 inch HVGA 320×480 capacitive touchscreen display, 3.0 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, accelerometer and proximity sensor, Wi-Fi radio, Bluetooth, microSDHC expansion slot, 2.5mm headset jack, Home, Menu, Back and Speaker capacitive buttons with haptic feedback, iDEN Push To-X support, Android LBS support integrated into iDEN GPS, 512MB Flash / 256MB of RAM, 64k/128k iDEN SIM card support, dual-mic noise-canceling, Flash Lite v3.1 and the following preloaded apps: corporate email client with ActiveSync support, MOTONAV navigation app, barcode scanner and document viewer.

Google has announced the availability of Google Maps with Navigation on Android 1.6-based devices (such as the myTouch 3G, G1 and developer handsets) with the only functionality missing being the “navigate to” voice command feature found on the DROID beta version.

The application is otherwise identical to the aforementioned version and is available now from the Android Market.

For European Portable Navigation Device (PND) manufacturer TomTom and U.S.-based Garmin, Oct. 29, 2009 will indeed be remembered as the day everything changed.

“Google’s announcement that it plans to launch turn-by-turn navigation on the Android platform would be enough of a headache in itself, but giving it away for free? Sound the alarm!,” says Richard Robinson, iSuppli analyst.

Sprint has launched the Sanyo 3810 and the long-awaited Samsung Moment.

The Sanyo 3810 features an external display with a mirror finish when not in use, internal 2.4 inch QVGA display, large keypad, menu size control larger for easy navigation through menus and sub-menus, 1.3 megapixel camera with digital zoom and Bluetooth.

The Moment features Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube while featuring a Sprint first 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keyboard and a virtual keyboard. Device navigation is handled by an optical joystick. Rounding out the featureset is an 800 Mhz processor, Wi-Fi radio, integrated GPS support, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recorder, stereo Bluetooth, microSDHC expansion slot and speakerphone.

Pricing on the Moment is set at $179.99 after a $50 instant savings and a $100 mail-in-rebate with a new 2 year agreement with the Sanyo 3810 being free after the same contract terms and $50 mail-in rebate.

Motorola, and Google, have done something that no other phone has done before. They have built a phone better than any iPhone. Now it gets interesting.

First, we’ll get the obligatory iPhone boilerplate out of the way. Yes, contrary some fist shaking, iPhone (3GS) was the phone to beat, until today. Be it in the performance arena, the App Store arena, be it the basket of features or the pure style… adding it all up, iPhone stayed ahead.

So, how does Droid force Apple back to the drawing board? The sum of its (new) parts.

Motorola and Google have unloaded a ton of new technology into Verizon’s first Android phone. Google has brought Android 2.0, along with the world’s first free turn-by-turn live GPS solution. Motorola matched that with hardware that reminds us why Motorola has stayed relevant in the industry.

I have to admit, we were skeptical about Droid’s design. It looked like Motorola’s Sidekick… a match made in hell, with design language to match. Holding Droid however is a completely different story. It looks amazingly well-built. The in-hand build quality even manages to surpass that. This phone is a winner in the design category. In short, it’s thin. The keyboard and display sections are evenly distributed, the lower half of the phone is only slightly thicker than the display portion.

So, we’ll cut to the chase. We like small reviews now, we think you will too. Here’s why we it’s the best smartphone out there, the new phone to beat. Android 2.0, combined with the 550 MHz processor that Droid carries, sets a new standard. Literally, from start to finish, it beats the iPhone. Verizon Wireless’s EV-DO Rev A network also makes the ping rates and throughput of AT&T’s HSPA network frown. Make that seriously frown. Verizon and Droid beat AT&T and iPhone in nearly every web page we loaded, and both sported excellent reception (our offices happen to be under a jointly-shared cell site for both companies).

It’s important to note that the 550 MHz CPU that the Motorola Droid carries is using a different core from comparative Samsung or XScale-derrived processors. The megahertz myth is a live and well in the mobile sector, as the performance yield per clock cycle means that Droid rivals 1 GHz Snapdragon phones. It is also why phone makers always hesitate in touting the processor of a phone…

But it’s the small things that this fusion create that make the difference. There is no lag in this phone. None. No “screen blur for 4 seconds while rotating”. No “wait for the on-screen keyboard to appear”. No “wait for apps to toggle”. And, no “wait for the interface to draw from one screen to the next.” If you’ve used Android, this is music to your ears. If you haven’t used Android, we strongly suggest starting with the Droid, you won’t look back.

Oh, and be sure to try out the accelerometer. It’s faster than iPhone… something we weren’t sure Android’s Dalvik platform could ever pull off.

Likewise, the keyboard is a sigh of relief. We’ve been waiting for a good Android phone to replace the T-Mobile G1 for having a keyboard and touch screen. The Samsung Moment on Sprint has been long-awaited for this reason. Thankfully, the keyboard on Droid is excellent. It’s flat, but a easy to use. The layout is well-articulated, with dual alt keys on both ends of the keyboard, and excellent backlighting. It’s the best keyboard on any Android phone released to-date.

This isn’t to say that Android was dysfunctional before Droid, far from it. Droid and Android 2.0 simply put it on a new playing field. A playing field where you can multitask like a Palm Pre, but with the native code that Android 2.0 allows. Oh, and that brings us to the other side: Android 2.0’s future in the App Store arena.

First, we’ll talk about what Android 2.0 and Droid deliver today. The long-rumored and sometimes-shown new Android Market is in-place and fully working. It’s faster than iPhone by a mile. Apps install instantly. We could not find an app that took more than 10 seconds to install. Try that with an iPhone. Try that with Windows Mobile, or even the Palm Pre. We’ve suffered through the freezes, stalls, and lag on their app stores. Not so on Droid. In short, it just works.

Car mode is a nice touch. We’ll be reviewing Android’s Maps with Navigation beta in a separate article (since it is in beta, and we don’t cast judgement on betas). But, for those of you not glued on every move that Droid has made, Car Mode is a special GUI written by Google for devices that function well in cars. We expect that to mean all future phones, but for now, it’s only on Droid. At first, you might get the notion that it isn’t necessary. But, then you touch the voice search button, and fall in love. It has the best voice recognition we’ve ever seen on a phone. There are some faults, for example, Voice Search doesn’t connect with Bluetooth voice commands. So, you can’t tap the screen and say “call 800-466-4411″, but you can say “directions to Best Buy” and Maps will load ready to start a new turn-by-turn GPS session.

Basically car mode takes the taps out of driving. Voice commands route to their natural functions. If you’re saying something related to a web search, it loads Google and runs the search. If you’re asking for something related to GPS, it takes care of tapping through all the menus for you… since, you’re, well, driving.

Not a 360-point landing

There are some faults though. The “with Google” branding stifles innovation. No HTC Sense UI here. While Sense UI blew away CLIQ in our offices, the lack of both is a bit painful. It means juggling IM apps, weather widgets, and other stuff that should just be there. This isn’t as much of a concern to the tech-savvy, as it is to those that are new to smartphones. With Sense UI, they get an instant level of data integration that would be cumbersome for the average person to get acquainted to all at once.

There is a real fear to “with Google” that is still present. And, that is that many will only use it as a glorified web browser and email client. They will miss out on the key features that can be tapped into with this powerful, multitasking phone.

Oh, and please, give us pinch and zoom. If HTC can implement it by dropping the With Google, why can’t Google embrace gestures? They seem to have no problem with flicking, but pinching still escapes them. Because Android 2.0 is so responsive, it’s not as much of a concern… but it’s still a concern near the top of the list.

The road ahead… now with Navigation and Street View…

For Droid to thrive, developers will have to up the ante as well. Android is still, unfortunately, cumbersome to take full advantage of. The abstraction of native code gives iPhone a waning edge. Google continues to cut off their nose, in order to spite their own never-native face in this regard. Android is an Operating System, and Google needs to accept that its head is, still, stuck in the clouds. To take advantage of the arsenal of OpenGL power that exists in Droid, Android must give a better C implementation, and fast.

Thankfully, Motorola has done the hard work, of building a device that shows how imperative the notion of simple native code is. With Palm stuttering on the subject, Symbian in shambles, Maemo not out of the gate, and Windows Mobile admitting their weakened state… Android has the sole power to make their native code suite robust, and challenge iPhone at what they do best (and still be open, too).

For Motorola, there are some other complaints. For example, the camera is not at the top of the universe. HTC’s Hero camera is superior, with touch-on-autofocus and a more robust camera app. Again, “with Google” branding probably forced Motorola to use the Android 2.0 camera app. We were looking for more here, and we’ll post photos in a follow-up. Still, kudos for the dedicated pressure-sensitive camera button.

The screen size also leaves us a bit perplexed. It’s an odd one. It isn’t as wide as a standard 3.5 inch, but is longer, giving it about double the resolution of iPhone, while only weighing in at 3.7 inches total. It seems nice and long for vertical reading, but in landscape mode has us asking for more. Lots of pixels, but slightly sub-par longitude on the display front. At least it’s bright and responsive.

Finally, Verizon seems to have spent a lot of effort making the battery door easy to open. While battery life will take some time to fully condition, owners can rest assured: Moto Droid is no Palm Pre. Unfortunately, the battery has to be removed to change the microSD card slot. We prefer thin devices, and we certainly prefer microSD over narrow-minded phones that lack any form of capacity upgrade. However, having to powercycle a phone this modern just to copy a few files over to the microSD card seems short-sighted.

Verizon has some work, too. The only app they offer right now is a $2.99/month visual voicemail application. While VZ Navigator has been made obsolete by Google Maps with Navigation, their other services; V CAST Video and V CAST Song ID, as well as an on-device account management app, all could bolster the Droid movement for the company.

Another note to Verizon. Developing your own Android UI would be a fatal error. We still have to ding each and every non-smartphone on Verizon for their battery draining, useless, damaging smartphone UI. Worse, Verizon knows it drives customers into buying smartphones, and we really hate that kind of crippleware. Leave your in-house developers to in-house apps, and not into cushy for-life jobs controlling Android UI on Verizon (yeah, we know that’s how Verizon BREW UI got the green light).

One Final Thing™ that we would like to see on the device, is a 2GB microSD version. Many people already have large microSDHC cards, and don’t need to pay for the bundled 16GB card that comes with the phone. At least as an online-only option, offering a $179 version with a small memory card would be better for everyone.

Conclusions, Final Thoughts

The CLIQ and Droid clearly come from different camps. The Motorola CLIQ was meant to be a Sidekick killer. Not bad timing for that, either. Droid was built for a different purpose, to give Motorola new life with the most informed customers in the world. It’s the new superphone.

But, as usual, we love competition. Droid will make the competition finally ask questions that they’ve tried to dismiss. Like, why can’t I have a phone with a great keyboard, and a giant touchscreen? Or, why can’t I have a phone that is at the top of the power heap, and has removable storage? And, why am I paying to use that GPS chip in my phone, when the maps are already free? These are questions that have been out there for a long, long time. Droid combines power that will keep the tech-savvy, with a phone that answers all the checkboxes.

Motorola has just reinvented themselves, and we can finally say that with a smile, not the perpetual chagrin that we’re unfortunately become all too accustomed to about the company.

Pros: Lag-less UI, Android 2.0 power, Great keyboard, Extremely fast processor, Free GPS navigation
Cons: No multitouch UI, Stifled “With Google” options, Moto’s typical weak camera performance
Final Score: 5/5

FTC “Change You Shouldn’t Believe In” Boilerplate

We get devices from a lot of sources. As a general rule, we only review products that companies or other industry insiders send us. This makes sure everyone is on an even playing field, and we do not solicit paid reviews of products or services. We believe that the purpose of reviewing devices is not to tell consumers to try out phones, but to tell companies where consumers want to see improvements.

That all said, we do love your comments and questions, so please share them below!

It is now official and will completely change the mobile and PND navigation market. Google announced Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 devices.

It comes with 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting, but unlike most navigation systems, the Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of the phone's internet connection, as Google claims.

The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation is Motorola’s Droid. It hits the U.S. market next week (Nov. 6th) for $199 on contract.

INTERVIEW. Kenya has taken a leading role in Africa by embarking on effective use of Mobile Internet to expose acts of political violence, murder and torture, Ory Okollo the founder of Ushahidi.com told Biz-news.com

In an interview on the sidelines of Mobile Web Africa conference in Sandton recently, executive director of Kenya’s Ushahidi, Ory Okolloh, said her organization was primarily established to expose crisis situations to empower Africa.

SRDO, or Sprint Relay Data Only, has become popular amongst those looking for a post-SERO value plan. Led originally by PhoneNews.com’s coverage, the plan has been tacitly embraced by Sprint as a not-so under-the-table offering of a data-only plan for tech-savvy consumers.

The $30 plan offers unlimited data, text messaging, and 5 GB of Phone As Modem service. On Everything-plan-required phones like the Palm Pre, the plan trades 5 GB of PAM for basic Sprint TV and Sprint Navigation service.

And, starting today, the plan is now available for Android phones on Sprint. Android joins the Palm Pre, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile, as well as non-smartphones in being offered on the plan. The HTC Hero is available for sale from Sprint’s Relay Store web site, and existing Sprint Relay customers can switch to an Android phone with the help of a plan specialist.

Sprint has also confirmed to PhoneNews.com that the Samsung Moment will be available on SRDO, next month.

Sprint has officially announced the InstinctQ as the Samsung Moment, which will be the carrier’s second Android device as well as its second “with Google” device.

The Moment features Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube while featuring a Sprint first 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keyboard and a virtual keyboard. Device navigation is handled by an optical joystick.

The Moment also features an 800 Mhz processor, Wi-Fi radio, integrated GPS support, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recorder, stereo Bluetooth, microSDHC expansion slot and speakerphone.

Pricing will be $179.99 after a $50 instant savings and a $100 mail-in-rebate with a new 2 year agreement. Sprint has also launched a pre-order page for the device.

Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, and Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, held a joint conference call in New York to announce their companies’ new partnership.

They said Verizon will deliver “devices of the future” with leading-edge mobile applications and services using Google’s Android open platform in coming weeks.

During the conference McAdam confirmed Verizon plans to support Google Voice.

Acer is to sell netbooks running Google's Android operating system - with the first likely to be available before the end of the summer.
The move is a setback for Microsoft, which was already selling its Windows OS at a reduced price to counter the threat posed by Linux.

Apple has released details of a new version of the iPhone OS, with over 100 new features including finally adding copy and paste.
However, another much desired issue - allowing for background tasks from third party applications - remains unresolved, despite rival handsets running Google Android and the as-yet unlaunched Palm Pre able to support background apps.

For a start-up like Wizi having Google launch a competing product might seem like the kiss of death. Not so with the Lisbon, Portugal-based developers who have welcomed the launch of Google's Latitude as a way of bringing attention to their instant location sharing application. The free mobile application allows you to share your location instantly by e-mail or SMS.

Google's Android Market is expected to begin accepting paid applications this week for the first time.
The move could provide a much-needed boost to the platform, which currently has around 800 applications.

Google has launched a new mobile service called Latitude that lets users see the location of friends who opt to share their whereabouts.
It adds to the existing location-awareness function on Google Maps but is also an iGoogle gadget for a computer.

The mobile ad network AdMob has raised USD $12.5 million in a further round of venture funding.
The new investment is its third round of funding, which now totals USD $28.2 million.

AdMob has announced that it has launched its first advertising unit for Android applications.
The move by the world's largest mobile advertising marketplace will give developers an option for monetizing their applications on the open source device platform.

Various countries on the European continent are in line to get the HTC G1 following its October launch in the UK and US.
T-Mobile is continuing the roll-out of the handset - the first to run Google's Android operating system - with a launch in Germany on 2 February.

There has been speculation that the launch of the next Google Android-powered handset is just days away.
That appears to be premature according to BGR, which claims the launch has in fact been delayed until April due to "software issues".

Motorola is to discontinue making phones for Symbian and will instead concentrate on two new platforms: Windows Mobile and Android.
Sanjay Jha, CEO of the Mobile Devices group at Motorola, confirmed what had until now been rumors to Michael Oryl of MobileBurn.

Devoteam is to release a Blackberry version of its VoIP client OnePhone that runs on mobile platforms enabling voice calls over an IP network.
smartphone.biz-news spoke to Christoph Wernli, business development manager at Devoteam, about the convergence market and the opportunities offered by open-source operating systems.

It looks like 2009 could be an interesting year for Android following the announcement by the Open Handset Alliance that it has 14 new members.
Topping the list of newcomers most likely to offer a handset to rival Google's HTC-built G1 is Sony Ericsson.
The list also includes ASUS and navigation systems manufacturer Garmin.

Australia-based Kogan Technologies has announced it is to begin selling two Android handsets from next month.
The Agora and Agora Pro models will be the second phones to be launched - after T-Mobile's G1 - with the open-source operating system.

The final release of the Opera Mini 4.2 browser is now available - and it works on Google's Android phone.
Opera Mini 4.2 is the first browser alternative for the Android platform, which comes preloaded with Chrome light.
Already known for its fast internet access, Opera claims this has increased in speed by more than 30 per cent for users in the US since the previous beta version launched.

 

Yes, Android is a Linux phone. But, none of the apps are. Read more for a simple guide about how Android software works… and why it doesn’t work the way most believe.

Myth #1 - Android Lets You Run Linux Software.

While Android’s operating system is powered by Linux, all applications run on a modified form of Java, called Dalvik.

Dalvik is essentially a fine-tuned version of Java, which Google made to avoid licensing fees. Dalvik is relatively identical to a desktop version of Java. In the future, Google plans to extend Dalvik with additional APIs that make it better for phones than Java.

So, to be clear, you cannot take your favorite Linux apps and just port them to Android.

Myth #2 - Enabling unsigned code lets you run Linux apps.

Like iPhone, applications have to play by Google’s rules. Even when you tell an Android phone to run Dalvik applications not approved by Google, there is no option to enable running Linux applications.

Myth #3 - I can just “jailbreak” my G1 to run Linux apps.

Sorry, no such method has been developed to date. While hackers have cooked custom versions of Android to run on select HTC devices… nobody has accomplished that on the G1. Worse, even bypassing any code checks… still wouldn’t get past the fact that Android doesn’t want to run Linux applications on the screen.

Android’s source code would have to be modified to permit running Linux applications… an even larger hurdle since the screen is controlled by Dalvik. It would require advanced Java and Linux programming to accomplish such a task. Even then, the system is running a pared-down version of Linux, designed to run nothing but Java/Dalvik apps.

Still, it’s not impossible for the future… there is enough code sitting in the SDK to pull it off. However, it would probably be about as buggy as the first jailbroken iPhone applications… that’s what not having a full SDK will do to a program.

Myth #4 - Google is just waiting to roll out Linux app support in a few months.

Again, sorry, not true. There are no plans on the table at the OHA to open up Android to Linux apps. Considering mainstream phone makers like Samsung and Motorola haven’t even released first-generation Android phones… the change won’t happen any time soon.

Myth #5 - Google wants to open up Android to Linux.

Google has always existed in a world where Linux played second fiddle to the underlying software. Be it Python-powered Google searches, or Java-powered Dalvik, Google has never appreciated Linux as a runtime.

In fact, the only mainstream application to run in Linux, is Google Earth. And, that program requires a good multi-hour boot camp to learn how to install properly (for a person new to Linux). There aren’t any pre-packaged, double-click-to-install-versions.

(Google also does offer Picasa for Linux, however, it is the Windows version pre-packaged in a self-contained WINE environment, rather than a true Linux port).

Google doesn’t appear to want to embrace native Linux applications, but rather, spend the next several years developing Dalvik into an application platform of its own… complete with all the desktop services of comparable, modern, computing environments (Cocoa/Obj-C and .NET/C#).

Finally, opening up Android to Linux takes away the selectivity. While someone could answer Dalvik’s call with their own bytecode… opening up to Linux would put Android in a suicidal position. There is nothing stopping Android from being code-compatible with other mobile forms of Linux. That would take away any benefit from being tied to the OHA, and tied to Google. Then each manufacture would pick-and-mix their own mobile Linux distribution.

While that may be good for consumers… it wouldn’t be good for Google. And, thus, Linux will remain a background traffic cop, flowing only to Dalvik apps. Google seems to like the idea… it’s very profitable for them.

A full review of the first Google Android phone. Is the T-Mobile G1 a paradigm shift in mobile computing? Read more to find out.

Plus, a few things about Android that you won’t find in any other review…

First Impressions, Basic Phone Functionality

Let’s get this out of the way… there isn’t any wow-factor when you take the phone out of the box. Walking around town with the phone, there weren’t the people dropping their jaws when the phone was pulled out. The G1 is a 2006 version of the HTC Wizard, the AT&T 8125, and the PPC-6700 on Sprint and Verizon. The only major difference, is that it has a spring loading keyboard, and a trackball. In short; it’s thick, it’s a brick.

But, the wow factor starts when you hit the power button. Normally, when you think of an HTC device, you think of a tank. It’s big, it’s slow, but eventually it gets the job done. It took the threat of a class action suit for HTC to realize that drivers actually matter in a Windows Mobile phone. The G1 is a new beginning for HTC.

Powering on the phone for the first time, you notice the quick boot time, about half that of a Windows Mobile phone. The G1 boots in about 49 seconds, compared to iPhone 3G at 54 seconds (time from powering on, to main screen). You’re given a quick welcome screen, and asked to enter in your Google Account, so that you can have sync services. More on that later. After that, you’re dropped right to the “desktop”.

The desktop is not like the home screens on any other cell phone. It’s much more akin to the desktop of a modern computer. You have icons, a menu bar, an application dock, folders, and widgets. Like the iPhone, you flick your finger to scroll through these things. And, that’s the next major thing that sets the G1 apart from any other HTC phone yet; it’s designed for your finger. It only responds to a human touch.

Usage-wise, it’s almost natural to immediately open the keyboard when using the device. I only found myself using the G1 with the keyboard closed… was when I made a phone call. Regardless of scrolling with the trackpad, or flipping with the finger… widescreen was the way to go. That’s mostly because of the weight balancing on the G1. But, it works surprisingly well… All three inputs; keyboard, touch screen, and trackball, are all easily accessible. 

Unfortunately, we can’t really weigh in on call quality as of yet. Same with battery life. Why? T-Mobile has said that the Sacramento market will be 3G when the G1 launches… but as of yet, we haven’t seen a any 3G coverage. It is a bit concerning that T-Mobile is committing to launching a 3G network, but hasn’t opened access less than a week before launch.

The mini-USB port at the bottom carries a port cover. It’s a nice addition, and despite some who had concerns about it, the port cover was easy for us to open and plug things into. Unfortunately, as had been rumored, the standard Ext-USB port adapter (which allows the USB port to be used as a 3.5mm headphone jack), is absent from the included accessories. This is simply unacceptable; HTC bundles this with every Windows Mobile phone… Android should be no different. Ideally, T-Mobile should rectify this and offer to mail all G1 owners an adapter.

Advanced Features

There’s a lot of advanced features in the G1. First and foremost, is the ability to switch applications easily. By holding the home button down, a task switcher (very reminiscent of alt-tab or command-tab on Windows and Mac OS X) appears. This allows for several applications to be running at once, applications quit after not being used for a prolonged period. This allows you to maintain an IM session, while looking up a webpage, while on hold in a phone call. And, it just works.

In short, the G1 has shown that a smartphone really can multitask. That’s something that most of the competition has simply failed at… one way or another. 

Wi-Fi. I thought that iPhone really was the best Wi-Fi implementation that could be crafted. Well, Google one-upped Apple. Wi-Fi base stations that come into range, show up in the menu bar. A quick flick of the menu bar lets you connect to new base stations in range. There’s no nagging notification dialogue that interrupts what you’re doing. If you want to wardrive, just flick down the menu bar. If you want to keep using 3G, you don’t need to do a thing.

Camera. This was an interesting one… as there is no video recorder. It’s shocking how Google and HTC could have missed the need for one, after watching iPhone attacked endlessly for this. However, with still photos, it has an excellent interface. The pressure-sensitive camera button handles the auto-focus with ease. In fact, the only interface elements in the camera application, are a green light that appears when there’s an auto-focus lock… and a balloon that appears to tell you where the camera button is initially.

Also, the Camera application supports grabbing GPS location data, and gives fairly good response times. Is the much-more-expensive Touch Diamond better? Maybe… but it’s certainly close. And, again, this really shows what Android can do, considering the age of the G1’s hardware.

The G1 ships with IM, Google’s first instant messenger that reaches beyond the walls of Google Talk. While it includes Google Talk, it also supports other instant messaging services.

Shockingly, we were not informed that IM services other than Google Talk do indeed use text messages, as opposed to data. There was no mention (in the application) that IMs sent via Google Talk would be free (using unlimited data), but that AIM/Windows Live/Yahoo messages would be charged SMS rates.

Mail was one of the key areas where we hit some bugs. First, there are two Mail applications. One for Gmail, one for all other IMAP/POP3 email accounts. Both appear to be using the same source code, with the Gmail app having a different interface (with Gmail specializations). Unfortunately, Mail is a bit buggy. It has some of the same IMAP root path bugs that iPhone had when it first shipped. Worse, we couldn’t work around them with hard-coding… each inbox called itself INBOX.Mail.something.

The media players are a bit interesting… and a bit of a letdown. The Music player is only marginally better than the now-ancient Windows Media Player. There is no video player, aside from an early version in the Android Marketplace. YouTube is the only video player on the phone. YouTube does, however, work quite well. It pulls video from the same H.264 path that iPhone uses.

Speaking of the Android Market, this is where Google starts to turn things around. Android Market is fast, reliable, and we only encountered one time where we had to re-launch the Market, in about a week of usage. While there are only a few apps listed now, it does pale in comparison to Apple’s App Store, this is largely due to the G1 not being out yet. Unlike iPhone, developers haven’t had a chance to test software on the device itself… something key to testing and approving software.

Sync services are a good start, but still quite a ways from MobileMe. Google needs to have Windows and Mac OS X desktop integration, to close the loop. Right now, Android is great with syncing to the online cloud… but the cloud isn’t good at syncing back to your computers.

Maps works great, our only problem was with the GPS taking awhile to acquisition. It has poor in-building penetration. Outdoors and in a car however, GPS locks on quickly. Maps on Android is comparable to Google Maps for Mobile 2.3, and includes Street View. And, a hidden option allows for enabling Compass mode, which lets the accelerometer use Street View in a panoramic mode; browsing the Street View simply by moving the device around in a circular fashion. Compass mode didn’t really work well. This could be due to the fact that most apps don’t really use the accelerometer… as was noted above, landscape is the natural mode for most applications.

And, finally, the web browser. Google has said that Android is not using Chrome, but a different branch of Apple’s WebKit browser. However, we question that a bit… Google may be holding back on calling Android’s browser Chrome, but that may be so that we’re compelled to advertise report on that announcement later. It’s pretty clear that much of the advances in Chrome stem from Android’s web browser. In fact, Android even works flawlessly with Google Gears, on standard desktop web sites. If they are different browsers, the same people helped make them.

Warning: Android is about to be compared to iPhone, a lot. This is because Safari and Android Browser share the same core browser code. It is an extremely valid basis for comparing the two devices.

The web browser works great. It zooms, sizes text well, and scrolls robustly (with both the touch screen and trackball). Tabbed browsing is pretty much identical to iPhone, as is the ability of the browser to load and render web pages. However, the do size text differently… Android does not benefit from the Resolution Independence technology, introduced in Mac OS X. Instead, Android changes the size of the text based on the zoom level. This works about 75% as well as Safari on iPhone. However, because the G1 benefits from being primarily used in landscape mode… it isn’t as much of an issue.

Scrolling on Android Browser is about as elegant as Safari. However, because the display is not multi-touch, zooming is accomplished by buttons that appear whenever the finger is touching the display. Android also provides a magnifying glass feature, common on third-party browsers such as Opera Mini. Touching the magnifying glass (which appears next to the zoom controls), zooms the page out to a maximum level, and then provides a magnified box which the user can scroll. This allows the user to quickly jump to, for example, the bottom of a long web page. While functionally the magnifying glass is a bit of a hassle… it’s less of a hassle than scrolling 25 times to get to the bottom of a web page in iPhone’s Safari.

Both iPhone and Android include Google search. iPhone has search built-in to the scroll bar, and so does Android. Android also comes with a desktop widget to search right on the desktop… and we actually found it quite useful. The search bars also support Google’s suggestion features, so search queries appear as you type. Moreover, we found searching on Android to be faster than iPhone 3G… even on T-Mobile’s EDGE network. This is because iPhone defaults to the desktop version of Google web search. Android however, defaults to the AJAX-powered mobile version. So, while iPhone is desktop-perfect, Android doesn’t need to reload the entire page, and thus, can search faster.

Note: iPhone users can take advantage of AJAX mobile search by pointing their browsers to mobile.google.com. And, iPhone also has a dedicated Google Search Application, which replicates the utility of the search widget on Android’s desktop.

And, like Safari, Android’s Browser is pretty devoid of extensions. There’s no Flash support, and worse… PDF support is missing. In all, iPhone’s Safari wins out clearly… but not by the glaring distance compared with other browsers. And, unlike iPhone, Android allows for unsigned code… so there’s nothing stopping Adobe from adding PDF and Flash support on their own.

In the first section, I noted that the G1 was a 2006 phone hardware-wise. Well, this is what a 2006 phone can do with good drivers. Make no mistake about it, Android is a game changer. When I criticized Microsoft for not updating older Windows Mobile devices (there is no reason a 2003 Windows Mobile phone couldn’t run the latest version), I coined the phrase that iPhone wants to be updated. Android takes that to a whole new level. Android doesn’t wait to be plugged into a computer, it has an auto-updater running in the background.

Conclusions

Some will ask flat-out, is Android better than iPhone? Some will yell at us for brining up that question (yes, we read your comments… all of them). The answer is two-fold. As a not-yet-released phone, the G1 and Android do not have the polish that Apple has been able to build with a two year lead time. But, that said, the G1 has the promise to beat the iPhone down the road.

Like iPhone, Google has promised to continually improve Android, and HTC is in turn obligated to release those updates. A2DP Stereo Bluetooth is on its way for the G1, and Android Market will fill in some of the missing applications. Moreover, Android will let groundbreaking apps be released without hinderance. That will drive developers to the platform, and their innovations will drive users to it as well.

Clearly, Android needs a little polish. There are just some bundled applications that should be there. There isn’t any default program for Weather or Stocks. The clock tool is just a basic Alarm Clock. However, with a Market, we don’t need to knock the phone for missing these… AccuWeather already has a full weather app on Market, and Namco is even offering Pac-Man as a free download.

Probably the worst real problem with the G1, is the lack of pervasive 3G coverage… but, come next year, G1 variants will be headed to each and every carrier. The future is bright, Google has shown they can raise the bar, and the G1 will leave those on T-Mobile without feeling the urge to switch carriers, just to get one of the best phones on the market.

The important thing is that the platform is stable, it’s fast, it’s responsive. It just works.

 

On one final note, we would like to thank Google, T-Mobile, and HTC for giving us the opportunity to have an unprecedented early access with the Android platform. Android really has grown on us, but in one way Google may not have wanted to tip their hand to. Near the start of the review, I noted Android’s home screen resembled a conventional desktop. It has become clear to me, that Android is Google’s total operating system play. It could replace a desktop operating system tomorrow, and would overnight become the most popular version of Linux. Of course, Google wouldn’t be content with that… but it is nice to know that Google has their desktop platform, and it’s maturing on today’s cell phones.

Pros: Google Android platform, no walled garden, responsive, fast, stable.
Cons: Missing headphone adapter, thick size, limited T-Mobile 3G coverage, video player in development.
Final Score: 5/5

You might expect sales to be intitially sluggish for a new smartphone with an unproven mobile operating system.
But that was never going to be the case with the hotly anticipated first Google Android handset from T-Mobile and HTC, which is expected to be officially announced Tuesday.

Touted as Google's answer to the iPhone, the first cell phone powered by the feverishly anticipated Android software is to be unveiled on 23 September.
The Android launch will heighten competition in a market increasingly dominated by Apple's 3G handset and RIM's BlackBerries.

Samsung has accepted Nokia's offer to buy out its stake in software firm Symbian, and Nokia now has acceptances from all Symbian shareholders to sell their shares.
Nokia said in June it would buy out other shareholders of UK-based smartphone software maker Symbian and make its software royalty-free to other phone makers in response to new rivals such as Google.

Microsoft is to create an online software store for its Windows Mobile platform.
To be called Skymarket, the online store for mobile software follows Apple’s iPhone App Store and Google’s plans for an App Market for its Android smartphone platform.

Google is to offer an applications “market” for its Android open mobile platform but has sought to distance itself from Apple’s iPhone app store.
A member of the Android team has said it is to be “an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered devices”.

The team responsible for Google’s Android open-source operating system is to be enlarged with openings for designers, engineers, and developers.
Ads from the search giant ask for people who can work in areas as diverse as “innovative” hardware user interface design, battery life, RF issues, and handset-security software.

T-Mobile is to be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google's Android software.
The phone will be made by HTC, one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, and is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, according to reports.