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Google Unveils First Android Phone
danieltdp writes "Google finally officially launched the first Android-enabled mobile device to hit the market. As expected, the first Android phone will be the HTC Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1), a device with a large touchscreen and a slide-out physical keypad that will run Google's new mobile platform." You might also not be at all surprised to know that Google is working on an Android competitor to the Apple App store.
There's also an announcement from the Android Community (and confirmed by Qualcomm) that the device will be running off of a new Linux-based and Linux-optimized Qualcomm chipset.
What I find most interesting, however, is their mention of an asymmetric dual-core processor, with one core optimized for specific phone functionality and the other designed as a general-purpose processor. If this works, it will be an interesting new trend and a big step forwards for phones, Linux, and Qualcomm, I believe. (Apparently, though, it still has a few issues... I wish luck to those design teams!)
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
Actually, we fanbois hope that this announcement will jar Apple out of its iPhone SDK NDA foolishness, since Apple will now have to compete with a platform that actually allows people to write programming books on it and lets its programmers to ask each other for help without fear of impending lawsuit.
another article: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/09/t-mobile_unveils_first_google.html
This unveiling also brought some bad news for Android enthusiasts.
* Neither Google nor HTC nor T-Mobile will ship any sort of desktop-synchronization software with the phone, so your only way to get your address book and calendars onto the G1 will be to upload them to Gmail and Google Calendar. I can't believe that these companies are leaving a function this basic as a "third party opportunity."
* The G1, like the iPhone and T-Mobile's Sidekick, will have its SIM card slot locked to prevent the use of other carriers' subscriber-identity module cards. So if you don't like T-Mobile's network here or its roaming rates overseas, you'll either have to suck it up or hope somebody "jailbreaks" this phone in the same way that hackers have defeated the iPhone's SIM locking.
* The G1 will offer limited compatibility with some of the files you use most often. It will only be able to read Microsoft Office files, not edit them. And while its music player will be able to use MP3, Windows Media and AAC files, you'll need to wait for a third-party to provide some sort of add-on to sync your iTunes library to the phone. And iTunes Store downloads restricted with Apple's "digital rights management" locks won't play on the G1 (though the G1 is no different from other non-Apple devices in this respect; that's why you shouldn't buy Apple's DRM-ed downloads at all when you get the same music as an unlocked, open MP3 from Amazon's MP3 store).
* Its Bluetooth is as limited as the iPhone's. The G1 will initially support only hands-free kits, with "A2DP" stereo-sound output coming later on and, it seems, no plans for file transfer or other, more useful Bluetooth options.
"You killed my yogurt!" --Fred Fredburger
1) You don't need to provide any information when you get a Gmail account. Any information you're asked for you can lie about. You can set your account to forward all mail to a real account elsewhere if you don't want to miss anything from Google.
2) As you've noticed, hardly any phones come with a normal jack, so it's hardly a reason for not using this one.
3) Yeah, you might have to wait a month or so. Always good to do that anyway, unless you want to pay the early adopter premium and do all that lovely beta testing for them.
Could this possibly lead to my dream mobile phone? Could it? With the Android platform being open-source, I think it is just possible.
Do Androids dream of electric sheep?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Everyone is comparing this new offering to the iPhone. But the interesting thing is that virtually no one compares it to the Blackberry - the new "has-been" of the so-called "Smart phone" industry.
It isn't like the Blackberry hasn't had any warning - the iPhone was announced more than 18 months ago, and there have been rumors about the Google-driven offering for nearly as long. How the shareholders of RIM can merely watch their company rest on its laurels is beyond me. RIM's death will be when Microsoft tries to acquire it.
In the 1980's, WANG was in nearly every office in America. They rested during the PC revolution, and within a couple years they were as good as dead. RIM has entered that territory. Yes, Blackberrys are still selling to corporate clients, who are traditionally slow to embrace new technologies. But other than the slow-movers out there, everyone can clearly see two very high-profile competitors - Apple and Google.
Looks bad for RIM.
Sure, $74/month may seem a little steep, but isn't it worth it to get a FREE phone?
Though sarcastic, you might not realize how accurately you've hit the nail...
In the US, we pretty much don't buy phones by themselves. The vast majority of people get them for "free" (or a penny, or $19.99-after-rebate, or some apparent pittance like that) bundled with a 2-year contract for service.
So, while Apple prohibited AT&T from giving the iPhone away with service, Google allowing T-Mobile and the like to bundle them means regular everyday people, rather than just Apple fans, may actually get one of these.
dude, your dreamphone already exists: http://www.jitterbug.com/Phones.aspx Now you just have to download a "Git off my lawn!!" ringtone
You aren't a fanboi. A fanboi is someone who follows someone or something without question and without financial compensation. You sound like someone who likes Apple's products. There is a difference.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
we're already working on gplv3'ed ssh :) and its got some kick-butt features for terminal switching. check out the code and vids:
http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/
You might also not be at all surprised to know that Google is working
Haven't pretty much ALL phone companies had a store to download shit from for a looooooooong time before iphone or even ipod
So it's safe to say you're not surprised. Seems the author was right. ;)
> You aren't a fanboi. A fanboi is someone who follows someone or something without question and without financial compensation.
Ron Paul!
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
Our small startup was going to do iPhone apps with a nice chunk of funding from some venture capital types.
Android was a bit under the radar for awhile and the other people I am working with were caught up in the Apple marketing hype. But then more and more developer nightmare stories about dealing with Apple kept coming up. And these were above and beyond the absurd NDA crap and other secrecy Apple holds to with their product plans raised all sorts of alarms. Even the money guys were getting worried that they were going to dump all this cash into projects that were completely at the mercy and whim of Apple.
We were about to go out and waste money on expensive Macs for everyone - one of our guys was insisting on some 4 grand Mac laptop.
All those plans are now scrapped. We are all working on Android by simply downloading the free SDK and eclipse IDE and up and running on our own PCs. We don't have to waste time learning damn Objective-C that no one outside of the niche Mac dev community has any experience with and instead were able to jump right in with our existing Java skills.
The sky is the limit for Android. Solid technology base that is completely open. All the benefits of open source Linux without all the useless development and API fragmentation. The amount of interest from cellphone makers and people beyond the cellphone market in leveraging Android for their devices makes it clear that the huge amount of developer interest is just going to continue to grow rapidly.
Anything a user wants will be appearing on Android. It's so easy to modify for whatever end users need and desire.
Bye bye Apple and iPhone. Hello Android. Google really came through big time with this platform.
Okay. So how much more money are you going to make selling apps for Android over Apple? This is a serious question. For all of the nicities surrounding Android from a dev point of view, what are they doing to make your venture capitalists happy?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
As do I.
I have Windows Mobile.