Slashdot Mirror
Google Releases Experimental Phone To Employees
alphadogg, as is his wont, sends in a Network World piece on the resurgent rumors of a Google Phone. "Google has handed out a new mobile phone running its Android software to some employees, stirring another wave of speculation that the oft-rumored Google Phone is real. In a blog post on Saturday morning, Google said the phones are being distributed so that workers can experiment with new mobile features. It did not say the device will be a Google-branded phone. Since even before Google unveiled Android, onlookers have wondered whether the search giant will release its own phone. Instead, it released an open source operating system that other hardware vendors can use to make phones."
Is there anywhere enough details available to say if whatever this thing is will be better than the Droid? (At least the impression i've gotten without doing a great deal of research is that the Droid is the best Android phone out so far.)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I've been quite unimpressed so far with the current Android phones, so I'm very interested in what features Google would add on top of the base Android OS. I'm particularly interested in how they intend to support Exchange users.
We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities
I'm reading this as "some hardware manufacturer invented the big red button and we want our employees to be able to play around with what the software will do when the big red button is pressed." Or maybe they're just talking about faster processors, more memory, or some other somewhat minor upgrade. I see nothing to indicate they're going to enter the phone market themselves especially since it mentions the hardware is from "a partner".
The Wall Street Journal says it's real.
I was doubtful myself, it seemed really weird that Google would compete against partners like this. It seems like most technical people that would even want Android to start with would flock to this phone and drop the others. Heck, I might even buy one to have something to tether my iPhone to when traveling internationally!!
I had a chance to try out a Droid, and it was still pretty pokey (especially when using the built in browser). Perhaps the Google phone will finally hit a good performance stride.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Google likes to give its employees little toys every year for Christmas. There aren't that many Google-related toys out there to give, so they could end up picking a phone even if it's nothing special.
Oooorrr... it could be teh awesomest Googlest phone evar.
Well, at least they are testing them on employees rather then the general public.
Probably cost them a lot less in legal fees when the batteries start exploding.
This is probably how a phone call would proceed on a Google phone:
555-1212
Results 1 - 30 of about 499,000 for 555-1212. (0.24 seconds)
www.555-1212.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_assistance
phones.whitepages.com/703-555-1212
. . .
et al.
Somewhere in there would be the option to dial the number you wanted. If you happen to have SafeDial turned on you can forget about ever connecting to your sex^H^H^Hchat line. In all serious I would think that perhaps they are trying to incorporate something Googly to reach a larger userbase but certainly their own phone with that ability would be much more lucrative.
it appears to be the HTC passion. The twitter hype of this thing is extraordinary, it's like viral advertising only done right.
This sounds like SOP for google... set up an open source beta, have everyone test and improve on it, and then begin selling an updated final version. Think about how they used chrome to attract open source devs and now are releasing chrome OS as a separate platform. They also did the same with gmail... collecting a huge amount of users with the beta then released a for fee version for businesses
You can see a picture of this device here
Do only evil
Wow, if Google starts eating its own dogfood, by taking the leap into the handset manufacturing business, then I'll most certainly be eating my own words.
I honestly thought that they would be more of a nonpartisan member of the OHA, focusing entirely on the software side of things. With a handset manufacturing division, they would be directly competing with the manufacturing members of the OHA. However, with Google's superiority in software, I doubt that the competition will be able to keep up, at least in the Android universe. Other manufacturers might then just be striving to make a Google phone that measures up to the actual Google phone. Surely there would be some proprietary software components that Google would not be releasing, no?
If that were the case, wouldn't that be a motivating factor for OHA members to discontinue Android development altogether? Maybe its just me... but I would certainly hope that Google keeps their Android improvements entirely open for the OHA to remain sustainable (aside from the Google API components, of course).
LOL! What a loser...
Google is real life umbrella corp. I give it ten years before google has a product in every single category. Including zombie nerve agents
I can't wait for a new Google Phone to be honest. I love my HTC Magic and Android phones in general, but knowing Google, this'll be a free beta!
http://gizmodo.com/5425146/the-real-google-phone-everything-is-different-now
Looks and sounds real to me.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
I got my Nokia n900, and it's really GREAT, even better than expected. After few weeks it's out, there's already Pidgin, OpenVPN, and many more. Sure it crashes a bit, but that should be because it's still a quite young phone, and I hope that it's going to be fixed.
I quite hate the Google concept where things are SUPPOSED to be opened, but in fact, you get something which is not really modifiable. I don't see how this will change sooner or later.
I don't see any benefit for Google to get into the device market. They seem to be doing great staying in the software/advertisement market.
Can I bum a sig?
Android 2.0 Highlights
The Droid was the first Android 2.0 device.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
Subcontracted, but a hardware device with their branding on it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Appliance
I didn't see it say if it was a CDMA or GSM phone. Does anyone know what network Google has had its internal phones on before? I heard they gave out some G1s, which would have been GSM...did they give out Droid phones (CDMA) internally as well?
Sorry but your math fails. 1 usd != 1 euro
1 U.S. dollar = 0.684134911 Euros
1 Euro = 1.4617 U.S. dollars
500 Euros = 730.85 U.S. dollars
500 U.S. dollars = 342.067456 Euros
Why is common sense called that if it's not common?
Thank you fo pointing out the obvious. The Media is going crazy trying to create controversy where there isn't any. It actually makes no sense for Google to alienate all the telephone makers by making their own phone.
well, if you are talking about apple's marketing + RDF effect + fanboy cult, yes, there has not been any ipod killer. If you talking about better functional devices, there have been few superior to ipod devices.
For iphone, well, as you have been living under a cave for some time, you would not know this phone called Droid from Motorola running Android. It's first real Android device matching iphone's processing power and aesthetics. And now that Motorola and Verizon have matched Apple and AT&T's marketing, it actually is giving iphone a good competition. Wait till few more equally powerful android phone comes into the market, and iphone is well on it's way to become mac of the phones.
But do not let reality distort your fantasy (and please DO NOT play with Droid before writing them off). Continue to masturbate on Steve Job's picture with black turtleneck.
Alert - Above link is to a site equal or worse than Goatse.
After five revisions, will they superior in strength and agility, and at least equal in intelligence, to the hardware engineers who created them?
Or will they just have a screensaver with electric sheep? ;)
There are some great Android phones coming down the pike, but I wish there were more with a physical keyboard and buttons. I have a G1 and wish HTC would come out with a "next generation" version with essentially the same layout but larger screen, more memory, better processor, etc. Getting rid of the call and end buttons arranged linearly at the bottom of the set seems a mistake. One example of lost functionality is the three-finger reboot available by holding down the call, menu, and end buttons simultaneously.
Google just gave a bunch of Android phones to a bunch of competent devs.
I'm not very familiar with the app situation, but if /I/ were a dev with ~20% time for personal projects, and I just got handed a shiny new toy (and a shiny new toy that everyone around me had) I would definitely consider developing for it.
So it's made by HTC. And "designed virtually the entire software experience" isn't saying much. Sounds like another "myTouch 3G with Google" sort of deal.
Yeah, but Google pushing it and spending a lot of development time on it is a big deal. Because they are cutting out the carriers. That is the deal, that is surprising.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm right with you on this.
I have a Samsung Galaxy, and at first it appears quite nice, but then you have to enter text somewhere -- oy veh! Either you get 1/3rd of your UI plus a teeny tiny keyboard, or if you try landscape, you get a larger (though still 3-row, no digits) keyboard and NO UI whatsoever, just a text box.
Coming from PalmOS, with its (transparent full-screen) handwriting recognition, I did not fully realize how big a problem this would be. Oh, how I miss handwriting recognition, or at least a physical keyboard.
If the Galaxy and the Droid weren't both so expensive, and were for sale where I am, I'd switch in a heartbeat.
"Good news, everyone!"
I ran into an old friend that works for Google yesterday and he showed me his phone. He says it has a 1 GHz processor, 5 MP camera, led flash, OLED screen, and is running Android 2.1. It does not have a built in keyboard, but he showed me that he could write an email by just talking to the phone. On the front it says "HTC", and on the back it says "Google". He didn't say who the service provider was.
There is an even better phone on the horizon. Here is a video preview.
http://www.flixxy.com/sumsing-turbo-3000-cellphone.htm
They don't want to make a phone, just an OS (for other companies to put on their phones).
Go back a few months...
They don't want to make an OS, just a browser (to run on other OSes).
See a pattern?
Only in the insane world of the Apple Hater, does a post wherein I say I might well buy a product constitute negative hatred for a product!
I was just expressing surprise they would do this, it says nothing about Android (which I have said in the past is pretty compelling).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley