last100 » Comms

iPhone app is no big deal but Skype’s ubiquity is

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:18:53 +0000

The tech blogosphere is buzzing with the news that an official Skype application for Apple’s iPhone will be made available tomorrow. But, as the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones rightly asks, is it such a big deal?

Firstly, it isn’t the first time Skype on iPhone (or iPod touch) has been possible, with a number of third-party apps already filling the void.

Secondly, while Skype calling is available to mobiles and landlines not just other devices running Skype, they’re only possible over WiFi not 3G, so as to appease Apple’s carrier partners.

And thirdly, it’s not possible to purchase SkypeOut credit from within the iPhone’s Skype app itself, and even though Cellan-Jones suggests that this feature is a perfect candidate for the upcoming ‘In App’ purchasing that Apple recently announced, he forgot to mention that Apple would then take a cut of Skype’s revenue as all billing is to be done through a iPhone user’s existing iTunes account.

That’s the Skype on iPhone specific caveats out of the way, but we should also mention that Skype functionality has existed on many other smartphone platforms for quite some time, such as S60, along with at least one official partnership, the Skype phone (and now the INQ1 — see review) available on carrier “3″. In addition, Nokia recently announced a tie-up with Skype that will see the Voice-over-IP service integrated into future handsets.

Taking all of the above into account, Skype on iPhone doesn’t seem such a big deal in and of itself. That said, Skype is already the largest provider of cross-border voice communications, according to a recent report, so perhaps the increasing ubiquity of Skype — PCs, cell phones and other mobile devices — is.

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Gravity, a really nice Twitter app lands on Symbian S60 phones

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:00:05 +0000

At last, smartphones running the Nokia-led Symbian S60 OS have a native Twitter application. And a very slick one at that.

Gravity is supported on phones running S60 version 3, including my own Nokia E71, as well as the latest touch-friendly S60 version 5, which powers the Nokia 5800 (aka the Tube) and the upcoming N97.

The app supports a host of features, including…

Tweet, reply, DM, follow & unfollow, create favourites, search, and auto-update
Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends
Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time
Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends
Post pictures via TwitPic
Open URLs from any Tweet

The end result is a very powerful yet user-friendly Twitter app, and one that is better in many ways than Twitter’s own website and the many iPhone Twitter clients out there. It’s also proof that S60 apps can be as polished and easy to use as those on Apple’s iconic device, and along with the recent S60 native YouTube client, sets a new standard for third-party S60 applications. Now somebody just needs to create a decent S60 Facebook app.

Note: You can follow me on Twitter here.

Symbian-Guru’s video demo after the jump…

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How I replaced Apple’s MobileMe at half the price

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:58:28 +0000

After years of pledging to do so, I’ve finally dumped Apple’s MobileMe web service in favor of a more cost effective and flexible solution, and one that is better suited to my own particular needs. MobileMe (formally dot Mac) is a great service (when it works) for those whose digital lifestyles almost entirely rely on Apple devices – iPhone, iPods, Macbooks etc. But step out of Apple’s ecosystem and it starts to look far less appealing and very overpriced. After a bit of research, and advice from friends and Twitter followers, moving forward, here’s how I intend to manage email, contact and calendar synchronization across devices, along with automatic backups of other critical data.

Email, Contacts, Calendar

Email

For a while now I’ve been using Gmail (via Google Apps) to run my main email accounts, and since it’s primarily a web-based offering, it solves the issue of how to access email on various devices. I just fire up a web browser on my Mac, Netbook or any computer I’m using, and for mobile access on my Nokia E71 smartphone or other handsets I’m testing, I use IMAP or Nokia’s own push email solution, as well the excelent Gmail Java app, which enables you to access and search all of your archived email stored on Gmail’s servers.

Contacts

Again, it’s Gmail to the rescue. A mission-critical feature of MobileMe was the ability to have web-based access to my address book; functionality that Gmail contacts replicates, even if it doesn’t have Apple’s graphical polish. I would, of course, still need to find a way to sync contacts with the ‘Address Book’ application running on my various Macs, and my Nokia E71 mobile phone (see below).

Calendar

Similar to how I now manage contact data, Google Calendar will be used for web-based access to my schedule, and Apple’s iCal application for local access on the Mac. I’ll also need to sync to and from my various Macs and Google Calendar, and also to and from my mobile phone.

Syncing contacts and calendar

To sync contacts and calendar data with Gmail and Google Calendar (the ‘cloud’) and each of my Macs, I’m using Spanning Sync. Once installed on the Mac, and configured with your Google account details, Spanning Sync automatically synchronizes contact and calendar data both ways. To then sync the most recent copy of my address book and calendar with my mobile phone and Mac – and vice versa – I have to pair the two devices over Bluetooth, and then use Apple’s own iSync software to exchange data. Obviously, an ‘over the air’ solution for the last part would be preferable.

Other data backup

Replacing the iDisk feature of MobileMe and for more general data backups, I’m using SugarSync. To begin with, I’ve opted for the lowest tariff ($24.99 per year), which gives me 10GB of storage, but the service does offer up to 250GB, with pricing increasing accordingly. I’ve installed the SugarSync application on two Macs so far and set it to automatically backup important data, such as invoices, spreadsheets, and my iPhoto collection. Specific documents can also be kept in sync across SugarSync-enabled Macs (or Windows PCs) via the service’s ‘magic briefcase’ feature, and you can also access all of your backed up files over the web, including through SugarSync’s mobile phone-friendly site.

Verdict

My final solution isn’t perfect (not that MobileMe ever was), with the biggest omission being the ability to keep my mobile phone’s contact and calendar data in sync ‘over the air’, rather than via the Mac using Bluetooth. However, the Spanning Sync/SugarSync solution works out at half the price of MobileMe, and is a lot more device agnostic. I can now happily mix it up with Mac and Windows, and switch mobile phone whenever I want, knowing that my data can remain backed up and in sync.

MobileMe: $99 per year

Spanning Sync/SugarSync: Approx. $49.99 per year

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Hands on with the Google phone: a solid device that won’t unseat the iPhone

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:59:53 +0000

I kind of felt like I was cheating on my wife — in this case an iPhone — when I checked out the new Google phone the other day at a T-Mobile store. I must admit I was seduced.

After more than a year of writing about the so-called Google phone and the Android mobile operating system, I actually held one in my hands. The G1, as it is known, called to me. It wasn’t as poorly manufactured as I feared it might be; its display was bright, crisp and intoxicating; its operating system seemed fun and promising.

At first blush, I was smitten. But as in any relationship, the more time you spend with someone — or in this case something — the more you learn.

What I learned about the G1 I’m sharing with you. Like the wise Om Malik, I prefer a less formal review format because there are many fine reviewers out there who’ve been testing the G1 for weeks. Like Uncle Walt from the Wall Street Journal. Or David Pogue at The New York Times. And all the usual gadget and mobile blogs.

I tend to focus on the user experience of any product, which in this case is important as the G1’s chief competitor, Apple’s iPhone, seemingly has cornered the market on usability and consumer imagination. Since the release of the iPhone 3G in July, Apple has sold nearly seven million phones this quarter.

For the so-called Google phone to reach that kind of success, it must complete with Apple on the user experience battlefield, not just over features and functions. This will be harder for the G1 because it has three parents, not one like the iPhone.

There’s Google, developer of Android.

There’s HTC, the manufacturer.

And there’s T-Mobile, the carrier.

In the near future, other manufacturers and carriers will be involved with the development of Google phones. All of them will provide different interpretations of Android with new features and functions and user experiences. Will they rival that of the iPhone? Or will they become another, albeit solid, contender?

We have our first answer.

Introducing the G1

Kudos to HTC. The Taiwan-based manufacturer of primarily Windows Mobile-based portable devices has delivered a solid, reasonably attractive, functional product.

The G1 is not on par with the iPhone for overall design and elegance, but it doesn’t feel cheap thanks to a bit more heft, less width (more in line with traditional cell phones), and a rubberized material coating on the back for grip-ability. The bottom of the G1 also is angled up slightly to give the impression of better voice-to-microphone communications when making calls.

Rather than focus on an exhaustive comparison of features and the details of rate plans, I’ll concentrate on three important pieces of the G1 user experience — display, keyboard, and interface/operating system. I’ll dig into applications and the Market, Google’s equivalent of Apple’s App Store, in my next post.

Display

The 3.2 inch display (480 x 320 pixels), working in tandem with Android, is the best feature of the G1. It’s not as large as the iPhone display, but it’s bright, crisp, colorful, legible, and solid-feeling when the G1 is closed.

It’s a touchscreen, of course, and it’s also touch-sensitive, meaning in some programs you can touch and hold to receive additional options, depending on the application. (In email, touch a message, hold it, and get options to read, archive, mark read, add star, delete, change labels, report spam.)

The only thing I don’t like about the display — and this is more of a potential problem than a reality at the moment — is that the display over time and heavy use might wear and loosen at the hinge on the right side. The display swings to the left, then up; it already droops to the left just a bit when opened.

Keyboard

The “full” QWERTY keyboard is the biggest differentiator between the G1 and the iPhone. This is where the two camps draw their lines.

Those who hate the iPhone’s virtual keyboard probably will love the G1’s physical keyboard.

Those who like the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard (myself included) most likely will find fault with the G1.

I suspect, too, that younger people used to texting will like the G1 keyboard because they are blazingly fast touching keys, not glass, when sending messages.

I found the “chicklet” keys too small for my medium-sized hands. But in all fairness, if you trust that your larger fingers are pressing the right key — even though they may seem to hover over neighboring keys — the G1 keyboard will work for you.

My issue with the keyboard is that the phone’s smallish form factor made thumb typing cramped and cumbersome, especially while holding the device in such a way to thumb type and access the touchscreen and track ball/roller tip.

Additionally, the keys are backlit (a nice touch in the dark), but the labeling is difficult to read in bright light. The letters and orange characters are painfully small, not much of an issue for young folks with 20/20 vision but a point of contention for older people or those needing glasses.

Interface

Unlike the iPhone, which has only one button (home) on the front of the device, the G1 has five standard buttons and a track ball, or roller tip. These are: call (for phone functions), home, back (exit or return to previous screen), and end call/put the device to sleep. The menu button acts as a right mouse click in most applications providing contextual options.

The roller tip, ironically, looks and feels like the one on Apple’s Mighty Mouse. My problem is that the G1 roller tip is highly sensitive and tough to control in a small area. I often zoomed past a link or icon and had to force myself to slow down.

The decision to include buttons on the front of the G1 contributes to the feeling that the Google phone is rooted in more traditional cell phone/smartphone design than the iPhone, which is more adventurous and forward-thinking in its approach.

Apple designed one button (home) on the front of the iPhone; everything else is controlled by “soft” keys inside the display. Users have only one surface to navigate.

On the G1, users have three surfaces to manage — the keyboard, for all data entry; the touchscreen for scrolling and panning and tapping to select; and the roller tip for scrolling and highlighting/selecting links. Many actions found in the touchscreen are also a part of the roller tip, making navigation redundant and giving the G1 more of a computer-like feel.

As much as tech pundits like to call devices such as the iPhone, the Google phone, BlackBerries and others like them mini computers, they’re not. They’re new hybrid devices that are communications and information tools — part phone, part Internet browser, part content creator, part computer. These should have new, appropriately designed interfaces, not ones borrowed from desktop and laptop computers.

Android Operating System

Without a doubt, the Android operating system is spectacular. It’s fast, with little or no lag time. It’s responsive, fun to use, and full of promise. It feels more innovative and up-to-the-moment than even the iPhone OS.

The G1’s implementation of Android follows the computer/desktop model. Dialer, contacts, browser, and map icons sit on top of a wallpaper image just like they do on your computer. Also like a computer, you have more customization options: drag favorites like contacts, playlists, folders, or Web pages onto the desktop for quick access.

Android integrates extremely well with the applications provided, although a majority of third-party apps have yet to be released, so this may change. Also, it remains to be seen how Android will be implemented on devices manufactured by others like Samsung or LG Electronics and provided by carriers like Sprint in the U.S. and others overseas. (The G1 is due in Europe at the end of the year.)

The operating system is one area where Apple needs to watch out. Android is open source, so third-party developers can create apps limited only by their imaginations. Want a virtual keyboard to use when the G1 is closed? Someone will write one.

Other Hardware Items of Note

The G1 cannot be synchronized with any data directly on a PC or a Mac. You must manually transfer music files, for example, to a removable storage card, then load the content onto a computer.
The G1 is a sub-par music player at best. It has no headphone jack and also feels as if music playing is an afterthought since Apple has the digital music market captured with the iPod (the iPhone comes with a built-in iPod). The G1 does support multiple audio formats: MP3, M4A, AMR, WMA, MIDI, WAV, OGG Vorbis.
The speaker on the back of the G1 is loud and tinny-sounding.
The battery is removable and replaceable, but it doesn’t appear to be any better than the iPhone’s.
The G1 comes with 1 GB of MicroSD memory storage. It’s nice that it’s replaceable and expandable, but that comes at an additional cost. The $20 you save on the purchase price of the G1 over the iPhone will easily be eaten up by buying 8 or 16 GB of additional memory.
The G1 features a 3.2 megapixel camera, but in my limited tests it’s not as good as the one on the iPhone. My problem: You receive a green light at the top of the display indicating that you can take the picture, but when you do there’s a slight delay — just enough time for a subject to blink or shift and blur the image.
The G1 allows for the sending/receiving of pictures via MMS, something the iPhone does not do.
Like the iPhone, the G1 does not offer video recording, although this is a possibility in the future. It also cannot play Flash files.
The iPhone carrier, AT&T, has 320 U.S. metro areas built with 3G; T-Mobile has 20, with eight more due to come online at the end of the year. I’ve sat in the same spot and watches the G1 bounce between 3G and Edge networks.
For now, the G1 is available in two of the three planned colors: black and a surprisingly nice bronze. The white model is delayed in production.

Verdict

From a hardware and interface perspective, the G1 is a strong, promising entry into this new hybrid category of connected communications and information devices. But it will not unseat the iPhone as the device of choice. Even so, it’s perfect for those who . . .

hate Apple
love the open source principle
hate Microsoft Windows or BlackBerry devices
don’t have access to (or can’t afford) upper-end Nokia smartphones
don’t have to rely on Outlook or Microsoft Exchange
love Google and all of its Web-based products and services

For now, my relationship with the iPhone is intact.

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Will Android be Motorola’s savior? Company confirms its interest in Google’s mobile OS

Daniel Langendorf — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:55:47 +0000

This comes as no shock, and it just might save Motorola’s cell phone hide.

According to BetaNews, Motorola has confirmed it is working on a new phone that utilizes Google’s mobile operating system Android. It’s no surprise because Motorola was a founding member of the Google-led Open Handset Alliance.

“We’re excited about the innovation possibilities on Android, and (we) look forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA),” Motorola said in a statement.

Since the announcement of Android at the end of last year, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and LG Electronics all have been rumored to be interested in manufacturing an Android handset. HTC is the first to deliver an Android phone, the G1, which will be available later this month and sold by T-Mobile in the U.S.

Other handset manufacturers have laid low, however, keeping their Android plans quiet. For its part, Motorola has been working diligently to solve its ailing cell phone business. Earlier this year it decided to spin off its troubled cell phone division from the rest of the company.

Motorola might have its cell phone business in order, allowing it to publicly move ahead with its Android plans. Android, clearly an innovative open-source mobile OS, is viewed as an extension to a new mobile market opened up by Apple and the iPhone more than a year ago.

Motorola, as well as other manufacturers, is looking to innovate using the Android platform — and possibly reinvigorating its ailing cell phone division in the process.

Motorola, known more for engineering than its product design, stumbled upon the successful design of the Razr more than five years ago. The Razr was the world’s first super-thin “fashion” phone. But as engineering-based companies usually do, Motorola concentrated on milking the Razr for everything it was worth, and in the interim Apple came along with the iPhone and changed the wireless game forever.

As Robert Brunner notes in a new book, “Do You Matter? How great design will make people love your company,” Motorola “had only a single product, and now Motorola is back in trouble because it tried to repeatedly milk this one product over and over again, and it hasn’t worked.” Motorola did not “continue to grow, build on, and invest in what made the Razr successful. Instead, it chose to imitate, not innovate.”

Android, it seems, is Motorola’s (last?) opportunity to innovate.

Motorola-Android illustration by Engadget

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The real power of Google’s phone: connecting us to people, places, and things

Daniel Langendorf — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:19:30 +0000

The real power of a Google phone and the Android mobile operating system isn’t just computing power, or search, or advertising, or maps. It’s the ability to connect people, places, and things like never before.

With the introduction Tuesday of the Google phone — dubbed G1 by wireless carrier T-Mobile — we’re starting to see the potential disruption that Google and Android will bring in the coming year or two. It’s even greater than what Apple and the iPhone have already accomplished.

Together, the so-called Google phone and the iPhone are disrupting the mobile industry with innovative, powerful, handy devices, applications, and services. Side by side, the Gphone and the iPhone have their differences but overall compliment one another, not compete with each other.

The iPhone is not unlike Apple, which is known for exquisitely designed hardware, user-friendly software, and a user experience like no other. The iPhone has a consumer, digital lifestyle feel to it, just like Apple products.

The Google phone, on the other hand, is not unlike “PC” in the famed “Mac” vs. “PC” television ads. This is not to say, however, that Google is Microsoft. Far from it.

The G1 — at least from what we’ve seen so far — has a “productivity” air to it, which is expected due to the nature of Google. The Android operating system, and the phone’s hardware, was developed first and foremost to showcase what Google does best — search along with Web applications like Maps, YouTube, Google Reader, Gmail, Calendar.

Entertainment and gaming is, of course, available on the Google phone, but it doesn’t seem as top-of-mind important as it is on the iPhone, which, as you may recall, is also an iPod.

Even the applications Google (or was it T-Mobile?) chose to pre-install on the G1 are utilitarian — ShopSavy helps people with comparative shopping, Ecorio tracks your daily travel and records your carbon footprint, and BreadCrumbz is a step-by-step visual mapping tool and social network. In fact, one of the early strengths of the Gphone is expected to be location-based services and augmented reality applications.

Which brings me to people, places, and things. First off, people have been communicating with each other since the days of smoke signals and cave paintings. This is nothing new to wireless handset makers and the mobile industry.

What is new — or is at least coming over the next year or two — is off the radar of most people. We will use mobile devices like the G1 not just to communicate with each other but to also “talk” with places and things.

It takes a bit to grasp that inanimate places and objects will speak to us. But, as always, technology is advancing quickly and it’s likely that there will soon be microchips and sensors in every object everywhere and many of these could be embedded with Android.

It’s not out of the question that the conference room in your office will relay to your Google phone the day’s schedule. Or, when you walk into the neighborhood book store, it tells you that your favorite author Neal Stephenson’s latest tome “Ananthem” is available in hardcover, digital, and audio formats and, by the way, it’s on sale.

This is not exactly what futurists envisioned. They were onto the concept of “places” and “things” but more like your refrigerator calling your phone to tell you you’re out of milk. When you pass by the local Starbucks it senses your presence and sends a coupon to your phone for a buck off a latte.

The future power of the Google phone — and the iPhone, should Apple take it in this direction — is for the doctor’s office to update your mobile device on future appointments or the medication you are supposed to take before you leave the waiting room. It’s a building telling you about itself, or a restaurant that gives you its history and passes along reviews and stories from its patrons. It’s the information that’s important to you, when you want it, how you want it, and where you want it.

Google is the gatekeeper of our information and knowledge today. More than any other company, it is poised to deliver information to us, no matter if it comes from people, places, or things.

The first Google phone is just the start.

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The roundup of roundups: Everything you want to know about the Google phone (with links!)

Daniel Langendorf — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:15:25 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, T-Mobile announced the world’s first — and for the time being, only — cell phone powered by Google’s open-source, mobile operating system today amid much pomp and circumstance.

Cue the band.

You can spend hours thumbing through your bookmarks or RSS feeds looking for and reading about the new T-Mobile/Google phone, dubbed the G1. Most everybody is writing about the same thing — the specs, the looks, the apps, the Android operating system.

But there are a few posts out there looking at the G1 from various other perspectives — advertising, search, what’s missing, and so on. To save you a few minutes, we’ve combed through the basics, looked under the hood just a bit, hit on the basic apps, and compiled other posts of interest for your reading pleasure.

So off we go.

Getting started with G1

The G1 will be available Oct. 22 for $179 ($20 less than the iPhone) with a two-year contract (same as the iPhone).

Unlimited data is $25/month or $35/month with unlimited messaging. A voice plan is required.

T-Mobile will likely have the Google phone exclusively for a few months, then other carriers and manufacturers (Motorola, Samsung, LG and one mystery phone maker) are expected to debut their plans/phones in early 2009.

The phone will be available in the UK in November and much of the rest of the world in early 2009.

For more info check out Sarah Perez’s post for ReadWriteWeb.

Under the hood with the G1

Much of what is under the hood we touched on in last evening’s last100 post. A few other items of note:

of course the main difference with the iPhone is that the G1 sports a QWERTY slide-up keyboard, not a touchscreen keyboard
the G1 will be a little heavier and thicker than the iPhone
the “swipe” gesture is used on both the iPhone and G1; however, the G1 does not utilize the “pinch” gesture to zoom in/out on the touchscreen
a 1 GB MicroSD card is preinstalled; the G1 supports an 8 GB MicroSD card
the HVGA display is also a 3.17-inch, 65k color touchscreen
for radio frequency buffs: GSM (800Mhz), GPRS (900), EDGE (1700). Wi-Fi and UMTS (1900) and HSDPA (2100) are supported (only 16 cities currently have T-Mobile’s 3G network)
G1 allows dragging and dropping of pictures and text, which the iPhone lacks

It was manufactured for T-Mobile by HTC.

Looking at G1’s on-board apps

Like the iPhone, the G1 ships with a few pre-installed applications (or Google Goodies) beyond the usual (contacts, browser, mail, chat), including:

YouTube (duh)
Maps (double duh)
Search (duh x 3)
Android Market
Amazon MP3
ShopSavvy (help people do comparative shopping)
Ecorio (tracking your daily travel and carbon footprint)
BreadCrumbz (step-by-step visual mapping and social network)
Maps will utilize “compass mode” or “Street View,” giving you a live 3D map of where you need to walk (don’t bump into any streets signs as you walk and look at your G1)
Push Gmail, which eliminates the need for a faux-Exchange server for push email. Remember: Google is already running mail servers for Gmail, while Apple operates MobileMe mail (formerly .Mac) on a much smaller scale and larger price tag (it’s $99 a year)

Google offers a video explaining its Gmail, contacts, Calendar, and GTalk applications.

G1 links, links, links

Engadget’s G1 hands-on video

Scientific American’s take on the G1

The Guardian UK says the G1’s innovations are for tech heads, but it lacks the “wow” factor (agreed)

ZDNet weighs in on what mobile search means to Google (hint: more $$$)

The battle royale, the mano-a-mono fight between Amazon’s MP3 store and iTunes is on. What this might amount to is DRM (iTunes) vs. DRM-free (MP3 Store). So far, Amazon’s MP3 store has become the No. 2 digital music store but it hasn’t stolen iTunes’ marquee status. The game may change, however, with the MP3 Store on a mobile device. (See also: VentureBeat)

Lots of pretty pictures from CNET News, if you like seeing a bunch of dudes standing around holding cell phones.

Naturally, there’s always a naysayer in the crowd. Crave tells us what we didn’t get with the G1.

A fairly in-depth look at the software inside the G1 from CNET.

InfoWorld’s take that Google Android is all about advertising, not the enterprise (who thought it was about the enterprise?)

The Wall Street Journal’s and New York Times’ (and here) takes on the G1 because, after all, they are the papers of record. TechCrunch is sorta the blog of record. Coverage from Engadget and Gizmodo, the gadget blogs of record. And Boing Boing is kinda the pop culture blog of record (but what does Cory Doctorow think?).

Uncle Walt Mossberg of the WSJ gives his first impressions, but where is David Pogue of the NYT? And no coverage would be complete without GigaOM, although this post is Om-less.

Forbes (basic coverage) is already calling winners and losers with the introduction of the G1, but as far as we can tell they’ve yet to call the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Forbes also brings us perspective from other open source projects, the LiMo Foundation and Mozilla.

TechDirt, naturally, digs up the dirt on the T-Mobile G1 plan, citing a 1 GB per month data limit (via Broadband Reports). Guess it pays to read the fine print, especially when dealing with shifty wireless carriers.

Leave it up to the Apple blogs (one being the AppleInsider) to reinforce the fact that Apple has a year-plus head start on Google and that the G1 will have little impact on the iPhone initially. We’ll see about that. Macworld, however, provides a nice FAQ to answer all your G1 questions.

last100 editor Steve O’Hear also notes that the Gphone and Android will fuel the social web. No question the G1, with the iPhone, are the Facebookers, MySpacers, and Twitterers phones of choice.

And lastly — because, by now, we’ve all had enough — leave it up to The Register to invoke Jobs, the Lord, and Satan in a post about the Google phone. If the iPhone was known as the “Jesus phone,” is the G1 really the “Satan phone?”

Seriously.

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Time for the big reveal: T-Mobile to introduce first Google Android phone

Daniel Langendorf — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:25:49 +0000

In the language of reality TV, it’s time for the big reveal. Ladies and gentlemen — drum roll please — T-Mobile presents the first cell phone powered by Google’s much-ballyhooed mobile operating system, Android.

Formal introductions will be made at 10 a.m. EST in New York. But, unlike the super-secret debut of Apple’s iPhone in June 2007, lots is known about the so-called Google phone even before its reveal.

It will be known as the G1, but popular culture is sure to call it the first Google phone, gPhone, or Gphone. So, without further delay, here’s the Gphone brought to you by the carrier T-Mobile and hardware manufacturer HTC.

G1 Specs

No surprise here: The G1 will sell for $199 (the same as the iPhone) with a low-cost data plan (which remains to be detailed).

According to TmoNews, the phone is 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 inches, weighs 5.6 ounces, an features a 480 x 320 HVGA display. Of course it uses the 3G network, has built-in GPS, has a 3.1-megapixel camera, has 8 GB of memory, has five hours of talktime and 130 hours of standby (we’ll see about that).

Check out Engadget’s early gallery of G1 images.

From these images, it is clear that T-Mobile and HTC went with the first phone they could fit Android into — the so-called HTC Dream. To be honest, the G1 looks like some other phone, not unique unto itself.

Cheers

Expect the Google App Store . . . oops . . . Market to be open as soon as phones are available (see Jeers below). From what we’ve seen so far, there will be lots of location-based apps (laws of average say at least a few of these will be cool and work well). Third-party apps might be a little more polished and less buggy than the ones that debuted on Apple’s App Store when iPhone 3G rolled out.

Nobody cares about this other than phone geeks and developers: The Google platform is open, meaning it’s not locked down to a specific carrier’s specifications. Anybody can develop a Google phone app, no matter what T-Mobile itself wants.

Average folks will certainly appreciate this, but to be truly open the Google phone will have to be on more than one carrier — T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint in the U.S. It’s invigorating to think that you will be able buy the Google phone anywhere (carrier-specfic stores, Best Buy, mall kiosks) and use it on the network of your choice. Wonder how long this will take.

And, as you might expect with anything branded as Google, the G1 should work exceptionally well with Google applications such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Maps, and all the other Google Web-based products. If you are heavily into Google, this may be the phone for you.

Jeers (short-term)

The Google phone will be out in October, not today or the end of the week.

It will not have Google Talk, Google’s chat engine.

Bluetooth is expected to be crippled (for now).

It’s only on T-Mobile, the U.S.’s No. 4 wireless carrier, but for how long? (Side note: What the heck is Verizon — the No. 1 U.S. carrier — doing? At least AT&T is working with Apple on the iPhone. Does Verizon have its own Google phone in the works? Something else entirely?)

Jeers (long-term)

As Android is expected to be on lots of hardware (a stark contrast to Apple’s iPhone), carriers still have the right to configure Android to their liking — which may or may not be a good thing, depending on actual execution. Other Google phones are not expected to be available until early next year.

And because these phones are not immediately available, nothing can be said about a consistent Android user experience between hardware and carriers. For all we know, this may not even be a big deal to consumers, who will buy the phone model that appeals to them and use it on the network of their choice.

Big Brother, in this case Google, is watching. Some fear that using an all-Google phone gives the Big G too much entry into your mobile life. Expect to see contextualized local ads, which will make it feel like somebody is looking over your shoulder outside of Starbucks and Barnes & Noble.

Other G1 notes

T-Mobile has gone live with its G1 Website, where you can get an overview of the G1, its features, and get in line to pre-order it. It’s availability is limited until the formal reveal.

Fortune (via mocoNews.net) notes that T-Mobile is considering including free email access to Google’s Gmail service for Android phones, meaning users may not need a data plan. But remember, with free comes advertising.

VentureBeat says the Android phone will have an Amazon music and video store application running (not unlike the App Store on the iPhone), allowing you to buy music but also to purchase and rent movies and video on the phone.

And, just for good measure, now that we are on the threshold of the Google phone reveal, some are wondering what’s next for Google. The gPod? Google-run appliances, automotive?

But first, the Gphone.

Photo credits: from Engadget

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The Google phone is on its way: a checklist for success

Daniel Langendorf — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:38:51 +0000

The long-awaited Google phone will be announced next Tuesday, so says the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and the rest of the Web. The phone, which features the first release of the Android operating system, will be available near the end of October.

Coincidentally, Google today showed off a fairly polished version of Android and its HTC-manufactured hardware at Google’s Developer Day conference in London. Check out the YouTube demo video for details.

The upcoming news conference and the nearing release date got me thinking about what I’d like to see in the first Google phone. What I want isn’t a wish list, per se, but more of a checklist.

Here goes.

Stylish good looks

First and foremost for the designer in me, I want stylish good looks and a fit and finish that’s as good as, if not better than, the iPhone.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, the HTC Dream — now known as the G1 for the release — will feature an iPhone-like touch screen and a very non-iPhone slide-up display that hides a promising keyboard.

Rumors point to uninspiring black, white, and brown colors for the initial release. Black and white — been there, done that. But brown?

Imaginative user interface

Next, a polished, consistent, imaginative user interface is essential. It must, again, be on par with or better than the iPhone OS. Prove to us that somebody other than Apple can design a cell phone UI.

And please, please, please: If it’s not as slick as the iPhone UI, at least don’t give us an interface that’s like the clunky Gmail and Reader experiences. Give us something interesting and fun to play with like the iPhone was when it was released more than a year ago.

More than one carrier

I know this isn’t possible just yet, but please o’ please make the Google phone available on more than one network before 2112.

Other thoughts

Other thoughts come to mind, but these are what the iPhone lacks, not what it does well.

the ability to run more than one app at a time
the ability to play Flash files, not just YouTube videos
the ability to copy and paste
the immediate availability of more polished, functional third-party apps when the Android Market (the equivalent of Apple’s App Store) opens for business
(add your own iPhone shortcoming)

I believe the Google phone must meet these objectives because it needs to wow the public, just like the iPhone did (and still does). Most people outside of the techy, geek, gadget world know little about the Google phone, Android, or what it means to the mobile industry. Nor do they care.

T-Mobile, the exclusive carrier, is No. 4 in the U.S. It won’t have the resources to blitz our TV screens, radios, and printed media with Android ads like Apple did for the iPhone. What will propel the Google phone into orbit like the iPhone is sexy design, a slick UI, a quality fit and finish, an even better browser, and plugging the holes left by the iPhone.

The techies, geeks, and gadget hounds will talk about the Google phone. They’ll buy one for husbands, wives, and kids. They’ll recommend the phone to friends. They’ll proudly show it off, their latest high-tech talisman.

And if this happens, Apple will have serious competition for the first time since introducing the iPod years ago.

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Android Developer Challenge winners appear polished, ready for sale

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:43:47 +0000

It looks like Google may have made the right move with the Android Developer Challenge after all.

The winners of the first developer challenge, announced this evening, appear polished, well thought out, and ready for the first Android-powered phones to hit the streets in the not-too-distant future.

The Android Developer Challenge provides yet another contrast to Apple and its iPhone. Apple announced a software developers kit (SDK) for the iPhone this spring and a few months later the first iPhone/iPod touch applications went on sale at the App Store July 11.

While many of the iPhone applications performed flawlessly, many felt rushed and suffered from buggy behavior. Subsequent releases worked out the kinks.

Google certainly has had its share of problems with the Android SDK and cranky developers, but these Android apps seem tight, well developed, and ready for sale. Of course, final judgment cannot be levied until we actually have working Android phones in our hands and these applications running.

Of the 50 applicants that emerged from Round 1 of the ADC, 10 were awarded $275,000 each for their efforts, with another 10 receiving $100,000 each. A complete listing of winners and entrants is here.

The $275,000 winners include:

cab4me: call a cab to any location worldwide; you don’t even need to know the number of the local cab company. Very handy for travelers.

Compare Everywhere: scan a barcode and see if the “sale price” really is a good deal. Read reviews, track shopping lists, wish lists, and more. Very handy for shoppers.

Ecorio: allows users to accurately calculate their travel carbon footprint. Eco-friendly. Green. Timely. Needed. But a grand prize winner?

GoCart: a shopping application that bridges the gap between shopping online and shopping at a local store. Local merchants may hate this one. Not that big of a deal if you don’t buy much toilet paper and books off the Web.

Life360: uses a multi-channel messaging system and neighborhood-centric social network to keep you to-to-date and in contact with family and friends in your local community. Depends on how well it works, but this one could be the first local mobile social networking application on any platform that works well and is needed.

Locale: automatically change your phone’s settings based on conditions such as location. Good for people running in and out of meetings, but for the rest of us we flip a switch for vibrate mode and we’re set.

PicSay: add word balloons, titles, and props to pictures you’ve taken with the phone’s camera. Could be fun for the kids.

Softrace: people around the world meet online to compete against each other in different activities.

TuneWiki: social media player featuring synchronized lyrics for audio or video, translation, music maps, and a social network.

Wertago: for the nightlifers; the application finds the hottest parties in town and helps you coordiate with friends. Could this be the new way to let people know about spur-of-the-moment, off-the-grid parties?

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What’s in a name? Google’s announces the Android Market, not the Android Store

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:04:18 +0000

The choice of name says it all: Android Market, not Android Store.

By design, Google is preparing the equivalent of an open-air marketplace for applications that will run on Android-powered smartphones. Google, which announced the Market late this afternoon through its Android developer blog, believes that developers should have an “open and unobstructed environment to make their content available.”

It’s a stark contrast to Apple’s App Store, where developers must submit applications for approval before release. The process has miffed many developers because their iPhone and iPod touch programs may take days, or weeks, before they show up for sale in the App Store.

Like a market or bazaar, Android developers can show up, set up shop, and sell their wares hassle free. Developers can submit applications to the Market using three steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe the content, and publish it.

No word, however, on the business or quality control side of the equation. Currently, Apple splits revenue 30/70 with developers. mocoNews.net says T-Mobile, the expected U.S. carrier, plans to base its revenue split on how much bandwidth the application uses.

The first Android-powered phone will be manufactured by HTC and is slated for release later this year. The first handsets will carry a beta version of the Android Market, with an update expected soon after the launch that will support downloads of paid content and additional features such as versioning, multiple device profile support, and analytics.

With the announcement of the Android Market and the imminent release of the first Android phone, Google’s mobile platform/ecosystem is no longer speculation. As we’ve expected all along, whatever Apple does with the iPhone, Google will do the opposite with Android.

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Taking next step: NBA wants its teams to stream live local games

Daniel Langendorf — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:19:42 +0000

There’s an old adage in basketball that says you can’t be afraid to mix it up with the big boys under the basket. Clearly, the NBA is ready for a showdown with cable operators and regional sports networks.

In a first for any major U.S. sports league, the NBA wants to stream live games on the Internet in local markets. Yes, you read that right: local markets.

The NBA is hoping to secure deals with the league’s 30 teams and cable operators to broadcast local games live on the Web in time for the 2008-2009 season, which will be starting soon [via Sports Business Journal].

“We hope to have a model in place this season,” NBA general counsel Bill Koenig said. “We believe that if we can draw more people to the interactive features, it will help bring in new [fans] and keep [fans] for a longer period of time.”

Currently no major U.S. sports leagues streams live local games. Major League Baseball offers a streaming package for out-of-market games, and the National Football League will be streaming games broadcast by NBC this season.

Streaming live games, especially ones targeted at a local market, is one of the most volatile issues leagues face as teams are trying to broaden their reach and broadcasters want to protect the rights to some of their most expensive programming.

Details of the plan are unclear. Each team gets to choose its own business model. Games will be geo-targeted, meaning they will be available to fans living in respective media markets such as the Mavericks in Dallas or the Celtics in Boston. It’s uncertain if the games will be hosted on each team’s Web site or a site of a regional sports network operator. Advertising within the feeds and who sells the ads also need to be worked out.

Complicating matters, not all of the teams own their streaming rights, which they sold to regional sports networks along with TV rights. It’s highly doubtful that everything will be worked out for all 30 teams by the start of this season.

Even so, it’s encouraging that a major U.S. sports league is willing to take the next step to blend the TV and Web-viewing experiences.

If recent Web-streaming initiatives like March Madness, the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, and some of the Beijing Olympics are any indication, streaming live games, matches, or events (including local ones) is inevitable and preferred by younger audiences.

It’s time, no doubt, to mix it up in the paint.

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