Mobile World Congress Begins!

If you are an avid fan of mobile technology, or even if you are just slightly interested, it will be hard to miss the coverage on the net this week, of the Mobile World Congress, staged in Barcelona annually. So this week there is going to be a glut of mobile news, and press releases, and new devices, some ho-hum and some ground breaking, but mainly lots of new toys that won’t be available to any of us for a while. Obviously I’m not there, I mean Doug wouldn’t spring for the trip , so I’m hooking in to a few friends, that are a bit more interested in current trends, rather than the latest Diamond encrusted iPhone case that only lets you tweet to the twitter elite.

So to subject matter, the Android OS, where will it be placed in the mobile market this MWC. My friend Sascha Segan is on the ground in Barcelona, and has already made an astute observation, how does android fit into the mix this year? Not very well apparently!

Android Shuffle, or is it a Quick Step?

The  G1 android phone was and is a ground breaker as far as introducing the new OS from Google. Well it’s not so new now, but except for new applications developed for the OS, and lots of people joining the bandwagon, there has been little movement in the development of devices with the OS on them.

So  what would you say to a T-Mobile G2 device, there has been a rumour going around for a few days now, that, is rather dubious.

Although the rumour has been discredited somewhat, and given a nice bit of photochop, still the posts come, the tenacity with which the mobile community has embraced this bit of folly, is laughable, but the other information that has surfaced because of the impetus provided by this unverifiable tidbit is rather news worthy.

It may have even spurred the bevy of news that has surfaced since it became intertube fodder.

An Aussie Android Phone, Pre-Order Available!

Not that I’m writing a Christmas wish list or anything [*cough* Ahem] but earlier on in the year I talked a bit skeptically about an Australian company that promised an Android flavoured device by Christmas, for a phenomenally low price. Well it seems like they have sort of, in a round about way, done it.

I think this is cheating just a little bit, you can pre-order now, “Before Christmas” but the phone won’t ship until the end of January…   Clever bit of spin really

G1 Android, Shipping and Reviewed !

With about a week to go till the aforementioned availability of the T-mobile G1 Android phone, things are hotting up. It looks like pre ordered G1 units are on the move, according to Phandroid. How they got this info out of UPS  I wouldn’t know.

Just a quick heads up for anyone who pre-ordered their T-Mobile G1 to check the UPS Website for a tracking number and shipping date. At least 2 readers have contacted us saying they have shipping information today and that the shipping method is via 3-day… meaning you could receive your T-Mobile G1 as early as the 17th and definitely by the 21st.

The G1 is already circulating though, and of course some of the bigger sites are already getting real hands on time/review units to help muster buyers for the in store release of the first Google phone. Both Engadget and Gizmodo, have detailed reviews of the G1 posted today, which are not uncomplimentary, but point to the fact that the OS is a first release and will probably need some work.

The G1 phone and the Android operating system are not finished products. There are only three working Google App’s here—Gmail, Maps and Calendar—while Google Docs, Google News, Google Reader, Google Shopping, Google Images, Google Video, Blogger and Picasa are nowhere to be found. What’s the deal? gizmodo

Looks like people are going to have to wait for a complete Google experience on the platform, a bit like bender not functioning until he’s had a few beers!

T-Mobile G1 review – Gizmodo

T-Mobile G1 review – Engadget

The Eve of Android!

Now, I’m not going to get anywhere near the Dream from Google, in anything like the near future, so any sort of info or hands on, visual display of the OS, the phone actually operating, is vital to me. A new mobile operating system, on a new if somewhat, ungainly appearing device, that is exclusive, is something I’m interested in {read obsessed}.

The video above that I found at Experience Mobility, {thanks Jack}, has done nothing to extinguish my interest in this device. The video is the best Demo of the Android interface I’ve seen, and there are some specs and features discussed, the importance of I hadn’t twigged to. have a look at the 300 Mhz device running Quake, graphics are good.{understatement} Being an OS from Google, you would expect to see some apps focused on their already existing application base. Streetview being one of them. So when you get your Dream, could you let me know how good/bad/or indifferent it is?

What’s an Android Phone worth?

It took me a while to dig up footage of the London developer day that Google held, showcasing the android OS on an unnamed/unbranded device. That looked incredibly familiar.

So the demo at the London event and the announcement from T-Mo of an event next week, really has people champing at the bit, but really how much will the  G1 set you back? What sort of contract will you be chained to? What sort of price will the supposed HTC device command unlocked?

So many questions, and so much speculation, with so much silence, it’s probably driving up the price, or is it.

Cnet news are throwing a ballpark figure out there.

What would you pay for the Dream?

Dream, or Rapid Eye Movement?

Ok I know I dissed the design of the recently leaked photo’s of what most people are accepting as the “HTC Dream” or the first Android phone expected to be launched on
T – Mobile. So when new images surface, and they look this good, it is the sort of shock that is life threatening if you’re sleep walking.
Now this is stunning, dubbed the BlackStone it fit’s exactly the Dream’s design. Something doesn’t quite add up though.

I got an apps store, You got an apps store, We all got an apps store…

Funnily enough, the evolution of the iPod, into the iPhone seems to have been seamless, and a lot of the time we forget that this music player from Apple has been almost dictatorially managed. Probably the most exploited loophole over the years has been the inability of iTunes to tell the difference between a ripped CD and an original CD, actually purchased. The  evolution of the internet and online services, have actually circumvented a lot of those problems, by that I mean if you utilise the online service that Apple provide via iTunes, your music is licensed and non transferable. Once purchased though, it’s always there, just like a CD (well almost, compact discs do deteriorate over time). As Doug noted in the last of his series in his iPod Touch review

In addition to storing your music, however, iTunes is also a full media store, with thousands of songs, movies, TV shows, and more.  In fact, I found this store to be a little too integrated with iTunes.  It was all too easy to slip from the parts of iTunes which display media you already own, to the store where you have to pay to download media.

Now the advancement of the iPod to the iPhone, and I’ll include the Touch in that to save confusion, and the introduction of iPhone 2.0., the iPhone people love to hate, after they’ve gotten over the new device fascination, has led to the inclusion of the App store in iTunes. the iPod has grown up, obviously, and Apple has added access to the programs, that the now adult iPod “handheld computer” has become. So it’s a business model that works and other OS providers are trying to go there, namely Google/Android and now Microsoft. It seems that some other, not inconsequential software developers have taken note of the iTunes model, and are going down the App store track no matter what they want to call it.

Google/Android, with the release of the first Android device imminent, you will have to find relevant software, to make your new device a mobile helper.

For WM devices, you might want to take hope, because MicroSoft is also launching some sort of online store, but the interesting thing, is that they hint at Windows Mobile 7,

you can sell me that !

Apparently the Apple model is worth emulating???????????