White G1 makes its appearance in T-Mobile stores



Fancy yourself sporting a white G1 instead of the somewhat drab black and brown models that currently grace the shelves of T-Mobile? If you do, it looks your wait might soon be over as we got our hands on some images showing a white T-Mobile G1 in action. According to our tipster, some T-Mobile retail stores now have the white G1 in stock, though we don’t know how many for the time being. It may be a select few or a bit more widespread. Either way, if you have been waiting for the white G1 you may want to check out your local store(s) and you may be pleasantly surprised. If you score one for yourself, let us know in the comments.





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Video Proof of Concept: Multi-Touch on the T-Mobile G1



I’ve been hearing rumblings over the past little while. Rumblings that hidden somewhere within all that lovely code that makes up the Android OS is the capability to make multi-touch a reality on the G1. Low-and-behold, this morning when I got down to a little bit of work, developer RyeBrye has posted a proof of concept video on exactly that feature. Looks like he’s been busy. Check out the video above.

This is clearly just a starting point for multi-touch development on Android for the G1 (and hopefully other devices soon). You have to love the open-ended possibilities with an open-source OS like Android. Whether or not multi-touch will come standard out-of-the-box on new Android devices remains to be seen… Looks like a lot of development still needs to be done. Now that the proof of concept is out there, I can actually hear the developers clamoring to help on development of multi-touch for Android.

(Ok, I can’t actually hear them… But you know what I mean).

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Asus to go toe to toe with HTC in 2009 Android smartphone race

The features and exact release date of the first Android-powered Asus smartphone could be anyone’s guess for now, but one thing’s for sure: it is in the works. With their roughly 800-person R&D staff, Asus aims to hit the smartphone scene next year with at least Android, and also Windows Mobile.

And if a recent report citing industry sources in Taiwan holds true, we may as well expect a battle royale between Asus and HTC next year, in the realm of consumer and business smartphones, of course.



It is said the Asus is currently beefing up its R&D in order to offer up to 10 new models in 2009, “almost all supporting 3G and a touch user interface.” And all this is done to make rival smartphone maker HTC feel small.

Asus’ estimated total shipment volumes for handsets in 2008 didn’t even manage to hit half a million, but who knows? With the right mix of a good design, user experience, and smartphone platform (with either the Android OS or Windows Mobile, then), Asus could potentially dream of making sales like the iPhone’s. Or the T-Mobile G1’s, at least. We should know for sure in the coming months. Either way, it’s good for the consumer.

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New software enables auto-rotation in the G1



The beauty of an open source platform is that it can be modified and expanded to support all sorts of new features. Last week we saw that the G1 could be hacked to accept multi-touch input. This week it is auto-rotation, a feature that the G1 and its accelerometer does not support out of the box. Rather than wait for Google to enable this feature, a developer modified the G1 source code to enable auto-rotation and has released the hack in his G1 Tweak Tools software package. The auto-rotation appears smooth and responsive and works both on the home screen and within applications. Sweet!

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T-Mobile G1 Internet Access Can’t Be Turned Off



If you travel abroad a lot, you might want to leave your T-Mobile G1 at home… That is, unless you want to rack up a nice chunk of change in roaming charges.

A tipster recently dropped a note over to the folks at Gizmodo, telling them that his data roaming bill had reached $102.85… Even though he had data roaming, data sync and 3G turned off on his G1. Puzzling.

The tipster was from the US, and was bound for the UK on a trip. Naturally, he called T-Mo to inquire about international calling and data charges. After talking with a representative he was told that data roaming would be charged at $10/MB, however if he did not access the internet while away everything would be a-ok. In reality, while in the UK he was charged roughly $0.15 for every 3 to 7 minutes on average… and not all of it was from calls and texts… as he put it, it was ‘almost as if the phone is pinging’. Looks like it was.

Upon returning home he picked up the phone and called T-Mobile yet again. This time with a bit of a bee in his bonnet. Naturally things didn’t go too well, and after a few conversations a supervisor finally revealed that the T-Mobile G1 always accesses the internet… Even if you are not making calls or sending messages… and even if the data roaming features are turned off. The advice given at the end of the conversation from T-Mobile? ‘The phone should have been left in the USA to avoid these charges’.

My word. I’m speechless.

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Kogan intros world's second Android phone: Agora / Agora Pro



We'll be totally honest -- we pretty much blew Ruslan Kogan off when he proclaimed that he was about to push out a $199 Android phone by the year's end. And truthfully, the guy still hasn't totally delivered, but you won't find us kvetching about more Googlephones, regardless of MSRP. The Agora (AU$299; US$192) and Agora Pro (AU$399; US$256) are available for pre-order as we speak, though neither one is scheduled to ship out until the end of January. For those unfamiliar with Kogan, it's an online-only enterprise that has wares built specifically to its dimensions in China, and so far as we can tell, it's as legit as they come. As for specs, the Agora packs a 2.5-inch touchscreen (320 x 240), 3G networking, a backlit QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD card slot; the Pro adds in GPS, 2-megapixel camera and WiFi. So, with unsubsidized prices this low, are you willing to take a chance?

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SIM / hardware-unlocked Android Dev Phone 1 surfaces for $399



Oh, snap! Out of seemingly nowhere, Google has revealed the Android Dev Phone 1, a SIM- and hardware-unlocked G1 designed to be sold exclusively to hard working developers. The handset ships with a system image that's fully compatible with Android 1.0, and obviously, it complies with any SIM card and can "flash custom Android builds that will work with the unlocked bootloader." In other words, the mobile should seriously appeal to devs who live far, far away from areas blanketed with T-Mobile coverage. In order to get one, you must first register as an Android developer on the Android Market site (which involves a one-time $25 setup fee); once you're in, you simply surf over and nail the "Purchase" link. For $399 (including free shipping in the US of A), this swanky G1 -- custom back and all -- can be yours, and it's scheduled to ship in 18 international markets soon. Would it be too much to yell "snap!" again?

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Sony Ericsson joins Open Handset Alliance, promises Android smartphone

Sony Ericsson today announced its membership in the Open Handset Alliance, which is devoted to using Google's Android smartphone operating system. Sony Ericsson's membership announcement also confirms that the company is planning to develop and Android-powered smartphone.

Sony Ericsson, historically, only used the UIQ platform running on top of the Symbian smartphone operating system in its smartphones. However, with the launch of the Xperia X1, the company branched into Windows Mobile-powered smartphones as well. Sony Ericsson is also still a founding member of the Symbian Foundation.

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znači SE Xperia X2 će fercerati na Androidu? 

Android OS ported to HTC Touch [Video]

With Google’s Android OS being open-source and all, it’s only a matter of time before Android-enthusiasts port the Linux-based OS to their favorite smartphones. The latest handset to get the Android-treatment is the Windows Mobile-powered HTC Touch, of all things.

The HTC Touch was manufactured as a Windows Mobile Professional smartphone, but xda-developers user dzo, has discovered a way to bring the Android OS to the HTC Touch platform. More specifically, the Android OS was ported to the CDMA variant of the HTC Touch, known as the HTC Vogue.

The video below shows Android running fairly well on the Touch. The Android build used for this little demonstration even sports a custom on-screen keyboard that the mainstream T-Mobile G1 lacks.



Putting Android on the HTC Touch is a fairly straight-forward process. First, you’ll need to ensure that your Touch handset is running on a MSM7X00 CPU and that your radio is updated to 3.42.50. Once you’ve verified the requirements, you’ll need to download the appropriate files and run a convenient executable file that will handle all the Android-porting for you.

And, when you’re done playing with Android on your HTC Touch/Vogue, a simple reboot will take you back to Windows Mobile.

Find the instructions here.

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Lenovo's Android phone for China hotter than a G1 with a defective battery



What if we told you the most beautiful phone in the world was a Lenovo? Reactions to that statement are likely going to oscillate between "Lenovo doesn't make cellphones" and "impossible, considering this is the country that gave us the QKfone G998," -- but seriously, have a look. Even if you don't agree that it's one of the most attractive mobile devices you've ever laid eyes on, you're going to have a hard time making a cohesive argument that the Android-based slate doesn't run circles around the G1 for physical design. 'Course, that just makes it all the more maddening that it's apparently nothing more than an early model of the "Ophone," a handset designed to comply to China Mobile's Open Mobile System that combines Android's core with support and apps for the carrier's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G network. Translation: we'll never see one outside China, so yeah, just lust from afar while you pray HTC and its comrades are busy cooking up some stellar gear.

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