Google Android just five weeks away? This week, another unnamed source told TmoNews - a T-Mobile obsessed blog - that the American wireless carrier will offer up the first Android phone for pre-sale on 17 September. Back in June, sources told The Wall Street Journal that Google's currently closed open mobile platform could be delayed until 2009. But this " …
Only a few short years ago people were heralding Gmail as the way to go- as it is!
And of all the things to be tied to, Google is far from the worst. No mandatory credit card details (though they can be put in if you want), email/favourites/documents all available worldwide. All without a monthly fee. Sounds pretty good to me compared to the alternatives!
As censored said, I didn't hear anyone complain when you had to have an iTunes account for the iPhone.
If it's $399 over here (i.e. ~£200) then I'll wait a short while to see just how good it is then probably end up buying it.
@Google- wouldn't Cyborg have been a better name than Android? As in essentially having your phone as a part of you as opposed to it implying an anthropomorphic OS?
Integration with Google mail and the ability to share contacts and calendars (birthdays, etc) between friends & family members via Google are very compelling features. Dunno why El Reg polemicist hacks are so anti this. It's all come a bit late for me though, as me and the missus forked out for a couple of 3G Jesus phones a few weeks ago.
Even if the Android roll out had been earlier, I doubt we'd have gone that route as the HTC Dream is such a bulky butt ugly looking device. Slide out Keyboard: phah! I love the silky touch-screen-only goodness of the iPhone, and will only consider Android in the future when there are phones available that do the same.
...but perhaps the Google Phone won't look like it's 10 years old after 10 months with button labels still visble instead of worn off by the inside of a jeans pocket, will be able to reliably sustain WiFi connections and TruPhone without spontaneously resetting, will have a battery compartment which can actually be opened and closed (for those of us who travel and have to swap SIMs, why-oh-why do they bury them under the battery!?) without eventually requiring sellotape to hold it together, and won't keep randomly opening the media player while stored in a pocket, seemingly without unlocking the phone.
Really, the N95 is probably the best spec'd phone I've ever owned, and the most disappointing in terms of actually delivering that. Hopefully, the Google people will have bought one and learned from it!
Kev
Sorry for the caps, I'm trying to get the message out. Don't gasp for the thing in the early days - I got a P910 pretty much when it came out, it did OK as SE put a lot of effort in to show a powerful device could sip battery life. It did (2 processors and 10 days standby? It IS possible!). After a software upgrade it was bulletproof (more so than other non-symbian handsets I owned).
The P990, by contrast, I got way way way late in its dev cycle. I read so many horror stories about how awful it was (I'm surprised the N95 is still awful, Nokia really are getting worse aren't they...) I finally picked one up about a month before they stopped being available, and promptly stashed it back in the box after upgrading the firmware as it was still pants. 3 months later I finally moved to using it after a firmware upgrade which finally fixed things up.
Now, that was a move from UIQ2 to UIQ3 and a commensurate move to Symbian 9.
This will be a whole new OS. Brand new. The N95 is sitting on top of Symbian and it's still awful (apparently)!
WAIT a year and a half, THEN buy a second-gen Gphone. We have to start kicking these software manufacturers harder for putting out frankly bobbins product. The "9-month replacement cycle" excuse does not work for phones of this complexity.
"I dropped my teeth..."
"Where's my walker..."
---
The Google is no more evil than Steve or Bill, and I've generally been happy with Gmail. HTC hasn't had many phones here in the US, and I hope it won't take Verizon too long to add these to their lineup (Google in bed with T-Mobile and Apple in bed with AT&T gets tiring after a while).
Has anyone seen that HTC Dream video on YouTube? It's about the size of a TytnII - which has a 2.8" screen. The spec in this article says it has a 3"x5" screen. According to my maths that works out at nearly a 6" diagonal (the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides etc.). That's closer to an Eee PC than a smartphone. So either this "leak" is a complete load of bollocks or they are two completely different devices. I go with the former.
At least it can hoped that the GPhone will work pretty much as advertised, unlike the 3G (oops...2.5G) iPhone; however, being mandatorily tied to a gmail account (which I reject unequivocally) will mean I'll never have one, just like I will never have an iPhone due to the mandatory iTunes account (I manage my iPod with other software).
If they were to make the gmail account optional, that would be another matter, but I absolutely refuse to participate in any mandatory "package deal" setups that any manufacturer tries to force upon me just to get access to their "whoop te do". Especially with the way "the new Microsoft" (aka Google) is so lax about the security and privacy of their users' data.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
