back to article 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 " …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    {Fume}

    I am filled with righteous indignation. Righteous I tell you. $399? That'll be £399 here in Rip-Off Britain. And I bet my N95 will still be better.

    What would Churchill say?!!!

  2. AndyC
    Thumb Up

    gmail account...

    Will you be able to use the phone when the gmail, sorry, googlemail accounts go tits up as per the last few days? You know, just wondering... May make the network coverage maps a bit more interesting...

  3. Mike Flugennock
    Coat

    @AC re: "What would Churchill say?"

    What would Churchill say, you ask?

    Uhhmmm.... "We shall fight on the beaches"?

    No, wait; that was The Who, I think...

  4. Charles Manning

    What would Churchill say?

    Probably something along the lines of:"It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi..."

  5. censored

    Perhaps...

    you just need a gmail account in the same way the Jesus Phone requires an iTunes account?

    The gmail account is most likely to allow an iGoogle-like customised web experience. And unlike with the hideous user experience of iTunes, you won't be embed to give your credit card details.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What would Churchill say?

    Oooooh yes

    Wait, you're talking about a different Churchill?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Required Gmail account?

    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?

  8. Andy Senyszyn
    Coat

    @Mike Flugennock

    What would Churchill say?

    "Ohhhhh yessss!"

  9. vale
    Coat

    @AC re: "What would churchill say?"

    He would say "OHHHHHHH YES!"

  10. Macka
    Jobs Halo

    HTC + Google mail

    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.

  11. bluesxman
    Coat

    RE: "What would Churchill say?!!!"

    "Oh yes!"

    (You were talking about the dog, right?)

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And I bet my N95 will still be better

    ...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

  13. NICHOLAS SAUNDERS

    Do all that stuff already

    i use gmail calendars and igoogle from my n95 on my 3 mobile account. If that is android then i already have it.

  14. Andy Watt
    Alert

    DON'T EARLY ADOPT FER GAWD'S SAKE!

    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.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Re: Churchill

    You know, I've often thought that a Churchill dog/Herbal Essences shampoo video mashup would be quite amusing.

  16. Cameron Colley

    RE: Required Gmail account? Et Al.

    I think the problem people have with GMail is that any email sent or received is the property of Google and is keyword-searched to "give you a better experience" or something...

  17. doug osborne
    Joke

    What would the Who say?

    "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).

  18. James Bassett
    Thumb Down

    Those specs don't sound like the video

    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.

  19. Robert E A Harvey
    Alien

    @James Basset

    I did the maths too. It all sounds like sales bo**ocks, doesn't it. Unless they mean 3cm x 5cm? That would be about 2.3 inches diagonal.

    The alien has trouble with earth-style units too

  20. David Barr

    What will it be named on here as?

    Since there's an army of Apple Sycophants and an army of Google Sycophants... the iPhone gets called the Jesus Phone here.. what will the Reg call the Google Phone?

  21. b166er

    Hope someone at

    xda-developers ports it to the Athena.

    @David Barr - the Paranoid Phone?

  22. Mike Flugennock
    Coat

    @ David Barr, re: El Reg's name for Google Phone

    Given the way Gmail handles peoples' supposedly private email, might I suggest: the Judas Phone?

  23. Paul Blonde
    IT Angle

    Too bad

    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.

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