According to the report published by Arrington, Google has been in the process of making a smartphone that follows the company’s directions to the T. That basically means they have a handset manufacturer who is working with them and following their specifications. In fact, the latest buzzword there is probably ‘Google Says’. So what does Google say?

That is something we don’t know yet but we do know that this new phone is not going to compromise on anything at all. It is being made to deliver what Google thinks a modern smartphone should be like. So this is not just a Google Experience phone but the true Android vision that Google has. It is meant to show their customers exactly what Google means by a smartphone.

But therein lies a problem. Google is not supposed to make an Android phone. They have too many partner companies who are making their own Android phones. Google’s handset would compete with theirs and that is not how you maintain a healthy relationship. So how do you maintain it and still get what you want?

Arrington has an idea. He suggests that the device will not be a true phone but merely a VoIP device. That way, it will get to have everything awesome that Android has to offer and yet will not compete with the offerings from their partner companies. If they are really making such device, why not just make a tablet? I am sure they see the vast potential in that. What is the use of giving someone a phone shaped MID that has VoIP instead of GSM or CDMA?

May be this is Google’s idea of the future – everything based on the Internet. It does tie in with what Google has to say about practically everything that involves technology and communication of some sort – move it online! Case in point – the Google Chrome OS. It takes your standard Linux OS and turns it into a mere client for all sorts of cloud services. As a result, you get to forget about backing up, maintaining, cleaning and generally thinking about how to get it to work and stay working.

However, the viability of such device depends greatly on one thing. This is that one thing that Google cannot move online – the very means to get online! You have many other carriers all over the world who have the fasted 3G network just like AT&T does and also the spottiest coverage, against just like AT&T does! And worst of all, they may be the best carrier in some countries! What use will be the phone then? We are still far away from a truly global coverage on mobile data networks, especially in countries that are no fully developed.

The current Android Super phone

However, if Google chooses to work with an existing partner who agrees to play ‘Google Says’ – will it harm them all that much? We already have Google Experience phones. So now we can have the Über Google Experience phone. In any case, Google has at least realized the age old truth – if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Dear old Steve knew that decades ago and now look where he is. Google has done things their own way so far (Search, Ads, Mail, Wave, etc.) and that has led to exponential growth. So why stop now? They have done it with the Chrome OS, where they will be strictly controlling what hardware it is running on. And I am sure they have been disappointed with some of the recent Android phones. So it makes sense logically to make their own version of the Android phone. Wouldn’t you agree?

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The HTC Dragon AKA HTC Passion, is going to be the toast of the Android community if it really has everything that it seems to have. Even though details have been scanty, imaginations speculations have been running pretty wild after the screenshots and live shots were revealed.

Now, Techcrunch claims that the phone has been on the prowl at Android headquarters for quite some time now and top Android people are already using it. It has been undergoing a lot of testing and it is likely that a release is imminent.

It is said to be a lot slimmer than either the Droid or the iPhone. Of course, it won’t have a keyboard so being slimmer than the Droid is nothing to talk about. But the 1GHz Snapdragon processor is. It will blaze through everything that the OS has to offer and will certainly help you with multi-tasking. HTC has recently shown with the HD2 that they are really good at making phones. If they can make Windows Mobile into that good a phone, they should logically be able to make a killer Android phone.

So Techcrunch is of the opinion that this is the next super phone that will carry Android and we agree. If Google is taking a personal interest in it, it has to be something special. I don’t think the top Android players carry and test every Android phone that comes out.

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Apple Pen-Based Input Patent Re-fuels Tablet Rumors

This will certainly be of interest to the Newton Pad revivalists. A new patent filed by Apple in July 2009 has gone public. It improves on pen-based computer systems through an advanced ink-recognition application, which is the objective of the patent. Steve Jobs has been known to dislike digital styluses (or so he says) but even he has to recognize the fact that the pen is what gets art on paper and makes a lot of other things happen. Fingers can only type but they can hardly create artwork (except brilliant finger-painting of course). So will the tablet have a stylus and the rumored multi-point hand recognition (another Apple patent)? What do you think? The tablet rumors are officially on again! [read]

Apple Tablet Knock Off, Already?

Looks like handheld makers are launching into a pre-emptive strike against Apple. We are suddenly seeing an influx of tablet devices that are trying to be like the rumored Apple slate/tablet.

Admittedly, the tablet concept is nothing new but this sudden rise in the number of such devices can at least partly be attributed to everyone’s fear of Apple doing to the tablet/ebook reader market what it did to the smartphone market.

I would really love that if it happens and I am quite sure it will. I will love it not because I am an Apple addict but because it will fuel innovation in the competition. Just like the iPhone pushed everyone to think along different lines.

Anyway, the device that got me saying all this is the Boeye MID 700 tablet. The styling is distinctly reminiscent of the iPhone but it is running on the Android. Best of both worlds? Not until they start producing it commercially and people get to use it. [read]

Apple’s New Store Press Previewed, ‘Tis BIG

If you want to know what the new 67^th Broadway store looks like, you can take a look at the pictures taken by various press folks at a recent preview. Apple opened the store for an invite-only press meet, public opening to happen today (Saturday). To sum up the experience in short – it is BIG! To give you an idea of how big – the walls are some 42 feet high! The vast expanse of the store is all stone and glass and the gadgets glow like life beacons. You just have to take a look at the pictures yourself. Gizmodo has pretty good ones. [read]

And if you want to read some interesting Apple Store data, Gizmodo has that too. [read]

Apple has Cash, A Lot Of It

Apple’s cash reserve has come to the attention of the public again. In case you hadn’t noticed, Apple has a LOT of cash. It is somewhere around $35 billion and no one really knows what apple intends to do with all that money. But knowing Steve and Apple, they will surely be doing spectacular things with it. When you have clarity of thought, vision and the power to execute that vision – great things are bound to happen. [read]

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If you want to catch up on all the important Apple related news of this week, remember to check in at Otaku Gadgets for the Saturday Apple Pie.

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Yes people, say hello to Sony Ericsson’s first ever Android phone – the XPERIA X10. Not named X3 after all and thankfully not Rachael, the X10 is exactly what we have all been hoping for. And since this is Sony, you can expect stellar aesthetics and build quality.

Update: Found a hands on video. Embedded below.

Update 2: UK Unlocked price – £460 on pre order. [read]

When I refreshed the page today, I knew the X10 was here because it started redirecting me to a complicated URL that looked like a product page. Sure enough, I saw the X10’s name pop up on the title bar moments before the page became visible. The photos that we have been showing you so far have been absolutely accurate, down to the last details. It looks like Sony has been sitting on the finalized version for quite some time now.

So what is it like in person? I wouldn’t know because I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet but on the surface of it, the thing’s a stunner. The screen is 480×854 pixels (WVGA) but for some reason, it displays only only16,536 colors.

As for the form factor, the thing is pretty thin – only half an inch. The dimensions are 4.7”x2.5”x0.5”. So you can imagine how large the phone is. It is almost like an MID in your pocket. A rather slim one at that. The actual screen size has not been provided individually but according to my calculations it should be around 4.0″-4.1”. The online stores are listing this as a 4″ screen. Now that is a large screen!

Features include a capacitive touchscreen, the impressive Mediascape media browser that reminds us of the Zune HD’s UI and face recognition in photos integrated with your contacts. It has an 8.1-megapixel camera with auto focus, face recognition, flash, smile-detection and video recording with video light. Most of the Sony Ericsson phones that I have seen and reviewed have had above average image quality when came to the camera. So I would bet on this one being a pretty good camera as well.

As we had been informed by the rumor mill, the infinity symbol is part of the X10’s UI. It signifies the Timescape feature. Timescape is a feature that consolidates your conversations and communications with a person. Be it on Facebook, text, phone or email, you can view them all in one place per person using Timescape. I personally like this feature because it sounds like something we all need. I hope it has threaded SMS conversations. Given the myriad communication platforms we use today, features like this one are fast becoming necessities. Although, I am not sure of how well Timescape works. If you have tried it out, let me know in the comments section below.

For those of you who were hoping for a physical QWERTY keypad – sorry to disappoint you. As I had mentioned in my X10 round up some time back, there is no way this thing is hiding a QWERTY keypad in that slim a profile. And the images would’ve shown it off anyway, given the amount of excitement that surrounded this phone.

As for the overall performance of the phone, I will be betting on the side of great rather than just good. That is my confidence in Android, which this phone is running beneath all that custom UI.

The Internal memory is 1GB minus whatever the software is taking up (not announced yet). You can put in a MicroSD card, which come in a maximum of 16GB right now. They include a 8GB card when you purchase it.

Networks supported are – GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900,            UMTS/HSPA 900/1700/2100. It has aGPS, Bluetooth A2DP, Google Maps and WiFi. No word on the processor, although we are pretty sure that it is the Qualcomm Snapdragon. The clock speed is unknown at this point though.

As for price, I could find only one website through Google. It has the X10 listed at $799. Check out the search right here. the official product page is here.

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Barnes and Noble has finally made its new eBook reader official. But we already knew pretty much everything about it way before it came out, with the final details falling leaking into place hours before the actual launch event took place.

But before B&N’s Nook (that’s what it’s called) had a chance to see daylight, another company knew that it had to do something or else it would be lost in the landslide of Nok coverage. This company is Spring Design and they have an eBook reader too. It is called Alex and it is very similar to the Nook.

The Nook and the Alex are both dual screen devices. They both have Android powered smaller LCD touchscreens at the bottom and the e-Ink screen on top. The LCD touchscreens on both turn off when you start reading on them. And they have similar design and dimensions.

They both have a speaker, support MP3 playback, support EPUB and PDF and a multitouch touchscreen that supports gestures.

Then there are the differences. First, the Nook is actually out and you can check it out at Nook.com, while Alex is still in the labs without any word when the thing will be released. Spring Design had some rendered shots and then followed up with a wobbly video of the thing in action.

Alex has a ‘read’ button between the two screens and it works to zap whatever’s on the touchscreen on to the reader screen and turns off the LCD screen. This is as true for books, as it is for web pages. So if you want to read this article on the Alex, you can browse to this page and hit the ‘read’ button to ‘print’ the article on to the reader screen. It will be rendered exactly but everything will be in 12-shades of grey.

You know… 12-shades of grey will actually make a pretty cool name for a book or an album. Never mind.

The Barnes&Noble Nook does not have this feature because the company’s president Willian Lynch himself tells you that a browser on an eBook reader is ‘clumsy’. Fair enough. So the Nook is limited in that sense. Alex’s video presenter clearly says that it has standard Android running and hence has all the different apps that you would expect it to have, including what looked like a fully functional mobile browser that can render full web pages.

Even though Alex’s ‘Reader’ app has a shopping option, we are quite sure it won’t be something that competes with Amazon or B&N. So the Nook has the upper hand with its exclusive content and integration with B&N’s eBook store. Although, may be being free to choose your own source all the time is not such a bad thing.

B&N charges for RSS feeds, while the Alex will probably get them to you for free because it has a more flexible Android. You can directly print the RSS articles on to the reader screen for reading. You won’t be able to click links but I don’t think you will be able to do that on the Nook’s EPUB’d RSS feeds either.

When comparing these two, you have to look past the striking resemblance to see how different they actually are. I started out thinking that the B&N has the clear upper hand here. But if the Alex is released in to the market before the Nook or the current Kindle is upgraded to be more flexible, we might have a compelling convergent device on our hands.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and tell us which one you like better.

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Banshee is strongly tied to the GNOME desktop manager. These two together make managing your Android phone music as simple as it gets. Now, Banshee is not a complete replacement for iTunes. There is no way to purchase music through Banshee (which is fine because most Android phones can purchase music straight from the Amazon MP3 market). But Banshee does a bang up job of managing your music – and a simple job interacting with the Android phone. Now, let’s take a look at how this is done.

Installing Banshee

If you don’t already have Banshee installed you will need to do so. And you will need to make sure you have a version >= 1.4. To install go to your Add/Remove Software tool and follow these steps:

1. Search for “banshee” (no quotes).
2. Select Banshee for installation.
3. Click Apply to install.

That’s it.

Now that Banshee is installed, you are ready to have Banshee and your Android working together.

Connecting your Android

Figure 1

When you connect your Android phone to your Linux machine you will be asked (on the phone) if you want to mount your SD card. Go ahead and do that so your Linux machine can see the SD card on the phone. This SD card will show up in the Nautilus file manager (shown in Figure 1) as a 2.0 GB Media. You can actually drag and drop files to this directory – but we’re managing music, so we’re going to use Banshee and not a file manager.

Now open up Banshee and your Android phone will automatically show up (see Figure 2).

As you can see, the interface gives you a clear view of the space

Figure 2

available on your phone’s card. You can also see that there are two options:

Manually sync

Automatically sync

Most likely you will want to manually sync your phone. If your Banshee library is like mine there is WAY more music than will fit on a 2 Gig card. of course you can replace that 2 Gig card with a much larger card and then have Banshee automatically sync.

For manually syncing all you need to do is navigate through your music collection and then drag and drop the files you want to put on your phone.

Upon completion of the music management you can then click the Eject Android G1 Phone button in the upper right corner of Banshee. Now, before you actually unplug your phone from your computer you need to turn off USB storage on your phone. Once USB storage is off you can then unplug your phone and check to make sure your new music is present and accounted for.

Final thoughts

I certainly hope the Linux community and the Android community can work together further so that the Linux operating system can enjoy a complete sync. Once this happens wireless companies can be sure that Linux users/fans will flock to their Android offerings.

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Currently, it is pretty evident from all the pictures and rumors that the Droid is heading for the Verizon Wireless (and may be other places too). The real question is when does it get here. Logic would suggest that making a grand entry before the imminent holiday season is the best way to go. And indeed, it looks like that is exactly what will happen.

MobileCrunch has posted a conversation where an official from VZW reveals that the Sholes is coming soon. The conversation took place on twitter of all places! I mean I can see a non-descript meeting at an undisclosed public place and the usual “this conversation never took place” deal. But twitter? Seriously?

Anyway, there have been a lot of rumors around this device and a quite a few spy shots have been posted on the Internet. What is interesting to note is that there is no consistent source for this, except for may be the Boy Genius Report blog. They have been putting up a lot of Sholes/Droid spy shots and screenshots lately. But other than them, you have such varied places as motofan , Engadget Mobile, Mobile Crunch and there was also the Verizon Google announcement where the CEO’s of the two company held out unannounced phones and did not say a thing about them. Pretty much everyone caught that one.

About the specs, we know very little. From what the rumor mill has churned out, it seems like the phone will be powered by an ARM Cortex A8 chip and there are some who think it will be the Qualcomm Snapdragon. If it indeed is the Snapdragon, then we are likely to see a pretty snappy Android phone. The kind that we are yet to experience. This article from Anand of AnandTech explains why the Android phones have been sluggish and why it is about to change as of 1.6 (Donut).

All in all, it is quite likely that this Android phone will blow your socks off with its speed and performance. And that is not the only thing that is pulling people to this new offering from Motorola. This is going to be a ‘Google Experience’ phone. That means this phone is not going to have any bit of that MOTOBLUR UI that has hurt the CLIQ more than it has helped it. The Droid will instead have the pristine elegance that Google intended for the Android.

Looking at the screen shot from BGR that shows the official name of the phone, there seems to be scope for another speculation that is tied in with the device. It shows the firmware version as 2.0. That means it is already running Android 2.0 AKA Éclair, right? I would like to remind you folks that a giant foam Éclair was delivered to the Google lawn only recently.

So if the Droid is around the corner and it is running the Éclair release and the said Éclair was already delivered to Google HQ, does that mean 2.0 for the rest of us isn’t very far away? We’ll see. Meanwhile, enjoy this video of the Droid booting, complete with robot voice.

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UI

Concerning UI, it’s pretty clear that both Google and Palm have taken two very different approaches. In fact Google’s approach is more in line with Microsoft in allowing OEM’s to customize the UI to their needs. Palm however has taken this into their hands and pitched a ball straight at Apple and their ever so flawless OSX user interface.
Unfortunately there is no clear winner or loser here as both offer advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of Android is that it can take on any shape it wants. This allows people to pick a UI based on their needs but more so likes. The disadvantage to this is that since the navigation can change drastically from device to device, it might be a little rough for those who are used to a specific layout and decide to change from let’s say an HTC Hero to a Sony or Samsung. On the other hand Palm has decided to use one UI for its entire fleet and since they will be the only ones manufacturing phones to run on webOS (at least for the time being) it will stay that way. This however leaves the problem of monotony, something that is plaguing the iPhone at the moment. It’s very interesting that Windows Mobile can take on so many different shapes and forms based on who makes the device running it. A classic example is the Samsung Omnia, Sony Xperia and HTC Touch Pro. So I will hand it to Palm for having the sleeker and better of the graphical interface, but Android has the upper hand on customizability and scalability.

Features

Both Palm and Google have done a good job at bringing some well needed features to the smartphone arena. Both support such basic features as copy paste, Exchange support, emailing, productivity and more. But for now we’ll have to judge at what’s out there in terms of third party programs (apps), and Google is clearly the winner here. I’m not saying that Palm isn’t saying anything, but seeing how new webOS is, we’ll have to give it at least a year before we can really compare its developer community to that of Blackberry, OSX, WinMo and of course Android.
That said, built in features, webOS does have the upper hand as it has a much better browser, music player etc, then that on the Android OS. But third party apps is its weak point and as I said before we’ll have to wait a year or so before we see what people have done with the Mojo SDK.

Devices

It’s ironic that Android has been around for quite some time now and the only company who has a phone running on the OS is HTC. Yes we know Samsung, Motorola, Sony and a whole host of others are working behind the scenes but come on. Palm has just put out their Pre and we’re already hearing plans of the release of the EOS which would be the Centro replacer.
So who would win this round? Well clearly we’re seeing such things as OLED and Flash coming to Android in the near future, and with the stellar lineup of partners it’s not surprising that Apple is looking at Google as more of an enemy then a friend at the moment.

Concerning Palm, while they have not totally put off the idea about allowing third party manufacturers to run their webOS, they’re still on their first device so we can’t fault them too much in this area. But if both companies decide to keep on their course we will give this round to Android as more OEM’s has always spelled better products. Speaking of Flash, Palm is also on that list of manufacturers who will be getting a taste of Flash mobil this fall.

Hacking

Yes you read right, I’m going to include this category because both Android and webOS run Linux on the Linux framework and so it’s only fair we compare what the hacking community has done for the systems to date. For an OS that is open source, we really have to chide Google on their lack of support in the hacking community. The Pre has been out for just over a month and already we have Bluetooth tethering hacks, PlayStation emulation hacks, web server hacks and a bunch of others that not only geeks but every day people would be interested in.

So far little to nothing has been done in the Android arena concerning major hacking. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the G1 (the first Android device) carries lower internal specs then that of the Pre. But whatever it is, Palm clearly has the upper hand. Things might change in the near future however as the devices which are making their way to Android are getting more powerful. But for now, Palm owns this scene.

Corporate Support

This is a major factor in smartphones these days. To date the dominators in this field have clearly been RIM and Microsoft. So far Apple has been making small strides into gaining corporate acceptance. That said, both Palm and Google have been courting IT departments to accept their OS as readily as they will accept a Blackberry Curve or HTC Touch Pro.

Right now it’s too early to say what will happen to both OS as there is a huge lock in this area (RIM and Microsoft) and to date, companies have been very cautious about adopting ant other operating system. As it stands Android and webOS are head to head with no apparent winner in sight. But depending on customizability and sheer support, Android just might pull out as the winner here although we cannot deny that Palm has been in the cellphone (and more so the smartphone) market before Google was born so they just might just have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Potential

Until today I would have given this round to Android, but after Google’s plans to scrape Android for netbooks, MID’s and UMPC’s I think it is a little harder to decide a winner. Clearly both systems excel at different things, but then again both are competing for the same type of customers, those who are not swayed by Apple’s iPhone but who want something different then the regular Blackberry Curve or HTC Touch Diamond.

Based on what webOS has to offer they have an advantage in online and location based apps and this is the future. But in uniqueness and lifestyle applications, Android does carry a little more weight in this area. However, it is too early to say. We’ll have to wait until both mature and of course the second version is released before we can make a final verdict on where we expect to see both of them in the next five or so years.

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FLASH: At the top of my list is flash. For those of you who think flash is only there to watch Youtube and Redtube videos, think again. With estimates running at 60% of all websites have some sort of flash embedded, it is imperative that we get this and get it soon. We’ve had Javascript for some time and that’s nice, but nothing can beat good old flash.

For this to happen though, we are going to need faster chips in our phones. So I suggest to Smartphone manufacturers to start looking to Snapdragon and Tegra as viable options. At least Palm and Apple aren’t too bad in the specs arena but a 1GHz chip would be much better.

Not to worry though, Adobe is working on bringing Flash to Windows Mobile, Palm, Android and Nokia by October of this year. No word on Blackberry and Apple though.

OLED Displays: VGA, WXVGA and LCD are so yesterday. It’s time that we move forward and embrace new technology. As it currently stands, OLED technology is pretty cheap (Sony has a 32GB walkman with one of these stuck in it for only $400). I was ecstatic when I heard the rumors that the iPhone 3GS would be getting the OLED treatment, only to have my hopes shattered. But its not too late, more Android, Palm, Blackberry and Window’s Mobile devices are due in the near future, lets see which one of them decides to blaze the trail.

And while I am on the issue with the screens, it would be nice to have bigger screens. The iPhone and Pre do an excellent job of navigating webpages, but 3 inch screens are tight on the eyes. Someone must be able to create a flip out 4 or 5 inch screen in the near future.

Better Productivity Programs: As the saying goes, if I cannot edit my presentation, it’s not a smartphone. But seriously doc, spreadsheet and presentation editing are standard now. Its time to innovate and what better way to start with some mobile apps that tackle such things as photo and video editing, database management, server management and not to mention full desktop control.

Some of these have been imitated but so far nothing has come close to doing justice to the situation. I’m not asking for much here. I wouldn’t expect a full fledged mobile version of Photoshop but at least allow me to insert an iPhone into President Obama’s hand. We do have progress though, as the iPhone 3GS made the first move in this direction with the ability to edit video clips.

HD Video Recording: Every month cell phones become a little more advanced in the digital photography arena by adding more megapixels and better CMOS to their specs. But we’re still stuck with the same old VGA video shooting. It’s time for someone to break the norm and bring us HD video shooting. I’m not asking for full 1080p. I would be satisfied with 720p or even 480p to begin with but don’t tell me its impossible because the Mini HD flip is just a little bigger then most Smartphone’s and its packing midrange HD capabilities.

In terms of chips and processors, Atom, and Tegra are two mobile chips that are more then capable of handling this feature and they are not that expensive to stick into a mobile phone. Its about time I am able to view videos recorded on a mobile phone without and properly distinguish a head from a trash can.

More Wireless Features: For a device that was built around the premise that we should have less wires in our lives, our cell phones sure do require a lot of wires to operate. There has been some progress in this area but it is slow. Such things as software updates, tethering, charging, printing etc. are things that should all be done wirelessly. Thankfully these options are all available now but in different models so no device carries it all.

Hopefully if Bluetooth 3.0 makes it out on schedule, a lot of these will begin to make their way to the mainstream—that is if the service providers will allow it.

So what are some of the things you require from a smartphone that currently isn’t available? Let me know in the comments below.

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It is with this success and support that T-Mobile announces the details regarding their much anticipated follow up to the HTC G1. In case you’re wondering, this phone has been around for some time (over in the UK where it sells under the name of the HTC Magic). But the device is finally coming statewide. The myTouch operates off of Android v1.5 and promises to fix a lot of the problems people had with the first device.

The phone is thinner and lighter then its predecessor and as we said before carries the same hardware found in the HTC Magic (also known as the Google Ion). The feature list sounds pretty impressive also:

Powered by a Walcomm MSM7200A™ chip, this little bad boy pumps out 528MHz of power. As said before the phone is running on the x1.5 build of Android. ROM is set at 512MB and RAM is 288MB. Dimensions are pretty slim with 133 x 55.56 x 13.65 mm (4.45 x 2.19 x 0.54 inches). The phone weighs only 4.09 ounces with the battery in so you have a device that is a little smaller then the iPhone but bigger then the Pre.

One of the major differences between the myTouch and the G1 is the keyboard. While the G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard, the myTouch lacks that and instead has opted for a virtual one with haptic feedback. From using the iPhone, Instinct, HTC Touch, Storm and many other phones, I can assure you that technology hasn’t advanced to the point where a virtual keyboard will give you everything you would require from a QWERTY keyboard. That said, haptic feedback does lessen the blow a bit so we’ll just have to see how this fits into the whole stage.

Those buying the T-Mobile myTouch will also get a 4GB microSD card, so all your tunes will be available to you. You will also be able to expand the memory though the limits are yet to be made clear by either HTC or T-Mobile at the moment.

The T-Mobile G1 will be available on T-Mobile’s U.S network come late July. Customers of T-Mobile will be able to pre-order the device 4 days after Independence Day though. Price is set at $199 with a two-year contract so this falls right in line with the Blackberry Storm, iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and others.

While a lot of the applications are unchanged, T-Mobile does have a hand in some of them. An example of this is the Sherpa application which was created by Geodelic. This location based application allows you to find restaurants, theaters, stores, businesses, banks etc nearby. While those features have been available for ages on other apps this one adds to it by collecting data about where the user has been, searched for etc. and incorporating this into the search results. It is also able to make recommendations based on the data collected as well as offer advice to events happening locally. This app will be exclusively available to T-Mobile so other Android users around the world will have to wait says Geodelic.

Other then that there are 5,000 other apps currently available on the Android marketplace so while the device may be new, its coming to an already matured platform as well as app store.
While I am quite excited to see the device I cannot help but notice that out of all the networks T-Mobile is one of the worse to be having such a good operating system locked into. It’s quite understandable though as Sprint has the Pre (at least for the next six months) Verizon is in love with Blackberry (and rumored to be playing around with an LTE version of the iPhone), and Apple seems to have had a lock on AT&T for some time now as to prevent any further competition with its beloved iPhone.

That said, most of the U.S carries have expressed interest in Android, but due to politics Google is stuck with T-Mobile. We’ll just have to wait and see what the myTouch can do for them. Hopefully they will be able to move at least a million of these devices like what they did with the G1.

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T-Mobile G1 users can access the Android Market to download additional applications for their cell phone. One of the interesting applications is the PC remote access software Android Remote which makes it possible to access and control music and videos on the Android phone from any computer system running the server application. To achieve this the Android Remote software has to be installed on the Android cell phone and the Gmote Server application on the PC that the user wants to access remotely.

The Gmote software can be downloaded directly from Android Market to the cell phone. Users can perform a search to find the application which is located in the Multimedia category. The second required step is to download and install the remote server application (from here) to the computer system that should be accessed by the Android phone. The remote server application is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems.

A window will show up after execution of the server application asking for a password that is used to protect the contents from third parties. The very same password has to be entered on the Android phone on first usage.

The user can then add files and folders to the server so that they can be accessed and controlled from the Android phone.

The Gmote application can establish a connection over a wireless network or cellular network’s data connection.

Music can be streamed from the computer system to the Android phone. Everything else, e.g. playing movies, controlling PDF or PowerPoint presentations, is happening on the server system while being controlled from the Android phone. The Gmote application on cell phone can be used as a wireless touchpad and keyboard which extends its functionality further. All in all a very interesting application that might come in handy in many different situations.

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The QR Code Generator allows anyone to create QR Codes easily. QR Jumps (via Make Use Of) is the name of the website that is offering this functionality. Only registered users are allowed to create new QR Codes. Registration is done in a few seconds and no verification email is send. The site distinguishes between basic and advanced QR Code generation. The basic form contains fewer options. It is possible to use the basic QR Code form to create url, sms, phone number or text resources.

The user selects the content type at the top and enters the information below. Creating a QR Code for an url would mean to enter an url in the form. The generator will then create the QR Code image which can be created in various sizes and the two image formats jpg or png.

The QR Code above will open the Ghacks website in the associated web browser. The next contains a secret message that can only be revealed by scanning the image with your camera.

The advanced QR Code generator offers additional options like creating multiple links at once or setting an expiration date for the code.

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Connect Bot is probably the number one must have application for webmasters who operate their own servers. It can be used to log into the server using the phone. For those who do not know what SSH is, it basically allows a user to exchange data using a secure channel between two network devices.

Some examples where this could come in handy would be to restart the web server, configure services or monitor the connections, processes and resource usage while on the road.

The application can be installed right from the Android Market. Must have for any webmaster and admin with their own servers.

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The Android application store got some great feedback last year when the application competition ended which produced more than 1000 different applications for the Android phone. It is usually not possible to see what the Android application store has to offer unless you already have an Android phone. Not very practicable for evaluation.

That’s why the guys over at Cyrket have implemented the Android application store on their website.

The Android store mirror divides all Google Android applications into categories. The main page is divided into games, applications and newest contents. A click on games or applications will load a new directory level displaying subcategories. For Android applications those are Communication, Finance or Travel among others. A click on any subcategory will display a file browser (like in the image above) that will list ten Android applications per page. Applications can be sorted by popularity or date. The ratings, names, developers and versions of the Android applications are displayed in each line.

A click on a line will open a detailed view that contains a short description of the application, user comments and additional information about the selected Android appl.

Impatient users can use the search on top to see if the Android application store contains an application or game with the functionality that they need. The Cyrket website provides a great overview over all Android applications for non-Android users.

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Then there was the news that Adobe issued a security patch for both Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat that fixed several security issues which would allow attackers to remotely execute code on the target machine. The patch can be downloaded from the official Adobe website and should be applied by users who work with Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat.

Lastly PC World published an article claiming that WPA Wi-FI encryption was cracked. (Thanks to Lee Mathews for sending this in via email). Security researcher Erik Tews is said to demonstrate how he was able to crack any WPA encryption in around 15 minutes at the PacSec conference in Tokyo next week.

To do this, Tews and his co-researcher Martin Beck found a way to break the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key, used by WPA, in a relatively short amount of time: 12 to 15 minutes, according to Dragos Ruiu, the PacSec conference’s organizer.

Users who use wireless connections should make sure that they are using WPA2 encryption. If their router is not supporting that kind of encryption it could mean to check the Internet for firmware updates that add that possibility or to purchase a new wireless router that supports it.

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Users should be aware that the Android Marketplace will host free and commercial applications just like the Apple iPhone App Store. Most of the applications listed below have been taken part in the first ever Android Developer Challenge.

This Challenge pushed the development of many Android applications and was an important step for the plattform.

Compare Everywhere: Compare Everywhere, formerly known as Android Scan, could be the killer application for Android. It uses the digital camera of the mobile phone to scan the barcodes of products to identify them. It offers then options to compare prices online, read product reviews and even sample music or video content. An alternative seems to be GoCart which basically does the same.

Cooking Capsules: The idea behind Cooking Capsules is simply. Let the user watch a short cooking video, show him the locations of the next grocery stores to shop for the items and give him a step by step instruction on how to cook the meal once he’s back home.

My Closet: The dream application for women. Take pictures of your clothing and the application keeps track and suggests outfits based on weather information and items chosen in the past.

Share Your Board: Jigsaw is an Android application to share, process and capture data on a whiteboard.

Wertago: An interesting application for nightlifer enthusiasts that makes use of Google Maps to show the hottest locations in town and provides means to coordinate with friends.

Got any other applications not in the list? Let me know about them. I did not include applications that would track friends and family members. This had various reasons, one being that every family member would need an Android phone for this feature to work.

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