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 MSM7200Aâ„¢ 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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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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Taking those limitations aside the Android phone emulator does provide a good overview of some of the functions that the Android phone will offer. It is possible to get a first impression of the Google browser, Google maps and other functions like receiving calls, sms or mms. There is no real interaction with the emulator though. It is for instance not possible to use it to open any websites or actually call someone.

The flash based website about the Android phone contains two additional sections that are important if you want to get an impression of the phone’s dimensions because they seem to display the phone in the correct size.

The above screenshot has been taken from the Android phone emulator while the screenshot below was taken from the 360 view option. The screenshot from the Android phone emulator had to be reduced in size to fit on the screen while the screenshot below depicts the actual size of the original screenshot.

It would have been better if T-Mobile would have used the correct Android phone dimensions for the emulator as well so that potential buyers and interested users would get a real feeling for the phone’s dimensions which is especially important for tasks like web surfing, emails and the phone’s qwerty keyboard.

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There is however one fundamental difference between Apple’s marketing strategy and Google’s. Android is an operating system and several companies are developing mobile phones based on the operating system which means more choice for consumers eventually.

The G1 is just the first phone based on Android and receives coverage because of that. Not everything is perfect yet though and the article tries to look at some of the functions and features that are missing or inferior to today’s standards.

It basically comes down to the user and the things that he might want to do with the phone.

A few problematic elements can be identified by simply looking at the announcements that have been made:

• No support for Microsoft Exchange Active Sync.
• Uses proprietary headphone connection.
• Access To Amazon MP3 store only over WLAN.
• Media player seems to be incapable of playing videos, only Youtube supported
• No Multi-touch.
• Only 1 Gigabyte of Flash Memory, maximum of 8 Gigabyte supported
• No video recording.
• No virtual keyboard

Every user has to make the decision on his own if any of the missing features is a criterion to pass and wait for the next Android phone.

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British citizens will most likely be able to lay their hands on the phone in November while the rest of Europe will have to wait until 2009 to do the same.

The G1 phone has some strong arguments on its side. The phone uses an Open Source operating system which will win the Linux crowd over in no time. The QWERTY keyboard comes in handy for everyone who uses his phone regularly for writing.

T-Mobile G1 Specs:

• Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201A™, 528 MHz
• Operating System: Android
• Memory: ROM: 256 MB, RAM: 192 MB
• Dimensions (LxWxT): 117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm (4.60 in x 2.16 in x 0.62 in)
• Weight: 158 grams (5.57 ounces) with battery
• Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution
• Network: HSDPA/WCDMA: Europe: 2100 MHz US:1700/2100 MHz Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link (HSDPA) and 2 Mbps up-link (HSUPA) speeds. Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Keyboard: Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
• GPS: GPS navigation capability with built-in GPS receiver and map software
• Connectivity: Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate, Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11b/g, HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
• Audio: AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MIDI, MP3, WMA, WMV
• Battery: 1150 mAh
• Special Features: Digital Compass, Motion Sensor

Not everything is that shiny however. One of the main disadvantages of the G1 phone is the missing headphone socket. The only way to connect headphones to the G1 is by using an USB adapter.

The T-Mobile G1 does a few things better than Apple’s iPhone namely the full QWERTY keyboard and the Open Source operating system. It’s not an iPhone killer but a worthy contender. One of the main selling points will be the applications which can be downloaded from the application shop.

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