T-Mobile Will Be First To Use Android 203
stoolpigeon writes to tell us that T-Mobile's upcoming phone will try to combine the best elements of many of the new smart phones, and will be using Google's Android software. "The HTC phone, which many gadget sites are calling the 'dream,' will have a touch screen, like the iPhone. But the screen also slides out to expose a full five-row keyboard. A video of the phone has been posted recently on YouTube. A person who has seen the HTC device said it matched the one in the video. The phone's release date depends on how soon the Federal Communications Commission certifies that the Google software and the HTC phone meet network standards. Executives at all three companies are hoping to announce the phone in September because they would benefit from holiday season sales."
Re:A video of the phone has been posted recently o (Score:5, Informative)
here [youtube.com]
Re:A video of the phone has been posted recently o (Score:3, Informative)
Linked. [youtube.com] But only because you're lazy.
No, wait! It's... (Score:5, Informative)
this one [youtube.com]
Re:FCC (Score:5, Informative)
http://ftp.fcc.gov/oet/ea/procedures.html [fcc.gov]
Re:FCC (Score:5, Informative)
The FCC has to certify software? That seem strange to anybody? Isn't regulation of the power and frequency enough, and everything else is between the carrier and the phone?
If software controls the power and frequency [wikipedia.org], FCC regulates the software.
Re:A video of the phone has been posted recently o (Score:3, Informative)
<a href="your url here (with the quotes)">some witty text here</a>
Re:I looked at the Android software. (Score:3, Informative)
Well, it would have been nice if NEXTStep (aka Cocoa) had been written in Java, except that development started about ten years before Java 1.0 was released.
Keep in mind that the Apple/NEXT reverse takeover occurred in 1996, about when Java was showing up in web applets.
Re:"Use Android" (Score:4, Informative)
Gynoid.
$CAD150/month? (Score:4, Informative)
How on earth do you end up spending that much? Does that include making all your calls + roaming + etc?
When I was in the U.S. for 3 months I got a Cingular prepaid SIM card - traveled all throughout the U.S. and could make calls just fine.. cost me $10. I'd imagine it'd work just fine in Canada as well on any GSM provider there. So I can't imagine the $CAD150/month being some flat fee just so you can actually use the phone on GSM networks.
Re:T-Mobile has "new" spectrum... (Score:3, Informative)
T-Mobile is rolling out 3g in the near future.
Re:t-mobile? why? (Score:2, Informative)
How unfortunate. Isn't t-mobile the smallest network in the US, with the least coverage, and no 3G/high-speed data whatsoever?
It was bad enough when Apple locked the iphone to AT&T, but at least they have some 3G and good coverage (after acquiring Cingular.) But t-mobile? That's not going to be good for business :(
T-Mobile works off of Sprint.
Which does have 3-G and was the first large service provider to offer it.
Uh WRONG, T-Mobile [wikipedia.org] is a GSM provider [wikipedia.org] like AT&T/Cingular is. They have roaming agreements with AT&T, and therefore have similar coverage. They're way behind on the 3G, but they've begun to [dslreports.com] roll it out to markets.
Verizon, Sprint and Alltel OTOH are CDMA [wikipedia.org], you could say Cricket [wikipedia.org] "works off Sprint", as they are also CDMA.
Re:Knowing Verizon's tendencies... (Score:3, Informative)
T-Mobile's coverage is spotty at best in the areas my wife & I frequent, even AT&T can get iffy, so we're stuck with Verizon.
T-Mobile will roam on AT&T/Cingular & Sprint's networks wherever they companies have agreements. m
The only catch is that if you roam "too much" (for undefined values of to much) they'll terminate your contract.
That said, you can always get a contract, try it out and you have 2 weeks to cancel it and get your money back.
Re:t-mobile? why? (Score:5, Informative)
Hope? (Score:2, Informative)
It's more than just hope, unfortunately. Apple needs competition, but from what I've seen so far, Android doesn't (yet) seem to be that competition. The UI seems disjointed, inconsistent and slow-ish, and the third-party applications I've seen so far use whatever ugly UI style the developers devised, ignoring what the main OS is doing. Worse, they are obviously made to run inside the emulator, with small buttons that can never work on a touch screen phone.
Part of the issue is probably that Android targets different types of handsets with different screens and input mechanisms, while the iPhone's OS is made for the iPhone's form factor. Part of it is probably that Android isn't finished yet. Part of it is that there's no interface guidelines, but perhaps Google will change its mind on this and produce some. So there's still hope.
But as of now, the people who are hoping are the ones who want Android to succeed, not the ones who want it to fail.
I hope... (Score:2, Informative)