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:FCC (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A video of the phone has been posted recently o (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I looked at the Android software. (Score:3, Interesting)
I would say yes. I am a big fan of Java but on a small device like a phone I would think native code would be best for some applications. :) Seems like it could be good for some small screened devices that are a little bigger than a phone.
On the other hand I can see the logic to keeping applications on a JVM so that locking up the device is less of an issue.
I have not really looked at the SDK yet so maybe it is all that and a bag of chips.
What I don't like is that I can not use it outside of the emulator. I would like to try it out as a Netbook Distro
Open markets. (Score:5, Interesting)
Now that Google has a 'shipping' product I am excited about the future for these reasons:
1) Google can pull an Apple'ish move and push for carriers to open up the networks.
or (even better)
2) Google can open up all of that dark-fiber that it has bought in the past and become a telecommunications juggernaught.
Google already has data centers all over the planet, they can match these up with worldwide GSM coverage and beat the existing companies at their own game.
I currently pay $150 CDN per month for the 'privilege' of using my phone anywhere in North America to make phone calls. If I try to use any data features I get charged $0.05/kb + US Roaming + US Data Rates/kb. To view the /. home page costs me almost $1.00 without viewing any stories.
Canada has been crippled by our 3 colluding state-sponsored ogilopies and I am desperate for another option.
Googles' ability to offer North America a non-draconian cellular service coupled with content/location-based advertising would be a god-send.
Scenerio: Motorist stranded on side of the road; does a Google search via cell-phone for tow-truck. Built-in GPS can show you the closest mechanics, and contact info.
Google; please take my money and give an option to ditch the horrible choices that I currently have.
Re:I looked at the Android software. (Score:5, Interesting)
I would have preferred Apple had adopted Java back in the late 90's and done all of Cocoa in it, personally. That being said, yes, Java as it stands today is more limiting for writing rich client apps than Apple's Objective-C UIKit.
It's not about the language. It's about the libraries. And Apple is currently second-to-none in that department for user interaction.
And really, the amount of Objective-C specific stuff you have to know to write compelling content for the iPhone isn't that huge. The most popular apps seem to be either 90% Interface Builder work, or 90% OpenGL ES work.
Re:FCC (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, considering that T-Mobile and Google are corporations and the FCC is a government agency, you don't expect it to have to follow the zeroth law, now do you?
Is the phone's code name "R. Giskard Relentlov" or "R. Daneel Olivaw"??
But does it run Linux? (Score:3, Interesting)
It will be very interesting to watch the mobile computing space heat up. Can Android steal away the momentum the iPhone currently has on third-party development?
iphone (Score:3, Interesting)
T-Mobile has "new" spectrum... (Score:1, Interesting)
...a few years ago, T-Mobile won some stateside spectrum that they have yet to really launch: that said, maybe this Android will be using it in addition to the Edge coverage that exists?
Re:I looked at the Android software. (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not about the language. It's about the libraries. And Apple is currently second-to-none in that department for user interaction.
Really? As demonstrated by what?
Looks to me Apple has the same pushbutton/scrollbar/slider stuff as anybody else. And Objective C with XCode seems clunky and outdated compared to Glade and Python, or C# and Stetic.
I played with this phone for a little bit (Score:3, Interesting)
I know someone (who shall remain nameless) who got a pre-production HTC handset like this from their (nameless) employer. :) and they've made it dead simple to download $999.99 useless apps. It all works together well.
To prove I've played with it: the friend's phone had a mode where unlocking it required connecting a grid of dots in a particular order. This may exist on other phones but I'd never seen it before. Cute gimmick.
Unless HTC and Google sort out the HW and UI it's a non-starter as an iphone competitor.
This may change in production but the touchscreen is simply horrible. It's unresponsive and inaccurate. This is plainly visible in this video [youtube.com] of the device. Apart from that, the device is big and fat. I did not get a chance to test call quality or battery life.
The UI itself is not as simple as the iPhone's. It's yet another spin on the usual icons in windows maze that invariably leave you lost.
Apple's "secret" sauce is execution. Their phone is pretty, their HW works with the software (the touchscreen anyway, not the 3G issues...
Shipping Android on subpar HW, such as the example I saw, will doom it to being yet another of the "other" phones.
So what doesn't the iPhone do for you? (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple's applications that come with the iPhone can run in the background and access the contents of the user's iPod
How about we focus more on functional software that helps us do useful things, rather than software that fucks around with our systems for the sake of it? (...) That's the only thing I really care about any platform, what are it's capabilities, what can it do, what DOES it do for me?
But the GP's two restrictions restrict the iPhone's capabilities.
Here's a few things useful the iPhone can't do for you, but could if it allowed background processes and access to the iTunes library:
And a ton more. These are a few of the things the iPhone doesn't do for you as a result of Apple's restrictions. And none of them are "software that fucks around with our systems for the sake of it."
For the record, I own an iPhone.