Second Google Android Phone Revealed 176
KrispyDroid writes "The world's second Google Android phone has been unveiled — by an Australian-based electronics company called Kogan. It will ship worldwide on Jan 29. It looks like a surprisingly nice form factor, not unlike a Blackberry Bold. The phones will be sold without a contract at low prices — $A299 ($US192)."
Re:HTC Touch Dream (Score:5, Informative)
Warning - design is not final yet (Score:5, Informative)
Also, I won't be surprised if the shipping date slips.
Link to the manufacturer (Score:3, Informative)
$399 with Camera and GPS .
I hope the prices are in Australian dollars, that would make it a pretty good buy
And the website has this comment "PRE-ORDER NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT - DEMAND WILL EXCEED SUPPLY!"
I wonder how they know for certain that demand WILL exceed supply ?
Re:When will it become *our* phones? (Score:3, Informative)
And you're not allowed to complain about it if you aren't going to fix it by yourself!
Re:When will it become *our* phones? (Score:3, Informative)
Have you tried todays image from Sean and the latest (oversize) kernel?
You'll need to mess around with uboot to get the large kernel going, but after that it has an onscreen keyboard and you can answer calls with it.
Far from perfect, but making progress. I do want to see what Koolu have done too.
Re:Different hardware spec to the G1 (Score:1, Informative)
If the 2 megapixel camera has better glass it will decimate the 3.2 megapixel with a crap lens.
Megapixels mean nothing in picture quality. never shop by megapixels.
Re:I just want an android device, not a smartphone (Score:2, Informative)
If you're willing to pay an additional $300 for a phone you can install your own applications on, you could put $201 of that money back in your pocket and spend just $99 to become a registered iPhone developer. Once you've done that, you'll have a developer certificate that permits you to create and install as many applications as you want on your device.
If your applications work well, you could then either give them away via the App Store or, if you choose, you might even get compensated for your effort. In the latter case, you could very likely recover at least the $99 you invested.
Seems to me like the Touch was a good choice after all.
Re:When will it become *our* phones? (Score:3, Informative)
Nah, it's just poor software as far as I can tell. The infuriating thing about the 2008.X stack (for me) was that the UI was unresponsive so that when you hit "pick up" it would take a while to register the button press. In the mean time I don't know if it's registered it or not so I hit it again. But then the hang up button appears in the same place and it's stored up the mouse click to apply to that...
Could have killed that damn phone right then.
iPhone User Tries One Out (Score:4, Informative)
Having had the iPhone since early first generation, I recently decided to try out the G1, and I have been very pleasantly surprised. Feature-wise it's pretty much on par with the iPhone, but I've found the UI to (surprisingly enough) be more user-friendly and substantially more responsive (opening the contact list on the iPhone takes forever, for example). The web browser is a lot easier to use anywhere you need to deal with forms, too.
After the major issues I've had with the iPhone (dropped calls, completely missed calls that never ever register on the phone, random total system crashes, etc...), I would honestly recommend Android over it for anybody who doesn't have an obsessive Apple fetish. So far it just seems to work more smoothly and reliably. It being much more open is icing on the cake, and conveys some very obvious advantages, like how developers are encouraged to make drop-in replacements for its built-in components (like a new email program), whereas Apple apparently forbids the same practice on the iPhone.
Overall, I'm definitely gonna be sticking with my Android phone, but thankfully first gen iPhones still resell for a decent price :) It's good to see more models coming out--hopefully it'll really start catching on.
Re:Link to the manufacturer (Score:4, Informative)
The Agora will cost AU$299, and the Agora Pro will be AU$399.
$299 AUD ~= $195 USD
$399 AUD ~= $260 USD
Re:Different hardware spec to the G1 (Score:4, Informative)
It is sometimes *really* hard to make apps that work at all resolutions when you don't have much screen real estate. One of my apps will break horribly on this new screen layout, and I am not sure how to fix it. The other should work ok, but it won't be as usable, and will limit the amount of functionality. Detecting all this will be an utter nightmare.
My guess is that many of the android market apps will not work properly on this new phone.
This is what I like about the iPhone - there is *one* resolution and two orientations - that's it.
Re:I just want an android device, not a smartphone (Score:1, Informative)
Despite the inability to freely modify the OS on a device like the G1 actual development seems to be much more open than on the iphone. First of all, you don't have to go through the Android Market for new apps. That is currently what pay applications have to do due to the lack of pay support on the Market currently. Even if you do use the Market Google has stated that they won't take down apps that "compete" with their applications. There are also a number of applications that can make fairly large changes to the system(the installer specifically tells you what you are granting it access to). For example, you can switch out the default sound/ringtone selector to be able to read from mp3 and an audio recorder. There is another one that can modify the animation on screen transitions. I would say at this point the system is far less locked down than the iphone.
Re:OMG (Score:1, Informative)
Sorry but this blackberry wanna be is no competitor to the tmobile branded gphone let alont the iphone. Just because something has chrome and has shiney plastic/metal doesn't mean its "good/better" Look at the specs, heck the camera is only a 2.0 where the tmobile g1 is 3.2. that's a downgrade!!
One thing i like about my g1 is the fact that its a matte/slightly rubberized finish since its not slippery and doesn't slip out of my hands as often as old iphone, AND it doesn't show any finger prints! (not counting screen!) so you can have all of your chrome and shiney.
Re:Link to the manufacturer (Score:3, Informative)
http://xe.com/ucc [xe.com]
Recent worldwide economic conditions have raped the Australian dollar right through its pants. It's going to be quite a long time until AU$300 is 'just under' US$300 again...
Re:Dollars? (Score:3, Informative)
Try a link to the Kogan web site
http://www.kogan.com.au [kogan.com.au]
You tell me.
Strange, I didnt notice that Australian PC magazine [apcmag.com] was a US site.
Also I'm having a bit of trouble finding this address in the US:
APC Magazine Street address:
Level 18, 66 Goulburn St,
Sydney, NSW 2000
And certainly never mind that the first two lines of the article clearly mentioned Australia:
So reading a review from an Australian magazine, about an Austalian company, importing phones into Australia I think it's fairly safe to assume that the price is in Australian dollars.
Re:I hope to God you're right. (Score:5, Informative)
There's an interesting backstory to that low price (AU$299/$399, btw).
Kogan is an Australian online retailer. They started when Kogan got pissed off with always being ripped off on local pricing and decided to go direct to Chinese manufacturers.
Eighteen months ago young tech-head Ruslan Kogan wanted an LCD television but didn't want to pay full price for it.
He did some research and sent a few emails to factories in China, and now the 24-year-old not only has a new 117cm high-definition TV in his lounge room, he is planning to go global with his own brand of consumer electronics.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/entrepreneur-cuts-tv-middle-men/2007/03/26/1174761375485.html [smh.com.au]
That story is a little over a year old; now there's a lot more products in his store and he's taking on the big electronic retailers over here. http://www.kogan.com.au/profile/ [kogan.com.au]
Re:HTC Touch Dream (Score:2, Informative)
Not anymore!
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-resources-for-developers.html
"
Second, many of you have asked if developer devices will be available. We've worked with our partners to create a program for developers to purchase devices that enable them to test and debug applications more easily.
"
Out of the box you got something that looks like the G1, but is not locked to any carrier.
Better yet, after you get yourself a $400 unlocked Android phone, you can get Android source, and put your own version on your device. Perhaps you will give yourself root access. Perhaps you'll figure out the right way to run native code on the device...