Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Google Android on a Google Phone

It's official: the first so-called Google Phone has been announced. Officially, it's the HTC G1, and it's the first handset based on Google's Android operating system, and T-Mobile is the first carrier to sell the device. It's moments like this when I lament living in Canada: We're still waiting for touch tone service in my neighborhood.

The hype machine isn't quite as frenetic as it was when Apple released its iPhone, and I'm sure we're all getting pretty tired of the "best-device-ever" claims whenever one of these things comes out. But Google's entry into this market is notable because it holds the promise of more widespread, more affordable availability. How we use our cell phones/handsets/smartphones and how they're paid for will begin to change. It won't happen overnight, of course - nothing ever does. But today marks another milestone along the path.

Where does it end? No one knows, and frankly we hope we never find out. For now, I'm content to being entertained by the ever accelerating rate of change.

Your turn: Want one?

9 comments:

Unknown said...

You know what I heard then, Carmi? Blah, blah, blah,...blah blah...gosh I feel so out of the loop of intelligence; I just figured out this whole new blog world thing! I'll have to pay better attention...do you give tutorials;)

Unknown said...

I have an HTC Touch and love it. WIll I be upgrading? Um probably not. The frozen tundra doesn't get that new technology for awhile!

sealaura said...

Hola Carmi,
I have to admit I am excited by this news. I am not a gadget junkie but I do appreciate them. I happen to have T-mobile and unlike tmobile, Google has been good to me. So I will wait and see what happens with this android. I am a loyal mac user so I have lusted for the iphone but it is not in my budget for right now plus I am locked in with Tmobile so alas maybe this will be my chance! :)
PS thanks for visiting my blog. You are very kind.

Admin said...

Where in Canada do you live??? No touch tone?!?!?!?! I'm in Vancouver...and touch tone is definitely not a problem. :)

Driftwood and Pumpkin said...

Android? What the heck is an android? Sounds Star Wars-ish!

Sleepypete said...

There's a story in the GB media at the moment about mobiles and their costs ...

If a GB person texts a person in GB from GB, it'll cost them about 9p. If they then go across the Channel and text that person from France, it'll cost them 23p. There's a few people agitating about that at the moment ... Including stories about Shock Bills, where people have downloaded content abroad and come home to find a huge bill ...

I dunno - is it a device for communicating from any location ? Or is it a personal organiser, tv, internet browser, PC, kitchen sink ... One thing definite is that the commercial entities who provide the service are quite happy to send us the gadgets to feed an expensive habit.

I do know one thing - an iPhone would not fit in the phone pocket in my leather jacket, so it fails one of the most important requirements I have in a mobile phone ;-)

Anonymous said...

I still laugh when I think of that SNL skit where a new phone kept getting invented smaller than the last until there was nothing the eye could see. Kinda like the economy here right now and our emperor who wears no clothes.

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

these things generally escape moi coz even if they get the smartest/coolest/bestest phone ever I will still not know what to do with it except make calls and receive calls....and if a phone does more than that...then why even call it a phone? Am I stuck-up?

Jessica said...

Things have changed quite a bit since 2008. Now they have many really cute phones in different colors. I personally like the T-Mobile's MyTouch, then again the Samsung looks good too. Android thingy offer lots of choices (thanks Google)! From the comparison and amazing videos, they seem a lot better than iPhone. http://androidcompare.com/phones.html

The above list many Android phones from Google.