A one-stop guide for the T-Mobile G1 phone running Google’s Android mobile operating system. Android is an open-source project designed specifically to make it easy for developers, both professional and amateur, to create applications that access every part of the phone’s hardware.

First Android phone from Google

This Update seems to be pretty much as listed above, adding the ability to save pictures and files with a long press, fixing a few minor bugs (none of which I’ve personally experienced, but which have been bothering other people), and adding Voice Search (which is pretty cool). It’s come to many customers in the US, but there’s not much more information about it, probably because it’s rather basic. There seems to be some concern about Voice Search becoming available in the UK – apparently, it has a problem with our accent! This may delay or alter the UK release.

Interim Update (starting February 5)

From Android Talk (February 3):

“To ensure a great experience with the T-Mobile G1 with Google, customers with these devices will receive an Over the Air (OTA) update between February 5 and February 15. This OTA will include new system enhancements such as the ability to save pictures or files to file by long-pressing an item, check for system updates, and use the Google Voice Search feature. The OTA will also fix several known issues. New G1 activations will receive the OTA up to three days after service has been activated.”

If you don’t want to wait for the push from T-Mobile, a trick allows you to force the G1 to check for updates, courtesy of a poster on the Android Talk forums. You’ll need Any cut installed from the Market. Now, long-press in a blank space on your screen, and choose Shortcut/Any cut/Activity/Device info. When you tap this shortcut, it’ll take you to a screen with a range of interesting system information. Scroll to the bottom, and there’s a button to check for updates. If you click it and it just says “CHECKIN_SUCCESS,” there’s no update yet.

Coming Update – Cupcake

A major update, or series of updates, is coming in the first quarter of 2009 for the G1 and other Android phones. It comes from the development branch Cupcake and will include several fixes and improvements and add many features to your phone. It should download straight to your G1 over the air and update easily.

The official Google position is still ready when it’s ready but is targeted for the first quarter of 2009. We know a very early version was released to application developers around January 16. T-Mobile has noted the flood of emails and calls about the issue and is trying to push this forward as fast as possible from their end.

Some predicted features for this Update are:

* Option to save pictures and attachments from text messages
* Ability to copy and paste text in the browser
* Search-within-text for the browser
* Improved video support – video recording, better playback, and thumbnails
* Stereo Bluetooth support
* Onscreen keyboard, so you can type on the screen rather than having to slide the keyboard open
* A reduction in battery drain, mainly through more efficient use of processing power.
* Latitude, a geo-aware contact system

The soft keyboard is one of the most eagerly-awaited features of Cupcake – the ability to enter text via an onscreen keyboard without opening the slide on the G1. A third-party application now provides this feature – dotphone.org’s Softkeyboard, which is available in the Market. In my second article on Applications, I’ll give more details and some information on how to use it (the functionality isn’t immediately obvious).

Features: What works, what doesn’t, and how to fix it

Headsets

Bluetooth headsets seem to work fine, but the device doesn’t yet support stereo over Bluetooth so that any audio playback will be mono sound only. This will be fixed with the Cupcake update. The wired headset that comes with the G1 gives good sound quality. Still, the limitation of the phone is that it doesn’t have a regular headphone/earphone socket, so for wired accessories, you have to buy those specifically designed to be compatible with the phone. However, the G1 now ships with an adaptor that allows you to plug in a regular 3.5mm headset in the US. This is not yet the case in the UK.

If they receive enough feedback, T-Mobile has told me they change this policy and even ship out adapters to existing customers. If you are a UK G1 customer, go to T-Mobile’s Contact Us page, scroll down to “send us an email,” and fill in the form to let T-Mobile know their customers want this accessory! I got a response from my state telling me that T-Mobile has no plans to make this change in the UK. That means they haven’t had enough complaint emails/calls to make this an issue – let’s get on this, people!

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At a media forum on Thursday, July 8, 2010, at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley conference, Google executives Larry Page and Sergey Brin informed Journalists that Steve Jobs was re-writing Android’s history to align with Apple’s interests. They argued that contrary to Steve Jobs’s claims, Google worked on Android long before the iPhone was launched in 2007. According to Mr. Page: “We had been working on

Android for a long time, with the notion of producing internet-enabled phones with good browsers because that did not exist in the marketplace. I think that the characterization of us as entering after the iPhone was introduced is not reasonable. ” Google co-founder Larry Page opined that Mr. Jobs’s claim that Google went into the phone business to challenge the Apple iPhone was false.

Google Android Pixel XL Vs. Apple iPhone 7 plus 

However, a review of smartphone history will show that Google acquired Android in 2005 and began making phone prototypes soon afterward. Informed sources say the model of the Android phones that Mr. Jobs saw looked more like the Blackberry. This suggests that Google’s initial idea may not have been to make phones that look like the iPhone.
Now, the question most industry watchers are asking is if Google had been working on an

Android-powered phone: why did they wait until September 2008, a year after the iPhone was launched, to introduce the G1 phone? In addition, the facts suggest that it was because of tensions over Google’s entry into the phone business that may have contributed to the exit of Mr. Eric Schmidt from the Apple board. Analysts believe that Google may have been working on an Android-powered phone before the iPhone was introduced. Still, the iPhone seemed to have given them better insights into perfecting their smartphone. This is especially true given the resemblance of the Nexus One to the iPhone.

Further confirmation of Google’s motive for launching the Android phones could be gleaned from comments they made at the Google I/O conference held last May. At the event, Google explained that they introduced Android to consumers so that Apple would not acquire enormous influence that could become draconian.

In addition, the facts suggest that Google went into the phone business after realizing that the future of computing would be in portable devices like phones and tablet computers. As a result, they went into the phone business to dominate web search on that platform just like they had done on the desktop. This notion is supported by Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, in his published comments in an interview with the UK Guardian newspaper on June 25, 2010. In that interview, Mr. Schmidt suggested that he wants Android to be the Windows of Mobile.

Also, in that same interview, Mr. Schmidt commented critically about Microsoft Windows. He said: “You have to ask how on earth Windows Phone – which will have a paid-for license – is ever going to attract any handset makers, but it must be loudest for developers considering whether the shrinking, the forwards-incompatible pool of Windows Mobile phones is

worth bothering with”. In contrast, Apple appears to have gone into the phone business as a re-positioning strategy and intends to make huge revenue from selling the smartphone hardware. Also, with the advent of smartphones, Apple realized that there was a huge potential in mobile Advertising. This was why they sought to

acquire Admob. While Apple was negotiating to buy Admob, a mobile advertising company, Google quickly acquired Admob. As a result, Apple went ahead to catch Quatro Wireless, which is Admob’s biggest competitor. In reaction to Google’s acquisition of Admob, Apple has re-written the rules of its mobile Advertising platform called the iAd, therefore shutting out Admob, which Google had acquired.

As the smartphone war rages on Bloomberg, news reports that Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones since its introduction. According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the latest version, iPhone 4, has sold more than 3 million units since its June 24, 2010 debut. Analysts believe iPhones account for nearly 35 percent of Apple’s $42. 9 billion revenue. Also, the iPhone has over 200,000 applications with over 5 billion downloads.

The rapid growth of applications in Apple’s ecosystem could be traced to the company’s initial incentive to developers. For example, in the beginning, to encourage applications that would run on the iPhone, Apple made an indirect investment in a $100 million venture capital fund set up by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Today, Apple has paid over one billion dollars to developers since its inception.

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Shopping is either pure bliss or torture, depending on who you ask. Regardless of which end of the spectrum you are on, Android apps will help you save money and allow you to become a more efficient shopper (which I’m sure appeals to most of you). So what does that entail? It’ll give the shopaholics more bang for their buck, which is never a bad thing. Perhaps even more importantly, these Android apps will provide homophobes with what they crave- less time in the stores!

The pure power and functionality of these Android apps can make shopping virtually an all-new experience. Whether these apps function as a shopping list, database, storefront, or supplemental knowledge source, they’re all squarely aimed at one thing: if you use them, they will save you money!

Money-making Android apps

You’re feeling that Android shopping apps, in general, might help you, right? Well, here are 10 Android apps that will save you money while they help you fulfill all your shopping needs and desires. Oh, and did I mention that all these ten are completely FREE to download?

SnapTell

Want to know more about an item you saw on the rack? Just use SnapTell to scan the barcode of any CD, DVD, book, or video game, and you can get all the information you need. What type of information? Well, if you want some more cursory information, that’ll work. Most notably, if you see how the price stacks up to other distributors, it can do that for you in seconds. This app could be a big-time money-saver for you if you take the time to use it before you make that next media purchase!

Key Ring Reward Cards

This is a convenient app to consolidate all your clutter in your purse/wallet while ensuring that you don’t lose valuable reward/loyalty cards. How does it work? All you do is take a snapshot of the barcode of your reward card (just about any decent-sized company with a rewards program is in the database- over 650 programs) and enter some basic information about the store. That’s it; you’re now ready to use your phone as your reward card at that store in the future by pulling up your reward information on this Android app. It’s probably not for non-techies or those who crave extreme simplicity. It is, however, a great idea and technology that will no doubt get crisper in the future.

If you don’t mind carrying all your reward cards and potentially losing one or two along the way (and waiting to replace the card), this free Android app sounds like a waste of time. But, if the extra inch of not-so-soft plastic padding for your rump (or the misuse of perfect purse space- not to mention the potential inability to use your chic tiny purse out shopping) isn’t idyllic, this app is worth the few minutes to download and get everything set up properly.

OurGroceries

This is the perfect app for the happy, busy family of Android phone users. It allows the kids to add all their necessary foods endlessly. When the items are purchased, they can be removed from the list (on all the Android phones it’s registered to), and then, 4 hours later, they can easily be added back onto the list! Joking aside, this is a great app for the new-age, hyper-busy, hyper-tech families that want to become more efficient.

Hey, it costs a lot of money to keep purchasing that extra loaf of bread that your husband/wife (or even you- thanks to that undecided hmmm, don’t we need bread moment even though you just bought two loaves yesterday- yes, you’re not alone!) just picked up and will end up turning green before anyone has a chance to make a sandwich with it.

OI Shopping list

To me, this app, fully named the OpenIntents Shopping list, is like OurGroceries for the single folks out there. A family wouldn’t benefit from this app; it just has more features, and it’s not a perfect fit like the other app is for families that need a simple solution to keep up with their latest shopping needs. That being said, this app is a powerful workhorse and can save you countless hours and some decent cash at year’s end.

US Yellow Pages Search

This is one of the more useful free Android apps available, and I’ll be honest, it doesn’t 100% fit with the theme of helping you save money while shopping. I could argue that it does, but for simplicity, I’ll use an old cliche: Time is Money! SDevotingsome time is just as good as saving cash on those busy days out and about.

Having this app on your Android phone is like having 300 super-thick Yellowbooks from all over the US crammed into your back pocket. It’s not a bad thing if you travel a decent amount or enjoy living outside your house. It’s just a great resource to have on hand for those times when you need to find a business’s number fast.

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How do you decide on the best phone for you? With such a wide variety of cell phones, it is tough to determine. The Google phones have recently become incredibly popular, thanks to Google’s Android operating system. Several cell phone producers are incorporating the Android operating system into their cell phones.

Here are some of the top Android phones on the market today. These days, most people have a cell phone. Even people who swore that they would never find a cell phone functional have acquiesced to the convenience of mobile phones and technology. What other way would you explain the trend of the pay-as-you-go cell phone? One of the most popular cell phone models on the market is Google’s Android phone.

Today’s Android phones

With smartphone technology, its competition has a lot to contend with. With such a huge selection of Android Phones, how do you know which phones are the leading Android Phones? Here are some of the phones that got the best reviews. What are your wants from

your cell phone? When it comes time to upgrade their cell phone, every purchaser should ask him or herself. Making phone calls was the original purpose of a cell phone. As the cell phone revolved, people began wanting to take pictures, send text messages, listen to their music, and access the Internet. You can do all that and some by

choosing a smartphone. Playing games, checking the weather report, and making phone calls are only a few of the countless things you can do on this phone. Before choosing one of the top Android phones, you should consider what you want the phone to be able to do for you. Here are some of the top Android phones available now: Top Theto.

Among the top Android phones is the Acer BeTouch E110. This is only one of the Acer BeTouch phones out on the market. The E110 is a smartphone running with the Android 1.5 software set. It is not the latest edition from Acer’s technology, but the BeTouch E110 is capable of almost everything the other smartphones are. Acer has an interface that

assists users in operating their phones. This phone has a little touch screen that a 416 MHz processor powers. The touch screen is less than three inches in size! The touch screen is not even three inches large! The Motorola Quench is one of the top Android phones. The Quench, a later model of Motorola, has been enhanced with the Android operating system. This phone is one of eight Motorola models that use the Android system. The phone has a

screen that is only slightly larger than three inches. However, the screen has high definition (320 x 480). This phone uses Motoblur technology, allowing social networking users a better experience. It uses the Android 1.5 operating system and offers Wi-Fi capability, GPS, a camera that is five megapixels, and several apps the user will adore. The Sony

Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini is among the most highly respected Android phones on the market. This phone is built on a slightly different model with no name change, and the mini is the more compact version of the phone that it is modeled after. This phone works with Google’s Android 1.6 operating system and is paired with the UX interface by Ericsson.

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