1 Million Google Android Phones sold by T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s Google Android smartphone has reached one million in US sales in the six months since the phone launched. The smartphone now accounts for almost two thirds of all of the 3G devices available on the T-Mobile.

T-Mobile is the US’s fourth largest wireless network operator and has
over 32.1 million customers. The company started selling the G1
Smartphone on October 22, 2008.

It is being reported by mobile advertising specialist AdMob that the
Android OS now accounts for 6% for the entire smartphone market in the
United States. Though the popularity is increasing, Android still has a
while to go until it beats out Windows Mobile, which holds an 11%
market share, the Blackberry OS at 22% and the iPhone, which takes the
cake with 50% of the smartphone market in the U.S.

During a
conference call last week Eric Schmidt, Google CEO stated that he felt
the Android had a chance for great success this year. Schmidt claimed
that the open source strategy was gaining ground and hinted that the
company would deliver future announcements.

“There are
announcements happening between now and the end of the year that are
quite significant from operators and new hardware partners in the
Android space, which I won't preannounce except to say that they really
do fulfill much of the vision that we laid out more than a year ago,”
stated Schmidt during the call. “On the netbook side, there are a
number of people who have actually taken Android and ported it over to
netbook or netbook-similar devices.”

via: TGDAILY

Motorola Readies Its Own Android Social Smartphone

As the wireless world awaits the Oct. 22 debut of the first phone based on the Google-backed Android software, engineers at Motorola
are hard at work on their own Android handset. Motorola's version will
boast an iPhone-like touch screen, a slide-out qwerty keyboard, and a
host of social-network-friendly features, BusinessWeek.com has learned.

Motorola has been showing spec sheets and images of the phone to
carriers around the world in the past two months and is likely to
introduce the handset in the U.S. sometime in the second quarter of
2009, according to people familiar with Motorola's plans. Building a
phone based on the highly anticipated Android operating system is part
of Motorola's effort to revive a loss-making handset division that has
forfeited market share amid a drought of bestselling phones.

The phone will appear among a new class of social smartphones designed to make it easy for users to connect quickly and easily to mobile social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Such phones let users message in-network friends directly from phone contact lists.

Read the rest of the story Here.

[Via: Businessweek.com]

gphone, android motorolla phone, motorolla android

T-Mobile Launches G1 Emulator

It appears that the site is currently down but The site is current back online, here is the link so you can check it out later.


http://tmobile.modeaondemand.com/htc/g1/

The site offers a 360 degrees view, visual guides instructions and a emulator.

Visa to develop apps on Android, Nokia phones

Visa has announced plans to make mobile payment-related services broadly available to United States consumers by the end of the year. Central to this effort is Visa’s delivery of mobile applications for the Android platform, which will be available for download on Android-powered handsets and initially available to Chase Visa cardholders.


The first set of services that Visa is planning to develop for Android
will allow Chase Visa cardholders to receive notifications to their
mobile devices about transaction activity on their accounts; obtain
offers from a wide array of merchants; and use the built-in
location-based technology developed by Google to quickly map nearby
merchants where they can redeem Visa offers and locate ATMs that accept
Visa.

Visa mobile services that will be
developed for the Android platform will first be offered to Chase Visa
account holders. Following this initial launch phase, Visa plans to work
with additional card-issuing financial institutions to extend
availability of its mobile services for Android to their Visa account
holders. Visa is also developing a payment application that will enable
consumers with Visa accounts to make mobile payments in retail locations
nationwide, or while on the go, over wireless networks.

”By developing these mobile services for the
Android platform, Visa has taken a major step toward achieving our goal
of combining two of the world’s most powerful
and ubiquitous consumer innovations, electronic payments and mobile
technology,” said Elizabeth Buse, Global Head
of Product at Visa Inc. “Through this effort,
U.S. consumers will, for the first time, be able to download Visa mobile
service applications directly to their handsets. Visa cardholders have
come to expect more from their Visa account than just convenience and
security of payment, and wireless customers expect their mobile devices
to carry a multitude of applications. Extending Visa payments and
services to the mobile device is a natural extension, and makes the
consumer payment experience more convenient, more secure and more
rewarding.”

Visa mobile services developed for the Android platform include:

• 
  Alerts: Consumers will receive near real-time notification of
  purchase activity based on customized cardholder preferences. The
  consumer will be able to personalize the types of alerts delivered to
  their mobile device according to pre-selected parameters, such as the
  size of the transaction, or whether the transaction is in foreign
  currency. Because these alerts are triggered by the transaction as it
  passes through the Visa network, consumers will receive notifications
  almost immediately, typically before they even leave the store. This
  adds a new layer of peace of mind when using Visa, and a new way to
  combat fraud.
  
• 
  Offers: Consumers will receive targeted offers from merchants
  directly to their phone. These offers –
  ranging from discounts to loyalty offers –
  could be based on a consumer’s previous
  purchase activity. For consumers and merchants alike, this service
  will ensure the most relevant offers are sent in a timely manner,
  helping increase merchant traffic, loyalty and customer satisfaction.
  
• 
  Locator: The Locator service is expected to integrate with
  technology developed by Google, such as Google Maps and Google
  location-based services, to show consumers nearby locations of
  merchants sending them offers, or of an ATM that accepts Visa. The
  location would be called out on a map displayed on the mobile device
  screen.
  

“We’re pleased to
extend the value of Visa to the mobile channel,”
said Buse. “With more than 3 billion mobile
devices already in market today, we have an opportunity deliver the
convenience and security of Visa to consumers around the globe.”

[Yahoo! Finance]

T-Mobile G1 Features List

I know I have a few posts with some of the features of the new T-Mobile G1 but I thought I would add everything into one post to make it easier to find the information.

Here are the Main features of the G1:

Touch screen

Instant access to key information with the touch of a finger

Just tap the screen and go

Real Web browsing capabilities

Quick and easy access to the Internet one click away

View more pages and rich Web content on your phone

3MP camera

Capture key moments in high-quality fashion wherever you are

Never worry about blurry photos with auto focus built right in

Customizable home screen

Just
drag and drop any of your favorite applications, photos, or folders
onto your home screen for quick access to what you use all the time

QWERTY keyboard

The built-in familiar layout lets you type messages easily without scrolling for the letter you want

Hinged screen slides open to reveal keypad and closes to prevent accidental dialing

Easy access to Google applications

One-touch access to Google applications:

• Maps (including satellite, traffic, and street views)
• Gmail
• YouTube
• Calendar
• Google Talk

IM/text/e-mail

All the ways you need to connect while you're on the go

Music player

With the 1GB memory card, you'll never be without your favorite tunes

One-click Google Search

Quick and easy access to the Internet in one click

Video playback

Watch your favorite videos, even YouTube, anywhere

3G network and Wi-Fi access

High-speed 3G network connection for surfing the Web or downloading information quickly and effortlessly

Seamlessly transition to open Wi-Fi networks to surf the Web or download information quickly

Android Market

One-touch access to Android Market

Customize
and personalize your device to fit your life with a variety of software
applications like games, social networking, and on-the-go shopping

Download the applications wirelessly with just a couple short clicks

There are some pretty great features to the G1/Android Platform and I'm sure we will learn much more once the Phone is officially released including access to the Android Market.

T-Mobile removes the 1GB data cap, takes a different approach

Engadget is reporting that T-Mobile has changed their decision to include a 1GB Data Cap on G1 users. Instead of a 1GB data cap for everyone they will now only cap users who abuse the network.

Here is what T-Mobile had to say about the issue:

"Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to
provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to
experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network.
At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network
experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to
temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our
customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes
with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service
to all of our customers.

We removed the 1GB soft limit from our
policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will
enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific
terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are
final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers
and potential new customers."

[Engadget.com]


Sounds like good news for G1 users, I'm glad they responded to this issue.

Installing Google Android SDK 1.0 On Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop

Falko Timme put together a nice guide together. The guide explains how you can install the Google Android SDK 1.0
on an Ubuntu 8.04 desktop. With this stable release of the Android SDK,
you can now develop applications for Android smartphones (like
T-Mobile's G1) and offer them on the Android Market.

Take a look at the guide if you are interested in developing apps for android on Ubuntu.

T-Mobile 3G Data Usage Restricted to 1GB a Month

Here is a copy of the fine print at the T-Mobile G1 Website:

3G coverage is available only in certain markets. See coverage map.
If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of
that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less. Your data session, plan, or service may be
suspended, terminated, or restricted for significant roaming or if you use your service
in a way that interferes with our network or ability to provide quality service to other
users. Some devices require specific data plans; if you do not have the right plan for
your device, you may not be able to use data services. Some downloads, such as movies,
music, and games, not included. Domestic use only.


So if you plan on downloading songs off of the new Amazon MP3 store make sure you do not go over your 1GB limit or your speed will be reduced to below EDGE Network speeds.

1GB appears to be really low considering the way they are marketing this phone.

Android Developers Videos

Android Peeks - browser tricks

One thing I like about Android... browser tricks.
Watch Android team members talk about their favorite features.

Android Peeks - copy & paste

Steve what are you waiting for?

Android Peeks - reader and photos

Android Peeks - media in the browser

T-Mobile G1 FAQ's

Where can I buy the T-Mobile G1™?
The T-Mobile G1 will be available for purchase on www.T-Mobile.com, in select T-Mobile retail stores, and in authorized retailer locations across the United States beginning October 22nd.


What types of plans are available for the T-Mobile G1?
Once you’ve selected a specific T-Mobile voice plan, you must also choose a data plan in order for your G1™ to work. You can choose from a data plan that offers 400 messages and unlimited data access for $25 a month—or add unlimited messaging for just $10 more a month.


What Google services come pre-installed on the T-Mobile G1?
# This device takes many of the popular Google services we’ve come to love on our desktop computers and optimizes them for use on a phone. These services include: Google Search
# Google Maps
# Gmail
# Google Calendar
# Google Talk
# YouTube


What is Android?
Android is the mobile operating system on the T-Mobile G1. It allows developers from around the world to create new and exciting applications that can easily be loaded onto the phone from the Android Market.


What is the Android Market?
The Android Market is an application storefront, developed by Google, where you will find unique applications as well as mash ups of existing and new services from developers around the world. With just a few short clicks, you can download a wide range of innovative software applications—from games and social networking, to on-the-go shopping. You’ll even be able see which applications are the newest or most popular with a star rating system (similar to YouTube).


Can I use my T-Mobile G1 while traveling internationally?
Yes. All voice and data usage outside of the United States will be subject to international rates.


Can I activate my T-Mobile G1 with Prepaid service?
No. Prepaid service for the G1 is not available at this time.


Have questions about the G1 that you ordered early?
Just login to My.T-Mobile to get the FAQ’s

HTC G1, Google Phone Video

Here is a Video showing some of the things the new T-Mobile G1 can do.

Panoramio Application for Android, T-Mobile G1

The application starts by showing your current location in a custom MapView. You can pan and zoom this map to choose the area you want to search.




Once you have selected a search area, the application downloads thumbnails of the most popular photos taken within that area.



You can tap on an item to see more details.



You can use the menu to find more pictures by the same
photographer or to see the original photo on the Panoramio site. You can find the location of the photo in
the real world. You can show the location on the map along with your
current location.



Or, you can bring up a radar view that uses the compass and GPS to show
you the location of the photo in relation to your own location.

T-Mobile G1 Press Confrence, Google, HTC, T-Mobile Live Blogging

T-Mobile G1 Worlds first Android Phone from Google, launched on both sides of the Atlantic at the same time. On the market by the end of this year.

Creating an open mobile internet and platform. Mobile internet will be dominant in the future, Mobile Traffic has grown 250%.

Committed to open mobile platforms. G1 brings open mobile platform to market for the first time.

Develop Applications and also make Android better, Android is future proof.

HTC, Google, T-Mobile shares same vision making mobile internet open and fun. Want to make internet experience more enjoyable.

Iconic Design (G1) maximize mobile experience, touch screen, keyboard appeals to many people, nothing like it on the market. Flexible and very powerful.

Mobile Internet lags in the USA by 16%, T-Mobile and Android want to change that.


http://announcement.t-mobileg1.com/#

Showing Phone now with teaser reel, looks like pictures. Taking Photos and getting ready to do live demonstrations.

Touch Screen, swipe across to see, long press for more features. Frame pictures to add on home screen. Drag and Drop on Home Screen.

Amazon.com one click MP3 ordering. Long press for more song options.

Multitasking, full slide out keyboard. Contacts, click to go to address with map. Directions, Traffic View, Street View (Google).

Compass moves as you move the phone.

Web Browser (Full Featured) zoom, multiple tabs, dedicated search button, search from anywhere on device (Contacts, Web) Send links by email right from browser (Gmail).

Applications:

Android Market on Phone, with user ratings. Programs, Apps, Games and more. (They Showed Pac-Man)

Open Marketplace, Great Third Party Applications to market.

Open Source, Freedom to develop any application to hoops, free to develop and Google will not stop your application from being distributed.

Track your Carbon footprint with the EcoRio Application.

Shop Savvy application lets you use as a Bar Code scanner to compare prices on the internet right in the store.

Question and Answer session.

Pricing is $179.00 (Beats the iPhone) existing customers can order today. October 22nd official launch day. 2 plan options for Data $25 Unlimited (Data) $35 Unlimited Web and Messaging/Data.

3G Network.

Europe Availability UK early November rest of Europe early 2009 First Q.

Tethering? Pricing with just data?

No tethering, data plan requires voice plan.

Support for MS Office Files? Can read Word, PDF, can develop by third party.

T-Mobile only? Yes Sim Locked to T-Mobile

Push email? Yes, Push, IMAP Pull

Desktop Application to Sync? No not yet, syncs with network.

Outside of 3G Markets? Yes but best experience in 3G. Also has Wireless.

How locked is this Phone? Issues like the iPhone?

Deflects Question.

Marketing? Google Marketing?

Yes, T.V. Ad's Marketing starts in October largest Advertising Campaign ever.

Server Sync? Bluetooth?
Sync with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and more. Supports wireless headsets.

Chrome Browser?

No, but works on Web Kit. Chrome like but not Chrome.

Device Aimed at? Consumer, Business....?

Mass appeal for everyone. Young, Family, more consumer but thing enterprise will enjoy.

Gmail Functions?

Robust experience, same as desktop experience. Integrated in front end. Online Google Talk presence inside contact list.

iTunes, Skype, International?

works with any AAC, WMA, MP3, would need to be DRM unlocked for iTunes, up to consumer. No Skype support.

Dual band and Quad Band works on any band in the world.

Special Guests, Google Founders take stage.

Awkward moment......

They have been using the Phone for a while now. Throws phone in Air uses accelerometer to demonstrate app he created to measure time in the Air.

They enjoy the phone. 

Describes Phone as a computer.

Asks crowd to do a web search on their phone to demonstrate how easy it will be to do on the G1.

Computer like functionality on Phone.

Location based services.

Taking Photos. Everyone has their G1 Phones out.


Press Conference ends, press making way downstairs to see live phone demos.


 

HTC Dream (gPhone) In The Wild

Click Image for better picture.

Here is Video of the Interface

Google's Android To Launch Sept. 23

T-Mobile just sent out some invitations for a press conference to be held next week.

You are invited to attend a press conference to witness the official unveiling of the first Android-powered phone from T-Mobile. The event will include presentations from T-Mobile,Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and other company executives and an opportunity for you to get hands-on with the phone during a live product demonstration following the speaking portion of the event.

And here is an interesting video from Google Android demo at Google Developers Day, 16th September 2008

Google Android demo

Why Google Removed some API's from Android 0.9 SDK Beta

From Android Developers Blog

GTalkService
We were all really excited when the "XMPPService" (as it was called, at first) was included in the first early-look SDK. Once we brought in our security review team to examine Android, however, they soon realized that, as exciting as it is, the GTalkService has some fundamental security problems. Rich Cannings is one of our security researchers, and here's his explanation of the issues:

When I first read about GTalkService, I was both excited and scared. As a developer, I was interested in a feature that provided a simple interface to send messages between two Google Talk friends. The messages would appear on the receiving device as a standard Intent that was easy to handle. How simple and beautiful is that? Unfortunately, when I put my tin foil hat on, I recognized that things are a little more complicated than that.

We decided to postpone GTalkService's data-messaging functionality for the following reasons:

1. "Repurposing" Google Talk Friends
Google Talk friends are intended for a different purpose than that envisioned by the GTalkService. Your Google Talk friends can contact you at any time via IM. They can see your email address and often can see your real name. However, the idea of a Google Talk friend does not always line up with the types of people who may want to interact with via an Android application. For example, imagine a really cool mobile Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game using GTalkService. You would have to add all the players to your Google Talk friends list in order to play with them. Next time you log in to Google Talk from your desktop or on the web, you would notice that you have many new "friends". You may not want to chat with these friends -- and perhaps worse, you may not want them to know what your real name or email is. We do realize that Android users will want to interact with other Android users anonymously and for short periods of time, especially in gaming scenarios. Unfortunately, it turns out that using Instant Messaging is not really a good way to do that.
2. Verifying Remote Intent Senders
Intents were designed to send messages within the device. The Intent subsystem can conclusively determine who sent Intents only when the Intents originate from the same device that services the Intent. When Intents come from other devices, the Intent subsystem cannot determine what application sent the Intent. This can lead to a variety of problems. At first, remote applications could send arbitrary Intents, meaning that your Google Talk friends had almost the same control of your device as you did. Even once that issue was resolved, we recognized that we could not trust the identity of the application who sent the request. We could only trust the identity of the user. So a "bad" application on your friend's device could send a message to a "good" application on your device which would negatively affect the good application. In the end, we determined that the Intent system, as designed for local use, did not lend itself well to being the vehicle for a Remote Procedure Call (RPC).
3. Placing Too Much Security Burden on Developers
As originally designed, the GTalkService placed a significant burden on the application developer to avoid security flaws and perform user and relationship management. An Android application using GTalkService would be reachable from all of the user's Google Talk friends, and a flaw in that application could pose an inviting target to a malicious "friend" or automated malware. There are automated mechanisms that could be used to help protect vulnerable applications or stop the spread of malware, but the deployment of these technologies was not possible in time for the launch of the first Android handsets.

Although we would have loved to ship this service, in the end, the Android team decided to pull the API instead of exposing users to risk and breaking compatibility with a future, more secure version of the feature. We think it's obvious that this kind of functionality would be incredibly useful, and would open lots of new doors for developers. One of our top priorities after the first devices ship is to develop a device-to-device (and possibly device-to-server) RPC mechanism that is fast, reliable, and protective of developers and users alike.

As a final note, I want to point out that since the GTalkService was always a Google "value-added" service anyway, it was never guaranteed that it would be present on every Android device. That is, GTalkService was never part of core Android. As a result this change actually allows us the potential to build a new system that is part of the core of a future version of Android.

Bluetooth API
The 1.0 version of Android and the first devices will include support for Bluetooth; for instance, Android will support Bluetooth headsets. In the early-look SDKs, there was an incomplete draft of an API that exposed Bluetooth functionality to developers. Unfortunately we had to remove that API from the 1.0 release. To get the skinny on why, I contacted Nick Pelly, one of the Android engineers responsible for that functionality. Here's the story on Bluetooth, in Nick's words:

The reason is that we plain ran out of time. The Android Bluetooth API was pretty far along, but needs some clean-up before we can commit to it for the SDK. Keep in mind that putting it in the 1.0 SDK would have locked us into that API for years to come.

Here's an example of the problems in the API. Client code is required to pass around IBluetoothDeviceCallback objects in order to receive asynchronous callbacks, but IBluetoothDeviceCallback is meant to be an internal interface. That client code would break the moment we added new callbacks to IBluetoothDeviceCallback.aidl. This is not a recipe for future-proof apps.

To make things even more tricky, the recent introduction of the bluez 4.x series brings its own new API. The Android Bluetooth stack uses bluez for GAP and SDP so you'll see more than a passing resemblance to bluez's interfaces in Android. The bluez 4.x change requires us to carefully consider how to structure our API for the future. Again, remember that once we settle on an interface we need to support it for years going forward.

Rather than ship a broken API that we knew was going to change a lot, we chose not to include it. We absolutely intend to support a Bluetooth API in a future release, although we don't know exactly when that will be. This should include some tasty features, such as:

* Bindings to GAP and SDP functionality.
* Access to RFCOMM and SCO sockets.
* Potentially, L2CAP socket support from Java. (This one is under consideration.)
* An API to our headset and handsfree profiles.

On a personal note, Nick adds, "I would love nothing more than to start seeing some neat third-party applications and games over Bluetooth. In my opinion, Bluetooth is completely under-utilized on most mobile platforms and I'm excited to someday see what the developer community can do with Android."

I'm definitely bummed about these API removals. I was particularly looking forward to the P2P capabilities offered by GTalkService, but, as always, user security and privacy must come first. In all these cases, we'll work with the developer community to create some great APIs that balance these concerns.

T-Mobile to be first Android Carrier

T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. The phone will be made by HTC, one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, and is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October.
The high-end phone is expected to match many of the capabilities of Apple’s iPhone and other so-called smartphones that run software from Palm, Research in Motion, Microsoft and Nokia to access the Internet and perform computerlike functions.

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. The people briefed on the discussions declined to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the project.

Read the rest here
Link

Enkin Video, Android App

"Enkin" introduces a new handheld navigation concept. It displays location-based content in a unique way that bridges the gap between reality and classic map-like representations. It combines GPS, orientation sensors, 3D graphics, live video, several web services, and a novel user interface into an intuitive and light navigation system for mobile devices.
Check out our web page enkin.net.

Enkin from Enkin on Vimeo.Technorati Tags: google phone, gphone, Enkin, android

Google updating Android dev kit

Google today said it would upgrade the developer kit for its Android mobile OS, providing a significant upgrade to the Linux-based software based on feedback from programmers. The company does not say exactly what its enhancements will include but notes that both the user interface and the programming interface itself will receive upgrades. The delay is enough to justify pushing back the deadline for the Developers Challenge until April 14th, Google says, though the change will not force any software developers to migrate to the new code in the same timeframe.

"We're looking forward to seeing some great apps, especially after we've had a chance to incorporate some of your feedback into the Android platform," says Google's Developer Advocate Quang Nguyen.

The change is believed to be in response to numerous bug complaints from developers, who in the early stages of development criticized Google for supplying too little documentation and requiring excessive steps to accomplish simple user interface goals.

[Via:Electronista.com]

Technorati Tags: android apps, android sdk, android dev kit, google g phone, google phone