Google Android (First phone, HTC Dream, launching October!)

[Shawn]

So I figure we should have a thread for Android, especially as more devices become available with this OS, and hopefully kill off the iPhone.

The first device to have Android is the HTC Dream which should be coming out in the next few weeks on T-Mobile USA.

No full specs yet, but the hardware and price are near identical to the iPhone. It has a 3.1 megapixel camera (sans flash) and full qwerty keyboard, but obviously the OS is going to be the selling point here.

+ "Google Maps StreetView" via YouTube

I'm looking forward to this if I can have it unlocked for a reasonable price here. I've been wanting to get one of these new generation of phones for a while. I can even have an iPhone 3G for free with my upgrade points, but I've been holding off for this.

[Cobol74]

You could load Sat Nav application perhaps? Something like this would, of course be world wide then. Looks promising.

[Shawn]

^ I'm it has a GPS radio, and obviously it has Google Maps. So I'm guessing it will provide basic sat nav directions like the iPhone 3G out of the box.

[Hidden_Hunter]

wait and see how it fairs in reviews before i'm convinced

[Lilleput]

Or you could.. Buy a WinMo phone and flash Android on there, no need to by this ugly ass piece of plastic.

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by Lilleput

Or you could.. Buy a WinMo phone and flash Android on there, no need to by this ugly ass piece of plastic.

How do you know you can flash Android on there? Just because Android is open source doesn't mean you can put it on whatever the hell you want.

And I don't see how this is any uglier than most WinMo phones, given HTC makes 90 percent of them.

[Lilleput]

Because it's already been done.

And it's ugly because the two parts of the front don't fit together properly, the bottom is ugly with those 70s buttons.

[Shawn]

^ Do you have any info? What have they managed to put it on?

[Lilleput]

Originally Posted by Shawn

^ Do you have any info? What have they managed to put it on?

http://gizmodo.com/378885/android-be...ng-on-att-tilt

Check http://www.xda-developers.com/ for the latest, it's much more stable and 'working' now.

[Shawn]

Hmm, looks promising.

I still don't care for HTC though, even the Dream. I was an early adopter of HTC and Windows Mobile and it was shit for me, so I'll have to see how good the OS is.

And you're right about the gap between the front parts... I think it's just because it's pre-production? Looks stupid.

[ahpadt]

It looks... massive.

[Quiky]

Not sure if this is the case still, but there is limited bluetooth support in the first release of android due to security problems.

No Bluetooth stereo, no contacts exchange, no modem pairing and no wireless keyboards. Only headsets work.

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by Quiky

Not sure if this is the case still, but there is limited bluetooth support in the first release of android due to security problems.

No Bluetooth stereo, no contacts exchange, no modem pairing and no wireless keyboards. Only headsets work.

Still only as bad as the iPhone is and will always be because Steve Jobs is a greedy piece of crap.

I'm actually thinking of getting that aforementioned iPhone for now since I think Android needs some months before it's worth my time/money.

[PaSSoA]

Originally Posted by Lilleput

Or you could.. Buy a WinMo phone and flash Android on there, no need to by this ugly ass piece of plastic.

Agree with Lilleput. Just get a WinMo phone you really like now and flash it with Android next year when it's more stable and when there are more apps developed. Of course try to get one with better specs just to be on the safe side.

[Shawn]

Do you guys think only HTC phones will be able to upgrade to Android, since there's a developer community?

I've been browsing phones and the Samsung i900 looks pretty darn good (physically and otherwise) but I doubt Samsung would themselves provide Android.

[chaos386]

Does Android provide anything besides an interface that works well with touch screens? Because I already have GPS, Google Maps, a full web browser, etc. on my current phone...

[Shawn]

What phone is that? iPhone or Nokia N-series?

I don't think the Android phones will offer anything new per se, it's just a Google way of doing things I like to think. Hotmail was around for ages before Gmail came around, same for many of Google's other services.

I think it should be a pretty stable and light OS, and with good app support it should be a winner. Although I'm waiting to see Android offerings from other manufacturers since HTC's hardware isn't the nicest. Hey, you'd be surprised, maybe Nokia will replace your S60 interface with Android.

Okay, that's a lot of assuming and hoping on my part... but Google hasn't disappointed thus far.

[chaos386]

Nokia N-series. In a way, I'd prefer Android to Symbian just because it's open source, but I was kinda expecting more with the way people have been hyping it up. Take the HTC in the first post, for example: the whole point of a touch screen is to have it take up the entire front surface of the phone, but then they wasted valuable space on those menu buttons on the bottom.

[Shawn]

Official T-Mobile pictures... yeah, not a very enticing looking package:




And, as if they were trying to one up the iPhone in crappability, there's no video recording or stereo Bluetooth headset connectivity.

Just posting this here to update you guys... I'm sure we're all more interested in the Android operating system, which was the main aim of making this thread. Can't wait to see what Android's first commercial release will be like.

[Hidden_Hunter]

Don't T-Mobile normally gimp phones anyways? Also for some odd reason it reminds me of BEOS