The HTC Dream (The Google Phone) photos leaked
Aug 31st
After almost two years of shrouded secrecy that would make even Apple jealous, the first photos of the Android Powered Google Phone have been leaked in the form of The HTC Dream. The recent partnership announcement of T-Mobile, HTC, and Google declared that The HTC Dream will be the first Android enabled phone to come to market. More specifics would be outlined in September with an anticipated October release.
While details are still hard to come by, the pictures tell us what had only been speculation. A full qwerty keyboard that slides out and a touch screen interface that seems identical to the GUI presented at eComm in March by Google Engineering Director, Steve Horowitz (video here). The other known details are that the open source mobile operating system will be on the GSM platform, will feature a touchscreen with haptic feedback, and it will have WiFi support.
Now that the cat is essentially out of the bag, hopefully HTC and T-Mobile will be forthcoming with some detailed specs and high quality photos.
Wireless Auction and Google
Mar 24th
Even though Google got outbid in the 700 Mhz Wireless Auction and didn’t win any licenses they are now trying to convince the FCC to allow the use of ‘white spaces’, which is essentially the spaces between other bands that some people call a great untapped resource. Some feel that white spaces should be used to provide wireless broadband to rural areas and the idea has been endorsed by Microsoft and Intel.
Rick Whitt, Google’s telecom/media counsel, advised “Android-powered handsets should begin appearing commercially later this year, and would be an excellent match for the TV white space.” In January, the FCC started lab tests of equipment that will allow ISPs to access white spaces.
Between them, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. spent more than $16 billion of the $19.6 billion raised in the entire auction.
The race for the 1st Android Mobile
Mar 21st
The HTC Dream has been confirmed as the likely flagship of Google’s Mobile OS Android. Details are much the same as before, a hidden qwerty keyboard along with a touch screen interface. The Dream will likely hit the market near the end of this year advised ‘the source’ which spoke to InfoWorld most likely after a few single malts.
As is standard in these type of breakthrough products, the companies involved wont even confirm if any mobile phones actually exist.”We cannot comment on this product,” said HTC’s Maggie Cheng. This product? Sounds like she just confirmed it. But my guess is that she and the rest of HTC’s spokesman are restricted due to Googles lawyers jaws being securely clamped down on their proverbial balls.
This is the render that has been passed around for months but is probably just a placebo.
Yahoo! and T-Mobile take on Google
Feb 27th
More and more companies are starting to see Google as the threat they really are in the mobile landscape and are taking steps to ensure that their growth is tempered. Case in point, Yahoo! has jumped into bed with T-Mobile, while T-Mobile has kicked Google to the curb.
T-Mobile International announced plans to make Yahoo its exclusive mobile service in Europe at the end of March, saying it will offer Yahoo’s oneSearch to its customers as part of its web’n’walk service. The companies also announced plans to offer Yahoo services such as e-mail, instant messaging, weather information and the photo-sharing application Flickr.
The move effectively ends a 3-year-old relationship between T-Mobile and Google that had seen the Internet giant power web’n’walk since the offering came to market. And it gives Yahoo access to nearly 90 million wireless users in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria and eight other European markets.
Look for similar deals to become the norm as Google becomes a more prominent player in the mobile world with their Android platform.
Via RCR
Blackberry’s go dark and users go beserk
Feb 13th
Blackberry service went down for about 12 hours yesterday and once again the wolves were nipping at RIM’s jugular. Some don’t seem to believe it was due to a software upgrade as that is just too similar to the 2007 outage. Others just want to vent their anger because they have come to depend on this service and don’t want to think it as unreliable in any way. I personally think that 28 hours of downtime in 8+ years is a pretty impressive track record and just indicates how reliable they have been.
And yet I kept looking to the screen hoping to see a flood of backlogged emails coming through, and yet nothing happened. I ponder what might have happened if the outage had lasted much longer to not only me but to our nations capitol where these devices would need to be surgically detached from most users. Would it be like the Old Testament, real wrath-of-God type stuff? With fire and brimstone coming down from the skies? Would rivers and seas begin to boil? Possibly a start of forty years of darkness? Would there be earthquakes and volcanoes… and would the dead begin rising from the grave? Perhaps even dogs and cats would start living together and thus create mass hysteria. Probably not, but hey its kinda fun to write about politicians being completely lost without instant access to corporate and government email systems.
Hey it wasn’t all bad, it gave power users the opportunity to get one of those BlackBerry Massages that all the kids are talking about. No word on if a happy ending is included but it can’t hurt to ask.
Microsoft purchases Danger
Feb 12th
In a move that shocked virtually everyone, the Redmond based software company purchased the mobile phone company Danger who’s lone product is the SideKick. Some speculate that Microsoft is trying to compete with the likes of Apple and Google by purchasing a ready made market of young mobile phone users.
However, many pieces of this puzzle don’t seem to fit as Microsoft has its own highly successful mobile operating system and with this purchase is essentially just buying a software company that doesn’t manufacture anything. If they are doing this to create the Zune phone, then this also makes no sense as the form factor is decidedly different between the two devices. As the previous founders of Danger ran off to the Google Android project there is speculation that Microsoft purchased the company for no other reason than its cheap price and/or to keep it out of the hands of Google which had been speculated to be vying for the company since last summer.
As of this moment there are about 1.2 million SideKick customers who are mostly on the T-Mobile network. Its revenues just eclipsed the 50 million mark but profitability still eludes the Palo Alto based company. They have had numerous problems with the manufacturing side of the business which has most recently been taken on by Motorola from the previous disastrous relationship with Flextronics.
The device has had a host of problems most notably its reliability as two SideKicks must be manufactured for every customer based upon warranty returns. Microsoft could be seeing them as a diamond in the rough, thinking that if the manufacturing process can be improved and if its next version of the Windows Mobile OS can be adapted to the device it could become a successful foray into the mobile phone landscape, something they have been looking to do for some time.
Update: The sale price is reported to be in the $500 million range and is equal to how much loose change Bill Gates found in his sofa recently. My guess of $12.50 and a coupon for half off an oil change at Jiffy Lube was misguided and grossly inaccurate.
The Next Generation of Mobile Phones
Feb 1st
With the rapid advancements of mobile phone technology in the past few years, some wonder what is in store for us in the immediate future. I for one don’t want to wait and certainly don’t want to hear about vaporware, like the flying cars we were all promised as kids. So lets take a rational look at what the Nokia’s, Samsung’s, and Motorola’s have in store for us in the relatively short time frame of the next 2 years.
Nokia is developing user experiences based on a multi-sensory level that can detect, transmit and emit smell. It can also radiate colors, light and temperature from a caller’s environment. The practicality of this is unclear, perhaps a sensory text message that smells like your mom baking cookies or the smell of your first true love. Other options are too unseemly to discuss here.
The look and feel of the next generation of phones will have screens better than even the finest TV’s. OLED (Organic light-emitting diode) will become standard as the line of living room TV will be blurred by what will essentially be mobile entertainment centers that slip into a shirt pocket. CES recently displayed the first OLED Sony TV and those that saw it still have sore jaws because they literally dropped to the floor. To give you an idea of how pretty and bright the picture was, the bleeding edge Panasonic’s have a contrast ratio of 25,000:1, the Sony had a 1,000,000:1. Yeah that wasn’t a misprint, a million to one ratio!! It is essentially as bright as the sun but far cooler to stare at.
Luckily for us the OLED screens are starting to make their way into mobile phones found in Japan on NTT DoCoMo’s advanced network and elsewhere. The Samsung 920 SC and the Nokia 8800 Arte are prime examples of phones with displays so gorgeous you will find yourself staring at them like you might a womans sexy curves. The 920 SC website is M.I.A. but the Nokia 8800 has a website so seductive I wasn’t sure if it was trying to promote the phone or wanted me for a one night stand, perhaps both.
The Motorola U9 might give us the greatest indication of what is in store, it sports a transparent screen that blends in so well to the rest of the phone that it is hard to tell where the screen starts and finishes.
So without knowing what the next killer app is going to be, we have to look at what we have seen lately, that the next gen of the mobile industry will focus on beautiful and well thought out design. We can look to the films of the 70’s, the architecture of the 50’s and 60’s, and the technology of the 21st century for the inspiration we need to create not a form over function but a form and function approach. And who knows we might even see that infamous Google phone before the end of the decade…maybe.
Google and their G-Phone
Aug 8th
Reportedly, allegedly, and maybe even theoretically Google just might be giving a sneaking and a peeking to some manufacturers in hopes of getting some positive feedback in regards to both design and software capabilities of its oft rumored mobile phone. Rumors and conjecture are that it will be run on an open source Mobile Operating System but there really is no way to confirm that, however this does make sense as Google is new to the mobile phone game and will try to stay completely independent instead of having to purchase and license an OS from another company. Open source also opens up the possibilities of developers working to improve the device for nothing but the pure joy of it.
Of course at this point in development, no real concrete details have come to light but it will most likely have virtually every option for connecting to the Internet (Search & AdSense), blog administration (Blogger), video recording and playback (YouTube), not to mention VoIP products that correlate well to their recent acquisition (Grand Central). Of course all of these Google owned sites will have everything to do with the cell phone phone that will make them serious bank from some wireless provider who will do virtually anything to get in bed with the biggest player in the series of tubes that hold all those 1’s and 0’s.
Speculation will run rampant for the next few months but some early reports are saying that the G-Funk Phone doesnt have the beauty of the iPhone, the keyboard of a BlackBerry, the software of a Nokia N92, or even have sharks with freakin’ laser beams. Of course thats what speculation is all about and rarely do any of the rumors ever hit on the mark. I for one, look forward to an open source phone that has a huge company behind it willing to do almost anything to make a product successful up to and including being able to use the phone as a Wii-mote, a police taser, or as a mobile phone book that can only hold one number just as long as it belongs to super uber model Marissa Miller.
Cell phones under attack
Jul 31st
Recently in the news there has been a decidedly negative slant to the media’s coverage of cell phones. The following stories have appeared but somehow my take is decidedly different.
Jail time for those that are in an accident where someone was using a cell phone.[Link]
But what about rewards if you can use a cell phone and not get in an accident, perhaps a free iPhone if you can text, talk and drive with your knees.
Cell Phones, kids and schools are a volatile mix. [Link]
Yes because nothing is scarier than a kid with a SideKick walking to school. That swinging screen will put your eye out kid!!
Using your cell phone to bank will invite hackers and identity thieves [Link]
Because we all know that your password is Tinkerbell tough guy
Cell Phones are killing bees…again umm… maybe [Link]
This definitive report confirms nothing except that Killer Bees are out to get us and are the ones creating all this internet buzz
But my favorite is how cell phones in jail are better currency than drugs [Link]
If you are willing to shove a phone up your hoo-haw than you deserve unlimited nights and weekends
Google and Sprint marriage
Jul 29th
Google is set to provide fee web search, interactive communications and social networking tools to Sprint’s next generation WiMax wireless data network. This is yet in another agreement from Google trying to firmly implant their presence into the mobile industry. This along with their interest to take part in the FCC wireless spectrum auction with a minimum required bid of $4.6bn they are determined to be part developer and provider, something that has made them what they are today.
With Sprint spending $3bn to build a nationwide 4G network that will dwarf anything its competition has planned they seem set on dominating the high speed wireless data business before T-Mobile or AT&T even have 3G. No matter the network or company Google has set its sight on on having the best of both worlds but one wonders after they become direct competitors if companies with be so eager to make deals for content.
