TOOGAB - Daily Google Android News, Reviews and More

Now available for free in the Android Market is AndroidBoy, the first-ever emulator for Android. The app supports games from the original GameBoy AND the slightly newer GameBoy Color. If you love retro-gaming (as I do) then I’d highly suggest giving AndroidBoy a try.

Keep in mind though, as this is the first emulator for Android, expect it to be a bit buggy. I’ve heard that the controls could use some adjustments.

I’ve also found it interesting that an emulator (emulators are always in that ‘grey’ area when it comes to legal stuff) has found its way to the Android Market. Will it eventually be removed from the market? Or is this just the first of many emulators to hit the Android Market in the near future?

Super Nintendo emulator? Sega Genesis emulator? Playstation emulator? Wouldn’t that be cool!?

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As of today the T-Mobile G1 will be available throughout stores in the UK. Queues started building for the G1 at 7am this morning, with customers eager to be the first to get their hands on search giant Google’s first Android phone. This is Google’s first move into the lucrative mobile phone market and they will be competing with Microsoft, Nokia, Blackberry and of course, their major competitor… Apple.

Despite the anticipation for the G1 however, first reactions have been a mixed bag. Retailers in the US have already started slashing prices on the G1 to boost sales. Whilst our own Wes Joyce is loving his new G1, Gizmodo stated that they believed this wasn’t the finished article but, ‘was a good start’. CNET called it ‘weird’ and claimed it was ‘not quite there yet’.

A spokesperson for T-Mobile stated that more than 25,000 people had registered their interest in the G1 since its launch in New York last month.

In the UK the G1 comes free on a £40 a month contract and is packed full of features such as GPS, WiFi and Google’s long awaited Android OS.

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I always say that a first impression is key to a lasting relationship.  Well the first impression of this phone is scaring me a bit.  I’ll talk about some of the main features and hardware to give you an idea of the phone.

Hardware

The phone itself is a bit bulky, but sold.  The weight is equally distributed among the body which mellows out the thickness.  The touch screen is really amazing.  It has a great response time and has very high quality.  The downfall is the glare, though it may be a small flaw it can hurt on special tasks.  The curved bottom gives the phone an odd look but really helps when talking on the phone.  It moves the microphone closer to the mouth allowing better reception of the sound.  The slide seems to be really sturdy and far from breaking.  The track-ball is very useful with links on a web page and for navigating menus.

Texting/E-Mail

The use of the physical qwerty keyboard makes this phone top notch.  The slightly bumped up keys are raised just enough for you to know where your thumb is and prevent wrong typing.  The interface for texting is set up just like the iPhone where each contact is like a conversation.  The even cooler part is that it groups all messages from that contact together into one big conversation.  With e-mail I have only used the G-Mail application that comes auto installed.  The phone syncs all of your messages and has them ready for you to read.  Writing e-mails is a breeze with the qwerty and e-mails are quickly sent over the data network.

User Interface/Operating System

I could literally write pages on how great the Android platform is.  Google did an amazing job with designing the UI and making it easily accessible.  The first thing you see when turning on the phone is the main home screen.  It has a clock and other shortcuts already set, but the best part is your ability to customize your three screens.  When you scroll to the left you are presented the far right screen, confusing isn’t it haha just picture pulling the next screen towards you.  On this screen you see the Google Search bar that lets you enter in what you want to search for and it opens up the browser and navigates to Google.com for you.  on the far left screen you have a completely empty space for you to design and add applications, shortcuts, or widgets to.  My all time favorite part of the home screen is the scrolling background.  When you scroll from screen to screen the background moves with you making the picture seem to be spread out.  Look for a continuation of this tomorrow as I review a bit deeper into the UI.

Battery

This happens to be the ultimate bad of this phone.  I’m talking so bad that it may be worth nto getting the phone.  I know that sounds harsh, but when I have a phone that can’t keep a charge for a full day, I have huge problem.  The main battery test I have run is starting at 8:30 this morning.  The only tasks done were texting, and sending/receiving e-mails.  All of this happening on the 2G signal, because where I live there is no 3G available.  I am not even using the wi-fi to connect to the Internet, mainly because that would just drain the battery.  Now one consideration is that EDGE is always running and sending and getting G-Mail information.  But that should be a small task to complete, for such an advanced phone.  The bulkiness does not even come from the battery.  It is as small as a normal cell phone battery that wasn’t made for a smartphone.  My main complaint is that this is a smartphone with huge capabilities, but a battery that has no punch.  Official time of death today, 3:00pm.

Since I have no battery and can’t continue the review, I shall wait until I get home and charge the phone up.  Look for a continuation tomorrow and more features.

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the T-Mobile G1… and it finally arrived! Check out my video below of the unboxing of my brand new G1. I’ll also take you through power up to take a look at the OS and some very basic features. So far, I’m loving the T-Mobile G1. Check it out for yourself below.

With the launch of the HTC G-1 on the T-Mobile network many phone makers are hot on the heels to create a device to run Android.  One of those developers is a company not well known for their phone business but for their production of netbooks.  Asus has lead us to believe that they will release a new phone running the Android platform in Q1 of 2009.  This is a big step for them because they only have one phone in the US market and this will help push them into high numbers.  Android is becoming the new thing to have and phone companies are trying to pair a headset with the platform to get ahead in the game.

Let’s hope this phone will look sleek and run the Android operating system smoothly.  Unfortunately they won’t be making the Holiday season this year, but those that save their money up should be able to pick this one up early 2009.  There is no official release date, price, or carrier set for this phone’s release, but we will keep our readers up to date on the news we receive.

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Yes you heard right, Engadget is reporting that Wal-Mart will be the first retailer to sell the G1 in store.  The most amazing part, they will sell the phone for $148.88USD with a 2-year service agreement, which is a ‘rollback’ on the $179.99USD price at T-Mobile stores across the nation.  What does this mean for early adopters of the phone?  Sucks to be the first doesn’t it.  Unlike the free money given to early adopters of the iPhone that got a check when the price dropped, early G1 users will receive nothing.  The phone will be available for new and existing customers that are eligible for service or upgrade.  The early bird does get the worm, but when it comes to technology he pays the higher price.

Look for the T-Mobile G1 at one of the 550 locations getting the phone on November 24th.  Good luck finding the nearest store with the product, I suggest you call you local store closer to the date to confirm them having some of the units.

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People in China just can’t wait to get their hands on the HTC G-1 with Google handset.  It’s being reported that units have been shipping like crazy overseas since yesterday our time.  The units are being sold by dealers for RMB 3,999 which translates roughly to $583USD, and some are offering to unlock the phone for use at an additional $73USD.  This opens up some bad news for T-mobile and Google.

The G-1 is exclusively available in the US with release set for early November for the UK.  With this getting out into the illegal trade routes the number of actual units on the network could be skewed a bit.  If you remember, T-mobile speculated that they had an astounding pre-order of 1.5 million units, which they quickly retracted.  Maybe they were counting all the ones being shipped illegally overseas for use on other carriers.  With the great news of the opening of the application Marketplace Google an T-Mobile doesn’t need this bad news to come their way.

I ordered mine legit from T-Mobile, so there will be no shenanigans on this end.  People will do pretty much anything to get the latest technology, even if it means breaking the law.  Comment your thoughts, even if you are contemplating buying it in China, I sure hope not!  I definitely don’t condone that, even when it is so easy to get in the states.

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The Android team has recently opened its doors to allow developers the chance to submit their applications, as promised last week.

Just like the App Store for the iPhone, downloading software to your G1 is a simple process via the Android Market. It is also claimed to be just as easy to submit applications — just click here and follow the simple steps. It will cost developers $25 to get in!

Unlike the App Store, there is currently no approval process for submitted applications. This means that the Android Market could see a surge of innapropriate and useless applications, just like the many that swamped the App Store… I wonder how many flashlight applications we’ll see? The structure of the Anroid Market is similar to the App Store and users can rate applications, however, there is no guarantee the best applications will be easily found, expecially since users are restricted to the built-in store on the G1 as opposed to having the ability to search for decent applications from their computer.

No approval process means developers can submit anything they want for download, with no prohibitions or restrictions. Developers also have full access to the phones hardware which is excellent for applcations that allow tethering, something I for one would like to see on the iPhone. The downside of course to no approval process means it would be possible for harmful and unsafe applications to enter the Android Market, which could affect the stability of the end user’s handset.

Android is off and running in the US with the launch of the T-Mobile G1. After that, it’s well known that the UK is next on the release list… But then what’s next? The folks over at HTC Source have reported that it looks like Germany will soon follow the UK as the next place to get an Android-enabled device. I’ve also heard rumors that the G1 will be coming to Italy in early 2009.

Getting back to Germany, apparently the Android SDK will soon be released in German (by Q4 of 2008) which has triggered these latest rumors of a G1 appearance in the country in the near future.

All speculation at this point, but I like to speculate. Keep watching the blogs here at TOOGAB as I’m sure there will be much more news and rumor and innuendo (ok, maybe not innuendo) concerning Android and the G1 worldwide.

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Chief Executive Dan Hesse of Sprint made some comments recently about Android. He told the National Press Club in Washington that he didn’t think that the current state of Android is ‘good enough to put the Sprint brand on it.’

Hesse did however go on to say that Sprint would sell an Android powered device ‘at some time in the future’. At least he wasn’t vague or anything.

Interestingly enough, Sprint is a part of the alliance of 30 or so companies that said they would support Google’s development of a mobile OS. No word from Sprint on what will bring Android up to meet their needs…I wonder if it has anything to do with the security flaw we reported on earlier? Give us some details Sprint, I’m sure Google is listening!

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