TOOGAB - Daily Google Android News, Reviews and More

Ok I confess. I love Colorware. I love what they do, and after having put my hands on a few of the end results… I can certainly say the finished product is top-notch.

Colorware have announced that they are taking orders for T-Mobile G1 customization. If you’re bored with your black, white or bronze G1, Colorware offers you the option to pimp out your G1. You can send in your own device starting at just over $200, or purchase a T-Mobile G1 from Colorware (no contract) and have them customize it for you starting at $755. A bit costly, but pimpin’ ain’t cheap. The finished product will ship in 2 to 3 weeks.

For full details head on over to Colorware. Make sure you play with the customization tool while you’re there. Tons o’ fun!

Huawei has recently announced that they will be launching an Android phone in the first half of 2009. The news came from Director of Marketing James Chen. Huawei is probably best known for their low-end devices that are scattered around the marketplace. Now with the introduction of the Android open-source (and FREE) OS, Huawei might be on to something here.

Huawei’s first and only phone to this point is a Windows Mobile device. Chen commented that with Android, they see a lot of opportunity in the global marketplace… they should be able to achieve very quickly some level of success by offering a solid set of features without affecting price.

The part of this story I like, is that Huawei isn’t really out for the brand recognition. Their Android device will be produced and sent off to carriers who can then brand them as their own. The Huawei name will appear nowhere on the device. Looks like the timing is dead-on for Huawei to make a big splash here. Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and Motorola have all yet to introduce Android-based devices. Should be a very interesting Q1 in 2009 in the world of Android devices!

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We’ve all seen this before. Whenever a carrier launches a ‘hot’ device, all of the other carriers respond in-kind with a tirade of internal and external ‘memos’ that bash the device, and tell others why it is no good. Call it jealousy or a simple yet weak defence, it seems that these tactics are the norm.

This time around it’s Verizon that is busy bashing the G1 (T-Mobile). All of the reasons they give (as you can see above) have all been noted before, so it’s no big shock to anyone at all.

Only reason I report this, is because it remains so amazing to me at how these multi-million/billion dollar companies still resort to somewhat childish tactics on things like this: ‘Oh, you got that new phone hey? Well, sorry to disappoint you but it’s no good because of this, this and this… The phone I have right here is MUCH better’…

*sigh*… make the jump for page 2 of the document.

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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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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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Only days after the T-Mobile G1 smartphone hit the market, a group of security researchers have found a problem. They’re calling it a serious flaw in the Android OS itself.

Charles A. Miller, one of the researchers involved has notified Google of the flaw and is busy publicizing it now because he believes it is something we should all be aware of.

Miller is a computer security specialist, formerly at the National Security Agency. He said that the flaw could be exploited by visiting booby-trapped websites. The danger in the flaw lies within the web browser on the device. He has noted that it would be possible for an intruder to install software that could capture keystrokes entered by a user when surfing the web. That info could come in handy if you make a habit of stealing identity info or passwords.

Google has acknowledged the issue but said that their security features on the phone would limit any damage.

Rich Cannings, a Google security engineer commented:

“We wanted to sandbox every single application because you can’t trust any of them…”

He went on to say that Google had already fixed an open-source version of the software and was working with T-Mobile and HTC to offer fixes for current users.

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HTC is reporting that more than 600,000 T-Mobile G1’s will be shipped by years end. This is much less than the 1.5 million units speculated upon in the blogosphere. While the new numbers might be dissapointing to some, HTC CEO Peter Chou commented:

It will be more than what we originally planned. I’m saying we will ship more than 600,000.

I guess HTC had more reasonable numbers than the rest of us in the blogosphere.

Also worth noting is why the G1 is called the ‘T-Mobile G1′… and not the HTC G1. I’ve wondered about this a bit myself, but the reasons are clear to Chou. He says that brand recognition for T-Mobile is very high, and they wanted to capitalize on that. It all comes down to selling more units, and if the name T-Mobile helps do just that, then heck… why not!

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A few days ago, Google accepted the first patch to Android… Only 4.5 hours after the initial release! The patch was contributed from someone outside of the Open Handset Alliance, and it added 6 more lines to the source.

Last I heard was that 5 patches have now been accepted, out of 8 submitted. I can just see developers foaming at the mouth over the open source code here. I’m sure Google is more than pleased with the feedback and development from around the world thus far. Seems as though a lot of things are happening.

The Android Market got off to a great start as well with some heavy download numbers. A promising start for a promising OS!

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Our friends over at Medialets published a cool post detailing the day one stats from the Android Market. Very interesting indeed. It’s a quick and easy read, so if you’d like to check it out simply click here.

First off, some general observations from day 1 at the Android Market:

• They like to play games, shop, and know what music they are listening to
• They are curious about the weather
• They generally share the same interests as iPhone users

Next, some more important observations…

1. The average app has 7,800 + downloads.
2. 9 apps made it to the 10,000 - 50,000 downloads range.
3. 24 hours into it, it appears that Android users are interested in the same types of app functionality as iPhone users…. either that or Android developers are interested in creating the same types of apps as iPhone developers.

Early days, but some interesting data is contained in that report for sure. Should prove to be very interesting not only to watch the download numbers, but to see what other trends develop in the near-term.

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