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Fusion Voicemail Plus is an application from PhoneFusion that will bring visual voicemail to the G1 and the Andoid OS. The free application will allow users to view their voicemail boxes and see various details such as who they have voicemail from and when it was received. The application will also allow users to listen to voicemail directly from their handset.

Louis Lubin, Cheif Executive of PhoneFusion said:

“Our Fusion Voicemail Plus application is tremendously popular with our existing customers who wanted iPhone-type functionality on their favorite devices,” said Louis Libin, chief executive officer, PhoneFusion. “With the launch of T-Mobile’s G1, the first Android-powered smartphone, people have been looking for an innovative visual voicemail app that runs on this breakthrough device. We believe Fusion Voicemail Plus fills this gap, giving the Android community a better way to stay connected when it matters most. We expect this application will quickly become one of the favorites on Android Market.”

The application very much resembles the visual voicemail application built-in to the iPhone. Although it doesn’t look the same, it features pretty much the same functionality.

Fusion Voicemail Plus is expected to hit the Android Market at the end of this year.

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On October 30th the long awaited G1 with Android OS hit the UK. Those of you who are in the UK with a G1 will be pleased to hear there is a new update available for the handset. The RC8 update is reported to combine both the RC29 and RC30 updates that the US users have received.

Many users with the new firmware have reported the text entry bug has been squished and the G1 runs with a much cooler temperature.

If you’re in the UK and you’ve got the new RC8 firmware, let us know what your experience has been and what changes it’s made to your G1 by leaving us a comment!

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A Nokia roadmap leaked by an anonymous source had been passed on to Engadget Mobile who have published the details on their site.

It seems that Nokia could be planning to release a handset with the Android OS in 2009 and some of the features will include:

• Full QWERTY keyboard
• 3.5-inch 640×350 display
• 8GB ROM
• microSD slot
• Touch sensitive UI
• 5MP camera
• Integrated compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor and FM transmitter

The device is nicknamed on the Nokia roadmap as ‘Eitri’. Although it isn’t stated anywhere that this will be an Android device, it is believed by Talk Android that these are very ‘Android favouring features’.

Are you a die hard Nokia user who would love to see them release an Android handset? Leave a comment and let us know!

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A very strange Android bug has been discovered in firmware RC29 and below which takes all text entered in to the phone as a system command. For example, if you were to type the word ‘reboot’ in to your G1, the phone should reboot, as it did for one user who spoke out about the issue — “I was in the middle of a text conversation with my girl when she asked why I hadn’t responded. I had just rebooted my phone and the first thing I typed was a response to her text which simply stated ‘reboot’, which, to my surprise, rebooted the phone.”

If you’re worried your phone might be effected, check out your build number. This can be found by going from the home screen to Menu -> Settings -> About Phone. If you see this: kila-user 1.0 TC4-RC29 115247 ota-rel-keys,release-keys then you need to update your firmware — your firmware must be above RC29 to be fixed of this issue.

Google are currently rolling out firmware update RC30 which will fix this issue and a few others. If you’ve encountered any strange Android happenings when typing in text, leave a comment and let us know!

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Two weeks ago today I ordered the HTC G-1 on the T-Mobile network. I have used the phone for almost two weeks and have had the chance to try out the features. The QWERTY keyboard is very sturdy and easy to type on and also easy to get used to. The slide on the other hand, well its still sturdy, but after a week of texting it has started to squeak like a door. So whenever I walk around and the screen shifts it sounds like there’s a mouse in my pocket.  Now the interface is stellar, Google went all out with the Android platform. The menus are clean and easy to use and the scrolling wallpaper is simply stunning. The camera is not as great as I expected, it doesn’t have a built-in flash, or video capabilities, but it works and that’s all that matters right?

I guess the main problem of this phone, which changed my whole opinion on it, is the battery. The first day I tested the phone after fully charging it and leaving all the features on, it lasted 4 or so hours.  After the disappointment I phoned T-Mobile to ask what the problem was and the representative told me to turn off the Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, e-mail Sync, etc. and that should help improve the life. Well after turning of the functionality of the full-featured phone, the battery life improved and the phone became boring. Without all of those features it became a glorified text message phone. I never got the chance to try the 3G speed and the battery life with the 3G because T-Mobile screwed up my order and didn’t activate the data service.

In conclusion, this phone is sorta well built, the Android OS is outstanding, but the battery will cause this phone to sink.  With all the features that come in the box, not being able to use them really makes me upset.  Why buy a full-featured phone if you can’t use the features.  I enjoyed the two weeks I had with the phone, but sadly I must send it back and wait for the next Android phone to come around.  If I were to rate the phone I would give it 2.5 stars (or for the blog, 2.5 Android bots)

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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At the recent Web 2.0 Summit, CEO of AT&T Ralph De La Vega got talking a little bit about the new Android OS from Google. He commented that AT&T “continue to look at Google’s Android operating system but is not prepared to make any moves to carry any Android phones.” He continued “the platform is still evolving and needs to open up even more to offer a wider array of non-Google applications.”

A representative for AT&T stated “we continue to evaluate the Android platform, and if customers want it, we will offer it.” It seems AT&T are fans of the Android operating system but are waiting to see how it evolves before they take anything on.

AT&T obviously had a different view when they took on the iPhone — this was a completely new handset with a completely new operating system yet they didn’t hold on to see how it ‘evolved’. They jumped right in and grabbed a slice of the cake. And I bet they’re glad they did.

Would you like to see AT&T offer an Android handset? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Yesterday one of our writers Killian Bell posted a story about the Jailbreak of the Android platform.  Well if you have ‘jailbroken’ your G1 prepare to update.  Google has started to release firmware update RC30 that closes this exploit.  Google says,

We’ve been notified of this issue (Jailbreaking of Android) and have developed a fix. We’re currently working with our partners to push the fix out and updating the open source code base to reflect these changes.

The process of jailbreaking is a little different than the streamlined iPhone version that uses an application on your computer.  Essentially you hack through the network into the root of the phone and are able to access files in the root system and view the big exploit.  Google is pushing out the update over the span of a week to all users of the G1.

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A recent post on the XDA-Developers forum reveals instructions on how to get to the ‘root’ of the Android directory and ‘jailbreak’ the device. This part of the OS is designed by the Android developers to be restriced and inaccessible to the user, however with access it gives users the opportunity to install new applications and possibly a new operating system.

Posters on the forum have advised that the hack should only be carried out by technically sophisticated users and that a mistake could render the G1 inoperable.

Google have stated that they have been notified of the issue and have been working on a fix that they intend to push to users.

If you have a G1 and are interested in getting to the root of your directory, instructions can be found here. However please note: TOOGAB does not recommend you attempt this and will not take any responsibility for damage caused.

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The first Antivirus software for the G-1 has been created. SMobile Systems released their software today which they dub, VirusGuard. This will keep spyware, viruses, etc off of your phone and keep it running without bugs.  The software also scans the memory card looking for files that could harm the system and firmware.  SMobile is not releasing the app to the store until 2009 but you can go to their website and buy directly from them for $9.99 for the full software.  With the release of a Jailbreak of the Android platform this might be needed in the future.  SMobile also makes this program for Blackberry and other mobile platforms.

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