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I hope everyone had a Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah, got to cover them all, T-Mobile is reportedly giving out more presents and starting to ship out new higher capacity batteries and a bigger back covers for the HTC G-1. Those that currently own the old version should receive an e-mail detailing the shipments and hope to get all of the batteries out within a months time. With news of the new ‘Cupcake’ upgrade and all the new features a new and more powerful battery will be needed. Unfortunately I got rid of mine due to the horrible battery life that came with it, now I kind of regret it more battery life would improve my opinions of the device.If there are any owners here that have the e-mail don’t hesitate to share it with us and we’ll share it with the other site readers.

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Samsung is hard at work developing their Android powered handset, and we can’t wait to see it!  The electronics manufacturer plans to release the phone in Q2 of 2009 to the Sprint and T-Mobile networks.  Sources are saying that the phone will be similar to the Omnia, available on Verizon, and the Instinct, available with Sprint.  It will feature a touchscreen just like the other Android handsets.  There are no specific details on the hardware, but if it is like the other mentioned phones, there will be no QWERTY and there will be only a few buttons, keeping a minimal look to the phone.

I can’t wait to see what comes of this.  I have a feeling that Samsung wants to out-do the other phone makers using Google Android, so be prepared for something out of this world.

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Kogan Agora

If you remember my last post about Kogan we talked about the announcement made about a new Android phone available to Aussies. In that announcement they noted a detail release before Christmas, and it looks like they achieved that goal. They have just announced two phones that are available for purchase now and shipped out January 29th, labeled the Kogan Agora Pro. Right now they are accepting pre-orders of the phone for $399AUS ($256USD), which is an unlocked phone that will be able to be used on any network in Australia. For $100 less you can get this from Kogen to be used on their network.

The phone features some pretty neat features that make it stand out from the G-1 by T-Mobile. The Agora features 3G connectivity, a 2.5mm touchscreen, physical QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Wi-Fi, 2MP Camera, bluetooth and more. These are great features that give you bang for your buck! Alternatively you can pick up the Agora that does not include the camera, GPS, or Wi-Fi connectivity, it is selling for $100 less.

We are looking forward to hearing more about the phone, and wishing for a review unit, *hint hint*, or even a reader from Australia that nabs one of these to give us a review!

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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)

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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