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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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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)

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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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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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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