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T-Mobile Possibly To Be Selling The iPhone Later This Year

iPhone and iPad News and Reviews — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:24:54 +0000

This may just be rumor, but the CEO of T-Mobile Rene Obermann told the Financial Times that T-Mobile most likely will start selling the iPhone later this year or early next year. Obermann said as for the present, he want to concentrate on the Android-Powered devices. T-Mobile was the first cellular carrier to offer an Android-Powered phone, the HTC G1. T-Mobile has expanded it’s Android lineup with several other models,including the Google-Branded HTC built Nexus One.

Technorati Tags: android, iphone, nexus one, t-mobile

AT&T-Compatible Nexus One Now Available

iPhone and iPad News and Reviews — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:38:13 +0000

According to MobileCrunch, the Nexus One, which may not have sold incredibly well, but is still regarded as a capable Android unit, is now compatible with AT&T’s 3G network. The T-Mobile version of the Nexus One, which worked with AT&T provided you didn’t hop on AT&T’s network, has gained additional functionality according to a post on Google’s Nexus One blog.
The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise given that the Nexus One has yet to clear the FCC and Google made no mention of it whilst heralding that the Verizon Nexus One was “Coming Soon!”.
The Nexus One handset is only being sold unlocked and without a contract, meaning there’s no means of obtaining a subsidized AT&T discount, which would imply that AT&T wasn’t interested in officially offering the phone to customers, especially with the iPhone on the market.
Stay tuned for additional details as this story develops and if you’ve snagged a Nexus One, let us know what you make of it.

Technorati Tags: android, att, nexus one

Rumored ‘Google Phone’ said to be coming in 2010

iPhone and iPad News and Reviews — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:00:49 +0000

Google is rumored to release its own custom-built Android phone in early 2010, allowing the company to control all of the facets of the software and hardware, much like with Apple and the iPhone.

According to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, the Google-branded phone has been “confirmed” through reliable, anonymous sources, and will be sold directly through retailers very soon. Though the handset was originally planned to release this holiday, it has slipped to early 2010. Though the device will be created by a major manufacturer, much like Microsoft did with the first Zunes from Toshiba, it will only have the Google brand on it.

“There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features — Google is dictating every last piece of it,” Arrington said. “No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.”

While the report claims the preceding information is from reliable sources, Arrington also provides a number of rumors in which he is less confident. He said the handset is likely to be manufactured by Korean companies LG or Samsung, though because Samsung makes a number of parts found in the iPhone, Apple could pressure the company to not accept a deal.

The report also said that Google is set to plan a “big advertising push” in January for the new hardware.

“We don’t know what the device will look like, how big it will be, or even if it has a physical keyboard,” Arrington said. “But we do know that Google is getting into the phone building business directly, and doesn’t seem too concerned about competing with all the other device manufacturers building Android phones.”

Until now, the Android platform has been included in devices created by third-party manufacturers, in much the same business model employed by Microsoft with Windows. The new Motorola Droid has been equipped with version 2.0 of the mobile operating system, which sports the company’s free turn-by-turn directions application, Google Maps Navigation.

Though Android took a small share of the market in its first year with essentially one handset available, some believe its presence will grow significantly in the coming years, as the operating system expands to new hardware and carriers.

Technorati Tags: android, google, phone

Symbian Exec: Google is Fragmented and Evil. Apple, Just Greedy.

iPhone and iPad News and Reviews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:53:39 +0000

Lee Williams, executive director at Symbian, sits down with GigaOM’s Om Malik, and gets candid — really candid — about Apple and Google:

“Android is building a perfect storm of fragmentation. I don’t view Apple as evil, just greedy. Google … Come on.”

He claims his opinion is informed by his conversations with large carriers who complain that they have to provide Apple App Store apps to iPhone users yet derive no income from them (we’d point out they made money off the data plans — dumb pipes!), and that Google is taking away their customer interface, “cookie-ing” them (tracking their online activities) via proprietary apps obscured in lip service to “openness” and using that to feed their advertising business.

When asked why companies like HTC, if they know Google is “evil”, aren’t investing in Symbian instead, Williams advises Om to “wait and see”, and thinks those manufacturers might be interested in “very open systems.”

While offering no advice to Apple, he does invite Google to join the Symbian foundation so they can have a voice in that open system. Somehow we doubt he’ll see them take up that offer any time soon.

Harsh words for competitors, but also strangely refreshing to see on camera. As to the iPhone, is the carrier beef legitimate? Should they be getting a cut of App Store profits, or should they be happy with the huge increase in data revenue the iPhone is already bringing them?

Technorati Tags: android, ceo, evil, google

Motorola Droid Pops Up On Motorola’s Website,It Kicks iPhone In The Specs…

iPhone and iPad News and Reviews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:49:55 +0000

This time it wasn’t the blogshinobi who leaked more details on Verizon’s upcoming Motorola Droid “iPhone Killer”, but good old Moto itself, according to Android Central:
Motorola just went live with the official Droid webpage and it went into beautifully excruciating detail about this most anticipated device. The early publishing of the website is no longer available but Motorola’s mistake is our gain, now we don’t have to wait til October 28th to get the nitty gritty specs.

And those specs are a fairly impressive:

•Android 2.0 ‘Eclair’
•3.7-inch WVGA (480×854), 16:9 touchscreen
•550 MHz processor
•6 oz (169g)
•2.4 x 4.6 x.5 inches (60×115.80×13.70mm)
•3.5mm headphone jack (yes, HTC has now made this a feature for Android)
•Broswer will support Flash 10 in 2010
•Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, microUSB (comes with 16gb microSDHC card)
•1400 mAh battery (rated at nearly 6 and a half hours of usage time)
•5 megapixel camera with image stabilization, 4x zoom, dual-led Flash, and auto-focus
•the color is listed as: ‘Licorice w/ brown sugar accents’
So Android is now taking a page from Windows Mobile and really pushing the hardware. Is this finally enough to force Apple into raising its own spec game? (TiPb did ask for an iPhone HD last year already). And if so, will next June be soon enough to keep the new generation of competitors at bay?

Or were Tim Cook and Fake Steve (twice) right, that usability and unified platform are the killer iPhone advantages, and on those terms, Apple is still way ahead of the competition?

If the latter, should Windows Mobile (which uses the same split software model and hardware partners), and BlackBerry (which used to have Verizon’s spotlight) be worried?

Technorati Tags: android, verizon