Q&A: Flurry, T-Mobile push boundaries on carrier-developer collaboration
Flurry, a company that provides analytics for mobile applications, and T-Mobile have teamed up to release a free analytics platform for the T-Mobile development community focusing on Android, BlackBerry and J2ME. With even more app usage data, T-Mobile will be able to improve its retail strategy and help its customers discover new apps.
On the other side of the coin, developers will be able to use the data to improve the applications they create. T-Mobile is also… Continue Reading
Get ready for Android apps on your refrigerator
Google has been saying for a while now that its Android operating system — currently limited to mobile phones, including T-Mobile’s myTouch launching today — isn’t just for mobile phones. The bigger vision is to see Android on netbooks and even other devices around the home. Now we’re starting to see that vision become a reality, and it’s becoming clear that this will provide huge new opportunities for developers, too.
The New York Times reported in… Continue Reading
T-Mobile stays focused on Android, not WM7 nor Symbian
Carrier T-Mobile isn’t just staying bullish about Android, it’s aiming to continue leading the commercialization of the Google-created mobile operating system. T-Mobile chief technology officer Cole Brodman outlined his vision for the evolution of Android as part of T-Mobile’s larger plans, in an extensive interview with Om Malik published earlier today. Having introduced the first Android-powered phone last fall — HTC’s G1 — Brodman says the company has a few more devices lined up, and… Continue Reading
T-Mobile’s runs into trouble in the U.K.
Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile has banked on being the first operator to launch the much-hyped Google Android phone. But that strategy’s falling short for at least one of its subsidiaries. Today, Deutsche Telekom reported that its mobile division lost $849 million, including a write-down of $2.4 billion in assets at T-Mobile U.K.
This performance does nothing to dispel rumors that T-Mobile U.K. may be put up for sale. The operator has yet to confirm anything, but sources… Continue Reading
IBM pours $2B into smart grid as other big names reach for a piece of the pie
IBM’s lending and leasing branch, IBM Global financing has committed $2 billion to fund startups and utilities working on smart-grid and green technology projects. With this investment, it leaps to the front of a crowd of major corporations like Intel, AT&T, General Electric and others looking to get in on smart grid while the getting’s good.
IBM says the move is an attempt to give an additional boost to companies that will also qualify for some… Continue Reading
Google, T-Mobile bringing Android to home phones too
One reason the tech industry got so excited over Android was its potential to evolve. While the open source software platform debuted on T-Mobile’s G1 mobile phone, the industry often speculates about its use on other devices. Now, a source within T-Mobile says Android is poised to become a home phone as early as 2010.
According to internal documents procured by the New York Times, T-Mobile and the Open Handset Alliance (which officially owns the Google-developed… Continue Reading
Android G1 set for April facelift, drops in price
T-Mobile confirmed that it will release its firmware “Cupcake” update to revamp the G1 Android phone in April. The new software will add a virtual keyboard (in addition to its hardware QWERTY version), video and voice recording, the ability to save MMS attachments and stereo Bluetooth support — as well as a refresh of its Linux kernel that should zap most reported bugs.
When it comes to web browsing, the souped-up G1 will offer the latest… Continue Reading
For all the “open” talk, Android Market sure has a lot of rules
Paid applications in the Android Market, the app store for Google’s mobile platform, are now live. This should boost development for the platform and in turn create new, interesting applications for consumers. Google has set up Android as being the antithesis of Apple’s iPhone platform in saying that it’s an open platform. But it’s not completely open — the Market, like Apple’s App Store has rules.
Of course, Google needs rules to cover itself from lawsuits,… Continue Reading
Let them eat cupcakes! No Android “Cupcake” update for G1 owners?
Google’s Android development team has been working on a new version of its software that it calls “Cupcake.” The update is packed with features that many owners of Android phones like the G1 have been asking for, such as stereo Bluetooth support, an updated web browser, a search feature for web pages, a video recording system that may actually work and of course, an on-screen keyboard.
But T-Mobile subscribers who bought the G1 apparently won’t be… Continue Reading
Supposed leaked Android G2 shots reveal no keyboard
After the launch of T-Mobile’s G1, the first phone running Google’s Android mobile platform, I trashed its keyboard, calling it a failed lesson in ergonomics. But the bigger picture is that physical keyboards, as much as some hate to admit it, are going to be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. Don’t believe me? Look at the newly leaked shots of the G2, HTC’s follow-up to the G1, which Gizmodo… Continue Reading
Text messaging further exposed as a colossal rip-off
I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am that The New York Times decided to take on the colossal rip-off that is text messaging in a story this weekend. Text messaging is a great service, but it should be included for free with your “unlimited” data plans. Instead, carriers charge an absolutely ridiculous rate to send a tiny amount of data.
It took the iPhone 3G price change to realize what a rip-off it… Continue Reading
Video of the G1’s new virtual keyboard in action
I hate the keyboard on the G1, T-Mobile’s first HTC-built phone running on Google’s Android platform. So it’s with great pleasure that I present the video below, a G1 running a fully virtual keyboard on its screen — yes, like the iPhone.
This virtual keyboard is part of the so-called “cupcake” development branch for Android that Google is working on. (You can read about other cupcake work here.) It gives the G1 (and other Android phones),… Continue Reading
Whispers of the G2 Android phone grow louder
Yesterday, the T-Mobile blog CellPhone Signal published a list of new features it claimed would be in the G2, the second HTC-built phone built for the T-Mobile network running Google’s Android platform. The most outrageous claim, however, was the supposed date of the device’s release: January 26, 2009.
Would T-Mobile really risk enraging the million or so people who bought the G1 just a few months after its release by launching an updated version? No, says… Continue Reading
Google hopes targeting the iPhone and G1 will brighten the ad gloom
If you have an Apple iPhone or a T-Mobile G1 (the first phone to run Google’s Android software) you’re probably a fairly affluent person. And now Google and its customers using AdWords, its online advertising system, can take better advantage of that wealth with ads targeted directly at you.
A new checkbox in the AdWords advertising set up process allows you to target “iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.” Clicking this box will… Continue Reading
Android developers, start your engines: Google unlocks the G1
All I keep hearing about is how great Google’s Android platform is. Wait, let me rephrase. All I keep hearing about is how great Google’s Android platform will be. I say that because it’s not great yet. Developers simply haven’t embraced it enough. But Google has just taken an important step towards making sure they will: It has unlocked the first Android phone, the G1.
Technically known as the Android Dev Phone 1, the unlocked G1… Continue Reading
Opera Mini browser available for Google Android
The latest version of the popular mobile browser Opera Mini is now available for the T-Mobile G1, the first phone built on Google’s Android operating system. The Android availability is part of the improvements in Opera Mini 4.2, which leaves testing mode tomorrow.
Opera Mini is the first alternative G1 users have to the phone’s built-in browser, which is based on WebKit. Matthew Miller of ZDNet spotted Mini in the Android Market this morning, and reports… Continue Reading
A million G1s by the end of 2008
HTC, which makes the first phone to use Google’s Android platform, the T-Mobile G1, said it expects shipments of the device to reach one million before the end of 2008, according to DigiTimes. The number, stated by HTC chief executive Peter Chou a few days ago, represents a significant increase from the company’s original forecast that it would ship 600,000 G1s by the end of 2008.
The G1 launched last month with a fair amount of… Continue Reading
T-Mobile launches new web experience, app store
T-Mobile USA is rolling out a new mobile web browsing experience called web2go. By allowing users to browse the “true” internet and opening a store for third-party applications, web2go brings elements of the smartphone experience found on T-Mobile’s own G1 (powered by Google’s Android Operating System) and Apple’s iPhone to a much broader range of devices.
Previously, T-Mobile users could only access mobile-specific content like ringtones and a limited number of mobile-designed web sites. Now however,… Continue Reading
I feel it in my fingers: The G1 has cheaper parts than the iPhone
A tear-down of the T-Mobile G1, its Android-powered phone, reveals that its components are cheaper than the iPhone’s, according to component analysts iSuppli. To anyone who has used both devices, that should be no surprise.
While the iPhone 3G contains $172 worth of parts, the G1’s parts are worth only $143. Despite this $29 difference, T-Mobile sells the G1 for only $20 less than the iPhone ($179 versus $199 after subsidization). Though it explains how Wal-mart,… Continue Reading
The T-Mobile G1 keyboard: A lesson in failed ergonomics
I have pretty average-sized hands for a guy. And trying to use the keyboard on T-Mobile’s new G1, the first phone built to run Google’s Android platform, is ridiculous. I got my hands (literally) on the device for the first time this weekend, and all I can say is that if you complained about the iPhone’s keyboard because it didn’t have physical buttons, get ready for an even worse experience on the G1.
The problem is… Continue Reading