Technologizer

Happy Saint Paddy’s day, everybody!

Sneak peek: Dell’s Adamo notebook.

Macworld’s iPhone 3.0 wish list.

Three More HTC Android phones.

Nine-hour MSI Wind netbook.

Comcast passwords exposed on Web.

Super-fast game download service.

Boxee does an iPhone remote control.

Best Buy takes on Walmart.

Rough February for Macs, iPods.

HP adds long-life batteries.

Nintendo victorious in remote lawsuit.

Vatican: Serious about the Internet.

Bloomberg is reporting that Eee PC titan Asus is playing around with the idea of building a netbook that runs Android, Google’s Linux-based operating system. Android is debuting on phones–HTC just announced the Magic, the second Android handset–but Google says the OS could power computers, too.

Android is designed for devices without a lot of computing horsepower, and manufacturers don’t have to pay Google a license fee–two qualities that might conceivably make it a formidable competitor to Windows on netbooks. But it’s not immediately clear–at least to me–why Android would be a better match for netbooks than Ubuntu, the Linux that Asus and other netbook vendors already use. [CORRECTION: Janet Rae-Dupree reminds me that Asus uses Xandros, not Ubuntu.] Ubuntu already has a PC-style user interface, and it’s compatible with an array of applications; Android would need work on both fronts before it was ready to run on netbooks. And even then, it might end up looking…a lot like Ubuntu.

Ultimately, I don’t think it would make much sense for Asus or any other hardware manufacturer to pour resources into trying to make Android netbook-friendly. You’d want Google in on the project, and I don’t know just how intriguing the company finds the idea of putting its OS on fairly traditional computing devices. I do think, however, that it would make sense for Google to finish the work of making Android a truly compelling iPhone OS alternative before it takes on Windows. (On the T-Mobile G1, the first Android handset to ship, the OS is neat…but it feels like a rough draft. Maybe it should sport a Google-style “BETA” disclaimer every time you turn your phone on.)

One of the more interesting questions in the whole world of tech right now is the fate of Android. It’s bursting with promise, and it wouldn’t stun me to see it become the most widely-used smartphone OS at some point…at the very least, that scenario seems about as plausible as any other. And if Google wants netbook manufacturers to give Android a try, it can presumably make it happen.

It’s still tough to tell, however, just how committed to Android Google is, and how persistent it’ll be if the OS isn’t an immediate success with obvious benefits to the company. Anyone want to hazard any guesses about where Android will be, say, two years from now? Will it exist in any form in a decade?

Part of the big news from day one at Mobile World Congress was that there was no big news involving Google’s Android mobile operating system: None of the scads of phones that made their debut ran it. On day two…Android news! Maybe not earth-shattering Android news, but significant enough: HTC, the company that made the first Android phone, T-Mobile’s G1, launched its second one, the Magic.

The Magic looks like a slimmer, sexier cousin of the G1: The latter phone tucks a slide-out physical keyboard under its touchscreen, but the Magic is all-touch. Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo tried one today and was mostly impressed, although he had his issues with the Magic’s on-screen keyboard.

The Magic, like most new phones at Mobile World Congress, will arrive in Europe first, sometime this spring: Vodafone will sell it in the UK, Spain, Germany, and France, and it’ll also be available in Italy. No word on availability in the U.S., although you’d think T-Mobile might want to add it to the lineup.

The phone’s announcement eliminates the possibility of an Androidless Mobile World Congress, but I think the lack of much tangible advancement for the platform is still one of the show’s major stories. Multiple manufacturers have talked about unveiling Android handsets, but only HTC has managed to pull it off. The whole notion behind the OS is that it’s open and customizable and therefore well-suited to powering a variety of types of devices. We know what HTC thinks an Android phone should look like, and the Magic looks to be precisely what you’d guess a no-keyboard HTC Android model would be. I’m hoping we’ll hear from other quarters soon…

It’s tempting to crack a joke about “Skip Intro” coming soon to a smartphone near you. But seriously, this is good news: Here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Adobe is announcing that it plans to bring Flash Player to phones running the Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian Series 60 operating systems, as well as Palm’s upcoming Web OS, in 2010. This is supposed to be full-fledged Flash, not the slimmed-down “Flash Lite” technology that’s been on phoned for years and which has failed to make any impact at all.

Say what you will about Flash, it’s unquestionably a significant component of today’s “real Web,” and I’ve spent enough time being frustrated by its absence that I’m anxious to see how it translates onto a tiny screen. Even though the one significant platform that isn’t part of Adobe’s announcement today is the one I use most often: Apple’s iPhone. [UPDATE: Er, one of two--BlackBerry isn't part of the announcement either.] Adobe still says it’s working on Flash for the iPhone, but that it’s really up to Apple to decide whether we get it. Which it is, as long as the App Store is the only viable iPhone distribution channel…

VentureBeat has one of the more surprising stories that I’ve seen so far this year: that Google may have intentionally crippled Android in an effort to please Apple. Multi-touch support was apparently part of the G1 until Cupertino got wind of it, the site reports.

Apple asked Google not to use the technology, and it was removed. Something tells me it wasn’t just a simple “please:” look at the company’s not-so-veiled threats against Palm. It appears as if Apple is going to be quite protective of its intellectual property, and the functionality that separates the iPhone from the pack.

I personally do not like the fact that Google caved in so easily. While yes, Apple does have a significant stake in multi-touch as Harry pointed out in January, companies should not let this get in the way of innovation. In fact, its questionable whether apple was really the first to come up with the multi-touch user interface.

Then again, I see why Google would want to please Apple. The two companies are quite close, and Google’s mapping software is one of the signature featurs of the iPhone. Add to this the fact that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is an Apple board member, and well, you can see why they might be more willing to bend over backwards.

Personally, I think its only a matter of time — probably months — before Google has to turn to Apple and say, “I’m sorry, but business is business.”

Howdy–here’s what’s going on:

Twenty thousand iPhone apps? Wow.

For-pay Android apps imminent.

Remember BeOs? Haiku clones it.

Windows Mobile Firefox movin’ along.

New BlackBerry Curve arriving soon.

Ahoy! Treasure found in Google Earth.

Book authors hate talking Kindle.

Zuckerberg college buddies paid fortune.

Canadian bookseller launches Kindle rival.

No more Windows 7 downloads.

Microsoft ships four security patches.

Not that much happening, apparently….

Windows 7 beta getting yanked.

The Dalai Lama wasn’t tweeting.

Google wants to read meters.

Another prediction of $99 iPhones.

iTunes gets digital Marvel comics.

Apple nixed Android multi-touch?

Microsoft’s ten thousandth patent granted.

Kaspersky’s customer database gets exposed.

Archos announces Android Internet tablet.

Sega cuts jobs, closes arcades.

Two new rumors this week are different in the details but share an interesting overarching theme: TechCrunch is reporting that Apple is working on an iPhone OS-based tablet computer that’s essentially a giant iPod Touch for release this fall, and VentureBeat has a fascinating post that not only shows Google’s Android OS running on an Asus Eee PC but says the OS is hardwired to run on netbooks, and that Android netbooks will likely show up in 2010. We don’t know for sure that Apple will ever release more computer-like devices based on iPhone OS or that Android will migrate to laptops, but both ideas are utterly plausible. More plausible, in fact, than the possibility that both OSes will stay phone-only forever.

Continue reading this story…

The Open Handset Alliance–the organization responsible for Google’s Android open-source mobile operating system–has rallied more companies into its camp, significantly  increasing the likelihood that there will be an influx of Android-based devices in the near future. C0nsumers will be the big winners: With Apple and RIM battling furiously, the added jolt that an influx of Android-based devices has on the marketplace could inspire even greater innovation.

Today, the alliance announced that 14 more companies had joined its membership rolls, and that those companies would either be manufacturing compatible devices, introducing complementary products and services, or contributing code to the Android open source Project. Google was the founding member of the alliance, and is the primary contributor to Android.

The new members include AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek Computer, Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International, Huawei Technologies, Omron Software, Softbank Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba and Vodafone. They join a conglomeration of nearly 50 other companies, including carriiers, device manufacturers, and chip makers’s G1, the first phone powered by Android, stacks up well against comparable smart phones and has received reasonably favorable reviews.

More importantly, the G1 is partly credited for driving device maker HTC’s record profits last month. With proven sales appeal and its royalty-free license, other device makers are likely to follow HTC’s lead and adopt Android.

If you’re not on T-Mobile because you either aren’t in their coverage area or don’t want to be, yet want a G1, you’re now in luck. Google has announced a developer program where the company will offer an unlocked G1 for $399 in exchange for registration on the Android Market site as a developer.

Each developer would be limited to 1 device, although Google adds the caveat “for now,” suggesting that it may expand the limit to multiple devices in the future.

The SIM-unlocked device will function just the same as the T-Mobile G1 does, save for the obvious lock-in to the carrier. In addition, the device would not enforce signed system images, allowing for further development possibilities.

Obviously, since the device is not intended for public consumption, Google’s not going to provide any kind of support for the device. However, if its anything like the black market unlocked iPhones developed, enterprising third-party developers will step in to fill that void.

The offer will be available to developers in the following countries: the US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Hungary. Google hopes to expand the program elsewhere in the coming months.

Even though it seems as if the company is trying to keep end users out, I can’t see why the G1 wouldn’t see a similar reaction as the unlocked iPhone did. While it certainly is not to the scale the iPhone had, Google’s first Android phone has performed past some of the rosiest sales expectiations of industry analysts.

About 1 million units are expected to be shipped by HTC by the end of this year, which is about twice what was anticipated. There are going to be some hardcore users outside of T-Mobile that will happily pay a premium for the device I’d think. After all, people were crazy enough to pay $600+ for an iPhone.

“Gasp!” went the collective Internet on Wednesday when the IDG News Service spotted a clause in the terms of service for Google’s Android Market stating that:

Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement … in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion.

In other words, Google has a built-in “kill switch” to remotely disable applications that violate their developer agreement.

While the terms of this agreement certainly seem reasonable, tech critics thought back to February, when Apple explained its own terms of service for the iPhone, which also seemed reasonable at the time. As we know, Apple’s developer agreement turned out to be much more trouble than initially anticipated, causing a storm of criticism around the developer NDA and Apple’s disqualification of apps that “duplicated functionality” of other Apple applications.

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T-Mobile’s G1, the first phone to use Google’s Android operating system, doesn’t go officially on sale until October 22nd. But a bunch of reviews ave hit the Web. And since I don’t have a G1–I’m hoping to remedy that–I’ve been reading other folks’ takes on the device.

After the jump, highly-compressed summaries of three of the reviews I’ve checked out so far.

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Erick Schonfeld over at TechCrunch is reporting that Motorola is set to expand its team working on Android from 50 to 350, indicating the company may be about get really serious about devices operating on the platform.  Word of the expansion comes from a Android developer who apparently has been targeted by the company.

And it doesn’t end with Motorola. Erick’s source also says that Nokia and Verizon made an appearance last week at a conference that was intended for developers who had not seen the G1. While Motorola isn’t a big surprise — it already is a part of the Open Handset Alliance — neither Nokia nor Verizon are officially affiliated with the organization.

It’s not clear when Motorola plans to release its own Android powered devices, although such a ramp-up seems to indicate any announcement may not be too far off. But the fact that Nokia is also showing possible interest may mean the iPhone could face some serious competition very soon.

Then again, Nokia controls Symbian, which has a commanding lead of the market already. Some 65 percent of all smart phones run the OS, nearly six times that of the second place Windows Mobile (11.5 percent). All of this just could be some good old oppo research.

Having Nokia developers familiar with Android does not hurt, however. If the OS suddenly takes off, the company would not be caught off-guard and could release its own phone.

Add this to the news that pre-sale allotments of the G1 are apparently close to being sold out, and the folks at the Googleplex in Mountain View must be smiling ear-to-ear right now.

I still run hot and cold on the prospects for Google’s Android OS. With this week’s launch of the T-Mobile G1, though, I’m feeling fairly upbeat about it. For now, at least… Continue reading this story…

So T-Mobile’s G1 has been unveiled. It looks neat–and it looks like the most serious rival to the iPhone yet, though the BlackBerry Bold could be a contender once AT&T starts selling the darn thing.

What the G1 doesn’t seem to be is transcendent–a phone that’s as impressive as the iPhone, but in different ways. And the world could use such a phone. Some stuff about the iPhone is a matter of personal preference: Lots of folks are OK with the onscreen keyboard, but there are at least as many hardcore smartphone users who won’t ever buy a phone that doesn’t have (to quote Steve Jobs) little plastic keys.

Then there are the things about the iPhone that may stress out even Apple’s biggest fans, such as the company’s monopoly on application distribution and its mysterious, troubling policies on what does and doesn’t get in. All in all, I think there’s an opportunity for somebody to build a phone that’s the opposite of an iPhone in some ways, and better than an iPhone in others, and maybe even open in ways that no phone has been to date. And Google’s Android OS seems like the best platform to build it on.

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