Emulator gives you the T-Mobile G1 experience now

Yeah, the wait for October 22 (or after) is absolutely excruciating; trust us, we know. We'll take every scrap of information and imagery we can to hold us over until G1s start showing up on doorsteps in a few weeks, but T-Mobile's really gone above and beyond the call of duty here by setting up a surprisingly functional and feature-complete emulator to satisfy our urges to touch icons and click buttons. Obviously, you're not going to get a GPS lock, so don't get your hopes up that you're going to be playing around with Street View or anything wild like that -- in fact, most apps lead you to a "this screen is not fully functional" message -- but it's got more goodies than the Android SDK's emulator, and it's just enough to get you acquainted with the phone's personality by the time it's actually in your paws

Will Microsoft Make Windows Mobile Free?

Google and Nokia are trying something unusual with their mobile operating systems: they are going to give them away for free. This raises the possibility that Microsoft will do the same with Windows Mobile.

This isn't going to happen, according to Microsoft's Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. "We are doing well, we believe in the value of what we are doing," is what he told Reuters.

A Study in Contrasts

Microsoft will continue to use its traditional method with Windows Mobile, in which it develops the operating system and licenses it to other companies to release devices. It typically charges its licensees roughly $10 for each smartphone or handheld.

Google is following different plan. Its Android OS is based on open-source tools, and it will continue to be an open-source platform that is available to anyone who wants it for free.

Nokia started out using Microsoft's strategy but recently announced plans to switch to Google's, and it taking the Symbian OS and S60 open source.

Ballmer doesn't see any advantages in the open-source system. As he said, "It's interesting to ask why would Google or Nokia, Google in particular, why would they invest a lot of money and try to do a really good job if they make no money?"

T-Mobile G1 Hands-on video

I'm just heading back from a T-Mobile event in London where we got a chance to play with the new T-Mobile G1 Android phone! Paul O'Brien (MoDaCo) and I managed to find a quiet place to record this video preview for you. It's a little rough-and-ready as we'd only been given the G1 about 5 minutes before recording but I hope you enjoy the video!

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Motorola Reportedly Showing a Strong Interest in Android

By now, most people should know that the first company releasing a smartphone running Google's Android operating system is HTC. But there are other phone makers in Google's Open Handset Alliance, and one of these, Motorola, is supposedly putting a great deal of effort into Android.

AndroidAccording to an unconfirmed report, Motorola currently has 50 people working in its Android team, and is actively hiring more to bring that number up to 350.

Whether this report is true or not, there can be no doubt that Motorola is interested in Android. It has been a member of the OHA since the day it was first announced.

When it is going to introduce a model with this new operating system is not yet known, however.

HTC Is Firmly On Board

HTC is behind the T-Mobile G1, the first Android-based device, but this company is best known for its Windows Mobile smartphones. John Wang, HTC's CMO, said his company thinks the two operating systems are complimentary, and will continue to use both in its products.

Wang told DigiTimes that Windows Mobile offers high performance and a large number of third-party software titles, while Android gives hardware and software developers more flexibility.

HTC has committed to releasing multiple Android-based models in short order.

What about Samsung and LG?

Two of the other handset makers in the OHA --Samsung and LG -- may be taking a "wait and see" approach.

Mirae Asset Securities, a market analyst firm based in Korea, says that these companies won't be coming out with Android-based devices before the second half of next year.

Palm Treo Pro Review

Palm are arguably the pioneer of the PDA right from the original Palm Pilot in the mid-90's through to today's Treo Pro. What started off as a modest 512kB PDA has today morphed into a sophisticated multimedia device. No longer a simple PDA, no longer a simple phone.

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