Ahead of its expected Mobile World Congress debut, images and specs of Samsung’s M100s handset have been released. Most notably, the phone has a large 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a 854×480 resolution, a 5-megapixel camera that’s capable of recording 720p HD videos and a 802.11n Wi-Fi. It will run on an unspecified build of Android and will be offered by Korea’s SK Telecom.

The phone has an 800MHz CPU, believed to be the same ARM11 chip used in the Samsung Moment. The handset will also get a GPS sensor, T-DMB TV tuner and DivX support, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Samsung’s controversial TouchWiz UI is likewise part of the specs.

The M100s should be available at SK Telecom in March, though pricing is yet to be announced. [via AndroidandMe]

[via Electronista]

Called the Nexus One, the Google phone is coming in January 2010 after Google admitted it had given employees devices to test. The Android operating system device resembles the unlocked HTC Touch, runs Android 2.1 on a Snapdragon chip and has two microphones. There is also reportedly voice to text features for the phone. Google crafted and customized the smartphone’s software and will sell the device online. This is a leap for Google, which has never sold hardware and has been content to furiously upgrade the Android OS and let carriers T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Sprint sell Android phones.

The Google phone is real and it is coming in January 2010 to challenge Apple’s vaunted iPhone, according to a deluge of press reports in the wake of Google’s acknowledgment that a special device with new mobile features and functionality is being tested by its employees.

The Android operating system-based device, which people are calling Nexus One, resembles the unlocked HTC Touch, lacking a physical keyboard. It is also apparently larger and thinner those devices, perhaps coming close to the screen size of the Motorola Droid phone.

The device runs Android 2.1 (the Droid runs Android 2.0) on a Snapdragon chip and has two microphones. There is also reportedly voice to text features for the phone. The Unlockr has pictures of the device here.

Google ignited an avalanche of coverage when it gave devices to employees Friday for dogfooding, part of the company’s test process for soliciting feedback and suggestions. TechCrunch uncovered several tweets from Google employees who raved about the device, even when they were not supposed to discuss it.

“A friend from Google showed me the new Android 2.1 phone from HTC coming out in Jan,” wrote the GreatWhiteSnark in a poetic tweet. “A sexy beast. Like an iPhone on beautifying steroids.”

Google felt compelled to respond to questions about whether this so-called Google phone, a device the company is creating with a hardware partner but selling itself as a GSM phone independent of carrier help, Dec. 12.

Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management at Google, wrote in a company blog post:

“We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.”

Given Qeuiroz’ comments, it is quite likely the device is this very same Android Developer Phone 2 in a shadowy picture on the Android Developer Web site here. Google began offering SIM-unlocked gadgets for $399 a year ago this month to let programmers test and debug Android applications.

The Wall Street Journal meanwhile confirmed previous reports and added some details (paywall warning), confirming that it is an HTC-built smartphone upon which Google crafted and customized the software and will sell it online.

This is a leap for Google, which has never sold hardware and has been content to upgrade the Android OS and let carriers T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Sprint sell Android phones. That Google is allegedly eschewing the carrier crutch marks a bold step for the company for which there are many reasons.

Experts believe Google is doing this because Android is fragmenting — too many operating systems and custom firmware builds — and Google wants to make a device with which it is completely satisfied. Om Malik wrote:

Others say Google wants to “own” the device because carriers hew to the competition and and can get downright Draconian about what features run on devices they sell.

For example, the Google phone is expected to feature the company’s Google Voice phone management application. Verizon has said it would support Google Voice, though Apple rejected it from running on its iPhone, which is sold exclusively by AT&T.

Experts expect the iPhone to appear on other carrier networks in 2010; a Google phone such as the Nexus One could facilitate that move.

[via eWeek]

According to a trusted source who’s seen it with their own eyes, the Google Phone “is a certainty.”

And by “Google Phone” we don’t simply mean another Android handset. We’re talking about Google-branded hardware running a version of Android we haven’t yet seen.

Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They’ll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android—either Flan or the version of Android beyond it—which our source spotted running on Google’s handset as well as a laptop. (Whatever the software was, it most certainly wasn’t Chrome OS, we were assured.)

But maybe the most intriguing bit is what someone said to our source offhandedly, that the current Android, the we all know and love, is not the “real” Android. So what makes for a “real” version of Android?

Our best guess is an Android OS with Google Voice at its heart.

[via Gizmodo]

Android-based LG GW620 aimed at first time smartphone users and social networking fans

The LG GW620 is the company’s first Android phone.

LG has announced its first smartphone that runs Google’s Android operating system, with a target market of first time smartphone users.

The LG-GW620 features a 3-inch full LCD touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keypad, and has been designed to be easy to use, and also includes features to provide better connectivity with social networks.

The GW620 comes with Social Network Site (SNS) Manager application, which integrates all of the user’s social networking sites and functions in one place, and the handset includes connectivity with instant messenger, threaded SMS and real-time push email functions.

The handset also has Auto Face-Tagging and Face To Action features, which allow the user to tag a face in a photograph, and then execute a range of functions by touching the selected face. A 5 megapixel AF camera and high- resolution video recorder capture add to the multimedia functions.

HS Paik, president of LG Electronics Gulf FZE commented: “The LG-GW620 will appeal to first time smartphone customers by offering a new and different kind of user experience. Our objective is to provide a wide selection of smartphones to satisfy the diverse preferences of today’s consumers. This Android phone is just one of many smartphone models we plan to introduce worldwide in the years ahead.”

The LG GW620 will be available soon in the UAE, according to LG.

[via ITP.net]

 

(Asian News International Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Washington, October 30 (ANI): Computer scientists at the University of Washington (UW) have used Android, the open-source mobile operating system championed by Google, to turn a cell phone into a versatile data-collection device, thus making it a handheld tool to collect data on many issues, ranging from global health to the environment.

For the past year, UW computer science and engineering doctoral students Carl Hartung, Yaw Anokwa and Waylon Brunette have worked at Google’s Seattle office using Android to create a data-collection platform for use in developing regions.

Their free suite of tools, named Open Data Kit, is already used by organizations around the world that need inexpensive ways to gather information in areas with little infrastructure.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.

• Seattle’s Grameen Foundation Technology Center is using the phone to evaluate its Ugandan text-messaging information hotline.
• D-Tree International, a Boston-based nonprofit, is using it in Tanzania to guide health workers treating children under 5 years old.
• Berkeley’s Human Rights Center is using it to record human rights violations in the Central African Republic.
• This fall, the Jane Goodall Foundation in Tanzania and the Brazilian Forest Service signed up to use it to monitor deforestation.
• Many organizations are using Open Data Kit, but the biggest project so far is a major effort to track and treat HIV patients in Kenya.
• Led by the ‘Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare’, it is one of the most comprehensive HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Many organizations need to be able to make evidence-based decisions, and to do that they need data,” Anokwa said.

“We hope our toolkit enables organizations to gather the data quickly so they can analyze it quickly and make the best decisions for the communities they serve,” he added.

In the past, some researchers have harnessed individual cell phone models to collect data in the field. But when the phone gets outdated, so does the software.

Instead of creating a tool for a single phone, or even a single purpose, the UW team built something that would provide a reusable platform to collect all types of mobile data.

“We found a lot of organizations were building a lot of one-off tools that were very similar,” Hartung said. “We’re trying to make ours as compatible and flexible as possible,” he added.

Open Data Kit’s versatile suite of tools can collect data; store, view and export data on remote servers; and manage devices in the field from a central office.

The output is compatible with emerging data standards such as the Open Medical Records System, which aims to coordinate health ecords in the developing world. (ANI) (c) 2009 Asian News International (ANI) – All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company

[via TMCnet]

Andy Rubin, the man behind Google’s Android OS, has recently denied the rumors of Google building its own Android phone.

About ten days ago, The Street quoted analyst Ashok Kumar, who has reportedly talked with unnamed Google partners and said that a Google-branded Android phone is in the making.

Well, according to CNET, Andy Rubin declared the following: “We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.” So it looks like, at least for the time being, Google has absolutely no plans to build its own phone.

Rubin also mentioned that such a phone would only compete with Google’s customers. And speaking of Google’s customers, I’ve counted 13 Android phones that were officially announced until now:

• HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1
• HTC Magic / T-Mobile myTouch 3G
• HTC Hero
• HTC Tattoo
• Samsung i7500 Galaxy
• Samsung i5700 Spica
• Samsung Moment
• Samsung Behold II
• Motorola Cliq / Dext
• Motorola Droid
• LG GW620
• Acer Liquid A1
• Huawei T-Mobile Pulse

Many more Android phones will come later this year and in 2010 (including the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 Rachael), so Android is likely to become hugely popular without the existence of a Googlephone anyway.

[via unwired view]

I signed up with Grand Central way back when it first launched and then transitioned to Google Voice along with everyone else. I then paid $10 for a custom Google number and love the experience on Google Android devices. I was browsing through the Google blogs and discovered that Google is now offering you the ability to use Google Voice with your existing phone number instead of having to select and use a new number. Keep in mind this is a lighter version of Google Voice as you can see in this blog post and in the chart shown below. If you have a Google Voice account, you can add Google voicemail to any mobile phone linked to your account.

Click to see larger comparison chart.

They posted the video below to show many of the features and explain the voicemail system.

The main reason I plan to add Google voicemail to my existing mobile number is for the text transcription of voicemail, but I still plan to stick with my custom Google Voice phone number because there are so many additional valuable features and using a device like an HTC Hero makes for a rather seamless experience.

by Matthew Miller

[via ZDNet]

A new promotional Web site from Verizon Wireless appears to mention an October 30 date for their new Android 2.0-powered “Droid” phone. It’s still unclear whether that’s an announcement or sale date.

The site, at www.verizonwireless.com/droid, contains a countdown clock in code using ten symbols, each of which represent a number from 0-9. If you decode the symbols, the clock is counting down to midnight at the beginning of October 30, 2009. (At 9:29 PM on October 17, the clock read 12 days, 2 hours, 30 minutes, and some seconds.)

The site’s promotional language describes the Droid further. It promises “5 megapixels … Android 2.0 … speech recognition … notification panel … directions … video … tunes … 10,000+ apps … the network … multitasking … high speed … hi-res.”

The site also attacks Apple’s iPhone in direct language that’s rarely been seen before. “iDon’t take night shots,” it says in an Apple-like font on a white background, similar to the look of Apple ads. “iDon’t allow open development … everything iDon’t, DroidDoes.”

The Droid is generally assumed to be the name of a Verizon Android phone produced by Motorola. Last week, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam promised the first of several Android phone launches “in a few weeks” and followed up with an official press photo of himself and Google CEO Eric Schmidt wielding two Verizon Android phones, one assumed to be the Motorola device and the other looking like a variant of Sprint’s HTC Hero.

No other phones so far have run version 2.0 of the Android OS, codenamed “Eclair,” though the appearance of a giant inflatable pastry on the Google campus this week foreshadowed its coming.

Verizon has been stepping up their widely-derided smartphone line recently with the Windows Mobile 6.5-powered HTC Imagio and an anticipated near-term release of the BlackBerry Storm2, which we reviewed this week.

You can sign up for more information about Verizon’s “Droid” at http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/?cmp=OTC-Droid-redirect1

(Thanks to Boy Genius for tipping me off to the site URL via Twitter)

by Sascha Segan

[via PCMAG]