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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

If you’re a T-Mobile customer who’s been dozing off for the past few days, you’ve already missed your chance to pre-order yourself a G1. With any luck, that won’t be a problem and you’ll just be able to march into a store on or around October 22 and pick one up the old-fashioned way, but the window of opportunity for an utterly stress-free Android buying experience is closed. We don’t have hard numbers on just how many units were being offered through the pre-order program, but 60,000 is getting tossed around as a rumor, which would work out to about 10 percent of the total outlay HTC is said to be aiming for by year’s end. Of course, if you’re not a T-Mobile customer, this is all business as usual and you’re just chuckling under your breath that everyone’s stuck in the same boat now, aren’t you, you sick puppy?

[Via TmoNews]

Update: Well, that was quick — the “Log in to order” button is working once again. Any bets on how long until they’re out a second time?

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sure, our front page got stacked with news on the launch of the world’s first Android phone — the G1 — but if you missed any of the action (and there was quite a bit), we’ve put together this helpful roundup. Below you’ll find an easy-to-use guide to all the goings-on about the T-Mobile device, complete with galleries and videos that will delight and enthrall any healthy viewer. Keep an eye on this post as we’ll be updating with a few other bits and pieces today that you’ll most definitely want a look at.

The liveblog:

Live from T-Mobile’s Android event in New York City

Hands-on coverage:

T-Mobile G1 first hands-on (updated)
Video: Android walkthrough on T-Mobile G1

Product announcement:

The T-Mobile G1

In-depth / details:

T-Mobile’s CTO on G1 unlocking and tethering — plus a few details you might have missed
T-Mobile soft capping 3G data at 1GB per month
Confirmed: T-Mobile G1 has no 3.5mm headphone jack
T-Mobile G1 site goes live for real, first ad appears
T-Mobile G1 has push Gmail with Google Talk presence

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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Filed under: Cellphones

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/T_Mobile_G1_first_hands_on_with_Googlephone’; Yep — there it is. We finally, finally got our mitts all over the very first Android device, the T-Mobile G1 — hanging out in the crowd, waiting for the official announce, naturally — and so far we like what we see. The phone is surprisingly thinner than we thought it would be, and it feels pretty solid in your hand (though they’ve opted for an almost all plastic device, no metal here). The keyboard seems usable and reasonably well thought-out, and the slider action is like butter, with a nice little swoop for good effect. But really, the pictures tell the whole story, so check out the gallery below!

Update: We’re adding another gallery as we speak. Here’s some initial observations: the browser is much choppier than the iPhone’s, there seem to be be two separate mail apps, one for Gmail and a separate IMAP app, and there seems to be no multitouch functionality. Check out the gallery below for a lot more views, and we’ll be updating this as necessary!

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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T-Mobile’s newest set was officially announced today at a press conference in New York. Set to launch on October 22nd for $179 on T-Mobile in the US on a two-year stint, or $399 contract-free. Starting in early November all you folks in United Kingdom will have access and Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands can expect their release in the first quarter of 2009. The G1 features WiFi and 3G radios, a 3-megapixel camera, and support for the Android Market and Amazon’s mobile MP3 store, giving owners apps and tunes on the go. Existing T-Mobile subscribers get first dibs, with orders being accepted starting today. Here’s a rundown of the specs:

• HSDPA 1700 / 2100 plus quadband EDGE
• WiFi
• 3D graphics acceleration
• 1GB integrated storage plus microSD expansion
• 3-megapixel camera
• Android Market for on-device app purchases
• Amazon MP3 app for on-device music purchases
• Push Gmail support with full HTML client
• Bluetooth (but no A2DP)
• Google Maps with Street View
• No Microsoft Exchange support
• No desktop synchronization — it all happens over the air

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Source: Sean Cooper

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The long wait for the first Android phone should be over this fall, when T-Mobile is expected to release an HTC phone based on the Google-backed mobile operating system called the Dream. Following up on growing rumors online, the New York Times has confirmed that T-Mobile is hoping for a pre-holiday launch. (FCC approvals seem to be the last hurdle). The Dream is expected to have a Sidekick-like keyboard that slides out, and will be the first phone to run Android apps. There is even a shaky YouTube video going around purporting to show the Dream (see below)

Originally there were supposed to be a whole slew of Android phones by the end of the year, but they were all pushed out until 2009, with the sole exception of T-Mobile. Add to this another rumor that T-Mobile is going to offer an iTunes-like App store for mobile software across all of the phones it carries, and you can start to see how things are going to change in the mobile industry. Of course, if T-Mobile does replace the conventional deck on its phones with a more iPhone-like selection of apps, the most fully-featured (i.e., Android ones) will shine.

But don’t expect the HTC Dream to outshine the iPhone. This will be the first of many Android phones, and it won’t have the benefit of being designed soup-to-nuts by one detail-obsessed company. It will take an army of Android phones across many carriers and countries to start to seriously challenge the iPhone.

And frankly, it is difficult to find mobile software startups excited about making Android apps at this point. This is a platform war. If there are no compelling apps for Android, nobody will buy the phones. All of that could change the instant that an Android phone is on the market, but my sense is that most developers are taking a wait-and-see approach. (Especially since very few of them have access to the latest Android software developer kit—a sure-fire way to frustrate and alienate them).

Last month at the TechCrunch Mobile Web Wars roundtable, nobody seemed to care much about Android. It was like pulling teeth just to get people to talk about Android. Watch the video below from that panel with Pandora CTO Tony Conrad and Michael Arrington debating how important Android is, or isn’t:

And here’s that dreamy video of the HTC Dream (or not):

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: Erick Schonfeld

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var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/HTC_s_Google_phone_hitting_T_Mobile_by_Christmas’; Here we go folks. The New York Times is reporting that T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer Android. According to “people briefed on the company’s plans,” the HTC phone will go on sale in the US “before Christmas, perhaps as early as October.” The NYT’s sources also say that the 5-row QWERTY slider from that Dream video (embedded after the break) matches the HTC device that T-Mobile will sell. The device is still waiting for FCC approval with a three-way Google, T-Mobile, and HTC announcement coming as early as September. The deal is expected to be exclusive making it the only Android phone available in the US this year.

Of course you know what this means? It’s the birth of the Android fanboy — sure you love ‘em at First!, but then they never shutup about Street View.

Continue reading New York Times: T-Mobile to sell HTC Android phone as early as October

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile may have once been able to bank on J.D. Power’s customer care survey to bolster its bag of bragging rights, but it looks like that’s no longer the case, as Verizon has now finally edged it out, following a similar shift in J.D. Power’s retail sales satisfaction survey last year. Not only that, T-Mobile actually fell to third place, behind Verizon’s merger-mate Alltel. There isn’t much of a spread between the top-ranked companies, however, with Verizon snagging a score of 103, Alltel scoring 102, and T-Mobile garnering a respectable 100. Only Sprint Nextel, which got a lowly 79, scored below the industry average. Among the other tidbits to be found in the survey, which included more than 11,000 respondents, is the fact that customers spent an average of 4.4 minutes on hold with customer service, a jump of 34% from the previous survey, while 49% of all wireless customers said they called in for help at least once, a minor uptick from the 47% reported last time around. That, J.D. Power says, is at least partly due to the “increasingly complex” wireless phones and services available nowadays.

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Source: Donald Melanson

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The F.C.C. was expected to vote in June on a proposal to auction a 25MHz piece of spectrum in the 2155Mhz band and require the winner to use a specified amount of spectrum for free wireless Internet access.

Source: By Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service\Seattle Bureau, IDG

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