gphone

An early look at Google's Android

Google released the Android SDK earlier today, which has no doubt sent aspiring programmers and developers in a downloading frenzy trying to get a piece of the proverbial Google pie. But here's what you, the consumer, would really want to know: An Android phone will most likely support a webkit-compatible browser, Wi-Fi, GSM technology (like EDGE and HSDPA), 3G, threaded text messaging, a photo gallery (with a filmstrip plus grid album view), plus a touch screen. Hardware is really up in the air at this point, but we did catch a glimpse of a couple of hardware prototypes included … Read more

Google releases Android programming tools

Google on Monday released programming tools for its Android mobile-phone alliance for download, giving developers the ability to start writing software for phones due to start shipping in 2008 and $10 million in prizes to lure them.

The software development kit (SDK), an open-source package available for download for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X machines, shows that Java is indeed the programming language for software running on the Linux-based phones.

Accompanying the SDK is a raft of details that wasn't available when Google and its partners announced the Open Handset Alliance a week ago. The Android software includes … Read more

Microsoft's Bach not afraid of Google's Android

While much of my conversation with Microsoft's Robbie Bach on Wednesday morning dealt with new parental controls for the Xbox, I did get a chance to get his thoughts on Google's phone plans.

"There's a ton of innovation going on in this space," said Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices unit. "They've made an announcement, now they have a product that they need to come and deliver."

But nothing in Google's plans was a surprise, Bach insisted. "It's a different direction than we are going, but it'… Read more

FCC chairman supports Google's Open Handset Alliance

Federal Communications Chairman Kevin Martin on Tuesday threw his support behind Google's Open Handset Alliance.

On Monday, Google officially unveiled Android, its new mobile phone software. It also announced the Open Handset Alliance. Thirty-four companies have said they will join the alliance, which will work on developing applications on the Android platform. Members of the alliance include mobile handset makers HTC and Motorola, mobile operators T-Mobile and Sprint-Nextel, and chipmaker Qualcomm.

It should come as little surprise that Martin would support the alliance. Earlier this year, he made open devices a requirement in the rules for the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, … Read more

Google wants to be Windows for your cell phone

After a week or so of rumors about an exciting new "Google Phone," the Web software giant confirmed Monday the details about its venture into the mobile platform, i.e. your cell phone.

Rather than release one model of a phone, Google is teaming with 33 other participants, including carriers T-Mobile and Sprint, in the Open Handset Alliance to create a unified platform, currently named Google Android, for running software applications on mobile devices.… Read more

More Gphone chatter

I co-hosted the Buzz Out Loud podcast with Molly Wood today. Topic (suprise): Gphone. What else? Also covered: Why the Asus eee PC rocks and why the Foleo was killed too early.

How will Android affect the other mobile operating systems?

Like a number of my colleagues here at CNET, I had my ear pressed to the phone yesterday morning as the members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), including Google, Motorola, and HTC, revealed their plans for Android, a new open platform for mobile devices. I'm not here to recap all the details of the event here--CNET News.com has a comprehensive story on that--but rather just to jot down some of my thoughts.

Looking at the big picture, I welcome today's news. I think it's a really interesting move for all the parties involved, and … Read more

Google's open-source mobile platform: the best of the blog chatter

There are so many good (and bad) things to say about Google's decision to open up the mobile market with an open-source mobile software platform that I'll just let others do the talking:

Sergey Brin (via OpenDotDot):

As I look at it I reflect, ten years ago I was sitting at a graduate student cubicle. We were able to build incredible things. There was a set of tools that allowed us to do that. It was all open technologies. It was based on Linux, GNU, Apache. All those pieces and many more allowed us to do great things and distribute it to the world. That is what we are doing today, to allow people to innovate on today's mobile devices. Today's mobile devices are more powerful than those computers I was working on just ten years ago. I cannot wait to see what today's innovators will build.

And they will all build on open-source technologies, just as Google has. Why? Because reinventing the platform wheels, piece by piece, vendor by vendor, is inane and inefficient.

Jonathon Schwartz:… Read more

Google's Android not an iPhone

The only real thing that the iPhone and the Gphone have in common at the moment are five letters.

Google's plans for the mobile phone market have caused quite the stir Monday, even though the company's press conference Monday morning didn't add much to what we already knew about Android, a collection of software that could be a catalyst for Linux on mobile phones over the next few years. Still, when any company the size of Google makes noise about steering its ship in a certain direction, people take notice.

One nice development is that we can … Read more

Will Google fracture or unify mobile Linux?

Forgive me if I appear a little skeptical here about Google's Open Handset Alliance. By my count, it's the fifth consortium so far to attempt to craft something useful for mobile phones out of Linux and open-source software.

OHA has by far the highest profile, it's got the most persuasive list of members, and its timing is the best. What's not yet clear is whether the "Android" work of Google and its allies will unify or further fragment work in the area.

Rallying programmers behind a unified effort could help determine whether this effort will accomplish more than the Linux Phone Standard (Lips) Forum, the Open Source Developer Labs' Mobile Linux Initiative, the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF), and most recently, the LiMo Foundation begun in 2006. Related efforts one step removed include Intel's Moblin and, Nokia's Maemo, and any number of other open-source projects.

Just as with PCs, somebody has to write a "stack" of software spanning from basic operating system functions all the way through communication utilities, user interfaces and Web browsers. Unlike PCs so far, though, the mobile phone market has suffered from a profusion of incompatible software foundations, despite some efforts to use Linux and Java to bring some common ground.