What’s that you say? Pre-Order sold out? If you were looking to pre-order the G1 for launch day through T-Mobile, you apparently weren’t looking hard enough. The window to guarantee one of these bad boys on launch day is officially closed, but don’t fret! Rumor has it that only 60,000 units were made available for pre-order. That’s expected to be only 10 percent of the total number that HTC is looking to put out by the end of the year. Many are making the bold assumption that you’ll be able to walk right into a T-Mobile store on October 22nd and simply pick one up.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Tags: android, breaking news, BreakingNews, g1, htc, t-mobile

The Google Android Developers Challenge has officially ended! Out of all the developers who entered this first annual event, only fifty made it through to the final round. Out of those fifty, the top ten were awarded $275,000 each and contestants 11-20 received $100,000 each.

Most of the winning finalists took advantage of the location based aspects of the Google Android platform, such as the grand prize winner, Locale. Unlike the iPhone, these apps can run in the background, allowing for Locale to help you set multiple profiles and automatically switch to them depending on where you physically are.

The list of winners will no become the list of apps we’ll all be downloading on launch day. This developers challenge definitely seems like the best idea yet that Google has had for the Android developers.

Tags: android, android market, app store, apps, google, google android, google android developers challenge, iphone

Trying to follow what’s going on with Google Android is almost impossible at this point. But word has managed to leak through in a semi-authoritative manner that is leaving many hopefuls looking forward to the month of October.

The HTC Dream/G1 through T-Mobile is set to go on presale on September 17th and last until October 3rd. The build up comes to an end on October 13th release date for the public.

The phone is expected to go for $199 with a two year contract. As of right now there isn’t any one-year option currently available. Whether this means you won’t be able to purchase this phone unsubsidized or not is another question completely.

The monthly plans seem to be the only truly solid information, with $35 getting you unlimited data and messaging or $25 fetching you unlimited data and 400 messages.

Tags: android, google android, htc dream, t-mobile

When asking your magic eight ball about the expected launch of HTC’s Android based phones, all signs are starting to point to “no”. Either that or my eight ball is broken….

HTC has been working hard on getting their Android ready phones up and running, particularly the HTC Dream, but it may not be hard enough. The features that Google is demanding out of the phones launching with Android, plus the revenue share have been enough for HTC to possibly question how strong a selling point Android will be.

With the iPhone SDK updating like crazy and providing an active community for developers, it’s difficult for people to choose investing in Android when the updates are so scarce lately (unless you’re one of the elite few). Add in the fact that Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry are also a part of this pie, and it will make perfect sense as to why HTC is waiting a bit on this game.

Tags: android, blackberry, google, google android, htc, iphone, sdk, symbian, windows mobile

Google Android, the legendary open source operating system, seems to be coming closer and closer to an actual launch. A recent demo given by Andy Ruben of Google to those at CNet was apparently very hands off, but it did reveal some interesting screen shots and some additional information.

This touch screen version of the operating system had a fully customizable desktop that was actually much larger then the max screen resolution. The intention is to use more than just what the visible screen has to offer, similar to the new iPhone pages. Considering it’s a Google product, the system comes loaded with over 20 Google based applications, including Youtube and of course, Googlemaps.

Letting you know you’ve got something to look at is a big exclamation point in the top corner, but it wasn’t clear if that would also alert you to activity in open applications. Ruben also mentioned specifically that this OS could handle a good deal of applications at once because it "freeze dries" them as to not hog resources. Take a look at the interface screenshots to the left.

Tags: android, cnet, google, google android, googlemaps

Reuters is reporting that British chip maker ARM will be showing a prototype mobile phone based on Google’s Android platform as early as next Monday (February 11, 2008) at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona. Many companies have already announced support for Google’s new platform but ARM may be the first to present a prototype much earlier than others. Google is making a huge effort to enter the wireless phone market with their new software platform and their bid to purchase all or part of the C block 700MHz spectrum in the US. Google’s entry in this market means more competition which should result in lower prices and better products for consumers.

Tags: android, Google phone

There are always cool things to see when you visit the ITP Winter Show – but this year was better than anyone expected. There were many cool gadgets to see. Some were cool, some were boring and expected, and some were just completely off the wall and unique that you couldn’t help but get attached to it. One of the most interesting gadgets that was being showcased was the Single White Android.

The Android – which was made up of many twinkle lights (we think) and more saran wrap than most people would like to deal with – stole everyone’s hearts and attention with its ultra sad face and its constant need for attention. All you do to make him happy is to touch him. His stomach turns red when he is upset. Read the rest of this entry…

Tags: android, itp, itp show, itp winter show, single white android, winter show