Google’s First Cellphone The “G1”

[jak]

The first cellphone to make use of Google’s Android operating system, the “G1” is manufactured by HTC and will be made available in the United States on October 22nd for $180 through T-Mobile. At a press event held in New York today, the American wireless carrier unveiled the new smartphone which features a slide-out touchscreen display, a QWERTY keyboard, 3G wireless internet speeds, 3 Megapixel camera and the ability to download and install applications from an online store. Outside of the US, the phone will also launch in the United Kingdom in November with other countries following in 2009. Details on a possible Canadian launch for the device are not yet available, but it is a quadband GSM handset, meaning it would be compatible with Rogers and Fido’s networks.







The strength of the G1 is expected to be its operating system “Android” which allows for touch-based controls involving finger flicks and long holds to easily navigate through software and gesture-based interactions using the phone’s built-in accelerometer, in addition to the ability to use and install a wide variety of applications and web tools including Flickr, YouTube, and Google Maps with StreetView. It can synchronize with Google desktop as well as use Yahoo and Microsoft's instant messaging services. Android is positioned as an open source platform offering great freedom for other software developers to easily create applications and software for the G1 with the hope being that it will quickly expand the smartphone’s uses. One feature that will not be made available is the option for tethering the phone to a laptop.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin talked about his favorite novelty app for the G1 which allows you to toss the phone in the air and, using its built-in accelerometer, calculate the time it takes before it is caught or hits the floor. The G1 will also have the ability to play video games and a version of Pac-Mac was showcased at today's event.According to Google there have already been 17,00 applications created that will be made available for download to the G1.

One impressive trick that has been demonstrated with the G1 is its use of the built-in accelerometer to allow users to explore Google Maps' Streetview mode. You can change your perspective within a Streetview imagine simply by moving the phone physically, from side-to-side or lifting it above or holding it below. It calculates the new perspective angle and changes to your movements.

More details and specifications on the G1 are expected to be released later today. Check back here later for that update.

Update: Full List Of Features:

Touch screen
One Touch Access To Key Information
"Just tap the screen and go"
Real Web browsing capabilities using WebKit as mobile browser
One click access to internet
3MP camera with autofocus
Customizable home screen - Just drag and drop any of your favorite applications, photos, or folders onto your home screen for quick access to what you use all the time
One-click Google Search
Video playback
3G network and Wi-Fi access

Android Market
One-touch access to a variety of software applications like games, social networking, and on-the-go shopping
Download the applications wirelessly with just a couple short clicks
The Android Market was developed by Google themselves.

QWERTY keyboard
Familiar layout lets you type messages easily without scrolling for the letter you want
Hinged screen slides open to reveal keypad and closes to prevent accidental dialing

One-touch access to Google applications:

* Maps (including satellite, traffic, and street views)
* Gmail
* YouTube
* Calendar
* Google Talk

IM/text/e-mail
Support for Google Desktop, Gmail with contacts, Yahoo and Microsoft services.

Music player
Supports up to 1 GB memory cards for storage

The G1 will come with the following applications pre-installed:

Google Search
Google Maps
Gmail
Google Calendar
Google Talk
YouTube


Google's demonstration video:

[TAREK®]

amaaaaaaaaaazing I want one for Christmas

[Tawa]

Where The Hell Is Kingroudy?

[chaingang_100]

But as you see it has some bad points:

It supports memory card up to 1GB only!! (not good at all)
And it's not mentioned that it has a bluetooth!!!

[TAREK®]

Originally Posted by Tawa

Where The Hell Is Kingroudy?

bi koun 3am byesna3lo shi phone metel hayda 5awfak 3leh?

[taha]

wow it's great
but how much it costs? (in Lebanon with taxessssssss)

[Neoxter]

Originally Posted by taha

wow it's great
but how much it costs? (in Lebanon with taxessssssss)

search for "unlocked google G1" ,this should help u ,but am not sure if its available yet,since the G1 is only exclusive to T-mobile,as the apple's iphone with AT&T.

[Kingroudy]

tsu2 tsu2
first, this is very old news :P ya3ne men shi 3 or 4 month i heard about it, and i planned to get it but i changed my mind, first, because it will be sold in black market in lebanon (just like the iphone) and second because this device isn't the most capable, and it isn't multimedia oriented, only the ANDROID OS makes it good.
if your world revolves around google services (and many of them do not work in lebanon, like google maps), then surely this device is the best for you, other than that, this is just another device incapable of video playback and video recording:P