Everybody was shocked when Google announced its mobile device operating system, called Android. Its huge difference from others is and will be its openness - it is open source, unlike almost every mobile OS. Many Linux geeks celebrated this event, because with help of such giant as Google open source standards will spread faster and wider. We all waited for the first devices that work on this interesting OS, so it happened - first gadget operating on Google Android is here. It is named T-Mobile G1, and is currently sold by T-Mobile. More information about Google smartphone after the break.October 23 was the day when T-Mobile G1 hit the stores, and it caused hundreds of people to wait almost 10 hours to get this phone. Of course, the hype was not that size as iPhone's was, but it is an amazing result in any case. Many people picked T-Mobile G1 mostly because it is from Google, and it is not iPhone. Yes, it is considered the main competitor for famous iPhone, and it is deserves this title - Google and HTC tried very hard to make a worthy opponent. Let's look closer and find out, what it has to offer to its users.
T-Mobile G1 was developed by HTC, well-known manufacturer of Windows Mobile devices. It codename was HTC Dream, and it surely deserves such title. It is fully packed with features - 3G support, 3.2 inch LCD with 320 x 480 resolution, Qualcomm 528 MHz CPU, exchangeable (unlike in the iPhone) 1150 mAh Li-Ion battery, 3.1 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth... One of the main features and advantages over iPhone is QWERTY keyboard that is hidden under the screen. Real buttons are way more comfortable than virtual ones. Unfortunately, it lacks standard 3.5 headphone port, maybe because G1 is not aimed at music?
Google worked hard on their OS, it looks polished and featured. However, there are still things to be done. For example, all text input now can be done only via QWERTY keyboard. Yup, no on-screen virtual one. It's a shame that this feature wasn't included right from the start, let's hope it will be added in future updates. There are two main features that make Android superior that iPhone's Mac OS X - task switching and copy / paste support (ok, ok, three - with third being the Android openness). iPhone users are begging for copy / paste right from the start, and nothing was done in this direction yet. Maybe Apple keeps this feature in its sleeve to "amaze" users in the future, however it is shame that such advanced phone doesn't have such simple ability. 192 MB of RAM makes multitasking on G1 a breeze (iPhone still lacks task switching options), it will be enough even for very memory-hungry applications.
When it comes to applications, there is all you expect from Google phone - tightest integration with all Google applications and services: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Talk... Web-browser is already famous Google Chrome, which was stripped down to work on the Android. Due to open platform it is very likely that soon there will be a ton of different applications for G1, no information about possible digital signatures from Google - if Android is open-source based, maybe apps will be open-source too?
In any case, T-Mobile G1 is only first phone with Android, there are planned more releases with Google OS, so iPhone will be seriously rivaled by the whole G lineup. Currently G1 lacks some serious applications and a sleek design - while first is correctable, second will be corrected only in next Android phones. It will be interesting to see how situation will develop, we'll expect some moves from Apple too - it is unacceptable when its direct rival have some features iPhone doesn't. T-Mobile G1, like iPhone, is sold only with carrier's contract and costs 179 dollars with a two-year voice and data agreement.
