The latest news of a Google OS based mobile comes along in the form of Asus are now working on an Android phone.

A piece in the New York Times this week mentioned, in only what could be described as an afterthought, that ASUSTek is said to be producing a low-cost Eee phone.

They carried an interview with the chairman of that well known Taiwanese electronics outfit, namely one Jonney Shih. In which many topics were discussed, before the attention came around to mobile phones.

Specifics weren’t exactly gone in to in any shape or form. We’re just taking it as a given they meant an Android based handset, when he ever so subtly mentioned ‘low-cost’.

Asus have picked up a lot of steam lately with producing handsets, albeit from an ODM perspective. Back in November we brought you news of O2 picking up their fastest processor based mobile, an 800Mhz beast to be seen on Telefónica O2′s Xda range.

Although we doubt the company has the clout to launch a handset under their own brand name, as frankly they don’t have the industry presence in the mobile market as yet.

If and when this launches, expect to see it under a moniker inside a category such as the Xda range.

It’s also possible that Asus could be a worthy contender to go after the ODM business HTC was once well known for, with the likes of Orange’s SVP series.

Especially if they keep this most promising rate of progress up, which just seems to be just getting stronger and stronger as the days go by.

Those guys at VentureBeat have managed to install Google’s mobile phone platform on an Asus Eee PC, for proof of concept that it could be done and they wrote it all up too.

In order to possibly show how versatile the OS is, they spent just four hours compiling Android for the Eee PC 1000H to get it fully up and running.

All whilst they managed to get most of the hardware on the netbook responding, from WIFI to sound and graphics during the whole process.

The screen wasn’t an issue either, as Android automatically adapted. This is despite the Asus laptop display being around five times that of the G1 mobile phone screen.

They weren’t actually the first to start the ball rolling on this, believe it or not, Google has already had an attempt. One of their developers only recently ported the OS to a much older Asus Eee PC, the 701. This spurned these guys to do their own, only on a more current model.

VentureBeat believes if all this could be developed it might even usher in better web applications, with the likes of Google’s Chrome possibly being at the heart. They also think we might be able to see an actual Android netbook within three months. With the reliance going to the partners of Google’s OHA alliance, and others who have a say in the matter.

Linux is already big on the netbooks, as a decent cost alternative to the other common option of Windows XP. But with every flavour known to man making an appearance in one form or another, Google could quite easily standardise with Android on these devices and win the day.

With the well established industry name they have it will inspire greater confidence too as an OS choice for muggles, rather than an unknown non-common placed Linux brand.

Not to mention those who are bundling embedded mobile broadband in their netbooks, who will benefit from the synergy Android provides.

If anything, it would certainly give Microsoft something to seriously think about or even those Linux providers.

Read more on their piece here.

Pay careful attention to the policies part. As it appears Google could have set up Android for this avenue already, with a mention of mobile internet devices in the code.

Deutsche Telekom has just entered the foray of a free portable computer, with a mobile broadband contract in tow.

They’ve now joined Orange who offered a similar deal back in August, with almost the very same netbook.

T-Mobile’s package is based around a £25 a month contract, with the Asus Eee PC 904HD thrown in gratis.

The Orange deal is at the same costing, with the exact 3GB download allowance per month. Although T-Mobile has 200 FREE texts a month, the other network has only 100.

Where they differ is in the netbooks they’re giving away. Orange’s model is a slightly older Eee PC 901 with 16GB of onboard storage, a 1.3 megapixel built in webcam all with 5-hour battery life.

The Eee PC 904HD is a newer model with the same processor, the same 1GB of RAM, same WIFI, same 8.9-inch TFT screen and the same Windows XP OS as the 901. It does however have an 80GB HDD, instead of an SSD and only a 0.3MP webcam with the same battery longevity.

T-Mobile’s mobile broadband is provided in the form of a USB dongle, whereas the Orange 901 has it embedded inside. This makes it a better deal in our opinion, as we’ve used dongles and also netbooks with it built in and preferred the latter.

We’re sure the 904HD could have it embedded too, but there is bound to be a pay off with getting it all geared up or just shipping it as it arrives from Asus direct to the shops.

See more on the T-mobile offer here, which also hints at more deals like this on the horizon as it lists two other laptops that are coming soon.

With a gag we’re going to flog until someone laughs, a new PDA phone arrives on O2 under the Xda brand on both pay as you go and prepay contracts.

Running from the same Marvell PXA930 processor as the soon to be released BlackBerry Storm, the Asus P552w comes to us under the guise of the O2 Xda Zest.

This adds to their already solid foundation of Xda products, which even has an HTC model inside.

Odd we should mentioned that at this choice moment, as the Zest comes off looking like a poor man’s HTC Touch.

O2 are hoping the ‘pay as you go’ pricing model will encourage users to move over from a bog standard mobile to this PDA, without being roped into a long contract tying up the best part of your natural born life.

We did find early references online to the Xda Zest with a much much different handset by Asus associated along with it. A phones only known or referred to as the Galaxy 7, all we can assume is that O2 were going down a different route at one point.

The 2.8-inch screen based handset running Widows Mobile 6.1, also comes with a free 2 week CoPilot Sat Nav trial with full UK and Ireland GPS mapping.

With a 3MP camera, mp3 player, FM radio, Wi-Fi, Quad-band GSM and HSDPA – what more would you want in a starter PDA. That’s a rhetorical question, so please no answers on a postcard.

We questioned the inclusion of 3megapixal camera with O2, as from the specifications we received from Asus had it as being 2MP instead. Looks like they’ve moved on with the model already from when it was announced recently; what a difference a month or so makes.

We’ve been informed by Asus, the phone has a standby time of 300 hrs with 3G and 250 hrs on 2G, and the talk time of 3 hrs with 3G and 5 hrs on 2G.

The phone that shares the name with a bar of soap will be on sale in O2 stores and online at www.o2.co.uk. Costing for the handset on Pay&Go comes in at £249.99, whilst being free on choice O2 Pay Monthly contracts.

What’s included in the package? The handset comes along with a 5MP camera along with a frontal camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, a fairly good screen and support for MicroSD expansion slot. Of course, until Asus sends out a word, there is no believing these specifications.

Netbooks were very much in evidence – being supplied free with the various subscription 3G data packages.  In addition to the existing range including some Eee models from Asus, an Acer Aspire One and an Advent 4211 a new model from Fujitsu was on show.  Spec wise there was little separate it from the pack but styling and finish were impressive… Everyone agreed there would be a ‘bloodbath’ in this sector in the next few months with Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba all also due to announce products.

The Samsung stand was one of the best with the Omnia – a Windows Mobile 6.1 iPhone-a-like (that’s mine on the right of it for comparison) – launching today and the very impressive i8510 – one of Samsung’s first Symbian handsets – also on show.  The i8510 give Nokia’s best a run for their money – expect to hear more on this… my wallet is itching!  I’ve already got Ewan excited see here.

Next up was Nokia announcing an exclusive (until Christmas) white 5310 handset via CPW for the launch of their ‘Comes with Music‘ offering which is first to launch in the UK.  This gives a code for unlimited downloads from the Nokia music store which is very cool.  Even better is the fact you can keep the tracks after your year-long free subscription expires, but some of the answers about transfers to upgraded handsets and renewing subscriptions were worryingly vague – Nokia best have some good answers before those years start expiring!  Also on show were a number of the newer handsets including the N96 which, in my opinion, is looking lamer and lamer everyday as a flagship model (sorry Nokia).

Next up were our new best friends at SonyEricsson (the same chap in fact) who had his X1 out again and couldn’t answer any of the hard questions about when it would actually be released.  He did say some nice things about the show though so there is some hope for them

The new Jawbone headset we reviewed a few months back is now available in gun-metal grey and gold…. Meh.

Motorola had their Z10 out which impresses with its unusual form factor and video playback if nothing else, but also had their ‘budget smartphone’, the A810 on display – at around £90 on PAYG this is a Linux-based mini-tablet intended for people who want smartphone features at a lower cost… The interface and screen size are all much poorer than the best smartphones available, but at this cost I think they may have a good compromise.  Also impressive was the ZN5 – a 5 megapixel cameraphone with Kodak branding and xenon flash (something that helps Nokia’s N82 shoot such great pictures).  This has a WiFi photoframe accessory that is set to automatically show pictures the phone uploads to Kodak’s online photo site (via a Shozu-like feature) and multiple frames can be added.

LG were also present but apart from a nice table setting didn’t have much new to announce.  Disappointingly the PR there didn’t know about the LG blog so I gave up and moved on.  Nice table though…

Now, for anyone who fancies signing up on a two year mobile broadband contract, Orange is giving away a dinky Asus eee PC. The eee PC is a tasty beast – techheads rave about it – and the £25 a month fee isn’t a bank-breaker.

It’s almost a really rather appealing pitch from Orange – almost. It’s only the data cap that lets its down. For their 24 month contract, users will get a mere 3GB. Why would you want such a great mobile PC and then a such a tiny amount of data to use with it? Is it Orange’s way of trying to get users to run up lots of excess charges?