That popular VoIP application for mobiles, Truphone Anywhere has just arrived on the HTC Google OS driven device the G1.

This Truphone release is now available in such far flung countries as the UK and the US of A, with Austria and Germany being on the cards next. The last one ties in nicely with the unveiling this week of the only Android *cough* handset to be releases in Germany for March. Coincidently it’s the exact same time the Truphone Anywhere application will be available, in that very countries language. Hurrah!

If you weren’t already aware and shame on you for not, Truphone offers far more than just VoIP. Instant messaging is an integral part of the software, with the likes of MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk and Twitter all taking pride of place within. With Skype access only being just around the corner too, although we’re not sure it’ll be here in time for CeBIT where it’s being rolled out.

On both Google Talk and Skye, it’s possible to speak to people for just the price of a local call. Although if they’re local, why not just pop around instead – food for thought there.

It’s now downloadable from Google’s OS app store, the Android Market – which still sounds far too close for our liking to a place in a Philip K. Dick novel.

With this announcement, Truphone for the G1 has now joined the illustrious ranks of being supported on devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry and Nokia handsets. All that’s missing now from their line up is a version for Widows Mobile devices and stretching further afield, PC and the Mac.

Who knows, we might have just pre-empted the next few unveilings of Truphone. But for the time being, let’s just say Anywhere for Android is now in good company.

Happy New Year from yours truly and what not. I had a brief moment yesterday (while chilling out in front of my laptop) when I came across Ed Hodges’ MIR post covering his thoughts on the G1.

Some of you may remember that back in November, Ed himself was there when I first gave the G1 a go.

The thing is, I never actually got round to publishing my thoughts on said handset as, well, it drove me NUTS. Why? Allow me to explain.

Back on that fateful day in November, not too long after my epic rant on the Nokia N96, our glorious leader here at Mobile Industry Review – Ewan MacLeod – furnished me with a brand new T-Mobile G1. The point being that we’d capture this moment on camera for a special G1 edition of the MIR show.

From that initial handover, much to Ben’s (who had paid for his) and Dan’s (who’s now finally got one) joint annoyance, I had said G1 in my possession for about three weeks. The only advice I was given, and I quote:

“James, I think you might benefit the most from this handset. It’s your opinion I want… BUT. I don’t want you to review the hardware; I want your POV on the software, the OS and most of all the ‘out of the box’ experience.”

Ewan made this VERY, VERY clear. So, software. Not hardware. Check. Right then, let’s dive in shall we? Here we go…

Today kids, I want to talk about ‘centricity’. What do I mean? Well, within the first couple of days of using the handset, a few things came to mind that made me look at the G1 in a very odd light. The issues I’m going to raise in this piece aren’t necessarily about the device per se, but they do relate to the kind of person that you’ll have to be to truly benefit from owning one. It should be noted at this point, I am not that person.

You see, as you all know, I am a mobile geek. My career in this industry has seen me move from product management to user experience, marketing, online, branding, blogging and ultimately a combination of the lot with the advent of Social Media. In this short time, there have of course, been learnings. These learnings bring me back to that word again; centricity.

Brands, tech, carriers/network operators, companies, banks, post offices, you name it – many of these over recent years have claimed to be USER-centric or CUSTOMER-centric. Now that, if executed well, can be very good for the organisation in question and of course, for the consumer. Fantastic stuff.

However, that’s merely my introduction to the notion of ‘centricity’. As the iPhone before it has benefited those consumers out there that have a mac-centric lifestyle, the T-Mobile G1 works best for those who live their lives through Google. GContacts, GMaps, GTalk, Gmail, … Geee-Ma! Look at my new phone!

You name it, it’s got it. You turn the phone on and you’re immediately invited to sign in, sign up or sod off. BUT! Before I get into the negative (because surprisingly, the thing ain’t perfect), I really must, must, must point how truly awesome the actual setup process is. Turn on, log in and within minutes the entire phone sucks down all your *cough* GOOGLE *cough* info; mail, contacts, calendar etc. and is up, running and totally in sync. Brilliant. Nokia – Everyone can learn a lot here.

At this point however, I believe it’s time to roll up my sleeves and get dirty…

The thing is, the G1 and I immediately got off on the wrong foot with each other because it assumes that the user (you/me/whoever), must have a GOOGLE-centric life.

Your contacts? Google.
Email? Google.
IM? Google.

As I said, a Google centric life.

Of course, this is the T-Mobile G1. The ‘G’ obviously stands for Google, which really wouldn’t be a problem if the phone had just appeared on the scene without much fanfare (yeah, like that’d happen). But it’s not the fuss that I’m moaning about, it’s the fact that it’s positioned as being ‘OPEN’ that gets me. I mean really, really gets me. OPEN?! OPEN?! Don’t make me laugh! I can’t even sign out of the bloody device without doing a full factory reset, and don’t even get me started on how such an ‘open’ device is LOCKED to T-Mobile… sigh

I digress. Imagine the scene; it’s a cold November afternoon, Ewan and I are sat in a quiet room at One Alfred Place. The show is ‘in the can’ as you say, when he turns to me with; “I’ve got one more thing for you.” Then he hands me the G1.

“I want to film it from the moment you turn it on and sign in with your Gmail credentials.”
“But dude, I don’t use my Gmail account. I send my Google Alerts there and that’s about it.”
“Ok, that’s fine. You can sign in with your Mobile Industry Review Google Group account.”
“Yeah but…”
“No, no, it’ll be fine!”
“But EWAN! I use Yahoo for my email, thanks an’all for that MIR account, but I never use it.”
“OK, fine. Then we’ll just export all of your contacts and calendar info from your Outlook, that’s easy enough.”
“Er… Alright. Let’s do that.”

This is where we come unstuck. The ‘out of the box’ experience – as no doubt the video showed – is fantastic. However, what really rubs my rhubarb is Gmail. Let’s make one thing clear. I have two Gmail accounts; one for MIR and one for me, personally. I never use either of them. Everyone always goes on about how wonderful they are, but I’ve tried – really I have – and I just can’t see the attraction. Really. Smite me G-Man, but I just don’t get it.

‘Gmail BETA’ to give it it’s full four year old name (Bored of beta? Yeah you are!) is so bad it makes me want to plunge USB keys into my eyes just to see if I’m able to find some way around their heinous contacts management system! It is atrocious!

You’ll see on the video (which you’ll just have to go and watch now I’ve referenced it three times) that once the contacts have finished sync-ing,  the first thing you see is a bunch of ‘unknowns’. This isn’t my doing. I don’t have random numbers stored in my handset kids. Oh no, you can place the blame firmly and squarely on the ‘revolutionary’ G1.

My N95 8GB and my E71 both sync perfectly with my Outlook over Mail For Exchange. WHY would I want to have a (broken) contacts management system such as the one Google provides as part of Gmail!? It’s not just me either. The BLIND LOVE shown by many a G1 owner that I’ve met is almost as bad as that of the Mac owner (you know who you are). For example, before Christmas I went to visit my ex-colleagues at the Mippin HQ offices in Fulham. Scott Beaumont, my old boss and now new G1 owner almost leapt out of his seat with excitement because he’d FINALLY managed to completely ‘de-dupe’ his entire Google contacts list which (surprise surprise) the G1 had royally messed up with its first sync.

“Look! I’ve done it! At last! It’s taken me FOUR DAYS but I finally did it!”

I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter. Just the fact that he was SO pleased, he had to scream it from the rooftops. Anyway, the point is, as simple and as (supposedly) easy it is to sign up/in into a G1 phone – if you don’t have a Google centric life, then this phone is not for you. Think about it. Think about it a lot. Then think about it again.

And on top of all that, the camera’s crap and the phone feels like a fisher-price toy.

(Sorry, not allowed to mention the hardware)

I’ll get my coat…

MIR Show – Week 44 – T-Mobile G1 Launch from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Hi there, Ed Hodges here. From the videos! Well, more precisely, from the recent Phone Calling Under Water video feature that Ewan published last month.

I’ve just got my hands on Ewan’s very own G1. I have to say the software’s brilliant! AND I love the response the handset gives to the touch with smooth scrolling and responsive ‘touch-thru’ to the next screen. Even more impressive is the speed it loads Google’s applications. For instance, opening Gmail (which being Ewan’s has thousands of messages in it) occurred instantly, then, setting up the ‘Compose’ screen took milliseconds too…. beautiful – Something Microsoft Windows would do well to heed. So far the software reacts at the speed of thought

However, the hardware is different, it’s nice and all that, but very ‘plasticky’ (spelling?). I’m also not that fussed about the resolution of the screen, it doesn’t take much to see the pixels and many of the icons can look blocky. The screen rotation mechanism is good, giving a satisfying ‘snap’ when opened or closed, however, it feels a touch insecure when open. The biggest let down about the whole experience is the QWERTY keyboard. The tiny keys are more or less flush and take a concerted effort to locate visually rather than semi watching the screen. They don’t give particularly good feedback and I felt I was typing slower than I would normally with more nispakes.

Finally, the phone feels unbalanced when using the keyboard, the base of the phone which sits on the right hand side when in landscape, forces your hand away from the keyboard and makes it more difficult to use fast – while on the left hand side there is a lot of space between the edge of the phone and that fat part of your palm below your thumb (what’s that called? anyone?). As a result, you can find yourself pushing the handset across from the right to left when trying to type fast or reach keys/the screen with your right hand.

So, software is bloody impressive, as we’ve all established and swapping between applications and screens is super fast – brilliant! The handset…. meh, next! With HTC bringing out such beauties as the Touch Pro and HD, I don’t know why Android was put in that brick.

That said, I’m looking forward to the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which is where, I suspect the next announcements about new handsets and perhaps Android upgrades will appear. After all, you’ve got to allow time for handset manufacturers to work out the best form factor for such an amazing open platform…

I’m looking forward to seeing what Samsung have to offer in terms of Android. What about you? Have you used or seen a G1? Viewpoints? I’d like to hear them!

Ed

In nearly a month from now, Mobile World Congress will be over, done and dusted, put to bed, an ex-event, acabado – finished.

What are we expecting to see, what are we likely to experience, what will astound us and what will we all be talking about five weeks from now?

From what we’ve already seen aired at CES and the meeting requests with various companies – the following is what we believe will be the main themes from the event. Along with the topics that could be addressed, and the avenues of discussion that we suspect will be throughout the event.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, the very large grey beast that is the OS. We doubt the whole event will be taken up by talk of platforms, but they will have a significant presence at this year’s MWC.

With the inclusion of Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer as a keynote speaker, the attention will turn to the next generation of Windows Mobile on phones. At least we’re assuming he’ll be there to announce a product, as we doubt he’s just going along to increase his air miles.

Rumours have been around for a while now as to what Windows Mobile 6.5 will most likely contain, from the likes of multi-touch to the known IE version 6 being included. All that anyone can really wish for is that the new OS will fix the issues that plagued 6.1. Saving us all the bother of downloading cooked ROMs from the xda-developers website to resolve them.

Motorola has already spoken publically about their new handsets running this OS, due in the second half of this year which realistically means Q4. We’re wishing good things for that company too, as they need all the luck they can get right now.

We’re assuming, as most will be, 6.5 will be more of a service pack than a long term OS that will be with us for many years to come. As we’re hoping the attention will be on Windows Mobile 7 at MWC. If we’re all led to believe the hype, this will include the likes of Zune-esque features and an integrated live mesh mobile version.

With the world’s economy being what it is right now, the cost of Windows Mobile will be undoubtedly drawn in to the argument this year. As the alternatives around will be surely weighed up as a comparison, now they’re all here and phones around running them all. At the end of last year, a slide was shown at Orange Partner Camp just highlighting the cost associated with WM as compared to the others. To quote a tweet from Rafe Bladford “in open platform session – cost of platform – Symbian, Limo, Android = $0; Windows Mobile $14 (est). not often you see that slide comparison”. Seeing this in black and white just hammers home what Windows Mobile will have to achieve, if it wants to survive in these times.

There’s bound to be a heated, intense discussion of this nature, which we’ll enjoy and throw some spanners in to the works in order to get some decent feedback. Arguments will be made from all corners, which will be interesting to say the least on what everyone will say. Some will be diplomatic on the costs, although we’re hoping to hear from the European against the North American perspective. As it’s no secret the Americans love their Windows Mobile handsets, so we’re unsure if they can give a balanced opinion.

It’s been a year since Android was first shown off on a few phones at last year’s MWC, and only a few months since the HTC manufactured G1 came out. Since then there’s been a lot of rumours as to who will have the next Google OS powered device, who will be the first to market, who will be known as leader with these handsets in the future and not tied solely to a network.

CES saw a few models of not all that well known companies doing the rounds, with a few whispers of who really will be next. With leaks of late coming from HTC, Asus and others all showing they supposedly have Android phones in the mix. Perhaps one of those will show up with a ready-to-market model. Let’s not forget that only two months ago 48 of the biggest players in the mobile world all signed up to the Open Handset Alliance, so we’re all expecting good things from everyone soon.

We have it on good authority, the next one will be around very soon so keep your eyes peeled and stay reading MIR. We are expecting everyone and their dog, to be making some noise over their Android handsets either publically, or behind closed doors. Our money goes with HTC and we’re taking good odds on that spread right now.

They’ll also be talk of the next Android version or the updates, in the form of ‘cup cake’ and possibly how this will be rolled out. If not that, then at the very least what it will possibly contain, if not how the development is going. Although most of what’s what is already known, there’s bound to be some news to be aired as they’ve been rather quiet of late.

Not to be out done, and in the realm of keeping up with the Joneses, there’s bound to be news from Nokia’s Symbian platform. This time last year the world was completely unaware of the grand scheming going on. As far as we all knew Symbian was just a good OS running phones, which included Nokia and that was that. A few months later, the landscape of the platform world would change forever, with Nokia announcing its intentions.

We doubt we’ll hear anything great from Symbian at the event, perhaps some minor announcements but nothing too much. We do however expect to hear rumblings from Nokia, perhaps leading with an update on the N97 and when it’s actually due. Perhaps more on location based services, along with how well Ovi mail is doing on the Series 40 handsets, plus how that service will be expanded.

Some other rumours we’re hearing are that nVidia possibly, maybe, could be, might have something to say at MWC this year. This is all to do with them entering the mobile graphics world on phones, with a possible association with HTC being in the pipeline or so we hear. Whether or not this holds any water is yet to be seen, but it sounds like an interesting concept and partnership.

There’s bound to be noise over LTE, WiMAX and HSPA+ with some networks, carriers and handsets being spoken about. Don’t hold your breath in seeing any of this on the horizon anytime soon, just watch and read with glee and think of flying cars.

We’re even hearing completely unsubstantiated mutterings that even DELL will be making an appearance. This is with a view to be showing up with a Smartphone in tow, of all things. This rumour is picking up even more and more worth in the last week, as more and more sites have begun reporting on it. Why not have a phone; DELL seems to have everything else. They’re turning out to be like a large Sainsbury’s, a one stop shop for everything you need.

Other keynotes that have been booked in already come from large companies such as Vodafone, to even MySpace’s CEO and its co-founder. With the latter obviously appearing to let everyone know MySpace is still around, despite the fact Facebook jas stolen all its limelight and people have completely forgotten about them.

Many CES delights will surely make an appearance, there’s no getting away from that. The LG watch phone and the palm pre will be shown off to the coos and the wonderment of the Europeans. It’ll be interesting to see if the Palm phone and webOS will have the same reception as it did in Las Vegas, also if they’ll be tougher questions to answer now the dust has settled on the announcement.

It’s bound to be a veritable smorgasbord of mobile delights and treats, we’ll undoubtedly bring you as much information as your eyes can handle.

Sorely needed. The device is continually online (if you’ve got it switched to constant-sync for email and the like) which does screw your battery quickly.

Uberphones report that Seidio has knocked out a 1400mAh battery that’s the same size as the existing device battery. At 400mAh more than the current one, that’ll give you a bit more juice. 15% more to be precise.

It’s on the Seidio site priced $42.95. Possibly worth it if you use your G1 as a primary device.

Me? I actually switch mine off when I’m not using it to preserve the battery. Crazy, I know…

Turns out that’s not possible in Harrow. Over to Grant:

- – - – -

Hi Ewan,

Today I went out in search of a T-Mobile G1. Not to buy, but to try. After doing lots of research over Christmas I’ve *almost* decided that I want the phone, but before I do so I’d like some hands-on contact. Responsiveness is really important to me, as well as it’s ability to load my most important webpages.

I live in a North London town called Harrow. Harrow is quite big, and we have a large town-centre with lots of shops and lots of busy shoppers. T-Mobile’s shop is really well placed in a great spot in St Georges shopping centre. I got into the store and it was quite active – it seems lots of people were spending their Christmas money on new phones/tariffs. After waiting for a while I got to the front of the queue and asked if they had any T-Mobile G1 demo units. I was bowled over to hear the store assistant tell me that there weren’t.

I then went on a trek across Harrow, visiting 3 Carphone Warehouse stores (yes, they’re like fleas where I live!) and none of them could provide me with a demo unit to look at. I can forgive them mostly – the G1 is a T-Mobile branded device which is probably seen as niche as far as their customer base in concerned.

Why on earth would a T-Mobile store NOT have a G1 unit for prospective customers to use? Particularly when it’s their new, landmark device? The key to the G1 is meant to be it’s useability and you can’t demonstrate that with pretty pictures and big words. Surely getting ONE device out to each of your stores is reasonable, particularly stores in high volume areas (Harrow isn’t exactly the countryside…)? It’s not like they have to replace them, is it?

For now I’m going to be holding off – I want to make sure I’m making a self-informed handset decision. In the meantime, 3UK are likely to call me and offer me further incentive not to leave them. If they offer me a good enough handset-free deal, then I’ll take my business to them and *maybe* eBay a G1 later.

- – - – -

Grant, what a total arse.

I know just what you were expecting. You reckoned they’d have one or two on display, stuck in those cages or something like that?

I’d have put money on T-Mobile having them available to play with.

Perhaps there’s been a run on G1′s over the Christmas period? You’d expect them to have one or two around in Harrow, North London. Not exactly a remote location…

Has anyone else been out at the shops today browsing or buying?

Building on the search feature of FoneFood this application takes advantage of the magnetometer (compass to you and me) and GPS built into the G1 to locate entertainment venues, restaurants, landmarks and other stuff on a radar-like interface.  At last!  A way to find the nearest Pizza Express wherever you are without relying on Ewan’s legendary instinct.

We’re going to try it out as soon as we can.

Check it out:

News of the availability of the HTC Dream T-Mobile G1 Android based mobile phone has just reached us.

Sadly from the post seen here, it appears you have to be registered as a developer to obtain such wonderment. As it’s really geared up just for them and them alone, but who’s to say we aren’t all developers at heart.

We’re sure most of us have drunk our fair share of redbull in the past and stayed up to see dawn more than three days in a row. Doesn’t that qualify us all? Surely it does.

From reports it appears to have the cost attached of just $399, or around £286. With UK ordering also being available from the main site – Android Market on http://www.android.com/market/

Going under the moniker ‘Android Dev Phone 1′, it appears to all be above board and a legitimate SIM free unlocked mobile running Android 1.0. Just in case you were after such a beast and you’re still tied in to your contract for another 9 years, or something like that.

There’s more to be seen here, on what you need to do to qualify for the ADP1. Not that we’re endorsing in anyway shape or form deceiving Google *cough*

Also, you do need to sign up to become a developer here as well.

If this all seems too much bother, then it probably is.

Seeing as the deal with Nokia and Symbian is all wrapped up, done and dusted, put to bed, etc – perhaps an unlocked SIM free N97 could be obtained too.

For the purposes of development of Symbian, of course *cough* *cough*

I suspect that the battery on the G1 will make it unusable for me as a primary handset. The continual synching must really kill it. When I have been carrying it, I make a point of *switching it off* in the morning and putting it in my bag. That way, when I want to use it, it has full battery.

It is obviously not a primary phone at this point. But in order to use it as such, I needed to unlock it.

What to do?

Well, I visited www.unlock-tmobileg1.com. $44.99 was the unlock fee and they claimed to be able to unlock the G1.

Hmm.

I wasn’t so sure, you never know about some sites you find on the internet — and many times before, I’ve taken it upon myself as a Mobile Industry Review chap — or SMS Text News before then — to stump up the cash and test these things out for you.

Well, I ordered. Paid the $44.99 by PayPal.

And I waited.

At least 12 hours was the warning — it could take that long. I sat back and did some work.

I watched a few minutes of Strictly Come Dancing.

1 hour, 57 minutes later, my unlock code arrived by email.

So I ordered at 7pm, got the code at 9pm UK time.

Instructions on the email were straight forward.

I ignored them and did what I reckoned was correct: My job to play around, I thought. I took out my T-Mobile sim, put in the Vodafone SIM, and restarted the phone.

The phone started fine, finishing with this ‘SIM network unlock PIN’ screen:

‘Am I about to screw it up?’ I wondered.

I typed in the unlock code supplied and pressed UNLOCK:

I got a brief message saying ‘success’. Brief enough for me to miss it and not take a photo of it.

I then saw No Service on the screen:

Uh oh.

Then the screen’s network ID went blank:

Right then. Maybe it’s worked? Has it worked? Maybe it hasn’t been hard-coded with the Vodafone network ID, I thought — so it won’t actually show up as ‘Vodafone’.

I was asked to re-type my Google Account password. I suspect that’s because I changed networks.

I ticked ‘allow international roaming’ and switched on data services in the phone’s menu, just in case that was needed.

I typed in the various Vodafone settings — the APN and so on from Filesaveas.com — and took a deep breath.

Perhaps I have to set it as default? Or so some other jiggery pokery? Maybe.

First off, let’s connect to the internet and see if it worked:

Yup.

Fast. Quick. Done.

Joy!

Wandering out of a blizzard is the latest version of the Android based mobile to appear, now in the colour of white from T-mobile’s online store.

As it’s been around in black now for a while and since they’re dealing with ‘negative’ press coverage all the time, why not produce a negative colour version.

The handset that will be now lost in the snow comes at the exact same specifications as before, with no difference apart from the colouring.

The screen is still at an annoying angle when you’re typing from the keyboard, meaning you have to tilt your head slightly to get in alignment. Yes, we’ve actually seen people do this – it looks much akin to a dog recognising its name.

Its keypad is still a large block, where you have to curl the palm of your hand around to type on the keyboard. Or reach over that unsightly block, both of which causes a hunched shoulder. We’ve also witnessed people do this too just so they can type, it all looks very weird.

In a generations time you’ll be able to spot the people that first used the G1, as their head will be permanently be at an angle from typing and they’ll all have a semi-Quasimodo stance.

The phone is around from now in white and black from T-mobile, enjoy.

** UPDATE**

It’s been confirmed that T-Mobile had their wired crossed yesterday after all.

The albino handset has JUST gone on sale in the US of A, and not the UK.

A T-Mobile spokesperson dropped us a line late yesterday, after the fault was officially confirmed/rectified.

It’s always good to uncross the wires that were crossed, now can T-Mobile and HTC fix everything else wrong with the handset

That most useful of useful mobile phone internet browsers Opera mini has become officially unveiled, and for the android OS too.

Think back to those heady days of two weeks ago, when VAT was still 17.5% and the BlackBerry Storm was just a pipe dream. Ahhhh, those fond fond memories.

We then brought you news of the latest Opera mini browser moving into beta. Those days are now long long gone.

It appears all has been fixed, all the Is have been crossed and all the Ts have been dotted – with the full working version now being ready to download for your surfing pleasure.

Besides making it 30% faster for our American cousins, they’ve also snuck out a version for T-Mobile’s G1. Those cheeky rascals; as we weren’t made aware of it way back when.

We’re unsure what issues were ironed out at the time of going to press, we did held out for details before we published but all to no avail.

If anything more becomes apparent, or how close the beta was to the final version, we’ll update this piece and let you know. But it’s probably best to uninstall the old and throw on this new Opera Mini instead.

It’s now here, ready to go – enjoy.

Over The Air (“OTA”) update of the T-Mobile UK G1 from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Research firm iSuppli has it the G1 costs just $144 to build, where it’s selling for $179 in the states.

All the materials and components used just add up to a meagre amount, a lot lower than we would expect in terms of the profitability normally associated with handsets.

The HTC manufactured device, minus the software, research and development has the analysis worked out on the physical examination of the phone.

Although they admitted hadn’t yet taken apart the phone for a complete breakdown on all the components inside, which does include the processor and modem core designed by ARM.

iSuppli had factored in though the display, camera, the radio functions which included the HSDPA part of it all.

They went on to state it lacks the “wow factor” of other handsets such as the iPhone, which we concur.

What they do believe is that the integration with Google’s services, plus their apps could be a major advantage of the G1.

Let’s see if they re-evaluate the report with a more thorough investigation, but it’s interesting still to say the least. More can be read on the report here -http://www.isuppli.com/MarketWatchDetail.aspx?ID=309.

We’re just wondering, out of interest what the cost would have been if the G1 were to have run Windows Mobile instead and if a calculator could ever produce a figure that high.

I’ve had my G1 for a week now. (You can see me walking through the setup here

Whilst I was quick to document the little things I liked about the G1, finding the stupidly annoying things has taken a bit longer.

Here we go.

1. Build quality. It’s a bit plastic. Don’t get me wrong, the actual internal hardware appears to work — but it’s very, very much like a plasticy sidekick. This does render it a bit of a cheap looker compared to the likes of a Blackberry Bold or a Sony Ericsson Xperia.

2. The Pop-Out Screen. I don’t like the way that when the screen pops out, it’s ever so slightly lopsided. It flocks me right off at times.

3. The battery is rubbish if you actually use the device as it’s intended. It’s near-iPhone 3G levels of uselessness. I suspect this because it is a ‘connected device’ – i.e. I am continually connected to Google Talk for example. All the connected goodness does inevitably take a toll on the battery. This won’t last your average mobile user a full business day. You’ll be hitting ‘red’ on the indicator by about 4pm if you give it any decent level of use. I am thinking of buying another battery. Not sure where you can get these yet.

4. The marketplace sucks. T-Mobile or Google (I don’t know who’s in ultimate control of it) need to sort it out. I want a lot more choice. Perhaps it’s because it’s only using ‘free’ apps. I’m also wondering if we’ve been given the shit version here in the UK. Whoever’s in control, take note: You’re doing a rubbish, rubbish job. Case in point: I can’t see any fooking decent feedback because half the application comments are filled with folk having racist arguments about Barak Obama. Total bullshit. Fix it.

5. Here in the UK, there’s no Amazon MP3 shop. For whatever stupid bureaucratic reason. Again. FIX it, someone.

6. A USB headset is a bit annoying because it has a habit of coming out or becoming loose.

7. The touchscreen doesn’t match the Apple iPhone. This is HTC we’re talking about, they’re normally pretty good at these things having had bloody years to get touchscreens working with goodness knows how many Windows Mobile devices. Or maybe it’s an Android OS screw up? Try dragging your finger as you would on the iPhone and the handset won’t respond. You need to be heavier and a lot more deliberate with the touching. Arse.

8. Zooming is a bit crap. Pinching as you do the iPhone… that’s the way ahead. Zooming on pictures and maps is limited to pressing a plus or a minus button. Not that ‘intuitive’. I know it’s Apple IPR … well it’s not that graceful.

9. You can only add one Google Talk account. Class-A bollocks. I’ve got three that I use and I expected to be able to have them all ‘online’ at once. Rooobaaaaash.

10. Google Mail isn’t calibrated for folk with a lot of mail. Whilst it does sync beautifully, if you get a lot of mail, you’re going to have trouble viewing it swiftly. You typically get about 5 emails on a screen, depending on how you use the screen (landscape/portrait). This necessitates a lot of scrolling all the time. I’d like to see the option to display one email per line. Perhaps that option exists. I couldn’t find it.

11. Contacts. The black sheep of Gmail is contact management. The syncing does work nicely. Add a contact in Gmail and woosh, it’ll be accessible on the device momentarily — but expect all sorts of annoyances trying to get your Outlook to synch over-the-air. I eventually imported everything into Plaxo and used the Google Mail Contact Sync function for the Apple (ONLY works when using the iPhone to sync) to sync these contacts with Gmail’s contacts. PHEW. Now it’s working.

Have you got any more additions?

I was tickled pink on Friday to be able to give him the test one we were sent over by T-Mobile. This is the first ever handset we’ve received as a trial from T-Mobile.

Ben and I went and bought one each ourselves so that we had one to play with and experience. Dan Lane, on holiday in the North of England had exactly the same problem I had on Saturday morning in Central London: He couldn’t find a T-Mobile shop nearby. I was in London watching Josh Harnett fluff his lines in the new Rainman stage play. My other half is potentially interested in getting a new G1 so I wanted to swing by a T-Mobile shop. Unfortunately you can’t do that in the West End. Whilst there are bucketloads of Orange and Vodafone shops on every sodding street corner, the only T-Mobile shops nearby were in Clapham or Oxford Street. Not quite round the corner and far enough away to put my other half off the idea of walking too far amongst annoying crowds.

I cursed T-Mobile silently as I sat surrounded by fawning drooling women as Josh began to undress on the Rainman stage.

Dan Lane was going nuts in the North West of Yorkshire. I did a look-up to see where his nearest T-Mobile store was. I wanted to text him an address as I could feel his must-have-a-G1 quotient reaching breaking point from the IMs and emails being swapped between the team on Saturday. Alas, T-Mobile don’t have any stores within something like 100 miles of the North West of England.

I cursed T-Mobile again.

Meanwhile I began receiving IMs, emails and texts from Mr Whatley. As you no doubt saw on Monday’s MIR Show, he is taken with the G1.

He made quite a lot of comments about the actual handset but I asked him to focus his upcoming review on the concept of the device — the openness, the possibilities, the unified nature and the fact that ANYTHING he didn’t like on the actual G1 could more or less be fixed by a caffeinated teenager with an Android SDK.

For example, he lamented the lack of ShoZu on the device. Try PixePipe, I suggested.

I didn’t want James getting put off his review, or diverted, by silly stuff that actually can become very annoying.

There are a lot of people – Nokia fascists, in particular, still stroking their Nokia N82s and N95 8GBs who are hanging on every communique from Whatley. (See last week’s assassination of the Nokia N96).

They read my piece. They saw our video and they’re waiting for the Whatley view. They’re looking for Ben and Dan to weigh in — but Whatley is the first.

They’re expecting a few words from him on the fact that, yeah, the G1 camera doesn’t compare to an N82 and that, yeah, there’s not that much in the Android UK marketplace yet. They’re expecting some degree of experiential account from James.

And, er, he’s got to send his handset back.

Nixon McInnes, social representatives of T-Mobile, called to ask for the G1 back on Monday but I was out most of the day. On Tuesday I told James he needed to give it back and James promised to mail it when I got the delivery address. This morning I’ve asked them for the delivery address. Whatley will send it back this afternoon.

It really does wind me up when folk think that you just need a day or so to ‘review’ a device.

We’re not writing some piece of shite ‘it’s got this much RAM on it’ or ‘it’s got a whatever megapixel camera’. We’re not doing a mainstream media piece of puffery. Our readers don’t give a toss about that. They want to know what we THINK about it before deciding whether or not to acquire one themselves. And a big component of our coverage is being able to let Whatley sit and play with it and deliver a balanced view. Getting him to put down his array of Nokias for more than 5 minutes is a real challenge. I wanted James to sit and play with the thing and really use it.

So imagine my fooking annoyance when T-Mobile switched it off the G1 connection this morning. Disconnected!

What the hell do I have to do to get the guy to be able to focus on experiencing the handset?

I think I have to spunk just under 500 quid to buy him one on an 18 month contract.

Ergo what use is the public relations department at T-Mobile?

Gahhh.

Next time I’ll just buy the sodding thing for him so we can get some decent editorial. My mistake.

We’ll bring you a slightly shortened piece from Mr Whatley later today.

I’m thoroughly enjoying reading the perspectives of the executives we’ve contacted to give us their viewpoints on the new T-Mobile G1.

Andrew Henning is CEO of Redweb (a leading digital agency). Redweb has a team of over 45 people turning over 2.5 million a year working with the likes of Norwich Union, Sky and the Government. Andrew and his team are continually advising these types of companies on their web and mobile strategies — so what does he think of the G1?

Over to Andrew:

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The thing about the G1 Android handset is that design looks very dated, old even. Functionality is one thing, but I think the mobile industry also notices things like looks and branding. It’s a very geeky model, but I think most people will still choose the iPhone (or an iPhone look-a-like) until Google (or HTC) make it sexy. It just looks chunky in comparison at the moment.

I was impressed to hear that the G1 has an in-built compass, and that to lock/unlock the phone you can draw a unique shape on the touch screen. Very good for privacy etc.

I applaud Google’s aims and objectives behind the launch of the Android operating system – to create a truly open platform for mobile application development. An open source mobile operating system, the first of its kind, will allow developers to create fantastic new tools. The likes of which we probably won’t have seen on any other closed mobile OS (such as Symbian, or the OS X as seen on the iPhone).

Any open source software allows developers to manipulate the way in which it was intended to be used, and end up with some great new ideas and functionality. This will inevitably happen for the G1 handset.

There’s a lot of potential there, but at the moment it is just another mobile platform to add to the list. It needs to be accepted and adopted by the majority of mobile manufacturers before its goals and advantages can be realised.

I won’t personally purchase one at this stage, as it’s a first model. They will be adding new features fairly soon, and the OS/phone integration will become increasingly sophisticated with future models.

I’m also not a fan of the fact that you’re tied to using Google services with the phone, unlike the iPhone which lets you use various email/calendar applications.

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Ah yeah — I’ve been surprised about the amount of people who are objecting to being ‘forced’ to use Google Services in order to use their G1. Good points Andrew — thanks for taking the time!

At £599.99 you’re still better-off buying a T-Mobile unit and unlocking (if you’re into that kind of thing).  As we posted earlier, the cheapest tariff including service from T-Mobile offers the handset for £490.

Combi 25 (150 mins / 150 SMS per month) for 12 months:
£129.99 device  and £30 per month = £489.99

Combi 30 (300 mins / 200 SMS per month) for 12 months:
£100 device and £35 per month = £520

Combi 35 (500 mins / 375 SMS per month) for 12 months:
£50 device and £40 per month = £530

Flext 30 (up to 700 mins / 1400 texts or any mix ) for 18 months:
£70 device and £30 per month = £610

Flext 35 (up to 1000 mins / 2000 texts or any mix) for 18 months:
£39.99 device and £35 per month = £669.99

Flext 40 (Up to 1250 mins  / 2500 texts or any mix) for 18 months:
Free device and £40 per month = £720

Note: Combi prices include mandatory £5 per months ‘unlimited’ data bundle.  Flext prices include data bundle free under current promotion (this month).  Combi 18 month options are also available at similar price points to Flext tariffs.  Flext is not available on 12 month tariffs.

Ahhh… facts…

Eitan Gelbaum, VP of Advertising, Commerce and Entertainment for Amdocs answered a few of my questions about the new G1. I particularly like his points about mobile companies becoming ‘bit pipes’.

Over to Eitan…

What aspects of the G1 have caught your attention?
The G1 is the first phone to support Android open platform for third party application developers. Plus, it’s the first competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

Google has a unique business model. It will share its revenue with service providers and developers. In fact, Google gives 70% of Android market revenue to the developer, but the remaining 30% of revenue goes to service providers, minus billing settlement fees.

The launch of G1 and Android provide an excellent opportunity for Google to capture valuable consumer data beyond basic search information. It also provides them with the ability to capitalise on the huge innovation potential of the general development community.

The G1, the iPhone, and all smart phones will actually end up driving more revenues for service providers, as their core networks are increasingly utilised.

How do you think the mobile industry will react to the G1?
Developers are already developing applications and consumers are hungry for the device. This will force service providers to offer the G1 (or other Android phones) to stay competitive.

Consumers have been excited about the launch of G1 due to the fact that Android supports a number of applications, imposing next to no restrictions. Apple has been criticised for this in the past.

The G1 pushes service providers further back in the value chain. If they do not find ways of making use of their network infrastructure, in conjunction with the capabilities of the Android operating system, they will find themselves further relegated to the role of bit pipes. They should find ways of adding value beyond the device and operating system. While service providers should continue to allow other visibly branded partners into the mix, they should also look at new ways to build their own unique consumer-friendly portals, app stores, digital content shopping experiences and location-based marketing platforms.

A unique portal experience with Android can also be a competitive advantage for service providers, if done right. By positioning themselves as the ‘customer experience’ part of the equation, they can get an even greater share of the pie and add more value to end users.

Is the UK consumer ready for the G1?
Absolutely. Consumers will be able to customise their own customer experience with applications that are relevant or interesting to them. As an alternative and a competitor to the iPhone, the G1 offers greater choice.

Will you be purchasing one?

You Bet! It’s been the most anticipated device since the launch of the iPhone.

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Eitan, thanks for taking the time and I hope you enjoy your G1!

For reference, the total cost of my option was £490, the heavily advertised 18 month tariff is £720… wonder why they’re pushing that!

We’ll try to publish the full selection of tariffs here tomorrow.

Oh… and decline that insurance they insist you need.  It can be removed despite what the sales people tell you.

Oh yes… we’ve converted James Whatley.

If you’ve been watching the MIR Shows — or reading any of James’ content, you’ll know what a huge Nokia fan he is. He lives and breathes their handsets and services.

Or did.

We simply charged up the demo G1 and placed it into the hands of Mr Whatley to see what he’d make of it. (Apart from Whatley’s reaction, I thought this would be rather useful for those thinking about buying a G1 as it shows the steps required to setup the device.)

We’ll have more from James and Ed across this week.

(No Ben Smith and Dan Lane in Week 44 — they were both away.)

Remember when the iPhone 3G launched during the summer, we asked Patni Telecoms Consulting to give us a viewpoint? Well here’s some perspective from Hugh Roberts, Senior Strategies chap at Patni.

Hugh most certainly knows his stuff and will not be buying a G1 just yet… Have a read:

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What aspects of the G1 have caught your attention?
Nothing really; at this stage the idea is as important as the realisation. The hype has been around for nearly a year and it has always been clear that expectations – when matched against the hype – wouldn’t be met, certainly not until the product stream and its supporting applications environment have bedded down.

Most surprising is that they have launched without reaching a quorum of 3rd part apps in the apps store, and that it is even less exciting – at least to consumers and media – and ‘open’ than even cynics predicted. Compare this to the launch of the Google Chrome browser. Launched as a beta with a minimum of fuss and no 3rd party apps, it reached (best stats I can find – peaked at 3% after 4 days) a stable 1.52% penetration in about 2 weeks. If the G1 can match this globally then I think everyone involved will be ‘quite pleased with themselves’. However, it was never going to be possible to launch the G1 as a beta with the ‘minimum of fuss’ and Google (I suspect) are still learning about hardware product strategy – I suspect also that the launch timing was largely outside of their control. [FYI I already use Chrome as browser of choice, even without the availability of Firefox style applets for which it has been designed.]

Google is not by nature an innovator. Instead they look to learn from the developments and mistakes of others and to aggregate functionality within their core ‘search-aware’ methodology and positioning, which they are pretty good at. Clearly there are strong synergies between mobility, location and search – which bodes well for Google in this environment in the medium to long term.

How do you think the mobile industry will react to the G1?

It already has, but in true mobile industry fashion most of the debate hasn’t been about reality. MNOs have, however, been looking to the G1 to demonstrate to them:
(a) that there might be a life (other than a nightmare) for them after the demise of the walled garden
(b) help me monetise (I don’t care too much how) 3rd party apps
(c) show me what an Apple-killer looks like! (but don’t charge me too much for it…)
(d) until we’ve got our own fingers in the pie, lets all have a good laugh at yet another security-flawed operating environment [Tech note: unlike, Microsoft, Apple, and most ‘telco' software, the architecture of android's apps platform is naturally robust against cross-function hacking, and as such represents a clear way forward for open network architectures. Hopefully the industry will acknowledge and adopt this approach, but I am not holding my breath...]

Is the UK consumer ready for the G1?
More pertinently, is the G1 ready for the UK consumer? It would appear that from Google’s point of view the launch is a bit of a compromise: Some apps, but not very many; some openness, but not very much (so early adopter technophiles will not be best pleased, and the media has plenty to aim at). Early success will most likely depend – rather like Chrome – on whether the basics of mobile comms have been met with enough style and grace for the middle market to treat it as on ‘OK’ handset, even without the bells and whistles.

Undoubtedly, the UK consumer is ready for the death of the ‘mobile internet’ and the move towards greater continuity between fixed and mobile browsing experiences, but the industry itself is woefully lacking in this regard.

Will you be purchasing one?
No, not yet, but I am keeping my eyes open… But then I am not a fan of mobile handsets at all. Apart from the basic voice/text functions (and the requisite support applications) they do not (yet) provide me with a ‘life enriching experience’ (although for many people they do provide a socially defining lifestyle enhancement statement!)

Some of the (personal) reasons for this are:
- appalling HMI (Apple and Google now driving the evolution in much more positive directions)
- poor integration with other comms mechanisms/channels (noting in passing that I hate Outlook and have no wish to use Microsoft inspired synchronisation!)
- undeveloped media translation facilities
- lack of established etiquette for mobile related comms (I think this will become increasingly important)
Some of the areas which have been addressed and are improving are:
- better coverage (although I have just spent 4 days in not-too-rural Devon where 3 of the 5 networks don’t provide coverage)
- ubiquitous global roaming for the basics
- falling and controllable costs (especially all-you-can-eat)
Consequently, I am happy to stay with my annoying handset that is reasonably robust and does the basics without too much fuss until I see something that for my needs is compelling. It is entirely likely that the threshold will be crossed and I will be ‘converted’ not by the handset manufacturer, but by a 3rd party application provider delivering something I really want – which is a reality that both Apple and Google have embraced (but many others are still scared of…)

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Hugh, brilliant! Thanks for taking the time.

1. It all just works. If you’re a regular user of Google — Gmail or Google Apps — this is a dream operating system. The handset requires a Google account to get setup. After verifying your account, your contacts, email, IM and calendar are immediately synched — and stay in sync.

2. During setup, you don’t need to type the date and type. The handset picks this up off the network. Eminently sensible and very smart. I can’t stand having to do this with other handsets such as Nokia. Small but important!

3. The OS locks properly. Just press the ‘hang-up’ button and the device locks until you press the menu button to re-enable. No arsing about with multiple key presses to lock the screen/buttons.

4. The notification system is really immersive. Pull your finger from the top of the screen and it’ll appear to show you new email, texts, calendar notifications and so on.

5. Google Talk IM is brilliant and integrated nicely. New message notifications appear at the top of the screen when you’re doing other things.

6. When you opt to install an application, it gives a detailed overview of what the application is going to use (e.g. ‘access to your personal data such as contacts’).

7. You don’t need an address bar in the browser. You just start typing and the handset interprets this as you wanting to type in a new URL. Very fast to use.

8. Streetview on Google Maps rocks.

9. As well as doing a super job of providing mobile browsing on the go, the browser renders iPhone-formatted mobile pages beautifully (e.g. Facebook).

10. When in Google Maps, I simply begin typing an address and — woosh — I’m presented with addresses from my address book. For example, I simply typed ’3′ and was presented with all matching addresses in a pulldown list. You just start typing. Smart.

11. Another Google Maps point — it is EXTREMELY quick looking up your location. It does this first with a rough estimate based on your nearest cell tower. Brilliantly useful when you want your general location now, not in 2 or 3 minutes.

12. Whilst Google Mail is built-in as standard (and works like a dream), there is also a stand-alone mail client that will work with a whole range of systems. It is EXTREMELY fast with IMAP.

13. SMS messages appear in a threaded list just like a Google Talk conversation. Lovely. Eminently usable.

14. Installing applications is really, really simple. Click install. It downloads in the background and a little notification appears when it’s ready to run.

15. I really like tapping the star next to Google Mail mail messages that I want to remember.

16. The handover between 3G and 2G/GRPS appears fast — at least with my T-Mobile UK device.

Have you got one? What do you like about your G1?

Our second executive opinion on the T-Mobile G1 launch is from Brad Rees, the Managing Director of Mediacells (the leading independent supplier of fact-based market insight in the mobile arena).

For those who haven’t met Brad, he’s an former journalist, who began his career with Reuters, before migrating to popular Fleet Street brands for United News and Media and held the role of Senior Producer of CBS Sportsline’s sports.com. Prior to founding Mediacells, Brad worked for T-Mobile developing the company’s multimedia propositions and was senior media propositions manager at T-Mobile International.

Right then. Over to Brad!

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It’s a feather in T-Mobile’s cap to get the exclusive. Nokia produced a phone that was built for the internet in 2004, the tablet. It appealed to tech geeks and latest-of-the-greatest consumer junkies and never hit the mass market. The question is – has the European consumer moved on since 2004.

A lot has happened since the launch of the tablet to change the consumer mindset of what a mobile phone should be and do. Sony Ericsson have launched their Walkman and Cybershot devices in the interim, making the mobile device as much a lifestyle tool as a communication device.

The iPhone has burst the banks of the capped flat rate data tariff with iPhone users consistently consuming more data than the flat rate originally allowed. The proliferation of iClone devices from Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and soon Nokia shows how much desire the manufacturer has to make touchscreen, internet etc. a way of life.

But Mediacells consumer research informs that there, despite packages like T-Mobile’s Web’n'Walk is still a reticence in the 16-24 year old bracket to embrace the mobile internet because of data charges – this is a real fear in this segment. This is also compounded in the older members of this bracket, the 22 – 24 year olds, with a distrust of large online companies like Google because of the fuzziness around perceptions of who owns your personal data when you surf online.

Brad Rees is Managing Director and founder of Mediacells, the leading independent supplier of fact-based market insight in the mobile arena.

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Thank you Brad!