How to Root your T-Mobile G1

.. from phonehacking.blogspot.com

Android G1 Phone Users Want Apps More Than iPhone Owners

T-Mobile USA verified this week that G1 Android phone owners downloaded on average more than 40 applications while iPhone users averaged 37.

This may not necessarily be a good thing as it could mean several apps were downloaded then shortly uninstalled or ignored.

Regardless it verifies life in the Android Market as GigaOM provides further G1 stats from Robert Dotson, chief executive of T-Mobile USA, who delivered a keynote speech this week at CTIA in Las Vegas:

• Approximately 1.5 million G1s were ordered since October 2008

• Customers purchasing a G1 from T-Mobile were trading up from a basic handset 50% of the time

• 50% of the G1 customers access Wi-Fi daily

• 80% of G1 owners browse the web at least once a day

• 80% of the people owning a G1 download an Android application at least once a week

• The vast majority of T-Mobile G1 owners use Facebook and YouTube at least once a week

• This all leads to the average G1 T-Mobile customer consuming 50 times the data vs the average voice-centric phone user

So on this FrAppDay Friday here are some new Android apps to increase your data usage:

• Retro Defense is one of the best Android Games with an Awesome UI! Think tower defense game meets retro neon graphics meets Android. Price: Free, $4.99

• Documents To Go offers the ability to View and Edit Microsoft Word & Excel files on your Android phone. Price: Limited Time $19.99 (Regular: $29.99)

• Missed Call is great for notifying you of missed or incoming phone events such as Calls, SMS text, BlueTooth, Calendar and Application services. You can configure the app to notify you based on LED color, Vibration, Sound, etc. Price: Free

• Wuzzle is an Android Word Game that mixes features from popular board games like Boggle and Scrabble in solving word puzzles. The UI is great and offers several playing modes; Open, playing Online and Progressive (the latter offering even more challenge). Price: Free, $1.99

• Sweeter Home is another Android Home or Desktop customization app that offers deeper levels of user customization. Price: Free

G1 Released in Australia today

The Google Phone, widely touted as the first serious rival to the highly successful Apple iPhone, launches on the Australian market today.

Made by Taiwanese electronics company HTC and dubbed the Dream, it is the first and so far only smartphone in the world to use Android, an open-source computer-style operating system, built by Google and based on Linux.

The Dream is a quad-band touch-screen GSM 3G phone fitted with WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS capabilities, a 3-megapixel camera and a single USB port but no 3.5 millimetre headphone jack.

A microSD card of up to 8gigabytes can be fitted. Software includes a web browser based on Google's Chrome application.

Bundled features include access to YouTube, Google Maps, including Street View, a music player, instant messaging and email.

It is so far being sold exclusively in Australia by Optus.

Telstra says it has not yet decided whether or not to include the HTC Dream in its range. "We continue to consider how an Android-based phone might fit," spokesman Martin Barr said.

Like the iPhone, the HTC Dream is essentially a handheld computer that can also make phone calls, seen as primarily a consumer device and not a competitor for the BlackBerry in the corporate market.

"These days it is not just about the technology but about making it simpler and easier for the end user," says HTC Australia's marketing director, Anthony Petts. "There are now so many things you can do with your phone; people now use it just as they use their PC."

Some reviewers have gushed about the Android phone, others criticise its angular form and say it needs more work before it matches the iPhone.

They also point to rumours that a new, more capable iPhone will arrive about mid-year, said to have a body carved from a single block of aluminium, GPS navigation, 32GB of on-board storage, a removable battery and, possibly, a lower sale price.

For Google and Apple, as well as mobile phone network operators, the core of the smartphone market is not voice calls but software applications.

Rank	Phone	Product	Price /month	Included Value	Estimated Usage	Min. Total Cost (over 24 months)
1		Optus Online Store $79 Internet Cap + Unlimited Text	$92	$550		$2,118 Save $100
2		Optus $79 Internet Cap + Unlimited Text	$92	$550		$2,218
3		Optus Online Store $59 Internet Cap	$110	$350		$2,600 Save $50
4		Optus $59 Internet Cap	$110	$350		$2,650
5		Optus Online Store $99 'yes' Timeless Internet Plan	$123	Unlimited		$2,861 Save $100
6		Optus $99 'yes' Timeless Internet Plan	$123	Unlimited		$2,961
7		Optus Online Store $129 'yes' Timeless Internet Plan	$132	Unlimited		$3,078 Save $100
8		Optus $129 'yes' Timeless Internet Plan	$132	Unlimited		$3,178

Orginal G1 designs by Mike & Maikke

.. from mikeandmaaike.com/google.html

HTC Dream coming to Spain via Telefonica, gets a facelift

No significant details at this stage, but this looks a little more 'sculpted' than the original G1.
What do you think?

HTC G1 coming to Australia

After several false starts, the first Google-powered mobile phone - HTC's Dream - will go on sale in Australia on Optus post-paid plans from the middle of this month.

But the Dream, sold overseas as the G1, could be rendered obsolete before it even arrives as a US telco executive has said a successor would be launched overseas "in the coming weeks and months".

It also faces tough competition from Apple's iPhone, which has similar features but a more elegant design, analysts say.

The 3G touch-screen device has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3.2-megapixel camera and the ability to synchronise email, calendar, contacts and documents stored on Google's suite of online applications in realtime.

The phone, based on the Google Android operating system, will initially only be available on plans from Optus starting on February 16.

Exact details of the plans have yet to be announced but there will be four plans, starting at $59 a month, while monthly data allowances will range from 500MB to 3GB. Customers will be locked into two-year contracts.

Last year, Melbourne consumer electronics maker Ruslan Kogan made waves when he announced his brand, Kogan, would begin selling the first Android-powered phone by Christmas. The launch was pushed back until January 29 but, on January 16, Kogan announced he was aborting the release, citing "potential future interoperability issues".

The Dream, sold in the US and Britain since October last year, is the only Android phone on the market today. The Australian launch will be the first time an Android device has been sold in the Asia-Pacific region.

But other manufacturers including Motorola, Lenovo, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have all announced plans to begin selling phones based on the Google operating system this year.

While Optus is the first Australian telco to take a punt on Android, Telstra appears to be cool on the idea.

In a recent interview with CNET News.com, Telstra chief executive Sol Trujilo said the company was looking at testing Android but so far it "isn't at the stage where it's really robust".

"It's still in evolution right now. It's very Google-centric. And there are limitations. We are hopeful that it will be more open, because it offers a great alternative operating platform. But it's not there today," he said.

Meanwhile, loss-making handset maker Motorola announced during its fourth-quarter earnings call this week that it was shifting its focus from the Windows Mobile platform to Android. It will unveil its first Android-powered device in the second quarter of this year.

Like the iPhone with its App Store, the G1 supports third-party applications that can be accessed for free on the device from the Android Market. Analysts have predicted that the Google platform might have trouble attracting software developers because, unlike Apple's App Store, Google doesn't allow them to charge for accessing applications.

The phone also comes preloaded with a suite of Google online applications including Gmail, Google search, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Talk and YouTube. YouTube has been redesigned to be speedy and intuitive on a mobile screen, while, with Google Maps Street View, users can pan the view 360 degrees just by moving around with the phone.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said she believed "demand for the G1 will be much lower than for the iPhone", which she said had a more "sleek" and "iconic" design. But she said the G1's tight integration with Google services such as Street View was a unique selling point.

"The phone will provide a taste of what the Android platform is capable of, but we expect teething issues and some limitations," Milanesi said.

"The main challenge for Google and its manufacturing partners will be to come up with interesting devices with a very good UI [user interface] and accompanying services that appeal to consumers."

But the G1 could already be obsolete by the time Australians pull it out of the box. T-Mobile's senior VP of engineering and operations, Neville Ray, said in a recent interview with Fierce Wireless that more G-series Google phones would be launched "in the coming weeks and months".

Google Offering Truly Unlocked G1’s to Developers

Attention aspiring Android developers based in countries like the United States, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, and around ten others. You can now get a completely unlocked G1 handset from Google. This means that neither the SIM card nor the hardware is locked down with any restrictions.

For those of you AT&T folk wanting to get your hands on a G1, this is your ticket. All you have to do is pretend that you want to develop an app for Android. There’s just a $25 registration fee on top of that $399 no-contract price T-Mobile offers their customers. Not bad huh?

The Android Dev Phone 1 is a SIM-unlocked and hardware-unlocked device that is designed for advanced developers. The device ships with a system image that is fully compatible with Android 1.0, so you can rely on it when developing your applications. You can use any SIM in the device and can flash custom Android builds that will work with the unlocked bootloader. Unlike the bootloader on retail devices, the bootloader on the Android Dev Phone 1 does not enforce signed system images. The Android Dev Phone 1 should also appeal to developers who live outside of T-Mobile geographies. - Devices for Developers

Just be careful with your new unlocked G1. Because you’ll be able to do essentially anything you want to it, the potential certainly exists for bricking it.

..from AndroidGuys

HTC G1 Android Platform

T-Mobile HTC G1 Hardware

Pictures of the first Android phone, HTC Dream leaked

To be the very first Android-driven phone, the HTC Dream from T-Mobile slides, has big clear buttons and looks amazing. And the real plus here is the product picture looks pretty much done. The big T-Mobile brand confirms it as the carrier and Android looks to be nearing completion, if not all the way done.

These new images confirm all that we’ve suspected and seen so far. The Dream has a full QWERTY keyboard, a curved slide mechanism, shortcut keys and a trackball. We’re expecting the first Android phone ever before the end of the year. Check out more pictures below.