EA Games Coming to Your Android

A spokesperson for EA Mobile says that, “EA will support the Android platform, as any platform that can deliver a robust game experience is good for introducing new consumers to mobile games.” But don’t get your hopes too high because EA is waiting until the Android App Store allows paid applications, “EA Mobile has elected to wait for the launch of a content billing solution to bring their premier IP to market.”

 

The bottom line:

Initially Android App Store will only be allowing free applications; EA is waiting until they can make you pay for The Sims app, etc. on your mobile phone.

 
Source:
Pocket Gamer

T-Mobile G1 Official User Guide

T-Mobile has posted the G1 User Guide! Take a look here:
http://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase/root/public/tm30235.pdf

Click on images to make them larger.

 

Source:
T-Mobile G1 User Guide

Visa: Everywhere your Android Wants to Be

Visa has announced that they are developing an app for the Android App Store that will allow customers to receive Alerts, receive targeted Offers based on recent sales, and use a Locator to find local stores that accept Visa. Users will be allowed to pick and choose from the three options (Alerts, Offers, and Locator) and only enable the ones they want. Users will also be able to cancel out from any of the three options at any time.

Visa is also working with Nokia on the ability to make payments through your mobile device. The Nokia 6212 Classic will have the ability to “make contactless payments, remote payments, money transfers, as well as receive alerts and notifications.” The phone will be available starting next month to financial institutions, and to the general public sometime after that.

The Nokia 6212 Classic.
 

Source:
PC World- Business Center

MobileWe meet Android!

At the T-Mobile G1 webcast earlier this week, we were told that there would be no desktop syncing application similar to Apple’s MobileMe. This was a big dissapointment to many eargerly awaiting all the glorious details of the G1. 

Well, here come the heroes: Funambol. In a recently released press release, Funambol says that they will be providing an application for the Android operating system that allows you to “sync and share your contacts from other mobile phones as well as from popular desktop apps such as MS Outlook and webmail such as Yahoo!, Gmail and AOL.”

This third party application that will be available to download from the Android App Store is aptly named MobileWe.

“MobileWe for the Rest of Us means providing easy-to-use sync for Android users,” said Hal Steger, Funambol VP Marketing.

Read the entire press release here.

T-Mobile Removes 1G Restriction on “Unlimited” Data

T-Mobile has released a statement retracting their original move to cap their “unlimited” data plan at 1G. Now each person who runs in excess will be reviewed and dealt with on a case-by-case basis. This is how the majority of other major mobile phone carriers enforce their data policies.

“We reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers,” said a statement from T-Mobile for NY Times.”

Your Choice of G1 Colors: Black, White, & Brown

Black:

White:

Brown
Thanks to  Android Community

Well, what do you think? Which color is your favorite? Which one looks tacky? Cheap?

Personally, I’m all about the white option even though I easily opted for a black 16G iPhone.

G1 versus the iPhone: the basics you need to know!

Hardware Specifications:

Weight: G1 = 158g vs iPhone = 133g

Battery Life: G1 = 5 hours talk time, 130 hours standby vs iPhone = 5 hours talk time, 300 hours standby

Screen Size: G1 = 3.2inches vs iPhone = 3.5in

Camera: G1 = 3MP vs iPhone = 2MP

Storage: G1 = 2GB (expandable to 8GB) vs iPhone = 8GB or 16GB

Processor: G1 = 528MHz vs iPhone = 835 MHz

Mobile Applications

On the iPhone you use iTunes on your desktop, laptop or mobile device and the App Store.

On the G1 you will be downloading the majority of your content through wifi (unless you want to risk going over your cap of a mere 1G data limit by T-Mobile), or through your SD card. The G1 comes with a 1gig SD card that can be upgraded to 8gigs maximum by you for an additional fee (around $50+). The G1 will come pre-loaded with my Google applications already.

Music

Amazon versus iTunes.

Amazon MP3 store will be the G1’s version of iTunes. The library of audio and video files is not (yet) as extensive as iTunes; however the prices will be slightly cheaper and there be no digital rights management. This means you can easily transfer your purchased data between devices with no hassles.

Features

The type of keyboard you prefer is a big consideration for most buyers when choosing between the G1 and iPhone. There are those users who will always want a hard keyboard, and then there are those who have adapted to the virtual keyboard and love it. I’m included in that second grouping, although at first I missed the hard keyboard that my old Samsung Blackjack offered.

Does the G1 offer a virtual keyboard in addition to the hard keyboard? If you know the answer, please leave a comment! I have not yet gotten a chance to play with the G1 in person =[

G1 = Touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, Internet access via 3G and Wi-Fi, additional content via Android Market, music from Amazon, built-in GPS, and “compass” for easy navigation, instant messaging, push-email, locked Sim card, Web browsing.

iPhone = Touchscreen, virtual QWERTY keyboard, multi-touch gesture support, Internet access via 3G and Wi-Fi, additional music and applications via iTunes and App Store, built-in GPS (second-gen iPhone), Visual Voicemail, multi-touch gesture support, Microsoft Exchange support, push-email, locked Sim card, Web browsing.

Cost

The overall two-year cost of owning a $200 iPhone is $2360 (unlimited texting). The cost of owning a G1 with an identical texting plan is between $1620 and $2460.

The T-Mobile G1 will run you $180 with two-year contract – add $25/month for an unlimited data plan (which includes unlimited Internet usage and limited messaging) or a $35/month plan for unlimited messaging. A basic T-Mobile voice plan range from $30/month (300 minutes) and $60/month (1500 minutes). T-Mobile says in order to purchase the G1 you must also get a “qualifying rate plan.”

Apple’s iPhone will run you $200 (8GB) which also requires a 2-year contract. The rate plan will set you back basic rate-plan is $70/month (which including unlimited Internet access). For another $20/month you can get unlimited text messaging, or for an additional $15/month you can get 1500 text messages, or for an additonal $5/month you can get 200 text messages.
 

For more comparison articles please visit the Comparisons page!

Source:
Network World

T-Mobile Squashes Your G1 Fantasies With the Fine Print

Caveat Emptor: Buyer Beware

You must ALWAYS read the fine print.

According to T-Mobile’s fine print, your data services from them will be capped at just 1GB per month! If you use beyond your 1G they will reduce the rest of your cycle to 50KBPS or less. What does that mean? Your phone would be running at roughly the same speed as your old dial up modem that you tossed five years or more ago! Yikes!

So how much can you download for 1GB? According to Silicon Alley Insider, “One gigabyte is about how much it takes to download the equivalent of a few albums, a decent quality movie, and a decent quality TV episode — not much. Add to that whatever email, Web browsing, file downloading, app downloading, and whatever else you’ll be doing, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched for the power users that Google is courting to hit that 1 gigabyte cap — 34 MB a day — on a regular basis.”

AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon all offer a 5GB cap— that’s five times the amount T-Mobile is offering! 

Bummer.

Source:
Silicon Alley Insider

T-Mobile G1 Webcast report

For just the highlights click here.
For just the pictures click here. 

The new G1 mobile device from T-mobile, HTC and Google is going to cost you a modest $179. For what it’s offering this is a reasonable and somewhat expected price- it runs just shy of the 8G iPhone 3G which would cost you $199 with a two year contract.

So when can you get your hands on the G1? October 22 if you’re in the states, in the UK you can expect to see G1s in early November, the rest of Europe is looking at a quarter one, 2009 release date; that means sometime between January and March. If you are currently a T-Mobile user you can pre-order your G1 and have it delivered to you when it arrives!

The phone is sim locked to T-Mobile although after it’s release in October, the Android mobile operating system will be available for download onto many phones under the open source provision. If you’re keen on the G1, then you will be looking at two different data plans. The first offers unlimited data but limited messages (not specified) for $25 a month. The second offers unlimited data and messages for an additional $10 a month. Both require you to purchase a voice plan in conjunction with the data plan.

The phone will support 2G (Edge), 3G and Wifi. It will work with both push and pull mail fetching, but will not support Exchange. They are leaving this open to third party developers to hash out for now. This means most crackberry addicts will not be converting to G1 addicts for the time being. The G1 was described during the webinar as being more of a consumer device that many enterprise users will want.

G1 can read word documents, excel documents and pdf’s. It also supports a web browser much like the recently released Google Chrome for Windows. During the webinar it was dubbed Chrome Lite because it is essentially Chrome but for a smaller screen.

So what cool things does the T-Mobile G1 do? It features a very customizable home screen, allows you to drag and drop apps, and includes a Window Shade that allows you to seamlessly switch between multiple applications running at the same time. The window shade works much like the tab running across the top of your screen when you are hopping between multiple remote desktop sessions in Windows.

The pull out keyboard features a dedicated search button as a reminder to us that, after all the operating system made for the G1 was created by a search engine based company!

For more information I would encourage you to catch a “re-run” of the webcast if you can. I am sure we are going to hear a lot more about the G1 from T-Mobile and Google in the next month. The two companies announced today that they have worked together on the largest marketing campaign that T-Mobile has ever ventured on! I can’t wait to see this! Stay tuned…

Highlights from the T-Mobile G1 Webcast- full report coming soon

So what did we learn from the T-mobile G1 webcast:

General:

• You can drag and drop essentially any app
• Includes a window shade that allows you to switch between multiple applications running at the same time
• In Compass Mode the screen will move as you do
• A long press on any pic in your web browser will automatically attach it to an email and allow you to send the email while in the web browser
• There is a dedicated search button on the keyboard 
• No tether modem

Pricing:

• $179
• Launching on October 22, 2008 in the USA
• Launching in the UK in early November
• Launching in Europe during the 1st quarter of 2009
• Current t-mobile customers may order a limited quantity of devices starting today to be delivered on the launch date
• Two separate data plans: $25 for unlimited data + limited messages, $35 for unlimited data + unlimited messages
• Need a data + voice plan
• G1 is locked to the t-mobile network

Supports:

• 2G, 3G and Wifi
• Gmail- push and IMAP-pull
• Reads word, pdf and excel docs
• No A2DP yet
• “Chrome lite” browser
• Supports many music formats but not iTunes unless unlocked by user
• No skype
• Will work on almost any network internationally