This time the legwork comes from a pair of XDA-Developers, uh, developers, galnet and lttldvl, both members of the MIUI team. The hardware in their photo looks like the original international version, but it shouldn’t be too difficult for community members to begin pumping out variations for the Captivate, Vibrant, Fascinate, et cetera. The ROM is in the extreme alpha stage – not even the touchscreen works, and proper resolution scaling has yet to be implemented. Brave souls can download and flash the ROM now, but for goodness sake, keep a Nandroid backup handy.

Naturally the Nexus S and Nexus One were two of the first devices to get an SDK port for Ice Cream Sandwich, with more esoteric hardware like the ThunderBolt following. More stable and useful ports should begin appearing once Google releases the open source code, currently expected a week or two after the November launch of the Galaxy Nexus. HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony and others have already committed to bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to such devices as can handle it.

Check out our hands-on looks at the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich below:

Galaxy Nexus Hands-on

Ice Cream Sandwich Hands-on

[devide id=517]

[via UberGizmo]

First we saw Android 3.2 start rolling out to Xoom users, and now developers can access all the resources they need from the 3.2 SDK. They bumped the API to level 13 and released the SDK all in one run. Along with 3.2 comes support for 7″ tablets, official MicroSD support for Honeycomb, as well as some zoom features for those not so ready for tablet applications.

If you haven’t received it for your Wi-Fi Motorola Xoom you can download the 3.2 update right here. Also tweets suggest both the Asus Transformer, and the 3G Xoom should get updated in the “coming weeks”. I’m excited to see what else starts heading to the market now we officially have 7″ support. I still think 8.9″ is the perfect tablet size but would love a 7″ HTC tablet running on Honeycomb.

Android 3.2 SDK Info

[via Android Developer Blog]

As for the Eclipse plugin, you’ll be getting support for the new SDK tools revision, you’ll have better control over APK file packaging, you’ll get better previews, more complete and reliable error messages, resize support (for that tasty Ice Cream Sandwich on the horizon!) – LinearLayout now mapping sizes to weights instead of pixel widths. Hooray for tablets, essentially, is what they’re saying here. No longer will you be plagued with the dooming stretched screens and double pixel visual errors of old. AND of course there will be much in the area of bug fixes, both here and in SDK.

Grab all the updates via the Android Developer main homepage or go straight to the ADT Plugin for Eclipse page or the SDK Tools page right this minute. NOTE also that if you’re going to develop outside of Eclipse, you’ll now need or later. Not so rough considering that update came out December 27th 2010. Neato!

NFC is a bright future for smartphones, so says we, as it can also be used for ticketing, advertising, ratings on all objects, and all manner of data exchange. The new capabilities added to NFC functionality are thus:

• An extensive and comprehensive NFC writer/reader API that allows users to read and write basically every standard NFC tag used in this modern NFC world of ours. A set of API included in this update are thus:
• NFC-A (ISO 14443-3A)
• NFC-B (ISO 14443-3B)
• NFC-F (JIS 6319-4)
• NFC-V (ISO 15693)
• ISO-DEP (ISO 14443-4)
• Mifare Classic
• Mifare Ultralight
NFC Forum NDEF tags
• Advanced Intent dispatching that allows apps control over how and when they’re launched when an NFC tag comes inside their bubble.
• Support for peer-to-peer connection with other NFC devices (this item is still limited)

You’ll be able to take hold of each of these features with Android 2.3 Gingerbread update 2.3.3 as it contains the new API level, level 10. If you’d like to take a look at an expanded list of updates with 2.3.3, take a walk over to Google. If you’d like to download the SDK for this update, also head over to Google.

[via Android Developers]

NEW USER FEATURES

First we’ll be going through User Features – what’s this mean? It means that this is the part that anyone who DOESNT plan on getting into developing apps, games, or hacks will be seeing and using. Everyone should pay attention though, as this is the face of the future of tablets in Android, and everyone knows that the face is half of the body.

New User Interface

The folks at Android are saying they’ve designed this new UI from the ground up. They’ve optimized this system to work on devices larger than your average smartphone, the same way you design a giant poster different than you design a business card. More space, different design. In doing this, Android has introduced a new “holographic” UI design (which we’ll get into later) as well as a content-focused interaction model. This means that while smartphone versions of Android did have content on them, apps, games, this tablet is living in that world wholeheartedly. Android versions of the past, on smaller devices, devices that still have their hearts in communicating with other such devices, this Android is made to be utilized as a fuller work and play machine. A comparison can be made to a letter and a book, if you catch my meaning.

Android 3.0 claims to be refining such things as multitasking, home screen customization, widgets, and notifications. All of these items in Honeycomb have been looked at, poured over, and modified – integrated and expanded into this new 3D experience, one that will seem at first to be brand new, but will quickly feel familiar, even when you’ve got your fingers on features that are completely new. Apps written for earlier platforms should translate perfectly well to this new environment, and new apps will have the opportunity to make use of a new set of UI objects, new media capabilities, and more powerful graphics.

Action Bar — Application Control — TOP
At the top of your screen in every application, the Action Bar will give you access to contextual options, navigation, widgets, and more. This bar is of course controlled by the open app rather than the system, just adding another component for developers to take control of an use to add functionality to their apps. For example – Android supposes this feature will be used where apps otherwise used overflow dropdown menus written individually for each app – now there’s no longer a need for that.

System Bar — Global Status and Notifications — BOTTOM
At the bottom of your screen always*, apparently even while you’ve got apps open, the System Bar will be open, sending you notifications, system status, and some soft navigation buttons (back, home, menu.) *The one time this bar will be invisible is “Lights Out Mode” which is essentially a “full screen” situation for when apps and movies wish to take up the entire real-estate.

Customizable Home Screens
If you’ve never customized the way your home screens look, you’re in for a treat. Where apps such as ADW Launcher EX are used for home screen replacement now, on Honeycomb that sort of functionality will be built in. Honeycomb allows you to have five customizable home screens (that means each screen can be whatever you want it to be, where home screen replacements now only do universal changes.) Each of these five screens can have widgets and apps as normal, but also a dedicated visual layout mode, wallpapers, and more.

Lots of shadows and subtle visual cues help improve visibility while layouts of both app shortcuts and widgets are being arranged. Each individual screen also offers access to your launcher (with all of your apps) as well as a search box for universal searching of apps, media files, web, contacts, and more.

Recent Apps
A feature everyone in the world uses 100 times a day, recent applications, is available here now to help you rock and roll with speed to the apps you use most. This feature is in place to help you multitask by rapidly finding the app you need by showing you a snapshot of the actual state the app was in the last time you used it. How helpful! This feature can be found in the System Bar.

Keyboard
Of course you know the keyboard would be enhanced for this larger world – each key has been reshaped and repositioned for what the folks at Android have found to be the optimal location location and tapability, for speed, for accuracy. Furthermore, new keys have been added such as TAB to make your keyboard experience a totally awesome one. This new keyboard works together with the System Bar, the bar having touch-hold buttons that bring up menus of special characters and switch text/voice input modes.

Text Selection / Copy Paste
Not entirely new, but improved is the ability to select, copy, and paste text. Just press hold in an area you plan on copying and two selection arrows will appear. Adjust the location of these arrows, seeing the text highlight as you do so. Once you’ve got what you want selected, the Action Bar will allow you to copy, share, paste, or search with what you’ve copied (or of course paste over what you’ve copied.)

Connectivity
You’ve got a new set of options as far as connecting with Honeycomb. Connecting to Media/Photo Transfer Protocol will allow you to sync your media files with a USB-connected camera or desktop computer without the need to mount a USB mass-storage device. Someday we’ll be able to do away with cords altogether, but not this update, so says Android.

This new set of connectivity features also works with full keyboards, allowing you to connect one via USB or Bluetooth, should you have a keyboard that does such a thing. As far as Wifi goes, there’s a brand new combo scan which reduces the time you’ll be waiting to scan across bands and filters. Then there’s improved Bluetooth tethering offering you connections to more types of devices than ever before.

Standard Apps
Amongst the standard apps improved for this larger tablet environment are Browser, Camera, Gallery, Contacts, and Email.

Browser
Tabbing is now implemented on this standard browser, an excellent addition considering the fact that pressure has been put on Android to do such a thing for several cycles now. Also included is “incognito mode” which will allow you to browse the internet without the places your going being added to your browser history. History and bookmarks are now both presented and managed from a single page, making it easier to work with both.

Google is put at the forefront of your browsing experience with an easy sync with your Google Chrome bookmarks and an automatic sign-in for Google sites with a supplied account. Multitouch support is updated for working with JavaScript and plugins, and users will have a nicer time browsing websites not optimized for non-desktop use with improved zoom and viewports, overflow scrolling, and support for fixed positioning.

Camera / Gallery
The camera has been reworked for a larger screen, offering quicker access to features such as zoom, front-facing camera, focus and flash, and more. Gallery has been similarly reworked for larger screens, with a very similar look other than a slightly optimized interface.

Contacts
The app you use for collecting and viewing your contacts now works with a two-panel user interface. You’ll quickly scroll back and forth, up and down between contacts, easily organizing and creating them as usual. Improved formatting allows for international phone numbers and more user types based on country, international number, and etc. Contacts are now presented in cards making it a more familiar place to browse colleagues, friends, and family.

Wrap-Up
This is only the beginning. We can’t stress this enough. In a couple days we’ll be at the Honeycomb special event in California and we’ll be able to give you a much more full account of what’s going on this this new version of the Android OS. The stuff you see above is just the basics, just the preview. It’s going to be a whole lot bigger than this.

Also, take a peek at our post on the rest of the new features in Android 3.0 Honeycomb from the Developer side of the equation. Gain a deeper understanding of what you’re looking at from the outside by having a peek from the inside.

NEW DEVELOPER FEATURES

Let’s have a look at what’s under the hood here, let’s take a peek at what you as a developer will be working with. You who is responsible for making the apps, taking cracks at hacks, and adding to an already amazing system with your customizations. We’ll be covering a new UI framework, 2D and 3D graphics, multicore processor architectures, rich multimedia and connectivity, enhancements for enterprise, and compatibility (for already existing apps.)

New User Interface Framework
As you may already know, Android 3.0 Honeycomb is built to work with larger devices, especially what they’re calling tablets. The new UI framework you’ll be working here is made to create tablet apps.

Activity Fragments
Beginning here in Android 3.0 Honeycomb, you’ll be able to break Activities of your apps down into subcomponents called Fragments. These Fragments, once they’re broken down, can be combined to create a greater and more rich interactive experience. For example, you’ll be able to create a pane system similar to the home screens used as desktops in the main UI of Android. With these panes you’ll be able to create an situation where users can interact with each pane independently — multi-player games, anyone?

Fragments can be added and removed, replaced and animated inside an Activity dynamically, each of them being both reusable and modular. Because Fragments are modular, they can be made to run efficiently in both large and small screen environments (this leading us to believe that this sort of functionality will be available on Android 2.4, or a similar upgrade.)

Redesigned UI Widgets
As the screens this version of Android will be used on will be bigger, so too must the widgets be redesigned to work as well as they could be. Android 3.0 offers you an upgraded set of UI widgets that you can use to add brand new spectacular bits of contents to your applications. Each of these new UI widgets are made to be used in Honeycomb’s new “holographic” UI theme. Amongst these are:
• 3D Stack (for tiny galleries, cycling through panels)
• Search Box (for searching with, silly)
• Date/Time Picker (for scheduling, countdowns)
• Number Picker (for similar such things)
• Calendar
• Popup Menu (extreme potential here)
• and More, we assume

Persistent Action Bar
At the top of the screen as often as you’d like it to be there (it can be hidden and disregarded if you’ve got no use for it,) is the Action Bar. This bar can give users quick access to widgets, status, contextual options, navigation, or whatever you’d like it to give them access to. Your application can make the Action Bar whatever you’d like it to be. Users will become familiar with the existence of the Action Bar on their home page, thusly they’ll look for it in every app they bring up.

Richer Notifications
If you thought your notifications were rich before – you were wrong. So wrong! In Honeycomb, you’ll be able to make notifications the center of the user’s experience, showing them updates in real time (as always,) but as this is expanded upon in Honeycomb, so too should you utilize it in an expanded way. A new builder class will allow you to create notifications with
• large and small icons,
• a title,
• a priority flag,
• and all the properties already available in previous Android versions. These notifications build upon the expanded set of UI Widgets that will now be available as remote Views.

Multiselect / Clipboard / Drag-and-Drop
Multiselect mode can now be used to manage collections of items in lists or grids, the ability to select multiple items for an action now a reality. You may now also utilize a system-wide Clipboard to clip, copy, and paste information in and out of applications. Through the new DragEvent framework, you can now allow users to have an easier time managing and organizing files with drag-and-drop.

High Performance 2D and 3D Graphics
Animation Framework
This new feature is a platform that includes flexible animation framework that makes it easy for you to animate the properties of UI elements like
• Views,
• Widgets,
• Fragments,
• Drawables,
• or any arbitrary object. These animations can fade between states, add movement, loop an animated image or an already moving animation, change item colors, and more.

Hardware-Accelerated 2D Graphics
In Honeycomb you’ll be working with a brand new hardware-accelerated OpenGL renderer that give your graphics operators and applications running in Android a performance boost – the acceleration you need to blast your apps off into outer space! Operations in
• Canvas,
• Paint,
• Xfermode,
• ColorFilter,
• Shader,
• and Camera are accelerated. You’ll now be able to control how this hardware acceleration is applied at every single level. You’ll be able to select where to enable it – in specific Activities, Views, or simply globally.

Renderscript 3D Graphics Engine
There’s a brand new runtime 3D framework in town, and it’s called Renderscript. This framework lends both the API for building 3D scenes and a platform-independent shader language for max performance. With Renderscript you’ll be able to accelerate both data processing and graphics operations, this being the absolute best new way to create high-performance 3D graphics on this engine for all sorts of wild stuff Google hasn’t even imagined.

Support for Multicore Processor Architectures
You didn’t think they’d leave you with a system that’d only provide support for the ancient single-core devices we’ve been using so far, did you? No way, man, check it out: Android 3.0 is the very first version of the Android OS to provide real support for running on either single or multi-core processor architectures. To add symmetric multiprocessing in these two-or-more core environments, several changes in the Dalvik VM, Bionic library have been made, as well as changes elsewhere we don’t even really know about yet. Optimizations made in this area will benefit all apps, even those that remain single-threaded.

Rich Multimedia and Connectivity
HTTP Live Streaming
Apps can take a M3U playlist URL and toss it unto the media framework for HTTP live streaming. This new media framework supports most live streaming on HTTP including adaptive bit rate.

Pluggable DRM Framework
Honeycomb gives you an extensible DRM framework that allows apps to manage protected content according to the mechanisms of DRMs that may be available on the device. For you developers, this framework API will be giving you a consistant, unified API that make it simple to manage protected content no matter the DRM engines that lie below.

Digital Media File Transfer
This new platform give you built-in support for MTP/PTP (Media Transfer Protocol/Picture Transfer Protocol) over USB, giving the users that sweet sounding ability to transfer any kind of media file between their device and a host computer. Imagine the possibilities.

Additional Connectivity Types
API support is now added for Bluetooth A2DP and HSP profiles allowing apps query Bluetooth profiles for audio state, connected devices, and etc, notifying then the user of what’s going on. Apps may also now register to receive system broadcasts of pre-defined vendor-specific AT commands. Along these same lines, apps may now take advantage of the ability of the user to work with full keyboards connected with USB or Bluetooth, as Honeycomb supports just that.

Enhancements for Enterprise
Device administration application developers may now support new types of policies such as those for
• encrypted storage,
• password expiration,
• password history,
• and password complex characters required.

Compatibility with Existing Apps
Android 3.0 Honeycomb will be fully compatible with apps developed for smaller screens and earlier versions of the Android OS. No code changes will be required for apps to work with Honeycomb’s new “holographic UI” by simply adding a single attribute to their manifest files. This attribute should take what would normally be activated by the menu key and replace it with the overflow menu in the new Action Bar. Of course, you may also take full advantage of the larger screens that’ll be working with Honeycomb most often by creating dedicated layouts and assets that work specifically with Android 3.0

Wrap-Up
Again, this is only the beginning. We’ll be at the full-blown Honeycomb special event in California this Wednesday and we’ll be blasting every little pixel we’re able to peek at straight through your screen into your eyeballs before the folks at Google even say it out loud. What you see above is bound to only be scraping the surface when it comes to what this brand new version of the Android operating system is capable of, especially since it was designed specifically with BIGGER devices in mind.

Also, take a peek at our post on the rest of the new features in Android 3.0 Honeycomb from the User side of the equation. Gain a deeper understanding of what you’re looking at from the inside by having a peek from the outside.

We’re guessing there’s been a problem where Google’s either had to pull the file for the moment so as to stop speculation into what’ll be shared at the event coming up on Wednesday, February 2nd, but who knows? Any suggestions as to why the file’s been pulled from Google’s database? While we’re all running around with our hands up in the air, let’s also mention that we’ll be there at the Android Honeycomb event reporting to you faster than anyone else on the internet – get pumped up!

You’ll see here below one of the worst videos EVER, but inside is 2 minutes of booting to Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Not much to see inside of course, but heck! It’s a tasty treat on a magical device.

[Via XDA Developers Forum]

BuzzCity sells mobile ad inventory to advertisers who will be getting a great deal as developers are paid on a PPC basis. That’s Paid Per Click, which if you’re the sort of person who has a blog out there, you know can be crappy as you can go days without seeing so much as a cent. On the other hand, this is a mobile market, so perhaps the situation is different.

BuzzCity date shows top handsets used on their system as being Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson – Samsung and Sony Ericsson having 11 Android-based handsets or more. On the announcement of the SDK’s release, Dr. KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity had this to say: “Android is well positioned to power a large number and variety of connected devices in the near future. It is the only non-proprietary operating system that allows both developers and handset manufacturers to rapidly develop the user interface for new applications – and we believe that this gives it a greater chance of wider commercial adoption.”

[Via intoMobile]

These controllers will help bring a console like gaming experience to Android. the fact of the matter is, even the best games on Android are hard to control with the onscreen touch buttons or even the accelerometer. Developers can register for the new SDK on the Zeemote website.

By integrating Zeemote SDKs into their existing and future applications, developers can:

• provide a superior mobile gaming experience across multiple supported platforms (while maintaining compatibility with existing distribution channels)

• deliver true analog game control ( makes games stand out)
• enable multi-player mobile gaming (two controllers to one device)
• turn a TV-out featured smart phone into a mobile game console

Jim Adams, business development at Zeemote, said, “By adding the exciting Android SDK to our stable of supported platforms, we are able to give developers an excellent way in which to make their applications really stand out from the crowd. The Android community is proving itself to be wildly creative, pushing the boundaries of convention for mobile applications. When combined with the Zeemote JS1 Controller we expect to see some radical application creativity coming out of the Android community.”

The conference will surely be Android heavy and these free phones will help the developers produce exciting new things for second generation hardware. Getting these phones before the I/O will help developers to get familiar with the latest version of Android. The device you receive will be based on your location and you will not be able to choose the device you get.

Here’s the Email Google is sending out:

This year’s Google I/O is less than 2 months away, and we’re very excited that you and over 4,000 other developers will be joining us in San Francisco. During the 2-day conference, you’ll have over 90 sessions to choose from and the opportunity to meet with developers from over 170 companies that will be demoing their apps and talking in-depth about their use of Google technologies in the Developer Sandbox.

As you might have guessed, Android will have a big presence at this year’s event. To make sure you’re equipped to make the most of your Android experience during Google I/O, we’d like to mail you a Verizon Droid by Motorola before the event.

Bring your Android device to Google I/O
Instead of having you spend time picking up and registering the device during the conference, we want you to be able to get started ASAP. Here are the different ways in which we’re hoping you’ll use the device you receive:

Get to know the Android SDK
Use the device to get started on your first (or next!) Android app using the latest SDK. You’ll find a ton of helpful info atdeveloper.android.com, including the Developer’s Guide. We hope you have new apps or working prototypes by the time of I/O. That way, you’ll be able to get feedback on your app from other developers, including members of the Android team who’ll be leading in-depth sessions and answering attendees’ technical questions during Office Hours (the schedule will be published oncode.google.com/io in April).

Put your device to work at I/O
To encourage active use of your device, we’re amplifying cellular and wireless coverage inside Moscone West, and charging stations will be available for anyone to use. We hope you’ll:
Get I/O info on your device: Before May 19th, we’ll send out details on how to download a conference app that we’re building now. During I/O, you can use the app to instantly access I/O session details and more.
Download apps: Over 40 companies will be demoing the latest and greatest apps available in the Android Market. Check out their demos in the Developer Sandbox, download new apps, and take them for a test drive.
Participate in SCVNGR: We’re collaborating with SCVNGR to produce a location-based mobile game for Google I/O that’ll have you hunting for QR codes hidden throughout the events.

To receive your Android device:
Click the form link below, read the terms and conditions of the offer and fill out the form with your preferred shipping address so we know where you’d like to receive your device. All preferred shipping addresses must be submitted no later than April 18th.
You’ll receive your device 2 to 4 weeks from the day you provide your shipping address.

To learn more about this giveaway for Google I/O, visit our FAQ page. If you have questions that aren’t answered on the website, please send an email to googleio2010-gift@google.com.

Thanks for your support of Google’s developer initiatives and for registering for Google I/O. We look forward to seeing you in May!

Sincerely,
The Google I/O Team

[via techcrunch]

As you can see on the image above, there were updates to multiple components of the Android SDK last Thursday: Android 2.0.1 revision 1, Android 1.6 revision 2 and SDK Tools, revision 4. Let’s begin with Android 2.0.1, which is a minor update to the mobile OS (Android 2.0) running on the Motorola DROID. This update includes several bug fixes and behavior changes. If you like to know more about this update, check the Android 2.0.1 release notes.

Next is Android 1.6, revision 2, which includes fixes to the compatibility mode for those apps that don’t support multiple screen sizes. For more on this update, read the release notes on the Android 1.6, revision 2 here. And now, let’s talk about the SDK Tools, revision 4, which is also a minor update, with mostly bug fixes in the SDK Manager. There’s also a new version of the Eclipse plug-in that embeds those fixes. For more info on the details, check the links of the SDK Tools revision 4 and the ADT (Android Development Tools) 0.9.5 release notes.

Arsen shot the following demo video of Cupcake 1.5 in action, including the video recording and the new auto-complete URL suggestions introduced with the on-screen keyboard.  According to their feedback, the browser does indeed run faster but 3GP video captured by the G1 was less successful, with numerous skips and judders.

The HTC download will apparently only work with the HTC Dream (aka T-Mobile G1) hardware, and must be a developer device rather than a standard retail handset.  However that’s unlikely to stop the teams of avid Android tweakers who right now are looking for ways to modify the firmware for a general install, ahead of the official May release.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hczgL3C2yrw[/youtube]

[Thanks Paul3G and lovedumplingx!]

Offered through Android 1.5 is a home screen framework for developing widgets. With this, options are available to populate live folders with as much content as you please. Unofficial news is whether 1.5 will come to existing Android handsets in the field.

There is limited information listed in the change log that would prevent current hardware from taking full advantage from the new version. The OHA will be available noting how to prepare application for the release of Android 1.5 on phones.

[via EngadgetMobile]

The Zoom is intended for developers interested in coding for the OMAP3 chipset, and has a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen running at WVGA resolution, HDMI out, WiFi and optional 3G, together with 16GB of storage plus an SD card slot, a QWERTY keypad and an 8-megapixel camera.  TI will happily sell them to consumers, too, though you’ll need deep pockets: the WiFi-only version is priced at $1,150 while the 3G-equipped Zoom comes in at $1,399.

We asked TI whether they had forked from the standard Android build, and they were at pains to say no; they’ve been feeding back in their code developments to the Open Handset Alliance.  Check out the demo video, which shows just how well the TI Zoom runs the Google OS.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kgCaASk1yc[/youtube]

One San Francisco store was given the OK to sell the T-Mobile G1 a few hours early. The line grew rather long as people from all over the area lined up for a chance to get the G1 early. Many T-Mobile customers found a pleasant surprise on their doorsteps Monday morning as most of the pre-orders arrived 2 days early. Google finally released the source code for their Android operating system, however it appears it will only be for those who are running OSX or Linux.

Kyocera also announced they are working on an Android-powered handset. No details about the device have been released at this time. T-Mobile’s exclusive Hotspot Connect application was released into the Android Market this week allowing T-Mobile customers to connect to any T-Mobile Hotspot for free. The long awaited day came with the official launch of the T-Mobile G1, the first handset to run Google’s Android platform. TmoNews reported that there was to be an over the air update (OTA) for the G1 on the 23rd, but after no update was made available, reports changed the release date to November 2nd.

One concept of the Android interface surfaced in the Show Room for the Swedish software technology and design company Tat. Seen in the concept was a layout at the bottom that somewhat resembled that of the iPhone dock. Google announced that they will start allowing paid applications to enter the Android Market in early 2009. Another picture surfaced this week bringing hope to G1 owners who would like an on-screen keyboard, the picture showed an on-screen keyboard that very closely resembles that of Apple’s iPhone.

Instructions surfaced helping people activate their G1 at home without having an account, although to achieve this an activated T-Mobile SIM card is required. Hop-on is the latest company to announce that they are developing a phone to run the Android platform. Hop-on plans to unveil their Android in January at CES 2009. Stories are coming from all over the place stating that T-Mobile employees in non-3G areas know little or nothing about the G1 because they will not be selling the device.

Two developers of award winning Android applications TuneWiki and Shopsavvy, held an AndroidDevCamp in Dallas on the 25th to help developers get started with Android. HTC CEO Peter Chou, told Mercury News that G1 sales for 2008 would be more than 600,000 units rather than the 1.5 million reported to be sold already in pre-orders. Security researchers have already found a security flaw in the G1 that can potentially allow attackers to record keystrokes made within the devise’s browser application. Google is aware of this problem and states that it is not as bad as it appears and that they are already working on it.

Our Golla G1 Case Giveaway came to an end this week, we would like to take the time again to thank our sponsor Smartphone Experts for making the giveaway posible. I am going to pick up a Golla case myself, the cases were actually really nice and fit very well. I would also like to say thank you to all of our members for making this week another record breaking week for us here at Android Community!

Until now, access to the Android SDK was limited to certain developers and testers; from now, however, it will available to anybody who wishes to download it.  The move stands in complete contrast to Apple, whose iPhone OS is both a closed environment and a strongly guarded one.  Google, however, are actively encouraging coders to manipulate, change and improve the Android source-code; indeed, some functionality, including on on-screen QWERTY keyboard, will not be present in Android v.1 out of the box, and require a third-party to develop.

You can access the Android source-code, together with documentation and support, at http://source.android.com/.  Don’t forget, if it’s help with coding, ideas for what new features would be popular, or talk about Android and the G1 that you’re looking for, you’ll find it in the Android Community forums.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y4thikv-OM[/youtube]

Press Release:

Google and the Open Handset Alliance Announce Android Open Source Availability

Today, Google and the Open Handset Alliance announced the availability of the Android platform source code to everyone, for free, under the new Android Open Source Project. This represents the first truly open and fully featured mobile platform which will enable people to create a mobile device without restrictions, build applications that run on Android powered devices, and contribute to the core platform.

As an open source project, anyone can contribute to Android and influence its direction. It means that anyone can download, build, and run the code needed to create a complete mobile device. With an open source platform, developers, OEMs, carriers and code contributors are given the opportunity to build faster, cheaper and more innovative devices and services.

Android is a complete, end-to-end software platform that can be adapted to work on any number of hardware configurations. Having an open source mobile platform will dramatically reduce the time and resources required to bring mobile devices to market. Handset manufactures can access a complete, full featured mobile stack without any barriers and get a head-start in creating as contemporary a device that they want to build. Developers for the first time can contribute code, with a full set APIs that allows the platform to host applications written by third-party developers and carriers can offer faster, cheaper and more innovative devices and services.

“Open source allows everyone and anyone equal access to the ideas and innovation that can make good products great,” said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms, Google. “An open sourced mobile platform, that’s constantly being improved upon by the community and is available for everyone to use, speeds innovation, is an engine of economic opportunity and provides a better mobile experience for users.

With the availability of Android to the open source community, consumers will start to see more applications like location-based travel tools, games and social networking offerings available to them directly; cheaper and faster phones at lower costs; and a better mobile web experience through 3G networks with richer screens.

The code can be found under the Android Open Source Project, the open source initiative for Android now available at source.android.com.

Given the great anticipation and the heavy pre-sale demand for the T-Mobile G1 with Google, we nearly tripled the number of phones initially available for delivery on our Oct. 22 launch date, and have sold through them all.  However, to accommodate additional T-Mobile customers who want to pre-order a device, they now have the opportunity to place a pre-order through Oct. 21, for delivery at a later date.

Also, people can still pre-register on the T-Mobile G1 Web site to be notified prior to launch where they can purchase the device beginning Oct. 22.  Details are available on the T-Mobile G1 Web site, www.T-MobileG1.com.

UPDATE: T-Mobile customers who want to pre-order a device, they now have the opportunity to place a pre-order through Oct. 21, for delivery sometime in early November 10th time frame.

Thanks Kristen, T-Mobile Spokesperson

Android comes full of much loved features such as Youtube, and the Android equivalent to iTunes “Amazon MP3″. The clean interface on these applications give them the edge over competitors applications of the same nature. Google’s new mobile version of Street View is a feature that all people will find useful. Visa has been at work creating an application that will offer account notifications, merchant offers and ATM locations.

It appears that the white G1 was held back from pre-orders, rumor is the white paint used to coat the device was chipping. The white version was even scarcely seen at T-Mobile’s G1 announcement. The G1 “Getting Started” guide got out a few weeks early revealing a lot more about the device including the box contents. Also released this week was the long awaited official Android SDK 1.0. Not much new to see in this polished version.

Photo of the dressed up Android is courtesy of Android Community’s member htc_dreamer.

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