This week kicked off with a killer deal being put on by American Express where they offered a T-Mobile G1 for only $125. The My Wishlist promotion went fast though, as the supply was limited to only 200 units. There was also a video showing Android booting on a Nokia n810. This video may have just been a fake, but this is still exciting. We have seen Android run on other exciting devices in the past.
We also received an inside tip informing us of the training of T-Mobile employees for the new data plans that T-Mobile is putting into place. New customers are going to be faced with higher data plants and a 10GB cap is being put into place. One user was surprised to find that taking his T-Mobile G1 out of the country, even with data turned off would still give you data roaming charges. Customer service told him that he would be fine overseas when in fact he racked up a $102.85 bill. We later found out that in UK models of the G1, data roaming is turned off by default. We find it very odd that one version would be setup in this way while the other impossible to stop.
It seems the UK is having all the luck with the G1 when compared to those of us here in the US. Now it appears that people who purchase the G1 in the UK will be getting a killer deal on their monthly subscription cost. T-Mobile decided to cut a whopping 25 percent off of the monthly price, bringing it now to only £30 (about $45 USD). Now the Android Market has welcomed FotMob, this application is bringing football scores to the palm of your hand. With FotMob you can get live coverage of Premier League, Championship, Bundesliga, Serie A, Primera Division, SAS ligaen, Tippeligaen, Adeccoligaen and Champions Leagues anywhere you go.
We now know what next next official Android-powered handset is going to be, but we are very surprised that it wont be out of China. The Kogan Agora Pro is available for pre-order out of Australia right now. This handset is going to cost you $399 for the better version and just $299 for the stripped out version that is missing features such as the camera. The handsets specifications do not impress in many ways so don’t expect too much out of it. On January 29th the Kogan Agora Pro will begin shipping to those who pre-ordered the device.
It turns out Hop-on will actually be announcing gambling software for Android at CES 2009. Apparently the mobile gambling industry is growing at a rapid rate. People just can’t wait to throw their money away while waiting for a doctor’s appointment or riding the bus. In other application news Shazam has added 2 million new songs to their database making it even more useful. This application remains free, as it has always been in the past.
Google has also released a $399 unlocked version of the G1 for developers. This version includes a bootloader that does not restrict the device to officially signed firmware builds. In order to purchase this G1 you will have to be a registered developer and pay the $25 fee to register. One cool feature that Google has included on this version is a very nice graphic on the back piece. Also this week a new mobile browers for Android has been released. Steel may still be in the early stages, but has a lot of promise. One thing that we are looking forward to is the on-screen keyboard.
