HTC Diamond

T-Mobile’s G1 or more popularly called the Google phone would be the first Android based handset available in the market. The phone manufactured by HTC has all the features of a smartphone but would it be as reliable as a Windows Mobile or a Symbian operating system?

On a first look at the HTC G1, you would think it is similar to the Nokia’s Internet Tablet devices or HTC’s own HTC Touch Diamond or the Touch Pro. The phone is also very different from an iPhone making it incomparable and one that caters to a completely different audience. Well, it’s at least 100 times better than a iPhone.

QWERTY Keyboard: With its wide, simple and elegant keyboards, they are one of the most comfortable QWERTY keys available on a mobile market today. This is great while composing emails, surfing the web, sending messages or while chatting.

3G and EDGE: The HTC G1 has a built-in support for 3g and EDGE networks which T-Mobile supports enabling high-speed data connection for surfing and downloads.

Communication: The HTC G1 has a rich HTML e-mail client which can synchronize your e-mail messages, your calendar schedules and contact information. The phone also supports POP3 or IMAP.

Online Chat: You can now be connected with your Google Talk™, Yahoo! Messenger ®, Windows Live Messenger and AOL® as T-Mobile supports these in U.S.

Music: The Google Phone for T-Mobile has a pre-loaded application from Amazon with which one can download their favorite DRM-free 6 million MP3 tracks. However, downloading music from Amazon MP3 would require a Wi-Fi connection.

Android Market: The new Android open source operating system has its own feature called the Android Market which has a whole load of applications and services from worldwide developers.

ShopSavvy: Android application to help you do a comparative shopping. Users can scan the UPC code of a product with their Google Phone’s camera during shopping and compare product prices from online merchants with the nearby local store.

Ecorio: Another application on the Android phone developed to assist users to organize and track their daily travels and even check their carbon footprints. The Ecorio also helps users find their impact on environment by calculating the number of steps they take each day.

BreadCrumbz: With BreadCrumbz you can create a visual mapping path using photos.

Highlights

• 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with HVGA (320 X 480 pixel) resolution.
• Full 5-row QWERTY keyboard.
• One-click Google Search™.
• Customizable Home screen with instant Email, text message and IM notifications.
• Instant access to mobile Internet services (Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Maps™, Google Talk™, Google Calendar™).
• High-speed 3.5G network connection.
• Wi-Fi technology with seamless transition to open networks.
• Android Market™ with access to variety of software and media downloads. (some fees may apply)
  3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus.
• microSD™ (SD 2.0 compatible) expansion slot for all your storage needs.

Apple iPhone has been launched to the public and New Zealander Jonny Gladwell spent a record 60 hours in freezing temperatures to get his hand on the first sold 3G iPhone.

Well, as you are aware, the new 3G iPhone has nothing great that the other phones do not have. Well, it certainly has the looks. But just great looks do not matter much to a tech freak. Might go well with a fashionable show off person. Though the iPhone still lacks a decent camera, the much hyped phone has still got a lot of fan following.
Gladwell, excited about the purchase of the first ever sold 3G phone, well many readers might think what’s that great in it? mentioned AP, “I’m going to put this on charge, have a play around with it, and have a nice long sleep.” Well, he needs to or he would have to land up with a psychiatrist.

Not just the crazy Gladwell, there were many others too who queued up the stores in New Zealand. Now you know that looks alone can matter. The sales started off midnight on July 11th Friday in New Zealand.

Well, craziness does not end in New Zealand. It spread. In Tokyo, iPhone was launched with buyers lined up outside the Softbank store which sells iPhone in Japan. The 8GB model was sold for $215 and the 16GB at a cost of $320. There were more than 1,000 people lined up which obviously led to declaration of sold out stocks.

In USA, the phone was launched for $199 and $299 for the 8GB and 16GB versions ahead of the big weekend. Customers flocked the stores in UK in a orderly manner at the flagship O2 store.

Though the phone does not have any great feature than its competitor’s like the Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson Xperia or the HTC Diamond, it has a far better look and a large display which has brought in the cult following. As I said, for many, looks alone matter.