Google Phone rumors

[haven]

These deals are available today, Jan 5:

Motorola Droid for $120 when you sign up for a 2 year contract:

http://www.wirefly.com/eCommerce/SpecialOffer.aspx?cid=34539_8ea29370e6d745b6b37acdb1931ff196

http://mobility.dell.com/specialoffer.aspx?cid=35693_eaa097e5feb149d5906cd75baf88763a


Droid Eris (also called the HTC Hero) phone for free w/ 2 year contract

http://mobility.dell.com/specialoffer.aspx?cid=35693_eaa097e5feb149d5906cd75baf88763a

 

[chrismc]

The Nexus One press conference is happening RIGHT NOW. You can watch the liveblog at http://live.gdgt.com/2010/01/05/live-google-nexus-one-launch-event-coverage/.

 

[haven]

A few notes from the Google Phone "press gathering":

Nexus One phone is available for purchase now through Google store
http://www.google.com/phone

Google's web store for phones will expand its offerings shortly. In addition to the Nexus One, new phones and new carriers will be added.

Verizon and Vodaphone will join T-Mobile as carriers for the Nexus One phones sold through the Google web site. Verizon by summer, Vodaphone by year-end

The Verizon Droid will get the Android 2.1 software soon

Motorola will introduce more phones that use Android
(I'm guessing an update to the Droid with faster processor will be first.)

Voice to text is supported for all data entry fields. Twitter was demonstrated. Speak your tweets!

Google Earth will be available for Nexus One (and presumably for any phone running Android 2.1) "soon." Voice activated navigation on Google Earth was demonstrated "Fly me to Mt. Fuji."

HTC will upgrade some but not all of its Android phones to 2.1
(I'm guessing the Hero/ Verizon Eris will be the model.)

The pricing that was rumored earlier is correct:
$180 for the Nexus One with T-Mobile contract
$530 for phone without contract

 

[WhereTheHellIsJames?]

Okay, the cat's out of the bag.

There are a lot of cool features to the Nexus one,
and I'm not really sure where to start, so this may
flow a bit randomly...

First some pics to show the look and size...

Size. The compact size of the Nexus One makes for
an easy carry- especially compared to the G1. See
the pics above, and you'll know what I'm talking
about. It's thin, fits the hand, and fits the pocket.

Apps. As you may already know, there are a ton of
apps available for phones running the android OS.

Mapping. The GPS on this phone is awesome! One
can zoom in, and the GPS is sensitive enough to
follow you from one side of your living room to the
other. My iPhone friends are jealous. Another great
GPS feature is the turn-by-turn driving directions,
with audio- works very similar to a Nuvi or the like.
Oh yeah, you can download your tracks to Google
Earth too- you can go out exploring, and when you
get home you can see where you went on GE.

Camera. 5MP with a high-power LED flash. Take
pics, send picture messages. Take video, send video
messages. Save either to your computer. Instant
one-touch upload of videos to YouTube.

General. I'm really pleased with the Nexus One. It
has an intuitive user interface- even more so than
the iPhone IMO. The reception seems to be average,
and the audio quality is great. Looking forward to
seeing what becomes available for Android- it's
open source, so we should be seeing some great
new apps and innovations soon.

Overall impression- awesome. I like it better than
the Droid and iPhone, but I do miss the keyboard
that my G1 has (the N1 has only an on-screen
keyboard). Would I buy one for $530? Probably
not- that's a lot of $ for a phone. Would I buy one
with a T-mobile contract for $180? Yep.

More info on the phone available at:
Google.com/phone

Edit:
I almost forgot about the voice recognition- it has
worked remarkably well for me, but there have
been several reviewers who say it's not that great.
Maybe they're mumblers?

 

[haven]

In a related story, T-Mobile has doubled its data transmission speed throughout its USA network. T-Mobile is now the fastest network for data use. (Other carriers are working on improving speed, too, but T-Mobile is first to finish.)

The speed rises from 3.6 to 7.2Mbps. That's in theory, of course. Nobody will see speeds that fast in practice.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/t-mobile-takes-entire-3g-network-to-7-2mbps/

 

[chrismc]

Since T-Mobile is a bit of a new player in the US cellular arena, their network isn't nearly as large as some of their competitors (which is a big reason why AT&T lags behind them in network speed- more to upgrade). Does anyone know who T-Mo has roaming agreements with? I know that you CAN'T roam from T-Mo to AT&T (even though they're both GSM carriers) because they use different frequencies for data. As an example, since Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA carriers, and use the same frequency ranges, Sprint customers can roam on Verizon towers. Roaming agreements and coverage are critical to having cellular service as you travel, since its not cost-effective for every carrier to have towers everywhere.

@WhereTheHellIsJames?: Do you get to keep it? If not, do you plan to buy one yourself?

 

[alosix]

Since T-Mobile is a bit of a new player in the US cellular arena, their network isn't nearly as large as some of their competitors (which is a big reason why AT&T lags behind them in network speed- more to upgrade). Does anyone know who T-Mo has roaming agreements with? I know that you CAN'T roam from T-Mo to AT&T (even though they're both GSM carriers) because they use different frequencies for data. As an example, since Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA carriers, and use the same frequency ranges, Sprint customers can roam on Verizon towers. Roaming agreements and coverage are critical to having cellular service as you travel, since its not cost-effective for every carrier to have towers everywhere.

T-Mo isn't exactly a new player. I've been with them since they were Voicestream in the states, and that was about 10 years ago.

That said, I don't tend to really have many coverage issues. There used to be a problem at my mom's house, but now it has REALLY strong 3g access there (to the point where I was using my google ION tethered and watching my dog in CA on a webcam over it).

The frequency difference is in the 3g data. They can technically roam in edge and for voice calls without any issues (not sure how well the billing gets along for that).

Roaming internationally was pretty solid, though still about $1 a minute the last time I was out to phone home, which.. surprisingly was the cheapest option I'd found.

I do wish these phones could support the uma like the crackberries do. Its nice to be able to make use of a nice strong wifi signal to make calls.

 

[Corey]

This just in from the webmaster over at the Droidforums.

It's been a wild ride the past couple of weeks with news of the Nexus One, Android 2.1 and the Droid. We've got some good news and some even better news for the Droid nation out there.

First of all, we've always supported choice in the market... choice promotes innovation, competition and of course competitive pricing, so it's always a good thing for consumers. Google has just made sure that there will be plenty of that with new-edge, high tech cell phones.

The Nexus One has been announced and it currently is available for sale both unlocked and unsubsidized or via contract on T-Mobile. However, more importantly for us it's also available on the Verizon network starting in Spring of 2010.

The Droid of course is a great phone and has great hardware and some features that the Nexus One does not... and that's when we were excited to hear from the Google team that Android 2.1 should be "open sourced" and available for use on handsets that support it (this includes the Droid) within the next couple of days. Expect to see all the goodness of 2.1 on your Droid very soon, including Live Wallpapers and the recently announced Google Earth for Android which will be available from the App store very soon.

We've got a ton of information on the Nexus One at the following resources:

=====
* Nexus One Forum - http://www.nexusoneforum.net

Be sure to register as soon as possible and get your low Member ID if you even think you might pick up a Nexus One in the future.

 

[targa88]

Unfortunately we remain handicapped North of the Border: no Google voice or Nexus.
Anyone care to provide me with their US addy so that I can get both?!

 

[rugbier]

Unfortunately we remain handicapped North of the Border: no Google voice or Nexus.
Anyone care to provide me with their US addy so that I can get both?!

You can use my business address if tha helps you for Nexus/Tmobile

Google Voice it is not address related, although you need a US Number to be forwarded/associated

 

[WhereTheHellIsJames?]

Since T-Mobile is a bit of a new player in the US cellular arena, their network isn't nearly as large as some of their competitors (which is a big reason why AT&T lags behind them in network speed- more to upgrade). Does anyone know who T-Mo has roaming agreements with? I know that you CAN'T roam from T-Mo to AT&T (even though they're both GSM carriers) because they use different frequencies for data. As an example, since Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA carriers, and use the same frequency ranges, Sprint customers can roam on Verizon towers. Roaming agreements and coverage are critical to having cellular service as you travel, since its not cost-effective for every carrier to have towers everywhere.

I roam on AT&T's towers about 10-15% of the total time that I use my phone in my local calling area (crummy T-mo coverage at the house, but good AT&T coverage- towers located on opposite sides of the valley here). T-mobile has an agreement with AT&T (among many others), and it costs me nothing extra to roam on AT&T's network.

@WhereTheHellIsJames?: Do you get to keep it?

Yep.

 

[haven]

AT&T announced today that they will start selling Android phones before mid-year. They plan to sell 5 models, manufactured by Motorola, HTC and Dell. No word if the Nexus One will be among the HTC models offered by AT&T.

This means that phones running Android will be available on all four of the major cell phone carriers in USA: T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. Greater sales of Android should translate into greater interest in the Android Market, the repository for applications that run under Android. More interest = more apps developed.