The phone is being called the Nexus one (so far, at least), and will run the Android operating system. The hardware comes from HTC. Most details about the phone are only speculative at this point, as the only people that have access to them are Google employees. The company has given a number of its employees the device to mess around with over the holidays. Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management writes on the Google Mobile Blog:

At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from "eating your own dogfood"). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level.

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

Queiroz also said that Google cannot share any specific product details, but that hasn’t stopped the leaks of photos. Engadget dug the following one up on Google’s Picasa Web Albums photo sharing site:

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land has a source, who he says is not a Gooogle Employee, that claims to have held one of the devices and messed around with it. He said that the resolution on the phone is "at least twice as good" as the iPhone. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google designed the entire software experience on the device, which makes it unique from other Android phones.

Apparently people will be able to purchase the phone directly from Google, rather than a carrier, and according to Pete Cashmore at Mashable, users will be able to choose their carrier from a menu, once they receive the phone. He says the phone will be "sold online and unlocked," and that Google is partnering with T-Mobile to push the phone. He says Verizon declined.

Some rumors suggest that the Nexus One could be released to the public as early as next month. That could just be wishful thinking, but whenever it does come out, it will be quite interesting to see how the public responds.
 

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The search giant is working on a new service that will provide searchers with streaming music, which sounds a whole lot like a content play at first blush. But Google will only be offering limited bits of music, and it will be using other companies to actually provide the tunes.

Sources describe the service, which will be called “One Box,” as a refined set of answers for music queries. The idea: Punch in, say, “Madonna,” and you’ll be presented with one or more songs, which may be partial clips or full-length versions, then guided to other sites where you can purchase the music.

Original Article: Google is reportedly working with an unknown smartphone manufacturer to launch a Google-branded phone that would be available through retailers rather than telcos. This information comes from an analyst who claims to have spoken with Google’s design partners.

"The move would fulfill Google’s pledge to bring a new generation of open-standard mobile Internet devices to consumers," reports Scott Moritz with TheStreet.com. "By bypassing the carriers, who keep tight controls over the features and applications that are allowed on phones, Google will presumably offer a device that lets users determine the functions."

The company also allegedly has a new music service on the way. Mike Arrington at TechCrunch (which has been known to miss the mark a time or two in the past), claims that he has has "heard from multiple sources" that Google has been securing content from major labels for a service called Google Audio. According to Arrington, the service would be available for at least U.S. users.

If the phone and music service both come to fruition, Google is set to have a huge year for new products. The world is still anticipating the release of the Chrome OS, which the company announced back in July. And Google Wave is "making waves" throughout the tech industry. Some have deemed it "the next big thing" in online communication, while others remain skeptical of this notion.

Either way, it’s safe to say that Google has a lot going on (as usual), and if even one of these products lives up to what it could be, those impressive numbers Google released last week are bound to be indicative of an ongoing trend with the company. Ok, even if none of these products work, the trend may still continue.

Apple told everybody what the iPhone does and when we could get one weeks ago.  What’s more, despite the fact that ‘what it does’ is pretty much the same as ‘what the old one already did (but faster)’ they still made enough people want one that the pre-sale models were gone almost a week ahead of release.

So…my question is…When does this new Android device come out?  we don’t really even know the name of the thing.  MyTouch 3G, G3, gPhone, ION, HTC Magic… I mean really.   Forget about the tech specs (which would also be nice to be able to talk about), we don’t even know what to call the damned thing.

Apple deserves a lot of credit (I guess?) for being good marketers.  Of course what have they had to work against?  It’s not hard to out market something that isn’t being marketed.  What is the new iPhone competing with? The new Google phone we know nothing about aside, we’ve got the Palm Pre from Sprint and what?  Who has seen a single Pre commercial or ad?  Who’s left? Verizon’s touchscreen trainwreck ‘Storm’? Please. Nietzsche said; “At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.” It definitely fits here.

While Google/T-Mobile are hiding little details, people are running as fast as they can to the next shiny object, which just so happens to be the iPhone 3Gs. I’m not saying Google’s new phone doesn’t have a chance, but the way things are going, they aren’t even making Apple break a sweat.

Michael Martin, who maintains a Google-approved blog for Android called Google And Blog, talked with WebProNews about the upcoming Google phone. Michael likened the iPhone and gPhone to the Mac vs. PC conflict in the 1980′s. When asked what he thinks Apple’s response will be to Google’s (what he calls) "ION", Michael says “we’ll see what happens”. As for his predictions on consumer reaction to the Google phone vs. iPhone, he says; “there is a trash-bin not too far away, so if you have an iPhone you can put it in there and pick up an Android." Not that we have any idea WHEN we can pick one up – or even what to ask for…  Just for the record, Michael Martin gave us more information about this mystery phone than T-Moblie has, so we actually owe him a thank you.

More WebProNews Videos

To me the most frustrating and baffling aspect of all of this is the fact that the HTC Magic (which will be renamed to ‘something’ in the USA) has already been out for weeks in Europe. The good news is, if you dig around hard enough, you can find specs and even some (mostly positive) reviews of the Google phone. So, all the more reason to wonder why most people in America have no idea about the thing. 

The truth is, I’ve heard non-stop chatter about the iPhone but until my manager mentioned Google’s new phone, I didn’t even know there was such a thing.  After researching Android a little, I found that any information on it was unreasonably difficult to come by.  By contrast, type in iPhone 3g into Google and anything you want to know is right in front of you.

Google is clearly motivated and highly interested in encouraging application development for Android. This was made clear a couple of weeks ago when they gave away a couple hundred of the new handsets at the I/O conference. Certainly that did some good insofar as generating some Buzz, but they (or maybe T-Mobile) have made little or no effort to engage consumers. They just let Apple have a free ride with the new iPhone without putting so much as a bug in the public ear about their competing product.

You can pan around and zoom in and out easily using just your thumb on the touchscreen — a big plus for all those times when that other hand is unavailable. And if I want to see a restaurant or building up close, I can switch to Street View and view a panorama from street level. I can even turn on Compass mode to let me look around the panorama by moving my phone up, down, and to the side. It’s like popping up a virtual periscope anywhere you want to check out what’s there with your own eyes. Check out the video below for a quick demo. Note that Street View on Android is only available in the US at this time.

When I’m in a new city or just a new part of town, I like to turn on My Location. It can use GPS or just the nearest cell tower to tell me where I am and re-center my position in the middle of my screen when I approach the edge. When I’m walking or in a taxi in a dense city, like New York, I zoom in to street level and turn on GPS for the highest accuracy.

With the G1, you can also save search results to contacts, so when you find a business using Google Maps, you can conveniently store the map. This should be a convenient feature for people who travel a lot, particularly to the same cities repeatedly. If you find a great Chinese restaurant in LA once, you can easily find it again via your contacts.

Developers are free to use Android’s MapView and location APIs to build "location-aware" mobile applications, so I would expect to see a lot of cool things happening out of that. Conway cites Cab4me and Locale, which were winners in the Android Developer Challenge.

These apps and Google Maps for Android are bound to be exceptionally cool once the GeoEye imagery is implemented throughout (the first image was released today). Anyone used Google Maps on Android much yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

We’ve integrated Search with applications in a variety of ways, in order to make it universally accessible. Every searchable application includes a Search menu option. Some applications (like Maps) support type-to-search. Just start typing, and Maps will automatically open the Search UI for you! Some applications (like Android Market) have Search buttons, while others have Search widgets (like the home screen). Finally, on the T-Mobile G1, there’s even a dedicated Search key on bottom row of the keyboard. Just press it and start typing your query.

They’ve incorporated Google Suggest into Android, which is probably even more of a useful feature on a mobile device than it is on a PC. This way, if a suggestion comes up that the user likes, they can simply touch it and go to the results page. Searches in Gmail and YouTube also have suggestion features based on your past queries serving basically the same purpose.

Google has made the search API available to third-party developers so they can integrate search functionality into their applications. "What’s more exciting to me is that developers can improve upon search as well," says Stadler. "Maybe someone will find and provide new sources of searchable knowledge, or serve ‘mind reading’ suggestions, or display search results in a more informative and beautiful way?"

The Google Mobile Blog will be posting looks at each of the other G1 applications over the next couple weeks, so we should also be getting closer looks at Maps, Gmail, Calendar, Google Talk, and YouTube features as well. How do those of you who have the phone like the usability of its apps?

The phone, for those who haven’t heard will be the HTC Dream offered from T-Mobile. It will feature Google’s "Android" mobile platform and is expected to compete with the iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry. The price of the phone has not been made officially known, but previous reports indicate a $399 tag.

According to the Wall Street Journal, HTC expects to ship 600,000 to 700,000 units this year. Clint Boulton at Google Watch writes:

By comparison, Apple took just 74 days to sell 1 million first-generation iPhones and only a weekend to sell 1 million 3G iPhones. Google and T-Mobile obviously can’t expect that type of reception, but 500,000 to 700,00 units shipped before 2009 is nothing to laugh at.

I think the fact that only one Android phone is coming to the fore this year is smart, whether it is because of developmental delays by the other vendors, or even just a strategic move to test the waters.

The Journal also notes that if the phone is successful, it will be another way to deliver ads to users. This is very true, and is yet another indication that Google’s advertising strategies are getting more aggressive. If this thing is anywhere near as popular as the iPhone, the company should make some serious bank from it. With the phone arriving in time for the holiday season, it will truly be the gift that keeps on giving – only it will keep on giving to Google via ad revenue.

For early adopters of the open Android-based handset from HTC—the rumor mill settled last November on the HTC Dream as the device of choice—sources are reporting the phone will sell for as little as $150 at a Sept. pre-sale for existing T-Mobile customers only. Everybody else will not only have to wait until October, they’ll have to pay $399 for it and sign up for a reportedly budget-busting data plan from T-Mobile.

But hey, chances are, since this is an Open Handset Alliance thing, there won’t be the equivalent of an Apple kill-switch for undesirable software. However, according to one report, customers will be required to have a Gmail account to activate the phone, which seems kind of nasty on Google’s part. Then again, it’s only a rumor.

The expected (rumored) launch is in line with previous statements from Google and HTC, which confirmed availability sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. That’s right around the corner and pretty smart in terms of holiday season timing. Luckily my daughter won’t be demanding one quite so early in her life—there are things like car seats and high chairs to consider however. I hear these "babies" are fairly high maintenance.
 

Specifically, Daniel Shen of Taipei, and Steve Shen of DigiTimes, if I’m reading the bylines correctly, who cite, vaguely, "Taiwan handset makers" as their sources, who also say the Google Phone will launch later this year or the first of next year…

…with either EDGE or 3G

…and maybe Google’s own operating system, the Taiwan handset sources speculated

But DigiTimes seems fairly certain High Tech Computer (HTC) – careful not to get those letters mixed up – is "being marked as the manufacturing contractor."

Engadget appears to be true believers, though. Thomas Ricker pleading his case:

Come on Google, it’s post-Labor Day now so just go ahead and announce your plans already. We’re big boys, we can take it.

He’s referring to a rumored announcement that’s forthcoming from Andy Rubin’s team at Google, whose company Android was swallowed up back in a 2005 acquisition.

So…maybe. But maybe’s all we got and all we’ve been given – Google never comments on rumor and speculation. And I suppose I’ll believe it when I see it.