In case  you need a direct link to order a G1 it is here . Site may not be up forever depending on how popular it proves.

Personally, I’m going to wait to see if I can get one SIM free or on Pay as you Go at a later stage.

Bound to be a little biased in its favour as they have their own google application they are keen to plug but it has quite a nice video of them poncing about the Google offices with a G1 … [here]

In case you didn’t put yourself on the mailing list for T-Mobile UK here is the email that those who did have received. You can place your order today from 9am:

The T-Mobile G1 Google™ is here

To order your T-Mobile G1 from the T-Mobile.co.uk shop, follow the exclusive link below after 9am on 30 October 2008. We have limited stock, so make sure you get in early to avoid disappointment. Once they’re all gone, the link will no longer work.

We will aim to deliver your T-Mobile G1 within the next few days, however if demand is very high please allow up to seven days. We’ll let you know in advance when to expect delivery of your phone.

If you have not been successful in ordering your G1 today, don’t despair. We have
more stock coming soon, so keep an eye on the website.

Thanks
The T-Mobile.co.uk team

I won’t link to any of these as no doubt some of them are scams but… If you do a search on ebay.com for “Google Android Unlock” you’ll see that people are already offering unlock codes for the G1 if you send them your IMEI. Whether these people can genuinely offer this already may be doubtful but there is a chance they have a link into an application or person from HTC or T-Mobile which / who can provide this.

There are also unlocked G1’s being advertised in the UK via places such as craigslist. Personally, I wouldn’t go near these at the moment but I’m sure there will be some more legitimate sources of SIM free devices in the near future. Alternatively T-Mobile may provide the device at a price with a pay as you go option, which as I highlighted previously would be great for developers or people who are just curious to try the device out mainly on wifi.

I have read that in the U.S. the 3G on the G1 may not work if a T-Mobile G1 was unlocked and an AT&T SIM was put in the device. I don’t see any such issues being prevalent in the UK. You should be able to unlock the device and switch out the SIM easily enough to O2, Orange, Vodafone or 3 in the UK

However, it will be interesting to see if T-Mobile uses a specific APN for the G1 to restrict access to services for people using other SIMs. This could stop ‘jailbroken’ / unlocked G1’s from getting access to items such as over the air updates (which have been pushed out already in the U.S.). However, this would also limit access to updates for people using the device over Wifi. For that reason, maybe they will look to use a different method such as a T-Mobile sign on to try to encourage users away from unlocked devices.

As reported by Ewan at Mobile Industry Review the G1 will land in stores across the UK at the end of this month.

There have been a reported 25,000 inquiries into the phone although I logged a request for updates and haven’t heard anything – maybe my Gmail being a bit too strict with the spam filter?

The phone is still due to be free with £40 tariffs and Ewan outlines the packages below:

“At that monthly price, you’ve a choice of Combi 35 (800 minutes and unlimited texts) or Flext 40 (up to 1,250 minutes, 2,500 texts or any combination of the two).”

I’ve mentioned previously the need for developers to have an Android device which isn’t necessarily tied in to a contract. It will be interesting to see if T-Mobile provide this as an option in the UK. Their website certainly suggests that the G1 will work with a Pay as You Go SIM (click here and expand the ‘legal stuff’ section).

We’re giving away 8 T-Mobile G1 phones with a T-Mobile Pay as you go Talk & Text SIM card (see http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/price-plans/pay-as-you-go/ for details) loaded with £25 top up credit. Just remember that you won’t be able to access our highest data network speeds unless you upgrade to a pay monthly price plan. Also, as your G1 has an “always on” mobile internet connection, you will pay up to £1 a day for our web’n'walk service, see http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/price-plans/pay-as-you-go/ for more information.

T-Mobile 'Pay-as-you-go' prices

So this suggests that the G1 will run on a pay-as-you-go SIM but at limited speed and with fairly hefty prices for data use. However, the G1 has wifi built in so this probably isn’t such a concern for developers who only want to do occasional testing on a ‘real’ data connection.

I’ve seen a few comments questioning why the G1 has a compass built in to it. I guess its main use is pretty obvious and is demonstrated nicely with the streetview application (below).

Coming from the UK, where most of the time you can’t see where the sun is during the day, I’d find it very useful to know which way I’m facing. A number of times when trying to find an address on Google maps I’ve arrived at a tube station, stepped out on the street and then waited for a few minutes for GPS to kick in on my device. I then know where I am but not necessarily which way I am facing. So my next choice is to either look at the intersecting street names, identify a landmark or just walk for a bit and see which way the dot moves. A compass would obviously do away with that.

We don’t have Streetview in the UK yet but I’ve seen their cars in Oxford and in Slough (why Slough!) so it must be coming soon. However, maybe for day to day use ‘Enkin’ or a similar app may be more use. Enkin makes use of a 2D or 3D map or even ‘augmented reality’ to overlay labels (or anything really) on top what your device sees through the camera. To do this it seems they need a compass as well as GPS and an accelerometer (see pdf here ).

I’d guess you’d also need a reasonable accurate list of locations – something which I can’t honestly say that Google Maps has having got lost looking for a hotel in Dublin last week.

(btw- Enkin haven’t updated their blog for a while. I’m hoping that’s because they are busy coding and not because they’ve taken the developer challenge money and spent it all on crack… they seem like sensible chaps so I’m sure they haven’t.)

… just write ‘T-Mobile G1 phone’ under any HTC phone and copy and paste the ‘Google’ logo on it… ta-da!

That seems to be the attitude of the Telegraph online who despite being ahead of the curve on the release of the G1 in the UK still can’t seem to get the right phone for their pictures…

T-Mobile UK have already put up their own ‘Get it first’ button on their site in the UK.

Reports have already stated that it will be free with £40 a month tariffs. It will be interesting to see if their are lower tariffs offered, what you’ll pay for the phone with those or whether there are any contracts offered shorter than 18 months.

Below are the O2 UK tariffs for pay monthly customers on the iPhone for comparison. I’d guess that, like the $179 price tag for the G1 in the US, T-Mo are going to try to pitch the G1just a bit cheaper than these prices…

O2 Pay Monthly Tariffs for iPhone

Choose from one of our four Pay Monthly tariffs for iPhone.

Monthly Charge	£30	£35	£45	£75
Cost of 8GB iPhone	£99	£99	Free	Free
Cost of 16GB iPhone	£159	£159	£59	Free
Minutes	75	600	1200	3000
Texts	125	500	500	500
Unlimited Data & Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual Voicemail	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reduced Roaming Rates	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Minimum contract length	18 months	18 months	18 months	18 months

As mentioned before, I wonder how soon before people will be unlocking these phones both from the US and the UK. I’d give it about 2 weeks from release.

Feel free to print off and cut out our free ‘T-Mobile G1 Launch Special Edition’ Bu***hit Bingo pad^tm (below) and see how high each review of the new T-Mobile G1 ’scores’.

The rules are simple… if a press review mentions a word in one of the boxes then cross it out. You get one point for each box crossed, 3 points for a completed row or column, 5 points for one of the two diagonals and 10 points for some obscure pattern that looks like that bit at the start of the Beijing Olympics…

Good Luck!

IPHONE*	OPEN	UGLY	TRACKBALL	SMARTPHONE
CHROME	HTC	KEYBOARD	LARGE	T-MOBILE
APP STORE	SECURITY**	GMAIL	KILLER***	QUALCOMM
CONTRACT	SMS	SYMBIAN	RESPONSIVE	MAPS
STREET VIEW	GPS	BIG BROTHER	BIG IN JAPAN	SIM

* This should be accompanied by phrases such as ‘no match for’, ‘lacks the interface of’, etc.
** Extra point if it is accompanied by some random quote from Jack Gold
*** this should ideally be accompanied by words such as iPhone, Windows Mobile or RIM/Blackberry (e.g. “this is not the iPhone killer that many hoped it would be”)

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