There have been a few interesting articles recently (including this on in the Guardian) about how Android could affect the gaming market. I really hope that Android opens the gates for some talented game developers who don’t have access to bags of cash but who can market through the Android Marketplace. It would be nice to see a return to an environment where you don’t need several million pounds and a load of graphics experts to launch a successful game.
However, Handango have also been mentioned in reference to Android so it sounds highly likely that the Android Marketplace won’t be the only point from which people can access software. I’m personally not a huge fan of the ‘grim’ Handango’s way of dealing with developers or customers. So I hope Google treats people with more respect.
A more worrying trend in mobile gaming is in multiplayer games using GPS. From what I can understand of this phenomena, this could lead to it becoming a normal day to day experience to see geek types spontaneously jumping on each other and battering the cr&p out of each other with their mobile phones. Whilst i’m sure Darwin would approve, I’m not sure what the police will make of people on tube platforms taking sniper shots at each other with their G1′s.
I’m sure the tabloids would also have a field day with titles such as Slashwars [cached link here] where random punters are meant to attack each other by swiping their phones in the air (presumable simulating knives). I guess if they keep their cameras switched on then this could create a whole new genre of ‘happy-slapping’.
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…
Developers for Android currently have a number of challenges writing their code for a device that they can’t yet buy.
An example is testing the accelerometer on the device. There are apps out there to model tipping the device and developers have also come up with some ingenious ways of simulating this. One such example is linking up a Wiimote to their laptop whilst running the Android emulator (below).
It will be interesting to see how many European developers are willing to pay a monthly contract to T-Mobile in the UK just so they can see how their code runs on a real device. I suspect many will wait until they can purchase one outright without a contract.
It begs the question: will be a cheaper ‘iPod Touch’ type device coming out with Android within the next year? I would have thought a device with no phone would be ideal for developers as well as people who plan to use a separate phone. Users could run over wifi without being tied in to a contract. It would also enable developers to test more freely how their software runs on a device without a monthly overhead.
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 padtm (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”)
Pictures of the T-Mobile G1 (official name for the HTC Dream) have appeared briefly on the T-Mobile site in anticipation of its preview / marketing launch tomorrow in New York. This has been reported in various articles but I first saw it here (mentioned more as a footnote).
Interesting job posting on Google. They are looking for someone to design and build ‘functional prototype’ hardware. However, it seems a little unusual that they would build prototypes to then have them taken into production by third parties from the OHA (e.g. HTC, Samsung, Motorola…)
Job description includes the following requirements:
A minimum of three years of product design experience in the field of consumer electronics.
High-end 3D CAD design proficiency a requirement (ProE, UG, SolidWorks).
Proficient in the knowledge of injection molding, metal manufacturing methods, materials & finish, mechanisms and heat transfer.
Working knowledge on battery, display, input devices, RF designs (wireless antenna integration), camera, acoustic devices and EMC.
Handheld/portable device design experiences are a plus.
After all the speculation, could it be that Google are planning their own in house ‘Gphone’ after all?
Great article here about how Apple has approached applications that are competitive or ‘too silly’. If this proves to be the thin end of the wedge then this approach could prove too dictatorial for even the biggest iPhone fanboy. The fact that even Microsoft’s ‘Mr. Mobile’ – Jason Langridge is pointing to this as a step too far is a worrying sign. At least Microsoft treats its app developers ‘fairly’ by producing a similar product, including it for free and then using its weight to market the hell out of it – thus crushing the competition slowly..
This is an area where Google hopes that Android’s ‘openness’ will shine. The idea being that the Google marketplace will be a democracy rather than the App Store’s dictatorship. It could be argued that this will lead to a lower quality threshold but hopefully the voting system on the market place will help wade through some of the rubbish. I would forsee that users could also access applications via other sites and will not be restricted to just the Google market site.
[edited] The UK’s daily Telegraph is (again) on the bleeding edge in terms of revealing HTC’s plans for the Dream in Europe. Well, either that or they have again got confused between T-Mobile in the UK and the US.
They state again that it will be available exclusively to T-Mobile UK and on the shelves in November. However, the fact that they show the image below with the alt text as “The Google HTC Android phone” (it’s not, it’s the Touch HD) perhaps indicates they are not quite on the pulse.
Meanwhile the WSJ announced that HTC expects to ship more Dreams than most analysts reckon they are likely too. HTC apparently reckon they could ship up to 700,000 devices.
