T-Mobile x HTC "G1"x Google

Today, T-Mobile, HTC, and Google invited us to come check out the new Sidekick 7 G1, which will be launched as the first phone powered by the Google Android operating system on October 22. The G1 has elements that mimic the iPhone-touch screen, ap store, and widgets, but as a bonus, it adds a full slide out QWERTY keyboard. Hello, awesome! Check what we really think, as well as some closeups of the phone and Google founders Sergey and Larry below…

The G1 has a slide out screen with similar functionality to the T-Mobile Sidekick. The guy who invented that thing, Andy Rubin, actually designed the Android operating system.
The touch screen isn’t multi-touch, like the iPhone. Instead HTC decided to work with zoom keys and long touch commands. Basically how that works is a touch does one thing, and then if you hold your finger on the screen, it brings up additional commands. A long touch will allow you to switch between applications. This works great with the phone’s ability to background processes information, meaning you can download a file, have an AIM conversation, and bang out an email all at once. Pretty cool, and a definite improvement over the competition.

It’s not particularly slim or fat, a solid looking phone. Clocking in at $175, though, you can’t beat a phone with 3G and full internet capabilities. It comes with 256k of memory with a micro SD slot that can hold up to an 8GB card.
The onboard camera is 3 megapixels, great. What cell phone companies haven’t figured out yet is that when you have a lens the size of a pin you can’t get a good photo. So you have a big file of a shitty photo. I guess that’s not a priority right now. Maybe the G2 brings Leica into the collab? (Fingers crossed)

These guys showed up as well. Kings. The big sell behind Google Android is that the platform is open source. So what does that mean? Basically open source gives developers the opportunity to create programs similar to the way that the Apple App store does. In time, as people program for the platform, you will be able to customize your phone to do exactly what you want. It can tell you stock updates, give you news RSS feeds, or f it, you can just turn the thing into a vibrator and give it to your girlfriend. The options are limitless.

Oh, and Larry and Sergey decided that they should wear their Rollerblades to what is probably the biggest day of these other guys’ lives. Nothing says, "My Internet dick is bigger than your Internet dick" like wearing Rollerblades to the press conference.