SillyDog701

[Antony]

For those who would like to carry all the features offered by Apple iPhone but simply don't like Apple's design or "Apple", here's a good news for you. Google has announced the Gphone



T-Mobile, which launched the first handset to be powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system Tuesday (Sept. 23) said it will cross the Atlantic by early November, and reach other European countries during the first quarter of 2009.

T-Mobile is launching the smartphone Oct. 22 at a price of $179 with a two-year voice and data contract.
(from: EETimes.com)

It looks similar to iPhone, and instead of tabbing the touch screen, a keypad is included which is good for competing with BlackBerry.





Getting excited about Gphone?
Well, the Google, the company behind the popular YouTube, is selling a phone without a built-in video player. Even the iPhone plays YouTube videos out of the box.

There's no release date of Australia.

Worth reading: Gphone set for Europe early November (EETimes.com)
The Gphone is no iPhone Killer (The Motley Fool)

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[Mandrake]

Not having video playback is just unacceptable. I read that the camera on the phone is also incapable of capturing video footage. Even my basic Nokia 6300 that I paid under $200 AUD (prepaid) a year ago can do stuff like that.

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[Antony]

There's a video on Google's G1 Android ('Gphone') and the iPhone side by side in comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ONZzwCBDVA

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[Don_HH2K]

I personally have no use for a video player/recorder on a mobile phone. The one on my still camera is bad enough that I don't want to imagine the same concept using a phone camera.

Still, I won't be getting a G1 for most of the same reasons I wouldn't buy an iPhone. First off, $179 for a phone is well out of my budget, especially considering I'd have to get a two-year paid contract with it (I'm on prepay now and pay roughly $6 a month in calls). It's locked to T-Mobile, and although T-Mobile is my current cell provider, I don't want to be locked into them by means of both the contract and the SIM lock. Further, Google's taking a rather centralized approach to application distribution in the form of the Android Market: while it doesn't require Google's approval for applications like the App Store does from Apple, I'd much rather see a decentralized, per-developer distribution system much like the majority of today's desktop apps.

On the bright side, the G1 has a hardware keyboard, which was one of my major qualms about the iPhone.

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