Google Introducing Web meets phone - Nexus One

Google Nexus One - Technical Specifications

Power and battery

Removable 1400 mAH battery

Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger

Talk time
Up to 10 hours on 2G , Up to 7 hours on 3G , Standby time, Up to 290 hours on 2G Up to 250 hours on 3G, Internet use , Up to 5 hours on 3G, Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi, Video playback
Up to 7 hours, Audio playback Up to 20 hours.

Processor

Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz
Operating system

Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)
Capacity

512MB Flash

512MB RAM

4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)
Location

Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver, Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning

Digital compass, Accelerometer

Size and weight

Height : 119mm Width : 59.8mm Depth : 11.5mm Weight : 130 grams w/battery
100g w/o battery

Display

3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen

800 x 480 pixels, 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio

1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash

5 megapixels, Autofocus from 6cm to infinity, 2X digital zoom, LED flash

User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver

Video captured at 720x480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Cellular & Wireless

UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900), HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps

GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

A2DP stereo Bluetooth, Buttons, connectors and controls

Front / Top

[1] Power

[2] 3.5mm stereo headphone jack

[3] Charging and notification indicator

[4] Illuminated capacitive soft keys:
Back, Home, Menu, and Search

[5] Tri-color clickable trackball

Back / Bottom

[6] Camera

[7] Camera flash

[8] Speaker

[9] Dock pin connectors

[10] Micro USB port

[11] Microphone
Left side

[12] Volume Control

Additional features

* Haptic feedback
* Teflon™ coated back
* Second microphone for active noise cancellation
* SIM card slot
* Micro SD slot
* Proximity sensor
* Light sensor

Graphics, video and audio

Audio decoders

AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+) Mono/Stereo standard bit rates up to 160 kbps and sampling rates from 8 to 48kHz, AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz, AMR-WB 9 rates from 6.60 kbit/s to 23.85 kbit/s sampled @ 16kHz., MP3 Mono/Stereo 8-320Kbps constant (CBR) or variable bit-rate (VBR), MIDI SMF (Type 0 and 1), DLS Version 1 and 2, XMF/Mobile XMF, RTTTL/RTX, OTA, iMelody, Ogg Vorbis, WAVE (8-bit and 16-bit PCM)

Image : JPEG (encode and decode), GIF, PNG, BMP

Video : H.263 (encode and decode) MPEG-4 SP (encode and decode) H.264 AVC (decode)
Audio encoders, AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz

Language support

Display
English (U.S), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean, Japanese, Russian,

= = =

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Google rolls out New Rival iPhone

Rolling out ... Google co-founders Larry Page (L) and Sergey Brin (R) wore rollerblades to the T-Mobile G1 launch / AP, Reuters

GOOGLE'S answer to the iPhone has been rolled out as the web giant makes its biggest stab yet at leaping from consumers' computers into their pockets with a device cheaper than rival Apple's.



US carrier T-Mobile introduced the widely anticipated G1 phone, made by HTC, which has a touch-sensitive screen, a computer-like keyboard, Wi-Fi connections and uses Google's new Android operating system.

Available in three colours - black, white and brown - it includes familiar Google services, such as Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube.

Like the iPhone and other "smartphones" the device is meant to broaden the appeal of web use on the go.

"If we see more mobile web usage we'll be happy," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said after arriving at the launch on roller-blades.

His company, a powerhouse in online advertising, would benefit if Android led more mobile users to spend time on the web, no matter which phone they are using.

Google is well ahead of rivals Yahoo and Microsoft in web search on computers, but it wants to use Android to ensure this dominance carries over to the phone when mobile web-surfing becomes more popular.

But while no clear mobile web winner has emerged so far, Google faces stiff competition from longer established phone players such as Nokia, Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Microsoft, as well as Apple.

Analysts saw the device as a "good first step" rather than an iPhone killer, but some expect as many as 400,000 to be sold in the US by the end of the year.

A T-Mobile executive said the estimate was "not incredible."

The first step

When it becomes available to US consumers on October 22, the G1 will sell for about $US179 ($214) - slightly cheaper than the entry-level price of $US199 ($230) for Apple's iPhone - with a two-year contract.

The G1 will be launched by T-Mobile's UK unit in November and other European countries such as Germany, Netherlands and the Czech Republic in the first quarter of 2009.

"The G1 doesn't threaten Apple now, but Android has raised the bar for competing mobile platforms. The bigger concern here is for Microsoft and Nokia if Google can win over the hearts and minds of operators and developers," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst with British firm CCS Insight.

It is not clear when Australia will see a phone running Google's Android system. 12 hours before the international unveiling of the Google phone, handset manufacturer HTC held a launch in Sydney for the Touch Pro, a product unrelated to Android.

"We have no explanation as to why Australia is not introducing the Google phone," an external HTC PR spokesperson told SmartHouse Magazine.

When asked about the Australian release, a Google spokesperson told NEWS.com.au the T-Mobile phone was just the beginning.

"Our hope is that that Android platform will spur the development of thousands of different kinds of devices. The T-Mobile G1 is just the first step.

"It's still too soon to tell what forms Android-powered devices will take, but we're excited about the possibilities this kind of open platform will bring, and the benefits that users will ultimately enjoy."

Open source

Both Google and Apple are wooing developers to create applications for their devices, but unlike Apple, which keeps a tight grip on the iPhone's hardware and operating software, Google's Android is open to be changed by outside developers.

Asked if the user interface of future Google phones would look anything like the first one, Andy Rubin, who developed Android for Google, said: "Its completely replaceable."

For example, T-Mobile US product development vice president Leslie Grandy saw the carrier selling a range of Google-powered phones in future, including more basic ones without a touch-screen or full keyboards.

The new phone features Android Market, where customers can find and download free applications to expand and personalise their phones.

Mr Grandy said the marketplace would eventually include applications that are sold for a fee.

"Because the platform is open, we think Android is somewhat future proof," Mr Rubin , Google director of mobile platforms, told the audience at the launch.

A similar strategy helped increase the buzz around Apple's second-generation iPhone, which can support more than 3000 applications available online.

Amazon.com's digital music store will be loaded on the G1, allowing users to search, download, buy and play more than six million songs, pitting it against iPhone's music player.

The competition

Android also competes with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, which has been solidly gaining ground.

HTC chief executive Peter Chou said his company, which has concentrated on Windows phones so far, is already planning more Android and Windows devices.

Mr Chou said he expected to have sold more than 400,000 G1 by the end of the year.

Android's biggest competitor is Symbian software, which represents 60 per cent of the smartphone market and which Nokia plans to buy out and open to other developers.

Nokia, which has about 40 per cent of the mobile phone market, has also branched into mobile web services such as mapping that compete directly with Google.

Speaking at a conference in Chicago this week, Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said he was not worried by new competition.

"The entry of Apple and Google - in fact today in a very concrete way - in mobile communications is the best possible illustration of the fact that there's a lot of possibility here," he said.

Links

Google Android - http://code.google.com/android/ T-Mobile G1 - http://www.t-mobileg1.com/ SmartHouse article - http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Phones/Smartphones_And_PDAs/K5S6E3H9

Google updates, smartens SketchUp 3D modeling apps

3D modeling for the rest of us became a little more intelligent today with Google's announcement of SketchUp 7 and SketchUp Pro 7, new versions of its popular modeling software.

Amid a healthy collection of new features in SketchUp 7 and SketchUp Pro 7 is a new type of "Dynamic Components," or 3D models that "are aware of what they are and behave like the real-world objects they represent." Google uses the example of a dynamic staircase which can automatically gain or lose steps when using SketchUp's Scale too to increase or decrease its size. Dynamic Components also maintain resolution when scaling them, can be designed for easy configuration out of the box, thanks to a new Component Options dialog that allows for adjusting aspects without having to get one's hands dirty with modeling tools.

Also new in SketchUp 7 and SketchUp Pro 7 is the integration of the Google 3D Warehouse, a public area where users can upload and share models they have created. Google announced the 3D Warehouse when it originally released a free version of SketchUp in 2006, after the acquisition of the application from @Last Software.

Until now, however, Google 3D Warehouse and its millions of user-generated components could only be searched and accessed externally via a browser, outside of SketchUp. Along with this integration for Google 3D Warehouse, the company has also introduced an attribution layer to the warehouse that allows users to tag their creations with their name, ensuring that credit is given where due.

A number of other features have arrived for both SketchUp and its big Pro brother, including an Interact tool that can trigger built-in Dynamic Component behaviors like animations or color changes, custom templates, antialiasing for textures, various UI tweaks, and the ability to edit textures in external photo editors. SketchUp Pro 7 pulls ahead with tabular report generation, LayOut 2 (which brings the component out of beta) with Vector Rendering for resolution-independent drawings of large or complex models, editable paths for curves on any shape, image exporting options, a new Styles feature that can bring an organic look to models, and an "explode" mode allows users to perform more fine-grained tweaking.

Check out a new Google-produced video below that demonstrates the new features in SketchUp 7.

SketchUp has enjoyed a healthy amount of interest from users and the third-party community ever since Google purchased the software and introduced a free version. Besides the aforementioned 3D Warehouse that Google says is packed with millions of shared models, a wide variety of SketchUp plug-ins are also available, including one from Adobe that allows Photoshop CS3 Extended to search and work directly with models from the warehouse.

The base version of SketchUp 7 remains free for personal use, and is available for Mac OS X (10.4+) and Windows (2000/XP/Vista) users. SketchUp Pro 7 costs $495 for professional use.

New Mobile Site Puts Google Docs On Your IPhone

Google has put up a mobile version of Google Docs (docs.google.com/m) that allows you to view saved documents from an iPhone or other "rich-browser" equipped mobile device. Google Blogoscoped first reported the site’s existence earlier this morning, but so far Google hasn’t made any public announcements.

There is a single entry help page, which offers the following hints:

At this point, we support both the iPhone and Blackberry mobile devices. Note, however, that presentations are only supported on the iPhone.

Google Docs documents and spreadsheets should also work on phones that offer rich-browser support. While we haven’t tested it across all mobile devices, a good rule of thumb is that the more advanced your phone’s browsing capabilities, the more seamlessly Google Docs will work.

I tested out the new service on my iPhone and it does work, though Safari choked a couple of times on the login page. It’s possible to view most document types as HTML — I tested both Word and Excel files and was able to view both without any trouble.

There doesn’t seem to be a way to edit documents, but of course, since the iPhone can’t handle the Javascript interface necessary to edit Google Docs documents on main page, that’s not surprising.

On the bright side, the new mobile site does offer a much faster interface if you just want to view some of your saved documents.

If anyone out there tests the new site on a Blackberry or other smart phone, let us know what you find.

See Also:

• Add an Ajax Desktop Interface to Google Docs
• User Feedback Prompts Google Docs And Spreadsheets Changes
• Google Docs' New Presentations Can't Compete With PowerPoint
• Developers: Google Adds Docs & Spreadsheets API