It seems like everyone is jumping on the Android bandwagon these days, and the latest is the Grande Specchio. This is the latest digital picture frame from Parrot, a company that makes a lot of terrific devices.

The Grande Specchio allows users to share their photos via Picasa and Flickr, as well as transferring photos from a cell phone with Bluetooth and WiFi. By the way, it has a dedicated email address for you to send your photos to, or you can use the old-fashioned way of USB and SD cards.

The 10.4 inch frame should be available by the end of the month for a price of $650.

Source

Tags: Android, digital picture frame, Google Android, Grande Specchio, parrot, Portable Devices, Specchio

Android is seriously sweeping the nation, and so it is no surprise that MOTO is looking to put it in their new MID. This device, known as the AMP (Android Media Platform) comes in three forms:

The first is a 5-inch version that will be equipped with a front-facing 8 Megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, multi-touch display, TI OMAP3430 processor, plus 256MB worth of flash with SD card reader. The 10.4 inch version also has the 8 Megapixel camera, multi-touch capacity, and it also has GPS and a 3 Megapixel camera on the back. Believe it or not, there is also plans for a 30 inch version.

All three of these should be out “by early 2010″, but there is no word so far on the price.

Source

Tags: amp+, Android 2.0, Google, Google Android, MOTO, Portable Devices

T-Mobile G-1. Nearly all the hype, all the excitement of the iPhone minus multi-touch (but with copy-paste, thankyouverymuch) and presented here in all its glory.

We at MobileWhack got hold of the HTC/Google G-1 mobile phone a couple of weeks ago thanks to the guys over at PureMobile. I have been playing with it during these few days and, while it falls a tad short of the iPhone, it’s an impressive first version that I suspect was intended more for the geeks out there than ordinary folks. After all, the geeks are the ones that wouldn’t mind carrying a bricky 5.6 oz phone as long as they get to show it off - you know what I mean.

I am very happy with the display: while slightly smaller than the iPhone’s, this is obviously the way of the future for phones and there’s no doubt about it.

Initial Setup
The Google phone requires a Google account before you can do anything - including activate the phone on T-Mobile. Since I wasn’t technically on their G-1 plan (which is a 3G/EDGE package with 400 messages/month), I could not, for some reason, activate the phone immediately, so I had to call in for support from T-Mobile. I didn’t realize the problem immediately and it took a couple of days before I had to give up. Once activated, you get to the main screen, which by default shows 4 icons: “Dialer”, “Contacts”, “Browser” and “Maps” - in that order. That sets the priorities just about right.

Importing contacts was simply flawless. I exported my Windows Address Book (which is where your iPhone/Nokia/BlackBerry contacts go if you don’t have Outlook or something like that on Windows) onto a file, uploaded it onto my newly created Google account and voila - within a short time all contacts were imported. As with any Google account, you get not only Gmail but a ton of other products like Calendar, Docs and so on.

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Tags: G1, Google Android, HTC, HTC, Reviews, T-Mobile, tmobile, touchscreen

The Android family just got bigger, as Google announced that fourteen companies have pledged support for the Android platform. Notables among the new members are Asus, Atheros, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Vodafone.

They will join founding members Sprint, T-Mobile, eBay, Intel, NVIDIA, LG and Samsung among many others. However, many heavyweight companies are still missing from the list including Nokia, AT&T, Verizon, Palm, Microsoft and RIM.

It is not clear how these companies will contribute to the OHA, seeing as how members’ roles can range from source code enhancement to bringing out Android-powered devices. The addition of Sony Ericsson is a big thing as they are one of the major handset makers right now.

Tags: Cell Phones, Google Android, Sony Ericsson

Don’t worry Google, it happens to the best of us. Not being to perform as expected is something Google might have not foreseen. It is rumored that those Android powered smartphones are not to be expected anytime soon. With only T-Mobile and HTC to possibly, maybe, get an Android phone by the end of the year things aren’t looking good for Google and their increasing interest in the mobile market.

Guess who will benefit from this? Well everyone. Basically the Android was, I mean is, a hope. Do you feel you had enough Symbian? What about Windows Mobile? OS X anyone? Android could be a powerful adversary. And we should expect lots of applications to be designed for it being an open source thing and what not. Notice how it “could be” and it “should be” but it isn’t!
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Tags: Android, Google, Google, Google Android, gphone, Mobile News

A few rumors have been circulating in the mobile phone market that Google and Dell are currently partnering to develop a series of GooglePhones — mobile phones using the Google Android OS. According to sources, Google is denying this, although more speculations abound that the first Goodell (Google + Dell) phone will be showcased in 3GSM in Barcelona.

Update: Dell denies the existence of this said partnership. We won’t be seeing Goodell phones after all. Too bad.

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Tags: Dell, Google Android, Other Brands

Winstron has unveiled their new GW4 smartphone in CES 2008. Albeit running on Linux during that time, Winstron says the GW4 will run on the Google Android when it’s presented to big firms on March 2008 for branding, making it, possibly, the first phone to run on the Andoid. Generally speaking, there’s nothing extraordinary about the GW4. it features a touch screen with a QWERTY keyboard. It has GPRS connectivity with 3G being introduced by the end of the year.

Specs:

Networks - GSM/GPRS (without EDGE)
Chipset - TI OMAP 1710 216 MHz CPU and 64 MB of memory
Display – 2.5” 320×240 pixels touchscreen
2-megapixel camera
Wi-Fi 802.11g
Built-in SIP VOIP-client
Opera browser
Widgets (i.e. weather forecast of share rating)

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Tags: Cell Phones, Google Android, smartphone

Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins of Mashable talked about the anonymous tip they received about a non-working Google Android Demo. We, here in Mobilewhack, have received the same thing, although this time, the tipper has a name (which, of course, we won’t reveal). We received the same email Mashable did, with a very few changes. According to the tip, a contextual search on the Google Android Phone revealed a page wherein which we could test out the Google Android Phone. The tipper said that it picks up phrases such as “I’m hungry” and it plays a Burger King commercial. To see it for yourselves, go to http://69.57.168.29/asr/.

I had played the video that’s embedded on the page and had to smack my head on the wall. The gag video by Nalts, the YouTube viral video guru, wasn’t very encouraging. Actually we had reported about the video a few weeks ago before people caught wind about it due to this incident. I also tested the demo itself and got stuck on the next page which displays the word “Calling…” Granted, I’m not in the US and according to the page, only US numbers would work. But still, according to Mashable, their “call” didn’t go through either.

We don’t know what’s going on. It might be an elaborate attempt to accomplish any of the following:

1. To collect phone numbers
2. To promote the video (it’s a “viral” video after all)
3. To have various tech blogs write about it (which is exactly what we’re doing).
4. To promote a particular fast food chain.
5. To play a joke on all of us.

OR it might actually be a working Google Android demo, it just didn’t work for us here in Mobilewhack (No, really. Err…right? After all, according to this site, it worked for them.). If you do decide to try the “demo” out for yourselves and it actually worked, do tell us.

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Tags: demo, Google Android, Mobile News