So all I managed to get from that is that it works, a bit like everyone else's devices, but less so...

Are they hoping the open source nature of the OS will see 3rd party developers doing their work for them?

Kinda appears that way eh?

P

I think they are testing the water and see how well it go.

After that, who knows? Better O/S? Better phone hadware?

I don't know the specs look pretty good to me, according to the HTC Website. I know the HTC Touch HD is far better specced but it is also a lot more expensive! Admittedly I have yet to see the interface in use, but hopefully it might be the kick up the arse that Microsoft needs to improve Windows Mobile. Lets face it Exchange and office document support can be added and if TomTom or other nav companies sign up and create software that will be all most people need.

Specs according to HTC:

Processor Qualcomm® MSM7201A™, 528 MHz
Operating System Android
Memory ROM: 256 MB
RAM: 192 MB

Dimensions (LxWxT) 117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm
(4.60 in x 2.16 in x 0.62 in)
Weight 158 grams (5.57 ounces) with battery
Display 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA:
Europe: 2100 MHz
US:1700/2100 MHz
Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link (HSDPA) and 2 Mbps up-link (HSUPA) speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency, HSUPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)

Device Control Trackball with Enter button
Keyboard Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
GPS GPS navigation capability with built-in GPS receiver and map software
Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
Capacity: 1150 mAh

(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
Special Features Digital Compass, Motion Sensor

Pretty good, but not outstanding. The capacitive screen is a welcome addition...

P

BBC News's article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7630888.stm

I missed the first part of the webcast. Was there a demo of the OS? Was it spritely or laggy like WM? If there's little bloat-ware in there it should fly along.

Geez. HTC stick to their guns and forget that the headphones they supply are worse than rubbish and still won't put a 3.5mm jack in there. There goes any "iPhone killer" thoughts straight out the window.

With the stupid data plan I don't think I want one. And it looks kinda ugly

Full breakdown of the Features - http://www.t-mobileg1.com/g1-learn-features-details.aspx

G1 FAQ - http://www.t-mobileg1.com/g1-learn-faqs-phone.aspx

OK, it's a bit underwhelming, but they'll get it into the market just based on their name. The real question is whether it gets the developer support, is the framework of the operating system good enough and extensible enough that people produce the apps to fill the holes.

As a starter device, it's a bit ugly, but I've seen worse. The real question is though, even if it becomes a popular OS, they will end up stuck the same way Windows Mobile is. The biggest problem and barrier to good winMo apps is that every device is different, and you get examples like the HTC diamond where a whole bunch of stuff just doesn't work.

Compare this to a developer producing iPhone Apps, you only have currently 2 device to test and develop your app for. Even when future iPhone's hit, there'll be a high level of consistency between devices because there is only one hardware provider. With Android, if it works, we'll have 6 devices in the next year and 20 within 2 years, and every one will be different, potentially with different screen sizes, orientations, different g-sensors, everything... very hard for the development community to keep behind. The only saving grace will be if google has somehow been exceptionally smart with the OS design to minimise the impact of various platforms on the developer.

Just my 2p

And it makes sense. It must be very difficult for developers to cater for all the HTC variants running what appears on the surface to be 'the same' OS, let alone the Samsung's and SonyEricson's of the world joining in too.

So what have Diamond owners lost out on then? What won't run on that device? Poor sods!

OK, it's a little off topic but...
Diamond has 2 reasons a number of apps (especially games) don't work. First it's VGA and some games won't work with it. Secondly, they've co*ked up the DirectDraw drivers. In a nutshell the driver reports it can do double buffering (which is generally a requirement but good developers work around it), but at the same time the driver also only provides access to enough graphics memory for a single buffer, meaning initialising the DirectDraw infrastructure gives an out of memory when you try to instantiate the back buffer.

I guessed the VGA would cause some issues, but didn't realise there were graphics issues with it too.

Ok... back on topic...

Hey - - just 30 posts to go til I get all my McBurger Stars!!

(ok... 29 now...)