Unlock of a G1: done

We all know that the G1 is locked to T-Mobile. Well it seems it's not the case anymore. The G1 has been successfully unlocked and despite few glitches, works pretty well on other networks.

And because business is business, if you want to unlock your phone, Unlock-TmobileG1.com offers that possibility for $22.99.

The unlocked phone then opens up to other networks and allows you to make the usual phone calls or send text messages.

However, according to AndroidCommunity, there are few glitches. The most notable one is that they couldn't seem to log in with their Gmail account. No login in Gmail means no Android Market either. But still according to AndroidCommunity, there are no indication this cannot be fixed as they also point out they used the network's standard settings.

For the skeptical ones, here's a video showing an unlocked G1 working on AT&T network:

Related articles

• Video: T-Mobile G1 gets unlocked, quirks still present
• T-Mobile G1 Unlock Now Available [T-mobile G1]
• T-Mobile G1 gets unlocked, though it loses a few features
• T-Mobile G1 Unlock Now Available

Welcome to the UK, dear G1

The T-Mobile G1, the first Android-powered phone, officially arrives in the UK today to any T-Mobile shops.

Note that the G1 over there is free and our British friends have the choice between two price plans, going from £35.

The first priceplan is called Combi, costs £35 per month and this for 18months and gives 800 minutes of voicecall to any networks and unlimited texts.

Or for those who like complete freedom over how they spend their money, they can go for the Flex priceplan. It is £40 per month, for 18months in total and gives £250 that you spend in any way you want. If one month, you mainly do texting and the other you find yourself calling a lot, this priceplan does give you the flexibility to do so. However, it is a bit like managing a budget and it can prove to be fastidious sometimes.

Please also note that both priceplans give out unlimited internet access. Check out all the infos you need on the T-Mobile UK's official website here.

G1 "pouring in China" with sky-high prices

Illegal G1s have been literally "pouring into China" since the US release, with dubious sellers speculating on expensive prices.

According to mocoNews, a G1 goes for more than 3,999 Chinese yuan (over $580, more than three times the US official price) and to this, you have to add a $70 unlocking fee. Of course none of this is official and is similar to what happened with the iPhone after its US release. iPhones were shipped all around the world at ridiculously high prices, sometimes reaching $2000.

The prices should not hit such crazy numbers, thanks to high supply level but when a popular desirable product is out, you'll always have people ready to bank on it.

Related articles

• G1s said to be "pouring into China," selling for big bucks
• T-Mobile G1 Hits China

Have your Sidekick look like a G1

In these harsh times of crisis, getting a G1 could prove to be difficult. For those of you who are desperate to get a G1 but decided to stick with your Sidekick for the time being, you can always get a feel of the G1 with these new themes.

The 2 G1 themes were created by CubanitaStylezz and are compatible with Sidekick LX / Sidekick Slide and so on...See below for the links

Theme 1
Theme 2

We know, it's only a temporary solution while you get your hands on a fresh brand new G1.

Android Market opened

The Android Market has opened its gates and Eric Chu, one of the Android's developer has outlined on how the whole thing works.

The market is opened for downloads and there already are around 50 apps available with many more to come. Developers from next Monday (October 27th) will be able to publish their apps on the market. To upload their apps; developers will have to pay a one time application fee of 25$.

More interestingly is the fact that developers will be able to distribute paid apps, early 2009. They get 70% of the revenue from each download and the rest goes to carriers and billing fees. Eric Chu is keen on saying that Google does not touch a dime.

Having paid apps on Android Market will benefit companies like EA which declared their interest for the platform but were still waiting on seeing if they could distribute paid apps. Don't be surprised to see a Fifa or NBA live landing on Android real soon.

There is also an official website for the Android Market: http://www.android.com/market/ on which you can view a showcase of all the apps already available, like imeem mobile or shazam or even Namco's original Pacman.

Related articles

• Android Market is Live, developers to get 70% of sales revenues
• Android Market: What We Know and What We Should Expect
• Android Market Officially Open, No Paid Apps Till Next Year [Android]

Lining-up to go droid

For those of you who were still sceptical about the T-Mobile G1 sales, everything seems to be going well.

MocoNews are reporting that people were lining-up to get their hands on the first Android phone in front of a T-Mobile store in San Francisco, which opened at 6pm. People had a chance to go droid 11hours before the official release and that probably explains this lining-up. Ten minutes before the gates opened, there more than a hundred waiting for the precious.

We'll keep you updated on similar news when the phone is officially released this morning at 8 am. Will there be queues too? Possibly, mainly because of the limited stock availability. On the other hand, given the fact that T-Mobile customers were able to pre-order their G1 to receive it as early as the beginning of this week, it could also be quieter day than expected.

What is sure is that there is a genuine interest for the G1, both for hardware and software reasons, and that customers should soon see the infamous "Sould out" sign.

If you have any pictures or videos of people lining-up for the G1, don't hesitate to share them with us. Until then, let's keep our eyes wide open.

Picture from mocoNews.net

Related articles

• T-Mobile G1 Available in Retail Stores Nationwide Today
• T-Mobile G1 Hits Retail Shops One Day Early (Today) in San Francisco

Tips, tips for your little droid

The T-Mobile G1 has just hit the stores but many specialised websites offers many different little tips to get the best out of your Android phone.

Two very useful tips come to us thanks to livecrunch, and the first one is about installing non-Market applications.

To achieve this, it's fairly straightforward. Go to Settings, then application and checkmark Unknown-Resources to access non-Market apps.

However, let us remind, like livecrunch, that if your phone starts giving you errors, you can reset it. It will remove all your apps but keep your pics and music.

To do a reset, follow these:

Slide open keyboard

Press Alt and L at the same time you will get a screen with some options listed

Press Alt and W at the same time to wipe device to factory reset

Once it is finished press home and back key at the same tim

Remove the battery

Reinsert the battery

This will wipe your device to factory reset and should fix your issue… You will need to log in to your gmail account like you initially did.

The internet will soon spring with many more cool tips like these.

Original articles by livecrunch

• android.process.acore problem fixed on Android
• How To Install T-Mobile G1 Non-Market Applications

Android, a true music fan

Music on Android will be fun as the Android app Market welcomes two cool new music apps, while the G1 is one day away from its official launch.

The first one is called Imeem Mobile and is a music jukebox you can take anywhere with you to listen to your favorite songs. It exactly is a music social-networking app offering free music streaming and to share playlist with your friends.

Says CEO Dalton Caldwell:

"We look at what the most popular songs are across imeem, and in real time populate them to be available on mobile. The catalog is a literal representation of what the community finds most interesting at different times. So the songs available change daily as tastes change."

You can specifically search by artist or let the app create a playlist around that artist. All the usual controls are here, allowing to pause, skip to another song or buy it through Amazon music store. It all looks very smooth and the reception in wiffi is spotless.

Here's more with a review video of Imeem:



The second app is the one that many iPhone users will only know too well: Shazam. You're walking down the street, you hear a song and you are desperate to find who sings it.

Well, Shazam will take care of that for you. Open the app, let it listen to the song and in no time it will come up with the song's name, artist, cover and the album it was featured in. It will also provide links to related videoclips on youtube, or check the artist's MySpace or buy it through the Amazon Music Store.

I tried the app myself before (ok I admit it, it was the iPhone version) and it was working like a charm! It was actually working so well, that you find yourself stopping at all the songs on the radio to test this little app, and so far so good!

And here's a review of Shazam on Android:



Be sure to check out for these two cool apps when you get your G1 in a few hours.

Related articles

• Imeem Brings Streaming Music to Android and Google G1
• Imeem Launches Android App

Handango operationnal on day one

Handango, the alternative market place for Android apps, will open its gates on October 22nd, the very same day the G1 makes its débuts.

Handango will offer free and also purchased applications for Android phones.

Bill Stone, CEO of Handango, says:

“Handango has always offered its customers the widest variety of smartphone apps available on the market and on all major operating systems. Handango is now offering developers the opportunity to sell the paid apps they create for the Android platform as well as offer any free apps when the first Android device launches. Customers can purchase apps via the Web and then download them to their device.”

Developpers can submit their apps in three ways: for free, as a one-off fee or through subscription (monthly, quaterly or yearly).

Related articles

• Handango to Offer Paid Apps for Android
• Handango Gives Android Developers Two Ways to Make a Buck

T-Mobile G1, it's a millionair

The latest figures are simply astounding; The G1 pre-orders sales have reached 1.5 million units meaning T-mobile have sold their entire pre-orders stock. Besides, HTC had tripled the order and all was sold as well in no time.

This simply tops all the expectations T-Mobile and HTC had for the G1 and it proves that the interest for Android is very much real and alive.

HTC will be shipping millions of new G1s from October 23rd and be sure to order yours! Getting your hands on the G1 might just be a bigger struggle than expected!!

Related articles

• T-Mobile sells over 1.5 million G1 Android phones
• 1.5 million T-Mobile G1s already pre-ordered

Load it, try it, play the droid

You can't wait t get your hands (well fingers) on the G1? October 22nd is still too far away? Well for the time being you can at least get your mouse on a virtual G1.

T-Mobile has released an emulated version of the G1, very much like the Android emulator that comes with the Android SDK. But this emulator only needs a web browser and is dedicated to the G1.

However, don't expect too much out of it yet because many apps in the emulator are not really functioning. They often come with "this screen is not fully functional" message. Still it's good fun to have a feel of the G1.

Click here for to go and play with the virtual G1 and make sure you click on the emulator link.

Related article

• Emulator gives you the T-Mobile G1 experience now

Search has never been easier

On Google Mobile official blog, Andy Stadler, a software engineer, gives the latest on how search will work on Android. Google's reputation has been heavily built on its searching services and with Android, it looks easier than ever.

You have several ways to start a search, either use the web browser or the homepage widget or more specifically to the G1, tap the dedicated search button. It is fairly simple and avoids much typing, a definite plus on mobiles. Google are definitely aware that typing on a touchscreen is not the easiest or the funniest task and that is why they introduce predictive search.

Start typing a word and Google search will automatically make suggestions for you to directly select from a list what you want. It's simple, easy and soon to be essential to any searching services on mobiles.

But searching on Android is also shared by other apps! Take Youtube for example. Start a search and all similar previous queries you have made will be suggested to you so you can easily access previously watched content. Behind this rather simplistic example, it also shows how integrated to other apps the search service will be.

According to MocoNews' article, apps like the musicplayer will use the web browser or even youtube to search more infos on a specific track, album or artist. This gets us to start dreaming on the many possibilities this will allow! Launch a search on your contact and he will appear on google map via GPS, for example! Possibilities are endless and Google are definetly bringing in a suitable fashion for mobiles, the best of their experience in internet search.

Check out the presentation video on Google search on Android:

Related articles

• How Google is Integrating Search into Android and the G1
• Is Search The Best User Interface For Mobile?

Handango wants to go droid

Handango, an app retailer for smartphones, have also declared their interest in supporting Android, via a parallel app store!

The independent store plans to offer Google's products, as soon as the G1 hits the store in less than three weeks. Handango is also looking at developers to directly upload their apps on their own app store so that they could give or sell them or even offer suscriptions.

This particular bit coul interest EA who recently declared that they would consider developing their big gaming licenses on Android Market, only if there was a way to gain some profit out of it.

For more infos, check out Handango's website here.

Related articles

• Handango cashes in on Android
• EA Waiting to Release Android Games Until It Can Charge for Them [Android]
• Handango Opening Parallel Android Marketplace For Paid Apps [Android]

T-Mobile G1 shows off its curves

This is a Reuters video presenting the arrival of the T-Mobile G1 on mobiles market:



An officiel website for the phone has also been launched here.
Here are some of the photos you can find on the website:





Overall, it seems that the T-Mobile G1 is slightly bulkier than the iPhone. The design, though is pretty slick and besides the touch screen, it's pretty neat to have a full Qwerty keyboard.