G1 News

Phone Dog does a great review of Shazam for the Android. Shazam is a application that first appeared on the iPhone and identifies any song that is being played simply by holding your phone up to listen the music. Shazam then records the song and compares the information it received from that recording with that stored in its database it then returns song title, artist, links to YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook and Amazon if you want to buy the song.

The guy from Phone Dog is impressed with Shazam but points out it works out much better in quiet environments. For instance he went to a discount clothing store but Shazam was unable to identify the song that was playing there. There is about a 90% success rate in the video but it is in a quiet room and he is sitting next to the speakers. Would it work so well in a noisy nightclub for instance?

Unfortunately the video doesn’t compare Shazam on an iPhone compared to a G1? Has anyone used Shazam on an iPhone or the G1, comments please.

PhoneDog

Well, the title says it all really. Although the HTC Magic is released through Vodafone worldwide, it may be that T-Mobile that gets the US release. This would entail a bit of a name change. How doe G2 sound to everyone? Picture courtesy of Engadget.com

TalkAndroid

When not singlehandedly inventing and implementing an App Store before Apple on the iPhone with Cydia, the insanely talented developer Jay Freeman (who is known in CyberSpace as ’saurik’) has made a great way to explore the Android Marketplace from a computer with Cyrket.

Cyrket not only allows you to see what’s new in every category, the ratings and prices of every single app, but even enables the use of QR codes! So using the barcode scanning Android app and pointing your phone’s camera at the squiggly square code off your monitor, it sends your G1 (or any Android phone for that matter) to the relevant page immediately!

Makes browsing the otherwise slightly cramped feeling Marketplace clear and breezy, thanks saurik!

Mobile gaming publisher Gameloft was itching to get some cash money from the Android platform, and unsurprisingly as soon as the floodgates opened on paid apps into the Marketplace, they have no less than 20 titles coming out for the T-Mobile G1.

About time too, the lack of decent games was annoying! Only so many times you can play Pac-Man…

There is a good mix of some big licences, arguably what Gameloft do best. CSI: Miami (complete with a virtual moody and caring Horatio, with glasses!) and dating legend (Adriana Lima, Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba, Mariah Carey and Jessica Biel…come on!) Derek Jeter in Pro Baseball ‘09 are the highlights, with many more games for Android handsets to follow…

“With digital distribution being the platform of the future, Android Market continues the momentum by providing new channels for consumers to find, buy and download games,” said Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president of publishing at Gameloft. “We believe in the potential of Android Market, both in terms of content and accessibility. We will continue to support this platform any way we can.”

“Plus, when other devices like the HTC Magic come out…cha-ching!” he did not go on to add.

Remember that awesome decaled developer-spec T-Mobile G1 that Google was selling for $399?

Yeah, turns out it isn’t so awesome now that paid apps are available on the Android Marketplace. The free-wheeling nature of the Android Dev Phone 1 means that you would be easily able to roam around in the secret compartment where all the downloaded paid applications reside.

So if you were savvy enough to dip in there, fish out the app and ping it to your friends, then you end up in a crazy “free love and apps” world…and Google does not want that.

So for you, loyal fan of the G1 who shelled out the 400 bones, plus a $25 registration fee, there is no paid apps. Consider it a reward for your devotion and service. Come on, Google, surely we can reach some sort of solution that doesn’t involve shutting out the people you need most!

In your face, computer people!

As you all questioned the downfall of society and whether it would all end with leather pants and buggies and Tina Turner when GMail fell down yesterday, us T-Mobile G1 owners were living large!

As the ‘30 seconds’ quoted in the Google mail service’s error message above turned into around 4 hours for disgruntled home users, G1 owners were experiencing nothing of the kind!

It turns out that GMail was in fact down from from 9:30 a.m. until midday UK time. Google says it is now “investigating the root cause” of the issue. Despite being the sixth time in eight months that GMail has gone down, it pales in comparison to the 30 + hours of outage experienced late last year.

T-Mobile G1’s mail service saw no such problems for most of the duration, proving once and for all why it is so awesome! Well, slightly more awesome than GMail on the PC.

How’s this for a high-tech solution to the low tech problem of boredom?

Got a T-Mobile G1? Enjoyed the well known six sided puzzle that is named after  Hungarian professor of architecture, Ernõ Rubik? Then play the 2009 remix of the Rubik’s Cube on it with…Gube!

They’ve called it ‘Gube’ because it’s the Rubik’s Cube…on the G1.

With 3D rotation and manipulation via the G1’s touhcscreen, a timer to see how long it takes before you get fed up, Gube is pretty impressive.

Unfortunately, you can’t peel off the stickers and place them on the same side with the virtual Rubik’s Cube…but it does cost only $0.99 from Handango or the Android Marketplace!

The Astonishing Tribe, those clever design dudes that made the T-Mobile G1 interface so slick have turned their hand to creating an interface with real depth…

This 3D eye-tracking proof of concept demo is amazing…

OMG! The clock was off the bottom, and being able to ’see’ more icons off to the left and the right gives a glimpse of the future of the handsets. And the text mesage! Oh, the text message…

It may be a concept, but the horsepower is there on some phones available right now!

There’s an interesting post today on AisforAndroid comparing the specifications of the G1 and the newly announced HTC Magic. The biggest difference between the two phones is that the HTC Magic is a tad smaller and lighter with a better battery life. The obvious difference is the pull-out physical keyboard on the G1. The HTC Magic is purely touchscreen. Would this be enough to make you dump your G1 in favour of the HTC Dream? Read the post here.

T-Mobile have just announced that the popular rock game, Guitar Hero will be available on the G1. Great news for all your frustrated rock stars out there. With the G1’s touch screen, the G1 Guitar Hero will give players a completely different playing experience from the versions on the xBox, Wii and PS3 which use an actual guitar (although plastic) to play along.

AisforAndroid