G1 News

The home of global trade (as well as other items of questionable origin) Alibaba seems an unlikely home for the latest Android handset, but sure enough Shenzhen JoinCyber Telecom Equipment Co., Ltd. is selling a phone which looks very similar to the recently canned, resolutionally challenged Kogan Agora…

For a mere 240 HKD (£22.30), you too could own the ‘Shining phone,’ seemingly a piece of defunct history! Oh, and you have to buy a minimum of 100 in a job lot, so that’s Xmas 2oo9 sorted as far as presents to loved ones go! Nana’ll love it!

Of course, it is little surprise that the same design has cropped up, as this Chinese manufacturer is probably where it came from in the first place… Roll on Android-powered Veptu handsets, that’s all I say!

Source: Engadget

The Kogan Agora Pro, the next Great Android Handset from Australian entrepeneur Ruslan Kogan has been indefinitely delayed, with low resolution displays and concerns over app compatibility said to be the reasons behind the handset’s shelving.

“It now seems certain the current Agora specifications will limit its compatibility or interoperability in the near future,” said Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan in a statement.

“Since the design of the Agora, the Android community has been growing quickly … I now believe that in order to access all the Android platform has to offer, the Agora must be redesigned.”

The Kogan Agora and Agora Pro are were QWERTY keyboard-equipped handsets with a 2.5-inch QVGA (240×320-pixel) resolution display, far below the T-Mobile G1’s  3.2-inch 320×480 screen.

All of the apps currently being created are the larger display of the G1 in mind, and as such the Agora Pro would have been in danger of becoming obsolete dangerously quickly.

A new Android phone from the company is currently being developed, whilst all current pre-orders made to Kogan will be reimbursed.

A real shame as I admired the concept, the phone looked nice and could have been a fitting testament to how anyone could make a great handset off the back of Android’s open source system. Here’s hoping the Agora Pro 2.0 suffers a better fate…

Source: CNET Australia

Coming soon to Android lovers around the world are the first post-G1 Google handsets, courtesy of Kogan.

The Agora and Agora Pro handsets (available for $299AUD/£132 and $399AUD/£176 respectively) are SIM-free, and are pretty impressive considering their the product of an Aussie entrepreneur joining forces with a Chinese handset maker…

The vanilla Agora comes with 2.5″ touchscreen, the Android operating system (naturally), 3G connectivity and memory upgradable via a microSD card slot.

Shell out a little more for the Pro and receive a 2 megapixel camera, GPS and Wi-FI in the bargain!

Big fan of the Blackberry-esque keyboard, too. Shows you don’t have to have a super-crazy design if the interface is snazzy enough!

Good news, they’re taking international orders too, so pop over to the Kogan site and sign up! However, you’ll have to sit tight for a bit as the phone isn’t out until the end of January.

They can’t be using pre-orders to fund production of the Agora…could they? Nah.