G1 News

Flying in the face of recent statements, Gameloft have issued a press release unveiling plans to launch High Definition gaming on the new breed of Android phones including the Motorola DROID/MILESTONE and Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10, as well as cementing their support of current generation Google-powered devices.

Earlier this week, Gameloft’s finance director Alexadre de Rochefort spoke of scaling back investment for the fledgling platform, citing iPhone sales as being 400 times higher than on Android Market for their games in the last quarter, as well as a lack of assistance from Google in the promotion of titles.

Whilst the press release places a great deal of emphasis on referring to the ‘2nd generation’ of Android phones, it seems as though Gameloft are attmempting to clarify their intentions of maintaining a presence on the operating system, at present as well as in the future.

In that case, are they scaling back investment, or not?

This latest announcement does little to play down rumours that Gameloft may concentrate their efforts on iPhone in the meantime, with a view to ramping up Android development once the platform has a bigger slice of the smartphone market and a wider range of handsets available to consumers.

Today, Google announced that their new Maps Navigation system is now available for devices running the Android 1.6 operating system…provided you live in the U.S., that is.

As Android 1.6 is the build that all phones aside from the Motorola DROID (to be called Motorola MILESTONE if you call elevators by their real name, which is a ‘lift’) are running on, even the humble T-Mobile G1 and HTC Magic able to get a new lease of life and sense of direction.

Android 1.6 stops short of enabling full Droidery for Maps Navigation, leaving out the “Navigate to…” voice commands enabled by the 2.0 ‘Donut’ update.

US users can point your browsers to the Android Market, whilst UK users can make a gun using their thumb and forefinger and point at their temple in desperation…

Source: Android Release

A European version of the Motorola DROID Google phone revealed last week in the US has also arrived on retailer sites across Western Europe, now daubed with the name ‘MILESTONE’.

Available in November on the O2 and Vodafone networks in Germany and Italy respectively, the Motorola MILESTONE sports some interesting new features that separate it from the iPhone-botherer on the other side of the Atlantic.

The MILESTONE’s Android operating system seems tweaked to access features not found on the US DROID, namely pinch and zoom support.

Multi-touch is certainly a welcome function, and will certainly be put to good use when browsing the web on the 3.7″ TFT display.

However, Motorola’s new Android phone has been confirmed to not be shipping with the impressive Google Maps Navigation software that debuted on the DROID, instead opting for a proprietary MOTONAV service.

We hope that Maps Navigation for Europe is in the works and on the way!

Core features like the 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, slick slider form factor and push mail support remain intact, but the memory card included has been trimmed from 16GB to 8GB.

The price on O2’s German site is €481, but everything seems fairly quiet regarding a UK Motorola Milestone release date, let alone pricing…

What Moto giveth, Moto also taketh away. Which features would you prefer to see on the MILESTONE?