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.

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?

Boy Genius Report has been teasing with the new Motorola Android handset for a while now, and the MotoDROID has finally been revealed in a quick video showing off the brief boot sequence on the handset.

It’s all very cool and ominous, until the croakey ‘DROID’ voice lets us know that we’re still in for a cool experience from the folk that brought us ‘HELLOMOTO’.

Whilst the DEXT had a slight Android flavour enhanced with widgets, the MotoDROID seems set to give users the full Google monty.

UPDATE: More info from Boy Genius, a whole host of screenshots of Android 2.0! Eclairs for everyone!

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/10/16/android-2-0-screenshot-walkthrough/

So…what can Motorola’s DEXT and the MotoBLUR interface do for you social (networking) life, and how does it stack up against the HTC Hero and its Sense UI? Find out in this vid from Slashgear!

T-Mobile is do to be backing Android heavily into this year, and are slated to have four phones powered by the new OS. We’ve just seen the latest one, dubbed the Motorola Morrison.

Looking similar to the ‘Bigfoot‘ in terms of form, the Morrison is a slider in the vein of the HTC Touch Pro, hiding a QWERTY keyboard behind the screen.

Further specs are unfortunately thin on the ground, but it’s interesting to see how similar the form factor is for all these devices! Not that free when making touchscreen phones, it turns out…the G1 is starting to look pretty unique!

Motorola is indeed the third partner for T-Mo hinted at earlier, and it proves that some big player are really committed to Android moving forward, with some needing it to be a success for them more than others.

T-Mobile are big on the Android platform, but has the HTC Magic moving to Vodafone forced their hand in looking for other manufacturers to cosy up with? A T-Mobile spokesperson has come up with the following loaded statement:

“We are looking to launch multiple Android-based devices in the second half of this year with three partners…[and we will] see Android find its way down into feature phones on the low end.”

Open source means that the price of an operating system is no longer a barrier to entry, hence Android for everyone! But who are the three hookups? HTC and Samsung are obvious, but the third? Huawei? Motorola?

Gadget Stylist has a very interesting article on that very matter, with Motorola’s full-on adoption of the platform revealing their long term gameplan…or should we say life line?

Just watch this. The applications of a robust system like Android running on a versatile, low power solution like E-Ink has limitless possibilities, and Moto has managed to put together a proof of concept!

Motorola promised their Android development was far down the line, this might have a long way to go to production but the practical implications are already obvious.

Android Meets E Ink from MOTO Development Group on Vimeo.