He said, he said

Google seem to be in the news a lot today, but I’ve had enough Android as it’s not going to make it to Australia (big island in the southern hemisphere) and an Engadget test shows that the iPhone is faster. My Google news today is Google In Quotes from Google Labs, and it’s fun for all the family. In Quotes in a comparison tool that allows you to see what politicians are saying about certain topics, when you load up the site it defaults to the US edition featuring McCain and Obama. 

As well as the US edition there is also UK, Canadian and Indian editions, but not an Australian (big island in the southern hemisphere, you know Kangaroos and all that) edition. Each edition has a number of default topics to compare quotes on, using the US edition it is: Iraq, oil, Bush and Iran, but you can also add other topics like, oh, I don’t know…say the economy? My favourite feature of the site is the “spin” button that acts a bit like a one-armed bandit, spinning the quotes before stopping on some new quotes for you to muse upon. 

MyTake – A good, timely piece of lighthearted fun from the guys and gals at Google. I am a huge fan of the “spin” function, if only politicians could actually have this when they are speaking – how much fun would that be! Anyway, good fun, go check it out for yourself. 

The Andoid will take over

I already posted on the first phone to use Google's Android, but some news out to day seems to hint at the operating system going further than just the humble phone. Because Google Android is majority open-source, people have the chance to do whatever they want with it. According to the news doing the rounds today, some of the other places we could see Android includes TVs, set-top boxes and in-car computers.....interesting. 

Apparently, the cat was let out of the bag by John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer at Wind River Systems who said something along the lines (you can read more in this Cnet article) of this, "We're starting to see Android get designed in on devices that extend way beyond the phone--things that might go in the automobile or things that might go in the home". Oh really John, tell us more. "I don't want to pre-announce any design wins," he said. "I think you'll see them in 2009. I would be shocked if you didn't." 

MyTake - It's a bit like watching a football (soccer) match where you expect a coach to do one thing, then he comes out with a formation and set of players that you'd never expect - something is about to happen. In hindsight, it's probably obvious to some that Android would end up on other devices. After all, it seems to be a very flexible operating system that could be easily adapted to other uses. Expect an upset or two from the boys and gals at Google.

Let the Android party begin

If you’d have asked me my opinion about the mobile phone industry pre the iPhone, I’d have told you that it needs a good kick up the ass because we’re all sick of hearing about wap and video calling. Then the iPhone came along and set the bar (a far bit) higher and challenged the rest of the market to follow. And followed they have, every other manufacture has produced a so called “iPhone killer” to take on the boys at Apple. The problem is though, it’s not just about the hardware, is it?

Enter Google and their Android. The guys at Google know a killer app when they see one, so you’d probably be fairly safe in saying that Android is going to be the next installment in an already glittering portfolio. The news today is that T-Mobile in the US is going to be the first to show off a handset (HTC) featuring the software at a conference in New York on 23 September.  It’s going to be interesting to see how the media and analysts react to it as this is Google’s play to widen their advertising model.   

MyTake – This is really the best front to attack Apple on. It really doesn’t matter how cool that handset is, if the user-experience is poor, then so is the handset. Google have gone down the same road as Apple by opening up the software to third party developers, which in my opinion was Apple's master stroke. I predict a real clash of the titans type battle between these boys.