Google Phone “Is A Certainty”
| by Rob Jackson on November 30th, 2009 |
|
The momentum on Google Phone rumors is picking up and if Gizmodo’s tipster is right, they’ll be an avalanche of prototypes descending upon the company’s Mountain View headquarters in the coming weeks:
Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They’ll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android—either Flan or the version of Android beyond it—which our source spotted running on Google’s handset as well as a laptop. (Whatever the software was, it most certainly wasn’t Chrome OS, we were assured.)
But maybe the most intriguing bit is what someone said to our source offhandedly, that the current Android, the we all know and love, is not the “real” Android. So what makes for a “real” version of Android?
Our best guess is an Android OS with Google Voice at its heart.
Yummy. I hope that the Google Phone launches with a version of Android one past Flan. That way it could be a double G phone: Google Phone with Granola…
…or something similar. Any guesses?
1. Minja wrote on November 30, 2009
Android isn’t the real android? I wanna see one with Google voice at heart, I mean it sounds like a great idea…Would it need carriers anymore though? If it doesn’t then the phones might be way to expensive without a carriers discount.
2. swehes wrote on November 30, 2009
Well. I guess I will just hold off some more from getting an android phone.
3. Tony D wrote on November 30, 2009
The Holy Grail? Instead of waiting for the HTC Passion I can finally say good-bye to cellular carriers maybe?
4. maxisma wrote on November 30, 2009
Eclair – Flan – Googlehupf? lol
5. Andrex wrote on November 30, 2009
Is granola really the next code name? :p
6. Rob wrote on November 30, 2009
I’m guessing the name will be Ganache.
7. mfg wrote on November 30, 2009
i am hoping for Grasshopper. a minty delicious dessert. i like how if you google “desserts b…” it jumps to beginning with e,f,g,h…
8. jo wrote on November 30, 2009
so we’re using “offhanded comments” as basis for articles now?
9. Jerry wrote on November 30, 2009
These new versions of Android concern me .. the manufacturers barely have any time to adjust to the new versions.. and consumers have to adjust as well.
On the other hand .. I get excited about new features.. although I must say 2.0 and 1.6 are not that much different…
10. Darrell wrote on November 30, 2009
Given Gizmodo’s slavish devotion to anything Apple related this could simply be a huge pile of BS designed to make people who are interested in the droid or another current Android phone to hold off on buying it. That way they can report “disappointing sales” which will make it look like android is for losers.
Or I could just be being paranoid.
11. Till wrote on November 30, 2009
Yeah…until we have specs, price, and a release date, dribblings of rumors about a Google phone are not terribly interesting.
P.S. Misuse of “don”, and how the hell would a phone be running “the version of Android beyond [Flan]” when Flan is still in development?
12. Adrien wrote on November 30, 2009
propositions from a Frenchman…
We know our share about cakes and needless to say that after Cupcake and Donut… Eclair & Flan have definitely crossed the Atlantic ;-)
– Gâteau (this one was easy, just means “cake”)
others :
– Galette (a dry butter cake)
– Gaufre (waffle)
– Génoise (sponge cake)
[more like desert accessories]
– Ganache (chocolate paste)
– Glace (ice cream)
– Griottes (liquored cherries)
Oh, and BTW, for “K” it would be so great to have “Kouign Amann” my all time favorite cake !!..
13. TK wrote on November 30, 2009
Gelato?
14. para_n0id wrote on November 30, 2009
After the FCC approved the use of the white space spectrum for broadband, something like a Google VOIP phone has been an inevitability. Go Google!
15. Karl wrote on November 30, 2009
I’d heard Gingerbread.
16. ari-free wrote on November 30, 2009
http://www.chocolateatlas.com/Chocolate_Recipes/S074_Goo-Goo_Cake.htm
The Goo-Goo cake.
17. Michael wrote on November 30, 2009
It’s gonna be gingerbread.
18. tomascivinod wrote on November 30, 2009
I reakon this might be a sony milo type device, how esle but wifi will they get data, no carrier will want to let them use their network!
19. Michael Johnson wrote on November 30, 2009
Gelato, fo shizzle…
20. Vladimir Kelman wrote on November 30, 2009
OK, suppose I have a data plan only. How would it allow me to call for free to regular phones? VOIP is free only between VOIP contacts (like Skype-to-Skype or Google Talk to, or Gizmo5 to..). Am I wrong?
21. Pieter wrote on November 30, 2009
gingerbread might be a good one if they plan to release/announce right around Christmas. otherwise they should stick to gelato
22. Justin2 wrote on November 30, 2009
@Vladimir Kelman: VOIP only stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. Vonage is a VOIP, as is the new AT&T phone service, as is Verison FIOS (the only difference is the medium i.e. Fiber Optic, or copper). So if Google runs the service through their own servers, and they buy up the white space as some people have said, or they rent cell towers, then they could offer it for free, and you could still call land lines. The only block would be if the POTS line (literally stands for Plain Old Telephone Service) like AT&T and… I don’t really know of anyone else anymore… Anywho, if the POTS owners decide they don’t want to upgrade or allow IP data packets to change over to their Phone lines. VOIP can contact Land, Cell, or other VOIP is my main point. And VOIP is the phone styling of the future.
23. mikeeeee wrote on November 30, 2009
better have some form of wifi calling baked in or else they missed the boat again.
24. Freddy wrote on November 30, 2009
Gelato is most likely gonna be the name. Google tries to make the dessert sound desirable, not gingerbread, thats just nasty. gelato is a delicious dessert. :)
25. Sprinter wrote on November 30, 2009
POTS owners won’t be able to do anything about it either because they would have to block all VOIP services or risk interaction from the FCC. But come to think about the FCC would intervene if they tried to block all VOIP services as well. So really there is nothing anyone can do about it as long as Google finds a way to get wireless data service to the device. And count me in if they manage to pull it off.
26. onlyever wrote on November 30, 2009
I went to Google and searched “desserts that start with…” and the letters are e,s,m,a,g. But when I put a “g” after that, the search suggestion goes away. Fishy? The first result being Yahoo!Answers makes it even moreso. ;)
27. onlyever wrote on November 30, 2009
And Google has been sticking to well-known but still offbeat names for its Android versions, so i’m guessing simething recognizable but still cool-sounding, gelato. Of course, i don’t really have a favorite…
28. Dennis wrote on November 30, 2009
Although I think the Google phone will be available without a plan, I imagine it will also have the ability to have a plan. Perhaps Wifi and mobile data will be available enough in some areas, but I still like separating my phone from my data.. at least for now.
29. Nikolai wrote on November 30, 2009
There was in interesting news item here about a week and a half ago. Apparently there is [an all girls] Brisbane (Australia) school that is doing some testing for Google – they are saying it is the Google Phone. It’s being run as an extra curricular activity overseen by a University of Queensland researcher and has seen all participating students given a “Google phone” that they can put their own sim in and use outside of school.
As part of the program they are also being taught to write apps for android aswell, apparently non-programmers can come up with ideas/apps that we can’t :)
It wouldn’t suprise me if the phone they are using is being UI tested for Google in advance of a product release sometime next year.
Also interesting was that one of the school teachers involved was talking about them adding some “mobile phone application development” to the school curriculum.
30. JayMonster wrote on November 30, 2009
Despite all the chatter to the contrary, I still think this is off base and a non-starter. Sure, there may be a new prototype phone that may be floating around Google. I am sure there were a number of Droid prototypes that bounced around at one point as they worked with Motorola to get the Droid out to market.
The basic idea of GoogleVoice running over data is interesting… and an idea that would dovetail well with LTE much better than it would over current 3G services or even WiMax.
31. Dave wrote on December 1, 2009
And why wouldn’t couldn’t any current generation smartphone work with this hypothetical plan of VOIP only on the phone?
32. mobilemadness wrote on December 1, 2009
GGG! Good-played Game Google !
33. Paul wrote on December 1, 2009
I’m with JayMonster. I can’t see Google putting themselves in competition with their very customers in this market, the cell carriers. They do that, and look for the android market to dry up as the now competing carriers shut off the tap.
34. ari-free wrote on December 1, 2009
gelato sounds like gelatin. The image of really nasty retro jello recipes comes to mind.
http://www.rvtrekker.com/jellorecipes/cornedbeef.htm
35. ari-free wrote on December 1, 2009
nikolai:
http://www.catholicleader.com.au/news.php/schools-news/girls-put-minds-to-a-google-idea_53868
36. lina bryse wrote on December 12, 2009
The tweet that feed us all. I must say this is one of the ‘good’ news we will be receiving after new year. But what irritates most of the users
is the prediction that the goog phone will be powered by AT&T? geez.. now that’s a ‘ZOMG’ situation… but why?
Detailed preview of google phone: http://bit.ly/google-phone-on-january-predictions