from Engadget by Ryan Block
Can it be true? Is the
Googlephone nigh at hand? Not that we haven't been hearing this
time after
time (after
time after
time, etc.), but we've actually got some hot news from a number of very trustworthy sources about Google's plans for the mobile space. Namely, Google's mobile device platform is well on its way, and will be announced in the very near future.
We understand that the "Gphone OS" (our name for it, not theirs) began development after Google's very quiet 2005 acquisition of mobile software company Android, started by Danger cofounder and former-prez / CEO Andy Rubin. At Google, Andy's team has developed a Linux-based mobile device OS (no surprise) which they're currently shopping around to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible, customizable system -- with really great Google integration, of course.
As for the timeframe on this thing, we keep hearing Google will announce its mobile plans some time post-Labor Day (September 3rd); from what we've heard Google isn't necessarily working on hardware of its own, but is definitely working with OEMs and ODMs to get them to put the Gphone OS on upcoming devices. Think of it more in terms of Windows Mobile or Palm OS (in the early days) -- Google wants to supply the platform, but we don't think they want to
sell hardware. Still, don't entirely rule out the idea. Andy Rubin knows how to make a device and put it in peoples' hands, so nothing is impossible on the hardware side. Either way, we're totally stoked to peep the software, we've been waiting for the Googlephone for years on years.
Still, we can't help wondering what El Jobso thinks about all this. Apple has been so buddy-buddy with Google lately, especially on the
iPhone -- and now Apple's mobile team is on the verge of outright competition with one of its closest partners. We know that's how the industry works, but it's got to sting a little, you know?
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Carriers in the UK have started to roll out PayForIt, an industry-standard solution for micropayments -- charges totaling less than £10 (about $20.16) in this case -- to their subscribers. Though there are already plenty of ways to pay for odds and ends likes games and ringtones through cellphones, that in itself is a problem; with payment services like premium-rate text messages, customers are left with a confusing experience that leave them wary of the whole process and less likely to use it again. PayForIt, on the other hand, leaves buyers with a standard receipt page regardless of what they're purchasing along with some semblance of assurance that the system is secure. Purchases show up on the next month's phone bill, at which point purchasing 650 ringtones may seem like a distinctly poorer plan (not to say we've ever done that or anything). No word on when we might see the service outside the British Isles; companies involved over there seem to be pretty amped, though, so if everything pans out, we imagine a broader launch will be in the cards.
Here's the initial view from London Heathrow Airport:
... and here's a nice view from Kathmandu:
To fly, you need to read this 
The Tenori-On is a musical sequencer from Yamaha—basically a grid of LED-lit rubber buttons that lets you create musical loops and melodies. It may look like a prop from a 1970s sci-fi series, but it's actually a really intuitive and capable instrument that looks simply amazing. Have a look at it in action after the jump.
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