phones

Google on Monday released the first beta version of its software developer kit (SDK) for Android phones, a significant step in the company's hope for "open" phone technology.

Google, which is leading the 34-company Open Handset Alliance to create the largely open-source Android software stack for mobile devices, already had released an "early look" SDK in November 2007. With the new beta SDK, though, the company is telling programmers they can get started in earnest creating software that will work on Android phones due to start shipping later this year, though stopping short of promising full compatibility.

"Since this is a beta release, applications developed with it may not quite be compatible with devices running the final Android 1.0," Google developer advocate Dan Morrill said in a blog post.

Among changes in the new SDK are the addition of the phone's new home screen as well as some new applications for controlling the camera, playing music, setting alarms, viewing pictures, and dealing with SMS and MMS messages.

Android phones, notably HTC's Dream, are due to ship in the fourth quarter.

Google had hinted in May that the new Android SDK was imminent, but the company ended up sharing it only with finalists in an Android programming contest until Monday. The Android Developer Challenge is awarding $10 million to coders to try to jump-start development efforts; on Monday, Google said a second challenge will be announced later this year that "will give developers a chance to build polished applications once hardware is available."

Google hopes Android phones will be open to run innumerable applications, not just locked down to handle a relatively small number of authorized packages. To achieve this promise though, one key step is helping programmers to write that code. And SDK does just that, for example, by providing a software emulator that can run Android applications without an actual Android phone. … Read more

T-Mobile may be the smallest major carrier, but that doesn't mean it lacks a decent selection of phones. In the past few months the company has introduced two music phones that won our praise. The Motorola Rokr E8 offers an innovative "ModeShift" keypad, a 3.5mm headset jack, and a well-stocked music player that delivers on performance. The Nokia Xpress Music 5310 also brings a nifty music player to the table, but it packages it in a more traditional design. So, which is the better cell phone for listening to your tunes? In the latest CNET cell phone Prizefight … Read more

When the Apple iPhone 3G first made its global debut on July 11, Apple stores around the world experienced a cavalcade of technical glitches, mostly due to server meltdowns that weren't able to handle the amount of in-store activations. Days after the phone's debut, there were still long lines at Apple stores across the nation, as people waited patiently for the second-generation device.

Last Thursday, I decided to jump into the iPhone fray. As an Apple fan and a gadget aficionado, I've wanted one for some time, but just couldn't justify the lack of features of the original iPhone. Now that the iPhone 3G has the 3G and GPS functionality I wanted, I figured it was time. Despite the concerns over buggy software and battery issues, I wanted to have a firsthand experience to make my own mind up about it. So I went down to the local Apple store in San Francisco Thursday evening around 5 p.m.

Already, there was an iPhone line outside the store. I was fourth in line, and there was an Apple store employee outside, asking and answering questions. He mostly wanted to know if we were existing AT&T customers or not, and if we were transferring numbers over, he warned us that there would be a credit check, and that we would need our account number from the previous provider.

He then told us we had to wait outside so as to not overcrowd the store. By the time I got there, the employee told me that I would have a 30- to 45-minute wait. So I waited. During those 30 or so minutes, the line grew from 4 people to about 10, and it soon made sense why we were told to wait outside.… Read more

To be clear, Google is not making any cell phone hardware, but rather, an operating system called Android that will be compatible with a number of manufacturers and carriers. The FCC has just green-lighted handset-maker HTC for a November release of a phone model that they're calling the "Dream."

The idea of this phone has piqued a lot of consumer interest among fans of Google's other products: search, e-mail, docs, you name it. As Krazit explains, don't expect this phone to be a true rival to Apple's iPhone, but rather a midrange, entry-level phone … Read more

Philippines auction site Auction.ph is planning to make the Apple iPhone 3G available on the Web site, but issues such as product sourcing and potential carrier partnerships remain hazy.

In a press briefing Friday, Auction.ph--one of the country's pioneering auction sites--unveiled a special program to put the new iPhone for sale at an online auction.

"It is a promo for our loyal users and online merchandisers," said Angelo Hernandez, public relations chief at Auction.ph. The executive said Auction.ph will initially auction off one iPhone 3G unit, with a starting price of "only" 1 peso (2 cents), at bidding increments of 0.5 peso.

Hernandez said the company expects a "lucky" bidder to snare the iPhone 3G--which goes on sale in the Philippines on Friday, August 22--at a cost far less than the announced price tag of the mobile device.

The appeal of purchasing the phone on the site, he said, is that Auction.ph already has a "fixed" price range for the iPhone 3G, from 1 peso to 5,000 pesos ($110). The price range is considerably cheaper than the 30,000 (US$663) price tag of the iPhone currently offered in the local market, he added.

Hernandez, however, remained mum on whether the Apple phone will be a regular item on the auction site.

Although it has a substantial user base, he said, Auction.ph has yet to initiate talks on how it will source for iPhone units and on possible partnership with local distributors and carriers.

"But we are open to this arrangement," Hernandez said, adding that the auction site has more than 1 million subscribers, including individual sellers, merchants, and bidders.

Auction.ph's CEO and founder, Oh Hyuk, started a similar auction site in South Korea that was eventually acquired by U.S. online giant eBay. … Read more

With tales of iPhone 3G horror abounding on the Web, I figured I was just lucky.

Since Apple loaned CNET an iPhone 3G just over a month ago, I had experienced none of the problems that have plagued so many other users. I didn't have dropped calls or buggy software, and my iPhone wasn't cracking around the edges. Sure, the 3G connection was a bit shaky, and the battery life suffered during a day of heavy use, but on the whole my handset was doing just what it was supposed to do.

That is, until today. Since I … Read more

It made it's debut at the GSMA World Congress earlier this year and now the Nokia N96 has passed through the gates of the Federal Communications Commission. Only the most passionate cell phone geeks know that the FCC holds a treasure trove of information on upcoming handsets. Because the FCC has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test its SAR rating, the agency's online database offers a lot of sneak peeks to those who dig. And to save you the trouble, Crave has combed through the database for you. Here are a … Read more

It's everything you Crave and more. Brian Tong brings Ariel Nunez back to the show to talk about Wii Music, becoming invisible, making beats with the iPhone, and even better VoIP on that same Apple phone!

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Sun has open-sourced its toolkit for creating Java-based user interfaces for mobile phones.

The source code for the lightweight UI toolkit was released Thursday under the "GPLv2 with Classpath Exception" license. The toolkit includes a full set of "ready-made graphical components," along with support for fonts, themes, animation, and transition effects, Sun said in the accompanying statement.

"By creating LWUIT, Sun is reaffirming its commitment to the mobile development community and by open-sourcing the LWUIT code, we are enabling mobile developers to quickly and easily create rich, portable interfaces for their applications--functionality that they have … Read more