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This is my main concern as I went through the technology news today. My 6600 (yeah old) has been begging for the bullet of mercy for quite a long time now. More than a year back, the zero button stopped working twice. Every time I show unmatched laziness to buy a new phone, and my phone somehow feels sorry and resumes it’s function few weeks later. For over six months now, it’s been going damn pretty slow I can hardly open any message, and friends ask me to accept MMS and applications from them! :). Pretty embarrassing for a geek!

So what’s holding me up from changing it? Well at first, I had many other stuff that I wanted more, and every time I buy one of them I feel the guilt, or sense of responsibility to save some and buy the phone the next month. The other thing is, I’ve been waiting for the phone that grabs all my attention. iPhone could’ve been a good candidate, but I like a camera on the go, I don’t wanna use a hacked phone that might stop working any day, I was expecting new release of it in a year, and then came the SDK announcement to stop my dreams. Nokia phones are good for a year or so, then you probably can’t sell it for 10 KD. Sony Ericcson’s got some good phones as well, but I never liked the button layouts. And then there is the HTC phone I kept thinking about. I didn’t like the fact it’s Windows based, but all have spoken great deal of it so far. You can get Google Maps on it and enable the GPS. Pretty good. But some HTC don’t have 3G with them, which is a shame not to have with a modern phone, and the ones that have are costly. Android ofcourse was a candidate, but it’s taking long time to come, so I wasn’t thinking of waiting for it. Also, I am a bit hesitated about the initial release of it. But…

Today I read this. HTC is coming up with their “dream” Android phone at end of this year. This seems like the best choice of mix for me now. But the big questions is “Can my phone hold up until the end of the year!?”. I doubt it.

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Rumors have floated blogs and news sites for months about an upcoming Google Phone. Some rumors were backed up also by solid proofs and it was just that Google officials didn’t like it that way. Now, Google are announcing their intention for open phone coalition. Current Google listed partners on this are Sprint, Motorolla (must be a thin phone!), Samsung, and NTT DoCoMo from Japan. The OS for that phone is so called now G-System, which is based on Linux (remember sometime back people talked about Google version of Linux… here it is!), and is promising to give internet access at PC-type speed. The phone will also be open for developers through developer tools to integrate and implement applications on top of it. Google here is playing it real smart, utilizing the love of the public to their advantage, contrary to what Jobs did to his fans for the initial launch. It didn’t stop them though from running even World of Warcraft did it?

No solid release date is given yet, but a worldwide shipping is planned for Spring. I somehow don’t feel like buying that promise, but it still raises the question. Shall I hold on to my half-dead Nokia 6600 until the Google Phone, or will it be a beta thing that is not worth the trouble?

[CORRECTION!] Contrary to all posts, Google have clarified there is not going to be a GPhone. Instead, there is going to be  Andriod, and Open Handset Alliance that is hoped to be the foundation for many new phones to come. A completely open platform for mobile devices that includes the operating system, user interface, and applications. What’s going to be unique about this platform is that all applications are treated equally. I.e., core phone apps and 3rd party apps have the same access to the phone’s capabilities, removing any borders on what developers can do. Mobile development has been a disputed area for quite some time, specially for J2ME apps which some kept promising will pick up, and up till now it didn’t as they’ve hoped for. If such a framework can give higher and more standard integration to phone capabilities, many among my selves are gonna be interested in giving it a thorough look.

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Rumors have spread all over the net few months back about Google phone. Some comments came from inside Google in this regard, before other officials also deny it. Google have been hiring many telecom and mobile expertise. Google said there is no phone coming it’s only for research so far. Now that Google has some partnership with Apple, perhaps they won’t go for phone, but to the underlying infrastructure. The claim here is that Google have requested from the Federal Communications Commission to obtaining wireless spectrum, the backbone of mobile-phone networks.

I am thinking of the endless possibility Google will have if they acquire this. How many new Ad channels they can make. (Who can outbid them in open auction?). Subscribe to low cost calls and get one SMS ad everyday. MMS, Wireless connections. This and much much more. Ofcourse in Kuwait this doesn’t make a difference, because telecom companies sell our phone numbers for companies and we receive SMS Ads all day. No one just cares about privacy or user rights!

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Rumors spread last week that there is going to be a Google Phone. Soon after, Google Officials from Spain confirmed the rumors saying employees are sparing some of their time on a Google Phone. Now, a top Google Executive (who definitely didn’t like the previous comments) said there is no work being done for a mobile phone, and rather than entering this large market they prefer to work closely with Motorola and such. A striking comment that collides with it’s successor, but it’s not a surprise to me. The surprise to me was that Google announced early in the game they are spending (some) of their time on a Google phone. The statement seems clear it is still in experimental phase, in which case Google sure would not want to expose their internal experiments to the public. I am not sure how did some Google officials make the statement without permission, I am sure there is some work happening, but Google is not sure how it will end up and do not want to give promises right now.

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Google Executives in Europe have confirmed that some of the engineer’s time is being spent on the yet called Google Phone. No official details are made yet, but some people with inside link have posted the new phone will be a C++ based operating system and optimized for JAVA, and would offer VoIP. It doesn’t need much thinking that it will come bundled with Google Maps, and perhaps light weight Google Earth as well. There are no signs of the release date however, and from the way it’s said, it doesn’t seem like a top priority project for them, but rather a testimonial.

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Probably not I would say, but this post has lots of hints and solid facts suggesting it could really be true. If so, I would like to wait for it before choosing between i and G Phones. But even Google might not be able to succeed managing all those variant technologies they keep acquiring, and in the mobile world, you have to keep producing and improving all the time. It would be interesting to see what they might come up with though. Rumors has it also that Google are working on an operating system based on Linux as well. You can read more about the story as well at Search Engine Journal.

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My brother in-law forwarded an email to me that he received from Epocrates, a mobile drug guide used by doctors. The email was a proactive information to the end user that currently Palm OS and Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) OS software applications, including the Epocrates applications cannot be installed or synced with Windows Vista computers as of now. The email urges users to postpone upgrade of Windows Vista until a solution is in place. The company also says they cannot commit to a deadline as the fix requires changes from both Palm and Microsoft. Below is a copy of that email:

” Dear …,
We think it’s important to let you know that many Palm® OS and Windows Mobile® (Pocket PC) OS software applications, including all Epocrates products, cannot at this time be installed or synced via computers with the new Windows Vista operating system.

We strongly recommend that if at all possible, you postpone installing Vista or upgrading to a new PC with Vista installed.

Since resolution of this problem depends upon software changes by both Palm and Microsoft, we regret that we cannot give you a firm date for a fix.
If you are already using Windows Vista, please review our FAQ for the latest recommendations from our customer support and engineering teams. Read FAQ »

Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
The Epocrates Team”

This is a really bad image for the new OS. New OS should be backward compatible as much as possible, and I do understand sometimes change is unavoidable. But with Windows Mobile, they should be more proactive to avoid such messages. Same thing happened with XBox 360 which was not backward compatible. I heard there are ways to make old games run, but still, it was not ready by it self to do so.

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