Google Shows Off Android Phone

I like search, but what I like even more is gadgets. So when a company primarily known for their search engine comes up with something to revolutionize my mobile phone - I listen up.

Google has developed applications for mobile use, and have now gone into actually creating an open-source mobile operating system that threatens to take a bite out of the dominance currently enjoyed by the likes of Symbian and Windows OSs. Known as Android, the OS is based off Linux and was developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies that are devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices.

While Android hasn’t yet been released, Google has begun showing it off, and as such we’re able to learn of some of the platform’s features, which include:

• SMS and MMS text messaging, including threaded text messaging.
• GSM, WiFi, EDGE, 3G & Bluetooth connectivity.
• A web browser.
• Capable of utilizing video/still cameras, GPS, accelerometers, compasses, touchscreens, and accelerated 3D graphics.
• Advanced audio/video/still media formats such as MPEG-4, H.264, MP3, ACC, AMR, JPEG, PNG, GIF.
• And much more than hasn’t yet been discovered, or revealed.

Even more exciting than a list of features is this new video from the BBC in which Andy Rubin of Google demonstrates the Google Android operating system. He also makes a quick little dig at Apple, describing the iPhone as a “great 1.0 product.” Check it out: