Google Android and T-Mobile G1 Launch Roundup

Google Android Videos:

T-Mobile Ad

See, this is why I like writing – you can make up words like “funnerer”. The video starts off with some pretty sombre pans of the G1, and bold statements such as “the most exciting phone in the history of phones”, and “revolutionary this, that and the other thing”. Overstating just a teensy tiny bit, but I guess that’s to be expected. Then it picks up quick, gets nice and brigt, and start plowing through the features: browsing, compass mode Street View, e-mail, calendar, YouTube, camera, and closing on the Android Market.

Walkthrough

This one starts off talking about how the long press pops up handy contextual menus, leading into photo framing by touch, and leaving ‘em on your home screen just like a real desktop. Then off to the Amazon MP3 store, one-press shopping at the media player. Don’t be fooled, you can only download music from the Amazon store if you’re on Wi-Fi, which is a bit of a bummer. The media player lets you check out related info and material pretty easily, by the looks of it.

Then they go into the Windowshade, which lets you pull down alerts from the top and start responding to them right away. Contact search looks easy – just start typing when you have it open. The mapping talk goes over directions, traffic and of course the Compass mode, which lets you check things from Street View just by moving your phone around. After that, we take a look at the browser and the very slick zooming function. Of course, what would Google be without search? A dedicated key lets you find what you need fast, and long-press menus let you send out what you get just as quick.

Finally, the video goes over the Android Market, which looks like it’s really good about finding, downloading, and rating all of the apps that the community will hopefully be putting out there.

Preloaded Google apps
Erick, a lead product manager at Google, runs down Maps, GMail, Contacts, Calendar and IM, all surrounding his mysterious rendezvous with a biker lady-friend. A big pitch here is for the cloud mentality. There was some worry about no desktop application, but the fact is, every browser is effectively the desktop connection to the G1, and everything syncs wirelessly.

Run and switch between multiple applications

To be honest, this is just a jab at the iPhone. He does mention that Yahoo! Messenger is on there, though, which is nice to see we won’t be logged into GTalk.

Reader and Photos

Some folks were complaining about the lack of a dedicated Reader app, which also leaves us to wonder how the other Google service will be handled. The BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) offerings were always a little bit disappointing since so many of them were simply browser shortcuts, but hopefully we can see proper applications out in good time to help users plug even further into the Google mothership.

Fast scroll and Google maps

Even more video Android goodness on the next page, including hands-on impressions from the launch in New York.