Android on your next phone

In 42: Htc Desire, Android Mobile Phone review I wrote about how I love my Android phone. Remember Android is the operating system for phone (well any mobile device really), rather like Windows or Linux are operating systems for PC's (only Android is free and open so more like Linux than Windows).

Below is the keynote speech on Android at the recent Google IO conference. It is 45 minutes long but should be interesting to anyone who has any interest in smartphones. Lots of nice detail on where Android is now (60 devices, 49 countries, 100,000 phone activations a day [more than iPhone], more data traffic than any other phone operating system, 50,000 applications in the marketplace, ...). Also on what is now available in the latest release of Android (Froyo or version 2.2).

Note that for Android phones it is worth checking what version of Android your phone includes (mine is 2.1 but I should be able to upgrade to 2.2 within a few months). Some phones are cheap but are running very old versions of Android and so many new features will be unavailable on them (worth asking about Android upgrade policies too). Note of course that the features already on the phone will still work so if it has all you need and you like the price then upgrades won't be a concern.

Anyway here is the keynote:

I love some of those new things. The WiFi hotspot will save me £5 a month. The music sync support is going to allow me to replace my iPod (or at least allow me to use one device for work music and one for pleasure). Many of the other upgrades are cool even if just great fun to experiment.

All this with the open platform that is why I chose Android in the first place.

Comments

[Richard Hall]

I'm a fan of Android, too. I enjoyed the video, though it was perhaps just a tad smug. Mind you, given the success they've had I suppose a measure of smugness is justified.

[Dave]

My experience of keynote speeches at technology conferences is that smugness is expected :-)