Google’s mobile platform, Android, is taking a little while to find UK adopters, perhaps mostly due to the saturation of primarily Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung handsets, as well as the rising popularity of Apple’s iPhone. HTC have already shown that they can create decent phones for the American market, but with the US cellular market around a year or more behind that of the UK, will they ever really take off over here?

Well, it looks like HTC may have just about nailed it here. Diverging from their usual Windows Mobile handsets, this Android phone may not an official Google-phone (that is to say, Google didn’t help out in the design and branding) but looking at some of its features and innovations makes it stand out as the most powerful phone out there powered by Google’s mobile OS.

The UK edition isn’t going to have such an intrepid name – it will be known over here as the rather more reserved T-Mobile G2 Touch – but in terms of features and the brand new Sense UI, both mobile phones are equal.

The first thing that sticks out – literally – about the G2 Touch is the ‘lip’: the bottom juts out like a vicious overbite. This is bound to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing; those obsessed with aesthetics will forever compare it to the sleekness of the iPhone, whilst those with an eye for practicality will notice that it does actually help the phone fit snugly in the palm of your hand and give you easy access to the little thumb pad.

Where the G2 Touch stands apart from its fellow touchscreen smartphones, however, it is customisable homescreens and built-in support for social networking widgets. These allow you to have instant access to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, with support for many more. It doesn’t stop there, though – this is the first phone I’ve seen that allows you to link your phone contacts with specific Facebook profiles, meaning that your phone book will also list your friends’ latest status updates, profile picture, birthday, and other relevant info pulled from their profile. This integration sounds like a minor improvement over, say, the iPhone’s popular Facebook app; but it’s a very convenient and intuitive concept, and no doubt one designed to make the most of Facebook’s meteoric rise to popularity in this country.

There are widgets for a wide variety of other sites, such as YouTube, eBay, MySpace, and even BBC’s iPlayer; and one more feather in the cap of the HTC is full support for Flash video – something the iPhone will most likely never have due to its restrictive OS. HTC also allow you to sync your phone calendar with Google Calendar right off the bat – something that requires an obscene amount of fiddling with Apple’s effort.

One feature ‘missing’ is a front-facing camera, but this was probably a considered move on the part of HTC, as video calling still hasn’t really taken off, and doesn’t look like it ever will. The inbuilt rear camera (5MP autofocus) and the music player are the main departments where the Hero could stumble when being compared to its main touchscreen rivals. The camera is OK – not bad for a mobile phone camera, but really not fantastic. The media player is a little simplistic, but at least allows you to change track from the homescreen.

However, if there’s one thing the G2 Touch isn’t lacking, it’s features. Don’t for a minute forget about the onboard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, G-sensor and digital compass, all of which function better than ever seen before on an Android handset.

So, it may not replace the iPhone in the minds of the many as the current big thing, but the Hero/G2 Touch is definitely giving Apple a run for their money. As with most new handsets, you’d be better off waiting a few months until all the kinks in the firmware have been ironed out (and a bunch of new widgets have been added to the UI), and it looks like the Hero could stand pretty tall. Tall enough to save us all from a world where eventually the iPhone will take over, perhaps not, but it’s definitely worth considering as an alternative to the iPhone or Palm Pre – if a feature-packed multi-touch handset is the kind of thing you’re looking for.

Sorry to break from the norm, but this was a pretty interesting story I read about today while Googling for some Apple rumours.

http://news.ninmsn.com.au // CHINA – A young worker has jumped to his death after an iPhone prototype he was responsible for went missing.

Sun Danyong, 25, jumped from his apartment in the city of Shenzhen, in China’s Guangdong province north of Hong Kong last week, after he was reportedly interrogated over the missing product.

He worked at a plant run by massive electronics component-maker Foxconn — which manufactures iPods and iPhones — and was responsible for handling product communications.

Sun reported one of 16 fourth-generation iPhone prototypes was missing on July 13, four days after he received them from the production line.

Surveillance video from inside Sun’s apartment building shows he jumped from the 12-storey to his death just after 3am on Thursday morning, three days after he reported the phone missing.

You can read the rest of the article here. Pretty crazy stuff!

Since the iPhone 3GS has only recently usurped the 3G from its flagship iPhone status, not much is known yet about the 4th generation iPhone in terms of new features or a design refresh, other than that it will probably be released sometime in 2010.

Do excuse the morbid humour, but it already looks like it’s going to be a killer phone.

Most people with a finger on the pulse of the mobile phone industry will be more than familiar with Nokia’s two ’special’ lines of phones; the multimedia based feature-rich N-series for ‘power users’ (which has recently had the N97 added to its ranks, also known as the world’s first smartphone with both a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard), and the business-oriented E-series, which have their main emphasis on connectivity. These two lines complement Nokia’s ever-growing range of phones for ‘normal’ users, such as the iconic 3210 or the more recent 5800 XpressMusic.

However, with just a couple of trademark registrations in the last 3 days, Nokia are setting the rumour mill ablaze. Saturday saw Nokia file a Finnish trademark for “Cseries”, and earlier today a Czech application for “Xseries”. The question is, what will the new C and X series signify?

Personally I reckon they won’t be phones, and Nokia is hoping to extend itself into another market in the electronics sector – possibly netbooks or internet tablets. Nokia’s current line of internet tablets are filed under the N-series (namely the N810, N800 & N770), and there are a few hints floating about that Nokia may soon be branching into the netbook market.

And while we’re on the subject, what do all these initials stand for? Nobody seems to agree – for some, the N-series stands for “eNtertainment”, or, since they are considered the company’s flagship phones, it could simply stand for “Nokia”. The E-series seems to stand for “Enterprise”, but there doesn’t seem to be an official word on it, so maybe they’re just letters for the sake of having letters – which leads us to what exactly the X in X-series could signify… a new line of Nokia xylophones, perhaps?

Those of whom who have upgraded to the new Apple iPhone 3GS seem to have plenty to shout about – sure, the camera is rather better quality than before and includes autofocus, video recording and a built-in video editor/uploader; but let’s be honest here, it’s a 3MP camera with a pretty ordinary lens, on a phone.

That hasn’t stopped Japanese electronics accessories manufacturer Factron from designing and releasing the Quattro, an almost alienesque metal monstrosity of an iPhone case, complete with detachable, interchangeable lenses to improve the camera even further – coming in macro, wide angle and fisheye flavours, which range from $15 to $55 (~£10-35).

While I hate to criticise without having much further knowledge (the Factron site is in Japanese and doesn’t seem to offer much more info, sadly), I really can’t help but focus on the glaringly obvious downsides of such a heavy duty metal case:

• Overheating? The 3GS has already been known to overheat – surely sticking it in this isn’t exactly going to help.

• Signal? Isn’t all that metal mesh surrounding your phone going to destroy your reception?
• Aesthetics? With the strong aesthetic appeal of the iPhone, surely you would have to be a little stir crazy to place your thin, sleek handset into this bulky, pocket-destroying case. Not to mention the fact that a case with that much metal is likely to scratch your precious iPhone…
• Portability? Clearly you can’t stick it in your pocket with a massive lens on it like that. Which leaves the only alternative – removing the lenses and carrying them around in a separate bag. And take a look at those corners – imagine those digging into your thighs as you walk down the street.
• Price? Well, here’s where it all goes horribly wrong. You can get your hands on a Factron Quattro for just under $200. Yes, $200 (~£125). Considering the iPhone 3G handset has fallen to around $99 after the release of the 3GS, by buying this you’d be paying enough for 2 iPhones. Or – and call me crazy here – a separate camera…

OK, so at least it’s imaginative, and the design certainly will turn a head or two. But who on earth would spend $200 (~£125) on an impracticable case and set of lenses for their iPhone when for that money, they could just buy a decent 8MP camera (with flash, optical zoom and all the other goodies you get from a standalone digital camera)?

I’m not sure about anybody else, but in my eyes this could be a prime nominee for the most shameless and pointless attempt to cash in on Apple’s new generation of iPhones… still, different strokes for different folks!