The LG Prada II is coming, thank God. It’s scheduled to debut in the UK, the originator of WAG culture, on Tuesday, November 18.

The touchscreen phone, which has a 5-megapixel camera (which was last impressive two years ago), also has a slide-out keyboard, making it more G1 than iPhone.

There’s no price just yet (though it was rumored at around €600), which is fantastic considering it comes out in just a few days. Then again, I’m going to venture and guess that most of you wouldn’t been seen with a Prada phone if your life depended on it. Too self-consciously “fashionable,” right?

While a significant chunk of G1 owners still await the RC29 update that started rolling out a few days ago, Google has already queued up another one. While people generally welcome updates with open arms, this ones got a few folks upset.

Last week, an eagle-eyed tinkerer realized that you could gain root access to the G1 by using telnetd, essentially “jailbreaking” it. Now, this isn’t jailbreaking in the “install just about whatever you want” sense most iPhone owners would think of — the G1 already does that. Instead, it gives you full admin abilities down to the very core of the handset’s filesystem. While this allows for modifications both beneficial and malicious, Google has decided that the risks outweigh the benefits. With RC30, root access via telnetd is blocked.

Read more at MobileCrunch >>

A cabal of tinkers have managed to get root access on the G1 using telnetd. Now, whether or not that constitutes “jailbreaking” (which is an awkward word to use considering Android is supposed to be an open source operating system from the get-go) or something a little less dramatic is another matter.

Or, to quote a Gizmodo commenter:

This reminds me of the Spongebob episode where they steal a balloon on free balloon day.

I think that says it all.

via Slashdot

What’s wrong with Wal-Mart? Low prices, friendly old people greeting you as you enter. It’s this close to Heaven.

NOT TO SOME PEOPLE.

Channel Web, for instance. They have come up with five reasons why Wal-Mart selling the G1 at a discount is evil, evil, evil. You can read the list for yourself—it’s hilarious!—but I wanted to point this one out:

It’s Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart isn’t the first place that comes to mind when smart phone shoppers are seeking out a new device…

Oh, that makes sense. This guy is upset because he paid full price for the G1, then Wal-Mart turns around and offers it for less. So be he missed out on the discount, let’s crucify the store.

It’s pretty silly, I think. It’s a $30 discount that many people will appreciate. Why hate?

via Wired’s Gadget Lab

Shipping delays have left Wal-Mart shelves bare of the first Android handset, the T-Mobile G1. It was originally reported that the mega-retailer would begin selling the G1 at a discounted price of $148.88 this week, but BetaNews has learned that this is not the case.

“We’ve experienced a few shipping issues, but we’re working with T-Mobile on that,” said Wal-Mart’s Ashley Hardie.

This is the type of minutia that wears down men’s souls:

The structures of the trackball module and the Hall IC look almost the same as used in the BlackBerry Bold of Research In Motion Ltd.

Translated into English, or Common, this says that the trackball used in the G1 is the same as the one found in BlackBerrys. That’s according to one engineer, at least.

And what have we gained with this knowledge, that a small round piece of plastic found in one device is the same as small piece of plastic found on another device? ::shrugs shoulders::

Author Neil Gaiman now lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota. He needed a new phone and thought the G1 might be nice so he headed down to his local T-Mo shop where he found posters advertising the phone and an eager, if slightly dim, staff.
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It seems T-Mobile has taken a different stance on G1 activation than Apple did with the iPhone. Apparently, all you need to do is slip in a T-Mobile-activated SIM card and run through the phone’s setup process. Once that’s done, you can put your new SIM back in for full Android access expect for network access or apparently, keep the old one active for full network access except for voice calls. This is still developing so stay tuned as more details float in.

LoveForBiz via Eng

Android is now available—yeah, it’s true—but you’re hard-pressed to find any review that raves about its user interface. (Ryan Block, of Engadget fame, called it “very raw” last week on Tekzilla, which is right on the money, I think.) But, in an alternate world, maybe where dogs walk people, these alternative user interfaces were developed.

The Astonishing Tribe, the same group that developed Android’s user interface, just published a handful of what-could-have-beens, mockups and in-progress alternative Android user interfaces. Some look better than others—Asia Cute looks tremendous, as does Open GLES—but all of them are worth checking out.

Given that Android is free as in freedom, perhaps some developer will create a user interface that doesn’t look like it was designed by committee. One can hope, at least.

via Gizmodo

The extremely, highly anticipated, Android-powered G1 is now official available from T-Mobile. Somehow though, it’s doubtful that T-Mobile will see any iPhone-ish customer lines (please, send us pics if you see one though) due to lackluster initial reviews, but most official T-Mobile stores will open early at 8:00AM just in case there are a few eager buyers. Otherwise, T-Mobile’s website has ‘em available for the same $179.99 two-year contract price, but due to the “extremely limited availability” warning, it might be worthwhile to actually participate in society and head up to your local T-Mo stores.

The G1 doesn’t officially hit the streets until tomorrow, but the 3rd and Market store in San Francisco will begin selling the first Android device starting today at 6PM PDT. If you’re not in the area and you didn’t pre-order then you’ll have to wait until tomorrow if, of course, you’re in a 3G market. Otherwise you’ll have to order online or in-store. Said 3G market stores will open at 8am local time for those interested.

Not a huge surprise here, since a Panasonic exec basically leaked the $799 MSRP for the Lumix a few weeks ago, but here it is officially: The Lumix G1 will have an MSRP of $799. Ta-dow.

It’ll be available in mid-November. Also available at the same time will be an optional 45-200mm lens for $349.

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From this guy

The blogs vilified Apple over the “kill switch” found in the iPhone; let’s see those blogs tear into Google for the very same thing.

Found nestled deep in the G1’s “About” menu is this notice:

Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement… in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion

Lo! How dare Google reserve the right to protect your phone. Evil, evil, evil.

Now, if Google remotely removes an application that you pay for, it says it’ll do its darnedest to recover your money. Thoughtful.

Whether or not people try to make a distinction between how Apple handled remote removal—that is, by not telling you about it—versus Google’s “here’s what’s up” approach, I don’t know. At the end of the day, does that make any difference whatsoever?

I will keep this review short and straight to the point, folks. You know how Google likes to keep things in Beta for years and years? Well, Android is no different. Like many of you I was excited at the prospect of a new OS to muscle it’s way in and take down the iPhone, but I’m afraid Android is not it – at least not yet. The OS actually isn’t that bad, but it does have its issues and those cannot be overlooked. Unfortunately it’s the hardware that will be Android’s folly this go around until the other manufacturers can churn out some better goods.

Let’s start with the hardware.
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A quickie for those of you who own, or are about to own, a phone with a touchscreen. You know, iPhone, G1, et cetera.

The guy who founded Cool Hunting—an online version of the “strange but true” section of your local newspaper—started Freehands, a company that creates gloves with removable fingertips. The idea here is that whenever you need to call someone, answer a text message or fiddle about on Google Maps you simply fold back the finger tip part and touch away.

There’s three types of gloves, leather ($40), stretch ($30) and fleece ($20).

Now we have a gift to give that person you really don’t care about, but can’t outright ignore, especially if they drive.

If you happened to pre-order a T-Mobile G1, it might be on the way via UPS right now. Reportable, the Googlephone is coming via the 3-day shipping method meaning you might get it as early as this Friday, the 17th, a couple of days before the official launch. Sounds like Christmas might be coming early this year for some T-Mobile subscribers. 

phandroid via Giz

The iPhone. Not that it matters much, but the stinking iPhone brought home 2008 Gadget of the Year, Best Mobile Technology, Most Stylish Technology and Technological Innovation of the Year from the British Technology Awards. The iPhone has been sweeping similar award lists like LOTR: Return of the King did in the 2004 Academy Awards. Apparently ‘coss the Pond, 2008 is already done and over with, leaving phones such as the G1, BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Storm, and HTC Touch HD out of the running cause they didn’t launch within the first 10 months of 2008. Just saying.

As the video right up there shows, predictive search works just swell on the T-Mobile G1. As you enter your search term—here, Google uses safe searches like “flowers” and “sushi chicago” to demonstrate its inherent awesomeness—the search engine generates a list of possibly relavent terms. That way, all you have to do is enter the first few letters of a term—flo—and Google will pull up “flowers.”

It’s handy, and when you’re trying to search for something on the street using your cellphone, handy is exactly what you’re looking for.

via 9 to 5 Mac

The first Android-powered handset’s launch is coming soon, but some lucky folks already have their dirty mitts on the complete package. The picture set doesn’t reveal anything spectacular including a lame carrying, but if you’re the type that gets giddy with pre-release photos, there is enough here to get you through this morning. The rest of us can wait until October 22 for the somewhat unimpressive release.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 Micro Four Thirds broke cover a few weeks ago, but the press release didn’t include the price. (hate that) Thankfully, a loose -lip Panasonic Suit let it slip that the G1 is going to carry a $799 MSRP here in the States.

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