Looks like the licensing nazi has struck again. The slick “Sense” UI on the coveted HTC Hero is not going to be available as an upgrade for anybody in the US any time soon. That’s right, even though my G1 and the MyTouch/Magic are made and developed by HTC, you’ll find it also says Google on the back.

Being a Google-branded product apparently precludes the Magic and G1 from using the Sense UI featured on the Hero, by dint of some sort of evil licensing sorcery. The villains!

So we just got word that HTC will be the first manufacturer to bring Adobe Flash to the Android platform with the release of its new Hero / Sense device. If you needed more proof that Android is here to stay and will not sit on the sidelines in the mobile operating systems game, this is it. If you think about it, the iPhone is now the only platform with substantial weight on the market that doesn’t boast support for Flash.

With the new Flash Player 10 just around the corner and HTC officially joining the Open Screen Project, Android, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, and Palm WebOS will be among the first platforms to support full web browsing and access to virtually all Flash-based Web content.

The Garmin nuviphone G60 will come out one day, friends, most likely during the second quarter of this year. And when it does come out, there will be much rejoicing: it’s the last time the Garmin-Asus operating system will be used on a device. From there on out it’s Android and Windows Mobile all the way.

Is this Dell’s upcoming Android-powered smartphone? Hmmm? It does sport a Dell logo on the bottom chin. And it does seem to be running Android. Still, there isn’t anyway of verifying this pic’s authenticity so we’ll just add this bad boy to Mr. BlurryCam’s portfolio.

It hasn’t been a secret for months, but Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam has confirmed that a multitude of devices from RIM, Palm and Android-based devices are coming to the nation’s largest network in the next six months.

Okay, seriously. We love us some Android, but we have to wonder: Do these manufacturers have some secret pact that requires them to make every Android phone ugly as hell?

Does Sony dream of Android? The Japanese web is currently filling up with rumors about Sony preparing not one but two Android-based mobile devices. Both the Android-powered Walkman and a personal satellite navigation device are rumored to launch next year.

I just checked all Japanese news sources I could find reporting on the topic and the short answer is that the rumor seems to be true.

This is a picture of the box of T-Mobile’s version of the HTC Magic, called the myTouch 3G. It should be available sometime this summer.

Acer recently announced that it’ll be selling Android netbooks later this year. This will likely set off a round of news articles and opinion pieces calling for the death of Windows on netbooks. That’s not going to happen, though. I’d read this news as Acer using Android to replace the Linpus Linux Lite interface that the company currently offers on its Linux-powered netbook selections.

Garmin-Asus is getting real good at announcing products. The original Nuvifone was announced almost a year and a half ago. Then, just a few months ago, they announced the smaller version called the M20 and renamed the original as the G60. Now, the joint venture company is saying that we can expect an Android-powered smartphone sometime next year. Great, but we’re still waiting for the phones that are already announced. How about focusing on bringing those to market, eh?

As anyone who has spent some time with any recent HTC-made Windows Mobile phone ought to know, HTC has a serious knack for taking mobile OSes and customizing them - and there’s no better OS for that than Android. After cranking out the Dream and the Magic with only limited modifications, all signs indicate that HTC is going all out with the tweaks on the upcoming HTC Hero.

Over the past few weeks, a build of the HTC Hero ROM has been floating around, albeit closely guarded, amongst the developer community. A hacker going by the name of Haykuro would port it to the G1, then demonstrate the new features on video. Eventually the build leaked without without Haykuro’s permission, and it spread like wildfire. It’s a buggy beta build and lacks some of the features we’ve already seen (like the Rosie UI home screen), but it’s relatively functional and gives us a sneak peek at some of the cool things to come from the future HTC Android devices.

Google’s Andy Rubin, Mr. Android himself, remarked yesterday that we can expect to see 18 Android phones in the US world by the end of the year. That’s way, way, way up from “one” last year. We may even see 20 Android phones this year, all coming from eight or nine different companies.

Pah! Cupcake. Any true sweets connoisseur knows that the cupcake is at the bottom of the dessert totem pole, only ranking above those nasty red/white mints they chuck in alongside your bill. We’d take a delicious, engulfed-in-glaze donut over a cupcake any day - and so would Google.

At today’s Google I/O conference, Google gave folks in the audience a sneak peak at Android 2.0, which they’ve aptly named “Donut”. It’s still fairly early in development, but they’ve already nailed out a few features that look pretty damn delicious.

A man once told me that I could not have my Cupcake and eat it too. He was obviously dead wrong. Today’s big buzz on the Android front is that the official OTA install package for Android 1.5 (lovingly known around the internets as ‘Cupcake’ update) is now available for direct download and manual patching. For those of us who have waited patiently for the official patch but just can’t wait another day for it to come over-the-air, it is our day of rejoicing. At long last, we get to sink our teeth in to that green sugar-coated muffin, complete with video recording, on-screen keyboard, an expanding library of widgets, and stereo bluetooth support (to name a few additions).

If you’re considering a Dell netbook, particularly one from the Mini 10v line, you’d be woefully remiss to assume that it can only run Windows. Dell Technology Strategist Doug Anson (his name sounds like my name but a little different!) takes us all on a 2:12 visual joyride of the Mini 10v running Ubuntu, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and — GASP! — Android.