g1

Updated: To correct licensing information.

The music player on the Google Android G1 phone isn't bad, but can it scroll lyrics while the song plays, download you new songs for free, and play music videos?

All that is packaged into the free TuneWiki music player, a much more complex and ambitious Android app than most of its cohorts debuting in the Android Market today. Not only does TuneWiki catalog the songs already on your phone, it also supplies you with quick links to download free songs, and links to play videos coupled with lyrics, some licensed.

You can use … Read more

PicSay's stated purpose is to e-mail or text annotated photo messages to friends, but there's nothing stopping you from using the free program as a makeshift photo editor.

PicSay is a simple application made especially for Google Android, but it's nevertheless the most customization-focused application I've reviewed today. You start by choosing a picture from your photo album or the image you most recently viewed (this won't work if your Android phone is in mass storage mode.) Then press the Menu key to start adding in the special effects: word balloons, colorful headings, cartoony images, … Read more

WikiMobile Encyclopedia has been around for awhile for the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile Pocket PC, so it's no surprise to see it formatted for the Google Android G1 phone.

Just as advertised, WikiMobile Encyclopedia crawls Wikipedia.com for articles, offering up predictive search queries as you type your term. You can also search Wikipedia for a random article or browse what's popular, especially if you have a few minutes to kill or are looking for a factoid to impress people at a dinner party.

Interestingly, instead of scrolling or flicking the results page vertically, the app slices the … Read more

Why isn't there ever a cab around when you need one?

The free Google Android application Cab4Me Light makes finding, scheduling, and calling cabs to your side virtually brainless. Cab4Me Light's interface is simple and efficient, with one tab that shows where you are on the map and another that shows the details of cab companies in your area.

Step 1, drag your approximate location on a zoomable Google map. You can use GPS to locate yourself or enter a new address or a contacts' address to call the cab to a different location. Step 2, either click … Read more

I won't lie. It feels good getting a G1 Google Android phone in my hands. It's also a little paralyzing: so many new apps to explore, a new interface to learn; where to start? The free Google Talk app Maverick is as good as any. Admittedly, the G1 dutifully hosts individual IM clients for AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, and of course, Google Talk. The difference is that Maverick adds some panache and pizazz by layering in multimedia capabilities, like sending photos, scribbles, your GPS location, emoticons, and snippets of text.

It's a fun idea that pans … Read more

There's been plenty of buzz and anticipation over the T-Mobile G1, dating back to the day when Google Android was first announced and the smartphone was known as the HTC Dream. What would the Android platform offer? What would the Google phone look like? Could it be better than the iPhone?

Well, we got our answer a few days ago, along with a number of other tech sites (check out TG Daily for a nice roundup), and I think it'd be fair to say we all came away with the same general consensus: lackluster design and not quite … Read more

It looks like Wii Fit will outsell Grand Theft Auto IV this year, Apple's already sold 10 million iPhones, people are lining up for the T-Mobile G1 Android phone (much to our surprise), and just when we started to think the economy might be turning around after all, we got the news about Yahoo laying off some 1,400-plus people. Ouch. Listen now: Download today's podcast

T-Mobile delivers the G1 (aka Android) phone http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10072545-94.html http://news.cnet.com/2300-1039_3-6247193-1.html

Google’s open-source Android now actually open http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10071093-92.html… Read more

Google officially opened its Android Market Wednesday and promised that beginning next year, programmers will get the lion's share of revenue from applications sold on the download site for the company's mobile phone operating system.

The first incarnation of the Android Market has more than 50 applications available for download, but they're all free. Google said the site will be able to distribute paid applications early in the first quarter of 2009.

More applications are on the way, and programmers will be able to add their own starting Monday in a process that reflects a much more … Read more

The T-Mobile G1 is officially on sale now, but maybe you're still on the fence about it. What's Google Android all about? What's up with the design? Is it better than the iPhone 3G? Perhaps you're wondering which of these 3G smartphones is faster? Well, glad you asked.

In this quick Prizefight, CNET TV's Brian Tong and I pit the two against each other in a 3G speed test, clocking the time it takes for each device to load CNET News from start to finish. Now, there are a couple of things to remember. Both … Read more