nexus

This just in from the folks at BillShrink: An updated comparison of the hardware and service costs of various smartphones.

The main figure is the second line from the bottom. Over two years (the length of a service contract), the unlimited voice and data plan plus the cost of the subsidized phone is $3,799 for an iPhone on AT&T, but only $2,579 for a Nexus One on T-Mobile. That means the Nexus One will cost you $610 less a year. You will want to buy an 8 or 16GB memory card for your Nexus, so let'… Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google on Tuesday finally announced and demonstrated the Nexus One, a phone designed and built by HTC, but sold by Google through an online store. As far as Android phones go, it's currently the fastest. It's also one of the slimmest, coming in at just 11.5 millimeters thick. We got our mitts on it after this morning's press conference.

First impressions:

The phone is very sturdy and solid. Despite having a removable battery cover, that cover fits tight around the edges without leaving any noticeable gaps. And it doesn't give when you press into it like some other smartphones do.

As mentioned in our live coverage from earlier, some of the new features that are specific to the Nexus One compared to other Android devices include built-in noise cancellation that uses two different microphones and a glowing, LED-powered trackball that can light up with different colors depending on what kind of notification it's alerting you to.

Like its HTC siblings the Magic and Hero, the Nexus One lacks a physical keyboard, something that's been made up for with a new voice search feature that like the iPhone's Voice Control, can launch certain phone features with simple voice commands. In our quick testing this worked really well, at least for making phone calls or looking up driving directions, the latter of which launches turn-by-turn directions using Google Maps Navigator. It can also be used for writing text messages and e-mails--a feature that finger-weary business users should enjoy.

Another Nexus One-specific feature (at least for now) is Live Wallpapers, which are animated backgrounds that can react to user touch, whatever music is playing, as well as what part of the home screen you're on. The phone ships with ten of these as part of Android 2.1. It's unclear whether these would burn up more battery life, but based on how pretty they are… Read more

Google's Nexus One (complete coverage) is just a phone. It's a good phone, but does it break new ground for consumers? Not so much. Looked at in context of the history of mobile phones, it's a solid step in Google's continuing assault on new markets in general and on Apple in particular, but it's not revolutionary the way the iPhone was, and not, to my mind, worthy of the frenzy that I awoke to this morning on the blogs.

Of course, the Nexus One has solid consumer advantages over Apple's phones. In the U.… Read more

For heavy music listeners and explorers of new tunes, subscription-based music services make a lot sense on a mobile device. Instead of being bound to your phone's limited storage, you have access to millions of songs for a single monthly fee.

That's why I picked RealNetworks' Rhapsody (and its competitor Spotify, which isn't yet available in the United States) on the Apple iPhone as one of my five most welcome products of 2009.

Now owners of a Motorola Droid, an HTC Nexus One, or any other phone running Google's mobile operating system will be able to … Read more

Mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless confirmed Tuesday that it's been acquired by Apple, in a blog post by Quattro CEO Andy Miller, who's identifying himself now as Apple vice president of mobile advertising.

A price wasn't named, but AllThingsD reported that it's $275 million when it broke the news on Monday.

The announcement comes as Apple increasingly finds itself going head-to-head with Google in new developments in the mobile market. In November, Google announced its $750 million acquisition of AdMob, a Quattro competitor. Government regulatory bodies, however, may slow down that purchase.

Google also just unveiled the Nexus One, … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google's first consumer phone has arrived.

You've read all the exhaustive coverage of Google's Nexus One phone over the last month. The Android-based device emerged at a company holiday party and has been the talk of the smartphone industry ever since. And at an event here at its headquarters Tuesday, Google is unveiling the Nexus One and announcing a plan to sell it directly to consumers.

This post is our live coverage of the event, which lasted about 90 minutes. You can also get a summary of today's announcement and some of my colleague Kent German's initial thoughts about the Nexus One here.

9:52 a.m.: We're awaiting the start of Google's Android event here in Building 43 at Google's headquarters in Mountain View. The event is expected to start in about 10 minutes, and the requisite pounding get-excited music is blaring inside a large conference room. There are maybe 100 people crammed into the room, and Google executives Vic Gundotra and Andy Rubin have already been spotted.

10:06 a.m.: Mike Nelson, a PR representative for Google, kicks things off by promising a series of short presentations. Mario Queiroz of Google has been leading Google's efforts in this area, and he starts off the presentation.… Read more

We knew it was coming, but we had to wait for Google to spill the news before we could talk about it with authority. And the company did so Tuesday morning at a press conference at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif.

As expected, the Nexus One is a new Google Android phone that offers an inside designed by Google and an outside designed by HTC. According to Google's Mario Queiroz, the Nexus One is a "superphone" where the Web meets the cell phone. "It's an exemplar of what mobile phones can do with Android," he said. The handset will be available first for GSM carriers like T-Mobile, but a Verizon version will follow.… Read more

Google won't officially unveil its Nexus One smartphone until Tuesday, when it has scheduled an Android Press Gathering. There are plenty of descriptions and images of the phone floating around the Web, though--a result of Google's decision to "dogfood" the device with employees.

And now, some video. Wednesday, a 10-minute clip of what appears to be someone taking the phone through its paces popped up on the Web. There's no sound, and the device appears to be configured for French speakers, so if you're an American with a short attention span, I'm not … Read more

As we now know, the Consumer Electronics Show will not be the only thing going on in the gadget world next week. Google is getting a jump on CES with a January 5, 2010, press conference where the company should unveil its Nexus One phone. Details on the HTC-made device remain sketchy--though we have seen some leaked specs--but most signs point toward T-Mobile as the carrier for the newest Google Android phone.

According to leaked T-Mobile documents obtained by Gizmodo, the Nexus One will be available unlocked for $530 without a contract and $180 with a two-year service agreement. … Read more