G1 – Google Phone

Update: Here are some early reviews from the Times Bits Blog.

They released it! (Just the photos and specs.) It looks pretty good, although I’m not the biggest HTC (the manufacturer) fan. It’s on T-Mobile (not a big fan of them either) and available for $179 starting on October 22 here in the States.

Read a bit more about it at the NY Times.

Will it compete wit the iPhone? It will but I’m not sure how well. It’s funny (and irritating) how Google tries to say that it’s a some kind of more politically left alternative to the iPhone since Android (the operating system on the phone which it made) encourages third party application makers to get it on it without approval from them. Apple’s iPhone also has third party apps but the process to get “approved” by Apple is something crazy according to the buzz on the Interweb. But let’s get it clear: it’s made by a CORPORATION, not some kid in a garage who wants to “do no evil” as Google describes itself.

What this all really kind of emphasizes is the fact that PC-web (the Internet accessed from personal computers) is a thing of the past. The new market is mobile-web (the Internet accessed from personal devices like smartphones and iPods). I guess that’ll be Web 3.0.

We were just getting used to the whole 2.0 thing…