NEW YORK (AP) ― The first cell phone running Google Inc.'s mobile software looks something like Apple Inc.'s iPhone and has a large touch screen, but it also packs a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google's e-mail and mapping programs.

Google made its debut as a cell phone software provider Tuesday at an event where wireless carrier T-Mobile said it will begin selling the G1 phone for $179 with a two-year contract. The device hits U.S. stores Oct. 22 and heads to Britain in November and other European countries early next year.

The phone will be sold in T-Mobile stores only in the U.S. cities where the company has rolled out its faster, third-generation wireless data network. By launch, that will be 21 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami.

In other areas, people will be able to buy the phone from T-Mobile's Web site. The phone does work on T-Mobile's slower data network, but it's optimized for the faster networks. It can also connect at Wi-Fi hotspots.

The data plan for the phone will cost $25 per month on top of the calling service, at the low end of the range for data plans at U.S. wireless carriers.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google's founders, made a surprise appearance at the launch event. "It's just very exciting for me as a computer geek to be able to have a phone that I can play with and modify and innovate upon just like I have with computers in the past," Brin said.

He said he'd written an application for Android already: When a user throws the phone into the air, the program records how long it takes until it lands, using the phone's built-in motion sensor. Brin acknowledged that the wisdom of including such a program with an expensive phone is dubious.

"We did not include that one by default," he said.

Page said the mobile phone industry, which sells 1 billion units a year worldwide, was a tremendous opportunity for Google.

Google is giving away Android, the software that underlies the G1, for free, and opening the operating system to third-party developers who can create their own programs. Google hopes that in turn, mobile phones will provide even more ways for people to interact with the company's advertising network.
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I wonder how long the lines will be to buy?

 

Im intrested. only reason i wont buy the iPhone is ATT

 

And its an Apple.

 

yeah, that too

 

aGREED

ATT supports the giants

 

i want pics!

 

 

i love android, but don't like the phone they chose.

and **** tmobile.

i will get one if its ever available on ATT, (i know more people on att so i get free in network calls and text messages to those people)
not to mention att's signal in sonoma county is unrivaled by any other provider.. verizon is 2nd but att is still better.

 

heres a vid from T-mobile

http://www.t-mobileg1.com/?WT.srch=1...T.z=p137999836

this thing seems badass

 

whoah..i like how you can look up and down and side to side with that program....doesnt look as nice as the iphone thou

 

Eh...I'll give Google a few revisions to work out the kinks...plus its ugly.

 

ya thats pretty damn sweet




i told myself i wouldnt get a new phone for a while after i got the LG Voyager last December (i get a new phone about every year or so)...must resist

 

it looks alot better at that price

 

sick! i would hella rock one in white

 

android will be ****ing amazing though.
no paying for ringtones. no having to have special formatted music for it to play. customize every ****ing thing you ever thought possible or ever wanted to.

you can customize everything from the wallpaper to icons, dial screen, login screen, bootup screen,

think about a hacked iphone that is completely customized.. well.. this is how it will be with android but more options. and you won't have to hack it.

opensource FTMFW.