AndroidBoards

Here it is in all it’s glory, the not-so-long-awaited soft keyboard for Android.

Expect a release in the not too distant future.

Garmin Asia Pacific marketing director Tony An has purportedly stated that a “bunch of new handsets from Garmin powered by Google’s Android platform are set to ship sometime in the second half of 2009″. While this is the only news we have regarding functionality, you can be sure they will include at least as many features as the nuviphone as well as some top-notch GPS functionality. Apparently, the manufacturing process will be contracted out to a compant like HTC, although no specific word on which company is yet available. More news is sure to come on this one.

EDIT: Not so fast, says Garmin. Apparently a statement is being worked on right now to debunk the claims made by DigiTimes this morning. So much for getting our hopes up. We’ll keep you posted when the statement is released.

EDIT 2: Wired seems to have picked up the story as well and is still spinning it as confirmation from Garmin that an Android phone is in the works, although it’s not clear whether they are aware of Garmin’s reaction to DigiTimes’ post. Engadget seems to have the story straight, stating:

The company says that “the story contains a number of inaccuracies in both sales figures and product rollout schedules,” and while it does say it has “an Android-based phone under development,” it also reminds us that Nuvifone won’t be it; instead, Garmin’s first modern entry into the world of telephony will be based on a proprietary build of Linux, as was originally planned.

Android just announced the release of a new development branch named “cupcake“. Cupcake supposedly includes new application features including ”bug fixes, a video recorder, the ability to save MMS attachments and more.” Other improvements include better bluetooth support, HTTP handling and improved JavaScript functionality. Although this branch is strictly marked as development, these features and likely more are sure to be included in a release in the new future.

T-Mobile UK says reports that they will be making the G1 available to subscribers on October 30th. Unlike Apple’s delayed European iPhone release, T-Mobile is making the wise decision to get the phone out across the world as quickly as possible. Initially, the G1 wasn’t expected to hit Europe until well into November.

The two tariffs (price plans) available both offer the G1 for free and are significantly cheaper than the plans bundled with Apple’s iPhone. Both are priced at 40 and include a generous variety of talk time/text messaging combinations.

Jim Hyde, managing director of T-Mobile UK spoke about the release: “With so much excitement generated by the announcement last month, we’re thrilled to bring the T-Mobile G1 to the UK in time for Christmas. [...] It’s set to revolutionise the way we use the internet on our mobiles: it’s uniquely built for effortless online communication – whether you want to email, text or blog – and with access to some groundbreaking applications on Android market, the possibilities really are endless.”

Silverlight, Microsoft’s rich Internet application browser plugin, may soon be seen on Android handsets.  The news comes from Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie who told TechRadar.com “[The] Google phone is slightly different. It’s more of an open platform, that is something we’re going to continue to look at. Certainly as it’s gotten deployed and if sales are good we’ll definitely keep our eyes out and look at that in the future.”

Apple made a confusing and more-than-likely bad decision to keep Adobe’s comparable Flash plugin off of the iPhone for unknown reasons. This also kept Microsoft’s Silverlight from appearing on the iPhone as well. If Silverlight or Flash are seen on Android phones before the iPhone, it could possibly be a killer blow to iPhone sales.

Straight from the horse’s mouth comes word that Motorola will be using that new 350-member Android team to design a “new Android Social Networking SmartPhone”. Although this could just be an afterthough addition, it appears that social networking will be the core of the new phone.

The news sparks some interesting ideas about mixing and matching social networks through a mobile handset. Could we see in the near future a single, unified Android frontend to Myspace, Facebook, Digg and others? Let’s hope so. The full quote from Coroflot.com after the jump.

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In the wake of the T-Mobile G1’s incredible success comes rumors of another Android phone on T-Mobile. The HTC Touch HD is a brilliant Windows Mobile handset due for release in Europe, but if what we hear is true, we may see it this side of the pond running our favorite mobile OS.

HTC and T-Mobile worked together on the G1, so to speculate that they will also work on a “G2″ followup isn’t much of a gamble. And when you look at the specs on the Touch HD, it’s hard to ask for more firepower to fully exploit the power of Android.

For now, it’s a waiting game until we hear more. But we wouldn’t set our hopes to high for any news in the near future. T-Mobile is still basking in the record sales of the G1, and it is doubtful they’ll be looking to release anything this side of ‘08.

The Android developer community is more than a bit upset these days with the way Google has been handling SDK releases. First it started with some minor complaints about the lack of SDK updates, but the fire has grown exponentially with recent news that Google has been “playing favorites” and releasing updated SDKs to the winners of the Developer Challenge and a select few others.

The news came through an unlikely means when Google’s Android advocate accidentally sent a note intended for the winning Developer Challenge developers to a much broader audience of developers.

“Ahhhh, now it makes sense,” one developer wrote on the Android forum. “So they’ve been making private SDK releases while the rest of us suffer with the pile of bugs from the 4+ month old release.”

Many developers have stated that they plan to leave their ambitious Android projects to take up the widely-available, well-made and popular SDK for the Apple iPhone. Google had better shape up – and quick – before the most important aspect of their entire project pulls away leaving the Android project in a smoldering heap.

Seriously, Google, get it together.

The highly-anticipated non-existent gadget last year was hands-down the Google Phone, or gPhone for short. However, those dreams were squashed when Google announced it’s creation of the Open Handset Alliance and released the Android platform.

However, just recently it seems there just might be some truth behind the whole gPhone rumor. Hollywood Reporter writer Dan Cox stated that:

“[...] Google execs also used the opportunity to talk about the inroads the company is making with its own branded mobile phone as a replacement for the iPhone.”

Apparently Cox was referring specifically to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.

Although many may not see the significance or difference between a gPhone and Android, the impact would be quite ground-breaking. Google’s ties with Apple regarding the iPhone have brought much speculation to the inevitable impact that Android will have on the Apple/Google relationship once the smoke clears. Time will tell whether an official gPhone ever appears.

A Croatian start-up company called Shout ‘Em has created quite the killer app for Android – the first mobile phone-based social network platform. The Shout ‘Em platform allows quick, low-cost start-up of small social networks for companies, friends and others who do want the power of running on mobiles without the risk associated with such a venture. The goal of Shout ‘Em is to “…provide tools and services so that [a mobile social network] service can be started with minimized risks and investments. It also helps [the] customer to stay focused on branding, promoting and building up a community and not to worry about technical details, scalability and reliability.”

Shout ‘Ems claims to have iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian clients also in the works. Guess that leaves out LiMo, eh?

It all sounds very businessy, but they also claim that it’s built for everyone right down to the end-user. They’ve put some money where their mouth is by already creating a user demo for the Android emulator (available in the Android SDK). Jump on over to Shout ‘Em’s download page for an awesome demo video.