AndroidBoards

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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Word has it that T-Mobile’s pre-sale count for the G1 has cracked the 1.5 million mark. These numbers are no small feat considering the Apple iPhone took nearly 75 days to sell one million handsets. T-Mobile quickly exhausted it’s 500,000 unit reserve within the first few days of allow pre-orders. HTC had incorrectly predicted no more than 700,000 units would be demanded before the end of 2008, but it wouldn’t be unlikely to see over 2 million units sold before the end of the year.

These numbers are a great indicator to developers and service providers that there is a massive market for open source, and embracing the technology will surely lead to large profit figures.

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.

Visa has begun developing an application for the Google Android platform that will allow users to pay for items using their cell phones, and receive updates on bank account information directly from their handsets.

This technology isn’t Android-specific, as it is currently being prepped for the Nokia 6212 coming out early next year. But Android offers the most promising platform for such technologies by far. The application will take advantage of Google’s built-in location based services and direct customers to the nearest Visa-enabled retailers.

Through this technology, Visa will be able to target users more specifically by storing purchasing data to customize reccomendations to that users’ tastes. Google will also find this profitable as it creates another unique, useful and functional selling point for the Android platform.

T-Mobile has released an online emulator of the G1 for all of you who either missed the pre-order or simply can’t decide if it’s for you. Give it a spin and tell us what you think.

Motorola has announced plans to boost it’s already strong Android team by more than 600%, bringing the total from 50 to a staggering 350 workers in the following months. However, as Motorola is key component of the Open Handset Alliance, this comes as no surprise.

The coming months will tell whether Motorola’s high stakes venture into these news markets will help rebound it from it’s previous struggles in the handset market. Once a key leader, Motorola has taken drastic tumble down the mountainous handset market.

Hopefully, Motorola’s endeavors will pay off, and we will see increasing healthy competition in the smart phone market.

After going on hold for a while due to some legal concerns, AndroidBoards is officially (and permanently) back in business. Expect much up-to-date news from hereon.

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.