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Nexus One

Now it's here.

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Here it is.

Here's where you can read more about it, take a '3D tour', and read the technical specs.

http://www.google.com/phone/ http://www.google.com/googlephone/tour/ http://www.google.com/phone/static/en_US-nexusone_tech_specs.html

There's already a lot being written about the device (and the platform) and Jobs really needs that tablet now but perhaps no one sums things up better than Paul McDougall of Information Week.

Steve Jobs will close his chokehold on tech's buzz machine with the Apple tablet. Google is set to grab hearts and minds with the Nexus One phone. And Microsoft? Oh right Windows 7. But that was so 2009. The 'teens are less than a week old but it's already clear this decade will belong not to the gang in Redmond but to a pair of companies that have Microsoft in their pincers.

Apple will own portable computing, says McDougall who goes on to predict 'portable' will soon be the only market.

Tethered PCs running big fat operating systems like Windows 7/8/9 aren't exactly the rage these days. In fact, Windows sales were off 13% last quarter.

Although that may seen extreme to those who still deal in major systems, the next bit hits home all the better.

Of course, client hardware and interfaces only exist to get you to apps and data. Where will that content live? On Google's servers. Nexus One is hypeworthy not because it's a cool new gadget. Rather it's an open gate to pervasive cloud offerings: Google Search, Google Apps, Google Books, Google Maps. You get the idea.

Google own the cloud.

McDougall winds up with a eulogy over Microsoft but he's not less spot on for that.

Microsoft, your time is almost up. Tick tock, tick tock...

Unfortunately for McDougall, mobile phones and tablets can only rule the gadget consumer world. They don't for example run the 'pervasive cloud offerings'. No, those are no-nonsense real systems - the likes of which Mac and PC users and perhaps Paul McDougall as well have never seen. And they're not going away because Google have the Nexus One or Apple release a tablet.

But it's still nice when someone points out that Microsoft are finally yesterday's news.

The TechCrunch Review

Michael Arrington's been using the Nexus One on T-Mobile for the past month and he's unequivocal: this is the best smartphone on the market bar none.

It's the fastest and most elegant smartphone on the market today, solidly beating the iPhone in most ways. In this rapidly evolving market there is sure to be something better just around the corner. But if you are looking to buy a high end smartphone right now, this is the phone for you.

Some of the critical data Arrington cites:

Interchangeable SIMs.
Google Voice Keyboard.
There's no physical keyboard.
It's sold both locked and unlocked.
The Nexus One has a removable battery.
The Nexus One runs Google Voice natively.
At 11.5 mm it's thinner than the iPhone by 0.8 mm.
At 130 grams it's lighter than the iPhone by 5 grams.
The 480x800 screen puts the iPhone's screen to shame.
That's 384,000 pixels to the iPhone's 153,600 - 150% bigger.

That's a lot of features and a lot more freedom than Steve Jobs is willing to offer. (And it's secure too - unlike the iPhone.)

The 3D graphics are powered by a Snapdragon 1 GHz CPU which can also handle multiple background applications and heavy browser use simultaneously.

'Google's Voice Keyboard is amazing', says Arrington. 'It goes way beyond the Voice Search application that was launched in 2009. Every text field in the device is now voice enabled. In most apps you can choose the microphone button and talk to the phone, which then converts your speech to text. I've found it to be around 90% accurate with no background noise (dropping to around 70% accuracy in a moving car). It's easy to then go in and edit out errors. It's a massive time-saving feature.'

The device also has a 'Live Wallpaper' feature that's pure eye candy, a new clock application, and will soon have a Settings Backup service that stores profiles, ringtones, and application and other settings in the cloud.

The Nexus One also has 3D scrolling of apps, Cooliris technology for viewing photos, a second microphone for a noise cancellation service, and a 5 megapixel camera with flash with macro and low light features.

'Unlike previous Android phones, and I've used most of them, the Nexus One has no obvious flaws or compromises', concludes Arrington. 'The phone is the state of the art in mobile and I will use it happily.'

'Until, as I always say, something better comes along.'