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The LG InTouch Max (also known as the LG GW620, the LG Eve, and the LG Etna), is the first Android powered handset from LG.

Similar to the popular T-Mobile G1, the T-Mobile InTouch Max also features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard designed to help users easily and quickly type up text messages, emails and other data input.

The LG InTouch Max also features a 3-inch touchscreen display, a 5 mega-pixel camera (with LED flash, video playback, and auto-focus), and the usual Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, and Micro USB data connectivity.

Other notable features of the LG InTouch Max include a threaded text message system where each text is grouped by sender and displayed like a message board for easy-to-follow reading. The Android phone also includes a 3D gallery for quick photo viewing and sorting. The 3D gallery enables users to quickly find and tag their favourite photos, or by using the filter tool to sort snaps by tags, facial recognition or by the date.

The LG GW620 has been designed specially for social networking, with its QWERTY keyboard making updating, editing and managing social network profiles effortless, the GW620 enables users to easily connect and manage their Facebook, MySpace and other social profiles from any location.

T-mobile US reported last week that T-Mobile will be the network powering Google’s new phone, which is apparently going to make its debut on Jan. 5.

A T-Mobile USA support page found by the blog says Google will sell the new Android-based device directly via the Web, confirming the story that emerged a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal. Bellevue-based T-Mobile will handle billing and rate plans for the device.

Manufacturing the new Google phone will be HTC, the Taiwanese phone maker with U.S. headquarters in Bellevue and its software lab in Pioneer Square.

The trio introduced Google’s first Android phone, the HTC-manufactured G1, in September 2008.

Google also scheduled an announcement at its headquarters on Jan. 5, the day before the Consumer Electronics Show begins in Las Vegas.

The HTC-built and (soon to be) Google-sold device runs Android 2.1 atop a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 3.7-inch, 480 x 800 display, has 512MB of ROM, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB microSD card (expandable to 32GB). The phone is a T-Mobile device (meaning no 3G if you want to take it to AT&T), and includes the standard modern additions of a light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer. The Nexus One has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X10 introduces an open and integrated world of social media, communication and entertainment

Each Google Android release is labelled as a confectionary item and the new release: 1.6 is no exception. Nicknamed Android Donut the new release has several updates and improvements on the current version.

Now, we could go through the long list but really you probably just want to watch a video and see it in action:

The update is available for developers to play with now and it should start to appear on phones in October so there’s not too long to wait.

Android is really starting to gain momentum at the moment. LG and Motorola now have Google Android phones in the pipeline.  Samsung and HTC also have phones in the market, HTC (who also make T-mobile’s G1 and G2) has been the Google OS’s biggest supporter.

Last year 195,000 Android phones were sold, and this year that number will increase to 3.4 million, according to Gartner.

From the official Android Blog:

New Features

Quick Search Box for Android

Android 1.6 includes a redesigned search framework that provides a quick, effective, and consistent way for users to search across multiple sources—such as browser bookmarks & history, contacts, and the web—directly from the home screen.

The system constantly learns which search results are more relevant based on what is clicked. So popular contacts or apps that have previously been picked will bubble up to the top when a user types the first few letters of a relevant query.

The search framework also provides developers a way to easily expose relevant content from their applications in Quick Search Box.

Camera, Camcorder, and Gallery

An updated user interface provides an integrated camera, camcorder, and gallery experience. Users can quickly toggle between still and video capture modes. Additionally, the gallery enables users to select multiple photos for deletion.

Android 1.6 also provides a much faster camera experience. Compared to the previous release, launching the camera is now 39% faster, and there is a 28% improvement in the time from completing one shot to the next.

VPN, 802.1x

A new Virtual Private Network (VPN) control panel in Settings allows users to configure and connect to the following types of VPNs:

• L2TP/IPSEC pre-shared key based VPN
• L2TP/IPsec certificate based VPN
• L2TP only VPN
• PPTP only VPN

Battery usage indicator

A new battery usage screen lets users see which apps and services are consuming battery power. If the user determines that a particular service or application is using too much power, they can take action to save the battery by adjusting settings, stopping the application, or uninstalling the application.

Accessibility

Users will be able to download new accessibility services built on the new accessibility framework and enable them in Settings.

Android Market Updates

For devices with Android Market, the latest version improves the overall user experience and makes it easier for users to discover great apps and games from developers.

• At the homescreen, users can choose among Apps, Games, and Downloads.
• Inside a category, users can explore titles that are Top paid, Top free, and Just in.
• For each title, users can now see screenshots submitted by developers in addition to reviews from other users.

Find out more here

Ever since the buzz started with the G1 there has been confusion over the name of the operating system… is it a Google Phone or an Android Handset? Well, it’s both. Sort of. Maybe.

The Open Handset Alliance is a group of companies founded by Google with the aim of opening up the mobile phone operating system marketplace to an open source alternative. The alliance came up with Android – a hardware independant operating system that could be built on, edited, changed and mucked around with by anyone – for the benefit of everyone.

Of course, with Google as a big player, the first glimpses of the OS were secretive and often called a Google phone. T-mobile hasn’t exactly helped the confusion by calling it’s first two HTC made Android phones the G1 and the G2.

But, at the end of the day the OS is called Android… Google just had a hand in setting it all up and giving it a push. This year there are several new Android phones being released and the big phone players are getting involved: Samsung, Motorola and possibly LG (rumours at the moment). Maybe we’ll move onto the possibilities of Android being used in handheld PCs and Netbooks in a later post…

From Korea, Samsung has just launched the i7500 smartphone. Samsung is now the second manufaturer to release a phone to market using Android after HTC.

The device boasts a 3.2” OLED touch screen with onscreen keyboard, video, playback and record, 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, along with the full suite of Google services including Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, and Google Talk.

The phone also comes with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and various multimedia codec formats, has a claimed battery life of 1500mAh, while the internal memory capacity of 8GB can be expanded up to 40GB via an external MicroSD card.

Key specs:

General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps
OS and CPU: 528MHz CPU with 128MB RAM running latest Android OS v1.5
Form factor: Touchscreen bar, no keypad
Dimensions: 115.0 x 56.0 x 11.9 mm, 119 g.
Display: 3.2″ capacitive OLED touchscreen, HVGA resolution (320 x 480 pixels)
Storage: 8GB, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 40GB)
Camera: 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB v.2.0, 3.5mm audio jack
Misc: Accelerometer sensor, Gesture lock
Battery: 1500 mAh battery

Google today launched the Android operating system to the open-source community!

The launch arrives the day before the first handset goes to market in the US, the T-Mobile G1.  The G1 should be available in the UK in early November.

The marketing campaign is reported to be the biggest T-Mobile have ever lauched and it needs to be to take on O2 and the Apple Iphone.

From early reports, the G1 is no Iphone, but it’s getting there, and with the huge amount of potential development from the worldwide open-source community, supported by the Open Handset Alliance, it’s got huge potential.

Android uses a Linux Kernel, in the same way that Mac OS X sits on a Linux base on the iphone.  Whilst Linux was never expressly designed for mobile use, it’s ideal for a multi purpose computing environment which allows a far less restricted range of applications.  The reason for this is that it runs on x86 (esq) hardware as opposed to a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) based device (like an older phone or a dvd player).

The first release of the code is a big step.  It’s reported to be the largest repository of open source code that has been released at any one time, and with such a wealth of different factors that it will need to encounter now and in the future: different carriers, languages, devices with their own graphical subsystems and multimedia.  It’s got a big job ahead of it!  

Watch this space for more information as we find it, but it’s looking like a big week for Android!