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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.

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…